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People Still Fall For These Caribbean Cruise Traps!
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Jan 28, 2025
I am just back from a Caribbean Cruise and am annoyed with myself as I fell into a few traps when cruising the Caribbean, despite going a number of times and so should have known better. So, here are the traps I fell into and a few I did not but see people falling for to help you avoid them! Links mentioned in the video: ShoreTrips: https://www.ventureashore.com https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com https://www.cruisetimetables.com ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 89 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ
View Video Transcript
0:00
so here i am in the caribbean it's
0:02
beautiful blue skies it's warm there's
0:04
gorgeous sea all around me and yet i'm
0:06
kicking myself because i made the
0:07
mistake of falling into a couple of
0:10
classic caribbean traps
0:12
even though i've been here many times
0:14
before and should know better so i'm
0:15
going to tell you about some key
0:16
caribbean traps that you should avoid to
0:19
make sure that you have an incredible
0:21
caribbean trip if you're new here by the
0:23
way i'm gary bembridge and it's my goal
0:25
to make it easy and more fun to discover
0:28
plan and enjoy unforgettable
0:29
crucifications including here in the
0:32
caribbean
0:33
one of the traps that many people fall
0:35
into is the mistake of associating
0:37
cruising the caribbean with the big mega
0:39
ships like the royal caribbean one
0:40
behind me or carnival dream or over
0:42
there is carnival mardi gras you do not
0:45
have to cruise the caribbean big huge
0:47
big resort ships although
0:49
lines like royal caribbean norwegian
0:51
cruise line and of course carnival
0:53
really built up and created the
0:56
mega cruising in the caribbean
0:58
as it is now you don't have to cruise
1:00
that way those really broke the ground
1:03
and made the caribbean really popular
1:05
however you can do the caribbean however
1:08
you want to do it so for example i have
1:10
been on caribbean trips where all the
1:13
passengers on board were only from the
1:15
uk i've been on extremely formal cruise
1:18
on cunard where you were dressing up in
1:20
black tie i've been on the
1:22
classic cruise line celebrity which is a
1:25
little bit more trendy but i've also
1:26
been on a classic cruise line holland
1:29
america where it's a little bit older
1:31
it's a little bit more refined it's some
1:33
people argue a bit more stuffy
1:36
i've been on this trip now i'm on
1:38
oceania marina 1250 passengers and my
1:41
very next trip is actually on one of the
1:43
world's sort of most luxurious cruise
1:45
lines that i've decided to try and
1:47
there's less than 500 people on that
1:49
cruise so don't associate the caribbean
1:52
with having to go on a big resort ship
1:55
you can do it any way you want with any
1:57
size ship you want and that's really
1:58
important figure out the kind of
2:00
experience you want don't fall into the
2:01
trap of just defaulting to those big
2:03
guys who control if you like him anyways
2:06
the caribbean another big trap that
2:08
people fall into is thinking that you
2:10
need to sell to the caribbean out of
2:12
florida now there are three really big
2:15
ports in florida you've got miami you've
2:17
got port everglades and port canaveral
2:19
and certainly the vast bulk of caribbean
2:22
cruises do head out of those three ports
2:25
however it can be completely chaotic
2:27
bear in mind i was there recently and
2:29
there was nine ships on the friday eight
2:31
ships on the saturday seven ships on the
2:33
sunday so there could be anything
2:35
between 15 to 20 000 people getting off
2:37
the ships in the morning and another 15
2:39
to 20 000 people trying to get on those
2:40
ships in miami in one day so it can be
2:43
completely chaotic taxis
2:45
cars
2:47
car buses and it just is pretty an
2:49
unpleasant experience of course the
2:51
reason that florida ports are so popular
2:53
is the closest major ports to get into
2:56
the caribbean so there is a plus side in
2:57
terms of time however there are other
3:00
considerations and options so if you're
3:01
in the united states for example you can
3:04
sail from so many places so carnival
3:06
have about 12 different ports they sell
3:08
at various times of the year
3:10
so does norwegian we'll carry about nine
3:12
different ports across the united states
3:13
one slight downside is some of those
3:16
smaller places smaller cities they put
3:18
some of the older ships on so that is a
3:19
bit of a watch out of course if you're
3:21
coming from europe you don't have to
3:22
come all the way to miami many lines
3:25
whether it's pino whether it's some of
3:27
the german lines like tui
3:29
mine shift and so on they will charge
3:32
flights into say barbados so you can
3:34
also you know charter direct into the
3:36
caribbean some other cruise lines and it
3:38
tends to be the mostly more luxurious
3:40
up-market ones they will also originates
3:42
and sellers martians or barbados or
3:47
places like that
3:48
the reason that the big lions don't do
3:50
that is just the logistics getting
3:52
people in and out so don't fall into the
3:54
trap of thinking you have to go out of
3:55
florida it can be crazy the hotels can
3:58
get really expensive in places like
3:59
miami now fort lauderdale hotels can be
4:01
quite expensive so look at different
4:04
alternatives and you don't even have to
4:05
go on an english-speaking cruise line
4:08
lines like the german mine shift aida
4:11
italian costa they all head down to the
4:14
caribbean so if you want a multicultural
4:16
experience we don't want to do an
4:17
english language experience you can do
4:19
that too so don't just default into the
4:21
american english speaking or british
4:23
english speaking lines one of the really
4:25
big traps to fall into and i've done it
4:27
on this particular trip is to keep going
4:29
to the same places in the caribbean
4:31
there's surprisingly few ports that you
4:33
can actually go to the caribbean and the
4:35
reason for that is there's only a couple
4:37
that can deal with the volume of ships
4:39
in the size many places you'll go you'll
4:41
be places like here across the iowa and
4:43
today where you've got four big ships in
4:45
so you've got 15 000 or more people
4:48
pouring off
4:49
and it does mean that ports in the
4:50
caribbean have to have a key to deal
4:52
with it they have to have the
4:53
infrastructure the people the tours so
4:55
they just cope with these huge numbers
4:58
of crowds that you can see behind me so
5:00
that does limit the amount of places you
5:01
can go but it is possible to go to
5:03
places that are unique and different it
5:05
just takes a bit of planning when you're
5:07
looking at planning your caribbean
5:09
cruises probably about five key
5:10
itineraries that are worth knowing about
5:12
one of them is the short option which is
5:15
heading to places like the bahamas they
5:16
tend to be three or four nights
5:18
the most popular ones of all tend to be
5:20
the eastern caribbean and the western
5:22
caribbean the western caribbean is going
5:23
to take you to places like key west
5:25
although there's some discussion on
5:27
ships calling their cozumel costa maya
5:29
roatandalis the cayman islands a seventh
5:31
eastern caribbean is going to take you
5:32
to places like bahamas puerto ricos and
5:35
martin antigua dominicus and lucious and
5:37
kitts and the u.s and british virgin
5:39
islands also what's important about the
5:40
east and the west is many cruise lines
5:42
will alternate those you could do a
5:43
two-week cruise because those other ones
5:45
tend to be seven nights the other really
5:47
popular cruise is a ten nighter out of
5:50
florida which will go much further south
5:53
she'll go right down to barbados you
5:54
might even go as far as curacao you know
5:56
right down south
5:58
the other
5:59
really popular option is those cruisers
6:02
that will do partial transit of the
6:04
panama canal again they're about 10
6:06
nights and they will tend to sweep right
6:07
down to the south and head up through
6:10
the western caribbean to places like
6:11
roatan belize and so on
6:13
so when you're looking at doing a
6:15
caribbean cruise bear in mind that many
6:17
of the ports are really really overrun
6:21
really popular so try and look at
6:23
itineraries where you might be going to
6:24
some more out of the way places more
6:26
unusual places now another trap which is
6:28
a difficult one and one that i'm kind of
6:30
torn on is around private lands i'm
6:32
actually here on norwegian
6:35
cruise groups uh harvest key which is a
6:38
very beautiful place it's very pristine
6:40
my last cruise i went to half moon key
6:42
which is the america one but all of the
6:44
cruise lines have its royal caribbean
6:46
has invested i think something like 250
6:48
million dollars on perfect day at coco
6:51
key princesses princess keys disney has
6:53
castaway key and so on uh so they all
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have them now the
6:58
the thing with coming to private islands
6:59
is they're very beautiful very pristine
7:01
they tend to be in the bahamas or like
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here in belize they're extremely well
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run they're very slick however because
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they're cruise line owned you're not
7:09
seeing the true caribbean and also
7:11
importantly you're not putting money
7:12
really directly into the hands of the
7:14
locals some people would argue that it's
7:16
a trap because you're basically staying
7:18
within the corporate world and giving
7:19
the cruise line more money other people
7:21
say it's not a trap because it's a
7:22
beautiful uh curated experience and it's
7:25
a difficult one uh on both my last year
7:27
trips i've had private islands i've
7:29
joined them but i'm kind of torn about
7:31
whether they're a trap or not so that's
7:33
something that you do need to think
7:34
about one of the traps that i have
7:36
tended to avoid partly because i learned
7:38
the hard way the first time around
7:40
is around the time to go now a lot of us
7:42
will depend on your own situation but
7:45
the main caribbean season runs from
7:48
around september october time when the
7:49
ships are redeployed from alaska and the
7:51
mediterranean the caribbean and runs
7:54
until about sort of april time when the
7:56
ships are then redeployed to alaska or
7:58
the mediterranean so that's really a
8:00
busy time because it's great weather of
8:02
course it's winter in the northern
8:03
hemisphere people want to get away if
8:05
you are traveling that time period the
8:06
best time to go that i go is either sort
8:09
of from the middle of november to middle
8:10
of december before holiday season before
8:13
school holidays and a great time to go
8:15
is sort of from the second week of
8:17
january to about the middle of february
8:19
you're going to find lots of
8:20
availability lots of choice and really
8:22
good fares but the places are going to
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be relatively quiet because it's not
8:26
peak time if you possibly can avoid
8:30
school holidays
8:31
because it gets really manic avoid
8:32
spring break avoid the christmas break
8:34
if you can because again it gets really
8:36
busy and then during the summer some is
8:38
very popular because very hot but
8:40
take a look at the hurricane season
8:42
because that can cause lots of
8:43
disruptions to itineraries uh maybe the
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seas are a bit more rough and stuff like
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that of course if you are traveling with
8:50
families you're driving with kids or
8:51
teens or whatever you're gonna have much
8:53
less flexibility
8:54
on those particular timings definitely
8:57
if you possibly can
8:59
try and avoid those busy times that's
9:00
one trap that people fall into it'll
9:02
cost you more and it'll be much busier
9:04
one of the big traps that so many people
9:06
fall into the caribbean is shopping
9:08
you'll find there are chains everywhere
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go like diamonds international
9:12
effie
9:13
del sol color changing and every single
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port you get off on there will be these
9:17
same chains but even more importantly
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you'll find that the cruise lines are in
9:21
on the game so on many of the cruise
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lines in fact most of the cruise lines
9:25
you'll find shopping advisors who will
9:28
give talks they'll do different
9:29
promotions incentives to call on certain
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recommended stores it's important to
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understand that the cruise lines
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charge people to be part of that program
9:37
so if you're a diamonds international
9:38
del sol or whoever and you want to be
9:40
part of that program you pay cruise
9:42
lines
9:43
fees and it's reported in some of the
9:45
newspapers like forbes washington post
9:48
have run articles which claim it's
9:49
several hundred thousand dollars the
9:51
cruise lines can be making whether the
9:53
cruise lines then get various other
9:54
incentives or
9:55
commissions from sales i i don't really
9:57
know that but it's really important to
9:59
understand that shopping has become a
10:01
huge big business and in many ways the
10:04
risk is that you will be almost
10:06
manipulated so if you are going to go
10:08
shopping in the caribbean approach with
10:10
care make sure you
10:11
want things and you understand the
10:13
prices so you don't overpay and don't
10:15
get swept into it also very importantly
10:18
if you are looking at buying things like
10:20
souvenirs try and hunt out local craft
10:23
markets because you'll find many of the
10:24
souvenirs are the same and even made in
10:26
china and they aren't that different and
10:28
unique to the islands the same applies
10:30
to shopping on board cruise ships again
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make sure that you are comparing prices
10:35
on land which of course with wi-fi and
10:37
stuff you can do you know for example i
10:39
bought some fragrance
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on board which cost a hundred dollars i
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thought it was a good price i then
10:44
realized that i could have bought it on
10:45
the duty free passing through to join
10:47
the cruise for 75 in the airport shop so
10:50
watch out shopping is big and it could
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be a really big trap to fall into one
10:54
trap that is quite hard to avoid but is
10:57
one that you need to really be aware of
10:59
is when it comes to excursions now
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excursions can mount up and cost you an
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enormous amount of money on caribbean
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cruise you could be spending easily as a
11:06
couple a hundred dollars
11:09
together or up to 200 depending on the
11:11
excursion you're doing so it can mount
11:13
up a lot there's a couple of key traps
11:14
that people fall into first of all many
11:16
people will kind of default to the
11:18
cruise line excursion which is obviously
11:19
the easy thing to do a lot of people do
11:21
in the caribbean
11:22
because they know that the ship will
11:23
wait cruise lines will only wait for
11:25
people that are on their own excursions
11:27
so if you are nervous then do that it's
11:30
important to remember the caribbean is
11:31
very geared up to tourism and cruise
11:34
ships so there's a couple of things that
11:35
you should look at as alternatives first
11:38
of all there are aggregators like
11:39
shoretrips.com cruiseexcursions.com what
11:42
they do is you can input your itinerary
11:45
your ship and it will bring up all the
11:47
excursions as alternatives that you can
11:49
do in those ports now they work a lot
11:51
with local providers and they will
11:54
normally include a guarantee to get you
11:56
back to the ship on time now they
11:57
running these exclusions every single
11:59
day and they're really pretty astute now
12:01
at getting people back to
12:04
you know to the ship in time the other
12:06
thing to bear in mind is as i said these
12:08
ports and the people in the ports the
12:10
population are extremely used to dealing
12:12
with cruise passengers so they you know
12:14
the more informal sectors are the taxi
12:16
drivers local guides they really
12:19
understand what people want to do how to
12:20
get there time to get them back so also
12:22
consider looking at those because you
12:25
are going to again put more money into
12:26
the hands of local people rather than
12:28
the corporations or you know big
12:30
providers you're going to get more into
12:31
the hands of people but when you also go
12:34
in excursions the other thing i
12:35
recommend is try not to do everything
12:37
the same
12:38
you know i've met loads of people who
12:40
will go on the catalan tour in every
12:42
single place go to the beach excursion
12:44
every single place
12:45
try and do a varied range of excursions
12:47
to get a much better sense and feel of
12:49
the caribbean vary what you do till you
12:51
get a real flavor for the feel of the
12:53
caribbean the history of the caribbean
12:56
the culture of the caribbean one big tip
12:58
i've got to avoid falling in the trap of
13:00
going to places that are just crazy busy
13:03
on excursions is to do some research
13:05
around who's going to be important i'm
13:06
in cozumel today there are two huge raw
13:09
caribbean ships there's a carnival ship
13:11
there's celebrity edge and us however i
13:14
knew that in cozumel today all the ships
13:16
would be here because i looked on a site
13:17
called cruise timetables
13:18
cruisetimetables.com
13:20
so when i went and decided what i was
13:22
going to do i knew that places were
13:23
going to be busy so i avoided the
13:25
obvious excursions and went for
13:26
something a little bit different if you
13:28
want to find out more about cruising the
13:30
caribbean watch this video where i start
13:32
off by talking about one of the things
13:34
that drives me crazy about cruising the
13:36
caribbean see you over there
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