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What are the best resources and sources to keep up-to-date with the fast changing cruise and cruising news during this fast-moving times? I explore the ways that I stay informed with the latest developments in cruising. These are the best and most reliable ways to stay informed about cruise developments and help to make decisions about your cruising plans.
Links to some of the cruise resources I talk about:
Cruise Radio News: https://cruiseradio.net/cruise-radio-news-podcast/
Cruise Critic: https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/5206/
Cruise Industry News: https://www.facebook.com/CruiseIndustryNews/
Crew Center: https://www.facebook.com/Crew-Center-221802457897962/
Cruise Law News: https://www.facebook.com/cruiselawnews
Porthole Magazine: https://www.porthole.com/
Eat Sleep Cruise: https://eatsleepcruise.com/2020/03/when-the-major-cruise-lines-are-expected-to-resume-service
Dave Monk Shipmonk: https://shipmonk.co.uk/2020/03/14/line-by-line-the-cruise-companies-forced-to-cancel-sailings-and-when-they-plan-to-restart/
Cruise With Ben and David: https://cruisewith.co.uk/cruise-news/which-cruise-lines-have-cancelled-cruises/
SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY:
Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore
Booking your next cruise with CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise
Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video.
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0:01
what are the best ways to stay
0:03
up-to-date on the cruise shutdown
0:05
startup refunds and in news
0:08
I'm Gary Bembridge this is another of my
0:10
cruising tips for travelers things are
0:12
changing so fast at the moment with
0:14
Cruise Lines chopping and changing when
0:16
they're going to be starting up or
0:18
hoping to start up really complicated
0:20
with refunds when you can actually
0:22
change your cruises up to what they do
0:23
change because it's a whole lot of
0:25
information and it's changing constantly
0:27
and all the time it's really hard to
0:29
keep up to date obviously if you look at
0:31
you know newspapers or the media that's
0:34
not the best source in many ways because
0:36
you'll often get the more sensational
0:36
stories but you won't be able to keep up
0:38
to date exactly with the detail of
0:40
what's going on YouTube videos it's
0:42
obviously great but they can not
0:44
necessary always be up to date in the
0:46
very specific cruise line you're looking
0:48
at and spot on what's happening in that
0:51
particular hour because a lot of these
0:52
are changing by the day and even in some
0:54
cases by the hour so what I thought I
0:56
would do is share with you how I keep up
0:58
to date and what I use to keep
1:00
up-to-date with everything that's going
1:01
on to make sure that as I plan my
1:03
cruises so I know which ones have been
1:05
cancelled I know when I need to be
1:06
making decisions to be able to move
1:08
cruises or get refunds etc etc except to
1:11
all those complexities so I thought I
1:13
would share with you the things that I
1:14
use there's actually a set of eight
1:17
different things that I use so let me
1:19
run through those starting with this one
1:22
one of the great resources that I love
1:25
and find incredibly helpful is a podcast
1:28
I really like podcasts and one of the
1:30
podcasts that I really recommend you
1:32
take a listen to is by a guy called Doug
1:35
Parker
1:36
they said Florida and he has a podcast
1:38
which is called cruise radio but the
1:41
important one to listen to is cruise
1:43
radio news every single day it's a short
1:46
podcast maybe a minute two minutes long
1:48
depending on the might of news where he
1:49
updates the news from the last 24 hours
1:52
and it is fantastic resource because it
1:54
really really everything that's
1:56
happening in cruising opportunity at the
1:58
moment with everything to do the shut
1:59
down etc going on he will give you the
2:01
latest changes updates everything that's
2:05
going on so that's a really fantastic
2:06
resource it's very topical and it really
2:09
is up-to-date
2:09
one thing I would say is all the links
2:11
to what I'm talking about I will
2:13
have links to all the different sites in
2:15
the description of this video a second
2:22
great resource specifically want to
2:23
check things out or later to is when is
2:25
my cruise line or cruise line looking at
2:27
at this point in time today when are
2:29
they saying they're going to start
2:30
cruising again which ones had they
2:32
cancelled and what's the latest
2:33
situation with refunds is to take a look
2:35
at cruise critic cruise credit of course
2:37
is the biggest sort of resource for
2:39
cruising in terms of reviews and
2:40
information on the Internet
2:42
cruise critic has a very specific page
2:44
where they list alphabetically for both
2:46
ocean and river cruising by cruise line
2:49
what is the plan start date and winners
2:53
complexity so for example it's time for
2:55
quiz Carnival had stopped everything to
2:57
one date but then depending on the
3:00
different region it was a different date
3:02
and some ships was different days so
3:03
they just simply list all of those and
3:05
it's a very good resource to just go and
3:07
check and again I would have a link to
3:09
that very specific page in the
3:10
description the third thing that I use
3:13
and I found this to be an incredibly
3:15
helpful resource because it gives me not
3:17
only the news but also a sense of what's
3:20
also happening on the ships and where
3:22
the ships are and issues and problems
3:24
they might have with repay trading
3:26
people or anything that's going on and
3:28
that is actually the cruise line
3:29
Facebook pages and the reason I talk
3:32
about Facebook pages is to be honest
3:33
with you I find the cruise line websites
3:35
are not that helpful so most of them
3:39
even if you go to it they are all about
3:41
the sell so they'll talk about the
3:42
promotion's the regions their sailing in
3:44
the deals they're offering and more
3:47
buried within the website you can find
3:50
out information about their
3:51
cancellations and refund policies apply
3:54
for refunds that kind of stuff and it's
3:56
actually more hidden so I don't use the
3:58
cruise line websites unless I'm actually
4:00
going to look for refunds to get that in
4:03
or I'm actually looking and started
4:04
planning for future cruises but what I
4:07
do find incredibly helpful is their
4:08
Facebook pages and they have been very
4:11
active on the Facebook page and it's
4:12
easy to understand because looking at
4:14
the major cruise lines they have around
4:15
five million followers on their Facebook
4:18
page so it's a very powerful tool for
4:20
them so pretty much every single cruise
4:23
line that I've looked at from small to
4:25
large has a Facebook page
4:27
Carnival Cruise Line has a pager over
4:30
five million followers Royal Caribbean
4:32
just under five million even MSC has
4:35
almost 5 million and then even gone to
4:37
Princess on America Pond on whatever it
4:39
is you'll find a Facebook page so did
4:41
you go to Facebook search to the cruise
4:42
line and saw that most of them will
4:44
point you to the main site although some
4:46
of them so for example Carnival Royal
4:49
Caribbean some of those they will then
4:51
have site-specific to your country as
4:55
well but that's the place where they're
4:56
posting their information on changes and
4:59
cancellations and refunds and all of
5:00
them to also give you the chance to do
5:01
some customer service on there so that I
5:03
would strongly recommend the fourth
5:05
thing I use is actually also still link
5:08
to Facebook although there is a great
5:10
website and email newsletter and that's
5:13
a site which is called cruise industry
5:15
news so Christian uses on Facebook and
5:18
they post multiple times a day with as
5:20
soon as news breaks the advantage with
5:22
that is that it's cross cruise lines so
5:24
you'll find anything that's going on
5:26
with any Cruise Line they're posting the
5:28
most recent news some of it tends to be
5:30
more business focus than consumer focus
5:32
but it's quite interesting knowing
5:33
what's going on so you might find out
5:36
more around what cruise lines are doing
5:37
in terms of occurring their financing or
5:39
moving ships or things like that which
5:42
is also quite interesting to find out on
5:44
their website or that you can actually
5:46
do it from the Facebook page is you can
5:48
sign up for their daily newsletter
5:50
although you can do a more consolidated
5:51
one every couple of days but cruise
5:53
industry news is a great resource for
5:56
getting a more general picture of what's
5:58
going on in cruising
6:05
another thing that I do use a lot to
6:08
keeping up today with kind of stuff
6:10
that's going on are to sort of
6:12
specialist sites and I tend to look at
6:14
they're mostly on Facebook although both
6:16
of them do also have a website so you
6:18
can then go into the website if you
6:19
prefer that first of those is crew
6:22
center crew center is run for and by
6:25
crew members on cruise ships and it's
6:27
really interesting particularly this
6:29
point of time seeing what's happening
6:31
with where crew you'll be moved will be
6:33
taken off ships and everything that's
6:35
going on so you get a little bit insight
6:36
about what's going on and as I mentioned
6:38
they do have a website the other one
6:40
that I do keep an eye on although they
6:42
are pretty anti cruising so a lot of
6:44
what they'll do is more the negative
6:45
side of cruising but it's still reinter
6:47
seen with some of that perception and
6:49
some of the stories that they're
6:50
reporting and that's on facebook and
6:52
again a website called cruise law news
6:55
so that's definitely something to take a
6:57
look at in the general perspective so
6:59
those two sites I find really helpful to
7:00
kind of get a sense of some other things
7:02
that are going on in the whole cruising
7:04
world and it's been really interesting
7:05
following those two sites with
7:07
everything's been going on at this point
7:08
in time because they again very active
7:13
the next one that I also rely on and
7:17
take a look at is cruise magazines the
7:20
probably the best-known cruise magazine
7:21
in the world is portal cruise magazine
7:24
there she based out of Florida and on
7:27
their website although they also have a
7:29
Facebook page but on their website they
7:31
have a section which is called kind of
7:32
latest and news and that's been really
7:34
really helpful for posting and keeping
7:37
up-to-date with things that are going
7:38
they're very well-connected because
7:39
they're being around for a very long
7:40
time and they are extremely well
7:43
connected with the cruising world
7:44
particularly that stuff based out of
7:46
Florida and Miami and Fort Lauderdale
7:49
but it's been really really good and
7:51
I've actually learnt a lot of things
7:52
they've broken kind of the stories at
7:54
first so portal cruise magazine send me
7:56
there online and their Facebook is
7:58
definitely one to follow those are
8:01
obably the four main ones that I use and
8:03
sort of interact with really really
8:04
often the next ones that I look at is a
8:06
couple of the bloggers have created very
8:09
specific sites and pages where they're
8:11
also keeping updates of everything
8:13
that's going on and also posting on the
8:15
posts or articles or videos if there
8:19
YouTube with updates on the cruising
8:21
shutdown cover those to look at is eat
8:24
sleep cruise cruising with Ben and David
8:26
and Dave monk ship monk
8:31
so those are a combination of bloggers
8:32
and youtubers and you'll find again
8:35
links in the description but they have
8:37
really up-to-date information as well
8:42
and then the other one that I do take a
8:45
look at is Twitter of course so all of
8:47
the cruise lines have Twitter feeds all
8:48
the ones that I've mentioned have
8:50
Twitter feeds they're actually found
8:51
Twitter to be less good and actually not
8:55
as tiny and I think probably the reason
8:56
for that is passengers themselves are
8:58
probably more likely on things like
9:00
Facebook Twitter tends to be more
9:01
business rates that I've found so it may
9:04
be that they're much less active on
9:05
Twitter because they don't have the
9:06
scale of followers you know they don't
9:08
have the 5 million followers the cruise
9:10
lines don't have the 5 million followers
9:11
on Twitter it's a much less powerful
9:14
tool for them to use but rid of course
9:15
is really helpful interesting so on
9:17
summers I've found what I've used
9:18
Twitter for is if I've seen someone
9:20
posting something or talking about you
9:23
know cruise line postponing or some
9:25
change in regulations her son's gone on
9:27
Twitter and just searched and seen what
9:29
what's bubbling up Nets then Tecna Alton
9:31
- you know verify that on other news
9:34
sites or web sites so that's a way that
9:37
I keep up to date with everything that's
9:39
going on with the shutdown the startup
9:41
new terms new rules new regulations
9:44
things that are going on in this whole
9:45
shutdown period hope you found that
9:48
helpful interesting and hopefully you
9:49
find those resources really helpful to
9:52
you too I have loads more videos whether
9:54
it's about the shutdown or cruising in
9:56
general so why don't you watch another
9:58
one of those right now
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