The Roaming Boomers
By Anne Kalosh
Dave and Carol Porter sold their Michigan business in 2006, when he turned 50, and moved to Scottsdale, Arizona. Their early retirement plans were dashed by the 2008 stock market crash that wiped away a chunk of their life’s savings.
So, embracing their passion for travel, they reinvented themselves as The Roaming Boomers, first becoming bloggers and then, in 2014, opening The Roaming Boomers Travel Services.
“It just exploded,” Dave Porter said. “We rode the river cruise rage in the early days. River cruises appealed to the baby boomer traveler.”
The Roaming Boomers are Viking’s No. 2 top-selling individual travel advisors (for river and ocean trips).
The Porters have posted more than a thousand articles on their Roaming Boomers website and offer a free weekly newsletter with special access to group tours, events, contests, exclusive travel offers, travel news, tips and more.
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Dave and Carol Porter, founders of the Roaming Boomers, on an Alaska cruise.
Small Is Beautiful
Seeing the appeal of small ships and given how busy they became — their agency numbers four people — the Porters decided to specialize and have drawn the line at vessels carrying more than 1,200 passengers.
Any bigger is just “too big,” Porter said. “Our typical clients are baby boomers and they don’t like sailing with 4,000 people, standing in line for food and waiting in line to get on and off the ship.”
QuirkyCruise can relate, with a coverage universe that focuses on vessels carrying up to just 300 passengers.
“I don’t agree with the idea of the ship as the destination,” Porter said. “To me and our clients, it’s all about the destination.”
The Roaming Boomers enjoy planning dream vacations for their clients. And, as part of the Virtuoso Luxury Travel Network — a global powerhouse with $25 billion to $30 billion in annual sales — they can offer special experiences and complimentary VIP perks people wouldn’t be able to get booking on their own.
RELATED: Check out Dan Blanchard’s Take on the Benefits of Small Ship Cruising.
Excited About Expedition Cruising
“We’re very excited about the expedition market,” Porter said. “There are a lot of new ships, and a lot of our clients grew to appreciate sailing on small ships on the rivers. Most have sailed multiple river cruises, predominantly in Europe, and are running out of rivers so they’re transitioning to expedition cruises.
“They need to get over their fears of how fit they need to be and how much walking there is. Expedition cruising is not as active as they might fear.
“We go out and do it ourselves. We give first-hand feedback.”
Another stereotype to overcome is that expeditions just sail to the Arctic and Antarctica. There are lots of other options, from the Great Lakes to the Galápagos Islands.
Also, “The expedition ships of old didn’t have many creature comforts,” Porter said. “The new ones are four- and five-star.”
RELATED: The ABCs of Small Ship Cruising.
Small-Ship Top Picks
QuirkyCruise asked Porter for his current top small-ship recommendations, and trips the Porters themselves would like to take. Here’s what he said:
Silversea Expeditions’ Silver Origin in the Galápagos
Completed in 2020 at Dutch shipyard De Hoop, the elegant, all-balcony-suite Silver Origin just began passenger operations in June. It sails two different alternating week-long itineraries from San Cristóbal Island.
Silver Origin’s sleek styling. * Photo: Silversea Cruises
“A purpose-built ship, permanently assigned to the Galápagos, brand new and carries only 100 passengers,” Porter summed up. “It’s very much on the top of our list. We want to visit the Galápagos, it’s a beautiful ship and Silversea has been in the Galápagos for a long time.”
The Roaming Boomers actively market Silver Origin and have clients going on it.
Silver Origin is brand new in the Galápagos. * Photo: Silversea Cruises
AmaWaterways’ AmaMagna on the Danube
AmaWaterways introduced the custom-designed, 196-passenger AmaMagna in 2019.
The double-wide AmaMagna. * Photo: AmaWaterways
“It sails only on the Danube. It’s a unique ship, twice as wide as others (78 feet) and the staterooms are bigger,” Porter said. “Even the smallest staterooms are 300 square feet. People are surprised when they see that ship and how big the staterooms are.”
AmaMagna also has more dining options than the typical river vessel. Besides the main dining room, there’s The Chef’s Table, Al Fresco Restaurant with indoor-outdoor seating and Jimmy’s, a casual, family-style venue.
RELATED: A Danube River Cruise on the AmaMagna. by Gene Sloan.
AmaMagna has more dining options than smaller river vessels. Here is the casual venue Jimmy’s. * Photo: AmaWaterways
Viking’s New Expedition Ships
“The expedition cruise industry is going to have their hands full with Viking rolling out its expedition ships next year,” Porter predicted. “Thanks to the design of those ships, I fully expect Viking to take a dominant position.
“For example, in Antarctica on the older ships, you’re crawling down rickety steps to get into the Zodiacs. Viking’s designed their ships so it’s like getting on a Disney ride. You step onto a floating dock inside the ship to get into a Zodiac or an RIB (rigid inflatable boat, which has a longer range than Zodiacs).
Viking’s expedition ships will have long-range RIBs for excursions. * Rendering: Viking
“Viking gets that baby boomers are concerned with how agile they need to be and how much walking they need to do.”
Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris will carry 378 passengers each. First out in early 2022, Octantis will sail Antarctica before spending summer on the Great Lakes. Polaris is to follow in mid-2022, first exploring the Arctic and then Antarctica.
“We’ve got a lot of people booked on those cruises,” Porter said. “They’re selling like hotcakes.” Many 2023 dates are already sold out.
Like a Disney ride — Viking’s Zodiacs and RIBs will launch from an easily accessed hangar inside the ship. * Rendering: Viking
Viking Mississippi
Viking is also branching into the U.S. rivers with the modern-style, 386-passenger Viking Mississippi, scheduled to debut in August 2022 with voyages the length of the Mississippi, between New Orleans and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Demand is strong for the new Viking Mississippi riverboat, scheduled to debut in 2022. * Rendering: Viking
Porter said Viking Mississippi, too, sold out immediately when introduced because it’s an intimate vessel with close-to-home itineraries that are popular now.
In his view, “The only thing holding Viking back in the U.S. river and expedition markets is how fast they can build.”
Spectacular views, like the famous St. Louis arch, seen here from Viking Mississippi’s Explorers Lounge. * Rendering: Viking
Victory Cruise Lines’ Yucatán
Victory’s new “Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula” 11-day cruise and land tour round-trip Cancún takes travelers to the seaside Mayan ruins at Tulum and gives the opportunity to experience Chichén Itzá after dark at a sound and light show and at sunrise.
Travelers on the Yucatán program will overnight in the Mayaland Hotel at Chichén Itzá, where they can attend a sound and light show after dark. * Photo: Victory Cruises
The colonial city of Mérida and the fortress city of Campeche, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are other highlights. Tours at each destination are included.
“That itinerary is brilliant. It’s unique. You fly to Cancún and you’re off,” Porter said. “It gives folks the opportunity to visit places they wouldn’t get to visit and provides a deep dive into the culture of that region.”
The 202-passenger Victory I does 11-day “Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula” cruises. * Photo: Victory Cruises
The 202-passenger Victory I, he noted, is an older ship (built in 2001), but it was renovated in 2019.
This trip is bookended by hotel overnights in Cancún, well-suited to most of Porter’s clients who prefer to spend a night at the embarkation port and typically book a post-cruise hotel stay as well.
Victory Cruise Lines’ Yucatán itinerary.
Victory Cruise Lines’ “Southern Coastal Charm”
Victory I’s new series of “Southern Coastal Charm” 12-day round-trips from Florida’s Fernandina Beach (Amelia Island) pair American originals like Charleston and Savannah with gems like Beaufort and Brunswick, plus an international jaunt to the Bahamas.
“Many of our clients are staying close to home this year. They’re looking for something close in, easy to get to,” Porter said.
“On an Eastern Seaboard cruise, they can still visit a lot of exciting destinations.”
While people could drive to the U.S. ports, that would mean many hours behind the wheel and multiple hotels. it’s much better to go by ship, he said: “You unpack once and ride the floating hotel.”
Victory Cruise Lines’ Southeast U.S. itinerary.
Other Wish List Trips
All the trips he’s recommending are ones the Porters themselves would like to take. Besides those mentioned above are several others.
They’re keen on trying a French barge cruise that carries just six, eight or 10 people. Porter thinks it would be fun to get a group of friends to take the whole barge for themselves.
Another coveted adventure is AmaWaterways’ southern Africa program that pairs varied land tours with a four-night safari cruise on the Chobe River aboard the intimate Zambezi Queen.
Zambezi Queen plies the Chobe River. * Photo: AmaWaterways
“It’s a different way of doing Africa. We’ve got clients booking it now,” Porter said. The highlight is wildlife-watching and, as opposed to a land safari, “You get to see the animals from the front because they’re all drinking at the river,” he quipped.
Also on the Porters’ wish list is a cruise along the Columbia and Snake rivers of the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
RELATED: Small Ship Cruising on Africa’s Chobe & Zembezi Rivers.
Delta Variant’s Impact on Bookings
Stateside, at least, there was a short window in spring and early summer when the COVID-19 vaccination rates were rising and infections dropped, creating great optimism for travelers who’ve been cooped up. The Delta variant seems to have put a damper on the enthusiasm.
“There’s been a slowdown in bookings, yes, but from insane to crazy,” Porter said. “We’re still very busy doing all the business we care to do but traffic to our website is 40 percent of what it was before Delta. People are just waiting until the Delta variant subsides.
“More people are canceling and rebooking. People are afraid of the CDC’s Level 4 (“very high” risk of COVID-19) for practically every country.”
That said, “We’ve got a lot of people sailing right now on the rivers and oceans and we’ve had very little problem.”
Vaccination & Testing
According to Porter, folks are more adventurous and feel safe with the vaccine. The few vaccinated clients who have come down with breakthrough infections have had very mild symptoms.
Some cruise lines are doing a better job of monitoring travelers than others.
“With Viking you have to be vaccinated, and tested every day,” Porter said. A little packet with a vial is left at the stateroom door each night for passengers to provide a saliva sample. That is then tested in the PCR lab on board the ocean ships or, in the case of Viking’s river vessels, ashore.
“If there’s a problem, they know right away.”
Viking does a good job of monitoring travelers, with daily testing, according to Dave Porter. Here, dining on the Aquavit Terrace. * Photo: Viking
Porter said after someone tested positive on a French river cruise they were disembarked without the sailing being disrupted.
One of his clients booked on an early Iceland cruise was fully vaccinated, as required, but tested positive upon arrival at the airport. She retested positive by Viking so she couldn’t embark and had to isolate ashore in Iceland, missing the cruise.
Good Advice
This is why The Roaming Boomers have been advising all their clients to get tested before they travel.
“If you’re going to get stuck, it’s better to get stuck [at home] than in another country,” Porter said. “We’re seeing a few people that are vaccinated testing positive. It would be horrible to go over there all excited and not be able to take the cruise.”
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HEIDI SARNA
