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Going On An Over-50s Cruise Taught Me New Cruise Tricks
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Jan 28, 2025
I went on a cruise where you had to be over-50. This over-50s only cruise taught me three big lessons about cruising that I had not thought about before. Theses three tips are things every cruise passenger should do before they switch or try and new cruise lines, especially if from a cruise line that you really enjoy. If I had done these three things I may have made a very different decision before going on this Saga Cruise. I paid for this cruise myself. I mention this as people, ask if I don't say it! 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 FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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0:00
are you crazy that's what friends said
0:02
to me when they'd heard that i booked
0:04
on the cruise line that i am on right
0:06
now i did it
0:07
anyway because i was intrigued to find
0:09
out if cruising on a line
0:11
where you have to be over 50 is any
0:13
different from the multitude of cruises
0:15
i've done in the last
0:16
few years whereby default the passengers
0:19
were mostly over 50 anyway because
0:21
that's
0:22
basically most of the people who cruise
0:23
and the cruise lines that i normally go
0:25
on so is this any different well
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yes it turned out to be different in
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ways i hadn't expected
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at all but importantly i also discovered
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three
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really simple and very very practical
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things that you should do and i should
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do
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if you're looking at going on a new
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cruise line i should have done this
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before i chose this cruise it would have
0:46
made things so very
0:48
different if you're new here welcome
0:50
aboard i'm gary bembridge and my goal is
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to make it much more fun
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and really much easier to discover plan
0:57
and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations
0:59
this was unforgettable
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and let's find out why the first thing
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that worried me about going
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on this particular cruise line saga
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which targets the over 50 was
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who are the ships designed for what is
1:12
the look and feel is it going to be
1:13
very old-fashioned very funny-daddy and
1:15
very traditional
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because we've seen other lines that have
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a large percentage of over 50 travelers
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bringing on something much more
1:22
contemporary and modern so even horror
1:24
america with their new ship celebrity
1:26
certainly with their revamps oceania
1:28
with their upgrades
1:29
they are bringing a much more
1:30
contemporary look and feel well i
1:31
shouldn't have been worried because when
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i stepped on board
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i found something very unexpected it
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looked very much
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kind of like a sort of more modern
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contemporary boutique hotel
1:41
so the designer day course certainly
1:43
wasn't old fashioned at all it was very
1:45
contemporary
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with artwork dotted around the place
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which was also pretty contemporary
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modern and you know pretty out there in
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many ways the ships are very new ships
1:55
so spirit of discovery that i'm on came
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into service in 2019 spirit adventure
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the sister ship
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only came to service in 2021 so
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certainly the look and the feeling the
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design of the ship
2:06
was very contemporary so that certainly
2:09
was a big surprise it was not something
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that i had expected
2:12
as i explored the ship i found of course
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you had all the facilities all the
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venues that you'd normally expect to
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find
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on a ship no matter who they're catering
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for so you had lots of bars the south
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cape bar
2:22
the living room the big britannia lounge
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you had of course theaters all that kind
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of stuff that you'd expect but also
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importantly there was lots of fitness
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activity
2:32
centers as well so you had a good sized
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fitness center you get a swimming pool
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which is actually a pretty good sized
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swimming pool you have a massive big spa
2:40
area you have outdoor deck game
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areas you even had a golf simulator
2:47
so lots of activity focus facilities as
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well
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when it came to the cabins again found
2:52
those pretty contemporary and
2:54
modern as well with all the usual things
2:56
you'd expect so usb
2:57
charges interactive television so
2:59
certainly wasn't as old and fuddy-duddy
3:01
as i perhaps thought it would be when i
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was using my stereotypical view of a
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company that might be catering
3:06
for an older passenger there were
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however
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a couple of nods to that slightly older
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demographic which they laid down so for
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example
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if you take a look at the swimming pool
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there was a special kind of
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slow staggered entry system in so you
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get in and out the pool very easily
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20 of the cabins on the ship are solo
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cabins again reflecting that many people
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in the demographic are cruising solo the
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fair included some things which probably
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also
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are very much liked by an older
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demographic
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so it had things like transfers tuned
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from your home included
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insurance was included which include
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even curved cover
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and i guess that may be talking to a
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demographic who is even skewing
3:47
even older that may struggle to get
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insurance for cruising
3:51
the other thing though that did strike
3:52
me is the lack of focus really on
3:54
technology so wi-fi
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is included in the fair the feds are all
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pretty all-inclusive however the wi-fi
3:59
was not that good so for example you
4:01
couldn't really use a lot of social
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media
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so i could use things like twitter i
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couldn't use instagram very well you
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certainly couldn't stream
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youtube and that felt to me like not
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really focusing on the
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demographic i had loads of people coming
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up to you on the cruise who watch the
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channel so our
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youtube watchers they see things on
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facebook they talk to their
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kids and grandkids on facetime but you
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couldn't really do that on the wi-fi
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so that was probably one area that
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hadn't really reflected
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the people like me who are in my early
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60s who are very active on
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wi-fi digital and that wasn't really
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catered for
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as well as it could be so there came
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my first really big aha moment the first
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big
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simple practical tip is make sure before
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you go
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on any new cruise line and any new ship
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you check out in huge amount of detail
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exactly what is on the ship so you check
4:51
out the kind of hardware what the
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facilities are
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but also check out the software and some
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of the reviews on things whether it's
4:56
important to you like say
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wi-fi or it is the fitness center or
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whatever it is
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so spend some time studying the deck
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plans spend some time looking at reviews
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and certainly spend some time looking
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at ship tours that you can find very
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easily on things like youtube
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if i'd followed that simple tip i would
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have realized for example
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that one key facility and thing that i
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like to do on a cruise
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is not on saga and not on the spirit of
5:20
discovery
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and that is that there is no casino when
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i'm on a cruise i do like to have a bit
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of flutter and play the machines or do
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play a bit of blackjack once i was on
5:28
board and i realized that was the case
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that did start to get me worried a
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little bit around does that mean that
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the activities
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and the daily program and the things to
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do on board
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are also not going to really talk to me
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as a cruise
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passenger as i started to look at the
5:44
daily program and look at the plan of
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events i could see there was a pretty
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classic
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cruise experience pretty much as i've
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experienced on celebrity honda america
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princess
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and those kind of cruise lines so pretty
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classical
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dress code for example was in place as
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it is on most of those
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other cruise lines where you have a
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majority of passengers by definition or
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over 50
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so there was a smart casual evening
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where you expected to wear kind of as a
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gentleman a college shirt
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of some kind i tended to wear long
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sleeve shirts sort of smart slacks
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no jeans and then they did have kind of
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a formal gala night
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where a lot of people as i discovered on
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this cruise would go the
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full hog and wear a dinner jacket or a
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tuxedo
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and ladies would wear the most
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remarkable gowns
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but that wasn't that different to my
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experience on other cruise lines so it's
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kind of expected that was going to
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happen
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the daily program had the usual fare of
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quizzes
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deck games enrichment cooking
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demonstrations
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the shows were again fairly similar they
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were kind of review type shows
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focusing on different decades song and
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dance type material they had
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guest artists you know comedians guest
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singers from
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famous bands west end that kind of stuff
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so the actual overall program
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was pretty much the same so always clear
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is a cruise line that requires you to be
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50 or over
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has pretty much the same structure the
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same dress code the same
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daily program activities as those more
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traditional cruise lines
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or mainstream cruise lines like princess
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holland america celebrity
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that don't have kind of a specific age
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target but tend to have that
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kind of traveler on board the other
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question i had
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is around dining would i have the
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diversity and the range
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and the choice of innovative food
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options that i would have on those other
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cruise lines or would saga
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actually have a much more conservative
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traditional approach to dining options
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what i found was i should not have
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worried because they had
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quite a wide range of dining said your
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usual your buffet
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and your main dining room with big menus
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as you have on those other cruise lines
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they also had three specially dining
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restaurants
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they had one which was a steakhouse
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called the club with jewels
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they had east west which was kind of an
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asian fusion
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restaurant so pretty innovative then
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they had coast to coast
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which is mostly a seafood restaurant
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again with kind of a wide
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range and very innovative food so i
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shouldn't have worried
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a cruise line targeting people over 50
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saga
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it definitely had a diverse range there
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the other area that i was less sure
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about is excursions because i
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certainly like to do excursions with a
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little bit more on the active site so
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i'll always go for the cycling excursion
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for example
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or if there's white water rafting or
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some kind of hike up a volcano
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or something like that so i like things
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that are much more in that area so
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my concern was would saga have
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excursions which were much more
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sedentary much less out there if you
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like
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and in reality the answer was probably
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skewing a little bit towards that so
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there was
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panoramic excursions for example you
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know kind of much more bus
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driven focused excursions they did
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though have
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some exclusions which were kind of more
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hikes and walks but not
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really out there pushing you kind of
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excursions the excursions i would say
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definitely leaned a little bit more
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on the conservative side than some other
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cruise lines of course
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the advantage you have is in port you
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can go and do your own thing you can do
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independent
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excursions so that probably
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counterbalanced that but certainly
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on the table on the offerings i would
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say the excursions were probably
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a little bit more sedentary a little bit
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more conservative than i
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personally would normally have enjoyed
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and i sometimes get offered on those
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other cruise lines
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there's a really big focus on art on
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history
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on culture and food so i definitely
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think when you got the excursion side
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there was more of a nod to the
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demographic there are other couple
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little touches
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where we saw kind of again a nod to the
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demographic so example when you got off
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the excursion
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one of the saga sort of signatures is
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they offer you a
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werther's original suite which for those
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of you don't know it's a very
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traditional
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suite and a lot of the advertising for
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example talks about grandparents
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sharing it with their grandkids so
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little touches like that probably more
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of a nod to the demographic
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another notch of the demographic was we
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had a couple of ports where you had to
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get on the tenders you know
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we had to get on those little tender
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boats to take you to the shore
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and we had to all go into a step test to
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show that we were
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agile and mobile enough to actually step
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off the ship onto a tender
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that was something that i haven't seen
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on other cruise lines
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so the program itself was pretty
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conservative and fairly traditional and
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that
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brought up for me the second really big
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practical and simple tip
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if you're looking at moving to a new
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cruise line
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and that is to not just read the reviews
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but to actually look at the daily
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program
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so one of the things i've seen around is
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people will often keep the daily program
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they might
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post a blog about it but one of the
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things i realized is what you should do
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is actually ask people who've been on
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that cruise line
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if they've kept the daily program and
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can you look at it if i'd looked at the
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daily program i would have got a really
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good sense about
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what the entertainment was what the
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activities were
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and the nature of those activities that
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for me is a really big
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big tip if i'd followed that particular
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tip and looked at the daily program
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for this cruise line and this ship i
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would have seen on the daily program
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in the britannia lounge every evening
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for quite some hours
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was a live band and ballroom dancing
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there was going to be no
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kind of nightclub no silent disco none
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of that kind of activity and that
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probably
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would have flagged the type of people
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who are going to be on board
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clearly people and a lot of people who
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enjoy ballroom dancing
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which by definition probably means
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skewing a little bit older
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now my background is marketing and one
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of the things i learned in marketing is
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if you put an age on something
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you can pretty much guarantee that
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people you know 15 20 years above that
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are going to buy your product so if you
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say 40 you can expect people like me in
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the early 60s
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to buy it what i found on board is
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in reality most of the passengers i
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would say were probably in the 65 to 75
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year age group so definitely me in my
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early 60s was on the younger side
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and i think really what my experience
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was is that is really
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the heart of the saga traveler that is
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where they cater for the best those are
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the people who are definitely happiest
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on board
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and the daily program and the ship and
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all the activities
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really really satisfy that group
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probably more than anybody else
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that brings me to my next really simple
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and practical tip
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and that's by looking at the ship
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looking at the daily program is figure
12:25
out
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what the real sweet spot for a cruise
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line is now in seoul
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it's very easy because it is very much
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more age driven
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however for every cruise line you can
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pretty much figure that out so while
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they're going
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after the fun-loving party goa
12:39
carnival are they looking for the more
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international loving
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multicultural loving families which
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could be msc
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so try and figure out who the cruise
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line is really zero in on
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who they want to keep most happy and
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decide is that for
12:54
you of course all these cruise lines
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you're going to have fun on anyway
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because of the destinations the food
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the facilities and that kind of stuff
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but if you really want to find the ideal
13:04
cruise line or the cruise line that you
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know is going to work when you're
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jumping to a new cruise line from one
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you're really familiar with
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really focus on who is the sweet spot
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and see if you fit within that and i
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think you can pretty much tell that by
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looking at the ship looking at the
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facilities
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and by looking at the daily program if
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you think saga
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is the sort of cruise line that could be
13:21
right for you because it's in your sweet
13:23
spot
13:24
click on this video here where i break
13:26
down solgar in much more detail
13:28
including one of the things that they do
13:30
particularly well that other cruise
13:32
lines
13:32
don't do well so click on that and i'll
13:34
see you over there
13:35
right now
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