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what are the cruise line shore
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excursions you should avoid and which
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are the ones you should absolutely take
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I'm Gary beverage this is another of my
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cruise tips for travelers I want to
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share with you some ideas around shore
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excursions the ones that I always
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recommend people take and the ones that
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I recommend you should avoid and why
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here are the six Cruise Line excursions
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that I would recommend you actively
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consider not doing so the ones that I
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don't do first of all panoramic bus
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tours basically sitting on a bus driving
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around and appends which side of the bus
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you're on where you're going to get the
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pictures what I prefer to do instead is
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use the hop on hop off bus hop on top of
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buses will take you to all of the key
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sites in a port and you can choose when
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you want to get off when you want to
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stay when you want to get back on and
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often they will start and end in the
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cruise port so you can easily manage
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your time so I don't do panoramic bus
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tours secondly I never do excursions
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which have meals included because what
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I've found is the meal just dominates
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the excursion so I've done that in
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Shanghai I've done Hong Kong and
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regretted it because we had these so
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called traditional meals but they took
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up two or more hours of the excursion
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and there was two or more hours that I
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could have been out seeing those places
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so I never take excursions which include
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big meals I also never do excursions
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that include beach breaks or entrances
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to resorts if there's beaches nearby and
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there's great beaches you'll find in the
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port there are always cab drivers that
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will know the ports to take you there
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they'll arrange to come and collect you
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again or there will just be a ferry
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servicing of buses ferrying you to and
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back or bus services the same with
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resorts I don't pay because you're just
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basically paying a premium you can often
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buy resort passes online anyway so if
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I'm going to beach break you're paying a
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huge premium and you don't really need
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it I also tend not to go to museums or
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key historical sites on a cruise line
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excursion the reason for that is again
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you're in a big group you're walking
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around parts of it just may really be
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dull and you want to move on and look at
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other things also what I tend to do is
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I'll look at the museums you can look on
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sites of example Google it'll tell you
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the busy times the quiet Isles and now
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then pre booked tickets and go
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when it's less busy and often it's less
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busy when the tour groups aren't in she
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often sometimes fight after lunch for
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example go in the afternoon to the
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museums in historical sites you're gonna
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have a much better time and you're gonna
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be rushed through by the Cruise Line or
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having to look at things that you're not
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interested in so museums
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key historical sites I would normally do
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by myself the other type of excursion
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that I would never take with the cruise
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line are ones that involve shopping
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because bear in mind that they're likely
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to be getting kickbacks they're gonna
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take you to certain places if you do
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want to go shopping and exploring simply
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ask onboard ask the shore excursion disk
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ask the crew and get some tips and
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advice on the best place to go shopping
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don't go with the cruise line because
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they're gonna steer you in certain ways
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the sixth excursion that I wouldn't
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normally do through a cruise line is
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cycling tours Segway tours you'll find
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that those are not run by the Cruise
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Line they run by independent providers
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and there are loads of them that you can
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find either near the port or certainly
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online before you go and it's just much
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more efficient enough to be much smaller
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groups either whether you're hiring a
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bike or you're actually going out on
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tour so I find they're just paying a big
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premium to use the cruise line they're
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not only at the port anyway and you're
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basically paying premium for you to walk
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to the hut where you could do it any way
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to pick up the bike so what are the six
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cruise line excursions that I would
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normally take if they were offered by
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the Cruise Line first of all if the ship
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is a long way from the place of interest
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so like the isarc as I mentioned Rome's
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places in Guatemala that I've been to I
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would take the cruise line and if they
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don't have the simple one to take you
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there I would go on an excursion with
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them just because the hassle and the
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stress of going really far distances and
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probably the cost it often ends up being
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much more efficient so that's one
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excursion I would take for sure if the
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ship is far away from the places of
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interest the second one that I do is I
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would normally do if they have a proper
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focused food and wine or culinary
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particularly if it's going to a local
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home and learning how to cook the food I
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find that there's quite hard to organise
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online or there you can independently
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but you'll normally find they've found
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really great little places you can go
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whether it's two vineyards or two
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specific home visits cruise lines are
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getting better and better at offering
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those and those I would often look at to
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take if it's a particular colour or
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anything I want to do in
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a particular destination the third one
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if it's a very complex place I'm
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visiting so as I mentioned in Iceland
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it's quite a complex it's an eight-hour
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trip around multiple sites and getting
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around there is quite difficult it's
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quite remote you can do it independently
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but it's just much easier because you
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find the cost saving it's not always
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that great and the reassurance
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particular when you're going long
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distances of knowing that you've got the
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reassurance that the ship will wait for
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me is the thing that sways it the other
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exhibition I take is if I am looking at
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a very high value excursions so the dog
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slaying one that I did in Alaska also he
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wanted to go on the Skagway train once
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on the premium service these are quite
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expensive excursions and they are often
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the cruise lines can get you a really
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good deal because there's often not a
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lot of capacity so actually I just much
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prefer if we're going to spend a lot of
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money on excursion to actually have the
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reassurance of the cruise liner and some
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of the betting that they would have done
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before I spend that amount of of money
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of course you can do it independent you
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probably would say but once you paying a
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lot for an excursion the savings you
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make are great but actually if you're
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spending a lot of money the actual
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reassurance that the cruise line can
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give you and sometimes the pampering
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that's linked to it for me is the thing
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that sways it the fifth type of
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excursion that I would do through Cruise
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Line is when they're offering special
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access or unique access give you two
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examples once I was on a silver sea
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cruise in st. Petersburg and they had
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the opportunity to get into Hermitage
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Museum and now I have maybe two hours
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before it opened and that was magical
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because before the thousands and
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thousands thousands people arrived we
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got to tour the museum and that was
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really special so that's the sort of
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excursion notebook I was on a windsock
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cruise last year I think it was and we
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had the opportunity to go on an evening
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opening of Mark's Basilica in Venice now
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if you've ever been to Venice it's crazy
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busy this huge lines and was just a
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group of us from the ship I think was
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maybe 3040 people that got in in the
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evening into the Basilica and it was
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just us in there so those sort of things
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for me all kind of priceless because you
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can only this to the cruise line so I
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would always it do those to the cruise
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line the other one I would do is if
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there are very special events or
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activities that the cruise line does so
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for example some cruise lines have very
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special tours with partnerships on
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UNESCO sites where you get some
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behind-the-scenes stuff that you don't
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get elsewhere so there's something
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YOUnique like that or they maybe have
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even in constant sight different places
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I've been on I was on a Seabourn cruise
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once around the Greek islands and they
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had some even concerts and some
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beautiful ruins which again was
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exclusive and different so those are
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some things that I would do if you can't
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do them anywhere else there's are of
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good reasons why you should do an
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excursion with a cruise line but don't
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fall into the easy chapters because it's
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easy and you worried about the ship
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waiting for you ask yourself those
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questions about is this cruise line
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excursion the right thing for me are
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there other things are more important
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and really hopefully those six things
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that I would always do with the cruise
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line six things that I would never do
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with the cruise line have helped you
7:18
navigate your way through Cruise Line
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excursions I have many more videos of
7:23
cruising tips and advice so once you
7:25
watch another one of them right now
