Departure Day Travel Support
Departure Day Travel Support is the human layer behind Departure Day.
Our Travel Support group can step in when travelers need assistance, whether the question is about Departure Day, a future trip, or travel already underway. The team includes travel advisors who can arrange, change, or rebook travel when needed.
The purpose is straightforward: give travelers a capable person to contact when something needs attention and another search result is not enough.
Travel Support is available to all registered Departure Day users. Sign up here.
Departure Day and itinerary assistance
Travel Support can help travelers work through ordinary Departure Day questions: setting up a trip, organizing travelers, adding cruise sailings, sharing an itinerary, or understanding what the app is showing.
When a trip is maintained in Departure Day, Travel Support can work from the itinerary and information the traveler has chosen to share. That means the traveler does not have to reconstruct a complicated trip every time assistance is needed.
Planning and arrangements
Travel Support can arrange cruises, air, hotels, rail, ground transportation, transfers, pre- and post-cruise travel, last-minute arrangements, and complex international itineraries.
Some travelers ask us to handle an entire itinerary. Others involve Travel Support for only one part of a trip, such as a cruise quote, a hotel before embarkation, a transfer after disembarkation, an onward flight, or one difficult portion of a larger independently planned trip. Both are normal uses of the service.
We have particular experience with smaller and specialty cruise lines, river cruising, expedition travel, premium and luxury cruising, unusual destinations, less conventional itineraries, and complex international travel. For travelers based outside North America, some quote or booking requests may be routed to an international partner when that is the better operating path.
Monitoring
Departure Day technology can monitor information associated with a trip, including schedule changes, cruise itinerary changes, and other updates that may affect the surrounding plan.
Departure Day itineraries are monitored continuously using available travel signals, including AIS position data for cruises, Mode C transponder data for commercial and private flights, in-app monitoring, and position reports. If you contact us when plans are under pressure, we may already have a useful read on the situation.
When something appears to require human attention, Travel Support can help evaluate the effect on the trip and make arrangements when appropriate. Technology monitors. People step in when judgment or action is useful.
While you are traveling
For trips already underway, Travel Support can help with practical logistics when plans change or new arrangements become necessary. That may include last-minute hotel arrangements, alternative flights, transportation, additional hotel nights, changes to onward travel, or reorganizing subsequent reservations.
If a flight is cancelled, a port call changes, transportation fails, or a traveler needs to return home unexpectedly, Travel Support can handle the travel logistics that follow from the situation. The work is practical: find the available options, clarify the tradeoffs, and help put the new arrangements in place.
Concierge requests
Travel Support can also handle practical requests surrounding a trip, such as restaurants and reservations, local transportation, additional accommodations, local arrangements, changes of plan, and other requests that benefit from a capable person rather than another search.
The emphasis is execution and logistics. We are not trying to turn travel into theater.
Existing travel advisors
Travelers who already have a trusted travel advisor are welcome to continue working with that advisor. Departure Day can coexist with that relationship, and Cruise Intelligence can be used independently.
A sailing found in Departure Day can be sent to the traveler's existing advisor. Travel Support can still handle other portions of the trip when desired.
How Travel Support differs
Departure Day Travel Support is built around the trip rather than the transaction. Unlike a traditional travel agency, you do not need to turn your travel planning over to us or book everything through us. We can plan an itinerary from the beginning, handle a particular cruise, flight, hotel, or transfer, monitor a trip already underway, or step in when plans change and new arrangements are needed. If you manage your trip in Departure Day, our team can work from the itinerary and information you have chosen to share, giving us useful context without requiring you to explain the trip from scratch. Our emphasis is discreet, accurate and reliable travel logistics, with human assistance available when it is useful.
Emergency services
Travel Support is not an emergency-response service. Immediate medical, police, fire, safety, or similar emergencies should be directed to appropriate local emergency services first. Travel Support can assist with resulting travel logistics once immediate safety needs are being addressed.