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Are you keeping up with the new vocabulary of travel? The voice of luxury is awash in new buzzwords, it seems. And they all are pointing to the same good news. Luxury travel advisors are having a moment; luxury sales are soaring; and the most well-known global luxury consortia, Virtuoso, is feeling the love.

Sixteen months into dealing with Manhattan Probate Court about an inheritance without the proper paperwork, I am somewhat obsessed on the subject of succession planning—and so of course I’ve been talking to travel advisors about it.  Read the rest of this entry »

Travel advisors now can book shore excursions and lounge facilities for clients booked on the 600 Carnival cruises that will stop at the Pearl Cove Beach Club.

When it opens in July 2025, the new adults-only area on Carnival Cruise Line’s (CCL) first private island will feature an 11,000-square-foot infinity pool lined with shaded daybeds and loungers, a swim-up bar and a spacious sun shelf, as well as a beach and a full-service restaurant.

Passengers and travel advisors now can book:

Daybeds and Water Daybeds (in Starfish Lagoon and Calypso Lagoon): Daybeds and water daybeds for two have canopies, pillows, and privacy curtains.

Cabanas (at the freshwater lagoons): Cabanas hold up to four guests and include armchairs, a sofa, two sun loungers, a cooler with chilled water, privacy curtains, a lockable cabinet, snacks, and fresh fruit.

Over-the-Lagoon Cabanas (near the Starfish and Calypso Lagoons): Cabanas that also have a ceiling fan and sunshelf.

Large Cabanas (near the Starfish and Calypso Lagoons): Large cabanas hold up to six, and include four sun loungers, stocked mini refrigerators, a lockable cabinet, a sofa, a dining table, a ceiling fan, privacy curtains, snacks, fruits and lunch.

AquaBanas (at the Starfish Lagoon): AquaBanas, which allow guests to keep their feet in the water, seat eight people under a shaded canopy.

Over-the-Lagoon Supervillas (at the Starfish Lagoon) and Beach Supervillas (at the beaches): Supervillas hold up to 10 guests with plenty of shaded seating options and extra amenities, including hammocks, lunch delivery, and stocked mini-refrigerators.

Also now bookable are kayaking, snorkeling, glass bottom boat tours, and land tours.

Unlike other private islands, admission to Pearl Cove is not included in the cost of a Carnival cruise. Prices for the least expensive package, at $99.99 per person, include club access and a welcome drink. Adding an open bar that offers up to 10 drinks—draft domestic beer, house red or white wine, well drinks, or rum punch—increases the price to $139.99 per person, and adding food from the Pearl Cove restaurant costs $179.99 per person.

There’s more to Mexico than Cancun—and our neighbor to the south is counting on travel advisors to spread the word about its abundant luxury, adventure, cultural, and family travel opportunities. To help them along, 200 or so travel advisors showed up for CCRA’s PowerSolutions conference in Jersey City last week to hear about new options, like the jaw-dropping Copper Canyon (25,000 square miles, four times the size of the Grand Canyon) and the new lines on the Mayan Railroad, many of which are aimed at high-end travelers. Read the rest of this entry »

With tensions in the volatile Middle East rising once again, Delta and United Airlines have canceled all flights to Tel Aviv effective today, and some European carriers are halting flights to the region as well. But despite earlier reports to the contrary, British Airways has said it will continue to fly, as will Israel’s flag carrier, El Al.

Delta in a statement said it is pausing flights between New York-JFK and Tel Aviv through Friday, Aug. 2, and suspending sales of flights for DL234 on Jul. 31 and Aug. 1, and DL235 on Aug. 1 and Aug. 2.

Delta.com notes that “our hearts are with all who are impacted as we work to find safe alternatives for customers trying to travel to/from Tel Aviv,” and offers a waiver to any customers currently booked through Sept. 6, 2024, who want to change flights.

United, which has been operating 14 flights a week to Tel Aviv, says that while its service to Tel Aviv is “currently suspended,” it still flies to Amman, Athens, and Dubai, where travelers can transfer to other carriers.

Cancellations are affecting European carriers heading to the Middle East as well. Lufthansa Group on Monday said three of its airlines — Lufthansa, Swiss, and Eurowings — have suspended flights to and from Beirut “up to and including” August 5, and Lufthansa on Wednesday night canceled a flight from Cyprus to Tel Aviv after Iran announced it was temporarily closing its airspace. Air France also suspended some of its flights, while other airlines changed their flight schedules.

Meanwhile, an ad in The Jerusalem Post notes that under EU regulations, travelers whose flights are canceled may be entitled to up to €600 compensation.

With flames licking the edges of Canada’s largest national park, officials ordered 25,000 residents, visitors and seasonal workers to evacuate the town of Jasper; Jasper National Park and the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge have closed; and the Rocky Mountaineer train has canceled several routes.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Thursday said the government is deploying military resources and evacuation support to Alberta, as well as coordinating firefighting and airlift assistance.

Rocky Mountaineer posted on its website that it is “unable to continue our rail journeys to or from Jasper for the foreseeable future” and is “moving as quickly as possible to work through the impact to guest itineraries,” in sequential order. It has canceled Journey through the Clouds departures on July 25: Jasper to Vancouver, July 26: Vancouver to Jasper and July 28: Jasper to Vancouver, and changed the itineraries for Rainforest to Gold Rush departures July 27: Vancouver to Jasper and July 30: Jasper to Vancouver.

“We will continue to work through other departures of Journey through the Clouds and Rainforest to Gold Rush and reach out to those guests as quickly as possible,” the company said.

The First Passage to the West route from Vancouver to Lake Louise and Banff, and The Rockies to the Red Rocks route from Denver to Moab, Utah, will proceed as scheduled.

Rocky Mountaineer also noted that a potential strike by the employees of Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National, which own and operate the rail lines on which Rocky Mountaineer travels, are facing potential strike action by unionized workers. “Rocky Mountaineer employees are not involved; however, if there is labor action, it could impact our train operations,” the company said. “Our team is working on a contingency plan should there be an impact to our rail journeys,” but negotiations are ongoing and the unions are required to provide 72 hours’ notice before striking.

Meanwhile, Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge—home to the largest golf course in Canada—said the fire has reached the property and everyone has been evacuated. But most of the lodge structures, including the main lodge, remain intact. For more information, call the Fairmont Banff Springs at 1-403-762-2211.

Reaching—and keeping—high net worth customers is all about developing personal relationships–among you, them, the people with whom they are traveling and the luxury travel suppliers with whom you all interact.

That theme was repeated over and over again by the tony Manhattan crowd at Travel + Leisure’s “The World’s Best Summit” in Manhattan last week. Among the speakers from luxury travel companies like Hyatt and Six Senses and Hurtigruten, my favorite was Embark Beyond founder Jack Ezon, representing the luxury travel advisor community. Ezon said selling luxury is about offering customers access in the most creative of ways, bonding your clients and their guests over shared experiences that will last a lifetime. Read the rest of this entry »

September will bring two new all-inclusive options to Jamaica, as the Princess Hotels & Resorts Group debuts the adults-only Princess Senses the Mangrove (Princess Senses The Mangrove | Only adults hotel Jamaica (princess-hotels.com) and the family-friendly Princess Grand Jamaica (Princess Grand Jamaica Hotel en Negril (princess-hotels.com).

Scheduled to open on Sept. 15, the two properties will be next to one another in Green Island, a town on the western tip of Jamaica in Hanover.

Princess Senses The Mangrove has 401 oceanview suites and 14 overwater villas with private infinity pools. Among them are Pleasure Suites, which promise a sensual ambiance, and more exclusive Platinum Club Suites offering private areas, upgraded amenities and butler service.

Also on site will be a spa, a fitness and wellness center, a water park, a convention center and a nightclub, along with 14 restaurants and 15 bars serving everything from steak to food truck fare.

The Princess Grand Jamaica, meanwhile, has 590 oceanview suites, including Platinum Suites as well as Family and Master Suite options. It also has nine restaurants and a food truck, eight bars, three pools, a water park, a kids club and teens center, and a spa.

To keep guests busy, both properties offer beach volleyball, yoga, water aerobics, dance classes, cocktail-making and cooking classes, motorized and nonmotorized watersports, soccer, tennis, basketball, pickleball and archery.

Starting rates are $579 for a deluxe junior Suite at Princess Senses The Mangrove or $505 for a Princess Junior Suite at Princess Grand Jamaica.

Based in Spain, Princess Hotels & Resorts has a total of 11,000 guest rooms in the Canary Islands (Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Tenerife, La Palma), Barcelona, Dominican Republic (Punta Cana), Jamaica (Negril) and Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

“The World’s Largest Cruise Company” is growing even larger, introducing a new class of ships that hold 8,000 passengers each – and ordering three of them for Carnival Cruise Line from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.

At 230,000 gross registered tons each, and with more than 3,000 guest staterooms apiece, the new ships will be the largest in the Carnival fleet when they arrive in 2029, 2031 and 2033. They will be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and feature advanced energy efficiency, waste management, and emission reduction technologies.

Carnival Cruise Line earlier this year placed its first newbuild order in five years, for two more Excel-class ships scheduled to join the fleet in 2027 and 2028. In addition, five vessels are being transferred over from sister brands between 2023 and March 2025.

When you’re on a roll, said Carnival Corporation & plc CEO Josh Weinstein, you stick with it. And so the company is “doubling down on the growth of Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-returning brand – to keep up with the incredibly strong demand we continue to see for the world’s most popular cruise line. At this point, our newbuild pipeline is just one delivery in each of 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031 and 2033. We continue to take a disciplined approach to growth, strategically directing new capacity to the areas of highest demand at a rate of one to two new ships per year.”

Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy, meanwhile, promised “innovative guest experiences that will take Carnival Cruise Line into the future with new FUN features and excitement that we know our guests will LOVE.”

With five years to go until the ships debut, the company did not yet share details on the ships’ designs or itineraries.

If you’re still among the travel advisors who say “I don’t sell cruise,” you might want to reconsider. The growing cadre of luxury cruise ships sailing to exotic and adventure-filled destinations offers new options for existing customers and lures for a new generation of young travelers—and above all, it can serve as a gateway to the lucrative expedition travel market.

That was just one interesting takeaway from one of my favorite trips so far this season, an Embark Beyond fam trip to Alaska on the new Silversea Nova that had a unique angle: Onboard were five top-selling luxury travel advisors who had never sold a cruise—or even sailed on one.

Here’s one thing I learned on my first-ever camping trip last week: There’s something kind of sexy about sleeping with your husband under a star-filled night sky, watching him wrestle a big rig across the vast prairie, recalling cowboy movies set beside soaring red cliffs.

But I digress. Let’s start at the beginning.

Our amazing adventure in Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon started with an email from Benoit Lafond, CEO and co-founder of Noovo, a Vegas-based company that builds carefully crafted high-end camper vans. (His mission, he says, is to build “homes on wheels that incorporate the luxury of European hotels and the design of tiny Parisian apartments.”)

It’s been three days of presentations on travel marketing—from defining your market to branding and using social media to creating raving fans—at the TravelPro Marketing Summit this week. And it’s no surprise that I’ve come away with a few good ideas I can’t wait to try out.

When experts talk about a subject they love, you can’t help but get excited. and this second online Travel Pro Summit is clearly a labor of love by travel advisor Tiffany Elberfeld and the speakers she recruited Read the rest of this entry »

Luxury expeditions are a hot item for 2025, and PONANT has met the challenge by adding 18 new itineraries plus nine exclusive polar experiences in its new catalog, and promising at least one excursion in every port of call.

Ponant sailings next year will include Northern Europe and the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, Asia, Oceania & Polynesia, and nine polar itineraries aboard Le Commandant Charcot, the world’s only luxury icebreaker. Several of the new itineraries include shoulder-season sailings to popular destinations including the Mediterranean and the Aegean.

The newest itineraries include a 12-day Mediterranean Heritage and Archaeological Sites that visits Greece, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Algeria, and Spain, April 23-May 4; an 8-day Europe Autumn in the Aegean Sea to Greece in September and October; The Fascinating Nature of Melanesia, including the Kei Islands, the Raja Ampat Islands, and the remote Banda archipelago, from September 10–21; and the 8-day Secular Treasures in the Land of the Rising Sun from Osaka to Kobe, April 5-12.

The polar itineraries will take guests as well as naturalists, historians and photo ambassadors to the ice floes of Baffin Bay and Disko Bay; to Ammassalik and the Blosseville Coast, whose ice cap extends to the North Pole; ashore to meet with two Greenlandic communities; and to an all-new port of call, Corner Brook on Newfoundland.

A unique journey, the 12-night Encounter with the Last Guardians of the North Pole, sailing April 5-17, will allow travelers to interact with local communities and explore Greenland’s ice sheet with hunters from the Inuit community. José Sarica, expedition experience director, and Mathieu Tsingrilaras, staff captain on the Ponant fleet, will join French polar expert Nicolas Dubreuil for this scouting expedition, with the goal of developing new polar activities in collaboration with “the last guardians of the pole.”

This trip includes a four-day visit to Kullorsuaq, where guests will stay overnight with locals or in expedition tents on the ice, and participate in village life through dog-sled rides, traditional Inuit kayak outings, snowshoe hikes, snorkeling in a wetsuit, and a night in an Inuit tent to explore Nunanutaat, remote areas reachable by dog sled.

It’s June, traditionally one of the slowest months in the travel business. But there’s never a dull moment when you own a small business—and many travel advisors report they have plenty of homework to do over their summer vacation.

At Boutique Travel Advisors, co-founder Angela Rice is trying to tackle what she sees as one of the biggest issues facing both travel agency owners and independent contractors: working so hard during Wave season, but then having to wait months to see the cash flow Read the rest of this entry »

Disney Cruise Line shared details of its 2025 schedule this week, including plans to homeport three ships in Port Canaveral, as Disney Treasure debuts this winter and joins Disney Wish, while Disney Magic and Disney Fantasy take turns there.

Two more new ships will join the fleet in 2025. Disney Wish will get a sister, Disney Destiny, and Disney Adventure will head for Asia, where it will homeport in Singapore in early 2025.

Disney Treasure will sail seven-night Caribbean sailings, while Wish sails three- and four-night Bahamas trips.

Disney Magic will be in Port Canaveral for the summer months and into September and October, then head to Puerto Rico for a series of seven-night Caribbean sailings, and then on to Galveston, Texas, for four- to seven-night western Caribbean trips through May 2026.

Disney Fantasy will sail four- and five-night itineraries out of Port Canaveral from November 2025 through May 2026.

Disney Dream will sail from its new home in Port Everglades on three- to five-night Bahamas itineraries through May 2026.

Disney Wonder will spend the summer of 2025 in Alaska before heading Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific in late 2025 and then homeporting in San Diego beginning in March 2026 for three- and four-night Mexican Riviera sailings.

Bookings for the new itineraries open to the public June 28, with earlier dates available for the line’s variety of club-level members, but details can already be found on disneycruise.com.

Also this week, Disney shared that its Castaway Cay private island in the Bahamas has brought in $220 million in dividends from DCL Island Development since 2014, though it does not share figures on how much revenue was generated. The island debuted in July 1998 as the first private island to allow ships to dock directly at the shore, so guests did not need tenders to come ashore. Disney’s CFO Hugh Johnston said on its second quarter earnings call last month that “the cruise business, frankly, is one that has an enormous number of opportunities for us over time. And that is why we’re leaning more heavily into that business.” It is no exaggeration.

A trial program by the US State Department will allow a limited number of travelers to renew their passport online and get a new one in six to eight weeks.

Beginning on Wednesday, June 19, a beta test of the online process will open seven days a week at 1 p.m. Eastern time. The system will accept a limited number of applications each day and then close. But the number of applications accepted each day will grow over time, as the system proves effective, the State Department promises.

The online system is not meant to expedite the processing of passports and it will not be faster than mail-in applications, except for the time saved in the mail.

To be eligible, travelers must be applying for a passport renewal, and not their first passport. Applicants must be 25 or older and have a passport issued between 2009 and 2015 that was valid for 10 years at the time of issuance; live in the United States; and pay with a valid credit card.

Users of the online option cannot update biographical information such as their name, gender, or date of birth.

For more information or to apply, go to  Renew my Passport Online (state.gov).

There’s a lot more to Puerto Rico than San Juan—and there’s a lot more to being a successful travel advisor than just sales skills. So when my Facebook friends Nina Sherman and Hema Khan suggested that I spend a week with them and 20 travel advisors on a CCRA fam trip on the Island of Enchantment, I was in.

In honor of Father’s Day, and/or the issues fatherhood often brings up, the founders of The Journeymen Collective suggest that the best way to deal with and release the stressors in our lives—or to bond with your Dad?—may well be a luxury guided magic mushroom retreat in the mountains outside Vancouver.

Rob Grover and Gary Logan have hosted “entrepreneurs, CEOs, athletes, performers, couples, and small groups invested in the highest level of personal development and self-discovery,” they say, and have 60 years of experience in spiritual and metaphysical training, executive level mindset coaching, energetic healing modalities, and Alexander Technique lessons.

They offer online and support calls to prepare guests for programs that utilize psilocybin as a way to achieve self-growth in a trusted, safe, and luxurious setting.

For more information visit: https://www.thejourneymencollective.com/.

Last week’s cautionary tale about travel advisor Debi King, who was put off an Oceania World Cruise in the Seychelles for “soliciting business” onboard the ship, resulted in lots of comments from travel advisors, most of them on Oceania’s side.

“Everyone” knows it’s prohibited, many said; there’s nothing new here (though no one could remember a case of it actually happening). And yet, my email and Facebook pages quickly were flooded with stories from travel advisors who themselves were solicited on board various ships, or who felt their clients were solicited by the cruise lines themselves.

“It’s too bad Oceania declined to comment on what occurred, as it is a missed opportunity for them,” says Sean Mouttet. “Their input could provide Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t you just hate it when politics get in the way of travel?

As if it’s not bad enough that the war in the Middle East has closed the Red Sea to cruise traffic, now its repercussions are causing a kerfuffle in the Indian Ocean as well.

On Sunday, the Cabinet of the Maldives banned Israeli nationals from this predominantly Muslim archipelago, and said it will appoint a subcommittee to oversee the process. In addition, President Mohamed Muizu will appoint a special envoy to assess the Palestinian situation in Israel and launch a fundraising campaign.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry fired back, recommending that Israelis—including those who hold dual passports and those currently there—consider leaving immediately.

While the Times of Israel reports that only 11,000 Israelis visited the Maldives last year, just 0.6% of its tourists, the brouhaha already is making waves in the United States. Travel advisor Rebecca Alesia tells TRO she already has had two honeymoons of Jewish couples cancel out of sympathy for Israel. And travel advisor Marta Salonius says “I am so pissed and it’s such a complicated booking. I am not selling them, period.”

US lawmakers, meanwhile, are crafting legislation to stop the ban, Axios reports. A bill by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) would stop US aid to the Maldives if the ban goes into effect. The United States sent about $36 million to the Maldives between 2019 and 2023, to “strengthen democratic institutions, civil society, fiscal transparency, maritime security, counterterrorism, and law enforcement,” according to the US State Department.

AmaWaterways on Thursday announced it will grow its fleet by two for the 2026 season, adding one new ship in Asia and one in Europe.

The new AmaSofia will sail the Rhine and Danube Rivers beginning May 24, 2026, and AmaKaia will sail the Mekong River beginning August 3.

AmaSofia will begin the season with a 14-night Magnificent Europe itinerary, sailing down three rivers and through four countries, from Amsterdam to Budapest. During the rest of the season it will sail 31 departures on the Danube with multiple itineraries, including Melodies of the Danube, Romantic Danube, and Christmas Markets on the Danube.

AmaKaia‘s maiden voyage will follow a seven-night itinerary through Vietnam and Cambodia, with excursions including traditional “xe-loi” (trishaw) rides and a Buddhist Blessing Ceremony. After that, it will sail two seven-night itineraries, Charms of the Mekong and Riches of the Mekong, over 22 sailings in 2026 and 38 or more in 2027. Several land extensions are available, including Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat.

In 2025, meanwhile, the company will launch the industry’s first river cruises to sail in Colombia, with the new AmaMagdalena on the Magdalena River in January and AmaMelodia in June.

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For travel advisors, AmaWaterways For travel advisors, Ama in May announced special FAM rates for select June departures of the “Secrets of Egypt & The Nile” itinerary, starting at $2,850 per person for the 11-night cruise and land program, as well as hosted “Seminar on the River” cruises and other FAMs through November.