Up next in 10
Time To Scrap These 6 Cruise Experiences And Activities?
2K views
Jan 28, 2025
I look at 6 cruise experiences and ask if they should be scrapped, or have they become an essential and important part of our cruise vacations and should stay. I explore the most decadent cruise experiences and things on cruise ships and assess their pros and cons. Where will you stand on these? ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 77 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ——————————————— TikTok: @garybembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
what are the most decadent experiences
0:02
on cruise ships the ones
0:04
that have often left me shaking my head
0:06
wondering if cruise lines are simply
0:08
going too far i'm not talking here about
0:11
crazy features like water parks go-karts
0:13
zip lines roller coasters
0:15
wave riders and so on these are
0:17
something much more dare i even say
0:19
questionable if you're new here welcome
0:22
aboard i'm gary bembridge and i'm here
0:23
to make it easy and fun
0:25
to discover plan and enjoy unforgettable
0:28
cruise
0:28
vacations food is an important part
0:32
of my cruise experience and i'm sure
0:34
yours too there's a lot of it on board
0:37
but do we actually need even more the
0:40
lions certainly
0:41
think so and they keep adding new food
0:43
adventures
0:44
food events to constantly try and stay
0:47
ahead of each other
0:48
now from all the ones that i've had
0:50
there's three
0:51
that get my highest decadent rating
0:54
first of all
0:55
chocolate chocolate chocolate midnight
0:58
buffets have largely been scrapped and
1:00
replaced on many cruise lines
1:01
by chocolate buffets i first came across
1:04
one on
1:05
cunard but the ultimate chocolate buffet
1:08
is on azamara it's a massive big buffet
1:11
it's
1:11
over the top people cram in there and
1:13
they're just chocolate treat after
1:15
chocolate treat after chocolate treat
1:17
chocolate has become a big thing on
1:19
cruise ships there's even
1:20
a chocolate factory on msc cruises
1:23
biggest
1:24
ships where they make and sell a huge
1:26
range of chocolates
1:28
the next decadent event is around caviar
1:30
now you can get caviar on demand on some
1:32
lines like in cunard
1:33
queens grill but on two lines there are
1:36
whole caviar nights
1:38
for example on europa 2 they have a huge
1:40
section
1:41
in the restaurant which becomes a caviar
1:43
station also on seabourn they have a
1:45
caviar night which is held
1:47
in the theater and this champagne and
1:49
caviar on
1:50
tap extremely grand extremely decadent
1:54
the third example is around big food
1:57
events so for example on seabourn they
1:59
have the offices deck
2:00
party these are stations spread all
2:02
around the pool deck
2:03
where the various officers serve drinks
2:05
and food there's just an
2:07
endless supply and a huge range of
2:09
fantastic and incredible
2:10
food i've also had these big grand
2:14
buffets on lines like oceania and
2:16
azamara which is a
2:18
big buffet on a sea day once per cruise
2:20
which is again
2:21
endless stations of food now these were
2:24
all
2:25
extremely well received events and
2:27
popular but it did leave me wondering if
2:29
it's time to
2:30
dial back and focus just on upping the
2:32
main restaurant the buffet and the
2:34
casual dining venues i'm a little bit
2:36
so-so on this one where do you stand is
2:38
this too decadent or should
2:40
it be kept but before you make your mind
2:42
up consider this very closely linked
2:45
series of decadent events lions are now
2:48
pushing these food experiences
2:50
we're seeing on board off the ship too
2:52
and they're creating unique
2:54
passenger only events on land as an
2:56
extension of
2:57
these ship dining experiences now while
3:00
some focus on culture like concerts
3:02
i've been to offlines like say viking
3:04
food features
3:06
in many if not most of these affairs now
3:08
two examples that i thought i would talk
3:10
about that stand out for me
3:11
as prime examples are first of all on
3:13
paul gargan they have a private island
3:15
barbecue
3:16
called motu mohana in tahana the entire
3:19
ship passengers and most of the crew
3:21
are moved onbass onto a private island
3:23
for a massive barbecue event
3:26
i've had similar events of for example
3:28
windstar when the entire ship
3:30
is bus and taken to a venue for some
3:32
kind of food based activity
3:34
as amara have that as amazing evenings
3:37
there's only one per cruise
3:38
it's a one-off event again much of the
3:40
crew goes on these to help set them up
3:43
and all of the passengers go one of the
3:45
most memorable was a food hall event
3:47
held in france with lots of local
3:49
producers cheese
3:51
wine chocolates so many different types
3:54
of food
3:54
now these are logistically extremely
3:56
complex and no doubt
3:58
pretty costly and left me wondering if
4:00
that cost which of course
4:01
is in all of our affairs is still the
4:03
best value is it
4:04
a decadent and costly distraction or
4:06
something that helps make our vacation
4:09
truly unforgettable
4:11
all of us that go on a cruise vacation
4:13
knows just how hard the crew work
4:15
most of them are on six months or longer
4:18
contracts they work
4:19
long days and they work seven days a
4:20
week they can be working 12 or more
4:22
hours a day
4:23
yet as i've shown increasingly the crew
4:27
are having to play an ever growing role
4:29
in creating these additional experiences
4:31
for passengers on top
4:32
of their normal job now most cruisers
4:35
i've been on in addition to the food
4:36
experiences i'm talking about
4:38
crew are now expected to provide a whole
4:40
lot of other decadent
4:42
but much loved experiences for example
4:45
tao animals i love them we all love them
4:47
crew less so based on comments i saw on
4:49
a recent discussion on crewcenter.com
4:52
which is a crew-based site there are
4:54
books on how to do tile animals sold on
4:57
holland america
4:58
classes are run on wind style classes
5:00
around holland america
5:01
and other cruise lines they take an
5:03
enormous amount of time for crew to make
5:05
these
5:05
tile animals if you multiply that by
5:07
several days they do them across a year
5:09
the numbers and amount of time it takes
5:11
crew to make these animals is enormous
5:13
it also creates a lot of laundry and of
5:15
course there's a knock-on effect of the
5:17
amount of work detergents processing
5:19
and kind of you might argue from an
5:20
environmental perspective
5:22
the second area is crew demonstrations
5:24
and displays these are also popular
5:26
whether it's ice carving demonstrations
5:28
vegetable carving demonstrations or
5:30
displays on how they make food these are
5:32
big displays
5:33
they're big demos they're very popular
5:35
but do we really need them
5:37
are we just taking up more time of the
5:39
crew and
5:40
what about the waste that goes into
5:41
these another really popular
5:44
activity is crew shows we get to see the
5:47
range of talent that is amongst the crew
5:49
on most ships singing dancing whatever
5:52
they tend to run them once a week during
5:54
a cruise so again it takes a lot of time
5:56
by the crew to rehearse and perform them
5:58
on top of their job
6:00
they still have to do their normal job
6:01
now as much as i like these
6:03
again i keep asking do we really need
6:06
them to make our vacation
6:08
memorable or is it just a little bit too
6:10
decadent and a little bit
6:11
of a step too far however contrast that
6:15
with the on-ship cultural immersions
6:17
that many many lines
6:18
now have this is where they bring
6:20
onboard local entertainers
6:22
various people from maybe some
6:24
indigenous groups performance troops
6:26
and the idea is to give you an insight
6:29
into the peoples and the culture on the
6:31
place that you're visiting
6:33
now these two have become part of the
6:35
cruise experience especially
6:37
when i've been on more exotic
6:38
itineraries one of the most memorable
6:40
was when i was on part of a world cruise
6:43
on cunard and we were in new zealand
6:45
they brought on board some maori singers
6:47
performers and dancers they spoke about
6:49
the
6:49
folklore they spoke about the history
6:51
they spoke about the culture it was
6:53
really really
6:54
quite revealing however we could have
6:56
just gone and seen that locally as we
6:58
found out the next day and did on paul
7:00
gargan
7:00
when i was in french polynesia they
7:02
brought on board again troops of people
7:04
that performed traditional dances and
7:06
again explained the culture and the
7:07
history
7:08
when i was on a mekong river cruise with
7:10
across europe and cambodia
7:11
they brought about some apsara dancers
7:13
who came and gave this
7:15
incredible performance of dancing but
7:16
again the next day we were out
7:18
touring and we came across some local
7:20
people who again performed it for us
7:22
on many european river cruises i've been
7:25
where
7:25
locals have come on board and sung
7:27
around whether it's the
7:28
waltzing or the history of germany or
7:31
whatever
7:32
now these though feel pretty touristy
7:34
and pretty cliched when they come on
7:35
board it's almost like a disney fied
7:37
version of the culture
7:38
it's almost a little bit of a a
7:40
westernized
7:41
take on it it does feel a little bit
7:43
cynical to me it does feel a little bit
7:44
decadent
7:45
because we could surely be heading out
7:47
of the community putting our money into
7:49
community to experience much more
7:51
authentic immersion
7:52
in situ the thing that sways me around
7:55
whether these are
7:56
a key part of the cruise experience and
7:58
should stay on board
8:00
is what i've discovered is all of them
8:02
have normally been
8:03
created through charities they're not
8:05
commercial ventures so it does give us a
8:07
chance
8:08
to support charities and often they do
8:10
extra donations
8:11
again a decadent thing should it be
8:13
ditched or should it stay i'm pretty
8:15
torn on this one
8:16
and you may be too however
8:19
on this next one i know many many of you
8:21
will be
8:22
in the ditch camp that these are far too
8:24
decadent and this should
8:26
be removed the reason i know this is
8:28
many people have commented on past
8:29
episodes
8:30
that they feel this is one area that
8:33
they see is not only
8:34
overly decadent but actually negatively
8:36
impacts the whole cruise experience
8:38
for the majority of passengers on
8:40
cruises and on cruise ships
8:42
and that is the rapid growth of large
8:44
chunks of ship real estate
8:46
being closed off to the bulk of
8:48
passengers
8:49
there are two particular areas where
8:51
this is growing
8:52
the first of these are access only areas
8:55
for people
8:56
cruising in the premium cabins in the
8:58
suites
8:59
now what we're seeing on board is this
9:01
two basic approaches to
9:02
ships that i've sailed on certainly the
9:04
first of those
9:06
is the ship within the ship concept and
9:09
this is favored by lions like for
9:10
example msc cruisers
9:12
who have their yacht club and norwegian
9:14
cruise line which has their
9:16
haven area in here you have the suites
9:19
you have often a swimming pool a deck a
9:22
restaurant a bar a concierge
9:24
service and so on these are
9:26
self-contained and are only accessible
9:28
by people staying in those
9:30
suites the other thing that i'm seeing
9:32
which is perhaps more common is
9:34
where there's dedicated deck areas or
9:36
restaurants such as on celebrity edge
9:38
class
9:39
and virgin voyages where they're kind of
9:40
richard's club this is an area
9:42
where you have an area where only people
9:44
in suites can go they can suntan
9:46
might be a pool there there might be a
9:47
bar and
9:49
often many of these will have their own
9:50
restaurant the second thing that people
9:52
are objecting to
9:53
has just been too decadent is the growth
9:56
of the paid for retreat areas
9:58
on board ships now anyone can go no
10:00
matter what grade of cabin you're in
10:01
but you pay a fee to access a very
10:03
specific cabana area
10:05
where you'll often get things like maybe
10:06
some food some snacks some drinks some
10:08
television or whatever included now the
10:11
most glitzy of these
10:12
that i've seen because there are many
10:13
many on board different ships are
10:15
on many of the new big princess ships so
10:18
things like
10:19
sky princess discovery princess which
10:21
have this
10:22
whole sanctuary area and then you have
10:25
seabourn
10:25
again which has an amazing retreat area
10:28
with very plush
10:29
seating and it's a very beautiful area
10:32
but
10:32
so many lines also have them hold in
10:34
america and on and on and on
10:36
now is this a case of it's perfectly
10:38
okay to be decadent
10:40
and you have those areas for those who
10:42
can afford them
10:43
or is it perhaps a step too far taking
10:45
up too much space
10:46
and closes down and reduces the amount
10:48
of space for other people but talking of
10:50
affording something
10:52
what about this particular one going to
10:55
see
10:55
a show on broadway or in london's west
10:58
end is expensive it's really really
11:00
expensive
11:01
and that is a pretty big luxury for many
11:03
people including me
11:05
and perhaps you especially if you want
11:06
to take your family and you have to
11:08
perhaps travel up to london travel to
11:09
new york stay over whatever
11:11
now i love going to see shows and it
11:14
cost me an
11:14
absolute fortune every single year to go
11:16
and see as many shows as i want to see
11:18
but that whole
11:19
extravagance that whole decadence can be
11:22
enjoyed on a cruise
11:23
and the cost of course is already
11:25
covered in your fare
11:27
it means that i and any family i'm
11:29
traveling with can see actual broadway
11:31
and west end shows often
11:33
with the cast from either broadway or
11:35
the west end in
11:36
those particular shows but there is a
11:38
big catch
11:39
when it comes to this whole area i've
11:42
been on ships and i've seen
11:44
broadway and west end shows like rock of
11:46
ages kinky boots priscilla queen of the
11:48
desert i just missed out seeing the hot
11:49
new musical six
11:50
i've also seen a full blue man group and
11:53
choir of man shows which are big in
11:55
places like las vegas
11:57
now the watch out here is while most
12:00
lines have their
12:01
own shows they're actually specifically
12:03
created for those ships
12:04
but you can only see legit full broadway
12:06
shows on very
12:07
few cruise ships and particularly the
12:09
most eminent of those
12:10
is norwegian cruise lines you can see
12:13
specially created
12:14
to solely shows with their actual
12:16
trained casts on other cruise lines
12:17
including things like msc cruises
12:19
so the voice you're having to go to say
12:21
las vegas to see those particular shows
12:24
so it's pretty luxurious it's pretty
12:26
decadent and for me it's a plus
12:28
being able to go and see actual broadway
12:29
shows as part of my cruise fair
12:31
on board what do you think on that
12:32
particular one it's pretty clear that
12:35
the lions are increasingly
12:37
going to keep trying out more and more
12:39
experiences
12:40
to find things that are different and
12:42
unique from the lines that they compete
12:44
with to try and keep
12:45
us going on board and trying them out
12:48
now i
12:48
like you i'm sure we get swept up and
12:51
then we get swept up by the excitement
12:52
we get swept up by the novelty
12:54
the uniqueness of them but increasingly
12:57
as i'm experiencing
12:58
these things i stop i kind of look
13:00
around and think is this getting a bit
13:03
crazy it's getting a bit out of hand is
13:04
this really adding to and making my trip
13:07
unforgettable is this actually just
13:10
making my
13:11
fare more costly because they have to
13:12
cover the expense of all of these
13:14
experiences is it time to focus back on
13:17
the basics
13:18
or do we look at these and think no
13:21
these make our crews more memorable they
13:23
make them more
13:24
unforgettable and they absolutely should
13:26
be kept i'd love to know what you think
13:28
and as you think about that
13:30
why not find out about some things that
13:31
actually make no sense on a cruise ship
13:34
at first but do once you know why and
13:37
they're here in this video here
13:38
including
13:39
why cruise ship pools are so small click
13:42
now
13:43
and i'll see you over there
#Arts & Entertainment
#Cruises & Charters
#Events & Listings
#Fine Dining
#Food
#Food & Beverage Events
#Food & Drink
#Gourmet & Specialty Foods
#Honeymoons & Romantic Getaways
#Specialty Travel
#Transportation