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British Cruise Lines Have Many Quirks. As I Recently Rediscovered!
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Jan 28, 2025
Why don't more international cruise passengers choose to cruise on British cruise lines? Why do most stick to American and European cruise lines? Cruise passengers can cruise pretty much anywhere in the world they want to on a British line, with the possible exception of Antarctica, and yet very few book on British cruise lines. I realised that I, as a Brit living in Britain, don't cruise on British cruise lines and so I booked myself on a series of British cruise line cruises to find out why. This is what I found out.... 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
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why don't more international travelers
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americans australians canadians new
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zealanders
0:05
cruise on bridge cruise lines because
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you can cruise pretty much
0:09
anywhere in the world you want to on a
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british line with the possible exception
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of antarctica but even more importantly
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i realized that i
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as a brit living in britain don't cruise
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on british cruise lines so i decided to
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set up a little experiment to work out
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why as
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cruising resumed after shutdown and i
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could only cruise within the uk
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i booked myself on a series of british
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cruise lines
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to go and answer the question what is
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going on with british cruise lines and
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why
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are people like you and me not cruising
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on there much more what i found out
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was really interesting and not at all
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what i expected so stick with me
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and find out why and if you should be
0:45
cruising
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on a bridge cruise line because it's
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going wherever you want to go
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by the way if you're new here i'm gary
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bembridge and my goal
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is to make it more fun and make it even
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easier to discover
0:57
plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise
0:59
vacations
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so here i am in fact on one of those
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lines i'm on piano
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cruises britannia now the first problem
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i hit when i started on my experiment
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and told
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people i was doing this is everyone
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pointed out and argued that there's no
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such thing
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as an american cruise line and a british
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cruise line
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because in fact cruise companies are all
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registered
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in tax havens and their ships are
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registered under flags of convenience
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so what i'm going to do in this is i'm
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going to
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do what we all know is we actually know
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there are american lines and there are
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bridge lines in practice
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based on where their kind of their head
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operations are
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where they really focus and who they're
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really catering for
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so on that basis british cruise lines
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include things like
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cunard piano saga cruises marella which
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is actually part
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of topwood thompson's part of tui
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cruises
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and there's other lines like fred olson
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majestic
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and other smaller lines u.s lines or
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american lines
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tend to be things for example like
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carnival
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princess holland america seabourn
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norwegian
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royal caribbean and so on i think we all
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pretty much know what they
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are there are actually a couple of truly
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british cruise lines
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if you go with that purest definition so
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saga for example
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it's registered all their ships are
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registered in the uk majestic cruise
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line and a few
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smaller cruise lines the same as you
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have lines in norway for example like
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viking
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sea dream and so on but anyway you get
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my point around
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what i decided to focus on however one
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of the things that did strike me through
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that whole process
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is that british cruise lines have been
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around so much longer
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than american cruise lines you know
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cunard over 170 years
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piano that i'm on right now over 180
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years and yet
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american lines which are perhaps 40 50
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or even less
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years have completely overtaken those
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long established british lines so does
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that mean that actually
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bridge lines are doing something
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fundamentally different something almost
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wrong and that's what i decided to
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explore next
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as i explored and thought about a little
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bit more of course what i realized
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is bridge cruise lines are very similar
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to american or even european cruise
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lines
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let's take a look at a couple of facts
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some of them are even owned
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by the same corporation so for example
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piano cruisers and
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qnart cruisers which are the two biggest
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uk lines are actually owned
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by the carnival corporation so they're
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even part of the same group
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secondly many of the ships are exactly
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the same
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as ships used by american lines so take
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for example piano
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this that i'm on right now
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britannia is exactly the same ship
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as royal class princess ships so for
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example
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regal princess which i'm on next is
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exactly the same ship
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piano iona which is their newest ship at
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the time of recording
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is exactly the same ship as mardi gras
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arcadia
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is exactly the same ship as queen
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victoria queen elizabeth
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and even things like new amsterdam in
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holland america so the hardware the
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ships
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are exactly the same the crew like on
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american
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ships are also international so the bulk
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of the crew
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tend to be foreign nationals so for
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example on pino
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and some of the other ships they have a
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lot of indian crew but you'll still find
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philippine
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indonesians and so on as you will find
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on american cruise lines
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as i've already mentioned the ships tend
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to be registered in
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foreign flags of convenience couple of
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key exceptions to that so for example
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britannia
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is actually registered in southampton
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which i think was part of the deal
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having her royal majesty the queen
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naming this particular ship but most of
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them are then registered in
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foreign flags of convenience the same as
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american cruise lines
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so the hardware and all the structures
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the same so it had to be something
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else one of the critical things that
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struck me about british lines
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versus american lines is bridge lines
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are incredibly
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nationalistic they are incredibly
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british in everything they do there's a
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real structure there's a real decor
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there's a real sentiment around being
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british
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it starts even with the naming of the
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ship there's huge energy and pressure
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put
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on having members of the royal family
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for example naming cruise ships
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so her majesty the queen has named
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things like
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the cunard ships we've had her name
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britannia that i've mentioned camilla
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the duchess of cornwall has named
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the saga spirit of discovery you also
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find pictures of
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the royal family around the ships the
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sail away parties
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are very nationalistic you'll find lots
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of flag waving union jack
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flag waving and singing of things like
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rural britannia
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so there's a real sense of national
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pride on these ships
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artwork is also something that shows
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that whole national pride
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and you'll find there's an enormous
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amount of artwork by british artists so
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for example on
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saga which i was on just before this as
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part of my test
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they have 1 000 pieces of art all of
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those
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are by artists who live in the uk and
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400 pieces
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were specifically commissioned by
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artists living in the uk
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so the same is true across britannia and
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the other ships as well
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so again that strong national link the
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on-board currency on
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most of the lines is the uk pound there
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is one key exception
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which is cunard and as i'll talk about a
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little bit later qnode is interesting
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because that is probably the most
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international
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of all of the lines that uses the us
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dollar
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you also found on the ships some very
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specific uk things so the plugs for
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example
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you'll find most of the ships will then
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have the uk three
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pronged plugs you'll find in
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the cabins there are tea and coffee
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making facilities with good old english
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brands like pgtips as an interesting
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aside
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when american lions actually sell the uk
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they will tend to put in
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tea and coffee making facilities because
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it's something the british cruiser
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expects
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you'll find lots of british traditions
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weaved into the ship so you'll find most
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of the ships will have a pub
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selling lots of british beers and ale
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and you'll find
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across the restaurants you'll always
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find a good british food
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like bangers and mash sausages and mash
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you'll have good old
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fried english breakfast you'll have
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steak and kidney pie
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you'll have plaumen's salad and of
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course you'll have
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fish and chips will be a staple of the
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menu
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not surprisingly partnerships on the
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ships will also be very much uk names so
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in entertainment
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you'll find for example pinot have
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partnered with people like gary barlow
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of
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take that saga have partnered with jules
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holland well-known
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uk entertainer the toiletries in the
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cabins will be things like for example
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on here it's the white company that
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other big english tradition
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afternoon tea is a real staple on
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every single ship you'll find there's
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afternoon tea in the afternoon and it's
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a really
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big you know extravagant flamboyant deal
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and then of course you'll find the
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entertainment has a uk spin
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where the songs will be much more uk
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focused bands
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beatles rolling stones or adele or
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whoever and of course all the quizzes
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will be very uk focused
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however that's probably not something
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that's likely to put people off but
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you'll definitely find
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there is a huge strong national british
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feeling
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weaved through everything that happens
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on board the ships that's not something
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that i find when i'm on board say
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american lines you know your princess
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celebrity whatever there's not a big
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strong sense of american nationalism
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there and even on the norwegian lines
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like viking
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again you don't find that sense of
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patriotism
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and rah-rah that you will find on
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british lines
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another key aspect to british cruise
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lines
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is dress code unlike other countries
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whether it's the norwegian lines the u.s
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lines
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uk lines have a much stricter dress code
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and are much more formal
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all of the cruise lines will have formal
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nights which will include dinner jacket
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tuxedos
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glamorous gowns and they are pretty
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strictly enforced and people are
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expected to
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follow those although of course you can
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get away with say a suit and tie
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but it is a really strict dress code
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it's part of bridge cruising
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and it's something that's not only
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expected but required
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that's very different around the world
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where we're seeing a much more
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relaxation
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of the dress code and much less formal
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nights certainly much less dinner
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jackets tuxedos and ball gowns
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so i wondered if that was something that
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perhaps put people
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off international travellers you know
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from coming onto british lines however
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we know that there's a lot of people who
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are kind of
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anglophiles particularly lots of
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americans you know they love shows like
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downton abbey you've got lots of
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australians with strong connections
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to britain so is that what's putting
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them off there is actually
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a much bigger reason that more
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international travelers are not
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found on british ships and this was
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something that really did surprise me
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enormously now as i mentioned you can
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cruise on a british cruise line
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pretty much anywhere in the world they
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sail all around the world whether it's
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mediterranean alaska south america
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asia japan australia however
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one of the key reasons that you don't
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find more international guests on
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is that british lines actually make it
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incredibly difficult
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if not in one or two cases impossible to
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settle on them
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unless you are british let me give you
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the most extreme example and then i'll
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work
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to the most liberal example saga cruises
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at this point of time
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it is impossible to cruise on saga
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unless you have a uk address so i guess
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you could be an expat for example with
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the uk address
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but you cannot cruise unless you are
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british basically
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so they are looking at in the future
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perhaps opening it up to other
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nationalities so that's the most extreme
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example
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other lines just make it more difficult
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so piano that i'm on right now for
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example
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they just make it much more challenging
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to book a piano cruise
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and they do tend to focus much more on
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british residents but it's not
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impossible the most liberal of all
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of course is cunard and particularly on
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queen mary 2. now when i spoke to people
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on kunal before they admitted
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that their most international ship is
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actually queen mary too
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and that's because of its transatlantics
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you know sailing backwards and boards
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between southampton
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and new york so it is extremely well
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known once you get onto the other ships
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queen elizabeth and queen victoria
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you're much more likely to
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find it strongly dominated by british
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travelers no matter where
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in the world it is sailing it is easiest
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to book on a cunard
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and they do have sales offices all
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around the world the other lines just
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make it so much more difficult
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it's almost like they're not wanting to
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welcome you on board and what i realized
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is that what uk lions do is something
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very different to american
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or even norwegian lines like viking and
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what
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bridge lines do is they create an island
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they create
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a very safe space if you like which then
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transports british people
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all around the world in that little
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bubble so it's kind of a little cultural
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bubble
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and they take you all around the world
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and it's interesting because
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it's kind of like a british mindset in a
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way if you think without getting too
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political but
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you know in the old colonial days it was
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about exporting the british way
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all around the world but it's very
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interesting that british cruise lines do
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really
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create this little bubble very safe
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space very very british
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and take it all around the world so for
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example when they go to the caribbean
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they will charter flights and fly people
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into the caribbean
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and then sell people around the
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caribbean and fly them back to the uk
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rather than actively go out
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and sell those cruises to international
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travelers so if you're looking to
12:21
experience
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a truly british experience it is
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possible
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but you have to be a little bit
12:27
determined qnote is your easiest way in
12:30
pino probably the next and at the moment
12:32
saga not so and it's definitely
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something worth trying so particularly
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if you
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have a strong affinity for british
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culture and british people
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and british traditions definitely
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consider looking at a british cruise
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line
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if it's doing an itinerary that you like
12:46
whether it's alaska for example
12:47
japan australia or even the
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mediterranean
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because you will get truly immersed in
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the british culture and of course you'll
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get to meet a lot of british people
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now if you want to know more about some
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of those british lines i've put together
12:58
a short playlist with some of the
12:59
overviews
13:00
of the very specific british lions so
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why don't you take a look at those right
13:03
now i'm starting of course
13:04
with cunard and one of the most
13:06
important things you need to know
13:08
about cruising with cunard so take a
13:10
click on that and i'll see you over
13:12
there
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