0:08
[Music] well hello everybody and welcome to another live stream it's great to have
0:14
you here lots of people uh regulars already joining um so I will do a few bits and pieces of housekeeping and then
0:21
I will uh introduce you to our guest which I'm very excited to have let me everybody's got my emails dinging away
0:28
so I close that down so let me do a couple of housekeeping things really quickly um before we get into bringing
0:33
Karen on board just to remind you we do have a guest this week which is cruise ship Karen more about her in a second um
0:41
a few bits and pieces quickly i just want to remind everybody that I've got this giveaway which is ends on the 14th
0:48
so if you haven't entered uh go to tips.com/giveaway and enter can win uh
0:53
from the Wonder Club uh a voucher where you can collect it's really cool that collect these little tokens for
0:59
countries and places and sites you've seen which I'm slightly obsessed with more about that um in another video or
1:06
whatever and then just let you know that I will be cruising this time next week on Paul and Carol's group cruise so
1:14
probably there will not be a live next week because actually the timing of this live clashes I know with some of the
1:19
events but keep an eye out because if I do do a live um it may be a little at a different time so it might be on Sunday
1:25
but much later time so let me uh introduce our guest and get straight in just remind if you've got a question
1:31
hash put the word question so we know it's a question and I'm going to start uh we're going to focus at the beginning of the live by focusing on stuff
1:38
particularly ports and uh port kind of topics so uh Karen is joining us she's
1:44
known online as cruise ship Karen um I've followed Karen for a while uh
1:50
online finally got to meet her on my Explorer journeys where she is kind of the resident uh port speaker and uh so
1:57
maybe Hello Karen i really appreciate you joining us you're live from Explorer 2 in Tangers I think is that right yeah
2:03
yes thank you for having me Gary i've been a fan of yours for quite a while so yeah I was very happy when I saw you on
2:09
the ship and they're friends and yeah it's lovely to to meet your audience as well great so Karen before we get suck
2:15
into the questions maybe you can talk a little about your background because it's quite interesting because you started as crew and then you've done
2:20
lots of different things you're back now sort of not crew but our crew with your port talks and also what people I think
2:26
quite interesting is the fact that you're not you know you're very independent so a lot of cruise lines
2:32
will do chats where it's the excursions people but you're very independent of that so maybe talk a little bit about
2:37
your background guess people realize you're Scottish from your accent but uh you want to tell us a little bit about you absolutely so um hi everyone um so
2:45
I'm Karen Warl um aka Cruise Ship Karen i've been working on cruise ships uh since on the cruise industry since 2005
2:54
so a long time i started when I was fiveish not really um but yeah um since
3:01
I was young and um I love it i started as a entertainment host um I did that
3:06
for two and a half years entertainment host then international host same thing different languages um that was on Royal
3:12
Caribbean then I was on Princess as assistant cruise director for two years then I was um a cruise director on PO
3:20
for a year um my my what I studied originally was music um my first degree
3:25
is in music performance so put my own band together and then I was a singer for almost 10 years um mostly with
3:32
Holland America um in the the Hellcats i don't know if anyone remembers them we did everything from Gershwin to Gaga and
3:40
everything in between and it was great um and then I was future cruise consultant on Holland America um for
3:47
about a year till co uh COVID happened i got stuck on a ship like a lot of people
3:52
i've got a video on that on my YouTube if anyone's ever bored and wants to check it out and then um I looked at the
3:59
I worked on the land side of cruise during CO um basically my husband who I
4:04
met on a ship he was a piano player in the same band uh he didn't want to come back to ships postco so I tried the real
4:12
world uh I worked for a UK cruise travel agency um I was writing for them and
4:17
then hosting producing um and writing for their TV show um and then an online
4:24
content so I was writing about cruising talking about cruising and destinations but I wasn't really going anywhere I was
4:31
taking the train from Edinburgh down to near Manchester to film every couple of weeks um but I really missed life on
4:38
board and this is what I wanted to do then so since co I've been on ships
4:43
using all these years of firsthand experience um to give talks plus I've
4:48
been travel writing been published since 2017 have my own website about cruise
4:53
travel um I write for different travel magazines like National Geographic Traveler uh in the UK and Asda the
5:01
American Society of Travel Agents in the US i've written for US uh TV travel
5:06
shows so kind of pulling all the threads together so now I do a mixture of I'm a
5:11
freelance speaker i don't work directly for any cruise line um as Gary said so
5:17
here at the moment I'm on tour journeys which I love and I give port talks but they're not your average port talk um as
5:24
Gary mentioned it's not I don't sell anything i don't do any shopping stuff or any tours i talk about um history
5:31
culture customs cuisine things to do things to see things to eat things to drink how to do it all and give my own
5:39
insider tips from all these years of experience so basically I'm kind of like a pre-our guide and my mission is to
5:46
help people connect more with the places that they go so I do that and then on a couple of other lines I do I sort of
5:53
zone in on either history culture customs and cuisine and mythology those
5:58
are kind of my my specialist areas and then I do talks on any of those things i write everything specifically for the
6:04
journeys that I'm going on so I'm always writing and I've got a huge bank of talks now and so yeah that's that's what
6:11
I do any lines I mean because I've come across not not that many lines I mean a
6:16
lot of lines will have port talks but in reality many of them are effectively kind of the excursions team they'll do a
6:22
quick you know five minutes on the port um are there many cruise lines that are
6:28
do full uh you know independent port talks i think when we were together I
6:33
mean I mentioned I when I did the whole America South Honda America South America they had the cruise director who
6:39
was basically doing very I mean he still worked but he wasn't trying to sell excursions but it was very personal it was like here's where we docking here's
6:46
the nearest pharmacy here's the nearest this um Kunard I think when on the World Voyage they did have somebody that was
6:52
quite independent like we did but are there many that that that you know of i mean obviously Explorer Journeys are
6:58
doing it and other lines that you're kind of going doing that on so people know um so the ones that I know of there
7:05
there might be more that I don't know i don't know about all the cruise lines um but um the ones only ones I know of or
7:13
Princess has a role that does that called destination expert i did that in 2023 that was the first line that I was
7:20
speaking on it's when I started doing this side of things um and Holland America used to have the role which was
7:27
called location guide um and and they had EXC guide when they had the EXE
7:33
Exploration Central program and then they got rid of that but it looks like they're starting to bring that back
7:39
again um at the moment it's on the Asia itinerary and the um Australia New
7:44
Zealand itinerary and it might be getting rolled out further so that's a a
7:49
potential that we'll have it as well um I don't know of any other ones i know of a lot more that do port talks but those
7:56
are more as you say kind of like more talking about the tours with a little bit of port information rather than all
8:04
just genuine info without any angle i mean it'd be great if if they do more lines to that i'm certainly that well
8:10
because it sort of leads on to a question which Chris asked which I think is is is quite appropriate is like what
8:15
should you look out for when booking your own shore excursions what are today's reliable sources to find the
8:20
best excursions because obviously in your talks having been to them you do talk about if you want to self-explore
8:26
here you can go here's where the taxis are etc what what when people ask you because I'm sure you get asked this on on the
8:33
trip like what is the advice kind of you give when people say I want to do my own shore excursion so not self-explore what
8:38
do you what what advice do you give to people so um because I'm on the ship I
8:44
you know I can't directly say oh you must book this one with Vio and the ship's rubbish I can't say something
8:51
negative but um I personally I'll do a mix of doing excursions with the ship or
8:57
exploring on my own for Me personally it depends on the port i know some people
9:02
um do independent ones as well companies that uh people use generally or Viaur is
9:08
a big one get your guides a big one tours for locals is a big one those are the ones that I've heard about people
9:15
using a lot um for me um it it's not a
9:20
ship tours are good or bad i think they are very good and it's personal preference about what you want to do
9:25
that day which is what would make me choose um but as general tips and kind of rules that I go by um if I want to go
9:33
somewhere that's at least an hour's drive from the ship I will always go with a ship tour um because if something
9:41
happens getting back um you get stuck or anything you're covered or if it's
9:46
tricky to get to on your own if it's somewhere you know that you need two or three different modes of transport to
9:52
get there versus getting there straight there with a ship and that's kind of twofold that's useful because um the
10:00
time it takes so you don't want you've got one day you might have eight or 10 hours in port you don't want to spend
10:05
five of those hours just getting there and back like um I'm going to Levo uh
10:11
next week for example here um you can get to to Florence by train and I've done it before but it's also stressful
10:18
same in Chvettoia for Rome so it depends on the timing it means how long if you've got an overnight you're a bit
10:24
more relaxed with the time than if you've got a shorter port day so for me it depends how far it is how tricky it
10:30
is to get to and also is the tour doing something that I can't do on my own or
10:36
is very difficult to do on my own because sometimes you might have things like uh one of my favorite ship tours
10:42
I've done was actually it was on Explorer 1 last June and I went to um an
10:49
Auako native village um called Cananama in um Colombia from the port of Santa
10:56
Martr this was literally going to this village in the jungle that you couldn't do that on your own so something like
11:02
that that there's this is the only way you can do that for me that's or it's something very special i'm very my kind
11:09
of mission is um trying to find authentic travel experiences that for me
11:14
was a very authentic travel experience and that was really interesting and I couldn't have done that on my own but
11:20
then you get other ports like we were in Cadis in Spain yesterday the ship docks right next to town there and if you you
11:26
know if you've never been to Cadis and you just want to stroll around the town you can walk to everything there's you know cathedrals there's a tower there's
11:33
the beaches there's lovely shops and restaurants so that's easy to do on your own so for me it's it it's all about
11:40
depending on the port but I would look for the distance how difficult it is to do on your own um and those would be
11:47
companies that I mentioned i've used Get Your Guide a few times on land on my own and they I've never had any problems
11:54
there um so yeah just weigh up where are you going when how long does it take and
12:00
then it's up to you yeah I mean I think just building that I mean I'm I'm the same so if I'm looking if if if
12:08
something's further away like if I'm going like the same Osaka for Kyoto stuff like whenever it's an hour or something away I would tend to use a
12:15
cruise line excursion not even an independent excursion but to Chris's question you know I if if you're looking
12:20
for an independent provider so not um I'm assuming he's asking not cruise line the companies that I focus on is um like
12:28
Shore Excursions Group the reason being that they uh they uh first of all it's
12:34
very easy to do because both them and Venture are shore you put in your cruise line you put in your ship and the date
12:40
and it then brings up a bit like the cruise line does all the ports and what they offer but also what I know with
12:46
Shore Excursions Group is they only put in tours that they know will work with the timing uh and they also build in the
12:52
guarantee that we they will get you back to the ship on time so it takes some stress out and if for any reason they
12:57
don't for some reason uh they will make all the arrangements and cover all the costs to get to the to the to the port
13:04
so it's that sort of reassurance and I know Venture Shaw have that vtor I'm not 100% sure if they do um so so but it's a
13:12
lot around this is taking the stress out is one of the things I would do the other thing Chris that I also recommend
13:17
which I think you you spoke about there Karen is if if you have a specific interest uh like golfing or you know
13:25
something often you'll find the independent providers do that um uh you know that's and there's tours by local
13:31
is if you want something really really hyper local that's another good one because again they're people that
13:36
they're not that expensive but they they're going to do something a little bit un unusual because I I do tend to find shore excursions on cruise ships
13:43
tend to be because they need to fill um buses they tend to be kind of like the
13:48
big uh you know the big tick must tick things here's a very specific there was
13:53
a question about your fave reports i'll come back to them in a second quite specific i don't know how well you know this this part of the world um Colin we
14:00
booked a Princess cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii in October what excursions would you recommend in Hawaii are you
14:06
familiar with Hawaii is it a place yeah I've been to Hawaii a lot i don't know which excursions are offered on that
14:12
cruise on those days or anything but um generally um in Hawaii so um they didn't
14:19
say Colin could you say which islands you're going to be visiting or I'll get a couple overview if you want
14:28
um h so yeah I would say in Aahu um when you're going um there like that's where
14:35
um you know the main city is Honolulu is um Honolulu is quite easy to do on your
14:40
own um going around the actual city um a couple of good ones that I've done there are um going up to Diamond uh Diamond
14:48
Crater up to the Diamond Mountain at the edge of there if you want to do a hike there they they often do hikes either at
14:54
dawn or dusk which are really cool you get a beautiful view of the area um anything that's going out on any of the
15:00
islands well there or the big island going up to the volcano um I would do that one with a tour because you can't
15:06
really do that on your own um and for safety and everything and you'll have a tour guide with you um or anything
15:13
getting into the water i've done a couple of really good snorkeling tours there uh one in Honolulu actually where
15:19
it went snorkeling with um with turtles sea turtles obviously
15:24
you can't touch them you got to you know there's strict rules which is good um but that was a really good one um as
15:30
well and I also did another one um which was going to people's homes and learning
15:37
about their lives and you kind of did a little house hop and you had something to drink and a snack in each place and a
15:44
different host who had very different lifestyles one was a kind of surfer house which was all kind of very you
15:50
know hippie and artsy and bohemian um and then another one was this grand old mansion um and another one was this
15:57
really sort of slick uh city place so that was really cool way to connect with locals so I'm not sure if those are
16:04
available one of my favorites was in Maui um I'm not sure if this one will
16:09
still exist because of you know everything that happened in Maui with the fires but a really good one there um
16:16
that I did was a hike going into the rainforest and uh we walked all the way into the rainforest and we got to swim
16:23
in a waterfall and jump off the waterfall into this cool lagoon it was very much kind of my image of Hawaii you
16:30
know if you've seen the movie South Pacific I know Hawaii's not in the south south but the the kind of the scene with
16:36
Happy Talk and the beautiful rainforest and everything that one was a really good one as well um so those would be a
16:42
few of my favorites oh and in also in Kawaii there was a really good one he
16:47
put the islands there so he's going to Kawaii he's Oh cool perfect so I've said
16:53
favorite one for Maui and and Hilo was where I did the one going to people's houses and in Hilo and Honolulu there's
17:00
normally tours to the volcanoes um and Honolulu was the one with the swimming with the turtles that was very good and
17:07
then um my favorite one in Kawaii kawaii is beautiful it's called the Garden Island um they had a movie like a movie
17:14
set tour because a lot of movies have been filmed there um including King Kong
17:20
and Jurassic Park jurassic Park's my favorite movie so I was the really annoying little nerd there when they
17:26
said "Oh and this is where I was like this is where the Gammus was chasing Dr grant." And they're like "Yes this is
17:32
where the Galimas were chasing Dr grant." So it's if you like movies and especially those ones have a look at uh
17:39
which movies were filmed there um I think that tour should still be running that was really good or generally for me
17:45
I would say Hawaii um anything that gets you out into the countryside is a good tour anything that will take you to the
17:51
waterfalls to the rainforest because that's something that's difficult to do on your own great so Angie asked a
17:58
question um which maybe I can answer regarding independent tours have you encountered issues with the port authority and cruise line prevent the
18:05
tour operator from coming peer side someone must hike to the peer so certainly not the cruise line i haven't seen that stop i mean what's really
18:11
important is on you know I haven't seen that what I've normally seen is any independent tour providers can meet
18:17
where they're allowed to meet basically so on some of those big work working ports where you're not allowed to walk
18:23
you might have to get the shuttle bus to the area but often you'll find that's true of the cruise line excursions i
18:29
know sometimes the cruise line buses can come around to the ship but not always they normally if it's a working port you
18:35
going to have to get a shuttle anyway to to that area so So they will normally wait where the tours waiting anyway i've
18:41
never seen them being stopped also because a lot of those uh tour independent tour operators are quite big
18:48
locally i mean they're they're going to every single ship every every day kind
18:53
of thing is my experience they've got quite a good relationship with those but I haven't seen any one being stopped
18:59
have you had any experience that yeah I have um I would say it definitely depends on the port uh there's a few
19:06
ports if there it's to do with as you said it's the port authority to do with the level of um of security and also how
19:14
big the port is and if it's a working port i've like 99.9999% of the time the ship tours
19:21
leave from right next to the ship that's part of the convenience of it they're allowed in because they're with the ship
19:28
um um there's a few places that you um you'd have to if you're an independent
19:33
tour you well obviously you can't get right next to the ship it's at the gate so where the security gates are coming
19:39
in independent tours are always on the other side of the gate so it's useful to check where that is um but for example
19:47
Casablanca in Morocco um I've been there a few times in the quite a few times in
19:52
this last year uh 10 um the it's it's a large working port and they have a
19:59
shuttle bus that takes guests from kind of two lengths of the about five says
20:04
about 500 meters um outside the ship you walk then there's a customs building
20:10
that's about 500 meters about two lengths of a ship or one length if it's a big ship um you go through there and
20:16
then that's where the shuttle buses take you into town which is United Nations Square if anyone knows Casablanca and
20:23
then so the the ship tours will take you from there at the ship or at the customs
20:29
bit but then the independent tours normally can't even get in the port area
20:35
So they would they would be outside the port and the port there for example it's about 20 to 25 minute walk to get out of
20:42
the port it's a big working port it's quite scary walking through it because
20:48
it's the 70% of the um all the goods that come into North Africa go through
20:53
that port so take the shuttle bus so my advice would be if you're taking um an
20:58
independent one the most important thing is to find out where you'll be picked up and where you'll be dropped off if
21:05
there's a comp companies that get you as close as possible that's what you want because I've known people oh sorry as
21:13
you're right because also I mean what what the good news if you book like a buy a tour venture show they tell you
21:19
where you know they tell you where to meet and you're right i remember that the thing with tensions you had to get a liy bus to the customs thing and then
21:25
outside there was because if you're getting a shuttle bus into town the shuttle bus was that side but there's all the independent tour operators there with their whatever their sign or Mr
21:32
benbridge or or what whatever it was so there's actually a question because you're in San sorry sorry say one more
21:39
with that um what I would say is just always double check um I met there was someone on um the ship literally a
21:47
couple of weeks ago very well traveled had a tour in Rome and the port for Rome
21:52
is Chvetkia that's an hour and a half away they booked a walking tour in Rome
21:57
and hadn't realized Rome's an hour and a half away so they were meeting in a place in Rome and they didn't realize
22:05
you've got to get all the way in so there's there's not that many ports that are that far away but always just double
22:10
check google maps i think that's a good watch it comes back to the watch we said earlier about if if a place is far away
22:16
you know sticking with the cruise line i mean sometimes what I like about those further away ports i've done it quite a lot in Levero Chvichia
22:24
uh even in Asian ports is the cruise line will often offer a do it on your own which is effectively just a transfer
22:31
so they'll take you there at least you know you got the bus they normally have a guide who will hand out some maps and stuff and that so that that's that's I
22:37
always find that's a good that's a good option versus then going the whole way with the excursion so just there was a
22:43
question exactly yeah yeah um gonna be on Crystal in October from Lisbon to Barcelona any
22:50
recommendations for things to do excursions in Tangier i'm glad they asked this because someone actually asked me this last week maybe it was Tom
22:56
as well and I couldn't answer the question because in Tangier I hadn't done any excursions because I'm going back in October so and I had on region
23:03
where the excursions are included but I couldn't remember what I booked um so so Karen absolutely well I'm literally
23:11
there today we are yeah we're It's Can I turn this and show you i don't know i
23:17
can't really see very much yeah you can see that over there so yeah um so um it
23:24
depends how long you've got as well um so my favorite excursion in Tangier is
23:29
Chef Shiaan that's the blue city if you Google Chef Shiain or just the blue city
23:34
of Morocco it's beautiful um it's at least 2 hours drive from the ship um so
23:40
that's one I would take a tour with uh definitely a ship one um it's really really nice um you go in the old town
23:47
area you're walking around um it's it's very nice um Chef Shiaan um I was going
23:53
to go into a whole bunch of detail but I'll just give you a few pointers uh Chef Shiain is a big one um Tetuan is
23:59
the white dove city um it's uh it has like the Andalucian architecture because
24:05
the Moors from Moritania North Africa went over to Spain and uh Portugal in
24:11
the year 7-Eleven conquered the whole area then the the Catholic kings came in and booted them out in the 1400s so they
24:18
came back to Morocco so you'll see architecture that's a mix of Moroccan and Andalucian and it's all kind of come
24:24
together which is very interesting um which you see in Tangier as well tangier itself is kind of like Morocco light
24:31
it's the most European of the places in Morocco because it's so close to Spain it's very easy to go around on your own
24:39
um you can walk from the ship it's only a 15minute walk to the start of the souk um you go into the the market area um
24:46
it's literally what was just shown there it's literally around the corner and you can walk around it's quite easy um but
24:53
the excursions Chef Shaan's great uh Ailla is very nice as well normally that's paired with the cave of Hercules
25:00
it's quite small it's not amazing just on its own it's very small cave um but
25:05
Ailla with Ailla it's very nice tetuan's nice um I'd say those are probably my my
25:12
top picks here or they also normally do walking tours as well in Tangier um going up to the old Casba area so I'm a
25:19
big fan of walking tours because I feel like you get a really good sense of the character of the place um so any of
25:25
those I would recommend great so maybe we'll just take because there's a few other questions which are not
25:30
specifically related to port maybe I'll I'll cover a couple of those just remind everybody if you've joined so the guest
25:36
today is cruise ship Karen Karen Moral who's a port expert port independent
25:41
port talker on cruise lines including which you've been How long have you been on explorer like two months now
25:47
something like that almost two months yeah so giving port uh port talk so if you have any questions with ports ask
25:53
them but I'm going to cover a quick before I lose them i want to make sure I just cover a couple of the other questions so I'll just quickly jump into
26:00
those so Chris who's a regular here good to see you Chris amma is offering Smithsonian journeys on select sellings
26:06
in Europe have you ever sailed with Smithsonian experts prices much higher so I haven't sailed with Smithsonian
26:13
experts but I have been on uh in the old the olden days they're still going roads scholar which is um you know they're
26:20
heavy enrichment focused they actually do charters and they were it was amazing
26:26
um because the quality of the speakers was very top you know high end I would imagine if the Smithsonian because they
26:32
have the brand to protect I would imagine it would be pretty magical and also what's interesting is on river cruises I adding in good a good uh
26:41
enrichment would be amazing because that's one thing that they kind of lack have you ever sailed the Smithsonian or
26:46
come across Smithsonian Karen no but I I would basically think exactly the same as as you um I would imagine it
26:53
would be very high level and very good anything that has has any affiliation with museums there that is very well
27:00
vetted speakers so I would say sounds good here's a good tip from Rose rosemary's a um a regular she's one of
27:08
my um patrons uh and does a lot of a lot of traveling particularly excursion kind
27:15
of focus very interested in history and excursion stuff um and she what she's saying which may be a good tip for Chris and other people is she's booked a
27:22
Smithsonian journey for Pon Australian Kimbley i'm glad you're going to Kimberly uh Rosemary price was cheaper
27:28
than booking directly pant and that's actually really interesting because often some of these charters they're chartering and they're getting a good
27:33
price so that's that's quite an interesting way of going in this stone way christine's asking a question which
27:39
hi there good to see Christine is also Christine's been on one of my group cruises today i think Christine's on my
27:45
next group cruise so good to see Christine here in Japan in March 26 so I
27:51
think you're coming on Panama so maybe you're going straight after that christine um is a visa required to visit
27:56
Japan and South Christine the best thing to do would be to look at the state department site because it's US specific
28:04
um they have a really good site in the UK there's also a very good site if you're from the UK which is the foreign office so I always put in like FCO Japan
28:11
FCO South Korea i would do the same state Department Japan so certainly and I don't know the answer for US citizens
28:17
but UK citizens I did need a visa for Japan or South Korea but a lot of countries are introducing those like the
28:24
UK's done Europe are doing those of Esters and that changes all the time so
28:30
that's why I would check that because often when they're phasing those electronic travel things they're
28:37
sometimes uh phased at different times a couple of super chats coming in so I want to want to answer one more general
28:45
question um which was around Costa i just want to answer that's very important let's see
28:51
if I can find that i'm jumping normally I do them in sequential so normally can find that where's there was a question
28:57
someone just point out is it's Mother's Day I guess in the US it's not Mother's Day here so happy Mother's Day if you're
29:02
uh if you're US or Canada wherever day it's very confusing because they do Mother's Day and Father's Day out of
29:08
sync between Europe and the UK and the US so uh so Anthony with the recent
29:14
announcement that Costa Fortuna was being withdrawn the sixth one gone since CO do you think Costa's future in
29:19
jeopardy anthony it's actually the opposite one of the things that's very interesting if you look at the carnival
29:25
results which they every quarter they um they do uh you know update the city and
29:31
the the two of their most profitable lines they talk about are Carnival by a
29:37
mile and actually Aida in Germany costa is you know in there in terms of
29:42
profitability i think what you find is they are Carnival Corporation is is is basically clearing out inefficient ships
29:49
and pumping new ships into Carnival so I don't think Kasa is is at risk because
29:55
it's one of their big flagship uh lines and I haven't seen anything they've never uh called called out so I wouldn't
30:01
worry about that they are just looking for more efficient ships and and right sizing as you probably know they pulled
30:06
some Costa ships out and rebranded them as Carnival ships sort of it's uh I
30:11
can't what they call it now is it the Italian cruise experience or something or other right so let's get back there's
30:17
a couple of uh port questions so we'll jump back into those um so oh so
30:23
Rosemary saying she took this she's already done the Kimberly cruise it's a solo one and it was good thanks thanks
30:28
for that clarification so we got actually here which is very nice carl and Dawn I hear that Mazatalan is not a
30:36
safe port of call your thought I called it Matalan last week we Mazatan
30:42
which is the the uh cruise i've only been there once um I didn't feel
30:47
particularly unsafe but I've heard that what would your do you have any better information on that yeah I love Mazatlan
30:54
um Mazatlan is is a lovely port i don't feel unsafe there um this was something
31:00
we were talking about earlier i was going to add a thing this is linked in here with you know this sort of links
31:05
with regards to doing things on tours or exploring on your own as well um
31:11
something is um you know safety you want to feel safe and everyone's level of how comfortable they are exploring on their
31:17
own is different and you know it depends on where you're from health um if you're
31:22
traveling on your own or you're with a group and also if you're familiar with the place for me I speak Spanish French
31:29
and Italian so I feel like I'm invincible anywhere that speaks those languages i never ever feel unsafe
31:36
that's part of it for me but even that aside Mazatlan I I really love Mexico i think
31:42
it's a lovely country i think people are super nice it's welcoming i have never personally felt unsafe in any Mexican
31:49
port uh Mazatlan I know they had a bit of troubles a while ago but it didn't really seem to get to the the cruise
31:56
area um I was there um when was it a year and a half ago was the last time I
32:02
was there no a year ago about a year ago and it was absolutely fine it felt very
32:08
Mark and I were there at at Christmas but Carl and Dawn what what I actually do a bit like um Karen was saying any
32:15
port where I feel there may be a an issue I always stick I either stay on
32:21
the ship or I go on a on a cruise line excursion in fact but one of the things I also do and I do this actually even
32:27
with some of the Caribbean ports because the advice changes i I look at the advice now the US again we mentioning
32:34
ear the state department on the state department they the state department probably has a much more a very conservative view about safety and they
32:42
what they do for Mexico which I've seen is they split Mexico down you know for some they'll do a country guidance but
32:49
actually on they because different parts of Mexico I guess have different kind of safety issues based on cartels and drug
32:56
gangs and I guess whatever so um and of course they're talking not just for crews that but I always go on that that
33:01
side i look at the foreign office and just check my ports and if any of them say elevated I will go on a cruise line
33:08
excursion i stick with the cruise line or or if I'm really concerned stay stay on stay on the ship um G now probably
33:16
this is a little bit difficult because we don't know which port you're going to but I'm assuming we're probably talking Skagway Juno and Ketchacan so G um
33:24
because those are the three probably most likely ones but if G you do have any others that we've left out so good
33:29
places to eat when important i'm going to I'm going to tell you one and then I'll ask if you've got because you you're probably more refined than I am
33:36
but I always say and I say in all my Alaska videos probably the best fish and chips I've ever had i'm not a big fish
33:41
and chip fan is in Ketchacan yeah sorry in Juno and it's right it's a place
33:47
right by where the uh float planes take off and I always forget the name of it's called something the great Alaskan fish
33:53
and chip shop or something like that it's a little scrappy old place um it's that building where where literally just
34:00
behind where the the um the float planes go from and it is not very expensive uh
34:06
and it is incredible so that's not very classy but I guess because it's salmon bakes and all that sort of stuff so So
34:13
do you have better recommendations than my uh inexpensive fish and chips yes I
34:19
do um my favorite place to eat in the entire world is in Juno and this is like
34:27
you know if you talk about what would your last meal be my last meal would be
34:32
Tracy's King Crabshack in Juno it's near near the
34:38
waterfr Alaska Cats that you're talking about um but literally on the pier near the ship and it was I first went there
34:47
about 15 no 18 years ago um it was a shack and now you can Google it it's um
34:55
it's more of a restaurant that's still very casual um and they also have an upmarket restaurant called Salt um
35:02
that's in town so you could either go for the restaurant restaurant vibe or the more casual one me and my husband
35:08
had our first proper date in salt um which is cool i love this place and I
35:13
would definitely recommend having the the king crab combo so it has the king
35:18
crab legs i Oh I'm almost drooling thinking about this it's the crab legs are like the size of your arm they are
35:25
ridiculous um oh on my YouTube channel I've got a video for all these ports including one on it's called E Karen
35:33
eating around Alaska or something like that if you want to have I've got that's on cruise shipcaren.com
35:39
yes either via the website or the YouTube channel um it's all about like I've got a whole series i did a series
35:46
page of the video so but if people go to so if if they go on YouTube to cruise ship Karen and just search on the little
35:52
thing search oh they probably just type cruise ship car Alaska in the overall search or go to your page it should yeah
35:58
you'll see my little face um but that would be my favorite you get the king crab legs and you get the crab bisque
36:03
which is incredible and the crab cakes it's $45 or something 100% worth it you
36:08
can even share it between two people cuz it's a lot and you get buttered rolls absolute favorite in Skag in Skagway
36:15
there's a place called um Wild Alaska Catch and they do an all you can eat
36:21
dungeoness crab uh I can eat two dungeoness crabs I learned um but my
36:26
friend ate five um yeah that's an awful lot of crabs yeah he was like he took it
36:32
as a challenge and he just sat and held his tummy all day after that um but it's really really good crab i So I would
36:38
recommend that as well um then where else did we have um that was Skagwid do
36:44
you know Ketchacan oh Ketchacan is amazing as well there's um lots of um
36:50
there's little Let me see oh there's the best burgers I've ever had around are in Ketchacan at a place um called Burger
36:57
Queen uh when you get off the ship if you walk to the left you're going through a little tunnel and it's right
37:03
there and there's also a place right next to it ah the name is missing i'm missing the name um it's got a it's got
37:09
a bear on it and it's called Alaska it's something like Alaska Catch as well it has really good seafood um so re really
37:17
good places there and there's an excellent Asian restaurant as well um but you probably want the seafood uh so
37:23
yeah very very good seafood those would be Watch out with Tracy's Crab Shack is that often there could be huge lines
37:29
outside so it's probably worth timing like getting in early I guess before the
37:34
I've been there before and there's been like big lines because it's so it's become such an kind of iconic place I guess to it has yeah i mean I've even
37:41
literally got the t-shirt from there because I got it okay let's move to the fjords i get asked about the fjords a
37:47
lot i think I mentioned this to you so Noel um is uh you know I mean the good
37:53
news is actually Noel is is Norway's actually settled down a bit so a lot of the ports that were talking about
37:59
stopping they're not stopping anymore they're still trying to bring in new rules around more eco friendly ships but
38:04
they what they some of the bans have gone so been pushed out but you're right they may change so they're currently
38:10
calling it Granga Flam if I pronounce correct and Alisont train with teens and
38:15
kids so um so can can I give one t I'll give my my one tip and then you'll have
38:21
more so in FL for me that it's the train the train and the train and I think your
38:27
kids will absolutely love the train which goes right up the mountain you stop halfway and there's a Laurelite not
38:33
Laura it's in the rine but the lady of the mountain comes out and does a performance and it's very exciting um
38:40
very incredible scenery the train's fun um that would be my tip for Flam did you
38:45
What What do you have for the for the the others yeah Flam um the the train is
38:51
my favorite the scenery is absolutely spectacular try and get go on early um
38:56
because it gets busier as the day goes on they have I think three or four uh trips throughout the day um check the
39:03
prices between doing it on your own or doing it with ship normally it's about the same but just double check that but
39:08
either way if it's the ship one they do the early one um but just check it as well but that's amazing um and also
39:15
walking there if you've got if you do the the train for part of the day then there's a beautiful walk where you can
39:21
go up behind the village and there's a waterfall in the distance you walk through this beautiful valley it's
39:26
absolutely gorgeous and you can walk right up to the waterfall um so with kids and teens if they're they like
39:33
active things then going hiking is great take your swimming swimming clothes
39:38
because if you're there in the summer it might be warm enough to go swim in a fjord i would highly recommend swimming
39:44
in a fjord it's amazing it's not warm but it's beautiful um Gdanga Fjord is is
39:51
lovely again it's a tiny tiny little town um it's e either there's not a lot
39:57
it's a village it's not even a village it's very they're very very small so walking around there won't take you very
40:02
long maybe an hour maximum but you could either go hiking from there from any of the ports is great if you want to just
40:09
go for a walk and be out in the beautiful countryside um or take a tour um from from Gedangar Fjord then you can
40:16
go out and see more places further away and see more of the countryside that's good as well um and if it goes out to
40:23
Hardangar Fiard is one of the places it goes to this is where the Hardangar fiddle comes from which is a violin
40:29
that's specifically from that area and I think there's a there I've been on a tour before there that you go and see
40:35
how the fiddle's made and you see a performance and that was very good too um Alison is um you can walk around the
40:43
town easily by yourself it's it's very the ship docks very close there isn't it buildings as well exactly
40:51
and there's a really hiking up the mountain i like hiking up the hill is what I like doing yeah yeah there's a
40:56
there's an excellent aquarium in Allison as well which is on the edge of the town and so yeah lots of good options okay um
41:03
Sam asking um any thoughts or recommendations for Porto Plata
41:08
i don't think I've I don't think I've ever been to Porto Plata take a tour
41:14
that's when I would take a tour it's um so in the Dominican Republic Puerto Plata it's um so Amber Cove is the the
41:21
port area and it's one of these what I call the kind of Disneyland ports it's not the port has been purpose made for
41:29
cruise ships it's it's not got much of a soul it's kind of pretty there's a few shops there's a coffee shop buy the
41:35
coffee the coffee is amazing um but there's shopping and there's a couple of people there'll be people dressed up
41:41
doing some local dancing playing music but it's a little bit Disneyland version
41:46
so I would get out of there porto Plata is the nearest town it's about a 25minut drive from there um you could either
41:52
take a ship tour if you want um or you could take there's local tours when you go outside there's a board with
41:58
different tours offered and taxis arrange agree prices before you get in anything to make sure you're comfortable
42:06
with it um and remember it's it's touristy there but they speak Spanish
42:11
and if you pick up a local taxi driver they may or may not speak much English
42:16
so if you you know chat with the drivers first if you're going to take a local taxi to make sure they speak enough but
42:24
if you want information I would just take a tour there um and getting out in the rainforest is absolutely gorgeous
42:30
there that would be my favorite going to see the the wildlife is is fantastic so that would be my top pick christopher
42:39
um on Queen Victoria in July calling into Naples we're wondering what's the best way to spend the day amalfi Pompei
42:46
a bit of both i'm very biased because I would Pompei I think is just amazing but
42:51
and the Malfi is great but so what would you what would your recommendation be
42:56
well how long have we got i lived in Naples uh so I've got a million things
43:01
to recommend uh I lived I taught English as a foreign language in Naples for a few months years ago that's why I speak
43:07
Italian um you I'd say Amalfi Pompei a bit of both you can't do both in one day
43:13
they're they're too far apart um unless you have a private driver that will take you everywhere um but getting from the
43:20
ship uh Naples is right there you get off the ship all the stuff in the city is literally right there it's very easy
43:26
to get around on your own um so there's a ton of stuff in Naples um but to quickly cover Amalfi first Amalfi coast
43:34
is an entire coastline it takes an hour and a half without traffic to to drive
43:39
to the main places but there's always traffic so this is why I'm saying you can't really do both in one day uh
43:46
Pompei um I would probably do that it's easier to do it with a tour um there's
43:51
also Herculanium so Pompei is probably more famous too yeah herculanium is is
43:57
another village that was completely covered by Vuvius when it erupted in 79 AD um and it was the more highclass
44:04
neighborhood so it's smaller um but it was more covered quicker so it's
44:09
actually better preserved so you can see fresco on the walls and things which is amazing pompei was a larger city so
44:16
you'll see more different types of things so just if you've seen one that doesn't mean oh I've seen the one so I
44:22
don't need to see the other they're both amazing um it's easier to do that with a tour because if you go on your own you
44:28
can um but you could take um from the ship you can take the tram to the local train station and then the train up
44:35
there and then walk from the train into Pompei so if you're comfortable with that you can totally do that but it just
44:40
takes longer um so it's probably well it's definitely easier with a tour um
44:46
the Amalfi Coast if you but you Pompei is doable on your own the Amalfi Coast i
44:52
wouldn't recommend on your own in one day just because it's further away um
44:57
it's about more than an hour at least drive to get to anywhere there um to
45:03
Sarrento which is kind of on the edge and then it goes down there's Positano Amalfi Rall up on the hill so if you
45:09
want to see more than one of those you could do a tour that does the Amalfi Coast that might do commonly they'll go
45:16
to either Positano or Amalfi or Sarrento or probably two of those things um or um
45:25
Pompei so it depends how much time you've got there if you've got Naples we did there was a there's a little ferry
45:31
that goes from you get off the ship it's right there and that goes across to the island and Srento yeah so you can go to
45:39
that's quite that you can that's quite easy because we got off the ship we went on the ferry uh it was quite rough
45:45
actually the day we went um and then we just explored around we actually went on I think like was like a hop on a bus or
45:50
some bus that went round and then wandered around the town and came came back that was that was doable i think we might have actually done the cruise line
45:56
but it was kind of a go go go as your own thing let me just jump to the non one and then come back because there's
46:01
quite a few more um things but Jack who's also a patron done a super chat
46:07
three single male friends 35 36 39 and uh Jack 62 talking about doing a week
46:13
cruise all of us straight but none looking to hook up social none drink I think Virgin is a great idea actually
46:19
Jack because it's you know it's it's over 18s it's got a great vibe it's not crazy party but there's lots going on
46:25
there's lots of social people very social it's very out you know outdoors really good food so um you know you have
46:32
lots of dining so the four of you will be able to go every night have a different dining experience um you know
46:38
and there's lots of little bars live music dotted around the place um bit of
46:43
partying not crazy partying uh quite social um the other one that I always
46:49
think is is something like a Nor like a Royal Caribbean but that's just you know massive big ship and completely crazy
46:56
but but I think Virgin is a really good idea um to go because you're going to get lots of singles couples uh average
47:03
age is older than people expect around 50 but if you're doing out of the
47:09
Caribbean there'll be a lot of kind of 30 40omes on that so I would definitely definitely recommend that there's
47:15
another super which I actually can't answer uh I think this is can a woman
47:21
enter the US from Mexico on a visa 12D john unfortunately I have no idea um you
47:28
would need to check the State Department kind of rules on that i don't I don't know what a
47:35
12d I can't answer that one um let's have uh let's look there was there's um
47:42
uh here we are tom's got a question we will be in Lisbon for 4 days prior to leaving on our Crystal Cruise any
47:48
recommendations what are must see and do so four days in Lisbon is fantastic there's lots to see and do what What
47:54
What do you recommend on in in Lisbon uh so I was in Lisbon yesterday and the day
47:59
before um and I've been a lot I'm obsessed with Lisbon it's amazing the more I go the more I love it um top top
48:07
things get a Lisbon card first off get a Lisbon card um it's uh it gets you into
48:14
all the museums the monastery um it gives you free uh transport on the trams
48:20
and the buses all around the city it's excellent value for money um they do 24
48:26
hours 48 hours or 72 hours the 24 hours is
48:31
31 that's what I did uh just now cuz I was there for a day and a half with the ship um the 48 hour one I think is 50 or
48:40
51 the 72-hour i'm not sure because I didn't look at that one because I wasn't there that long but I think it's about
48:46
maybe about 60 65 i would get the 3-day one if you've got four days um you
48:52
there's so many amazing things to visit there um I'm putting posts up at the moment on my socials of everything I did
48:59
if you want to check them out um but a couple of my top tips would be the castle of Salor it's a fantastic castle
49:07
i'm Scottish i've got like I'm obsessed with castles it's in my DNA um but it's a particularly good castle and go there
49:14
in time for the tours they do a tour at 11:00 a.m uh 3:00 p.m and 400 p.m in
49:19
English so go in before just before then the main square as soon as you get in
49:25
you can join the tour it's included in the price it's ā¬18 to go in there um on
49:30
its own um generally but if you've got the Lisbon card it's included with everything if you've got the Lisbon card
49:36
you also don't have to line up for anything you just go straight to the front which is very good and then the so
49:42
the castle you've got the castle do the tour and also at the top of the castle they do um a camera obscura which not
49:49
many people know about between 11:00 a.m and 2:00 p.m they do a new show every 20
49:55
minutes it alternates from being in English and Portuguese it's included in the price as well it's really good so
50:02
everything in the castle um this Geronimo's monastery that's where I went yesterday morning it is absolutely
50:09
stunning my tip for that is go before it opens it opened at 9:30 yesterday
50:15
morning i was in the line at 9:25 with a Lisbon card and I still waited 50
50:20
minutes okay it's very popular so if it opens at every day opens at 9:30 be
50:27
there at 9:00 a.m with your Lisbon card you'll be the first in and you won't h you shouldn't have to wait also right
50:33
next to that in that area you've got the BM tower this is the BM area the BM
50:38
tower is fantastic it's got three levels in the museum it's all about um the
50:44
fortifications there it's next to the the discoveries monument that has uh discoverers from um Lisbon over the
50:51
years and from Portugal and even better it's got the the paste
50:58
develas so the paste denata pastel dinata which are kind of popular all over the world this is where they
51:05
started um absolutely amazing and a tip for that there's always big lines
51:10
there's two main ways in one to sit in one takeaway there's a second one on the
51:15
left hand side which I went into yesterday morning and got a big pile of them for my friends on the ship and I
51:21
just walked straight in and bought it so there's a little door on the left um go in and and get them uh also my favorite
51:29
restaurant is called Solar Dos prestos i have stuff on my um website
51:35
you could on my socials if you want to have see a video of it but solar like solar power do os prestos p r e s u n t-
51:43
os it's quite up market but it's really really good uh local food and it's very
51:49
nice um then I would also say I went to the museum of ancient art yesterday morning it's excellent as well if you
51:56
like old art and ceramics and everything porcelain um there's a lot of good
52:01
museums there there's a ceramic tile museum with the the Portuguese azueras the auleos the the blue sort of tiles uh
52:09
there's a ton of museums so get the Lisbon card and just put you know see what your favorite is and see where they
52:15
are you can group things together in areas so you can do a whole bunch of things um I would definitely do that um
52:22
it's a really really lovely city yeah I like Lisbon the thing which I quite like you know the start probably does
52:27
adventures that I also just there's like quite a nice relatively expensive river cruise that goes right from that
52:32
beautiful square and goes up past that famous thing right down so you also get
52:38
to see kind of a little bit of of it of it from and you go under the bridge the one that looks like the Golden Gate
52:43
Bridge built by this designed by the same guy um oh one more thing for Lisbon uh
52:50
go to see fo music in the evening f ADO it's traditional Portuguese music from
52:55
the early 1800s it's like soulful sad music normally with a guitar a mandolin
53:00
and singers uh there's a lot of good places to see it i the two nights ago I
53:06
was in Retido um I've forgotten the name of it i'll
53:12
put it I'll post it i can't remember the name of hand but there's a See any kind of faddle music f a d o you can go to
53:18
places that do dinner in a show and it's about ā¬50 for a full three course dinner
53:24
with wine plus the show which is very good value or there's also some places where um like the one I went to the and
53:32
one called um like Little Fo which is right across from it this is all in the bro Alto the the upper area um that you
53:41
don't even pay a cover fee um they just buy a drink or something so go see FO music great now Francis Christian
53:48
probably we probably need a bit more information so Francis is another regular and I think channel member so
53:54
calling on who's on Paul Gan very envious love Paul Gan the society in Cook Islands which is I only done the
54:00
society islands so I've been to the Cook Islands what would be the best excursion probably need to know a little bit more
54:06
on the specific islands my problem is when I when I did uh do the
54:13
um the pog again basically we did everything that was involved going to the beach because it's just so beautiful
54:19
um there um so maybe if you have time maybe just a little bit more on the
54:25
islands uh then maybe we can dive into those unless you have any general shoutouts uh
54:33
so hopefully they Yeah Bora Bora is my favorite my absolute favorite of the society islands
54:39
i went on honeymoon there go to Matira Beach um it's incredible um and then
54:46
going anything that's taken you around the island there it's it's just the most spectacular place mua um my favorite
54:53
thing to do there is to go swim oh also also on Bora Bora going snorkeling i
54:58
love getting in the water um and you've got the the reef sharks the blacktip reef sharks swim around this area so you
55:04
can swim in I love sharks so you can swim with them um they're like puppies come around at the same time as well
55:11
it's just amazing and it's only like way deep kind of water it's quite shallow
55:16
and in Bora Bora it might go out to the the edge of the atal as well and where it gets deeper and there there are some
55:22
lemon sharks which are amazing but they don't normally come near you they're shy and they kind of stay around the bottom
55:28
um so yeah anything in the water anything snorkeling you might be going to Raya or Taha those are both great to
55:35
get in the water as well and there's also uh pearls the Tahesian pearls uh they have uh pearl farms on these
55:41
islands um these are great places to buy Tahesian pearls it's a lot cheaper than you'll find it in Europe or in North
55:48
America and because you're getting it straight from the source um I have a lovely set of uh long Tahhesian pearls
55:54
that I bought in Moorea from a vendor who right on the dock right there his family cultivates it and he makes the
56:01
jewelry um so and Huahini in case you're going there it's called the garden
56:06
island of that area and it's um do a tour there because there's nothing there
56:11
when you get on the off the ship um it's just it's very remote so that one is a
56:17
good one to take a tour and you can go to ancient sites um and see villages as
56:22
well so yeah lots of good stuff to look at which and I can't I don't know this
56:27
would appeal to you Francis but one of the things that Mark and I do uh in many of those islands is a lot of them have
56:33
very good ebike tours they're really small groups maybe six or seven people um and they have like a local person um
56:41
often they're French people who've like we settled in the different islands and they'll kind of cycle and they'll take
56:47
you to like pineapple plantations and they'll take you to you know old um temples and if there's hills like we
56:55
because the ebike is really easy to get up hills some of the beautiful views but we've done quite a few of those and they're really interesting because
57:00
obviously people are very passionate about um you know the the cultures and the stories and stuff that's another
57:06
good thing that's that's another good thing if they off but I don't know if that by by but the ebikes it's it's it's
57:12
kind of so easy there was a question now gone I've forgotten there was a sort of related question Tom head into Tahiti
57:19
May 2026 on Bagan so it's very in at the moment pre- cruise for four to five days
57:24
I mean the thing with my my personal view on Tahiti is you can hang around the hotel but the other islands are much
57:31
more interesting there's a really good market there which is great but actually I would be tempted to just get the ferry
57:38
uh someday I would first of all be tempted to probably sell Mara rather than Tahiti itself personally that's
57:44
what Mark and I said we would stay more in in Maria but there's a there's a catamaran which takes 45 minutes there
57:50
they have incredible beaches there's much more to do there um or you can give one which is slightly longer do you have any better Maybe I've just missed out on
57:57
things to do in Tahiti have you do you have any better suggestions uh yeah so I
58:03
think Tahiti the town the town is okay the market's great go to the market um
58:08
the mar the mare go there for your souvenirs it is cheaper than everywhere else and there's a bigger um amount of
58:16
selection i have a friend who has a stall there he's called Elvis you'll know who he is because he looks like
58:22
Elvis but he's the um he's got Elvis hair um and there's a bunch of places
58:27
there um get the Monoy oil the Monoy oil is beautiful the locals use it as a
58:33
perfume like a body perfume oil or just dab it on um you can get local rum there which is infused with um vanilla you can
58:40
buy vanilla pods tahhatian vanilla is just the best thing ever it's wonderful um and you can get pareos like the
58:47
serongs there and um Polynesian dresses lots of good things there um apart from
58:53
that in the town there's a couple of nice little restaurants but renting a car I think is very good in um Tahiti if
59:00
you're up for that because you've got Tahiti and Tahiti Noi large Tahiti and Little Tahiti you can drive between them
59:06
and um I have another friend there um who uh his name is Dan Danny Hazima he's
59:12
a local photographer and he's quite quite well known around Polynesia he's
59:17
from the US but he's lived there for years and his family lineage is from Japan very interesting guy um he took me
59:25
and my husband around Tahiti um because what he showed us and this I don't think
59:31
anyone's made this into a tour yet but they absolutely should but you could do this on your own renting a car is he um
59:38
worked with Disney on the movie Moana he was a location scout they basically
59:43
contacted him he worked on The Little Mermaid as well um so he's like very
59:49
cool hero in my eyes cuz that's always been my favorite since I was tiny um but he took us to all the places that Moana
59:57
was based on because Disney contacted him and said "We want to have a scene with a village that looks like this we
1:00:03
want to have a place with a waterfall that looks like this with a grotto that looks like this so we went to all those
1:00:09
places so basically there is a lot of beauty around the island of Tahiti but if you get out of the city is where the
1:00:16
most beautiful stuff is so it's kind of knowing where that is or if you find any tours that are taking you out to the
1:00:22
natural spots then that would be my tip on Tahiti itself um or going out you
1:00:28
know onto one of the little mottos on a a little boat tour or something like that as well yeah so there one quick
1:00:35
question which is non-related so Me I think you pronounce it can you think of any cruise company that routinely spends
1:00:41
two or more nights per port my biggest problem with cruising is a shore stop so there's not many the one that I would direct you towards is Azamara aamara
1:00:48
sort of making their their sort of pitch their point of difference is that they're going to do more immersion so they claim in their marketing that they
1:00:55
spend more overnights in port than any other cruise line so I I would take a look sort of topline kind of at at
1:01:01
Azamara from that so it's time to wrap up so thanks so much Karen for being and answering all the questions i think we
1:01:08
got through pretty much all of those um do you have uh just you just want to remind people where they can find you
1:01:13
what platforms you're on so it's cruise shipcaren.com but you're on YouTube where else can they where else can they
1:01:19
find you yeah so I'm on um I'm on YouTube as Cruise Ship Karen my website's called cruise shipcaren.com my
1:01:27
written published work is on my name Karenworld.co.uk my social medias I'm on
1:01:33
Instagram and uh Facebook called Cruise Ship Karen it's the same logo that you
1:01:38
used on the um the cover for this as well with the little the sort of turquoise ship with a a girl the outline
1:01:46
it's me um so yeah please follow me there say hello say hi we met you there
1:01:52
um and then yeah I post things every single day with lots of travel tips things about where I am and lots of
1:01:59
different aspects to do with the ports so because I work for different cruise lines and my focus my love is all about
1:02:06
helping people connect with where you're visiting so lots of good stuff there so yeah well thanks very much for joining
1:02:11
just remind everybody there may or may not be a live stream next week because I'll be on Skype Princess but maybe see you there if not I'll see you the week
1:02:17
after so thanks very much Karen take care bye