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9 Things You Need To Do Now To Be Ready To Cruise Post-Shutdown
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Jan 28, 2025
If you want to cruise once cruising re-opens, whether that is in 2020, 2021 or even in 2022, there are at least 9 things that you can, and should, be doing now to prepare, plan and get the best deals and offers as they become available. I explore and share the 9 things that I am doing to be ready to cruise again. Some of the websites I mention in the video: https://www.facebook.com/CruiseIndustryNews https://www.facebook.com/CLIAGlobal https://www.facebo ok.com/CLIAEurope https://cruiseradio.net/cruise-radio-news-podcast https://cruiseradio.net/cruise-radio-podcast http://www.cruisecritic.com SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore WATCH THESE POPULAR RECENT VIDEOS: 10 Cabins to Avoid: https://youtu.be/PgTGLma919A European River Cruise Watch-Outs: https://youtu.be/oqhz54wStyk 5 Cruises To Avoid: https://youtu.be/CNiPzK4IRWA Alaska Cruise Need-to-Knows: https://youtu.be/Tn7dpNw5kSI Things Cruise Lines Don’t Want You to Know: https://youtu.be/cs5UKha9ALc Rules Passengers Break Most: https://youtu.be/djZLZ3XV_f0
View Video Transcript
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
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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
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they are a great source of information
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if you're only gonna follow one thing on
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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
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fantastic resource is if you are into
4:51
podcasts I will strongly recommend Doug
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Parker's cruise radio news bunker has
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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
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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
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they've got future cruise credit or
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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
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with the cruise line or with an agent
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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