Considering Your First Cruise?

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My First Cruise, October 2006 out of San Juan

My First Cruise, October 2006 out of San Juan

1. Yes, you need passports.

2. Cruising is priced per person based on double occupancy. If you are travelling as a single,
expect to pay almost double.

3. Consider arriving the day before your ship departs so you are on the ship the day it leaves
port. This is highly recommended when taking into account the unpredictability of the
weather and the airlines.

4. You will find some of the best service on a cruise ship. Gratuities are very much earned and
are customary. Most cruise lines allow you to pay them in advance so you won’t have to
worry about them when your cruise is over.

5. Once you board the ship, you will be on a cashless system with the exception of the casino
or extra tipping if you wish. In port you may need cash for souvenirs, cabs and such.

6. Hurricane season officially runs from June through November with September being the
peak month. Keep this in mind when planning. You will find some great value sailing during
this time, just be flexible as itineraries can change at the last minute when a hurricane is in
the area.

7. Cruise insurance is highly recommended. You want to protect your investment in the event
something comes up such as a cancelled cruise or missing the ship for weather reasons. Trip
insurance will cover you if there is an emergency.

8. What does the cruise fare include? All of your food, coffee, tea, some juices and milk.
Your fare also includes your stateroom and all of the onboard entertainment you could want
such as Broadway shows, karaoke, dance lessons and more.

9. What doesn’t the cruise fare include? Airfare, transfers, excursions, cruise insurance,
alcoholic beverages, sodas, specialty restaurant surcharges, bingo cards and any onboard
shopping such as souvenirs or photos.

10. Pack an extra bag/tote for any extras you made need for days in port or for all of those
souvenirs to take back home.

Happy Sailing!!  🙂

Accredited Cruise Counsellor

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CLIAACC3

I’m not one to toot my own horn, but this, I have to share :)  After much determination, I achieved my personal and professional goal of becoming an Accredited Cruise Counsellor (ACC).   I enrolled in CLIA’s (Cruise Lines International Association) Cruise Counsellor Program and set out to earn my ACC.  By completing the official CLIA Cruise Academy training programs, as well as other professional selling programs within the cruise industry, visiting numerous ships, experiencing short and long cruises and attending professional and product development courses as well as demonstrating sales achievement levels, I was able to reach my goal.  Yay!!   It was a challenging experience and I have enjoyed the ride.  A special thanks to my husband Jason for his support (both technical and emotional) along the way.  I have been able to combine my love of cruising with the small business world to help family, friends and new clients experience a great way to vacation – on board a cruise ship!  Thank you to all who have trusted me with your cruise vacations.  I look forward to planning many more!

Next goal……. Master Cruise Counsellor!!

Happy Sailing 🙂

Do I Need a Passport if I’m Sailing from the U.S.?

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EPassports

Yes!  I hear this question a lot.  I have all of my clients get passports for any sailing.  For most cruise lines, technically, if you are a U.S. citizen sailing on a closed loop itinerary out of a U.S. port all you need is your birth certificate and photo id.  There are so many reasons why this is a bad idea.  This past week with Hurricane Irene wreaking havoc, several passengers were stranded in San Juan, Puerto Rico (U.S. territory).  Those that could, flew on to the next port such as Barbados or Aruba.  Guess who was unable to fly to the next port to meet the ship?  Those that didn’t have passports!!  Sad, but true.  The small investment in a passport is worth not missing your much anticipated cruise vacation.  There are various scenarios where you might need to fly back to the U.S. from a port such as illness, injury or death in the family.   You need a passport for this.  You might miss your ship and need to catch up with it at the next port, you would need a passport for this as well.  One of the first questions I always ask my clients is “Do you have your passports?”  If not, I tell them to make sure and get them.   So far, no one has refused :)  Flying home from a foreign port or trying to get to the next port without a passport will be quite a headache and terribly time consuming.

For more information on your travel document requirements, please refer to www.travel.state.gov

Happy Sailing!  🙂

Working on My Business – DropBox to the Rescue!

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Most of the time I blog about the different aspects of the cruise industry and my personal experiences of cruising. I thought I would do something a little different this time (but still applies to me helping you find the perfect cruise!)

Over the past couple of months, I have been working hard on my business to be as organized and efficient as possible.  As part of my work, I have to keep track of a lot of documents.  Multiple quotes for multiple cruises on different dates, your travel forms, contact information and so much more.  I have been blessed with so many clients this year that things had gotten a little out of hand!  It turned out to be really handy to have a husband who does social media and business consulting for a living!

Jason and I talked about the fact that I had so many documents on my computer and couldn’t access them when I was in other locations… I had to be home to access this important information.  I also didn’t have a solid method for organizing the travel documents and it was becoming harder to get to the right document quickly.  We looked at several options and I ended up choosing to go with DropBox!  DropBox allows you to store your files on your computer just like any other document, but behind the scenes it automatically saves a copy “in the cloud” (or servers on the internet).  The great thing is that I can access my documents from my home computer just like before, but now I can access them from any computer that has an internet connection, and from my mobile phone!

The other thing that I figured out was that I needed a good folder structure for organizing my documents.  I worked with Jason on some different ways to accomplish this and we ended up going with the following:

YEAR –> CLIENT NAME –> TRIP DATE

This simple hierarchy makes it very easy to get to the documents I need to reference or update.  This has been a huge change for my business and I wanted to share these two tips with you! Let me know in the comments below if this has been helpful to you or if you have any suggestions on what you have used to make your business more efficient!