I am a cruise and groups specialist. I started cruising in 1982 on my honeymoon to Bermuda and fell in love with cruising. I have always had a passion and curiosity when it came to travel. In 2000, I was looking for a job I could do being home based. All my life, I had been the “go to girl” when it came to planning vacations for my friends, coworkers and family members. My husband had been looking through a travel magazine and he said, “I have found the perfect job for you, being an independent travel agent working with a host agency." My first host agency was located in New Jersey. I worked with them along with a brick and mortar agency for 2 years to get my feet wet. In 2003, I went with a host agency Ticket to Travel out of San Jose California. Along the way I was also associated with the Big Day Honeymoon Registry and Destination Weddings. In November of 2015 went with a new host agency Travel Quest, Travel Leaders who is based in Albertville, MN. 5 Reasons to choose a Travel Agent - An efficient, reliable vacation. 1. Ability to provide best options and pricing. 2. Saving money. 3. Product knowledge. 4. Ability to answer questions. 5. Saving time. I have been part of the following consortiums, Vacation.com and now Travel Leaders along with CCRA , CLIA, and OSSN. Over the last 15 years, I have taken many courses through CLIA and am an EEC certified cruise agent with that organization. I have also attended other cruise conferences in Florida and have attended many presentations by cruise lines when they come to St. Louis. I have also attended a university out at sea and have done several FAMs on cruises. The last cruise fam I did was in 2013 on the RCCL Legend of the sea with OSSN. We sailed out of Venice to Croatia and to all the major Greek islands and to Athens. I have been on 33 cruises myself in Alaska, Hawaii, and all over Europe. I have sent thousands of people on cruises all over the world and have done many cruise destination wedding on cruise ships from 2 to 100. I have escorted 3 large cruise groups on Carnival ships over the last 15 years with the blind and visually impaired. I have made it possible for people to cruise and travel with impairments who thought they could never do so again. I have worked with people who are blind, hard of hearing, use walkers and wheelchairs. I have taken care of all kinds of special needs and food allergies on cruises my clients have sailed on. I have also sent over 1,000 couples on cruises for their honeymoons. I have been asked to speak and have spoken in Florida for Sat and in New Jersey for the National Federation of the Blind. I have also been featured in magazine articles and have been interviewed on radio shows over the years. I am constantly going to travel shows, taking webinars and other cruise related courses. I am a cruise specialist with most of the major cruise lines out there. I keep myself updated since every year, there are changes going on in the cruise world, new ships, old ships getting changed around, ships going from concentration in Europe to concentration in Asia and in cava. The cruises are getting longer so people who wanted to do southern Caribbean islands can now do so from Florida instead of having to fly to San Juan to do these exotic itineraries. Cruise ships are now bringing artists in ports and staying longer in more popular ports to allow people to experience the night life there or staying overnight letting the people use the cruise ship as a floating hotel.
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