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LIVE Cruise Q&A: Sunday 27 April 2025 : 9am PT / Noon ET / 5pm UK
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May 27, 2025
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View Video Transcript
0:00
to cold kind of weather So anyway welcome everybody So it's a nice sunny day here which is great Um and lots of
0:06
regulars already joined which is fantastic So I will first of all dive into a couple of housekeeping bits and
0:13
pieces first of all to get um just make a couple of things I want to talk about and then I will dive into the questions
0:19
So a couple of questions coming in already so I will dive into those So just a reminder this is a live stream Uh
0:25
everything that you hear on this is going to be based on live questions that are posted So really important if you do
0:30
have a question please leave a question in the chat with uh the word question in
0:36
front of it so that I know that it's a question so it doesn't get lost in the various chiton chat amongst everybody If
0:42
you're watching this afterwards um bear in mind this is a live and so you can sort of click through uh and look for
0:49
the kind of little questions because you'll see they come up uh on the screen Uh but I wanted to get into just a few
0:54
bits and pieces of housekeeping as everyone kind of joins and settles in and we get going I thought I'd talk very
1:00
quickly about my next two uh cruises because they have a bit of a theme to them So a cruise that I'm doing uh I
1:07
guess three weeks from today um which is
1:12
I'm heading off on Paul and Carol love to travel group cruise on Sky Princess I think this is my third maybe my fourth
1:19
time on Sky Princess and I'd sort of gone off Princess a bit um with the last
1:24
I'd had a series of Princess trips and I felt they kind of lost a bit of their um
1:29
their mojo if that's the right word So I'm really keen because I'm going to go on Sky Princess as I mentioned on Paul and Carol's group cruise which is a
1:36
Scandinavian itinerary I've been to all except I haven't been to Scaren before but I've been to the other ports So most
1:42
of them I'm going to self explore in Um and then in June I have a bit of a landbased thing just before that But
1:48
then the week before that but then I'm joining Sun Princess Now I'm very keen to try Sun Princess There's obviously
1:54
their new big kind of mega ship I think it's 4,500 4,600 passenger Sky is about
1:59
3,600 So I as you know a bit skeptical not a massive fan of mega ships but
2:05
really intrigued to see what Princess have done with that So um I'm going to be trying also their uh sort of I forgot
2:12
what it's called now but their sort of sweet kind of their attempt at a ship within a ship um and see how that that
2:18
compares um overall So those are my next two cruises in May and June and I will talk a little bit later once we get into
2:24
those Um I did want to talk about two really um key little promotions and
2:29
offers that I have coming up So I a little while ago I got I saw advertised
2:35
on social media this thing here which is called it's by thing called the wonder club and the concept behind is you
2:40
collect these little tokens uh which they do by country or city or national
2:47
parks and stuff and there was a couple of things I thought they could also do some more cruising focused ones and also
2:53
I did get a little bit addicted to this collecting as you can see I've already collected all these from my last three cruises all the different countries I've
2:59
been to So anyway I reached out to Kenny who runs setup and run Wonder Club and
3:05
we spoke a little bit about some future cruise opportunities But um what he was very kindly did is he's given me um a
3:12
number of vouchers which I'm going to do a giveaway draw on So if you go to tips
3:19
fortrader.com/giveaway you should go to a woo box page where you can enter this to winund one of the there's three of
3:25
them $125 vouchers against buying uh you know this kind of little combo Uh
3:30
obviously you won't get this exact one You'll be choosing your own cities or whatever Um so that's tips.com/giveaway
3:37
That should take you to the Woo box page I'll also put a specific Woo box link in below The reason what we box is is you
3:43
put your name your address in and then it enables me to I use that is an online
3:48
thing and it chooses the winners So it's no it's very fair and whatever I don't choose the winners It it it chooses them
3:53
randomly But also if you're ever interested by the way um you can get a minimum of 10% up to 30% discount with
3:59
the wonderclub.com/t But do think about doing that giveaway It runs until the 14th So roughly two weeks um before that
4:07
runs up And a lot of people had asked me it appeared on my video wall this thing
4:13
here which is the Cunard uh drawing which the C cruise master have just launched So I just thought I'd mention
4:18
that as well as a reminder So uh tips.com/giveaway because the we box is
4:23
one of those funny little complicated um URLs So I've put that there I'll remind
4:28
you as I said I'll put it in the in the link at the bottom And they are really quite addictive and quite fun And
4:34
there's lots of things I've been talking to him about um that maybe I'll hopefully talk about in future things So
4:40
let's have a look at some questions coming up Um so Megan had posed a
4:45
question Um I have a drinks package on a Holland America cruise Seems to include
4:50
coffee but not tea panic As an Englishman do I need to take tea bags on board how do you get through to Jay well Megan there is tea bags all over the
4:57
place So you'll find them in like the Leo but you will certainly be able to get them You know if you go you you to
5:05
my recollection you always get tea So this tea uh you'll find in like the expirations depending which you're on
5:10
explorations lounge exe and so on they will have tea bags there they have both
5:17
um herbal teas and regular teas and I certainly have used my drinks package in the past to get tea so unless
5:23
something's changed that I haven't picked up on but you it shouldn't panic I know some people when they travel do take tea because they like Yorkshire tea
5:29
or PG tips or whatever Um I I never take tea although I do like Roy Boss which is
5:35
a South African tea which a lot of luckily a lot of the cruise ships have Mr 71 uh when do I expect to post
5:43
explore journeys review so I am working on that at the moment I can look at my
5:49
little plot planning have a look at see at that at the moment it will there will
5:54
appear probably not towards the end of May they may be a little bit before that Um so towards the end of May they will
6:01
appear and there will be probably two videos that I'm working on One of which is a kind of a tour of the ship and a
6:07
review of the ship specifically and then the whole explorer journey um experience
6:12
At the moment I've got a script which is like over half an hour long So this tomorrow one of my big tasks is to is to
6:19
scrunch that down So um because I want to kind of get a bit snappy I don't like making videos that long Try and get it
6:25
down maybe to 15 minutes I need to get it down to half half the size So that's basically when
6:31
um so someone making the point um I have four videos about explor just
6:38
explain what Sher's meaning there is So what I do when I go on trips is I do
6:43
sort of on the cruise chats uh thoughts reviews uh which helps me get my
6:49
thoughts together but also just to bring patrons and channel members on So it's not I don't so you have to be a channel
6:55
member or patron to get those I know they're not for everybody Uh everyone doesn't want to be channel member patrons So I do those kind of so there
7:01
are I do have four videos you write about explorer journey So my initial impressions some reviews answering
7:07
question stuff So that's sort of more sort of on the-go stuff as well So there is is that as well Ronda's back from
7:12
Ocean Reata Fantastic to hear that you had a great time um and got a Vista suite which is
7:19
fantastic So yes bidding is uh so Ronda bid and got a sweet So uh Lana um here
7:27
uh good to see you here Um have you ever had a Panama full/partial transit cruise completely
7:35
canled or changed so Lia it happened In fact my very first group cruise that I
7:40
planned to do I had originally targeted a partial transit on the Rotterdam So that would be back in I guess 24 And it
7:49
was um they were being very slow at confirming it and then that that completely cancelled the whole they they
7:55
redeployed Rotterdam So I did have that canceled but that was more function of Rotterdam being uh redeployed So that's
8:02
why we end up because I'd ask people to hold the dates or suggest people hold the dates and so that had um so that's
8:08
why we ended up doing the Uradam Caribbean trip Um and you may be asking this because of um you know with some of
8:16
the challenges I think Panama Canal still has because I think it's still in a sort of a drought phase So they have been cutting back a little bit on the
8:22
number of transits affecting more commercial uh container ships which is also why the price has rocketed up a lot
8:30
um of uh you know container ships transiting but I that's the only experience which was more a
8:36
repositioning I think than specifically linked to Panmark and other because they canceled the whole lot So I haven't I
8:41
haven't seen anything certainly I haven't picked up ongoing things I know I did pick up I think it was some
8:47
Norwegian ones Um they they decided they weren't doing Panama Canal Maybe linked
8:52
to the cost of transit and stuff as well but that was that was a while ago Coach Tracy Miller hi there Coach
9:00
Tracy Miller I'm considering yacht cruising like Emerald or WinStar In your recommendations are they worth looking
9:06
into so certainly Coach Tracy Miller they are two very different experiences
9:11
in many ways Emerald is very much on the sort of ultra luxury premium end So you
9:17
so they're they're very and they designed to look almost like a private yacht So they're very up you know upm
9:22
market very upper end Now I haven't been on those They do look to me to be very costly per night Um but they are small
9:29
ships I can't remember how many of their passengers there are but they're sort of the Ritz Carlton uh you know kind of
9:36
yachts kind of experience They sort of operating that very high end Um then you've got WinStar which are um you know
9:43
they are definitely smaller So they took they have two types of ships They've got the old seaborn ships which they've
9:50
actually extended which I think are about 300 passengers if I remember correctly something like that And then they have the sailing ships as well Um a
9:57
couple of sailing ships which they've actually just refurbished and look very nice So definitely if you're looking for you know on the much smaller side
10:05
certainly uh coach Tracy Miller you'll find Winto Winstar way more affordable You know
10:11
it's still kind of small of luxury pricing but it's dramatically more expensive than an Emerald Uh so you know
10:18
that's a to me that would be a good way Now I I really like Winstar The passengers on Winstar tend to be very uh
10:24
adventurous very interesting Uh you know they're very focused on the destinations you know there's not a lot going on on
10:30
the ship as such Um you know the food's pretty good You know it's not you're not going to you know it's not going to
10:36
you're not going to remember the food particularly but they have partnership with James Beard Foundation So you know the food is pretty good Um so I would
10:42
take a look at Winstar certainly just from an affordable perspective But if you do have a you know loads of money
10:47
look at you know do take a look at something like Emerald The competitors you've got Ritz Carton in that sort of
10:52
yacht space You've got Scenic which is the sister company So emer scenic is
10:57
scenic and emerald are the same company They're also very high-end Um and then
11:02
you've got of course Four Seasons coming You've got the um the Orange Express coming So there's a lot of action in
11:09
that uh that that yacht space Critical thing also to look at by the way when you look at these yacht things is
11:14
inclusions and exclusions Uh with four four seasons yacht probably being the
11:19
biggest in terms of exclusions It's almost running like a hotel rather than a cruise But Winstar's great I've got a couple of videos on Wintock because I've
11:25
been on Winto quite a few times over the years So Rick B on MSE Preiosa That's
11:31
that's I went on the original maiden voyage of MSE Preiosa Uh Jeffy's here which is great
11:37
to see as well Michelle B Norwegian Fjords or Iceland Wow that's a real
11:43
either or My my uh kind of gut reaction
11:49
would be if you've never been to either I would probably start with the Norwegian fjords um for a couple of
11:55
reasons One of which is they are incredibly beautiful which is a good
12:01
reason Um secondly you can get a wide range of options So no matter what your
12:07
budget is you're going to find more affordable cruise lines going there through to your more premium cruise
12:12
lines So so you're going to be able to get lots of different kind of experiences in the Norwegian fjords and
12:17
it will generally be uh less costly than going to Iceland generally speaking Um
12:23
also you can do quite a lot in a period of time So you can even do you know week-long cruises to the Norwegian fjords but there's some very nice
12:29
intensive ones that you can do which are longer You've also got you know Hutrin
12:35
and Havilia which are both the sort of very locally focused cruise lines So you have this massive choice Also they they
12:42
do run a lot of nice winter excursion if you want to see more winter stuff You a lot of cruise lines will often offer uh
12:50
particularly in the seasons like October time you know just when it's gets darker
12:55
earlier or heading out of winter they will do northern lights cruises A lot of
13:01
them will guarantee northern lights Now Iceland I really like Iceland Um it is quite costly to go there but it's more
13:08
you know it's it's it's beautiful in a different way because it's way more rugged You know it's basically you know the fire and ice thing Um uh and there's
13:17
some really interesting kind of excursions to see um you know the bubbling mud pots and the the geysers
13:24
and what is it where it forgotten the name of the place now where you know the
13:30
the tectonic plates are pulling apart Um so it's more rugged and stuff Um and
13:36
there are some quite nice um you know circumnavigation ones If you want to go to Iceland out of Europe or the UK you
13:43
you you do need a good two weeks You can do that there It's you you say you know you need a couple of days to get there
13:49
Now you can actually so that's would I would start on the Norwegian fjords and then sort of plan to go to Iceland but
13:55
you can actually do both So I have done in fact on WinStar I have done a Winstar cruise out of Edinburgh which went to
14:02
the Norwegian fjords then went on to Iceland So you can actually find quite a lot of cruisers that will do both
14:07
because a lot of uh ships will reposition in that sort of July August time when it's the peak season Iceland
14:14
and they a lot they have to get there obviously So some of them will go via the Norwegian fields and that was quite
14:19
a nice combination I think I did that on star um breeze I think it was if I'm
14:26
correctly Uh let's have a look Diane asking the question we finished our explorer cruise in May in Fusnia So Fnia
14:33
is for those who don't know is the port which is sort of smaller ships can get into uh the sort of the container port
14:41
area uh just off uh on sort of on the mainland I guess uh opposite um Venice
14:48
finding it hard to find public travel options to our Grand Canal Hotel and help with Explorer for transport to
14:53
Venice So Explorer will definitely offer you some options Uh you they will offer
14:59
uh you know standard of what they were certainly doing on the cruise that I've been on other ones I've looked at is you
15:04
can book a specific car which will take you to a specific hotel They do have some other more other transfers So you
15:10
will find once you're on board there are options Diane the other thing to look at is um and I don't know I don't know if
15:16
they operate in Venice because I'm not sure whether what the options are but there are other transfer options like um
15:22
Black Lane for example um may may offer options but Explorer will offer uh some
15:28
some options for sure Now I when I went to Fuzznia I I have only been there the
15:34
once on my Viking cruise um and we had this really because they hadn't built the terminal thing in Fusia yet So we
15:40
actually had to check in at this ghostlike uh you know terminal which was where the ships used to go to and then
15:47
Viking bust us there But I think you know explorer will have definitely some options uh some options for you for
15:55
sure Um let's have a look see the world
16:00
Uh good to see you again What's your favorite and least I guess you're saying least favorite type of cruising on why
16:08
river or ocean or expedition or sailing ships thank you So my least I don't
16:14
really have a least favorite type of cruising because I love all type of cruising but I guess you're saying in
16:19
terms of relative terms So I would say a lot of it depends on you This is one of
16:26
those a lot of it depends on kind of questions So I'm going to sound a little bit like I'm I'm going around about to
16:32
answer your question but if I was roughly to say I find expedition cruising phenomenal but it's not I you
16:39
know so I that would probably be the top of the pile if you like but I wouldn't want to go expedition cruising all the
16:44
time because first of all it's incredibly expensive expedition cruising Uh it's very intensive as well because
16:50
it's pretty tiring You come back from expedition cruise kind of exhausted because you're up early you're going to talk you're going out you're hiking
16:56
you're doing your Zodiac tours whatever You're learning a lot you're going to lots of lectures So it's it's kind of
17:02
it's but it's just you know you're going to these incredible places like I've been to Kimberly I've been to Greenland I've been to Swallbad I've been to Antarctica So that's for me is kind of
17:09
the top of the pile Then the next part would be you know ocean cruising and I
17:14
love ocean cruising Um and um you know particularly trying to find new
17:20
different destinations to go or trying new cruise lines and there's so much you can do That's why I like it is you know
17:25
I have a list huge list of even though I've done 121 cruises and I've been to loads of places I still have a a list I
17:32
don't know but on my like notepad I have a list about this big It's not it's it's a digital notepad and I keep adding
17:39
places and and you know even today I was looking at you know cruises that I want to do and so I just can't even find the
17:45
time or there's a new cruise line or like you know I haven't sailed on sailing ships yet and I it's on my list
17:51
So I just have you know so ocean I love because it's there Then probably third would be river cruising Now I have I
17:58
love river cruising in more exotic places like the Mong and the Nile Um I
18:03
would like to do Mississippi although I keep watching videos around People keep telling me maybe that's not a good idea
18:08
But anyway um you know in terms of European river cruising I do have it's probably my lowest
18:15
uh of all because I do find it although it's could be well I'll come back to
18:21
that but I do find it a little bit kind of structured I do find river cruising much more like escorted travel bus
18:28
travel and and you know it's just more limiting Um now I know that river cruising is evolving becoming more
18:34
contemporary and so on So I haven't been river cruising since the pandemic So actually in July I know it's back at the
18:40
beginning of cruise but in July I've booked a river cruise on the ride um because I haven't done a river cruise So
18:46
I want to go back and and revisit river cruising because there's lots of new lines and so on So maybe I'll kind of
18:52
re-energize it Now river cruising just a little spoiler is I am currently sort of negotiating um I would I say I Sarah's
19:01
doing it for me It's travel agent Sarah really We're working with a different number of cruise lines to look at doing a river cruising group cruise uh you
19:09
know in October 2026 So because I I I you know I do this
19:15
it is a great experience So that's probably sort of the ranking overall One of the things I would like to try by the
19:20
way which I haven't tried is going on working ships container ships Now that
19:25
was before the pandemic I'd actually had one booked and it actually got cancelled unfortunately at the last minute This is
19:32
where you have fewer than 12 passengers The reason for 12 is because once they go over 12 they have to have things like
19:37
a doctor and stuff like that but you actually just go on a kind of a container ship or a freight ship Um and
19:43
I would really like to do that um in the pandemic I researched it quite a lot spoke to some people who done it and it
19:48
did look really really exciting So that may be on the list somewhere somewhere as well Um just to write the word
19:56
question so I so I don't miss that Uh here's one I didn't miss Uh Manuel
20:04
Aleando Rosa Mender Ross Hopefully I didn't get my pronunciation horribly
20:10
wrong Greetings from Panama I I love Pan I find pan very exciting How do you compare your last cruise experience
20:16
crystal explorer as UI and I think it's Manuel says I did crystal last November
20:21
explorer last March So very interesting because that is the thing that I'm wrestling with So I'm actually going to make a video because I'm going to ask
20:27
you about my explorer videos I am going to make a video because a lot of people asked me to do it more So I want to do it myself to get my help me also get my
20:32
thinking more structured comparing those sort of luxury and the sort of ultra luxury lines to each other What do they
20:39
do well what didn't they do well and so on So um you know and I've been thinking
20:45
a lot about because obviously I did Crystal and then I went on to Explorer Journeys So I found it Crystal
20:52
uh I loved Crystal and I really really enjoyed Explorer and I actually have
20:57
cruises booked back on both of those Both of those actually interesting enough repositioning cruises partly because it's the more cost-effective way
21:05
of going back on those lines because as you know reposition cruises tend to be a little bit less costly So I booked
21:11
Explorer to repositioning in April uh from Miami to Barcelona and Crystal
21:19
which I booked online Incredible price It's like half the price of Journeys uh because of the deal they were doing at
21:25
the time from Barcelona to Miami So um I found Crystal probably more
21:32
sophisticated overall than Explorer uh just you know they are obviously you
21:38
know although with all the hiccups of them going bust or gent bust and then being bought by Apple and Kent and so on
21:46
but most of the crew came back at all levels and so they were very much more on their game when it comes to things
21:52
like service attention to detail the crew of course know each other incredibly well because a lot of them
21:57
have worked for years they've only worked for Crystal and so there's a very deep rooted crystal way of doing things
22:04
and the attention to detail people getting to know you was just phenomenal Um now the ships obviously
22:11
you know explorer ships are in another league compared to Crystal but I didn't I quite liked the you know the sort of
22:16
the more oldie worldy charm if you like That's probably unkind because they've revamped the ships So I just found
22:21
Crystal felt more sophisticated actually felt more up market It felt uh more
22:27
luxurious Uh and it's hard to put your finger on because a lot of it was just about the way things were done uh you
22:33
know great food um you know um great service you really felt pampered you
22:40
really felt kind of in like you people knew who you were no matter what you did
22:45
explorer I mean the ships are obviously in another league beautiful ships
22:51
magnificently decorated really thoughtfully designed obviously the crystal ships are much older so some of
22:57
the layout and I guess over the years with refits and stuff maybe the flow is not quite as slick with explorers you
23:03
very slick uh you know you know things are the way it looks it feels very plush
23:09
food very good way more choice than you get on Crystal in terms of dining but it
23:14
felt much less luxurious in many ways um you know it it it partly the service was
23:21
not as in the same league as Crystal but just overall it because it was bigger there was more passengers you know we
23:27
had 720 the ship obviously takes 922 um so it wasn't completely full but you
23:32
it it did feel just busier um and so on So they were both great experiences but
23:38
for me they're very different things Crystal to me still feels like the most pampering of the two Explorers feels the
23:44
modern more modern of the two if you like So it just felt it had a little bit more buzz about it I guess And I wanted
23:51
to spend time kind of you know doing that for all the lines so I can say here's where I think they they exist
23:59
Um Mike and Carrie are together to Oh great So Mike and Carrie are together which is fantastic So Mike and Carrie
24:05
remain 547 They're been spitting different part They've been different parts of the world for I guess months
24:11
now That's fantastic that you're both in in in North Carolina So it's good to see you both there Well see you because I
24:17
can't see you obviously but good that you're both together So it's I know how tough it is being apart a lot
24:24
Um so uh question really a statement
24:30
Sherry yeah um yeah Sher is due to be on the Paul and Carol's having hip replacement uh so that's very
24:35
unfortunate we won't Sherry's and I have been booked on various different cruises but I think
24:42
we're tempted we designed the the universe is telling us we're not supposed to cruise because something always comes up and we end up not really
24:49
having not really having that Um Rhonda you got Explore Journey Booked in
24:55
October Just got off Oceana The entertainment on Explore is terrible Uh it really is terrible I mean I'm
25:02
exaggerating a little bit Uh you you know Oceanania Entertainment is actually better than Explorer in my opinion Um
25:10
I'll dive into it much more in the video but basically you have uh you know entertainment is clearly not an area
25:16
where they focused in my personal opinion So they have uh some some
25:21
singers and a live band So good news it's a live band They do a series of concerts really uh but the sort of the
25:29
concerts you would get in say bigger mega ships or even America where you've got the band singing you know they might
25:35
have a themed evening It's a themed evening thing I find very interesting and this is I know people probably tell
25:40
me off because I focus on this a little bit too much but if you look at explorer and who they're targeting they're really
25:46
sort of in their uh you know in their interviews they're really going after Gen X So Gen X people are kind of 45 to
25:54
59 is who they would really like to have on their ships which is why they you know they they focus much more on being
26:03
uh more like a boutique hotel why they have the kids clubs why they have the lots of kids promotions while you know
26:11
uh you know kids under whatever free over six they're 50% fairs uh you know
26:17
they're really encouraging families to come on board because that's I guess that age group more like to have families or multigenerational travel So
26:23
they are kind of going for a kind of a younger vibe than the baby boomers the moment So my cruise was probably more
26:31
equally split baby boomers Gen X I would probably guess uh but in the older end of of Gen X although there was quite a
26:37
few families on board Anyway getting sidetracked but the but the the shows then they did Mottown Billy Joel um uh
26:45
Rat Pack and it was like doesn't make any sense If you're going after Gen X
26:50
why are you doing like those shows so they did one disco night but again Disco is kind of 70s 80s more my generation Um
26:59
so so they have that They have the usual guest entertainers uh that you know popped up I've seen them on Celebrity uh
27:06
whatever They're on that same circuit Um they have a little bit of live music A lot of people ask me about dancing They
27:12
play some dancing tracks um in one of the lounges which no one actually went
27:17
to Was there a lot of people did dance up in the explorer lounge up on deck 11
27:24
in the evenings they'd have the pianist or the guitarist So some people do a little bit dancing there So certainly that the boring dancing is not really
27:29
high on their priority Again maybe because of who they're ultimately targeting Uh they do daily trivia which
27:36
wasn't that well attended but maybe that's also because you know we had quite a multicultural group you know
27:42
although apparently Americans were the biggest group but there was lots of Dutch and German and some maybe it's more American UK Australian thing I
27:48
don't know trivia but I don't know if that's true Um so you had one trivia what they did have is they have porch
27:55
talks which are very good uh that they have those Now we had uh Karen who's
28:00
cruise ship Karen uh who is on for a couple of months She's excellent Really
28:05
really good In fact she's going to be a guest on the podcast in a couple of weeks time Um I can't remember which week I think the 13th of May remember
28:11
correctly Anyway I'll publish about that But then I have some people who that I know who are on explorer one at the
28:17
moment who said the guest port talk is not that good but they do have a dedicated port talk which is not done by
28:22
the excursions group So that's really good Then they have some uh enrichment speakers Uh so uh so the entertainment's
28:29
not great You don't expect anything better than Oceanania Um I would say um
28:34
they do have a slightly bizarre thing as well They have live music in the evening in the lobby but they have whoever's
28:41
doing the music whether it's the pianist or whatever up on the sort of first floor but the bars downstairs so they're
28:46
kind of almost like piped music because you don't really see them and interact with them Very strange They need to bring them downstairs
28:53
Um let's have a look Uh Anthony what are your thoughts on
29:00
Norwegian Cruise Line putting oceania into the ultra category with regent but is a pick your own amenities as opposed
29:05
to regents all included amenities putting ocean into the ultra cy with regent but as pick
29:13
your own amenities Anthony I'm not sure that I have really seen that as such I
29:19
need to maybe explore that a little bit more Um because certainly with my Oceania trips I haven't seen that as
29:26
such Um and I don't think that's how Norwegians see it They see Oceanan in
29:31
the small ship luxury category Um but I know that Ocean keep chopping and changing their British program So I need
29:36
to look at that Come back But that's certainly I didn't pick that up So maybe I'm I'm missing something on that Sorry
29:42
about that I can answer that better Echo Bravo have you ever had feedback regarding National Express to Southampton for a cruise the reservation
29:49
for a return trip seems very inexpensive Terminal 5 So yes I have had a couple of people In fact um Hetti I don't think
29:54
he's here today but Hetti who's on a big kind of world cruise voyage at the moment I met up with her
30:01
um at Heathro uh before she got the bus down So she's done it a couple of times
30:06
I know other people have done it They rate it very highly Um it's pretty frequent and reliable Um and it's quite
30:13
easy to get a taxi then from when National Express goes But you're right it's incredibly inexpensive Uh and it's
30:18
uh but certainly people I haven't done it personally but I but people like Ketti who's a big frequent traveler um
30:25
you know swears by it She spoke very highly of it I'm trying to think who else did it recently Somebody else I
30:30
know did it recently but yeah so so definitely it's definitely something worth look at and it seems pretty pretty kind of uh reliable A couple people
30:37
obviously on the Sky Princess which is great Um Debbie I have not done a National Geographic expedition yet Um
30:45
but certainly they come very highly rated They obviously Lindlat National Geographic is uh is one kind of entity
30:53
So they are very uh well regarded Now one of the things I'll do a little punt
30:59
for you I did a video which I got some help from Polar Roots from Martin Johnson who runs one of the co-founders
31:05
set up polar roots where we did a deep dive into I think it was 21 of the
31:10
expedition groups and sort of rated them all based on their facilities and stuff So if you Debbie if you want to get
31:16
there's a PDF that goes with that So he dives into it talks compares them So if you if you go to the channel just go to
31:23
the to channel and when the search if you search Antarctica you'll see a video there called Antarctica on a budget So I
31:29
talk through kind of how you can do it But there there's also a link there to the PDF which dives into that I would
31:36
love to do I mean if it helps I would love to do a National Geographic expedition and I would love to do a
31:41
Quark expedition particularly on their newer ship Although now that they also chartering one of the Atlas ships um
31:47
they they appeal So they're definitely on definitely on on on my list
31:54
Um let's have a look see Yeah that's right It costs about
32:00
$250,000 for a cruise ship to transit the the thing Um HNL Girl one HNL Girl
32:08
11 I have not done Northern Lights cruise I've done Northern Lights but it was a land-based um activity in Finland
32:15
Um seeing the Northern Lights So I haven't It's also on high on my list I'd love to do a Hutigrin Northern Lights In
32:22
fact I actually talking of that I actually have torn out I just got in the
32:28
post today cruises thing I actually do have from Hertigrin Uh this little letter
32:34
here which is their experience the Northern Lights cruise uh which I
32:41
actually have on my tour out of the brochure to have a look at to see how I can schedule it So uh because I really
32:46
want to I also want to do the sort of win the wintry kind of combination of snow and stuff Um so so I haven't done
32:53
yet but I have there on my on my in my little pile here of uh cruises to look at um actively look at
33:02
Um okay So I get asked Sheila thanks for the question I get asked a lot about East Island I haven't been to East
33:09
Island yet Um I think I'm doing Easter Island when I do this Christmas I'm
33:15
doing East Island So I don't have any recommendations but I have a feeling that I know she's not here today because
33:20
then she's moving back from heading back from Japan is Rosemary um who's one of my uh followers and patrons as well She
33:29
has some good tips for East Island seem to remember But if anyone has good East Island tips please leave them for Sheila
33:34
and also it would be very helpful for me We someone asked this question before a couple of months ago and someone I feel
33:41
it was Rose posted the answer but I can't remember the answer Um so uh asking the question have I done
33:49
narrow I have I have done that's a good question actually if you're talking about my ranking I did a canal boat
33:56
cruise with across Europe in France on the their ship called Deborah which I
34:01
think it's immigrant is 15 passengers I was the only English English speaker on
34:07
it like I didn't speak any other languages I understand a little bit of French um and I absolutely loved it was
34:14
which is fantastic I would I would really uh do it again So So it's not as narrow as the UK ones Uh it's a little
34:20
bit bigger Uh I it was fantastic you know even though I didn't even though I was the only English speaker there Um
34:27
the you know the crew were tiny little crew I think a chef and maybe two people if I remember correctly but the tours
34:33
were great Um really immersive It was fantastic I loved it Really really loved it So that would definitely be I almost
34:40
would put that a little bit above river cruising in a way Um I mean I guess it's hit and miss If you don't get on with the other people that would be a
34:46
nightmare But um but that would be uh yeah so that
34:51
would definitely be on the list And at the moment probably a little bit above river cruising because it was just so great Barbara hi good to see you again
34:57
Barbara We're looking for a 3-w weekekish cruise in fall 2026 before prefer small ships Viking regulars but
35:04
try others resubmitted So Barbara um coming back to this question we had before uh the topic we had before
35:11
explore journeys is kind of one to look on the list but um I would also take a look you know your Oceanania and I would
35:17
take a look at Winstar uh those are the ones that I would look at Azamara of course within the mix but I tend to you
35:24
Azamara is a little bit hit and miss um yes and even I haven't been on Azamara
35:29
for two years now I need to get back on there um because I'm still getting very mixed views you people who being back on
35:36
asam tomorrow you know some people tell me they love it it's getting better others say it they're not so sure so but
35:41
definitely you know so you've got to explore journeys now although pricing is now s by because I was looking at 2026
35:48
pricing is now much more up at your kind of ultra luxury level so you're talking around $770 per person per night kind of
35:57
pricing so quite cost you pretty costly biking is pretty costly as well but but
36:03
take a look at those so in 420 2026 One of the things you might want to do Barbara is
36:09
um I don't know if this is you would this would appeal to you but if you're talking about 426 you you're really
36:15
talking about the opportunity to do repositioning cruises uh which tend to be two weeks or so but you can then tag
36:21
that on but reposition that time of the year will be ships moving back from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean So for
36:27
example I've got that one in November 2026 on Crystal which is a phenomenal price It's um it's it's a 16 night
36:35
cruise uh going out of I'm sure it's Barcelona It might be Lisbon and um it's
36:41
in fact let me just check I said Barcelona earlier so I'm going to just check on my little thing here where it
36:47
is a bigger part It's from Lisbon to Fort Lauderdale So I was totally wrong I said Barcelona to Miami Um so earlier so
36:54
that's you know what's great is you could also do a little bit you know before that there's a cruise before that for example which will do a bit more med
37:00
or you could do a little bit more Caribbean at the end The advantage with those is you can go on some of those you know more costly ships like explorer
37:07
regents uh crystal that kind of stuff and it was probably more you you may be able to get it for the price of Viking
37:13
Now there might be too many sea days The other thing that I would say to look at is that is a very good time of the year
37:18
to be looking at Japan So October November is is really you know quite a
37:25
busy Japan time It's a really good time to go to Japan Uh it's still very warm So like I went in October again recently
37:33
sort of March time was kind of cold Not kind of cold it was cold Um whereas October's beautiful weather not too hot
37:39
not as crazy busy uh time So that's also quite because you still got a couple of ships doing doing that and you've got
37:45
some ships coming back The other thing you can do is you've got ships going from uh going from um although it might
37:53
be a little bit too late by fall but ships going from Alaska some of them will go uh reposition down to Japan So
37:59
for example I'm doing one in August this year or into September which is SNOVA
38:05
repositioning from Seward in Alaska has one or two Alaska stops then has about
38:11
five or six Japan stops but it does again have that six C days in the middle So but do look at some of those repositioning because you can do some
38:18
repositioning very cost- effective and then do some deep diving So you could do you know kind of Alaska and see some
38:24
Japan or whatever So those would be my initial thoughts Hopefully that helps
38:31
Um Calvin uh asking the question any port cruise
38:37
line recommendations for example for Alaska many people including me suggest America Princess because they're more
38:43
access to Glacier Bay You're right There's about six lines or seven lines that the parks authority do give
38:50
licenses to You've got Hall America Princess Norwegian Seabour Kunard and
38:56
Viking I think is is the ones in my Norwegian video I do that In my Alaskan video I talk about that So in terms of
39:02
Norwegian fjords so a lot of it the advantage with the fjords uh Kevin I probably if you were here early you
39:07
heard me discuss some of it but you can get pretty much any range of cruise lines So the good news is you can get almost anything I recommend going on
39:13
smaller lines So like I last time I went there was on uh Winstar the thing I was
39:19
mentioning earlier when I did sort of repositioning things But I would also strongly I always encourage people to
39:25
take a look at Hudin and Havila which is their new competitor uh which are very
39:31
focused on Norwegian They do very intensive Norwegian deep dives So they go into like loads and loads of ports
39:37
They'll call like 30 ports during the course of the day during the course of that week But obviously you're going to get off in some and that sort of stuff
39:44
Um so um that's you know that's really what I would focus on if you really want
39:51
you know someone that is completely ingrained in the region Her
39:59
degener I l a um because they are originally set up by Norwegian or both
40:05
of them actually owned by private equity Ailia is not but Hertin is owned by private London based private equity now
40:12
but it's you know it's a Norwegian operate oh like Norwegian is everything about it um and so uh those are the ones
40:19
I would absolutely look at because if you're looking for someone that you know really knows the place inside out but
40:24
because most cruise lines have been going there a lot they all really do know um know it pretty good
40:33
uh let's have a look Um let's have a look Uh
40:42
uh someone's asking about are there any uh alternative taxes at the moment there
40:48
aren't but there are there aren't people asking about you know are there any more politically motivated reciprocal tariffs
40:55
coming in like China's done to the US and so on uh when it comes to trade when it comes to actual people entering
41:02
there's nothing specifically related to the politics certainly at this stage but what you are seeing which is and are and
41:09
and and are and are you and and are you um and and and are you yeah and are you
41:17
uh so what you are seeing though is you are seeing quite a lot of places bringing in taxes uh because of over
41:24
tourism so it's driven by a different feature different function So it's not really related to to trade tariffs or
41:31
trade wars or whatever So for example Iceland have introduced a new tax which
41:36
is for every port a ship calls in the tax has to be paid per per passenger and I can't remember the amount but it's
41:42
quite a lot It's something like 14 So you know considering you might call them five or six ports that's a lot of added
41:48
cost Mexico have introduced a very large uh tax uh on all cruise passengers going
41:54
in to fund infrastructure and so on This was done pre any trade war stuff Uh
41:59
you've got obviously Venice has their uh tax uh for both land and uh cruise
42:06
passengers to go into Venice uh based on per day during the season Um you've got
42:12
uh you know various different other countries introducing different taxes I actually one of my videos I dive in dive
42:19
into that So we don't really know what the shake out from the Mexican one's going to be yet because it was quite hefty and it wasn't clear about whether
42:26
cruise lines will call on fewer Mexican ports because it's going to add a lot to cruise fairs uh or what So it's not
42:34
there's no there's none specifically related to uh you know to to that it's more related to there they wanted to
42:41
reduce tourism or they effectively a tourism tax driven by different driven by different things Ton C any plans to
42:47
go to vice yes absolutely The plan at the moment it's a it's a penciled in plan is in October 26 I
42:56
really I really go I really want to go on Brilliant Lady So Brilliant Lady when it's coming back from its Alaska season
43:04
is doing some sailings uh sort of end of September into October So about
43:09
midsepptember to about mid-occtober roughly can't exact dates Uh it's going to be based out of Long Beach California
43:15
So I will actually be uh in the sort of California area in sort of September
43:21
October time and the plan is to then book Brilliant Lady I'm just waiting for
43:27
that to know exactly what before I lock it down So So that's the plan So So it's
43:32
penciled in uh kind of hard pencil almost pen uh for one of those sailings
43:39
I think it's actually the end of September I can't remember There couple of ones there So the weekl long sailings kind of that Mexican port kind of
43:45
portata kind of stuff So yes that's the plan Um so asking the group cruise group
43:51
will be in in European river cruise Uh S is asking so the river cruise we're looking very much at at Europe Um Mong
43:58
will be great but it gets very complicated and costs get more complicated but you're right So it's going to be more um we're talking to a
44:06
European probably the Ryan although we're still discussing between the Ryan and the um the
44:14
Danube Uh hopefully Debbie I've answered your question there Uh
44:23
uh Lisa's GTO have you been on the cruise that are selling us no Uh would you recommend a particular line i would
44:28
definitely look at two Uh the one I would actually focus on to be honest is I would focus on WinStar Um but they're
44:35
obviously Star Clippers uh as well which is probably a little bit more rough and
44:40
ready if you like but Winstar certainly they've upgraded some of their theirs recently They look fantastic I really
44:46
really want to do it I just keep trying to slot slot it in It hasn't quite worked But that that's kind of the one I
44:52
I kind of lean on and I've forgotten the name of the third one The star clip is Oh my goodness I forgot the other one
44:58
But I would I would focus on that's one I'd focus on to be honest I would focus on on that one
45:06
Um Veni Abroad So I'm assuming that's a Star Trek reference Um hopefully it is
45:13
Um I'm a big Star Trek fan Hello from Oregon What is your favorite cruise line
45:18
going to Alaska and what is your favorite port well my favorite port when you asked me Alaska I will end
45:25
up having very favorite ports but probably my favorite port uh sorry Lisa I realiz I didn't ask the second half of
45:31
your question I'll come back to that Um my favorite port is actually Skagway because I love the train I love the the
45:38
the White House new train I'm a complete train geek which is what reminded me hadn't answered Lisa's question I
45:44
absolutely love the Skagway train I've been to Skagway three times I've done the train three times and if I went
45:49
again I would probably do the train again and it's very unadventurous to me but I just love the train love the
45:55
history of the story etc etc but I do actually also really like Juno um
46:01
because in Juno I love going up the it's not called the Mount Roberts tramway anymore it is called the because it was
46:07
called something else and then it changed name anyway the tram that goes up Mount Roberts which I love the views and that's where I normally go
46:14
completely crazy blow my budget and I do a lot the glacia walking on glacia dogs
46:20
laying on glacia Um so I I I
46:25
um in terms of favorite cruise line I actually really enjoyed doing Viking in
46:32
Alaska And I'll tell you why was more because when I I've done it on Princess
46:37
I've done on Hot America and I've done on Viking And America and Princess are
46:43
fantastic because they go to Glacia Bay particular biking I did didn't go into Glacia Bay but it was because it was a
46:48
it was a seaweed to Vancouver Uh and I got to see some ports I hadn't seen before Um so um the reason I liked it is
46:58
you know when you go to Alaska is you need to expect you're going to have a lot of families on board and it's going
47:03
to be kind of very full because it's going to be families on board So there's going to be more you know it's not going to be double occupancy full and it can
47:10
get a little bit manic So even though I went in June both I went a May on one and June the other it was just a little
47:16
bit manic to be honest and I actually really enjoyed going on an adult only experience in Alaska but certainly you
47:24
know I I you know because Glacia Bay is so important to go if I was going for the first time I have no regrets about
47:30
going Holland America I have no regrets going going Princess because I got into Glacia Bay Uh if I go to Alaska again I
47:37
will either do one that absely gets me into Glacia Bay and if that's Holland America then it would be Holl America Probably lean more towards Holl America
47:43
than Princess they've been going there longer and or I may do it completely
47:48
differently and do it more expedition-like So uh there is a very Hudig Gutin does a very interesting uh
47:54
Alaska itinerary which actually I think it might call in Juno but it doesn't call in any of the regular ports and
48:00
it's very much more expedition wildlife focused I know it's not quite what you asked Lisa did second part of a question
48:08
Will you do any other train journeys i don't have any booked but I really do want to do some I want to do some more in Australia especially Um I would like
48:16
to do the GAN again and then they have another one which I think is called the Overlander which goes between Sydney and
48:22
Brisbane So I don't have any booked not long ones booked and I would like to
48:28
although it's not going to work out I was I'm going back I'm doing a West Africa trip this year which ends in
48:33
South Africa and I would really like to have gone on Robas Rail again because a very long time although I think the blue
48:39
train's up and running but now I only have a week between that and heading to Sydney so I'm not going to be able to do
48:44
that Um so
48:50
uh let's have a look Andrew Andrew very interesting challenge
48:58
Retiring in a year Congratulations Have never been on a cruise Very interested in expedition cruises What do you think
49:04
of having an expedition for first cruise well Andrew I think it's a great idea and particularly if you want to do it as
49:10
a way of celebrating retirement because an expedition cruise is going to take you to an iconic place in the world So if your aspiration is to go to the
49:16
Arctic to Greenland to the Kimbley or what I would probably suggest Antarctica I think it's a great experience because
49:23
in reality an expedition cruise is very different anyway to a regular cruise So
49:28
I don't know if you were here at the beginning but when earlier on when I asked a question about how I rank them an expedition cruise doesn't you know
49:35
yes it's a cruise and it's on a ship but it runs very differently So the entertainment is the talks and the
49:42
lectures It's not the song and dance and yeah I might throw in a bit of trivia and stuff but that's your entertainment
49:48
is is is learning and education and you know you you do things almost as a group
49:54
So you know you'll be you'll be up at you might some days have to be up at 7 because you that's what time your group is going out to you know go out to land
50:03
on you know in Necco harour and do your allocated hike or whatever So it's it's
50:08
it's a very different structure in many ways and certainly as a as a as an
50:13
experience it would it would just be magical Um particularly if there's a place in the world that really appeals
50:19
to you Now you're obviously going to if you do something like Antarctica you are throwing yourself literally in the deep
50:24
end because you are potentially going to be crossing great passage and that might be your first time experiencing kind of
50:30
rough seas and that might be quite a lot quite overwhelming in some ways but you can just prepare for that get some
50:36
anti-sickness medication and just see it as part of the adventure You can do those fly cruise things as well but I
50:42
think it's a great idea I think expedition cruising but it is because it is so different uh as an as an
50:47
experience Um so so that that that's key That's key Uh Randy hi there Randy good
50:54
to see you here How would you compare the sailing experience of Crystal versus Regent randy um that comes back to guess
51:01
if you were here earlier I want to do that video where I break it all down Uh so for me they were very close Um I do
51:08
think Crystal probably edged ahead slightly just in terms of the
51:14
quality of service and attention to detail They are really really really on
51:20
their game again as I mentioned because you know they only have two ships Most of the crew have worked together forever
51:25
Um you know even the new crew are kind of really it's very intensive they have a crystal way that train they're on the
51:31
ball because they can they've got two ships in a very tight community Um and so it just felt even more kind of
51:39
special Now what you don't have on Crystal is you obviously don't have the included excursions So you have you know
51:47
the cost of those on on top Crystal certainly for alcohol drinkers wine
51:52
lovers has you know from what I could see and what I compared with the documents I got you Crystal has an even
51:59
bigger array of included wines I mean the Line list was enormous Uh you know
52:05
every night at dinner they would still come with your red your white and whatever But if you said I don't want
52:10
that They had this massive list that you could choose from you know the the booklet with you know the the gins and
52:16
the brisies and the whisies and the rums and the vodkas was in again gi ginormous
52:24
Um so so they sort of upped a little bit on that Um you know certainly the
52:29
crystal ships because you know those are these are old ships but they're very beautifully redone Obviously particularly obviously Navigator soon to
52:35
be leaving a soft spot for Navigator but you know and I know you know Grande because you're on Grande but you know
52:42
their ships obviously are just you know newer modern you know smarter kind of stuff Although the revamp cabins are
52:48
very nice So I actually I would say like the cabin I had on Crystal was probably one of my favorite cabins I've ever been on Um and I did quite of like that sort
52:56
not completely quirky but more quirky layout So they're very close So I I I need to get my head around um which I
53:04
think is is better But um the because they both have about the same amount of
53:10
choice of alternative venues They operate very similar You know that
53:15
Crystal does a better afternoon tea actually Uh I like the way that Crystal did the afternoon tea Um they
53:22
uh which they did a little bit more with uh your little tiered stands and things
53:28
or they did do some more buffet style when they did themed night themed things Um but they're very they are kind of
53:35
pretty close Um so to me they're kind of quite interchangeable but Crystal just
53:40
feels a feels a little bit more sophisticated I think I mentioned that that earlier Um
53:47
uh so so they you know for me they are slightly interchangeable The other thing I would say though is is the advantage
53:53
of course is region having slightly bigger fleet is they do have more itinerary opportunities You know crystal
53:59
are still relatively limited What crystal do tend to do is they keep moving so that you can bundle things
54:04
together Um uh I didn't do I did one or two
54:10
excursions with crystal I did a lot of self-exploring The tours were quite costly Um but the tours they did offer
54:17
were pretty good I did a really good Shanghai one which is which was really good Um Sherry so Crystal Yeah So so
54:26
basically Crystal has a kids and teens club area but they only it's not run on
54:32
every cruise So they only open it um when they have you know basically in
54:38
peak school holiday season if they have kids booked Um whereas Explore Journeys
54:44
has currently one club called Nautilus Club Uh it it's only one room at the
54:49
moment which is open for six year olds to 17 year olds and they split that by day Uh that's it on Explorer 1 and two
54:55
and Explorer 3 and four they are actually going to have a separate uh
55:01
Nless club for kids and a separate Nautilus club for teens And what the lady told me is they're also talking
55:06
about introducing a Nautilus club for uh under six year olds Uh um but when I
55:14
looked at the deck plans yesterday when I was looking at the deck plans yesterday I was just finalizing some of the script is it doesn't show up yet as
55:20
a nautilus uh toddlers kids young kids club It's only showing as kids and teens
55:26
at the moment Um and they run the program on every sailing because they pretty much have kids on every sailing
55:32
Uh we had uh because at Tenneref actually people left and people joined
55:38
So we had I think 16 kids on the first leg We had 24 on the second The cruise after me had was going to have 53 kids
55:45
Uh so that's about 10% of the of the passengers in reality Uh but in the Caribbean they
55:51
were selling on the peak you know school holidays with 78 kids again over 10%
55:58
because ships weren't sailing full at that time So absolutely they are much more focused Uh you're right The lady
56:04
who runs that I met uh running the Nautis Club was had moved over from MS MSC Um so so but Crystal does have kids
56:12
club but it's very you know it's sort of on on demand basis not something they they go out and and push Although I have
56:18
seen them run some uh promotions for families uh but not to the same degree
56:24
as explorer very you know if you look at the explorer site they do talk about how they welcome everyone of all ages and
56:30
the Pontto family are very family focused They believe a lot in the importance of family Um you know will we
56:37
see loads of kids on explorer in the school holidays i think we'll see more than people expect Um so
56:44
one of my tips and those who join on live stream when I spoke about is I would personally because I prefer a
56:51
kids-free environment I would not book an explore journey in peak school holidays or peak holiday time uh because
56:59
I I would want a more kid-free environment So we didn't have a lot of kids We did have some because there's
57:06
only one adult sort of space They don't have adult bars and restaurants and things So we did have kids
57:12
um because particularly well I was in Europe so kids maybe stab later So we did have kids like at 10 11:00 at night
57:19
in the music venue and stuff playing hideand seek which time some people were crazy but anyway that may just be that
57:26
particular um sailing and particular family Um let's have a look
57:34
Um okay Trevor I get asked this a lot I do need to find some I'd like to buy good quality model ship As you know I've
57:39
got this very beautiful crearyy too I have a very beautiful I do show you this every now and again I probably should be
57:44
on a lower level because I keep doing this very beautiful K2 The person who makes those is long gone Unfortunately I
57:50
do not have any recommendations So if anyone ever finds a good quality model ship source I have looked I keep looking
57:57
on eBay and stuff like that but there seems a big kind of gap because I feel like the people who make those big you
58:03
when you go on a cruise they always have that big model of the ship which I guess was made by the shipyard I feel like
58:09
some there's got to be an opportunity to do those I would I would love those So I don't but please if anyone has great
58:14
recommendations Please let me know I because I would love to be able to to to to recommend
58:20
any Um let's have a look We're rapidly running out of time Um
58:28
uh Rashika just got off the region splendor Loved it Fantastic What
58:33
difference in can I expect on silver mus it's pretty Rashik is pretty similar They have a slightly different thing
58:39
that you'll find on Muse is they've sort of moved away from the main dining room concept So that's probably the one of
58:46
the biggest changes you'll notice is they don't have um you know you don't
58:51
have like the main dining room So you don't have like compass rows that you would have on Regent So they have the different uh the different restaurants
58:57
So you could sort of move between those restaurants which is very in these days like Explore Journeys again doesn't have
59:03
a main dining They have two restaurants which you don't make reservations for Um they uh the other thing of course you
59:09
got the included excursions You'll also tend to find that Silver Sea is more
59:15
dressy So of all of those ultra luxury lines I found Silver Sey the most dressy So if I'm going on a Silver Sea cruise I
59:21
do pack a suit and I do pack a jacket and I'm more like to wear those I never wear unless I in the mood for it on
59:27
Regent Like on the Christmas cruise we decided it was Christmas and we'd get dressed up in a suit one day But but
59:33
certainly you don't have to on region On Silver Sea there is more of a dress code and if certainly if you're going to
59:38
silver note it's you have to wear a jacket if you're a gent uh into silver note So it it's a little bit more dressy
59:45
but other than that it's it's it's fairly kind of similar experience They are kind of of of of the same you know
59:51
similar kind of prevalent passengers that kind of stuff So if you love region I think you will you will like you but
59:57
you like to find it just a little a little bit more dressy Looks like Rosem's answered He said I think I
1:00:04
missed that which is which is good Um I missed that Rosemary had done that
1:00:10
Fantastic Uh thanks for that Rose Really appreciate that
1:00:17
Um Darren um two weeks ago today I'm going on my very first cruise on Avia I've pre-booked my shows today but my
1:00:24
confirmations all show my name is booked but not my partner Norma To be honest with I I'm not 100% sure Darren Um it's
1:00:31
possible that it's it's linked to your cabin booking but I would absolutely contact Pino to clarify Um definitely
1:00:39
check that I I I I haven't seen that happen but it could be that they have
1:00:45
linked it but I would absolutely contact PNO customer service and and absolutely clarify that Um let's have a quick look
1:00:54
We're rapidly running out Let's see if there's any quick questions I can uh get before I need to wrap up before our
1:01:00
Fangi board Super Star Trek fans I don't know if you've been watching I want to go on a Star Trek cruise and I keep
1:01:06
making messing up my dates and getting it wrong They just posted a whole series of videos with highlights from was it I
1:01:13
think it's number six I think they're now taking books to number seven which take if you haven't watched that it's worth taking a look at uh SL are changes
1:01:20
to training become more common and are any lines more likely to also cancel routes than others there have been a spate of
1:01:28
cancellations uh affecting 2026 uh with re um uh redeploying ships and what's
1:01:37
been quite interesting is most the most of the cruise lines that are doing it seem to be moving more ships into the
1:01:42
Caribbean Uh certainly there's a very robust demand in the Caribbean for sailing and particularly of shorter
1:01:49
sailings So a lot of cruise lines are introducing much to people's annoyance who want longer cruises lots of three
1:01:55
and four night cruises Um so uh that and really I read read some stuff which the
1:02:01
cruise lines were talking about in sea trade which is a big um industry event
1:02:06
which happened I guess earlier this month or was it March uh in Miami and
1:02:12
they were asked a lot about that Caribbean is very robust and they're attracting a lot of new crews uh and
1:02:18
they're and they're finding the short savings are very popular So so there was a couple of Norwegian there's a couple
1:02:23
of I think Carnival but they had some new um uh dry docks arranged So um I'm
1:02:31
not sure that's becoming more common There was a little bit of redeploying of ships which probably have now settled
1:02:37
settle a bit Of course it all hinges on whether anything breaks out So as you know massive disruption uh with the
1:02:44
whole troubles in the Middle East and the outies Now what will be interesting is quite a few ships I've noticed are
1:02:51
showing for their 26 world cruisers and some of their 26 itineraries is requires
1:02:57
on requires them and getting their ships through the sewish canal So if the howy
1:03:02
issue hasn't resolved we'll see any cruise line that has that on their schedule having to change and reschedule
1:03:08
So that's the one to look out for So if you've got cruises booked that say you're going to go through the Seuss Canal or you've booked cruises that are
1:03:14
in a little bit in Asia or or trips are going from Asia into the Mediterranean going through the Seuss Canal I would
1:03:20
watch those with some caution um and keep an eye on the howy thing but we're not seeing anything specifically
1:03:27
um at this point in time Um and there's nothing yet looming that I've seen but
1:03:34
you know the world is kind of a little bit crazy and things keep chopping change but I haven't seen uh seen anything Well we have churned through
1:03:41
time enormously So um next week uh is a
1:03:46
long weekend here and next Sunday is actually my birthday So uh I will I probably will run a live stream um
1:03:53
although we actually going to be sort of away but I will probably run a live stream on Sunday but keep an watch out for that I'll post on Friday and confirm
1:03:59
if I'm running a live stream but it won't be here It'll be in a slightly different venue Uh so have a great week Remember I'm going to do last little
1:04:05
punt Remember do take a look at uh entering the Wonder Club giveaway I've
1:04:10
got So tips.com/giveaway I'll actually put a link down here as soon as I've finished
1:04:15
And you can get discounts going to the wonderclub.com/t If you put TFT in
1:04:20
checkout you'll get guaranteed 10% but based on what you've ordered you're probably going to get even a high discount that 30% They've got lots of
1:04:27
promotions at the moment as well So have a look at that Have a great rest of the week and I'm going to have a lovely hot
1:04:33
sunny week here in the UK Take care
1:04:46
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