Live Cruise Q&A: Sunday 2 February 2025: UK 5pm / ET Noon / PT 9am

Name: Live Cruise Q&A: Sunday 2 February 2025: UK 5pm / ET Noon / PT 9am | Humix Video
Uploaded: 2025-03-06T04:47:37+00:00
Duration: 1 h 4 min 43 s

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[Music]
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I'm muted there I was muted hopefully I'm back and live and chatting away so welcome everybody to the live stream
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it's great to be back obviously after missing a week last week lots of questions coming pouring in so I'll get
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stuck into those uh just a few housekeeping bits and pieces before we get going those of you who regulars here
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know the best thing to do is to write the word question uh even in capitals
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because if you are leaving question because that makes it incredibly easy for me to spot if there are questions coming along um and secondly if you are
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watching this afterwards many many people watch this afterwards and this is a live stream so I entire content is
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driven by what people ask me so that's basically the short and the whatever it
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in terms of housekeeping uh next weekend there will be a live stream but it will be on Saturday not on Sunday and the
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reason for that is because I will be heading off next Sunday let me perhaps bring it up I'll be heading off next
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Sunday I'll be flying off to Tokyo so I should be on the plane this time next week flying uh to Tokyo I'll be in Tokyo
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for 4 days exploring then I'm getting on crystal Cruisers which I'm very excited to be able to review and check out uh
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and selling from uh Tokyo Yokohama down to manilo with Shanghai so I'm very
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excited about that um it's I wanted to book it for a long time I had it booked for a long time and actually chose it
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party as I often mention is I love going to Asia I wanted to go back to Shanghai
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and there's actually not as many cruises going to Shanghai at the moment as used to partly because when cruise lines were
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planning China was quite slow to open so it's quite hard to find many cruises to Shanghai but that's increasing uh but
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also because it's a slightly it's a repositioning Cruise as they're moving the ship it's not as crazy expensive as some of their usual flights so flights
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cruises so that's uh that's that so let's get stuck into the questions there's quite a few questions coming in
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and as I said I will try and get through as many of those as I possibly can within the next 60 minutes so more or
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less in the line that they uh the order they came in so see the world actually posted this just before going live and
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it's around celebrity announcing they're going to River cruising so those of you don't know you may be as shocked as see
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the world so celebrity announced this week that they're going to be entering River cruising it looks like Mo mostly
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focused on Europe they're ultimately going to have 10 ships it's a lot more capacity being added because other lines
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like my king have also announced new entries what's not really clear yet is a lot of detail on what they're actually
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going to be doing so see the world is asking who do you think would be their lifel competitor Amma wronging thinking
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Amma waterways well we actually don't really know a lot of details so it's purely speculative but if you look at
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what celebrity are operating in Ocean cruising they're kind of in the premium category and in the premium category
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really in River cruising it's more like Avalon uh to let Emerald a little bit of
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Viking possibly Viking's probably a little bit above that Amma is sort of a bit above that's you sort of got the
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Ultra Luxury which is like your uni worlds and so on you've got sort of luxury which I'd probably put Amo water
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Viking you've got premium then which is kind of your Avalons uh emeralds that kind of stuff scen also being in the the
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top notch so they're probably going to be more in that area what we don't really know is how they're going to do
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anything differently so I'm really intrigued so it's very speculative at the moment but they do talk about bringing a lot of their Edge class if
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you think about what made Edge class is design Kelly hoopen designs but also it's a little bit quirky in terms of
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some of the dining and stuff because that's one of the limitations of course on River cruising is you have very limited dining so it'll be interesting
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to see whether they bring ocean stuff like more Choice more flexibility to River cruising uh where because River
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cruising is pretty fixed and lock so that's going to be very exciting to see what they're doing I think they're talking about launching in
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2026 I've had quite a few questions on this my short answer to it is going to be no but um because obviously I have a
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group cruise for channel members and patrons which actually leaves on the 31st of January
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2026 Miami to San Diego um mman 547 Mike
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Cary asking the question any Rumblings from Cruise Lines about changing Panama Canal ceries in light of the US
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president's comments hope not for your South American group so there is nothing I've picked up nothing I mean obviously
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we have no idea if anything will happen so I think everyone's working on business as usual and will'll review it
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I mean I why I mean you know the pan Canal is such a massive important
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Waterway Cruise Lines need to get their ships through because many of the ships have go through Panama at that time are
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heading up to Alaska so I'm sure they'll find ways of making that happen in
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whatever form that takes but at the moment it's purely spectives and so we have no idea what's going to happen so no I haven't seen anything from Cruise
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Lines haven't picked up anything in terms of alternative planning because it's quite a massive if if anything
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happens but also the Panama Canal you know 200 and something uh cruise lines go through every year there's hundreds
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and hundreds of ships go through uh every day every week uh so it's just so
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kind of fundamental so I think whatever happens there'll be a way that they keep going Richard uh I have not heard
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anything on this so he's asking if there's any indication that oceani will address the soundproofing issues I count
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on Vista when they launch Allura I've heard nothing I've seen nothing at all about any changes they're making to the
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ships it doesn't mean that there isn't but I haven't heard anything and of course course those of you who don't know this if you ever look follow
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reviews whether it's on Facebook groups or Cru critic or whatever I had a lot of issues with soundproofing in the cabin I
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was in other people did didn't a lot of I think does hinge on your what your um
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your I'm going to say flatmates the people next door in the cabin are doing but you'll see quite a lot of people
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complaining about noise uh largely driven by televisions and so on so I haven't heard anything but hopefully
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they have because they a lot of feedback and the good news is that Oceania has
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actually is definitely starting to pay attention to feedback so for example
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they have uh announced that they're going to be replacing Embers back
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converting it into a jaac and Ja will be on Aura so jacqu was the French restaurant that was very popular on the
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rest of the fleet but they dropped it when they launched Vista uh with Embers which was not very popular so they are
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definitely responding to uh feedback so they're definely paying attention to feedback so hopefully they
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will be doing something but I will keep an eye for that because it has put me off going to Vista and I think as I mentioned the video it hasn't put me off
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going to Marina or Riviera and I've actually booked on Riviera at the end of this year uh for quite a long cruise
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Doug asking the question um do you see any issues with cruising to the Greek airports there are some issues if you
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your itinerary had or has Santorini or mikinos on because the government there
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has restricted the amount of ships that can go to those two ports so quite a few Cruise Lines already adjusting itineries
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to drop those ports with alternative ports and there is also some added fees
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coming into play which are not as big as sort of the fees that they're talking around in Iceland where they're talk
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about every time you going to Port their adding on fees or as high as the ones that are going to be rolling out in
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Mexico or due to roll out in Mexico in the middle of this year so slightly smaller fees so I suspect the Cru might
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absorbing those in the short term so but we will possibly see some more changes
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as you start to look at not only this season but 2026 and Beyond I think we're going to see kind of more um more tweaks
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as you like but particularly for mikinos and Cent so particularly if you are interested in those ports one of my tips
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would be is you likely need to focus more on smaller ships if you want to be sure that you'll go there because it's
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around numbers of passengers going off so like many other places in Europe they're talking about they don't want
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the big ships but certainly they I would you know go smaller because you're more likely to have any
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issues sorry realize I'm hacking a bit so I have a
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slug so um Tom asking the question will be on Hamilton Island on the great bar
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Reef during Australia vacation it's a magnificent Island very fabulous Island Hamilton Island um and do you have any
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recommendations for underwater photography so a couple of things I can suggest Tom is uh GoPros do have
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waterproof versions they're particularly good obviously for video but you can also take pictures with those so that's
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quite a good option uh the other thing is if you go for if you want to use your
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mobile phone you can buy outer waterproof cases that works I have been on some places in fact res in
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galapagus: actually take pictures with it because sometimes um it doesn't
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always work so just look at the reviews for those then of course if you want to um they more Hightech or more expensive
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the insta 360 is waterproof that's the one that does the whole 360 thing the downside with that is it takes a little
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bit more editing although the iPhone or I guess it's an Android or an Android app makes the editing of that footage
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much easier but that's quite a good option as well CU it's waterproof but it is a
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fairly big investment and the DJI osmo pocket which is what I use to video a lot of my normal stuff they do have a
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waterproof case but it's not really designed to be waterproof so it's a slightly clumsy case those would be my
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top tips if anyone has better tips please do leave those below but certainly I've have tended for my
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underwater stuff to use a GoPro in fact I don't even have the most recent GoPro I literally now my GoPro just use for
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underwater and it's and it's pretty good you got to be careful you know if you're videoing you need to be careful that it's not kind of all over the place
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um you need to think about keeping still so sometimes little some of the extras
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like the little pole and things all grip just forces you to keep it still if you're taking photography then that's
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obviously less uh less of an issue at X Pat dreamer is it worth to
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upgrade from Princess Grill to Queen's Grill on the Queen Mary 2 so I'm a
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little bit biased because for me the Queens Gore restaurant across all of the ships is without a shadow of a D in my
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mind probably the best if not one of the best restaurants that you get at see that's even across Ultra Luxury ships
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and Beyond so you know the menu the broad menu is the same on creen squ but
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creen soll does have more things that you can order off menu or you can go completely off menu you can also get
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caviar for example every night at no charge but there is a charge for uh if
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you have it in Princess gr quite a hefty charge now the key difference would be is the cabins are much bigger in Queen's
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Grill because you get do Mo move into a more sweet sized uh cabin so the q6 um
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is the is sort of what the most of the biggest of and it's quite a nice kind of layout obviously you can then go out to
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panta and you know crazy expensive stuff so certainly I do really like going Queen score but the big draw for me
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really is the whole dining experience and particular if you're do something like a transatlantic with the dining experience is really important and so
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actually going to the Queens girl is very nice um obviously that you're not going to get the money's worth in food
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uh you know for the price difference so it's more around the experience obviously in Queens get a butler but I'm not sure but you know I never find a
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butler adds a lot I know some of my friends they use Butlers to set up you know cocktail parties in their cabin and
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stuff we don't do that um but it's more around if you want a bigger cabin and you want the queen School restaurant which is just a nudge above princess
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girl but a lot of men call menu is the same so it's really around kind of the experience you'll get the same checkin
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it's a check-in line uh it's the grills line with you know diamond and platinum people um you know you'll get the same
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priority embarcation dis embarcation all that kind of stuff so it's really around the bigger cabin um you do get a few
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things like you can get two bottles of of um a booze that you can choose from
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in Queen's Grill you'll get canipes every night that kind of stuff so it's those kind of things Jeffrey cruising
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for one I think I've sort of touched on on it I I I and I'm really intrigued to
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see once they differentiate because obviously they're pretty Limited in the ships the ships are going to to be a certain shape so it's uh what I'm hoping
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is they bring more kind of choice to the the whole thing that's what I'm
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absolutely uh absolutely hoping um most people talking about by the way that
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today is groundh day and I just saw someone posting that apparently uh the
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he saw his sure come out he saw his shadow so six more weeks of winter one of my favorite films of all time is
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Groundhog Day it's just it's just fantastic uh Kathy hi there Kathy um
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have to change PL in skiple airport next week I'm by myself in a bit nervous isn't an easy airport to navigate so
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Kathy skiple is enormous um I have only baby twice in the last 10 years or
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something actually changed in skiple it is pretty well sosed now the problem is the last time I did they been doing a
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lot of building works so it was a little bit complicated to get around but that's a while ago but it is pretty well
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signposted um but it there is quite long distances depending on what you're changing Etc between but certainly I
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found you know things like skiple even Madrid Airport those airports which tend to be quite big for um chopping and
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changing of terminals are pretty slick so you should fight all the signage um I
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don't know what color the signage is like in the in in he thr it's purple if I remember correctly I can't remember what color it is but it is pretty it is
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pretty well signposted but it is I had quite a long trk is all I is all I I
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kind of remember and Lou saying the same thing thanks so confirming great signage so
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yes it's it's it's pretty good so thanks for confirming that as well a Stein VA match for a small ship 500 to 1,000
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passengers is five days too short to explore the ship it's a sea a day it's
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it's a C Day heavy itinery so it sounds like you import a lot uh I
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mean yes or no I guess I mean the advantage you've got if you're on a smaller ship so if you're talking about
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500,000 you're probably talking like I guess an asamara or oan Rass ship or
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some of the Ultra Luxury ships which are about 750 I mean it is fine because of course you have fewer choices of things
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so uh if you're on Oceania you you if you're on the smaller ships uh because
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that's the bigger ships are under I think you've only got two if I remember quickly special restaurants the same on some of the if you go on region for
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example you've got two speciality you got two three specialities plus you've
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got the set Mario plus main D so you could actually literally do one of each
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every night so you probably can just squeeze it in if every night you went to the different restaurants but there's obviously less choice and stuff I mean
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I'm I'm terrible because I I'm really for me longer cruises are better but also because short cruises like that are
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very hard for me to to video but you'll get a good flavor for it and the advantage of smaller is you likely to be
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able to try most of the venues CU there's not loads bars there's not loads of lounges uh you know the daily program
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is not massively packed so it you know like there won't be five trivias a day there'll be one trivia day uh the show
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probably only be one show at a certain time at night not two shows in most cases so you can normally get to see and
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plan most things but of course long day long long trips are always
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better uh rank is asking the question I'll be going to Norway in September Is
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it true that excursions are more inexpensive if booked in on land in Port and can you recommend one in Alison and
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Sanger thank you well rank it's it's it's I mean what you'll normally find obviously is Cruis Line Excursions tend
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to be on the more costly side because I guess you've got the cost of the Provider Plus the cruise line takes a markup with that so you will tend to
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find them they're obviously more costly but they do come obviously with Benefits because they things like the guarantee
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to wait for you to come back was the ship all wait of for you know they claim
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they will wait for you if it's delayed for anything you know there's a traffic accident stopping you getting back or something like that obviously often
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depending on the cruise line they may have a cruise line representative any issues they can solve it they sort of
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screen the providers you have more leverage if you have issues um but you then you're right in in most of the
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ports all of the ports in Norway that I've ever been to so maybe there's some that don't is you'll normally find
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you'll have little booze where they will offer different tours now the downside is don't know necessarily on
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availability until you get there and what's available so you may find if there's something you really want to do
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that you just can't do it because it's not available so um you know but there are all all of them when you get off in
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Port there will be little booths there offering similar things that you can do with with uh with with a cruise line so
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in terms of uh alisun uh I in Alison have tended to focus on the town the
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town is very beautiful it's it's a not new Town time town and there's a very
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nice walk if you're into walking and Hiking where you can hike and it's quite well signposted right up to the top of
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this viewing platform there are some tours that will take you there but it's quite nice to walk up can't remember how many steps there are let's say 300 and
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something maybe there may that's just completely made up um but it's a very nice walk up great views around you know
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get great views from up the top there so that's actually quite a nice thing to do in Sanga uh you know the town is fine
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it's not very interesting even the hop on off bus is okay it's quite good there's a surprisingly interesting all
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museum there but one of the things I would recommend you do in Sanga is Go off into the um into the into the fs and
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from savanga you can also go to Pilgrim Rock and stuff like that so actually but those things like if you're going to
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hike to a rock that's a full day tour but you can often get off the ship for example they'll do some ribb tours that
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you can book at the side there which will whiz you off into the fields but actually you want to go on one of the longer boat trips that take you right
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into prob the name is it Li li like it's beginning with ly the name of the F
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where you can go and view uh Pilgrim Rock and stuff like that so that's a very nice toour and you can book those
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port side as well um but again if you really want to make sure it you know
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have a look at the um the Cru one there is a second alternative which is a midway between that rank which is to
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look at one of the third party providers so for example there's a company called Venture a Shore there one called shore
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excursions group they tend to offer tours which often are smaller groups or
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and or will be less costly so that's and those you can lock up before you go they
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normally allow you you to cancel seven days before you get there so if you change your mind you can you can do that
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and they also build in guarantees that if for any reason they don't get back to the CH time because it's freak weather
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or traffic accident or something stopping you getting back because of you know the road's blocked or something they will take get to the next port at
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their own cost so not quite the guarantee that the cruise line does now I do have so I I'll put some links I'll
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make a note I'll put some links to those two in the notes of this so maybe like
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five minutes afterwards if you want to go in there um and have a look at those
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uh they are I'll actually put in affiliate link so if you ever want to book tours um that it cost you the same
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as normal but helps me get some money to help the channel going so I will do that
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um s Stein V is ask me about mitsu ocean cruise I don't know anything about them
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other than they exist which I think of the Japanese line so I I I don't know anything other than uh they exist so I
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haven't heard anything on that so I don't have much more to to to add to that unfortunately but I would like to
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find out more uh Chris asking the question you recently mentioned that
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when deciding on itinery you limit C days in favor for more Port days is that
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true for any Cruise region SL time of the year so it yeah so it does it does vary a
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little bit but mostly when I'm looking at a cruise I'm you know I'm looking at
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a combination of the experience in the line and you know uh the itinerary so
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and the ports should I say to explore the ports so it is generally speaking true uh obviously the exception is when
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I'm doing transatlantic uh like on book next year so it's large it's largely true uh I'm trying to think if there's
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any except that if there's a very interesting itinery that does require quite a lot of C days that's fine you
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know if it's getting me to you know somewhere unusual um you know but it means you've got quite a few Cay in
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between that would be fine um if within the within the within the actual spread
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of it I do sometimes look at ensuring there's quite a few good C days if it's
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a new line that I haven't been on and I really want to explore and um you know
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experience and get ch vide so for example I mentioned at the beginning of this my next Cruis is on Crystal and I
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book that because I really want to understand the cruise line and what they've done so one of the attractions I
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there was a couple of Cay in there which also meant that I had time to you know
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video and explore because you know videoing some of the ship when people are around is easier and actually just make sure that I could try out
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everything so that's sort of a factor I don't know if I've answered that terribly well so hopefully hopefully
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that does uh so Joel is asking the question we
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love watching you thank you very much we're going to Country up in Asia the summer it looks like we need visas
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during visits to hoim city and Hong Kong any recommendations so Joel a lot of
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this is going to depend on your passport and what country you're from so it's always a bit of a mindfield offering
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those so for example coming from the UK for example I don't need a visa to go
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into Hong Kong and I don't think I need a visa to go into Vietnam and I think I could buy one when I went
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in it if I remember correctly that's why we bought one no sorry I didn't need to us go to Vietnam um I got it when it got
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but I arranged that you get it when you get to the airport you buy in airport it was very slow to get it but the critical
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thing I would say Joel is double check with uh on your local country travel
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site so for example in the UK I would use the foreign office site so it's it's
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FCO for foreign and Commonwealth office so I would just put an FCO Vietnam FCO
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Hong Kong and that will give me the most recent requirements for a British passport holder so if you're in the US
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the state department has a really good equivalent site um so you just kind of put us State
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Department Vietnam entry requirements and they will tell you the most recent
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updated requirements so for example I'm going to on that trip I mentioned I'm going to China and that told me there
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that I needed a Visa going in uh what it didn't tell me though which I discovered
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a little bit later was that they have got a new Visa waiver which if you're going on a cruise on Excursion the
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cruise line can apply for that Visa waiver for you but I wanted to Visa anyway I'd much rather have have a Visa
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so sometimes it doesn't have those little nuances like it will tell you if you if you're going into Canada you must
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get a Canadian ETA electronic uh travel advisor whatever it's called ETA um but
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if you're going only entering Canada on a ship you actually actually don't need it so as long as it's a a little bit off but generally speaking it will it the
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worst case it's going to get you to get a visa when you don't you might not need a visa waiver but for example uh when I
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as you saw on if you were at the beginning my next Cruise ends in the Philippines now what the fcsi told me is
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there's a currently a w where I don't need to get a Visa or electronic trans
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travel advisory or whatever it's called thing so I would check your s if you're in Australia there's an equivalent so
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pretty much every Canada there's equivalent that's our absolutely check but I do remember last time I went to
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Vietnam which was um I you could get a Visa I think before if you remember if I
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remember correctly but you could actually do the airport but it was a very kind of slow slightly frustrating
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process um I've obviously missed some discussion about hfc is everywhere in Europe it
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seems a KFC I guess it was KFC the monus in the KFC restaurant in basle uh so I
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have c i talking about the other day that I can't remember when I last um when I last heard last had a KFC so good
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news is Ronda was in a panta weet didn't hear PE which is fantastic um and
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hopefully that's because it's good soundproofing as well as you had very um
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considerate Neighbors which is which is another thing so Ron is uh this is a point that I have made before and sorry
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to hear that this happened to you but um just return this morning from the silver sea Endeavor Antarctic bridge I hope you
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had a fabulous time in Antarctica love the ship I thought the ship was fun fantastic you're right fog prevented the PLS landing on King George Island so we
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had across the Drake fog also prevented us leaving on time so that's one of so I'm sorry you had that and hope you had
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a enjoyed your Drake Passage Crossing but um it's one of the things I mentioned in the video which is doing
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incredibly well actually where I talk about you know one of the risks of the Antarctic bridge for those who don't
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know what it is it means that you fly from either in the case because it's silver se you try from PTO Williams if
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you're doing the summer cup do it from aai can fly from a shy or whatever and you fly um on these relatively small
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ship uh planes about 100 something passage if I remember correctly onto King George Island so you don't have to
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do Drake Passage now um so a lot of people want to do that because they're
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very nervous about Drake Passage which I I I maybe I'm fortunate because I don't get seasick and so I'm a terrible person
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to save it I don't think we should worry about it as much the other Advantage is it's a shorter trip because you don't
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have the four days set aside for cross and direct passage however the risk is that either the runway is to icy or uh
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as you said fog so a friend of mine went now two seasons ago and you know instead
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of her six days she only got there two days into it because the planes couldn't land so she had a shortened trip in fact
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we got off when we went on Silver endeav the people that would due to join silver
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endeav in on King George Island actually had to fly to pter Williams uh because
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they were coming to Port but they get on the ship in P Williams Because the runway is still too icy for Planes start
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Landing so you're right it's a real risk you just need to bear that in mind if you're doing that Anar bridge but I hope you enjoyed the Endeavor and I hope you
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enjoyed Antarctic bridge and that didn't uh you know um ruin it in any way uh
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Monica is eating a crisy hamburger so we're following her KFC experience uh so the question that Claudia's got does
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anyone have experienced celebity Millennium uh looking at the India tranka Thailand review say ship so CL I
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haven't got direct experience but um friends of Mark recently friend colleag
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friend colleagues work colleagues of Mark went on Celebrity Millennium uh
28:08
last season they did the Japan thing and they really liked it but you're right it is an older ship um and so I did
28:15
actually someone dropped me a message last week they had been on Millennium and they had then got of
28:21
Millennium and that actually a couple weeks later got onto solers and they were talking about how the experience
28:27
was quite different and it is quite a different experience it is kind of an older ship it has you know fewer venues
28:33
and stuff like that but certainly it is very popular in fact I was listening to podcast this morning which was an
28:39
interview with uh Jaz Hawk who is runs uh celebrity operations in the UK and he
28:47
was talking about how Millennium is the Millennium Millennium class but Millennium specifically is very popular
28:53
uh with celebrity regulars but you know have to take a pinch of so because obviously he is a you sell celebrity but
28:59
if anyone has tips I'd love to hear an experiences recent experience I'd love to hear I would like to try Millennium
29:05
they certainly um they this friends of Mark really did enjoy it uh Andy asking
29:11
the question we're doing a viking Panama Canal cruise on February 17th very nice
29:19
love doing that I've seen recent videos that Viking food is meoc any truth to that sorry I
29:24
got something stuck in my throat so let me just um
29:31
do that I'm not choking because of Viking food um I think a lot of it depends actually
29:37
where you're reading the reviews I if you're reading the reviews a lot on Cru critic I become a Cruise Critic skeptic
29:44
shall we say I've seen a lot of um to me what feels more of a shift
29:50
negative I feel like people are posting more on Cruise Critic if they had a bad experience than people who had an
29:55
average or good experience so I feel it's a little bit kind of out of kilter so one of the things I also try and do
30:01
to balance that with is also I look lot of the Facebook groups now you have to be careful with some of the Viking
30:07
Facebook groups because some of them are absolute Viking
30:13
ambassadors and they won't have negative word set against Vikings you sort of have to balance it certainly in my
30:19
experiences on Viking which was only you know a couple of months ago when I did
30:24
Alaska the food was good I didn't have any issues with the food didn't find a mediocre at all um and I thought it was
30:30
a pretty good choice so I wouldn't worry about that but certain if you find the experience of please let me know because
30:36
it's always good to know if there are more recent experiences but certainly that hasn't been my experience on Viking and it's not I don't think there's
30:43
anything that's changed recently uh let's have a look Chris
30:48
asking the question I live in Belgium for European ities I typically go to Rotterdam for H America or Southampton
30:54
for princess often why premium lines do not Embark at antp or in I guess Bru I'm
31:01
guessing Chris that this is very much around the infrastructure uh you know
31:07
just and partly you'll tend to find that most Cruise Lines will will need
31:13
obviously a supply chain infrastructure that's sort of established ideally if they are because Embark and dis
31:19
embarcation is used where they load the ship up with supplies they will often offload stuff that needs to be uh
31:25
recycled uh you know GL glasses T all that stuff they refuel there
31:31
Etc so it's quite a big so you sort of need a bit of an infrastructure an ability to do that also they tend to
31:37
focus on ports which either have a big catchment area or have a major
31:43
international airport so that people flying in can do more direct flights and stuff so they want a big hub airport uh
31:50
so that's I suspect comes into play uh and maybe they would not see those as
31:56
major draws certainly I guess Brugge is particularly popular with UK Travelers particularly
32:02
at Christmas time and you don't really see antp very often on ity so that could be a factor but I think that's why you
32:09
they're looking for big ports with big infrastructure and which can cater well you know you need lots of hotels of
32:16
bearing prices all that kind of stuff I think sort of comes into into play
32:21
Carolyn um so uh you might have posted this before I mentioned this but certainly I will be able to tell that
32:28
quite soon because I'm heading off to Crystal uh so Embark in Tokyo on the 14th so I am very excited because
32:34
certainly friends of mine have been on crystal spoke very highly of it and feel in some ways it's almost you know
32:39
they've even added to what it was before they kind of closed down so AB Kent added so I will know much more some
32:45
people that follow me I've been following there there on crystal at the moment and have been very very positive
32:51
about it so so that's that's that's very very exciting um
32:58
let's have a look Laurel talking about uh on a recent H Cruise because the TV
33:04
in the Next Room they got it turned off this is the first time I issue so it's good to know that they dealt with it
33:10
because television is seems to be television is the one problem if I have noise problem other than the time I had
33:16
on Vista was was really it's often around the television that you know even on my Seaborn cruises and other bits and
33:22
pieces like that so um so let's have have a look um just
33:30
mind to write the word uh question if you've got a question so that I don't um miss it so I just spotted one there that
33:39
uh Mark has posted thinking about booking a seven night Inside passage Alaska cruise H America in September
33:47
what are the plus and minus for that time of year so Mark I do also have a couple of videos where I probably dive into it more in case I've forgotten
33:54
anything but certainly the the plus I would say of September is you just sort of pass the manic peak
34:01
season so July August obviously with school being on vacation you know the most of them go back in September so
34:07
you'll find that you're probably going to have the ships kind of slightly less manically busy because even H America in
34:14
the Alaska season attracts lots of families lots of multigenerational families so the ships are very full
34:20
because You' got lots of you know kids sharing parents' cabin so it's a quite a a boisterous loud experience versus the
34:27
the normal America experience a lot of kids on board uh you know and the same
34:32
will be a princess so it's just past that period particularly if you've taken something after whatever it is I wish
34:38
which way the holidays around but if you've taken it after the kind of the schools and things gone back you're probably going to have a slightly less
34:44
busy kind of um uh you know ship you know it's Alaska rigns all the year
34:50
round I think May is probably the least amount of rain so the chance of that it's obviously starting to shift a
34:56
little bit cooler uh that's fine you can deal with that um but I think you know it's generally going to be slightly less
35:02
busy so in terms of availability of excursions that kind of stuff the ports should be a little bit less busy they'll
35:08
still be very busy um I think in terms of wildlife it's still good because the summon run I I think the summer run is
35:14
still on in September so you know wildlife and bears come out I need to check that um in terms of minuses I
35:22
don't think there's a lot of minuses it's still going to be pretty busy I like going at the beginning the March Jun the June time but I would say that
35:29
September once you get into October it starts to get much cold a lot of the cruise lines used to sort of end the season in September because we're sort
35:35
of get cold days a bit shorter that kind of stuff um but I think it's probably
35:40
more upsides than than downsides overall
35:47
um I think I've just answered I've answered Joel's question so that's good
35:52
uh on the thing cruising for one's got a suggestion uh that's a good point
35:57
looking at things like eBay uh for underwater cameras so that's a that's a good idea um and thought that one not
36:06
familiar with that one but that's probably right there's some quite nice ones so those the yellow ones and I've seen some of those uh cruising bird what
36:14
line would you suggest for an Alaska cruise and do you feel less motion as you travel the Inside passage thank you
36:20
from CLA so CLA one of the things I say and I do dive into a little bit one if
36:25
you just have a search on my channel Alaska you'll find a bunch of videos there but um what I tend to suggest when
36:31
I recommend people particularly if they're going for the first time to Alaska is focus on
36:37
lines and itineries that go into glacia Bay because there's only I think it's
36:43
seven cruise lines have the ability to go into Lacy Bay so every 10 years or
36:50
something it's put up for kind of a guess bidding and the authority the park Authority whatever runs Lacy Bay will
36:56
allocate those so for example example Holland America uh
37:02
princess Norwegian they tend to be very consistent going there not all the
37:07
Norwegian ships will go in obviously not all the Holland American Stu ships will go in there I think at the moment I'm writing saying that Seaborn kunard and
37:14
Viking have some of those slots as well so do have a look at those sort of focus on those sort of lines and I strongly
37:20
suggest you choose an itinerary that includes glacia Bay it is really incredible and magnificent if you don't go to one they will go to other you know
37:27
GLA areas but glacia Bay you got the glaciers kind of packed in there and it's just absolutely magnificent it
37:32
really is wonderful so I'd focus on those holl American princess have been there the longest so they have the
37:38
longest experience you'll find some of those sort of long existing lines they tend to get the slightly better locations in the different ports you
37:44
know they'll just have the better Moorings and stuff overall but that's not a massive thing I to choose a line
37:51
now in terms of the Inside passage that is the calmest part usually of the
37:56
experience because you know you are between do I have an Alaska one up here I actually have you won't be able to see it because I have an Alaska one of my
38:03
cruise maps at the top there is Alaska but I don't think it's going to work but basically you're right because you're
38:08
sailing as jamest between sort of land masses so does tend to be pretty calm
38:14
but if you're going you can have slightly more bumpy stuff if you're going through kind of the the bigger
38:19
more open space so you're right generally speak you might have a little bit of movement and stuff when you get out of the Inside passage but generally
38:26
speaking it's a slightly should be slightly kind of calmer sort of experience so hopefully that answers
38:32
that let's have lots of discussion around Disney Wonder I'm assuming that's a discussion not a question so let's
38:37
make sure lots of interest on what celebrities offering um Karen asking
38:43
around uh there's some discussion around Cay there I think it was an answer to someone's question here we
38:50
are Claude what are the cruise lines that are not owned by the USA as Aid
38:56
Canadian Cruisers we try boycot American prod tariffs imposed by Canada by the USA well basically um if you're looking
39:03
for when you say not only by the USA I guess you mean companies that aren't listed in the United States is is I
39:11
guess what you're saying because uh so they're not owned by us shareholders so that's the key thing because in reality
39:17
none of them are true us companies You could argue because the ships are other than their operating things but I know
39:23
what you're saying anyway so uh basically you need to then not look at
39:28
any of the carnival Corporation lines any of the Royal Caribbean lines or any of the uh Norwegian lines plus there's
39:36
obviously smaller lines with names like American Cruise Lines margarit C and so on so uh if you take a look um at you
39:45
know so straight away you need to exclude lines like Pano and cod because they are part of the carnival
39:50
Corporation so even though they UK lines they're part of the corporation so the biggest non us line if you look at the
39:56
big rankings of line is MSC Cruisers so that's the biggest uh then you've got um
40:04
Crystal I guess because crystal is owned by abian Kent which is more I think I'm
40:10
right saying more UK Europe based uh then you've got um smaller lines like
40:16
Fred Olsen you've got Ambassador in the UK so it's mostly kind of UK lines you got
40:22
Pont which is French uh as well but bear in mind if if you even if you look at
40:28
things like M Shi Tui Mel they are 50% owned by roal Caribbean which of course
40:33
is ultimately a us um you know stock thing so you know if you want to look at
40:39
habac Lloyd for example seems very German however is 50% owned by Royal Caribbean so MSC is the biggest uh Pont
40:47
which is French and in the UK you've got like Fred Olson and um ambassadors so
40:54
there's not very many is the short way of answering Crystal I need to double check but I think I'm right in saying abon K is listed in the UK but don't
41:01
quote me on that that particular one ah H's here fantastic so HTI is on this
41:08
wonderful I think it's 7378 night if I remember correctly no longer than that it's right through J like this massive
41:16
great big um uh you know big circle sort of going all around from South
41:22
America and so on um what's it called it I'm not explaining very well anyway
41:28
she's going on a big massive Holland America Grand Voyage I guess it's called um so like Gaton in the locks which is
41:35
fantastic to the other side have a fabulous trip so you'll be heading the way that the group cruise is going I
41:41
guess towards the Pacific so glad you're having a wonderful time and you want a nice small ship so get be magnificent so
41:47
I'm gr you could join that's fantastic because I know we're not never sure um with all the WiFi and the time
41:53
difference that you can join so thanks for joining me in the canal um
41:58
Amy I'm going on Silver sea to Australia I usually tip off an Excursion but you said Australians didn't like or however
42:06
do I do after excursions for tipping or don't you Amy it's the Australia point
42:11
is more that uh is I don't so in Australia tipping is not part of the
42:18
culture so the guides will not be expecting it to if you go on you know a
42:23
tour in the Caribbean or in the US or whatever normally you know the eyes will often pretty much say if you en jooy US
42:29
leave us a tip you won't see that in Australia I no Australian is going to turn down a tip obviously so if you do
42:36
like and prefer to tip an Australian guide feel free to do that I certainly I
42:42
I didn't really when I uh you know when I've been in Australia I don't tend to tip just because it's kind of not what
42:49
people kind of expect um so I haven't really but I um but that's more I've
42:54
been on Land Based and on the train so so we did actually when we were on the IND Pacific train for example we did tip
43:02
the people there because we just thought they were fantastic and of course they were very happy to take a dip so it's
43:08
just not Australians it's just not part of the culture so it won't be as avert but certainly um we did so so when I I
43:15
just conted myself because we we most of Australian stuff I've done is kind of landbased and
43:20
we have not of tourist but when we did in the Pacific uh we were there with four nights and Stu we did absolute the
43:27
the the cabin ATT tenant to make subed and does all that sort of stuff uh Sophia asking that 60 million
43:35
64 billion question probably do you think more sustainable Green Ships will come in the future um I I mean they have
43:42
to will be some pressure what form they will take I don't know uh we are seeing some uh developments so in Norway with
43:49
the havia line they have hybrid ships uh Hut grutin has some hybrid ships H Pont
43:56
has has got some concept ships and so as H grutin with these big sort of uh solar
44:02
panels and all sorts of things but they tend to be at the moment much smaller lines the big cruise lines were focusing
44:10
more uh on LNG um and there is some talk
44:15
like the aviation of more biodegr um biomass kind of things I think we will
44:21
see it over time but I personally don't feel there's a massive fast push that
44:26
seems more focus on like LG uh plugging in uh in ports instead of running ships
44:32
in ports to improve the air quality in ports uh you know for example one of the
44:38
reasons I've just remembered one of the reasons for example that there's more limitations on ships going to Shanghai
44:44
apparently is that they require ships to plug into power but they don't have a
44:51
lot of capability yet i' I'd read that some way so again I'm reading what I'm reading what I read rather than than
44:57
giving it as gospel so I do think I think there's a lot of emphasis being put on uh you know improving
45:04
recycling uh going slower to burn less fuel for example um stuff like that uh
45:11
rather than I don't see it and I see some of the smaller lines experimenting more I'm sure underneath all this you
45:17
know the big ship Builders uh must be looking at at kind of at the solution
45:24
must be looking at some options should I say um Patricia I booked a land and sea
45:32
Greek Islands Cruise in 2026 Avalon appears to be The Cruise Company gery F on Avalon gree so Avalon is at the
45:39
moment only in River cruising I don't think they've launched any ocean
45:45
cruising so I don't I would just check if that's Avalon so if it's Avalon it's not the Avalon that I know um because
45:52
Avalon are river Cruisers in Europe but in the kind of the Central Europe yeah
45:58
it's sort of Germany Austria kind of area so I don't know that it's Avalon so
46:05
so maybe you can just check that and let me know um but I'm pretty sure they haven't gone into ocean cruising if they
46:11
have I've really kind of missed it uh Rod has a question I'm off on cre
46:19
2 in October doing the transit Crossing but going both ways very nice are the themes for Gala entertainment speakers
46:24
that sound both ways Okay so massive big change Rod is canot have scrapped the Gara evening
46:32
themes from is it April or March I can't remember the exact date but they've scrapped them so they no they no longer
46:38
have the Roaring 20s or the black and white they literally just have ganite
46:44
with that kind of you know gents at least in a suit theyes sort of in a
46:49
cocktail dress but you know slightly less they still have the formal Knights but they called it formal night any gar
46:55
night they called it but they don't have the themes at all so there will be no themes either way in terms of the
47:01
speakers R normally they would you know they would have different speakers on
47:06
the two legs normally they take speakers one way and different speakers on the way back partly because uh you know
47:14
they're giving most of the speakers don't get paid to be on the ship they get a kind of a free Transit if you like
47:21
so they they don't take them one way and also because of the point that people doing kind of back Tob backs so it's I
47:28
I'm sure there must be examples where speakers have been both ways but if they do have the same speakers uh when I'm
47:34
like I would say 99% sure they will give talks on different topics um but they normally have different speakers in
47:41
terms of the entertainment they will normally have different guest entertainers because I'll bring guest entertainers for one way different guest
47:46
entertainers the other but you're right the actual Production shows will be the same so you'll find much of that is is
47:54
the same both ways so that you know um those will be the same but the guest entertainers will normally different so
48:00
there will be enough of difference because basically only the um the Production shows will be the same but
48:06
that's the same as like when we went on we were on uh a s week trip from uh
48:14
Southampton you know down through the Panama Canal Hawaii blah blah blah and the Production shows were the same but
48:21
you know every leg they would change everything that would keep changing the um they would keep changing the speakers
48:28
and they would keep changing the guest entertainers uh let's have a look Greg I
48:37
think this is a question let's have a look uh can you please discuss about
48:43
silver sea classic cruises my mom and I are going on Silver sea Silver Shadow
48:48
March the 13th for 13 days around French pesia and the Cook Islands so Greg one of thingss and I'll put a link in this
48:54
so certainly whoops took that off as did that I will put a link to my silver SE
49:01
video so maybe five minutes after this I'll put a link there where I'll dive into in much more detail but um the
49:10
critical thing with silver SE is obviously then the alory space there's a lot of things included so you obviously
49:17
you probably know this already your special dining with one exception Sol the note uh is included uh you know you
49:23
will have a butler no matter what grade you're in uh you can you can have as much cavar as you like you can ask cavar
49:29
in your cabin you can ask cavar for dinner they're very liberal with it um entertainment is pretty good Silver
49:36
Shadow I don't think has the they don't have I think I'm right in saying they don't have the salt program um yet on
49:42
Shad but sell program is something that when they new ship so you're probably not going to have the the cooking demonstrations and that sort of stuff
49:48
but you'll find it's very uh it's all very uh inclusive um uh you'll have the
49:54
Butler Service you'll find the dress code is relatively uh people do dress up more of
50:01
of the ultr lines between silver sea Seaborn and Regent those three I find silver sea passengers tend to dress up a
50:08
b more so I would probably take more smarter clothes you've got your jacket and stuff like that because people do
50:14
dress up way more than they on Regent certainly in my experience and I expect to find on crystals probably even a notch above that they certainly seem
50:21
even stricter um the excursions of course as you should know are all included so
50:27
hopefully you've gone and lock those in because they go very quickly so if you haven't I would log on to your
50:32
customization and make sure that you've got your excursions locked down because they do go really quickly that is a
50:38
fabulous itinerary as I said Greg I will leave a link to my silver video it's quite a recent one uh where I'll just
50:44
dive in a bit more probably give you a bit a little bit more um kind of uh stuff that I haven't really haven't
50:50
really thought of um let's have a look lots of good chat and fro which is good
50:58
um so uh ah Cherry let me just bring
51:03
this a point here so uh remind me when the esta in fact the UK is calling an
51:10
ETA but it's the same difference it's required for Americans even just transiting through the UK is it May the
51:15
1st so if you're from the US you need an ETA now it's that's in place now however
51:22
they have scrapped the need to have it for transiting so right if you were just
51:27
m going through Heathrow uh changing planes originally it was announced that
51:32
you would need the ETA they dropped that uh about two three weeks ago now maybe
51:38
even less than that so you don't need it if you're transiting the only thing I would say is it's probably worth in my
51:45
view having it because if there's an issue and you need to excuse me sorry if you do need to I
51:53
know there's a problem with a flight you need to go and stay in a hotel you need an ETA to leave the airport as
51:59
it were now the ETA you can apply for there's an app which think strong strongly encouraging you to use the app
52:06
uh rather than online so personally if I would get anyway it's what is it seven pound 10 pounds and last for two years
52:12
or something um but you don't need it anymore uh from if if you are in the an
52:19
EU country that's when it's clicking in uh later I think it's I think you right it's the May the 1 thing but certainly
52:25
from the US uh and so on you need it now uh is the
52:30
key uh Bob asking the question real Splender very nice
52:36
repositioning August to Montreal specifically for madira do you have a recommendation for tour even to be
52:43
independent region so the most popular thing Bob to do in madira is the tour that takes you up the hill where you go
52:50
down the hill on these wicker baskets which these guys on the back steering down uh that is the most popular
52:58
Excursion uh you'll find lots of op I don't if region offer that is one of their included ones but you'll find that
53:04
many people offer those so whether you know you look at VOR or Venture Shore or
53:10
probably when you get off the ship you can uh you can probably even get get a taxi to take you up there but the
53:15
waiting lines can be very long so some of the advantage of a tour is you might find you can you know theyve scheduled
53:21
timing so you don't wait as long as if you go independently that that is the most
53:26
popular thing to do if that appears it's sort of like it's an iconic thing to do in madira I'm sure there are many others
53:32
I've done some cycle tours in madira done some self exploring wandering around in madira um but those those ones
53:38
if anyone has better suggestions then um please do pop those pop those in um
53:46
let's I'm hoping I'm not missing any questions ask I give Carnival try I will
53:52
give Carnival try I want to give Carnival try in the Caribbean because lots of I lots of vloggers and stuff
53:58
between in Europe they've done them s of the UK or whatever and for me that's fine but it's not Carnival's real Buzz
54:05
it's real thing is about the Caribbean so I want to do one that's in the Caribbean so at some point when I next
54:11
do a Caribbean I will suddenly uh you know kind of lock Lo lock that in
54:16
Nicholas my girlfriend and I are both in our early 20s we want to book a luxury smaller ship cruise like Regent or
54:23
silver sea which Cruise Line do you think would be best to try and not be out of place so
54:29
basically Nicholas you you I mean as a couple in your early 20s you'll be way
54:34
younger than anybody on board uh for sure um however if you do look at
54:40
booking on any of these generally if you look at going in the sort of the summer periods or time when there is holiday
54:48
you know over Christmas time summer holidays you're more likely to get um either sort of families or multigenerational families on board so
54:55
for example when we region to Panama Canal there were you know there were some younger people there but you know
55:01
not a lot um so you do need to be clear that you're probably not going to me lots of 20s somethings even 30s somethings to party with or whatever
55:08
that's not going to happen um in reality I would probably um actually lean a
55:13
little bit towards Seaborn Seaborn tends to get uh a sort of more eclectic crowd
55:19
of people uh overall in my experience so I would actually look at Seaborn I would
55:25
also though you want to go on you you there your region silver SE is sort of the Ultra Luxury I would also take a
55:31
look at uh lines like um you know so
55:38
Oceania Azamara and Windstar so they're not quite the ALU level but their luxury level they smaller ships they do tend to
55:45
get again a much wider range of people so for example Windstar they even have the sailing ships um they will tell
55:52
people very focused on destination very much about exploring quite active and St like that again not party ships none of
55:57
these are going to be partyhip so if you're in looking for discos and stuff it's going to be very hit in this um but
56:03
that would be my thoughts on those zombie T zombie tog what's the
56:10
camera used with a stick a booked ocean to South Pacific thanks to videos of time presence to myself well fantastic
56:16
so actually we're doing depending on when you're going you might see on this so we booked on Marina Riviera from
56:21
Sydney to papetti uh so you may may be on similar one or you maybe you do the one that
56:28
heads up to Hawaii as well which I'd love to do so to answer your question the camera on the stick it's called an
56:33
insta 360 and it comes you can buy a little package which has the what's known as
56:40
The Invisible selfie stick unfortun I don't have the camera here but I will put a link I'll put a link got lots of
56:47
links to put in today I'll put in a link to the insta 360 it's an insert 360 X3 it's tiny little thing it's about that
56:53
big and it has a lens at the top lens of the bottom then then the stick selfie stick attaches and what happens is where
57:00
the camera merges the um the the images together is where the stick is so the
57:07
stick disappears so it's very clever very clever indeed so that's what it's called an insta 360 X3 which I think is
57:14
the most recent and you buy the the the selfie s separately or you can buy some packages so I'll put a link which shows
57:20
you the one that has the package as well andjoy that cruise uh um it will be
57:25
fantastic so Orin I just realized has left a um super chat I think it's called thank you very much
57:31
for that do small ships have access to more exotic ports well certainly um aurin they do absolutely have the
57:38
ability to go into ports that bigger ships can't do number one so yes
57:43
absolutely and secondly increasingly as you might have heard earlier is a lot of ports are starting to or some ports are
57:52
starting to stop bigger ships going in so there a couple of I had covered in a recent Cru but in Iceland Valencia uh
57:58
you know um we just heard from nce for example they're all talking about only
58:04
letting smaller ships in not letting bigger ships in so also them some ports
58:10
that are many PL big ships used to go to or maybe close to smaller ships so absolutely they will go to Ports that
58:16
others can't do so for example if you go to the Greek Isles for example on a smaller ship you'll go to many islands
58:21
that the bigger ships just won't go to because they can go up there and they will tender passengers you know take
58:27
them on the tender boats which a big ship is just too much of an operation so for example when we did Seaborn on a smaller ship we have done asamara
58:35
because it's much smaller the islands were happy to have because there only maybe three 400 people 500 people
58:41
getting off the ship at most uh so the island can absorb that on one day so we went to many islands that some islands
58:47
I've never even heard of really before because they were that's kind of small and and out of the way so so that's
58:53
that's key uh Stein Vault mchen has a question on the train which you I love do you think the in
59:00
Pacific between Adelaide and Sydney worth doing again in Pacific back toback seems to make better sense returning
59:07
from East Coast last month so I I mean the in the Pacific I I it's to
59:13
experience it between Adela and city is great you've only got the one night on board uh I just so recent Cruise blogger
59:19
based in the US in Australia did it recently um cruise travel guy I think
59:25
it's called if remember His Channel um it's great but it's very short so you're only going to get a flavor for it um but
59:32
you know doing the whole thing was fantastic um but but I see what you want to do you want to do the Gan and then do
59:38
the in Pacific so I would think I would definitely if you're doing that the Gan down from Darwin to Adelaide and then
59:45
Adelaide to Sydney on into Pacific would be an amazing experience definitely uh
59:50
absolutely be fantastic um let's have a look we're running out
59:55
of time quickly but let's have a quick look excuse me my throat again life's
1:00:03
adventures do do you and would you advise that the travel agent who books your cruises also books your overseas
1:00:09
flights and pre and poost accommodation if applicable so uh the short answer is
1:00:14
generally yes um so one of the advantages and it depends where you're booking but the advantages is all linked
1:00:21
in some way so for example in the UK travel agent Sarah Sarah Bolton can
1:00:27
often if she does everything she can do it as a package so if one of the elements kind of gets cancelled so say
1:00:33
the flight say the cruise gets canceled because they're all linked they can all be full within their package and they all be cancelable and refundable and all
1:00:40
that kind of stuff so the advantage is if if one thing goes wrong you have one point of contact so you know I have been
1:00:46
on cruises where if something's gone wrong so for example example I've have used before but I was booked on a
1:00:54
Oceania uh Panama Canal cruise which is going from Panama City to Miami and I
1:01:00
booked at all through Sarah the flights the hotel even the transfers actually and the cruise and so on and what
1:01:06
happened is literally about 10 hours before something like that not long before the flight was
1:01:14
cancelled so the advantage I had is I could literally get hold of Sarah and say the flight's been cancelled sort it
1:01:20
out and so she was able she had to then find a rting to get me there which actually I know cost more than my flight
1:01:27
but I because they had now commitment to get me there I didn't have to pay the difference where if I done it myself I'd
1:01:32
had to find my own flight possibly pay the difference maybe not depending on the cruise line the airline um but then
1:01:37
she was able to then shift everything so she then dealt with Shifting the transfers got the hotel no so there was
1:01:43
kind of the sense of of smoothness so it's particularly handy from that perspective now the
1:01:49
downside which is what I Som of wrestle with is with the accommodation if you are a person that is very ke on
1:01:56
collecting uh points so I'm obsessively like to collect points I like to always
1:02:01
stay at the Intercontinental because I'm Ambassador member I have very high status with them I don't want to lose that status now if I book an ambassador
1:02:09
an Intercontinental Hotel through travel agent you don't get the points so it
1:02:16
means that I potentially lose status which I don't want to do and then some of so and then some of the perks you get
1:02:21
from setus I still get so the upgrades and stuff I still get those but at the points I don't get so that's one of the
1:02:27
considerations now in the US not just rolled out but there was a move and I think this has come into place where if
1:02:36
flights were booked on certain airlines uh and you need to check if you're in the US if that applies but some of the
1:02:43
airlines were not giving you your um air miles or whatever it's called if you'd booked through a third party if you
1:02:49
hadn't booked with them directly so again for me when I obsessed about points I would and that if that happened
1:02:56
I would always book flights myself I wouldn't even book them through the air the cruise line some I book flights through Cruise Line uh you through the
1:03:03
travel through Cruise Line some I book them with the travel in so it's a little bit U Pick and mix and certainly uh um
1:03:11
when it's status is really important like if for example I always travel one world because I I want the points and
1:03:18
and the air miles and so on if ba stopped uh doing that I would probably
1:03:26
book myself to be honest because I'm obsessed if you're not less obsessed because you don't travel as much uh then
1:03:31
it's it's less of an issue if if you're not going to get the status then it's then it's a little bit less
1:03:38
um so right we've churn through the time I hopefully haven't missed out uh many
1:03:45
uh other questions um ah sorry Kathy's added one more Saga that's another is a
1:03:51
nuk thank I knew I was missing one Saga is another one for coming is looking for non-uk Saga is more challenging to book
1:03:58
as a non-uk person uh but uh you you you may struggle with that but if you speak
1:04:04
to a travel agent or even if you speak to maybe travel agent Sarah she may be able to help you with that but I think
1:04:10
it's more challenging um certainly was almost impossible at one point and maybe I'll check with travel agent Sarah if
1:04:16
it's now possible so thanks very much absolute thanks very much for joining sorry if I didn't get a chance to answer
1:04:22
your question um but I will be back as I mentioned on Saturday day not on Sunday and I look forward to seeing you then
1:04:28
have a great great week and thanks for joining me
1:04:40
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