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Is There More To Norwegian Cruise Line Than Gimmicks Like This?
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Jan 28, 2025
I share the 7 things you need to know about Norwegian Cruise Line. The things that make Norwegian Cruise Line different or unique to other cruise lines, and what they offer cruise passengers. The 7 things Norwegian Cruise Lines does that you need to know including looking at their on-board cruise experience, facilities, cabin options, which Norwegian Cruise Line best suited for and more Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Buying my Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore 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: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge #NorwegianCruiseLine #NCLCruises #NorwegianCruiseLineTips 00:00 Start 01:17 Freestyle Cruising 03:50 Solo Travel 04:57 Ship-In-Ship Haven
View Video Transcript
0:00
i'm gary bembridge and i want to talk
0:01
about seven things that i think
0:03
norwegian cruise line does better
0:05
or at least different to the other
0:06
cruise line it competes with
0:09
norwegian cruise line is the third
0:11
largest cruise line in the world
0:13
based on the number of passengers it
0:15
operates in the valley for money
0:17
cruising category so its big competitors
0:19
are carnival cruise line royal caribbean
0:21
cruise line
0:22
and msc cruises those are the big global
0:24
competitors regionally of course there
0:26
is other competitors in the uk i guess
0:27
probably lines like marella for example
0:29
also compete with
0:31
norwegian cruise line at the time of
0:33
recording they had 17
0:35
ships in service and they range from
0:38
sort of smallish to medium-sized ships
0:40
to large ships
0:41
they range for example in size from the
0:44
norwegian sun which has 1
0:46
936 passengers to norwegian escape
0:49
which has 4266 passengers those were
0:52
based on double occupancy so they can
0:54
actually carry
0:55
more passengers than that when they have
0:57
kids for example sharing cabins
0:59
they're also the only major
1:02
international cruise line
1:03
that has a ship that is actually flagged
1:05
in the united states
1:06
and that's the pride of america which is
1:08
based in hawaii and sales
1:10
itineraries around hawaii and the
1:12
hawaiian islands
1:14
so let's take a look at what i think
1:15
they do better or certainly differently
1:17
first of all
1:18
freestyle cruising norwegian cruise line
1:20
invented the concept of
1:21
freestyle cruising and what they mean by
1:24
that
1:24
is they've built an enormous amount of
1:26
choice so there's
1:27
multiple dining venues loads of bars
1:30
loads of entertainment venues a wide
1:32
range of entertainment
1:34
and pretty relaxed informal service and
1:36
also
1:37
dress code so it's a very informal
1:39
freestyle kind of you
1:41
cater and do what you want to do with
1:43
lots and lots of choices you can pick
1:44
and choose what you want to do
1:46
so let's look at what that actually
1:47
means from a practical perspective
1:49
well from a dining perspective they have
1:51
huge
1:52
amount of choice built into your fare
1:55
you will have
1:56
some dining included so you'll have the
1:57
main dining room option
1:59
with multiple dining times as per usual
2:01
you'll have a buffet dining
2:03
option and there will normally be one
2:05
other sort of more specialty restaurant
2:06
which is included within the fair so for
2:08
example on my most recent norwegian
2:11
cruise line cruise which is on the
2:12
encore it was actually the local so that
2:14
was
2:14
included within the fair but the range
2:17
of specialty dinner especially dining
2:18
does have an extra charge
2:20
is huge so the encore which as i
2:22
mentioned was my last cruise there was
2:23
12 different specialty dining options
2:25
but
2:26
across the fleet there are almost 20
2:28
different
2:29
dining combinations that you can choose
2:31
from they all do have a charge and the
2:33
charge
2:34
varies based on the specific restaurant
2:36
you could have an american diner
2:37
brazilian steakhouse a french restaurant
2:40
an italian restaurant three japanese
2:42
restaurants you could have a teriyaki
2:44
a sushi and a kind of fusion restaurant
2:47
mexican
2:47
seafood so as you can see pretty much
2:50
international cuisine
2:51
with a wide range not all of those will
2:53
be on every single ship but there will
2:54
be a lot of choice
2:55
they also often have different treat
2:57
venues so you might have things like
3:00
cocos which is fantastic milkshakes and
3:04
chocolates dolce gelato which of course
3:06
is gelato
3:07
and the bake shop which is a partnership
3:09
with the very famous celebrity baker
3:12
on some of the ships you also have which
3:13
is one of my big favorites you have a
3:15
fully operational starbucks on the ships
3:18
and again depending on the size of the
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ship
3:19
there could be up to 22 different bars
3:23
lounges or entertainment venues the
3:26
dress code itself is pretty relaxed
3:27
you'll find right across the ship they
3:29
don't have a formal set
3:30
dress codes even on their sort of dress
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up nights they call it kind of dress up
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if you want to
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when you go to dinner and some of the
3:36
smarter especially restaurants they do
3:38
ask you to dress more smart casual but
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it's very
3:40
relaxed so if you're looking for a
3:41
relaxed cruising with a huge amount of
3:44
choice you definitely that's one of the
3:45
things that i would say
3:46
norwegian does better than anybody else
3:49
the other thing that norwegian cruise
3:50
line does really well is cater for
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different passenger types and the first
3:53
one that i
3:54
really want to pull out is solo cruising
3:56
if you're a solo cruiser
3:58
you'll know that that can be really
3:59
expensive to cruise on many cruise lines
4:01
because they charge up to double
4:03
for an occupancy of a cabin norwegian
4:05
have really
4:06
gone really hard and aggressively to
4:09
cater for solo travelers and they've
4:10
created
4:11
on at the moment six of their ships the
4:14
studios for solo travelers this is a
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great little
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key card controlled area they have only
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solar cabins there's a
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lounge which will have some
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complementary snacks and breakfast
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during the day a great chance to meet
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with other solo travelers
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and but you can only go into that area
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if you have the key card so it also
4:32
adds a sort of layer of extra security
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for people traveling solo
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the only downside of those is there are
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all inside cabins and they are pretty
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small so if you want a balcony
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this is not going to be for you but they
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really do make sure they cater for solo
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travelers
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really really well and i think this is a
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really really great concept
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you'll find the studios for solar
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travelers on the escape the bliss the
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breakaway
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the getaway the epic and also on the
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pride of america
4:57
one of the things that i think norwegian
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cruise line does
5:00
phenomenally well probably the best of
5:03
all of the cruise lines is their premium
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ship with inner ships a lot of cruise
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lines have created those ship within a
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ship concept where they put
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their premium suites norwegian does it
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phenomenally well i think they do it
5:13
the best and they have what's known as
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the haven
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so in the haven you have all of the
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beautiful
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suites which can be multiple bedroom but
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also in here you have a concierge
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you also have a dedicated haven lounge
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and bar
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you also have the haven restaurant so
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all the sweet guests eat in there
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and you have a beautiful pool deck area
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with your own swimming pool
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and hot tubs it's a very premium
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prestige
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beautiful beautiful creation and you
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also have butler service i do think they
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have really got the ship within a ship
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concept down
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the absolute best across all of the
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cruise lines the other thing that
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norwegian cruise line does different to
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other cruise lines is they've really
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focused
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on sort of what i call branded or named
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entertainment so you'll find across
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all of their ships they will normally
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have a big full-on
6:00
broadway west end production so it's not
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a review-type show like many other
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cruise lines it's the full on production
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show
6:07
so you'll find on some ships they'll
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have shows like priscilla queen of the
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desert
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they'll have kinky boots they've had
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jersey boys
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so you'll find big full-on broadway
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production shows with often the cast
6:20
which have come
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from either broadway or the west end on
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those shows also on norwegian ships in
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the past i've seen the blue man group
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also more recently they've got burn the
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floor which is that big well-known
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dance show that is on around the world
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it's kind of against like a sort of a
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franchise
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and even across the ship they'll have
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other themed entertainments like in the
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cavern club
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they've got like a beatles tribute band
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and on other ships they've also got
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kind of a dining theater concept where
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they've got a partnership with cirque du
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soleil
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and that's called cirque dreams so
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definitely they've gone
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for well-known big high-profile
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shows on their ships and this is
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something very unique to norwegian
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the next area that i think they do
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extremely well and you could argue
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it may not be as different as some of
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the other points is their resort
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features but they are pushing the boat
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out on these if you excuse the pun
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so on their bigger ships they started to
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build in more resort features so for
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example on encore
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they had a full-on go-kart track which
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you could go racing around on go-karts
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they had a massive big
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laser tag section at the back of the
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ship
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but also within the ship they have a big
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arcade center where you can do
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3d 4d games and even they had more
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traditional arcades
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so they are building in lots and lots of
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resorts they have water parks
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water slides and just fantastic resort
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features
7:42
the kids clubs are also pretty
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phenomenal they have guppies for the
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very young ones
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they have splash academy for the mid
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aged ones and then they have the
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entourage teen club which is a really
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funky fabulous sort of place
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so although other cruise lines do the
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resort features phenomenally well
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like royal caribbean for example i do
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think that what norwegian is doing is a
8:02
little bit different
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and they really do it extremely well to
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get many of those resort features you
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need to go
8:07
on some of the bigger ships the other
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thing that i think they do a little bit
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differently but certainly do
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really really well are their caribbean
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private islands
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so many of the cruise lines now have
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private islands in the caribbean
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norwegian city at the time of recording
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has two of them
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the one which they've had for the
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longest which is great stirrup key
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and also the newest one which i think is
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really fantastic
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which is harvest key so great stirrup is
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in the bahamas area
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and harvest is in the belize area
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harvest key is a fantastic resort it's
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very pristine
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you can have zip lining very premium
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bungalows we can go and hang out there's
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scuba and snorkeling
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and it is just a beautiful beautiful
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island i think they do the private lands
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phenomenally well
8:55
the other thing which i think norwegian
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do differently
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and i think is very exciting is they are
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making
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the ability to make your cruise more and
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more all-inclusive
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so those are totally all-inclusive fare
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they are offering various different
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packages and they have different names
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i've seen over the times but at the
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moment they're calling themselves
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recording the free etsy packages and
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what you do is you pay
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a extra charge per person for the whole
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cruise
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and they bundle together number of their
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packages so you get a beverage package
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included you get some special dining
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package included
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you get a wi-fi package included and you
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get an excursions package
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included which includes basically some
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credits towards the cost
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of excursions now you can traditionally
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buy those packages separately but
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pretty much every single norwegian
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cruise that i've looked at has
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had the ability to tag on those free
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etsy packages so you know when you book
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you've got your fare and you've bundled
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together all those extra costs so it
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helps you
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manage the total cost of your cruise i
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hope you found that helpful i have loads
9:56
more videos
9:57
packed full of tips and advice about all
9:59
things cruising so why don't you watch
10:01
another one of those right now
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