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[Music] and it's a big welcome to another live here in a very sunny uh London sorry
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that's still dinging away in the background oh I've got background i always have
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this so put it on mute sorry about that i had something playing in the background there i've obviously got my
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um video set somewhere else anyway so welcome everybody to the live stream
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it's great to have everybody here lots of people uh regulars here which is fantastic um couple of Let me do my
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usual couple of housekeeping bits and pieces as I said it's in London hopefully most of you caught up with the
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time because the UK's finally changed so we're back to original times but let's just talk a little bit about upcoming um
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live streams so I think most of you if you were here last week or follow me you
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know that I'm heading off on what is probably the most uh spoken about
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requested cruise or line that I've done for a very long time and that's going finally on Explorer Journeys so I've
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been waiting a little while before they go i also chose this route actually because it was a pretty cost- effective route to go uh so it's an 11 night on
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Explorer 2 so the newer of their ships they got about six to come heading from Barcelona Motrin Spain uh Tangia
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Casablanca into the Canary Islands back to Jibralta and back to Barcelona so
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that means I'm going to be on the ship for two weekends now they do have Starlink they claim the Wi-Fi is pretty
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good um people that have been on seems pretty good so I will see whether I will be able to do live stream but if I can I
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will certainly try and do a live stream next week so just keep an eye out uh I bought the ship on Thursday so I'll have
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a couple of days to sus out how I think it's doing i think on the Saturday we're at the Sunday we're actually in Tangier
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if I remember correctly so just keep an eye out for that and if I can I will try and do a live stream what I'm also going to be doing is um what I always do when
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I'm on trips is I do updates uh for patrons and members so it's kind of just thinking as I go kind of stuff so if
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that's so it's kind of bonus content before I get my thoughts together if that's something that's of interest you
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think about joining that so that's at patreon.com/tipsfort travelers but of
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course I will do the full video um this week's video which um is causing lots of discussion which is great uh is about my
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time on Crystal Cruises which is another one that I was really asked about so uh it's about uh what I thought about it
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was an overpriced letown or was it a nice big surprise so uh if you haven't watched the video that is there live
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right let's get stuck in um as always I think most of you who regular here know
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write the word question if you possibly can and that make sure that uh I can spot the questions from the chat and of
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course if you're watching this afterwards just a reminder this is a replay of questions and join my live
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streams if you want to ask questions so I'll get um dive in there's actually a couple of questions about um Antarctica
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so follow on from last week's question but I'll just start first of all with one that's not so left a question just
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before we went live about Fred Olsen mom's friends are going on it and just
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wondered if there were any hints and tips I could pass on so Fred Olson is for those of you who don't know is it's
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actually a Norwegian owned line it's um it's actually quoted it's part of a quoted company a Norwegian company
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called Bonhur on the Oslo Stock Exchange but Fred Olson is a very UK focused line
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uh in fact one of their ships the Braar is now sailing around the world as viv residences uh as uh their you know they
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you can buy a cabin on there or I can't they call them cabins or apartments or
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studios whatever they call them anyway so they during the pandemic they bought two of Holland America's ships
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[Music] um kind of more kind of in relative to
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his modern ships i've been on Fred Olson's since the pandemic they're a very classic line and have extremely
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loyal user base pretty classic lots of dressing up still very much into the black tie uh very classic program um and
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they're pretty good value people seem to love them there's been a couple of bloggers and vloggers have been on them recently so Jamie for example he's
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actually got a bit of a group cruise I think in October if I remember correctly but you'll see lots of bloggers so
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certainly you know I haven't got recent videos on there but you'll find some recent videos from people if you just
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kind of Google Fred Olsson but pretty classic so a lot of people like to dress up uh that kind of stuff um is is is my
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main is my main tip so let's get stuck into um maybe I'll do the one on Crystal
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before I come back to the ones on uh on uh on an Articus so I can do those
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together so Tom watched the Crystal Cruiser video so thanks for watching that Tom and there's actually two
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Crystal Cruisers videos by the way you'll see there's the one that's out this came out yesterday which is an
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overview but then I've done a specific which I don't often do a review of the ship um which is like a bit kind of a
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bonus in many ways but I dive into the ship in much more detail uh so how do the your your eggs toast eggs test do so
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so I actually didn't show it well you sort of see it um but I didn't show it at all but um as most people know one of
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the little tests I use is I test poached eggs are one of the things that I feel are quite a good test of how the kitchen
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really copes because eggs just need to be kind of perfect so I will normally always do an eggs test so I did
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certainly show my Instagram i showed a couple of egg tests they did very well on them uh you know good eggs i had
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actually when I videoed some of them I did a couple of explosions because I did it wrongly so I had to reshoot them a couple of times good excuse to order
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eggs so very good so how did the Crystal dining experience compare to Kunard Queen's Grill so certainly in that video
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as you saw I was extremely impressed with the food the food was incredibly high quality it was beautifully prepared
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uh lots and lots of choice um you'd have your kind of crystal classics which would change every night you'd have then
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I think it was called contemporary cuisine in the main dining room so I would say the food was uh you know of
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the scale of Queens what you didn't get though on Queen's Grill is you didn't get the sort of the flam based stuff
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they do by the side of uh you know your your table you didn't get all that um
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you didn't get sort of uh the silver service of the vegetables so some of those little touches the food would come
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plated but the menu was excellent the food was excellent and also what I like about Queens Grill is the food is not
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overly fussy and the food wasn't overly fussy on Crystal which I like it's beautifully presented but it's not overly fussy so definitely was very very
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high on that um and actually one of the things we were talking we had my captain's um patrons kind of zoom cally
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thing last night and people Mark was on that and we were talking a little bit because you know he's a huge fan of Kun's Queen's Grill and um I do have
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another Kunar uh Crystal which I booked for next year and I'm hoping he's going to come on it to see whether he agrees
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on the food side so let's get stuck into the questions that we've got uh on
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Antarctica uh so there was two here so let's have a look life's adventures hi
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there after link with polar lieutenant Arcticus that was the video I did last uh week came out and the live stream we
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did with Martin who's one of the co-founders of Polar i'm a nat whisker i like that term from booking but tor
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between albatross and ponant which is 2,000 more year ponant tends to be more pricey have you cruised with albatross
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unfortunately I haven't cruised with albatross um so I and I don't really know a lot about Albatross i don't know
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anyone that's been on Albatross um uh but certainly you know Ponant is kind of
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on the higher end um certainly my experience with Ponant is extremely good
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um in terms of enrichment program it's got probably going to be a more diverse in terms of probably a lot of French for
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example speaker on on there but I'm not really familiar with Albatross um I need to go back and look at the the document
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but I do think the advantage with them is they're slightly uh smaller ships uh so it's smaller numbers which leads me
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on to so sorry I wasn't more helpful there so keep us posted on that if anyone does know more about albatross um
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maybe can leave a comment to help liers ventures so David Jay can you compare and I guess that's contrast for
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Antarctica ponant silver sea silver old in terms of each ship suitability for
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Antarctic expeditions landing themselves enrichment lectures so David I would steer you also to watch last week's live
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stream so um you'll find uh you know on my on my channel you'll find there's
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different headings one of them is live streams and listen to that because we do talk a little bit about this in in in
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one of the questions there but sort of as a summary what is very important to understand is Silver Sea have sort of
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quietly shifted from they used to cap all their ships at 200 and they've let that slip a little bit over now
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certainly on on endeavor it can't really go over 200 but the others on Silver Cloud and uh not Silver Spirit it's
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Silver I forgot the name of the other one you know the two ships that they they take down to Antarctica they can
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hold more people so they basically uh if you go on Endeavor or you go on Pan
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Ponaut will never go over 200 so it's very important for the landing sites because you will have much longer landings bear in mind that many places
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you're only allowed 100 people uh on land at any one time and in some sites
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also capped how many people go there per day so what I'm hearing people saying certainly in some of the older Silver
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Sea ships is they're now sort of splitting people into and 80 people are going out so you and you're having
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shorter time on land but not they won't go over the 200 so you're going to have longer time on land so that's quite an
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important distinction so if you're going on Silver Sea uh I would strongly encourage you to go Endeavor partly because it's a much newer ship as well
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much nicer ship silver cloud I like but it's it's kind of it's a little bit dated these days I think um so that that
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will be the key thing ponant again you know is going to be much more diverse but if you're going as an English
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speaker you will have an English speaking people you'll be with English speaking people on your uh zodiac you'll
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have you obviously the the guides that go out with you the expedition team will will obviously speak in English there so
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they will look kind of after you from that perspective i was on when it was like 80 90% uh French but we had our
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separate talks to us in English and so on and there's normally a big enough crowd there so I would say that's one of
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the most important things is I would definitely focus on going a ship that is
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no more than 200 of course there are some that even smaller but you're asking the penance silver sea if you're going on Silver Sea absolutely go with
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Endeavor um because you want to have that locker time and a more frequent uh
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landings so quite a few people lou was actually on our captain's call yesterday so it's good to see Lou joining us again
10:59
today thanks very much jeff is here um and I did see a message from Hetti who's
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uh on the Amazon River very nice um so thanks for joining it's good to see actually that it's been great that
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you've been able to join so much when you're on your big trip around the world and happy birthday it's was your birthday
11:17
there um so let's have uh a look quite a few people so actually the lots of
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discussions uh around explore I think it's going to be very very interesting and one of the things I'm often getting
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um so actually making a point so I just saw that there Tang is often blocked by Morocco i need to have a look at that's
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a good point i hadn't thought about checking on those because I know when I was you know also with Starlink um
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Starlink when we were in China they warned us that we would because Starink can't operate over China as I understand
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it correctly so she was making alternative arrangements so I also look at the different fallbacks there so
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that's a good watch out thanks for for for that um uh gosh lots of regulars
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here lady golfer here etc etc warren is here and uh Boa Boys i never remember
12:04
it's Boka Boys or Boka Boys but I'm assuming it's Bokeh um but let me know
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if I'm pronounced that incorrectly what is your recommended or preferred VPN service when traveling looking for both
12:16
PC and smartphone capabilities love your Crystal videos by the way looks fabulous great thanks had you had you been you
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were on Crystal i can't remember i was following you i sort of been following a lot of your trips i know I followed you
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on Explorer and something else and it was Grande i think you based on what you like if you haven't been on Crystal I
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think you'll probably like Crystal although you might find the ships a little bit dated although I think they look fabulous anyway um but my preferred
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VPN service which does work on the computer and the smartphone is
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ExpressVPN and and I'll actually leave a link in the bottom i've just got an affiliate code if anyone's ever interested in that i should probably
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leave more of my affiliate codes in that but I use ExpressVPN even before I'm an affiliate um I found it works pretty
12:58
well both uh landbased and on ships now the problem actually one of the things that drove me crazy on Crystal is that
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they blocked VPNs even at the premium service but I have used the VPN on other
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lines now I know some lines are clamping down a bit but I uh like silver they've
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reduced what you can do on the basic package and have some restrictions on the premium but I did was able to use VPN when I was on Silverc i'll be
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interest to see whether I can use it on Explorer um but I did see fact on the chat we had yesterday Virgin apparently
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got a third tier now and to use a VPN you need to buy the most expensive level
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which I think is called Work at Sea but I use ExpressVPN it's pretty good it's relative inexpensive um I know a lot of
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people use NordVPN and stuff like that but I I think I stumbled across ExpressVPN originally because I was I
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was just experimenting and that came up and it was they had a free trial but I've not been a subscriber for a while
13:53
um and I it was worked well on all all around the world in different places um
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I think I even used it in China actually i was using it um and pretty much all of the apps work with that so your Netflix
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and stuff uh it works it's worked for me even with the BBCi Player although I
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have to do a funny little thing with it i maybe give you too much information but what I found is with PBCI player
14:18
what I sometimes have to do is I would log onto the VPN and it would it wouldn't let me run it but I would then
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reboot my reboot my iPad that I wanted to watch stuff on um but and it would
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reboot with the VPN on and then would let me watch it so as a little kind of a little hack it may or may not be the
14:37
case i saw someone else recommending Proton a lot of people have recommended Proton before in fact we had a
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discussion once on my group cruise and a lot of people were recommending Proton i haven't tried Proton but I know a lot of
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people were were definitely definitely trying that so that's maybe another one to look
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at uh should probably experiment with that one actually um so Chris uh good to see you again here Chris um regular lots
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of questions looking at a cruise to Croatia but few ships stay in port at night is this a better area to see as a
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landbased tour or to see Tulips in Holland on the Serena next week oh that's right i remember you saying you
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were heading off on that trip so have a great time let us know what you think i I'm a big fan of Emma as you know booked
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Avalon for all sorts of reasons including price actually but anyway um so I I have only been to Croatia um uh
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on a on a cruise ship before but one of the things you might want to look at Chris is there is a company called Sale
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Croatia which is a small yacht kind of size is I can't remember with it's
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something maybe up to 20 maybe a little around about that number so Paul and Carol of Paul and Carol Carroll loved to
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cruise they went on it i was asked to go on a press trip on it um which I don't
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do as you know so I didn't go on it but um Paul and Carol actually doing a they were doing a small group cruise they're
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charting a whole thing for Paul for Carol 60th um so they really liked it
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but that is another option because that's you know again you know it's a small ship experience very small ship
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experience but if you really want an intense Croatia then you might get a nice combination of both the cruise and the landbased thing so I'd have a look
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at Sale Croatia um but I've only done it on the more traditional cruise um
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uh let's have a look so Lucy's mom is here moonman 547 are here mike and
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Carrie good to see you hope that all is going well with you ah Lady Ger has got
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uh someone joining Vivvie in July so are they what you can do with VIV as a sort of a a pre what's it called a pre- thing
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i've got a twopart series coming out uh the week after next um which is looking
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at living at sea um and all different options so I'm looking at both you know living on residential ships but living
16:54
on cruise ships i've done a lot of analysis of people who've been doing it um and then the second part is more the
17:00
downsides but I also talk a little bit about vill and one of the things with villa people don't know is um you you
17:07
know so it's selling it's on a three year round the world thing and you have three options you can obviously buy a villa you can buy um a effectively a
17:16
time share where you get a certain amount of days or points as a normal time share work or you can buy segments
17:23
as well and they do quite intense segments so if you're looking at a part of the that you you've got enough time to because their segments are quite long
17:30
but a very intense thing so I'll be very interested on the Billy H side so there's quite a few people I follow on
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Billy i don't know I don't know anyone personally but there's quite a few people who post content around Billy which is very very
17:42
interesting of course thank you Caroline um now I don't know if it's Mother Day globally but certainly in the UK and
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Europe it's Mother's Day today so happy Mother's Day for all you mothers and I know some you know North America and
17:55
Europe and UK have slightly different times for Mother's Day and Father's Day so good good reminder there thanks for
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that um Bobby taking Holland America on the Stadam ship that I really like in
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fact I've got a next year I've got a month-long trip um at America booked on
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that from Athens to Egypt do you reckon we stay with only the Holland America excursions or
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private for Egypt it's one of the It's one of the History Channel are you familiar so oh is it a History Channel
18:24
um charter that would be amazing to do that route because I'm guessing they would have I need to have a look at that
18:30
i'm guessing they would do uh have incredible speakers and stuff on that that sounds amazing to do that
18:35
personally I would probably recommend staying with uh the excursions
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particularly if it's linked to the History Channel but also because in many of those places where you dock is a very
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very long way from where you're going to be going and Egypt is a little bit from a security perspective is still a little
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bit tense um and it's it's probably just an idea you want to stay linked to the ship because you're going to be
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traveling a long way um and I would tend to stick with cruise line excursions if you're going a long way then I would say
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if you don't want to do that because I'm guessing they will be quite costly is
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have a look at another cruise line which is is going another option which will do
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lots build in lots of guarantees in terms of getting you back so that's like venture ashore uh is one and the other's
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shore excursions group i will also put links to those in the um in the show
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notes maybe four or five minutes afterwards if I was doing that route I would stick with the cruise line ones
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just because it just seems um you know it just knowing having been to Egypt um but now the last year before
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last I would just try and stay stay linked to that um lots of people
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watching the crystal video which is great susan enjoyed them hesh very nice comment watch them more uh Chris right
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now this is quite a big question so I'll see I'll see if I can answer this without off the top of my head without
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sort of thinking about it after viewing your crystal videos thank you also have watched them i'm still on the fence
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regarding the value of luxury over premium in particular for multigenerational cruisers thoughts okay
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so in terms of multigenerational um I think that's probably an easier question Chris i would tend to lean more towards
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uh the premium ships and even depending on who I'm going with almost the value ships if you like so just I'll just
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define what I'm talking about so premium sort of within the industry is is known as your Honda America Princess Celebrity
20:35
Disney's in their Virgin Voyages is that sort of group you then have that small ship luxury which is your Vikings I
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think where explore journeys is but I'll see once I've been on uh win southern ultra luxury which is where your
20:47
crystals seaborn uh silver sea region 7s but certainly for
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multigenerational I would probably go with those or even if you've got younger people in I would still look at your
20:59
Royal Caribbean Norwegian just in terms of the entertainment and things to do so if you're going on Crystal they do
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actually have as you probably saw in that video if you've got young kids younger you know of teens and stuff
21:11
going they do uh at peak times have that kind of kids teens program but it's not
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geared for that really at all the entertainment is not geared for kind of
21:22
a crowd i mean you probably saw in the video you know I thought even with my age the entertainment was too old um you
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know and I'm hardly a spring chicken as it were so um I would so I would tend that also because it's really expensive
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to go on a multigenerational uh cruise when we were on Regent over Christmas they did have some kind of multigenerational stuff luckily there's
21:41
because there's other multigenerations so the teens and sort of had other people they could mix with but they're
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more like to find people on the others i would also strongly suggest if you are looking at the P section to look at
21:52
Celebrity and to look at their edgeclass ships so Edge Apex um Beyond and Ascent
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coming because they're also kind of more vibrant younger kind of stuff um so so I
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would I would tend to lean more there because I just think you're going to cater for a wider range of people and
22:11
they're more likely to have feel more comfortable because you're going to have younger people and stuff around and about but again do really also think
22:17
about your you know the big crazy ships but depending on who you're going with and how important it is to keep them
22:23
kind of happy edmund in Singapore fantastic well the time must be very late for you if
22:29
you're in Singapore um but thanks for joining our is coming uh on out in July
22:36
hope to see you i don't have any plans on URA but there's quite a few people that I've spoken to that I do know have
22:42
Allura lined up i mean it's a sister ship to Vista the ship is very very beautiful indeed andrew's here from the
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aisle of white which is great um so Pete um I'm going to explore to
22:54
you next year how was your onrip experience booking before this week's cruise pete one of the things that has been very erratic has been some of that
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stuff um and even you know the explore journey people can't quite answer the
23:08
question so I booked as I always do i booked my trip through my travel agent travel agent Sarah and what I found with
23:15
the online system both the website and the app is it originally would let me
23:20
book any dining um but then it would eventually I I spoke to them and I sent them messages and Sarah spoke to them
23:27
and and then I could book dining um for most of the restaurants uh you know the ones that are the speciality restaurants
23:33
the two that are included uh which was Sakura and Marble were included and then
23:38
the Italian uh is at extra charge i haven't booked that online because looking at it they have like a menu a
23:46
pairing menu and and I don't really want to do the pairing menu but you only seem to book that option which is very
23:52
expensive it was like £125 or something and I don't want that option because I
23:57
don't want the pairing option so I have to wait till I'm on board so I did that but I can't book any any of excursions
24:03
or what they didn't call them excursions they call them forgot what they call them at all um and I got I contacted
24:10
Explorer myself through the help thing and they said "You can't book any excursions you have to book them through your travel agent because you book
24:16
through a travel agent." Other people have said "Well that's not true they travel agent they could do it." And they could never unlock it for me so I
24:21
haven't been able to book any excursions they told me I had to book it through travel agent Sarah but they weren't going to pay any commission for doing
24:27
them or I could call them so it was a little bit messy now the other thing I could do is I could put in some
24:33
preferences so I could say like I wanted non-alcoholic drinks in my cabin or you could choose I wanted you know your type
24:40
of pillow and your duvet so we'll see how that flows through so mixed probably
24:46
gave you more information than you needed um so so mixed um Dean asking the
24:52
question um if there's any signs of tourism being impacted the only stuff
24:58
that I've seen Dean is um uh in yesterday's paper they were talking
25:03
about how flights between uh Canada uh for the summer and the US are down a
25:10
huge percent the paper's reporting something like 20 to 30% down that's the only thing I've seen i haven't seen
25:16
anything else from from that perspective in terms of data etc certainly we're
25:22
seeing uh cruise demand for cruisers going up we're seeing you know tourism
25:27
seasonally starting to kick in in uh Europe certainly the cruise lines looking at their reports they're talking
25:33
about high demand in the US high demand in Europe um I think also the point that um you know people were talking about is
25:40
I know probably the Canadians are the most um exercised I guess at the moment
25:45
u with the you know the conflict going on between the two countries um and are probably the strongly the comment the
25:52
questions I get are mostly from Canadians i've actually made a video which I'm isn't edited yet just looking
25:58
at who owns what because a lot of people asked me around that they've asked me on the live stream before so I've kind of doing a video that will come out a
26:04
couple of weeks time around that so I haven't seen anything yet um and I think in reality
26:09
um my view would be it's going to be about economics so if people feel they
26:15
don't have money then I think it's going to be an economics thing uh and um so we'll see how that settles down
26:23
george plays george plays i'm guessing that looks like um video games i've
26:29
never gone into video games it's really interesting probably just because I'm addict I'll probably be addicted to them but I've never played video games is
26:35
there a good overview of all world cruises or cruise lines that offer world cruises george
26:41
the I'm trying to think there's no sort of actual website I guess that does world cruises what you'll probably find
26:48
if you go to uh I haven't looked at it recently but I think I'm right in saying if you go to a site like Vacations to Go
26:53
for example um they have lots of different themed tabs um and I wouldn't
27:00
be surprised if they don't have one for world cruises the challenge being of course there's a lot of what one of the
27:06
trends is lots of cruise lines are offering kind of grand voyages so like the 70-day stuff um stuff like that but
27:13
um there isn't one I'm not aware so everyone knows as a resource but generally speaking um you know most
27:20
cruise lines once you get into the premium category the luxury category and
27:25
the ultra luxury category all of them I I think all of them will offer a world cruise what you get less so is once in
27:33
you know so I guess Royal Caribbean did experiment with a world cruise they only did it once they never done it again
27:38
well they haven't announced it MSC do a world cruise but the others kind of Norwegian car con carnival Carnival
27:46
Connell Carnival might do an extended one but so pretty much all cruise lines do you're right they're not all in one place the important thing to understand
27:52
though George with world cruises is they pretty much all happen in January February March cover through to May time
27:59
period and that's because you have this funny time between the sort of end of the peak Caribbean season and before the
28:06
Alaskan Mediterranean season starts so that's when people do their world cruises so you're also relative so if you want to do a world cruise that kicks
28:12
off in June you're going to be way more way more uh limited tom thanks for letting me know the Facebook link isn't
28:18
working which is very frustrating because I know Paul and Carol um I think they they worked successfully on Facebook so I will I will keep uh I will
28:25
I will check that and keep chasing that and and check the connection side
28:31
um so uh let's have a look uh people
28:36
asking questions around us backlash i haven't seen anything at all around that
28:42
um the only thing I've seen is people getting uptight about Americans talking politics on ships um that is winding a
28:49
lot of people up um and I'm sure I can understand why but that seems to wind people more up important people don't
28:55
aren't bothered is what I'm seeing um people are too busy getting on with
29:00
their own lives I guess and um whatnot oh here we go burka boys uh so I didn't
29:06
mean to be dismissive of I'm just saying like in ports it's kind of people are more focused on like kind of the local situation rather than uh uh what what's
29:13
going on and I guess as as tariffs run out we may see that change u we will be on crystal next month oh brilliant um I
29:21
thought it was Bocaraton that's what I always assumed ah Tom found it so maybe it is on uh Jim recommending
29:29
Proton Chris I don't I I'm not sure why they block VPNs um and I did actually
29:35
kind of sort of raise it and and particularly because I know some people need VPNs to do work when they're on on
29:41
cruises um so I don't know whether they were blocking VPNs to stop people kind of stream but I could have stream I
29:46
could stream my Netflix say for example um uh but I couldn't stream because you
29:53
know some with the way even Netflix works or some of the rights some shows you or films that you it'll show you
29:59
where it'll show you the Netflix based on where the Wi-Fi is which I think was showing it US listing and then we were
30:05
in Chile I wasn't in Chile but I was getting like Hong Kong listing or I can't remember um so let's have a
30:12
look ah Hisham now I have a different perspective um on this to most other people so do
30:20
you recommend sticking with one cruise line to earn more miles and privileges thank you for informative videos
30:26
personally I don't partly because of my channel but also largely speaking you
30:32
know to get really meaningful benefits you have to cruise an enormous amount so before you get get really attractive
30:40
perks whether it's you know um included Wi-Fi which is of course hundreds of dollars or free cruises you you have to
30:47
really you know you're talking about 200 300 whatever nights so I don't tend to because I often think one of the traps
30:52
that you need to think about is often you may find if you're sticking with a one particular cruise line first of all
30:57
you're limiting yourself to what they're offering now if they have a very big fleet that's probably going to give you lots of options holland America or
31:03
Princess or something you could pretty much go anywhere in the world with loads of uh options and and routes and stuff
31:10
but there is a risk you have to think about is you know if you want to travel widely are you limiting where you can go
31:16
or the you know how good they are in if you want to go to Australia or you want to do Europe or whatever or Alaska or
31:22
something so first of all are you going to be limiting yourself secondly you also think about is if you're locked
31:27
into one cruise line you may miss out on opportunities where you might be able to go on a similar cruise line of the same
31:33
grade or whatever um but actually there's some deal that on that is going to more than compensate for what you're
31:40
going to get in perks so for example I have very high status with Kunard um
31:46
because we cruise a lot with Kunard so we're like platinum like the top tier but in reality all you get is uh some
31:53
discounts on Wi-Fi you get some W uh sorry it's a discount on laundry you get priority imbulcation which we get with
31:59
the cab we book anyway um and you get a little bit of discount on onboard shops
32:04
um you know it's just not really worth for the amount of money that one has spent um and when we started moving
32:10
around we got different experiences now I know other people really like building perks and there are some where it is
32:16
fantastic so for example what I really like about the Royal Caribbean group is if you go on Royal Caribbean Celebrity
32:22
and now So obviously your points all amass up so the great thing was that was
32:27
a great program to build loyalty on because you can do it across a range of cruise lines and when I went to Royal
32:32
Caribbean it was fantastic because I straight away was in a diamond level which gave me four drinks vouchers which
32:38
is more than enough that I needed um it got me into the diamond lounge which I
32:44
think they might change because so many people are diamond now but you got a little private lounge um I think got
32:49
priority embarcation and a whole bunch of other good books so that was good because I could still use different cruise lines in fact I got most of the
32:55
that status through being on Celebrity um rather than anything else but it was also great because then when I went on
33:01
Silver Sea I then got the perks at a high level so I got free laundry and some other perks i can't remember so
33:08
that was quite a good program i really like that carnival Corporation Norwegian Group don't do that combined thing yet
33:14
so really you know those are sort of the the the watch outs but if you are going to cruise a lot and you think the cruise
33:20
is going to give you loads of options um and you the perks are going to more be
33:25
more than compensated by missing out on deals elsewhere then do it i should probably revisit um and run a loyalty
33:32
program video i haven't done one for a very long time and probably more being a little bit more articulate about that
33:37
and I know a lot of people disagree with my perspective which is always good doing videos is quite good when you get
33:43
kind of debate going which is always great um now Rhonda good to see you here
33:48
Rhonda um Dave and I are leaving on Oceanana Priata for Southeast Asia
33:53
fabulous have you been in an Rclass penthouse what has been your experience couple of things for us that you may or
33:59
may not know that um Norwegian Group are doing some interesting things with their
34:05
ships so the Navigator Regent Navigator which I'm actually booked to go on in
34:13
October for a month-long trip um down the coast of West Africa and I did it
34:19
previously in the Caribbean it's their old it's an old ship about 400 something 25 passenger ship so Norwegian have
34:25
actually just signed a deal with a company called Crescent Seas which is a
34:30
new spin-off of a US-based real estate company they have signed a deal with that um which from next year from 2026
34:39
is going to be converted into a residential ship and although the it's the the management team and stuff going
34:45
to be the same kind of management team but it's going to become a um a
34:50
residential ship so leaving the fleet as they bring in prestige their new ship now regata also is going to be very
34:57
interesting because that has now been leased to a you an Australian company uh
35:02
that are going to run basically a year-long round the world intensive cruise it's going to be branded uh
35:09
explorations by Norwegian but it's going to be the Riata ship so Riata will be
35:14
leaving the Oceania fleet i guess they're being a lur so it's going to be very
35:20
interest but it seems to me because Norwegian have you know new ships lined up that they are starting with these
35:26
older ships looking at different routes so will the insignia and surrender become part of that crescent sea thing
35:32
if that works well um as a residential ship or not sorry I just dropped my pen
35:38
me playing around anyway so Rugata um very exciting Southeast Asia fantastic
35:44
have you been in an Rclass penthouse uh suite so
35:49
I on Oceanania on the Rclass i haven't
35:55
but I've been on the sister equivalent on Azamara so I've been in the Pendles which is because it's exactly the same
36:00
ship as you know so I have been on that um what I liked about them of course is you've got the bigger bathroom which is
36:06
fantastic obviously more space because they're quite cozy those cabins the bathroom was a big thing the watch out I
36:12
would have Rhonda is um all of those Rclass penthouse uh cabins are
36:18
underneath the pool deck so I did get a little bit annoyed with the scraping and
36:24
setting up of of desk of chairs and stuff so that's my only watch out so if you can get one that's there's a few
36:29
that are sort of under stuff that's not the the scraping bit um or is to just
36:34
have a look at and see the stuff but that was a a slight issue of course more in the morning during the day once you
36:41
get into the evening obvious um you know it's less of an issue because that you know once they've reset and they don't
36:47
have much um stuff out on the in the evenings on the pool deck um for example
36:53
even though I was actually sort of underneath the outdoor uh restaurant I can't it's called area on Oceanania but
37:00
um that's that's my only that's my only thing only watch out but definitely that
37:05
that makes a huge difference with the with the cabins uh Simarina how many
37:10
cruisers of yours have had a neurovvirus outbreak did you manage to walk away unscathed thank you i love your work so
37:16
a very topical question because certainly at the end of last year and certainly during the Norovirus season this year both on land and at sea has
37:22
been quite um busy is that the right word certainly there's been quite a few
37:28
ships uh in fact Queen Mary 2 queen Mary 2 had a breakout because at the moment
37:33
there's been a couple of on America ships Princess ships a couple of them have had outbreaks i have only been on
37:39
one no totally two cruises that have had some Nora virus once Queen Mary 2 once on a Fred Olson ship um uh I've been so
37:48
I've been on two which is not many because I've done 10 cruises now I think it is um and
37:54
I have touchwood uh always come unscathed because I am obsessive about
38:00
um when I'm on a cruise so I'm obsessive about washing my hands not using gel washing my hands uh a lot so I also have
38:07
to keep hand creaming my hands but I do obsessively wash my hands i will tend to
38:12
do things like when I'm walk I I tend not to use the lifts uh unless I'm on a
38:17
like a Royal Caribbean ship and I get tired of walking on a big ship um but I tend not to use the stairs but I won't
38:24
sort of hold on to the handrails as it were um I will uh I I will be very I
38:32
tend not to use the buffet i'm not a big buffet fan so I tend to avoid the buffet
38:37
on most ships certainly for breakfast if I possibly can I will go to the main dining room depending on excursion times
38:43
um I will sometimes eat I might eat lunch in the buffet because I like just
38:49
have salad and stuff and the evenings you know obviously normally we'll go to the main restaurant or specialtity or whatever so because for me the buffet is
38:56
kind of a big watch out area you know when it's not when it's a self-s served buffet i know lots of people uh take
39:03
gloves i see that quite a lot actually these days people will take gloves and use those at the at the um at the buffet
39:10
but I tend to avoid the buffet um so I tend to be a little bit obsessive around that but cert certainly it's worked i've
39:16
kind of avoided that um uh yeah hopefully that helps hopefully that
39:24
stays true sizzle HQ love that what top sites in the UK should you look at for
39:29
solo cruising so Sizzle HQ there's actually a com a site which is called Passion for Cruisers which is the one
39:36
that came to mind they host quite a few solo cruisers so they're a good one to look at for solo cruising because they
39:43
will have kind of the lo the latest deals etc that's probably the one that I keep an eye on the most and as I said
39:49
particularly if you're interested in hosted cruisers there'll often have kind of good deals um and quite big uh solo
39:56
groups you know you probably something like 80 90 people um solo cruising so they'll tend to use a lot of things like
40:03
MSSE that kind of stuff um but the advantage with those is there a lot of them are sending out the UK and they do
40:08
quite a nice briefing they do a web they'll do like a webinar live stream beforehand a lot of people solo know
40:15
each other so I was on a cruise once where passion cruisers on that was on MC
40:20
Virtuosa and loads I went uh and I knew the person who's hosting that went there and the sol lots of them have met
40:27
friends they know each other and stuff like that so that's the main that's the main one um that I would I would take a
40:32
look at um now if you look at my video um if you just go to the channel and
40:39
just search um solo there is a video I did um which I don't think needs updating because it's still update if
40:45
you look in there I do talk about some other sites um and I feel like there's another one other UK site that I've sort
40:50
of uh sort of forgotten uh forgotten about um ah so it actually purchased a
40:58
suite great so please let me know i'd love to know how that goes journey with Josh good to see you here um loved
41:04
following your amazing Antarctica trip i'll be doing a Japan cruise next year i love Japan i'd love love to Japan do you
41:11
have any info about where to stay in Tokyo how to get around what to do in Japan so with Josh I do actually so if
41:17
you um look at my if yet you are an Instagram user because I follow you on Instagram so if you go on my Instagram
41:23
if you have a look at um you know you could I've stored at the top there stories and you look at my Japan and I
41:31
think I've got a I've got a Tokyo uh story all around Tokyo from this last trip I did recently
41:38
where I spent four days in Tokyo but also if you sort of scroll back and you'll see at the end of 23 I think it
41:45
was October 23 there's another one for Regent where I have some more stuff on Tokyo where I spent three days there um
41:53
and then also if you search um in my shorts I've got some Turkey but
42:00
from last time on things to do so in terms of where to stay so um I stayed the first time I stayed at the Sopetel
42:07
which was part of the region package was a little bit out far away going on i actually stayed at the at the
42:13
Intercontinental near Ginsa which on the Ginsa line which is really really I love staying there all hotels as you probably
42:20
seen looking at are crazy priced but um in reality though Josh is the uh the is
42:27
phenomenally cheap and really easy to use um so I would encourage you to do
42:33
that and what I would encourage you to get around is use the metro and it sort of almost doesn't matter where you stay because the metro is very interconnected
42:40
and it's very very easy to get around now in terms of using the metro I'm going to show you something which I only
42:45
discovered afterwards so what what I did what I did um was there was a flyer in
42:50
the uh metro targeting tourists where you could buy a pass you know was 24 72h
42:57
hour etc pass but also what's even better is if you if you're an Apple phone user if you go to uh wallet if you
43:06
go to the wallet um I don't know I don't I really need to do a live demo but if you go to the w if
43:12
you go to the wallet um there and if if you push the plus sign the ad on the
43:20
plus sign you'll see a thing coming up which is travel cards and there you can
43:25
actually choose to buy and up and load a a travel pass for the Tokco Tokco Tokyo
43:34
Metro um and that then you can just use your phone so I I did it kind of the old
43:39
fashioned way i hadn't actually realized it was a thing on Wallet i was actually on uh was on a cru I was on a cruise yes I
43:47
was on a cruise i was on on a crystal cruise and I was getting off and flying to Hong Kong and some people I had
43:53
dinner with uh uh some people before the channel and our two patrons they uh they
43:59
had asked me if I was using economy in the name of the the the um the card and
44:05
they had shown me here we go so you add travel card and then you can find
44:10
different countries you can go to uh Japan and you will then could choose the
44:16
card and suka card is the one that I know they they were using um and then you can
44:23
just load it up and then you can just use your your phone so Metro is fantastic what I also strongly recommend
44:28
you use Josh and it's improved even since when I was then 23 is use um
44:34
Google Maps so when you're going anywhere you know put in wherever you are your hotel and you're going to the
44:41
token National Museum the great thing about that is it'll tell you how to get to the where the metro is it'll also
44:47
tell you which um exit to get off at and so on and so forth now that's that's
44:53
quite important in some of the the the the places in Tokyo because some of the metros are quite complicated and
44:58
sometimes you have to move between stuff and some quite far so knowing when you get to a place there might be 10
45:04
different exits uh and know you need to go to exit C or B or number 12 or whatever amazing so strongly recommend
45:11
that's the way you get around in terms of what to do in Japan um have a look at that uh have a look at that if not drop
45:17
me a message because I did also do a post um uh I was mentioning earlier I do
45:23
for patrons and channel members I I do kind of this extra content and a lot of people are asking me similar question to
45:28
that and I did a list of mustd do things um which I keep saying I would probably
45:33
should post on my blog as well so if not send me a message and I will send you um a list of things to do hopefully
45:39
spending lots of time I I was there three days before I was there four days and you know just so much to do
45:49
um let's have a look uh Ronda followup question uh what are
45:57
your musthaves for long plane rides now Rond I know you've asked me this
46:02
question sort of what um what grade do I fly so as I mentioned my must have for a
46:08
long plane ride I possibly can is go business class lie flat seat is is a
46:14
mustd do so I I would often compromise on other things to be able to get that and as I think I mentioned before I more
46:21
of obsessive um collector of air miles um through my credit card stuff so and
46:27
and then I always plan so like Mark and I for trips you've got like to Australia at the end of this year and I've got the
46:33
trips like way out you know the trends whatever days before uh you know so
46:38
because I booked them far out I will go on when I know the the reward seats are coming so anyway that's one thing that's
46:45
probably what you're asking my other is my must have for long plane rides is I I tend to load up my iPad with shows I
46:54
want to watch because um I find airlines are very erratic in terms of what movies
47:00
they have I feel these days so I always find a way of catching up movies but
47:06
sometimes I find they're not necessarily that so I tend to bring my own stuff i also have and I wish I haven't got them
47:12
in here it was actually something that someone bought Mark I think work some
47:17
work colleagues bought Mark Mark this huge it's a massive wraparound eye shade
47:23
thing it's called drowsy uh as you spell it drowsy and they sell them on Amazon and it's huge and it's
47:30
very padded but what's great about it is is it completely covers your eyes it's very soft it also sort of covers you so
47:36
you've got earplugs in and that it you in this little cozy little world i find that really good for sleeping as I think
47:41
I mentioned before I'm quite fortunate that I can sleep on planes that's from doing 20 something
47:47
years of corporate longhaul travel for work kind of I think I taught myself but that's kind of so I also bring my own
47:54
ear I don't like the ear those foam earplugs i use silicon ear plugs because I find that locks it out much more
48:02
um and my other mustave which is not really a must have it's a must do is I
48:07
set my watch to whatever the local time is and I go onto that uh thing so if
48:13
it's now 10:00 at night when I get on the ship uh ship I will go to sleep i
48:19
will get straight into the straight into the um into the into the
48:24
zone is there any mustaves i always take snacks i take snacks as well i always
48:30
have snacks because I always get hungry on a plane um so I always have snacks um
48:36
looks like people are recommending some Tokyo hotels which is great godzilla
48:41
Hotel the Gracia Hotel obviously the Godzilla Hotels I get cases from the film shinjuku is a great district as
48:50
well uh was asking if you any plans on YouTube that'll teach you okay I think
48:56
some of us have asked that further up ah calling all ports are here diana and Andrew are here um I saw you actually
49:04
asking the question um about so calling all ports that's their channel they
49:09
recently be on explore 2 trips on explorer i can't both explore or explore one or did explore one on explorer 2 um
49:16
and have um a video I get working on a video around all the food stuff so what
49:22
am I most looking forward to on Explorer um a couple of things one of which is
49:28
just the overall experience of course just to see where it kind of all fits in
49:33
the world i I have a feeling I know where it fits partly because of the ship size so I'm just that whole over
49:39
experience and whether actually MSSE are able to truly deliver kind of a seamless
49:45
link to a question earlier around how I'm finding the the pre uh cruise experience if they can generally deliver
49:51
what feels like a luxurious experience obviously really looking forward to the ship all the stuff I've seen including your your video it looks amazing and I'm
49:58
really looking forward to the food and particularly with the food I'm really looking forward to the marketplace i think it's called the marketplace um
50:04
they're e they're sort of equivalent of the buffet thing because one of the things I miss particularly on the sort
50:12
of higherend ships is in the evenings that more casual dining and it looks like you can have but like good quality
50:18
good casual dining in that marketplace for people don't know it looks like it's sort of like a almost like a a food hall
50:25
kind of place rather than traditional buffet with different stations sort of similar in to what Virgin have have done
50:31
in a way but I'm assuming maybe a little bit more even a little bit more at market um so that's what I'm most
50:37
looking forward to and of course getting a sense of who it's for the passages and stuff like that i haven't I chose this
50:45
not so much for the itinerary um so I'm probably I I booked this region to focus
50:52
very much on the ship so I I I haven't really thought about the the the
50:59
destinations and as I I don't know if you were here when I arrived when I asked the question I haven't been able to book any excursions yet and I I
51:05
haven't booked any excursions i've got and I've looked at them and and I've researched some of the ports that I haven't been to before some of them I
51:11
have been to before and I think I'm probably going to mostly do selfexploring stuff um because also one
51:16
of them I'm going back to later in October where I have got some excursions booked when I do that um navigator trip
51:22
um so that's what I'm probably most looking forward to i'm also looking forward to I think I'm in very similar cabin to uh your cabin and the cabin
51:30
looks great so that's that's what it is i think that's right i'm I'm looking forward to your food video which I guess
51:36
he probably won't be out before I go and be a good comparison so there was some of Vivvie has a couple of things so if
51:43
you are want to see more vill content VIVY just recently released a video a walk through but there is two guys that
51:51
I follow i'm going to quickly see if I can find them they posting quite regularly let's see if I can find them
51:56
quickly because I have in my watch later i haven't watched the most recent one let's see if I can find Here we are it's
52:02
called DC Hidden Gems uh it's two gay guys who it's quite because they saw
52:09
it's quite interesting they bought originally like an ocean view they realized after going then that it was too small so it be interest to see lady
52:16
golf whether your friend finds it too small and they eventually bought a suite and they talk a lot about why that
52:22
changed and they did a video um about two weeks ago maybe 10 days ago around
52:27
kind of what's working what isn't working so that was very interesting they've just launched one which I'm just
52:32
looking at now what we learned living on a cruise ship full-time with uh with with Vivv but they're quite they they
52:38
post kind of every 10 days or so there's a few other people posted but they're they're quite interesting
52:45
um Larry I don't know that
52:51
um I have a great answer to this so I'm hoping other people do joining a Winstar
52:56
cruise in Dublin this summer any excursion recommendations there for non-drinkers we have two days free so
53:02
I've been to Dublin a couple of times but they were always more work or conference related so I haven't done a lot of sightseeing in Dublin so I'm a
53:09
terrible person i know obviously I guess what you're referring to is the Guinness um is the big sort of iconic thing that
53:15
many people go to so if anybody has good Dublin suggestions please can you do
53:21
those the last time I was in Dublin I actually was getting off a Winstar cruise and I actually flew out that same day so I didn't um do that i have more
53:29
um I'm trying to remember when I was on Princess Cruise in Dublin what we did i must have done something
53:38
I can't remember obviously it wasn't very good if I can't remember so please I know lots of people here would have
53:43
been to Dublin have much better tips for me and hopefully you can help out Larry after my terrible um terrible ability to
53:51
not answer that uh just a reminder of the word questions so I don't miss it but be Baron i didn't miss it hello from
53:57
New York hi there is it safe to cruise to Greece Santorini and Turkey in June would it be too hot so it's not too hot
54:03
in June once you get in July August it can be very very hot in the med in those areas now I guess you're asking in terms
54:09
of safety to Greece at Santorini because of the earth tremors they've just this week again opened um opened up the um
54:18
again for ships i think the first one called this week after this kind of earthquakey things um so of course I
54:24
guess with earthquakes it's very unpredictable what's going to happen there but um but I'm assuming the fact
54:29
they've opened it they must be extremely sure that things are okay um so if in
54:34
terms of safety I think that's probably fine uh Turkey obviously there's quite a
54:40
lot of uh issues going on politically in Turkey at the moment lots of protests going on so So certainly we'll see if
54:47
that's calmed down by June what I would I would keep an eye on that i'd keep an eye out on uh the I guess state
54:54
department travel advisories and probably my sense would be with Turkey is is probably stick with cruise line
55:01
excursions because you know it's going to be well linked to the cruise line um uh and maybe the trouble sort of calmed
55:08
down a bit uh within Turkey they've got a little bit heated in recent times like they've been lots of protests they've
55:14
arrested and detained journalists they've thrown some journalists out um and so on so it's getting a little bit
55:19
kind of heated heated there have a good weekend Larry thank you very much um
55:25
let's have a look yeah lot of people saying the same thing it's hot but not crazy hot oh Ry's
55:31
here today great good to see you Randy um let's have a look again just trying
55:38
to write a question um so hopefully I didn't miss questions but Patricia didn't miss yours going with Sburries in
55:44
May for the first time includes our flight from LA on Tahiti Air have you anything about the flight also confirming can't book resort so um I
55:52
have flown on air Tahiti um to and from there twice once in 2019 once in 2023
56:00
it's a great airline it really is it's super nice food really good service um
56:05
very modern planes because they're all Dreamliner 787 planes the planes are pretty modern and new so it's great um
56:12
uh your timings you will get there really late at night on that leg because I've done that leg before um and uh I
56:21
haven't done the Winstar Breeze uh in Tahiti and when I've done WinStar
56:29
equivalents I'm can't remember booking in advance the restaurants um you
56:34
obviously have uh some specialtity but I think you're right you can't do them on board but don't quote me on that don't
56:40
remember on all wood trips booking before danny's here saying hi which is
56:45
good um oh so cruise first sizzle saying you can do above 100 days um oh here's an
56:54
interesting sort of side question um I know one is wearing a lanyard with
57:01
their cabin card where do they put it if they don't have a pocket or a purse um this is the old lanyard non lanyard
57:08
debate i'm not a big fan of lanyards but when I have them I find it really helpful so my group crews I gave everyone a lanyard partly because we had
57:15
some of the bits pieces that we had um some rifle text up but I actually found it really handy i have it in my pocket
57:22
so uh that's what I if you don't have a pocket or a purse I think your lanyard
57:28
is your only option uh obviously if you've got if you're on Princess Now of course you got the little wearable
57:34
medallion thing but I would say something around your neck so someone left a I think they called a super chat
57:41
dirty Jim and the boys um our trains up and running from Amsterdam to London yet
57:46
um I don't know 100% on that
57:51
um because the the the train session is now open and I'm pretty sure I've seen
57:58
that seen it that it is running but certainly if you look on the Euro Star site because it's only Euro Star that
58:03
does it so if I just have a look on the Euro Star site that will tell you if you can book it but I'm pretty sure because I know the station is open and I'm
58:09
pretty sure I saw it reopening um but I don't want to quote that because I haven't I haven't actually um done it my
58:17
myself um let's have a look sorry I swiggled
58:25
down phone letter with card patch a lot of people spoke about that i've seen lots of people with the cards uh you
58:31
know they have the phone and the card i I would do just check whether they have
58:36
um because I've seen people do it but sometimes you know with with the cars they can with the mag they can be with
58:42
the magnet um it sometimes makes the cards not work so so I would just double
58:49
check that if you are using but I've seen lots of people using using that
58:55
um does anyone offer cruising crosses to Australia Jeff not specifically you can
59:01
get some cruisers you know a lot of the world cruisers effectively will head the way to Australia and I guess some of the
59:08
ships when they reposition will come down from Asia down so it's not really seen officially as kind of a cross a
59:14
crossing as such because they'll call a lot of ports down the way a lot of them will come down you through through
59:19
Singapore Bali go come down Australia kind of that way you will get some coming across though from Africa so I
59:27
know some some of the Kunard wall cruisers will go sort of Cape Town they might go to Maitius or Seyell uh they
59:32
might cross to to like um Sri Lanka and come down into Fremantle as a first port
59:39
port of call um let's have a look just write the word
59:46
question so I don't miss questions okay no is a short answer will you build the
59:52
Lego Titanic to go with the Kach i have seen that it is a massive thing a friend of mine's a huge LEGO fan and is a Lego
59:59
trader that buys and sells lots of Lego no I don't think I have the patience to to do that but it would look pretty cool
1:00:05
i actually have another ship model up at the top there uh which I probably should move
1:00:11
down actually that's the QE2 there now I would like some more models these these models don't aren't made anymore um and
1:00:16
I I always want to look for nice big meaty models i should probably do I I don't think I would have the patience uh
1:00:22
to to actually build the the whole thing um so let's have a look let me just go
1:00:28
back because I think there's a couple of questions that I've missed uh the Bruess
1:00:34
um lovely thank you very much which cruise line can you recommend that typically has the least number of children trying to avoid the word nicely
1:00:40
uh do you have experience with Aida i haven't been on Aida aida pretty much you need to be German speaking to go on
1:00:46
Aayida they they don't have a reputation for necessarily catering as well for international speakers and like say
1:00:51
Costa or or Mchifa and stuff like that so I don't have any experience with Aida i've seen the ships around a lot in
1:00:57
terms of number of children if you want to avoid children completely the best of course is Virgin Voyages or Viking uh
1:01:05
Virgin Voyages you have to be over 18 viking you have to be over 18 the Saga which is old tends is 50 plus much older
1:01:11
but those are the the key the key ones you'll find it i'm not sure where you're based in the UK ambassador tends to be
1:01:19
adult the Mela has an adult only ship apino have two adult only ships Aurora
1:01:24
and Arcadia so those obviously are your safest bets uh if you want to avoid kids the other thing to do is uh go for
1:01:31
longer cruises so if you're looking at cruises sort of 14 days and above you'll tend to find less kids if you don't and
1:01:37
you avoid school holiday periods so you know your Easter breaks your Thanksgivings obviously your summer
1:01:43
holiday kind of time periods you're less likely to have kids generally longer uh cruises um and um not in the season and
1:01:53
the more upscale you go uh the less kids you'll have so once you get into regions
1:01:59
uh Crystal Silver Sea Seaborn you're less likely to have kids on those particularly out out of uh out of season
1:02:05
obviously on the other end if you're going Norwegian or Caribbean you're going to have loads of kids loads of
1:02:11
families and even you know if you really want to go on those lines like Norwegians or Caribbeans the
1:02:16
transatlantics are very good uh for having a few kids on partly because they tend not to be you know when they're
1:02:21
doing the repositioning because they tend um not to they tend to be too long and they tend not to be in in kind of
1:02:28
school holiday time so that that's that's kind of um that's kind of what what what sort of happens well we have
1:02:35
turned through time um but I will maybe just answer quickly if you because I
1:02:41
I've seen whales from the people asking about whales from the cruise ships which people have answered it's much better to
1:02:47
excuse me to go uh on the the whale watching tours um which is good chris
1:02:54
saying I should make a video about getting seats with points um so yeah I I I I probably should do a short one about
1:03:00
that because I do have a strategy we generally been very successful but we because we booked our cruises so far in
1:03:06
advance and we literally when they come on uh we book them and what we'll do which I discovered is we'll we'll book
1:03:12
the the way out uh as soon as it becomes available and the way back as soon as it becomes available and if we're doing a
1:03:18
two for one deal because one of the things you do with our credit card with the MXBA card is you every year if
1:03:24
depending if you spend a certain amount uh you get a two for one voucher so either you can use half amount of miles
1:03:30
or you can get two seats for one set of miles and we use those a a lot as well
1:03:35
so I probably should do probably should do a short quick one on that right so we have turned through time thanks so much
1:03:42
for joining just a reminder that next week there may or may not be a live stream so keep an eye out for that i will keep a check once I'm on the ship
1:03:48
um what the what the situation is i'll also check watch out that Luc said whether actually in 10 in Morocco I can
1:03:55
use the Wi-Fi is going to be good enough i'll also check because there are some other 4G options that I can use on the
1:04:01
ship so thanks very much for joining just a reminder that you can watch the if you haven't watched it my have my
1:04:07
crystal review it's there um happy Mother's Day for those of you that have Mothers and Mother's Day if you I don't
1:04:13
know if it's Mother's Day in the US but happy Mother's Day anyway um and have a great rest of the weekend and a great rest of the weekend thanks so much for
1:04:20
joining joining me and all the great questions