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Cruise Ship Cabins: How To Get The Best, And Avoid the Worst ?
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Jan 28, 2025
How can you get the best cabin on a cruise, no matter what grade you choose to cruise in. There are good and bad cabins what ever the category: Suite, Balcony, Oceanview and Inside stateroom. Not all cruise cabins are equal due to the design and nature of cruise ships and how they work. I share the 5 things you must do to ensure you get the best cabin and 5 things to check and insist on to avoid getting the worst cabin. Have a great cruise by following these tips. These are things I always do to get the best stateroom at any category I am cruising in. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Booking your next cruise with CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise WATCH THESE POPULAR RECENT VIDEOS: 10 Cabins to Avoid: https://youtu.be/PgTGLma919A European River Cruise Watch-Outs: https://youtu.be/oqhz54wStyk 5 Cruises To Avoid: https://youtu.be/CNiPzK4IRWA Alaska Cruise Need-to-Knows: https://youtu.be/Tn7dpNw5kSI Things Cruise Lines Don’t Want You to Know: https://youtu.be/cs5UKha9ALc Rules Passengers Break Most: https://youtu.be/djZLZ3XV_f0 Things You Can’t Do On A Cruise Any More: https://youtu.be/zas6F4wMD0Q Should You Pay Cruise Gratuities: https://youtu.be/QBYzqxXjEXQ 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 74 cruises at time of recording. Follow Tips For Travellers on:
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how do you make sure you cruise in the
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very best and avoid the worst cabins on
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your next cruise hi I'm Gary Bainbridge
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this is another of my tips for travelers
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no matter what grade of cabin you cruise
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them whether it's inside ocean view
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balcony or suite there are good cabins
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and there are terrible cabins so I want
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to help you make sure that no matter
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what level you Cruise in you get the
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very best cabins and avoid the worst
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cabins let's start by taking a look at
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how do you make sure you've got the best
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cabins in any particular grade well my
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first tip and the one that I absolutely
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live by is when I choose a cabin I make
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sure that I'm surrounded on every single
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side by other cabins so above me either
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side of me below me and ideally opposite
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me I have other cabins this means that
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I'm buffered on all sides from unwanted
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noise so it means that I'm not going to
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be near noisy venues I'm not going to be
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below something like the pool deck where
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there could be a lot of noise the night
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club whatever it is so absolutely
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critical to make sure you've got the
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best cabin in whatever grade you are
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make sure you surrounded on all sides by
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other cabins
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the second thing linked that and that I
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always do to make sure I've got a great
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cabin is I check that I'm not in a cabin
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with an interconnecting door in other
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words a door that leads into the cabin
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next to me now of course if I'm cruising
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with somebody and I want to be connected
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and that's a different story but if
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you've got strangers next door you could
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find you get a lot of noise from them so
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it could be televisions it could be
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music it could be talking loud so if
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they're on a different schedule to you
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in terms of sleeping part in whatever it
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is you could get a lot of noise coming
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from next door so that's the second
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critical thing again no matter what
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grade you're in make sure you avoid
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those interconnecting cabins and
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particularly if you're lucky enough to
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be going in a suite because you'll find
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a lot of Suites do actually have
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interconnecting doors to other cabins
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you know if families or whatever are
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traveling together my third critical
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thing is if you are concerned about
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motion and you don't really like a lot
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of motion or you're worried about
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getting seasick make sure that you've
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got a cabin midships now the great
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advantage of a midships cabin is not
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only are you gonna have less motion
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because you know as a ship moves the
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middle is where you're going to
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at the least amount of movements that's
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really really important but also it
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means if you're in the middle of the
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ship you're going to be sort of eques
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distance from all of the key facilities
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if you're at the front of the ship or
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the back of the ship you might have a
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long way to walk to go to the
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restaurants or the theater if you're in
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the middle of the ship you kind of close
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to everything so that's a great
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advantage of being mid ships motion as
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well as being close to everything one of
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the things that I really recommend you
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look for if you're traveling particular
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with friends or even with a partner is
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try and find a cabin that has a curtain
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divider the great advantage with that is
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if you're traveling somewhere it's very
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light and you want to sleep in actually
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be not parting if you've got a curtain
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divider partway through the cabin it'll
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make it really dark and cozy if you want
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to sleep in late but also if you've got
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a partner who gets up early or sleeps
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differently or once you go to bed a
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different time they can go in that
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separate section they can read they can
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do whatever they want to without
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disturbing you so I really like caverns
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with a curtain divider
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if you're going in an inside cabin the
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other thing to look for is increasingly
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cruise ships are having these virtual
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balconies so instead of just being a
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kind of a enclosed box cabin many of
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them say for example on Royal Caribbean
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I've seen a lot Disney have it quite a
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lot is they are big screens which
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replicate either balcony doors or
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windows so you can actually see what's
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going on and they project the actual
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live outside onto those screens so you
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get less of a sense of being kind of
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enclosed in a space so those are some of
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my tips on how you make sure you get a
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really good cabin but what are the
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things to watch out for to make sure
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that you avoid the worst cabins in every
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single grade of which there are them
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trust me no matter whether you're in a
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suite a balcony or you're spending more
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money you can still get a terrible cabin
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so let's take a look at things to watch
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out for to avoid those worst cabins at
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every single grade the first critical
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thing to avoid the worst cabins are
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check the deck plans and make sure that
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you're nowhere near areas of potential
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big noise these are the ones to really
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watch out for look for late night venues
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so nightclubs theaters for example
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places where there's live bands those
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sort of areas where you can have
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late-night partying and there big bass
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noise which really does trav
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you know through the hull and the metal
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and can really reverberate within the
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cabin also make sure that you're not
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above or below kitchens because many of
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them are have 24-hour operations and can
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be pretty noisy also try and make sure
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that you avoid places make crew come and
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go so example the last cruise I was on
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it I was surrounded on all sides that
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thought by cabins but just nearby was a
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crew door and there was lots of banging
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too and throwing as they would come in
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and out there doing various service room
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service whatever also make sure that
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you're away from the pool deck so
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ideally a couple of decks below but
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certainly not underneath it if you've
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done that tip that I did earlier about
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making sure you surrounded by cameras
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because there can be things like late
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night parties or scraping of deck chairs
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which again because the hull is metal
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can reverberate through so always choose
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a cabin that is as far away from those
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big noise areas so that maximizes your
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chance of not being disturbed link to
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that is trying to avoid cameras that are
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on the very front of the ship or the
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very back of the ship for a couple of
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reasons
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first of all because of the motion that
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I mentioned earlier if at the front of
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the ship there's also risk that you will
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get a lot of noise from things like the
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anchor but if you in a lot of ports
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where you're going to be you know
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mooring because you can get lots and
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lots of noise and so I know for example
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on one of the cruises is on recently the
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expedition leader the cruise director
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spoke about how his cabin and many of
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the other crew cabin senior crew cabin
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were in the front of the ship because it
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was very noisy where the anchor was
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going down if it's the back of the ship
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there is a risk that you get some
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reverberation from the engines depending
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on the type of ship you're on but also
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you can often find at the back there's
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often big pool deck areas where they
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have big pool parties at night so they
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can also be noise from that so that's
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one thing to avoid try and avoid the
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very front and the very back of the ship
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and get as close to mid ships as you can
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my next tip is if you really want to
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make sure that you're going to avoid the
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worst cabins on a cruise ship I would
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discourage you from going with the
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guaranteed fare approach for those of
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you don't know there's two ways you can
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book an cabin one of which is where you
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pay a slight premium and
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choose your very specific cabin so for
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example I always do that because I like
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to make sure I've got the right cabin
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the other way which is slightly cheaper
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is to go for words known as a guaranteed
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cabin so you basically pay to go in and
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inside an oceanview a balcony a suite
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whatever it is and the cruise line
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allocates the cabin now bear in mind
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you're probably going to get the
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leftover cabins so you're probably going
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to get the cabins that people haven't
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chosen because they know they're really
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great kevin so you might get a cabin
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that's in a noisy area
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it's a funny shape it's not ideal so if
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you possibly can try and go for a fare
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will you actually choose your own cabin
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particularly if you are worried about
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getting a great cabin because you are a
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bit throwing the dice and taking a
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gamble so that's why I always prefer to
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go with one where I choose my own cabin
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so it's a watch out of guaranteed fares
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link to that is also most people always
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get very excited if they get an upgrade
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because it does sound great however with
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an upgrade be very cautious again after
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when you're booking a cruise you can
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choose to select an auto upgrade I tend
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not to do that the reason is if you can
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auto upgrade you normally have no say in
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the cabin you get so whilst you might
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get moved from an ocean view to a
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balcony or about new to the suite or
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whatever again you have no say and
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you're probably going to be given
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whatever is left and probably not the
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best option and heard from lots of
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people who've been really excited cuz
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they've got an upgrade I've haven't
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chosen their cabin in a lower grade
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they've got the cabin and they haven't
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liked it but there's no turning back
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because most cruise lines won't let you
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have any say if you accept the upgrade
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so be very cautious about taking
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upgrades if you want to make sure you've
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got the best possible cabin and on the
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tip that I've got to avoid the worst
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cabins is really talking to people who
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are going for Suites there's a thing
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about sweets's we think that the best
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cabins on board however Suites tend to
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be either at the very front of the ship
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the back of the ship or very high up and
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it's interesting I once had a dinner
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with one of the designers of cruise
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ships and they said ironically that's
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not where they would put Suites if they
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were recommending the best point in a
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ship because clearly lower down and
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midships is the best place to be in
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terms of movement however people in
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Suites want to have the big grand views
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the big
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beautiful views from the top of the
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front on the back of the ship those are
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not actually the best places to be so if
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you are going in a suite look very
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carefully about what's around you
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particularly for noise so for example I
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was on a recent cruise where they got
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these magnificent big new two-bedroom
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Suites however they're right above the
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pool deck where there's a movies under
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the stars running every night there's
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music blaring all day so actually inside
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the cabin was pretty noisy both during
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the day and the night even though these
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were the big deluxe suites no matter
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what level you cruising inside ocean
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view balcony suite there are good cabins
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and there are not so good cabins these
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tips should help you make sure that you
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get a great cabin not a terrible cabin
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on your next cruise I have loads more
9:40
videos packed full of cruising advice
9:41
and tips so why don't you watch another
9:43
one of those right now
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