So yes, as I mentioned yesterday afternoon, my calendar is starting to lighten up as the time off for the leaf peeping trip approaches.
But not THIS light!?!
For someone who lives their life electronically, this would come under the heading “check the newspaper, buddy, and see if your obituary shows up and nobody bothered to tell you.” Or maybe the phone just needed restarted….
…and now the story I came here to tell…
Last night I did my first-ever sales presentation as a Travel Agent. I’ve partnered with Eagle Media, which owns radio stations across the region, including the cluster Matt and I do weather forecasts for in Hutchinson, to offer a group cruise tour to Alaska next June. Honestly, we’re working what feels pretty last-minute on trying to put this together. I had to arrange this meeting and another just a few days either side of this weekend’s cruise, and I only felt like I could keep the signups open until Oct. 31. Due to a bunch of logistics I won’t go into, the final payment date for the travelers has to be January 5th, five weeks ahead of NCL’s final payment date for the cruise.
I figured, if I’m going to specialize in all-inclusive cruise experiences, the place to start was with a group to Alaska — our trip there next June will be the fifth, and it will be our second sailing on Jewel. So I’m feeling comfortable that I can offer a great experience as both the agent and the tour conductor/leader. I’m keeping the group small (24 max, including my family) and have added sightseeing days in Seattle and Vancouver ahead of the sailing, which is June 10th. I’ve kept the cruise portion very flexible for people, but rather than giving them a menu of 50 or more excursions I’ve narrowed the list down to 3-5 in each port. What I didn’t want to do was the typical group experience where you’re stuck with the same folks day in and day out for almost two weeks, including hours packed into a tour bus. I’ve picked a mix of NCL and third-party tours, including some of the ones Roxan and I were going to go on with the girls already. All in all I feel like (hope) I’ve put together a unique, high-quality expereince that will set the tone for my travel business going forward.
Want to know more about it? See everything they saw, here.
Thanks Pamm!
My friend and first travel customer, Pamm Tropp, is an avid photographer. She took “only” 6,000 to 8,000 photos on their two-week cruise tour this spring, and shared a few of them with me for the slide show. I wanted to share them with you here, too.
(Yes, I asked her for pics of the train portion of their trip…she was under a time crunch, and that was what I was most missing in my presentation. Pamm, thank you SO much…your photos are, as always, fantastic!)
and then