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I Discovered What Ultra-Luxury Cruising Is REALLY All About
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Jan 28, 2025
I went on an ultra-luxury cruise on Seabourn Cruises and after the first day I could not see what made it different to other "regular" cruises I had been on. But over the week I realised what ultra-luxury cruising on lines like Seabourn, Silversea Cruises, Regent Seven Seas and Ritz-Carlton is really all about - and why people so much money to go on them. It was not what I thought before I went. 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 85 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ——————————————— TikTok: @garybembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
After my very first day on board, I was really struggling to work out just why my partner and I had paid so much money to be on an ultra luxury cruise
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It felt like the cruise was just a regular cruise on any other line that we'd simply just paid so much more for
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So I set out to find out exactly what, if anything was different or unique, or if we really had just wasted an awful lot of money
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And this is what I found out. If you're new here, welcome aboard. I'm Gary Bembridge, and it's my goal to make it fun and easy to discover, plan, and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations
0:41
I had really naively, with hindsight, thought that when I stepped on board an ultra luxury cruise line, everything would be different. It would be different in so many ways. Things would be absolutely spot on. It would be free of any of the usual issues or inconveniences that you get on
0:59
cruise lines. I actually thought when I stepped on board things would just look and feel very
1:04
different but I soon discovered that on a very superficial or basic level that certainly was
1:11
absolutely not the case. Everything was incredibly familiar with every single other cruise that
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have been on. It wasn't that different to cruising on any other cruise line. The daily program was
1:23
basically the same. It looks the same. The format was the same. You've got events, shows
1:29
Bands by the pool, trivia, bingo, wine tastings, cooking demonstrations. So basically everything that you have on a cruise and format is the same
1:40
Of course, some of it's done with a little bit more flair. We had an abba and caviar saleaway, for example
1:45
We had on-demand caviar. But fundamentally, it was the same. The ship had the same kind of facilities
1:51
We had a dining room. We had specialty dining venues. There was spa and fitness
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There was pools. There was bars. There was lounges. there was a casino, there was a guest services, there was an excursion desk, there was a
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future sales desk, dress codes were the same. There was a formal night where you wore a jacket
2:08
or a tie, smart casual nights where you basically dressed up casually. I also found that many of the
2:14
things that could be frustrating, inconvenient or just kind of annoying on any regular cruise
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were still there. For example, our next door neighbors watched a lot of TV really loudly
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and we could hear them in the cabin. The walls weren't thicker and
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more soundproof. In the mornings, the anchor, because we did lots of ports with tendering
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would clatter down in the early morning and wake us up. The same as on any regular cruise
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also doing tendering. We also had some activities cancelled and support activities cancelled
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because of the weather. The same outside influences affecting ports of call or activities
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Wi-Fi was subject and variable to location, bandwidth, how many people were using it
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So it became very clear to me that on a basic level, cruising and basically how cruise ships work is the same, whether it's an ultra-luxury line or it's a normal regular line that it's pretty similar
3:09
So that raised even more the question in my mind, just what is an ultra-luxury cruise
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And what is it going to give me? That's different. Now, we chose Seaborne to go on our ultra-luxury cruise, but the thing that I really struggle with is understanding what are the options
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What is actually an ultra-luxury cruise? There's no official classification in the industry for the different classes of cruising
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The industry and the lions call themselves six-star cruise lines or ultra-luxury cruise lines
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But there's no set definition like there was on land, say, for hotels
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where a three four or five hotel is all pretty consistent and has rules around what it going to be It broadly agreed that there a number of categories in cruising So you have kind of the mass market lines like Royal Caribbean Norwegian MSC Carnival which offer kind of good value resort type cruising You then have premium cruise lines
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which include things like celebrity, Holland America, Princess, Kuhnard, which tend to have mid-size or
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larger ships. You also have kind of premium small-sized ships, Oceania, Windstar, as a
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Mara and then you have this ultra luxury category. However, what I found is no one can agree
4:22
what is or isn't in the ultra luxury category. So I did lots of Googling. I spoke to different
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travel agents. I even spoke to some people within the ultra luxury world around what they saw
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was an ultra luxury cruise line. And no one could really agree what those were. Most of them
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tended to tell me five or six lines that they saw as ultra luxury. So names like Regent 7
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Seaborn, which we were on, Silversea, Crystal. A lot of people also spoke about Ritz Carlton Yacht, the new line
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Then some would say, well, actually, some of the European lines like Hapag Lloyd and Penan should be in there
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Some even threw in the more premium small ship lines like Viking, Oceania, Winster, Azamara
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So it became really clear that nobody could really agree what is an ultra-luxury cruise line
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and there was some blurring around what it is. So with that kind of confusion in my mind, and after being on the ship and seeing what I was seeing and talking to passengers, I've decided and found, I think, that there are only three things that make a line, an ultra-luxury cruise line that are different, that are unique, and certainly the people I spoke to who were on seaborn told me that they paid for overgoing on a regular cruise
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And the first of those, and probably the most important, is small, smaller ships, more into more
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ships, ships that are all sweets. So that sense of size is really important. So Seaborn, for example
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only takes 600 passengers. The same is true of Silver Sea. Some others edge up towards the 700 number
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So the sense of size and smaller seems to be really, really important to the definition of
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what is an ultra-luxury cruise line. So some people argued that if you look at, say, a crystal
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it theoretically is not part of that because it edges up to the 1,000 passenger level
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As I mentioned, they all tend to have suites usually with a balcony
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was seen as being really important. But the sense of the intimacy, the size, the smallness of the ship seems really fundamental
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to being an ultra-luxury line. The smallest, though, does mean that actually the sweets are actually smaller than many
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of the premium suites on premium lines. So if you go on a celebrity, a Cunard, a Holland America, a princess, the sweets are
6:35
actually bigger than you'll find on an ultra-luxury cruise line. So it's not about the size, it's about the smallness and the intimacy of the actual experience
6:45
I found having a butler was not part of that whole definition. Some of the lines have butlers like
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Silver Sea, others like Seaborn don't. Also within that sense of size, people did talk about
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they found high quality fittings, very beautiful, soft linen, a choice of pillows, branded
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toiletries like we had molten brown. It created a sort of more sophisticated atmosphere being small
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a more country club feel. Also what people spoke about which was important and linked to the size
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is the destinations. The size of the ship means that even if you go into an area like Greece
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or the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, you can go into smaller, more out-of-the-way ports
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Also really importantly, what I'd seen before on various trips I've been on, the smaller ship
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the more intimate ship in an ultra-luxury line means that you can go to places that others can
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So for example in Ho Chi Minh City the premium ships which are bigger they are quite some distance from the actual city because they have to go to a nearby port whereas the smaller seaboard silver sea ships go right into Hoteuman city itself
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The same is true in St Petersburg, where the smaller luxury ships, they go right into the heart of St. Petersburg by the Hermitage Museum
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The others are quite a distance out in the harbour. The size, of course, though, does mean there's less choice of venues, there's fewer venues
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The entertainment tends to be a little bit lower key because you don't have the big theatre
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there'll be groups of singers. But that wasn't important to the people I spoke to. The important
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thing was smaller, more intimate, and actually the ability with the smaller ships to call
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into more unusual places. That is one thing that became really clear to me. Size of ship
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being small is really fundamental to making a line ultra luxury. The second area that came up
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consistently is people spoke about the crew. Now the crew to passenger ratio is very, very good on
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ultra luxury. It's almost one to one. And the sense that the crew get to know you really well. There's very high attention levels. They can anticipate what you want
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And I certainly found that to be the case. And I would agree with the people that I spoke to that
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this is probably the second thing that makes a line ultra luxury. Many cruise lines have great service
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and people talk about the great service they get. But there is a real difference on the ultra luxury
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cruise on Seaborne that we had. Because there are fewer passengers and a lot of crew, they do get to
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know you very quickly. They know your name pretty much from the minute you come on board
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And they very quickly learn what you'd like and don't like. So at dinner, people would actually preempt the sort of drinks you're going to order
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When we were going to breakfast, we'd already find they would have the skim milk that I like
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ready and ready to go, the decaf coffee I liked. They would just spend time getting to know you
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They had the time to talk to you. You could discuss things with them, joke with them, get to know them really well
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But the attention to detail and the crew was definitely something that was a notch above what I've seen on premium lines
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And I think it's definitely the crew and the attention to detail and the amount of service you get is definitely a key attribute of ultra luxury cruising
9:46
The other area which is a little bit less tangible is the experience it creates
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In reality, it creates an pretty much always adult-only experience, part because of the cost to bringing kids on board
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But secondly, there are no kids facilities. It's not really geared for kids at all
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So you'll find it pretty much adult experience. And it tends to be a relatively sophisticated experience
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again because it's pretty expensive, but it's a little bit more subdued
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it's not as kind of party-like, or that you can party if you want to, but it's definitely pretty sophisticated and a very key adult experience
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And I think that also is a really big plus if you're looking for an adult experience
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and that kind of sophistication. That I think was something that was different to, that I've seen even on premium lines like
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say, celebrity or Honda America that tend to be more of an adult experience
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Exclusivity really seemed to be the key, the sense of you're buying the smallness, you're buying the attention that you get from the crew and you're buying that kind of sophisticated adult experience
10:47
What I found very interesting though talking to people is things that I think used to be seen as a fundamental part of ultra luxury cruising and differentiators from premium lines and even the mass lines actually do not exist any longer, even though they still get put in a lot of the marketing materials
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So let's really talk about, focus about the things that I don't think make a line ultra luxury any longer
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There used to be a lot of talk around the fact that ultra luxury lines had much more included
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This is much less so versus everybody else. So Seaborne, for example, you had your gratuities included, your Wi-Fi included, your drinks included, or your specialty dining included
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The only real extras that you had were excursions or spa treatments something like that You had a minibar even in your room Regent Seven Seas even includes excursions as part of their inclusions There definitely much less
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as I guess it's called particularly in America, nickel and diming. You don't have people trying to sell you photographic packages
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You don't have people trying to sell you lots of drinks packages or add-ons
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And every time you do something, you don't have to get out your card. You pretty much only get your card out
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when you're leaving the ship and getting on the ship is the only time you really use it
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You get all your specialty dining included. So on Seaborne, we had Thomas Keller grill
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We had a sushi restaurant as well. But all your kind of fine dining is included as well
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and that's true across the other lines. But that degree of inclusions is no longer unique
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to ultra-luxury lines only. So you'll find all the premium lines have shifted there
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So celebrity have they always included fairs now, which also include things like Wi-Fi, gratuities
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drinks package. Hunter America have their various package you can opt into. Princess also have
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their package you can opt into which is all inclusive and includes those things. So actually
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inclusions is much less of a differentiator. Perhaps the nickel and dimming and they're trying to
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upsell you constantly is still a differentiator but it's fundamentally not as big as it used to be
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On Seaborne, the one area that they did charge for though was the retreat which is the kind
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of exclusive little area with about 12 little cabanas you could hire for the whole day
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that was an on-charge. The other area that I don't think is a bigger differentiator as it used to be is in the area of food. As I mentioned, food is included. The food is fantastic. The presentation is really remarkable. It's really high quality and it's really like when it's presented it looks like you're in some very beautiful fancy restaurant. However, I think in cruising, the food on pretty much across the board has been elevated. Food has become fantastic on the premium lines and the premium small lines and
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and right across cruising generally, food is not as big a differentiator as it used to be
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Because the quality of the food, the range of the food, the styling of the food has just been elevated
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And many of the big cruise lines, whether it's even the mass market lines or the premium lines
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have partnerships with celebrity chefs or eminent culinary groups. So it's definitely not as big a differentiator. Is the food fantastic
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Absolutely. Is it all included? Absolutely. But it's not the big differentiator
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I was asked by many people if ultra luxury cruising is actually quite good value for money
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once you include everything that's included and compare it to a premium cruise line
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Would it be about the same? I actually don't think that's the case. You're paying much more to go on an ultra luxury cruise line than if you take an equivalent
14:18
say a suite or something on a premium line and then look at all the inclusions
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You are paying more. If you're only looking at it from a value for money perspective, you're not going to find it there
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you're paying for is you're paying for exclusivity. Small is luxury. Small is ultra luxury. It's kind of an
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antidote. It's the opposite to the trend in cruising, which is to bigger and bigger ships. We're seeing
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even the premium lines like Holland America, Princess, they're getting into bigger and bigger ships
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You're basically buying and paying for exclusivity and a sense of intimacy. You're getting slightly
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sharper and more interesting destinations. If you're simply looking at the value proposition, you will
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struggle to justify going on an ultra luxury cruise line. It's really about that sense of smallness
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exclusivity, intimacy and incredible service. If you want to find a little bit more about ultra
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luxury cruising, take a look at this video that I've done about Seaborne, where I dive into a little bit
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more detail on some of the specifics about the things that they do. And starting with some of their
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little unique differences and their signatures, they'll spin on the things that they do on cruising
15:24
that they see is a little bit different
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