As I am writing this, the “official” Wave Season is ending. For those agents who have been groundhogs so far in 2006, the Wave Season is the annual beginning months where we are supposed to sell the majority of cruises for the entire year.
Did you live up to the expectations? Are these sales based on past statistics — etched in stone? Who knows! It’s just a marketing promo to give us a little incentive to sell, sell, sell.
It’s also the time of the year for the oh-so-many motion picture awards: Golden Globes, Independent Spirit, Peoples Choice, and the father of them all — the Oscars.
One of my favorite Oscar telecasts was on the agent introduction to Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas a few years back. The two night cruise to nowhere coincided with the Oscar night.
When we arrived at the ship, we were greeted by larger than life Oscar statues, along with men clad in skintight gold jump suits — human Oscars. (One of the few boarding pictures I have saved.) And the best was the actual Oscar ceremony. It was formal night and guests were escorted into the theatre by staff dressed like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, John Travolta and other look-alikes.
Hundreds of us dressed to the nines watched the simultaneous telecast on a giant, giant, giant screen. You really felt like you were there at the Kodak Center. When a winner was announced, we all applauded and actually looked through our audience for the winner to go to the stage and accept their award.
The cruise director was great. During the blocked out commercials, he asked trivia questions about the Academy Awards. If you knew the answer, you had to get to the stage rather quickly, give your answer and if it was the correct one, you received a miniature Oscar and had to make a speech in less than 40 seconds. My winning question was, “Who was the youngest man to win the Oscar for Best Actor.” (The answer is at the end of this article; remember, this was a few years ago). In my speech, I thanked all the little people who helped me along the way — my RCL rep, res agents who answered the phone, the accountant who mailed out my commission checks and the waiter who had brought me an extra dessert that night.
Every morning, I see that Oscar on my dressing table and have a fond memory of that cruise.
Has there ever been another Academy Award cruise? I certainly haven’t seen one promoted. Why not??? Maybe they’re waiting for us agents to come up with the ideas for them. You could invite some celeb wannabees as pied pipers — maybe your local newspaper entertainment writer. You could send out invites with a black tie motif to your clients. Run a contest for famous lookalikes. Give out your own awards. So many opportunities, if you just put your top hat on.

I can just imagine some of the award categories.
Best Brochure Adapted for Travel Agent Use
Best Brochure Targeted for the Public — Forget the Agents
Best Costume Design for Crew Members
(I really have mistaken Hawaiian shirt clad people on NCL as passengers and not crew)
Best Performance by a Cruise Line Spokesperson at a Trade Show
Best Performance by a Cruise Line Spokesperson on CNN — Damage Control
Best Pizza on Board
Best Executive Comeback
Best Prize Giveaway for Song Trivia Contests
(Spare me the key chains — I love the Crystal tote travel cases)
Best Cruse Line Ice Sculpture
Best Cruise Line Slot Machine Pay Off
Best Medic for Slot Machine Tournament’s Carpel Tunnel Victims
Best Cruise Line Embarkation
Best Cruise Line Disembarkation
Best Cruise Line Shore Excursion Desk
Best Terrycloth Award for Towels and/or Robes
Best Tender Service
Best Gangway (not too steep, easy access. Some cruises offer wet towels for people returning to the ship, so they can freshen up before climbing the stairs).

We all know that selling groups is the biggest moneymaker for you, as well as the supplier. We get the offers for NASCAR cruises — Sports Hero Cruises, Jazz Cruises, Big Band Cruises and other themes. I remember when Princess first launched the Sun and the Dawn — twin ships. They marketed Cruises for Twins, and agents out there are still selling them. There is a theme for every day of the year just waiting to be used. (Hmmm...Me thinks this will be one of my future seminar themes!)
Think about it. Ask your clients what themes they would enjoy. Make conversations with the supermarket cashier. Ask her what her hobbies are. List suggestions in your newsletter and track the responses. For every hobby, there is a theme vacation.
A yoga instructor will love exotic places to share peaceful times with her clients. And it doesn’t have to be a cruise. One independent agent put together great itineraries for a yoga group to visit South Africa. Combined with a safari and a spa, it was a trip of a lifetime. Okay, I exaggerated. Since it was such a success, many of the same people have signed up for this year’s yoga trip to Egypt. The second of many trips of a lifetime for this group. And now she has opened this to other outside agents.
We all know the value of finding a pied piper — the person who has the lure to bring revenue into your bank account. But you must qualify your “lure,” your “bait,” before you promote.
Last year a gal called me, someone I did not know, about booking ballroom dancing cruises. This was before “Dancing With the Stars” even aired. She said she had been a dance hostess on similar cruises, and thought she could do a better job than the gal who ran them. She had connections with a dance studio and would bring instructors as well as their clientele, mostly middle-aged and older people. She guaranteed that both she and I would be able to buy lots of ruby slippers with the money we were going to make.
Sounded like a win-win situation, She would bring me the clients; I give her a free cruise, and maybe a bonus. Why not?
I blocked the space, made up the flyers, using all the requirements of the cruise line so I could qualify for co-op money. Then Miss Twinkletoes told me she wanted to add up to $3,000 per client for the cruise. This is not a misprint. $3,000. She wanted me to collect the money and deposit it immediately into her bank account, She emphasized that I didn’t have to offer travel insurance and once the money was paid, everything was totally non-refundable. In fact, she didn’t want me to have any contact with the people other than collect dough and hand out receipts.
What was the $3,000 for? For the services of the dance hosts and hostesses. The dance lessons, the companionship, the personal attention.
Radar out — could there be something more? No, Miss Twinkletoes, I cannot collect $3,000, plus the cruise amount. No, Miss Twinkletoes, I will not give you any money for clients before they have sailed. No, Miss Twinkletoes, it is my obligation to offer travel insurance to everyone — I would be remiss and even open to lawsuits if I did not.
Was I going to let greed get to me — her greed? Nope. But the orders started to come in for the dance instructor’s space — not the clients. With each communication with her, I found it more irritating. As did she, when she found that I would not back down with my policies. I wanted to put the money into an escrow account. Was she happy with that? Nope!
Then one day, I got a phone call from another agent in my area who is also Home Based. He said that Miss Twinkletoes had contacted him and wanted me to release the space and deposits to him. He offered to pay me a small amount as a commission, just because he is a nice guy.
I released the space. Let him have her. (I never received one dime, not even an offer of a dance lesson). A few weeks later the DSM from the cruise line called me. Miss Twinkletoes had called her directly, laid out her whole program and asked for a private meeting. No need to go through any travel agent, she suggested. Guess maybe she now wanted to eliminate the guy who replaced me.
That DSM, a very hip gal, said nope, she could not cut in on this dance and be in the middle of agent and client. Bravo DSM, Bravo!
I did hear that the expectations of tons of people paying inflated rates for the privilege of having their own dance partner did not reach her goals. She had a problem even filling eight cabins. Surprising, since eight people were booked as dance instructors.
Maybe she will know better next time.
To be a success, select a theme, and carry it out throughout the cruise. Align yourself with a qualified leader. Don’t think of it as a quick sell, one time only. Every participant is now part of your database for future travel; make it better than perfect for them. Otherwise your bread and butter will be crumbs and leftovers.
(The winning answer: Richard Dreyfus for “The Goodbye Girl,” later replaced by Adrian Brody in “The Pianist.”)

Les-Lee Roland is a writer and motivational speaker and has been Home Based for more than 10 years. Her company, The Package Deal, is in Sarasota, FL. Contact Les-Lee at packagedeals@comcast.net.