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Cruise & Travel Q&A: Sunday 19 January 2025: UK 5pm/ ET Noon/ PT 9am
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Jan 28, 2025
Please join me for my 157th live Cruise & Travel Q&A on Sunday 19 January 2025 at UK 5pm/ ET Noon/ PT 9am Get any cruise questions answered live! Join me for another of my weekly live cruise question and answer session. During the livestream I will answer cruising questions or discuss any cruising topic or news development that people ask me live. You can watch past episodes of the livestreams too (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4qEAiMOHL4&list=PLs3662YkgOgq_nlVQR9WYJRNKuNyeKu7Z). Get bonus videos and dedicated livestreams by becoming a YouTube Channel Member (click "join" under any video to find out more) or become a Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/TipsForTravellers You can also but my exclusive cruise T-shirts you see me wearing in the livestream and videos at these stores: https://tipsfortravellers.myspreadshop.com + http://bit.ly/TFTStore + https://tips-for-travellers.creator-spring.com #CruiseLive #cruiseQ&A #CruiseLivestream #cruisetips
View Video Transcript
0:08
[Music] a huge hello and welcome to another live stream and so many people here already
0:15
which is absolutely just fantastic and Brilliant so thanks for joining me here um if my voice if my voice sounds a
0:22
little bit Croy sorry I just as I've got my sound on sound um if my voice sounds a little bit croaky that is um hangover
0:31
from a cold I had last week which luckily seems to have cleared up those of you join me last week if you remembered I said I was coming down with
0:36
a bit of a cold so that's cleared up so um thanks for joining me a couple of housekeeping things as usual if you are
0:43
watching this live thanks for watching live uh and you want to leave a question write the word question ideally
0:49
beforehand because it makes it so much easier to see it within amongst the chats so don't miss anybody uh if you're
0:55
watching this afterwards because a lot of people sometimes say they don't like this video it's a it's a it's it's a
1:01
playback of a live stream so I know many people do watch that as well so thanks for doing that um so uh what others
1:08
could I do housekeeping wise so I will not be doing a live stream next week because I'm actually heading up to
1:14
Manchester with some friends those of you who are uh big UK soap fans will
1:20
know of Coronation Street which is I think the biggest soap in the UK so we going for something like 60 years or something bizarre um they you can go and
1:27
tour on the weekend where they're not filming the back lot and stuff like that so we're doing that with some friends
1:32
who are big fans of coration street I'm not a big fan of coration street but I love going to those tours I've actually been to the old set before they scrap
1:38
that old set and Mark and I actually been to this new set but it was when it had just reopened so what they did is
1:43
one of those story lines where there was a big accident so that explained why when they rebuilt it look different anyway you're not here to about
1:50
Coronation Street let's get diving in there's lots of frers here which is great so I will mention you as we go so
1:56
Randy popped a question just before the live Stream So Randy um Mar and I got a
2:02
chance to meet Randy and his lovely wife uh on Grandeur so that was great um and
2:08
ry's asking the question because I know Randy and his wife are big fans of cod uh how would you compare the ship and
2:15
the overall Cruise experience between the Queen Anne which of course hopefully everyone knows is the latest kot ship
2:20
and the Grandeur always interested in your opinions and thoughts so Randy because I saw this I was trying to think
2:25
about the best way of doing this uh in reality it is extremely different on so many levels um and I mean I know
2:33
you're quite familiar with the K experience and obviously now with the grand experience obviously the ship is probably three or four times larger
2:39
Queenland because there 750 passengers on grander if I remember correctly and
2:46
queenan is one of the is the biggest in terms of Passenger numbers I think it's close to about 3,000 if I remember
2:51
correctly so obviously it's way way bigger you obviously have the huge diversity of cabins from inside cabins
2:58
through to the uh um you know the big Suites you have the different britania brania Club princess and queen's Grill
3:05
so obviously from that perspective it's very different the shows a bigger there's more choice of uh venues and
3:10
stuff is a bit more in fact especially at dining is actually better on Grandeur they they have two big special dining
3:17
ven on Queen and then they use different themed ones which they rotate in the um
3:23
the king's court or the leader whatever it's called These Days um obviously Grandeur as you know is way more in
3:29
formal Queen Anne and kunard obviously still have the much more formal nights where people kind of dress up
3:35
interesting as an as side kunard are dropping the what I thought was always very popular the themed uh Knights you
3:41
know have black and white masquerade ball they're dropping those completely and just having their formal night or Gara night or whatever they call it so
3:48
know some Die Hard kards a bit disappointed with that so um you know obviously I think the Grandeur is way
3:54
plusher from a Decor perspective Queen and is still is quite contemporary Decor not the usual kunar Decor um but the
4:01
overall Cruise experience is probably quieter a little bit more sophisticated in reality on the Grandeur I think one
4:06
of the key differences and I'm actually talk about this in the video that I've just finished writing uh the script for
4:12
and recorded the script for where I talk about grandier is for me though the gold standard in dining experience is Queen's
4:18
Grill on the kot ships because you have your own table uh which of course is SL
4:24
open SE to dining you have up to three waiters serving you and it's all very Silver Service so you know if you're
4:30
getting vegetables those are served separately not anything comes plated whereas as you know in Grandeur the the main dining room compass rose is very
4:37
similar to almost I think any sort of uh main dining room it's a little bit manic you don't get your own table people are
4:43
rushing around um and you don't get that kind of Silver Service so it is a different experience I mean it's more of
4:48
a premium experience than a luxurious experience I hopefully I have answered that um if not post some more kind of
4:55
specifics on that um one there so mement 547 is here which is great
5:00
uh which is great because I know that you're aart and it was great that your other half had spent time with you Heidi
5:05
asks a question hi there Gary we be in bonus Aries in January 26th before a
5:11
cruise what do you recommend we see on the tour and what tour companies do you recommend us to use so Heidi one of the
5:18
things that bosar obviously is a fabulous uh fabulous fabulous City I love bonares and I'm very excited
5:24
because next only next year we're heading to Bonar Mark hasn't been to bonares and he's coming on that trip
5:29
spend some time there Heidi and one of the things that I would actually suggest you look at which is what I did with is
5:36
do the Hop On Hop off bus because you there's two big providers there there's
5:41
a classic um one which was at City sighting and there's another one which is the yellow one I can't remember the name of that one um and you can buy you
5:47
know 24 or 48 hour uh circuits on those and they do take you to all the critical
5:53
places and go nearby the places so I actually use that Hop On Hop of bus and
5:59
I use the guide from that to decide you know where I was going to get off so obviously getting off at the Magnificent
6:05
um uh you know graveyard where just the whole place is pretty spectacular and of
6:10
course you can go and see which many people want to go and see gra ever Pon um and then different markets and stuff
6:15
so actually I didn't use any tour companies um I literally did the hop on off bus so went to see the beautiful
6:21
opera house and stuff like that I had a 24 a 48 hour because we had an overnight in Buenos arees um when I was in Mah in
6:29
America before we disembarked and so I got a 48 hour pass and basically self- explored so I don't have any specific
6:35
tour companies that I can recommend but if anyone does have any please will you pop that in in there um that that would
6:42
be great uh so M car ask a question looking at your calendar for 2025 I notice you
6:49
have a few months where you're not cruising are you hoping for some last minute deals this year so uh for those
6:54
who don't know I do on my website tipsfor travelers.com I have a little
6:59
there which I think is called future cruises or something like that and I do list the cruises that I booked but you're right I do have a couple of gaps
7:06
but in reality that's largely because I'm going to be doing some landbased stuff uh which is why those gaps are
7:13
there so I'm also doing slightly longer cruises this year so I'm just looking at bring up 2025 so um I have some gaps in
7:20
June but I'm actually going to um a good friend of ours it's a 60th and she's hired a villa for a group of people
7:26
coming from Australia and stuff so we're going there in September into October we're going to Las Vegas and Palm
7:32
Springs for a period of time so those kind of what look like empty months are not really that empty March is probably
7:38
the one that I do have some time to to do something so in reality it's filled in by landbased trips and as I mentioned
7:45
lot of those cruises are doing a longer so I'm doing an 18 night in August I'm doing a what ends up being a month long
7:52
uh all of November which is the Africa and Cape Town and then we're doing like almost uh nearly four week one in
7:58
December so it's also just spending some time at home so in terms of last minute deals I am not at all optimistic on last
8:04
minute deals um I did the video recently looking at the scope for last minute
8:09
deals and they are not looking great because if you look at the in fact I got a video coming out next week which is
8:15
looking at ahead of 2025 where I also look at this I've been looking through all of the reports uh that the major
8:21
cruise lines have given to the uh Wall Street and it's incredible like the
8:26
carnival Corporation group uh CEO Jos Weinstein says that they have sold
8:33
across their brands almost three quarters of all births available in 2025
8:39
heading into the year so you know I think this l m deal is going to be more unlikely I am though seeing um sort of
8:46
flash shells but it tends to be more with the premium sorry the the luxury lines they're doing a little bit more of
8:51
those so it's sort of complicated way of saying um it's not the reason the gaps are because I'm doing some landbased
8:57
stuff uh rather than waiting for for for deals in fact I'm trying to plan out my
9:02
26 you've probably seen that I've got up until June 2026 I want to plan the second half of 2026 but I'm holding back
9:09
slightly based on what Mark plans are so I can fill those in but I keep encouraging to make these mind so I can
9:16
lock that down um Tony asked a question on your Antarctica trips have you taken
9:21
hiking polls or do you think that they're not needed or indeed supplied by the cruise line so Tony I haven't taken
9:28
hiking and I actually have never used hiking poles um however uh it is I would
9:34
say it's it's pretty strongly recommended because particularly the time of year you're going you know with the snow in the ice uh you know most
9:41
many many people would use those hiking poles now a lot of it depends on which line you're going with so for example on
9:47
silvery uh they uh you could hire ahead of time hiking poles of course we'll
9:53
bring your own but actually once you were on the ship they'd had a big um box of not box of big uh tub if that's the
10:01
right word full of hiking puls which they would you could either get as you got off the ship onto the zodiacs and
10:06
they would also have them landside so you could use them there so I would encourage you to probably take them it's
10:13
probably my I should probably be using them maym more so I would way more so I would encourage you to take hiking pules
10:19
I mean the worst Cas is you're not going to use them very much but certainly because we were at the beginning of the season and you know did get kind of icy
10:27
and did um you know be fairly snowy a lot of people felt that that was a massive massive massive uh uh plus h is
10:34
here heading off on for on for 133 night on the Vol day and fantastic KY have a
10:40
fabulous time and hopefully I we will keep up to date with you um which I look forward to with your little updates and
10:46
things which will be great Mark um asked a question I've just booked the Queen Mary 2 San Francisco to
10:53
Sydney that is great itinery I've done that itinery not on Queen M on on Queen Victoria suffer from sea synct in your
10:59
opinion what is the best remedy if needed so Mark um I will tell you what
11:05
kind of I haven't used them but I will tell you what um most people recommend and also when I was on in one of my
11:12
Antarctica trips what the doctor was telling me he was recommending both to prescribing to both the crew and
11:18
passengers who were suffering which is the behind the ear patches so you get those on prescription um I can't is it
11:26
fenan or I think it or or it's something s ingredient but you do get those on
11:31
prescription but the behind the ear one is the one that certainly the doctor was using and all the pant crew who who were
11:38
suffering and passengers is what he was prescribing so that apparently is one of the most powerful ones of all now I
11:44
touchwood unfortunate that I don't suffer from C sickness but what I do use which I I like and I don't know whether
11:50
you're based in the US or UK Mark but um Dramamine works for me very well so I always use it as kind of insurance if
11:57
you're in the UK I used to use use uh sturon I always want to say I always get
12:03
it slightly wrong because I normally say the name of the fish instead of um but sturon so those are the ones that work
12:09
now I when I was um first time I went to anartica and I was thought I might need
12:14
something more serious I she spoke to my doctor and got a prescription which I think was for fenan pills um and I think
12:22
fenan is also the active that doctors will use uh if you if you can't hold anything down so for example on kunard
12:28
ships if you are really suffering um and you can't hold anything down you can
12:33
talk to the medical center and they do have an injectable option which I think but don't quote me on this place I think
12:38
it's the the vagan thing so certainly Mark who um suffers from seasickness has done that twice when we've been on
12:44
winter uh Crossings um and they really worked well um but I think you know what
12:50
I generally find Mark so those are the kind of the remedy side obviously there's things like watching The Horizon
12:55
and eating ginger and other those kinds of things but I I'm guessing you're asking for something a little bit more
13:01
heavy duty so hopefully hopefully that helps um let's have a look so Jeff is
13:07
here which is great good to see you Jeff um hiker so hia um is asking the
13:12
question hia has been on many of the group cruises which is fantastic during our Greek Islands Cruise you will stop
13:18
at kusadasi do I need to have a visa for Turkey which I usually need as a US citizen so I just want to be big war
13:25
like thing is I like always double check this but I did have a quick Google uh I looked at the what I always do high
13:31
is I always look for the because I'm UK of UK B I always look at the foreign office site so I look at the foreign
13:37
office site so FCO turkey and that will tell me all the entry requirements that I need and they are very up to dat and
13:43
very accurate the state department has a similar thing so for example I should just Google before I came on because I
13:48
thought I knew the answ but I just Googled um State Department turkey in requirements and there it said that um
13:56
because I brought it up here there it said you've currently got level two exercise increased caution you need a
14:01
six month Beyond date of Entry passport one page for entry and stamps and the tourist visa not required for stays
14:07
under 90 days but of course please do double check that but definitely I would say hi could that state department site
14:14
uh because of your and new US Passport holder is the place to to go I find this
14:20
really good and obviously in Australia there's equivalent Canada there's equivalent and so on but that's only what I use so for example heading off to
14:26
China that's where I checked it I actually went and got a for China because um there is what Trav Sarah sent
14:34
me which was that what they do in China now because I was at a Visa before is if
14:39
you're going on a cruise line Excursion the cruise line can get kind of an exemption but I'd just much rather have that that Visa which is why I understand
14:46
your kind of uh caution there so lots of people here ktie Chris Warren is here which is great uh lots of people in
14:53
California I thought I did see a quick thing popping up there Mark um and Nanette I I think are waiting to board
15:00
your Fabulous Adventure um which is quite a long adventure um of on Silver
15:06
SE which I'm very envious about um so thanks for popping in and saying hello
15:11
have a great happy embarcation and fabulous uh trip um so let's have a look I got slightly sidetracked there didn't
15:17
I let's have a look remind just WR the with question so I don't miss your question so Frederick I was I didn't
15:23
miss yours uh what's your opinion of Crystal Cru lines um so I will be able
15:28
to take you in Greater detail um in a uh
15:33
very soon because in three weeks today I will be flying off and I'll bring this up because I actually had this here to
15:39
bring up so you've actually given me a nice thing because I forgot to bring it up so that's slightly sorry Frederick that's slightly overlooking let me take
15:46
your comment off whoops so I'm actually heading off on crystal on crystal Symphony now I have been on crystal
15:52
Serenity pre uh shutdown and pre them going bankrupt I'm going on Symphony
15:57
really excited to find out what they like certainly all the reviews are extremely positive that I've been
16:02
following and friends of mine who've been on crystal are EXT have raved about it and um some who've been on crystal
16:08
pre uh going bus and becoming part of AR in Kent and those who've never been on
16:14
before um so they raved about it so three weeks down flying to Japan I've got four or five days in Japan then on
16:20
the 14th I'm boarding uh this trip which goes Yokohama to Nagasaki Busan and jedu
16:27
in South Korea uh overnight in Shanghai full day in Shanghai uh there was some slight changes there we going to K and
16:35
then to Manila then once I get to Manila after 4 Liv nights I'm going to Hong Kong for a couple of days because I've
16:40
been to Hong Kong for a long long time and I love Hong Kong um so I will be able to tell you in huge amounts of
16:46
detail uh much more about Crystal but certainly the the the reviews and friends of mine have um I've really
16:53
really uh loved it so I'm really really exciting to see uh to see which of which how that goes Fraser C is here which is
17:00
great Fraser joining us from MC presiosa for those of you who don't know Fraser he has a YouTube channel uh spent most
17:06
of last year pretty much almost back toback cruising and it's now to be out of cruising but he's done quite a of MSE
17:11
and he's on presiosa which I'm very keen to follow presiosa was an MS ship that I went to the naming ceremony um uh and
17:18
actually went on the maiden voyage of so and it's because it's not as big as the manic ships I'm sure it's quite good
17:24
I've been following your stuff so far uh ages curiosity hi good to see you
17:29
here happy New Year we're looking to go on a Cru with Regent sometime this year which of their ships would you recommend
17:35
Allison and Ian so ages C ages curiosity is someone else to follow across all the
17:41
dist channels and social media Etc um so I would say now of their ship so they
17:47
currently have six in service one coming in 2026 which is a new class of ship so
17:53
I would tend to focus on now Navigator is a ship that I do like I've been on Navigator the Caribbean in fact for our
17:59
Africa trip we're doing a navigator it's it's a very old ship uh about 450 passengers but of their other ships I
18:06
would try and focus on we've just been on grander which is their newest ship which is absolutely beautiful the layouts of the ships are kind of similar
18:13
but if you can go on grander I would go on grander because it's the newest ship it's the most glitzy it's a beautiful beautiful ship you know little bit
18:19
tweaks here and here that they're done um I've been on Explorer which is one of the older ships which I also really
18:24
liked um but a lot of people do like Splendor for example so any of I think
18:29
um any I would tend to stay away from Navigator because that is not a typical region ship it's a very different layout completely different layout it's a much
18:35
older ship um very different experience not as modern and stuff like that has bit more vibration than the other ships
18:42
but if you can go on grander I would go on grander region is fantastic now I have a video I think if you were here
18:47
earlier I've written the script I've recorded it needs to be edited so that will probably come out in maybe three
18:52
weeks time within all the scheduling stuff so that hopefully will also give you kind of more insights into into
18:58
inter region um so let's have a look just right the questions there a couple
19:05
I so Dave ask the question uh getting ready to leave on my Norwegian Cruise Line trip to Spain France and Portugal G
19:12
are said to be included is it true Cav's waiters aren't getting the fair share so there there's the ongoing um thing
19:18
around gruties and it's a little bit of a black box because um you know there's
19:23
lots of stories and rumors and all sorts of go going around but basically what happens with the cruise lines um crudely
19:29
speaking is crew po ships where you have gratuities are included or I'm guessing
19:36
you might have free at se or something like that or where they're Auto added is when Cruise crew sign up for a cruise
19:42
generally speaking what will happen is they will be given a guarant sort of a guaranteed Fair um which is that is made
19:49
up by what the cruise line is paying them and they will have an amount which in reality gratuities make up so the gratuities aren't actually on top of
19:56
this area I mean it is theoretically because on top of what the cruise line paying them but they do have a formula which spreads those out now there is
20:02
lots of worries that Norwegian takes a cut from that there's no evidence to show that lots of speculation but
20:08
certainly I've never seen anything that confirms that so certainly they should get what they're expected to get now
20:13
obviously if you have incredible cabin Steward you may want to you know tip above that as well so they you do
20:20
generally do kind of acknowledge if they go above and beyond because in reality gratuities are now part of their FA
20:27
their salary that they're included uh kind of broadly speaking
20:33
um Tom ask on your Facebook today yes it should be on Facebook and I normally do go live um I set up to go live on
20:40
Facebook and on LinkedIn so if you're ever on there should be but I actually note that's a good point I haven't seen
20:45
any questions coming in from Facebook but I did set it up to do that um thanks for the tips for Sydney we have op house
20:51
backstage tour oh fabulous so last week Thomas asked some questions for Sydney and we strongly recommend the back back
20:57
house stage short I mean it's crazy expensive but it is is fantastic um so
21:03
in terms of tips for Adelaide I have not spent a huge amount of time in Adelaide but one of the things I would say is if
21:08
you're obviously a wine fan there are quite a few Vineyards within sort of
21:14
easy commuting distance of Adelaide and there's lots of Tours that will go out to Adel from Adelaide that you can sign
21:21
up for but definitely absolutely make sure you go to the market the market in Adelaide is phenomenal and actually if
21:27
you look at my uh video that I did of the Indian Pacific you'll actually see
21:33
quite a a long section on the uh the the market there so I I that's all I've done
21:39
really in Adelaide is um I've literally been through Adelaide once when on the Gan I've only ever been there before uh
21:45
next summer went through was when we were going through on the Indian uh Pacific but definely most the tours that were done were for the the the The
21:52
Vineyards so that that's one of the key things to do hopefully that helps if anyone has better tips on how
21:59
which I'm sure you will have please pop those in as well uh KY I'm interested in
22:05
cruising an Ireland which line do you recommend best and experience for Ireland and Scotland so ktie a lot of
22:11
this of course will hinge on what it is that you want as a cruise experience so
22:17
the good news is there are quite a few cruise lines that will uh cover parts of Ireland and Scotland so it then heavily
22:25
depends on the the the the ship board experience that you want and then also
22:30
um you know obviously budget uh side so um what you generally find speaking is a
22:37
lot of the U cruises that go to Ireland are sort of what they call Round UK uh
22:42
trips which I know annoy people in irand because it's not really around the UK because of course in Dublin and uh Co
22:49
Cove always pron it correctly c o BH um which of course are not part of the UK it's part of Ireland it's not part of
22:55
Northern iseland anyway so um so a lot of you know there's a lot of those that that do that so a lot of it depends on
23:01
kind of what you want to do so what I would say um I'll give you a couple of suggestions is Princess um base ships in
23:08
the UK during the summer season and they have some very good round the UK um
23:15
tours which call into iseland now they tend to only call into Dublin and Cove I hope I pronounce it correctly cobh which
23:22
is an important stop which Titanic stopped on very beautiful place they often will call into Belfast as as well
23:29
um and then they may you know depending they may go round and cover more of the UK so they cover bit of Scotland in
23:36
reality but they'll tend to go in Scotland because they're bigger ships they will tend to go to sort of the Edinburgh side or the you know the kind
23:43
of the other side so if you want to go into some of the smaller places um what I would recommend you look at is look at
23:49
a line like Windstar so I did a very nice um trip on Windstar uh star Pride I
23:56
think it was a couple of years a ago which sails out of Edinburgh uh you know
24:02
and literally because it was a small ship it Saed literally out of Edinburgh um so it went it s right out there near
24:08
where the Royal Bania is in leth so that's a great thing about going s also rally out of Edinburgh um well I guess
24:15
Le is sub out of anyway it's part of Greater let I'm sure people in Le will
24:20
be upset with me saying that but anyway so you sell there and we went round up to Scotland we called into lots of small
24:26
places so if you have watched you know Scottish history like Fort William and or have you ever watched um the TV show
24:34
oh I forgot the name of it now out um Outlander Outlander um which covers a lot of the history around there and dve
24:40
into there we went so we called lots of places small places out way places where we were basically tendering in no big
24:46
ship could go there and then we went across to Ireland now the iseland side was a little bit weaker um but we did go
24:51
to Bast we to go to Dublin but actually disembarked there and it was going to do more of an artillery so I would you know
24:57
the' wonder if you wanted to see more Scotland is to do that because it will go to some of those smaller ports then of course you know kod will do some uh
25:04
Pino do some and stuff but I would look at that I know Viking do quite an interesting itinery as well again that's
25:09
pretty pricey and Oceania do some as well so those are the ones that think but if you if you really want to dive
25:15
into small places look at some of those uh those smaller uh smaller ships now Nicole has I think asked half
25:22
a question uh so uh we're looking forward to going to anartica next month
25:27
fantastic on on silvery pre all sides we are considering and you left us with a a cliffhanger so if you have something
25:34
else then uh then have a look poer boys think cus roads is the best main D see
25:40
uh but uh so we'll agree to disagree I mean we loved Compass rows we really
25:46
really like Compass rows a lot and we to your point we not we actually ate their
25:51
most and we actually preferred eating there we actually pulled out of some of our um especially dining because we like
25:58
Compass R it's just that they with it was just so manic versus if you look at the kind of a queen's Grill experience
26:05
um but I mean you're right the food is the food is great I'm not sure they're better than some of the others but um I
26:11
I still think that I mean we like compass rose so we sort of agreeing we're sort of agreeing and disagreeing at the same time if that makes sense um
26:19
let's have a look John asking the question and hopefully get back from so
26:24
Boer boys I was following they were on um uh I'm tring you're on Explorer I was
26:31
following you recently I was following you and asking lots of questions about it I think it was Explorer that's right you're on Explorer um so hopefully I'm
26:36
looking forward to seeing where you net it out on Explorer because that's where I'm going in April so John we are Viking
26:43
Cruises thought we try Oceania I hear that they discontented complimentary wine during meals what are the common
26:48
prices for their wine ey so I don't know I don't know the prices for wine but dur Oceania have currently um they have
26:56
they've gone through this process where they keep changing their inclusions and their exclusions so I can't remember the
27:03
exact ins and outs but certainly I don't know the the prices for wine um overall but you right you could get you could
27:09
get the olif and then they move to something else and something else so I don't know the answer but if anyone has better information because I know
27:15
there's a few people here that are Big O fans and big wine drinkers so that's good Al so Tom saying the Facebook
27:21
started late I wonder why they did that um Jour with joshh I can't answer this
27:26
but if Mark is still on he might be able to answer this so I have been to Santiago quite a few times actually I
27:31
did I went uh both two of the times when I went to Antarctica and then I went
27:36
once actually before I joined um H America ardam and I actually didn't go
27:42
out I was terrible in Santiago I haven't sightseen in Santiago probably I was going there um I ended up I had some
27:49
work stuff to catch up so I actually just ate in the hotel which is a terrible Mission um so I haven't explored Santiago so but I know quite a
27:55
few people on here probably have and I think Mark Nets when they were in San Diego did go out so if anyone has really
28:01
good uh suggestions please please please um uh you know please please please
28:06
leave some comments on that um as well uh so Denise has region explore on hold
28:13
um yeah I would be just a point about that is I would be cautious my I always
28:18
what I would be a little bit cautious with crud critic I I know that's very important resource uh and it's a good
28:24
way of budgeting of susing things out I do find Cruise CRI has become a little
28:29
bit ranty to be honest so I think people are tending we're not it's not as balanced as it used to be so people I
28:35
feel like are leaving going to Cruise Critic when they're unhappy so you lose some of the balance I think in the old
28:41
the older days I thought it used to be a little bit more balance so one of the things that you might also want to do Denise is um follow some of the um
28:49
Regent Facebook groups because often you will get quite a good discussion around what people think are working and not
28:55
working you'll often in the comments you'll get some quite good balance I'm finding I tend to I'm following more uh
29:02
sort of Facebook groups um to see some of the the the more balanced arguments I
29:07
really like to explor I mean it is not one of their newer ships for sure um but the itineries explore that they use an
29:13
Explorer are fantastic um so that that's that's that's really good um lots of
29:19
people got lots of love for Compass Rose which is great um let's have a look
29:26
Jeff if was a cancel the weather and you're stuck on board for multiple days which cruise lines are able to step up
29:31
their game they have plenty of extra things available to do on board Jeff in reality all Cruise Lines will put on a
29:37
new program uh if they you know if you have Cay instead of um Port days so I'm
29:45
not sure if there's anyone that I mean in reality any line that has a good program will have lots of extra things
29:51
to do so for example if you're on a smaller ship you know a regent or Windstar or something like that which
29:58
doesn't have a big entertainment team and doesn't have a big program in reality if you have a Cay they're only
30:04
going to be able to put on fairly more limited things so they might throw in a couple of extra trivia or get the
30:09
speaker to do an extra speaker speech or pull some of the speeches forward if you go a bigger line so if you're on a
30:15
kunard or a princess or something where they have a bigger entertainment team or you know if even uper Notch to Raw
30:20
Caribbean where they have a bigger entertain they're able to just tap in and run so many more things so um so
30:26
it's really linked to the prr but they every Cruise Line will put on a new program if uh it gets canceled so a lot
30:33
of it will hinge around just how active um you know how active uh it would you
30:40
know it it would be anyway if you like um Steve asking a question hi there good
30:47
to see you again Steve we're doing a transatlantic in October from Southampton so I'm not sure if that's
30:52
AUM to that's a repositioning we have a day there before departure is there enough to do there was it worth taking
30:58
train to source for a few hours other suggestions so I always get to off um with Southampton um because there's a
31:05
lot of people on and I know I'm sure people will comment here who have a lot of love for Southampton now there are a couple of interesting things in
31:11
Southampton so you do have a maritime museum so if you've only got like um you know a day you might not have a lot of
31:16
of time so that might be enough to do but certainly if you going to S sorber is a very beautiful place so certainly what's interesting if you look at when
31:22
Cruise Lines call in I always look at what cruise lines offering as options if you look at cruise lines that only stop
31:28
at Southampton not you know doing an embarcation disembarkation they will often lay on a Salsbury and they will
31:33
lay on a Stonehenge so you know so I you know it's depending on how kind of
31:39
Adventure I mean ssy is really attractive but you can certainly pot around Southampton um and I'm sure other
31:45
people will have much better suggestions I haven't spent a lot of time in Southampton to be honest because you
31:51
know I will often go go down on the train on the day uh or drive down on the day uh you know it's an hour and a half
31:57
either way driving or train so for example when I join Paul and Carol's group Cru I'm just going down that morning um so I I haven't spent a lot of
32:05
time in Southampton so people maybe have better suggestions Barry um I'm an amateur photographer and would
32:11
appreciate you mentioning when a more powerful lens will be needed as you did on your Antarctic Cruise so Barry I I
32:18
have um I have uh got a you know DSLR and I've got a big lens of 400 lens I
32:26
used to have 300 upgraded to 400 and I barely use that in reality on many
32:33
cruises so you're right I I used it actually much more when I've gone on more you know more Wildlife stuff so
32:40
I've used it for example went to the Arctic um when I went both to sbad and
32:45
when I went on Haag Lloyd when I did the Canadian Arctic and Greenland because there there's very strict rules um
32:53
around how far you can stay away from you have to stay away from polar bear um um you know so if you see them on land
32:59
they are very far away and even if you're then on ice and you know you have to stay quite far away and now the rules
33:06
are if the if the polar bear moves towards the ship the ship has to retreat withdraw so that you know so I've used
33:11
that a lot I used it a lot when I went uh on Safari so that was a real plus so
33:18
whether you know when I went on actual landbased Safari but also when I went um
33:23
to uh when I went when I went on my South Africa trip last beginning last year and we had some excursions which
33:31
took us to um uh took us to some game reserves then I use it because you had
33:36
animals really far away you know um elephants and giraffe and that kind of stuff I actually didn't use it very much
33:43
in Antarctica at all um because I I used it more for for Wales although Wales
33:49
came quite close to the ship but on past ones I've used it now what I have used though with great success which is what
33:55
probably makes sense is um if if you look at my Antarctic videos you will see some quite nice if I say so myself um
34:03
close-ups of uh penguins and seals and some birds now I actually didn't use a
34:09
massive zoom lens for that I used my Sony RX100 Mark 7 and I think that has up to
34:17
I can't remember maybe it's A200 but there on a I would use that to
34:22
get the closer because you knew you have to stay a certain distance away not huge distance but I if you were just take
34:28
with a normal camera or a lot of people would take him with their iPhone I could get right in close so I could be right
34:33
up close I've got these great shots of like the face of um sea lions or um you
34:39
know Penguins ready up close or know take shots when you got these massive colonies so then but that wasn't a
34:45
massive big lens but um certainly I would say people who went with just a
34:51
you know s or most people had their phone they they didn't they got fine enough photographs but a lot of people
34:56
go oh my God what you got was amazing and it wasn't a massive big thing so I would say that but it's really when I've
35:02
done Expedition stuff is the only time that I've really used it so expedition to the Arctic or kind of expedition with
35:07
a lot of wildlife so years ago when I did a Canadian one we went to see bears for example that was really useful to
35:13
you so I actually don't take that lens with me on any other Cruise other than if I know I've got Wildlife but I do
35:19
have that Sony RX one which is really really good so what if you got a DSLR the equivalent of that I check the
35:25
actual zoom on that and I'll put that in the notes afterwards
35:30
um so um Dave asking the question the is is you you won't so Dave was asking a
35:37
question um around you know Norwegian have the solar Studios and then they
35:44
have a solar lar it's it's it's a controlled area but actually as he pointed out you can actually often get a
35:50
better inot Commerce cabin so you can get a balcony because the solo lounges are all inside solar cabins all inside
35:57
of the they're quite small but you can actually get a balcony cabin sometimes for a lower price but you won't get
36:03
access to solo the only people get access to solo so he's asked me how do I convince them to give access you won't
36:08
basically they they very clear around that is something because also they want to stop people that one of the cells of
36:15
the solo cabins that is that if you you're in this contained unit a bit like
36:20
if you go to The Haven so only people who can use that are people within that so I mean you can ask you could
36:25
certainly ask uh you know the the um the front desk or something but I think you will absolutely struggle thanks Amy for
36:32
that I knew it was I was going to say saladine and I read saladine is a headache thing so sculp sculp that when
36:38
this when we're talking about the um the seasickness bits bits and pieces
36:45
um lot of people also love there from uh so there's Market Four Seasons Hotel and for very nice um which is very nice uh
36:54
and I said have a fantastic Cruise oh here we go Nicole I think this was the this is your Cliffhanger question now
37:00
answered finished should I say my husband and I are going to an Artica next month which is fabulous very
37:06
exciting we're considering an Arctic Expedition in the future and wonder if you have any experience with Expedition
37:11
group that region so I've sort of answered that so yes I have been um to the the region and I and I would
37:18
strongly encourage you to look at two different options um and there are more options but the two that I've done I'll
37:23
tell you why I think they're good so obviously one of the iconic ones is seduce fileb uh which is you know north of Norway
37:31
that's one one of the most famous ones that's the first one that I did um and it is amazing now I've noticed that
37:39
there's seems to be fewer companies it's a bit harder to find those they have restricted the size of ships that can go
37:45
but very much the same as um they done in the Antarctica but only ships of 200
37:50
passengers or fewer can go there now so let's cut out some of the lines that used to go there before I guess like hutin and stuff like that Pro probably
37:58
so um uh so so you you straight away looking at more expensive things but I
38:03
guess you're going on silvery so that's probably you understand the budget of that um but farat is really fascinating
38:08
it's got very interesting history good Wildlife um you know we to see quite a few polar B but the thing which I I
38:15
thought was absolutely incredible um and uh was I did that as I mentioned I did
38:21
it on ha Lloyd but I know others do it so for example know Mark here and stuff they did it if I remember correct on Seaborn as well I think silver sea does
38:28
it I think I'm not sure if silver does but Seaborn does it on their very beautiful ships is a combination
38:33
Greenland and the Canadian Arctic now I done on ha gloyd which is a German speaking line but I went on inspiration
38:39
which is the international line so they do kater in language for English speakers but it was a three-week tour
38:45
and it was quite tiring I guess uh you know because like 80 five% or more of
38:52
the ship was German um uh but anyway so but that was absolutely fascinating because um you know Greenland is amazing
38:58
you get to see these incredibly interesting um communities there there's
39:04
lots of history there PR go across the Canadian Arctic is very interesting so I absolutely love that we saw polar bears
39:10
as well uh as well so I would look at those too as as as the option the most
39:15
classic one is probably uh the Arctic uh there's probably more options in reality
39:20
to do the the the sort of the SP bad one but it was really fantastic I I would definitely like to do that again
39:27
um so uh some other tips there on bronis iries people actually just using English
39:34
speaking tax driver so it's interesting actually you're right coming out of the when I went there on Holland America there was a lot of big taxi rank um
39:42
which would was offering tours as well I haven't tried that and also within the um within the uh Cruise terminal there
39:50
were some but people are asking the question I guess we um we're not
39:55
um we we're doing B before they joined a cruise um I don't know the answer to
40:02
this but I noticed this as well um mind Shi appears to be focusing a little bit more on English-speaking
40:08
markets uh Robbie Williams is singing the inauguration of their new ship relax I don't know I can tell you what um the
40:14
other German lines do so and bearing mind that they're owned by the same company uh this is what I think is
40:21
likely to happen so mhi is um part is partly owned uh by by uh Ro Caribbean
40:29
and Tui who also own Haag Lloyd as well um and
40:35
they so they so it's kind of a it's a joint venture so basically what they do um is what Hab lloy does is with their
40:43
classic Fleet they nominate one ship which is Europa 2 as their International ship and what they do with Hab glid as I
40:48
mentioned earlier if you were there they have Inspirations the international ship so basically what means is all of the
40:54
crew are bilingual and they will do announce all announcements dual language
40:59
so all the announcement ships are dual language they then have uh if there are are you know for my it will be less
41:07
applicable but on the um on inspiration they then had separate you know talks
41:13
when we had our our um Talks by the um Expedition team they ran talks in
41:19
English for English speakers their R talks in German so what I think they will do is probably um let's like to do
41:26
that but they will basically make sure that everything's done as dual language any crew member you speak to will be
41:31
able to speak in two languages that's what I'm assuming they'll do because that's the model that sort of worked for them of course it's gets very hit and
41:38
miss on how many English speakers there aren't or aren't but I'm very interested in M chift I would like to try man shift
41:44
because the ships look very nice so I'm keeping an eye on that as well and if I do hear anything more I will let you know um but that's my assumption because
41:51
that's the model that sort of worked unlike say when I've been on Costa before where they had just a when it was
41:57
like there was very few English speakers maybe 20 of us on a massive ecost ship they just had an English Hostess who
42:03
would hold certain briefings for us and tell us explain certain things to us like they would do the separate um uh
42:09
you know safety drill they would brief us on disembarkation stuff like that they would do that kind of separately um
42:15
and then what MC do is they have entertainment because they're multilingual which works in all
42:20
languages so it's more singing dancing kind of kind of stuff C is asking a question which is is
42:27
um any mustard recommendations for TOA St Lucia and tiga the best way to get to
42:33
the beach at the end of the runway in Philip St Martin you'll find it very easy to get to the runway there'll be
42:38
loads of taxis um there that will do the run uh you can often there's sometimes a
42:44
lot of the excursions will include a stop there as well um but it's pretty easy to get there as a taxi and it is a
42:50
taxi right away it's not it's not near it's not nearby I have never been to to TOA so I don't have any suggest
42:57
questions there St Lucia um there's a couple of things that are worth doing in St Lucia one of which I like doing but
43:04
we don't do very often if I'm with Mark because he's less Ken is there's a very nice catarang ride that you can take out to the petons the two pointy mountains
43:12
that's quite a nice day out if you like kind of the catarang stuff um there also is um hotel shakala which is um the big
43:20
uh what's a UK Chocolate Company I guess but they've expanded they recently sold to actually Mars but they have a
43:26
Chocolate Factory at chocolate Plantation and stuff and they actually have a very interesting tour where you
43:31
can go there where they explain how they grow the stuff and make chocolate and all that kind of stuff and then there's
43:36
also just some very nice beaches there and I can't remember the name of the beaches but some very nice beaches there's a very big market near to the
43:43
port which is sort of within walking distance as well which is quite which is quite which is quite good Antiga um I
43:49
have only done a beach run in Antiga and sort of done a bit of self- exling around the port so if anyone has better
43:55
suggestions onga my problem is I in the Caribbean as I often say is I um
44:02
I I go to the beach when I go to the Caribbean so I'm I'm not um I'm not really ideal uh Yanni Yanni Yanni um I
44:11
cruising but get seasick which Cruise destination are more likely to make me sick or maybe I should focus on less likely to make you sick so obviously one
44:18
of the options if you are worried about that is River cruising because River cruising I I I would I would always say
44:25
it's impossible you should never say impossible I guess but it's it would be extremely difficult to get seasick on a river cruise so that's always an option
44:32
all those different River Cruises are an option um you know I would tend to avoid
44:37
trans atantic Crossings particularly winter transan Crossings but the problem is every destination could be rough so
44:45
you know if you talk to ship captains they will often tell you some of the roughest seas that they've encountered in their normal cruising is actually the
44:51
Mediterranean the parts of the Caribbean can be very choppy at times so it's it's you know a lot of it hinges but but
44:57
obviously if you're normally going kind of midseason you know peak season uh the reason it's peak season is normally
45:02
because the weather's the nicest and it's kind of the calmest um so but if you you want to avoid the Atlantic you
45:08
want to avoid Doom Dr passage you want to avoid the Tasman Sea um those places that are renowned for being uh quite
45:15
choppy um you know if you go to like the Inside passage in Alaska uh that's
45:21
pretty calm um you can have a little bit of choppy water some is getting getting getting there um but those are those are
45:28
the ones that you should avoid I think those are the key ones to avoid so you ask me which ones to to
45:33
avoid Francis is asking going on a Land tour of England Welles in Scotland only
45:39
have two days in London which are the best museums so Francis a lot of this depends on your overall interests but
45:46
things that I would strongly recommend uh I I will tell you is one of the most
45:51
fascinating places to go is to Churchill uh War um cabinet rooms which are
45:57
underground where he sort of um ran the war from that really really interesting it's very well done um it's just off
46:04
sort of Downing street they're fantastic the Imperial War Museum is also amazing
46:10
Museum the maritan museum in Greenwich is extremely good so there all the sort of the more serious ones if you like I
46:17
mean obviously the British museum is just phenomenal uh and the Victorian Albert is just phenomenal if you're
46:23
looking for something a little bit more contemporary the the design Museum in Kensington is also really good um and
46:31
obviously you have you have tape Britain you have the National Portrait Gary and stuff but um those those are sort of the
46:37
the ones you know British museum is just phenomenal and certainly the church's War Museum and um the Imperial Museum uh
46:45
and the uh marittime Museum in Greenwich is fantastic and the nice thing about if you go to one in Greenwich depending
46:52
where you're staying is you can also get the river taxi down so you get also get quite a nice scenic view uh which
46:57
actually nuba it's called anuba it's called anuba River taxi it's not that expensive um goes very regularly so you
47:03
can also get some nice um sites and sounds of London heading heading down there um so let's have a look um Rebecca
47:16
is ask Outlander thank you that was the thing here that was a Outlander it's but if you when I went on the cruise I
47:23
hadn't watched for actually Outlander very much um people kep referring to I actually when came back and God really
47:28
into Outland it was fantastic than seeing all the the places and the and the and the various sites oh I pronounce
47:34
it correctly yes I know that was always the problem because it's SP such a strange way and I I in my mind I was
47:40
kind of like doing that some other good tips there on Adela hope you're seeing that there um Rebecca due to some recent
47:48
injury I'll need to use a Mobility Scooter to get around do you know about use on cruise ships I have a cruise on Disney planned early March and don't
47:54
want to and I'm I'm guessing it's can but I answer your question um because
48:00
this is very very very important um issue because some cruise lines are changing their rules around this whole
48:08
area it's absolutely critical Rebecca that you talk to the cruise line um if
48:14
you are bringing or need to use a Mobility Scooter or you need to use a wheelchair because the cruise lines to
48:20
meet um Solas you know safety at C regulations what Cru are doing is they're becoming much stricter around
48:26
the number of wheelchairs and mobility scooters they allow on board and the reason for that is they have to allocate
48:33
a crew member for anybody that is has mobility issues and may need assistance
48:39
uh if there is an emergency because obviously you know you your you master station maybe on a completely different
48:45
deck you are so they can only have so many Crew allocators so What some of them have started to do is to um say you
48:54
know you have to let us know we may refuse you're embarking if you arrive with a wheelchair you let us know now
48:59
for some lines in the UK they're also requiring people to book an accessible cabin uh and the reason for that is they
49:06
only have those amount of crew they only have amount of crew that for the same amount of accessibility cabins if you
49:11
like now this not true of all cruise lines but it's very important because all Cruise Lines actually have a rule that you can't leave scooters and
49:18
wheelchairs in the uh hallway that's again for safety reasons it has to be able to fit into your cabin so you need
49:24
a cabin that can fit the mobility scooter and also can get through the door now
49:30
there are different companies that partner with the cruise lines um you
49:35
know um some some called the company for example called special needs at C but you can kind of Google that um and and
49:42
just search whatever your favorite searches like people who rent um mobility scooters for certain Cruise
49:47
Lines you probably put mob mobility scooter rental Disney or something like that because they all of them have um
49:53
requirements around the size of the scooter and stuff like that so you need double check that but absolutely make sure that you check that you can bring a
50:00
scooter on board or you can use a scooter on board and if there are any restrictions they have like a certain size cabin or whatever but the cruise
50:07
lines are becoming much stricter on this I covered this in a recent video around things that have been banned and stuff
50:13
because qu of people contacted me where they had been told they would could not go on their Cruise without booking a
50:19
different cabin and they were very frustrated because they only used wheelchairs infrequently um not all the
50:26
time and they felt it was kind of not the right thing to do because they were having to buy more expensive cabins but absolutely just you know be very you
50:33
know have the discussion with Disney or through your travel agent with Disney it's it's very very very important um
50:39
because you don't as you say you don't want to arrive um and find uh that
50:45
there's an issue and they you know they're G to turn you away or something like that um Kathy I would love to go to
50:51
Nar because other less expensive that you would recommend they're so pricey they can be very price say now Kathy
50:57
there are a couple like this gate one for example um I know do a big Nile
51:02
River Cruise there are a lot of companies um and I don't know the names of them found because I know there was quite a lot of local and small companies
51:08
and Brands I hadn't heard um but obviously you got you know cost to ones like unior Viking Amo waterways but if
51:16
you look at things like gate one and some of those lines now if anyone has a better suggestion than than that um
51:23
please please please um you know pop that in there um you know if you talk to I don't know where you're based Kathy
51:30
but there are some you know travel agents like Titan and trailfinders and stuff they probably also have lines they
51:35
work with B's asking the question if there's a good region Facebook um so those who don't know
51:42
there is a very Advanced developed um sophisticated whether the right word is
51:47
uh uh Facebook group called silvery passengers and I can't remember the name of the guy who runs it but this has uh
51:53
PDFs with downloads answers all of questions it's incred resource there isn't an equivalent to region the region
51:59
ones that the ones I've come across if anyone has a better one are more passenger kind of fan ones where the
52:05
silver sea passenger ones is incredible because they have created a massive massive resource um so I come across the
52:11
more CH chitty chat ones if that's the on now crystal is interesting they I've recently joined the crystal one and they
52:18
don't have the same amount of resource but Crystal actively are answering questions and that so it's sort of an official one and
52:25
I'm finding that quite helpful because people are having a passengers are having discussion and then Crystal are coming in as well and clarifying which
52:31
is quite good actually for the Cru lines if there's anything people giving misinformation I quite like they're
52:36
coming and saying well that's not quite right kind of thing ah Rosemary good to see you here Rosemary's got some
52:43
fantastic suggestions there thanks very much for that Rosary for the people person also about Santiago embarrassing
52:48
me about how um how I I don't really know that um oh here we are Journey for
52:54
Josh um has a video on his site on things to do in Southampton so fantastic that so Journey with Josh um so the
53:01
person who's asking about Southampton Frankie got a great suggestion I didn't think of this one actually I should have
53:06
is the red funnel fery to the AIS of white is fantastic a of white you've got Osborne house which is brilliant which
53:12
is where Queen Victoria spent a lot of her time after the death of Albert and actually died there and it's very
53:17
fascinating very really fascinating um oh de someone someone thank for your
53:24
channel I just canel my Japan Cru so sometimes I do get messages from people which um which is uh which I think is a
53:31
good thing where people have watched myself and cancel because they've decided it's not for them so I guess it's about helping people find the right
53:37
thing but also when something else is different so um hope hopefully hopefully that works out very well for you uh and
53:44
Paul and Carol also making the point that Paul and Carol they do have a lot of Stu on Southampton it's poor and
53:50
Carol love to travel Walter's here which is great so Walter is one of the travel agents that I recommend in the US so we
53:57
as well to travel um who yeah so the interchangeable lenses that's a good point actually the lens rental because
54:03
we had the discussion before that Mark who was on here earlier I was mentioning um were talking about um before we're
54:09
going to ad ARA you know buying versus renting and there in the UK and the US there's some quite good uh ones because
54:15
you know those lens can cost like a thousand dollar or more and if you're only going to use them once or twice it's it's a lot of money to spend unless
54:23
you can rent them um so yes whil as a big fan of region
54:29
explorers I'm really keen on look Explorer I've had very I'm really Keen to go on Explorer um because some people
54:36
have been on and said they don't consider it to be a real competitor for region and and silver SE they do see it
54:41
as a competitor for Oceania and Viking kind of things so I'm really intrigued to see where I think it lands I know
54:47
Walter was a huge huge big fan of uh of those um let's have aind write the word
54:55
question so I don't miss it here's one I haven't missed I have missed but sorry I haven't missed didn't write question but
55:01
I haven't missed that makes sense yes I know you wouldn't do a raw Caribbean world cruises you're not a huge onal Caribbean but if a Luxury Line such as
55:07
silver World Cruise would you do it if not why not so um I it's interesting cou you ask about world cruise I always used
55:14
to say that I wanted to do a world cruise I've done half a world cruise before on kunard um so we did literally
55:20
half of it we did this the Southampton to Sydney par and then we didn't do this the second leg because we were then
55:25
getting off in doing cruise around Japan and stuff like that so I always wanted to do the world Cruise you know
55:31
literally get on one place and get off you know 180 days later um so uh I've
55:37
actually moved away from doing a world cruise to doing a world cruise but jumping between different lines so a
55:43
couple people done it like Bob and Holly who sometimes aren here they did a similar thing last year and we had a discussion recently my Captain Zoom call
55:51
for my captain patrons and stuff is one of the things one of the disadvantages of a world crew in some ways
55:58
is you know depending on what you do so if you go all the way around the world either you have to go for a very long time so you go for five months and it's
56:04
quite poort intensive or if you go like the kunut one we did it was It was kind of January it was kind of a couple of
56:10
months maybe three months but there was a lot of Cs because I need a lot of ground to cover I think if I was going
56:15
to do a world Cruise again I'd want to do something much more Port intensive but also I'd want to stop in some places
56:21
and linger longer so what what I would like to do Mar has spoken about doing this is actually planning a sort of a
56:27
world cruise but actually picking various segments you might actually say I'm actually going to do the Africa part
56:33
on region or whatever because they have silver SE or Viking or whatever because
56:38
they have the best itinery that's going to go to the places I want but I might get off in uh I know K Town because I
56:44
want to explore K toown and do some um safaris or whatever but then I'm going
56:50
to get on something which then takes me across from kown to Asia and might be on the qot ships going to do that cuz it's
56:56
got a good itinery so actually kind of do it in segments based on the itinery that really going to do the biggest dive
57:03
if you like we had a great time on the world cruise I would definitely have been happy to stay on so there's as you
57:08
know a lot of people do world cruises now the Royal Caribbean World Cruise was enormous it was half a year I don't
57:14
think I'd want to be on one line on one ship for half a year um I would I would
57:20
consider doing uh and this is the balance that we've got is you want if you're going to be on ship for a couple
57:26
months you want a ship that's going to also have a lot to do so we originally CH chose kunard because it was sort of
57:32
ship of Victoria's like maybe 2,000 passengers but it meant that it had a big enough Casino it had big theater it
57:40
had lots kind of stuff going on if you went on on say a silver sea or know even some of the Oceana they're moving to
57:46
Vista now uh but Insignia it's quite a small ship and there's not necessary a lot to do so we're worri be worried
57:52
about you know would you want just more going on but certainly I would like to go around
57:58
the world um but I don't know if I do it on on one ship in in in one in one go um
58:05
rank asking the question what's your opinion of the 7-Day K trip to Norwegian Force I've actually done that before I did on Queen Elizabeth it was great I
58:11
mean you don't have a lot of time in the fuds um but you know because you have one Cay getting there one Cay getting
58:17
back so you only have a few days in the middle but it was great um was the first time I've been to the fs on a cruise so
58:23
it was a really good kind of um taste the key thing I would say is if you are looking I haven't seen the most recent
58:29
itineries I know they did on Queeny 2 and they do some of the smaller ships I think like Queen Anne does it is just make sure that you're going into enough
58:35
into the fs because there are more restrictions on where the bigger ships can go so just make sure that you're not
58:41
just going to berens fanger um you you know and whatever you you want to make sure you get into some of the small
58:46
ports but it's it is pretty it is pretty good um so Boer boy said thanks they
58:53
just making the point that are saying that I'm seeing really exuse I'm really excited to go about who this is really
58:59
uh targeting I suspect I may come away thinking along the lines of Boer boys and we had message each other a little
59:05
bit on Instagram this I suspect I might come out and it's the Viking Oceania kind of uh Camp if you like so I'm
59:12
really really excited about uh really really excited about that um
59:18
so uh right let's have a look top down driver leaving tomorrow in Viking ocean
59:24
to Australia and newal fabulous uh any advice to maximize The Experience um I
59:30
would say look very care well if youve left tomorrow you've hopefully got all
59:36
your um excursions sort out but do make do have a look very carefully at the excursions and make sure that you
59:43
genuinely seen the best things um and I don't know the specific excursions but I do find often the included excursions on
59:49
biking don't necessarily always get you to the mustsee sites now I don't know that itinerary there um so I often find
59:56
when I G Viking I'm doing some of their extra tours or some self- exloring so I would really just make sure that you're
1:00:01
seeing the absolute must see things in all of those ports um now I have looked at some of the Viking itineries because
1:00:08
there's a viking itinery actually which goes from New Zealand through Australia and ends up in barley that I would really like to do in 27 after my
1:00:15
Antarctica trip so I've been looking at some of their stuff but that would be my main thing is just make sure that you're
1:00:20
seeing the must the the absolute must see things there are some pretty good stops which like an CL stuff um which
1:00:27
have fantastic hop onop of buses so you can supplement that with what they're doing um as well rosby adding about the
1:00:35
Canadian Arctic Greenland fut with quark and ult Marine which is their new ship and also loved as well so good to know
1:00:40
that someone else loved that um Jerry I haven't heard anything around um that um
1:00:47
but I did I know there was some I know there was some discussion where the residents of Sitka were pushing back um
1:00:54
but I haven't seen any follow-up on that so I will keep an eye out for that but I know there was a I know there was a lot
1:00:59
of uh a lot of kind of uh discussion around that so but I haven't seen any updates um and I do follow lots of kind
1:01:06
of the cruise news and stuff so I I haven't seen anything but maybe as we're heading more into the season we might
1:01:12
start hearing uh more on that um I have been to Alaska in May um and it was
1:01:20
fantastic uh do people go spars a lot of the ships that I've been on though is where they have the uh um you know so
1:01:26
I've been on when I went in may also when I went in Princess and stuff they have either the you know the stuff over
1:01:33
closes what's it called the Dome it's got a name anyway you know with the ship they can close the roof over the excuse
1:01:39
me over the pool so the pools were very very busy um and a few people die hard people who out you know sailing around
1:01:45
in the spa so I'm going to take this like a frog on my
1:01:52
throat so um so was quite busy I mean the downside was when I was on princess
1:02:00
which is actually beginning of June but end of May is um the the adult pool is
1:02:05
the one that was closed over and it was just manically busy with kids so it was absolutely heaving uh you know you know
1:02:12
absolutely absolutely over heaving so um Lots discussion on Explorer I can see so I'm ABS making me even more really
1:02:19
wanting to to go let's have a look at Pam K I think we got time for that
1:02:26
not coming up what happens if you book a cruise for two but only one person shows up some some lines show no cabs
1:02:31
available solar Travelers when they show plenty for two passengers so I mean
1:02:37
um you won't get any money back it's unlikely at that late stage so if you are um if you know so it's unlikely to
1:02:45
save you money so it's unusual I haven't seen that a lot I know what you're saying I did look at one Cruise Line
1:02:51
once when I know when I put in for two people it was showing me a wider range of cabin so showing like everything from
1:02:58
Suits and stuff went up in one passenger it was showing more lower grades and I don't know that's because they view as
1:03:03
people didn't want to pay didn't want to pay for two or what um but certainly you know you could book for two and go with
1:03:10
one because the price difference is very different is almost non non-existent so
1:03:16
for example I booked a transatlantic as a solo then Mark was coming with me and
1:03:23
added to him the the fair increase was Zero literally nothing so if ID booked it for two and only i' had gone it still
1:03:28
would be zero I have though I did take him off a cruise recently which one it
1:03:34
was now oh yes it was on sun princess in June you can't come on that anymore and
1:03:39
um so I booked us two but I before I paid final balance which I haven't paid yet actually um because it's June next
1:03:45
month is I asked travel agent Sarah to take mark off the fair went down like maybe a hundred pounds or something
1:03:52
which was some uh um some I guess port fees or something like that
1:03:59
I would booked um that a trip on holl America a long trip a month long trip added Mark onto that um from Soo to two
1:04:08
and that went up quite a lot because I got a promotion where hav or was included so then he difference was he had to then pay for hav all because the
1:04:13
promotion made it so basically you're not going to save any money I guess so you could uh you know you're not going
1:04:19
to save any money from that I don't that's the question you're asking but I guess you trying to say does it unlock more cabins and your book but they won't
1:04:26
do anything um such as far as I'm aware now if Walter knows anything different
1:04:32
um then then let me know the key thing of course would be the person who the booking name is in uh to do it but I
1:04:38
would certainly let the cruise line know beforehand which is what we've done just so you don't have any kind of issues
1:04:44
whatever they may be um so we have churned through time um and I need to
1:04:51
wrap up we've gone a slightly over time there's a couple more questions there and I will have a look and see if I have
1:04:57
uh if I've missed any try to answer them as I mentioned there will not be a live stream next week uh unfortunately but
1:05:03
there will be a live stream after that which will be probably just about the week before I head off to uh for my
1:05:08
Japan trip so I will try and do at least two before I head off on Japan so thanks for joining me hope you have a fabulous
1:05:14
rest of the weekend um take care and uh see you soon
1:05:27
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