u/CalmSeasandsteady

With the transfer of Arcadia to HAL from P&O...It makes you wonder what her name will be. Especially since all of the Vista class ships are named after the four compass points and Holland America's preference of reusing ship names...which do you think it should be?

Some options

• Prinsendam — 2 prior iterations; last retired 2019.
• Maasdam — 5 prior iterations; last retired 2020
• Statendam — 5 prior iterations; last retired 2015
• Ryndam — last retired 2015
• Veendam — last retired 2020

A little background...I've been a TA/Owner of a specialized agency for about seven years. We specialize in premium, luxury, and expedition cruises and tours primarily in the Med, Northern Europe, Asia and Alaska. I have been on 5 cruises and visited 21 countries in just the last 12 months alone. We pride ourselves on immersive itinerary planning tailored to exactly what the client wants.

Where it's been weird lately...It's becoming more and more frequent over the past year that I have my potential client's adult children that sometimes are not even traveling with them insert themselves in the process and often blowing up what should be an amazing travel experience for their parents.

Three examples just out of the last three months:

Booked a lovely couple in their 70's that wanted to visit Alaska but had never been on a cruise. They said their daughter convinced them that cruising would be the way to go. Great! They wanted a laid back vibe with good food and not a lot of kids so after a lot of discussion I booked them on HAL and everyone was excited. A week later I got a call from that same daughter demanding that I cancel their reservation because I was ripping them off and I signed them up for an old person cruise. She demanded that I personally refund their non-refundable deposit. Client eventually cancelled.

Client was celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. They wanted to do a cruise but also wanted to spend time in Seville which they loved on their honeymoon. They were excited when I put together a Med cruise itinerary that included 2 overnights in Seville. Put multiple cabin holds in place while their two children bombarded me with competing itineraries that just went to Cadiz not Seville so you would only see the city for a few hours. Their concern was that I was sending their parents on an "over priced shitty little boat" for their anniversary. They ended up not going on the cruise but at least I helped them plan a land tour to Seville, Madrid and Barcelona.

Client wanted to book a HAL Alaska trip for their family. They actually came to me with three itineraries and just asked my help narrowing down what was best and logistics assistance. They ending up putting a deposit on 4 cabins. Great! They wanted to have a family meeting about the logistics since everyone was flying from different areas of the US and during that call the son accused me of talking them out of the UnCruise itinerary that he suggested and I was just there to wring out his parents of money. Parents were super embarrassed, apologetic and the cancelled and ghosted.

Is this a new phenomenon or is it just new to me?