6 Cruises To Now Steer Clear Of (Even If Looks Good In The Brochures !)

don't waste your money on any of these six cruises i'm going to warn you about some of the cruises to avoid you may actually be pretty surprised with by the way if you're new to the channel i'm gary bembridge and my tips for travellers like this one they're here to help travelers make it easy to plan incredible memorable cruise experiences every single time as cruisers get the go ahead to start sailing again stay clear of the first few cruises on ships as they return to service wait until they've done a few and have bedded in and ironed out the inevitable kinks and missteps now you may be tempted to grab the bragging rights of being first out on a ship as it starts sailing but think about the experience as by waiting it will absolutely be better so after a year or more of no selling the ships they've been laid up things are not going to work smoothly the crew they've been stuck back at home and they're out of practice running the ship taking care of guests serving drinks making meals and most critically there are complicated new rules and protocols that have to be learned and implemented and they will almost inevitably be hiccups and things will not run smoothly let them all bed in through a few cruises before booking the other cruises to steer clear of are maiden voyages despite the pandemic lions and investors are absolutely confident that cruising will grow and there are large numbers of ships coming into service year after year and there's a whole legion of cruise fans that live to cruise on brand new ships first they want to be the first to stay in that cabin and to experience all the new onboard activities it's kind of seen as a bragging rights for life so for example i was at the naming ceremony for seabourn encore in singapore and there was a whole section there of people that have been on every single new seabourn ship made in voyage however i recommend that you skip maiden voyages first of all you will not actually be the first to stay in that cabin or try out those facilities lions run a series of voyages they're called shakedown cruises after they've taken delivery of the ship from the shipyard and before that maiden voyage sales with paying guests now they normally run them with employees first and then with media travel industry and agents and i've been on many many of those shakedown voyages over the years because one great advantage of being based in europe where all the ships are built they're pretty much always run here and so i've been on a lot of them now secondly and more importantly things generally do not run totally smoothly on a maiden voyage it's a brand new ship and it's the first time with a full complement of passengers the shakedown cruisers they normally maximum about half capacity so it's the first time everything gets really tried out so every single maiden voyage i've been on there have been workmen from the shipyard still on board finishing things off making repairs sometimes all the facilities haven't been able to open often the shows are still being finalized and rehearsed to be previewed on that maiden voyage the systems are really stress tested now the ship is full they often need tweaking things don't go that well that's smooth even simple things like getting people on and off the excursions gonna take some time to bed in so to ensure a great experience i would strongly suggest stay clear of maiden voyages and let the ship bed in a bit more also avoid the first cruise when ships are coming out of their dry docks ships are required by law to go into dry dock every few years this is kind of safety checks and maintenance but the lions often use these to make big upgrades to ships so these could range from simple decor changes ripping up the carpets replacing beds but they could go as far as adding whole new decks cabins and even sometimes cutting a ship in half and extending it now lions of course don't want to take the ship out of service for too long because they'll lose revenue so they'll tend to put ships in dry dock for a very tight amount of time so the amount of time to work on the ship and make all these changes is normally pretty tight and pretty limited so again in my experience ships will leave a dry dock with things not bedded in and things not really working again it's really likely you'll have workmen on board there'll be noise things are being fitted things have been changed you'll find some venues closed the smell of fresh paint and all that kind of stuff going on so again let a sailing or two go by before you book also watch out and stay clear of the last cruise before a ship goes into dry dock because time's tight preparation often starts on that last cruise things are being ripped out removed closed venues closed and so on how do you know if a ship is going to dry dock best thing to do is look at the crew schedule and see if there's a gap in dates after or before your cruise it could of course mean the ship has been charted it's not on sale to the general public but it's more likely going to be a dry dock if you're thinking of cruising in the mediterranean i would steer clear of cruises in the peak of summers that's july and august not only because it can get really really hot and sticky but if those cruisers are going to places like rome venice barcelona florence these places will be absolutely packed with both land-based travelers and hordes of cruise passengers too it won't make for great sightseeing everywhere will be crowded and slow so instead look at shoulder months to the peak season so in the mediterranean i really like june sort of mid-september to end of october which also will be much cheaper too but one area probably doesn't apply is alaska where the peak months of that season are actually better so cruises in may and september are priced much lower than sailings in june july or august but those peak months are more likely to have much better weather for sightseeing but generally around the world steer clear of the peak months and go for the shoulder months for a better experience the next one is something that i used to recommend but now suggest people steer well clear of and that's the short two or three night taster cruises that most lines run now many first time cruisers like the idea of trying these short cruisers to see if they like cruising they like that line they like that ship before committing to a full week or longer but there are two reasons i steer well clear of these now and suggest you do first of all ships are getting bigger much more complex they have so much to try so much to do that you really will not have time to properly experience it and draw any conclusions especially if those cruisers are calling on ports you'll be on the ship almost no time at all and the lines often run a more limited range of activities anyway but secondly they don't really show you what the line what the ship is really going to be like because increasingly they attract a crowd that's not typical for the line they're often run on long weekends spring break other holidays and so they've become short and pretty good value party trips which is great if you're looking for that but it's not going to be that representative of what the cruise is normally another cruise to stay clear of is when there are themed cruises that you are not part of third parties often run themed cruises on cruise ships as becoming really popular they could be kind of some kind of conference or it could be themed around say motorcycle enthusiasts star trek game of thrones boy bands or right down to even small niches like knitting crafting and that kind of stuff however if they've charted a lot of births then parts of the ship could be completely closed to other cruise passengers not on that cruise some facilities like bars nightclubs or the theater may be closed at certain times to you too there may be special events going on that you're not allowed to attend now i've had lots of people contact me saying they found themselves with hordes of bikers sci-fi fans doctors whatever based on what the theme cruise was and it's made often or sometimes a less enjoyable cruise experience for them now it's harder to check if your cruise is going to be part chartered for one of those because the lines don't make that clear on the site or in their brochures so the simplest way i've found is put the name of your ship and the dates into a search engine like google or something like that because if there's a themed cruise on your particular cruise it will usually bring up the web page for that particular theme cruise so you can find out that way so if those are six cruises to steer clear of what are the ones you should be looking at i put together a short playlist of videos of cruises i recommend you focus on so why not click on that link to watch those right now

Channel: Tips For Travellers

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Keywords: best cruises, worst cruises, worst cruises ever, best cruises in the world, best cruises for singles, cruise tips for first timers, cruise tips and tricks, best cruises for young singles, best cruises for partying, best cruises for seniors, best cruises for families, best cruises for couples, best cruises for young couples, cruise tips, Gary Bembridge tips for travellers, best cruises to go on, Gary Bembridge, cruise Tips For Travellers

Id: W_LIwePqx2A

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 04 2021