The Small Ship Collective

The Small Ship Collective Small ship cruise specialist — luxury ocean, river, and expedition voyages. Sailing as a paying passenger since 2012. All the anticipation. None of the worry.

Serving all of 🇨🇦 & 🇺🇸
TICO #5003172 We give away a fee trip each year! Reach out to me to learn how you can have your name included for this yearly draw!!!! We are a boutique travel agency that specializes in creating incredible travel memories for busy people! Whether that's on a luxury cruise, a multi-generational family beach vacation, a European adventure or something that is completely custo

mized, we have done it all! We travel a lot, (24 countries and counting!) so we have first hand knowledge of many of the places that our clients love to explore, including to place like Greece, France, the UK, Spain, Egypt, Italy, the Caribbean and even Jordan and the UAE! We don't take on just any client, so it is important to book a complementary consultation session so that we can understand what you are looking for and whether we are a good fit. The link is below! We DO NOT book flights unless they are within a larger trip and we are not your go-to for that $500 Cuba beach vacation as our client's experience is what always comes first. Our niche is luxury vacations and luxury cruise vacations (with customized land itineraries either before or after) as they simply provide the best experience for your hard-earned travel dollars. and you would be surprised at how often we can find luxury EXPERIENCES at a reasonable price! Book a Complementary Consultation appointment: https://dreamtripsandadventures.17hats.com/p #/scheduling/nsktdtznnsnczkddsddwcshrvfhzcxhx

I hate the word bespoke. I believe luxury means something different for everyone, which is why I never trust a brochure ...
09/04/2026

I hate the word bespoke. I believe luxury means something different for everyone, which is why I never trust a brochure that promises it without asking what that word means to you. I get up in the middle of the night so a missed connection doesn't become something my client has to solve alone at 2am in an airport. I believe the work starts the moment a booking is confirmed, not the moment it ends.

I put together a short list this week of the things that make me exactly the right fit for some people and completely wrong for others. Not because I want to talk people out of working with me (although I DO turn down requests to work with me....weekly!), but because the right client relationship starts with both sides knowing what they're actually signing up for.

If you travel the way I do, with your own money and your own standards, and you're tired of being told what luxury should look like instead of being asked what it looks like to you, you'll probably want to stick around. If not, I'd rather you know that now.

I'd love know, from this list, which one made you laugh or surprised you the most?

A client asked me for dinner recommendations for her pre-cruise stay in Barcelona and it reminded me of a conversation I...
09/03/2026

A client asked me for dinner recommendations for her pre-cruise stay in Barcelona and it reminded me of a conversation I had with a hotel concierge there that completely changed how I book restaurants in that city. I still pass it on to every client heading to Barcelona.

This afternoon's newsletter has the whole story, along with what I sent her.

If you'd like to read it, let me know in the comments and I will send you the link to subscribe.

I ran the real numbers on two Mediterranean sailings for summer 2027 for a client last week. Same region, same length, s...
09/02/2026

I ran the real numbers on two Mediterranean sailings for summer 2027 for a client last week. Same region, same length, same season. One line advertises a lower fare and gets called the contemporary choice. The other gets called "expensive" before anyone actually looks at what's included.

Here's what happened once I added the drink package, the dining package, tips, basic wifi and shore excursions to the line that looked cheaper: $18,067 for two people. The "expensive" line came in at $13,398 for the same cabin category, and that number already includes every drink, every meal, every excursion and daily gratuities.

That's a $4,669 difference in the small ship line's favour, and it doesn't even touch what you can't put a price on: a crew that's nearly one-to-one with guests instead of stretched across a ship carrying 4,000 people, and food that isn't made for the masses.

The cruise math almost never works out the way people assume it will and it's something that I have become passionate about. I don't want any client to be surprised about that final price of their cruise vacation, so even if they ask for the larger ship line, this is a part of my process.... I walk clients through numbers exactly like this.

My clients are never surprised about the cost or the experience they are getting because I am transparent about it from the start.

If you are looking for a more adult-focused and less crowded cruise experience, let's do the math.

Which number surprised you more? Let me know in the comments and I will send you the full breakdown.

A longtime client called me his "guardian angel" this week, and all I did was send one email before he clicked "accept"....
09/01/2026

A longtime client called me his "guardian angel" this week, and all I did was send one email before he clicked "accept".

He'd been offered a suite upgrade bid on an upcoming Regent sailing, and it looked appealing. More space, a better category, a number that seemed reasonable at first glance. I saw the email come in so I sent him a quick note outlining the four things most first-time bidders never hear until it's too late.

1) The amount you're bidding is per person, not per cabin. So whatever the bid amount, you need to double it!

2) You don't get to choose the location or suite number if you win. The suites available for bidding are almost always the ones left over after everyone else has already carefully selected theirs, which means they're often not in the best locations on the ship.

3) Once you're upgraded, there's no going back. If you don't love where you land, that's the suite for the rest of the sailing.

4) And on lines like Regent, where certain suite categories come with included extras like transfers or a pre-cruise hotel stay, winning a bid only upgrades your onboard experience. Those onshore amenities tied to your original category don't transfer with you.

None of that means bidding is a bad idea but it does mean that the decision should be based on real numbers and real trade-offs, not a number that looks good in an email. Is the extra space and the onboard upgrade worth the risk of an average location? Sometimes yes (I've bid myself and loved the end result!). But make sure that you are weighing the pros and cons before you do so!

What's a question you've been sitting on before your next cruise? Ask me.

A baggage handlers' strike hit Barcelona airport and I already have eyes on every client flying through it. Some flights...
08/31/2026

A baggage handlers' strike hit Barcelona airport and I already have eyes on every client flying through it. Some flights delayed, some bags taking longer to land. Only about 12 out of 800 to 1,200 daily flights are actually cancelled, and I told my clients that right away so the facts landed before the panic did.

That's one message that I was working through last week and there were many others!

A client waitlisted for a Regent excursion wanted to know if that meant they'd already lost their spot (they hadn't, and here's why). Someone wanted the real math on a "cheap" mass market cruise once tips, wifi, drinks and shore excursions get added in, compared honestly against a small ship line where most of that is already built into the fare. Someone else wanted to know why the pre-cruise hotel booked through the cruise line costs more than booking it on their own...

This is the part of the job that never shows up on a booking confirmation. The questions, the reassurance, the math nobody else offers to run for you.

If you've ever wondered what a travel advisor actually does between the deposit and the departure date, this is it.

What's a travel question you've been sitting on? Ask me.

Happy National Beach Day! After years of travelling the world, often by small ship, I have come to believe there are bea...
08/30/2026

Happy National Beach Day!

After years of travelling the world, often by small ship, I have come to believe there are beach days and then there are BEACH DAYS.

The difference is not just about the sand or the colour of the water, though both matter. It is about how you get there.

Some of the most spectacular stretches of coastline I have ever seen were ones I arrived at by tender from a ship anchored offshore, early in the morning before anyone else had found them. Remote coves with water so clear you could see the bottom from twenty feet down. The kind of place that makes you understand why people fall in love with the ocean.

That kind of access is one of the quiet pleasures of small ship travel that most people do not think about when they are comparing cruise itineraries. The beach on the map and the beach you actually experience can be very different things.

On this National Beach Day, I want to know: what is the most spectacular beach you have ever stood on? Drop it in the comments. I would love to hear about it.

It is time to give Silversea a try!Join us for 12 unforgettable days, December 10 to 22, sailing through some of the mos...
08/30/2026

It is time to give Silversea a try!

Join us for 12 unforgettable days, December 10 to 22, sailing through some of the most incredible small islands in the Caribbean, plus a two day post cruise extension in San Juan.

Cruise pricing at less than $7,000 pp (double occupancy) for everything on board including butler service and get a $500 on board credit towards shore excursions.

Stops include:
🌴 St. Kitts and Nevis
🌴 US Virgin Islands
🌴 Sint Maarten
🌴 Guadeloupe
🌴 Martinique
🌴 Montserrat
🌴 British Virgin Islands
🌴 Puerto Rico

If you are looking for a little pre-holiday escape before the season gets busy, let me know and I will send you the details.

Here's something I wish more people knew before they decided to "wait for a deal." On small ship cruise lines, prices mo...
08/29/2026

Here's something I wish more people knew before they decided to "wait for a deal." On small ship cruise lines, prices move one direction after a sailing releases, and it isn't down!

The truth is that cruise lines have scheduled increases that move the price up 2-4 times a year. Yes, they also have a last minute discount list to selloff any remaining suites, BUT I have done the math and that discount is never as low as that original price.

Even my own Feb 2029 South Pacific sailing that I booked two months ago.....it's up $7,000 already and will be significantly higher by the fall of 2028 when I make that final payment (also, take note of that....that's a long time for your investments to grow before the final payment is due....another tip I snuck in there!!!).

If you have the time to plan this far ahead, cruise itineraries for the fall of 2029 are set to be released in the coming months.

If there's somewhere on your "maybe one day list", the earliest window is almost always the best one. I'd rather tell you that now than have you find out later.

What's an itinerary that you have been dreaming about?

A friend texted me this week, excited about a cruise she'd just booked directly. The line had given her a small discount...
08/27/2026

A friend texted me this week, excited about a cruise she'd just booked directly. The line had given her a small discount as a "reward" for skipping the advisor.

What she didn't know is that I could have matched that price and added things onto it that she'll never see offered on a cruise line's own website.

That conversation is the reason this afternoon's newsletter exists because today is the day that I am blowing the lid of the secrets to getting the lowest cruise price (the ones many of my client's are already using.

It's going out this afternoon, and it's the most practical one I've sent in a while.

Have you ever found out after the fact that a "deal" wasn't actually the better deal? Let me know in the comments and I'll send you the link.

I get this question a lot: is it actually worth trying to organize a group cruise, or is it easier for everyone to just ...
08/26/2026

I get this question a lot: is it actually worth trying to organize a group cruise, or is it easier for everyone to just book their own thing?

Here's the honest answer. Once a group reaches a certain size, real value opens up that individual bookings never see, and it varies quite a bit by cruise line and by sailing. I've built these for friend groups, multi-generational families, and reunion trips, and it's some of my favourite work to do.

Once you have a group, you can access some or all of these:
- additional amenities
- additional on board credits
- a discounted rate
- locked in pricing
- reduced deposits

If you've got a group who keeps saying "we should all do this together" and nobody's taken the first step, I'm happy to be that first step.

Who's the group you'd actually want to travel with, if you could get everyone to commit?

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