Testing the Waters with Dori: Inventing a New Travel Trend

First there was multi-generational travel. Then came skip-gen, a micro segment of the booming multi-generational market that has suppliers across the travel industry looking for new and better ways to appeal to families.

I’m inventing something new. (Inventing might be an exaggeration, but I’m stepping forward to give it a name.) I’m calling it dia-gen (short for diagonal generation), though ChatGPT seems to think Nibbling Travel is a better name.

Essentially, it’s the practice of an aunt or uncle traveling with their niece and/or nephew without the parents present.

I’m pretty sure this is the micro-est of micro trends. I’ve encountered a handful of aunts here and there on ships traveling with a niece, and I have a friend who recently took his nephew and nephew’s wife to Italy on a first-time trip together. But for sure, dia-gen travel is not yet a trend spreading like wildfire through the travel industry.

It should be though.

I’ve done it four times with my niece so far, starting with when she was about 11 years old – she’s 15 now. Lucky kid has been on four inaugural or pre-inaugural sailings including for Wonder of the Seas, Norwegian Viva, Utopia of the Seas, and, most recently, Star of the Seas. She’s gotten to travel to Italy with me, seen Meghan Trainor perform at sea, and has a stash of cruise swag that would rival an onboard gift shop.

Each time we go, it gives us the chance to bond a little bit more.

We’ve done the Ultimate Abyss together and laughed all the way down. We’ve played mini golf on multiple ships and braved an escape room. We clinked glasses with ice cream sundaes –more times than we should have – at the Local Bar & Grill.

I braved my own fear and went first on the drop slide at Perfect Day at CocoCay just to reassure her it was safe – after which she chickened out and I had to wait for her to walk her way back down the stairs! Three years after that, I watched her brave her own fear and tackle the rock climbing wall on Star of the Seas and ring the bell.

When she gets on a ship these days, she knows exactly what she wants – a virgin Pina Colada by the pool during the day and for Aunt Dori to get a Prosecco at night so she can have her sips. She loves an expansive cruise ship gym and never wants to skip a sit-down dinner in a restaurant.

She asks me questions about cruise ships and what I do for my job, and I learn about what subjects she likes at school. We talk about where she hopes to go to college and what she thinks she might like to focus on. We talk about some of her friendships and whether she thinks they’ll last beyond high school.

Traveling with her lets me get to know her in a way I don’t think I ever could at home, where her friends, studying, and extracurricular activities take up most of her time.

Travel lets us push the rest of our busy lives aside for the moment, lets us bond over our shared experiences, and create a relationship that’s less formal and more friendship.

I don’t know if travel advisors ever ask their clients if they have nieces or nephews they’d like to travel with, but they should. There’s a whole world of aunts and uncles who would probably love to get to know their nieces and nephews better.

I say it’s time to move beyond skip-gen travel and give aunts and uncles their time to shine. Let’s make dia-gen travel a thing.