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9 Things Cruise Passengers Say They've Had Enough Of
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Jan 28, 2025
What are the things that drive frequent and repeat cruisers crazy about cruising? These cruisers love to cruise but there are at least 9 things that drive repeat cruisers crazy. I explore these. Do any of these also drive you crazy about cruising? What are the things that drive frequent and repeat cruisers crazy about cruising? These cruisers love to cruise but there are at least 9 things that drive repeat cruisers crazy. I explore these. Do any of these also drive you crazy about cruising? SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Booking your next cruise with CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise WATCH THESE POPULAR RECENT VIDEOS: 10 Cabins to Avoid: https://youtu.be/PgTGLma919A European River Cruise Watch-Outs: https://youtu.be/oqhz54wStyk 5 Cruises To Avoid: https://youtu.be/CNiPzK4IRWA Alaska Cruise Need-to-Knows: https://youtu.be/Tn7dpNw5kSI Things Cruise Lines Don’t Want You to Know: https://youtu.be/cs5UKha9ALc Rules Passengers Break Most: https://youtu.be/djZLZ3XV_f0 Things You Can’t Do On A Cruise Any More: https://youtu.be/zas6F4wMD0Q Should You Pay Cruise Gratuities: https://youtu.be/QBYzqxXjEXQ Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 77 cruises at time of making this video.
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what are the nine things driving regular
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cruisers completely crazy
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I'm Gary beverage this is another of my
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cruising tips for Travis I've been
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talking recently to regular cruisers and
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ask them what are the things that drive
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them completely crazy and here are the
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nine things that they told me and most
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of those I actually agree with starting
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with this one one of the things that
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really is driving people who cruise
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quite often really crazy is the features
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and facilities and attractions that are
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slowly taking over the ship and
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basically reducing the amount of real
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estate available for people to just do
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what they do on a cruise there were
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three key things that people spoke about
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first of those is the introduction these
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big mega attractions so whether that's
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go kart tracks whether that's
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rollercoasters with this massive big
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water parks laser tags Rock Climbing
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Walls flow riders all these big resort
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type attractions that are taking up a
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lot of space on ships and it means that
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less inner space is available for just
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regular lying around the swimming pools
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and relaxing the second thing that
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people spoke about is the ship within a
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ship concept so for example on Norwegian
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on their bigger ships you have the Haven
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which is a very beautiful area with its
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own swimming pool lounge restaurant bar
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and we're all the suites are you also
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have say for example on MSC Cruises you
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have the Yacht Club
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so we where again you have a lounge and
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all the facilities related to people in
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Suites so these are taking up more and
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more space on the ship which makes less
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of the space available for people who
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perhaps not in that area so the concern
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that is becoming smaller more cramped
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the third one specialty dining so more
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and more special dining venues are
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opening up onboard cruise ships and of
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course that takes away space for other
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more general activities so that was one
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of the things that are driving people
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crazy the sense that a lot of the real
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estate the space on a ship is being
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taken up with these special features and
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leaving much less space for just normal
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cruising and hanging out
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sitting on decks or whatever that is and
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of course as these ships get bigger and
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bigger there's more more people and so
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there's a consumers
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less and less space the second thing
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that is driving people crazy which is
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also sort of linked a little bit to that
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is the huge amount of time and energy
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and options there are for specialized
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ining now the thing that's driving
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people crazy
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is not the fact that there's choice
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available it's more the fact that first
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of all they can cost quality money you
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can be spending 30 40 50 dollars or more
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per person to eat in a specialty dining
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restaurant but secondly there is a
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concern or a feeling that actually
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what's happening is the croutons are
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trying to encourage you to head much
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more towards these special dining venues
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so the overall quality of food the range
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of choices in the main dining room the
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buffet
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they feel is starting to be lowered or
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reduced to encourage people to actually
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go and spend money in the specialty
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dining so they make more one of the
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cruise lines that make more money so
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that's something that this don't drive
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people a little bit crazy the third
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thing that I'm hearing is driving people
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crazy is the fact that all these
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attractions that you know the racetracks
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are talking about the laser tag the
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water parks all these things that are
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being built are all outside so actually
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if there's bad weather poor weather it's
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raining it means that none of these
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facilities can be used because they're
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all in the open air so if it's really
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windy or whatever so people don't have
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to retreat back into the ship and
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there's not lots of stuff to do within
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the ship because they're all outside and
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the open air which is great if you're
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cruising in the Caribbean or
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Mediterranean in the middle of summer
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and it's great weather but actually as
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we all know the weather can be a bit
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unpredictable even on cruising in great
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areas you could have a lot of wind or
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rain or whatever so that these big
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attractions that are being built are
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actually all being built outside now
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quite a few people have spoken about the
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fact that a couple of cruise lines are
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starting to change that so for example
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MSC on some of their really big mega
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ships they are having more and more of
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the attractions actually inside but I
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didn't notice that on some of the ships
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though like I when I was recently on Sky
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Princess I was on Norwegian on call they
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are starting to build a couple more
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their news inside which you could do if
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it's rain or bad weather but still the
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big attractions are outside so for
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example when I was on Norwegian on call
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the racetrack was closed quite often
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because of rain and the laser tag didn't
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operate because it was too windy so fair
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enough a lot of these attractions whilst
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it's great and great weather they are
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increasingly as a ships deploy around
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the world with different times of the
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year not of
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able to use when the weather's not great
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so it is the fourth area that I'm
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hearing drives people crazy and this is
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one that probably it I fall into this
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camp as well is the sense that cruise
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lines are adding on building in more and
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more things you have to pay for so they
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are setting the affairs at pretty low
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cost to get people on board because you
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get these big mega ships that you need
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to fill them up with thousands of people
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every single week but once you get on
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board your nickeled and dimed i guess
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it's the people in the u.s. like to say
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or you're just essentially constantly
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being squeezed for money so it could be
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courses you've gone different courses or
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cooking classes or various
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demonstrations of things or craft
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classes there's just a whole load of
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things that you be nice to pay for so
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drinks coffees sodas has already
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mentioned things especially dining
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there's just a lot of extra on costs now
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once you get on board you're constantly
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handing over your card and paying for
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more so that is driving people crazy the
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sense that they're constantly being
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squeezed and things that perhaps they
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feel were more including the fares are
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no longer included in your having to pay
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extra I do think that's a massive issue
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we're starting to see some indications
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that some of the cruise lines are
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starting to address that by having more
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all-inclusive face often you can find if
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you're booked in the wave season the big
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sale time at the beginning of the year
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I've often booked cruises with us on
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Celebrity Cruises Norwegian cruises
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Oceania cruise lines like that way
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they're starting to off affairs which
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bundle much more stuff in and of course
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we have more more inclusive type cruise
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lines like virgin voyages and Marella
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which are starting to offer more
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inclusive fares so that may be time to
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dress one of things that are driving
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people crazy without a shadow of a doubt
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one of the hottest topics the things
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that drive cruisers crazy is the whole
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debate around gratuities now the whole
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video about gratuities and it's one of
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the most interacted discussed topics on
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cruise forums on my video all over the
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place the real sense of gratuities is
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because many of them are also added and
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in some cases it's quite hard to take
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them off is it actually it's part of
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your cruise fare so I mean they should
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be more upfront billed the gratuities
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into the cruise fare so once you get
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onboard you don't sin you finally got a
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couple of hundred dollars added on per
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person for the gratuities it's
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definitely one of the big hot topics
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and one things that I agree would be
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great if the whole gratuities thing was
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not there because there's a whole
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tension around if you ought to pay
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gratuities do you feel you still need to
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pay extra if you take it off is that the
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right thing to do and pay people
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directly so it's a huge thing it
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definitely drives people completely
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crazy the whole topic of gratuities and
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the fact that they're also added on most
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cruise lines the other thing that drives
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people crazy which I see huge amounts of
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debate about if you ever raise it you
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get lots and lots of discussion and
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that's around hot tubs hot tubs are very
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popular on cruises I'm gonna big hot
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tubs fan but I know a lot of people are
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there's two things that seem to drive
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regular cruisers crazier than most first
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of all is the sense that the hot tubs
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are not really the right temperature
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that should be hotter and they're a
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little bit too tepid and they worry
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about just how hygienic they are and
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often they're cleaned but the second
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area which gets the most debate and does
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drive cruisers crazy is there is a rule
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around use of hot tubs particularly
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around the kids and hot tubs however
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you'll find on many many cruise lines
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which have kids the kids are in the hot
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tubs using them almost as a bit of a
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playground and the cruise line doesn't
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enforce it parents let their kids go in
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when there are rules alike they're not
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going in if you ever try and tackle the
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issue you'd get lots of aggro and cause
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lots of upsets so hot tubs again but
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like gratuities is one of the things i
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see discussed an enormous amount by
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cruisers regular cruisers and it drives
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them crazy about the sense of really
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trying to clamp down and really be clear
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about the hot tub it's use and enforcing
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the rules now one of the things that I
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found talking to regular cruisers that
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did actually drive him crazy was
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excursions and I hadn't actually really
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expected this but listening and talking
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to people I understand why a couple of
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things around excursions probably three
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key things that drive people crazy first
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of all the cost the feeling that
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gratuities are becoming more and more
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expensive perhaps linked to that point
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about Cruise Lines trying to get more
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money for you the feeling that they're
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not great value so you can spend you
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know $75 $100 or more and actually
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there's a lot of questions around the
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value that you're getting from those
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excursions the other thing linked to
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excursions is the sense that actions a
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lot of time wasted with the whole
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process of excursions when you go an
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excursion you have a whole process and
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it's very
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time consuming so you only have to take
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your ticket to check-in you hang around
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you wait your entry got off the ship you
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get on the bus or whatever and you
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probably waited half an hour an hour
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already before you even go on the
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excursion when you go an excursion again
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it could be very inefficient because
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it's really driven by the slowest person
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or the most the person who keeps the
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timekeeping the worst so you have this
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real sense that actually the excursion
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is going to the pace of the slowest
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person and there's not a lot of time if
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there's something you really like or
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want to dwell on you can't spend a lot
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of time doing that because it's
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basically go go go move you along so
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there's a real sense that they're not
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good value and actually is a lot of
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waste of time which you could be
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actually out in port if you were by
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yourself or perhaps a little bit more
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organized with an independent tour or
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independent guide you could probably see
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much more in the port so it's not a
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really good use of time going on Cruise
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Line excursions and the third area is
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increasing the concern about range now I
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find the range discussion area depends
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on the cruise line you're on if you go
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on one of those big mega cruise lines
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you'll find there's normally a vast
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range because they have a vast range of
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different types people to the fitness
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levels interests as you go smaller and
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smaller there is less choice because
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simply they have certain numbers to make
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an excursion page so that there is a
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concern around the range of excursions
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and actually the problem is if you go to
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port more than once you'll fight all the
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cruise lines pretty much you're doing
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the same excursion so there's not a huge
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amount of choices so excursion step is
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something that is driving people a lot
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crazy
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that's Cruise Line excursions
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specifically and increasing people are
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talking about self exploring doing there
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anything to get better value spending
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more time and having much more
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flexibility definitely one of the things
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that drove cruises crazy was the holy Sh
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of transfers now as you know you can
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book a transfer with a cruise I might
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take you from the airport - perhaps a
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cruise nominated hotel and then to the
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ship the next day or when you disembark
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they'll offer transfers to the airport
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or hotels and the sense that actually
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these are really bad value and actually
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I've looked at them before and some time
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done them because they're just easy to
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do or you're quite good if you have a
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flight at an earlier time you want to
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give the ship really quickly because if
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you booked one of their transfers they
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will make sure that you get off the ship
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pretty sharp and early so if you perhaps
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in an inside cabin or a low-grade cabin
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and you might have to wait many hours to
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get off the ship booking a cruise line
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transfer can be a really good thing to
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do because you can get off the ship the
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zone early not hang around for hours
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however the senses there are really
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really expensive and when I've compared
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whether it's getting an uber or some
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other kind of transferring and just a
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taxi you can often find it as much much
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cheaper than the Trianon transfer there
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do you seem to be really expensive for
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what they are and on some cruise lines
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you don't have a transfer included from
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the ship into the nearest port if it's
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not docked close by and some please
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lands charge for those and there's a
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sense that actually they're pretty
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expensive to do so definitely Cruise
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Line transfers do drive people a little
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bit crazy and they feel they're really
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bad value although of course as I said I
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sometimes do use them just because
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they're easy they're simple and it's
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handy for getting off the ship kind of
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sharpish and quickly definitely one of
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the things that does drive regular
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cruisers crazy is the focus on shopping
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now there's two aspects to that one of
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which is the port so particular if
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you're cruising in say the Caribbean or
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even in Alaska there's lots of pressure
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they have shopping advisors on board
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they who give talks incentives but bear
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in mind when you get off the ship in
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many of those places it's all the same
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so they have diamond international and
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chains like that they're in every single
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port and definitely there's a
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relationship between the cruise line and
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those shops so they're driving you into
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those things you walk off it's all the
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same stuff that you're buying it was not
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it's not unique to the port so there's
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that concern around the pressure to be
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shopping and actually you're just going
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into shopping malls which are very
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generic the second thing is around
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shopping is shopping onboard and there's
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a couple of aspects of that one are the
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onboard shops which a lot of people feel
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in the experience they discovered are
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not great value now I think the cruise
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lines would dispute that but certainly I
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found generally the stuff I've looked at
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on cruise ships there are pretty
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expensive versus watching by and
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landlord even back at home and of course
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the other shopping aspect which does
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drive people crazy and I personally
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attend another standard is the art
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auction so many cruise lines will have
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art auctions on board
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they'll have art and they do seem
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surprisingly popular some people kill
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out by art but there's a lot of
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discussion around actually just is a
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good value or not good value and just
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the focus on that whole shopping those
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little stations that get put it outside
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the shops cluttering up the walkways
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with the deals the inch of gold
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clearance sales just that real focus and
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pressure on shopping party because of
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the big focus and actually is it really
13:17
good value great
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cruisers clearly love cruising and these
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things that drive them crazy I'm not
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stopping people go increasing but it's
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really interesting to know what is
13:27
driving regular cruisers crazy I have
13:29
loads more tips advice videos about
13:32
cruising all things cruising so why
13:34
don't you watch another one of those
13:35
right now
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