How a DFW Travel Advisor Fell in Love With Alaska Cruises
By Dan Pressley, Cruise & Tour Specialist
Growing up, "vacation" meant one thing in my family: a long drive to visit relatives in another state. In school, history class bored me to tears – dates and places on a page, nothing I could feel. I didn't know yet that the problem wasn't history. It was that I'd never actually been anywhere.
That changed the day I was asked to oversee a former company's luxury travel division. Overnight, I went from a kid who'd never left the country to someone boarding European river cruises, flying around the world in a private jet, and wandering the back roads of France and Italy on escorted journeys. I came home from one trip already plotting the next. Suddenly, the places I'd read about in textbooks were real – I could stand in them, taste them, get lost in them. To this day, the smell of lavender pulls me straight back to a field in Provence.
That feeling – the moment a place stops being a photo and becomes a memory – is what I now spend my career chasing for other people.
Our Alaska Cruise Family Trip on Princess Cruises
This year, my wife and I took our two adult sons, their significant others, and a long-overdue bucket-list family cruise to Alaska aboard Princess's newest ship, the Star Princess. It turned into one of those trips you don't just remember – you carry it.
Somewhere between the glaciers and the whales, my oldest son got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend. Thanks to the unlimited photo package, we captured the moment – and by the next morning, the entire family back home had seen it too.
It was also a trip with a quieter purpose. My father-in-law passed away last year, and Alaska – specifically a Princess cruise – was his favorite place on earth. We arranged an ashes-at-sea ceremony with Princess Cruises to bring him home to it. Two days in, while my wife and I were giving our money away at a slot machine, a Guest Services officer walked up and called her by name – no phone call, no page over the intercom, just found us on a 4,000-passenger ship and quietly let us know everything was arranged. On our last sea day, in a private space on deck, we said goodbye to him in the place he loved most. Before we disembarked, the captain sent us a signed certificate with the date, time, and exact coordinates. I've sailed a lot of cruises. I've never forgotten that one.
Our Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway itinerary – the places themselves did their own kind of magic:
- Ketchikan, where wild salmon fight their way up a fish ladder on Creek Street and bald eagles and bears are abundant.
- Juneau, sailing through Endicott Arm at sunrise as the captain spun the entire ship 360° so no one missed the Dawes Glacier.
- Skagway, a Gold Rush town frozen in 1897, where a saloon "madam" walked us through the town's scandalous history before we rode a century-old train route up to a snow-covered summit.
- Victoria, BC, a brief but beautiful last stop, all Victorian architecture and harbor views steeped in English Monarchy.
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None of it was luck. Where we stayed, how we boarded, which excursions to book directly versus skip entirely, what to pack for a place that's technically a rainforest – every piece was planned so we could just be in the moments instead of managing them. That's the part most people don't realize an advisor does until they've tried to do it themselves.
Why I Became a Luxury Travel Advisor
My background is in Operations Management – years of organizing complexity, solving problems before they become problems, and connecting details other people miss. It turns out that's exactly what great travel planning requires. Add a genuine, borderline-obsessive love of travel, and it's less a career change than a natural landing spot.
Advisors like me train constantly – certifications with travel partners, accreditation through international travel associations, and firsthand trips to the destinations and cruise lines we recommend, so that when we tell you "book this one," it's because we've stood there ourselves. Everything we build is tailored to you, not a template.
The Benefits of Using a Travel Advisor (And Why It's Free)
Planning a big trip on your own means hours of research, and the nagging fear you're still missing something important. (I spent 15 months researching Alaska alone before I ever set foot on that ship.) A good travel advisor erases that entire burden – for free.
My services cost you nothing. I'm paid by my travel partners, not by you, and my agency's buying power often gets you cruise rates and perks you can't get by booking direct. You also get something a call center can't offer: one dedicated DFW-based travel advisor in your corner, before, during, and after the trip.
Whether you're picturing an Alaska cruise, a European river cruise, or a land-based escape, I'd love to help you build it. I also put together discounted group cruise rates for 8+ cabins (16+ people) – perfect for:
- Multi-generational family trips
- Milestone celebrations: honeymoons, anniversaries, reunions
- Bachelor/bachelorette getaways
- Special-interest groups (wine lovers, pickleball, wildlife watching, active adventure)
Ready to start planning your own trip worth remembering? As a DFW-area luxury travel advisor, I'd love to help.
