Fantastic insight into travel expos! Even though you weren't looking to buy, how did the travel deals on offer compare with elsewhere? Any of the lesser known cruise lines/ships particularly appeal to you?
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the video! The deals being offered seemed fairly standard to ones the lines will periodically offer online. Which is to say: they were good deals, yet not unprecedented. For instance, Viking was offering $25 deposits and that's a special they run at least a couple times per year. The difference, though, is you have to wait for those offers to come around and be diligent to spot them; at a travel show, they're right there for the taking. There's a convenience factor, at the very least. Also, especially for the smaller lines, you're dealing directly with their in-house sales reps and they're motivated to sell; if we were really looking to book on the spot, I imagine it would've been easy to negotiate some extras like added onboard credit, etc. As for the cruise lines that were most appealing... we're *very* eager to take an Antarctica expedition cruise in the near future (Arctic, too). All the expedition lines you see in the video seemed great. Atlas Ocean Voyages seemed to be the most luxurious in terms of accommodations, cuisine, et al. And yet their pricing is actually quite reasonable. Aurora Expeditions are pioneers in the polar expedition field (30+ years doing them) and offer a great excursion program. They've also just become a Certified B Corporation, which really shows their commitment to sustainability -- obviously something that travelers should be mindful of when venturing into fragile ecosystems like Antarctica. In terms of more traditional cruising, we'd love to try Scenic's take on ultra-luxury ocean cruising at some point and see how it compares to the likes of Regent. We're also really curious about Hapag-Lloyd. They've won prestigious awards like 5 stars from Insight Guides/Berlitz Cruising, yet we don't know many Americans who've ever cruised with them. We're also really curious to try a non-English speaking line (though they're still welcoming of English speakers, and a couple of Hapag Lloyd's ships officially use English onboard alongside German).
Fantastic insight into travel expos! Even though you weren't looking to buy, how did the travel deals on offer compare with elsewhere? Any of the lesser known cruise lines/ships particularly appeal to you?
Thank you, glad you enjoyed the video!
The deals being offered seemed fairly standard to ones the lines will periodically offer online. Which is to say: they were good deals, yet not unprecedented. For instance, Viking was offering $25 deposits and that's a special they run at least a couple times per year. The difference, though, is you have to wait for those offers to come around and be diligent to spot them; at a travel show, they're right there for the taking. There's a convenience factor, at the very least. Also, especially for the smaller lines, you're dealing directly with their in-house sales reps and they're motivated to sell; if we were really looking to book on the spot, I imagine it would've been easy to negotiate some extras like added onboard credit, etc.
As for the cruise lines that were most appealing... we're *very* eager to take an Antarctica expedition cruise in the near future (Arctic, too). All the expedition lines you see in the video seemed great. Atlas Ocean Voyages seemed to be the most luxurious in terms of accommodations, cuisine, et al. And yet their pricing is actually quite reasonable. Aurora Expeditions are pioneers in the polar expedition field (30+ years doing them) and offer a great excursion program. They've also just become a Certified B Corporation, which really shows their commitment to sustainability -- obviously something that travelers should be mindful of when venturing into fragile ecosystems like Antarctica.
In terms of more traditional cruising, we'd love to try Scenic's take on ultra-luxury ocean cruising at some point and see how it compares to the likes of Regent. We're also really curious about Hapag-Lloyd. They've won prestigious awards like 5 stars from Insight Guides/Berlitz Cruising, yet we don't know many Americans who've ever cruised with them. We're also really curious to try a non-English speaking line (though they're still welcoming of English speakers, and a couple of Hapag Lloyd's ships officially use English onboard alongside German).