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Cruising, YouTube And Cruise Tips. Bill Panoff (Porthole Magazine) and Gary Bembridge Chat
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Jan 28, 2025
I met up with Bill Panoff, CEO of the well-known Porthole Cruise Magazine, in Fort Lauderdale to talk about all things cruising. I found out about what Porthole is and does and then we spoke about my background and how I got into cruising and then explore aspects of cruising like what the best things are about a cruise and some key insights and tips. Porthole Cruise Magazine: https://www.porthole.com Cruise Control with Bill Panoff YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOPT0wcyD-Sq8GYQjLzYV-A 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
View Video Transcript
0:00
hi I'm Gary beverage this is another of
0:01
my tips for travelers I'm here in Fort
0:03
Lauderdale at the offices of portal
0:05
cruise magazine with the CEO bill pan
0:08
off and we're gonna have a chat about
0:09
cruising hi Bill Gary how are you very
0:12
good thank you thanks for being on the
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channel my pleasure thanks for the
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invite so but maybe just sort of for
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those people who don't know is
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consumable about portal magazine because
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if you can for a long time I sure we've
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been publishing porthole for over 25
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years and you know I was a cruise
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director on ships many many years for
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Carnival I worked on the Carnival the
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Mardi Gras the festival I mean ships you
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probably never heard of that but
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nevertheless I started in the industry
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when cruising was just in its infancy
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and at that time there was no magazine
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to speak to the consumer about cruising
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so I got an idea I surrounded myself
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with people who knew publishing I sold
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some of the advertising and that was the
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birth of a portal which is now the
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leading cruise consumer magazine in the
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marketplace it's kind of like Connie
0:53
Ness traveler for cruisers we cover
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destinations new ships what's hot on
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board where to go new regions things of
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that nature and the people who are
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reading the magazine are frequent
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cruisers armchair travelers and those
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who just have an interest in learning
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more about cruising but you also have
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because on the website you have kind of
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videos and you you then have cruise
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control dueling yes of course control is
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a YouTube channel that was born out of
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porthole magazine and it's a channel
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that I host much like the channel you
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host and we cover cruising I go on ships
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occasionally and we cover what's hot and
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cruising new destinations new ports I do
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interviews on the channel occasionally
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and it's cruise control with bill pan
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off is the channel on YouTube
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great so building now why don't you ask
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me a bunch of questions about what do
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you want to know about me you're
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starting your beginning in the industry
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was quite unusual I mean used to work
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for Johnson & Johnson's I understand
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mobile marketing yeah and you were on
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board a cruise ship giving a
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presentation unlikely for Johnson &
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Johnson I believe and then you just got
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exposed to this cruise industry and then
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caught on like a bug I mean I think the
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thing that I learned I was like so many
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people it was a cruise is not for me
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which most people say and then I
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realized once you get on a cruise you're
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addicted now the minute I got on the
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ship I've went another ship that's like
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I was amazed at the ship because you you
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have no real
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effective despite of what you've seen
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and whatever so you're gonna ship
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whereas while the ships amazing then the
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minute we pulled away from the dark and
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started sailing out to sea that's when I
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got it
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I only got cruising and from then on it
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was addicted I think that was the bigger
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half for me because what I still use now
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is that sense of how do you get people
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to get past that it's not for me right
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once they're on the right Cruise Line I
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know that you know people are hooked
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what is the one thing that really
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appeals to you about the cruise
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experience one thing if you could just
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summarize it I think the one thing that
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appeals to me is that sense of just
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being at sea right that this is an
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incredible feeling when you're looking
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out and there's just ocean all around
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you that for me is this the amazing
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thing because there's nothing like that
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you know we've also experienced our
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language of great but being at sea
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there's something in all I think there's
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something in us as people that when
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you're to see it's magical it's like
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people like to live by the sea there's
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something about the sieve it destroys
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you that's the best thing as being
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Elsie's like sea days I love sea oh yeah
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yeah I mean I used to work on board as a
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cruise director and it just it's magical
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to be out there and the tranquility I
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think what he's incredible yeah yeah
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yeah perfect so the the channel tips for
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traveling how does it differ from other
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channels out there I mean it's so
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informational and so topical and just
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really well done thank you I mean for me
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the the the key thing I mean it's partly
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in the name tips of travelers there are
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a lot of cruise blogs and vlogs out
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there are a lot about they talk about
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the experience and a lot of it's about
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look at me on a cruise here's what I'm
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doing which is fine and some people like
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to watch that you know the whole
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vlogging thing is quite big but for me
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my real focus is helping people
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understand how to do things
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anything better so my approach is around
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tips I'll talk about you know how the
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cruise line works how do you pack what
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should you be aware of what's included
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on include since it's quite practical I
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think that's the key the key difference
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it's it's less about my experience and
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more about packaging experience and how
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I can help you cruise better find the
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right cruise line I think that's
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probably the the key difference and
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you've probably converted a lot a lot of
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non cruisers to cruises obviously
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because a lot of people have
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misconceptions about claustrophobia and
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motion sickness and things of that
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nature
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I mean it's interesting because I you
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know looking the great thing about
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YouTube and and following I've got is I
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gave lots of comments and questions the
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thing that still amazes me is how many I
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get or people who say I I'm never gonna
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go cruising but I love watching your
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videos about cruising so I think that's
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you know that to me says this is
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probably the the people are using it to
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get onto cruise ships right I think the
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other thing that it helps a lot is
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helping people find the right cruise or
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help them have the confidence to move
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cruise lines you know so for example
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someone loves Carnival but finds it very
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difficult to me because it's familiar so
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I think what do I do is actually if
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you're thinking of going on Royal
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Caribbean or Holland America and do a
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little videos around what you can expect
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how it's different right I think that
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helps a lot what is the biggest
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misconception that non cruisers have
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would you I would say the biggest
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misconception by far is I'm gonna feel
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trapped that's the one thing I hear and
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my point is like first that's impossible
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because first of all you're probably
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gonna go to be on the ship from 6 and
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hookers till they talk in the morning
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and then you've still got a eat drink go
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to show gamble party sleep you can't
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possibly find any time to feel trapped
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that I think the biggest misconception
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I've found and once they're on board
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they're mildly surprised once I'm or
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they're frustrated because they can't do
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everything so fun people come back while
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coming and saying I'm really frustrated
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because I you know I just get chose to
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do anything particularly if they're
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going on the bigger ships there's too
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much going on now if you're going off on
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port you just have them there's not
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chance you do everything on board right
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it's impossible right right
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you have a favorite destination and my
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favorite destination is when we were
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talking about designed arctica right so
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I I think the the the destinations which
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are my favorite of sessions are the ones
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that cruise you can only get there by
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cruising or the best I've experienced
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them is by cruising so
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Antarctica the Arctic Alaska those sort
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of places which you know a cruise is the
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most magical way to see them it may be
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your lighting what my favorite
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destination is normally the one I'm
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currently on or about to go to because
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wherever you go to you know cruising
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takes you to good places because you
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know they because they know people like
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it so it's very unlikely on a cruise you
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go to a place you don't like because you
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might be a hundred percent
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the cruise lines not gonna take you
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places that passengers aren't gonna like
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right yeah
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what is your plan in 2020 what is your
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itinerary look like well I'm very lucky
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because of what I do I mean 2020 I think
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is pretty full now I'm going to add
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article again well I'm doing a couple of
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trips around Europe both River which is
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which I love I love doing River River
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five Mississippi for the channel is is
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very popular doing some ocean river
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Mekong that you mentioned and so there's
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so many plate so many places I'm getting
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yeah it's it's really a great honor and
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a pleasure to meet you and hopefully we
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could do this again in the near future
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and for those viewers watching it's tips
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for travellers on YouTube Gary
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Bainbridge a pleasure being right very
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much is how do you happy sailing ahead
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