Advisor Insights: Doug Roffel – Maximizing Your Cruise Experience

As the new year begins and the effects of the pandemic move to our rear-view mirror, new and amplified travel trends are emerging for 2025. Our new Travel Market Report Canada series will feature industry advisors sharing insights on trends they’re seeing and tips to help new advisors learn and work more efficiently.

After helping to run a family manufacturing business for many years, it was a family and friends’ trip to Las Vegas that made Doug Roffel decide to become a travel advisor. It was just before COVID, or as he lightheartedly says “just in time to experience the fun.”  

Roffel enrolled in an online travel advisor course and joined Travel Only in 2019, and the rest is, as the saying goes, is history.

“I wasn’t a selling a large volume at the time, so I wasn’t impacted, as some of my colleagues were,” he tells Travel Market Report Canada. “But since coming out of the pandemic, I’ve been really growing year over year.”

“My passion is cruising; I love cruising and I’ve done lots of them. I’m a cruiser,” he says. “People know this, and they reach out to me, especially a lot of first timers. With the release of these new ships, the mega ships, it makes them want to try one even more.”

Roffel says setting expectations for first timers is very important, as cruising is very different from an all-inclusive style of vacation.

“River cruising is very different from ocean cruising for example. It’s a whole different experience.  What I am seeing is an increased number of solo travellers, and cruise lines like Virgin Voyages, recognizing this and offering solo rates,” he says.

“I’m also seeing a lot more people interested in trying cruising to exotic places; they’re checking off bucket list travel destinations.”

Roffel has a big tip for advisors who are looking to break into the cruise market or have clients who are first timers – shorter cruises.

“Shorter cruises are becoming more popular too, as a way of trying out whether cruising is for them. If somebody’s already in Florida for example, and they’ve never tried a cruise, you’re already there.  It’s a good opportunity to jump on a cruise for three or four days to test it out.”

Roffel says when booking a short cruise however, it’s important for advisors to make sure they get the right ship as many itineraries use older ships. He says Royal Caribbean has been changing that, with newer ships such as Utopia and Wonder shifting to shorter itineraries.

While cruising does make up a large portion of Roffel’s clients, he also has many repeat travellers who are coming to him to do their once-in-a-lifetime dream vacation. African safaris, Portugal and the Greek Islands have been top of his clients’ lists lately.

“I look at it as a privilege,” he says of being an advisor. “It makes you happy to be able to plan trips for people to go and scratch off their bucket list or discover a new destination.

When I see somebody enjoying the trip, it makes me happy.

That’s what I’m here for.”