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Ocean vs River Cruises: 10 differences everyone ought to know!
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Jan 29, 2025
Ocean Versus River Cruises, the 10 Key Differences between ocean and river cruising you need to know to help you decide which is better for your vacation. Not all are obvious as I explore topics including size, cabins, destinations, docking, excursions, dining, entertainment, fares, seasickness, dress codes and packing - and flexibility. Please leave a thumbs up for the video and subscribe to the channel now: http://bit.ly/TFT_YouTube2 Gary Bembridge, a published travel author, writer, podcaster and blogger at Tips For Travellers ( http://www.TipsForTravellers.com ) shares travel inspiration, tips and advice to help you to make the most of your precious travel and vacation time and money. FOLLOW TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ON: - YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tipsfortravellers - Website: http://www.tipsfortravellers.com - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge - Instagram: http://instagram.com/tipsfortravellers - Monthly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/AUTIX SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: - Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers
View Video Transcript
0:00
hi I'm Gary beverage and I'm going to
0:01
share with you in this video 10 ways
0:04
that ocean cruising is different from
0:06
river cruising and hopefully that will
0:07
help you make your mind if so or river
0:10
cruising is better for you also perhaps
0:12
if you're trying to decide between which
0:13
of the two to do so to explain the
0:15
differences I'm recording all the parts
0:17
about cruise ships here on board a
0:19
cruise ship and this is wind stars star
0:22
breeze and so to tell you about the
0:23
river cruising perspective I'm filming
0:26
this on board the Emerald dawn which is
0:28
part of the Emerald waterways our line
0:30
well the most obvious difference is size
0:32
so cruise ships range from small
0:35
intimate yacht size for example I'm
0:38
currently on wind star star breeze that
0:40
takes 212 gets just across the way from
0:42
our dock today is the Norwegian Jade
0:45
which takes two thousand two hundred
0:47
passengers and of course you go right up
0:48
to big Royal Caribbean ships which can
0:50
have three thousand or more passengers
0:52
so cruise lines will generally be much
0:56
bigger than river cruise ships so as
0:58
river cruise boats like the van I'm on
1:00
now they're just much smaller so they
1:02
have to deal with being on the rivers so
1:04
they're constrained by their length by
1:06
their width by their height so most they
1:08
tend to take around 150 to 200
1:10
passengers at the most because they're
1:12
dis constrained it therefore means that
1:13
everything smaller including things like
1:16
the cabins the cabins tend to be on
1:18
average a little bit smaller in size
1:20
cabins on cruise ships generally are
1:22
also larger than double cruise ships
1:23
just because they're not as constrained
1:25
on side
1:27
another key difference between ocean and
1:29
river cruising is destination so ocean
1:31
cruises obviously travel on the ocean
1:33
river cruises obviously on the river
1:35
social cruisers will do a couple things
1:37
that either go from country to country
1:39
along you know perhaps the Mediterranean
1:42
for example helping from country to
1:43
country they might help between islands
1:45
such as in the Caribbean they can also
1:47
take you between continents whether
1:49
that's you know North America and Europe
1:52
and also they can take you to very
1:53
remote destinations like the Arctic or
1:55
the Antarctic but obviously it's ocean
1:58
based so what about river cruises well
1:59
as the name would suggest they cruise
2:01
along rivers inland rivers and they go
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to places the cruise ships are just too
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big to go to another key difference is
2:09
where they're dock so river cruise boats
2:11
will generally dock right in the heart
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of the towns or cities where they're
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visiting anything of course though is
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there may be a couple of boats in at one
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time so sometimes they're actually
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docked next to each other and yet you
2:23
have to walk across them to get onto the
2:25
land
2:25
however ocean cruisers often because
2:27
they're very large have to go to very
2:29
specific ports of course some of the
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smaller ships like the one I'm on now
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the wind starship can often dock quite
2:35
close to in at various cities and tender
2:37
people in because it's a much smaller
2:39
ship another key difference is
2:41
excursions now because ocean cruise
2:44
ships have so many more passengers they
2:46
tend to offer a very broad range of
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excursions when they're visiting a
2:51
destination so there might be some you
2:52
know quite calm panoramic bus based ones
2:55
to to very active towards because they
2:57
have to cater for hundreds or thousands
2:59
of guests so they will often have lots
3:01
and lots of different excursion options
3:03
of all different types and it's a case
3:06
of all the different tastes onboard the
3:08
ship it's all bit different on River
3:10
Cruises River Cruises tend to be more
3:12
walking based tours focused on arts
3:14
history culture exclusions on cruise
3:18
liners also tend to be an extra cost so
3:20
they're not included in the fare you
3:23
have to pay extra and you pay anything
3:24
from you know 20 30 40 dollars up to you
3:27
know several hundred dollars depending
3:28
on the excursion when it comes to
3:30
excursions on river cruise boats there's
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normally one included excursion every
3:35
single day and that's more me included
3:37
within your fare they tend to be walking
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tours both river cruise
3:40
lines will often offer sort of bonus
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excursions which you do pay for but
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largely speaking one excursion per day
3:47
walking tour included in the fare
3:50
push-ups tend to offer a lot of choice
3:53
when it comes to dining so that have a
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main dining room they might have
3:56
specialty restaurants that often with
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buffet or Lido restaurant will be room
4:00
service so generally speaking there's a
4:01
lot of choices of places to eat and know
4:04
dine some of them have extra cost to
4:06
them so some of the speciality
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restaurants you might have to pay a
4:09
small extra fee to go to but there will
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be a lot of choice on pretty much all
4:14
ocean cruise ships even on some of the
4:16
smaller yacht based cruise line when it
4:18
comes to river cruises there's normally
4:20
only one dining room like this one on
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the Emerald dawn you will normally have
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a buffet breakfast either a buffet lunch
4:27
or perhaps to a served lunch and
4:28
normally a 3 or 4 course serve dinner in
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the evenings
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there's no room service there's no
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alternative dining there's one dining
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room one sitting when everyone sits down
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at one time and depending on the cruise
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line that you're on your final river
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cruising there's much less choice often
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because the galley is so much smaller so
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it depends a little bit on the line that
4:47
you're in
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so one dining room one set time less
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choice cruise ships generally have
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because we the median size the larger
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ones have a lot of entertainments there
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will be a daily program with lots of
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activities you know and depending on the
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cruise line they might be sort of quite
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fabulous ones or if it's a more serious
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cruise line which is more enrichment
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based ones but there'll be quizzes will
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be competitions there will be evening
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shows often big sort of lavish
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production type shows for the West End
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Broadway Las Vegas type shows there
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might be guest entertainers look at
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casino there will be bands playing
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around the ships there will be a lot of
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a lot of entertainment it's a little bit
5:22
different when it comes to River cruise
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boats
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so on a river cruise line you're not
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going to find a lot of entertainment the
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entertainment will tend to be perhaps
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some local singers or local dancers will
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come on every now and again there might
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be a movie night there might be a quiz
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night but then stream is really focused
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around exploring some of the local folk
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and habits and also Paul talk so you
5:45
often find out there Paul talk and
5:47
briefing there's not casinos there's not
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big glitzy shows and that kind of thing
5:52
one river cruise boats there's much less
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and
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as I mentioned earlier river cruise
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boats are constrained in terms of the
5:58
size to get down the rivers so you won't
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find casinos you won't find kids clubs
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you won't find all that kind of stuff
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what you'll normally find is one lounge
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or bar and some of the new and more
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modern google cruise boats they might
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have a little plunge pool they might
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have a small fitness room they might
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have a little mini spiral hairdressers
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maybe a carnival library but there will
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not be lots of extra amenities on a
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river cruise boat you normally just have
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the one main bar lounge now when it
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comes to cruising on the ocean cruise
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ships you'll find that the fare covers
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basically accommodation that covers food
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that's pretty much what it covers
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however you'll find often a lot of extra
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costs so you'll pay for Wi-Fi you might
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have Cotuit ease added on excursion to
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have a draw added on drinks you know
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some of the entertainments might be
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obviously gambling and bingo or those
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kind of things so often will be quite a
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lot of extra cost so one of the key
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things when you're looking at it going
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on an ocean cruise ship is under saying
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what the fare includes and what all the
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extras are going to be because they
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could be quite a substantial on cost now
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unlike ocean cruising river cruise lines
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says tend to be all-inclusive now does
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differ a little bit based on the line
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you're on but largely speaking your
7:09
accommodations included all your meals
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are included drinks are included
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normally certainly drinks with meals are
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included and that's wine and beers Wi-Fi
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is included gratuities are normally
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included and as I mentioned earlier
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excursions are normally included so the
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phase tend to be much more all-inclusive
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so it's very important when you're
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comparing a river cruise line fare to an
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ocean cruise line fare that you gara
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mind that there are a lot of inclusions
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another key difference between ocean and
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river cruising is seasickness obviously
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if you're heading out to the ocean even
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in areas that are normally quite calm
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there is a risk that storms might blow
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up or there might be a swell so there is
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always a risk of seasickness now modern
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cruise ships have lots of technology
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they have stabilizers of there's lots of
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Technology around predicting where
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storms are and the captain can make a
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lot of adjustments to try and minimize
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the risk of seasickness this ways of
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mitigating it for example you might take
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a cabin which is in the center of the
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ship very low down so the movement
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is much less you know you choose to
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cruise in karma times of the year and
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areas that are you know generally have
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much less chance of storms at that time
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of year but there is always a chance of
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seasickness
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of course those remedies you can take
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most cruise ships will offer things like
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ginger which is help which helps they
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will also offer seasickness tablets
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where you can go to the doctor there's
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lots of things that you can do to
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mitigate seasickness if you're worried
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about seasickness a river cruise is a
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great idea because it's pretty much if
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not totally impossible to get seasick
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sirs know swells your lands within easy
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sight the rivers are calm and smooth
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there's so the transfer getting motion
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sickness is negligible packing and what
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you need to take on a cruise is also
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different so again it depends a lot on
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the cruise line you travel with but you
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might find you need to take lots of
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fermentations of clothes so there might
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be different dress codes there might be
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formal night so where you have to dress
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up in a jacket and tie so gentle and all
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smart gowns so it depends a little bit
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on the cruise line some of them have
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themed evenings so one of the key things
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with Cruise Lines is you need to
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understand what the dress code is for
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that particular cruise line that you're
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traveling on because it may vary and you
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may need to take lots of different
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permutations of closed not only for the
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weather but also to follow the dress
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code on the cruise ship
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a little bit different on river cruises
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Unruh cruise boat packing is in some
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ways so much easier because the dress
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code on rubber Cruise Lines even the
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most premium of them is very relaxed so
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it tends to be a smart casual dress code
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even at evenings necessary Urbanek polo
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shirt orgy even jeans for men and the
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equivalent for ladies part of the reason
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is because there's not loads of storage
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etc within the cabins so they don't
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expect you to bring lots of formal gifts
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so even on perhaps a formal evening like
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the captain's Welcome Party or the
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farewell party you'll find you know loud
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people describe polo shirts and perhaps
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and smart slacks or the equivalent so
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it's a pretty casual dress code and you
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don't bring lots of different
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permutations to follow a particular
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dress code most cruise lines have lots
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of choice it's not very regimented
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there's lots of opportunity to basically
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go with the flow you have lots of
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choices on where to dine when
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to dine there's going to be lots of
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different things that you can do on the
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ship in terms of entertainment they
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generally speaking quite large even on
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the smaller yacht type you know ships
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there's lots of spaces look quiet
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corners you can find so it's actually
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pretty much if you want to be anonymous
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if you want to find little quiet corners
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you know it's not a very regimented
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system there's you know it's pretty much
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you can do what you want when you want
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and you know you'll find a place to meet
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a time to read something to do it's it's
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quite a flexible experience going on an
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ocean cruise ship now unlike ocean
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cruising river cruising is much more
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structured much more regimented so
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there's a daily program which doesn't
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give lots of choice and it's very
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organized so there'll be set times for
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meals they'll be set to answer
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excursions set times for port talks set
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times for all the activities across the
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day so the day is planned out in quite a
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detail there's not lots of room for
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flexibility it's a very set structure
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and in fact in my experience summer
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because is not often a lot of downtime
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because literally there's something
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planned for pretty much every minute of
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the day so it's a much more structured
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environment than you find on ocean
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cruising so there you have it there's
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some key differences between going on an
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ocean cruise and a river cruise and
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hopefully that's helped you make up your
11:30
mind so if either those arrived or if
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you're thinking from moving from one to
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the other if you've enjoyed the video to
11:36
lovely together thumbs up and of course
11:38
please subscribe to the channel and you
11:40
can also visit the site tips for
11:41
travelers comm / cruising where you'll
11:43
get loads of tips on both ocean and
11:45
river cruising
11:47
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