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one of the biggest costs your face when
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you're on a cruise is excursions
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I'm Gary Bembridge of tips of travelers
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and I'm going to tell you in this video
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how you can actually go on fantastic
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excursions and not spend as much money
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well the first thing I recommend you do
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is research research research so make
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sure that you understand what is
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available in every port now it's very
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easy to do that you can obviously look
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at the Cruise Line excursions because
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they will have little booklets or you
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can look online and understand the sort
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of things that you can do in the range
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of things that you can do secondly of
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course look at blogs or other online
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cruise sites other things like cruise
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critic there's obviously blogs even like
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my own tips of travelers which will
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cover many many ports so you can just
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basically search online and look for
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port guides of course you can watch many
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videos as many great video tours of
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destinations and excursions and portals
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so basically find out what is available
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and the range of things to do the second
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thing that I recommend you do is
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understand how busy the port is likely
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to be now if you find that you're going
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to a port where there's five or six
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ships that could be 15,000 20,000 people
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there and so that may influence what you
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actually want to do because there will
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be a lot of people going on all the
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popular trips so how do you know how
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many ships are gonna be in any one place
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at any one time all the good news is
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there's a website that tells you just
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that and the website is called cruise
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timetables calm and the great thing
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about that website is you basically put
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in the port you put in the day you're
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gonna be there and it will tell you what
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ships are there and how many people
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those ships are likely to have on board
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so it gives you a great sense of how
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busy a port is gonna be and will help
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you decide what you want to do that
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particular day so the third thing of
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course is then to go through that list
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of cruise line excursions and decide
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which of those that you really want to
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do and no matter what those are the ones
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you want to do doing that process you'll
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decide the things that you really want
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to do so my fourth tip is then to look
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at alternatives now there are many many
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alternatives to the cruise line
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excursions there are companies that
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specifically develop tours and
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excursions similar to those that are
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offered by the cruise lines and often
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many more alternatives to the ones
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offered by the cruise lines so some of
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fox.com short trips calm cruising
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excursions calm and shore excursions
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group comm so there's a number of sites
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that basically we'll put together for
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every itinerary and every port
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alternatives to Cruise Line excursions
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and Ashley the great thing about looking
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at those sites is you'll find other
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people have posted photographs sometimes
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videos and reviews of the different
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excursions what's great about those
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sites as well is you basically put in
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the name of your ship your dates it will
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bring up your itinerary every single
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port and then you can go through port by
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port and it will tell you what
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excursions are available for your
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specific ship on that specific day in
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that specific port what you will find as
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many of the excursions are similar tend
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to have slightly smaller groups and are
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usually much cheaper now my next tip is
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actually to look at private guides
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though there's a whole range from
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relatively inexpensive ones through to
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very expensive ones so one great
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alternative which tends to be relatively
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inexpensive is local tour guides and you
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can find those through a site called
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tours by locals comm so you could go in
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there take a look at the port you're
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calling on and you will often find a
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relatively inexpensive a local guide or
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you can look on things like cruise
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critic where you'll find between the
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roll call for your particular cruise not
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people will be looking for people who
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want to combine together you can find a
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guide to three of you four of you maybe
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up to six of you you can share one guide
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now one of the great alternatives and
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probably the least expensive of all of
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your options is to use a hop-on hop-off
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bus these are a great alternative so hop
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on up of buses are in pretty much every
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port that you will call on these buses
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will take you to all of the main sites
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that are in the particular port they
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will be relatively inexpensive and what
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also happens which is great is hopping
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off of buses will either have a stop at
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the place where your ship docks or the
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cruise port or if ships are in on that
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day they add an extra stop because they
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see this is a big obviously business
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opportunity hop on top of buses are
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great they're inexpensive you'll have
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commentary in multiple languages it will
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take you to all of the places that you
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want to go to all the critical places
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topping up off you can spend as much or
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as little time it gives you an overview
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through the commentary of the history
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you know the significant things that
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you're going to be seeing and it's a
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great great alternative so that is
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probably the best and most
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cost-effective way of course you can go
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out self touring yourself but the great
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thing about hop-on hop-off bus is it
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combines self touring but with all that
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great commentary information and you
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don't have to worry cuz summons curated
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it and the great thing is because it
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will come back to the cruise port you
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can just check the times and make sure
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that you're back in plenty of time for
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the ship cruise excursions can cost a
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lot of money it can be many hundreds of
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dollars added on to your vacation cost
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so hopefully that's given you some
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alternative ways and giving you more
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confidence to look at options and
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alternatives to Cruise Line vacations if
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you liked the video I'd love it if you
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gave it a like but even more importantly
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please subscribe two tips for Travis and
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