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As a responsible travel agent, I need to make sure that my clients see all sides of a decision. The positive sunny side, and the negative downside. I won't just book someone on a cruise, without discussing both sides with them. Some of my clients come to me with an idea, and when we discuss it, a few will change to a different option. Why do they change? They find out information about the experience, the company, etc, and they decide it isn't for them. Take MSC cruises for an example. You won't find much on my site about MSC and I don't openly encourage most people to take them. They are cheap... often time really, really cheap. Plus they often toss in free beverages, and sometimes more. I recently did a Globus Escorted tour of the Western US. More on that in another blog post, but it gave me to time to explore some places. It's important that when you travel that you don't just look at the cliche post card view. You take the time to dig just a little bit deeper. You will bring home different memories, different photos, and maybe even a different perspective of the place. Let's explore a few of the photos I took while in South Dakota, at the Crazy Horse Memorial as well as Mt. Rushmore. Starting with the cliche photos... you got to take them... ...just don't stop at the cliche... for me these photos take the carved mountain, and puts a personal touch on it, you can see the carving, you feel the art of it. The scope of how much work went into it. The same can be said about the Crazy Horse Memorial. The detail that they are putting into the sculpture is beyond what I expected. The detail on the eyes, the curve of the nose ... it brings the face to life. So when you are traveling, look closer, look from a different angle, and just look. Open yourself up to seeing, it takes time, and you need to force yourself to do it. But you will be rewarded for it.
There is a myth, about some travel agents that we are not interested in you, just trying to get you to spend as much as you can.... nothing is further from the truth.
#1 - we charge no fees, except on certain rare airline situations, you don't pay me a single penny. #2 - I am always working to save you money. Let's put our cards out there... we make money through commissions we get from the travel suppliers. There I said it...BUT, since most pay roughly the same amount we don't push you into something that is more profitable for us. It's all the same for us. Another point is that the sale in general is more important to us that the commission amount. There have been trips where we made almost nothing. It happens. A lot of people get a piece of that commission (often even you get some of that commission in the form of discounts and perks!). A quick story... I have been working with a client for about a year on a trip. We are getting close to final payment and I realized that if they did the pre-night hotels separate from the cruise line, they would save a lot of money. We discussed the pro's and con's and they decided to do the hotels on their own rather than through the cruise line. That courtesy conversation cost us a lot of money in commission, but more importantly it saved the client well over $1000. I am proud of being able to do that for them, and I woould do it again without hesitation. We take care of you! The rest works its way out in the long run. Many cruise lines are aggressively recommending using travel agents... because for them it's 75% of their bookings, and we give far better service than their large call center. Picking the right cruise line, the right cruise ship, to match your personality as well as the environment you are heading off to visit. A good example of the little stuff that can make a big difference is the main pool area. Depending on who you are and what you enjoy the main lido pool area will be something you visit often, or at the very least it is an area that you will walk through on your way to the buffet on most ships. Take Alaska for example... it is a rain forest. It never rains heavy, but it can rain a mist like drizzle everyday. Even when the weather is clear, it is rarely over the mid 60's and with the breeze of the moving ship, it can be chilly to say the least. To account for this (and other weather anywhere in the world), Holland America Ships have a retractable roof over the lido pool... on every single one of their ships. On a sunny, warm day you get an outdoor pool, with the sun shining though (above)... but look close, you see the dark rain clouds approaching. A few minutes later (below) you can see that the roof is closed and the pool area is still a great place to be. These photos were taken on the Holland America Koningsdam, in Fort Lauderdale. The majority of the people by the pool are on a back to back sailing, and they are waiting for the next set of passengers to join them. The Koningsdam is a beautiful ship. More to come in future blog posts.
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December 2021
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