These Cruise Insiders Want Us To Know About These!

when I discovered that over three quarters of all Cruisers are booked by them I wondered if they had loads of Insider tips so I begged those I knew and others I met at a recent cruise travel conference to reveal all I was blown away and thrown by some of them despite all of my cruises as you're about to find out welcome aboard I'm Gary bembridge I make it fun and easy to discover plan and enjoy Unforgettable Cruise vacations here's what I found Cruise specialist travel agents say that we all absolutely need to know of course the first thing that we all want to know is how do we get the best or the lowest fare I already knew that I never will pay more booking through my travel agent than going direct but what they all told me consistently is there are three key booking periods where you and I can get the best fare first of all it's by booking early ideally when new itineraries are released this is when the lines they say offer the lowest fares booking incentives or discounts and I found that out recently when I booked my Q not Queen and just as it came on sale because I got some special rates and I got extra onboard Credit Now the second key period they say is November Black Friday Cyber Monday and wave season with January being the key month now these are really big booking periods and the lines they have to offer deals to stand out and attract our business amongst all that noise now this past year I saw loads of deals with 60 to 70 percent of second guess perks like Wi-Fi gratuities drinks extra onboard credit and so on now the third key period that can be an opportunity is 90 to 60 days before a cruise after those final payments are made and the lines look at how many cabins they need to fill and they sometimes run extra deals and promotions however they say that lower prices are not guaranteed here because especially now that ships are rapidly selling back to full capacity so prices again generally are rising the closer to a cruise that it gets rather than falling two other ways that some spoke about we're also looking for package deals where some agent groups they sell specific Cruise dates packaged with flights and transfers and things like that now these packages they can be really good value and secondly look at things like group Cruisers like the ones that I'm working on running because lines will offer better rates based on the group organizer ensuring that they fill a certain quota of cabins the next watch out was a new one to me as the cruise lines in the UK seem to only offer me anyway all UK Sailors non-refundable Cruise deposits so any change usually means that we lose that deposit now in the US agents said that Cruisers can usually choose either a non-refundable or a refundable deposit with a slight premium for non-refundable however one what they see is frequently Cruisers lose money because they think they're going to say about going non-refundable but many end up having to change or cancel to a different date particularly when they're planning really far ahead so paying a slightly higher cost and going refundable they all said is definitely the safer way now most also said we should all calculate really carefully if a bundled and all-inclusive packages like princess plus Holland America have it all celebrity always included Norwegian free at Sea are any of those actually really worth buying these can add around fifty dollars 40 pounds per day per person for a bundle of three or more onboard amenities like Wi-Fi gratuities drinks especially dining or Excursion credits and these are supposedly going to give you a 50 discount versus buying them individually their challenge which I agree with and I've covered this in a recent Cruise rip-offs video where I show show I was often spending more buying these bundles than just paying for the things that I actually end up using now they also point out that most people don't realize that the Wi-Fi the drinks and so on including these all-inclusive bundles are usually the lines most basic package and therefore don't actually meet many Cruisers needs and I've certainly found that for example with the Wi-Fi the next common mistake they raised had me immediately go and check the status of mine it's passport issues while some USA closed loop Cruisers which means they start and end the United States to places like Alaska Caribbean Hawaii and even New England and Canada they actually allow U.S residents to travel with any government issued ID what the agent said is many Cruisers make the mistake of not making that ID a passport all too often they say they've had to try and help get someone home due to an issue at home a medical problem or even something curtailing the crews and to range to fly them home requires a passport to enter the United States many of them pointed to when the Norwegian Escape ran aground in Puerto palata Dominican Republic and guests were disembarked and had to fly home to the United States around 300 guests without passports we're not initially allowed to fly home until I could get a passport it took loads of lobbying before finally an exception was granted now this of course would be unlikely for one couple or a small group trying to get home they stressed which is what actually got me really worried is to also ensure that passports have at least six months before it expires after the cruise and several blank pages because both are required by most line and many countries I've got cruises booked at the end of 2024 and although my current passport only expires in 2026 I have very few blank pages left so I need to kind of plan now on getting a new one another thing they said they see some slip up on is not booking using the exact name as shown in their passport or whatever ID they're using so if you usually go by a nickname or a shorter version of your name don't book using that because they have seen people being refused embarkation because their name of the booking doesn't match their ID another mistake they highlighted was Cruisers seeing arriving the day before a cruise as a cost not a benefit they spoke about how so many Cruisers say they want to avoid hotel costs by flying in the same day of the cruise however they've then got frantic cries for help due to delays or cancellations that happen on cruise embarkation day with flights or whatever now I really agree with this I have been saved so much driver so much stress by building in at least one overnight like for example on a recent Azamara Quest Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona it was bad weather passing through the UK it led to many cancellations long delays and if I had gone on the day I would have basically missed embarkation but I built in that buffer day getting in the day before also raised another of The Insider tips one that I have to admit that I've actually slipped up on while Cruise itinerary May look great they Warn and remind me and you that most of us forget we may not get to see two of the best and most exciting places on it for example that Azamara Quest cruise I was talking about was billed as Barcelona Provence Santa pay Monte Carlo Calvi Florence Pisa and Rome however Barcelona was the embarkation and Rome the disembarkation port so without arriving early in Barcelona and adding a post day in Rome I would not have seen any of the sites in either of them at all now this itinerary also reveals another warning that they gave me and reminded me Cruise Line itineraries always lead with a must-see or the famous ports but the ship madok a very long way away for example on that Azamara trip Provence was some way from the actual Port of Marseille where we docked Pisa and Florence were hours from our Port of Livorno and Rome was up to two hours in bad traffic from the closest port of Chevy chevekia the way to spot this they advise was the itinerary will usually have something like Venice and then in Brackets after the actual Port so for these days for most ships that for uh Venice it's a vena or Trieste it's much more common for this to happen in Europe and in Asia but it does apply even in Alaska whereas I discovered on my recent Cruise while my itinerary was talking about Anchorage the actual ports of Whittier or even seaward are about 60 miles away another key mistake that they see us making is not booking everything we hope to do on the cruise in advance and waiting until we're on board things like excursions dining spa or other kind of events things that go on like flow riders or whatever now their clients that do that often come back having missed out on the best excursions or perhaps a favored day and time for especially dining particularly if it's a special event now I have that first hand and I would add that as more and more of us caught on getting in really early is even more important than before so for example I missed out on my first choice and all the adult-on excursions on my Disney Norwegian fjords Cruise last year even though I went in four weeks before the cruise and for a silver sea southern Africa Crews I've got booked in 13 months time I logged in right away that I did the booking and found that two of the excursions I really wanted to do in Namibia are already wait list only I cannot stress enough the importance of the agent's next warning as I get messages from passengers being refused boarding because they did not have proof that they met the latest Cruise boarding or Port country into requirements now while the pace and the frequency of pre-boarding requirement changes has definitely slowed down post shutdown they can and will still change for example a few weeks before making this the United States suddenly required any non-residents that had been to Cuba to have to apply for a full entry visa and could no longer enter just using that online Esther the EU will be introducing an esther-like thing very soon that all non-eu members which are includes the UK the US Canada whatever will all have to have if we can get in I am a really big advocate for this next one based on the many many messages I get from fellow Cruisers telling me how it has saved them from eye-watering costs and was so pleased that the agents felt that this was a huge big issue too the most common quote that they gave me was one that an agent called travel shy said to me I can't even tell you how many times I've seen something come up that resulted in clients either kicking themselves because they didn't have it or that they were incredibly thankful that they did have it and that is insurance now I was interested if agents felt the cruise line or third-party Independent Insurance was actually the best way to go I personally take out third party not Cruise Line policies because I found a higher cover choice of what limits that I have it covers my travels either side of the cruise and also importantly covers my pre-existing conditions this is the way that most travel agents suggested and they said that at least we should all be comparing the cruise line policy with a third party the other interesting mistake they see those of us that book with a travel agent making is seeing them as just kind of a mechanism for booking and not asking for enough advice most agents say they've been on many cruises and they have of course an enormous amount of traveler feedback on lines on ships on cabins and restaurants and ports and excursions on transfers on Port hotels and on and on and on because they're dealing with them every single day and all of them said to get even more value out of using a travel agent over booking direct is to ask them for advice if you find this interesting watch this video where I share that the tips that cruise ship crew gave me on how we can get more of cruising starting with the one thing that really surprised me that exists and happens on cruise ships that I was not aware of see you over there

Channel: Tips For Travellers

Views: 166,558

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

Id: cjhU8yu3v7c

Length: 12min 49sec (769 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 14 2023