It all started 17 years ago when my husband and I were planning our honeymoon cruise. When we first started planning our honeymoon cruise, we did not limit ourselves to only sailing out of Galveston. However, we were strongly considering a 5-night cruise on the Carnival Jubilee, in a suite and the cruise would be going to Cozumel and Calica. We were excited to be going away on what was my husband’s first cruise and my fifth cruise (third with Carnival).
At my parent’s request, we went with them to a cruise & travel show one day. They wanted us to know all of our options before we actually booked our cruise, just to see if there was something else that caught our interest and would prefer to do.
Once we got there, we walked around and stopped and spoke with a travel agent that was very eager to sell us a cruise on Royal Caribbean. We told her what we were interested in (suite) and where we were interested in going to. We were not limiting ourselves to sailing out of Galveston only. What she was offering was a 7-night cruise to Key West and the Bahamas. Jim and I both had been to the Bahamas before and at that time, I had no desire to go to Key West as that is somewhere we could travel to anytime and not just on a cruise. So, what the travel agent wanted us to buy was this 7-night cruise out of Galveston (to destinations we had no interest in) in an interior cabin for almost twice as much as our suite on Carnival. She never offered any other itineraries, which we all know Royal Caribbean has more than one sailing out of Galveston. When we told her what we were looking at with Carnival and our desire to be in a suite, she told us to just go sail with Carnival and see how that works. And that we would not be happy with Carnival as we would be getting what we paid for and that wouldn’t be much.
Well, we sailed on Carnival for our honeymoon and have sailed with them several times since. Never once have we considered a Royal Caribbean cruise all because of one travel agent’s bad attitude.
We have friends and family that love sailing on Royal Caribbean. We have not. We have even been invited to go with friends. But we didn’t go.
First impressions go a long way. And I have never forgotten that one person that really left a very bad impressions with us. An impression that has lasted for seventeen years.
Now, Royal Caribbean will be doing something big in Galveston which interests me as we love to go to Galveston just to be there. It is my understanding that they will be building a new facility that will be capable of handling their Oasis class ships. This will definitely be good for those that are loyal to Royal. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. At least not yet. But it will take a very good deal.
I will never say never, but I will always remember that one person and the impression she left on me.
our life reality 