LIVE CRUISE Q&A + New Cruise Announcement: Sunday 16 March 10am PT / 1pm ET/ 5pm UK

Name: LIVE CRUISE Q&A + New Cruise Announcement: Sunday 16 March 10am PT / 1pm ET/ 5pm UK | Humix Video
Uploaded: 2025-04-17T04:40:41+00:00
Duration: 1 h 4 min 16 s

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[Music] bud and welcome to the live stream here
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we are it's uh Sunday and uh I'm in London at the moment and it's great to
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have so many people already joining and loads and loads of questions and comments and so on so let's get started
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straight away with a couple of bits and pieces couple of housekeeping and as I mentioned in the overall thumbnail uh
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the thumbnail yeah the thumbnail the adver for thing I'm also going to be talking a little bit about um an upcoming Cruise so um just remind this
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is a live stream so if you wanted to ask a question write the word question at the beginning so that I know that that's
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a question it's not just part of the chitchat and um if you're watching this afterwards bear in mind everything that
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you hear uh today is driven by questions I I mentioned it before a lot of people say I don't like this form of video it
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is very much a live stream and you can watch some replay a lot of people do watch and replay so that's fantastic so I did mention that I was going to talk a
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little bit about uh Cruisers upcoming cruises things I've got planned and talk
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about a cruise that I've actually squeezed in this year beyond my existing plans so let me just remind you first of
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all my next Cruise coming up is one I'm really looking forward to although I look forward to all my cruises I guess
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but this one is because it's one of the most disgusted lines at the moment which is Explorer Journeys which of course is
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the luxury uh product set up by MSE Cruises uh so overall views are very
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strong although I have been following more recent reviews which are getting a little bit more mixed I guess as the ships are selling Fuller and uh things
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that are working not working out some things that people are complaining about I'm I'm experiencing that in some of the pre Cruise stuff but anyway we'll see
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how that goes I'm really looking forward to that this is the itinery so out of Barcelona going to mro which I've never
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been to going to Tanger and Casablanca both of which I have been to but not for very very very long time so looking
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forward to that some Canary Island stops back to jaas and Barcelona so really looking forward to that that's on the 3D
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of April so lots to report and then we'll see how the Wi-Fi goes we'll be able to do live streams from that um
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while I'm talking about live streams before I get into the next Cru coming up I just want to let you know that next weekend so I guess it's at the
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22nd uh so on whatever the next weekend is so on the Saturday uh much promise
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video will be coming out which is around how to cruise to Antarctica for less and all the kind of value options
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and different options I did work on that with um Martin Johnson from Polar Roots
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so they have a specialist uh travel agent that's what I'm looking for and I've worked with him
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to develop lots of stuff around how you can cruise to uh Antarctica and in fact
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the polar regions generally speaking for much less so that will be the video and then he's going to join me on the live
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stream next weekend so if you go to the channel um you'll see that you can put
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put a click There To Remind yourself so let me talk before I get into the questions around um the Cru that I've
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booked so basically if you go to my channel uh to my blog tips for travelers.com you'll see a little thing
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there which is called something like future Cruisers and I list all the Cruisers that I've got booked but I actually had a big gap in between this
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year I was going to cruise a little bit less because I'm going on to lots of long Cruisers so it's actually going to cruise a little bit less um and so but
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it was at home for nine weeks and I found that I just needed to have another Cruise so one of the things that I have been asked a lot to do is to update my
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European river cruising content so I haven't been on European river cruise since 2019 so pre kind of pandemic
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shutdown since then I've been um on a mikong river cruise I've been on na river cruise but I haven't been back in
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Europe so I'm really Keen to do that so I'm going to be heading back in July and
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I'm going to tell you what's quite interesting as we went to book because it also links to a question that I've seen uh already in the chat so I'm going
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to go on Avalon so I'm going back on Amma on Avalon waterways now I spent a
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lot of time thinking about which line I would go with now Avalon currently I I've been doing some analysis looking at
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the reviews of river Cru lines I did a video about it recently and Avalon is actually the highest scoring of the line
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River Cru lines at the moment it's obviously not the most premium line at the moment it's sort of um sort of 4ish
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five star I have been on them before but anyway I thought it' be good to go back um so going back to the Ry I've done the
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danu a couple times I've been on the Ry for a very long time my more recent ones were on the danu so I'm going to go on
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the the Ry from Amsterdam cologne rudish rudine mans for heidleberg sturg which
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is very beautiful and then fly back from Basel so that's seven nights in July now what's very interesting about this is I
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you know looking for late minute cruises can always be a little bit challenging in terms of pricing and that sort of
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stuff but actually I found quite a lot of availability Silver River cruising in Europe uh across most of the lines or
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many of the lines particular lines that have big fleets but actually what was great about Avalon Is Not only was there
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a lot of availability so I could get a cabin that I wanted but also there was surprisingly a lot of empty cabins and
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also they were doing a solo deal so I got it a solo deal on that instead of because River Cruis is crazy is pretty
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expensive anyway so that was that was very interesting so that's what I'll be doing um but before I do that I do have
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a couple of the cruises coming up so after the the that one I've got um a couple of princess crues and stuff we'll
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talk about that as we get into that so anyway that's what I'm doing um so let's get stuck into the questions I'm very
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excited to head back on to River cruising I have a sort of a a love haate relationship with River cruising so um
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it's really to see what I've also scene which appears to be in Avalon by the way is they become a more flexible with
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dining they really cranked up their actors excursions and so on right so loads and loads of questions um so let's
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get stuck into them I'll sort of go through them as quickly as I can and try and get as many and if not all of them
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done before um we end up from our hours up so what is your opinion of Fred Olson
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Cruzes Warren is asking me good to see here Warren so Fred Olson um I haven't been on Fred Olson for a while uh I am
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intrigued by Fred awon because they bought two of the H America ships uh which are in their Fleet which are
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Borealis and bolet now um but I haven't been on them I'm very intrigued they are very classic very British um you know
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some very classic lots of still dressing up uh kind of you know bow ties and kind
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of stuff it's probably one of the still most dressy kind of lines in terms of that kind of um you know formal night
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stuff um but very classic very traditional and pretty good value and so quite interesting itties they they sell
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out of the UK so xuk departure is definitely one with having look at people who love Fred dson are absolute
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die hards I mean when I went on people would have six seven cruises kind of all booked um up John asking the question um
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beautiful morning in Los Angeles is oceania's Serena ship still on ship for a 3-we voyage kept on to lbon
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considering its age a lot of it I mean I I really do like these old all class ships but you're right it is an older
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ship I mean really important is the bathrooms are tiny tiny tiny so um if
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you are going in anything other than their Continental Club or they call their Suites um the bathrooms are really
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tiny so for three weeks it could be a little bit tiome I've only been on for weekl long cruises on the sister ships
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but I really like the ships they're small they they're quaint the advantage of that itinery is they'll be going to lots of interesting ports of course um
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but it's it you know B if you haven't been on those ships before and you commit to three weeks you know with
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caution I guess but I do really like those but they people are very split um by by those um so Rebecca
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hi there Rebecca just booked my first kunard cruise I usually cruise with royal and Disney what differences should
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I expect and anything special I should take Rebecca you should probably expect
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almost everything to be different in many ways so I'm obviously I'm being a little bit dramatic there
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but not really they are a very different line to Royal and Disney so of course on Royal Caribbean you know there's are
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packed full of features Big Production shows you know lots of uh you know named
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shows huge amounts of entertainment is very much around the the kind of the the hardware if you like the you know the
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Monstrous big casinos you on the bigger Ro ships Disney of course you've got you know the characters and the theming and
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lots of activities Kuno is quite different Kuno is very traditional very classic uh Cruise Line uh there is
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although they have it's slowly been dialed back you know you're going to have more formal nights where people will dress up if you don't want to dress
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up obviously you go to the depending on what ship you're on King's Court or the leader whatever uh you know the buffet
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restaurant they do have some restrictions theoretically on where you can go if you're not in formal gear um
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so you theor can go to the casino of course because I want the money theore you can't go to the the theater and but
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you can go to Corinthia lounge and that kind of stuff but um but a little bit more dress up it's more classic so
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you're going to find you know your entertainment is going to be enrichment so you're going to have uh maybe four
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enrichment lect is on um you they normally have four enrichment lect one
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sort of headline but it's going to be enrichment you're can to have dance classes um if you're on obviously que
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Mar 2 which model is behind me there you can have the planetarium although that's very dated now um you know of te is a
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big feature so it's going to be much more sedate so you're going to find on Royal and Disney which are busy packed
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whatever you're also very likely to have not that many kids on depending on when you're going uh it doesn't have to have
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a lot of kids on obviously both Royal and Disney tend to have um more um more
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many more kids on terms of special you should take just have a look and decide how you're going to embrace the dress
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code um you know formal lights are not you know lot of people get very glammed up so just decide kind of what you what
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what you want to take from that perspective party Mafia what are your thoughts on themed cruises are they
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really worth jacked up prices well I would say absolutely if that is what you're very interested in so for example
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I'm a big fan of Star Trek I've not got on a Star Trek cruor keeps clashing with dates that I want to go on but you know
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I would go in there because I want the whole Star Trek Experience I want to meet the Stars I want to have the fans the parties the dressing up that people
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do um the q&as all that kind of stuff so obviously there's a lot layered on so if
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you're very interested in then absolutely so someone that was actually one of my uh Channel member patrons uh
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she went on a Hallmark Cruise because she's a massive big fan of Hallmark movies and it was very excited because
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they met some of the Stars you know Hallmark movies a lot of the Stars kind of you know keep doing the the different
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movies they move between the movies as it were she was very excited a great time so a lot of it hinges on if you're
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really passionate about a topic and you want to be with likeminded people as it
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were by the way there's a site which sort of fell away and then came back which is called themed Cruise Finder
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which is great for finding themed cruises everything from you know um needle point knitting through to of
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course this big Star Trek uh you know some of the boy bands have got them 90s themes that kind of stuff and that
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they're not always massively jacked up those big themed ones are um but if it's a smaller scale uh one it's it's less so
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Tom good to see you hello Gary uh a number of the Airlines Delta American and retailers
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Costco ABI and fit have lowered their revenue forecast hasn't been any weaking we weakening of cruise bookings so Tom
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in terms of all of the recent uh updates because you know they didn't quarter by
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the cruise lines there has not been any reported weaking weakening of cruise
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bookings as of yet uh but obviously with uh you know all the syney both from uh
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you know what's going with the war not going with the war and Ukraine is there going to be peace is there going to be peace or the instability uh with you
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know tariffs and and will there be inflation would there be inflation you know economic uh challenges I mean even
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the UK had very disappointing economic stuff uh before even you worry about any of the changes coming or not coming um
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so so they haven't reported any now very importantly one of the things is very interesting a lot of them have sold a lot of 2025 already now saying that um I
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actually had lunch with a friend of mine who works for well someone who become friendly with for many over many years
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is probably about 15 years something no maybe not that long maybe 10 years um who works for one of the cruise lines I
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I probably won't say which one just because you'll probably kill me if I say it but you know we were talking a lot
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about you know what a cruise booking is like not like there seems to be quite of s kind of flash sales happening at the
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moment as we head towards end the first quarter what she was saying is that across many of the brands um you know
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the the wave season which is which was sort of the beginning of the year here is a normally a really big uh sales
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period and they do expect to sell a lot uh in the wave period but the wave period was a little bit softer than it
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has been in the past um now because one of the things I did notice is you'll see
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quite a lot of ads popping up for Flash sales and it's important because we're
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coming up to end of a quarter so I'm guessing sales teams and stuff had a kind of a a Target to hit um so maybe so
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it could be that um but overall what the cruise lines are saying is less so now what we'll maybe get a better
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perspective in a couple of months time whether we see people are being more cautious uh with with booking Etc
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certainly I haven't seen so it's interesting a lot of those are us I guess you from a US perspective I haven't seen you know Airlines in Europe
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yet doing that but I will definitely keep an eye out for that as well and particular the cruise
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ones um Chris hi there good to see Chris uh regular and ask lots of great
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questions looking to the Eastern Med Koto deik split Venice very nice are
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there any current solid deals and ships you like I like the smaller doing Port type not a fan of 6,000 fet so um the
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the one no I don't know any off hand Chris so um as you know solid deals
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of what you should absolutely do is sign up for the email newsletter so if any solar deals come
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out um they will be announced in that um Crystal was doing a lot of solar deals uh currently all of sellings I don't
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know if they're doing the Eastern Med um but I guess you're talking your asamara Windstar is what you're really talking
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about there Oceania but I haven't seen any Sol deals on those there are a couple places if you look at Vacations
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To Go they have a little tab there solo which does bring up kind of any current
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solo deals and a couple of web uh couple of um specialist uh online travel agents that
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also list those that are worth looking at I can't remember the names of those but in my if you look at my solo video
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uh you just got the channel I put Solo in it'll come up there and I think also in the description but in the video I talk about a couple of special ones
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where you can just look and see if there's any currents goings to I didn't quite understand your
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question what is a financial rankings best to most exposed oh I see best to most exposed Cru um
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and so on and they all certainly are reporting fairly um strong financial obviously they're still paying back lots
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of debt so I can see a couple of times the visual has Frozen um I can see my Wi-Fi is playing up a little bit but
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certainly hopefully the audio keeps going but I can see certain this froing so hopefully that's uh sort of working
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okay even though it is freezing a little bit there um so sorry about that it's
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always a thing I run my tests and do all my test and then of course I guess it depends a little bit what's happening at the time hopefully that's that's um
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that's that's calmed down a bit so uh let's have a look now Neil I haven't
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actually heard so Neil's asking about Amazon River Cruisers which I you've heard good things about I haven't actually heard about Amazon River
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Cruises I haven't really followed that so I don't have any perspective on that I know there are in fact um Mark
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mcdanels who is follows channels on a Sil big silver SE cruise at the moment
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there sort of a little bit down the Amazon he showed me some of these river cruise is that head down there but they're very Rough and Ready they're
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kind of fairies and you bring your own hammock stuff and it takes days down there so I don't know if there's any more up Market on so I don't really know
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I haven't looked at it so I don't know unfortunately Neil So if anyone does have a better perspective please uh pop
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pop that pop that in um and Beyond I also don't know the answer to this I'm
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afraid River cruising on Viking from Bucharest to Amsterdam in July I'm looking for more Excursion vendors with
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more options of value can't seem to find many any idea so I don't anybody that specifically links to river cruise
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obviously via tour is always a good place to look because they obviously do
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link to uh you know landbased Travelers but they also my definition will link a
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lot to uh excursions that will work for River cruising so I would look at vior
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that's sort of my go-to one um and often if you look at vour you can sometimes
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sort of figure out from a tour you can sort of then kind of Google that tour and you might find out who the provider
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is but VOR would be my my my main kind of suggestion IA is in Bavaria which is
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Chile it's sort of it's it's nice and sun in London but getting Chile it's like we just don't seem to heading
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anywhere into into spring uh Fraser sees here which is great and I think you
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asked a question a bit later Fraser so we have a look at that uh the vocab Boys on
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Explorer uh yeah so I mean it's very interesting on Explorer because um as I was saying that you know overall you
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know comments are very very positive and it's just interesting I've seen more maybe it's because more people are going
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and stuff I've Just Seen A little bit of softening of it but if you look at their scores and their overall stuff a lot of
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it's more around some of the logistics side that people got frustrated with and certainly I've had some very frustrating
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experiences with the sort of the back office side not really working and left arm not knowing what right arm's doing
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but certainly the ships look great the food apparently is great so I'm really looking forward to that uh B Exar of all
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I like good it's good way making the the question part really pop there um like the little design feature of all the
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cruises SL trips you've been on which would you find the most surprising in that it was different from what you
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expected I think probably probably it's it comes back to Antarctica in many ways
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because I had expected Antarctica to be phenomenal and it way exceeded anything
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I had expected you know the problem when you always have very high expectations is um you know the danger is it's almost
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impossible for them to be matched but I would say that was still probably it was
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just you know it was just it was also very different the kind of it was a quite emotional experience which I
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hadn't really expected um I'm trying to think if there's any others that have
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been sort of underwhelming um I can't think of any if I do think of um some I will definitely
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throw those in Jeff is here great from Celebrity Equinox hope you're having a great time um and we see you may on porn
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Carol's group Cruise um Rebecca I'm going to visit London for
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four to five days before my cruise what would you suggest I do or is there a site that can tell me things to do so I
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can do even better than that I can I have a video that I made it's I made it quite a long time ago um I'm just GNA
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make a note to myself Rebecca um London I will put in the description of this
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live stream a link to my 10 things to do in London video um and uh they cover you
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know for me what are the must do things so I won't spend a huge amount of time on those uh necessary but I really focus
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on the kind of the iconic things that particularly if it's a first I don't know if you're a first-time visitor but particularly a first-time visitor should
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do uh you know so it's covering you know um Tower of London and Tower Bridge and
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that kind of stuff um so but there's a couple of other things that I would just throw in there which I touch on as well
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but there particularly if you're interested in history of course there's some phenomenal uh things uh that you
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can do so I cover in that thing things like the British museum the Tate that kind of stuff but there's some quite
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interesting things like churches War um rooms which are underneath Downing Street for example which are really
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fascinating the Imperial War Museum is really fascinating um you know that kind of stuff but I will leave that in there
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because I'll pop that in there because that'll probably do a better job than me sort of riffing riffing on it um I'm
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trying to think if there's anything that's new I don't since I did that video I haven't really updated that video because it's kind of this in
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London there kind of almost classic classic things to do um so I'm going to be missing Francis unfortunately by the
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looks of it going to be there so have a great time in the UK hopefully we have a nice warm April it's been pretty
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miserable Stacy asking do you have a review of the sun princess I don't but I will by July so in May I'm going on Sky
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princess which I think is my third or fourth time por and Carol uh you know porn Carol love to travel I'm going on
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that I'm booked on their group cruise and then in June June I'm doing some princess I really want to try out some
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princess uh particularly to see you know it's kind of a mega ship it's really big and so I'm really really intrigued um to
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to have a look at at that so I will have so on in June so probably by July I will have a review out there's quite a few
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other PE uh people have done it I'm trying to think who's done some Princess reviews recently
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um bu boy good to see you here always have good questions of course what are
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your thoughts on the lack of inclusions with season 20,000 uh dollar for cabin for typical seven night
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sailing I haven't looked a lot at at Four Seasons I'm obviously on the mailing list to make sure I'm getting
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their their bits and pieces and their stuff um but you know it's very interesting because I've seen a little
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bit with Ritz Carlton uh which is also crazy expensive and it does seem that
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those are following so much more a Hotel approach and almost in some ways are
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almost ignoring coming from a cruising perspective now my understanding talking
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I haven't been on the Ritz Carlton product but actually someone I know worked for a short time on the ship um
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I'm not sure they had a great time because they left not they didn't do very much that maybe one contract and didn't go back um and then I know a few
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people have been on it and what they were saying is their experience on those ships um is that they found it very
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heavily pulling in from the hotel guest so actually they they're creating
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experience the hotel guest is actually quite used to and doesn't see as unusual um so that seems to be the thing with
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Ritz Carlton now Ritz Carlton does have more inclusions so I'm sort of not surprised I mean certainly with us
24:14
coming in it seems as crazy because that's what you know when we look at our region and our crystals and so on but I
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just think they might be just approaching with very different mindset and maybe um they're not bothered about
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what El Cru think but to me it's like it's crazy I haven't gone over coton just because to me it just seems I just
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think it's crazy pricing um Christina is there any location in
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the Caribbean that you would recommend visiting without taking a cruise to get there well Christina there are quite a
24:45
few islands in the Caribbean that don't take cruises particularly some of the smaller ones um so
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um I you know so so I would almost look at um I'm trying to think now of because
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I haven't been to them gu so I don't know but I'm trying to think of where uh
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you does guadaloop is gu I can't remember if Cru has go to guadaloop I'm quite intrigued by that because they
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actually film there's a TV show in the UK which they film there it's like a a murder mystery kind of police thing that
25:17
really intrigues me but I don't know whether you can actually fly fly there Cruise there or or not so I'm probably a
25:24
bit rubbish Rosemary oh you in London for a couple of days in September fantastic I think I'm G depending on
25:30
when you're there I may going get to see you um because I'm away big chunk of September but what is the best place for
25:35
afternoon te well there are so many places of after te what I often recommend uh to people is to consider
25:42
Fort and Masons uh on picad just because it's such an iconic and famous store and
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um they they do an incredible afternoon tea have a whole floor on the fourth
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floor um and so it's kind of iconic and it's famous uh both the history you know
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it's got a royal warrant the actual t- room was opened by the late Queen Camila the current Queen and um Katherine so
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the kind Princess of Wales um so it was opened by the three of them together so
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there's a lot of kind of history and stuff in there now there's a couple of places that are great um which we're
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actually going to next weekend my my sister and my mother-in-law are coming to St next weekend and we're going to
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afternoon tea um so uh you and we're going to the langum which is opposite
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the BBC they're do an incredible afternoon tea now both of those are pretty costly so if it's a real big
26:35
event but I'm guessing that obviously if you want to be even more iconic you could go to the Ritz where you have to
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get very dressed up but I think Fort Masons Rosemary would be a good thing to a good one to consider just because it's
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kind of got so much um kind of like history and I I I icon also there great
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location because you near Picadilly circus and that sort of stuff um B Bo actually I mean it's interesting just
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com back to a point um I'm really intrigued first of all why celebrity are doing it I'm not really sure what they're going to bring differently so
27:05
I'm really intrigued to see what they do because the ships can only be so long So High by definition uh to go on the
27:10
rivers in Europe so what they can do in the ship is going to be extremely limited uh from a functions and features
27:17
perspective also to make the numbers work so the ships can't be very big unless they go only in the danu where
27:24
you know You' got um Amber water got the Magna which is the double sized ship but
27:29
very very limited on where it can go I mean they're talking about bringing three ships I'm not sure that they want to put them on the danub so I'm really
27:35
intrigued because from a hardware perspective what they can do is so limited because you're going to want to have at least 140 to 190 guests to make
27:42
the numbers work and the price is not to Crazy which means you have very little real estate to do anything so I'm really
27:48
really intrigued I I'm intrigued why they're doing it I I I'm I'm I'm a
27:53
little bit skeptical um to be honest but you know it's great that people are trying um and so I'm really intrigued
28:00
what why what they think they're going to bring uh different um because even from an Excursion perspective you know
28:06
when you're on the rivers of Europe your excursions are relatively limited because there's you're in old
28:11
towns where you've got castles Cathedrals Cobble streets and um you
28:16
know you got some wine places nearby some shadow that kind of stuff so also what you can do is pretty limited and it
28:22
tends to be quite heavily focused on European history and culture um
28:27
obviously you can do cycle tours and stuff but still it's very linked to that so I'm really I'm really really really interested uh to when they bring more
28:34
specifics out
28:44
uh so I can see it's dropping there about the uh Mike and carry good to see
28:49
you yes so good point about the time change the UK doesn't change times until
28:55
the weekend after next so both this weekend and next weekend in because it's
29:01
5:00 p.m. in the UK it's going to be um the 10:00 a.m. Pacific time and the 1
29:06
p.m East time but from the very last weekend that will that will then change but you're right it's a little bit uh a
29:13
little bit frustrating Mark after last week's show we were kot Queen an for August 25th for
29:20
Spain and Italy in Queen school for my wife um myself and my 15-year-old son how do we maximize The Experience so um
29:28
Marco I will probably actually pop in my kunard video I'm gonna make that note
29:34
there because I think that is really what it's what it will be be about so I think a little bit like probably what I
29:40
said to the lady earlier who it was what a name I sorry about that if I forgotten your name
29:46
already um it's around really looking to embrace the the whole that whole experience it's so um you know you know
29:54
being August you're probably going to have more kids on board so there's probably going to be more teens and stuff for your son to engage with um
30:00
they do have a Teens Club and a kids club um so and they will crank up their activities um I would also make sure
30:08
because you go on Queen and they have some quite interesting camaret entertainment in the bright light
30:13
Society so when as soon as you can I would book those um I think you can book them in advance but if not book them
30:20
when you're on there they have two different shows but definitely go to those they're really good fun um but the rest of us kind of just embracing that
30:26
whole experience of course being Queen Grill you can order off menu uh that you they have items there that you can order
30:32
you can order things off menu particularly your son might enjoy some of the stuff when they come and do the stuff by the table side um you know that
30:40
that would that's quite fun um let's have a look uh just want to
30:45
write the word question so I don't forget so I don't miss you shadad what cruise Insurance do you recommend so uh
30:52
insurance is very dependent on country but um you know basically you know what
30:57
you to make sure whenever you take out insurance for a cruise do make sure that it's got Cruise specific cover because
31:04
many uh of the insurance companies will offer insurance and then if you're going on cruise you need to buy pay a slight
31:11
premium now some of them already include Cruise so just check that it's got Cruise cover because obviously Cruise cover means that if you have to mediva
31:18
and stuff like that that is covered so that's probably the most important thing
31:23
I would say so make sure it's done also uh you can do things like Mr ports for example some policies will cover you if
31:29
you miss ports they will pay you out um but also really important make sure you have insurance at the time of booking
31:36
because as you know you have to pay final balance 90 days before and the cruise lines are you know cancellation
31:41
penalties are are very strict as it were so you you often end up uh end up missing missing out there Tom saying the
31:48
Facebook link not working I will check that I'll see I'll do a thing afterwards uh if they they have a problem because I
31:54
use on streamyard so sometimes it uh it uh it gets a little bit out of
32:00
sync but I will check that steal M how do you compare H America with small
32:06
ships for slightly more exotic tines South America uh Panama Canal so a lot
32:12
of it depends on uh which s because obviously they have got the more visista
32:18
class ships which are about 2,000 they've got the bigger ships um so I have done Holland America on South
32:24
America and I'm actually doing a much bigger South American trip with America um and because they're quite long what I
32:31
like about um the bigger ship is you just have a lot more Choice few more
32:36
choic of dining venues more entertainment so actually from that perspective there's kind of a little bit more going on on the ship on a smaller
32:42
ship obviously it tends to be slightly uh lower lower key um I found you know
32:48
if you compare um ports of call when I looked at some smaller ships a lot of
32:54
the places particularly on South America where H in America went and and the smaller ships were going were basically
32:59
the same so there wasn't a lot of differences um obviously with Panama Canal really important because if you
33:05
got the smaller ship you can get through the old Canal so on on H America you need to go on the smaller Vista CL ships
33:11
if you want to go through the old Canal the bigger ones will go through the um the new the new kind of canal locks um
33:19
but certainly but you know certainly when I look at comparing so for example they did a circum navigation of
33:24
Australia uh the smaller ship did have some better ports because there are some very smaller out of way places so they
33:31
where they would contender in it was small enough you know H America there too many people to want to go to constantly deports with tendering in um
33:38
so a lot of it you know the mix and match so for example if you go to Asia uh if you got Shanghai on the list
33:44
smaller ship much better because you can go right into the bunt if you're going to Vietnam you can go into Shanghai you
33:50
you not an hour and a half out of out of town so I think a lot of it hinges around which part of the world you you
33:57
go to would be my thing I think that's what you're asking hopefully hopefully that's uh that's what that's what you're
34:04
looking for um so D hope you saw that you might have I don't know if you here
34:10
at the beginning of the thing but I'm going on Explorer uh is my next crew so you will have that
34:18
um Echo Bravo so your crew member video reinforc how grateful I am for crew efforts and did nothing to reduce my
34:24
over tipping impulses do you ever suggest a policy for tipping especially in Europe so those I should have actually put that there so my video this
34:31
week is around things that people don't really know in my experience about crew
34:36
uh so it's things I've gained was sparked by some discussions I had over dinner where I did learn things I
34:42
thought I knew a lot about the crew um when I had dinner with some officers and I realized there's a couple of things I didn't know so I spent a
34:49
little crew um both you know on the ship people used to work on the ships and I
34:54
pulled up a whole lot of things which um uh which I think are quite surprising
35:00
that's this week's video so take a look at that if you haven't seen that so um do I have a suggest policy for tipping
35:06
especially in Europe um I don't have anything you'll find generally speaking
35:12
tipping in Europe tends to be lower than in the US so in the US I just get flabbergasted when you see like it's you
35:19
know it's now kind of your options are like 18 20% whatever certainly in Europe it tends to be uh lower uh you know
35:26
you're talking more like 10 15% so uh that's really sort of where you probably
35:32
want to pitch it you will be very popular if you do and certainly you know often you won't in my experience you
35:38
know you know in the US people will tip the bomb and know a couple of dollars that's more unusual in Europe in my
35:44
experience so they would that would certainly go down very well if you do that um steo just asking do I have plans
35:51
to celebrity River Cruz when they come in in 2027 I think they're coming in I would absolutely want to try because I really wanted as I mentioned ear I
35:57
really want to see what on Earth are they doing and bringing uh that is truly
36:03
truly different frasa has a question um what are you most interested in about Explorer also what are your first
36:10
impressions of Explorer I'll be intrigued to see them Terror so my I'm most interested um in uh overall where I
36:18
think they fit within the cruising world because you know and come back to I
36:23
think what the the boa boys were talking about earlier know they've been on their view was they felt it settled more
36:29
within the luxury space than the ultr luxury space certainly that's sort of where I suspect I might find them
36:36
because certainly the ship is way bigger than the Ultra Luxury ships so I'm intrigued to see where I
36:42
think they fit uh I'm very intrigued to see the ships all the tours and things I watched look very beautiful um the food
36:49
sounds very it looks very good I'm intrigued to see whether they are delivering on the sort of the the where
36:56
they fall in the luxury Ultra luur the service certainly the attention to
37:01
detail has not impressed me so far uh as I mentioned the back off of stuff things like you know I can't book online
37:07
because I book to a travel agent and someone says that's nonsense you should be able to book and then you speak to someone else and they said that's lot of
37:14
nonsense so just that kind of it's very um they did a thing where you're
37:21
supposed to fill out um your preferences the link doesn't work so just kind of little things like
37:27
that and I have been following some critics where people are saying they've been very disappointed because when they got on board their reservations for
37:33
excursions weren't there they lost their excursions their dining reservations were there they lost their PR
37:39
dinosur but I'm very very excited um to see how to see how that goes um the
37:47
we've traveled on land on our own and taken day tours we've tipped the guides
37:53
we're taking Viking river cruise if we take this ship provided to us do we tip the guides again it's entirely up to you
37:58
you'll find that most people do um because the guys are so used to
38:04
having particularly lot of Us North American uh Travelers uh US Canada so on
38:10
who tend to be more uh I guess forthcoming with tipping they kind of do
38:16
sort of expect to so I certainly would normally tip the guides because the guides are independent contractors uh
38:22
they don't work for for Viking as you know they're not employed I'm sure they do a lot of their work for Viking
38:28
but they're not employed by Viking so yes um so vooys I think I've probably so
38:34
so asking a question around um my I guess you're talking about with Seaborn
38:39
um did I learn anything more around what their plans are so so very much
38:45
following the line that I think we've probably seen sold that the other ship to the
38:51
Japanese because they got an offer they couldn't refuse decisions on ship sales or made kind of the corporate level
38:59
rather than the Brand
39:05
level it it's expanded across but they still see they um they have a lot of
39:11
capacity they are very optimistic so they were I came away a feeling they
39:17
were quite upbeat about it I mean they're releasing you know the 27 uh World Cruise which actually a lot later
39:22
than other people's because silver sea launched their 28 River Cru this uh oh
39:27
did I say River Cruise will Cruise um already and SE just launched their 27
39:34
but certainly I felt they were fairly focused um but again I guess you know it
39:39
depends what um what uh corporate has but certainly
39:45
they seem they were making lots of plans very busy Rosemary I'll be saying the
39:50
President Hotel I don't actually know the President Hotel to be honest um I have not of that hotel that's I guess
39:57
when you live in a town you don't know always know the ins and outs of the hotels is it worth booking the Faulty Towers dining experience there so I have
40:04
never been to that I've seen some really fun reviews I would say if you're a big fan uh def go for it uh there's also a
40:11
Faulty Towers um West and play on as well at the moment um so you may want to balance between those two if you're a
40:18
big Faulty Towers fan I haven't been to the Faulty Towers I've I've seen some pretty good reviews about it so um but I
40:24
can't give that on firsthand experience the show has also got very good reviews both from critics and from kind of puns
40:32
as it were um starv Menin follow up last week if I
40:40
do a around the Japan plus teack Tac I don't know what T I'm not
40:46
sure I might be able to figure out what Tac is and my bro just the Japan Le can
40:52
he stay at the same c as he super room so I'm guessing you mean you do around Japan and you're doing you're doing a
40:59
longer part of the cruise uh that's what I think you're asking again you have to need to double check with the cruise
41:05
line but it sounds if they're selling them as separate legs you're G to find it much easier to do um by putting
41:12
putting him on and stuff but generally speaking uh it should be fine uh you know because you you booked a cabin for
41:19
two people or you might even booked a cabin for three people if there's two of you if you put a c that can hold three
41:25
if he's coming in as a third person and you might find there's an extra charge um for him uh to to do that but um I
41:34
often look I often book Things solo and I'll add Mark on or I'll take mark off whatever so it's normally fine um and
41:42
the price on gets adjusted so if you're going if you've booked say the round Japan as a solo and then you want someone else to come on there will be an
41:49
adjustment upwards in the fair because they will add on port fees for example uh or if youve booked him on and take
41:56
him off they might go down down a little bit because they take port fees office not a lot but generally speaking again
42:01
you need to check with the line obviously they need to know he's coming he needs to be on the Manifest and so on PA and Carol here which is great good to
42:07
see Paul and Carol um I'm actually I want to was gonna give a shout out actually want to post about this P Carol
42:14
Of course were on my group Cruise in September series about their time on the
42:20
group crw the first video is out I will actually put a a link to that in uh in
42:27
the um description as well um so if you're interested to know what going on a group cruise is like and if you've
42:33
never watched one Carol uh to get an insight into them um take a look at that so good to
42:39
see they just booked if you if follow on Carol you probably followed their live
42:45
where they booked a fantastic big round trip all around New Zealand Australia and all the islands and stuff for next
42:51
year I think it is remember correctly and the next cruise that I my third Cruise after this one no am I doing a
42:59
cruise in terrible I um so my next Cruise as I mentioned is the uh so I'm
43:06
just checking that got my facts wrong yeah my next Cruise in my next Cruise in April is Explorer one after that in May
43:13
is with Paul and Carol on their their group Cruise so I'll be able to be a passenger and enjoy without all the
43:20
stress and running around which is uh which will be fun of to The Shard people are saying yeah is quite that is pretty
43:26
good um Tom saying there's a lag in terms of uh the FaceTime so thanks very much for
43:32
that Jason um what are the advantages of doing a shoulder season Cruise in Alaska
43:40
so Jason the advantages are uh a couple in fact I'm thinking actually of
43:45
updating um my Alaska videos um I can always see this time of the year more
43:51
malaska videos kind of get a bit of uplift I guess people are starting to to plan but anyway so advant shoulder
43:57
season is generally speaking it's a little bit uh less costly so you've got you know the peak that July August uh
44:04
into September is very busy obviously it's school vacation time uh ships are very full so generally speaking it's a
44:11
little bit um less costly ships also tend to be a little bit less manic uh they still be very busy in Alaska but um
44:18
once you head into the school holiday period whether it is you anywhere in the
44:23
world is you'll find a lot of uh multigenerational families you'll find a the ships are very very full because
44:30
many many many many cabins are selling with four people in uh you know Mom Dad
44:35
uh kids whatever or you know M and M and kids and down whatever the combinations are these days but um you'll find it's
44:43
very full so like I've been even in even late June like wow it's busy so you'll generally find ships will be a little
44:49
bit quieter obviously the ports should by definition then
44:54
be uh now your mind obviously if you doing the beginning of the season so the
44:59
May into June uh it's actually tends to rain a little bit less so one of the advantages going May early June is can
45:05
be quite good weather um once you get late obviously it's getting a little bit colder um so the downside is you know
45:10
the big Wildlife time is more in the July starts but generally speak is a
45:17
little quiet list but manic I personally like going on on in the shoulder uh in
45:22
in the shoulder Seasons D I have no specific tips um on Vikings Homeland
45:27
Cruise in May I'm not sure I know what the Homeland cruise is unless I'm guessing it's a Norway Cruise um so I
45:35
don't off hand um but if there is if there's anyone who knows has better tips
45:41
than me then please do Jeff common question a little fancy
45:46
design there our T was changed on board Celebrity Equinox key Western Bahamas Cru due to unexpected high winds in K on
45:53
Tuesday therefore the jumbled off Port days and guessing there a second part
45:58
there may be a question there I don't know but hopefully you get hopefully you get to go to all the ports um I've seen
46:04
actually I I hadn't realized until I was watching the news at lunchtime and then looked at it that there's been these big
46:11
is it hurricans not hurricanes um big storms going through the US with quite a few people losing their lives which is
46:16
had realized that was I don't know if that's a a side effect of that but it sounds pretty horrific so that hopefully
46:21
that um that situation kind of gets sorted and and calms down Rob which
46:28
Cruise Line would you recommend for a budget no fly cruise from the UK so Rob in terms of some of the best budgets
46:34
you're going to get is on MSC cruises now MSE is very divisive some people
46:40
love them some people ABS hate them but absolutely the some of the sharpest prices you're going to get are on msse
46:46
and they they have ships based in the UK during the summer uh out of Southampton um so they you will get
46:54
phenomenal phenomenal deals there now also take a look at pno because pno particularly they have shifted much more
47:00
into a value line these days particularly with the big ships uh you know like Iona and AIA always pronounce
47:08
it incorrectly um but certain those big ships you can get some very good deals also Ambassador which tends to be a
47:15
slightly older crowd know because like um MC will get lots of families and that
47:21
um stuff like that the same on princess sorry same on um Pino these days much
47:27
more families particularly in the cor summer period but Ambassador tend to be more couples kind of stuff um because
47:34
they don't take kids I think they have I think they have some very specific uh um
47:41
multigenerational cruises and Mella is the other one mura is extremely popular
47:46
they are also very good value allinclusive kind of stuff very famous for their very good entertainment so you
47:51
have quite a lot of choice from the on the budget side um from a noly cruise out of the UK in the the summer period
47:58
um so let's have a look um just rather
48:03
with question so I don't miss any of the questions uh like I did Miss Swan what
48:10
is the cruise you would recommend for a 30- yearold couple going on their first cruise in the United States something
48:16
not too long maybe three to four days so I don't know how to pronounce your name so I I won't mask your name because I'm
48:23
sure I'll get it wrong um so basically if you're looking for 3 to four day cruises uh take a look at Royal
48:29
Caribbean Norwegian and possibly Carnival but certainly I would I would take a look at roal Caribbean and
48:35
Norwegian they sell short three to four nighters out of Florida um they probably do they do sort of longer cruises from
48:42
other places but out of Florida you have lots of choice um so you're going to find uh you know high energy lots of
48:49
attractions lots of kind of you know everything from flow Riders to incredible shows lots of do you'll find
48:57
lots of 30y olds 20 year olds 40 year olds kids stuff it it's it's kind of um
49:03
it has a younger Vibe but the great thing is you know find of Florida they'll to Bahamas or uh you know
49:09
they'll go to their private islands um perfect day kind of stuff I would
49:14
strongly recommend you take a look at those I mean you could um I I would focus on those because I'm
49:21
thinking you know virgin virgin do I think more five NS they might do four NS but virgin is uh if you want to make
49:28
sure you have kids and stuff um they are you know they're 18 plus only uh so I
49:34
mean the average is on the ships probably about 50 so it does tend to be kind of still on the younger side you get lots of younger people particular on
49:40
those short three and four days um so those those are the ones that I would sort of focus on um so you have quite a
49:46
lot of choice actually um oh okay so Jeff here's the Same by the question I
49:52
checked Venture sh and Sh exclusion group and they both still have their old end rescheduled do they upda in
49:57
situation V tool seems like the an option so Jeff um they tend to flex but they often don't actually update their
50:03
website because I think generally speaking you have to have booked seven days before if I remember correctly so
50:09
down Venture sha so so I don't know if they still got bookings open but they tend to close once the creu starts and
50:15
then they shift they will shift around for people are booked so uh but you could I would suggest try to kind of
50:21
emailing them or phoning they do have contact to see if they are have availability of stuff um but I think
50:28
that's right it's sort of why they sort of they sort of close down and they do more Ono one I think that's the situation right VOR uh because they're
50:35
not so linked to the itinerary uh could could could be could be the the the
50:41
answer there Megan is it better to book excursions before you travel and now EAS
50:46
you to cancel I don't want to commit too early due to traveling with El M so
50:52
Megan this a little bit hinges on the cruise line that you're on but basically
50:57
what I would say is I would always uh book excursions early particularly if
51:02
there's ones that you really really want to do because pretty much all Cruise Lines will allow you to cancel with
51:09
normally it's a 48 hours if you've got to say a port the next day on embarcation day they will normally let
51:15
you cancel up to 6 pm on that day it might be 5:00 P p.m. but they'll give you a time once you've embarked to
51:21
cancel and that's without penalty so that's very important now the downside of course is what happens is many of the
51:28
cruise lines if you're going I don't what cruise line you're on but if you're going on many of the premium some the luxury lines and certainly s more mass
51:35
lines you often have to pay at the time that you reserve the excursions now some of the Ultra Luxury ones like silver sea
51:42
Crystal they only charge you once you're on board uh so you have more Flex there
51:47
and also but generally speaking they will refund the full amount now F there
51:53
one line but I can't remember which it is it might have a small penalty if you
51:58
cancel on board um but but the downside is you might have to pay for the excurs but but you will find you'll get them
52:04
back now if you look whatever Cruise Line you're on when you go to the excursions page you will see terms and conditions but I tend to book uh
52:11
excursions that I want and cancel um and get my money back I don't think I've ever lost money on anything I feel was
52:17
one line I did it might have been H America but just double check the terms and conditions but I will often any
52:23
excusion that I want to do because you don't want to miss out on excusion so for example um you know when I went not
52:29
so long ago on a South America trip I knew there's going to be limited availability in all those ports and I
52:34
booked all my excursions and then what happened is people lot of people close to the cruise and when they're on board
52:40
went to book in the forlands uh because there was you know that was the only place you could see Penguins all the
52:46
penguin excursions completely sold out and people were really upset because they just couldn't get on them but um I
52:51
knew that I had them because i' got them early other people might have you know canceled them um but uh you know later
52:57
on but I would I would that would be my that would be my thing Christina I'm selling on crystal
53:04
seran Junior Sola cabin very nice they're very cute cabins do do you know if they offer upgrades as we get close
53:10
to the sell update or is an option to upgrade on board both of those Christina so what you will get um closer to the
53:17
cruise is they will give you an opportunity to bid for an upgrade so um
53:23
they will do that now what you probably want to do is you get that is go and look at the sailing and see how much
53:28
availability is because the ls they're sort of automated so even I've looked I've been on cruises before where like
53:34
they you've been able to bid for upgrades and I know that the grade above is are completely full I guess it's
53:39
cancellation so people not showing up so definitely um you know you'll get that chance to Bid And yes definitely once
53:45
you're on board um if it's not full you do have an opportunity say do you have any upgrade options now crystal is not
53:52
generally selling full um overall although in June I'm guessing you probably by then is STI back in Europe
53:59
um my understanding is European sellings are looking quite full when I was talking to them on board but you have a couple of options unlike many other
54:05
lines which um will do the upgrade option but once you're on board they're normally setting full so very little but you definitely do have uh you do
54:12
definitely have more uh more options deara we came back from Panama
54:19
Canal exion to Kanga uh I get it's Kanga if I remember correctly I kept
54:25
pronouncing it correctly I got paranoid about doing the wrong pronunciation do you think it's too dangerous a place to
54:31
be in the first place no I didn't find that at all we did a walking tour of of there um I'm glad I sort of went on an
54:37
escort walking tour because see the gues were more hassle I'm phased see who was here I know he spoke about he did his
54:43
own self tour Darren spoke about he felt pretty safe um but um did feel a bit harassed the advantage was we had
54:50
someone who just warned us don't do that watch out for that um so uh you know
54:55
there was little sort of scam thing with ladies with the fruit on the head which would sort of encourage you to take a picture and then give you a hot time
55:02
about giving money and stuff so um but no uh uh but and certainly That
55:09
Old Town you know it's very busy it's very packed there's lots of tourists and stuff around um P Carol is sterio on on
55:16
Facebook as well uh Swift swift 55 I'm guess it is do you still have a trip
55:22
plan for anarctica this year which line are you going on so no I I've I have it it's only January 27 which is the Ross
55:30
SE and it's on Pont uh so I uh so it's not until 27 beginning of
55:37
27 so it's not this year or next year it's beginning of the year after so that will be my fourth time to anartica which
55:44
uh uh which is very exciting um po transformation asking about tips
55:51
we can talk a lot actually about this also next week with Mar chose appropriate even the tips
55:57
included so I tipped I didn't tip the Expedition leader but I did tip my cabin
56:02
students because they were just so fantastic um but I I I did tip extra just because the two chemistries I had
56:09
were just brilliant they were really good very helpful very proactive um they were just super so I did I didn't tip
56:16
the Expedition leader and Expedition team um myself but I think some people did but but I I didn't um so yeah um
56:25
Helen asking the question we're going off first crws in a week and worried about our luggage being stolen from the hallway does this happen or is it just
56:31
my suspicious uh New York nature so no um it it doesn't the only I've only ever
56:37
once heard and only heard it recently about luggage being Cruise luggage being stolen and it was a passenger that stole
56:45
the luggage uh in the hall uh you know after the luggage gets taken off um and
56:52
they stole some luggage and eventually got tracked down through I think Apple uh air tags um but now I have never
56:59
heard of luggage being stolen um I did hear about when I went recent Cruise
57:05
where luggage got put on the wrong ship to the other way around which is I'd never heard of before but some luggage
57:10
got put on the wrong ship um which is very unusual I don't really know how that happened um it was in a very busy
57:16
kind of Port um but no because it to be honest with if if a passenger took it it's
57:24
going to be almost impossible to get off because you you can't well you could as suppose yourself dismark but no um but
57:30
what I would encourage lock your luggage stuff as you would probably do anyway I always lock my luggage um but I think
57:37
it's pretty I think it's pretty it's pretty safe from from that perspective
57:43
um PO is saying 4 Australia South Pacific and New Zealand is what they're doing Tom when will your Crystal video
57:51
be available so my crystal video is um I've got actually two videos coming out
57:57
one is going to be focusing on the crystal experience and I'm going to be focusing on the ship and I they will be
58:03
out I could have a quick look I will tell you when they are scheduled
58:08
um let have a look so basically what I do with my videos since you ask a question I'm actually going to
58:14
physically look at my little schedule so my crystal Cruisers video will come out
58:20
on the 20 they'll both come out on the 29th of March I'm actually going to put them out at the same time because I
58:25
don't do a lot of ship tours as you know so um and this is more focused on the ship but it's very integral to the story
58:31
and my crystal Cruisers video would be too long so they're due to come out on the 29th of March uh when they come out
58:37
but they will go out earlier uh I do an early release of my videos at least a
58:43
week someone's longer before which will probably be the case on this one um to my patrons uh so I release them early uh
58:51
Early Access ad free at least a week before they go live on the channel um if you're interested in becoming a
58:58
patreon by the way patreon.com tips for travelers that's some the perks amongst amongst those bits and pieces um let's
59:06
have a quick look cruising tips what is the best tip you were ever
59:13
given by somebody else wow that's a good
59:18
challenge what is the best tip you ever given by somebody
59:23
else I'm going to say and this is a little little bit left Feld I'm going to say the best tip I was ever given by
59:29
somebody else was to go on a cruise um because I would never have
59:35
ended up where I am today if I hadn't got that so the reason I said is I was
59:40
my very first cruise was as a speaker on a ship that was being charted for a
59:47
marketing conference it's in my when I was working in marketing I was the marketing director of the of Johnson
59:52
Johnson UK at the time and they asked the so they CH a ship once a year that
1:00:00
was all marketing people and advertising agencies and they had people doing talks and it was sort of like a sales compassing they had lots of supplies
1:00:06
selling stuff anyway so they approached me and asked me if I would do a talk on that and I was like I I like I like
1:00:13
doing talks at the time um and I think they'd seen me speaking at another conference and but it was on a ship and
1:00:20
like want to go a cruise ship and someone else in the office had actually been on one of uh the uh the ship that
1:00:28
was going on before and they're like go on this ship go go go you not only
1:00:34
because you'll enjoy the lecture and stuff but you'll I think you'll love the ship that was probably the best tip that
1:00:39
I've ever been given is actually give give it a go I'm not sure that's quite what you were looking for but that was
1:00:45
that was what came came into my head I'm sure I probably think about that and think of something um a little bit a
1:00:51
little bit better um Jim and came here which is great so Jim came made years go got just
1:00:57
before pandemic it's 2029 if remember in November on board Insignia that's sort of the ship so Camy uh and Jimma booked
1:01:04
on Insignia from New York to Bermuda been to Bermuda many times before any recommendations for a hidden Jam to
1:01:10
visit things to see visit or Dine anything is a play I don't have any
1:01:18
hidden gems I've only called to M once and uh I don't have any hidden genders
1:01:25
so I'm hoping hoping that somebody else here who's been many more times than I can absolutely give do and Camy a tip so
1:01:33
sorry to let you down Jim and Camy but please if anybody's got uh a good tip then please please please live it for
1:01:40
those um and have a fabulous fabulous time
1:01:45
um let's have a look um rap on T let's just do one more question have you ever
1:01:51
done a nor Cru any thoughts I basically try to avoid them if I possibly can
1:01:57
because um they tend to be expensive so I'm assuming this is when the ship goes into service the first time now I know
1:02:03
some Cruise Lines will do an inaugural in the Caribbean when they've been sailing in in Europe for a while they'll do an inaugural because it's the first
1:02:09
time they've been there but I'm assuming you're talking like maiden first uh out of the blocks kind of thing so I tend to
1:02:15
avoid them because they tend to be pretty costly because they're normally a premium people want to go on them and
1:02:21
you can always always expect probably that things aren't quite going to go to plan because the
1:02:29
crew are new the ship is new it's not firing on all cylinders as it were um so
1:02:34
I tend not to go I prefer to wait a couple of months in and go so even like with with with uh when Crystal uh
1:02:41
revamped I waited for that out for a while even with Explorer I waited for while even with Explorer 2 I didn't book
1:02:47
it when Explorer 2 first came out I waited since it's been in service a while so I mean if if you really want to
1:02:53
go to have the the the uh the the the bragging rights the whatever of going on
1:02:59
in nor so for example I once went to a Seaborn naming ceremony on call and they
1:03:05
had a whole big section of people have been on every single Seaborn ship uh made in Voyage because that's what
1:03:11
people did but generally speaking I tend to avoid those I have been on a couple of Shakedown cruises which are quite
1:03:18
interesting when the ships first come out of the uh the shipyard they invite sort of you know travel agents and media
1:03:25
stuff for a couple of days um to just do kind of dry run it that's kind of interesting but the problem is um they
1:03:32
often like only 30 50% full so they're not true so I tend I do tend to kind of
1:03:39
uh do tend to kind of avoid those so thanks very much everybody for joining me there's a couple of questions there I
1:03:44
just haven't quite got to there um so sorry about that we' run have time but I
1:03:50
will be back next Sunday same time remember in the US it's slightly different to my usual times um so have a
1:03:57
great rest of the weekend I really appreciate you join me thanks for the Fantastic questions take care and remember you can go watch that crew
1:04:03
video now see you
1:04:13
[Music]

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