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over the years I've been cruising I've
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made many mistakes but thanks to other
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Cruisers I've made along the way they
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suggested various tools sites and apps
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that have really help make sure I avoid
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making those and in fact other mistakes
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again so I'd like to share those that I
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use on every cruise to make it truly
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epic including some rather quirky and
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unusual ones that you may find
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surprising and even rather amusing
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welcome board I'm Gary benridge let me
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start with the one I use to plan and
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find my Cruisers when I plan my Cruisers
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I start first with the de destination I
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want to go to the problem is if I then
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visit every Cruise Line website to find
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Cruisers that for my travel dates it
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becomes cumbersome and in fact a little
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bit chaotic so instead I use the site
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vacations too.com here I can search by
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destination ports I want to depart from
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or go to and by dates they have a
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database of pretty much every single
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cruise lines scheduled itinerary for
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example I wanted to do a major
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circumnavigation of South americ early
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2026 and instead of wading through all
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the cruise Lin sites I simply searched
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the region and Ates on vacation too.com
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and found that holl America ustam is
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doing a perfect trip that goes from
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buess Aries around South America through
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the Panama Canal and back to Fort
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Lauderdale now I didn't actually book
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through vacations to go there because I
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just use it as a resource because I
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prefer booking through my own travel
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agent because I like to choose things
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like my own cabin and tailor all the
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add-ons she's now by the way booked that
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trip for me once I've decided the cruise
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and line to go on the next key decision
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is choosing the right right cabin I
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found it really complicated again using
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the Cruise Line website because although
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they have the deck plans and some kind
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of idealized marketing images of the
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Cavin I can't really get a real sense of
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them but I was suggested a great
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solution instead of frantically
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switching between the cruise line site
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and searching for cabins on things like
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YouTube I use a site called Cruise
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deckplans.com there I can choose the
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ship and as well as showing me the deck
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plans it also shows me layouts of the
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cabin per and benefits of each cabin
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grade pass Cruiser photos of the cabins
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and even has links and embedded video
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tours that they've selected that show
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the cabins of so for example I'm just
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back from a celebrity Eclipse Canada and
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New England cruise and I'd used cruise
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deckplans.com to choose the cabin for
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that help me decide that an aqua class
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cabin was right by because I was able to
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explore I was able to look at able to
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compare the different cabin options
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grades and so on next I want to talk
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about various resources that I use to
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help avoid making costly money mistakes
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there are two key things that I've seen
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go wrong for me paying too much for the
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cruise and spending more than I need to
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go on excursions so let me talk about
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what I do when it comes to managing
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fairs first every time I book a cruise I
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track Fair changes now I've spoken about
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this before so I won't dwell on it I
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also must warn you that I'm seeing
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varying degrees of success in getting
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cruise lines to match Fair reductions
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these days it's not as easy as before
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but once I've booked a Cru Cru I put it
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into several Fair tracking sites who
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alert me when prices change if fairs go
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down I ask the line to match the new
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lower Fair give me an upgrade of a cabin
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to match the new fair that I've paid or
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additional onboard credit there are
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three key sites to do that and on my
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blog I have an article showing you in
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detail how to do this at tipsfor
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tracking the one that I like the most is
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called cruisewatch decom although
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cruiseline.com is good too I also use
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Cruise Critic which shows how fairs are
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tracking over time and show if the trend
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is kind of down or up so help me know
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when to book I've been successful at
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saving a lot of money the most dramatic
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of which was an asamara Cruise where I
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got back over $1,000 Afters plummeted
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after I booked most weeks I get messages
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and emails from people thanking me for
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saving them money from this tip and
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resource next I want to talk about
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resources I used to get the most
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important thing about cruising for me
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right which is making the most of the
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destination and the ports that are call
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on but first a quick word about this
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video sponsor you heard me talking
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earlier about my celebrity Eclipse
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Canada cruise this is the A4 map from it
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created by the Cru maps.com that I'm now
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adding to my cruise album coffee table
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book this greatl looking album holds 25
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of those A4 maps that I've started
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collecting of my favorite cruises
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already in here are my region Japan
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Norwegian Viva Mediterranean and winoff
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Norwegian fiords and Iceland each of the
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cruise maps.com maps are created using
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satellite tracking so it shows exactly
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where my cruise went and has all the
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ports marked all I needed to do was tell
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the cruise maps.com the ship dates and
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the start and end port I could also have
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ordered them in larger sizes and frame
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to hang on the wall I actually have
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those too and thanks to my friends will
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and mats who created the cruise maps you
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can get 10% off any order on check out
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by going to the cruise
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maps.com TFT that's the Cru
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maps.com TFT now back to those money
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saving resources there are several
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invaluable resources that I use first
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before I decide what I'm going to do in
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aort I use one of the most valuable
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resources ever recommended to me whats
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import.com they list all Global Cruise
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ports and include rship stock how close
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it is to the nearest town and S security
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issues things to do maps to download and
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so much more it helps me decide what I'm
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going to do in each Port excursions down
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board self-explore and so on but before
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deciding I next check how busy the port
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is going to be for that I use
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cruisetimetables tocom I can inut my
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cruise and look at each port to see how
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many ships are import on that day and
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how many passengers will therefore be
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there if the port is going to have many
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say mega ships in and so everywhere will
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be packed I may decide to take take that
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as an enjoy the ship day or choose an
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Excursion that's going to go somewhere
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more remote somewhere more quiet uh kind
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of place if I decided I want to do an
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Excursion after all that I then use some
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resources to look at options to those
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costly Cruise Line Excursions the three
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that I really like are Venture Shore and
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shore excursions group as I can put my
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ship the day of departure and they bring
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up my itinerary and show all the
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independent excursions they offer which
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are cheaper and smaller groups than the
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though I also often check vior because
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although I have to search by Port they
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generally have an even wider range of
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excursions once I have excursions all
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sorted the next set of resources are
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ones that are invaluable to me once I'm
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actually on the cruise absolute must
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have resource for me is an e Sim on my
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phone while my mobile phone package that
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I've got is pretty good it gives me lots
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of no extra cost roaming and dates in
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many countries it doesn't include many
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major cruising destinations for example
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on some of my recent cruises it didn't
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fully cover the Caribbean islands it
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didn't cover Canada on the recent Canada
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New England cruise or in fact we in
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South Africa at the end of last year so
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these days I buy an eim to get data
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which means I can do Skype calls to
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landlines messenger and WhatsApp video
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calls to home as well of course brows
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eims are best because they don't mean
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replacing my phone's SIM card now I've
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recently switched to Gig Sky because
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they have packages that work both on
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land and unlike all the others I've used
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so far they also work on the ship at Sea
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they work on 28 cruise lines that are
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counted at the time of recording so for
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example when I was on that Canada uh
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trip on Celebrity Eclipse recently I was
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able to use my gig Sky eim both in Port
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and in fact on Cay now they're worth
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checking out because I I saw for many
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people that actually be a cheaper and
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better option than buying Wi-Fi packages
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based on how much browsing or emails or
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downloading that you'll do I was
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skeptical about them having a fast
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connection at C but they really did
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seems according to the website they use
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sell C but I also noted that they link
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with ships that have starlink so as I
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mentioned there having Skype on your
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phone with some credit is another
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important resource if you ever need to
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make landline calls when my mom was
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alive I use that most days to call her
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landline cuz she was actually registered
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blind she didn't use nor could see a
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mobile phone or iPad screen to do video
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calls by Wi-Fi so calling a landline was
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really important I could do that using
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Skype I like to stream and download
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shows when I'm cruising to keep up to
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date with ones that I follow as rise for
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TV shows and sports are very local most
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streaming sites block me from watching
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the shows I follow at home when I'm out
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of the country so to keep up to date
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with the latest episodes of BBC and
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channel 4 in the UK shows like the Great
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British bof Doctor Who and so on I use a
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VPN the VPN I use and works best for me
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on cruises that I've discovered so far
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is called expressvpn it means I can set
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my location to the UK and the sites then
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allow me to stream and watch us the IP
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address shows it as a uk1 so it lets me
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watch and download and stream another
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resource which I'm a huge fan of and use
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frequently on my cruises is the marine
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traffic app as a bit of a cruising geek
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i' like to know what ships that I can
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see from the ship are and also what
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ships are important with me like for
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example when I was on that Canadian trip
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on Celebrity Eclipse I saw a ship in the
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distance which Marine Traffic told me
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was holl America zadam this was great
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because my next group cruise is actually
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on that ship and I was hosting a group
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Cruise on eclipse and many people on
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that were also coming on that so we
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could all kind of geek about it and talk
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about the fact that we'd seen the ship I
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was also able to see in ports like
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Quebec all the ships that were also
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there even though they were in different
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parts of the port and weren't actually
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visible stuff that I really like to know
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it's also great for checking the status
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of any ship I'm due to boor to see its
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progress confirm it has arrived know
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when I wake up in the morning I look and
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see is the ship there marine traffic has
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both a free version and a paid version
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by the way perhaps an unusual Cruiser
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Source I use is Dropbox for those who
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don't know Dropbox is a cloud storage
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site I have copies of things like my
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driving license passport travel
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insurance documents the cruise tickets
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all sort of any other important
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documents uploaded there so for any
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reason I get stranded or I lose my
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passport I get into trouble I have
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copies of all those important documents
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to hand there's a free version which is
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plenty enough for storing those kinds of
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things I have the Dropbox app by the way
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on my phone I have it set so that folder
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download loads so everything in it is
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available on my phone even when I can't
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get on online let me talk about some
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more unusual resources uh that I
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actually use as well one favorite of
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mine that I recommend often is theme
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finder.com it's a gold mine to find all
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sorts of themed cruises from those
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arranged by the cruise lines through to
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I don't know band hosted ones private
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hobby groups for example on that
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celebrity Eclipse cruise I keep talking
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about there was a needle work group
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which you can find Future needle work
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group cruisers on theme Cru finder.com
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so it has a myriad of different things
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there my cousin recently went on a soft
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rock theme cruise that she also found
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that way you'll find links by the way
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for all of these resources in the show
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notes as well are there any must have
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resources that you use that I have
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missed if so let me know in the comments
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but to find out what are the must do and
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bucket list cruises in the world and why
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two of the most popular do not make the
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list join me over in this video see you
