What are the nine things driving
regular cruises completely crazy?
I'm Gary Bembridge, this is another
of my cruising tips for travellers.
I've been talking recently to regular cruisers
and asked them what are the things
that drive them completely crazy
and here are the nine things that they told me
and most of those, I actually agree with,
starting with this one.
One of the things that really is driving people
who cruise quite often really crazy,
is the features and facilities and attractions
that are slowly taking over the ship
and basically reducing the amount of real estate available
for people to just do what they do on a cruise.
There were three key things that people spoke about.
First of those, is the introduction
of these big mega attractions.
So, whether that's go kart tracks,
whether that's roller coasters,
whether it's massive big water parks, laser tags,
rock climbing walls, flow riders,
all these big resort type attractions
that are taking up a lot of space on ships
and it means that, less and less space is available
for just regular lying around
the swimming pools and relaxing.
The second thing that people spoke about
is the ship within a ship concept.
So for example, on Norwegian on the bigger ships,
you have the Haven which is a very beautiful area
with its own swimming pool, lounge, restaurant bar
and where all the suites are.
You also have say, for example, on MSC Cruises,
you have the Yacht Club,
so where again you have a lounge
and all the facilities related to people in suites.
So these are taking up more and more space
on the ship, which makes less
of the space available for people
who perhaps are not in that area.
So the concern that it's becoming more and more cramped.
The third one, specialty dining.
So more and more specialty dining venues
are opening up onboard cruise ships,
and of course that takes away space
for other more general activities.
So that was one of the things
that are driving people crazy
in the sense that a lot of the real estate,
the space on a ship, is being taken up with
these special features and leaving much less space
for just normal cruising
and hanging out, sitting on decks
or whatever that is.
And of course as the ships get bigger and bigger,
there's more and more people
and so there's a concern that it's less and less space.
The second thing that is driving people crazy,
which is also sort of linked a little bit to that
is the huge amount of time
and energy and options there are for specialty dining.
Now the thing that's driving people crazy
is not the fact that there's choice available,
it's more the fact that first of all,
they can cost quite a lot of money,
you can be spending $30, $40, $50 or more per person
to eat in a specialty dining restaurant,
but secondly, there is a concern or a feeling
that actually what's happening
is the cruise lines are trying to encourage you
to head much more towards
these specialty dining venues,
so the overall quality of food,
the range of choices in the main dining room,
the buffet, they feel is starting to be lowered
or reduced to encourage people to actually go
and spend money in the specialty dining,
so they make more money,
the cruise lines make more money.
So that's something that is starting
to drive people a little bit crazy.
The third thing that I'm hearing
is driving people crazy
is the fact that all these attractions,
the racetracks I was talking about,
the laser tag, the waterparks,
all these things that are being built
are all outside, so actually,
if there's bad weather, poor weather, it's raining,
it means that none of these facilities can be used
because they're all in the open air,
so, if it's really windy, or whatever,
so people then have to retreat back into the ship
and there's not lots of stuff to do within the ship
because they're all outside in the open air,
which is great, if you're cruising in the Caribbean
or Mediterranean in the middle of summer
and it's great weather,
but actually, as we all know the weather
can be a bit unpredictable.
Even on cruising in great areas you could have
a lot of wind or rain or whatever.
So there's concern that these big attractions
that have been built are actually all being built outside.
Now, quite a few people have spoken
about the fact that a couple of cruise lines
are starting to change that.
So for example, MSC on some of their really big mega ships,
they are having more and more of the attractions
actually inside but I did notice
that on some of the ships, though,
like when, I was recently on Sky Princess,
I was on Norwegian Encore,
they are starting to build a more venues inside
which you could do if it's rain or bad weather
but still the big attractions are outside.
So for example, when I was on Norwegian Encore
the racetrack was closed quite often
because of rain and the laser tag didn't operate
because it was too windy.
So fair enough, a lot of these attractions,
whilst it's great in great weather,
they are increasingly, as the ships deploy
around the world at different times of the year
not available to use, when the weather's not great.
So it is the fourth area
that I'm hearing drives people crazy
and this is one that probably,
I fall into this camp as well
is the sense that cruise lines are adding on,
building in more and more things you have to pay for.
So they're setting the fares at a pretty low cost
to get people on board,
particularly as you get these big mega ships
you can need to fill them up with thousands of people
every single week but once you get on board
you're nickel and dimed,
I guess as people in the U.S. like to say,
or you just have the sense you're constantly
being squeezed for money.
So it could be courses, you can go on different courses
or cooking classes, or various demonstrations of things
or craft classes, there's just a whole load of things
that you're being asked to pay for.
So drinks, coffees, sodas
as already mentioned, things like specialty dining,
there's just a lot of extra on costs
that once you get on board
you're constantly handing over your card
and paying for more.
So that is driving people crazy
in the sense that they're constantly being squeezed
and things that perhaps, they feel more included
in the fares are no longer included
and you're having to pay extra.
I do think that's a massive issue,
and we're starting to see some indications
that some of the cruise lines are starting to address that
by having more all inclusive fares,
so often you can find if you book in the wave season,
the big sale time, at the beginning of the year,
I've often booked cruises,
whether it's on Celebrity Cruises,
Norwegian cruises, Oceania cruise lines like that
where they're starting to offer fares
which bundle much more stuff in.
And of course, we have more and more
all inclusive type cruise lines
like Virgin Voyages and Marella
which are starting to offer more inclusive fares.
So that may be starting to address one of the things
that are driving people crazy.
Without a shadow of a doubt,
One of the hottest topics,
the things that drive cruisers crazy
is the whole debate around gratuities.
Now, I have a whole video about gratuities
and it's one of the most interacted, discussed topics
on cruise forums, on my video, all over the place.
The real sense of gratuities is
because many of them are auto added
and in some cases quite hard to take them off,
is that actually it's part of your cruise fare,
so they should be more upfront,
build the gratuities into the cruise fare,
so once you get on board, you don't suddenly find
you got a couple of $100
added on per person for the gratuities.
It's definitely one of the big hot topics
and one of things that I agree would be great,
if the whole gratuities thing was not there
because there's that whole tension around,
if you ought to pay gratuities,
do you feel you still need to pay extra?
If you take it off is that the right thing to do
and pay people directly?
So it's a huge thing.
It definitely drives people completely crazy.
The whole topic of gratuities
and the fact that they're auto added
on most cruise lines.
The other thing that drives people crazy,
which I see huge amounts of debate about,
if you ever raise it, you get lots and lots of discussion
and that's around hot tubs.
Hot tubs are very popular on cruises.
I'm not a big hot tubs fan
but I know a lot of people are.
There's two things that seem
to drive regular cruisers crazy the most.
First of all, is the sense that the hot tubs
are not really the right temperature,
they should be hotter
and actually a little bit too tepid,
and they worry about just how hygienic they are
and how often they're cleaned.
But the second area, which gets the most debate
and does drive cruisers crazy
is there is a rule around use of hot tubs,
particularly around kids and hot tubs.
However, you'll find on many many cruise lines
which have kids, the kids are in the hot tubs,
using them almost as a bit of a playground
and the cruise line doesn't enforce it.
Parents let their kids go in
when there are rules about them not going in.
If you ever try and tackle that issue
you get lots of aggro and cause lots of upsets.
So hot tubs again, a bit like gratuities,
is one of the things, I see discussed an enormous amount
by cruisers, regular cruisers and it drives
them crazy about a sense of really trying to clamp down
and really be clear about the hot tub,
its use and enforcing the rules.
Now one of the things that I found
talking to regular cruisers
that did actually drive them crazy
was excursions, and I hadn't actually
really expected this but listening and talking
to people I understand why.
Couple of things around excursions,
probably three key things that drive people crazy.
First of all, the cost.
The feeling that excursions
are becoming more and more expensive,
perhaps linked to that point about
cruise lines trying to get more money for you.
The feeling that they're not great value.
So you could spend, $75, $100 or more
and actually, there's a lot of questions around
the value that you're getting from those excursions.
The other thing linked to excursions is the sense
that actually it's a lot of time wasted
with the whole process of excursions.
When you go to an excursion,
you have a whole process and it's very time consuming.
So you only have to take your ticket to check in,
you hang around, you wait, you eventually get off the ship,
you get on the bus or whatever
and you probably waited half an hour, an hour
already before you've got an excursion.
When you go on excursion again
it could be very inefficient because it's really
driven by the slowest person
or the person who keeps the timekeeping the worst.
So you have this real sense that actually
the excursion is going at the pace of the slowest person
and there's not a lot of time,
if there's something you really like
or want to dwell on, you can't spend a lot of time
doing that because it's basically go, go, go,
move you along.
So there's a real sense that they're not good value
and actually it's a lot of waste of time
which you could be actually out in port,
if you were by yourself or perhaps
a little bit more organised with an independent tour
or independent guide, you could
probably see much more in the port.
So it's not a really good use of time
going on cruise line excursions.
And the third area is increasing the concern about range.
Now I find the range discussion really depends
on the cruise line you're on.
If you go on those big mega cruise lines,
you'll find there's normally a vast range
because they have a vast range of different types people,
fitness levels, interests.
As you go smaller and smaller there is less choice
because simply they have certain
numbers to make a excursion pay.
So, there is a concern around the range of excursions
and actually the problem is
if you got to port more than once,
you'll find all the cruise lines
pretty much are doing the same excursion,
so there's not a huge amount of choices.
So excursions are definitely something
that is driving people a lot crazy.
That's cruise line excursions, specifically,
and increasingly people are talking about
self-exploring, doing their own thing to get better value,
spending more time and having much more flexibility.
Definitely one of the things
that drove cruisers crazy
was the whole issue of transfers.
Now as you know, you can book a transfer with a cruise line
that might take you from the airport
to perhaps a cruise-nominated hotel
and then to the ship the next day,
or when you disembark, they will offer
transfers to the airport or hotels.
And the sense that actually
these are really bad value.
And actually I've looked at them before
and sometimes I've just done them
because they're just easy to do
or you're quite good, if you have a flight
at an early-ish time, you want to get
to the ship really quickly,
because if you book one of their transfers,
they will make sure that you get off the ship
pretty sharp and early, so if you perhaps
in an inside cabin or a low grade cabin
and you might have to wait many hours
to get off the ship, booking a cruise line transfer
can be a really good thing to do
because you can get off the ship faster
and early and not hang around for hours.
However the sense that there are really, really expensive
and when I've compared whether it's getting an Uber
or some other kind of transport, even just the taxi,
you can often find it is much, much cheaper
than the cruise line transfer.
They do seem to be really expensive
for what they are.
And on some cruise lines
you don't have a transfer included
from the ship into the nearest port,
if it's not docked, close by.
And some cruise lines charge for those
and there's a sense that
actually they're pretty expensive to do.
So definitely cruise line transfers
do drive people a little bit crazy
and they feel that they're really bad value.
Although of course, as I said, I sometimes do use them
just because they're easy, they're simple
and it's handy for getting off the ship,
kind of sharpish and quickly.
Definitely one of the things
that does drive regular cruisers crazy
is the focus on shopping.
Now there's two aspects to that, one of which is the port.
So particularly if you're cruising inside the Caribbean
or even in Alaska there's lots of pressure,
they have shopping advisors on board
who give talks, incentives.
But bear in mind, when you get off the ship
in many of those places it's all the same.
So they have Diamond International and chains like that.
They're in every single port and definitely
there's a relationship between the cruise line
and those shops that are driving you into those things.
You walk off, it's all the same stuff
that you're buying, it's not unique to the port.
So there's that concern around
the pressure to be shopping and actually
you're just going into shopping malls
which are very generic.
The second thing around shopping is shopping on board
and there's couple of aspects to that.
One are the onboard shops
which a lot of people feel, in their experience,
they discovered are not great value.
Now, I think the cruise lines would dispute that.
But certainly, I found generally
the stuff I've looked at on cruise ships
they are pretty expensive versus what you can buy
on land or even back at home.
And of course the other shopping aspect
which does drive people crazy
and I personally don't really understand it
is the art auctions.
So many cruise lines will have art auctions on board.
They'll have art and they do seem surprisingly popular.
Some people care like buying art
but there's a lot of discussion around
actually just is it good value
or not good value, and just the focus
on that whole shopping.
Those little stations
that get put outside the shops cluttering up
the walkways with the deals,
the inch of gold, the clearance sales,
just that real focus on pressure on shopping.
Partly because of the big focus and actually
is it really good value.
Regular cruisers clearly love cruising
and these things that drive them crazy,
are not stopping people going cruising
but it's really interesting to know
what is driving regular cruisers crazy.
I have loads more tips, advice, videos
about cruising, all things cruising,
so why don't you watch another one of those right now.