Hiking in New Zealand provides endless adventure

I began my travel agent journey more than 20 years ago, turning a life long personal passion into a professional role.  I love creating the cruise and luxury adventures that clients have dreamed of, into rich experiences that will be remembered for a lifetime.  My previous career path of leading nursing and hospital operations provided me with a platform of operational excellence and highly personal detail orientation.  My motto then was "Work Hard, Play Hard".  My first career, as a Registered Nurse, led to completing three college degrees, including a Masters degree in Public Health.  My secondary career is one I am just as passionate about. I applied the same intensive preparation when I entered the world of being a Travel Advisor.  While I began as  a "travel agent", it is my professional education and experience that differentiate me as a travel advisor.

I set about preparing for being a travel expert through both formal education and experience.  I am a certified Master Cruise Counselor, with CLIA (Cruise Line International Association), and an ASTA member (American Society of Travel Advisors).  I strongly believe that the education and validation of earning my MCC provides the necessary foundation to understand the cruise experience expectations of my client and ensure that my recommendations are consistently matched to meet those expectations.  I refresh my professional knowledge by maintaining my credentials, and attending international conferences regularly.

A differentiating component of my expertise, beyond education and certification is my travel experience.  My experience includes more than 60 cruises, and on-location experience in more than 70 countries on six of the seven continents. I have always believed that I should know our product, to best represent it to our client.  

I have specialized in cruising from the moment I began as a travel agent.  My experience is comprehensive from mainstream cruises to premium, adventure, and luxury cruises.  I identified luxury cruises as a specialty, as they offer a high value of experience. My personal passions have often lead me to pursue professional exploration.  My love of golf have lead to explore playing courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, England, Scotland, New Zealand, Ireland, and Italy in addition to each corner of the United States.  My personal passion for fine wine and cuisine led to visiting exclusive and luscious vineyards in California, Oregon, Virginia, Michigan, Arizona, Washington, New York, Canada, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, France, and Portugal. It led not only to the establishment of our 1500 bottle cellar for personal enjoyment, but an appreciation for the beautiful experience of enjoying the very best culinary experiences with friends - new and old - in settings across the world.  As an amateur chef at home, I want our clients to explore experiences that delight all of their senses.  

One of the most exciting aspect with cruising is that my knowledge and experiential expertise allows personalizing the cruise selection to our client's most sought out experience.  Perhaps, a client has a personal passion for exploring renaissance art, while their spouse wants to include an adventuresome outdoor immersion.  I know how both can be accommodated on the same vacation, and more.  My clients have been delighted to find that I have accommodated their travel dreams beyond cruises, including trips to dude ranches, horseback trekking in the Himalayas, all inclusive resorts, discovering still vibrant medieval walled cities in Tuscany, waking to a misty morning in an Irish countryside castle, making personal acquaintance with Galapagos tortoise, and more.

Today's world presents some unique travel opportunities, and challenges.  My rich background as health care professional, along with my established and current competence in travel provide an exceptional foundation to understand and the sensitivity to meet and exceed clients travel expectations.