This one is mine. In May 2027, Michael turns 40, and the celebration is the trip I point clients toward more than any other: Alaska by ship, then the Canadian Rockies. Delta flights are booked. On May 20, Michael and I board the Disney Magic for seven nights of glaciers and small port towns, in a Concierge Verandah stateroom. The ship docks on May 27 — and instead of flying home, the trip trades water for mountains: three nights at the Fairmont Banff Springs, with the birthday itself landing in railway country.
The operator's touch: Planned the way I plan for clients — a year out, seams first. The tightest joint in the whole itinerary is disembarkation day: off the ship that morning, into Banff by evening, so the flights and the drive got locked before anything else. Concierge on the Magic because Alaska sea days are the show, and the concierge deck is the best seat for it. Birthday trip or not, it runs on the same rules as every trip in this journal: one plan, every detail written down, nothing left to chance.