You've heard friends talk about their cruise
vacations and how great a time they had, and you wonder what's it all
about. More and more people are discovering the all-inclusive
pleasures of a cruise vacation. This month, in conjunction with CLIA's National Plan a Cruise Month, we are writing a series of articles to help you become more familiar with cruise vacations.
Planning Your First / Next Cruise
The diagram above shows some of the decision points that factor into your final selection of a particular cruise sailing. At first glance, it may seem to be a bit daunting, and perhaps that is what has kept you away from taking a cruise up to now. We can work with you to demystify the process.
We highly recommend that you work with a professional travel agent, that specializes in cruises, to plan your vacation. As a CLIA certified Master Cruise Counselor (MCC), we've taken the time to learn about the industry, the cruise lines, the destinations, all the changes that occur year after year, and through our personal experiences, can ask the right questions to find the cruise that best meets your desires. The MCC certification isn't a one-time event, it is an ongoing commitment, of our expertise, which we need to renew year after year, much like your family doctor.Asking the Right Questions
Think about other travel that you have done ... When planning those trips, you had certain criteria in mind that ultimately factored into what became your vacation or business trip.
Who's Going, What are their Ages, When Can you Go
In many cases, you are locked into a specific date or period of time (such as when the other travelers can get off of work, or when the kids are out of school). Once a date is selected, the pool of possible cruise destinations may shrink. For example, if you wanted to cruise in December, you won't be going to Alaska, as that season goes from May - September.
Are Certain Ports a Must, Are you Driving or Flying to Port
We'll look at destinations in more detail in another post, but that is one of the key determining factors in planning the actual sailing. Let's assume that you want to meet a long lost relative in a foreign country... that would become a must-see port of call and could become your primary deciding factor.
If you are fortunate enough to be within driving distance to a cruise port, departing from that port may dictate the length of cruise and destination(s) possible. Even if you are flying, each port has certain destinations that are within sailing distance for a given length of a cruise.
Do you Have any Preferences
You may have some cruise lines, that you are familiar with, and want to sail on. This may be a trip with the family who loves Disney characters or Dreamworks characters and the cruise line becomes the most important factor in your planning.
Finding the Right Cruise at the Right Price
After discussing all the options within the framework of your wants, the final decision will most likely involve what's available within my budget. Our goal as your agent is to find you the best value for your vacation dollar. Note that doesn't necessarily equate to the lowest price. If the lowest priced cruise doesn't have any of your top requirements, then that cruise isn't for you. You wouldn't buy a car that you didn't like, and you shouldn't purchase a cruise vacation that you won't like either.
Starting the Planning
We have many tools for you to begin your cruise research. We are highlighting them throughout the month as we look at cruising, which we fell in love with personally some 30+ years ago. This blog, our Facebook page, and our website are your building blocks. We have a cruise finder on all these sites which can give you an idea about the destinations that are possible within the desired time frame. The best tool that you have at your disposal is the phone. An interactive conversation is the best way to uncover your wants and desires and funnel them down to possible candidate cruise sailings.
Are you new to cruising? Start by reading our Cruise Rookies page. We'll be posting several more articles this month, but if you can't wait, we suggest searching our Blog for past articles. Check out our Cruise Diaries for some of our featured cruises.
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National Plan A Cruise Month Promotions
Cruise lines are offering special promotions and pricing on popular cruises to encourage consumers to plan their next cruise vacation now.
We'll be featuring promotions on our website and social media. Click here to see current offers.
A Cruise Can Take You There (click for mini-series)
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Where have you explored?
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