Why you need a cruise specialist

When you're spending the kind of money it takes to cruise for a week or more,
you need to put your trust in an expert, even if you've cruised before.

And while cruises are the single most affordable type of vacation, short of sitting on the porch for a week, there are still a lot of details and tips for a great trip that a cruise specialist can provide.

I've been in the cruise business for nearly 10 years, full time, and I'm still learning. Every year there are new ships coming out, new itineraries and ports of call, new shore excursions to recommend and enough price programs to make my head spin. It's the nature of the beast, and I love it.

So often a client will call me after having spent hours and hours on the computer trying to figure out where he/she wants to go, on what ship and at what price. Since I've been doing this so long, it's easy for me to ask a few key questions of the client, and then begin the research. If the phone doesn't ring, I can usually get back to the client in less than an hour, ready to recommend 2 ships to them for consideration, unless they already know what they want.

We talk about the options, differences in ships, types of cabins, location, airfare arrangements and prices. Before long I'm taking their deposit and important information to enter into the computer, and before long, I'm emailing them a confirmation of their booking. Done!
All in less time than it takes to drive to the grocery store.

After the sale, the relationship continues. I send the client a ton of information for a successful cruise, and do a trip planner of shore excursions for them to review. When they've decided what they want, I order their shore excursions and email them the vouchers for them.

Often clients will want details about the ports of call they will be visiting, so I research them and email the details. I help them complete their online passenger immigration information now required by law, and get their seat assignments when their air schedule is complete. If they are not buying airfare from the cruiseline, I will purchase it online for them and email the e-tickets.

When the cruise tickets arrive, I prepare a lovely travel folder and run a highlighter through all the ticket information they need to respond to or complete. Then the client is free to come over to pick up the tickets and have a meeting to review everything, or I mail them and follow up with a phone call to make sure there are no questions.

Once clients return, I call them to make sure everything went according to plan and to obtain any comments they have about the cruise line to share with my district sales manager. If there were problems (this is rare), I work to resolve them for the client, sometimes working with the cruise line and other times with the travel insurance company if the client purchased trip insurance.

I continue to follow up with clients to see what future cruise plans they may be considering, and begin the whole process over again when they are ready.

So, that's why you need a cruise specialist!