I've never cruised before, but am educating myself about repositioning cruises, as they seem like a good way to maybe avoid jet lag and see some interesting things on the way to a major destination. Yours is the best video I've seen so far regarding cruises. Both of you are charming and informative. Thanks very much for sharing your experiences!
Thanks so much, I'm glad you found the video helpful. We don't cruise as often as we'd like but we love to take them when we can and especially when they make sense as transportation. We hate jet lag and they help so much for that! Hope you find a terrific itinerary for your first cruise! 😀👍
May 7, 2024. Currently on a transatlantic cruise. Totally agree with choosing room carefully. I got a low center cabin out of concern for seasickness. I would recommend at least a porthole outside room of some kind. We traveled eastward, loosing an hour almost every day. Not having a window reference of morning arriving was an issue. We have had beautiful calm trip and are in the Canaries right now. Also, we are right under a piano bar- no sleep until 12:30pm.
Avoiding music and activity venues is one of my biggest concerns with cabins. We've got lucky the few times we've let them pick our room for us, but dealing with that kind of noise seems like it would be challenging. I did talk to a couple once who were able to go to customer service and was able to move to a different room, and while that of course is dependent on availability, if I was in that situation I would at least want to ask! PS - we still haven't been to the Canaries, but I really really want to go! Hope you're having a blast!
We took our 1st transatlantic cruise April 2023 for 14 days on Celebrity Beyond and enjoyed it immensely to Rome. It was our 1st time with Celebrity. Today I learned from you about Airalo. We are planning an Asian itinerary in the future and thank you very much for the tips!
We definitely find the longer cruises to be much more enjoyable. Asia is one of our favorite regions (the food is so good!), I'm always looking for cruises to get there but for whatever reasons the options are limited. And yes, Airalo is a terrific option, physical SIMs might be a better bargain but you can't beat the convenience of an eSIM!
Thank you Robb and David! You answered questions I have had and made me think of things I never considered before. I like the message board. Love ya! ❤
We do the same with the crew we want to remember. Though sometimes it’s hard to justify a photo with someone, so we make sure we make a phone note immediately.
We've been on several cruises and the worst cruise we experienced was in 2022 on AIDA Cruiselines. It was so bad, we disembarked in Portugal halfway through the 12-day cruise. My wife still feels bad because she selected that cruise. We're currently researching a Repositioning Cruise to Europe and found your videos. Thanks for the information!
Yes, all cruises are not created equal lol. The important thing is to know what your priorities are and search by those metrics. Sorry your other cruise was not what you expected, but I bet it has given you a lot of information about what not to do! Hopefully all your next cruises will be better 😀
Great video guys. It’s interesting to me how you mentioned that with a Norwegian included drink package you were still required to pay the tips. Bookings from Australia are all inclusive (I guess that’s because tipping is not a real “thing” here). I liked David’s last tip. On a a Norwegian BTB 21 night cruise we did, there was an excellent jazz group. We listened to them every night. On the final night I mentioned how they were the best group I’d heard with the exception of a jazz pianist on Royal Caribbean. Turns out they had worked with her and were friends. We had a photo together which I sent to Manda (the pianist on Royal) as we are Facebook friends. Manda was so excited to see the members of the group again. We all still keep in touch on Facebook. 🙂
That is a great story. I'm sure the industry is relatively small, it makes sense the long-term employees/entertainers would get to know each other over time as they move between contracts. And that is great that it is all-inclusive pricing for you, tipping is just another way to add more "fees" to make the price look lower than it actually is. I wish we could move towards that but businesses love their extra fees. Do your prices also include port fees and taxes? Those are also listed separately for us.
@@tendegreeswarmer yep. All port charges and taxes included. As a matter of fact, a port charge was lower than expected for some reason,so when we disembarked, we actually received a credit on one of our credit cards for the port charge that we didn’t know we had paid in the first place. 🙂
Can't wait to hear about it! Is this the Santiago - Buenos Aires route? Be sure to get up early to watch the fjords in Southern Chile, it was so worth losing some sleep for.
Great video and good tips thank , we travel the most with Norwegian but service has gone down , and the entertainment has been cut on there ship and we love the big shows. Do you recommend a cruise line for big show and entertainment ?
We definitely noticed the reduction in entertainment options on Norwegian for our Transpacific last year, but I was hoping that it was just a combination of an exceptionally long cruise with the post-pandemic reduction in services. I really hope they return to their normal levels of entertainment, because previously we've always really enjoyed what NLC has to offer. That said, we like the smaller ships, and they are generally too small to hold those giant theaters that have the big book musicals. I'm very curious to try a mega ship one of these days, but we are crowd averse so keep choosing the ships that hold around 2000 passengers or so. The most important thing for me is that there is an Observation deck, or some other indoor public space to sit and spend time that isn't a pool or restaurant or hallway.
I've never cruised before, but am educating myself about repositioning cruises, as they seem like a good way to maybe avoid jet lag and see some interesting things on the way to a major destination. Yours is the best video I've seen so far regarding cruises. Both of you are charming and informative. Thanks very much for sharing your experiences!
Thanks so much, I'm glad you found the video helpful. We don't cruise as often as we'd like but we love to take them when we can and especially when they make sense as transportation. We hate jet lag and they help so much for that! Hope you find a terrific itinerary for your first cruise! 😀👍
May 7, 2024. Currently on a transatlantic cruise. Totally agree with choosing room carefully. I got a low center cabin out of concern for seasickness. I would recommend at least a porthole outside room of some kind. We traveled eastward, loosing an hour almost every day. Not having a window reference of morning arriving was an issue. We have had beautiful calm trip and are in the Canaries right now. Also, we are right under a piano bar- no sleep until 12:30pm.
Avoiding music and activity venues is one of my biggest concerns with cabins. We've got lucky the few times we've let them pick our room for us, but dealing with that kind of noise seems like it would be challenging. I did talk to a couple once who were able to go to customer service and was able to move to a different room, and while that of course is dependent on availability, if I was in that situation I would at least want to ask! PS - we still haven't been to the Canaries, but I really really want to go! Hope you're having a blast!
We took our 1st transatlantic cruise April 2023 for 14 days on Celebrity Beyond and enjoyed it immensely to Rome. It was our 1st time with Celebrity. Today I learned from you about Airalo. We are planning an Asian itinerary in the future and thank you very much for the tips!
We definitely find the longer cruises to be much more enjoyable. Asia is one of our favorite regions (the food is so good!), I'm always looking for cruises to get there but for whatever reasons the options are limited. And yes, Airalo is a terrific option, physical SIMs might be a better bargain but you can't beat the convenience of an eSIM!
Very informative video, guys. Thanks very much.
I'm glad it was helpful, thank you for watching! 😀
Thank you Robb and David! You answered questions I have had and made me think of things I never considered before. I like the message board. Love ya! ❤
Thanks for watching! 😀
We do the same with the crew we want to remember. Though sometimes it’s hard to justify a photo with someone, so we make sure we make a phone note immediately.
That's also a good option! We just like giving them a little official recognition so whatever it takes to remember their names is a good thing. 😀
We've been on several cruises and the worst cruise we experienced was in 2022 on AIDA Cruiselines. It was so bad, we disembarked in Portugal halfway through the 12-day cruise. My wife still feels bad because she selected that cruise. We're currently researching a Repositioning Cruise to Europe and found your videos. Thanks for the information!
Yes, all cruises are not created equal lol. The important thing is to know what your priorities are and search by those metrics. Sorry your other cruise was not what you expected, but I bet it has given you a lot of information about what not to do! Hopefully all your next cruises will be better 😀
Great info!
Thanks for watching!
Great video guys. It’s interesting to me how you mentioned that with a Norwegian included drink package you were still required to pay the tips. Bookings from Australia are all inclusive (I guess that’s because tipping is not a real “thing” here).
I liked David’s last tip. On a a Norwegian BTB 21 night cruise we did, there was an excellent jazz group. We listened to them every night. On the final night I mentioned how they were the best group I’d heard with the exception of a jazz pianist on Royal Caribbean. Turns out they had worked with her and were friends. We had a photo together which I sent to Manda (the pianist on Royal) as we are Facebook friends. Manda was so excited to see the members of the group again. We all still keep in touch on Facebook. 🙂
That is a great story. I'm sure the industry is relatively small, it makes sense the long-term employees/entertainers would get to know each other over time as they move between contracts. And that is great that it is all-inclusive pricing for you, tipping is just another way to add more "fees" to make the price look lower than it actually is. I wish we could move towards that but businesses love their extra fees. Do your prices also include port fees and taxes? Those are also listed separately for us.
@@tendegreeswarmer yep. All port charges and taxes included. As a matter of fact, a port charge was lower than expected for some reason,so when we disembarked, we actually received a credit on one of our credit cards for the port charge that we didn’t know we had paid in the first place. 🙂
@@gregneil612 The perks of living Down Under! 😁
Good tips, and timely. We leave on our first long, one-way cruise in 2 1/2 weeks!
Can't wait to hear about it! Is this the Santiago - Buenos Aires route? Be sure to get up early to watch the fjords in Southern Chile, it was so worth losing some sleep for.
@@tendegreeswarmer thanks, I'll mark that down!
@@tendegreeswarmer (yes, Valparaíso to BA)
I would love to find the best repositioning cruise!
We love using them as a taxi when it makes sense 😀
Great video and good tips thank , we travel the most with Norwegian but service has gone down , and the entertainment has been cut on there ship and we love the big shows. Do you recommend a cruise line for big show and entertainment ?
We definitely noticed the reduction in entertainment options on Norwegian for our Transpacific last year, but I was hoping that it was just a combination of an exceptionally long cruise with the post-pandemic reduction in services. I really hope they return to their normal levels of entertainment, because previously we've always really enjoyed what NLC has to offer. That said, we like the smaller ships, and they are generally too small to hold those giant theaters that have the big book musicals. I'm very curious to try a mega ship one of these days, but we are crowd averse so keep choosing the ships that hold around 2000 passengers or so. The most important thing for me is that there is an Observation deck, or some other indoor public space to sit and spend time that isn't a pool or restaurant or hallway.
Some of this isn't related to repositioning ? 😊
I guess it depends on your perspective, but as people who primarily take repositioning cruises, this all seems relevant to us! 😀