It is not a stretch to say that my family is well-travelled.  Our youngest child is a senior in high school, so we are coming up on her last spring break and I was on the search for places to go.  It would likely just be a mother-daughter trip, and since we both love warm weather and beaches, I was looking at cruises.

I have cruised several times before.  I won’t spend time bad-mouthing the ones I didn’t like, but will say I have preferred both Norwegian and Royal Caribbean, so my hunt started there.

As a past cruiser with Norwegian I typically like getting their email and exclusive special deals.  They are well-branded, pretty, full of goodness.  You never know when a good special will pop-up and we might take a spontaneous trip to a fun new place.  The problem arises when you decide to click thru the email for more details.  I did that a few weeks ago.

For the last 30 days I have received an email from Norwegian on average once per day, sometimes twice per day (my deleted folder auto-cleanses every 30 days, so that’s as far back as I have for now). 

Then there’s the phone calls.

Ring ring.  Hi this is so and so from Norwegian Cruise Lines and I see here that you have been viewing cruises for March on our website.  I was hoping that maybe I could help you select your cruise and get it booked today.

Now I, of all people, know that everything you do online is far from private, but this amount of detail spat back at you by a random stranger is simply creepy.  Then they call again.  And again.  And again, even after being told not to call. No excuse for it.

I do not know what software they use, if it’s one I specialize in, a competitor, home-grown or what not.  But I do know a few things about business, travel and CRM software process, some might go so far as to call me an expert in some of these things.  All of this could be easily managed in software, instead of exploited by software.

I do know that I will be leery of their emails.  I will likely use other travel sites for my first round of information if I want to go on a cruise.  You’d think for a company that has a VP of ecommerce and CRM they’d have this figured out a little bit better.