everybody this is Bruce here to my youtube channel
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video hey everybody how you doing it's Bruce here with traveling with
Bruce today's video is for first-time cruisers if you've decided to go on your
very first cruise ship vacation I've got 10 tips for you that will help you go a
long way to enjoy it you're gonna have a great time and you'll never forget your
first cruise I'd never forgot my first cruise and I've gone on many other since
they're just fantastic number one number one thing is a few things to pack before
you even get to the ship itself remember to pack hats because you're headed to
probably a warm climate especially if it's in the wintertime if you get it
down to the Caribbean you're going to be in brilliant sunshine for hours on end
and if you're gonna take a short excursion even for a couple of hours
make sure you have head wear don't get a sunburn on your head your neck or your
shoulders number two sunscreen bring sunscreen from home a
buy it at your local pharmacy or Walmart or wherever you shop get a good deal on
it it'll be cheaper in your hometown then then on the cruise ship itself or
at some of these ports a call because the the ports of call no oh here come
the tourists and some of them always forget to get their own sunscreen and
it's ten bucks a bottle when at Walmart it might be a dollar 79 or 350 or
something like that so remember that the third thing is if it's two adults that
are going on the cruise pack two bottles of wine put one bottle of wine in one
suitcase in one on the other you may want to do this once you arrive in the
port city that you're departing from not necessarily before you get on the
airplane so when you get to a state's Fort Lauderdale you're departing from
just for an example or Miami you get there stopped off at a
a liquor store or a Walmart or Costco and pick up a couple of bottles of wine
there at a really good price and put them in two different suitcases also if
you're looking for some you know Diet Coke or Red Bull drinks or other soft
drinks buy them as well before you get on the cruise and stuff them in your
luggage you can bring that on board it'll save you some money when you're on
board you won't have to buy a soft drink package and you might avoid the liquor
package or the drink package that they're offering if you've got some wine
already and you're gonna buy just a couple of beers or mixed cocktail drinks
buy them one at a time because remember if you're on a say a seven-day cruise
three or four days of that seven days you might be offshore anyway and you're
gonna be on a tour you won't have time to drink on the cruise ship you might be
at a beach location you'll buy some drinks there save money okay so that's a
couple things to worry about or think about before you get on the ship now
embarkation Day the day you arrive at the port it's kind of hectic and
exciting lots going on but it'll remind you of sort of checking into an airport
you'll bring your bags and your bags will be checked
just as you arrive at the terminal they'll they'll give you some tags or
you'll have tags pre-printed off of your your cruise itinerary from your cruise
line even before you get to the get to the port and once you've dropped off
your bags you might you might or might not have a carry-on my wife usually has
a purse with her and I usually don't carry anything and you head into the
terminal and you get to the check-in counter and there's staff along the way
they'll direct you where to go don't worry about being lost in this place
it's huge but you'll find it easy signage everywhere and people to direct
you exactly where to go you'll get to the check-in counter and you need your
passports and you need any kind of confirmation of your of your cruise
usually even on your phone your iPhone will work once they have your name and
your confirmation number it's all set they will run your credit card there as
a pre authorized credit card and they will then hand you back the credit card
and your room key and once you've got your Roux key that
is kind of like an on board charge card it'll open your sweet door of course but
it'll also allow you to buy us a latte at the coffee bar or you can use it at
especially restaurants or if you're gonna you're thinking about going on an
offshore tour you can use it at the tour desk or just charge it to your room that
the card is your identification for charges on the ship one little safety
tip the room card can also be used in the slot machines in the casino so when
you're on on the high seas and the casino is open for business you don't
have to bring cash into the casino this is a cashless scenario take your room
key put it into the slot machine and you can charge the slot play right to your
right to your room card that's convenient but it also can be dangerous
so keep that in mind at the end of your cruise by the way if you've made money
and the casino always you money hopefully thankfully then you just go to
the casino counter and you can cash out you show them your room key and then
they will they will give you literally cash and then you can walk that cash
right over to the to the front desk on the ship and you could pay that cash
back towards your room balance that you've charged up so if you've taken out
three or four or five hundred dollars to play the casino over the last week and
you've got three hundred bucks in cash from the casino at the end of it you can
go back to the hotel desk the the the desk on the cruise ship and you could
put the $300 in dollars in cash towards your room a bill and pay that casino
debt down a little bit and the rest will be charged to your credit card and any
other charges you have on board so the key your room key is your onboard credit
card it also is your ID for getting off and getting on the ship if you're taking
say a Mexican cruise or Caribbean cruise you might be going to two or three
different countries on that Caribbean cruise and the passport that you present
it when you first checked in has already pre-cleared you within these countries
so when you get off the ship and say Jamaica the Jamaican government already
has pre-cleared you for four your excursion when you come back onto the
ship at the end of the you will have your card swiped by the by
the ship's staff right in the security area there right at the ramp when you
board the ship and they know that you have returned back to the ship and that
way the ship knows the cruise company knows and the government of Jamaica in
this case knows that all passengers who got off the ship have returned back on
to the ship and there's no one left behind or there are there are people
left lined and then they know who they are and when they did when they departed
the ship and then they'll have to you know figure out what to do with them if
you miss you ship you miss your ship anyway those are a couple of points
right off the get-go once you've shown your passport you
probably won't need it for the rest of the cruise unlikely but once you're on
the ship now you've you've cleared the the terminal and you're on board the the
cruise ship the first thing I recommend you do and the first thing I always do
explore the ship my wife and I love to walk the various levels of the decks see
where the swimming pools are see where the the outdoor movie theater is where
are the hot tubs where are the restaurants the snack bars
what has the ship got to offer and it'll take you hours and it's fun I mean it's
an exploratory viola you won't see it all on the first day
anyway but it's a great way to get things started and take the tour find
out where the main dining room is because you may find that of the seven
nights you're onboard or so three or four of those nights you you might be
having dinner in the main dining room so find out where it is and if there are
any staff members there you can already reserve a time a specific time that you
may want to have dinner every day if you like having dinner at 5:00 or 5:30 you
can reserve your 5:00 5:30 seating for the for the days that you're on the on
the cruise and you'll get a peek at that nights menu already as well because
every day they post the menu in the morning for the entire for that evening
and you can see what's for dinner tonight and that might help you decide
whether you're even gonna have dinner in the main dining room or not you may find
that the special they're offering that night doesn't suit your palate you might
want to take the specialty restaurant and you might go to the steakhouse sort
of the Chinese restaurant or you know the Italian restaurant that type of
thing so check them all out find where they are and and see what what's
available to you another thing I like to do on the first
day is I like to take the spot or the spa sometimes at the front of the ship
sometimes it's at the back of the ship find out where it is and take the spot
or they love to show it off to you they want you to get a massage when you're on
board they are hoping that maybe your wife is going to get a manicure or get
her hair done they're gonna try to upsell you on all their services but
take the tour check it out you'll be toured given a tour of the exercise area
where all the exercise machines are that should be free for you to use on the
cruise they may show you an area or tell you that you can use certain areas of
the spa for free or they may say to you you can have access to this spa area
where there's a private steam room area private sauna private men's and a
private women's rest area with ceramic loungers and nice showers and it might
be a say a hundred bucks for the week for that access I always take that deal
I love the the the idea of going into the spa I get get away from kids and a
lot of noise and it's quiet it's adult time
and I really enjoy it so check that out and see for yourself and decide for
yourself whether that works for you now keep in mind two cruise ships sometimes
will run a special in the spa for instance if the the cruise is in say
important for the day they might have a deal where there they've got a 30% off
price on massages today because of the 4,000 passengers 3,500 of them got off
the ship and are on tours and there's only 500 passengers left and the spa
room has these 20 attendants that get nothing to do and so they might offer a
deal on manicures or getting your hair done or having a massage a couples
massage massage for that for that day and you may want to decide you know I'm
not gonna go on that I'm not gonna walk in in it go to cabo today I'm gonna stay
on the ship instead it and I'm gonna have a massage and steam bath and relax
up to you so check that out it might be well worth your while other things to
check out you want to check out the entertainment venues find out where the
big big showroom is that's the one where they they can hold six eight hundred
thousand people at a time for the big Broadway shows
what the schedule is for the shows as well they may have four or five
different shows on the cruise and you may find that the musical numbers
doesn't don't work for you but the the comedy night does you know that type of
thing so check that out and that will help you schedule what your activities
are gonna be in the evenings also find out the local all the bars onboard there
might be a comedy club onboard a piano bar on board the the dancing the disco
you know where the dancing is being held the night entertainment karaoke bars are
on board sometimes check it all out find out where the the Irish bar is where the
pubs are and you know explore and this will give you a lot of ideas as to what
you know what to do while you're on on your onboard for the entire ship what
else am I gonna tell you just the mustard tour that's the other thing you
got to get ready for so when you're on board when the ship is just leaving port
they're gonna hold the muster tour and that's where you have to grab your your
life jackets from your room so you'll have gone to your room your bags will
arrive eventually by the way you'll go to your room you'll find your your life
jackets in your closet and you have to bring them to a certain spot on the ship
which the staff will tell you your card will show you as well where your muster
station is it might be one of the lounges it might be the main ballroom it
might be at the back of the ship to Friendship you'll find that out this the
staff will easily help you figure that out believe me that's their job and then
once everyone has accounted for for the muster drill you're free to go and
everybody basically heads back to the room drops off their life preservers and
usually that's the time you unpack your bags keep in mind if you're boarding the
ship around 1:00 in the afternoon and the ship is gonna depart at 4:00 or 4:30
or 5:00 o'clock the muster drill is is probably around 4 to 5 o'clock in the
afternoon it takes about half an hour you'll get all kinds of instructions on
where to go in case of an emergency what sounds to listen for for the alarm
system that type of thing but then when you get back to your room your bags will
likely now be there and if you packed your wine already and you packed your
Cola in there you'll find them pull them out one thing to remember is almost
every suite on onboard these ships as a mini-fridge like a little minibar
fridge and there are most cruise lines will have that fridge either full of
beverages and snacks and hope that you'll take them because they can charge
you Premium money for it you can request that your room steward clean out the
fridge take it right out and leave it empty and you can use the fridge for
your own drinks so if you brought onboard some coke or some Pepsi or some
redbull drinks or whatever you brought onboard you can put them in your fridge
and use that as your own fridge another thing to remember too is you can tell
your room steward that every morning you'd like a bucket of ice brought to
your room say by 9 or 10 in the morning and if you've brought a couple of sport
drink amongst with you which I highly recommend you do you'll fill them with
ice you'll put in a one at one or two cans of your favorite drink and carry
that on board with you and you won't have to buy a pop on board a 225 a pop
or something like that keep in mind that if you do buy a drink
on board the tip gratuity is already built into the price you only need your
room key to charge for it so there are a number of occasions where you'll find
that you don't want to bring a pop from your own room you know you know big
Sport mug because you're going up to the restaurant and you're gonna walk on the
around the ship or whatever so buy a cola at the restaurant so what you know
if you end up buying five or seven of them for the entire cruise or ten big
deal no big deal even at 225 apiece you do it but the tips for the drinks and
and that type thing are already included in your in the price so you don't have
to worry about fumbling for change or what to tip that bartender it's all it's
all covered I think that's kind of the the master and I'm just gonna look at my
list one more time here and see if I've got everything figured out for you on
what to do when you get in to your ship oh yeah last thing to remember is every
day every day on your cruise you'll get a newsletter delivered to your room and
the newsletter will tell you the port of call that you're coming to or whether
it's a CD today we're in the cruise itinerary you are at the moment that
local time of day the expected weather and if you're going to a protocol all
the things you can do a quick map perhaps of the region around the pour
some rules and regs able to what to know about the port or how to find a cab that
type of thing and all the activities that are onboard the ship the on onboard
activities are gonna be listed on this a newsletter and it might be stuff like
tonight at 9 o'clock on the big movie theater outside where the swimming pool
is we're playing this movie and it starts at 9:00 and goes till you know
10:30 then we have another movie at 11 o'clock until whatever what time bingo
is what the prizes are art shows there might be guest lectures entertainment
special effects of special events going on on the on board the ship that type of
thing so the newsletter is a great thing to read and they're a great souvenir
take them with you and it reminds you of your trip for years to come
you can look over that from time to time anyway there you are 10 the top 10 tips
for new cruisers and there are many more but here's a bunch for you to think
about to kind of get things started and the rest you'll figure out as you go
don't worry if you forget any of these things you forget to bring you know your
tylenol from home or you didn't bring your toothpaste or whatever you can buy
that on board or you can buy that port O'Call no big deal you'll you'll be fine
anyway that's my cruise a video for the day thanks for watching
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