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Who really owns and operates your favourite cruise lines? Expect surprises !
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Jan 28, 2025
Who really owns and operates the most popular and your favourite cruise lines? Be prepared for some surprises as I take a look at who the biggest cruise lines in the world are based on number of passengers carried, and then who owns and controls the lines. Although there are many cruise lines, they are all pretty much owned by three large cruise corporations. Discover who owns and operates the cruise lines you have heard of, love or considering cruising with. SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY: Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore Booking your next cruise with CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise WATCH THESE POPULAR RECENT VIDEOS: 10 Cabins to Avoid: https://youtu.be/PgTGLma919A European River Cruise Watch-Outs: https://youtu.be/oqhz54wStyk 5 Cruises To Avoid: https://youtu.be/CNiPzK4IRWA Alaska Cruise Need-to-Knows: https://youtu.be/Tn7dpNw5kSI Things Cruise Lines Don’t Want You to Know: https://youtu.be/cs5UKha9ALc Rules Passengers Break Most: https://youtu.be/djZLZ3XV_f0 Things You Can’t Do On A Cruise Any More: https://youtu.be/zas6F4wMD0Q Should You Pay Cruise Gratuities: https://youtu.be/QBYzqxXjEXQ Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 60+ cruises. Follow Tips For Travellers on:
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0:00
who really owns and operates your
0:02
favorite cruise line be prepared for
0:05
some surprises I'm Gary Bainbridge this
0:08
is another of my tips for travelers I
0:10
want to talk about who actually owns the
0:13
various different cruise lines around
0:15
the world because when I talk to people
0:17
about this there's lots and lots of
0:19
surprises and people are really quite
0:21
amazed a couple of things to note did
0:24
you know that only three key
0:26
corporations control the cruise lines
0:29
that 75% of passengers go on every
0:33
single year just three corporations one
0:36
of which controls cruise lines that
0:39
cover half of all passengers cruising
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around the world today there's two big
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trends happening as I see it within
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Cruise Lines first of all the big cruise
0:50
corporations they're slowly taking up
0:53
all the different independent cruise
0:55
lines around the world and what they're
0:57
doing is they're creating a big mass
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market value brand they're creating a
1:01
premium or luxury brand with a big soar
1:04
medium-sized ships that go to all the
1:06
famous places in the world a big popular
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ports they normally also have a smaller
1:11
ship premium or luxury cruise line that
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can go to the more out-of-the-way more
1:16
unusual places and they then also have
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an ultra luxury brand which is
1:21
increasingly they're using to go into
1:23
exhibition cruising the second thing is
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we're seeing more and more corporations
1:27
particularly Travel corporations getting
1:29
into the world of cruising and launching
1:31
a cruise line under their name before we
1:35
talk about those corporations that
1:36
control everything do you know who the
1:39
biggest cruise lines in the world are in
1:41
seventh place is Aida which is a cruise
1:44
line which focuses on the German
1:46
consumer in sixth place is Costa they
1:49
focus very much on the Italian consumer
1:51
in fifth place
1:52
you have Princess Cruises Princess
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Cruises have just under seven percent of
1:58
all passengers in the world today go on
2:00
Princess the fourth biggest cruise line
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in the world and also one of the
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youngest cruise lines is
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MSC Cruises they have over seven percent
2:09
of all passengers in the world go on an
2:12
MSC cruise every year
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they're focused particularly in Europe
2:15
they create a very European experience
2:18
the third biggest cruise line in the
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world is Norwegian Cruise Line and they
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have around about 10% of all passengers
2:24
in the world go on a Norwegian cruise
2:26
the second biggest is Royal Caribbean
2:28
International with around 90% of all
2:30
passengers and the biggest cruise line
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in the world is Carnival with their fun
2:35
ships which have over 22% so those are
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the seven biggest cruise lines in the
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world but what and who are those three
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big cruise corporations that control 75%
2:45
of all passenger trips on a cruise the
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biggest cruise corporation in the world
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is Carnival Cruise corporation 50% of
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all cruise passengers go on one of the
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Carnival owned companies every single
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year they have nine cruise lines at the
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time of recording they obviously have
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Carnival which is how they really
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started right back in the early 1970s
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they have fun ships and they viously
3:11
take almost a quarter of all cruise
3:13
passengers every single year go on a
3:15
Carnival Cruise and they are the brand
3:18
that really created all the excitement
3:20
around cruising in the way that we know
3:22
it today well the other eight brands
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that they have some which you might find
3:25
a big surprise in the premium end they
3:28
have Princess Cruises which as I
3:30
mentioned is the fifth biggest cruise
3:32
line in the world and that is very much
3:35
a luxury cruise line with a very large
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fleet over 20 ships and they cruise all
3:40
around the world and they're basically
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based ships all around the world really
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really popular luxury premium cruise
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line with sort of large ships they also
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have Holland America which is a very
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traditional cruise line with Dutch
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heritage dating right back to the
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eighteen hundreds of late 1800s and a
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very strong link to Holland and they do
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also have a very traditional cruising
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experience and they do cruise all around
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the world and they're very very strong
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as our princess in Alaska they were the
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two cruise lines that originally went
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into Alaska they also control in the
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luxury premium and P&O Cruises out of
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the UK Pinot Australia on the ultra
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luxury side they have Seaborn which has
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small ships providing very ultra luxury
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experience and of course they are now
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also going into
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expedition cruising there then control
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some brands which cater to very specific
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markets so they have Aida
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which is with the German market they
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have Costa which really caters to the
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Italian market and then one of the
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brands which they have which is probably
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one of the most famous cruising brands
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of all is Cunard yes
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Carnival Corporation controlled Cunard
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so Carnival is often seen as one of the
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cheapest places to go cruising tuner is
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often seen as one of the big prestigious
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because of their liners particularly
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queen mary 2 and the transatlantic
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crossing that they do so those are all
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the brands within the Carnival
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Corporation portfolio 50% of all cruises
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will go on one of those Carnival brands
5:08
every single yeah the second biggest
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cruise corporation in the world where
5:13
roughly a quarter of all passengers
5:15
travel with every single year and that's
5:18
Royal Caribbean group Rock Caribbean
5:20
group has six cruise lines within its
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portfolio at the time of recording Royal
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Caribbean International the big mega
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ships the huge big ships with lots of
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innovation they were the first traders
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of being the big resort experience
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onboard with their water parks and their
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flow riders and their ice skating rinks
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and all sorts of big innovations so they
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create massive big ships with lots and
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lots of resorts features they also have
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a number of other interesting brands so
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for example in the premium and they have
5:48
Celebrity Cruises which is a more
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contemporary or those fairly traditional
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cruising experience and celebrity are
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very popular and they are becoming more
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more innovative with launch of things
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like celebrity edge and celebrity apex
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but it is still very much a traditional
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cruising experience operating in the
6:06
more premium luxury end the ultra luxury
6:08
brand is a very interesting one its
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silver sea so silver sea is now part of
6:12
the Royal Caribbean group and they are
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very big in ultra luxury cruising's are
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competing with carnivals Seabourn but
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also have a very big and fast-growing
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expedition business they also own
6:24
Pullman tour which is a cruise line
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which is very focused on the Spanish
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market now the other thing that all
6:30
people don't know about Royal Caribbean
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is they have a joint venture 50/50 joint
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venture with tui cruises notary Cruises
6:39
is really big particular
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within Germany and they have right
6:45
throughout Europe tui cruises big brand
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and that is a partnership with tui
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cruises and Royal Caribbean so real
6:52
Caribbean have those six groups of
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cruise lines the other cruise brand
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within Royal Caribbean is Azamara as
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Amara is a smaller ship cruise line and
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they really focus on the destinations so
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they talked a lot about destination
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immersion so as part of the Royal
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Caribbean family they are their small
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ship premium destination focused brand
7:15
the next big cruise corporation is the
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Norwegian cruise corporation a Norwegian
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cruise has three critical brands at the
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time recording the first is the most
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famous of all of course which is
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Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise
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Line became famous for creating
7:31
freestyle cruising so it's the most
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relaxed and most informal of all Cruise
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Lines and you can basically have a huge
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range of dining options bar options big
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glitzy entertainment and it's a much
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more relaxed one of the most relaxed of
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all of the cruise lines you can wear
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shorts for example to dinner on board
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Norwegian cruise lines so it's very
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popular of people looking for informal
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cruising with lots of bells and whistles
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they do then have a ultra luxury and a
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luxury brand so on the luxury side they
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have Oceania so that's their premium
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brand relatively small ships and they
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are especially well known for their food
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they claim to spend more per passenger
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than anybody else on food and they have
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big glitzy and really impressive menus
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and because they're smaller ships they
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can also go to the out-of-the-way places
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on the ultra-luxury sides are competing
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with things like Seaborn and silver sea
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is Regent 7c region 7c very luxurious
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and they are the most
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all-inclusive of the ultra luxury brands
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so they do include things like the
8:36
excursions Wi-Fi gratuity all those kind
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of things within their fare so Norwegian
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Cruise Line is operating like the others
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across all the spectrums of the cruising
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industry so those three big cruise
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corporations Carnival Royal Caribbean
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and Norwegian 75% of passengers go on
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brand
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owned and operated by them so what about
8:57
the rest of the cruising industry well I
8:59
already mentioned MSC Cruises which came
9:01
out of the NSE cargo business which is
9:04
very fast-growing in over 7% it's a
9:07
couple of really interesting things
9:08
happening a lot of corporations are
9:10
starting to get into cruising one of the
9:13
most significant of those is one that
9:15
most people in Europe and North America
9:18
aren't that aware of and that's getting
9:20
Hong Kong Genting Hong Kong used to be
9:22
one of the big shareholders actually in
9:24
Norwegian they saw that and then are
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focusing on brands much more in the
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Asian side but they do own crystals so
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the very ultra luxury crystal is part of
9:32
Genting Hong Kong they also have dream
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and star cruisers which are very big in
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Asia but there's lots of corporations
9:38
getting into cruising so Disney of
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course has the Disney Cruise Line virgin
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is launching virgin voyages Viking which
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was in river it has gone into ocean
9:49
cruising as well saga which is a UK
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insurance company has saga Cruises I've
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already mentioned tui who are big in
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travel they have to e cruises in Europe
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and they have Marella cruises in the UK
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and even some of the brands that are
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much smaller like ponent have to have
10:08
taken paul gauguin over in french
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polynesia
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and then Winstar is controlled by a big
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travel company Xanterra Parks and
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Resorts three cruise corporations
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control over 18 of the most famous and
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well-known of the cruise brands how many
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of those brands have you been on having
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no idea that they're actually controlled
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by one of those big corporations I hope
10:32
you find this interesting helpful if
10:33
you're big fan of cruising remember have
10:35
many more videos of tips advice to watch
10:38
about cruising so why don't you watch
10:39
another one of those right now
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