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hi I'm Gary Bainbridge and this is
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another of my tips for travelers in this
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episode I'm gonna give you seven things
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that you absolutely should consider if
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you're thinking of booking a world
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cruise or even an extended and long
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cruise just a reminder please subscribe
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to tips of travelers and every single
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week you'll get another video packed
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full of tips and advice to help you make
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even more of your very precious travel
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time and money the first tip I have is
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to make sure that you're on the right
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Cruise Line and the right ship
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we're not be known world cruises before
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or long creases before the big
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difference between people who were
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having a great time and people who
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weren't with those who are on the right
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ship those who are on the wrong ship so
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for example I was on the Queen Mary -
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the one time and there was a bunch of
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people who were not having a great time
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because they much preferred carnival
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they wanted a much more informal they
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don't want to dress up they wanted more
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party atmosphere so very important make
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sure you're on the right
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cruise line and the right ship now if
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you go on a short cruise of course
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that's important too but if you're
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spending many thousands of dollars and
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going to be spending weeks or even
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months on a ship you need to make sure
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that's the right one I have to recommend
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that you always travel with that Cruise
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Line and you also travel on that very
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specific ship before you book an
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extended or world cruise on that ship so
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you know exactly what you like you know
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the type of cabin you're like you know
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that the entertainment everything is
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the next key consideration and this is
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an extremely important one is when you
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look at the itinerary look at the mix of
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port days and sea days you'll find when
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you look at many art in Ares they've
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actually leave out in the listing of
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veterinary the days at sea but you could
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find you have a whole lot of periods of
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time when you're at sea for five or six
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days as you move around now that's
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especially true if you're going on a
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world cruise so if you're basically
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going completely around the world for
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example all of the q-not ships do world
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cruises point-to-point big part of the
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time that you're spending on the world
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cruise is getting around the world so
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you will often find there are a lot of
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what other cruise lines do is they don't
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offer a total world voyage but they
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offer what they call grand voyages or
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extended voyages and these will tend to
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be much more port intensive and they
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don't cover as much total distance but
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they call it more ports so very
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importantly when you're thinking of
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whether you want have been a world
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or an extended cruise take a look at the
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itinerary and look at the amount of sea
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days versus port days because you could
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find that you're spending two thirds of
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your time actually at sea and only 1/3
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at a time or less in ports and of course
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again make sure you've chosen a ship
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that you're going to be comfortable
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spending a lot of sea days on if you're
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doing one of those very sea intensive
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itineraries the next thing to consider
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is make sure that you really understand
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the detail of the itinerary there are
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three things that you need to consider
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first of all understand how close you're
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going to be docking to the cities that
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you want to visit so for example on
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workers have done before we have been
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docked in many places some hours
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sometimes away from the headline ports
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so for example you might be at Port
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Klang for Kuala Lumpur Lam Japan for
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Bangkok or port Puma for Ho Chi Minh
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City all of those places are quite some
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distance from the actual place that you
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want to go to the second thing related
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to that is understand whether the
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smaller ships getting closest so for
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example in Ho Chi Minh City
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the smaller silver sea Seabourn ships
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were docked right in Saigon right very
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close within walking distance of the
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city where all the bigger ships were
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about an hour and a half away from the
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city so again as you look at the detail
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of that inner II figure out how close
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you're going to be to those really
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important places you want to see because
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obviously when to spend as much time as
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possible in the ports that you visiting
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the third thing to look at is how many
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of the portrait calling on are going to
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be tendering ports that's where you not
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actually docked at the dark but you have
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to use the small boats to come on land
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the reason that's very important because
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on large ships the tendering process can
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take quite a long time so you could find
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that you're spending many days waiting
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to go and attend it instead of being on
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the port so again very important take a
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look at where the ship is docking or how
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many tender points there are because
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that's going to determine how efficient
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your cruise is now the fourth key
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consideration is budgeting when you're
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looking at how much a world or extended
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Cruise is going to cost you make sure
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that you've taken to account a lot of
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the big on costs now many Cruise Lines
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if you're doing a full world for it to
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actually bundle some of the costs in
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however if you're doing part of oiled
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cruise or extended voyages they're not
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and they can mount up and be fairly
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significant amounts on top of your fare
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the things to really take a look at
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is baring a mind you could be spending
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anything up to 15 dollars per person per
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day on gratuities or even more if you're
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in a suite that could be many thousands
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of dollars on top of your cruise
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excursions very important because if
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you're going and calling on many many
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ports of course you want to go out and
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explore them and so you could find
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excursion costs mounting up a lot I want
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to talk about excursions and how you can
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do them more cost-effectively in the
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next point of course things like a
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drinks specialty teas and coffees that
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could mount up fairly significantly
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Wi-Fi and roaming charges that could
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soon become very expensive if you're on
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a cruise for several weeks or even
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months then of course you have much more
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discretionary charges like spa gambling
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shopping souvenirs those kind of things
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but when you're looking at the budgeting
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make sure that you've looked at your
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fare which is probably quite a lot of
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money but you have a lot of potential on
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costs which could be very significant
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amounts of money so the next thing that
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you need to consider in great detail is
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what you're going to do in each of the
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ports and excursions as I mentioned the
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cost of excursions could be enormous
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because if you're spending between 50
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and $100 per person and you're calling
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at 30 different ports or more during an
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extended or world voyage the costs could
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be enormous so what I recommend you do
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is the following first of all before you
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go on the cruise actually spend some
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time researching each of the ports
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understand what it is that you want to
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see understand your options now the
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cruise lines will only give you a nice
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brochure with all the tools that they
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have so that'll give you a good sense of
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the kind of things that are available to
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do then bear in mind you have what I
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consider probably four key alternatives
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so the first option is to use the cruise
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line now many people prefer to do that
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because you're going lots of unfamiliar
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places and it becomes just so much
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easier and of course what people like is
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if you booked a cruise known excursion
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if it's running late the ship will
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always wait for you the second
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alternative is there are many
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independent providers who will provide
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very similar tours often for lower cost
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in all the ports and how many of those
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providers you can just go online and you
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normally put in your cruise ship name
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you put your itinerary and it will throw
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up for you to the ports those options
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the third thing which I really love
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doing is the hop on hop off buses they
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often will meet you at the port and
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we'll take two all the key places you'll
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have some commentary and you have much
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more flexibility the fourth thing of
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course is to just go off and self
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explore and the great thing is on board
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the ship there will be lots of talks
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they'll be port guides and there also be
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reference books that you can use so you
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can do our planning when you're on board
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on on those C days normally what will
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happen in many of the ports you call the
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local tourist board will have some stall
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or stand and you can get lots of advice
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there as well but excursions are going
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to be a fairly significant cost be
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prepared and then when you are on board
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to use all the facilities and options
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that are available Cruise Line employees
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will tell you how they watch people on
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extended voyages or world voyages
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basically getting bigger and bigger and
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bigger because of course there's an
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enormous amount of food the world cruise
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is an extended voyages I've you know
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I've actually come back fitter and
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actually lighter than when I boarded the
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ship first of all bear in mind that on
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most ships they will have either a spar
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related menu or a healthy related menu
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so these are still great dishes often
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three or four courses but they're
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designed to have you know less fat less
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salt less sugar and are still delicious
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secondly if you can try and only use the
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stairs so on the extender voyages and
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world waters I've been on I think I have
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used the elevator maybe once or twice
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across those many weeks that keeps you
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fit it burns calories and it means that
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you can have those extra treats without
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feeling too bad about them the third
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thing of course is when you have
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excursions perhaps consider doing some
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excursions which involve more walking or
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more hiking or a little bit more on the
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active side most of the cruise lines
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will then run classes for all sorts of
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different levels many of them will be
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included some of them may be extra costs
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one of things I think you shouldn't
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siddur is make sure before you go that
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you really understand how to use your
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mobile phone or your tablet and
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particularly applications like FaceTime
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or things like a Skype you're going to
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be away from home for a fairly long time
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and one of things that's really great is
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to be able to then physically see your
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family or friends and really connect
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with them particular there's some
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important occasions or events going on
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or even if you just want to share things
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it's really just fantastic to be able to
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then just so just talking to them to
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actually been then seeing them but also
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of course by using things like Skype or
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FaceTime you can also say that was
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really expensive roaming costs if you do
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wife they now ship Wi-Fi is relatively
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expensive not all of them can cope or
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allow you to use things like FaceTime or
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Skype in the ports you'll often find
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them any of the port terminals or
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certainly and many of the cafes will
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have free Wi-Fi ask the crew they always
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know where they are because they go and
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do the same thing was of course by
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knowing your technology it means you can
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make little videos you can take great
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photographs to share with your friends
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and family or bore your friends or
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family of course when you get back from
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your world cruise going on a world or
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extent of origin is a really expensive
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commitment in terms of both time and in
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terms of money and so you want to make
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sure that you do it right so the things
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that I put together are things that I
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think you need to think about and
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consider before you go on one of those
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trips it's an amazing experience I've
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done a couple of them and I want to do
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more of them it if you want to know more
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about planning for world or extended
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voyages I have another video which is
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around things to think about and do once
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you've booked but before you go on the
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cruise so you can make sure when you
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step on board that you're totally
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prepared and everything's sorted I hope
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you found these tips helpful and to get
10:02
many more tips and advice please watch
10:03
many more of my tips of travelers videos
10:06
because they're full of advice
10:07
inspiration and tips to help you make
10:10
much more of your precious travel time