2021 Cruises : 5 Big Watch Outs And Need-to-Knows

Name: 2021 Cruises : 5 Big Watch Outs And Need-to-Knows | Humix Video
Uploaded: 2025-01-28T04:39:06+00:00
Duration: 12 min 24 s

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i'm gary bembridge and i'm going to take
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a look at
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whether now is the right time to book a
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2021
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cruise loads of people are asking me
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this very question
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lots of people want to book something so
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they have something to look forward to
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they're worried the prices are going up
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the itineraries are selling out
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and they want to know is the right time
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to book
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now i will take a look at five things
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you need to think about before you click
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that book button
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or you make that commitment and also if
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you do decide to go
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ahead with the booking four things you
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absolutely
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must make sure you do if you are booking
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first of all
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everyone's assuming that i'm talking to
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that 2021 is going to be
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returning to normal they're assuming
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that everything's going to reset and
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it's going to be
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normal again this is not likely bear in
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mind these itineraries were developed
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a long time ago years and years ago
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before the pandemic came
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and the world got thrown into disruption
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so when you're looking
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to book in 2021 do not assume that
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things are going to reset
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back to normal it's possible but
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unlikely
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importantly no one knows when mainstream
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cruising is going to resume
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we've seen a couple of local cruises for
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local people starting in places like
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france
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if you're german you can go cruising
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around germany
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if you're norwegian you can go cruising
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around norway
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i'm talking about mainstream cruising so
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cruising that goes around the
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mediterranean the caribbean alaska
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whatever nobody knows when these are
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going to start
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and no one knows where they're going to
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start this year or even into
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next year the authorities like the cdc
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in the u.s
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even the public health england and the
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uk the authorities in spain
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they have not agreed when cruising can
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resume and we have no idea
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whether that's going to happen this year
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or into 2021 so certainly if you're
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looking to book
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do not assume that cruising will have
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started so particularly if you're
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looking at the beginning of 2021
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it's probably not the greatest time to
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book a cruise wait until
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it's absolutely certain that cruises are
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starting and cruising
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started where you wanted before you book
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because we just don't know
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if they're going to happen in that time
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frame also travel advisories are
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stopping
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a lot of people moving around to join
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the cruising so in the uk you have
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a advice which says don't go cruising
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the same in the us
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australia is not talking about letting
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people travel and leave the country to
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join cruising
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until sometime into 2021.
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also if you're from the eu you can't
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even fly into the u.s at the moment
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because of restrictions
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in the us and u.s can't move into many
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countries of the world to join cruises
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so if you think you're booking a cruise
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only book a cruise when you genuinely
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believe that travel restrictions around
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you moving to join a cruise have lifted
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and cruising has restarted
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if you are an eu resident for example
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you could though
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book a river cruise in europe because
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these cruises are up and running
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and eu citizens are allowed to move
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around and join those cruisers currently
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without having to do any self-isolation
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returning to their countries so there
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are some opportunities to cruise if you
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do want to go cruising
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in french polynesia those cruises are up
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and running
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you could go on one of those cruises if
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you want to go cruising around iceland
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those are
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up and running as well so there are some
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cruises that are up and running
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accepting international travelers
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subject to cover 19 testing
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so that could be something that you want
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a book because they are definitely
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running
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even if cruisers have restarted the
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second key thing to think about
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is the itinerary that you are looking at
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booking
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may not run so even if cruisers have
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started you might find there's country
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restrictions or port restrictions
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around accepting cruise ships they may
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not all be open so if you book an
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itinerary
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because you've the certain islands you
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want to visit in the caribbean or
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certain places in europe you want to go
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or certain destinations in alaska you
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want to go to wherever you're thinking
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of cruising
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don't book a cruise for 2021
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if there are absolute places that you
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want to visit on that itinerary because
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we do not know yet
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if those are starting up if you're
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broadly happy to go to the caribbean or
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the mediterranean
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and not that fussed about which specific
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ports you call that
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you may want to then say well actually
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i'll book because i don't mind if the
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itinerary changes
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the cruise line under their contract can
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change a cruise
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once you have booked it and don't
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necessarily have to give you the chance
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of pulling out
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so you might find you book a cruise to
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caribbean and they change all the ports
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or they have more sea days
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the cruise line can do that quite
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happily within their rights so
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when you're booking an itinerary for
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2021 bear in mind that itinerary
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there's no guarantees that that will run
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so if you're really locked in and set on
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a certain itinerary
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i would hold back from booking it until
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we know absolutely
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that that is up and running the third
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thing to consider if you're looking to
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book a cruise is if you're booking a
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cruise because there's a very specific
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ship you want to go and perhaps a new
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ship
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that's coming out you know launching for
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the very first time
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or some ship that's going to be revamped
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or actually this is a very specific ship
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you want to try one of the new celebrity
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edge class ships or
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something like that i would also hold
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back until we know
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that those ships are coming into service
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and actually running
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now the reason i say that is it's very
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clear that all the cruise lines have
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said
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that when sailing does start they're
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going to be phasing
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in ships slowly and surely they're not
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going to all come on stream at one time
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so you might find that your ship
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is not up and running when you want to
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go cruising in 2021.
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arnold donald the head of the carnival
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corporations that includes
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obviously carnival holland america
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cunard piano seabourn aida all those
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cruise lines has said that he doesn't
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expect the full fleet
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to be sailing again possibly as late as
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2022
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so if there's a very specific ship you
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want to go on be very cautious about
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booking until
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that ship has re-entered service all
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this confirmation that it's re-entering
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some people found that out the hard way
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they'd booked for example a world cruise
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on holland america amsterdam that has
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been scrapped
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because holland america sold four of
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their ships they sold the
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amsterdam the mars down the rotterdam
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and the viendam so those
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all those cruisers the world cruise
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alaska
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canada all those cruisers have
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disappeared
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so we just don't know what ships will be
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up and running and it's possible
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i'll probably even like in 2021 we're
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going to see a staggered
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approach to cruise ships coming back in
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so if you want to book a cruise because
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you really want to go
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on a very specific ship then don't book
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until you know that ship is coming on
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stream not only have new ships been
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delayed but also upgrades have been
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postponed
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so we've seen a celebrity pushing back
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some of their upgrades carnival
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pushing back the upgrades royal
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caribbean pushing their
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upgrades up into the future so if you're
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also choosing a ship which had
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brand new bells and whistles and
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features again we don't know
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when that will be coming on stream
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another good reason for not booking a
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2200 cruise
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absolutely right now on any of those big
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mainstream
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lines is you have no idea what the
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actual protocol is going to be and what
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the cruise experience
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is going to be like so you could be
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booking a cruise and you find you don't
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like the way the cruise is
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running so for example what we've seen
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at the moment is some indications of
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what could be the case
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but they have not been agreed we've seen
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for example lots of talk about more
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pre-screening
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so some cruise lines have actually
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introduced a doctor's notes where you
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have a doctor screening beforehand so
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for example on pranat
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they've introduced that they've also
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required that you have to have a
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covert 19 test before you go on that
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many of their
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cruises now that may or may not happen
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on other cruise lines
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and you may not want to go with that for
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example we also don't know exactly what
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the on-board experience is going to be
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we've seen lots of indications
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for example that there will be fewer
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passengers on board to enable more
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social distancing
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we've seen the fact that you may have
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limits on the amount of people that can
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be around the swimming pool
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the theater the bars the casino at any
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point in time
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so you may not want to go through that
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experience if you can't go to the pool
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whenever you want or in the jacuzzi
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the hot tub you may not like that
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experience there's been lots of changes
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suggested to dining no self-service
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dining
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perhaps only being able to sit with
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people in your travel party
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much more staggered timing of dining
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more people eating
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room service to encourage and free up
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space in the dining room
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says changes to the dining room process
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could happen which
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doesn't appeal to you mosques may be
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part of the cruise experience we've seen
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on some cruise lines that they started
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up
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mirroring what's happening on land with
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the current mask regulations so masks
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may be part of the cruise experience
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and you don't want to do that we just
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don't know which of these will be in
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place we've seen some indications based
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on cruise lines that have started up
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but if you're going on a cruise line for
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example pennant around france
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or mind shift or hapag lloyd
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or aida in germany or hertigruten
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if you book those cruises now if you're
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a resident in those countries you know
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exactly
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what you're going to have to do and put
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up with so i would
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recommend if you have any reservations
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about what the changes could be
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wait until you know exactly what the
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protocols are before you book your 2021
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cruise
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because you're not going to be able to
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pull out of the cruise once you're
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committed to it
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if you don't like the protocols another
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critical thing to think about
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is prices at the moment there are deals
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going around but the prices
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overall are quite high they haven't
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really factored in
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reduction of prices so what you're
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seeing is lots of deals which will
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bundle new
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things in so you'll get gratuities
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strengths packages perhaps some
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excursions thrown
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in wi-fi those kind of things are being
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bundled in but the overall
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rate of fares hasn't really come down to
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reflect
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possibly fewer people wanting to go
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cruising
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so i would say if you're looking for a
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great deal now is probably not the time
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to book once the cruise lines know that
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they have the go to start selling they
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know what ships are coming on stream
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they know what itineraries they're
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running
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they'll know what the real demand for
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those cruisers are
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then we will see prices start to meet
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much more the demand
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i personally believe that we will see
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much sharper pricing fair pricing
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as we head into next year and people
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then have to physically make the
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decision of boarding ships or not
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die-hard cruisers many people are big
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fans of cruising
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are i think going to want to cruise but
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they're new to cruise perhaps less
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frequent cruisers i think are going to
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hold back bear man a lot of those
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cruisers in 2021
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are people who've booked year or more
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ahead before the pandemic and i think a
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lot of those will drop out we will see
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much more capacity coming on stream
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so if you want to book now because
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you're worried about not getting a great
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deal i wouldn't worry about that i would
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wait until
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the ships are committed to sailing we
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know what's actually going to be out
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there and running
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and then we will see the real prices
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coming on if you do decide to book
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then that is a risk that you are going
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to take that prices
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actually work against you if despite all
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of that you decided you still want to
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book four critical things you should do
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when you make a booking
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these are absolutely essential if you
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make a booking for 2021
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right now first of all make sure that
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you're perfectly fine
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if you have that cruise cancelled on you
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or significant changes to the itinerary
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if you say you don't mind taking that
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risk then proceed with booking
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secondly make sure that you're taking a
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booking which has a very low deposit
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which many are doing
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or certainly you have a refundable
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deposit or you're able to move the
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deposit so you're not going to lose that
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money
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i've seen lots of cruisers for example
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in 2021 where you're paying as little as
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50
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or 75 to make a booking so you may say
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that's a risk you want to take
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thirdly make sure you take out insurance
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when you book and
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insurance includes two things first of
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all it includes
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council for any reason so if you change
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your mind and you want to pull out of
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cruise you can do that
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and also make sure that it does include
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covert 19 cover
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for cruising fourth thing to do is track
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prices as i mentioned i think prices are
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going to be volatile
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so once you've made a booking keep an
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eye on that there's a couple of sites
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you can go to cruise critic
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enter your cruise and you can set up a
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tracker or site that i like to use
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called cruisewatch.com
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i input my cruises and keep an eye on it
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and i've already
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seen i have some cruises booked for
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january february in 2021
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i've put my cruises in there and i have
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seen four alerts already
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in the last six weeks of that price of
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those cruises coming down
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so if you are going to book a cruise
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make sure you track prices that gives
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you leverage to then go back and
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negotiate
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a lower fare or upgrades is
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now the right time to book a 2021 cruise
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if you desperately want to book it
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there are some key watch outs and things
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that you need to be absolutely careful
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of
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because you could be booking a cruise
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that just is never
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going to happen so think very carefully
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about it before you
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take a booking i have loads more videos
12:20
packed full of other tips and advice so
12:21
why don't you watch another one of those
12:23
right now

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