9 Things You Need To Do Now To Be Ready To Cruise Post-Shutdown

Name: 9 Things You Need To Do Now To Be Ready To Cruise Post-Shutdown | Open Video
Uploaded: 2025-01-28T05:06:26+00:00
Duration: 13 min 42 s

0:00
what are the nine things you should be
0:02
doing right now to be ready when
0:04
cruising is possible again I'm Gary
0:07
Bainbridge this is another of my
0:09
cruising tips for travelers I want to
0:11
share with you things that I'm doing and
0:13
I think everybody should be doing if
0:14
you're interested in cruising again
0:16
whether that's when the shutdown ends
0:17
late in the year next year or even
0:20
further away things that you could be
0:23
doing right now using your time right
0:25
now perhaps you're still in lockdown and
0:26
have time on your hands to start
0:28
preparing to go cruising again so these
0:31
are the nine things that I'm doing and I
0:33
hope they help you so I want to start
0:34
first of all with this one one of the
0:37
critical things to do is decide when you
0:39
actually want to go cruising again I
0:41
think there's probably three groups of
0:42
people that I'm seeing one group of
0:44
people who are basically holding on to
0:46
their bookings a little bit like me I
0:47
guess and are waiting for the day that
0:49
shutdown ends and they want to head out
0:51
cruising in there's another group of
0:52
people who's saying look I think
0:54
probably late in the year is more
0:55
realistic and then those people who are
0:57
saying look I want to wait so 2021 and
0:58
beyond so really important I think is
1:00
decide when you want to go cruising
1:02
because that will also determine which
1:04
of these eight things that I'm going to
1:05
talk about next you do sooner rather
1:08
than later one of the things I would
1:10
suggest you do though as you think about
1:12
going cruising a little bit later is
1:13
broadly think about your wish list so
1:15
what are the destinations or the regions
1:17
or the areas that you want to go because
1:19
as we saw going through these points a
1:21
lot of the choices that you make on your
1:23
wish list is going to determine around
1:25
when you can go cruising because either
1:27
the season happens or it doesn't happen
1:29
so if example Alaska season that really
1:32
runs normally in most years from sort of
1:34
May to October this year it's been
1:36
commonly thrown out at the moment
1:38
because certain ports are closed to July
1:39
may or may not start later in the season
1:42
so depending on where you want to go
1:43
what is on your wish list that will
1:45
determine a little bit how you use these
1:47
next eight things I'm going to talk
1:48
about the second absolutely critical
1:52
thing to do is to make sure that you're
1:54
well briefed and on top of what your
1:56
particular governments travel
1:57
restrictions are so at the time of
1:59
recording for example in the United
2:01
States they have I think what's called a
2:03
stage four or a category four CDC rating
2:06
Center for Disease Control which
2:08
basically says no travel at all if I
2:11
take a look at the UK which is where I
2:12
am based the
2:13
government has updated the advisory to
2:15
say no non-essential travel indefinitely
2:18
now clearly these things will chop and
2:20
change but make sure that you're on top
2:21
of what your government is saying it
2:23
said example at the time recording is
2:25
you know people from the EU countries UK
2:27
and Ireland they also can't even go into
2:30
the u.s. at this point in time so you
2:32
really to understand what are the
2:34
restrictions or travel restrictions that
2:36
are in place that also determines
2:38
whether your travel insurance will be
2:40
valid because if you travel to a place
2:42
that's a no travel area your travel
2:45
insurance won't cover you we don't know
2:47
this point in time how long those are
2:49
going to be in place my gut feeling is
2:51
that's going to last for quite a long
2:52
time and even way past even when sort of
2:54
more domestic lock downs are and
2:56
restrictions are ease so really
2:57
important stay on top of that you can do
2:59
that by following your State Department
3:00
or your foreign office the third thing
3:03
you need to do is stay on top of what
3:05
regions and ports are opening or not
3:08
opening and when they're opening so for
3:10
example at this point in time that I'm
3:12
recording
3:13
you've got Australia closed all their
3:15
ports to way towards the end of June
3:17
you've got a camera that closed until
3:19
July you've got New Zealand close to
3:20
July all the reports in Europe are
3:22
locked down with no open dates yet so
3:24
you need to really keep on top of when
3:26
actually ports and cruise lines are
3:29
going to start cruising in so in regions
3:31
and cruise lines are opening how do you
3:34
do that well it could be quite
3:36
complicated
3:36
I'd say the way that I did and I find
3:38
these things have worked pretty well for
3:39
me keeping on top of the situation first
3:42
of all one of the good things to do is
3:44
to follow your cruise line that you are
3:46
thinking of cruising with on Facebook
3:48
you can also follow them on other social
3:50
media like Twitter what I found
3:51
generally speaking is their Facebook
3:52
pages have been very very active in
3:55
terms of posting updates or advising
3:57
when they're making certain decisions I
3:58
found that actually the best way of
4:00
keeping on top of things the second
4:02
thing that I would do actually on
4:03
Facebook has another couple of groups
4:05
and pages that I would also recommend
4:06
you follow because these are really
4:08
fantastic at kind of collating all the
4:10
latest information one of my favorite
4:12
ones that I follow where I've learnt so
4:14
much because they post multiple times a
4:15
day is a site which is called cruise
4:18
industry news cruise industry news gives
4:21
you multiple updates and really really
4:23
on top of everything that's happening
4:24
they are a great source of information
4:26
if you're only gonna follow one thing on
4:28
Facebook that's the one page I would
4:30
actually follow you can also follow of
4:32
course clear the cruise line Association
4:34
they have clear global page and they
4:36
also have clear Europe page they do tend
4:39
to update but they're probably not as
4:40
active in terms of updating and ongoing
4:43
information and all the nuances as the
4:46
cruise industry news would do another
4:48
fantastic resource is if you are into
4:51
podcasts I will strongly recommend Doug
4:53
Parker's cruise radio news bunker has
4:56
run his podcast for many many years he
4:58
has to keep podcasts the news which is a
5:00
daily updater every single day of the
5:02
week it's a really short couple of
5:03
minutes with all the latest news from
5:05
the last 24 hours
5:06
and then he has another podcast where he
5:07
also talks about the news in more depth
5:09
and does cruise line reviews so those
5:12
are the kind of social media related
5:13
things that are really really topical
5:16
and up-to-date advanced they have those
5:17
to say or a YouTube channel is they are
5:19
doing it hour by hour as news comes out
5:21
they're posting it another great
5:23
resource is cruise critic
5:25
on cruise critically they have a page
5:26
which they constant update which gives
5:28
you alphabetically line by line for both
5:31
ocean and river they will tell you when
5:33
the cruise lines currently scheduled to
5:35
open cruising again and also they will
5:37
include details on what they current
5:40
refunds and cancellation policies are so
5:41
that's another great resource and they
5:43
cause the update that has cruise lines
5:45
of change and that's going to happen
5:46
over the coming weeks and months I think
5:48
then we're going to see lots of chops
5:49
and changes on that the next thing I
5:52
would spend some time thinking about is
5:53
whether you're going to do your future
5:56
cruise bookings through a cruise travel
5:58
agent or with a cruise line direct now
6:01
historically I've always recommended
6:03
using a cruiser agent particularly new
6:05
to cruise because they can help curate
6:07
they can help talk you through the
6:08
different options make sure you get on
6:09
the right cruise line on the right
6:11
itinerary in the right cabin however
6:13
during the shutdown there are some
6:15
limitations to that so certainly in some
6:17
countries where there was a complete
6:18
shutdown and shops and officers had to
6:20
close in many cases it was quite
6:23
difficult for agents to keep operating
6:25
so actually became quite frustrating for
6:27
many people that had lots of people
6:28
contact me saying actually the fact they
6:30
booked through an agent has become
6:31
problematic and difficult in terms of
6:33
getting refunds getting things change
6:34
can lace information because of the kind
6:36
of the shutdown so what you need to
6:38
think about is is it better an easy
6:39
for you to work direct with the cruise
6:41
line certainly what we've seen recently
6:43
for many people going through the cruise
6:45
line has been a little bit easier if
6:46
they book their flight their transfers
6:48
their hotels and the cruise they've had
6:50
one cancellation and they found they've
6:53
got refunded on things like airlines
6:55
hotels and that really quickly and
6:57
they've got future cruise credit or
6:58
they've got the opportunity to pending
7:00
on the cruise line so think about moving
7:02
forwards do you want to work directly
7:03
with the cruise line or with an agent
7:05
there are lots of benefits of working
7:07
the longer term with an agent because
7:09
they often get better deals enough to
7:10
get you better cabins and they might
7:12
have throw in different things but you
7:13
may want to because everything has
7:15
happened take a more cautious approach
7:16
and perhaps if you really really clear
7:18
on the cruise line that you want to go
7:20
with is working and bundling everything
7:22
together and that the advantage of that
7:24
is also as I discovered because I've
7:27
tend to mix and match some of the
7:28
reviews agents sometimes have used the
7:29
cruise line and I've sometimes put
7:31
together packages myself I booked the
7:33
airline separately able to tell
7:34
separately I put the cruises separately
7:36
and actually the whole cancellation
7:38
process became quite complicated as
7:39
those had different cancellation
7:40
policies and refund options so
7:42
definitely spend some time thinking
7:43
about moving forwards how do you want to
7:45
book your cruising travel the fifth
7:48
thing I would do is get ready for taking
7:50
advantage of the great deals so sign up
7:52
for all of the cruise lines email
7:54
newsletters for those cruise lines that
7:56
you like or you think you might want to
7:58
cruise with what we're starting to see
8:00
is lots and lots and lots of offers
8:02
coming through I mean even today I've
8:03
got a whole bunch of offers where
8:05
they're basically offering pretty much
8:07
all-inclusive fares for a normal fares
8:09
so for example I got an email today from
8:11
hundred America and they were offering
8:13
your gratuities your drinks especially
8:15
dining Wi-Fi all sorts of things were
8:17
going to be added onto your cruise and
8:19
deposits were 50% of what they were
8:21
they're really trying to get more people
8:23
to book their try and get people to
8:24
commit to cruises and you can book those
8:26
right through all of our tuners into 20
8:28
21 20 22 that's why I said even if you
8:30
want to go cruising much later than in
8:33
the short term now is the time to look
8:35
for deals also it's important as many of
8:37
them are bundling in their cruising with
8:38
confidence guarantee where they're
8:40
offering you sometimes much more
8:41
flexibility in terms of moving things
8:43
not losing deposits that kind of stuff
8:45
so take a look at that sign up for the
8:47
email newsletters and keep an eye on
8:48
those
8:49
the next thing to think about is if you
8:51
are a senior traveler and particularly
8:54
if you're over 70 at the time of
8:56
recording what was put in place and I
8:57
don't think is going to go away for a
8:59
long time was a requirement to have a
9:00
medical certificate if you're over 70
9:03
before you went on a cruise now once
9:05
cruising starts up again that may be
9:07
relaxed but I don't think that's going
9:09
to happen
9:10
personally for quite some time or
9:11
Cillian till there's a vaccine or some
9:14
kind of procedure like that in place so
9:16
if you are a senior trailer one of the
9:17
things you do have to think about is
9:19
just how far ahead you want to think
9:21
about cruising what's going to be key is
9:23
your governments and regulatory
9:25
authorities changing their rulings on
9:27
when they're advising people service him
9:29
to go traveling that's very important
9:31
because if you are over 70 you may
9:32
struggle to get travel insurance to go
9:35
cruising now there are some exceptions
9:37
that if you're in the UK you have some
9:39
advantage because saga which focus on
9:41
the 50 plus they bundle their insurance
9:43
into their cruise fare another thing is
9:45
gonna be really interesting as an aside
9:46
where they're moving forwards we've seen
9:48
more and more Cruise Lines bundling
9:49
insurance in that actually leads me on
9:52
to my next point travel insurance
9:55
one of things I always recommend really
9:56
strongly is make sure that you have
9:58
travel insurance before you go on a
10:00
cruise what you'll find is both current
10:03
and new policies will not cover anything
10:05
to do with pandemics or anything related
10:07
to what's going on now or similar kind
10:10
of breakouts god forbid if they happen
10:11
but what they are absolutely important
10:13
for is if you have other things so you
10:16
might have some medical emergency on the
10:17
ship or you might need medical treatment
10:19
or repatriation or evacuation or
10:22
whatever those costs are enormous and
10:24
travel insurance will still cover those
10:27
but really really important is to think
10:28
about when you are going to be able to
10:30
get travel insurance what I would
10:31
actually suggest which is what I do is I
10:33
have an annual policy because actually
10:36
it works out in the end about the same
10:38
or cheaper if I'm trying to buy multiple
10:40
policies so what I've done is my policy
10:42
was due to expire actually renew that
10:43
for another year and make sure it's got
10:46
built in cruise cover it's really
10:47
important check that your travel
10:49
insurance includes cruise cover but make
10:51
sure you've got travel insurance in
10:53
place because then if you do do bookings
10:54
and you have to cancel them for non
10:56
pandemic related issues you do have
10:59
recourse with your travel insurance so
11:02
basically at the time of booking make
11:03
sure you've got travel insurance in
11:04
place and of course once you go on your
11:06
cruise it's gonna protect you if you do
11:07
have other medical issues or lost
11:10
language tone language or whatever I was
11:12
trying to recommend not booking cruises
11:14
unless you know you can get travel
11:15
insurance it's really really important
11:16
even though it's not gonna cover you for
11:19
pandemics the next thing I would suggest
11:22
you spend some time thinking about as
11:24
you planning cruises particularly if you
11:26
wanted a cruising sooner rather than
11:28
later I would actually recommend you
11:30
focus closer to home what we saw in the
11:33
whole run up to the shutdown is people
11:35
who were gone on these very exotic long
11:37
distance cruises actually had some quite
11:40
stressful times if there was quarantine
11:42
or even wasn't quarantining getting home
11:44
and just being really really far away
11:46
from home
11:47
well things I would therefore recommend
11:49
is focus close to home so you don't have
11:50
to worry about the whole problems of
11:53
long haul flights or long distance
11:55
flights because we don't know when
11:56
they're going to start up and reconnect
11:57
to me flowing smoothly what the
11:59
itineraries for those are going to be so
12:01
try and focus local I think you'll find
12:03
it much less stressful in the short term
12:05
and probably much easier because you
12:06
also will know much more around what's
12:09
going on in your regional country
12:11
another key thing that I spend some time
12:13
focusing on I think it's really really
12:14
important is as you think about going
12:17
cruising again if you have either moved
12:19
cruises or had cruises cancelled and
12:21
you've taken the future cruise option is
12:23
you need to understand how that's going
12:24
to work because each of the cruise lines
12:26
has different ways of doing it so for
12:28
example I've had a Cunard cruise and a
12:31
virgin cruise at this point in time
12:33
cancelled both of those issued a future
12:35
cruise caller took the future cruise
12:36
credit option and both of those they
12:39
don't send you any documentation from
12:40
that it's held with them in your account
12:43
in fact what they do is it's linked to
12:44
original booking reference so actually
12:46
when you want to trigger that you kind
12:47
of have to contact them and book that
12:49
way to then be able to use your future
12:51
cruise credit on those future cruise
12:53
credits you can spread it across a
12:54
number of different cruises for example
12:56
however on other cruises on Royal
12:58
Caribbean for example what I've seen
13:00
them do is there are issuing more sort
13:02
of certificates if you like email
13:04
certificates so that those are used in a
13:05
different way so making sure that you
13:07
really understand if you've had a cruise
13:09
cancelled and you have a future cruise
13:11
credit how it works and how you gonna be
13:13
able to trigger it so many cases what is
13:15
kind of thrust
13:16
a lot of cases you're gonna have to
13:17
phone the call center which of course is
13:19
crazy busy with cancellations and try
13:21
and book cruises to apply at future
13:23
cruise credits so spend some time
13:24
clarifying and making sure you
13:26
understand when you get your future
13:27
cruise credit details how you can
13:29
actually use it I hope that it has
13:31
helped you I have lots more videos of
13:34
course of cruising tips if you once you
13:36
start thinking of going cruising again
13:37
and so why don't you watch another one
13:39
of those right now

9 Things You Need To Do Now To Be Ready To Cruise Post-Shutdown

Gary Bembridge Tips For Travellers

10 Must-Know Cunard Queen Mary 2 Transatlantic Crossing Tips

Four Essential Cruise Tips for First Time Cruisers

When Will Cruises Resume? 8 Best Ways To Stay Up-To-Date On Latest Cruise News

7 Hurdles Cruise Lines Facing Before You Can Cruise Again

13 Changes To Cruising Due To The Pandemic That Will Be Permanent

Best things to do in Dubrovnik Croatia

New Cruise Covid Outbreaks : What Went Wrong ? And What Next For Cruising ?

7 Reasons You Should Delay Booking A 2021 Cruise Now

You Will NEED These When Visiting A Cruise Port. Here's Why

Emerald Waterways European River Cruises. Things you need to know before river cruising with them!!

The 10 Things you need to know before doing a European River Cruise!

Tips to Save Your Sanity & Backside on Long Haul Flights

10 Shocks of Visiting Panama

10 States that are Going Downhill in 2024 & 2025.

Why the Western U.S. Is Still So Empty

Up next in 10

9 Things You Need To Do Now To Be Ready To Cruise Post-Shutdown

Gary Bembridge Tips For Travellers