Things change fast in the world of international travel. 

Two months ago, those of us travelling with US passports could do a cruise out of Florida visiting several Cuban ports.  That window of opportunity has now closed, and it got me to wondering what other trips I should be taking now, before it’s too late.

The political situation between the United States and Russia has always been complicated, but relatively straight forward as it relates to visits for the purpose of tourism.  Politics aside, Russia is a country that is rich in history and culture, and is well worth seeing for those who are curious about the world, and want to take the time to learn about other countries and their people. 

Even the most experienced and hearty travellers will benefit from what group travel has to offer to countries like Russia where there is little English spoken, and somewhat rudimentary tourist infrastructure. 

Cruising fits that bill perfectly, and there are two types of cruises that visit Russia:

Baltic Ocean Cruises that stop in St. Petersburg

Just about all the cruise lines have some variation of this cruise.  They often start in one of the Scandinavian ports, and stop in St. Pete’s for 2 or 3 days. 

The advantage to these cruises is that there are no individual Russian visa requirements for US passport holders.  The ship gets a permit for all its guests to go ashore and visit the Hermitage Museum, as well as the other major sites in St. Pete’s.  The drawback is that if you want to explore on your own, you are out of luck.  The nature of your visa is that you have to remain on escorted and approved shore excursions.

These cruises also offer a look at the other Baltic countries as well.  A common port of call is Tallinn, Estonia – a place that gets busier every year, but is not entirely overrun with tourism yet. 

Those looking to get a taste of the Scandinavian or other Northern European countries (as well as Russia) will be able to tick these off their lists on the Baltic Cruises.

A Russian River Cruise

If the goal of your trip is to have a more immersive experience in Russia, then a river cruise might be a better option.  River cruises run along the Volga River between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

There are a number of well-known river cruise companies that do this itinerary:  Scenic, Uniworld and Viking are a good place to start your research.

A different visa is required to visit Russia on a river cruise.  It requires some advance planning, and will cost a few hundred dollars.  The good news is that once the visa is issued, it gives you much more flexibility in how you experience Russia.  You can obviously do all the excursions offered by the river cruise provider, and you can also do some independent exploring as well.

Either experience will give you a glimpse into Russia and its people. 

What I can’t predict is whether such trips will be available indefinitely.  It is noteworthy that AMA Waterways spent a fair bit of time and money cultivating a river cruise business in Russia, and withdrew from the market after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  So even though neither the Russian, nor the American government changed their requirements (as what happened with Cuba), sometimes tourism providers make decisions that can impact your plans. 

It seems we are back to the same advice:  travel when you can – because you never know when opportunities will be taken away.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Every year in August we attend Virtuoso Travel Week, where industry advisors get to meet with vendors and suppliers in the industry.  In 2017, Princess Cruises was rolling out the Princess Medallion, with much fanfare and ceremony.  At that time, my husband Bob interviewed Kim Franco from Princess, and we blogged about this new innovation.

At the time, we commented that the Princess Medallion was either going to be the cruise industry’s version of “New Coke”, or it would be a game-changer for the industry.

As it turns out, both those predictions ended up having some truth to them.

Princess outfitted its first vessel with Princess Medallion in late 2017, and then things got really, really quiet about this innovation.  As best I can tell, the folks at Princess were convinced they had a really good idea, but apparently underestimated the complexity of rolling such a program out.

Skip ahead to 2019, and Princess is charging full steam ahead with the Medallion program, and the feedback so far appears to be really good.

From an industry point of view, Princess is considered a “premium” cruise line along with lines like Celebrity and Holland America.  The Princess Medallion enables Princess to offer some luxury service offerings through the use of technology. 

It’s also just kind of cool.

Here are some of the benefits of the Princess Ocean Medallion class ships:

• Expedited check-in and boarding – you upload your own picture to your profile, and put all your info in, which is electronically attached to your medallion – meaning you essentially just walk on to the ship upon embarkation.
• Your preferences for drinks, or any on board celebrations are attached to your Medallion, so ship staff have the opportunity to provide more personalized service.  This is standard on luxury or river lines with only a few hundred people on board, but the Medallion enables Princess to do this on a larger ship.
• You can find other guests on the ship more easily if you choose to enable your Medallion to disclose your whereabouts to select others. 
• You can interact with the crew, or with select other passengers using the smartphone app that accompanies the Medallion.
• The ubiquitous photo ops on the ships are now delivered electronically to your stateroom TV, rather than being printed and then displayed in the photo gallery amongst the thousands of others.
• As part of this technical upgrade, Princess has had to completely re-outfit their ships for WiFi, and they are now boasting the fastest Wifi at sea.  I have not personally tested this yet, but they are claiming you will be able to stream video – this is a significant upgrade from other shipboard WiFi, which has a well earned reputation as slow and painful. 

So, the Medallion does much more than just replace your on board key-card (although it does that too).

Currently the Ocean Medallion is available on the Caribbean, Regal, and Royal Princess.  Before the end of the year, the Crown and Sky will be converted, and then six more ships in 2020. 

At this point it appears as though the Princess Ocean Medallion is falling more into the “industry game-changer” category, than it is “New Coke”.  It will be interesting to see if the other Carnival Corp. brands (or competing brands) follow suit.

If you’re thinking of a Princess, cruise it’s a great time to book! Princess is currently running their ‘Sip and Sail’ promotion, which gets you a free Premier Beverage Package for 2 if you book a Balcony or higher category, or a Free Premier Coffee & Soda Package^† for Interior and Oceanview bookings.  ***Must book before July 16^th

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

On June 4^th, 2019, the US Treasury Department eliminated tourism to Cuba, reinstating many of the restrictions of the embargo that has been in place since 1960.  For those who already have confirmed reservations to Cuba, there are provisions in place to allow that travel to take place, but if you haven’t booked, the window to legally travel to Cuba has now closed. 

Of course, many Americans will continue to access Cuba via Canada, Mexico, or Europe, but the option of getting on a cruise ship in Florida and stopping at Havana, or other ports in Cuba, has now been taken away.

Others can debate (and they will!) the public policy implications of this, but to me the instructional thing here is you need to travel when you can. 

Many people, once they hit 60 or so, begin to talk about the trips they want to do before it’s “too late” i.e. before they have mobility constraints or other factors that will affect their comfort when they travel.  These are sensible thoughts, but there are many other reasons why travel opportunities can be taken away, other than one’s own health.

Here’s a personal example.

Many years ago, my husband Bob had a trip planned, leaving London, England, and travelling overland quickly through Europe, and then into the Middle East, India, and Pakistan before finishing up in Kathmandu, Nepal.  He had all his visas lined up, his shots were up to date, and the flights we booked.

His planned departure date:  September 20, 2001. 

Needless to say, his plans changed… quickly.  Almost 20 years later, many of these countries that are so rich in culture and history, are really not available for us to safely travel there.  If he had done the trip the previous year (which he had been contemplating), he wouldn’t have the regret he still feels over missing this trip.

Besides your own health, and the unpredictability of geopolitics, there are also environmental issues.  Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is dying.  The Maldives could very well be completely underwater soon.  The Mountain Gorillas in Africa will be extinct soon.

Places like the Galapagos and Antarctica have a number of restrictions already for the number of visitors, and what you can do there (this is a good thing).  It makes me wonder, at what point will those places become out of reach for travellers?

There are other accidents and circumstances – you can’t climb the El Castillo pyramid at Chitzen Itza anymore.  Notre Dame has burned, and even after recovery efforts that will take many years, there will still be elements of the original building that will have been lost forever.

So, take a look at the destinations and travel experiences on your bucket list, and make plans to do those trips now.

You just don’t know when the opportunity will be taken away.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) is the world’s largest cruise industry trade association.

As a cruise specialist, I’m a proud member of CLIA and also a CLIA Accredited Cruise Counsellor (ACC).

Every year, CLIA releases a report to its members about the state of the industry, and what trends they are seeing.  There are also some interesting data that if you’re a stats-nerd like me, you might find interesting.

First, the Trends:

• Wellness & Spas:  It seems that cruising isn’t just about the casino and production shows anymore.  People are increasingly looking for more and better spa services, and other offerings related to health and wellness.
• On-board Technology:  The best example right now is the Princess Medallion, that is making guests more connected (to each other, and the crew) when on board the ship.  Look for this trend to continue across all the cruise lines.
• Off Season Travel:  We are seeing more ships in Europe (for example) in the winter months.  People want to see places when they are not as crowded.
• Achievement Travel:  People want to participate and be active on vacation, so the cruise lines are offering more than shuffleboard and lying by the pool for the guests.
• Instagram:  For many of us, the idea of managing yet another social media channel is not a pleasant thought, but the iconic nature of travel, and people’s desire to share their experiences, make Instagram perfect for the job.
• Conscious Travel:  Cruise ship guests want to connect with local cultures, and are increasingly interested in environmental stewardship.
• Traveling to the ends of the earth:  People want to go where they haven’t been before (and they’ve been to a lot of places).  The polar regions, and well as other out of way destinations are growing quickly.
• Women Rule:  Women are already more than half the population, but the cruise lines have started to figure out that women are the decision-makers for far more travel choices than men are.  Look for female-centric cruising to be a thing.

Now for the numbers:

• 30 Million – the estimated number of people that will cruise in 2019.  It was 17 million in 2009.
• 18 new ships in 2019.  This brings to total CLIA member ships to 272.
• 1.1 Million jobs are directly related to cruise ships.  The associated jobs would be several times higher
• $45.6 Billion – the payroll of all those jobs.

Where do the ships go? (by % of berths available):

• Caribbean: 34.4%
  • Mediterranean: 17.3%
  • Europe (other than Med): 11.1%
  • China 4.9 %
  • Australia/New Zealand: 4.8%
  • Alaska: 4.7%
  • Asia (excluding China) 4.3%
  • Other 16.2

Where do Cruise Ship Passengers come from?

• USA:  11.9 million
  • China: 2.4 million
  • Germany: 2.19 million
  • UK: 1.93 million
  • Australia/New Zealand:  1.34 million
  • Canada:  .92 million
  • Italy:  .77 million
  • Spain: .51 million
  • France: .5 million
  • Brazil: .45 million

The one thing that would be hard to ignore in the destination and passenger trends is there is no doubt that China is going to be an increasingly important factor in where ships are deployed, and how the cruise lines will be marketing in the future. 

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

It all seems so civilized at first.  You book your cruise, and the cruise line is offering free, or heavily discounted air. 

And then the games begin.

In our experience, debriefing our clients’ vacations when they return home, the overwhelming majority of any issues or complaints they have are with their air travel – NOT from the cruise or any land portions.

In fairness to the cruise lines, most of the problems encountered have nothing to do with them (none of them have their own airline).  It has everything to do with the fact that all of air carriers in North America have a horrible reputation for customer service.

Of course every traveller has their favorite, and most-despised airline, but I can find you just as many Delta-haters, as I can American Airlines-haters or United-haters.  Collectively, as a society, we have decided they are all terrible.  They deserve this reputation.

So what do you do?

You make sure you have all the requisite information, and then you hope for the best.  Here are some of the most common complaints we get about people’s air travel to their cruise.  At the very least, you can set your expectations, so you won’t be surprised when things go sideways (and they do – a lot).

Seat Assignments.  The fine print on your reservation will tell you that even if you have paid for a certain seat, it is not guaranteed.  Many of our clients get quite cranky with the cruise line over this, but it has nothing to do with them.  The air carriers like to swap out planes at the last minute, throwing all seating assignments into chaos.  Solution:  I still pay for a specific seat, and about 80% of the time it works out.  For the 20% of time it doesn’t, there is nothing I can do.  If I’ve paid for extra legroom and I don’t get it, the amount I’ve paid is refunded to my credit card.

Seat Assignments (Part 2).  If you’re flying overseas, and you are flying part way on an American carrier, and part way on one of their European partners, you won’t be able to select your seats on the code-share partner until check in.  This is utterly ridiculous in the 21^st Century.  Again – we have seen people go after the cruise line’s air department for this problem, and it has nothing to do with them.  Solution:  Try to avoid codeshare flights, and stick with one carrier for the whole trip.  If you are using cruise line air, you won’t have this discretion, so you may want to book your own.  FYI – it is going to cost you more. 

Upgrading with Points.  If you’ve booked free or discounted air through the cruise line, and then want to upgrade using your airline points – don’t count on it.  Again – this has nothing to do with the cruise line.   Here’s how it goes:  You, as the holder of the points call the airline, and say you want to upgrade using those points. They usually say they can’t do that because the flights have been ticketed by the cruise line.  OK – let’s give the cruise line a call.  Sorry, the cruise line can’t use YOUR points, because they belong to you.  This catch-22 cannot be resolved, even when getting all parties concerned on a conference all to discuss.  Solution:  If you want to use points, don’t use the cruise line air, and arrange your own flights. 

Bizarre Routings or Connections.  The cruise lines are looking to get you from home to the ship and back as cheaply as possible.  Sometimes this means a flight from Seattle to Miami, that connects in Houston, and then Chicago.  Solution:  Spend more money – ask the cruise line how much more it will cost you for a direct flight.  Often it’s not much more, and if you place any value on your own time, it’s well worth it.

Legroom/Space on the Plane.  Every year the planes seem to get smaller.  What we forget is that it costs a tiny fraction to fly what it did two or three decades ago, and the reason it is cheaper is that they have significantly scaled back the service, and placed the seats much closer together.  Solution: Spend more money – Business Class may be out of reach for many of us, but Premium Economy is normally affordable, and depending on the airline, could be worth it.  This is particularly worth considering on long-haul overseas flights. 

Baggage Fees.  Remember the good old days, when you’d show up at the airport, and they would check two bags for free.  This also stopped people from filling up a cardboard box that could fit a refrigerator, and trying to pass it off as “carry-on”.  Solution:  Get an airline credit card where they waive such fees OR fly in Premium Economy where you get one or two free bags.  By the time you subtract your bag fees, that ticket in Premium Economy is really not that much more than you’d be paying in cattle-class.

The one common theme that runs through all of these airline problems is that money can solve many of them.  Usually the amount of extra money is not much in percentage terms, but we tend to get a mindset of needing to get the best deal, as opposed to looking for the best value. 

We’ve had clients who paid more than $20,000 for a cruise, and then balked at an additional $200 charge from the airlines that would have largely eliminated most of the issues above.  You can fight the airlines, but you are not going to win – the days of glamorous air travel with impeccable service and comfort are long over.  You are also paying about half of what you paid in the 1980s for air (after adjusting for inflation). 

So our best suggestion for clients when asking about cruise line air, is to dial back your expectations (you should be used to this already if you fly more than once a year), and count on paying more money than is originally advertised. 

You can get low (or free) air, but it comes at a cost.

Planning a Cruise?  I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley