Noshing With Gary Bembridge – February 9, 2023

Ira Sternberg: Welcome to Ira's Everything Bagel where I talk with intriguing people about everything, their passions, pursuits and points of view. Some people have a passion for food, others for art, and still others for travel. My guest's passion is travel, specifically cruising. And the story behind his joy is fascinating. He's Gary Bembridge. He's host of "Tips for Travelers: Incredible Cruise Experiences Made Easy," available on his YouTube channel, blog and podcast. For everything about Gary, go to tipsfortravelers.com, and you can follow him on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. And Gary, welcome to the show.

Gary Bembridge: Hi. Thanks for having me, Ira.

Ira Sternberg: Absolutely. You have an interesting background which eventually led you to cruising. So tell us a little bit about your career in global marketing, your health issues, your decision to regularly cruise.

Gary Bembridge: Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, as you said, my background is marketing. I used to work for Johnson & Johnson. And so I had this kind of global job and... Have a bit of a geek. So I like technology. So when podcasting started and YouTube started, I was all very excited about that. And I was traveling enormously. Like I would be away two, three weeks, uh, you know, a month was ahead. You know, I was working with all different countries around the world. And so what I wanted to do is, you never know whether you're going back to a place or not. So I'd research it like crazy before I went. Um, knew exactly what I wanted to do, do it. Because I'd go, you know, the day before, or had a weekend. And I thought, "I've got all this content that I've researched and tried out. So, so now I'll try this podcasting thing." And then, um, so I did that when that started. And then YouTube started, I think 2006. And I started actually sort of videoing hotel rooms and just experimenting and playing around. Um, and then they started doing well. And then I picked... Then I went on my first cruise in 2004, I think it was, when I was actually invited to go and talk on a cruise. But it was a specific marketing conference. So before then, I'd been like most people, "Why would I go on a cruise? It's only for old people. It's going to be boring. I'm going to feel trapped." All those usual things that people think. And I went on the cruise as a speaker on this marketing conference, because I charted the ship. And as we sailed out, it's like, "I get it now." I realized the magic of being at sea and everything. So I started doing more cruising. I, I sort of posted it on YouTube, they did well. And I'd always decided that I was going to retire when I was 55. I decided that when I was 30, actually. So I'd kind of worked towards that. Then, as you learned, just before that time that I, I got diagnosed with cancer. I had chemo and stuff. So I retired at that same sort of time anyway. That lucky I got in remission. And so I started focusing a bit more on the, the, the YouTube specifically and YouTube. Partly because I enjoyed a resume. I went on a trip, I'd make the videos first, then do the podcast, then do the blogs. I thought, "Okay, you're like, maybe in the videos." But then also I thought, "Well, actually, the easiest place was to make money, if you want to make money out of all time you're putting in, is YouTube. It's a bit easier than... It's much easier now I'm podcasting than it was before." So I sort of focused there. Applied more of our marketing stuff, did more cruising. And I just kind of took off from there to kind of exploded, literally, from there.

Ira Sternberg: Well, you're very modest, Gary, because I forget the exact figure I saw the other day, but it's millions upon millions of views on YouTube.

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, I've heard figure for us. Yeah, I do. So all-time views is 117 million. But I get, um, you know, around 3 million views a month, which is mind-boggling. Um, so like the last four or five months has been 3 million. I think last month it was 3.2 million views. And I have 350,000 subscribers. But on YouTube, it's the views that are important. You know, subscribers are great, but it's the views that really count. So that's very exciting. Um, you know, when I look at the numbers, 3 million of my videos we watched this month alone, it's like, it's hard to get your head around at times.

Ira Sternberg: Do you ever consider yourself a celebrity because of the numbers of viewers that watch all of your product?

Gary Bembridge: Well, it's interesting. I don't. But I realize what went into the story as I was on a cruise last year, uh, Princess Cruise. And I, I, I booked a suite on this one. So you ate in a, in one separate restaurant, that little restaurant you'd have breakfast at. You know, the University of Maine restaurant. And the waitress came up to the one day and she said, "Are you famous? Every morning, people look at you and like they're talking about you." And it's like, "Who, what?" And it's like, "No, I'm not. It's just a lot of people on cruises know me because they watch my videos." But...

Ira Sternberg: Right.

Gary Bembridge: ...what people do now is they come and talk to me more because I've said, like, "Please come and talk to me if you're on a cruise because I want to know who the people are." You know, obviously YouTube giving lots of data, but it's the people I want to meet. So. And that's very exciting because then you get to meet the people. So you know, this exciting sort of like, um, on some cruises, you know, like last cruise I was on, my two cabin stewards watched the channel. And they were so excited, "Can I be on the video? Can I be on the video?" It's quite good, actually. Because actually I'd, I found it, you know, videoing and people is always a tricky one. You know, how do you video and, and stuff. But now it's great because lots of people want to be in my video. They'll say to me, "Make sure I'm in the video."

Ira Sternberg: You ever hear from, uh, well, I don't know what you'd call it on a cruise ship, but upper management, I guess. The captain and some, the hotel director and those kind of people. Do they come up to you unsolicited and say, "We know who you are. We see your videos."

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, quite, quite often. Um, you know, quite often. A lot, lot of a lot of the, particularly the hotel director, that sort of side of, of the business too. And also a lot of crew I already discovered, discovered me during the pandemic. Because obviously they were all laid off. You know, it's all contracts. So they, they didn't... They would basically, their no contract and they had no work. And so they didn't have a connection with the cruise line directly. So they weren't getting information. And during the pandemic, because people would not really want to travel so much, but the people who were interested in news. So I was doing lots... Every week I'd do a news report around what's happening with opening, not reopening. So a huge amount of crews started watching me then because they're looking for information. And so a lot of them know me from that. And they've kept, kept going. But yeah, like, you know, the last cruise, the hotel director phoned me to say, "I see you on board. I love your channel." So that's, that's fun.

Ira Sternberg: What's nice about your channel, and I've watched it, is that you are objective. You're not playing favorites or unfavorites. You're telling it like it is. And people may think that you to get freebie cruises because of your popularity, but in fact or a sale going on. And then there's, as you refer to it, and I agree, the nickel and diming that can happen if you go that way. And I'd rather pay more as an inclusive so that I don't have to think about all that and worry about it and be surprised at the end of the cruise when all of a sudden I get hit by a bill that's a lot more than I ever thought it would be.

Ira Sternberg: Yeah, I think a lot of, a lot of people, um, make the mistake, you know, because cruising has a reputation of having lots included. But everyone has different things included. And particularly, and since post, in post-shutdown, you know, cruise lines are sort of even pulling back on stuff that's included and, you know, charging for more stuff. But you're right. The thing I always say to people is when comparing lines and comparing trips, you know, iTunes sort of think about what am I going to pay for the time leaving home to the time getting back home. Because there's so much stuff in there that's, um, you know, can be added. The big ones are gratuities, normally, drinks, especially dining, excursions. Those are the big ones. And a lot of people don't realize, you know, things like that, you know, a couple hundred dollars, $600, could be added to your bill just because duties alone. So that's really, really important. And I'm a bit with you. Like I, I mean, you could, you... I mean, there's different lines are doing different things. So you've got some lines which are bundling them now. Like Princess, 100 Americans, you can buy them up front. But I'm, I'm good with you. I like, I like when you go on a cruise and you hardly ever have to show your cruise card, which acts as your kind of charge card, um, during the cruise. So like on... I mean, I went on the most extreme example of that, my last quiz, Regent, where everything's included. Drinks, especially dining, excursions, everything. I mean, literally the only time I took my card out was to open my cabin door and [inaudible] in and off the ship. Which is actually being replaced with spatial recognition coming along, off the ship anyway.

Ira Sternberg: Yeah, you had a special... You had a special video about how that's a tracking mechanism. They know where you are all the time, right?

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Ira Sternberg: Exactly. You mentioned earlier about the first time you took the cruise and how now you understood why people love to do it. Can you expand a little bit on that? What was your initial reaction once the ship left the dock? This is your first cruise. What was the magic that then compelled you to continue that journey? Which I think it's great because if you hit the right... If you pick the right ship and you pick the right itinerary and you pick the right destination, it's a wonderful experience. If you pick, as you said earlier, the wrong cabin and garage, and all of a sudden you're in a party ship, and you really wanted peace and quiet and intellectual discourse...

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, that's going to be disaster.

Ira Sternberg: ...so, so I guess it's a two-part question.

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, what was the love that you had? What was that feeling that you had? And, uh, I'll just stick with that. What was it?

Gary Bembridge: I mean, I think, I think it was interesting because as the ship kind of... I was actually out of Southampton in the UK. And we said, you sailed on the Solent, which is like a riven in, out, out to sea. And it, and we said, you know, ships generally sell sort of at sundown, like 5:00, 6:00. So the sun's coming down. So it's all very beautiful kind of lights and stuff. And you just, you're just sort of gliding down really just... And as you were not to see it, it just was really calm and quiet and peaceful. And just... It was the silence of, you know, just push, the ship kind of pushing through. And it was just that sense of, "Wow, this is, you know, we're out at sea. Um, we're heading to somewhere new and exciting." And it was also a sense of calm around it as well. Well, but then, you know, sort of within the ship, there's just, you can turn around, get in the ship, and there's everything going on. You know, casino and parties and bars and shows and stuff. I think it was that sort of, that dichotomy of like... I still do it now. I love going out. We'll be sailing at night. I just walk on the deck because the sense of calm and peace and stuff. But now and then you can just step right back into everything. It's right...

Ira Sternberg: Yeah, it's a, in a way, a controlled environment, but you're looking out into nature. So...

Gary Bembridge: Exactly. So both worlds, it seems.

Ira Sternberg: Yeah, yeah. I also am a balcony man, as you are. And I, I learned initially, a couple of times that we went cruising, didn't have a balcony. We went to Alaska with a balcony and that, ever since then, we don't get a room without a balcony, even if it has to cost more. I know you agree, but can you explain too some of our listeners and viewers why that balcony is such a major difference in the experience?

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, I mean, I think it's, it's, it's kind of hard because there is, you know, as you said, this, there's a fairly big price difference between like the ocean view and the balcony. But there's something about the, you know, the balcony. It also depends a bit on that to me, like you say, Alaska or wherever. But there's something about just being able to step out onto your balcony and you've got, you know, you're sailing, whether it's, particularly when you're going into port, out of port, or sailing somewhere scenic. You're sitting out there and ordering room service, having breakfast out there. And is this your own little kind of space? Um, and it's kind of a bit of escaping. If you go to see that it's great to go into that in the project might be quite busy, you can just go and sit there. But there's something about just stepping out into the fresh, you know, the sierra. Um, and also it, it, you know, because if you have a balcony, you have four floor-to-ceiling with glass. So you also just have much more light. And it just, to me, it's just you feel like much more connected in some ways to the sea. Um, and it's interesting because, as you know, like ships, um, like Celebrity, uh, some of the new Carnival Mardi Gras ship and stuff, they've introduced these, um, these infinite balconies where they just got rid of the balcony and they have, which makes the cam bigger, which is the cell. And that is, you know, the, the top half slides down. But people have got a very mixed on that because you're missing stepping out and just being in the sierra. And it's interesting, those are very divisive. It's, it's, it's, um, you know, it shows you there's a real difference between having a window that can open and a balcony, I guess.

Ira Sternberg: Well, at least my next question that I've been thinking about to asking you, I think this is the perfect time. I was a little bit a long of a preamble to simply just asking you the question, but occasionally that is... What is the most favorable trend that's new for cruising? And what's the most unfavorable trend? And that might be one. And well, that's a mixed one that you just mentioned. But in other words, what's going on in the cruise line industry for passengers that is positive? And what's going around in the cruise line industry for passengers that's not necessarily favorable?

Gary Bembridge: Um, let me do the second one first.

Ira Sternberg: Okay.

Gary Bembridge: I mean, I think probably at this point in time, uh, probably the most unfavorable thing is now that, now we sort of out of shutdown, cruise lines are back, you know, ships are getting full again. So that's... I mean, we're used to having ships that are half, you know, I'm being used to selling strips that are half full. Getting back to, "Oh my God, these ships are full again, 100% capacity." But also what's happening is the cruise lines are trying to get their balance sheet and their profit loss is kind of back in some sort of order. So there is kind of a tightening of, uh, if you're an existing cruiser, you're seeing, you know, things reduce. So for example, your Norwegian piano cruises in the UK, a few other lines, they've got rid of even turndown service, for example. Uh, they've reduced the number of cabin stewards. You know, there's, there's up, there's some, there's upcharges on things that used to be included, like lobster on some lines. Or Carnival only has lobster on, uh, included if it's cruises kind of... You know, the squeeze and pressure on costs, you know, and existing cruises are really feeling that. What's interesting though, is people new to cruise, which the cruise lines are now back aggressively chasing, they're loving cruising because they don't know that it's gone. If you don't know... For them, this is amazing. Like so much is good. All those entertainment's included. This include, that's included. Whereas existing cruises are unhappy, but new cruisers aren't. You know what I mean? Because...

Ira Sternberg: Exactly. It's not a good value thing.

Gary Bembridge: So that, that is, that is a trend. And I guess that'll settle somewhere eventually. Um, I mean, I think on the... So that's probably the biggest negative thing at this time. Um, or worst thing that's changed. Probably the, the biggest positive, I think, is that cruising is evolved, hoping very fast and trying to cater for more and more type of people. Because, you know, when I first started cruising, it very much was kind of older married couples. Uh, that was who, you know, that, who, that's who cruising was for. And it's, it's evolved so much. You know, it's much more for families, more solos. You know, it's more diverse. You know, um, uh, there's so many different, you know, new cruise lines come along. Virgin are coming along. You know, they didn't even... Ritz-Carlton and launching. So there's all sorts of kind of segmentation, I guess, there's a marketing. But there's, there's more choice for everybody. You know, different price levels. And even on, you know, even if you look at like Norwegian Cruise Lines, you know, which is sort of a traditionally a value line, um, you know, relaxed cruising, you know, they've built the Haven, which I know alienate sort of people wish. So even if you... But if you want that freestyle dining with the big production shows and huge amounts of choice, you can still go in a beautiful suite as well. Uh, you know, you don't have to go in like a... Part of my kind of thing. But if you also want to go cheap, you can go on that. So, so I think, you know, catering for so many more people is... It's becoming much more accessible. Also price-wise is becoming more accessible. You know, things like MSC, you can do an MSC cruise for very little money. Um, so, so that, I think, is a positive. Um, and there's a downside to that as well because it means ships are getting bigger because it makes them easy to run and places get overrun and stuff. But those... So many other... Two big kind of... That would be the best and the worst things.

Ira Sternberg: I know in a lot of your videos and in your blog and in your podcast, you could, you talk about tipping. And I'm curious about the concept of whether it's included in the bill or whether you do it afterwards. Are there any cruisers that you've come across that do the opposite in this sense? I'm not the opposite, but a supplement, that they tip in advance to the steward just to let them know that they appreciate their service and they're looking forward to a very enjoyable cruise.

Gary Bembridge: Some, some people do. Some people, you know, some people argue that's the, you know, you do it up front with your cabin student, you'll get kind of better service. Um, I, I don't... I personally, I don't do that. But, um, because I put like tip based on the surface, tip on above, above the auto gratuities, um, based, you know, based, based on that. But people do. And people swear by... People also swear by, you know, um, tipping bomb. And which you don't have to because there's an auto to batted to get better service. And I guess people are experimenting with a bit more, particular ships are getting fuller again, and there's lots of new crew and betting. And because people talk about, you know, ships seem less well staffed. But I think it may be a training issue or a staffing issue. And they argue actually tipping up front the bomb and make sure that you get served quicker kind of stuff. But people do do it. I, I don't know if it really works in practice.

Ira Sternberg: Have you ever encountered someone, as we did, who stays on the ship as a passenger and just continues the, the cruise? Whether it's a world cruise or some other kind of cruise, but they have their own suite on the ship and they just stay on it and they keep going around. Whether it's around the world or just back and forth. There's, they're just always there. Have you ever encountered one of those people?

Gary Bembridge: I, I've only once, uh, encountered somebody on, on the old Crystal, which of course it's been bankrupted...

Ira Sternberg: Well, they come, they are coming back.

Gary Bembridge: I did, uh, when I did a Crystal cruise because I had a couple of people who basically just stayed on, effectively lived on... I did a video about people who do that a bit, but I haven't met, um, many of them now. Um, I have met people though on, who, who do things like every year they do the world cruise. Um, and...

Ira Sternberg: How to get off the ship, which is even to take a point a bit further. I mean, they're going to walk with us every year, like, "Oh yeah, we've been to Hong Kong loads of times." You're not getting off. "I can Hong Kong." Or whatever. It's like, "Really? You should be getting off."

Gary Bembridge: But there are people who like every year they, you know, bomb this three, four months of the year, they're doing it every year.

Ira Sternberg: Yeah. Before I let you go, tell us a little bit about your, your special aspect of your website where you can join as a member and you get additional benefits.

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, it was something that I started experimenting with, you know, YouTube. Because, as I said, I'm a bit geeky. So... And also with things like YouTube... If YouTube ever does anything, I will always experiment with it because they're doing it for a reason and they've tested the living daylights out of it. And so they, they introduced the memberships. And there's also obviously a site called Patreon, which people may be familiar with, where people can become patrons. And I was a little bit coy about doing that. But the idea is that, um, you know, you get bonus content. So, so. And, uh, or like, um, also now because things like with my live streams get loads and loads of people, I can't get through all the questions. So that is... I do, you know, members-only live streams where there'll be a much smaller group where we can connect and answer questions. I've got various ebooks I do, or specific videos I'll make around more behind-the-scenes stuff. So I make videos around kind of cameras I use, or how I deal with trolls, or stuff like that. But also what I have, um, is Patreon, remember only group cruisers, which I, I'm experimenting with now. So to try and get a manageable size, a small kind of more intimate group, you know, maybe going on cruises. So by becoming a member or patron, they can then book that cruise. Or when I do a bigger group with your priorities. So it's really about just kind of getting more access. And also the problem, also, because I get obviously thousands of comments on the channel, it's hard to keep up with them. As a member, I get flagged if I remember everybody's comments. So I can always get back to them really, really quickly. And the same on Patreon society. It's just kind of getting a bit more access and more kind of unique content.

Ira Sternberg: Last question. Because you alluded to it earlier, you skipped over it a lot, but it was significant. Your illness and your remission. Where do you get the energy to do all of this? The, the YouTube, the blog and the podcast. Where does that energy come from now? Since anybody has dealt with an illness, even if they, they're in remission, you're still not as... And I assume not as... Not you personally, but one is not necessarily as energetic as in the past.

Gary Bembridge: Yeah, I mean, I think you have to have boundless energy. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think, um, that whole illness gave me a sense of, uh, looking at time very differently. So, you know, I know we all talk about, "Oh, we don't know how long we've got." But then I had a real sense of, because it was cut, you know, real touch and go. And I was like, "But there's so much I want to get done. There's so much I want to do. And I'm going to make sure I do it." Um, so I'm very driven because I, you know, because I'm in remission, I have no idea with the next year, the year after, or 10 years time. So I always have the sense of, "I need to get it. I need to do things." So. And that's, that's where I get kind of get the energy from, I think. It's like I'm just driven. And also, I'm very competitive with myself. Like I always want to do better. And certainly because, like my partner would say, "You're not very competitive." So if it comes to a game, you know, playing Scrabble or something, I'm not very competitive. You know, I'll just, whatever. But with myself, I'm very competitive. Like I always wanted like the video must be better than the last one. So I think that also helps drive the energy. But I think it's mostly that sense of, you know, keep thinking, "Well, alcohol I want to do, but maybe I've got two years. Maybe we've got three years. Now we're at five years. And we're 10 years. Maybe about 20 years." But I, I want to get it done. So that's what I think, that's where it comes from, I think. The drive, yeah.

Ira Sternberg: Well, that's a great way to leave it. My guest has been Gary Bembridge. He's host of "Tips for Travelers: Incredible Cruise Experiences Made Easy." And it's available on his YouTube channel, blog and podcast. And for everything about Gary, go to tipsfortravelers.com. And you can follow him on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. And Gary, thanks for being on the show.

Gary Bembridge: Thanks for having me.