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The 7 Things Smart Cruise Passengers ALWAYS Do
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Jan 28, 2025
There are 7 things that I have seen people I consider to be smart cruisers do every time they go on a cruise to ensure an unforgettable cruising vacation. I put these 7 smart cruise tips and tricks to the test on a cruise to see how they fare and stack up. Find out how I get on and what I recommend based on that. Links mentioned in the video: https://www.cruzely.com/cruise-line-drink-package-calculator/ https://www.cruisemummy.co.uk/cruise-drinks-package-calculator/ ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 77 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ
View Video Transcript
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over the years i've observed that there
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are seven things
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that really smart cruisers do to
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maximize their chance of having a
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phenomenal
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cruise vacation so i'm gonna put those
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to the test and show you what those
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seven things are
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and how i use those things that smart
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cruisers do every single time they're
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going to cruise
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to make this cruise that i'm on right
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now unforgettable
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and memorable so join me as i take you
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through those seven things and how to
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make them work
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for you too if you're new here welcome
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aboard my name is gary bembridge and my
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goal
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is to make it much more fun and even
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easier to discover
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plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise
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vacations
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the first thing that smart cruisers do
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once they've decided what itinerary they
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want
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and what ship they want is think about
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the cabin and choosing the cabin
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why is that really important a lot of
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people say cabins are not important it's
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just somewhere
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to get changed and sleep however let me
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tell you if you get
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a cabin that doesn't suit you it will
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ruin
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your cruise i have thousands of people
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contacting me around this issue so what
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do
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smart cruisers do what did i do for this
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particular cruise well first of all
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i never ever take a guaranteed fare
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guaranteed fare is where you choose
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which cabin grade you want a balcony
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ocean view suite whatever it is
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and you let the cruise line choose the
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cabin for you i will always
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take the choose your own cabin option
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now it's not always
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necessarily more expensive so that's the
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first thing i do
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get control of choosing a cabin secondly
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i would always choose a cabin where i'm
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surrounded on all sides
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by other cabins so above me below me
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either side of me and i did the opposite
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me
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i would make sure there's a cabin that
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then kind of provides a buffer from
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any noisy venues that may disrupt you it
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can potentially protect you from
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high traffic areas or whatever that is
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really really important
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the third thing i then do is make sure
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that i'm having a cabin
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with no interconnecting door to the next
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room unless of course
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i need one because i'm traveling with
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someone that again is really important
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because noise
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and disruptions can seep through and
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become pretty disruptive particularly
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the people next to you
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have a different schedule to you the
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fourth thing i do
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is i choose a cabin in the center of the
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ship so
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middle of the ship and that's really
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important because first of all
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it means that your kind of equidistance
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from all of the key venues and
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activities so
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the restaurants might be at the back of
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the ship or you might find the front of
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the ship's the theater so you're kind of
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middlewise also it's really important
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because it's where you're going to have
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the least amount of
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movement so that's also good
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particularly worried about being seasick
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the next thing i do is i always choose a
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cabin that sort of
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in between the promenade deck sort of
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where a lot of the
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shops or the theater that kind of stuff
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is and the lido deck which is where
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you'll normally have things at the
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buffet restaurant the pools
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so try and get one that's sort of in the
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middle of the ship that way as well
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that means that you're then sort of
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equidistant between where you like to
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spend most of the time
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on the cruise now i would always choose
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a balcony so on this cruise i've also
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chosen
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a balcony cabin that's something that i
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just like that's a personal preference
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but i think smart cruisers if they can
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push the budget would choose a balcony
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it's great sitting out there in the
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morning sitting at sunset watching
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getting out of port relaxing and
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whatever so once i've got my cabin
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locked down and i've done that smart
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move the next thing i do
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is think about the money so the second
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thing that smart cruises do is around
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budgeting whether it's
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pounds whether it's dollars whether it's
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euros and it's really important
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to understand this whole area because
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look at the lowest fare is not the right
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thing to do as any smart cruiser knows
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the lowest fare may be hiding a
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multitude of sins
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it's estimated that cruise passengers
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once you're on board you'll spend
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between 50 percent and 100 or even more
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of what you spend on the fair once you
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get on board so really important to
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understand what is and isn't included
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as you look at the overall cost so for
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example on the screws that i'm on right
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now on piano
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there's very few inclusions so the
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actual overall fare
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was pretty attractive however it did
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include
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gratuities however it didn't include
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drinks
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it didn't include excursions it didn't
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include wi-fi
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it didn't include specialty dining and
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didn't include obviously things like the
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casino
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and bingo stuff like that however my
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previous cruise
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which i was on which is both viking and
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saga they included everything and in
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fact saga
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even included the transfer from home to
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the ship
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so although this cruise looked
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significantly cheaper than my other
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cruises
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once i bundled everything in and did a
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comparison the differences were not as
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great
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as you expect so really really important
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look what's included now my special
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tip if you are looking for a smart thing
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to do is to look for
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promotions or wait to book when there's
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promotions that bundle things in so as i
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look at my cruises for next year
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i think almost every single cruise that
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i've booked has
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a series of inclusions as part of the
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overall affairs promotion so
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often it's including wi-fi gratuities
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drinks and then some of them even
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include excursions
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as well there's a myriad of those now so
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holland america for example has the
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hazard all
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celebrity has a bundled fare oceania
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cruises has its own life where you pick
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and choose
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some of those so really really important
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is make sure you know what's included
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and not included
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and be kind of budget wise and budget
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smart
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now that's all well and good but if you
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find for example that drinks
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are not included and you have to look at
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buying drinks and you're thinking about
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a drinks package
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there is a lot of smart watch outs that
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you need to know about when it comes to
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drinks
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now i don't drink alcohol so things like
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this free bottle of
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fizzy that i got given when i came to
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the cabin doesn't help me a lot
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neither do drinks packages however i
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know that i'm the exception
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so one of the critical things when it
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comes to drinks packages is bear in mind
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that cruise lines all offer them
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and they push them like crazy so that
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for me is always a warning sign
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if the cruise line is pushing something
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it probably means they make lots of
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money from it
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however take a look very carefully
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drinks packages now i always used to
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wrestle with it
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on what's the best way of assessing a
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drinks package now i've actually found
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two phenomenal calculators which you can
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use to work out if a drinks package
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makes
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sense the first of these calculators is
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on the site
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cruiserly.com and on there you can go in
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and input how many drinks you'll have by
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type
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per day it'll tell you how much you'd
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like you to spend on that particular
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cruise line
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and then you can compare it with what it
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will cost you for a drinks package
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there's a similar calculator on the
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cruise mummy dot co dot uk side an
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advantage of that one is particularly if
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you're in the uk
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looking at some of the uk lines she
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covers that there
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the advantages on those calculators you
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can then see how much you'll spend based
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on what you normally drink
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compare it to the price of a drinks
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package also when you look at a drinks
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package
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bear in mind there are a lot of
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restrictions and make sure you
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understand what they are so every smart
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cruiser will do this
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so first of all for example many of them
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will limit the number of drinks you can
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have per day
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and that could be 12 or 15 so it's still
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quite a lot but that also includes
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things like coffees
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and speciality teas for example secondly
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you might find that
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every single adult in your cabin has to
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buy the drinks package if one person
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buys it now that's not true of all lines
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but it is true of many
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and thirdly a lot of them will restrict
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the type of drinks you can have on the
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drinks package so though you might
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be able to have 12 or 15 it may say
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limit all drinks up to say 12
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per drink itself so some of those more
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exotic cocktails or
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cognacs or whatever are not included so
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take a look very carefully those
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exclusions
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and be smart about those because you
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might find it doesn't make sense so the
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calculator
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plus the restrictions is the smart thing
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to do when it comes to drinks
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if you don't drink alcohol like me still
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look at the packages and particularly
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the soda
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and the specialty coffee ones because
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some of them don't have a requirement
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per day so for example on princess
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you basically have a certain number of
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specialty coffees
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during the course of the cruise so it
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could actually be quite beneficial
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so once you've figured out if a drinks
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package is for you there's one more
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smart thing that you should do
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both with the drinks packages and other
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things that you might be planning to do
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on board figuring out if you need a
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drinks package before you go is really
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important once you've decided that
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and the other things that you might want
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to do on board whether it's by wi-fi
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with especially dining whether it's
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excursions
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go onto the cruise line website most of
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them will have a cruise personalizer
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and look at the offers and the packages
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because you'll normally find that most
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cruise lines
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will give you a discount if you book
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those in advance now the downside with
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many
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is you might have to actually pay for
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those in advance and on some cruise
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lines you can't
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use any onboard credit against those and
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again it differs by cruise line whether
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you can
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or can't but you'll normally find there
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are deals to be had and what's important
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to remember
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is it's extremely unlikely that those
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deals will be
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better once you get on board because
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they don't want lots of unhappy people
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who've been organized
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and then they come on board and see it's
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cheaper so definitely
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pre-book all of those things that you
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think you're going to want to have
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of course once you get on board do check
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the the deals are available on any
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embarkation deals but you'll generally
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find by booking those things early focus
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on excursions
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focus on wi-fi focus on drinks packages
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and focus on specialty
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dining so once you've got those things
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all sorted and is getting much closer to
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the cruise
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there is a couple of other really
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special things you should do
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if you want to be crew smart and the
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first of those is around
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the when you arrive for your cruise
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which is
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extremely important i always
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always make sure that i arrive wherever
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i'm going to
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the day before the cruise now if i'm
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actually just traveling locally so i'm
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just driving an hour and a half
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away i don't do that i don't head down
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to the port in advance
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but i always get there the day before so
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if even if you're coming from quite far
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away and involves a lot of travel get
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there the day before
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there's nothing more stressful than
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starting to run late for a cruise and of
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course there's nothing more
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awful than missing the actual
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embarkation and departure of your ship
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so absolutely build into your costs
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build into your budgeting
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getting there a day early that extra
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cost of a hotel overnight
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is well worth the stress
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removal and the risk of missing your
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cruise smart cruisers
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consistently will always say get there
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the day before
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it's just too unpredictable not to
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talking about the area of reducing risk
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and reducing stress i guess one of the
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things that really came into focus
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as we headed into the whole coveted
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shutdown
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and all the drama that that ensued from
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that is we learned the importance of
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actually minimizing risk and one of the
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things
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that smart cruisers do is focus on
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reducing and minimizing risk now there's
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a couple of things to do
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some of which some people would
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definitely disagree with but i'll give
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you the three
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that i absolutely focus on and at least
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suggest that you consider these to
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reduce the risk
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smart cruisers will first of all decide
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around the vaccine and vaccinated
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cruises now i know there are different
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opinions around the role of vaccines and
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not vaccines
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but currently where we're heading is
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we're seeing a wide variety
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of issues around where you can go what
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you can do on ships and how that's
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playing out
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so whilst you can go in some countries
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in some places
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without a vaccination there are much
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more limits on what you can do
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so for example you might have to pay
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extra for tests you might find in
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certain ports you can't go and explore
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yourself and
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you might find it even part of the ship
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or close off to you
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so certainly consider whether it's worth
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having a vaccine or focusing on vaccine
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cruises
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just because that's going to be the
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thing that gives you more
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to do less restrictions and you're going
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to find it just much easier particularly
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if you're looking at traveling
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internationally now i know not everyone
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agrees with that but that's certainly
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something at least think about
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the second thing that's absolutely
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critical whether you agree with
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vaccinations or not with vaccinations
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is travel insurance and this is required
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by many cruise lines so
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even some vaccinated cruises that are
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heading out of parts of europe they
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require now
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proof of travel insurance when you check
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in in some places like in the u.s some
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cruise lines only requiring it
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for unvaccinated passengers however
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travel insurance is really really
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important
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uh particularly in these ongoing times
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where things chop and change
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buy travel insurance when you book your
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cruise so smart cruisers will book it
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and buy it at the same time as they book
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their cruise and what's important is
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build into that
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council for any reason so if you have to
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cancel your cruise for whatever reason
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it's covered because you can't always
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get refundable deposit but really
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important make sure that you have
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medical cover
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particularly related and that will
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include covert
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evacuation and repatriation so even if
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you end up going on a cruise
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break your leg or have some other
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problem when you're abroad which i have
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seen happen to people on cruises
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they haven't had travel insurers and
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it's cost them thousands and thousands
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and thousands of pounds
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so travel insurance is the second one
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the third one which is
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slightly less dramatic is bear in mind
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that
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cruise ships do not have a dentist and
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they don't have
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access to dental facilities so i always
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take with me a dental repair kit
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as part of my little first aid kit and i
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always have a little first aid kit so
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smart cruisers will always have their
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own little first aid kit
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so of the remedies that you like to have
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and have that dental repair kit which
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you can buy
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from a drugstore i've it's helped me
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it's helped loads of passengers i've
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come across
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and it's a really big issue it's
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definitely something that smart cruisers
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will do
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one other really key thing that smart
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cruisers do which might be a surprise
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to you is this one and it's something
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that i didn't used to do but i started
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doing a couple of years ago and now i
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absolutely swear by and i do have it as
13:24
one of my critical things that smart
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cruisers do
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and it's this one nowadays and from here
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onwards
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smart cruisers will always use a cruise
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travel agent now i used to be perhaps
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like many of you
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i used to think i'm savvy i'm smart i'm
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a
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sophisticated experienced traveler and i
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will do my own pick and mix i'll book my
13:44
own flights my hotel
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my cruise direct and bundle and put
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things together
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i saw once we headed into the covert
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situation
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and actual fact a couple of cruises
13:56
before that when things went wrong
13:57
the value of having a travel agent you
14:00
have
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one single person that deals with
14:03
everything it's one email it's one call
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and they can handle everything it's
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really important to understand that
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cruise travel agents will at worst be
14:11
the same price
14:12
as booking direct so it's not like say
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if you book a hotel or stuff like that
14:16
where they're often booking direct you
14:18
can get it cheaper travel agents will at
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worst be the same price and often
14:21
will be better they'll put other and
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bundle other things in but certainly
14:25
i all of my cruises i do through a
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cruise travel agent of course i still
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research it
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i look at the cabins i look at the ships
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of the itineraries i look at the prices
14:33
but i put it all through a travel agent
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now depending on the country you're in
14:36
travel agents can also put together
14:38
packages where if one of the
14:40
elements of it goes bankrupt or
14:42
something happens they can get you
14:44
out of the rest of it without
14:47
big penalties without lots of cost so a
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cruise travel agent i stress
14:51
a cruise travel agent specialist is
14:53
really important especially if you're
14:55
new to cruising
14:56
they will know the ships they will know
14:57
the lines they will also help you
15:00
you know navigate through many of these
15:02
tips that i've actually given you right
15:04
here now if you want to know
15:05
more smart tips about cruising and
15:08
things to do
15:09
take a look at this video where i put
15:11
together some of my
15:12
favorite and most important mistakes and
15:14
tips that people make and how to
15:16
overcome them so why don't you take a
15:18
look there
15:19
and you'll discover straight up the
15:21
biggest mistake that people make and how
15:23
to overcome it
15:24
so click on that and i'll see you over
15:25
there now
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