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10 Laws You Could Unwittingly Break Cruising
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Jan 28, 2025
There are at least 10 laws that you could very easily, and unwittingly, break when you head back cruising when you are able to. In different ports, places and regions you cruise to their are a raft of sometimes little-known laws and customs that, if you break, could get you into very serious trouble. This could include prison sentences for some. I look at laws in some parts of the cruising world that you need to know about, including the Caribbean and Mediterranean. Just because some practices and habits are normal and legal in your home country, may not be where you are on a cruise. So, as you think about going cruising again when you can make sure you know these laws and rules. 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 77 cruises at time of making this video. Follow Tips For Travellers on:
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you're about to discover 10 unusual laws
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you could unexpectedly break while
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cruising I'm Gary beverage this is
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another of my cruising tips for
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travelers I want to take a look at a
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whole bunch of laws which you may find
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you end up breaking without even
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realizing you're breaking when you're
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going on a cruise some of them which can
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have incredibly serious consequences the
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first of these is around camouflage many
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many countries in the world in fact
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about 11 countries in the world ban the
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wearing of camouflage clothing in their
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countries and many of those in the
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Caribbeans particular if you're cruising
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in the Caribbean so you can't wear
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anything that's camouflage designed or
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in fact anything that looks like a
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military uniform as well so in the
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Caribbean for example it's banned in the
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Antigua Barbados Grenada Jamaica said
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Lucia Trinidad and Tobago
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you'll also find it's banned in some
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places in Asia like in the Philippines a
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lot of countries in the Middle East it's
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banned
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and if you even go on a river cruise in
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Africa for example you'll find in
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Zimbabwe you it is bad as well so
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camouflage do not take with you leave at
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home if you're going on a cruise a
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second one which a lot of people can
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potentially fall foul of is by taking
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either over-the-counter drugs which are
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legal in your country to the US the UK
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Canada Australia wherever or in
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prescription drugs which are illegal and
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could give you a serious jail sentence
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or fines if you're caught with these
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products house and about obviously if
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you're on a cruise the chances are
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they're going to be in your cabin so you
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should be okay but do bear in mind there
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is a lot of rules and regulations around
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what you can take and some of them are
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quite surprising the key is that you
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need to focus on if you are taking
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medicines with you're on a cruise is
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around the area of painkillers which
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will be some strong painkillers like
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codeine or tramadol sleeping pills or
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like the marzipan but even once you get
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into things like cough mixtures or
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things you might think or less harmful
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like the codeine for example you'll find
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is banned in many countries you can in
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Greece Japan and certainly some of the
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countries in Asia even some really
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well-known brand names are also going to
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get you into trouble
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some of them include thing
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like sudafed benadryl in some countries
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in Vicks inhaler like in Japan even
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Tylenol arthritis pain Capulets the key
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places to really worry about this is if
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you're heading on a cruise in Japan plus
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and Middle East's some parts of Asia
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you're going to find that you've get
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into a lot of trouble the key thing I
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always say if you're taking particular
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prescription drugs is make sure you keep
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them the original bottles and ideally
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have a prescription or little note from
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your doctor but certainly if you're
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going on a cruise particularly somewhere
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a little bit exotic make sure that you
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are a hundred percent sure that you can
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take those drugs in most governments
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have a list of the things that you can
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and can't take in but if in doubt just
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you know search the name of what you're
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taking in and the country or countries
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that you're cruising to if you are a
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smoker or even more importantly a vapor
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you may find there are very strong
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restrictions on your ability to do that
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in some countries so particularly as you
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think about going on excursions really
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understand the rules around smoking or
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vaping in the countries that you are
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there are a whole lot of countries that
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actually ban vaping totally and actually
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bringing vaping equipment into the
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country could get you really big fines
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for example at the time of recording
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this is actually banned in Brazil
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Singapore Seychelles Uruguay Thailand
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and India you can get huge big fines so
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for example in Singapore the fires could
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be as much as two thousand dollars
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that's about 1,000 pounds for possessing
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them so certain if you're going on
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cruises be really clear if vaping
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equipment is allowed as you head out and
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about also smoking increasingly
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countries are becoming more more strict
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so some countries example banned smoking
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in places like beaches have example in
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Thailand you cannot smoke on the beach a
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lot of people are just used to you know
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walking out with the equipment
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particular with vaping watch out you
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could be breaking the law and have very
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big fines the fourth area to think about
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is public shows of affection now this
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tends to be in more strict religious
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countries so particularly and into the
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Middle East but it's only two parts of
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Asia like Indonesia places like that it
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is actually not allowed it's really
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frowned upon and could have very serious
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consequences and that's not only for
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LGBT couples where there could be some
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issues around whether it's even legal to
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have those kind of relationships but
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even for heterosexual
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couples big issue I remember recently we
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were cruising into Dubai and there was a
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big briefing around and their clothing
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but also about discouraging and saying
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don't have public shows of affection you
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can get into a lot of trouble so bear in
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mind if you're heading out you may just
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want to keep your shows of affection to
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the cruise ship there of course I'm also
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cultural areas you need to be careful in
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Japan for example lots of public shows
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of affection is not really well thought
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of and certainly if you're going on a
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cruise in the Baltics into Russia I
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would discourage you if you are a
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same-sex couple from having and showing
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signs of affection because of the pretty
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draconian approach of the Russian
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authorities the next area is even around
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taking photographs now when you're
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heading out on excursions and if you're
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going with the tour guide you can check
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if there are any restrictions on taking
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photographs but generally speaking
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anything to do with airports military
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government buildings avoid taking
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photographs of those I have certainly
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been on various different excursions in
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different countries where the guide has
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said to us I don't take pictures of
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those buildings don't take pictures of
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those facilities so just be kind of
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aware and be very cautious about what
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you take your photographs of they have
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been for example in the Middle East
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plane spotters you know enthusiasts
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you've been out taking pictures of
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airplanes and found themselves actually
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in prison for days and days on end and
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being treated as spies so be really
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cautious about where you're taking
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photographs and very sensitive anything
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that's government in its military kind
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of avoid taking pictures of and also
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very importantly of military people or
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even things like monks people like that
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again be very cautious about taking
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photographs and even if you're unsure
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asks and just take pictures so for
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example I'm just back from a cruise in
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Vietnam and Cambodia and we were told
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very strongly don't just take pictures
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of monks you need to approach them and
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ask him if you can take pictures as
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scene is very offensive to do that
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otherwise the next area is around drones
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now taking a drone on a cruise ship is a
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pretty much of a nightmare anyway most
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cruise lines ban the use of drones
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completely Royal Caribbean and Carnival
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are pretty much at the time of recording
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the only cruise lines they will even let
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you take a drone onboard Yukoners you
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use it
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when you're on board they will let you
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take it out into the port and and bring
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it back but actually taking a drone on a
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cruise is probably about out anyway
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because it's banned by so many people i
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reese trouble with when I can take my
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drone but there are lots of countries
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that have not any severe restrictions
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with some total bans on using a drone of
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course there are some very highly
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publicized things with some bloggers got
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caught in places like Iran flying drones
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so be really cautious about going drone
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if you do own a drone make sure you've
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got the license you'll have to find in
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many places you have to apply for
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permits before you go so be really
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really cautious because if you use a
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drone you know there's lots of apps
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where you can check but drone flying
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really big issue there's also a lot of
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laws where you can get yourself into a
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lot of trouble around the sort of
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clothing that you wear a lot of places
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have introduced restrictions around
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going shirtless for example or wearing
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swimming trunks off the beaches into the
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Towser even places like in Turkey the
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summer ascription Spain has been some
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restrictions so places that you would
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think were quite liberal because they're
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quite Beach focused have some abilities
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to basically spot find you if you wear
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that's her clothing of the beach also
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for example in Croatia in Dubrovnik
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going shirtless in the town could get a
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lot of trouble you could get spot fines
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as well so again keep your clothes on
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unless you're on the beach is the key
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rule although it's not illegal as such
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an ocular breaking laws bare mind if
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you're going to religious places
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particularly as you head into Asia or
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even in really holy places in parts of
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Europe you need to have your shoulders
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and your arms covered and you need to
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have long pants or certainly cover your
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knees so lots of restrictions around
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there it's not illegal but you are gonna
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have problems if you don't follow those
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rules one of the most serious laws that
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you could break that you could find
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yourself in prison for up to ten years
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is if you have a cruise to Thailand
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criticizing the royal family and people
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overhearing you or standing or even on a
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note which has the royal family on could
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get you to a lot of trouble there's very
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very strict laws around defaming the
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royal family and they are really really
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rigorous at doing that so Barrow might
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also when you head into any country very
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cautious and don't criticize the
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government or leaders in public spaces
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because you could find yourself in a lot
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of lot of trouble
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there's also surprisingly a lot of
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rules and regulations about eating and
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drinking in public now in some countries
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it's culturally seen as unacceptable but
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more and more places are starting to
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introduce laws and regulations sometimes
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just by local towns or municipalities
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where you can actually get some quite
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big fines so in Europe for example
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there's quite a restrictions on eating
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and drinking in some public spaces
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particularly around religious sites or
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holy sites so for example you'll find
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then in Florence and Venice it's an
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offense to eat and drink near churches
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historic monuments public buildings and
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there's recent story about some
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backpackers that were fined almost a
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thousand euros for brewing and making
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coffee near the Rialto Bridge
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so there are increasingly really strict
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rules and regulations in some places
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there's lots of rules and regulations
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around drinking in public or on public
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transports so be aware and check those
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regulations in Singapore for example
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chewing gum is a real big no-no and
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particularly disposing of chewing gum so
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if you're in Singapore stay well away
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from chewing gum linked to the whole
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food and drink them there's even a very
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bizarre rule which you can come across
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in Singapore whereas if you do not flush
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the public lavatory you could
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potentially have a spot fine so bear in
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mind there are unusual and strange laws
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that you could stumble across and quite
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innocently break so just think about
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being really disciplined about where you
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eat where you drink and just check what
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I often do if I'm not sure in the
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countries look around and see what the
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locals are doing if the locals aren't
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walking around eating a sandwich or
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drinking or whatever you probably know
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it's not appropriate and it's possibly a
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law if certainly not a cultural issue as
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you can see if many of these rules
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regulations and laws that could land you
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in trouble are things that we can quite
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innocently do at home but they could
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land you in a lot of trouble when you're
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on a cruise in a foreign place so really
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be over cautious when you're heading out
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there as I said watch what locals are
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doing ask the guest services and so do
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you want a tour check with a tour guide
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if there's any little quirks and things
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that you like to break hope you found
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that helpful I hope you found that
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interesting I've loads more videos
11:02
packed full of tips advice about
11:04
cruising so why don't you watch another
11:05
one of those right now
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