Why Holland America May NOW Be The Cruise Line For You

Name: Why Holland America May NOW Be The Cruise Line For You | Open Video
Uploaded: 2025-01-28T04:49:48+00:00
Duration: 12 min 24 s

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i want to take a look at holland america
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and look at the good and the bad the
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best and the worst the pros and cons in
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my view honda america
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is perfect for people who like a
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traditional cruising experience
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and you're not going to find things like
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rope courses and go-karts and all the
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resort type features
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you find on many of the big mega ships
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you really focus on the dining
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experience the bars the lounges
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enrichment pools so it's pretty
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traditional
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in its offerings on board so if you want
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a pretty classical cruise ship
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with classical type of features this is
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perfect for you
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it's not a party ship it's not a crazy
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ship it's relatively quiet and refined
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so it's a pretty classical experience
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the entertainment on board
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you're going to find again it's pretty
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classic cruising fare you have quizzes
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trivia
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enrichment production shows you're able
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to do
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different things like go to learn how to
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use
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technology so all in all a pretty
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classical experience
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another big plus of cruising with
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holland america
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is pretty much anywhere in the world you
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want to go at some point of time
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you'll find horror america goes there
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during the course of the year they go
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everywhere they have at the time
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recording 14 ships they actually got
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more ships on order but they go
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all over the place so you can go to
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places as far afield
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as alaska which is where they are
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incredibly well established asia
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australasia
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new zealand right around europe south
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america the caribbean
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the panama canal you can go on grand
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voyages if there's someone you want to
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go in the world you probably can go
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there on holland america
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for me i think one of the big pluses of
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cruising holland america
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is the thing they've created called the
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music walk
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now depending on what ship you're on
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they will either have all of the venues
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or some of the venues so the
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more recent the ship the more likely
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they are to have all of the venues
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but the music walk is a series of
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curated music experiences
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that really kick off particularly on sea
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days but in the evenings you're going to
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have those
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so you've got the lincoln center stage
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this is
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a partnership with the famous new york
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venue and you'll have classical concerts
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here you then have bb kings blues club
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where they have an eight piece
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band and singing incredible funky music
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really really popular it's one of the
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most popular of all
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another one that's incredibly popular is
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billboard
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on board here you have two pianists they
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face each other and they do different
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sets during the evening
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which might focus on british invasion or
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one-hit wonders
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all sorts of different types of themes
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and
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it's incredibly popular you'll find
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loads and loads of people crowding
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around the piano whenever they're on
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and it's really really good fun a lot of
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the ships now particularly the new ships
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also have another
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great venue which is called the rolling
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stone
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rock room it's a partnership with the
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rolling stone magazine and as the name
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suggests
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it's rock music and what normally
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happens across these venues
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is they are scheduled across the evening
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with different slots so you can pretty
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much go from venue to venue
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and at the next time slot they'll be
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kicking up with the next venue
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so i do think that the music walk is a
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big plus
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another part of the music walk which
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they include in the story
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is the world stage and this is the main
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theater where they will have all sorts
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of
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production shows you know sort of las
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vegas broadway
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style review show guest artists that
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kind of thing
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in recent years i think one of the real
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big pluses that has happened on holo
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america
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is their approach and the way that they
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look at the whole excursions area
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what they did which was quite a bold
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move at the time is the crow's nest
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on their ships they convert it into
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exploration central
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or exc as it's known and in here you
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have a whole bunch of things so this is
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where they've put
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the shore excursions team so you have
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the exe guides which are the people that
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can help you give you lots of advice
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what they've also created are these
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interactive tables
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where you can go take a look at your
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itinerary and port by port will give you
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maps it'll tell you
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about the port the main attractions and
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the excursions that are available it's
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really good fun sort of scrolling
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through those
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and exploring your whole trip they also
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have this big interactive screen where
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you can go and they'll ask you different
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questions
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every day and build up a profile and you
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can learn about your fellow
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travelers also in there there's normally
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some travel books sort of a library as
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well that you can
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go to also link to exe is another couple
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of things which they've done so they put
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a lot of
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effort to this so they have the exe
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channel
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on your in-room television where you can
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watch documentaries their partnership
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with
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afar the travel magazine where they
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don't support guides
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and so you can basically watch videos
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around the whole port they have exe
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talks
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poor talks which are run very specific
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to your cruise
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which you obviously go and listen to
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live they also record those and run
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those
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on the interactive television they then
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have a whole bunch of other new things
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which are relatively recent certainly at
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the time of recording
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they have like an exe kind of cultural
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thing where they bring
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depending on your crews they'll bring
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local people on board if there's a way
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to immerse you into the culture
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they've also got exe port to table and
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this
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is their latest iteration of cooking
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demonstrations
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where they will show you how to make
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food from all around the world
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telling you the story and the background
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to the dishes so that's really
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good fun as well they've also started to
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focus more on photography so
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many of the ships they may run exe
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photography which
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is helping you learn how to take great
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travel pictures when you're out and
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about
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and then of course link to some of the
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excursions so what's
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then are some of the cons the less good
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things
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about cruising with honda america now of
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course for
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some people things that could be cons or
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pros some sort of pros
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or cons but this is just my version so
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let's take a look at the four
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things that i think are more of the
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downsides of cruising with holland
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america
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the first of these is true for all
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cruise lines in sort of premium category
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and that's the fact
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that the fares aren't all inclusive and
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you will find there are potentially
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quite a lot of on costs once you get on
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board the ship
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so let's take a look first of all at
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what is included
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in the fair first of all the fare will
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include your accommodation obviously
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secondly it would include your food now
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you can eat pretty much 24 hours a day
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including your fares so you'll find
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there's the main dining room
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and that will have breakfast lunch or
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dinner most days and for dinner you can
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have
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an early seating or late seating or
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anytime dining
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there's also on the ships of buffet
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restaurant which is very nice about
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federation actually with
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very high quality food you'll have a
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couple of informal dining options which
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are also included in the fair
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so on the bigger ships you'll have
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diving which is sort of the burger
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place which give burgers hot dogs which
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is normally open at lunch time
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and on some of the biggest chips you'll
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also have a pizza place
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slice a pizza as well then you have 24
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hour room service
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and afternoon tea so that's all the food
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that's included
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access to pretty much all the facilities
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with the exception of the cabanas which
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is
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a little private quiet area that you can
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hire on sea days or in fact on port days
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which is where you can go and sort of
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relax a little quiet space
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out in the sun and little cabanas away
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from the main swimming pools but pretty
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much all the facilities
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you can go to and they are all included
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all the entertainment is included so
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everything on the daily program
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the production shows or the guest
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artists in the evening
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the other thing that's included is the
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kids program so they have club hal
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which caters for kids from relatively
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young up to sort of
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teenage age and that's all included
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within the fair
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the enrichment programs all the talks
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that's all included within the fair
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so as you can see there's quite a lot
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included but what's not included these
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can actually mount up
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gratuities are not included and they're
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normally auto added on if you haven't
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pre-paid those
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excursions are not included of course
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they are extra costs of course
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excursions can mount up quite a lot
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drinks are not included you will get
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some basic drinks
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like some regular tea coffee water
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and things like iced tea perhaps
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lemonade
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in the buffet restaurant and the main
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dining room but actual
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main drinks sort of premium drinks
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premium coffees alcoholic drinks are not
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included you can buy various
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drinks packages wi-fi is not included
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and like on all cruise ships wi-fi
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can actually mount up quite large again
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you can buy packages
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specially dining is also not included
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now on holland america
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there are four main especially dining
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venues you won't find all of them on all
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of the ships
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but you'll normally have pinnacle grill
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which is their real sort of signature
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restaurant especially dining restaurant
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and that's their steak restaurant you do
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pay
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to go to that you then have rudy
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seldamaye which is their fish
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evening which is a pop-up restaurant
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held in the pinnacle grill
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you then have on many of the ships
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tamarind which is
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my favorite of all of these restaurants
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which is like an asian fusion restaurant
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guinness and on all of the ships and
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then you also have
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caneletto which is an italian restaurant
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and that uses part of the
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lido restaurant the buffet restaurant in
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the evenings
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then of course as you'd expect all the
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discretionary stuff so if you use the
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medical center the shops
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gambling the casino all that kind of
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stuff is not included so there's a
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downside it's not an all-inclusive fare
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but again it is pretty consistent
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across all of the premium cruise lines
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the second downside for many people
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is the holier of dress code now actually
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the dress code on hello america
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in my view is pretty relaxed versus some
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lines
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so they do have garlic evenings where
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they do ask you to dress up but actually
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that's not that strict so you could
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actually
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on a garlic evening if you're a
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gentleman actually go into the
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restaurant
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with a long-sleeved you know collared
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shirt on smart slacks you don't have to
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wear tuxedos and suits a lot of people
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do like to do
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that but you don't have to so although
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there's a dress code it's not massively
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strict you can actually on regular
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evenings wear smart
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jeans you can't wear shorts and scruffy
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jeans
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and that kind of stuff into the
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restaurant so although there's a dress
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code it's not a massively
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strict dress code but it's not
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completely and utterly
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anything goes so there is kind of a
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dress code and depending on the cruise
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you're on
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people may adhere to it more or less so
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if you're in a hot climate
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pretty informal like the caribbean
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you'll find people perhaps
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are on the lower end of the formality of
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dress code but there is
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a dress code that you do need to follow
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and stick to
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but again it's not that strict now the
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fourth area that some people
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argue is a downside of honda america but
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i actually think
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in my view it's not a massive downside
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because it's really just related to who
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it appeals to
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but holland america is definitely a
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slightly older crowd
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so you talking early 50s 60s 70s kind of
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crowd it's
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very much couples it's quite an american
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spin although it
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has lots of brits lots of australians
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and increasingly more nationalities
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on board but it is a more traditional
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kind of cruising because it is a
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10:34
so it attracts that kind of cruiser you
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do find though increasingly particularly
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in the summer periods
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you'll find more and more families are
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coming on board particularly
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multi-generational
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families and you they do cater for kids
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as i mentioned because they do have the
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whole
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clubhou program and it's a pretty big
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club for kids
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and teenagers so certainly in those peak
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holiday periods
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it is a much more diverse crowd on board
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but generally speaking
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sort of out of those peak holiday times
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it is a slightly older
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more traditional cruising crowd the
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other thing that people would argue is
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that overall
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in terms of the quality the service it's
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very similar to other premium lines
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so i think that's very true the food is
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very i think very high quality there's
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lots of choice
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but it is on the other premium lines
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service is good
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it's efficient staff's very friendly but
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that's true of other premium lines so i
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think in many ways
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it matches the other premium lines in
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that aspect
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however i think if you are looking for a
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11:27
you're really into music and the music
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walk really appeals to you a lot
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and you're very into destinations
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learning about enrichment and that kind
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of
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stuff then i think america you'll find
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very appealing because they do have a
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really big focus
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on making sure you're well-educated
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about the destinations the excursion
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options
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and then they bundle around that whole
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other kind of enrichment stuff so you've
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got the microsoft
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workshops and all sorts of other things
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like that going on
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right throughout the daily program where
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you can learn and enrich yourself
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as well so that i think are the great
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things
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and some could argue the less great
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things as i mentioned some of those
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things you will see as positive some of
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the positives you may see as negatives
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but that's trying to see the two sides
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of the story hold america when i've
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cruise on it i've had a great time i've
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had lots and lots of really great
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trips on holo america and i'm looking
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forward to going back on holland america
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again i really do enjoy
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my time on board i have loads more
12:18
videos about holland america and
12:19
cruising so why don't you watch
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