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5 Best and 5 Worst Things About Caribbean Cruises. Know Before You Go!
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Jan 28, 2025
The Caribbean is the most popular region for cruising. But, what are the good and bad things about going on a cruising vacation to the Caribbean,. I explore the 5 best and 5 worst aspects to a travelling around the Caribbean on a cruise ships. Some watch-outs and things to plan for. I love cruising the Caribbean and would recommend it despite the good and bad - but it is good to know before you go cruising so you can plan around these. Check out cruising merchandise like T-shirts at my store at https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/store Support the channel by booking your next cruise and for the best deals on CRUISEDIRECT.COM: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/CruiseDirectYT Consider becoming a Tips For Travellers Patron. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Follow Tips For Travellers on: - Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge - Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge
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0:00
if you're interested in cruising the
0:01
Caribbean I'm going to share with you
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the five best and the five worst things
0:05
about a Caribbean cruise hi I'm Gary
0:08
Bembridge and this is another of my tips
0:10
for travelers one of the best things
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about cruising the Caribbean is there
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are three different main itineraries so
0:16
even if you've been on a Caribbean
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cruise before there is another one and
0:20
another alternative that you can go on
0:22
broadly speaking there is the Eastern
0:24
Caribbean the Western Caribbean and
0:26
Southern Caribbean cruises so the
0:29
Eastern Caribbean covers normally place
0:31
like the Bahamas that came in islands
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Haiti Dominican Republic the US and
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British Virgin Islands Puerto Rico and
0:38
Dutch Sint Maarten now if you got a
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Western Caribbean some of the places you
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could go to include Jamaica the Cayman
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Islands is usually included Mexico's of
0:49
Cozumel and Costa Maya sometimes Belize
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the Honduran island of Roatan what's
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increasingly you'll find that Cuba so
0:57
Havana and Santiago de Cuba are often
1:00
now included in those certain areas as
1:02
well the other development is
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increasingly there are cruises which
1:07
only go to Cuba so you can often do
1:10
seven-night cruises
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Adam Ayami which only go to Cuba the
1:14
Southern Caribbean goes to places like
1:16
st. Kitts Antigua Guadeloupe Martinique
1:20
Dominica and Lucia Barbados Grenada
1:23
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines most of
1:27
the cruises to the Caribbean tend to be
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seven-night cruises another great thing
1:30
about the Caribbean cruise is choice so
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you have the choice of itineraries but
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you also have an enormous choice of
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cruise lines and style of ship to go on
1:39
there's up to 24 different cruise lines
1:42
that actually visit the Caribbean in
1:44
some form or fashion during the course
1:46
of the year so with you on big ships
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small ships sailing ships whatever type
1:50
of cruise experience you want whatever
1:52
price bracket you're looking for you're
1:54
probably going to find that going to the
1:56
Caribbean so if you want a party
1:59
atmosphere ship you've got that if you
2:01
want a more enrichment type ship you've
2:03
got that any type of experience you can
2:06
find so very importantly of course think
2:08
about the type of experience you want to
2:09
see the Caribbean don't see all
2:11
Caribbean cruises as
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think about the type of experience you
2:14
want because there is plenty of choice
2:16
and options another great thing is it's
2:19
very easy to get to so most of the
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Caribbean cruises actually head out of
2:23
Florida so you got out of Miami which is
2:26
the biggest cruise port in the world the
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two next biggest cruise ports in the
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world are in Fort Lauderdale so port
2:31
everglades
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and then you also have Port Canaveral of
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course you can go from any other ports
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both within Florida and more widespread
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but it's very very easy to get to so for
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example from Florida our seven-day
2:44
cruise you'll normally have perhaps one
2:45
C day get into the islands you'll see
2:47
four islands maybe five islands and one
2:50
C day coming back so you'll normally
2:52
have a good long day in the port you
2:54
know getting there seven eight o'clock
2:55
in the morning and normally there until
2:57
early evening now of course the best
2:59
thing about the Caribbean is the weather
3:01
the beaches and the outdoors for very
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large part of the year it's a great
3:05
region to cruise to the best time of all
3:08
is really between December and April
3:09
December can be very very busy because
3:12
of course the holiday period April again
3:14
can also be very busy and Spring Break
3:16
time very importantly the rainy season
3:18
runs from May to December of course very
3:21
very important of all is the hurricane
3:22
season hurricane season officially runs
3:24
from June to the beginning of November
3:27
although historically most hurricanes
3:29
happen between August and October the
3:32
absolute best time to go in my personal
3:35
opinion is if you can early December
3:37
because the weather's fantastic and it's
3:38
before the big crowds I also like the
3:40
February into March time because again
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the weather's pretty good it's not
3:44
massively hot the prices tend to be
3:45
really good and it's not a matically
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busy time if you go to the Caribbean in
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the run-up to Christmas in April when
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it's spring break and of course during
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the summer it tends to be very busy it's
3:56
much more rowdy and it's much more
3:58
raucous because that's a big holiday
4:00
time one of the great things about
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cruising the Caribbean is all of the
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islands use the US dollar so wherever
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you go you only have to take one
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currency and it's accepted wherever you
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go it also means of course if you're
4:13
familiar with the US dollar you know
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whether things are good value or good
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prices but one of the best things about
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Caribbean cruise is you're visiting a
4:21
loads of different countries but you
4:22
don't have to keep passing through
4:24
immigration you don't worry about visas
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once you're cleared once you've boarded
4:27
the ship and they've checked your
4:29
password and they've got you on board
4:30
well you arrive in a port you get off as
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soon as the ships cleared and you head
4:34
off into town and you hit back and you
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have to worry about any of that hassle
4:37
so those are my view are the best things
4:39
about cruising the Caribbean so what do
4:40
I think are the worst things about going
4:42
on a Caribbean cruise probably the worst
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thing of all of a Caribbean cruise is
4:46
the crowds and how busy it is as I
4:49
mentioned there's lots of choice lots of
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options and there are so many people and
4:53
so many cruise ships going to the
4:55
Caribbean so you'll find when you arrive
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in a port that can often be four or five
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or even more ships which means they
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could be 12,000 15,000 17,000 people
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heading off into the town the only
5:08
excursions heading to the beaches so it
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gets really really busy and a little bit
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manic so that's it-it's probably the
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worst thing of all of a Caribbean cruise
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as the ships get bigger and bigger there
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are fewer places that they can actually
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call on so you'll find that many of the
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itineraries called the same ports which
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is why they get so busy so if you're
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looking perhaps to have a quiet
5:29
experience on some of the islands look
5:31
at more cruise lines like Azamara Club
5:33
cruises silver sea region 7c those kind
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of cruise lines which will run smaller
5:39
ships and probably go to more unusual
5:40
places and therefore avoid the crowds
5:43
one of the worst things about cruising
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the Caribbean is the reports and the
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news and the concern that crime is
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growing across the islands of the
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Caribbean now of course there's lots
5:53
more people going to the Caribbean
5:55
there's many more people heading there
5:57
and the islands and the people New
5:58
Orleans are relatively poor so you've
6:00
got all these people arriving that are
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perceived as being much more wealthy and
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of course like in all major places where
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there's lots of people there is a risk
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of crime so the same is true whether
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you're in Venice or you're in Rome or
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wherever on a cruise there what's
6:14
interesting to note is that many of the
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governments are in big countries like
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the United States Canada the UK have
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started to put out more information
6:23
specifically for people going cruising
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pacifically about the Caribbean now in
6:29
terms of the islands where crime has
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been reported as more of an issue in
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recent times include the Bahamas st.
6:36
Lucia Jamaica Honduras Barbados
6:39
now most of the crime is fairly petty
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its pickpocketing thefts the kind of
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stuff you see whenever there's lots of
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tourists in place just bear in mind when
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you go to these islands even though it
6:50
feels carefree you're on vacation the
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same as any vacation spot that you
6:54
travel round the world you just need to
6:55
be sensible and careful for me one of
6:58
the worst parts of a Caribbean cruise
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although it's not probably a massive
7:02
issue because you can avoid it it's the
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obsession with shopping particularly by
7:06
the cruise line so I've been on many
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cruise lines and they will have these
7:10
shopping advisors that will give talks
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and run shopping expeditions and do all
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sorts of incentives and things to get
7:18
you shopping also when you come off the
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ship
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you walk into a mall area which is just
7:24
packed with all the same retail it's
7:26
diamond international tanzanite
7:27
international but there's a real
7:29
obsession with shopping and one of the
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probably the most troubling mindsets was
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I've heard a number of cruise lines
7:34
these shopping advisors talking about
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the number one activity on land is
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shopping in the Caribbean of course you
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can ignore it you can avoid the shopping
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but that sense of the real push that
7:46
shopping has become a fundamental part
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of the Caribbean experience and actually
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when you get to the Caribbean you have
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to wade through all the shopping before
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you get out into the islands another
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thing for me that I put in the worst
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bucket is the amount of hassling you get
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when you're on the beach now this
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differs a little bit by island but
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you'll find normally when you're on a
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beach you are constantly harassed by
8:07
different hawkers of course in the
8:09
defense these people are trying to make
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a living you've got all these people
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coming people with money and they're
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trying to make a living but it can
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become quite troublesome and it depends
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a lot which island you're on so if
8:19
you're in Jamaica you're gonna have
8:20
people offering you everything from
8:22
drugs through to you know knickknacks
8:24
what other islands it's much more
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handcrafted goods some of you might sell
8:29
drinks food but you will generally find
8:32
that when you're on an island you and on
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the beach you'll at least have lots of
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people try to sell you things and
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depending on the island there can be
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more pushy than other places one of the
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worst things for me about the Caribbean
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is how the islands are blurring into one
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you're farming you're gonna cruise
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you'll go to four or five islands
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is quite hard to remember which island
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was which often afterwards what you did
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in which when you're explaining to
8:56
people or discussing amongst yourselves
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unlike say if you're travelling to
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Europe where okay each of the countries
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is very very different the islands tend
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to be very similar and they have created
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a sense where those Moors and the ports
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an arrive are very similar the same
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shops the excursions are all very
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similar so that all do the beach breaks
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or the ATV tours or the ziplining
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catamarans snorkeling so it will be very
9:19
very similar it all starts to blur into
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one the islands haven't tried to make
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themselves very distinctive and really
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push the different cultures so they do
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tend to blur into one I think that's a
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pity in many ways that the islands have
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become so homogeneous and so similar and
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they haven't really tried to make
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themselves very different of course all
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of them are beautiful of course you have
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a great time but I don't think it's the
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one of such a pity that they haven't
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created different identities and made
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you feel very different now some of them
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when you go are very memorable but they
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tend to be the more Western one so so in
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margin for example is very different to
9:51
our Barbados but they tend to be the
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islands that are more developed and more
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commercial cruise the Caribbean is
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fantastic but there are great parts to
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it and there are more downsides to it
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with the downside stop me cruises
10:03
Caribbean no should they stop you
10:05
cruising Caribbean no but I think
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understanding the best parts of the
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cruise experience and probably the worst
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parts will help you make some judgments
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and decisions as you look to cruise the
10:15
Caribbean and hopefully you found this
10:16
interesting if you enjoyed this I would
10:19
love it if you watch them any more of my
10:20
tips to Travis videos they designed to
10:22
help you make more of your very precious
10:24
travel time and money on land on sea and
10:26
on the rivers
10:28
[Music]
10:32
[Applause]
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