Live Cruise Q&A: Sunday 29 June 2025 9am PT / Noon ET/ 5pm UK

Name: Live Cruise Q&A: Sunday 29 June 2025 9am PT / Noon ET/ 5pm UK | Open Video
Uploaded: 2025-07-01T04:01:55+00:00
Duration: 1 h 8 min 22 s

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heat [Music]
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Heat [Music]
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Well hello everybody and welcome to another live from steamy hot London It's
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uh currently 30° Celsius Celsius outside which I guess is about 88 89 degrees
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Fahrenheit and getting warmer over the next couple of days Hope you're having a good weekend Um we've had a great
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weekend so far hosted my uh patron captains last hour on a zoom call and
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then today been out for a 15 mile what's that 25 kilometers if you're in that money cycle what we do on the weekend
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particularly in the summer is we'll head off to a part of London we don't know so this is kind of we headed right up to
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the on the north and the piggy line right to the north and hire those lion bikes which I know some people drive
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them crazy I love um those uh those ebikes and then cycle around there and
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all the way back home so that was pretty good anyway Okay so now it's probably hot and sweaty Um uh so hopefully it's
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uh more pleasant where you are Although I actually love the hot weather Anyway enough of all that Let's get into the live stream So um as usual if you're
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here thanks very much for joining me uh on the live I'm answering as many questions as I possibly can within 60
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minutes Uh if you do have a question please write the word question in front People who regularly hear it can already
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see you doing questions with a question If you're watching this after which which I know many many many many people
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do remember this is a live stream Everything on here is driven by what people ask And if you want to skip
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through if you scroll through you'll see that the questions coming up as they come up along the way Um so lots of
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regulars here and I will get into the questions quite soon uh because um I
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want to try and get through as many as possible But my video this week which came out last night is around um
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underrated tips that I thought I'd put to the test when I went on my Skype that Skyp
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cruise that Paul and Carol did And lots of discussion about the tips but actually one thing has caused a huge
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discussion in the group So uh I talk a little bit about there about how I did something uh heading on to that where I
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didn't really follow an underused tip that nearly caused me huge problems And then again lots of other tips But
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actually the thing that people have really really got uptight about is this So I have a picture of eating the very
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delicious uh princess pizzas I do I'm not a big bass pizza fan but I really do
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like the ones in Alfredo and I'm eating it with a knife and fork and that's drove people completely crazy It's
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really divided people now The Italians who I guess invented created pizza also
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made pizza mainstream they will eat uh pizza with knife and fork I've always eaten pizza with knife and fork I guess
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maybe it's a more North American thing where uh people eat it more pick it up with hands Although I did actually watch
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as a great e etiquette guy who posts lots of videos on Instagram reels Tik Tok and stuff And I didn't notice he
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does talk about how you cut it and you you it's acceptable etiquette apparently to then pick it up and fold it Anyway uh
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that's just a complete aside but I just thought it was kind of interesting how sometimes the unexpected really cause the biggest controversies of all So what
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I'll do is I'll start jumping into um the questions I'll go through them all in order if I see any themes um and do
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shout outs for people obviously as we see them So Warren is a regular here which is great Um is I guess that's
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Queen Mary to transatlantic Queens Grill really worth the cost So I guess I'm assuming you're asking about the Queen's
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Grill part So in reality Warren you know a lot of it in reality depends on what's
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important to you you know if you literally sat down and did a calculation which said "What are the extra perks I
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get?" You know obviously you get a much bigger cabin even if you started Q6 probably about the double the size of an
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a balcony cabin Uh you know so you get more space You're going to get two free
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bottles of liter booze You're going to get canopies You're going to get a butler You're going to eat in Queens restaurant which has an elevated menu
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You can order off menu You know if you actually tot those things up priority imbarcation disembarkation you're not
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going to say "Well actually in terms of value it's not more." So it's really what's important to you So if you know
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for me one of the things with the transatlantic is you know the dressing up and the dining experience is a big
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part of a transatlantic And so the Queens Grill dining is quite a lot
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elevated Uh so you have it's open seated dining now You can go Britannia and you
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can get anytime dining or you can uh get Britannia club which is anytime dining
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But in Queens School it's anytime dining over breakfast lunch and dinner Uh and you can order anything off menu So
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there's a list of suggested things off menu Uh you know chatter brian uh beef Wellington do the soul that kind of
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stuff but you can literally order anything you want off menu Uh caviar you get included So a lot of it hinges
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around that experience but in reality it's around that dining experience You do get another lounge uh which is not particularly great lounge uh especially
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uh you get afternoon tea served there rather than in the queen's room so it's less of a bunfight probably bad pun
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there So a little bit hing around Personally I think it's an incredible experience to go because you do spend more time in your cabin Having a bigger
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cabin is very nice So for example we have actually booked a transatlantic for next June heading from Southampton to
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New York party because I got a cruise heading out of New York Mark's going to come with me on the transatlantic and we have gone Queens just because it does
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elevate that experience Um so a lot of it hinges around what is important to you Now John um you have a question
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which I can't really answer So if anyone has a better perspective I suspect you're going to have to dive elsewhere
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So Donna is asking um what what are the alcoholic drinks on Oceanania if you don't purchase the drinks package we've
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heard they've changed a bit from previous season So one of the biggest changes is they kept changing the
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program from OIE etc etc And I think it's is it called i can't even remember what it's called now I was looking at it
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yesterday So one of the things you used to have used to have beer and wine included with with lunch and dinner
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That's no longer included So you only get your soft drinks and stuff like that So if you do want alcoholic drinks wines
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etc you will need to get either buy them ad hoc or buy the drinks package Now in
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terms of the specifics on that I don't really know I I was lost on Oceanania last year on Vista and I'm not sure I've
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got the I've still got copies of I always take pictures of the the the drinks etc So one of the things so I
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can't help you very much other than the rules of things have changed One of the things I find quite helpful John is if
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you go into an Oceania Facebook group or you go into Cruise Critic into Ocean
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Group and ask people to post who currently on or have been on post copies of the drinks menu you'll find someone
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will do that and that's probably one of the best ways of getting the most recent kind of list if you're very interested in the specific brands and that sort of
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stuff Christine is here which is great Chris is here which is good Hetti of course back from a big mega uh trip um
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is back So it's good to see you here Chris uh always has great questions Are
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there any cruises combined in Japan and China yes in fact I was on recently um the reason I actually chose the Crystal
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Symphony trip as partly because I wanted to try Crystal but also they did include uh Japan and China So although
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admittedly we didn't have many uh stops in Japan so it started in Tokyo Um but
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you know if you did sort of the cruise slightly before that you would have got a more intensive Japan it then moved on to uh uh China to Shanghai Um most
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cruisers only really go to Shanghai generally speaking but there are um a couple that do that but um I I can I can
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see probably why you asking this question Certainly coming out of the pandemic China were very slow to open up
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to cruising and cruise ships certainly international ones So when cruises clients were planning they seem to have
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shifted much more I noticed into itineraries that included Vietnam more
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Thailand less on on on uh Japan sorry and on China So do have a look at those
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Now a couple of years ago which don't really now that they've moved the Queen Elizabeth we did I did a Queen Elizabeth
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which included Hong Kong China Taiwan and Japan which is a fantastic
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combination I've been looking for a similar cruise to that I haven't found one but certainly take a look at Crystal
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uh and also take a look at some of the end of cruise beginning of cruise So take a look at Oceanania take a look at
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Seabor as well for example Um but it is abs China is fantastic I I am a big fan
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of Shanghai I used to go there a lot uh in my corporate days and um I've been
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there three times on a cruise Now one of the things I would say is if you do go uh to China try and go on a small ship
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Now I the first two times I went there on Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary too and um we because it's a big ship you
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docked very far out When I went on Crystal you can dock right within the city near the Bunt and that is just
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fantastic The sale in is incredible So if you actually watch my Crystal trips I've got um some stuff on the on the
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sailing Um and of course of course one of the things to do again is talk to travel
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agent I think you're UK based It's like the Sarah Bolton travel agent Sarah for example she will also be able to dig many of those out The other thing that I
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do Chris one of the ways I also check is I go to vacations to go and I'll put in Shanghai for example as a port and see
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what cruise lines are coming up That's another way of often checking those as another way around Simbalt Mchen good to
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see you Always ask lots of questions Last week you mentioned a South Pacific island hopping cruise How do you pick
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your itinerary pagan a good choice running planning French Polynesia on Aron instead so um South Pacific you
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know the French Polian islands is fantastic The ones that I would strongly recommend you go to Porgan which is very costly but it's just magnificent
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experience They've just revamped the ship I mean when we went we went on before was revamped We went on again after revamp and they done the big
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revamp and it's it's an old ship but it's very beautiful amazing crew really good connections Winstar is also they've
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been in the region for a very long time They use I think it's like Starbury's they used to use some of the more
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sailing ships They now use more of the old seaborn ships the stretched seaborn ships uh they are they know it
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incredibly well They have some very nice itineraries Port Gagan do have uh some longer itineraries which include um you
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know the closer and the further out islands marsh lines I think it is Arinoui I would love to do Arinoui which
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is the half uh um cruise ship half freighter ship because they give to some
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of the even more remote islands I I haven't been on Aronu I've seen up close because it was docked next to us they
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are introducing another ship which I think is cruise focus in a couple of years time Um so I would focus on those
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if you're doing kind of a petti to papeti if you're doing like we're doing in December We're going from Sydney
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across through some of those other islands between Sydney and then doing French Polynesia We're doing on Oceanania you'll find there's a couple
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of lines will do that Um Oceanania uh does that Um you know Seabour does that
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Some of the bigger ships go but they're more limited on what islands they go to So once you get into things like Holland America some of the Royal Caribbean
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ships they can only go to very few of the islands like Bora Bora has quite strict rules for example So try and stick on the smaller on the smaller
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ships So we're going on Riviera which is 1,200 That just hits the the criteria for getting into Bora Bora Um so I tend
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to focus on lines that have been very you know very close and there for a long time So if you're doing that region Pogan Winstar Aronu are definitely the
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ones to look at Uh Kelly he's here Buzz Jeff is here Good to see you So you've obviously Right So Jeff is was on the
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captain's uh Zoom call last night He was still I guess crossing Uh and it sounds
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like you're now in New Jersey So good to have seen you and thanks for popping in Uh Tom I'm observing limitation with my
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current travel agent going a 2026 Tahiti vacation Do you have recommendations for
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US travel agents uh Tom absolutely Yes So there's two travel agents that I recommend in the US
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that I actually have them in an article which I will list uh at the bottom up
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Just make a little note of that So what I will do at the when this ends I will put a copy to an article that I have on
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the blog um or you can just go to my blog to travelers.com and just search travel agents But um I have two travel
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agents in the US that I strongly recommend One is called Gary Pluck from Red Travel Um and the other is Walter
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from Where's Walter Travel both are excellent um uh I have very good
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feedback um you know kind of 90 80% of the people who have worked with both of them have given me very good uh reviews
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of them so those are the two um they both are big cruisers they know the
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industry really well um so I will leave a link to that which has those in there
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um and definitely strongly recommend them so it's even warm muggy in Glasgow as well uh so let's have a look um
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Sylvia Whoops How do you find what special nights each
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cruise has such as white hot nights on Norwegian Cruise Line so Sylvia for me
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there's probably two ways that I do it One of which is um you'll find many
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cruise lines will announce those uh on your cruise planners or or not list them
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if that's the right word on your cruise planner So you know if you log into your account your booking on Norwegian in the
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itinerary section often where by day you'll be able to choose you know then add excursions or spars or often
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especially dining kind of things They will normally list the dress code for that evening there So that's the way
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that I normally would do it Um because it will also you'll then know which night it is and what they've got Um the
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second thing is just looking at what cruise lines always do So some you know Azamara and Crystal and uh you know they
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will have a white knight Han American always always have an orange knight Some of them will just have them as standard So sometimes just looking on the website
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what is their standard night you know uh Kunard for example they uh although they
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stopped having them for a while but they normally have a roaring 20s a masked ball and some and a black and white
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knight Um and then normally have one or all of those But again you can go onto
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the the cruise itinerary on on on your booking and it would normally tell you So that's how I would normally do If
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anyone has a better perspective then shout So I care um from very hot but very I think also I guess what's
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happening a lot of this like a big dome of heat over Europe which is spilling
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into the UK I think we're heading up to 32 degrees I don't know that's heading towards 100 or something on Tuesday and
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then rain the rain comes It's very hot and sticky So do take care everybody So
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let's have a look I think I missed Just remember write the word question so I don't miss your question Um so let's
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have a look No I don't think I've missed any Caroline I I think this is question Let's have a look Would like a small
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ship going to the Med or Caribbean small ship from Southampton Uh okay So Caroline one of the one of
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the challenges is uh you know if you're looking to go small ships out of Southampton it's a little bit more
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limited So you'll normally have based in Southampton you know you've obviously got Kunard have ships setting out there
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all the time Uh PO do uh Princess will have a ship They're doing ships ships
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plural Celebrity MSE but they all tend to be on the little larger side So the
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so the smaller ships that are constantly sailing out of there you know you're probably talking about the Queen Victoria Queen Elizabeth uh which is
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about a 2,000 kind of passenger but I'm guessing you're talking much smaller 700 uh or so 2,00 1,200 Now what you will
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find is you will find that you do have ships coming in out of there They're not homebased there so it's much more
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limited So Viking for example will come in They they actually will often come in they actually into London They they'll
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sell up the temps and dock at Greenwich Um you'll have uh sometimes Oceanania
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will go from there Seabour might drop in but it's much less kind of ships based there all the time and they tend mostly
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though Caroline to head and do kind of round UK trips or head up to Norway
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Iceland times heading less to the Med and less the Caribbean So that's going to be more of a challenge uh from that
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perspective uh finding a a small smaller ship Now Fred Olsen um is based you know
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they have much they have much smaller ships They sell quite often for Southampton uh and many other ports Uh
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Sara do have smaller ships and they do head off to the Mediterranean They do head off to the Caribbean but they are
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of course 50 plus They do sell out of Dover though mostly rather than Southampton but they will have because
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they sell all their sellings out of the UK So everything they do is out of the UK So if they go to New York and Canada it'll be out of the UK Mongova if they
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go to the Mediterranean the same the Caribbean etc etc So I don't know what your age profile is of Saga Appeals but
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that is another one The other thing Caroline I would say is I'm guessing your UK based is is do uh also speak to
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travel agent Sarah Bolton who's actually in that article I spoke about she'll also be able to help Um and the other
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thing which I do which I mentioned a little bit earlier to somebody else is when I'm looking for permutations and options So my chair's very squeaky today
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I realize I'm leaning it Probably makes it sound like I'm doing something other than squeaking around But anyway um kind
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of the other thing I do is I go to vacations togo.com I don't book through vacations to go but I find it's an incredibly good site to find things So I
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would go into vacations to go for example and I would put a departure port of Southampton but I would put in then
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Mediterranean or I put in Caribbean and the rough date that you want and it will bring up all the ships selling out of
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Southampton as an imbarcation port and you can then spot if there's any smaller ships there Obviously it's a little bit
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more intensive way of doing it Um but that's that's what I do I did that quite a lot The same as I mentioned earlier
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when I was looking at cruises going into Shanghai around the time That's what I did as a way of um uh kind of playing
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around looking at the different uh options Bobby's here from Chicago land
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Uh George thank you so much for the advice Previously I booked my elderly mother on the full route cruise on Queen
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So I think George if I remember correctly uh you were the person who was asking me about options um if it's not
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so I apologize for that Someone else is asking that So there's going to be someone else on that uh world cruise Uh fantastic That's that's a very nice
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itinerary and hope she has a great great time Just a reminder do write the word question so I don't miss your question
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Um uh Liliam I will be on Sky Princess for
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Southampton in two weeks Scandinavian cruise Any trips so that's actually a very similar cruise then to the one that
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I did in May which was the Scandinavian uh cruise So I do my video actually on
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Princess is coming out link to Sky Princess is actually coming out next weekend Um patrons and tournament
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members got that ad free early release version of that Um although I tend to dive a little bit more into Princess
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overall but that will touch on some of it So next weekend is in time for your cruise But the thing I would say um just
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some quick tips is uh pre-book pre-book pre-book and pre-book as much as you can
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So a lot of the stuff on that uh was sold out So if you've got special dining if you've got for example Princess
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Premier and you have unlimited special dining get in there and try and lock down bookings now So some people who got
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Princess Premier who were on that trip didn't get any special booking uh even
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though they had the perk So if you're looking at special dining lock in get in really quickly Also with the excursions
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do the same thing because a lot of the popular excursions do sell out quite quickly if you're planning to do uh kind
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of excursions So try and pre-book as much as you possibly can can would be my
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key tip Um the other thing which is very important is download the app because
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the app is is kind of quite important if you've got I don't know what dining you've you've booked but if you've got
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for example the anytime dining option um and you want to eat in the one where you do bookings you do your bookings on the
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app there so you can actually tie those bookings up If you've got the I can't remember the Estrella I know sole is the
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fixed dining because they got the three dining rooms on there and one of them which is anytime you just walk in there
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and you know anything goes There's another one where you book so you can go on the app so you can do it each day or
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you can actually book it in advance So kind of lock those kind of things down if you can But make sure you've got the
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the app downloaded because things if you want to do things like um book excursions is much easier through there
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Connecting to the Wi-Fi is much easier through there um you know booking stuff
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is is just so much easier there They've also got like a more of a live chat function there which can save you from going to guest services for example
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which is which is pretty uh which is pretty handy Uh let's have a look Debbie
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I would like to know if you could recommend a good website for booking tours for an Asian cruise I find the tours extremely expensive with Yes
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you're right Tours in Asia can be incredibly expensive So Debbie I do have a couple of uh options and again I will
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leave some links uh in in this So maybe like um five minutes 10 minutes after
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this end come back and have a look in the notes for this So Debbie the three that um I would suggest you focus on um
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are via tour who have a lot of tours They are not
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directly linked to cruises as such but you'll be able to go through look at the port look at the dates Um they have a
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lot of good tours The two which I I find actually even easier to use is uh the
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the one which is called shore excursionsgroup.com and ventureassshore.com
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Now what's great about those two is you you'll be able to go in there Debbie and you'll be able to put in your cruise
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line So say you're going I don't know America Let's say you're going America and you're going on Auststeram which I
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know is not going to Asia so it won't beam but say you put in Asteram and then you look it for the date of your trip
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Then what it does is it'll bring up the same as you do on the cruise line site It'll bring up uh for each of the ports
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what excursions they are offering uh and then the price Now generally speaking not always but generally speaking they
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will be uh a lower price and smaller groups and they'll have tours that don't
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necessarily happen They also have guarantee to get you back to the port because they they work very closely Uh
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they used to you know that they just focus on cruise line excursions So they they really have that in under control getting you back and they also guarantee
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if they for any reason they don't get you back they will sort out getting you to the to catch up the ship So that would guarantee that the is quite
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important Now the reason I'll leave links is I do have affiliate links which of course you don't have to use but if
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you use shore excursions group if you go on there and have a look and there are tours that you like when you check out
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if you use the code TFT5 um you will get 5% off those tours if uh
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you know if none appeal uh on venturous shore I don't think I did have a discount code at one time I don't think
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that exists anymore but I will double check and see if I've still got a discount code um but I will leave those
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links anyway in there but so via.com shore excursionsgroup.com and
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ventureshore.com those are the ones that I use and I tend to focus um and lots of people are much bigger fans of vitor I
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tend to focus on those those other th those other those other two Um let's
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have a look Uh just want to write the word question because I do want to make sure that I don't miss any of your questions Vince uh is asking the $64,000
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question or whatever the big prize money question is these days The best luxury line for solo travelers So if we're
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talking luxury I guess I'm going to talk luxury and ultra luxury So luxury is your Viking Oceanania
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um Asamara Winstar Ultra luxury of course explore journeys see themselves in the eye see them more luxury but you
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got explore journeys uh Crystal Silver Sea Seabour probably one of the best at
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the moment or two the best at the moment is uh Crystal because they do have solo
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cabins quite a lot of solo cabins and they run a lot of solo uh passenger
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deals so I for example I went on Crystal Symphony I actually got one which is a
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cabin upgrade so I didn't do a solo deal on that But I've got another transatlantic which I've booked for then towards the end of next year and they
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had a fantastic solo deal So if if you look on their website they run solar deal uh quite a lot on selected cruises
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So you know even though they're an outra line you can actually get some incredibly good pricing I mean my transatlantic is like cheaper than you
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know just going on a in a balcony cabin on on celebrity that I'm doing you know a couple of months before that Um but
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that's kind of the you know fivestar experience in a in a big cabin but I and
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I actually haven't gone in a solo cabin They do solo cabin So I would look Crystal The other one is Explorer Journeys because they're quite new They
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have a lot of solo travel deals as well and they normally guarantee that their solo supplement won't be any more than
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50% But again they do have deals Now if you also go on to Silver Sea they used to be
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pretty good at having solo deals They have a little tab there where they've selected cruises Seabour the same not as
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many but I've you've done a couple of solos on there So those are probably the best ones to to focus on Um I would say
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uh so let's have let's have a look Um Bobby asking the question I want to do a
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British Isles cruise What cruise line would give me a proper British experience including the food thank you
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for your insights So Bobby I don't know if you're UK based or not UK based but
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um in terms of the most British experiences you've got Kunard uh
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obviously uh which will have a very British experience both in terms of the
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spelling the language on the ship if you like Uh the comedians all the acts will be very uh British focused the food will
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be British slant because they do have a lot of British passages for example So very British PNO obviously is you know
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is is the biggest British line It's more mainstream It's more value Um but they
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do have some adult only ships which is Arcadia and Aurora I mean they're relatively old ships but they have a
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very British experience Then you've got Fred Olsson although it's actually Norwegian owned they have a very British
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experience Um then you've also got a new line which is a a value line called
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Ambassador which does uh you know it's it's incredibly good value and it will
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uh it has very British food It's probably not as good food and some would argue as some of those other lines but
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it's good solid British food very good entertainment Um you've got Saga as well
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You don't look like you probably fall into the category Um which is for 50 plus It does tend to have a much older
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profile Um but those are the ones that I would focus on Now not all of them run British cruises all the time but many of
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them do So I know Fred Olsson do Uh Kunard have a couple Uh Ambassador do a
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couple of those as well So those would be the ones that I focus on because once you get into others like Princess during
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the season run kind of pretty much backto-back cruise but that obviously is a much more they will skew it a little
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bit more Brit but it will still be more American take The same with Princess uh
27:36
and those other lines They would they will do Brit cruise they'll sort of tell because they'll get lots of Brits on but it won't be as much So the guest artist
27:43
for example they'll tend to source from the UK but those are the ones uh Bobby that I would I would focus I would focus
27:49
on Dave James Tate um I go on my first
27:56
cruise in 38 years Wow On the 9th of July I own it in the Norwegian FS Any advice one tip please So I would say I
28:03
don't know if you're going with your kids maybe like school holidays I'm guessing there's your kids Um so let's
28:10
just if you're going with your kids etc One of the things I would do is you might I don't know if your kids are kids
28:15
club people but you might have seen the PN introducing charges uh to pre-book your kids into kids clubs Certainly kids
28:22
clubs can get incredibly full Uh so they're now charging if you if you make
28:28
bookings for kids clubs on certain days different prices for days and evenings in advance uh once you're on the ship
28:34
because subject to availability you're not charged but if you you're going and you want your kids in the kids clubs it's probably worth checking now I don't
28:40
know if it's across all the ships I think they're testing it on some ships but I think I owners in that um so I
28:46
would that would be my kind of hot hot tip because I've only just introduced that in the last week or so you might have got notification on that the second
28:52
thing that I would do is you know it's heading into quite a very busy time so a little bit like I said a little bit
28:58
earlier is try and pre-book stuff uh you know particularly excurs excursions Excursions in Norway are incredibly
29:05
expensive So if you are wanting to do any of those look at those um and lock those in If you find they are a little
29:12
bit too rich on pricing Um the good thing about many of those ports Sydney that I own will go to because it's a
29:17
bigger ship is most of those ports do have very good hop on hop off buses um which will come to the port So you can
29:24
often uh pre-book tickets on the ship um but you can just buy them just as easily and often a little bit cheaper once you
29:30
get out But that's another good option But again it's a little bit you know we're heading to busy times school holidays the ship will be very full
29:36
Pre-book as much as you can like if you want to do dining and stuff So I know you asked for one tip Um but that was
29:42
that that that was a couple of those Bobby saying he's been watching my videos all day Thank you very much
29:48
Booked a great as that's a fantastic price $4,000 for 10 night cruise Chris
29:54
saying you can eat pizza anywhere you want That's uh that's probably true Uh Michael asked me the question um
30:01
which is uh have you been ever been on a cruise that lost power i recently
30:07
watched a documentary about Carnival Triumph So I guess I just went live this week on Netflix The they call it poop
30:13
they call it the poop cruise I can't remember there something the poop cruise about Carnival Triumph So I have been I
30:20
interesting I was on a ship but it only lost power very briefly uh when I was on Sky We on Sky was on some because I did
30:27
Sky Princess and a week a few weeks later I did Sun Princess I can't remember whether on Sky Princess or Sun Princess now where where we did lose
30:34
power very briefly Uh but it wasn't for very long It was because they were switching It must be on Sun Princess
30:40
because it's a newer ship They were switching on on um uh to um shore side
30:47
powers So it's an energy ship but they plug into shore side power uh in port
30:53
which of course is a big trend that's happening to reduce emissions in port and and we had a couple of series of
30:58
losing total power in the ship like everything went out I guess emergency lighting on came on So we've never but
31:04
I've never been at sea uh for an extended period or anything where the cruisers lost power and hopefully that
31:11
will not happen Now I know what u I don't think it's cover I haven't watched the full documentary yet but what I know
31:17
um because I've seen some press releases and and some discussion is carnival and and I guess I don't know clear have put
31:24
out a thing saying that um since that they discovered there was a few design
31:30
issues which have now been corrected in ships the same as when there was that awful incident with uh Viking Sky where
31:37
it was it sort of lost power and was sort of um tossing and turning in the rough seas and they actually helicopter
31:43
people off They discovered there was an issue with oil levels when the ship was moving a lot and they've corrected that
31:48
So hopefully that will not happen Scruffio
31:54
would you consider any other line than Qot for transatlantic cruise so yes uh in fact I've got a couple of booked Um
32:00
but Scruffy what I would say is is um it's quite important probably to
32:05
distinguish between a transatlantic crossing and a transatlantic cruise and
32:13
there is an important difference between those So Kunard does a traditional
32:19
crossing So crossing is first of all it's on a liner So the ship is specifically designed it heads much more in the North Atlantic So it's much
32:26
rougher choppier seas and it basically does a service backwards and forwards
32:31
You know it does some other things out of season but it's really a almost like a commuter kind of thing is hinging back
32:37
and and they the ship is designed for the transatlantic So you know it's a
32:42
massive big ship It doesn't have that many passengers So the space for passengers is enormous Things like the some of the public rooms are much more
32:48
in the center of the ship So from a movement perspective it's less so Even the Bratannia restaurants at the back
32:54
it's more in the center into the Queens more in the center stuff like that So it's a it's a very specific ship and they have a very intensive program
33:00
designed for crossings as such Then you have I guess a translated crews which tend to be like probably 99
33:09
make up the number but I'm almost 100% of them let's go let's go crazy was 100% them in repositioning cruisers which
33:16
happened across the Atlantic and they tend to go sort of from Europe So up let
33:22
me do the run cuz up here down to the Caribbean down here Sorry cuz this does a reverse So they're not going across
33:29
the North Atlantic particularly They're heading further down south and then they're going of course from the
33:34
Caribbean up to Europe And so they're really moving cruise ships from uh one
33:40
region to the other region at the end beginning end of the season So I actually have done those before and I
33:46
have two booked um for next year one on explore journeys which is um going from
33:52
Miami to Barcelona and the other which I mentioned earlier on Crystal which is going from
33:59
I think it's from Lisbon if I remember correctly uh to Miami as well was it for so I will do
34:07
those now I know on those cruises they will have much less intensive programming so Kunard Queen 2 is
34:14
completely around you know they have a jam-packed it's itinerary so it's a very
34:19
different experience Those other Transatan crossings obviously they put on a bigger program but it's a little bit more relaxation They also stop at
34:25
more places So they'll stop at maybe MadiRaa we stopping at Cape Ver Island and stuff like that along the way
34:31
whereas the Queen Mary too will just go boom boom if you know what I mean So hope that makes sense But yes is the
34:37
answer The reason also by the way that I like those other transatlantics the repositionings are incredibly good value
34:43
So they're normally way cheaper So you can often go much better lines or better cabins So for example I really want to
34:49
try Silver Sea Nova the new class of ships and I booked a reposition out It's not a transatlantic it's a transpacific
34:55
so it goes from Alaska to Japan but it's cost me less than half what it would
35:01
normally cost per day uh to go on Silver Sea So it's really good value So I'm going on a three-week trip that if I was
35:07
paying normally I would be like maybe get like a 10day trip for So phenomenally good value Whereas the
35:12
Queen Mary 2 you is not good It's the same price So if you're going you know you're not going to it's not cheaper if
35:18
you like So hopefully that made sense Scio thanks for that questions Um
35:24
Kelly let's see if I understand this question Do you find much of a difference between Viking River Cruises
35:31
and other river cruise lines okay so I thought you asked me to do a comparison of ocean because I just thought that So
35:37
Kelly um not massively uh in reality if you look
35:43
at you know there are differences because like with ocean cruising you've got different grades so the the amount
35:49
of inclusions the quality of the service kind of the bells the whistles the quality of the food the furnishings the
35:55
plushness will differ So you've kind of got at the very top you've got the new Riverside which are the old crystal
36:00
ships and uni world in there probably amma is sort of in there a little bit there but they are a little bit more
36:06
premium uh you know they are kind of the ultra luxury then you've got the sort of luxury kind of area which is your Viking
36:13
uh is in there probably Avalon which I'm going on actually in July
36:19
um you've got scenic probably in the top category um Emerald's sort of in the
36:25
small Viking category So they do differ but in reality you know the ships are all pretty much they have to be the same length the same height So you still get
36:31
your semi- underwater cabins your balcony cabins and so on So the cabins and stuff tend to be similar They have
36:37
you know they all only have more limited dining So the the differences are a little bit more subtle What Viking of
36:44
course have is a because they have a very big fleet they have a lot more choice of uh you know destinations
36:51
rivers timings um that kind of stuff uh you know than other ones just because
36:57
they have so many more They obviously have a much more scander feel to them You know they will have more some
37:03
inclusions that others don't So they have beer and wine at dinner and the evening Um you know depending where
37:10
you've booked you'll get you get gratuitities included know so they those kind of differences
37:16
but not massive I think within a category So to me Viking Avalon you know
37:22
um Emerald are kind of similar Um Viking is probably a little bit more
37:28
traditional So they you know they don't have for example a fitness center in uh you know they don't have
37:35
I don't think they have the the massage spa if I remember correctly Don't quote me on that one Whereas you know Avalon
37:40
they have a little fitness center It's tiny but they have a fitness person on board they have slightly more they they
37:47
talk about having more active excursions that kind of stuff but not a massive difference A lot of it comes down to kind of personal preferences Kathy is
37:54
here which is great to see you Kathy I hope you're on the mend Um and uh of
37:59
course you've got your Rocky Mountain Alaska cruise coming up So hopefully you are feeling way better and away on the
38:05
mend Karen have asked that question Kathy uh following question Doing the
38:12
Rocky Mountain in Alaska midseptember What clothes should I pack for Alaska going with HAL So um Kathy the critical
38:18
thing you know obviously for Alaska I can't remember if you've been to Alaska before but um I'm assuming I'm going to
38:24
assume that you haven't been to Alaska I can't remember So layers layers layers is key So obviously in September it's
38:30
the weather's starting to change a little bit Um so it can be a little bit chilly and if you are sitting doing
38:35
excursions if you're really splashing out and doing you know those helicopters up to glacias it's cold Um so you know
38:43
key thing is layers layers layers Not quite if you're viewing in Antarctica but so one of my videos I do have a
38:49
thing where I talk about the layers but it's really about just layer layering up Um and you know for me like woolly hats
38:56
are kind of important Gloves I do find kind of important particularly but what you can still happen at that time is
39:01
that you can go out in the morning in layers and then you're kind of taking off your your kind of coat and your
39:07
jumper or whatever or sweatshirt Um and so a little rucks sack that you take out with you So clothes stuff you can can
39:14
can kind of ram in So that's more for the Alaska part In terms of Hall America you know Holl America is pretty relaxed
39:20
dress code So they do have uh you know the same as a celebrity um princess etc
39:26
They do have those sort of dressy night kind of equivalent Um but in reality what I've found is generally in Alaska
39:33
is people are very casual So they will they will not really still allow people
39:39
to go in shorts which certainly on Princess they allow people to wear shorts to dinner even on the formal
39:45
nights Um they don't allow people in shorts they prefer you not to wear jeans but you'll find in on Alaska people will
39:53
uh it's it's much more casual because people are choosing cruise lines based on going to Alaska less uh on they want
40:00
the numeric experience I would also pack if you were here earlier I would pack for orange night they will have orange
40:05
nights So that's always kind of fun But you don't have to worry about dressing up particularly I mean of course you can
40:10
some people will but it's definitely way more casual than if you're going America
40:16
in any other part of of the world Uh for sure And Der here of Calling All Ports
40:21
Good to see you here Um let's have a look Bill
40:28
I'm looking at special officer cruise sites like Viking They have a short deadline and it's hard to find the promised pricing Would a travel agent
40:35
help here so I mean you rest I I I I I'm not sure I haven't looked I need to look at the biking ones but you're right
40:40
What's happening a lot i'm seeing a lot of this happening at the moment is cruise lines running these very short uh
40:47
flash sales So 48 hour sales or they'll do a July 4th sale I've seen those happening you know uh for this weekend
40:54
They're doing a July the 4th sale MSE you've got what one So um you'll find a
40:59
lot of them in and out celebrity are running some over the weekend where 70% off the second person and all that sort
41:06
of stuff So they're right they are quite short and time specific Um just as a little aside the way I keep on top of
41:12
that is all the cruise lines because of what I do I sign up to every cruise line but any cruise line you like send it to
41:18
the email newsletters but even better is even if you're not active on social media follow them on Facebook follow
41:24
them on Instagram I see a lot of those offers popping up there Um so um
41:29
normally on those promotions that it'll normally lead you through the thing to watch which I think may be an issue with
41:35
Vikings often they're they're linked to limited amounts of cruises But you're absolutely right What I would often do
41:42
uh Bill is I would uh in my case it's travel agent Sarah if I see a deal that I want to jump on So for example when um
41:50
Celebrity were doing that 70% of a second person there's a cruise that I knew I wanted to do um which was from
41:56
New York via Canada Greenland to Reovic And I was when they came I just sent a
42:02
message to Sarah I can see they're doing that promotion Uh get me on that So she then did all that stuff Also importantly
42:08
though Bill the bondage is there was a promotion for a region in fact for this
42:13
my next regent cruise which is West Africa because actually was looking back at the emails on that and they were
42:19
running a promotion that I spotted over which was for uh a you you'd book a
42:26
cabin and get a a better cabin So I could book like a basic cabin but I could get a concierge cabin which has
42:31
some nice perks because you get a night in the hotel and a few other kind of other bits and pieces Um so it was kind
42:37
of a it was quite a nice grade up but so I I saw that promotion I asked her to get me a quote and stuff and what
42:42
happened is she was saying well the promotions kind of ended on that ended because it was over weekend but they
42:48
were closed over the weekend her booking contact So she was then able to to on the Monday morning get hold of them
42:53
first thing and say look my client wants this uh thing ask me you know you
42:59
weren't open to book it on the Saturday and Sunday so will you hold that deal and they did for example So a travel
43:05
agent could help you get around Probably if you call the call center they're probably going to not some have some of that flexibility So Bill in terms of
43:12
travel agents I'm not sure where you booked Um but again if you're here I'm going to leave a link to an article with
43:17
travel agents I suggest by country I've got UK travel in Sarah US Canada Australia So hopefully hopefully that
43:24
will uh that will that will help But definitely they can help and jump on Of course you can ask them to there waiting
43:30
for looking for they can do that Now Viking in different countries were working through agents If you're in the
43:36
US they were working through agents In the UK they stopped sort of working with agents or lots of agents They're back
43:41
working with agents again So that's uh that's also very uh helpful
43:46
Um let's have a look
43:52
Probably need to speed up to make sure I'm getting through the getting through even more questions that I'm getting through So let me just make sure I get
43:58
myself lined up here before I do fruit bat travel Uh which sounds uh great So
44:04
let's have a look So I just want to make sure that when I answered your question I jump back in the next Mediterranean or
44:10
Caribbean I want to do the med but fear that you don't have enough time in the ports to really appreciate the city i.e Athens I mean again a lot of it hinges
44:18
around what you're looking for If you're looking for immersion culture
44:25
etc etc The Mediterranean is fantastic because in a short space of time you can see a lot Now actually ironically to
44:31
your question I've actually just done a video which is being edited won't be out probably for about three weeks now
44:37
around the Mediterranean and pointing out there are three cre itineries There's the western Mediterranean
44:43
uh you got the Eastern Mediterranean and the Adriatic Personally if you've never been to the Mediterranean I would
44:49
strongly recommend the Western Caribbean which will not include Athens but that's going to take you to see Spain things
44:55
like Barcelona France you might see Marseilles Nice Monte Carlo uh you might go to Central Pede depending on the ship
45:01
Italy you might go to Laspetszia or um Lever so you can get to see Pisa and um
45:08
Florence you can see Rome might go to Naples you might go to Palm etc That is going to
45:13
get you to see some of the most iconic places in the world Now you're absolutely right you the risk is that
45:18
you might just be there for eight hours a day but generally speaking what you'll find in those places is they will offer
45:25
you 8 to 10 hour excursions uh so you will get a chance to immerse and the ships will often depart late of course
45:31
the other thing you could do is go for a longer trip the other thing that I do talk about that in travel is you'll find
45:37
a lot of those for example the sun princess one I did it start in Barcelona in Naples but what people hadn't done is
45:43
they hadn't done a pre-stay in uh in in Barcelona and they didn't do a postay in Naples to actually see those ports So
45:49
playing around with that is is quite important Um to me the Caribbean may look at as more about sunshine
45:55
relaxation beaches kind of stuff But um there if you are concerned about
46:00
spending more time do take a look at Azamara Azamara's pitch is that they
46:06
spend more overnights than any other cruise line But you'll find if you dive into some of itineries a lot a lot of
46:13
lines will stay overnight So I might say overnight in Levvena So people can go to both Pisa and Florence So they're sort
46:19
of starting to do some of that as well Um so that that's some thoughts But as I said that video is coming out uh in in a
46:26
in a short while Um short while couple of weeks Not really a short while at all
46:32
is it jay one of my favorite topics of course If you could only do one Panama
46:37
cruise in your life which month which cruise line duration embarking so Jay uh
46:44
in reality so we're talking about a full transit would be the first thing I would say So full transit is key So straight
46:50
away if you're doing a full transit you're talking around at least a 10day if not a 2 week uh cruise So you can do
46:57
a 10day which will often say start in Panama and end up in Miami or Miami end
47:02
up in Panama City Um and Pan City is actually a great place to go So that's one of your shortest options for the
47:08
full transit but most will tend to go Miami to say San Diego Los Angeles and and kind of do that So that tends to be
47:16
a two week Now um in reality you you are a little bit more limited when you can
47:22
go Panama Canal Cruise So um if you want to do the full transit most of them will
47:27
tend to go at sort of the beginning of they'll either go when ships are
47:33
repositioning So they'll either go when they're coming back from Alaska around about October time or when they're
47:39
heading to Alaska around about sort of March April time Um and then some will
47:44
go at other periods So uh that's why for example my group cruise that I'm doing through the Panama Canal is actually at
47:51
the end of January because the ship is heading there It's doing some actually west coast stuff and then ultimately
47:56
heading back for example So um I would I would first of all so I would tend to
48:02
focus around I mean I've done them sort of that January February March time I
48:07
really like that Um it's not quite rainy season so it's less rainy Can't remember the race but it's not it's never been
48:13
that rainy Uh we've had a little shower so you you know it's actually it's very hot and you're outside It's very sticky
48:19
but it's not raining So you actually can just be out on the deck much easier to see Cruise line is quite important I
48:26
think actually the size of ship um Jay is even more important than cruise line You want to make sure you're on a ship that's panamax So it's small enough to
48:33
get through So for example Queen Mary 2 is not Panamax It has to go through the new locks You want to get on something smaller So Vista class or smaller ships
48:41
The other thing I would say is you want to go on a ship where you can really see it from the front So for example I have
48:48
been um uh on Queen Elizabeth uh sorry Queen Victoria which is this class ship
48:54
You can get right on the bow of the ship I've been through on the Zeta Dam which is what I'm doing on group cruise on
49:00
Again it's a Bista class ship You get right on the bow but I've also done it on Marina where you couldn't see the
49:06
front at all uh through outside at all unless you had a cabin on the front And
49:12
then we also did it on Region Grande uh at Christmas time which is also a great time to do it by the way Uh I did a
49:19
little January We did it literally just before Christmas Um and again you could only see the front through glass So you
49:25
really want a a ship that's going to get you right on the bow of the ship because you can then look at going through the locks right up firstand It's just
49:32
fantastic Um so uh so I would tend to look you know at at Vistaclass ships So
49:38
Honda America have Vistlass ships Kun have Vistlass ships I personally would also go uh from the Caribbean side to
49:45
the Panama side because I you you hit the Gaton locks first which are the first three locks and they are kind of
49:52
the iconic locks the most dramatic locks not the others aren't dramatic but they three together once you get to the Pedro
49:58
Muel and Mir locks at the other side they are split um so you go through the
50:04
Pedro Miguel down one level sell a bit then you go down through the mirrors so that's that's what I would do so um But
50:12
you know if your chance is to So if you want a shorter thing do a Miami So you
50:17
could do uh if you do Oceanania now um know they used to do it on they
50:23
unfortunately the ship they used to do on they did on Surren I was booked on Surren but they upgraded to the Marina at the time but they're getting rid of
50:29
those smaller outclass ships Um but but there are some that will go to from
50:35
Miami just to the Panama to Panama City Um
50:40
let's have a look Um Helena hopefully the question I answered a little bit
50:46
earlier on Norway will help Um so you're heading on Apex to know where the Arctic
50:51
Circle recommendations for Trumpso So to be honest with you Helena in TroO I just
50:56
self-explored in Trumso I've only been there once and I just self-explored um because we were we had lots of we've
51:03
done lots of other things So I don't have any specific recommendations If anyone does pop those in there Um Helen
51:08
the other thing I would suggest is take a look at what'simpinmport.com uh and see what they recommend on Trump
51:14
They're really good at uh at uh suggesting kind of key things Um
51:21
so let's have a look Oh Randy good to see you here You're getting back on
51:26
Grand So we met Randy and his lovely wife when we were on that Christmas cruise I was talking about the Panama Um so they're getting back on Grande around
51:33
Ireland this summer Any can't miss spots we should be shortit So uh in terms of
51:39
Ireland one of the things I don't know if you're going to if you're going round Ireland I guess you're doing both Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland Um
51:45
in Belfast you know go to the Titanic Museum which is really interesting fascinating Um in Dublin if you haven't
51:53
been you know even um the Guinness Brewery thing is is really interesting
52:00
Um those were my top tips
52:05
anyone if anyone has better suggestions I don't know if those are the most uh interesting but definitely um those
52:11
those are my kind of top tips Probably not very helpful Randy Have a fabulous time back on the grandeur Um
52:18
Sarah Sarah uh asking the question why do cruise seem where other people find
52:24
totally acceptable to rig their noses they can't imagine anything worse I think it's interesting to your point It's I I mean obviously I have this all
52:31
the time Everybody I meet and they know that I go cruising a lot but I've had it with even with my own family So um my
52:37
sister-in-law was very much why on earth do you go cruising it sounds absolutely awful Took me 20 years to get on a
52:43
cruise I've told the story before Um once her husband became a little bit more nervous about traveling uh postcoid
52:49
uh more just for kind of health and other kind of reasons Decided they wanted to they still wanted to experience more and got them to go on a
52:56
cruise and they absolutely loved it and they got over that can't imagine anything worse They've been on
53:03
gazillions of cruises They've booked like massive big cruises to Asia now um and so on So it's it's because people it
53:10
has a it has a reputation of being um for old people fuddy duddy like trapped
53:17
um uh you know all the kind of stereotypes I think that that is why um
53:23
you know it's I think that is why and the thing is I always say to people like I promise you if I get you on the right
53:30
cruise ship for you you will hate me because you will be absolutely addicted and that's all you want to do And I
53:36
think that's I do think that's absolutely absolutely true Um I haven't met anybody
53:42
that's been on the right cruise line that hasn't become addicted I'm sure there are people that just say it's not
53:47
it's not for them Um just Francis do you save a substantial
53:55
amount on a new booking when you book at the services desk on the ship we're selling Seaborns Encore Duka
54:02
You will not save a substantial amount What you'll normally get just Francis is
54:07
and I can't remember I think it's 5% or extra onboard credit You'll get you'll get some better uh bits and pieces So
54:14
you'll get so once you've been on once you've been on Seabour once you you sort
54:19
of you automatically get some discount anyway and then often there'll be a slightly there might be a slightly different discount on top of that um and
54:27
you know you might get some onboard credit so you will definitely get a sweetener now I can't remember exactly the ins and outs of Seabour one of the
54:33
attractive things particularly for me coming from the UK is normally when you book a cruise you know you pay the
54:39
deposit and it's locked in it's non-refundable sometimes when you book through that system They do allow you to
54:45
change a cruise once or twice So that's an appealing now In the US uh if you're in the US uh flexible or movable deposit
54:52
options is is is more of a thing Um so you will get some discount Um but you
54:57
might find that actually uh particularly with Antarctica you might find waiting for promotions and and activities is
55:05
better Now the key thing with Antarctica is planning very far ahead but you could
55:10
look for when they're doing promotions on Antarctica you may get a deeper deal Now one of the things you could look at
55:16
um which I'm pretty sure they do is obviously go and see what deals they can get you but some cruise lines and I
55:21
think Seaborn do this they sometimes allow you to buy a a certificate on board which you can then sort of use You
55:28
have to use within a certain time which still locks in some of those perks Now just check with them if there's another
55:34
promotion you can do a promotion on top of a promotion because that's not always possible So you will get some discount
55:39
but it's not going to be massive They're not going to give you like 15% off or 20% off or something something like that
55:45
Uh unfortunately um Highland Cottage Books I'm traveling on
55:51
Queen Mary 2 in December and I want to record a brief out of the library for my
55:56
channel When would be a good time experience to do that when it's empty don't want to be rude One of the things I would actually probably ask is ask the
56:02
librarian um if you can do something one day before they're opened or when
56:08
they're closed um would be what I would suggest uh is is uh because they you
56:14
know I'm sure they don't get asked that often and I'm sure if you ask very nicely they I mean they might be miserable and not want to do it but if
56:21
it's not a lot of time you know be a time when they're still closing up when you can go in and know where they still got so you're not cutting into their
56:28
downtime because obviously they work very long hours but I would ask them if that's if that's an option but generally
56:33
speaking you know on those transatlantics the library is is pretty busy all the time um so and it depends
56:39
how long that you want to do So sometimes you know probably you know in there first thing and at the
56:46
at the beginning and a closing time is probably going to be your best options because people are going to be heading
56:52
heading out Um the other time to check I would say is lunchtime uh is sometimes a
56:58
good time Now I'm trying to remember that you know they they close there's no one that really I'm trying to think of
57:04
the evening meal there's never really an overlap for that best bet would be to ask Um sometimes I you know I haven't
57:11
actually asked that but sometimes they're they're they are pretty uh they're pretty friendly and particularly
57:16
you know if you've got I guess you've got you got a bookshop you know talk about books and uh selling books and you
57:23
know build you're going to build a good connection there Um
57:29
let's have a look Thomas Dean's fine art We're going silver sea for a military cruise of a couple in their 80s but
57:36
mobile they ke herculean would you advise silvery's tour attempting to find a
57:42
private so I I'm I'm guessing maybe you're I'm thinking maybe you're saying maybe less mobile or fairly mobile or
57:50
limited mobile I'm I'm guessing that's why you're asking the question now Hercuanium for what I I remember I've
57:55
only been there once I seem to remember it is pretty up and down and climbing around so I guess that would be the
58:00
first thing to check that you're comfortable I would um I would try and
58:06
stick with the if you can because I don't know if it's one of their included excursions So obviously if it's an included excursion um they will give a
58:12
ranking within their um you know online if you go into your my silverc and look
58:19
at the tours they normally give rankings about the degree of mobility uh how
58:24
they're ranking it in terms of what their excursions offering So I would check their mobility ranking there first
58:30
And if you think that is too challenging what you could do is ask them because
58:35
they do that option Now it's quite a costly option but they do an option where they will have a driver and stuff
58:40
and you could brief them specifically on the mo having somebody that can deal with a mobility one if you want to keep
58:46
it within the silver sea world because if you go to those I was mentioning I don't know if you were here earlier when I was mentioning like via um Shore
58:53
Excursions Group uh and Venture Shore they tend not to offer mobility ones So
59:00
it's going to be more challenging to to to to find one So what so what I would do is if you decide the silvercy ones
59:07
are acceptable the private driver there's four of you might not be too crazy expensive but again stress with
59:13
silvery needs to be someone who's can deal with mobility uh issues if assume that's issue but the other thing to do
59:19
which I do find normally quite helpful is I would go into there's a very active
59:24
silver sea group on Facebook uh which is called silver sea passengers very active now you can often and they're building a
59:32
thing on there which is support uh tips and advice So they do have a section on there but you also have the ability to
59:37
ask a question to say look exactly this Has anyone got experience of people with
59:43
limited mobility doing a tour uh uh you going to Herculanium out of Naples any
59:48
suggestions you might find someone has a particular tour guide or someone they've used there um because that they may
59:56
already have that in I haven't actually looked at the port in detail at their port suggestions but they're trying to
1:00:01
build more of a library of this kind of stuff on silver but if you aren't a silver sea passengers group member it's
1:00:07
worth they have a lot of resources in in there a lot lot of resources in there a
1:00:12
couple people saying they can't wait for the Panama group cruise which is fantastic um right so let's have a look
1:00:20
um thinking about a Hawaiian cruise who do you think is the test line is there are specific 10 excursions you recommend
1:00:26
Well in reality um I wrestle with this I have been to only two ports in Hawaii uh
1:00:33
as part of a uh when I was doing part of a bigger trip on Queen Victoria and I do really want to go and do more of
1:00:39
Hawaiian Um now the the the the one which is worth looking at um but may
1:00:45
not be for everybody which is uh the Pride of America Now they're just
1:00:50
revamping the ship but it's the only ship that's allowed to sell uh within
1:00:56
you know within basically staying within the US because they have to have uh the ship was defined as being built in the
1:01:02
US So that wasn't fully built in the US and it has US crew which allows them under the passenger vessels act to sell
1:01:09
this So they have the most intense of itinerary The advantage you don't have all those sea days Now it's not for everybody uh and uh you know so take a
1:01:18
look at that That is probably the best itinerary of all Um the ones I've looked at is I've looked at Princess they and
1:01:25
Holland America they do quite regular trips out of the west coast but the problem is you kind of have six like long trips You have like five or six sea
1:01:31
days to get there Four or so ports maybe five ports and six sea days coming back So it's quite a lot of use of time Um
1:01:38
you'll see other ones coming like Oceanania Seaborn They're often coming up from Papetsi do some Hawaii across
1:01:43
the west coast um as well So you could tag on to those Um but I would take a
1:01:48
look as a starting point at the Pride of America Now I haven't been honored so I'm I'm basically sort of um telling
1:01:55
what I've I've been I've been working through there Christine um generally when do cruises 2027 from booking
1:02:01
christine it varies a lot by cruise line is what I'm seeing So some are already selling 2027 others are releasing them
1:02:07
later What I tend to see generally certainly it used to be the case that
1:02:12
you'd often see it sort of in the last quarter they would open up So they've opened up now sort of the first part of
1:02:20
uh into 2027 Uh they a lot of them launched their world cruises and then they launched them a little bit later
1:02:25
but some lines already have That's a good question of course to ask uh the travel agents as well although I don't
1:02:31
think you you work with travel agents so much but tends to be a little bit sort of towards that quarter often sometimes
1:02:37
you know if you look around sort of once you get into Black Friday Cyber Monday because they the tag launch of
1:02:43
itineraries around that around that around that time um whips you watching
1:02:49
Rod Stew so I actually was watching uh talking about because Rod for those glass which is the massive big um uh
1:02:57
music festival is on and Rod Stew is is this year playing the legend slot which
1:03:03
is from 3:45 for an hour and a half I watched the getting a bit of an before this to be honest with you and I'm going to catch up the rest of it uh later Um
1:03:11
so yes uh so whips travel I met on the Sun Princess uh Sun Princess uh not Sun
1:03:17
Princess Sky Princess group cruise It was great to uh great to to meet Right
1:03:22
we're wrapping our time So let's see if I can quickly get a couple of questions before we wrap Richard we are a bit of solution with Princess Next cruise will
1:03:29
be Holl America with Glaciy Bay or Viking Glacy Bay Your thoughts um Richard if you want a more adult
1:03:35
experience I would definitely look at Viking Now Viking theoretically should have some glacia bays because they do actually on the most recent listing
1:03:41
although I haven't looked at their itineraries because I you're right on the Viking ones I've been on uh they haven't had Glacia Bay but on the
1:03:48
listings from the uh Glacia Bay National
1:03:54
uh park site where they list the the lines that have access which is only seven of them Viking was listed as one
1:04:02
of those but I haven't seen that But anyway if you want an adult experience I would absolutely go Viking They do go
1:04:08
particular if you do the one I did which is between um Seward and Vancouver they go to Hiberlacia which is fantastic as
1:04:14
an option So that is that is also fairly iconic one to go Um if you go on Holland America Honda America are fantastic but
1:04:21
bear in mind you will have a lot of kids on board because you know unless you go really early even major but you still
1:04:27
have quite a lot of kids But if you go in the peak July August and early September there'll be a lot of families on board So it depends a little bit on
1:04:33
that experience that you want So if you don't mind this should being very full very busy lots of kids because you Glacy
1:04:39
Bay is really important That's just a factor to to to to kind of bear in mind
1:04:44
Um so let's do one quick more question and I do need to wrap up Do you have a
1:04:50
recommendation for 50 to 20 day Australian New Zealand luxury cruise in 2026 not interested in other countries
1:04:55
So I have been looking at this cuz I really want to do a circumnavigation Um I would take a look Viking have some
1:05:01
very good itineraries in Australia and New Zealand So definitely look at them Oceanania with the Riviera has some
1:05:07
fantastic itineraries and Seabor although it's into 2027 Seabour have
1:05:12
some great itineraries They're doing their work cruise but it's 227 are focusing on like South uh South um
1:05:20
Pacific uh Hawaii Australia New Zealand kind of stuff And then they got a great
1:05:26
leg on there but that's 2027 But take a look at Viking They have great ones Do take a look at Seaborg because they do
1:05:32
have some uh as well And look at Oceanania um especially Now I know
1:05:37
Crystal do head down that way as well Um but I haven't looked at their itineraries but those are the ones that
1:05:43
I would uh that I would that I would take that that I would definitely take a look at Should I do one quick personal
1:05:49
one and then I will then I will wrap How do you stay so slim when you cruise so much um because I'm obsessed with
1:05:56
obsessed with it So I've always been I do so I do a lot of exercise So I'm if
1:06:01
you're here earlier I mentioned Mark and I did a 15 mile cycle this morning I do pelatin I'm obsessed with pelatin do two
1:06:09
days of pallet and one day off So I do palatins and when I'm on a cruise I do I use my palatin app then palatin bikes I
1:06:16
do active excursions I actually I'm quite discip because I go cruising quite a lot fortunately I I do able to
1:06:24
regulate much more so I for example I only I don't really eat many desserts I do active excursions I um then drink
1:06:32
alcohol so that helps I guess a lot so not drinking a lot of cocktails and things uh always use the stairs which is
1:06:38
why I like going on small ships less stairs to be walking up and down Uh like when I was on Sun Princesses oh my
1:06:44
goodness I thought well I am burning a lot of calories going up and down these uh these stairs So I do tend to be quite
1:06:51
disciplined with what I eat So I eat quite a lot of fish and salads and that
1:06:56
sort of stuff So I I terrible I do tend So I do kind of sort of calorie control do a lot of exercise um and I do that
1:07:04
also at home So that's also kind of what I do So I often when I go on a cruise I will I you know I came back from Sun
1:07:11
Princess came back from Sky Princess basically the same weight came back from Sun Princess maybe one pound on so it
1:07:17
sort of works it's that kind of thing but when when going cruising less frequently it's much more challenge
1:07:22
because obviously you want to try things so I found you know for example when I went more on a more vacation on Grande
1:07:29
which I was talking about earlier that I met Randy and his wife on I was there with Mark and it was more vacation that
1:07:35
was more challenging because I I I was probably doing less exercise and eating way more Um
1:07:42
so uh I've run out of questions I'm afraid So sorry that's enough time I'm
1:07:48
afraid I will be back next week so hopefully we'll get to answer loads more question I always have a look at the
1:07:53
questions try and touch on any of those that I possibly can Thanks so much for joining me It's boiling hot here Hope uh
1:08:00
if it's boiling hot there that you're staying cool Have a great rest of the weekend Thanks so much for all the great
1:08:05
questions Uh take care and see you next week hopefully
1:08:17
[Music]

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