Tips on Thursday - Myths & Misconceptions: One and the Same?

What do the “Abominable Snowman”, the “Loch Ness Monster” and “Booking Cruises Directly with the Cruise Line is Cheaper” all have in common?  Answer: They are all myths.  While we may not be experts on the first two subjects, at Cruise Planners we can certainly shed some light about direct booking myths.

First of all, let’s face it, a sales representative at a cruise line gets paid to sell only their company whether it’s the right product for you or not.  They will never recommend the competition. That should be enough right there to make you stop and think. But wait, there’s more!  Special prices?  At Cruise Planners we see the same rates on the computer as the cruise line sales representative. But more importantly, in addition, we have access to unique rates such as exclusive group fares, regional specials, and other special rate programs.

The most important part of planning a cruise is not simply getting the lowest price. The real goal should be to get the right cruise for your personal needs at the best price available.  At Cruise Planners there is no charge for our basic services as we are compensated by the cruise lines for providing personal service to you.  It’s the best deal in town. So, even though we can’t help with sightings of the Snowman or Lochie we can plan the cruise vacation of lifetime for you.  

Magical Mondays - Making it Easier

Did you know that not only can I help you with your cruise plans, your Disney vacations, and other exciting destinations - but thanks to the strong travel network resources provided through Cruise Planners, I can also provide Air, Car, Hotel & Vacation Home Rentals?   Sure enough!  Take a look at my website, and you’ll see how.  

This convenient booking tool offers you state of the art technology to research and book your Air, Car, Hotel, and Vacation Home Rentals, and will make your travel planning, with or without a cruise, much easier, and if you require additional service or help with the reservations, I’m just a phone call away.

This technology includes over 100,000 hotels worldwide, many of which offer specially negotiated rates.  Plus this will include Trip Advisor, the most popular and largest travel community in the world, with more than 32 million unique monthly visitors.  I encourage you to take a look at this powerful tool to book all your traveling needs.

Available 24 hours a day 7 days a week, this one-stop shopping feature offers all the services other travel websites offer without the hassle of searching through them all.  This new tool includes special rates plus an easy-to-navigate format, making searching for multiple reservation deals effortless.

So, call me to book your next vacation, and be sure to visit my website for additional travel reservations beyond your cruises, Disney, Universal, or other exciting vacations.  Or, feel free to use this new technology for your non-cruise travel needs.  Your complete vacation is just a few easy clicks away.

Tips on Thursday - Riding the Wave

Welcome to wave season - the best time to book your next cruise vacation. It happens every year. Between January through the end of March, all the cruise lines offer their very best deals of the year on cruises to just about every corner of the globe. There are some outstanding early booking incentives and extras that can vary from cruise line to cruise line. Some of the most common of the incentives include:

• Special Pricing
• Extra Value Offers
• On-Board Credits
• Cabin Upgrades (usually within the same category)
• Reduced Deposits
• On-Board Coupon Booklets

Family summer vacation to the Caribbean on Royal Caribbean, sure why not? River cruise through Paris and Normandy, no problem. Cruise through the Mediterranean on the coolest ship ever, Norwegian Epic we’ve got it! Anniversary trip to a long dreamed about trek down under to Australia or New Zealand on Princess Cruises? OK! Taking a trek to the great northern wonderland of Alaska with Disney? No problem. 

If you haven't already received the January issue of the Cruise Planner Magazine, visit my website today to be sure and sign up for the next issue coming out in July. It's packed full of Wave Season specials that will get you thinking about your next vacation. And until then, why not sign-up for my weekly ePostcard, using the special "Travel Deals" green box here, which will provide 4-6 exclusive offers and discounts directly to your email's inbox each week. You never know when inspiration will strike and the sea calls you. Why not be ready to answer the call and this question:

Where would you like to go?

Tips on Thursday - A Few Cruise Line Updates

For years I have followed Disney and a few other travel industry leaders in the news, on websites and lately in blogs.  Checking various Disney sites daily has been a practice of mine for the last 13 years.  And now here I am picking some items from time to time to share myself.  I’ve been doing a lot of it on Facebook, but today I choose to do so here.  Since I am a Cruise Planner, I decided to share these items with you regarding the cruise industry:

• Princess Cruises has announced that they will be offering 10 itineraries to Hawaii, Tahiti and the South Pacific between fall 2012 and spring 2013. Princess will offer four ships sailing roundtrip to the Hawaii islands from Los Angeles and San Francisco. In addition, the renovated Grand Princess will make debut voyages to Hawaii as part of its first West Coast season. In total, eight ships will sail on 56 voyages throughout the Pacific, including itineraries such as the 10-day “Tahiti & Polynesia” route that sails roundtrip from Papeete, Tahiti. An 11-day “Hawaii & Tahiti” itinerary offers the Hawaiian Islands and French Polynesia. And the 28-day “Hawaii, Tahiti and Samoa” itinerary that debuted last season returns with two roundtrips from Los Angeles to American Samoa, visiting Hawaii and Tahiti along the way.
• Crystal Cruises will be remodeling their ship, Symphony, during a $15 million dry dock scheduled for June 1 to 16. In just days at Germany’s Blohm + Voss shipyard, Crystal Cruises is redesigning the ship’s Avenue Saloon, Palm Court lounge, Galaxy showroom, Hollywood Theatre, Bridge Lounge, and Fantasia and Waves “junior cruisers” areas.
• Norwegian Cruise Lines announced the plans to return to the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles Port, sailing seven-day cruises. The dates released are limited and expected to to be in great demand:  Dec 22 & 29, 2013 and Mar 2 – Apr 13 2014.  

Be sure to check my Facebook page often for updates on specials, itineraries and other cool travel news.  Also, if you haven't already signed up to receive "The Cruise Planner Magazine", which is chock-full of specials, exclusives and free stuff.  The January issue includes a contest for a FREE 7 night cruise, and a FREE iPad - and yes, both items will be given away to some lucky individuals who register online at the published website address inside the magazine. Be sure to do so here.  The next issue will be sent out in July.  

New Year, New Opportunities, New Challenges, New Dreams

Time continues to march onward, ever pushing us forward as we have once again passed from one year and entered into a new year.  2011 has officially entered the history books as we move into 2012.  This will be a year of some big milestones in my household, as well as numerous new opportunities, new challenges, and yes, even new dreams.  I'm looking forward to them all, as I was very much looking forward to shutting the book in 2011.  It was a difficult year for us in many different ways. While I won't say it was a banner year, nor will I say it was my favorite, I don't believe it was a terrible year either. There were many good things that happened for both my family and for me personally in 2011, those great things just got a little overshadowed by the not-so-great things.  So I am true, looking forward to this new year.  So far the new year is still very much like the American Girl doll my daughter received for Christmas...all soft and pretty, but bound to change as she continues to cuddle it, love on it, and play with it.


Personally, I'm excited about several opportunities for the new year.  My eldest son is getting closer to completing his quest for the rank of Eagle Scout, and this will be the year he achieves it.  His project was approved in December, so now he begins the fund-raising process as well as securing workers to help him complete it.  The project itself will be done in the springtime. All of the other requirements for Eagle are complete (except for the all-important Board of Review which is the last step anyway), so once the project is completed, he's nearly there.  We're hoping to celebrate his achievement with an Eagle Court of Honor in the summertime this year.  Additionally, my middle son will be moving from Star Scout to Life Scout next week, and he will then begin his own Eagle quest.  He has merit badges and other stuff to do, but once he becomes Life, he too can begin planning his own project.  Unlike his older brother, he says he wants to get the project done first and then worry about the required Merit Badges... so who knows, we could have two different projects going this year!


Both boys are going on mission trips with church this year, and I am hoping to be able to go on one myself.  I really want to make the trip to Kenya this fall.  I wasn't able to the last two times, but I'm praying that this is my year.


Like her brothers, my daughter is growing so fast - and it's a treat to watch.  She's becoming a beautiful little lady.  She'll be starting gymnastics next week and is so very pumped about it.  She was such a timid little thing for so long, but she is making some good strides forward to be a bit more boldly, less trepidatiously.  She too will be experiencing something new this summer as she'll have her first experience with church camp.  She's nervous, yet excited as well since several of her friends will be there with her.


Professionally I'm excited about all of the different things that I've been doing with this whole Cruise Plannersthing.  There have been lots of mundane, legal aspects to work through; but there have been lots of fun aspects as well. Meeting with various vendors. Networking and getting to know people within my community.  On-site training and ship inspections.  Lots of learning and exploring has happened and is yet to happen.  I'm looking forward to a FAM, or "familiarization" trip to Hawaii later this month, as well as determining when the next cruise will be.  This whole venture began as a dream, evolved into an opportunity, becoming a challenge, but remains a big dream of mine.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out, grows, and transforms throughout the new year.


Dreams for the new year continue to grow, and as they work their way from dreams to reality, I'll share.  Until then, know that I'm not sitting on my laurels, but rather am working to turn those dreams into some sort of reality, whether here in 2012, or a little beyond.  I hope you are doing so with your own dreams as well.


I wish you all well throughout this great new year ahead of us.

A Little Down, a Little Up - Not Quite Certain What to Expect

As a youth you go to high school and do what's expected of you there.  Then traditionally comes college or some other form of post-high school educational or training experience such as the military, a trade school or something similar, and then you're on to whatever you have determined you want to do for the "rest of your life". Often times you've dreamt for years of doing one such special thing.  For me, as a small boy it was both architecture and medicine.  But I've never been a superstar when it comes to many forms of math - love geometry, can't stand algebra  (go figure I would end up spending nearly 11 years analyzing numbers for a living.)  Into my teen years dreams of traveling the world and opening a restaurant of my own started to formulate. But alas, neither of those things would take place as I moved on into the whole process of marriage and starting a family.


This whole thing called life can be so interesting - fun, frustrating and funny at times. You go through so many motions each and every day, whether they are family or social mores or not. Things like getting up, getting dressed, going to work for x number of hours, coming home, doing dinner, etc, etc. Do it over and over again for x number of years and it's just such a routine - that you can pretty much do it in your sleep... until something happens to disrupt the sameness of that routine.  Sometimes you expect the disruption - other times it comes right out of left field. Sometimes those youthful passions and dreams come true, while other times they either don't, or they simply get suppressed for a long period of time before they finally resurface.  


This year has marked a big change for me, as many regular readers already know. September brought about  my second job elimination during the past 20 years. I do consider myself fortunate, in that several people I know have experienced job eliminations many, many more times than I have - only twice in 20 years is pretty good, and filling those nearly 20 years with only two employers. I can't really complain.  But as I have spent the last few months working to replace the income stream with a new employment situation, some of those long ago dreams have resurfaced.  No, I'm not going back to school to try med school, but going back to school hasn't been ruled out either.  But for now the first big change is stepping out on my own to be my own boss.  It's a dream that I've had in the back of my mind for many years, but never really had the guts or gumption to attempt it. Until now.  With each passing week of working through the monstrously long job applications time and time and time and time and time and time (ad nasuem) again, I kept feeling God telling me it was time to do something else. I prayed about it a lot, and just felt that the time was right to make a really big change.  Time to get into something that could be flexible where I wouldn't have to be "chained" to a desk day in and day out.  Time to do something that would challenge and stretch me in new ways.  Time to do something that could involve my wife, while still allowing her to do her homeschooling thing with the kids.


In the spring of course I decided to take my extreme knowledge of the Disney universe of theme parks, destinations and the like and began the training process with Fairytale Journeys and the College of Disney Knowledge in order to be able to sell Disney vacations "on the side" - something that could just augment the existing job with some fun and a little bit of extra cash coming in. But as people kept coming to me asking about destinations beyond just Disney, I knew that I needed to expand further. So I started down a route of discovery looking for ways to be able to expand my side business' offerings, and possibly parlay it into something that could become that replacement income. Thus was born the decision to purchase a franchise with CRUISE PLANNERS AMERICAN EXPRESS.  Cruise Planners has been in the industry for nearly 20 years, and is recognized as one of the largest sellers of cruises in the world, but is so much more than simply cruises.  The Cruise Planners portal literally opens up thousands of new destinations, and hundreds of ports around the globe, plus there is functionality for reserving airfare, cars, hotels & vacation homes as well.  It truly is a well-rounded travel agency, and I am enjoying being a part of it.


I spent a week of training in Ft. Lauderdale, FL recently, and am very excited about the possibilities that this new venture holds. During that training we learned all kinds of information regarding the industry, received top notch presentations from all of the major cruise lines including an awesome presentation from Disney; and got to conduct two different ship inspections (on board the Oasis of the Seas and the Ruby Princess). All of us who were in the training class (other franchisees like myself, their spouses or associates working for franchisees) spent a lot of time together and as a result many bonded, and friendships were formed. We have an awesome support team at the company's home office, with a LOT of resources at our fingertips. The I.T. support is terrific, as well as the marketing machine working behind the scenes.  In addition to my original website (www.neverlandadventurestravel.com), I do have a second site now ---> www.neverlandadventurescruises.com.   The first remains my primary site for Disney vacations, and is still maintained by me, while the new one is primarily for cruising and is maintained by Cruise Planners.  In 2012 the cruising site will be receiving a huge new facelift... I am so very excited about those changes coming in the next few weeks (we saw what it will look like while in Ft. Lauderdale - and it looks GREAT!).  It will look and feel so much better, and I honestly can't wait for it to be rolled out.  But over time I will be making the two even more interconnected than they already are.


I'm hopeful that this new venture will go well, but like many entrepreneurs, I'm no longer just satisfied with doing one thing at a time, as I did for nearly 20 years.  I have a couple of other avenues that I am currently pursuing as well, and hope to talk about at least one of those in the next month or two.  Until then - thanks for continuing to follow along and read these posts, and I wish you all a blessed holiday season.