Mother Nature showed her proudest moments in a recent cruise of the Inside Passage in Alaska. Calving of the Hubbard Glacier, Bald Eagles, Whales and Sea Otters all for our personal pleasure along our cruise, not to mention the wonderful days at sea, on a great refurbished ship. The Millennium is the oldest of the Millennium class of ships by Celebrity and she has come of age and is more beautiful then ever! Glamour has returned to the high seas with upgrades and new everything in less then 14 days. We sailed on her second trip after the refurbish, some things still need to be completed, but the staff of over 900 worked for 14 days with contractors, designers, laborers to convert this lady of the sea to the Gran Dame of the seas. With much pride the staff showed off the changes and upgrades, the cabins are some of my favorite on the seas, now they are right up there with all the modern ships, clean lines, light colors, great carpet design, clean & comfy.
Our Seminar @ Sea was fun; we spent time experiencing the ship, staff and incredible foods. Our members enjoyed sharing during dinner each night, a fantastic brunch event and of course the “Staring You” midnight dessert buffet, can anything be any better? Our classes on this trip focused on the importance of Professionalism and being a Professional in our industry. We’re the forefront of the industry now, being true professionals and stumping out the reputation that has been less then desirable created by the YTBs. I’m very proud to be a “Travel Professional” and love sharing why I love this career choice. We took time to view an extended slide show on capturing all the revenue options and taking advantage of our membership in OSSN, Consortiums, Host Agencies and of course all the training and accreditations that are available. We discussed the many free tools that we should all be taking advantage of, Video on your webs with U-tube, photo sharing on your site with flicker. Listing your agency with all the free local ad listings with Google, Yahoo and MSN and getting your face and name out in your community as the brand of integrity, reliability and you, “The Travel Professional”!
The excursion we took in Skagway was my personal favorite, as I’m a train buff; but really the trestles an drop offs on this narrow gauge rail system built for the gold rush is a great 4 hour adventure. Don’t worry you can board at the ship and return to the ship or take a short 5 minute walk into town taking in the awesome views of this area. The train ride is narrated with tons of facts – hint, ride up on the right side of the train, once you reach the summit you switch seats with the other side and ride back down (after flipping your seat over) – why is this great, well going up everyone jumps around to take pictures and you can note the photos you want, so when going down your on the right side again, repeating the views and getting an better opportunity to take the pictures you want!
Food, can it get any better or more entertaining? Not sure, however; I will say that I personally had a blast doing the food events, cooking demos, wine pairing, foods around the world event, brunch and the midnight “Staring You” dessert buffet. When do you not eat, that depends on you, what I suggest is share your meal times with friends and great travel companions this makes it easier to enjoy the bounty of foods. Our experience with the service seemed more then adequate, my name was mentioned in each lounge, dining room and element of service which makes me feel welcome and comfortable, this is very important to know when you put single travelers on Celebrity Cruises, they seem to be aware when you travel alone to take time to recognize and engage you in conversation! It makes a big difference to the single cruisers, our agency has many single cruisers, they often mention that when the staff takes time to say hello while engaging them in a quick and fun conversation creates an incredible level of comfort. On to the bartenders and entertainers extraordinaire, you can skip the shows on the Millennium if you like “Tom Cruise” style bartending – check out our pictures of the Martini Bartender, he was very amusing, entertaining with a great attitude, I didn’t have a Martini some of our agents did the Martini tasting, according to them the shaking, twisting, throwing in the air of the mixes makes the Martinis on the Millennium some of the best on the high seas!
Alaska rocks, I can’t wait to do it again! See you on-board!
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