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My Solution To The Biggest Issue With Cruises These Days!
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Jan 28, 2025
With cruise lines now pretty much able to sell their ships out completely at a hundred percent or higher capacity, I want to tell you how you can hunt down and find cruises and cruise ships that are not going to be completely packed to the rafters and will have the best cruise experience. This is the techniques that I use. For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: --------------------------------------------------- * Blog: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers * Instagram: http://www.instgram.com/garybembridge * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
with cruise lines now pretty much able
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to sell their ships out completely at
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100 or higher capacity I want to tell
0:06
you how you can hunt down and find
0:09
cruises and cruise ships that are not
0:11
going to be completely packed to the
0:14
rafters this is the techniques that I
0:16
use I got used to of course during when
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cruising started again after shutdown to
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ships that had 50 to 60 percent full of
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passengers so there was loads of space
0:25
and actually was great not having those
0:27
crowds around that has kind of
0:29
evaporated so here's how you can still
0:31
find Cruisers that are not going to be
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packed by the way if you want to know
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how to deal with crowds on a cruise I do
0:36
have another video where I talk about
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you know how you can plan if you've
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booked a cruise and you think it's going
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to be jam-packed for how you can deal
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with that
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the first and simplest test of all is if
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you possibly can which I can is avoid
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school vacation time completely because
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this is when pretty much every single
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itinerary whether it's in the
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Mediterranean Alaska or the Caribbean
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those big popular areas will be
1:00
jam-packed full and they'll be selling
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it over 100 capacity because you'll have
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uh you know Mom and Dad or parents or
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whatever and it'll have one two or even
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three kids sharing a cabin so for
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example I went on MSC virtuosa to the
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fjords now just before the school
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holiday period that ship was sailing
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with basically full with double
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occupancy of 4 500 passengers however
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the week afterwards when school holidays
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started it was selling with 1 500
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passengers more that was six thousand
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passengers and of those 1500 they're all
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kids under 18 and they're all sharing
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cabins with their parents so it was jam
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packed full so avoid school holidays and
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even lines that used to traditionally be
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more adult-only only are attracting more
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families so I've seen lots of comments
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and I've experienced that on Celebrity
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when I sailed in school holidays on edge
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traditionally more of an adult line
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Holland America when we went at
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Christmas time again packed full with
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kids and I've seen that even on Ultra
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Luxury lines like seaborne you'll see
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lots of comments now with people talking
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about how many kids are on board which
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again means that ships are full because
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they're sharing cabins in most cases
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avoid school holidays I am currently
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recording this and I'm on an expedition
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Cruise in Greenland on hapag Lloyd now
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even here because at school holidays
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there are kids on board this kind of
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cruise and of course they're doing
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things like taking over the pool and
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just you know being a little bit crazy
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at times so avoid school holidays on any
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itinerary if you possibly can closely
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linked to that is my second tip which is
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avoid any major public holiday weekend
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or plan a public holiday whether that's
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Christmas or Easter or any of those
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times which may or may not be within
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school holidays we booked on America
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cruise over Christmas and it was Ram
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filled there was 500 kids on board which
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is as I mentioned kind of so unusual for
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Holland America because it was a key
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holiday time so there's short cruises
3:00
over bank holiday or holiday weekends
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avoid those like crazy of course not
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everybody can avoid school holidays if
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you've got kids so that you are much
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more restricted but I will have some
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tips how you can deal with that a little
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bit later but if you do have the
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flexibility my third big tip which is
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what I use the most is cruising at
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shoulder periods so these are kind of
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the beginning and the end of the season
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so when are these shoulder periods well
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if you talk about places like Alaska or
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the Mediterranean that really is May and
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September so the beginning and the end
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of the season it's before the school
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holidays it's before everything kicks in
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so I love going to Alaska for example in
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May you can push it a little bit into
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June but it's often quite busy in the
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Mediterranean you can often push into
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June in the Caribbean that then tends to
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be November early December January early
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February time that's again the shoulder
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periods in between the big kind of
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vacation spring break all that kind of
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stuff it is probably one of my most
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favorite things of choosing a cruise is
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shoulder periods another fantastic
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choice which is my fourth option is
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repositioning Cruisers this is when the
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cruise lines are moving their ships
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between the major Cruise regions so for
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example they're moving the ships from
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the Caribbean to Alaska or to the
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Mediterranean so that normally happens
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around about the sort of April March
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April time they're shifting ships
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they're repositioning them so it's a
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great time to get a cruise say across to
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the Mediterranean and you'll finally
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send them back around about September
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October time now reposition Cruisers
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tend not to sell out they tend to be
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great prices and so they're not normally
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jam-packed and definitely they're
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unlikely to be having second and third
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occupancy because they're not in school
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holiday time reposition Cruisers you can
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also do to and from Australia these days
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so for example when the ships reposition
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from us at the end of the Australian
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summer their summer season again around
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that March April time they head up to
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Japan and they'll go to places like
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Alaska or return to Europe for the
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Mediterranean season the fifth thing
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that I look at and I learned this a
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little bit the hard way is regional
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departures so you'll find particularly
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those regions where cruise ships don't
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sell a lot they will often be jam-packed
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full because you know the catchment area
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they don't have a lot of choice so
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everyone in that area will pile on now
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we discovered that when we started with
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San Diego on Holland America cunningstan
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because it basically you know Holland
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America doesn't sell out there that
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often and so it attracted you know a
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wide range of people and it was
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jam-packed full so lots of cruise lines
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between the U in North America like
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Carnival or Caribbean Norwegian are
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starting to sell out of smaller more
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Regional ports those those settings tend
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to be very full you'll see it even in
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places like the UK if they're selling
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out ships are selling out of Liverpool
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or Newcastle or Scotland those ships
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will tend to be very full because it's
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kind of unusual so if you can avoid
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Regional departures that's another way
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of avoiding busy busy ships the sixth
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option which is more limited but
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definitely works is to book adult-only
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lines or adult only ships now there
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aren't many of these but the advantage
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with those is they're unlikely to be
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sailing over 100 capacity because you're
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not going to have kids and people
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sharing cabins you don't have a lot of
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choice here so the the main ones you've
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got are Viking which is pretty costly
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then of course you've got virgin voyages
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which is selling out of uh you know
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selling the Caribbean they're selling
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the Mediterranean they're going to start
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selling in Australia and you know wider
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and more places that you have to be over
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18 to go on those Cruise Lines out of
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the UK you have slightly more options
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because piano cruises the big Cruise
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Line selling out the UK they have a
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couple of their ships dedicated to
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adults only Arcadia and Aurora at the
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time of recording you also got Saga
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cruises which you have to be 50 plus or
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traveling someone 50 plus to go on and
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even rather Cruisers which is part of
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Tui they will they held on some of their
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ships do adult only sailings but that's
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one way of course of sort of
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guaranteeing that it's probably going to
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be a worst case you know full capacity
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and those ships tend to be quite big and
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spacious anyway my seventh key tip which
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is one that I love both because I travel
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on as a Solo Traveler but if you see
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Cruisers that are doing a lot of solo
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deals that's a good one to focus on for
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two reasons one of which it normally
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means the ship is not selling full
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anyway so if they're starting to do lots
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of solo deals so for example I've just
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booked another Expedition cruise this
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time on Seabourn pursuit in Australia
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because they were doing a solo deal
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because I know it probably wasn't
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selling that well and many of my
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Expedition cruises I've chosen because
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they're doing solo deals and generally
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those ships have been required but if
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they if you see any selling that's doing
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a lot of seller deals it's a good one to
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choose because it's probably it's not
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selling very highly but even if it does
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sell highly you can have one person per
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cabin so it's a really great thing to
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look for even if you're not traveling
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solo of course another way to do it
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which is much more costly is to sail on
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smaller ships because they just are
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quieter so you can talk about things
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like Oceania which have about 1 200 but
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they have the smaller ships of about 700
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which is like Azamara as well the same
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r-class ships you've got Windstar which
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got even smaller you know 300 400 people
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but those are much more costly as are
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the more premium Ultra Luxury lines
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Seaborn silver sea Crystal region 7c
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they are smaller ships they have a very
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high per passenger per space ratio but
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that is going to be much more costly
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than any of the other ones that I have
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suggested if you have any great tips on
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how how to find Cruisers that aren't
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going to be jam-packed full let me know
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in the comments but before you do that
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why don't you take a look at this video
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where I talk about what to do if you've
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booked a cruise that you think is going
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to be really busy because I share with
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you how I deal and manage getting around
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crowd starting with one thing that no
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one ever thinks of but it's really
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simple and easy to do and works every
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time see you over there
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with cruise lines back to packing their
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ships full and selling out really easily
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I'm going to tell you how you can find
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Cruisers that are not going to be
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completely jam-packed fill the
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[Music]
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