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Live Cruising Q&A: Sunday 12 January 2025 - 5pm UK/ Noon ET / 9am PT
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Jan 28, 2025
I hope you will join me for what will be my 156th all-time live cruise Q&A. Get all your cruise related questions answered on Sunday 12 January 2025 - 5pm UK/ Noon ET / 9am PT LINKS MENTIONED IN THE LOVE: * TRAVEL AGENTS: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/reasons-to-book-your-cruise-with-a-travel-agent/ * JAPAN TO DOS BY PORT SHORTS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWVec_96CEY&list=PLs3662YkgOgr8DmB9oCJ1dWAnX47agOR_ 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
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[Music]
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hello everybody and welcome to the live I'm on my side I know that you can now see me I couldn't see you uh but anyway
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it looks like I see we got these pictures of me looking very confused anyway so here we are um a slight delay
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I can see with my um uh live stream there anyway welcome everybody to the
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live stream um I excuse that my voice is a little bit croaky over the last day or two I seem to be getting a bit of a cold
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and a a a scratchy old chest um and it is rather cold in the UK yesterday it
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was like minus5 overnight it was - 3 last night in Fahrenheit what that's about 20° or something like that and
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today tell up to about zero and one we so really really chilly and cold um
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which is probably why everyone's got Le scratchy old CS anyway it's great to be here just a reminder so for the next 60
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minutes I will answer as many questions as I possibly can uh on cruising or anything travel related if you do have a
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question it's always extremely helpful if you write the word question because that helps me um identify the question
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amongst the various chat and um I think that's all really so let's get get stuck
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in so the next couple of weeks I am here I'm not heading off uh I think about four weeks today I'm heading off on my
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next adventure so we'll be able to run these live streams fairly kind of regularly and to plan etc etc without
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worrying about ship Wi-Fi Etc although we had a bit of fun starting today anyway let's get going so I'm assuming
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I'm just checking uh it looks like from monitoring that it's all going fine I'm guessing you can hear me excuse me
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scratching again uh just checking that yep so let's get going questions coming in so I want to try and get through
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those as quickly as possible so red flattop uh asked question do you think
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that there will be more port cities restricting cruise ships in their ports
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I did a video um around this a little while ago uh where I was looking at what
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was already happening I think the short answer to this is going to be yes there is a growing push back from local
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communities not only at cruise travel but at General tourism sort of post the pandemic shutdowns there has been this
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real surge of Tourism to many cities and towns and local residents are pushing back now we seeing that particularly
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happening in Europe and a lot of the mayors that have been elected recently have often stood on a ticket to push
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back a little bit um on tourism a lot of it around things like um uh Airbnb for
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example because people are very frustrated that it's pushing up uh you know availabity sorry reducing
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availability of Apartments pushing up rents Etc but there is knock on effect to cruises and I've seen uh quite a few
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talking about wanting to have fewer of the mega ships in more of the smaller ships uh you know managing the numbers
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so it's kind of it's interesting what's happening because cruise lines are launching more big more and more big
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ships and the cruise Lins are pushing back I mean we've seen even on another degree you know with Mexico introducing
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their $42 per passenger tax that comes in from the 1 of July you know other ways of putting pressure on those so
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that will no doubt if the cruise lines get a resolution I we'll see you know some of the Mexican ports perh being
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dropped so I think it's yes um where it settles down we will of course have to wait and see but I think the short
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answer to that is going to be a big yes Heather's here again which is great talking about Disney Cruisers um
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expanding uh their Fleet they've announced they're adding a lot of ships to their Fleet I think they're going to aim up to be about to 13 ships they're
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obviously launching treasure and got launching which is going to be based in
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Asia which is a massive big ship but it's great to know that they're building kind of a diverse set of ships Eddie's
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here which is great Steve here which is great um now there were a couple of questions which are linked U from Megan
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so I'll show both of those and I'll talk a little bit about those so Megan has a question my elderly mom is coming on the
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next cruise with me mostly quite fit and healthy but I'm thinking about getting assistance at embarcation and a
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following question with some of my some of my some friends of my mom are doing a
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cruise later this year one has some memory problems suggestion on how to help our was thinking lanyard that can
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include State room number but any ideas so um let me sort of bundle those
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together I mean definitely if your mother has issues with Mobility for
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example it is worth asking for assistance however uh there is a big and
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important caveat and fact you need to build in with that and I actually covered in this week's video where I
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talk about things that cruise lines are Banning and stuff which taking off like crazy actually but um uh one of the
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important developments now this is not across all cruise lines but the cruise lines are sort of clamping down on
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people with mobility issues and the numbers they take on board so for example what uh the cruise lines are
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saying uh is if you want to uh go on a cruise with a wheelchair or some sort of
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Mobility device you need to let them know in advance because they do have limited amount of crew that can assist
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dur during any emergency so must uh you know if there is some sort of emergency they have certain amount of crew that
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are allocated to people with mobility issues because obviously they need to get up and downstairs and so on so if
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you on some Cruise Lines if you arrive at the port or having told them that you need assistance so a wheelchair a
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Mobility Scooter or whatever they may they are turning people away unless they have notified them and in some cases
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actually booked an accessible cabin so Pio Fred allson had a lot of emails and contacts from people there who've been
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told they have to look an accessibility cabin because they've got number of accessibility cabins is the number of
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crew that got allocated that can assist now this is very varied across different cruise lines and I can see in allot of
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the comments from this week's video that people are having varying experiences so absolutely um if your mother needs
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assistance particularly if it's around walking getting up and downstairs it's critically important that you talk to the cruise line in advance because there
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may be some restrictions uh about the type of cabin or or um you know what she
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needs to do on board and assistance that's absolutely really really important if if she needs any kind of assistance and that's particularly
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Mobility assistance now Megan link to this point about memory now I'm assuming
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this is uh sort of a link to dementia for example now my mom had to Mena so I
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can understand some of the challenges that you have now um again some Cruise Lines require you to discuss it with
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them in advance I did a bit because I saw this question just before we came live and I had seen some resources and
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articles now there are some resources so I'd strongly suggest that you just sort of get them to type in dementia and
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cruising there's some uh good resource article on Cruise Critic for example um some of the um associations like the
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Alzheimer's Association have some resources but very importantly they do say that some Cruise Lines require you
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to discuss it in advance uh but it's more if it's more advanced stages but one of the key tips as I mentioned my
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mom had dementia which when we still went cruising was not that uh of a challenge but one of the things that
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I've seen in all the resources they say very clearly your suggestion have your state room number and even a kind of a
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contact name your name or whatever whatever that is on the lanyard so if they get confused or lost uh the other
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thing is pretty much make sure that someone's with him all the time so our mom was never alone she we always traveled with Mark's mom so there was
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she always had a cabin and and if she so went wandering or got confused there was actually always someone with her um
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would be another key thing is um and the other thing is you can also if you talk to the Cru in advance what these
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resources are saying for example if you talk to the mat uh you can talk about having you know perhaps it's just having
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a table with familiar faces the family or whatever you know not sharing with strangers um and the other thing which I
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think is very interesting these articles spoke about and this was true of my mom for example is you you sometimes forget
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how much that your your loved one like you know in the case of my mother is kind of hiding or you just don't realize
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what's happening until you get her an unfamiliar environment when you realize how confused and so on she got so hopefully that helps um and
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do look at those resources there was some pretty pretty good uh pretty good uh uh stuff there there's a question
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here which maybe Sarah can follow up uh because I think Sarah's here Sarah's here uh looking for a career change and
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thinking I'd like to be travel in the UK how do I start so um maybe you can connect with um Sarah Balton Sarah
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Balton is part of travel counselors so she's I guess what's called a homeworking travel agent um so she works
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for herself um but she there's part of travel Council which provide all the back office and the clout and the admin
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and all that sort of stuff um and that's my understanding of a really good way to do it there are others like goat Cruz
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for example Dan who's handling Paul and Carol's bookings and their group cruise for example he's part of goat Cru and I
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think there are some others Hayes might be one as well which which does that um
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as well but a really great opportunity of course it's quite challenging uh to you know finding um finding clients and
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stuff you know so a friend of Mark was looking to a travel agent um and that's
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the key thing is is building up a client base um over time uh and actually somebody I knew who was a hotel director
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on the cruise line was thinking of heading you know not going out to seea set up a travel business have found it
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very challenging um just in terms of finding clients so it's it's also that a lot of it people be thinking not only
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the logistical side uh but also then you know what's your marketing how you going to get clients so for example Sarah I
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know I originally came across sah through social media we built up a relationship with there I met her at some Cruise events and stuff like that
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so thinking around that as well uh steo good to see you for attend with no small
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ports we considering the premium line shipped within a ship rather than going on a Luxury Line what is your decision
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process in these cases so that's a great challenge so um obviously one of the the decision points is budget because in
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reality you'll often find that the premium ship within a ship is is the same price and can even be some more
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costly than going on a Luxury Line obviously you're probably going to get a bigger cabin you might get more perks you might have a bucko which you might
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not have on some of those luxury l so budgeted for me is always one so the the price per day if you like so actually
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that you know if you say well actually it's the same kind of price you know get a sense of perspective are you really saving money because then for me the
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biggest decision point of all in Reality Steve is around what experience I want so if I'm going to a place which is a
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very poort intensive I know I'm going to be on lots of uh days out I may not want the big resources uh and shows that a
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big Cruise Line will have and I actually want a smaller quiet ship because I don't want big shows every night I don't
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want a massive big Casino I don't want loads of choice of dining venues and so on so lots the what then the key
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decision Point comes around kind of what is that experience that I want and that for me would be the key uh driving
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factor of of what I would decide um so you I think those are the two so for for
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um you know for example I'll give you an example because it links to questions ask a little bit later um I want to do
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like I've got a South American one of my cruise Maps you know I'm obsessed with cruise Maps but one of the cruise Maps
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um from the cruise maps.com remember the cruise maps.com TFT if you're ever looking at these you'll get discount
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from those 10% off but I wanted to do a circum navigation more than I did of South
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America and I had the same thing I looked at is obviously silver SE does it you some do do that
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but actually I thought I'm going to be on this for quite a long time it's a 31-day trip um there are quite a few C
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days within that as well so I do actually want a bigger ship experience
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so going on a smallship I you know was fine but I did want a more buzzing active Casino I did want more shows I
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wanted some good enrichment so I actually decided to go back and do it on H America now that's not a true ship
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within a ship that I'm doing it on but within the budget I had could either go like in a a nice kind of a site I guess
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what they call a sweet level which has a little Lounge but that's about it you don't have any of the ship with in a ship but I thought for 31 days I really
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want to have just a bigger ship experience I don't want to go on a smaller ship so that's sort of the
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decision process that that that that I kind of use I will come back to the South American question a bit Megan uh
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Chris hi they good to see you Chris always has lots of challenging questions and some great cruising actually based on your questions so I was looking at
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Alaska for 2026 2027 and I have your top choices for ships sorry have your top
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choices for ships it's almost like a tongue twist isn't it Chris have your top choices for ships changed going
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forward to that area also which train do you recommend to combine with the
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cruise Chris know my my top choices for ships hasn't changed with as you
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probably know if you've been watching my last videos and thanks for that is always for me a key determined factor is
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glacia Bay can the cruise can the cruise line get to glacia Bay uh you know so my
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last Alaska in fact I went on a cruise that didn't go into glacia Bay because I'd been fortunate enough to go into glacia Bay twice and there was actually
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a few other ports that I hadn't on Alaska that I wanted to go so they were on that particular teny so I would focus
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you know on your H America your princess Norwegian Seaborn kunard I think likeing
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does go and the ones that are that can get into glacia Bay particularly if this is a once off trip to Alaska you get to
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glacia Bay is really really important so they haven't really changed um if you are looking for something which I
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haven't really spoken about a lot and I probably should do if I ever update my ask is if you want something a little bit more off the Beaten Track so you
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don't necessarily want to just go to skag Juno Etc look at Hut grittin and
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look at unru because they do a more um Expedition style so you don't go to
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those big ports and you go a little bit more Wildlife Etc Focus so that I didn't probably cover my before now in terms of
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trains I'm guessing that you're meaning I look into two ways Chris one of which is if you're looking for a pre- or post
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trip for me the rocky Mountaineer is uh just a fabulous experience they you can
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do that in and out of Vancouver so you can do it before if you catching the SHP in Vancouver or if you're doing say a oneway Alaska trip ending up in
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Vancouver you can then do the Rocky Mountaineer two or three day they do have some longer ones but they are
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fantastic so you're on the train during the day and you stay in hotels at night uh it's pretty costly but it is just a
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fabulous experience now there is a different experience which is if you're going out of Anchorage what they say but
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you don't go of Anchorage because the two ports are sewed and um Wier they
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both of them have scenic train rides uh which had done a couple of hours out of Anchorage um the one at um if you
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getting the train of Whittier it head it literally stops right opposite where the ships Embark and that's a amazing
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experience uh and not that it costly actually and then for seid which I haven't done yet but I will be doing it
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this year because I'm going to be selling on Silver SE out of uh seid which is repositioning there uh they
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have a train which doesn't quite stop at the cruise terminal but um they have a
15:48
shuttle bus which takes people to the terminal it's about a two two and a half hour ride and extremely Scenic so you
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can even do a great train ride kind of before uh or you know before or after Cruise if you if you're heading in and
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out of Anchorage the only Lilith cat the only
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Lilith cat hopefully that's correct we're considering a Panama Canal cruise absolute must as you know if you ever
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follow me I'm obsessed with the Panama Canal just back from doing it the fourth time third full Transit other things
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being equal is One Direction better than the other and is there a Best season for the transit so sorry I'm going to take a
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slug doing the Panama Canal is number one so
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I have done it mostly heading from the Caribbean SE side uh through to the
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Pacific side I guess speaking of the atantic across although I keep doing that but actually you effectively go
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north to south because the way that Panama has been anyway um and I've done it the other way from Panama City um
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both are fantastic however if you do really want to make a choice personally I would encourage you to look at heading
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from the Caribbean Sea Side uh heading towards Panama City side the Pacific
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side and the reason for that is you head into that way through the gats and locks
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which are the three locks uh together that take you up 85 ft into the Gatson
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Lake and that is kind of just it's early morning you're Wide Awake you're you're
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raring to go you're buzzing with the examp and you do this very concentrated sort of hour and a half or so you'd go
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through those three locks together if you're coming the other way you go up the miror floor's lock you go through
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two locks then you sell a short while and you go up the Pedro Miguel locks into the calber cut and then into the
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gon Lake which is great because you go locks but it's sort of not all as intense and what I found is um just that
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you know you really get to experience locks going up boom boom boom boom boom so it's incredible experience but seriously either way is fantastic now I
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had read a book before I did my heading the other way Panama City which basically said oh heading that you know
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that way is the south to North way is not so great not true um it is fantastic
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but if you do get a choice if I was say someone have a choice do that so my group Cruise which we're doing in about a year's time now is heading that way
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but in 2026 I'm actually doing two more transits and one is one way and one is the other way and I'm excited about both
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and the good thing about um when you're heading from Panama through is you get to see quite a lot of the old sorry the
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new locks which is quite exciting as well but the advantage is actually heading the other way towards the end of the day you you you're less you got time
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to actually take a look at the at the new yor so that would be my key is there best season for transer well most of the
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Panama Canal cruises tend to be sort of the best time to go there would say
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it's October to March that's what they were saying on the ship again uh it's when I think it's the least amount of
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rain if I'm correctly speaking it's heart is very humid of course um but but that's also when most of them go um so
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that's a really good time but you'll find most of the transits particularly which head uh from the uh Atlantic side
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to the Pacific side or the Caribbean to the other side are really happening around sort of March april-ish time or
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some will do it Christmas good either way and then the next big time is towards October I would try and do it that sort of March time I've always done
19:17
it at that time ah so D and Andrew are here which is great they are packing for explor to they if you don't know um
19:23
Andrew and Dina they have the channel calling or ports they have been on Explorer they just posted I guess it's today I'm not sure I watched it today I
19:30
did see on your Instagram uh stuff so I watched that today so lots of people ask me about Explorer I haven't been on yet
19:36
they've been on Explorer which you on Explorer one uh heading on Explorer two if I remember correctly they have their
19:41
first video out which is around the embarcation uh they show you around the cabin which most people will book that
19:47
type of cabin um which is CA Terrace cabin which I booked and then they have different grades which are really on
19:53
based on location I guess and they show you around the ship and stuff like that so the next video coming is on food
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which I'm really Keen to um really Keen for you to get that video out because I'm Keen to see the food stuff I'm a
20:04
little bit confused on the food side um so um have a great trip but do take a
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look at their video it's a really great video covering um the the overview in a couple of tips Etc um so Megan is asking
20:18
another question I'd like to South American cruise who does a good one for maybe 10 to 15 days and is it worth doing one that includes at Arctica even
20:24
if only briefly a lot of cruise lines do it obviously the answer a lot depends on your budget and what sort of experience
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you want now I did the one that's actually up here on my the cruise Maps here which I did which went out of
20:37
valpro so you fly to Santiago and you either go from San Antonio or valpro
20:42
depending on which court they're going out of and you basically go round through Chile through the Chile and
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fiords include some of the Forkland and then we actually end up buies want video that one is actually two weeks long it's
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a great teny H America does and they basically go backwards and forwards they are really good at this
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region as I said I've booked in another ho in America fact on the same ship which is doing a much bigger C
21:06
navigation uh really really good enrichment they know the region inside out uh fantastic excursions so that
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would be a good tip and the advantage with them is they depending on your budget whether you you you know you want to do it for good value they have
21:19
everything inside Camas du to kind of a sweet experience um Viking does a really good one oani does a good one um now
21:26
personally um I as you'll notice I did one that didn't go down to South America what America I turn as every alternate
21:33
one I think they go down to South America I mean it's fine but you're doing a sale bu so if you want to tick
21:39
off that you've headed down there it's great because you get a flavor of it but you're not going to do any Landings I
21:44
would tend to focus a little bit on the South American stuff because it will also are quite a lot of C days it will
21:50
reduce the amount of C days but clearly you know if that you think it's going to be your only chance to get Antarctica
21:55
and it's a more effective way to do it at least you're going to see some of the magnificence of Antarctica Mike and car
22:01
here which is great of course you're both together which which you hav me for a while which is fantastic so thanks for joining and for watching SL from a
22:08
cloudy Glasgow so actually I'm du to head up to Glasgow just for some meetings on on on Wednesday and I've
22:14
been looking at the way that actually improves during the week so um that's great um so I'm ask CHR questions as I
22:22
said travel and Sarah here which is great uh so I'd love to know other
22:27
people's um views on Miami and ports so
22:33
sorry hotels uh Miami hotels are obscenely costly as are the ones in Fort
22:42
Lauderdale these days so if anyone has any good uh tips and suggestions for
22:48
that so I've when I've said I've said at varying hotels and all of them to me seem very overpriced so I try and book
22:54
them way in advance like when I'm going to Miami in 9 months time or whenever come and I book them flexible and I wait
23:00
to close to the time and see if the if phys sale comes along a lot of them will
23:05
do uh like a Black Friday sale or whatever um then you have to shift into a nonrefundable one um but if it's close
23:14
to the trip because I'm often doing trips say to the Caribbean I'm doing November January February time so I pretty much know that I'm going or I
23:21
look and see if fairs if the rates have come down generally speaking they haven't so I've stayed at the Crown
23:27
Plaza which has really nice VI I've stay at the Hilton I've stayed at um the kton I've stay at the Intercontinental which
23:33
is very nice but very the prices go all over the place based on what's in town so some you play the there's like $400
23:41
$500 a night some $200 a night it's just all over the place but there are some better value ones um so if you head to
23:49
South Beach there there's some high branded ones there but everyone's got a hotel that they're really strongly Rec I
23:56
I don't have I've chopped and changed Hotel I've never found one that I've settled at like I've went through phas of State at the Hilton because it was
24:02
relatively good location uh you could depending on your room you could see the port um intercon looks great but as I
24:09
said it can be crazy expensive um kimon I don't really like so if anyone has any good recommendations please pop those in
24:15
there if you've got a better one so we've got people all over the place so Warren in San Antonia 54 degrees
24:22
Fahrenheit I guess is not far off where we are um then we got life's adventures in Dubai which I'm guessing is going to
24:28
be extremely extremely warm so Diana and Andrew have a question
24:35
I don't know it's both of you one of you but one of you got a question or both of you have a question are you planning on making any destination videos on your
24:42
Crystal trip we're in Japan SL China in May and are binging videos in
24:48
anticipation to be honest with you I'm not 100% sure my real focus at the moment is on Crystal and revamped
24:55
Crystal um now when I was in Japan and last time I made a series of shorts um
25:02
for every single port uh which are probably worth looking at because they condense I I was forcing myself to
25:08
condense like in a a minute all the key tips and things to do in every single port and we and so I think there about
25:13
10 of those um and I do have let me just make a note here um Japan shorts um I'll
25:22
try and put a link to the the the the playlist for that um I think that would be very helpful because literally it
25:27
does condense everything into what I recommend you should do in each of those those ports um so I may actually make um
25:36
more of a vlog type um video what I've started doing is although they do
25:42
terribly for me like really badly for me um but certainly uh people who like them
25:48
really like them the Vlog videos particularly patrons channel members for example they really like those so I might do some of those like I've done
25:54
those when I did my South Africa trip some destination videos but um thanks that I will definitely now have a think
25:59
of that I mean I'm doing a this one on this particular trip I'm I'm literally Nagasaki uh then I'm doing some South
26:06
American ports and two days in Shanghai uh and then some rather obscure other
26:11
ports along the way again because I said I had sort of not chosen it I didn't want to go to Shanghai so Shanghai I
26:17
probably will do something on Shanghai I'm thinking aloud now hot lemon and honey absolutely
26:23
um ah 100% I just seen this Sheila's asked the question on Silver sea
26:28
Endeavor did you find the poolside cover res to be odd that has been one of my hesitations with silver sea Expedition
26:35
ships 100% um it's for those who don't know in fact I'll do a punt for on my
26:40
videos if you look at my video I did I guess towards the end of last year came out which is around silver sea um silver
26:47
sea Expeditions is it worth uh going on a silver sea Expedition uh ship and I
26:52
spoke about just how lovely the Endeavor ship is because they unlike say Seaborn they have three different ships that do
26:59
Expedition so you don't get the same experience on that the ship is very beautiful but what they have at the back it was it's this swimming pool area
27:05
which has covered mostly and then they use it uh for breakfast and lunch as kind of the buffet I think it's called a
27:12
veranda Veranda Grill and then in the night they have it as sort of like a steakouse and I found this completely
27:19
kind of didn't didn't work for me as much I mean the food was fine and stuff um but it was just this very strange
27:25
venue it didn't feel as upm Market as the rest of the ship but I wouldn't let it put you off um Sheila the rest of
27:32
ship is fantastic the Cavin are great the rest of the facilities are great um the restaurants are great um then
27:40
actually the Expedition te is great so if you actually watch the video I'll dive a little bit more and I actually do a tour of uh silver ende and what I
27:47
thought was good about it but you're right and I do say in that video I just think that's kind of strange if you if
27:52
it really puts you off in a cloud which I've been on is more data ship it doesn't have that experience so that's
27:57
the that's the other um that's that's the other thing to think about but uh it is kind of strange but not enough it
28:03
wouldn't be enough to put me off going on on the Endeavor uh at all this is a
28:08
long question I don't think the short answer is I can't really help you um we're scheduled on Crystal from Lisbon
28:14
to Barcelona in early October very nice we have scheduled three pre Cruise days in Lisbon do you
28:22
have key recommended Li Lisbon activities would you recommend adding Porto prior to Lisbon if so how many
28:28
days in pter do you recommend and what activities should investigate we monitoring upcoming Crystal Adventure well thank you for monitoring so um I
28:35
have been to listman a couple of times um not a huge amount of times but actually in fact I I actually have some
28:43
videos on the channel when I did a crystal Cruise uh that called into Lisbon actually um which are about
28:50
Lisbon so probably if you search on my channel Lisbon a few things come up but basically what we did what I did in
28:56
Lisbon um and I think once Mark and I went just for like a weekend there so what I did in Lisbon is I did a Hop On
29:04
Hop off bus which I often do and that will take to all of the key places the hop on upop of bus and Lis is pretty
29:10
good um so you go right I can't remember the name of it where you've got the big waterfall that goes down um and all
29:16
there um you all about the um I've got his name now the the Revolutionary guy
29:22
in the significant date which will come to me in a second but the H on off us is fantastic a really good um food market
29:31
which it's a timeout food market then there's also a really really good boat trip and that's what I do have on the
29:37
video on the channel where you go basically down the river past all you know that famous monument to the
29:44
Explorers uh you go right round there um that's fantastic as well uh and then on
29:51
the hop on off bus you go to some new developed area that you'll see from that that particular uh uh bus side but just
29:57
Al AUST straling around Lisbon is fantastic now in terms of Porto I've only been to Porto once I did it when I
30:02
was on a a cruise and I really enjoyed Porto but I can't to be honest Tom remember what I did I remember wandering
30:09
around and it was very picturesque but I don't remember what I did so if anyone has any better tips and I have on Lisbon
30:15
or on Porter please do add that please do add that in um so Dave has uh I'm not
30:22
sure if there's a question there Dave so I'll see if I I have a question there uh
30:28
I'm guessing that's you as a youngster or that's one of your kids or something or you're very young to be going on your first cruise in 25 years you're very
30:34
young looking 25y old um I'm about to go on my first cruise in 25 years it's a transatlantic cruise from London to
30:41
Miami it stops in Spain France Portugal so there's no there's not a question I'm guessing there probably is if you've got
30:46
a question let let me know so I'm guessing you're doing one of those kind of reposition cruises uh I'm guessing now if you're actually going off London
30:53
London or whether you're going off Southampton um I'm not sure but D if you have a question pop that in because I
30:58
guess it got ah here we go I've seen the second half you mentioned in previous video that we should bring US Dollars
31:05
how much for this twoe Cruise UK to Miami stops in France Portugal uh and so on so Dave in reality um in those places
31:14
France Spain and Portugal depending on what you're doing you can use credit cards in reality so if you're buying
31:20
anything or doing anything um in in those then you can just use credit cards if you're not going on cruise land
31:26
excursions you probably will need some euros because all of those are countries that use the euro so if you are wanting
31:34
to perhaps um you know buy some stuff in local markets or uh just self-explore
31:41
you know you might want some euros but bear mind in most these things if you go on the hop on off bus or you going to a museum whatever you'll be able to pay
31:47
with a debit or credit card uh in terms of the US Dollars uh the only thing is
31:53
if you're planning to tip um on top of you know either the if if you're going
31:59
online that's got included gratuities or where they're going to Auto added gratuities or you've prepaid gratuities
32:05
just bring some US Dollars uh if you're going to want to tip people on top of that so um you depends how generous a
32:12
Tipper you are you know maybe three or three to five dollar a day per per person so sort of think around that so
32:18
you know let's think you know 14 days three you know couple of $200 or
32:24
something you don't need a lot it's more extra tipping um would be the thing also though if you are planning to use the
32:31
casino it's worth bringing dollars to cover that because some Cruise Lines if you charge it to your room if you want
32:37
to use slot machines or play cards or you know play any card games or whatever or roulette they some Cruise Lines will
32:44
have a charge of up to 6% if you charge it to room some don't so it's worth having US dollars if you're planning uh
32:50
you know if you're planning to to do that as well that would be my my other my other tip Jack thank you very much
32:57
Jack has uh is a channel member which is fantastic and very kindly you've done
33:02
the I think it's called Super Chat is there any Cru land that allows you to bring your own bicycle so Jack the on
33:09
the top of my head I don't know of any however I have been on many of cruise
33:15
line where people have brought their own bikes so I would say the critical thing to do there is if you are going on a
33:21
cruise line contact the cruise line so I have been I'm trying we were recently we were on when we went on Kuno Queen Anne
33:28
for example uh people clearly had brought bikes which they were uh taking out for rides in the ports um I think
33:36
they had to collect them from security every day they were actually also those foldable bikes um so I guess they took
33:41
up less space I don't know if they were charged EXT for that um I have been for example on cruises where Ro Caribbean
33:47
actually and again it was probably a bit of a group there was a Cycling group with their bikes so there certainly
33:53
seems some flexibility in terms of bringing bikes bear in mind that because most Cruise Lines very don't have limits
33:59
as such on the amount of luggage you can bring uh although it's actually a trivial question I had when I did my
34:04
last group Cruise because there was a limit of I think it was 100 kilograms or something bizarre like that um so
34:11
theoretically you know you may be able to do with it but certainly I've seen uh some unexpected cruise lines but I
34:16
haven't seen any cruise line that specifically has a a policy now interestingly again because I did a video this week around bad items when I
34:25
look at the lists of what items Cruise Lines ban I haven't actually seen
34:31
bicycles listed as a banned item now I'm guessing if you pitch up at the port with a bicycle you might face some
34:36
challenges but it certainly seems there is I'm guessing there's a lot of flexibility now I will also have a check
34:43
and see whether I can see if there's anything um else that I can find but certainly I've never seen it as bad and I have been on cruises where people have
34:50
had bikes uh obviously if you go on River Cruises many River Cruise Lines already have bikes that you can you can
34:58
also uh that you can also use as well um
35:03
Ashley I hope you feel better soon thank you I don't feel that bad just feel you probably had a bit of R I feel like it's
35:09
one of those things that you feel like I'm I'm hovering between will it go won't it Go will I tip over or not um I
35:15
love your recent videos thank you very much for watching those I'm dreaming of going about myself when do you recommend
35:20
is the best time of the season to visit so actually I think I'll cover that in some of the videos but for me personally
35:27
I love going at the beginning of the season so I've been at the very end of the season I've been at the beginning of the season I would encourage you to
35:34
think about the beginning of the season however a lot of it depends on what you really want to see beginning of the
35:40
Season there's more risk because there's a lot of ice so there's more risk on where you can and can't go so it depends
35:46
on the eye situation it's a breeding season so you're going to see a lot of wildlife particularly on the shorelines
35:53
on the beaches particular include South Georgia which I recommend very highly um so because the animals basically spend
36:00
winter at Sea and they come back on land to mate um so you see a lot of that but you're not going to see the newborn
36:06
chicks so you'll see some of the um you know the fluffy brown chicks and stuff um which are still going through that
36:13
process before they shed them all and have their penguin suits on um but if you and theoretically there's a lower
36:19
chance of seeing whales at the beginning season however I've seen many whales including some incredible whales
36:24
sightings on both those trips at on the beginning of the season once you head a little bit later in the season the peak time normally is December January uh
36:32
time because you do start to have the you know little penguin chicks uh coming out you do have more whales more chance
36:38
of seeing whales for example um but you have less ice it's a busier more ships
36:44
there by that stage and so on um and it's interesting because I do think I talk about in one of my videos I think
36:50
it's in my Vlog video where I had been um maybe it's not maybe it's a tip video
36:57
but where I show some places that I called to both at the beginning season end of the season and the difference
37:03
with the amount of snow and ice and the wildlife so at the beginning of the Season we went there was loads of snow
37:08
loads of ice lots of wildlife on the beach when at the end of the season there was Bas no ice no snow this on
37:14
Deception Island um and no Wildlife so that's that's why that's why kind of
37:20
kind of go that that way lot of the questions are popping up
37:25
twice I'm not sure whether it's cuz the system is a bit fun or people getting anxious and typing them in twice so I will try and see that I I need to think
37:32
about this next question um good to see you again see the world which Cruise Line surprised you the most in recent
37:39
times positively or negatively in terms of expectations happy New Year so happy New Year to I need to think through
37:46
that um because I feel like maybe because I read so much and stuff before
37:52
I get on um so I I need to think about that one so I'll try and think about one
37:57
and see if I can have one I guess none of them have surprised me in to a large
38:03
degree that I can think of certainly in the last sort of year and a half two years
38:09
um I mean maybe just think about it one that probably surprised me and it's sort of positively and negatively which I
38:16
might mention it is going on the Royal Caribbean Mega ships partly because it
38:21
it reinforced the fact that it's not for me as a cruiser I went on because I wanted to cover it but just just how
38:28
good they were at dealing with the crowds how slick they were at getting people on board phenomenal like even way
38:35
better I you I think I've told the story before I did it back toback was on Raw Caribbean then switched um onto oania
38:42
which you know which is a what were they were like a 1,000 whatever passenger ship um from a 6,000
38:51
F pass ship but I got on to Symphony Of The Seas faster way faster uh and
38:56
without much less stress than I did getting on Oceana because their systems are so effective the way they deal with
39:02
um moving people around spreading people around the ship of course the scale of the entertainment so that was a real
39:07
positive just I Lov that but it also sort of I just the noise and stuff it was just too much for me um which I sort
39:14
of knew so that probably is the best the best the best example uh Heather asking a question
39:20
around what is your opinion on holl America versus Princess we like the traditional style of hen America in the
39:26
focus on richment but not the entertainment how does princess compare so hether I kind of I personally at this
39:33
stage rate Han America significantly higher than princess although princess is a much more popular Cruis in terms of
39:40
number of passengers however I am going to this year go back on princess twice
39:46
in the space of two months so I'm going to go back in May on Sky princess which I've been on twice before I met on Paul
39:52
and Carol go Cru Paul and Carol L Travel Group cruise and then the next month I'm
39:57
going on one of their new Mega ships um the sun Princess uh a Mediterranean Cruise because I do want to re kind of
40:04
uh reappraise princess because I felt they had lost their way a little bit that their food had suffered and their
40:10
service had suffered but they've done quite of changes uh since I was last on about two three years ago um when I did
40:16
a couple of Princess Cruises I did couple of the UK and I did Alaska so um
40:22
the entertainment was definitely better but everything else H America did better
40:27
so I'm really Keen to review it so I I I will have a better view once I've been
40:32
back on board because the food was probably pretty disappointing I found similar like I found the
40:38
princess which you know the ships just all felt the same to me but um uh you
40:44
know not the whole America ships don't all feel the same but I just thought they just weren't kind of operating that
40:50
well and so um I'm I know theyve made a lot of changes and then including actually using the same person that
40:57
helped sort out nor America food um to to come and look at the the princess food and I'm seeing some quite good
41:04
things obviously they are more high-tech they've got the um Medallion uh they have slightly
41:10
different approach to the packages with Princess plus princess Premier uh which you know which similar
41:15
to America have at all but they have those different packages which are pretty good the technology is quite good
41:21
but I feel like it hasn't personalized the service as much as they thought it would um
41:28
so I would lead towards H America at the moment but that may all change so Ain
41:33
Goldin thank you very much also has a super chat inexpensive way to get to Chia from Rome airport for four people
41:40
train recommended safe non tourist areas in Naples for dining and string so the train I have never caught the train
41:46
between Rome and Cha to be honest with you but it is probably the most cost
41:51
effective way of getting between the the the two um but I'm not sure you can get
41:57
from the airport so I think you have to get to town so that's why but don't quote me on if anyone has better information on the train leave that so
42:05
I'm going to answer otherwise that I don't I don't really know um if you can go from the airport um but certainly if
42:12
you've got four people I would look at a couple of things one of which I would look at what the price of the cruise
42:17
line transfer is because they will no doubt be offering some sort of transfer and sometimes their transfers are not
42:23
that crazy so I've used um a couple of times now from Cru lines I've used the
42:29
bus transfer from cha up to the airport and it hasn't been that crazy expensive
42:36
certainly way cheaper than doing like an Uber or a car service or or something
42:41
like that um so have a slurp here and in terms of so that's what I I
42:48
would look at that one for sure um and and they're normally pretty good price
42:53
um and you have all the you don't have all the hassle of trying to get the station and luggage and all that stuff particular if you're flying in somewhere
43:00
from Long Haul uh in terms of safe non tourist areas in a for dining training I
43:05
can't answer that whenever I've been to Naples which is not very often I've always gone on Cruis Excursion and I
43:11
haven't explored but I do know for example Fraser at se uh he has last year
43:18
he he was almost back to back on cruise ships and he went to Naples a couple of times and he did some various Vlogs and
43:24
stuff around that he always did self- exploring Naples so that would be my go-to U look at phras at C and Naples
43:30
but if anyone has uh better suggestions then please please please pop Us in so I
43:36
haven't really answered orin's question I didn't think Mass massively well um so sorry about that but hopefully within
43:43
all this expertise we we've got in here people will be will be able to to do that I can see that um Sarah's asking
43:50
some making some questions and some watch outs um on the um on becoming a a
43:57
travel agent uh let's have a look um I've done the quite one H
44:04
America uh okay Dave for this week's cruise to Europe do do we really need to
44:10
bring our original medical prescription bottles as opposed to pull box the two weeks that I will be gone Dave certainly
44:17
you know when I travel into the US the same when I travel to Europe uh I wouldn't I would probably just be fine
44:23
bring the pull box I do tend to bring because I worry about the home medication so what I tend to do with my
44:28
medication is I do take my pill boxes which give my hand luggage for two weeks
44:33
or three weeks but I also do take some of the prescription bottles which I put in my Main Luggage So if either I lose
44:40
either of those or certainly if my Main Luggage goes a well I have my medication so certainly whatever you do make sure you've got it in your in your um hand
44:48
luggage that you kind of so if your luggage gets lost you're not left stranded so but Europe doesn't have as
44:54
strict a rule so for example um as I mentioned I'm going to Japan soon Japan has really strict rules around what you
45:00
can and can't bring in because even some things like PSE Sudafed and some Tylenol products are not are banned uh within uh
45:08
within Japan the same if you're going to someone like say Dubai count of the Middle East you need to be way more
45:13
cautious about what you bring but that should be fine but it's always a good idea to bring that prescription bottle
45:19
or the prescription just in case something goes arai or and you need to show doctors or whatever so I was trying
45:25
and bring something that has those those names on if you if you possibly can
45:31
um Jeffrey do you think a lady who has Mobility is she should go on a danu
45:36
river Cru on Viking during Christmas markets she used a walker and a wheelchair so Jeffrey one of the things
45:41
I would check with Vikings Viking uh often will put on um they always have a
45:46
slow walker and a regular Walker if that's oops a regular Walker Excursion so they often do that I suspect probably
45:54
for Christmas Market they will do that so I just double check are they going to be offering uh the the the slow Walker
45:59
now some of the slow Walker ones do cater people with mobility issues so I have seen for example some excursions
46:05
run on Viking where people have had mobility scooters Etc however I would say that depending on your Mobility you
46:13
know the markets get very crowded they're really Jam full of people um so
46:19
that could be not that great with a will to just managing around Cobble streets depending on which markets you're going to lots of people around course in the
46:25
wheelchair you got these people that above you so it could be quite um frantic as it were uh in Europe you know
46:31
you may have situations not may you will have where the the ships are docked side by side
46:39
now normally you'll be able to go through them um so you need to you know some of that commuting around so I would
46:45
just it depends a little bit about how comfortable you feel with you know wheelchairs mobility in very busy
46:51
environments but I would also check what a viking offering so as mentioned I've been on Viking Cru
46:57
and they do they're probably one the lines that cater best for mobility issue excursions but I would double check and
47:04
also see what they recommend for the markets you know these are really busy busy busy busy busy busy markets um so I
47:12
would I would be cautious on that she dong okay um this reminds me of
47:18
when we used to do the when I was at school do the knock knock jokes um with the major but 90 days in a saddle by
47:25
major bumsa and all those thanks Shi dang I can't remember the one for Shi dang um anyway um question new
47:34
to cruising I want to know which lines best suit us uh I'm guessing that's a
47:39
couple in late 40s and early 50s prefer activities with lectures Broadway show
47:45
Nole parties or zip lines now a lot of this by the way will obviously depend on
47:50
budget as well but in reality a sort of 40s 50s with what you said is you want
47:56
some of the benefits of larger ships so sort of M midsize ships um is where you're going to get more lectures
48:02
Broadway show type stuff so you're probably talking like celebrity um Holland America princess now they have
48:10
holl America tend to be better with lectures so it's more mixed the other thing I would take a look at uh is
48:16
Viking now the average age on Viking does tend to be a little bit older than the 40s and 50s but they have probably
48:23
some of the best um enrichment stuff going on they have pretty good shows qod
48:28
is another one by the way which is that midship size which have very good lectures and and they have significantly
48:33
upped their shows um again it tends to get a little bit older but with their new ships like Queen an it's um they're
48:40
trying to get a little bit more contemporary as it were then I would also take a look at
48:46
Oceania uh as well they their shows are not as big as some of you know you know
48:51
as you're going to see on Celebrity kind of stuff but they also will have kind of uh you know kind of the lecture side the
48:57
other thing I would say by the way one of the best things that you could do of all is work with a travel agent someone
49:03
who really knows um you know the it really well and what I'll do is I will leave a a link run not myself in the
49:11
show notes because this is a perfect thing that a travel agent can work you through so they can get to understand
49:16
what you like what you don't like when you say Broadway show what do you mean what sort of lectures do you mean and they will steer you towards and find you
49:22
the right Cruise Line and so on within your budget um I see he cruising out of FL Florida so you're in the US I'm
49:28
guessing you're in the in the US so I have two travel agents that I really recommend uh one which is Gary pluck of
49:35
red travel the other is Walter of where's Walter travel so I'll post a link to an article uh which has their
49:41
contact details uh in there which I think should be able to to help you but that's
49:46
perfect for travel agent um they can spend time with you on that and really importantly it will not cost you any
49:52
more than than going than going direct um so uh M car have a question have you
49:59
decided how many days you are going to stay after your Christ Christmas vent in Japan anything plan so it's actually the
50:05
other way around I'm starting in Japan and ending in Manila so yes so I fly in on a Sunday uh sorry I leave UK on a
50:12
Sunday I arrive Monday morning uh with a time difference it's one of those fun things I have to I leave at 8:00 in the
50:19
9 o'l in the morning here and we land at 7:00 a.m. in the morning but it's like midnight UK time so I have to make sure
50:24
that I get in the zone and sleep from about mid Day UK time which when I been to Japan before I managed to do so touch
50:29
with it anyway so I will have all day Monday once I arrive assuming i s sleep um which I did man last time so all day
50:37
Monday all day Tuesday all day Wednesday I think all day Thursday and I get on the ship on the Friday so I have four
50:42
days one of which I'm saying okay I'm maybe a bit tired so we'll see so I haven't scoped everything out in detail
50:49
but what I do want to do is there's a few things that I didn't do in Tokyo
50:54
last time that I want to do or I want to repeat doing um and I forget the name of
51:00
the one the place we went to was ping with rain uh and like the Imperial Palace and all around there was point with rain so I didn't really get to see
51:06
it as much but I also want to do some outings on the shinen that's right you
51:11
know the bullet train that I've been looking at a little bit complicated I think I've now worked out what it is I want to do some of the excursions out
51:19
probably just to geek out on the train but also you know head out um there I also want to go up the I've never
51:26
managed to do it all times I've been to Tokyo before sounds like been there loads I've been there three times but um
51:31
which is the is it the sky tower the r t Tower um just because I've never been organized enough before and then decided
51:38
on the day and of course it's hard to get tickets so I have a few bits and pieces that I want to do and repeat like
51:43
I want to go back to umot the name of the temple which I feel
51:49
you have to go to the big red lantern mine's gone blank um so you know of course any tips of things absolutely
51:56
please um please please please do those uh Sarah making the point that um River
52:02
Cru and wheelchair uses is you got to approach with a lot of caution Connie
52:07
ask the question uh any interest say treasure I I would um I would like to go
52:13
back and try some of the new Disney ships I was just reading some articles about the new Disney ships I wasn't really thinking I would go back on
52:19
Disney so I and I've seen some stuff obviously because there had lots of media and influences and things on
52:25
Disney treasure so I've SE s of like treasure it's got my interest um growing in that so yes but I don't have any
52:31
plans um do the mind you sell is ship or Port more important to you it depends um
52:37
ports are incredibly important to me um and when I can marry it with the ship so
52:42
I try and marry it with a ship that I want to cover or a line I want to cover and I turn so for example this year um
52:49
you know I wanted to really want to go back to Shanghai and I found a way of doing it because Crystal we're doing
52:54
this reposition Cruise that's not as expensive as normal and it got me to Shanghai and I can cover Crystal and
52:59
it's got quite a few CD so gives me a chance to video the ship so it's a balance but ports are very important so if you look at my plans for this year
53:07
and into next year it's very destination focused but I've managed to marry those
53:12
in most cases with cruise lines that I also want to cover but uh ports are ports are very very important oh John
53:20
thank you very my fans of this channel keep up the good she enjoys the penguin L yeah unfortunately it doesn't because
53:25
of the way the live which you can't quite see but this is this was made um for me by um I think I covered it before
53:34
was it Elms let me bring it up actually it's a very kind lady who follows the channel here we go esque Valley
53:41
lampshades um so you get a better sense of what it really looks like without the way the light works this is actually a
53:46
picture that I took on my Antarctica trip and she follows me on Instagram and
53:52
apparently listens to things like these lives so hello there uh um if you listen
53:57
to this one and my videos and stuff when she's making the lamp Shad so she makes them herself so she had I she suggested
54:05
a couple of videos uh sorry videos photos um from one my antartic said look
54:10
I'm G I'll make you a lamp as is kind of a thank you for for all the stuff which I thought was very kind of her um and we
54:16
chose this one and I just love it um so it's es Valley lamp shades. co.uk um if
54:21
you're ever interested in getting your own lampshade um so I didn't get any or anything but I think they're just
54:27
amazing in fact I've discovered this is a great option for presence cuz my
54:33
mother-in-law saw this and she's like oh my God I love that lamp so I suspect people might start finding for birthdays and Christmas them I get some of those
54:40
lamps um so Megan so Megan's good so Megan that really helped
54:46
um uh let's have a look uh Dave
54:56
there are such limited time in the ports is it really worth going on the excursions this is not absolutely I would strongly encourage you Dave you're
55:03
right when you're in a port you're only in a port maybe from 8:00 till 6 o' but absolutely I would definitely go on
55:09
excursions particularly if it's your first cruise and it's ports you've never been to what the cruise ons have already done is they've kind of figured out how
55:15
to get to see the key things that you can so I would I would encourage you to
55:20
unless your goal of course is just to go and enjoy the ship I do have a video about reasons to stay on the ship which
55:26
is just about the ship's quieter and you can do much more but um it does give you a good flavor and particularly if you if
55:31
you're covering a particular territory you're get a flavor for it so I I would sort of I would sort of encourage you to
55:38
to to do that um uh so Tom have you used to Butler on
55:44
cruises are they valuable resource so Tom we've had Butlers in fact Mark I talking about this the other day so um
55:51
because we actually had a butler on our Regent trip and we've had them on kunard before and um I don't what was very
55:58
helpful actually on our that Kun trip is they had a little um card in the room which explain what your butler can do
56:04
and also I made a video once when I was on MSE yach Club years and years ago where I spoke to on the bay Butlers and asked them what they did I'm not sure
56:11
they're are a massive really resource but it maybe just that I what I use them for I know other people on cruises use
56:16
butas and they set up cocktail parties in their cabins or suits I guess you should say they do get them to unpack
56:22
they get them to pack they get them to do all sorts of interesting things like every time they for an Excursion they
56:27
want certain snacks or sandwiches or stuff like that um but but but I've really found that they largely do the
56:34
way I use them is that largely the way a really good cabin student may or may not do them so the only good thing about
56:40
when we were on um Regent is the butler sorted out you know because you can get some drinks but they sorted out getting
56:45
caffein free Diet Coke and a feather pillow or something I can't remember but I did all my own reservations for
56:51
restaurants excursions and such so on so I think uh and we didn't get them to do very much handy thing was is the butler
56:58
was in charge of doing the room service so I knew that we had a couple of really early excursions that were going like h
57:04
of seven or seven or whatever and I knew if I booked um room service that if I
57:11
put the 630 to 7:30 at 6:30 the room service would arrive because the butler was doing it promise when I was doing on
57:16
a ship where I didn't have a butler it literally could come between 630 and 7 so that was the only thing so I'm not
57:22
sure I often feel a little bit uncomfortable I don't really know what to do with them I you know so um not really but some
57:30
people love having a butle of course and maybe it's just how they use it I should probably I do have a video around what they do and I was thinking about
57:36
updating it but I went and looked at it compared to that little list and it was kind of the same things as as as I was
57:42
kind of uh was kind of say saying um Maria any recommendation for kahanga
57:49
Colombia we import from early morning to late evening are things you can do DIY versus guid Excursion so Maria um that
57:57
was one of the stops we did on our recent cruise I done it before where um many years ago where we did actually an
58:04
Excursion which was a speedboat ride out to some incredibly beautiful islands so that is one thing that you could do now
58:09
that was through the cruise line if you want to have a like a beach beautiful is it was quite a long speed Bo ride to get
58:15
there but what we did this last time which you could do um DIY or you could do depending on the cruise line as a
58:21
guide Excursion for us it was offered as a guide Excursion which was called the hop on off Hop On Hop Off bus with uh
58:28
Oldtown walking tour and that was a fantastic thing actually the walking tour was just really amazing um uh so
58:36
you can buy hop on tickets which includes the walking tour the walking tour it's stronger again the Oldtown is beautiful it's really really interesting
58:43
um now the hop on off bus actually is not less interesting because um if you were there all day we weren't there all
58:49
day but we did the Hop the walking tour first then we got on the Hop and off bus but because we were relative time
58:55
concerned we just did the circuit what would be really get is once you get to the beach area um you go this little
59:00
area and you get to the beach area to get off spend some time in the beach get back on the hop on off bus and come around but that's what I would recommend
59:07
now if no so Kanga and I always pronounce incorrectly so I'm probably
59:12
doing it wrongly I practiced 100 times on the Cruis St I'm still getting it wrong uh kahina I think that's how you
59:18
actually pronounce it anyway um it's one of the stops also for my group cruise and I was going my sister's
59:24
coming in the group cruise and I was going through the excursions um that are offered by um uh H America and they have
59:33
a really nice combination which is a a a thing around the port because it's very city is pretty beautiful it's very looks
59:39
a bit like Miami and then combine that with a walking tour that would be that would be my tip now somebody had asked a
59:45
question linked to the um the group Cruise which I might have missed and it
59:51
spotted was is there going to be a recommended um Hotel for the group
59:56
Cruise uh so I can't see the question but why I'm talking about the group Cruise so I will I will do an update um
1:00:03
towards the end of this month jerone on the group cruise with thinking around group excursions which are more
1:00:10
challenging the partly because um the uh
1:00:15
the third party providers can't really provide pricing and stuff yet and also I will look at the hotel thing we probably
1:00:22
won't we did try to do it for the boss one and it proved quite complicated in
1:00:28
the end um but that's something I will review and have a look at we may end up um suggesting a few excuse me because I
1:00:36
would like to try and arrange some sort of pre event like we did in Boston if I
1:00:41
can but I just haven't kind of gone on top of it yet so uh watch the space as it were um but I know I need to solve
1:00:48
something because within you know probably about April March April time that Avail well no normally hotels about
1:00:55
6 to N9 months head so they will start people will start wanting to book flights and things like that so I will
1:01:00
come back certainly soon uh soon soon with that s have another slug
1:01:07
here good to see Lou here so Lou was also with us yesterday Lou is one of our one of my Patron captains we did our
1:01:14
Captain Zoom call last night so it's great to see you here again Lou um and
1:01:20
saying uh youl the advantage certainly I've had really good Food on H in America um I I know you know certainly
1:01:27
when you look at Cruise Critic which certainly these days is become very ranty I think but certainly I've always
1:01:33
had good food on whole America um and I think their food improved a lot but you
1:01:38
know food is always one of the things that ends up being very um I guess subjective because the nature of but I
1:01:44
certainly always had good food I think they done a good job with with with the food except afternoon tea I think had slipped quite had slipped uh had really
1:01:51
slipped quite a bit um uh let's have a look so rapidly
1:01:58
running out of time so I'll do a quick I'll do a quick uh maybe quick one more
1:02:04
quick one Matt last used to been on edge in the retreat ocean Vista and soon on the Beyond in retreat but now looking
1:02:09
for something more pre is Grand Sim to Oceana Vista so they are in a completely different category in reality mat so you
1:02:15
know Oceania is you've got as you said you've got your Edge and Beyond which is your premium category your luxury cat
1:02:22
where you category where you've got Oceania you've also got things like Viking in there asamara WinStar region Grandeur is is is
1:02:29
actually owned by the same company it's also owned by Royal Caribbean and it's their Ultra Luxury so it's got more
1:02:35
inclusions uh you know their ships are 700 passengers I know the new ones come out with 850 when it comes in so um it's
1:02:43
smaller it's fewer passengers um you know it's kind of a notch up the food the menual is even bigger I think the
1:02:49
food's better the ocean ocean positions himself match on food um so so I think
1:02:55
think um you know I think regend is is definitely you know I would say definitely is a step above Oceania um
1:03:03
from my experience of being on both of those region Grand is a beautiful ship absolutely beautiful sh ocean vist is a
1:03:09
beautiful ship but region Grand is is absolutely magnificent so it's sort of the theel the next level above so their
1:03:14
competitors would be silver sea Seaborn uh the Ritz carton yacht I guess you would have in that that kind of that
1:03:21
kind of category L saying the same the same the same thing as well
1:03:29
um Mark asking the question which is is there a good website to Search for s/r
1:03:35
cabins across a variety of lines without having to navigate the individual lines websites only to find the best Suites
1:03:40
are sold out I'm guessing that says uh no I'm not aware of any I mean the
1:03:46
closest you get is cruise ship cabins but that only tells you the type of cabins so the there isn't if anyone
1:03:53
knows a better I mean I would probably my search would be uh Sarah travel agent
1:03:59
Sarah would be but I'm not sure a kind of site where you can search I want to go on a sweet what's available uh um
1:04:06
it's interesting concept but I I don't know any of that um but if anyone does know one please like pop pop that in um
1:04:13
pop that in so we've churned through an hour I've answered I think most questions not all of the questions um so
1:04:20
thanks very much for that I will be I will be back uh next Sunday um um turn
1:04:26
into many more questions have a great rest of your week hopefully by then my cold and what I would have got rid of
1:04:32
this whole cold thing um and so have a great uh great rest of the weekend thanks for joining me take care
1:04:48
[Music]
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