Back in March when the travel industry first started reacting to the pandemic (seems like a decade ago), we came up with the idea of “Virtual River Cruise”. In between cancelling our clients’ vacation plans, we started to script out some (contrived) conversations between the two of us at our dining room table discussing a specific port of call, as though we were at that place. We even went as far as to select specific wines from Budapest and Bratislava – our first virtual stops.
We never published these videos for two reasons:
- It was a lot of work to get them produced, and the bulk of our day was consumed by cancelling and rebooking our clients. You’ll be pleased to know that the wine didn’t go to waste, however.
- We weren’t the only ones with this idea, and the cruise lines themselves had immense marketing and media departments with people who were now looking for things to do.
In reality, the videos we produce (or in this case didn’t produce), are not of the same quality you get from the cruise lines. In some cases, the videos we take with our iPhones when we travel are better – you get to see exactly what we see, and there is no airbrushing, professional models or extensive editing.
There is no doubt, however, that the cruise lines’ professionally produced videos are much more slick, and some of them have done a fantastic job of “Virtual Travel” to tide us over until we are able to participate in the authentic experience once again.
So, if you are so inclined over the heat of the summer to take a virtual vacation to various places or on certain cruise lines, here are some suggestions:
The Pampered Cruiser: https://www.youtube.com/thepamperedcruiser
Yep… this is our channel, and this is a shameless plug. See the caveats above for what you can expect there. YouTube is not the most intuitive browsing experience, so click on the “Videos” or “Playlists” button if you are looking for something specific. If Bob and I are anonymous to you, we actually “star” in some of the videos here if you ever wondered what we actually look and sound like.
American Queen Steamboat Company: https://www.youtube.com/user/AQSCVideo/playlists
Most of us are probably closer to travelling domestically than internationally at this point, so this might be a good place to look. Click on the playlist for American Queen to get a good feel for what a Mississippi Cruise is like. One of my best discoveries during this period has been the Columbia/Snake River Cruises on the American Empress. The scenery and natural beauty in that part of the country rivals Alaska (and unlike Alaska/British Columbia there are cruises on the Columbia this fall). Both Mississippi and Columbia River cruises are starting up in the next couple of weeks.
Paul Gauguin Cruises: https://www.youtube.com/user/pgcruises/videos
This channel could be more flashy, but they have a number of short videos if you’d like to see what Tahiti is like on a small ship. I included this because French Polynesia is currently open to US passport holders, and (little known fact) Tahiti is only 2 hours further on a plane than Hawaii is, but with a fraction as many people.
Seabourn: https://www.youtube.com/c/theyachtsofseabourn/videos
Seabourn has lots of videos on their ships and experiences, and also on destinations. They’ve also been adding videos since they suspended operations in the spring called “Bringing Extraordinary Home”. A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about some deals we’re seeing on Seabourn, and they’ve recently extended those deals to the end of August. Here’s a link if you missed that post: https://pamperedcruiser.com/combine-cruise-deals-for-the-best-value/
Viking: https://viking.tv/index/story/weekly-schedule
If you’re on Viking’s mailing list, then you already know they are a marketing machine without rival. Since they suspended sailing in the spring, they have been putting a ton of energy into their videos that include the normal promos for their ships and destinations but also many other enrichment topics that you would normally experience on their cruises. For example, they have “Museum Mondays”, and “Guest Speaker Thursdays”. If the content is of interest to you, then this is a great place for a virtual vacation.
AMA Waterways: https://www.youtube.com/c/amawaterways/videos
AMA has several short videos on their site that feature the people that work there showing you around their ships and destinations. AMA differentiates itself as a “family company” and its people, and that comes through strongly on their channel.
Rocky Mountaineer: https://www.youtube.com/c/rmountaineertrain/videos
If you haven’t heard of this train journey, you might want to check out their YouTube channel. We quite often add this on to Alaskan Cruises for our clients, because it is quickly becoming one of the world’s “must-do” train trips. It is a luxury trip over the continental divide through the Canadian Rockies, and features some of the most stunning scenery in the world.
People are beginning to travel again, but for many of us a virtual vacation might be the best we can do for a while. So have some fun with this – pick a destination or a cruise line, pour a glass of wine (or your preferred choice of beverage), and explore your next destination virtually.
It’s certainly not as good as travelling in person, but also way better than watching the news.
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I look forward to hearing from you.
Sue Bradley
Sue Bradley
