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.
