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I look at the four times I recommend cruise passengers take a cruise line excursion rather than any other alternative for exploring a cruise port like self-touring or independent tour guide or company
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00:00 Start
00:45 The Risks?
04:46 How Far?
06:29 How Quick?
08:29 How Essential?
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0:00
the cruise lines argue we should always
0:01
do the excursions because they're
0:03
convenient easy to book include the Mery
0:05
sites the ship will wait for us if the
0:07
Cruise Line Excursions delayed and
0:08
they've screened all the tour operators
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but as I would explain I actually don't
0:13
think these are good reasons because it
0:16
also by the way makes it way more costly
0:19
as a way to explore the ports however
0:22
while I prefer to self-explore Ports
0:24
there are a few times when I absolutely
0:27
will go on cruise excursions Having
0:29
learned some Les the hard way as you
0:31
will hear by the way if you're new here
0:33
welcome aboard I'm Gary benbridge and
0:35
I'm making it easy and fun to do
0:38
cruising right including when to take a
0:40
cruise line Excursion and when not to
0:43
the first key thing I ask about any
0:45
destination or any port I'm going to is
0:48
how safe is it most Cruise ports are
0:50
pretty safe but if I have even the
0:53
slightest doubt I stick 100% with the
0:56
cruise line the most extreme example of
0:58
that I can think of recently L was going
1:00
to Egypt on a n River Cruise now I knew
1:03
that Egypt has a reputation of being
1:05
relatively unsafe there's been you know
1:07
political unrest there's been stories of
1:09
crime on tourists uh being aggressively
1:11
hassled by vendors kind of Twitchy
1:13
police and army who've been known to
1:15
arrest people taking you know photos
1:17
that they deem suspicious harassment of
1:19
some Travelers including women and LGBT
1:21
Travelers so a whole bunch of stuff that
1:23
makes it feel perhaps less safe so for
1:25
that trip I absolutely stayed within the
1:28
cruise control bubble the whole time and
1:31
I did every single tour with the cruise
1:33
line and no self- exploring but asking
1:36
the question applies just as much on any
1:39
Cruise anywhere just because a cruise
1:41
calls into a country or Port I never
1:44
assume that automatically means it's
1:47
safe to do so so for example several
1:50
Caribbean islands that I'm due to go on
1:52
a cruise early next year have
1:54
reputations for being unsafe like
1:56
Jamaica for example with Jamaica at the
1:59
time I recorded this the US state
2:00
department has literally just raised its
2:02
warning level against traveling there
2:04
due to a crime surch now that may then
2:06
shift downwards but also at the moment
2:08
there are unsafe protests going on in
2:11
Panama again at the time I'm making this
2:13
another place that I'm due to call on
2:15
now so in those places if anything's
2:17
going on any alerts I will look at doing
2:19
Cruise Line Excursions in all those
2:21
places now of course by the time I go
2:23
things might have changed so I
2:25
constantly check the latest State
2:27
Department or UK foreign office advisor
2:30
really close to going and if there are
2:31
any issues giving me any doubt in my
2:33
mind I book Cruise excursions there is
2:36
though another part to the how safe is
2:38
it question for example when I go to
2:40
Alaska the Norwegian fjords or places
2:43
with Majestic scenery or glaciers I love
2:46
going on helicopter rides in Alaska up
2:48
on to Glaciers to walk or Sledge with
2:50
dogs in Norway to see the huge Mountains
2:53
and the Beautiful Mountaintop Lakes now
2:55
these are really really costly but also
2:59
I see them as high-risk activities so I
3:01
always book Cruise Line Tours because I
3:03
want to make sure that they're well
3:05
screened and really well verified now
3:08
this decision was reinforced for me when
3:10
I was doing a helicopter tour on a
3:11
Disney Magic Norway Cruise so I was
3:14
talking to the pilot and I discovered
3:16
that the line only allow certain pilots
3:18
from that company that have over a
3:21
certain amount of flying hours to
3:23
actually be used on their tours in the
3:25
back of my mind this also reinforced the
3:29
the news about a terrible accident in
3:31
Misty FS near ketan Alaska a few years
3:34
back when five Holland American New
3:36
Amsterdam passengers had booked their
3:38
own less costly fly plane tour but
3:40
unfortunately that crashed with the loss
3:42
of their life and that of the pilot I
3:44
know a cruise line Excursion is not a
3:46
guarantee of 100% safety when doing
3:49
risky activities but I feel it does
3:52
reduce the risk for me I feel that
3:54
anyway so if I'm doing anything high
3:56
value and high risk like those or even
3:58
an ATV or or zip lines and so on I do
4:01
tend to book the cruise line screened
4:04
provider tours also as I discovered if I
4:07
have any issues or problems with costly
4:09
trips like that I then have a very
4:11
strong leverage for getting that
4:12
resolved by the cruise line so for
4:13
example I've been refunded recently for
4:16
half of a long cycling Excursion that
4:18
was pretty costly by Cruise Line in
4:20
Marsailles because I felt it just was
4:22
not up to their adverti standards and
4:24
what they had promised so anytime I have
4:26
the slightest question either about
4:28
safety of the place or even the activity
4:30
in my mind I will always book The Cruise
4:33
Line Excursion and I'll stay within that
4:35
bubble but there is another more
4:39
pragmatic issue that determines it too
4:42
the next one actually is the most
4:44
frequent reason that I book a cruise
4:46
line Excursion and that is when the port
4:48
is nowhere near the main attraction or
4:51
the city now this is especially the case
4:53
when I'm cruising in Europe South
4:54
America and Asia because many many many
4:57
of the headline and musty cities and
4:59
places are actually a long way away from
5:02
the port so for example I'm just back
5:05
from a Western Mediterranean cruise on
5:07
Norwegian Viva and three of the ports we
5:11
called on V you know fitted into this
5:13
definition Rome was a good hour at least
5:16
from the port of chiv chia Florence and
5:19
Pisa were an hour an hour and a half
5:21
from the port of lerno and sevil was
5:24
also an hour and a half away from kadiz
5:27
where we were docked now my before that
5:30
was on Regent Explorer and the musi
5:32
Kyoto was also an hour and a half from
5:35
coob where we docked I could reel off
5:38
example after example from so many of my
5:41
cruises so whenever the city or the
5:44
sites that I want to see are a distance
5:46
away I stick with the Cruise Line Tours
5:49
to basically remove the stress and the
5:52
hassle of getting there and particularly
5:54
worrying about getting back in time
5:57
however mostly I book their on your own
6:00
tours because that is a transfer there
6:02
normally has a guide on Route who will
6:04
brief me on what to see how to get
6:06
around they'll give me a contact number
6:08
to call them on if I get lost or stuck
6:10
there's also a meeting point for the
6:12
transfer back but even if the distance
6:16
issue for booking a cruise line
6:17
Excursion does not convince you the next
6:19
one is very practical and it can
6:23
significantly increase your time to
6:26
explore in a port there are two times I
6:30
found that taking a cruise line
6:31
Excursion has made getting out and into
6:33
the port for me easier and faster first
6:37
of all sometimes a cruise line Excursion
6:39
has helped me skip the hassle of getting
6:41
a Visa or it's meant getting through
6:44
immigration faster than those people
6:46
that are not on tours now my best
6:48
example of that that I could think of is
6:50
not actually applicable right now
6:52
because cruise lines have put going
6:54
there on hold but when I went to St
6:56
Petersburg Russia on Silver sea silver
6:59
whisper
7:00
by going on their Cruise Line Excursion
7:02
I didn't have to go to the cost and the
7:04
hassle of getting a Russian visa to
7:07
allow me to get off the ship those
7:09
people self touring they' had to go to
7:11
all the planning and organization of
7:14
getting a Visa in advance now on some
7:16
cruises that call a multiple countries
7:19
sometimes the authorities do require
7:20
passengers to go through immigration so
7:23
on que Murray 2 I was doing a trip
7:25
through Asia and we had to do that in
7:27
Singapore the tours all had priority and
7:29
we actually got off first but friends
7:31
who were self touring found they were
7:33
delayed many hours getting off the ship
7:35
by the cues as they basically processed
7:37
all the Excursion people so now I check
7:39
whether getting a Visa or getting
7:41
through immigration checks is going to
7:43
make going on a cruise line Tour worth
7:46
it now the other time a cruise line Tour
7:48
also speeds things up is in a tender Bo
7:50
this is where we have to get the tender
7:52
Boats off the ship to get into the port
7:55
now on large ships especially like when
7:57
I was on Celebrity Edge on a
7:59
Mediterranean Cruise last year I found
8:02
it could take many hours to get a tender
8:04
because the Again The Cruise Line
8:06
Excursions went first then those in
8:08
premium cabins went next and then
8:10
everybody else had to get a ticket and
8:11
wait for attendant to be called so
8:13
Cruise Line Excursion is a good way of
8:15
getting around all of that however there
8:18
is another consideration of course that
8:20
trumps all of these reasons for doing a
8:23
cruise line Excursion that is frankly
8:25
when it is the only option available to
8:28
me so for example when I went to
8:30
Antarctica we could only go on land with
8:33
the cruise line the same was true also
8:35
when I went to
8:58
galapagus: when they are included within
9:01
the fair so like on that Regent explored
9:04
Japan cruise that I mentioned earlier
9:06
included in my fair was a choice of
9:09
excursions available so as I paid for
9:11
them effectively I did them in each Port
9:14
that we went to the same was true if you
9:17
go on something like when I went on a
9:18
viking ocean cruise from Venice to
9:20
Athens again the excursions were
9:22
included in the fair so I always did one
9:24
of those excursions most River Cruise
9:26
fairs as well also include excursions so
9:29
when I went on a Viking danu river Cru
9:31
recently I did the excursions because
9:33
effectively I've paid for them so check
9:36
if any tours are going to be included
9:38
within your fair it tends to be only a
9:40
few lines that do it and they do tend to
9:42
be the premium ones so that's a a good
9:45
way of just knowing as it were when
9:48
going on Cru excursions I see though
9:51
several huge mistakes that Cruisers make
9:53
when actually going on them so why don't
9:55
you join me in this video where I
9:57
explain what those blunders are starting
9:58
with something that many people do but
10:01
should know way way better see you over
10:04
there
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