It’s weird to be away from this blog for several weeks. It’s a little like being away from an old friend for an extended time.
Regular readers know my sister has been visiting for the past two and a half weeks. While she was here, we took a 4-night cruise from Miami to the Bahamas. It was Patti’s first cruise experience. She said she enjoyed it. I know I did. The ship, Norwegian Cruise Line’s Getaway, was noticeably not fully booked. I could easily tell. We never had to wait for an elevator, half the buffet stations were closed every day, and we were able to get a lounge chair on the pool deck every single time we wanted one.
It was fun showing Patti the experiences I’ve come to love on a cruise. We booked very last minute and got a great deal on a balcony room. We tried a lot of new drink concoctions because, with the unlimited drink package, why not? Believe me when I say there are plenty of calories in those drinks, but no one has to worry too much about whether or not there’s too much alcohol in them. We drank what I consider to be a lot, but neither of us ever caught a buzz.
We heard that steak and lobster from the specialty restaurant steak house was on the menu in the main dining room for an upcharge of $25. Patti wanted lobster on a cruise ship so on one of the nights we headed to the main dining room solely for that purpose.
As we checked in at the hostess station a young man walked up behind us. I heard him tell the hostess he was solo for dinner. He looked friendly and joyful, which impressed me, so I impulsively asked him if he’d like to join me and Patti for dinner. He looked at us two old women and said, “yes I would.”
That chance encounter turned out to be, for me, the highlight of the entire cruise. When I heard he was solo, I figured I could pick his brain about solo cruising. One of the things I’d like to do sooner rather than later is take a long (2-3 weeks) solo cruise, perhaps a transatlantic voyage because it’s the cruising rather than the ports that are most enjoyable for me.
The young man introduced himself as Nyko, from Los Angeles. He was in Miami on business and scheduled to be in Chicago early next week. Rather than flying back to LA in between, he called Norwegian. He said he’d cruised all over the world on many different cruise lines. The 2 previous times he cruised Norwegian there were problems with the experience. Norwegian gave him the 4-day cruise free to try to compensate and win him back for those less than stellar experiences.
I had a hundred questions for Nyko. He patiently and candidly answered them all. In the process, I discovered one of the most fascinating young men I’ve ever met.
A 21-year-old former flight attendant, a cousin asked Nyko one day if he could deliver a dog from Los Angeles to New York for $300. When COVID hit, the demand for people buying dogs skyrocketed. At the same time, getting these (often high end) dogs to their new owners became much more complicated. What started as one $300 dog delivery began growing through referrals and word of mouth until he realized there was a real business there.
A chance encounter with a moving company resulted in an alliance that increased the pet transport business so much that Nyko quit the flight attendant job and now runs, with a partner, a company with revenues north of $1 million per year. He has 74 independent contractors acting as animal nannies at his disposal. Most of those 74 people are active flight attendants with access to very low-cost flights, making this part-time, flexible gig as lucrative for them as it was for Nyko in the beginning.
Today Nyko is all of 26-years-old. His company handles full pet relocations, including international moves, working with moving and relocation companies and the government to facilitate pet relocations for military members and government officials. Nyko himself now handles primarily international pet transport and specialty pet related services. He has been to 58 countries in his VERY young life. The reason he needed to be in Chicago the Monday after we met him on our cruise was to deliver some dog semen to London.
A lot of what Platinum Pet Delivery does is manage the entire process of getting someone’s pet from one country or location to another safely, making sure all of the airline, veterinary, import, export and customs requirements are handled correctly. Customs agents all over the world know Nyko and his reputation for having all his paperwork done correctly. It’s gotten a lot easier over the past few years as he learned how to navigate international animal travel.
Nyko told us of a few difficult and potentially dangerous experiences he’s had over the years. Being afraid of dogs, I can’t imagine going through some of the things he’s seen and done. None of them, though, were so traumatic for him that he was tempted to give up the business. He also told me of many fun, exciting travel opportunities he’s had delivering pets all over the world.
I asked whether he ever delivers exotic pets. He did, he said, at the beginning, but the laws, regulations, and idiosyncrasies involved with transporting exotic pets are so complex that it’s not worth it. The bulk of his transport business is canines, with a few felines thrown in.
Patti and I enjoyed the time we spent with Nyko so much. He gave his permission to write this post. In fact, he offered a discount to anyone who sees this post and needs his services. Just contact Platinum Pets Delivery and mention you saw this post on my blog. Nyko promised a special discount on their pet transport fee.
There are such interesting people in this world! We met one of them last week. And perhaps, on my solo cruise sometime in the future, I’ll meet a boatload of them!
P.S. You might recall that our friends Nancy and Bruce asked Randy, before he got sick, to officiate their wedding. Randy got ordained by an internet-based ministry to be able to do that. Two weeks before he died, he married them in the eyes of God. Now Nancy and Bruce, on Saturday, are getting married according to the laws of the government. At their request, I am officiating (I got ordained too) their wedding in Randy’s place. It is one of the biggest honors of my life to do that, both for Randy and for them. Please join me in wishing them a wonderful rest of their lives together.
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