Well Tina here we are direct from the trailer on location - On location
sounds great - What are we going to be talking about today Tina
anything to do with your t-shirt - Oh I think so you know what Norm I'm cruising through life
- We certainly are - So today we are going to talk about what shocked us about cruising - Wow!
- It's another one of those shockers Norm - I know
it is why do we keep doing this well we get good views
anyway we're Tina and Norm and we talk all things retirement
and travel and today is one of those travels and it's going to be what shocked us about cruising
- It is and we have done a lot of cruises haven't we Norm - We have - So this is based on what we
have done - We've done about 6 or 7 years worth of cruising and so these are some of our observations
about things that are changing with cruising and what's shocking us
not really a few surprises along the way - And one of the things we are certainly noticing is that
they seem to be now charging for a lot of things that were free when we first started
-They do it's going way more paid for use than - Yeah sort of little hidden charges - Yeah
trying to try to ring every last penny out of their guests and one of the things that
caught us out really from the very first cruise that we did was the high cost of shore excursions
and in the early days our first few cruises we would just book them with the cruise line but
then we started finding out that you could get them independent and certainly when we went to
Australia and New Zealand we did have an extremely good wine tour in New Zealand that was private
and they guaranteed to get you back to the ship on time so that was one thing -That was
that secret we wanted wasn't it guaranteed to get us back to the ship - That's right and they
were there ready to meet us and to be honest with you there was he had a minibus and it
was full from our cruise ship so we felt pretty secure in that - Yeah it was really good wasn't it
and actually it's funny Norm but on that same cruise around New Zealand we were really surprised
at when you went for dinner and one night Norm looked at the menu - I couldn't decide
- He didn't know what, I think it was either probably beef or lobster or something there was two big choices
that he wanted so the waiter said well if you can't decide have them both
and we were like we were shocked weren't we -We were absolutely surprised - That somebody could
order and get and I assume they thought Norm possibly could actually eat two big dinners well
- What I thought they were gonna do was there was a steak and it was a lobster dinner as well I just
thought they're gonna put the lobster on the steak and call it surf and turf but no two complete
dinners with the dome thing on them and put them on the table in front of me it was curious anyway
on a cruise ship you can order more than 1 entree or dessert or appetizer we've even heard of people
that just have appetizers they don't bother with the main course they just order 8 or 9 appetizers
- Whatever takes you fancy hey Norm - It is - One of the things that I was really surprised at was just how
long it takes when we actually dock somewhere just how long it takes to get everybody off the ship
who wants to go just either on a trip or just walk around on some of the cruises we've been on it
can take up to a couple of hours before you're all actually allowed to get off the ship and sometimes
when you're in a port you might only be there for 5 or 6 hours that did really quite shock us
didn't it - It ate into the time yeah i'm sure and it's even worse with the tenders that you have
to get onto the small lifeboats and they bring you ashore and of course people with high status
on the cruise line they get the first option so there's a bit of a class system going on there
anyway how about the price of those drinks Tina on a cruise ship - Oh wow - You can buy a bottle of
wine for the price that they charge for a glass so the last time we were cruising it was about
$10 dollars for a glass of wine and about $8 to $10 dollars for a beer depending on what
you were having and the other crafty thing that Holland America did is that $7.50 to $8 dollars for
Heineken used to be a 500 ml tall boy can as we call them here, well on the last cruise so I
tended to have that I ordered one and for the same price I got the 330 ml bottle
and they just said that they decided not to have cans anymore so it was a smaller
beer for the same price - Norm felt very cheated didn't you - And the happy hour don't get me started
on the happy hour at Holland America it used to be buy one get one free then it was buy one get one
for a dollar and then it's buy one get one for two dollars the last time that we were on that
so that's the disappearing happy hour and you know we are absolutely passionate about our happy hour
- Another thing too Norm hey remember you used to be able to get the newspaper they print off a daily
newspaper for different countries and they would deliver it to your cabin so you could wake up
have coffee in your cabin and read the newspaper not anymore - Used to be great - You have to go
down to the reception desk to get one or they put them at the restaurant - Where you help yourself but
- But if you deciding to have breakfast in your cabin you don't get that little touch of luxury do you
- No and then the other absolute this is terrifyingly shockingly if there's such a word it
was (yeah) so we were cruising primarily using the Carnival Cruise Line companies so Holland America
etc so you could buy shares in the company and you would get a discount off your ticket you get a
room credit either $100 or $250 dollars depending on the length of the cruise so us being in for
a game okay we'll buy a hundred shares - Sounded a good deal - Yeah $60 dollars a share, today
trading at $22 dollars they did drop as as low as $12 so that was a shock that
our 6 thousand dollars - Now it's only worth 2 thousand dollars and we're not even
cruising at the moment to even use the credits that was shocking wasn't it Norm
do you remember when we first started I used to love the fact that we got bathrobes and slippers
in the cabin it was a little nice touch was very nice but not anymore now you've got to be a sort
of junior suite or higher to be able to just get this - And these are the throwaway slippers
that you get like at a spa or something they're nice to wear but they just last for about 2 weeks
but yeah you have to have a suite now to get those
and I think if you can afford a suite you can probably afford your own slippers
and then Tina used to love going into the state room and there would just be a little vase of
flowers on the coffee table - It was very pretty wasn't it - You've guessed it no more flowers - No
they've gone too oh and there's another one which is very kind of close to our hearts too
because we do like to have variety of food that we're eating so we do like to eat vegetarian
- In fact during about 3 years of cruising we were vegetarians we've since fallen off the
wagon - But so now we kind of eat everything but at the time when we were there you were kind of
treated differently because - Second class citizen - So there was a vegetarian menu but only if you
actually asked for it but you had to order the day before so say you'd go on Tuesday to get the menu
you're ordering for Wednesday night whereas everybody else when they go for dinner on
that Tuesday night they can order the dinner they want but for some reason they seem to be
incapable of advanced planning to be able to do vegetarian dishes we found that shockingly
disappointing didn't we - It was especially with the trend of people being more aware of
what they're eating and how popular vegetarian vegan had become and they only did a token
vegetarian meal on the main menu - Yeah I think maybe there was 1 dish - So you were stuck you
had no choice if you wanted to eat vegetarian you would have to have what they put on the menu
or wait as Tina said - For the day after which anyway it was a little disappointing wasn't
it - How about missing the boat Tina (oh no), you could quite easily miss the boat one of the things
that we used to do would book our own air flights now we always went down the day before but you
got to realize we're in Canada we're flying down to Miami or Fort Lauderdale yeah and oftentimes
there'll be a snowstorm in Toronto or Ottawa and so there is a risk that if you are not there
the boat will sail without you but there is a workaround - There is - So we started with
Princess Lines they offered their own flights so you could buy the flight and the cruise from them
and they would guarantee that you would get on the ship (yes) you might have to go to the next port but
they would get you there - So at least you wouldn't completely miss it - And to be honest with you if
you are coming from a winter climate we found them quite competitive in price especially going
to Europe - Yeah oh yes they did we actually went 1st class a couple of times didn't we yeah we did
- Shush Shush! we're poor so take a look at maybe booking your flight with the cruise company and you'll be
assured of getting onto that cruise in the event of bad weather - Yeah or in the cases we were
saying we would always go down the night before wouldn't we to counter that fact - Very much - But
we would like to say that cruising is a awesome great way to see many destinations - We loved it
- We are hoping to cruise again in the future not sure when - But if you are on a limited time frame
you can see 6 to 8 different destinations different countries within a 2 week period
and we loved that we loved the experience of it and we desperately miss cruising at the moment
but we're making no plans we're not booking a cruise we're just letting things evolve we're
keeping our eye on the cruising industry on the news and perhaps in what 2022 or 2023 we might
consider getting back on the boat - Because we've seen such awesome places haven't we
that we fell in love with lots of them - Absolutely and met some absolutely fantastic people aboard
cruise ships - Yeah that's a big plus - It really is - The nice people that you do meet on cruising and
that you can have dinner with and spend your time with - Yeah we've done that quite often so anyway
that's our shocking revelation of cruise ships what shocked us about cruising so thanks for
watching - And we hope everybody is staying safe - And keeping well - And until the next time bye bye bye