Over the years, I've observed that there are seven things that really smart cruisers do,
to maximise their chance of having a phenomenal cruise vacation. So, I'm going to put those to
the test and show you what those seven things are, and how I use those things that smart cruises do,
every single time they go on a cruise to make this cruise that I'm on right now, unforgettable
and memorable. So, join me as I take you through those seven things and how to make them work
for you too. If you're new here, welcome aboard. My name is Gary Bembridge, and my goal is to make
it much more fun and even easier to discover, plan and enjoy unforgettable cruise vacations.
The first thing that smart cruisers do once they've decided what itinerary they want, and
what ship they want, is think about the cabin and choosing the cabin. Why is that really important?
A lot of people say cabins are not important, it's just somewhere
to get changed and sleep. However, let me tell you, if you get a cabin that doesn't suit you,
it will ruin your cruise. I have thousands of people contacting me around this issue. So,
what do smart cruisers do, and what did I do for this particular cruise? Well, first of all,
I never ever take a guaranteed fare. Guaranteed fare is where you choose which cabin grade
you want, so balcony, ocean view, suite, whatever it is, and you let the cruise line
choose the cabin for you. I will always take the choose-your-own-cabin option. Now, it's not always
necessarily more expensive. So, that's the first thing I do, get control of choosing a cabin.
Secondly, I would always choose a cabin where I'm surrounded on all sides by other cabins,
so above me, below me, either side of me, and ideally opposite me, I will make sure there's a
cabin. That then provides a buffer from any noisy venues that may disrupt you. It can
potentially protect you from high traffic areas or whatever. That is really, really important.
The third thing I then do is make sure that I'm having a cabin with no interconnecting
door to the next room. Unless of course I need one because I'm travelling with someone. That again,
is really important because noise and disruptions can seep through and become
pretty disruptive. Particularly if the people next to you have a different schedule to you.
The fourth thing I do is I choose a cabin in the centre of the ship, so middle of the ship,
and that's really important because first of all, it means that you are equidistance from
all of the key venues and activities. So, the restaurants might be at the back of the ship,
or you might find the front of the ships the theatre, so you're middle wise. Also, it's really
important because it's where you're going to have the least amount of movement. So, that's also
good, particularly if you're worried about being seasick. The next thing I do is I always choose a
cabin that's in-between the promenade deck, where a lot of the shops or the theatre, that kind of
stuff is, and the leader deck, which is where you normally have things like the buffet restaurant,
the pools. So, I try and get one that's in the middle of the ship that way as well. But that
means that you're then equidistant between where you like to spend most of the time on the cruise.
Now, I would always choose a balcony. So, on this cruise, I've also chosen a balcony cabin,
that sort of thing, I just like that. That's a personal preference, but I think smart cruisers,
if they can push the budget, choose a balcony. It's great sitting out there in the mornings,
in the sunset, watching, coming out of port, relaxing and whatever.
So, once I've got my cabin locked down and I've done that smart move,
the next thing I do is think about the money.
So, the second thing that smart cruisers do is around budgeting, whether it's
pounds, whether it's dollars, whether it's euros. And it's really important
to understand this whole area, because looking at the lowest fare is not the right thing to do,
as any smart cruiser knows. The lowest fare maybe hiding a multitude of sins.
It's estimated that cruise passengers, once you're on board, you'll spend between 50% and 100%,
or even more, of what you spent on the fare once you get on board. So,
really important to understand what is and isn't included as you look at the overall cost.
So, for example, on this cruise that I'm on right now, on P&O, there's very few inclusions. So,
the actual overall fare was pretty attractive. However, it did include gratuities. However,
it didn't include drinks. It didn't include excursions. It didn't include Wi-Fi.
It didn't include specialty dining, and didn't include obviously things like the casino
and bingo, stuff like that. However, my previous cruise, which I was on which was both Viking and
Saga, they included everything. And in fact, Saga even included the transfer from home to the ship.
So, although this cruise looked significantly cheaper than my other cruises,
once I bundled everything in and did a comparison, the differences were not as great
as you expect. So, really, really important, look what's included.
Now, my special tip, if you are looking for a smart thing to do, is to look for
promotions or wait to book when there's promotions then bundle things in. So,
as I look at my cruises for next year, I think almost every single cruise that I've booked has
a series of inclusions as part of the overall fares promotion. So, often it's including Wi-Fi,
gratuities, drinks and then some of them even include excursions as well. There's a myriad of
those now. So, Holland America [inaudible 00:04:59]. Celebrity has a bundled fare.
Oceania Cruises has its OLife, where you pick and choose some of those. So, really, really important
is make sure you know what's included and not included, and be budget wise and budget smart.
Now, that's all well and good, but if you find, for example, the drinks
are not included and you have to look at buying drinks and you think about a drinks package,
there is a lot of smart watch outs that you need to know about when it comes to drinks. Now,
I don't drink alcohol, so things like this free bottle of fizzy that I got given when I came to
the cabin doesn't help me a lot. Neither do drinks packages. However, I know that I'm the exception.
So, one of the critical things when it comes to drinks packages is, bear in mind that cruise
lines all offer them, and they push them like crazy. So, that for me, is always a warning sign.
If the cruise line is pushing something, it probably means they make lots of money from it.
However, take a look very carefully at drinks packages. Now, I always used to wrestle a bit
on what's the best way of assessing a drinks package. Now, I've actually found two phenomenal
calculators, which you can use to work out if a drinks package makes sense. The first of these
calculators is on the site cruzely.com, and on there you can go in and input how many drinks
you'll have by type per day. It'll tell you how much you're likely to spend on that particular
cruise line, and then you can compare it with what it will cost you for a drinks package. There's a
similar calculator on the cruisemummy.co.uk site, and the advantage of that one is, particularly if
you're in the UK looking at some of the UK lines, she covers that there. The advantages
on those calculators, you can then see how much you'll spend based on what you normally drink,
compared to the price of a drinks package. Also, when you look at a drinks package,
bear in mind there are a lot of restrictions, and make sure you understand what they are. So,
every smart cruiser will do this. So, first of all, for example, many of them will limit the
number of drinks you can have per day. And that could be 12 or 15, so it's still quite a lot.
But that also includes things like coffees and specialty teas for example. Secondly, you might
find that every single adult in your cabin has to buy the drinks package if one person buys it. Now,
that's not true of all lines, but it's true of many. And thirdly, a lot of them will restrict the
type of drinks you can have on the drinks package. So, though you might be able to have 12 or 15, it
may say limit all drinks up to say $12 per drink itself. So, some of those more exotic cocktails or
cognacs or whatever are not included. So, take a look very carefully at those exclusions,
and be smart about those, because you might find it doesn't make sense.
So, the calculator plus the restrictions is a smart thing to do when it comes to drinks.
If you don't drink alcohol like me, still look at the packages and particularly the soda
and the specialty coffee ones, because some of them don't have a requirement per day. So,
for example, on Princess, you basically have a certain number of specialty coffees
during the course of the cruise, so it could actually be quite beneficial. So, once you've
figured out if a drinks packages is for you, there's one more smart thing that you should do
both with the drinks packages and other things that you might be planning to do onboard. Figuring
out if you need a drinks package before you go is really important. Once you've decided that,
and the other things that you might want to do onboard, whether it's buy Wi-Fi, whether it's
specialty dining, whether it's excursions, go onto the cruise line website, most of
them will have a cruise personalizer, and look at the offers and the packages, because you'll
normally find that most cruise lines will give you a discount if you book those in advance.
Now, the downside with many is you might have to actually pay for those in advance,
and on some cruise lines you can't use any onboard credit against those. And again,
it differs by cruise line, whether you can or can't. But you'll normally find there are deals
to be had. And what's important to remember is it's extremely unlikely that those deals will be
better once you get onboard, because they don't want lots of unhappy people who've been organised
and then they come onboard and see it's cheaper. So, definitely prebook all of those things that
you think you're going to want to have. Of course, once you get on board do check the deals that are
available, any embarkation deals, but you'll generally find by booking those things early,
focus on excursions, focus on Wi-Fi, focus on drinks packages, and focus on specialty dining.
So, once you've got those things all sorted and it's getting much closer to the cruise,
there is a couple of other really special things you should do if you want to be cruise smart.
And the first of those is around when you arrive for your cruise, which is extremely important. I
always, always, make sure that I arrive wherever I'm going to the day before the cruise. Now,
if I'm actually just travelling locally, so I'm just driving an hour and a half away,
I don't do that. I don't head down to the port in advance. But I always get there the day before.
So, even if you're coming from quite far away and it involves a lot of travel, get there the
day before. There's nothing more stressful than starting to run late for a cruise. And of course,
there's nothing more awful than missing the actual embarkation and departure of your ship.
So, absolutely build into your cost, build into your budgeting, getting there a day early.
That extra cost of a hotel overnight is well worth the stress removal and the risk of missing
your cruise. Smart cruisers consistently will always say, get that the day before.
It's just too unpredictable not to. Talking about the area of reducing risk and reducing stress,
I guess one of the things that really came into focus as we headed into the whole COVID shutdown,
and all the drama that ensued from that, is we learned the importance
of actually minimising risk. And one of the things that smart cruisers do is
focus on reducing and minimising risks. Now, there's a couple of things to do,
some of which some people would definitely disagree with, but I'll give you the three
that I absolutely focus on. And at least suggest that you consider these to reduce the risk.
Smart cruisers will first of all decide around the vaccine and vaccinated cruises. Now,
I know there are different opinions around the role of vaccines and not vaccines,
but currently where we're heading is we're seeing a wide variety of issues around where you can go,
what you can do on ships, and how that's playing out. So, whilst you can go in some countries,
in some places, without a vaccination, there are much more limits on what you can do.
So, for example, you might have to pay extra for tests. You might find in certain ports,
you can't go and explore yourself, and you might find parts of the ship are closed off to you. So,
certainly consider whether it's worth having a vaccine or focusing on vaccine cruises,
just because that's going to be the thing that gives you more to do, less restrictions, and
you're going to find it much easier, particularly if you're looking at travelling internationally.
Now, I know not everyone agrees with that, but that's certainly something at least to think
about. The second thing that's absolutely critical, whether you agree with vaccinations
or not with vaccinations, is travel insurance. And this is required by many cruise lines. So,
even some vaccinated cruises that are heading out of parts of Europe, they require now
proof of travel insurance when you check in. In some places like in the US, some cruise lines are
requiring it for unvaccinated passengers. However, travel insurance is really, really important,
particularly in these ongoing times where things chop and change.
Buy travel insurance when you book your cruise. So, smart cruisers will book it
and buy it at the same time as they book their cruise. And what's important is build into that,
cancel for any reason. So, if you have to cancel your cruise for whatever reason, it's covered,
because you can't always get refundable deposit. But really important to make sure that you have
medical cover, particularly related, and that will include COVID evacuation and repatriation.
So, even if you end up going on a cruise, break a leg, or have some other problem when you're
abroad, which I have seen happen to people on cruises, they haven't had travel insurance and
it's cost them thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds. So, travel insurance
is the second one. The third one, which is slightly less dramatic is, bear in mind that
cruise ships do not have a dentist and they don't have access to dental facilities. So,
I always take with me the dental repair kit as part of my little first aid kit, and I always
have a little first aid kit. So, smart cruisers will always have their own little first aid kit
of the remedies that you like to have, and have that dental repair kit, which you can
buy from a drugstore. It's helped me, it's helped loads of passengers I've come across,
and it's a really big issue. Definitely something that smart cruisers will do.
One of the really key thing that smart cruisers do, which might be a surprise to you,
is this one. And it's something that I didn't use to do, but I started doing a couple of years ago,
and now I absolutely swear by, and I do have it as one of my critical things that smart cruisers do.
And it's this one. Nowadays, and from here onwards, smart cruisers will always use a cruise
travel agent. Now, I used to be perhaps like many of you, I used to think I'm savvy, I'm smart,
I'm a sophisticated experienced traveller, and I will do my own pick and mix. I'll
book my own flights, my own hotel, my cruise direct, and bundle, and put things together.
I saw, once we headed into the COVID situation, and in actual fact,
a couple of cruises before that, when things went wrong, the value of having a travel agent.
You have one single person that deals with everything. It's one email, it's one call
and they can handle everything. It's really important to understand that
cruise travel agents will, at worst, be the same price as booking direct, so it's not like,
say if you book a hotel or stuff like that, where often booking direct you can get it
cheaper. Travel agents will at worst, be the same price and often will be better. They'll put other,
and bundle other things in. But certainly, all of my cruises I do through a cruise travel agent,
of course, I still research it. I look at the cabins. I look at the ships, I look at the
itineraries, I look at the prices, but I put it all through a travel agent.
Now, depending on the country you're in, travel agents can also put together packages where
if one of the elements of it goes bankrupt or something happens, they can get you out of the
rest of it without big penalties, without lots of cost. So, a cruise travel agent, I stress
a cruise travel agent specialist is really important. Especially if you're new to cruising,
they will know the ships, they will know the lines. They will also help you navigate through
many of these tips that I've actually given you right here. Now, if you want to know more smart
tips about cruising and things to do, take a look at this video, where I put together some of my
favourite and most important mistakes and tips that people make, and how to overcome them. So,
why don't you take a look there and you'll discover straight up the biggest mistake
that people make and how to overcome it. So, click on that and I'll see you over there now.