Cruising Alaska

One of my possible holiday trips this summer is a 7-day Alaskan cruise on Royal Caribbean.  Deciding which cruise line to take can be difficult, as it was in my case.  I’ve been critical of travel agencies and their cookie cutter service, which is one of the reasons why I painstakingly make my travel arrangements myself, usually online.  I like to customize my holidays the way that I want too.  Of course, there are some travel agents that do this … I don’t know who they are though.  But as I was trying to plan my holiday, it finally dawned upon me that I needed help.  I called Royal Caribbean and Holland America.  What a difference in the representatives.  Although both representatives were sales people, Royal Caribbean was a sales representative/travel agent.  The representative was knowledgeable and helpful.  He knew his ship, at least he appeared to know his ship, and all the services that Royal Caribbean offered … like the off-ship excursions.  Holland America on the other hand was a poor sales person without and travel agent skills.  Of course, I could have just been lucky or unlucky in the case of Holland America, but I may be rethinking my perception of travel agents altogether.