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More Cruisers Are Being BUMPED From Cruises Than Ever. Here's Why!
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Jul 12, 2025
I decided I should investigate why so many cruisers are being bumped of cruises right now after seeing in just one day, it happening to so many. Including Carnival bumping many passengers off several up-coming Carnival Conquest sailings, upset people in a Seabourn Facebook group reporting being bumped off one of three back-to-back cruises they had booked, and P&O Cruises cancelling and bumping thousands off a 35-night sailing to the Caribbean In this I am exploring seven reasons it’s happening more these days, what you should watch out for, and how to protect yourself. For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * TeePublic Store: https://tipsfortravellers.dashery.com * Teespring Store: https://tips-for-travellers-youtube.creator-spring.com * Fourthwall: https://gary-bembridge-1-shop.fourthwall.com Book Cruise Port Excursions * Venture Ashore: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/excursions * Shore Excursions Group: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/shoreexcursions
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i decided I should investigate why so
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many cruisers are being bumped off
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cruises right now after seeing in just
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one day it happening to so many
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including Carnival bumping many
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passengers of several upcoming Carnival
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Conquest sailings upset people in a
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Seaborn Facebook group reporting being
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bumped off one of three back-to-back
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cruises they had booked and Pino
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Cruisers canceling and bumping thousands
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of a 35 night sailing to the Caribbean
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welcome aboard i'm Gary Benbridge in
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this I'm exploring seven reasons it's
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happening more these days what you
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should watch out for and how to protect
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yourself let's start with the biggest
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cause most people are being bumped off
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cruisers because cruise lines are
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redeploying ships to regions with more
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demand and by changing or dropping plans
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to home base a ship out of certain ports
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of course over the last few years many
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passengers were bumped off cruisers due
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to the Israel Middle East conflict
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making it too dangerous for ships to use
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the Sewers Canal ships used it to go to
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and from their Asia and Australian
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seasons and for world voyages lines had
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to cancel rroot and redeploy ships to
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get around this limitation i saw that
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firsthand on my Silver Sea Silver Spirit
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cruise around South Africa the ship was
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due to sail after my trip to the Safe
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Shells through the Seuss Canal and onto
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Dubai but they had to redeploy the ship
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back to Europe via West Africa and they
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bumped everybody booked on that original
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planned sailing off the cruise now while
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most lines have factored in not using
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the Seuss Canal the main reason I'm
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seeing for redeployments these days is
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soaring demand for Caribbean cruisers
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especially by new to cruise passengers
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looking for short 3 to 5day trips
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several cruise lines are cancelling and
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bumping people booked on cruises in
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regions like Asia Australia South
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America and Europe to move the ships to
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the Caribbean to meet this demand for
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example I saw that Norwegian Cruise Line
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cancelled and bumped people off 35
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cruisers on four of their most popular
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ships Norwegian Bliss Norwegian
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Breakaway Norwegian Encore and Norwegian
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Joy for the last quarter of this year to
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redeploy them on newbased routes with
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more demand that Pino cruise
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cancellation I mentioned at the start
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was also due to them redeploying Ventura
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to sell new itineraries in Europe out of
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the UK because demand for them was
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greater there i also saw Cunard launch
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their 2027 selling program and abruptly
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pull it the next day i can see now that
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they've relaunched it that they've
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actually moved Queen Elizabeth from home
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basing in Miami and Seattle sailing the
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Caribbean and Alaska to in 2027 being
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homebased in Europe to do fly
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Mediterranean cruises the second reason
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I'm seeing people bumped off cruisers
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due to kind of redeployment changes like
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this is when line change cruise ship
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homeport plans for example
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I saw that Princess is pulling Majestic
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Princess home beast out of Galveastston
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to run where it was due to run Caribbean
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cruises so they've canceled and bump
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people off 15 cruises towards the end of
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this year because they're moving the
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ship to a busier home port but there is
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a reason I had not seen before emerging
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this year where lines are choosing to
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bump people off their cruises these days
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this one is when a cruise line changes
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who can go on a particular cruise i
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mentioned Carnival Conquest at the start
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and in this case Carnival changed five
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of its Caribbean sailings out of Miami
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with just 8 weeks notice into adultonly
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casino focused sailings now it's not
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clear if this is a test to see if they
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should introduce more adult only
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sailings but they bumped everyone on a
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booking that had someone under 21 on
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those particular sailings as I mentioned
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later I will discuss what the lines will
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offer what to do and how to be prepared
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if you're ever bumped off a cruise but
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before that more on why cruise lines are
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bumping more people than ever off
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cruises that they already have booked
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the next one is unfortunately becoming
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increasingly common and it can happen at
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fairly short notice this is when the
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ship has been chartered cruise lines
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find charters very appealing because it
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means guaranteed revenue and removes the
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hassle and costs of promoting a sailing
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including for example paying commission
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to travel agents for booking up the
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sailing i'm seeing four main charters
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happening right now first of all the
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ship is charged to a company to run a
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corporate event perhaps a sale event or
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a conference next an interest group for
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you know charters for a hosted theme
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cruise like Atlantis who run LGBT
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cruises or perhaps a company that hosts
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something like a Star Trek theme cruise
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and so on third reason is big events
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like major sports events where they host
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attendees or participants or when Virgin
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Voyages was chartered to film the TV
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show The Bachelorette and fourth when a
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line charters a ship to another line
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like Quark Expeditions is chartering
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Atlas Ocean Voyages World Voyager that
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chartering that ship to do four
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Antarctic seasons if you Google cruises
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canceled due to charter you'll be
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shocked to see a really long list of
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cruise ships affected across all cruise
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lines from resort lines like Carnival or
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Car Royal Caribbean through to ultra
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luxury lines like Seaborn that I
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mentioned at the start unfortunately
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charters can happen at relatively short
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notice even less than four months before
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they happen while charters can be
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announced at short notice we do tend to
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have more notice for the next one but it
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too is a growing reason I'm seeing
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people being bumped off cruises this is
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when the ship is sold to a different
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cruise line there's usually more notice
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given because lines don't tend to sell
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and transfer ships at ve very short
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notice now I've spoken about this topic
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before in another video but here briefly
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are some examples I've seen right now
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leading to people being bumped off
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future cruisers region 7C's Navigator
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and Oceanania Insignia are both leaving
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their fleets to be converted into
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residential ships as part of a new
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company called Cresant Seas regata is
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leaving Oceanania fleet to go on a
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year-long world cruise under a charter
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to the Australian-based Flight Center
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group with the name My Cruises
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Explorations by Norwegian celebrity
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Expedition and Celebrity Exploration
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ships in the Galapagus have been sold
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norwegian Sky Norwegian Sun are moving
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across to the Indian Cordelia line
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seaborn has sold Sojourn to the Japanese
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Mitsu Ocean Cruisers and Costa Fortuna
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is leaving to become part of
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Margaritavville at sea you can't even
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sail on piano cruises Australia at all
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because they've been rebranded into
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Carnival ships for many including me
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ship sales can be a little bit upsetting
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because we often choose a ship because
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it's a favorite for example I really
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like Regent Navigator and I'm actually
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booked on a West African cruise but
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luckily I haven't been bumped off
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because it's happening be just before
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the ship leaves the fleet the next
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reason I see people being bumped off a
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cruise ship is because of frequent
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changes to the date that ships are
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heading into dry docks all cruise ships
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must go into dry docks every few years
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under maritime law to be able to check
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it over in detail including all the kind
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of underwater areas i've noticed that
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timings seem to be being chopped and
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changed frequently this is due to limits
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on availability within the shipyards
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availability of materials or actually
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just sometimes it makes more sense in
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terms of timing for the cruise line so
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as I was making this I saw some examples
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in fact the very day I'm recording this
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I it was announced that Carnival
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Conquests dry dock was being rescheduled
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and they canled and bumped people off
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five scheduled cruises the other problem
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I see with ships going into dry dock is
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they can be delayed coming out leading
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to more cancellations and people being
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bumped off them for example recently
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there was a lot of press about PO
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cruisers having to cancel with just a
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few days notice cruisers on PO Aurora
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due to dry dock delays i've also seen
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with great frequency people being bumped
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off cruises when new ships are running
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over schedule in the shipyard the good
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news is fewer of these seem to be
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happening because shipyards are catching
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up after disruption from the pandemic
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shutdowns
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but in recent years many people were
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being bumped off maiden voyages
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including Sun Princess Queen Anne Pino
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Arvia and Explorer 2 i always recommend
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avoid booking maiden voyages because so
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many people find they get bumped from
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them when the ships are late out of the
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shipyards another reason I'm seeing
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people being bumped off cruises is due
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to the ship being over booked i'm seeing
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more people posting about being
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contacted to be told that their
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particular cruise is over booked and
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they're being offered incentives to
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change to a different cruise i've seen
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that recently with Asar Seaborn and even
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Princess Cruises how does this happen
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well cruise lines will overbook on the
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basis that history tells them a
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percentage of people will cancel or be
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no shows so they will keep taking
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guaranteed fair bookings these are fairs
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where they guarantee you at least the
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grade that you've booked however if
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fewer people than usual cancel than
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normally expected the ship is oversold
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and they need to find ways of bumping
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people off that sailing this is really
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important these days demand for cruising
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is really high particularly in some key
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areas like the Caribbean and Alaska and
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ships on average are selling at about
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110% now this is possible because ship
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capacity is measured based on the number
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of fixed birth so people sharing cabins
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using surfer beds means ships can sail
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over capacity but if you book a fair
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that allows you to choose a specific
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cabin you're not going to get bumped but
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you could get bumped of a cruise if you
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booked a guaranteed fair so if you have
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a guaranteed fair I really recommend the
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minute you're able to check in check in
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for your cruise because you want to be
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given an allocated cabin early in the
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system don't wait until to check in till
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right up close to the cruise or even at
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the port these days cruise lines are
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becoming more proactive at contacting
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people in the run-up to the cruise to
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avoid some rather well-known issues so
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for example 14 months ago people only
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found they were bumped off their cruise
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on arriving at the port for on a Royal
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Caribbean quantum the sea sailing out of
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Brisbane what happened and what were
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they offered well basically the same as
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everybody affected by any of the reasons
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for being bumped for cruise the cruise
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line will offer the chance to switch to
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a similar selling if they have one they
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offer you to get a full refund or to
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take a future cruise credit with some
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added incentive usually around 10% but
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it can be up to 25% the problem is if
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you've planned related items like hotels
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and flights not through the cruise line
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they often don't offer any help or
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compensation so having travel insurance
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when you book is absolutely key another
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problem I'm seeing is more people than
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ever actually being denied boarding when
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they go to check in for their cruise
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even when they've think they're
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following cruise line advice to find out
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more and what this is about join me over
11:28
in this video see you over there
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