Teri West
It's a disappointing experience that many cruisers have encountered: Learning that that their excursion, arranged well in advance, has been canceled.
And like most travel plans gone awry, finding a Plan B is usually easier with a travel advisor. Especially if one has a travel advisor like RacQuelle Major-Holland.
Major-Holland documents her travel experiences on YouTube as MHFamilyAdventures and said that her clients use the videos as inspiration to create alternate plans when an excursion is canceled.
"They'll tell me, 'Yeah, my excursion got canceled, but I saw your video where you walked to Junkanoo Beach, and that was 10 minutes away from the port, so I just went there and hung out for the day,'" said Major-Holland, who owns Major Adventures Travel Agency in Columbus, Ohio.
We've previously reported on how advisors can develop a loyal clientele by doubling as content creators, and videos like these can be great ways for new clients to discover an advisor as a resource.
But that content can also support existing clients.
Plus, it can free up an advisor from needing to jump in when changes are time sensitive. Major-Holland said her newer clients who are less aware of her social media presence are more likely to call her in a panic the morning of a canceled excursion. While contacting an advisor is an option, she said it may be less efficient than searching YouTube or Google for her ideas.
"I travel a lot, so it could take me a couple hours to respond, so now your day is gone," she said. "I would recommend: go to YouTube. Go to social media."
For example, I was just on a cruise for a media visit of Royal Caribbean International's new Royal Beach Club on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, but strong winds meant Beach Club excursions were canceled the day we called in Nassau. As a result, I found myself without a shoreside plan.
Major-Holland estimated that she's visited Nassau a dozen times, and she quickly rattled off five ways I could have spent my day -- it was immediately clear to me how much richer her advice was than the author of the Reddit post I viewed.
That post had led me to a disjointed self-guided walking tour of the city. I returned to the ship tired and wishing I had done more research.
There's nothing quite like a well-curated and well-communicated travel recommendation. Next time, I'll be digging through the MHFamilyAdventures YouTube archive.