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6 Things You Missed About The New Summer Cruises Announced (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity etc)
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Feb 18, 2025
New Summer cruises to restart cruising have been announced to run between June and September our of the Caribbean (Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises) and the UK (P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard, MSC Cruises, Viking Cruises, Fred Olsen). I've examined all the details and have found 6 key things you need to watch out and know before you plan, book and go on these 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 77 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
i've been digging into the new cruises
0:02
opening up from
0:03
june for us and uk residents and there
0:05
are a bunch of things that i've
0:06
uncovered that you really
0:08
should carefully consider before you
0:09
splash your cash
0:11
by the way if you're new to my channel
0:13
welcome aboard i'm gary bembridge and
0:15
i'm here to help you
0:16
make it easier to find plan and have
0:18
those amazing cruise vacations
0:20
you're dreaming of so with that in mind
0:22
let's
0:23
get going first of all you really need
0:26
to know your options
0:27
there are a bunch of them out there but
0:29
certainly many more cruisers are going
0:30
to come
0:31
along as other lions adapt so really
0:33
think before you rush into booking
0:35
any of these that exist because more are
0:37
going to come now they're a mixture of
0:39
cruises to nowhere and
0:40
port calls based on the region and the
0:42
timing generally speaking
0:44
the later they are the more likely they
0:46
are to have ports they're generally
0:48
time limited and they're running in
0:49
summer mostly from june
0:51
right through to september now by that
0:54
time in september they're hoping that
0:55
they're going to be able to
0:56
scrap these special summer cruises and
0:59
then run the currently advertised
1:00
cruises
1:01
as planned so let's take a look very
1:04
quickly at what is confirmed now
1:05
by the time you watch this i'm pretty
1:07
sure this list will start to be added to
1:09
pretty quickly but let's have a look
1:11
what there is so in the united states so
1:12
people
1:13
in the u.s closest to you are royal
1:15
caribbean adventure of the seas
1:16
seven night cruises from nasa in the
1:19
bahamas obviously celebrity
1:21
millennium they're going to be selling
1:22
out of saint martin
1:24
again seven night cruises crystal or
1:26
based out of nasa or they're also
1:28
picking up passengers
1:29
in bimini and again all of these are
1:31
calling on ports running from june
1:32
really to
1:33
august now in the uk there is a huge
1:35
amount of choice
1:36
heading out of the uk you've got pinot
1:38
cruises on two ships britannia and iona
1:40
princess cruises on regal princess and
1:42
sky princess msc cruisers if you don't
1:44
know
1:44
which ship they're going to have yet
1:46
you've got cunard queen elizabeth you've
1:48
got fred olson with their two newest
1:49
chips you've got viking cruises
1:51
the viking venus and although the start
1:54
dates very they basically run from june
1:56
until september of course in israel of
1:58
course you've also got the royal
1:59
caribbean
2:00
odyssey of the sea so you have a whole
2:02
raft of different options and
2:04
cruises and more to come so really make
2:06
sure you understand
2:07
what your choices are the next thing to
2:09
really is understand who can actually go
2:12
and what you need to have because these
2:14
again differ cruise by cruise and even
2:16
cruise line
2:16
by cruise line it's really important
2:18
because you need to make sure that
2:19
you're going to be able to comply with
2:20
the rules
2:21
and by the date that you're looking to
2:22
book because especially many of these
2:24
require
2:25
that you had to have had your vaccine
2:27
and both doses
2:28
within seven or 14 days depending on the
2:30
cruise line so you need to really
2:32
think through that timeline before you
2:33
actually book now it's really important
2:35
to note that there are almost no options
2:37
at the moment
2:37
that don't involve adults over 18 being
2:40
vaccinated there's
2:41
one key exception so if you cannot
2:44
do not want or don't qualify in time
2:47
you're going to have to largely
2:48
forget summer cruising in fact if you
2:51
aren't able to
2:52
have a vaccine four main approaches that
2:55
are being used so you've got the one
2:57
country only
2:58
completely and entirely vaccinated
3:00
passengers only this is true of the uk
3:03
carnival corporation lines so that's
3:04
pinot cruises princess cruises and
3:07
cunard that are sending out the uk so
3:08
they exclude kids and of course israel
3:11
royal caribbean is the same everyone has
3:13
to be vaccinated the second approach the
3:15
cruise lines are using is where they
3:16
will accept guests from multiple
3:18
countries
3:19
but again vaccinated passengers only and
3:21
that's what crystal cruisers are doing
3:23
so again
3:23
pretty much excludes kids the next
3:26
option the third option is
3:27
again accepting people from multiple
3:28
countries but they're combining
3:30
vaccinated adults and
3:32
children under 18 if they've had a
3:33
negative pcr
3:35
test so royal caribbean and celebrity in
3:38
the caribbean that's the approach that
3:39
they are using
3:41
then you've got another approach which
3:43
is the real outlier which
3:44
is you only taking guests from one
3:46
country you've got to have negative pcr
3:48
testing
3:49
so theoretically it can be adults and
3:50
children and that's in the uk with msc
3:52
cruisers
3:53
but also viking cruisers in the uk are
3:55
doing that so that's a little bit
3:57
though of an outline there are also
3:59
differences on
4:00
which lines are insisting crew will have
4:02
to be vaccinated and it's really based
4:04
on the ability to get that done so in
4:06
the uk
4:07
yeah mse your fred olsen's uh your
4:10
various carnival
4:11
lines they won't have crew vaccinated
4:13
but the caribbean lines the ones
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operating the caribbean
4:16
will do testing is going to be used
4:18
across
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all of these anyway clear have committed
4:22
everyone will be actually tested before
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they get on a cruise
4:25
also important to bear in mind is if
4:27
you're going into any of those caribbean
4:28
islands you're going to need a pcr test
4:30
to
4:30
enter those countries and then they're
4:33
going to have the fast testing process
4:34
before you board
4:36
really important to note that those pcr
4:37
tests are going to be additional costs
4:39
on top of your cruise costs the fast
4:42
tests are going to be included
4:44
the next really big area to understand
4:47
is the protocols
4:48
because these will not be cruising as it
4:50
used to be i've seen many people getting
4:52
really excited about cruising opening
4:53
but paramount it's not going to be as it
4:55
was you need to
4:57
absolutely make sure that you're
4:58
completely happy because things like
5:00
masks are going to be involved and i
5:01
know a lot of people
5:02
don't want to have things like mars and
5:05
cruise line only excursions
5:06
now all of the lines are saying that
5:08
they will actually confirm the final
5:10
final protocols
5:11
around about 30 days before sailing so
5:14
these things could adjust but they've
5:15
also said
5:16
there is going to be the following so
5:17
these are things that they're saying
5:18
they will be first of all
5:20
there's going to be reduced capacity now
5:22
they haven't said at what level around
5:24
other parts of the world is between sort
5:25
of 50
5:26
60 capacity you can have staggered and
5:29
timed
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boarding that's because the whole
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boarding process will take much longer
5:32
with health screenings
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which is the third important point
5:35
there's going to be health screening
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which include those tests i mentioned
5:38
that you have your temperature taken a
5:39
lot
5:40
there's going to be a lot of screening
5:41
before you get on board and actually
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during the cruise
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a mask have to be worn when distancing
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is not possible you can remove them to
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eat and drink for example you sit around
5:49
the pool
5:49
but you are going to wear marks a lot of
5:51
the time there will be no
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self-service dining buffet there will be
5:55
a buffet but it won't be self-serve
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there'll be social distancing and venues
5:59
and it may require you to book
6:00
everything that you do contact tracing
6:03
will be in place
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mostly with wearable devices contact
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tracing is a really important part of
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the whole process
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cruise line only excursions and no free
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exploring
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now it starts to be confirmed what's
6:14
going to happen in the uk
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but when celebrity for example announced
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what they're going to be doing in the
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caribbean they spoke about curated tours
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and this
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is basically what we've seen in other
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places that have opened where
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you can only go on a cruise line
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excursion to kind of keep that
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protective bubble
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to avoid kind of people being exposed on
6:32
either side both in the port and
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on the ship so that is going to be a key
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factor also to watch out for
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that may lift but it is currently part
6:39
of the plan
6:40
another key thing is you will be
6:41
disembarked if you break any of these
6:43
protocols
6:45
another really important thing to know
6:46
is around cabins
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on these cruises you can only cruise in
6:50
a balcony cabin
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and above which has been true of all the
6:53
other cruises that have opened up
6:55
around the world also you can only book
6:57
a guaranteed
6:58
grade you cannot choose your specific
7:00
cabin and there's a couple of things
7:02
going on here first of all
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by not selling inside cabins and ocean
7:05
view they're of course immediately
7:07
reducing capacity on the ship it also
7:09
means if everyone's got a balcony if
7:11
there are any problems people
7:12
are in cabins which have a balcony so
7:15
therefore access
7:16
to fresh air it also means by having a
7:19
guarantee only
7:20
cabin and people not choosing their
7:21
cabins is they can then spread people
7:23
right across the ship so across the
7:25
decks
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and across the full length of the ship
7:28
so people aren't
7:29
clumped together as part of that social
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distancing
7:32
the other aspect which has been
7:34
discussed by some industry
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people that i've spoken to but i haven't
7:37
had finally confirmed but kind of makes
7:39
sense
7:40
is the idea being that they will
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alternate what cabins they use
7:43
cruise by cruise the advantage being of
7:45
course then on turnaround day
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they don't have to do deep cleaning of
7:49
every single cabin
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so they could use one cabin for one
7:52
cruise it's empty for the next cruise
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they use the cabin next door
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and they basically alternate between
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cabins which means they can leave cabins
8:00
to be deep cleaned and basically sort of
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sanitized in between
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cruises another really important thing
8:06
to note is insurance
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including covert cover is going to be
8:09
required now this service a little bit
8:11
based on the two regions of the world in
8:13
the uk the lines have really strict
8:15
requirements
8:16
you could have crew specific insurance
8:18
you have to have two million pound
8:19
evacuation cover
8:20
and covered cover and that's absolutely
8:23
mandatory and will be checked
8:24
once you get to the u.s settings outside
8:26
of the bahamas the problem is that the
8:28
cdc advice is against cruising
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so that will actually negate insurance
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so what's happening is a couple of
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things
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first of all if you're joining any of
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those cruises you're gonna have to buy
8:37
the bahamas health visa and it ranges
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between about forty dollars
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and seventy dollars and it includes
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basically coverage for
8:45
covert issues when you're in the country
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and guests have to
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buy that specific cover that health visa
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but you will get an onboard credit of
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about 50
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to each guest's account to help sort of
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compensate for that
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now if you or your tour party test
9:00
positive on the cruise for covered
9:03
or are actually deemed to be in close
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contact with someone
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who kind of has tested positive what all
9:09
caribbean are doing so celebrity and so
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on
9:11
they get basically going to cover your
9:13
onboard medical treatment
9:15
they also will cover the cost of any
9:17
land-based quarantine which is
9:19
not applicable in the cake because they
9:20
can get you home and then travel to get
9:22
your home for affected guests
9:24
and your travel party so that's the way
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they're getting around the insurance
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issue when you can't get insurance
9:29
because of the cdc ruling
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another key thing to note is there's a
9:32
lot of flexibility built into these
9:35
various fares and trips that's largely
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because if anybody
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contracts covert before the trip they
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obviously don't want people to come
9:43
along they or they find people failing
9:46
the health screen when they're checking
9:47
they don't want to let people they
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suspect
9:49
may be ill onto the ship so they are
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having lots of flexibility
9:53
and refunds if you can't do these trips
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but do check
9:56
again because line by line what they
9:58
should offer you differs
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slightly if you want to sound much
10:01
better some of the restrictions and
10:03
rules that are being put in place
10:04
for cruising as it reopens i put
10:06
together two videos
10:08
in this playlist here which you should
10:10
take a look at
10:11
right now to find out more
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