by Jim Bellomo | Jan 21, 2019 | Uncategorized
A tiny bit of a European Christmas market taken by my good friend Bob. Read more about his Christmas Market River cruise a few years ago by going here: https://bob221b1.wordpress.com/2014/11/29/european-christmas-markets/
Do you plan your vacations in advance? I mean way in advance? Like two years or more? We do. And for a couple of reasons we recommend that others do too. It’s especially important when you want to go someplace that there are few openings for. Or if you cruise and you want a particular cabin. Let me give you some examples.
Over the weekend we (along with my brother and his bride) booked a Christmas Market cruise on Viking River Cruises for December of 2020. Why so early? Because we really want to do a Christmas Market cruise and we can’t go in 2019 because…Viking is pretty much sold out. That’s right. Most Christmas Market cruises in Europe are sold out for 2019 or there is very little left in the way of space. And the space that is left now, is pretty expensive. By booking for 2020, we got the stateroom we want, we got the dates and the route we want as well. Not only that but because we booked within this month (following our Viking Cruise night at the agency last week) we were awarded additional onboard credit. It was a great deal.
Another example. Last week I had a very nice woman come into the agency to ask about booking an Alaskan cruise for this July or August. It was her, her husband and her two boys in the same stateroom. But the real problem is that there are very few staterooms that will hold four people left on any of the most kid-friendly ships. Category after category are sold out. My suggestion…let’s look at summer 2020. Great deals and the best stateroom selection. Of course there are staterooms like that left, but they aren’t a bargain at this point.
Or…Tonight we had a great friend send us a referral for her brother and sister-in-law who want to sail to the Caribbean next Christmas. This is a GREAT time to book that cruise—during WAVE season (which is going on right now) when all the cruise lines have major specials. There should still be plenty staterooms in all categories available. But if they ask me in August or September, not as many.
Lastly, we got two of our best friends the exact stateroom they wanted for a February 2020 cruise that will stop in New Orleans during Mardi Gras. It was the last of this particular kind of very desirable stateroom. And the best part was that this weekend, that cruise line had a sale with a reduced deposit as well as some other great perks (because it’s WAVE season). If they waited even three more weeks, their deposit would have been 19 times higher. Seriously.
So the message here is, if you know your dates, or know that you can get certain time off, or you are retired and can go whenever you want, then book early! If the price goes down, you can always rebook for the new price. So…if you have any desire to join us on a Christmas Market cruise in December 2020, let me know and I will set it up. Or go anyplace else next year.
Plans are nothing; planning is everything. —Dwight D. Eisenhower
by Jim Bellomo | Jan 16, 2019 | Uncategorized
This afternoon I was working in the agency when I got a call from a very nice lady who asked a question we get all the time. The first words out of her mouth were, “How much does it cost to have you book our vacation?” I was thrilled to tell her exactly what I tell everyone else—absolutely nothing. Not a proverbial red cent, not a single penny, not a dollar, not a hundred dollars—NOTHING! It costs you no more to book a cruise, a hotel, a rental car or in some cases a flight with us than it does for you to call the cruise line and book it yourself. In fact it may cost you more to book it directly. More about that below.
But first I want to explain why we work for free. The cruise lines and the hotels and the car rental companies and in some cases the airlines pay us commission. If you book directly with a cruise line, hotel or rental car company, you will pay exactly the same price, they just keep the commission they would pay us. As well they should. Because if you deal directly with a travel provider they have to pay someone to answer all your questions. The only problem is, once you get the answer to your questions, if you want to call that same person back to get another questioned answered—good luck. Those folks (who do a great job) sit in a big room someplace in the middle of the USA (or in some cases they sit in other countries) and answer phones. They take those calls, first-come, first-served so your chances of talking to the same person when you call back are pretty small.
So, since we (travel agents) don’t cost you anything (and in many cases can save you money) why aren’t you booking your vacations with us?
Here’s an example of what I am talking about. Today the caller who wanted to know if it cost more to work with us, told me she had called a cruise line the night before. She said all she wanted to do was ask some questions about cruising because she had never cruised before. The person wouldn’t even talk to her until she gave them her name and phone number. I explained I would want those too, but first, ask me the questions. She did. Before I ever knew who she was, I answered all her questions. She then told me that the cruise line had quoted her a particular price for a particular stateroom on a particular cruise. I told I could match that and I would take care of booking her airfare as well. She said, “WOW! That’s super!” And I told her not to forget she would need transfers from the airport to the ship and back again. She had not thought of that.
I then spent about 25 minutes on the phone with the cruise line, got the stateroom for less than she had been quoted (because she had never been on a cruise and I knew what to ask for) and got her a great flight and transfers as well. I emailed her the pricing and she replied with a few more questions and said she would call in the morning to book. I have already told her what I need to know when she calls and the call should take no more than five minutes of her valuable time (unless she has more questions), then I will be the one dealing with the cruise line and getting everything set for her. If there is a problem later on with any of it, the cruise line will contact me and I will deal with it. That’s the way a real travel agent should work.
Then at the end of the day, we heard this from another Expedia office: “Woot! Just obtained a new customer from (A Particular Cruise Line). They told us that (A Particular Cruise Line) is getting too expensive to book with now that they charge research / booking fees.” Not sure this is 100% accurate at this point but to be honest, I totally understand why they would do that. Since I can spend hours talking travel and getting info from a new client, I can see why they might feel the need to do that. Especially when it comes to new cruisers or inexperienced travelers who would have to have a lot of things explained to them. That’s our job and where you are concerned…we do it for free.
“Smile, it’s free therapy.” –Douglas Horton
by Jim Bellomo | Jan 10, 2019 | Uncategorized
You may have heard that late yesterday, the Oasis of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships in the world is skipping a day at sea and coming home early due to…norovirus. I say you may have heard this because it was on all the nightly news on about every network and it will be covered by the other media. This is another thing I get asked about all the time by our non-cruising friends. “Aren’t cruise ships dirty? Everyone keeps getting that norovirus thing.”
Well I just have to say this…it’s the flu. The 24-hour stomach flu that you and I have been getting since we were kids. (See the CDC description here) But because people are in such close proximity to each other on cruise ships it tends to multiply a little quicker than other places. But not all other places. Schools are just as bad. Colleges, especially dorms and Greek houses. Then why do we only hear about it when it happens on cruise ships? My guess is that it’s because they actually do something about it on cruise ships. They take people home early. They stop and clean the entire ship. They sanitize beyond belief…because no one likes to be sick on vacation. Take it from someone who got a horrible cold on our last vacation, it’s a terrible place to get sick. All you want is your own bed, your own medicine, your own TV shows and books to distract you and you feel like you have to struggle through.
But it just frosts me that every time this happens, a huge deal is made about it. On the Oasis this time, 277 people are sick as of a day ago. 277 out of more than (counting crew) 8,000 (quoting ABC Evening News). And it makes headlines. Now let’s take any 8,000 random humans. My guess is that there are pretty close to that many of them sick at any given time. But because this happens on a cruise ship, we make a big deal about it.
Yes, Royal Caribbean did choose to cut the cruise short by one day so they can completely disinfect the ship. We have seen them do that and they do an awesome job. And yes, the people on the cruise will be disappointed. But Royal is refunding them for their entire cruise and they can take their next vacation pretty much free. And for all but 277 of those 5,000+ guests, they got a pretty decent vacation to start with and they get another one for free later on. Do you think if any of those folks had been on a land-based vacation at a hotel and they got the flu, that the hotel would have given them a free week’s stay? I doubt it.
So the next time you see a news report that there is a norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship, just remember this message—It’s the flu. Brought to you by this guy who loves to cruise.
by Jim Bellomo | Jan 9, 2019 | Uncategorized
One of the other travel consultants at our agency sent out a note yesterday that I just want to pass on in a very short post today. This is a message from TSA that came our way yesterday:
Beginning on Jan 22, 2019, TSA will enforce the federally-mandated REAL ID requirements on all domestic travel. For details by state, visit https://www.dhs.gov/real-id .
I should warn you that the website this sends you to to is down until after the government shutdown is over but the big news is that after January 22, you won’t be able to use your plain vanilla driver’s license to board an airplane in the USA. But that’s OK because hey folks, it’s time to plan for future world travel and get a passport.
Now I will admit that I did not have a passport until I was almost 50 years old but since then I have been making a really good effort to fill them up (on my second one–they last 10 years) with visa stamps from all over the world. Been making up for lost time.
So if you are even thinking about getting on a plane anywhere in the USA after January 22 you will need a “Real ID” enhanced driver’s license (and not every state offers those) to be able to board. Washington offers them but you have to ask for them and pay a little extra. At least that was the case the last time I checked. But the real message is, get a passport.
by Jim Bellomo | Jan 8, 2019 | Uncategorized
Why do you cruise? This is something that always comes up. When we are with friends who do not cruise (like our next door neighbor who we love anyway) and we tell them that we cruise, we get a look. A look that is almost like we have told them we are swingers. Well, not that bad but close. And I know that I have a lot of non-cruiser friends out in the Twitterverse and in Facebookland so I want to address that today by telling you why we cruise. (WARNING: I may get verbose here.)
We haven’t always cruised. When we got together back in 1997 we did road trips (Yellowstone, Oregon Coast, etc.) and then we did our first big overseas trip to Italy in 2002 followed by the British Isles and Paris the next year…all on land and air. In the meantime, we tried cruising by going to Alaska on Holland America and a HORRIBLE Carnival cruise to Mexico. But what really got us into cruising was that while we were planning our European trips the value of the dollar changed dramatically. A hotel we had booked in Venice for $175 a night became $225 a night between the time we booked it and nine months later when we stayed there. The price of the room in euros hadn’t changed but the exchange rate between euros and dollars certainly had.
So we said, let’s try cruising again. Once you pay the price, you know the price and it stays that way. Our travel agent at the time, the amazing Norma Jean had told us we would HATE Carnival and not to go. She was right. It didn’t fit us. It was great for some but not for us. This time (three years later) she suggested Celebrity. So we booked the Panama Canal in 2004 and sailed. And we LOVED it! We met new friends—some we are still friends with today and had both an amazing time visiting four countries and seeing the canal as well as sea days with more stress-relieving relaxation than I ever knew I needed.
So that’s how we got started. Here’s why we still cruise and have done more than 25 since then and have four others already booked.
You only have to unpack once
This is the first reason that most people who cruise think of when they are asked why they cruise. When we did Italy we each carried 22 inch suitcases and we stayed in five different hotels. We lived out of those suitcases, then we packed them up and moved them on to the next place by air or by train. To be honest, it’s a pain. We did the same thing this last fall in our pre-cruise trip through Canada, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York. Five different cities, packing and unpacking. Then we got on the ship, unpacked into the closet and dresser and we were good to go! HEAVEN!
Your hotel moves every night
If you choose your cruise line well, then every night after you tour a city or an island you come back to a hotel that you love. You have dinner at that hotel, you sleep in the bed you slept in the night before and while you are asleep, the hotel moves to another city or island or town that you can explore the next day. And then you do it all over again. And if you get too tired touring the places on shore, you can stay on board, or there might be a sea day so you can relax. You can go to the spa, take a cooking class or just read a book knowing that the next time you wake up, you will be someplace new.
Cost is set
As I mentioned above, once you buy a cruise, you know what your vacation will cost. A bunch of cruisers just thought, “Not my cruise, I added a bunch of stuff.” And that is true. The cost of a cruise can go up after you sail…if you buy services or things that cost extra while you are onboard. But it is YOUR choice. You don’t have to have that manicure in the spa. You don’t have to go to the speciality restaurant, you don’t have spend an additional cent. A good travel agent should be able to tell you to within a $10 how much you will spend to take a cruise including the price, the gratuities, any tours you want to take or anything else you would like to do. If you go over that, it’s your choice.
Everything is included
So on those land-based vacations we took, we could budget for a certain amount for food. But then we would get to the restaurant and see something on the menu that was more than we had budgeted and since we would probably never get back to this place again, we spent the extra to get it. On a ship, everything you need to survive is included. And on some ships, everything you want to survive is included (think alcohol here).
Planning is easier
This is my favorite. As a travel professional I have done complete land-based trips for clients that you could not fit a single day of the plan on a sheet of paper. There were so many variables. Train tickets, hotel reservations, restaurant reservations, tours, shopping time, etc. When I plan a cruise, I book the cruise, check the ports, book a tour in each one and I am all set. I know where I am going and how I am going to get there. Yes, I could do all that and keep track of it all while I was traveling on land but it’s just too much hassle. I will take a cruise any day.
Easier to disconnect if you want to but also easier to connect if you have to
You have such a better choice with cruising when you want to be able to disconnect from work, your home or the world in general. If you don’t want to hear from anyone, you turn your phone to airplane (cruise ship?) mode and you are all set. The same can be said if you need to stay connected. It’s easier to stay in touch on a ship. There’s WiFi where you need it, you don’t have to search a city for a Starbucks.
It’s a super value
Cruising can be an awesome value. I just had a client come in looking for a longer (more than 20 night) cruise with a base fare of $100 per person, per night. I wasn’t sure I could get him anything that low but lo and behold, I found him a 35 night South American adventure up the Amazon for $97 per night per person. Try going from Buenos Aires to Fort Lauderdale with 25 stops in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Aruba and five other stops in the Caribbean by air, staying in hotels and eating in restaurants for that price. Good luck!
Cruise ships come in all shapes and sizes
So you might want to cruise but you don’t think you want to be on Behemoth of the Seas. We get that. There are cruises on ships that have under 100 passengers and cruises on ships with more than 5,000. There are cruises where the ship itself is the destination. There are cruises where the destination is everything. There are cruises where you could be busy every second and ones where you can do nothing but relax for 22 hours a day (you have to eat sometime).
Friends
I saved this one for last because while it is not the reason we started cruising, it is the reason we still cruise. We have made about 90% of the close friends we have in our lives while on or planning a cruise. My two best friends in the world are both Bobs and I met them both on cruises. We have sailed with both Bobs numerous times and we have cruises planned with them in the future. Because of cruising we have friends in England (hi Paul and Gail), Italy (hi Marcello), New Zealand (hi Charlotte, Warwick and Daniel) and Toronto (hi Tim and Perry) and lots of other places. We have been to see some of these folks, we have toured with others, we share memories on Facebook with others.
Both Kathleen and I worked in jobs where there weren’t a lot of people nearby (in my case, my nearest coworker lives more than 65 miles away) or in our age range (most of Kathleen’s coworkers were 20-30 years younger than her) so we have made almost all our friend cruising.
Plus, cruising is a great way to get together with friends without anyone having to host or cook or clean. Many times we have considered renting a cabin or a condo with a bunch of people but then who has to do that stuff. Sure you can share expenses but what about dietary wants and needs. Or handicapped access for someone in your group. If you all go on a cruise together, everything is taken care of for you. It’s been a while (other than a working cruise to Alaska last year) when we have not sailed with at least 10 people that we have sailed with previously. We are part of two groups of cruisers (The Martini Mates and The Silhouetters) who cruise with each other all the time. It’s awesome. We stay in touch on a daily basis on Cruise Critic (more about that in another post), Twitter, Facebook, texting and e-mail. That’s how we plan all those cruises.
So that’s why we cruise. We don’t believe it’s for everyone, but we do think everyone should try it. When we did that Panama Canal cruise in 2004, Kathleen was worried that this Type-A personality guy would go nuts on the six sea days (frankly, so was I) but I now LOVE sea days. And when people ask me my favorite cruise destination, I always have the same answer (always will)—the ship.