TomTravel2

Tomorrow we are off from Phoenix to Fort Lauderdale. We spend one night there which gives us a chance to see family for dinner. I am looking forward to that. Mid-day on Thursday we board the Island Princess for a 10 day sailing. This is my “Graduation Cruise” which is offered free of charge by the generous people at Princess Cruise Lines to all travel agents who complete their online training program. I have taken many travel supplier trainings in the past two years and this was by far the most rigorous and difficult to pass. Now as a “Commodore” I had my choice of joining a number of sailings since I passed the course in April of 2008. Due to schedule conflicts we had to pass on some good itineraries until this one came along. We both liked the idea of sailing through the man made wonder of the Panama Canal.

The map above outlines our journey. Starting of course in Phoenix we fly to Fort Lauderdale to meet the ship. We sail between Cuba and Hispaniola with a sea day before we arrive in Ocho Rios Jamaica. We are doing a waterfall and dolphin encounter tour booked through Princess. This is a new destination for both of us. Now that USAir is offering direct flights from Phoenix  to Montego Bay it is a good time to check out the island. Jamaica is followed by another day at sea.

Next we transit the Panama Canal most of the day and have 5 hours in the evening to explore the old city of Panama and check out a local restaurant. We plan to ad lib this adventure by cab. Our next destination is Puntarenas Costa Rica. We actually passed nearby this town on our way to Manuel Antonio where we spent a great week in Spanish immersion classes three years ago. Rather than revisit places we already have seen we opted for a river rafting and wildlife viewing trip through Princess.

The next day finds us in San Juan del Sur Nicaragua. This is probably the poorest country we will experience. Costa Ricans (or Ticos) look down on “Nicas” who flood across the border to take menial jobs locals shun. Sound familiar? We are taking a walking tour of Granada which is one of the oldest cities in Central America. We also will be doing a lake tour by boat, all arranged through Princess. We follow this with a day that starts at Puerto Quetzal Guatemala. We are doing a shopping experience at handcraft markets and a jade market (guess who picked that tour?). This is Maya country so I expect to come home with some colorful chatchkes!

We have only half a day in Huatulco Mexico which is a place we have visited before. We took our kids to the Club Med there (which is now part of a different hotel chain) once. It is a made for Fonatur destination so there is not much to see in that area except resorts. For that reason I am cashing in another travel agent graduation gift. I am a big fan of AmResorts properties (there are a number reviewed on this blog from a FAM I did with AmResorts to the Riviera Maya). This is one of the finest purveyors of luxury all inclusive vacations with their Zoetry, Secrets and Dreams Resorts. We will be pampered in all inclusive luxury on the beach of Dreams Huatulco with my “Master Agent" day pass I received after completing their training.

Our journey ends in historic and fabled Acapulco. Best known as a tropical destination resort now, this city was the primary port on the Pacific  Coast of Mexico for almost 200 years. Riches flooded through Acapulco as the Spanish galleons plied the Manila Trade Route buying spices and manufactured goods from the orient with Aztec silver from Mexico. Pesky English and Dutch pirates added further spice to the history of the region. We will be touring the city, the history museum, the famed cliff divers, and seeing some of the resorts before settling into the Fairmont Pierre Marques for one night. Thanks to another travel agent incentive program we are enjoying the Famous Agents rate which is a great deal. We fly home mid-day the next day.

I am really looking forward to a real vacation! As time and our limited internet access allows I will post some photos here on my blog (I can upload much faster than on facebook). I will post on facebook and tweet on twitter when a new post has been uploaded. I hope you enjoy!

When I started my adventure in learning to be a travel agent I took dozens of trainings from suppliers of travel. One of the first was Princess cruise lines very exhaustive online course. I have to say that it was the most thorough and difficult to pass of all that I have taken thus far. One of the benefits of completing this course and becoming a “Commodore” is a complimentary “Graduation Cruise.” Princess offers space on select cruises at no charge for an inside cabin, and at very reduced rates for some better categories to travel agents who have graduated as Commodores. The agent has 2 years to use this cruise or lose it. The cruises are offered fairly close to sailing, so many great options came and went due to scheduling conflicts. I could have had Reykjavik!

With only four months of eligibility for my free cruise left, I had about given up finding one that worked for our schedule. Then came the email offering 10 days Panama Canal on December 10th. This worked for me and my better half as we both wanted to experience the canal crossing by ship, and the date aligned with winter break. We have been helping with our granddaughter while mom and dad are both trudging through graduate school. After  getting the thumbs up from the wife, I booked the cruise on a Friday and began booking air and hotels. On that Sunday evening a tweet from a friend introduced me to #followmeatsea.

Princess had offered a group of travel bloggers and writers an opportunity to experience a Caribbean cruise in hopes that they would blog, tweet, and write about their experience. What started as a PR experiment quickly devolved into a twitter hashtag battle. Some environmentally minded people in the travel world on twitter began to attack their compatriots who went on the cruise on two fronts: the ethics of taking freebies and the environmental failings of cruises. For those unfamiliar with the whole hullabaloo, some of it got pretty nasty.

As I had just booked my own cruise I took an immediate interest in the goings on. I ended up reading all the tweets in #followmeatsea daily. I also followed most of the links that were put out by those tweeting into the hashtag. Several blogs talked about the PR aspects of the affair, mostly emphasizing the lack of a response on the part of the cruise’s sponsor. As an avid student of Twitter, and best practices thereof, my first reaction was one of agreement. It was baffling why Princess failed to address the critics head on. There was very little offered by those critics that was specific to Princess. Most of the links the offered were fact light and opinion heavy. I did learn that some people think cruise ships are a plague upon the earth, but I still am not sure why some of them hold this opinion due to so few facts being included.

Eventually most of the critics slunk away from the hashtag. The people who went on the cruise quickly lashed back at their critics. Many of the fans of the well known tweeters and bloggers also came to their defense. By the after cruise postings I had changed my mind about what Princess did and didn’t do in regards to the critics. When you have allies and friends defending you from criticism there really is no need to defend yourself. Without lifting a finger Princess, and the cruise industry in general, came out of the whole mess the winner!

Anybody who looked at the totality of #followmeatsea would come away with two main impressions. There is a small group of people who hate cruises and think bloggers shouldn’t take freebies, Secondly the people who went on that cruise sure had one hell of a good time! It was the latter impression that was by far the most powerful. Despite the impassioned intent to sink “The Love Boat” the critics failed to even put a dent into the overall positive PR the trip generated. It was clear from the tweets and blogs of the invitees that most had never been on a cruise. Many had low expectations of how they would like the experience. For most the trip far exceeded their expectations. Thus, what seemed early on to be PR stuck on a reef turned out to be PR clear sailing!

Like the bloggers of this journey, I had low expectations before my first cruise many years ago. It came as a compromise for a multi-generation family adventure. The whole experience was much more fun than I could have imagined. It was not my last cruise by a long shot. Even though I prefer land based trips to cruises, I continue to add an occasional cruise to my plans. They are particularly great ways for families or groups of friends with varied interests or degrees of hardiness to travel comfortably en masse. My looming sailing will be the first I have taken as a couple without an entourage of family or friends. I am really looking forward to it. We have sailed with Princess several times and I can’t wait to get a bit of pampering.

People who have been on their first cruise report a very high level of satisfaction with the experience on surveys. The vast majority state that they would be likely or very likely to cruise again in the future. A very small percentage of Americans have taken that first cruise, so the market is sure to continue to grow. It is secure in this knowledge that the industry steams ahead doing better than the overall travel business in the worst travel market of all time. Some new ship orders that had been put on hold have been put right back into the queue. The public demand for cruise vacations just keeps expanding and new ships will be needed to fill that demand. Once they get you on your first cruise, they know almost all of you will sail again. 

This is bad news for those who think of the industry as the scourge of the earth. If the goal is to get the public to stop taking cruises, what we have here is a massive FAIL! As I have written before I see travel as problematic in environmental terms. I have very green intentions, and live my life with as little impact on the earth as I can within reason. I am a practical person first and foremost. Most people will make greener choices only when it fits into their lifestyle. It is my opinion that working for green alternatives to fossil fuels for airplanes, cars and ships makes more sense than urging people not to travel a certain way, or not to travel at all. If there were green alternatives I, and many others, would opt for them. I will not opt to stay home.