So I Got A Call From My Travel Agent

“Hi, Tom; this is Marilyn. I booked a cruise for you, next June, going to New England and Canada, back-to-back from Boston. Inside cabin, K-category, share, insurance. Give me a call.” beep

News to me. Now, before you start thinking, “Just who does she think she is?” let me tell you who I think she is: The perfect travel agent. She knows where I like to go, when I like to take the trip and how I like to do it. She even has my Visa card.

Usually, I pick up the phone and say, “New England and Canada, July 11, thanks.” And that’s that. Why waste her valuable time?

You don’t get that kind of personal relationship with a dot-com.

My first experience with “As You Wish” dining, when you are seated at a random table each evening, happened to include a drunk. A fairly happy guy with fewer stories to tell than I had time to hear them; thus, they repeated often. One of the topics which came around now and then was, “How much did you pay for this trip?”

“None of your ###ing business,” was floating around in my head. What came out of my mouth was more like, “Oh, I don’t know; my TA books the trip and bills me later.” I never did run into him again. Had he asked, I might have said, “My TA is Olivia’s and I recommend you travel with them.” That’s a cruise joke.