5 Things You Won't Be Able To Do On Cruises This Year!

there were five things I took for granted last year as a cruiser that have unexpectedly disappeared this year the first massive one I experienced firsthand on a recent cruise I was on the first leg of silver sea silver Spirits 62 night Grand Voyage from Cape Town to Athens by the SE shells Dubai in the Seuss Canal a few days in those booked on the grand Voyage were told it would abruptly end halfway through in the SE shells all passengers would be thrown off the ship as was going to turn around and sell empty to Athens around Africa instead of VI the SE Canal this is because it could be back in the Mediterranean to start the Mediterranean crew season in time within days it was also announced that silver sea were also canceling the silver whisper selling from Dubai through the sus Canal to Athens Seaborn canceled a similar trip Queen Mary 2 even turned their world Voyage around to head back around Africa instead of going through the SE Canal to Virgin voyages in Australia announced that resilient lady was going to sell back from the Mediterranean from Australia VI Africa and not through Asia and the sewers canal last year liines were sailing many Arabian cruises through the Red Sea with that bucketless Transit of the sews Canal something I'd love to do but now this year it's not being offered all those Cruisers have disappeared because of the attacks by the Hoy Rebels on ships passing through the area this means we Cruisers also have fewer Asian Cruise options too this year because many of the ships setting through were repositioning Asia like even the silver whisper the Queen Mary 2 Seaborn many of those ships that canceled of course while for much of last year we could not even go on Cruisers calling into Israel since October no Cruisers call there and they're unlikely to go this year at all either as Cruisers are options are smaller than last year we can also no longer for example be sure about the ports and destinations away from the Middle East either it seems Ecuador fell off the cruise options for a while this year due to civil unrest and even in the Caribbean there are issues the US government for example issued travel advisory against traveling to Jamaica and the Bahamas due to Crime levels strongly suggesting that we all avoid them at this stage Cruisers are still calling there to be honest making me slightly nervous because the next cruise I've booked after this one has both of those on the itinery while cruise lines are still calling on the islands I though have seen some changes to Long established excursions there because of crime issues for example there was a terrible incident in the Bahamas when two women's drinks were reportedly spiked at the parrot Cove Resort in the Bahamas and they were allegedly raped by employees that Excursion has been dropped as the investigation and the case of course predes there are also some ports that are stopping lines calling on them this year although Limited at the moment they are growing public and local uh political campaigns to stop ships entirely for example Yorktown Virginia where local opposition has forced princess and All America to switch cruises this year to Norfolk Barcelona Oslo Sanga Key West all have local groups working to reduce or stop cruise ships calling though so far none look to affect this year but who knows it certainly seems we cannot be totally sure that the destinations the ports and even the excursions that were possible to do last year will be this year but that's not the only thing that we could do cruising last year that we cannot do this year and again I sought firsthand on the cruises I've done or have got booked this year unlike last year we're unlikely to sell on ships that are anything other than selling full or certainly over capacity often every single cruise line is talking about record breaking bookings for this year and load factors higher than all previous years not only are the three big groups Ro Caribbean group Carnival Corporation Norwegian group saying it but smaller independent lines like Viking are now too I've personally seen this make three things no longer possible versus my cruises last year this year first of all there are dramatically fewer last minute deals they've pretty much evaporated on all routes including even more exotic cruises like that silver sea South African cruise I was on and of course fairs are much higher this year too second over the last few years I've often got upgrades by either bidding and always being successful being upgraded because a ship is not sailing full or even paying relatively low fees to do so even after I've boarded every single cruise I've been on this year has had a sign on the desk saying the ship is full and there is no opportunity for upgrades or even changing cabins if I've had an issue which last year when I had issues I found really easy to do thirdly and I found this really important I found this year absolutely I cannot leave Arrangements like dining bookings especially dining excursions and shows until close to the cruise or even once I'm on board if I do I know I will not have the experience and I will miss out versus last year for example example that Caribbean cruise I mentioned coming up is on oceanana Vista and the fair includes all special dining I went in about a week after online booking opened and even then the earliest I could get a table for myself was 900 p.m. at night in any of them no way I want to eat then so it's likely I'm going to have to miss out on them I'm finding it's the same with excursions unless I go in when they are made available I often find that the very best have gone for example on that Silver Spirit South African Cruise many of the excursions were game reserves rides over massive Junes in walers Bay and incredible boat tours to visit seals so all very popular things I went in really early and managed to secure them but people who waited or tried once they were on board found that the best excursions were full and certainly the best times for viewing animals were completely gone so unlike last year getting what I want when I wanted without lots of pre-planning seems impossible but while technology of course can help us get in early and make those bookings before the cruise technology on the ship makes something else very different this year a big change this year as the lines finish rolling it out is we can no longer tell the boss that we won't have a Wi-Fi connection and must be logged off and certainly that we can't do things like Zoom calls or anything involving big files and lots of data almost all the cruise lines this year now have starlink providing really good Wi-Fi at C this year I think we've lost the excuse we're forced to disconnect due to poor and cost Wi-Fi on the plus side for me though uh one big change versus last year is I can keep up to date with my channel I can upload and download large video files but for my partner mark it is definitely less good news because work knows now that he can log on and he feels that he needs to of course it's up to us individually how we handle this but this year we can be connected if we need or want to unlike even last year where I couldn't do many of things I can now do this year on my cruises next I want to talk about how one of the the favorite and most successful tools to save money appears to have evaporated this year compared to recent years up until this year probably the most valuable piece of advice I gave Cruisers was to track their fairs on one of three sites and if the fairs fa to go to the cruise lines and ask them to Fair match either with the lower price giving an upgrade equivalent to the new pricing or with onboard credit I have had so many people contacting me saying how much money they have saved I have to Within one case getting back over $1,000 from Azamara Cruisers by Fair tracking things seem to have changed this year when ships were not sailing as full cruise lines were being flexible and there was definitely more fair matching and although fairs are not coming down as much this year due to high demand when they do perhaps through promotions that I've seen like in wave season when Lions kind of traditionally make a big volume of their bookings Cruise lons are now mostly refusing to Fair match this year cruise lines are doing things like including it in their terms conditions that the price is locked when booking and they will not price match Fair matching this year has become extremely challenging but I still am doing it and I still recommend you do and at least try I have an article on my blog at tipsoft travelers.com where I tell you what the sites are and how to do this but there is another way some cruise lines are squeezing us financially this year too one area that I've seen is a change in the supposedly all-inclusive package add-ons which are including less or squeezing us more this year for example I have a Celebrity Cruise booked later this year around Canada and New England in fact this is going to be a group cruise that I'm hosting but unlike my last trip their all included Fair their add-on has dropped gratuities from the bundle so it's much much less inclusive but still kind of the same price it's really important to keep checking what is and isn't included in those add-on bundles this year because they look to being squeezed and having things dropped now they usually usually also only have basic Wi-Fi and a classic drinks package and I found that I need to keep an eye on what they cover so for example most classic drinks packages only cover drinks to a certain price on the drinks menu like say you might have a $15 maximum per drink included in that drinks package but with the cost of drinks being increased more drinks that used to be included in that price are starting to fall out of that package on many cruise lines for example in h America you can order a drink that cost more and only pay the difference so do research this year as you look at adding those all-inclusive packages because they seem to be being squeezed or kind of sliced off in terms of benefits I have other watch charts when buying things for or on your cruise including things I see Cruisers buy from the cruise line because it's easy but they rarely should not and they could save a fortune by doing something differently so join me over in this video to find out what they are and why

Channel: Tips For Travellers

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Keywords: cruise tips, tips for travellers, Gary Bembridge tips for travellers, Gary Bembridge, Cruise Tips For Travellers

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Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 09 2024