From Cruise Critic to Cruise King: Ken Houston’s unlikely path to success

Ken Houston didn’t exactly plan to become a travel advisor.

And yet, from his home base in Bowmanville, ON, he’s quietly built a powerhouse cruise business. One that relies less on flashy marketing and more on something deceptively simple: answering people quickly, honestly, and often at odd hours.

It’s a method that sounds almost too simple. But then again, Houston is a man who has lived many lives, and has learned something essential from each one.

He started selling cruises in 2017, a few years before the pandemic hit. 

“I owned my own construction company at the time and quickly realized that, after doing it for 15 years, the two-by-fours and drywall weren't getting any lighter, and I wasn't getting any younger,” he says.

That construction company, he clarifies, was essentially a one-man operation. “I did basement renovations, I did it myself,” Houston explains.

The upside? Fast turnarounds and happy clients. The downside? It was physically demanding – and not exactly a long-term plan.

But Houston didn’t jump blindly into travel. Like many great pivots, this one started as a hobby.

His first cruise was in 1998 and then he started cruising more frequently with his family in 2011.

It started on Cruise Critic

In those early years, he became an active poster on Cruise Critic, a popular online forum where cruise enthusiasts gather to swap tips, review ships, and share opinions.

He also mastered the art of finding his own deals, helping friends and family with their own cruise vacations.

“So, I thought, ‘Let’s try this?’” he says.

“Let’s try this” would eventually snowball into a business where roughly 80 per cent of his clients come from a single place: Cruise Critic, one of the world's largest online cruise communities.

It’s said to host more than two million registered members (and attract some 5.6 million monthly visitors).

To be clear: Houston didn’t join the site as a salesperson. In fact, that would’ve been against the website’s rules. “Like everybody on Cruise Critic, I was looking for information about what to expect on ships and from ports,” he says. “Then I started posting, and as I got more confident, I started posting more and more.”

What did he post? Everything. Dining advice. Cancellation policies. Wi-Fi packages. The kinds of questions first-time cruisers obsess over at 2 a.m. “People ask everything, and because I knew the answers, I’d post,” Houston says.

This is where things got interesting. During COVID, when the cruise industry was changing policies in real time, Houston became something of an unofficial expert.

“I eventually got to know Royal Caribbean’s policies better than Royal Caribbean did,” he says, only half-joking. “I helped guide a lot of people on Cruise Critic. They weren’t my clients, and I wasn’t asking them to be.”

That last part is key. Houston wasn’t selling. He was just helping. And people noticed.

“I think I have at least 50,000 posts on Cruise Critic. From there, people Google searched my name, and that’s how my business grew,” he says.

Today, 80 to 90 per cent of Houston’s clients are from the United States. Many have never met him in person, but feel like they know him anyway.

Because, in a sense, they do. “Online, you can talk to somebody for 10 years and get a sense of who they are,” Houston says. “They’re internet friends.”

It’s not a client base, it’s a community. One that occasionally spills into real life, too, like the cruise Houston organized in 2023 that ballooned into a 60–70 cabin group of people who had mostly never met.

“Everybody got on board and we all had this sense of camaraderie, despite never meeting in person,” he says. “The friendships that developed from that cruise went beyond cruising.”

His secret weapon? Speed

So, what’s the secret sauce? It’s not advertising. Houston barely does any. Instead, it’s speed. “It’s that sense of urgency that I bring to every booking,” he explains. “Clients can email me at six in the morning, or midnight, and I’m generally responding within five, ten minutes.”

Yes, even at midnight. “A lot of clients live in California and Texas, in different time zones. It’s eight, nine o’clock at night when they start doing their cruise planning when it’s midnight for me, but I’ll answer them,” Houston says.

This relentless responsiveness isn’t accidental. It’s inherited. Every job Houston has ever had demanded it.

From delivering pizzas in his college years for Domino’s, Pizza Pizza and Little Caesars to becoming an area manager for Domino’s, to opening Blockbuster video stores in the 1990s during the chain’s expansion years (he opened Canada’s 35th store, as well as the first Blockbusters in Quebec), to becoming a regional manager for the Chapters bookstore chain, to teaching cabinet making and carpentry at Durham College to even managing office logistics for Elections Canada, his career has been a masterclass in urgency.

“I’ve never had a job where it’s, ‘If I don’t get it done today, I’ll get it done tomorrow,’” Houston says.

That mindset now defines his travel business and reassures clients who fear being left hanging while cruise prices fluctuate. “Me, answering that phone 24/7, is why clients trust me,” says Houston, pointing out that many of his clients are first-time users of travel agents. “I'm going to be able to get them that price drop.”

Cruises, cruises, cruises

But Houston doesn’t try to be everything to everyone. He doesn’t book flights unless it’s business class. He avoids booking hotels. He sticks to what he knows best: cruises.

“I would rather focus on one thing, and do it well, rather than be a jack of all trades,” he says. 

It’s a philosophy that has paid off, earning him top rankings within The Travel Agent Next Door, particularly in Royal Caribbean sales, as well as a loyal, global client base.

Houston is now growing his business with Celebrity Cruises as his clients transition there, often as their children grow older, while maintaining loyalty status within Royal Caribbean family. His Viking sales are also up.

Looking back, Houston sees a throughline connecting all his careers, no matter how varied. “Everything was there for a reason,” he says. “It just fell into place, and I wouldn’t change anything about it.”

Sometimes, the best journeys – whether in life or at sea – don’t always start with a map.

This article originally ran on May 6, 2026, as part of PAX's annual "10 Most Fascinating Travel Advisors" list to mark Travel Advisor Appreciation Day. To read the full feature, click here.

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