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Live Cruise Q&A: Sunday 1 December 2024 (5pm UK/ Noon ET/ 9am PT)
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Jan 28, 2025
Live Cruise Q&A: Sunday 1 December 2024 (5pm UK/ Noon ET/ 9am PT) My West Africa cruise: https://www.rssc.com/cruises/NAV251031/summary?source=CruiseSearch&r=AFRIND&m=2025-10 But from The Cruise Maps: https://www.thecruisemaps.com/TFT 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
0:09
[Music] well and welcome to the live it's a chil
0:16
rainy London here on the 1 of December uh thanks especially to those of you in
0:21
the US joining because I guess it is Thanksgiving weekend so I appreciate you giving your time and joining me here on
0:27
the live I just reminder as always if you are leaving a question please pop the word question in front of your
0:33
question because it helps me identify that so for the next 60 minutes I will answer as many questions as I possibly
0:39
can lots of regulars here which is great A couple of great questions coming in um
0:45
so just check it it's all going live yeah that's good so what I thought I would do is just a couple of quick
0:50
housekeeping things why while people just uh join I have mentioned a couple
0:56
of times um the cruise globe and I just want to tell briefly on that because they're doing a
1:02
promotion or a thing promotion is that the right word if you sign up um and
1:08
share the link because you can they they going to do a prize draw for a free cruise I thought I'd mention that so
1:13
those who don't know this is the globe so you can put all of your uh cruises in this is a whole bunch of my various
1:19
cruises in uh so they all show up you can then choose your any specific cruise
1:25
for example like my recent an artic cruise and so on and that's completely
1:30
free and you'll be able to build up over time your various cruises so they are
1:35
doing a promotion as I mentioned where you can AC cruise up to the value of £3,000 guess that's what $3,500 us if
1:43
you sign up to the globe um and then you share the link I'm not sure the exact launch date when the globe goes live I
1:49
think they've almost finished of the beta beta testing um so if you sign up
1:54
there it's really good fun I'm slightly addicted to it in terms of seeing all of the kind of cruises so unlike the maps
2:00
that I've got there you know obviously you you pay for the maps you buy the maps and the um the little booklet which
2:07
I've collected I just got my most recent map in obviously those come with the feed um you know you pay for those so um
2:14
in two weeks time I will be on this Cruise the 609 grandier Panama Canal
2:19
cruise which will now be my fourth time going through the Panama Canal third time full Transit and I'm very excited
2:27
about that indeed so there will be a live stream next week in fact there's going to be two live streams next week
2:32
on Sunday the regular one that we're doing now and on Saturday for patrons and channel members there will be a
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specific Patron Channel member one as well um so buy weekend next weekend as a
2:45
Maddy packing to get ready to head off so let's get stuck into the various
2:50
questions um actually not many questions yet so that's quite going to be very easy then a very short maybe a very
2:57
short live so see the world in with your recent video so I did a recent video uh
3:02
I should put the link there which came out this week which was sort of in response to questions I've been asked
3:09
and someone had originally asked me if I would do a video around sort of nightmares that you face on a cruise and
3:14
how to deal with them so I did it came up this week so I cover things like if your cruise gets cancelled either before
3:22
uh or even during the cruise if you miss Port if you lose your luggage um if you
3:27
fall ill um I there's a bunch of other ones and I've looked at all the kind of the
3:33
things to do if they happen things that have um seen work or been advised if hav to you directly people have happened to
3:41
have solved all the cruise lines of told me the best way of doing it so um those of you who didn't follow it I should
3:47
actually a little screen grab there is a story running in the media at the moment sit in the UK where Swan helenic they
3:53
had a repositioning Cruise it's quite a long cruise uh probably nearly up to a
3:58
month long which is selling from Cape Town across to reposition new in Argentina to start the Antarctic season
4:05
and they were du to sort of skim across the top of some Antarctic places like the South Chon Islands I think they
4:11
might even go into Antarctic sound so right across the top part of Antarctica but they had some engine problems so
4:16
they had to go really slowly so they decided uh that they were going to not call on any of those Antarctic things so
4:24
even there's lots of SE days that pretty much people were just having SE days going to get to a shire early so they
4:30
obviously it was relatively inexpensive in relative terms it still cost quite a few thousand dollars or Pounds or
4:36
whatever people were booking but the the some of the passengers got very high rate and they were offered a I think it
4:44
was 50% refund 60% future Cruise credit something like in that popk and they wanted a full 100% refund so some of
4:51
them went on a hunger strike I don't know how long that lasted there's lots of pictures of them wearing little signs and give us full refunds and Swan kind
4:57
of resisting that so it must be pretty on board um but um so it's worth
5:03
Googling that and following what's going on with that there were apparently quite a few Russian passengers on board who have been the most um I rate about that
5:10
so um and there was a mix that was covered Brits and I'm not sure the exact mix those who don't know Sonic is it's
5:17
it's an old UK brand that went bankrupt many years ago and then it was revived now as an expedition line I think they
5:24
have two ships uh which are very similar ships in shapewise to like lblad ships
5:31
anyway so see the world has asked which style of cruising is more prone to change River Ocean or expedition in
5:38
reality um based on what I've seen all of them above although the ones that have the most dramatic impact are ones
5:45
that are ocean or Expedition so for example Bob and Holly who you might know
5:50
uh innocence abroad their channel in fact I'm seeing them tomorrow which I'm very excited about they're in London um
5:56
they um are they were going on the brand new Seaborn ship I guess it was Venture
6:02
when it came in but they had problems so South Georgia was was dropped uh but also you might have seen recently that
6:09
Norwegian have canceled an huge amount of cruises heading into 25 26 because
6:15
they're going to put more ships in the US uh so there you know there's many many of these and and there's different
6:20
ocean ships there's been a lot of uh stuff recently with some Carnival ships and so on they have the most dramatic
6:26
impact because obviously they have long distances travel in reality if there's a river issue whether it's water levels or
6:33
ship issues River crues don't travel very far you they might only travel 20 or 50 miles a day so actually they can
6:39
bust people around and move them between ship much easier so although they have issues the river ones tend to be more
6:45
water related too high too low but the one that has the most disruptive effect are definitely ocean um and Expedition
6:52
so um those are the ones that that are kind of um the biggest issue so NFL
6:58
football uh is on today so I guess maybe that's also why so if you I Hopey I'm
7:03
not clashing too much with football and stuff John um has a great question here
7:10
mostly because it's very topical question uh for me anyway which is between Viking ocean cruises or Seaborn
7:18
which would you consider traveling on for the coast of Africa my answer is region and the reason I say the answer
7:23
region is that's what I booked so in next year in fact I have just come off
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it this time next year go to plan so I actually looked because I really wanted to do that West Africa trip so I looked
7:36
at different options and I chose Regent uh partly because of the itinery now they're all were fairly similar pricing
7:43
obviously Seaborn and Regent on more similar prices biking a little bit uh below that but the the region ien was
7:51
particularly good and I liked the region ship because it's navigated now it is a pretty old ship I have been on before
7:57
but it's only 400 and 50 passengers 430 passengers something like that obviously
8:02
Seaborn is around 6 700 Viking is just under a th000 so this is even smaller ship so it goes to a couple of ports
8:09
that are perhaps a little bit on the smaller side um although the are pretty similar also I what I liked about Regent
8:16
is all of the uh excursions were included in the fair and there's a
8:22
pretty good range of excursions and I've chosen all the excursions in reality I end up spending uh each of us end up I
8:30
maybe about 700 800 about nearly ,000 on some of the excursions uh but I just like that kind
8:36
of combination now I did toy between the others I just liked um having been to
8:43
Japan having been to you know I just felt I quite liked what they did now
8:49
they are a little bit on the weaker side overall with enrichment Viking I knew
8:55
would be strongest on enrichment but I just felt that was you know I know you
9:00
know none of these are going to have incredible entertainment but I'm really going for the itineries so that's why I chose it now if John it is literally
9:07
between Viking and Seaborn I would say now Seaborn have just actually just launched uh this week their like a grand
9:14
Africa trip so they clearly have a lot of experience with Africa they're doing the itineries but certainly Viking if
9:22
you're very much into the enrichment side I would lean a little bit more more towards Viking if that's if it's between
9:28
these two um also it's probably going to be slightly less costly um and their
9:34
itineries are kind of similar but I did choose region when I kind of broke it broke it down a lot of it hinges on
9:40
itinery and what I liked about the region itinery now I know um someone
9:45
who's currently on asamara doing a similar itin as well um they have a lot of C days what I liked about the region
9:51
itin is there was quite a lot of C days getting down there but it's quite nicely broken up with two or three C days in
9:58
between traveling between this so I chose Regent I will go back and take a look at the Viking and the SEO one both
10:03
have those experience but that's that's what I chose I didn't have time before this to put um my specific itinery but
10:09
maybe make a little note here John I'll put my itinery as a link what which
10:16
which one we chose um in the notes so maybe five or so minutes after the sen if you are interested take you can take
10:22
a look at that one as well and see what that is so Andrew is here which is great from prev Crews so man 547 uh so you're
10:31
obviously traveling you're in North Carolina I guess maybe you're uh mik Carri you're there for family or
10:37
whatever I guess so you're not working this weekend I guess which is great um so chilly early afternoon but and thanks
10:44
you're on a completely different time zone so the wuang life um oh and thanks very much for the upcoming Panama Canal
10:51
Adventure yes I'm really really looking forward to that by the way just as a little aside is as you know I am
10:58
extremely obsessed by Panama Canal I've actually realized that I now by the
11:03
middle of 2026 will have done the Panama Canal six times because in 2026 the group cruise
11:12
that is for patrons and channel members uh is a Panama Canal cruise on the Zeta
11:18
Dam from Miami to San Diego but just come myself that I booked South America
11:24
in fact you know going from P going from W all the way around
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and going back to the Panama Canal the other way and ending up in in Miami so in the6 in the space of about a month
11:36
I'll be doing it twice you can never do enough Panama Canal so thanks very much that I'm very very excited about that
11:41
what I may try and do this time is um actually try and resist filming and just
11:47
enjoying I know I will fail because my sister is here this weekend uh she's
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downstairs watching Christmas movies at the moment uh so I showed you some of my Panama videos and I keept thinking what
11:58
I could do with better footage here and better footage there so I suspect I will end up doing more footage anyway the
12:04
wuang life fighting on cruise ships should cruise lines have a no sale list just like the airlines do have a no FL
12:10
list so in reality they do have but I think your point is a really good one it tends to be cruise line by cruise line
12:16
so cono for example will ban people but it's kind of it it seems to be very
12:22
specific to that particular brand I'm not aware now I might be wrong but as far as I'm aware you know you might get
12:27
banned from going on a Carnival ship but you could still go on Norwegian or whatever because or maybe even a
12:33
princess ship because I'm not sure that's being sort of shared between them so I think yes is the short answer and I
12:39
think that what it sort of does exist is my my understanding that it sort of does
12:45
uh it does visit Susan M is in the UK at the moment so Susan You' have chosen a
12:50
terrible time probably to visit we having the most terrible amount of rain there's been a series of storms coming
12:55
through I can't remember where there was a storm about a we or two ago which was so much rain and again this week so
13:02
hopefully that significantly improves and you have a really great time oh Bob and Holly are here in the UK they're on
13:08
the heo express from London to Pennington as I mentioned very excited and be meeting up with them tomorrow catching up with them they're in between
13:15
they just done a river cruise I'm sure we can look forward to some great content coming out about that and they're heading off on another Cruise
13:21
which I think I'm right in saying is a q but um so more great content to come just reminded that's their Channel
13:27
innocence abro B and Holly so looking forward to seeing it's been a while since we caught up with them Trav and
13:34
Sarah is here big shout out to Sarah very kindly sent me um a box of chocolates which we got I think on
13:43
Friday and they are completely gone partly helped not entirely from me but
13:49
my had my sister my mother staying and they absolutely loved those they didn't they didn't they didn't last very long
13:55
so that was very tasty and little hampo as well Warren has another question is there a cancel for any reason annual
14:01
policy Warren um I believe there is I think I have I have an annual policy I
14:06
need a triple check and I do have a cancel for any reason in that again the challenge with insurance as I mentioned
14:14
I was looking am looking at making an insurance video although people who
14:19
Insurance keep stir me away from doing it because it's so complicated but um certainly within my policy but annual
14:27
policies obviously very significantly country by country and so on but you can get a cancel for any reason the
14:33
challenge that I have with an annual policy Warr and talking to other people
14:39
as I've been exploring this is the cancellation amount is very small so
14:45
even though I have with my annual policy they have different you know gold gold plus blah blah blah but you know the
14:51
cancellation is maybe I come exact num so don't come in the exact number but it's it's maybe six or 7,000 pound or
14:57
maybe $10,000 so the problem is whilst you can cancel if you're going an expens trip like that one I mentioned the Afric
15:03
one it doesn't even touch the sides of the cancellation so as I look as I'm doing on more longer trips and bigger
15:10
trips I want to relook that way you know talking to other people like when as Artica trip recently and comparing some
15:16
of the insurance the people were doing you know they able to get you know obviously it cost a more trip by trip
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with better kind of uh you know cancellation amounts so I might stop staying around a little bit more during
15:30
these very high value trips uh of looking at can I either get my anual policy to have a higher amount um or do
15:38
I need to go more individual to cover the amount so the councel in reach is in the policy but it's the amount that
15:44
becomes particularly particularly important Tiara is in six piece came from Panama City to Miami that's a great
15:51
I I wonder if you're on Oceania because that's a popular Oceania uh itiner and and that's what I did
15:57
um we were supposed to be on suren we did on in in Marina and it's it's quite fun doing it the other way around a lot
16:04
of people would argue and in fact I mentioned one of my videos the the main book um I've it's called now damn I have
16:12
the book in it's my it's in my other room um but they always are we should go from the Caribbean SE that way I you
16:19
know going through the pan other way is fantastic so um and if it's on sh it's it is fantastic Echo Bravo obviously a
16:28
um good seeback and obviously a Aviation fan with that name in that picture what are your thoughts on the UK
16:34
ETA especially because it applies to transiting to we now need ETA and etais
16:40
for our K Cru to Norway next year maybe a good video topic so those people who don't know so basically what's happening
16:46
is obviously for those of you who don't live in the US you or Canada or even Australia will know that when you travel
16:52
there you have to get an an Esther so for example when I go to Australia we have to have an Esther uh when I to
16:59
Canada if you're flying in you need their equivalent if you're going to the US you have to have an Esther so it's uh
17:05
you know so what's happening is the UK are introducing one and Europe is
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introducing their own obviously for all those countries within the Europe European Union so the uk1 kicks in
17:17
fairly early next year I think it's from about January I did tweet about this the other day but I think it's from about
17:23
January the 9th you can start applying for it I can't remember it comes into Force quite early on and then the
17:30
Europeans are introducing those much delayed and there's still a lot to talk about delaying those because when they
17:35
introduce it they're also introducing at the same time where every time you enter for the first time you have to have
17:41
photograph and fingerprints taking and it keeps getting delayed because they're worried about um clogging up you know
17:46
the ports or mostly the air they mostly worried about things like um Ferry ports
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like between DOA and France for example with there huge volumes of cars and traffic um you know so worried about
17:59
clogging up and also of course of airports you know if you think about all these tourists flying in from all around the world how slow it's going to be and
18:06
they're worried about getting up to speed so um you I probably should do some sort of update um maybe it's worth
18:12
doing a short video rather than detailed video but so that's that's probably a good one to look at the problem at the moment bra is um so I'm just making a
18:20
note for myself uh to to that topic is the dates keep changing and um getting
18:26
pushed back so you almost needed to be sure that it's lock in but you're right problem is if you're flying into uh the
18:32
UK you going to need one to fly in what you'd probably need to check um a braa and I don't know the answer to this one
18:38
so I will check that is uh if you actually need one if you're on a cruise because for example if you on a cruise
18:47
you know say say you Embark in Anchorage and you're getting off in Vancouver you
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actually and you're on a ship you don't need the Canadian Sessa equivalent but
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if you're flying in you need it so I I need to check as well whether if you're on a cruise you know saying UK you know
19:06
Southampton to Southampton calling into European ports if you need it so that's a good that is a that is a very good one
19:12
to to follow up because it's very complicated my rule thumb like even when I went to Canada I still got an S
19:17
because it was not that much you know it was I mean 71 something like that so it wasn't a
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lot of money just for the reassurance Ronda good to see you here if tips are included do you give extra for great
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service if your butler was great but your room attendant was fine would you give extra to the Butler and not the room attendant yes and yes is the short
19:38
answer let let me unpack this a bit obviously uh gratuities and tips are one
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of the most um uh argued about and fr uh kind of um
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topics that you can possibly have in the world of cruising that and dress code so um but but Ronda is right my Approach
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and obviously the UK has a slightly different approach I know in the US people are more used to tipping it's part more of the culture Australian's
20:05
obviously not used to tipping so let me tell you what I tend to do is nowadays most chips will e most Cruisers will
20:12
either have gruties included or or to add it so if I get fantastic you right I
20:18
focus really on the cabin Steward and if I've got it cabin stewards if it's plural and if I've been on something
20:24
with a butler so you're right I will tip for great if the servic has been great so I'll give you an example we were on
20:32
uh kunard Queen Anne and uh the second or third clu and
20:39
we had a fantastic cabin student he was really brilliant he was very experience
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he'd been around with k for a long time he' moved across from Queen an Elizabeth he didn't actually like being on the queen and looking forward to going back
20:51
we then had a butler who was the first time he had ever been a butler his first time he' ever been at Sea and the the
20:58
first you know so he and he was he was okay and but we found we were always having to leave him notes we were having
21:04
to remind him to things so we did tip our room attendant um and we didn't tip the butler because we figured the
21:11
standard gratuity was was more than fine now a lot of people are know to anyway but so I will generally tip if it's been
21:18
great service um and if it's been fine I don't tip I I I find it very hard not to
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tip even though I have tips I do double tip but definitely I will tip and that's a good example of where they
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were both great one was really great and one wasn't so we I di the room attended
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uh it was quite hard I felt really guilty but that's because I guess I've
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grown up with the old where the old envelope days um couple of I need to
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make sure that I'm speeding up a little bit so I don't miss any Dean good to see you we just returned from a Viking river
21:52
cruise with Viking Air Service it was a disaster last minute flight cancellation and no one at Final Destination is a
21:58
normal so Dean it's very interesting because normally Viking is pretty good
22:04
because they are pretty good at seeing you kind of the door Todo I talk about a bit of handh holding shepherding
22:11
experience but I have seen a lot of comments now obviously they contracted out it's not their own people so they
22:16
contracted out to local Port handling agents A lot of it depends on just how good uh they are to degree they
22:22
obviously have their own flight center but I have seen recently A lot of people
22:28
very very uh upset um about particularly the rootings and cancellations one of
22:33
the things you need to bear in mind I see a lot also with silver seed to be honest is obviously the cruise lines if you're booking flight to them and with
22:39
Vikings so I know if you book in the UK the standard is flights are included they will of see will try and root
22:46
people in the most for them costeffective way of getting there so some you have quite complicated rootings
22:51
so with my Viking Cruises I specifically take the flights out probably because
22:57
I've want to stay longer or whatever and I just wanted more control and also because I've have seen a lot of people
23:02
not too happy with it now I have um often kept some of the transfers like
23:08
the transfers depending on when I'm arriving uh to the ship although I normally live
23:13
early so that hasn't applied or or certainly from the ship to the the airport at the end if I'm if I'm if I'm
23:20
leaving so certainly it seems to be an issue and I don't know whether that's because they've done changes recently
23:26
whe it's certain itineraries but I have have seen those now flight cancellations of course you know may be out of their
23:33
control so it's one of the tests is the responsivness and I kind of like to be
23:39
generally speaking more in control but definitely it does seem to be it does seem to be an issue Lara asking the
23:45
question I think I probably answered that so been back in the UK I think I'm only back for three weeks in total um
23:50
it's been a little bit chaotic because I'm trying to catch up and get videos done um get stuff sorted you know
23:56
because we're away for Christmas last week and we people staying this weekend we've got people staying uh so it's been a little bit manic uh and the weather's
24:03
been terrible so traveling over the holiday period as I mentioned in case you haven't joined I'll whack it up again very excited because we're doing
24:10
two things um sorry I sort your question up there so we're doing this trip on the 13th so Miami blah blah blah then after
24:18
that we're going to one of our favorite places in the world which people think we're completely mad about we then go to Vegas for the new year which I very
24:26
excited about really like Vegas no doubt will end up losing money and
24:31
um but I love love going to Vegas quite a busy time in in Vegas L up so that's
24:37
quite fun and Mark is a big fan of Vegas as well I think this is maybe his fifth time to Vegas this year because he've
24:42
been working California big slugs of this year so has been popping along to Vegas which is quite good because he's a
24:48
gambler and we get comped hotels so that's quite good Sarah H good to see
24:53
you here um Sarah pops in and out quite often
24:58
with questions um I miss calling or Port calling or Port did they leave a commented I miss it Francis is here I
25:06
think I might have missed calling because I'm guessing you're back from your trip I hope you had a good time um Sarah H having experienced luxury is at
25:12
heart enjoy a mass Market Cruise Line normal cabin I switch on a suite for our next Cruise because only nights but B I
25:18
want to join normal later Sarah great great challenge I don't RAR because a
25:23
lot of it hinges on the itinerary what I'm doing so I do kind of mix stuff up a
25:29
bit um so for example you know we I I came off an incredible uh trip where I'd
25:38
been on a fabul one of my favorite cabins of all time in a kind of a sweet thing um when I was with on Seaborn in
25:46
the Kimberly um then I went and I had you know a balcony cabin on Celebrity
25:52
eclipse for the group cruise and I just enjoyed it because I chosen the right cap I think the secret there is probably
25:57
it's itinerary how many C days there are how it's all LinkedIn so for example um
26:03
I I do kind of so um you know just a lot of it hinted on what experience I'm
26:09
looking who I'm with so you know if I'm with Mark we might want a different experience because we want a bigger ship
26:15
so you know we want more stuff going on bigger casino whatever so I I don't find it hard what I do find it prob is to not
26:22
have anything um other than a balcony I found that I find that really hard and I
26:27
did go on a cruise where I had an Ocean View cabin and I did find that really hard even though I don't use the balcon
26:33
as much as I should but you're right it is it's some of the perkus so lot of it hinders so I like you know the problem
26:40
is if you go on a ship where you know the sweets have a specific restaurant and you and you know
26:48
and that is really a really nice restaurant versus the main dining which might be a bit more mannequin having to wait it's it's little things like that
26:55
but no cuz I do I do pick and mix them around found um uh so luckily I haven't
27:01
got complete sweet never again uh thing but you're right it is it is it is it is
27:08
a real risk okay so Marisha so just to write did you get a refund on your antal cruise given was short by day so so no
27:15
is the short answer so basically because what they did is for those who don't know and fact fact you'll see next week
27:21
the Vlog comes out I was going to release the Vlog this week I've released it next week publicly it's it's
27:26
available currently for patent members because I referred to a video at the end which wasn't finished editing um because
27:34
it's more complicated to edit so so I push the the Vlog back to next week because otherwise people get frustrated
27:40
when I mention another video and then it's not there and they want to watch it so next weekend it'll come out but I
27:45
mentioned that that our Cru got children by day so no uh we didn't but what because what they had done is they had
27:51
then laid on a whole day of activities um in P Williams so loads of different
27:57
activities um around that now to your point mark Misha is you can theoretically depending
28:05
on your insurance you've got if you've missed a port you can sometimes claim that back now I guess because we didn't really miss a port we had a day in Port
28:12
uh Port Williams uh they would probably have also argued we actually got to um
28:17
South Georgia a day early because there was this massive storm that they were out running and they had four engines
28:23
going and the storm was behind us and pushed us so we actually got there early so we actually had more time in south Georgia which kind of compensated for
28:30
for for that but um short answer was no and it kind of links a little bit back to that question I think if you go on
28:36
Antarctica you have to assume that the tiny will not run as planned sometimes they will sit to wait
28:43
before they head out on Direct passage because direct passage is too rough or they might come back earlier every one
28:49
of the three Antarctic trips I've been on we have left slightly early to Mis Drake pass passage issues and to be
28:55
honest most people when they hear the what the sedra passage they would then uh they would then um you know they
29:03
would then make sure that they uh they're happy about that um so yes so
29:10
Navigator you've got yeah so Navigator we've got I remember Navigator about Navigators navigator
29:16
that was a good point I guess you're saying when you're choosing between the different ships uh you know if having a
29:21
wider choice of speci restaurants is important that Navigator navat let say
29:26
you know that you have C Mari in the evening uh you've got compass rose and I
29:33
guess there's one other I can't actually can't remember um I probably should remember you can tell that um the the
29:39
especially for me is less critical it's 25 day it might be more critical but that's a good point Warren to raises
29:45
that if you want especially dining and options that's the other point and also another thought which Sparks coming to
29:51
Warren's point is thinking about the dining point because Vikings buffet
29:56
restaurant will open in the evenings as a buffet restaurant so if you want to have that option of casual dining the
30:02
problem with going on Seaborn and also the problem with going on region is they don't have that casual dining option so
30:07
you do either have to go to the setari the Italian or you have to go to the cus Rose or whatever or have room of you
30:14
don't have the buffet option where Viking does have the buffet option so that's thanks for that trigger there Waring around the dining options oh
30:21
calling or ports are here which is great we sign to plan our to to Japan how many
30:26
days do you suggest doing a to Cru part or off Hong Kong great challenge because in fact I have um I have got I'm going
30:34
to um in February which I'm extremely excited about I'm doing because I want
30:40
to try Crystal I'm doing one of their repositioning Cru sort of a combo reposition crues Cru which goes from
30:45
Tokyo into Shanghai which I really want to go and visit again ends up in Manila so I have built in I think I've got
30:52
includ the flight my flight arrives early in the morning so I think I've got all of Monday all of Tuesday all of Wednesday all of Thursday the ship
30:57
boards on the Friday so I'm now building four full days of exploring um I had
31:03
three days there last time and I was very busy so I would try if you possibly
31:08
can um and D Dian try and try and if you can allow four days I I wanted so I even
31:15
been there spent three days exploring um but I want to spend more because I want to use you can do day trips on the uh
31:24
the bullet train the sh shink Shinken um which I really really want to do some of those day trips uh as well just exp of
31:31
train and get a little bit out so I want to build some of that timeing as well so I would try and do four I'm actually flying from Manila back to Hong Kong and
31:37
I'm spending I think three days in Hong Kong uh now I've been to when I've been to Hong Kong before for work maybe one
31:45
or I one or two days last time we were there which was a long time ago
31:50
2 when we were there long like years ago maybe coming probably coming for eight nine years ago uh we spent three days in
31:57
Hong Kong and that was probably okay but um when I was you it depends if you want
32:04
to go and building like going to Disneyland and Disneyland Hong Kong yeah
32:09
but if you just in terms of you know going up the Victorious Peak and just generally exploring around you know I
32:14
would try and spend two or three days I think I've got um I'm trying to think of the days out I've got two full days in
32:20
the D flag because the flight my flight goes out like mid 11 p.m. or something so I have two days plus the flying out
32:27
date is a full day um but that's what I've done so if you can Flex it around that that's what I would I would if you possibly can I
32:33
would suggest obviously it's a lot of time know because both of you are working Michelle great question great
32:40
question what is about the Panama Canal that you love so as you know one of my obsessions as I mentioned is panal Canal
32:47
what I like about Michelle what I like about the Pano Canal is uh and particularly old Canal I have not yet been through the new Canal I should try
32:53
and get through the new Canal on bigger ship but I love it because it is it is one of the most important and
33:01
significant uh engineering Marvels ever created you know it was built in 1914 oh
33:08
sorry it opened in 1914 it has the most horrific story behind it you know I think when the French tried to build it
33:14
I think it was around about 20,000 people died from uh you know not not so much about injuries from illnesses which
33:21
people didn't understand like malarian yell fever the politics behind it with the Americans coming in C the the the
33:29
the Panama Canal kind of area which was kind of us thing this know the politics behind it but just the phenomena and the
33:36
way it works with the the structure behind it and the lake and just the you
33:41
there a sense of just being part of something phenomenal so that I like I
33:47
also like the fact that you get this incredible cruising experience before because if you do the transit you know you can do a bit of like on this one
33:53
we're doing we're doing with Cayman Islands we get a little bit of Columbus you get the Caribbean Experience but then once you H to the other side you
33:59
know we're going to guala we're going to the rainforests we're going to pazal we're going to Mexico so you're getting also a flavor of kind of some of uh you
34:06
know Central America um you know that whole very kind of more exotic kind of stuff so I just like that that
34:13
combination um Tiara question last time around you
34:19
did a lot of discussion about an artic I was wondering if you just bought all those cles locally or did you have to go to specialty stores great so what you
34:26
find T is um that pretty much every Expedition line um now I haven't looked at every
34:33
single one but pretty much every Expedition I looked at will give the option of they'll have a partnership one
34:40
of the lines that have a partnership with is a company called ship to shore I'm sure there's other ones and often
34:46
what you can do is you can order many of much of that equipment that you want so you know your your Bas layers you know
34:53
your waterproof pants if boots aren provided boots you know your gloves your
34:58
hats your neck Gators that you can order those online and they'll have a recommended list of clothes or they'll
35:04
Som have little packages they'll say if you want package a which is the basics or package B you know more exotic stuff
35:10
with hand warmers and whatever um and they will deliver those to the cabin so you don't have to take them with you so
35:17
that's what we did originally is the very first trip we ever did was to the
35:23
Arctic and it was on Silver SC they had the partnership they still have the partnership so we order all the stuff and those you have have your own boots
35:29
so when we got to the cabin it was all there uh and of course what's important the most one of the most important
35:35
things is the Parker which the which the Expedition L will provide so they can make sure it's the right one but also
35:40
they like everyone to go out with the same color so it's obviously all out in red I think if I remember correctly is it uh when we were on have GL it was
35:47
they were blue I think Seaborn is yellow so they have these very bright colors that they can see and also importantly
35:53
what they do particular the Arctic by the way is the the guests have one color Parker and then the polar bear guards
35:59
have a different colors you can also spot who the Expedition team and stuff is so um that's how I did it you'll find
36:06
online you know um many you'll often find in many countries certainly the big countries I've seen online some will
36:11
sell those packages as well and obviously you can go to Amazon but pretty much I think almost all of the stuff that I've
36:18
taken is from ship to shore things like had some undergloves th undergloves
36:23
which said when you take them off to usual cameras and stuff they kind of wear out quicker so those I just bought
36:28
on bought on Amazon um Tom good to see you here again
36:34
Tom we have an April 2025 four-week trip to Australia Sydney Hamilton Island very
36:40
nice Adelia I don't know that Tasmania and ending in Brisbane how early do how
36:45
early do we need to make dining and show Advanced reservations okay Tom a lot of
36:50
that hinges on um I'm assuming that's a cruise yeah saying a lot of that hinges
36:57
on you which line you're on so my recommendation is as soon as they open
37:03
get in there and particularly you know what I learned the hard way on my very first region trip my very first Viking
37:08
trip for example U because when they're opened people who are on those lines they sweep in and they take all the best
37:15
dining Advance reservations now when you talk about show Advanced reservations
37:20
I'm guessing that you might be doing more of like a Norwegian or Caribbean uh trip uh because I know roal
37:27
Caribbean have a lot of amazing Australia trips as some people have follow on Instagram who basically travel
37:32
full pretty much fulltime and they do a lot of RA Caribbean stuff around Australia they're from Australia uh as
37:39
soon as you possibly can because you can always change them uh is you know
37:45
without penalty so I would get in as quickly as possible as you get the date the time but literally as soon as they're open I I would
37:51
do the retain life um uh your thoughts on Mexico went to chargeing New tourist
37:57
Tech with cruise passengers or Cruise Lines start to C back on stops to Mexico so for those who don't know quite a few
38:03
places are introducing taxes so we've seen obviously Venice has introduced attack um Naples this week have are
38:10
talking about introducing ATT tax as well because they feel there sort of Al the town is getting a little bit swamped
38:17
um you know other places around I think even Edinburgh Scotland's talking about taxes so a lot of places are looking
38:23
about introducing taxes to obviously raise revenue um and also to try and control a little
38:30
bit of the the tourism so I did see the P Mexico and I haven't seen Cruise Lin's
38:37
reaction to it I would be surprised I think they're talking about a $5 tax if
38:43
I remember correctly I we don't know if they're going to do it because in reality the challenge they've got if you've got those Cruisers coming that
38:49
are you know home ported in San die go or some them go out of San Francisco and
38:55
stuff they have very pretty Limited options where they can go so I would I
39:00
think they're going to be challenged uh and also you know a little bit like I'm doing now coming around you know I'll
39:06
bring that up again so it's going to be over the um it's going to be over your question but you know once you come back
39:13
up here sort of between your Guatemala's your Nicaragua and any over there you
39:19
know there's nowhere you can go and people I'm not sure people are going to
39:24
want to have you know five or six c-day trips it will be a hard to sell I mean they may they may da back a little bit
39:32
but I think um I'm sure there'll be some kind of balance so so I don't know and I
39:37
haven't seen any uh I haven't seen any comments from the cruise line so I will be watching I just literally sort in in
39:44
as you did there so I will definitely keep a look on that so Lucy's mom uh
39:49
good to see you waiting flight to Tokyo very exciting uh have a great time as
39:54
well ah Sarah has been actually doing a ship visit on Queen I didn't know you're doing that today uh uh hope oh you're
40:02
doing hopefully you're doing are you doing afternoon tea I'm guessing that's probably no time
40:07
for tea I because with the time they would have done tea that's annoying they didn't give you the afternoon tea um
40:14
opportunity um Mar just want to write the word question so I don't miss it I didn't miss just because I then I don't
40:20
miss it if I see it there we're cruising from Miami to Barcelona Caribbean on the Explorer
40:26
stopping on theor Martin I don't know theor particularly well so I'm going to theor again uh but
40:33
only in April um and then I think we also do when I do that trip later on so I'm going twice to the aor so I don't
40:39
know the zor particular when we went when we went to the zor we literally just walked around and you know because
40:46
it has lots of those kind of Portuguese kind of elements so I literally
40:57
and for me that would be good um because I haven't actually booked what I'm going to do in the aort yet because I'm going to explore Journeys and they're s
41:05
terrible I have to say everything else is great and to is great but the s's
41:10
terrible and I cannot uh work out it that I haven't got excursions up and it keep some I need to talk to my travel
41:17
agent and stuff so I'm guessing it hasn't come out so I haven't figured out what I'm going to do the aor yet and I
41:22
can't remember what I had looked at for the October trip Jerry what is the
41:29
shortest cruise that you have ever done well the shortest Cruise Jerry that I've
41:35
ever done although it's not strictly a cruise is one night um and that is when and I've done
41:44
it two or three times or one nighter I did it once on Pino brania where I went
41:52
to the naming ceremony and we stay that then had the naming ceremony the uh the
41:58
late Queen named the ship um and then in one a naming ceremony uh then had time
42:04
on the ship and we had a night on the ship big sort of gar dinner and they were kicked off the next day and also I
42:10
once did it on the silver Muse I did to one nighter uh where they had hosted an
42:18
event although that one didn't real count as a cruise because it didn't actually even leave the dock thata wasn't Cruise uh actually Bania didn't
42:25
leave the dock other so the shortest Cruis where we actually sailed anywhere would be two nights I think which would
42:34
was on the MSC marilia uh I'm tring if that was two
42:41
nights or one night no it was two nights so MSC mavilia when it came out of the dockyard they they sat out the UK and
42:48
again they did this uh um kind of um it
42:53
was like a Shakedown creas that's what I'm looking for for two nights um and we basically didn't go anywhere so I think
42:59
that's the actual one where we actually cruised anywhere was was two nights the shortest one theor is one up but we
43:05
didn't leave so that's not really a cruise um so Mark a new s Cruiser early
43:12
60s cre to Norway absolutely wonderful suited uh my music opportunity for
43:17
Virgin Iceland Cru good price not shes for me not a party person well Mark you
43:24
you you probably you know if you've got Queen Mary 2 on one extreme you've got virgin On The Other Extreme so it's
43:30
extremely different in pretty much every way you can possibly imagine uh now
43:37
virgin is not as party as people expect it to be you know the average age on
43:44
Virgin is around is in the 50s so it does tend to skew a little bit younger soon than a Queen Mary two trip will be
43:50
um I don't know what they'd be like going to Iceland you know obviously it's not an area that have huge expertise in
43:56
historic uh they do have very good food now if you want to party you can party they
44:02
will have Scarlet party they do partying you know out on the the P and stuff but you can have sort of a non-party
44:09
environment so it's not as party as people expect it is definitely much more Buzzy more busy but and you're not going
44:16
to get classical music uh or I TR think
44:21
of that any you're not going to get you're going to have live music but it's not going to be that sort of music
44:28
uh it's going to be much more contemporary music but a range of Music um so I would just approach with caution
44:35
but don't expect it to be a massive party a party it's not like a party boat um as such um but approach with caution
44:43
particularly if you like quary 2 because you know qu 2 is in ver is more stayed more dressing up uh that is much more
44:50
relaxed Much More viby Much More Buzzy kind of uh
44:55
environment um oh so $45 not the $5 I was wrong on that so we'll have to watch the Mexican one um let's have a look uh
45:06
oh here we are nor Prima Services charges fine princess beverage staff but
45:12
don't get a share aties because they provide service any some guests oh okay very important great point so basically
45:18
yeah so if you travel in this I found really surprising but if you travel if
45:24
you're fortunate enough to travel in the Haven on Norwegian they specifically
45:29
talk about um the you know the Butlers specifically getting excluded um and the
45:35
beverage staff uh and the spa staff are included on most cruise lines so but I
45:41
was really surprised on the Butlers being excluded so you and the butler really hustled and really stressed the
45:47
point now what happens with bever sta is they do obviously get tips so if you've got a drinks package the gratuit gratuit
45:54
is added onto the drinks package so they get their share of that tip if you're buying drinks at Hawk all Cruise Lines
45:59
add on the gratuity on the drinks you know it's already added on it's part of the price so the what lines exclude
46:07
staff in most many Cruise Lines the spa staff are excluded because they are
46:13
contractors so they which is also why you'll find Spar staff uh you know
46:18
you'll find a gratuity often added on to the bill so 18% some 20% and you'll also
46:24
find that the which is why I find going far very stressful is they earn a lot on
46:30
commission so a lot of their salary is driven by commission which is why they sell products so hard generally speaking
46:36
um the key one so on most other Cruise Lines by the way Butlers are not exempt
46:41
they are included in the pot the first time I ever saw it was on Norwegian but
46:46
yeah the bar staff um and the um the I
46:52
think Al Norwegian also the kids the the kids clubs check if if you got kids and
46:58
go to the kids club you quite a few Cruise Lines the kids club people aren't included and the spa people on and the
47:06
kids club one you can sort of understand because not everyone's using this so you can sort of I guess uh you can sort of
47:13
see why they argue the butler one but that was the first time that that I that I'd seen it um but but your point about
47:20
you're saying you're tipping the buttons just bear in mind that the drink price will normally if you look at the tab it's normally like every Cruise Line
47:27
will added on and the mistake the people they make is they double tip because it's added on so the price you see and
47:33
you buy a beer you you sign for $6 or $9 tips included in that and a lot of
47:39
people but the lines that tip on top so you double double tipping basically which if you want to do is fine of
47:45
course uh Andrew how much would you tip your room stud for a week long say Cruise do you Pride to them out longer
47:51
cruises yes so basically Andrew and I don't have a strict rule I sort of look
47:56
at between three and five us do um so if I'm on a week long cruise you know I
48:04
might round it up you know to 25 or 30 or something if I'm on a 30-day Cruise
48:10
you know so I sort of round it up and you I flex it based on how how good they were how much I like them and and how
48:17
how good they were but it's roughly around that so so I'm going to have a little slug here
48:28
we live okay let's go do a Christmas tree side Christmas tree topical we were ready for Christmas but because we had
48:35
my sister and R saying we were doing like a Min little mini Christmas we actually put up the Christmas tree um
48:40
and also Mark's got all his work all his team coming around so we we should have a Christmas tree next for next week now
48:46
the arguments do we take it down so the answer is artificial tree um we have a
48:52
tree which looks very real um but we've had it now
48:58
for let's think we we've had it probably like for 20 something years and it's quite a big tree it's probably nearly as
49:04
tall as me it's about six feet high and it's quite suy was quite a lot when we bought it because you assembl and you
49:10
put all the little you put all the um branches individually it looks pretty good I should probably post a picture of
49:16
it um so so artificial um I I do worry a little bit about digging up and cutting
49:23
down trees and planting trees so um and for us in here like after Christmas
49:28
there just trees and streets and can't take them away um so so we go
49:34
artificial uh just because it's easy and it's very erratic we do it very erratically because often we go away for Christmas so that's why we have an
49:40
artificial tree because like last year we put it up because we had people before we went away uh to Australia and
49:47
stuff so we didn't have it up a long a long time you know if we were hero might might be different um but even growing
49:53
up we had an artificial tree as well so that's that's what we did
49:58
um so G on the cheap Cru line the community Jesus I yeah I've asked people
50:05
before to choose lines they they chose by the way the one they chose was Margarita bill at at C I didn't do it
50:13
because didn't win but yeah so I should really do some inside cabin so people are obsessed seeing inside cabin I I
50:20
should probably do it one time and and just do uh do it as a kind of a fun a fun thing to do maybe love it and I'll
50:28
come back to the discussion it earlier that I uh I I never get on my balcony Obsession which could could be could be
50:35
good uh I'm trying is this a question Navy on the Bliss for five days P Canal
50:41
obos we decide on a balcon knowing I just buy special dining to not worry about the main dining room good so Bliss
50:48
you would have been on the new Canal I didn't need to get in the new Canal um Dean uh Co so great point is co shutdown
50:56
with the cruise industry they came back with the Vengeance has the cruise line demand leled out now no the cruise lines
51:02
it's not if you because I like every quarter um I read uh all the updates
51:08
from the cruise lines and they've just had a whole series coming out absolutely not they have sold a huge amount of 25
51:15
inventory already um they are selling over capacity uh particularly strong
51:21
demand in the Caribbean growing demand in Europe um as people I guess get used to the situation in Ukraine and stuff
51:28
maybe airs are coming down a little bit so people are are heading more to Alaska cruising huge the reason it's not coming
51:34
down Dean is they are aggressively advertising and and chasing new to Crews
51:41
both with direct advertising and through travel agents and be Mark cruising is actually a very tiny percentage very
51:48
tiny percentage of travel so they are aggressively recruiting new cruises why
51:55
you see lots of families appearing on lines that didn't used to be very family orientated so they are growing demand
52:02
quite rapidly even though they're adding a lot of capacity so certainly they are not projecting if you look at their both
52:07
their results and their projections you know obviously they tail Wall Street their future projections they're projecting um increasing demand they
52:15
increase and as a result they're also projecting increasing fairs and I have a video working on which hopefully will
52:20
come out in a couple weeks time around with fairs absolutely going up how do you manage to get around that that and
52:27
not pay o over the odds so I've got a long version script I need to work down so the short answer that's the long
52:32
answer the short answer is is no um Barry is doing the uh Oceania antartic
52:41
Cruises February R to Santiago Chile any advice on plan pack okay so obviously Barry you know that you're not going to
52:47
be landing in Antartica doing Scenic cruising um so the but obviously you know and I don't know which part of anti
52:54
go into but many of the senior cruising stuff you'll go to South Chon islands and then a lot of them will do things
53:01
like uh go down the gash ch um Channel
53:06
and stuff like that so stuff so it can be pretty chilly outside so you're going in February so February is just as the
53:12
WEA you know towards the end of the summer seeing it starting to shift again a little bit colder but you're probably
53:17
at that time of year you know you're going to be out on Deck you're probably really looking at 0 degrees Celsius you
53:22
know 32 degrees fahren maybe a little bit warmer than that but it still can be very windy so my my key advice because
53:30
they won't give you the Parker is the following um have layers so I would
53:35
strongly recommend particular if you think you're going to be out on Deck you're looking for icebergs maybe whales if they are because it's a busy whale
53:42
period that time of the year is have your what I guess assume everyone in the world call them kind of long john so have a layer below so you kind of your
53:49
long johns and something underneath then have layers on top so have you know maybe a sweatshirt you know kind of
53:55
maybe some sort of jump or Stu say I'm trying to think of saving You by St but then have a really good
54:01
wind resistant jacket have a scarf or a neck Gator and have a hat also make sure
54:08
you have sunglasses because it can be very bright uh there um that would be my
54:14
key so some of that kind of covers your ears if you like meally your head but everybody kind of that's key and then in
54:19
terms of gloves you waterproof gloves will be less key for you but gloves that are pretty uh warm particular using a
54:27
camera but you want one that are going to make sure you can still use your camera so particularly if you've got a phone if you're going to be using your
54:32
phone um you know the glass the glass needs um a certain amount of contact to
54:38
work if you're using a normal for you know a DSLR or something like that so something that you can kind of manage
54:43
but layers is absolutely key um and you know if you're going to be out there for
54:49
a while if they do think Welles in the area and stuff um that would be key I just want to make a point about
54:54
photography by the way if you are um hoping to see Wales you'll find generally speaking you need a good zoom
55:01
lens um you can take some fairly good stuff with an iPhone but it's not it's it's not great um but that the Le you
55:08
know layers layers layers really good um something that that breaks you know
55:13
stops stops the wind um is is key um okay let's have a look how are we doing
55:22
um George uh my retiring mother wants to do a full crew full world Cruise do you
55:29
think queenan is a good option is there a better line for solar retire circum navigations or is going to see Gary so
55:34
George kunard is very popular obviously for their world cruises it is normally
55:39
gets a good deal of solo Travelers and the good thing if you're doing the fourwh cruise is what kuna does is they
55:46
have a lounge area or allocated area I'm not sure where they're do it on queenan but they will have an area which is
55:52
where everyone who's doing the full world Cruise has access to and they'll have some con help in there so it's also a good way of kind of connecting but
55:59
generally speaking you'll find is you know kuna does attract a decent number of of solo um Travelers particular
56:06
female solo Travelers doing some of all of the world Cruise um there are other lines that will you know princess holl
56:12
America but certainly I would say that it's a really good idea now what she needs to understand with the full world
56:18
cruise is there's a lot of C days because obviously you're literally getting around the so there was a lot of
56:24
Cay so she also needs to be clear that she's very comfortable with a lot of Cay
56:29
obviously Cod has a pretty active problem the good thing about Cod is because of their experience with trans
56:35
Atlantics stuff they are used to having packed packed daily programs they will have daily Sol Meetup stuff like that
56:41
but they have all the other stuff they have enrichment talks they'll have the crafting sessions the dance classes so
56:47
they are really good in terms of lots of activities so if she's going solo that's why I would actually lean now obviously
56:52
the other lines put on programs but I do think as a Solo Traveler is one of the best to to go with um they they know how
57:00
to deal with solers they' done they know how to deal with World Cruise busy program so but she does need a s a lot
57:05
quite a lot of C days so she does need to be a little bit comfortable with her own company but you'll find she should make friends uh friends pretty pretty
57:12
easily so on that trip which is which is which is which is pretty good um KB in
57:18
the UK hi they good to see you K another regular can I ask how will your Market
57:24
be celebrating New Year's Eve in Vegas often thought of Alice and myself doing the same thing but not sure what's the best way to make it memorable so K Las
57:32
Vegas of course can be quite cold at New Year so we've we've done New Year once
57:37
in Vegas when we I took my mom and my mother-in-law to Vegas um and it can be
57:42
a little bit chilly now obviously there's a lot a lot of partying going on in Vegas they close the whole strip and
57:49
that becomes packed full they have the firework display and it you know that of
57:55
course all the bars all the restaurants have loads of stuff now what we've done KB is we've all the shows that run on
58:01
New Year's Eve so what we did in fact um last time with my mom and stuff is we went to see larev and then we actually
58:09
walked all the way up um the strip all the way right the way down up always get the around because actually the North
58:15
and South I always think down up but anyway so we wed all the way from the wind all the way back up where we were staying at Vdara which is sort of in the
58:20
middle of the strip uh and there people start to party and stuff now we then actually just um had our own little
58:27
picnic as it were and we because from there we had a great view Across The Fountains in my mom's and s's room of
58:33
the fountain stuff we just kind of watch some of the partying and stuff going on what we're doing this time is we're doing a similar thing is we are going to
58:40
a show we're going to see car again at m GM now we're staying we decided to stay at you know the other end of the strip
58:46
so we're actually staying this time in Delano so we have a great view down the strip um but our plan is to not because
58:54
it's it can be crazy so at the of Delo for example there's a bar but it costs
59:00
$1,400 to go to the bar on New Year's Eve um and you get two bottle of champagne or something um but you know
59:07
so some of the prices are kind of crazy um in those those iconic places so what we're doing is we're we're actually
59:13
going to go to see car and we're going to have dinner at the wol wolf Puck restaurant that we really like there uh
59:20
in GM gr and then we will probably go back to our room which has a great view of the
59:26
uh of the strip so we one that strip View kind of watch the fireworks and stuff going on but you'll find all the
59:32
restaurants are open the shows are on so it's quite a nice uh way of doing a combination of show you know if you
59:37
wanted they they close the whole strip so one thing I would say k if you do go one of the mistakes we sort of made is
59:43
we didn't really think it through so we were staying Vdara and we booked to see a show all the way down so we had to go
59:49
really early before they close the strip because once they close the strip moving around Vegas is pretty difficult because
59:55
all the back streets get get absolutely rammed full so unless you want to walk a long way so you just have to be kind of
1:00:00
cautious um so this time we've done mgm's not so far away from where where we're staying so think a little bit
1:00:07
about local of course if you wanted go out the street but there's stuff happening out on the street you know people partying and drinking and stuff
1:00:13
and the fireworks and all that kind of stuff so that's what we're doing we're not particularly party animals so um
1:00:19
what we're actually doing we're going the next night to the Skyfall um you know which just then just normal kind of
1:00:24
normal kind of price uh as it were hopefully that's answered your question but it's not be mind Vegas you know
1:00:30
because Vegas isn't that warm so all the pools are closed they close about October to March and stuff um and it's
1:00:36
interesting actually because the hotel prices get crazy on on on New Year's Eve
1:00:42
but other side of that not too expensive actually um but new EV of course is very expensive like like so many places let's
1:00:50
have a look and see before we wrap up if I have Miss because lots of chats by the looks of it which is great people
1:00:56
helping everybody with their questions lots of discussion on the Mexico a Sarah
1:01:02
was home but had lunch and and bubbles on Queen and so the grill streets they are nice Grill streets I I agree with
1:01:08
you um Francis great to see you here Francis I'm taking atlantov of England
1:01:13
in April is it good idea to book tickets for West AB the house of parliament absolutely make sure you book Houses of
1:01:19
Parliament ahead of time because they are they you know book those April I'm
1:01:25
thinking going to be be too early for Buckingham Palace double check if if any of buckingam Palace open they're
1:01:30
starting a big renovation of buckingam Palace so I don't know where the next summer if that's going to be closed but
1:01:35
I think it's a little bit too early anyway um for that the good news is they're doing a big renovation of baking
1:01:41
Palace it's unlikely that King Charles is going to move into Buckingham Palace so they're talking about perhaps opening
1:01:47
that for longer parts of the year it'll obviously be used for set occasions it's all the official thing but it sounds like open for more of the year for
1:01:54
tourists um West is less popular but I would kind of book in with House's of parament absolutely
1:02:00
definitely now um you know we made the mistake even with because I realized my sister and and Sally my mother-in-law
1:02:07
hadn't been there we looked a couple of weeks before and it was already sold out so definitely book that FR keep me
1:02:14
posted in April no I may or may not be in a it be great to see if you are passing uh passing through that would be
1:02:22
fantastic um so let's have here we go I'll do another question um
1:02:28
another question here the only lithy cat Seaborn says Gru are neither required nor expect to despite that would it be
1:02:34
apprpriate tip of course no crew memb is ever going to say no to that now I was a
1:02:40
little bit disappointed on my last Seaborn crws when I was on Seaborn Pursuit uh in Kimberly because I was
1:02:47
planning to tip my fantastic cabin STS but I was a little bit disappointed
1:02:52
because that in the cabin there's a little name sign but but they had put rather pointedly envelopes next to the
1:02:58
name s the last day and it's like guys this is not really a Seaborn thing I was going to to you anyway and I felt bit
1:03:04
annoyed not annoyed that's too extreme but I was just bit disappointed because that's their whole thing but yes um they
1:03:10
were great I tipped you know AB absolutely um let proba chance for for
1:03:15
one couple more questions um what's your so my longest cruise longest consecutive
1:03:21
cruise on one ship was seven weeks we did half of world Cruise on Queen Victoria we actually did 10 weeks
1:03:28
cruising in total so we did seven weeks from uh Southampton to Sydney we got off in Sydney so our friends in Sydney spend
1:03:35
some time at NSA then we then we actually for maybe 10 days something like that if I remember correctly then
1:03:41
we then flew from Brisbane to Hong Kong and then did three weeks uh on Queen
1:03:47
Elizabeth around China and um uh Japan
1:03:52
but our longest specific was was was was was seven was seven
1:03:57
weeks so I do a couple more questions I normally finish by now but would you suggest European river Cruis is the
1:04:03
first cruise my nervous and yet to Cru husband rather than ocean um yes but it is a completely different experience so
1:04:10
going on a river cruise is not a good taster primer for going on Ocean Cruise
1:04:15
they are extremely different experiences you know the ship the experience it's
1:04:20
totally totally different so you know if if it's a way of getting him into the world of Cru cruising absolutely but
1:04:27
it's not it's not a it's not a sell for ocean in reality and May in some ways put him off possibly because you know
1:04:34
you don't have a lot of choice uh it's more regimented but if it's a way of getting you into the IDE of cruising you
1:04:39
know I would always I would always definitely uh you know definitely
1:04:45
definitely uh encourage them to do that right so we have churned through uh
1:04:51
loads of loads of time loads of questions I think there's one or two I didn't get a chance to answer I apologize for that
1:04:56
so uh I will have a live stream next week as I mentioned if you're a patron Channel member there's one on Saturday
1:05:02
public one uh will be on Sunday so I will see you next uh Sunday hopefully or
1:05:07
Saturday if you Pat member have a great great week and uh thanks for joining me really appreciate it take care
1:05:22
[Music]
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