Vancouver!

In September, I spent a week totally ensconced in the excitement and pure natural beauty of British Columbia. I took a jet plane to Seattle, and a prop plane to Victoria where we bussed into Butchart Gardens and speed boated out to watch whales. After three nights in the luxurious Inn at Laurel Point, we took a ferry over to Vancouver where other modes of transportation included: a paddle-wheel dinner cruise boat, a water taxi across False Creek, a bicycle around Stanley Park, a cable tram up to the summit of Grouse Mountain, an elevator to the Vancouver Lookout and another elevator inside the Eye of the Wind (a giant white wind turbine with glass observation deck on top) above Grouse Mountain, a high speed Zodiac sea safari, the hop-on-hop-off bus around the city, a zipline, and finally, walking across the suspension bridges and the new cantilevered Cliffwalk at Capilano. Oh, and I'll never forget the thrilling take-off and landing of our sea plane, or the beautiful smile of Tiga, the baby beluga at the Vancouver Aquarium. Poor Tiga died a week later, but he is forever in my heart. 

TourismVancouver hosted a small group of VSP VIPS (graduates of the Vancouver Specialist Program) for the week and thoroughly impressed us with their beautiful city. We toured many of the best hotels, sampled lots of local fresh cuisine, both at Granville Island Public Market and at several trendy restaurants, and learned so much about the special events, venues, and activities available in the Vancouver area. I came home with a suitcase full of local chocolates....heaven!!!! Now I have new travel agent friends from Germany, England, Australia, Canada and the US and we all agree that Vancouver is one place that we should send all of our clients - there is something for everyone.

Princess West Coast Sailings

10/11/2011

Princess Cruises Offers Diverse West Coast Sailing Schedule in 2012-13
Line to Offer More Pacific Coastal Cruises Than Ever Before, Plus Varied Sailings from Los Angeles or San Francisco

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (October 11, 2011) -- Cruisers who want to sample the Pacific Coast or sail from a West Coast port have a variety of options with Princess Cruises in 2012-13. The line will feature more Pacific coast cruises than ever before, including an enhanced seven-day California Coastal itinerary to the best of the Golden State.
The line's schedule of fall and spring season coastal voyages ranges from quick overnight cruises to week-long journeys, all designed to provide passengers with a convenient way to sample the Princess cruise experience as they explore the Pacific coastline.
New this season is a round-trip California Coastal itinerary with an added visit to Catalina and an overnight in San Francisco. Other coastal itinerary options include a wine country cruise with themed onboard presentations, plus four- and five-day samplers of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, and shorter sailings of one to three nights. Additionally, cruisers can set sail for further-flung destinations from the West Coast ports of Los Angeles or San Francisco, heading for Hawaii, Mexico, the Panama Canal or across the ocean to explore the South Pacific.
"Coastal cruises have become increasingly popular with our passengers, so much so that we're featuring more of our new California Coast itinerary than ever before," said Jan Swartz, Princess Cruises executive vice president. "And the California ports of Los Angeles and San Francisco are great bases from which to enjoy a variety of destinations and experiences."
Princess' Coastal voyages in the 2012-13 season include:
California Coastals: Roundtrip Los Angeles -- Sapphire Princess will sail on new departures of a seven-day California Coastal itinerary cruising roundtrip from Los Angeles. Passengers can enjoy an overnight in San Francisco, plus calls in Santa Barbara, Catalina, San Diego, and Ensenada. Sailings depart on October 8 and October 13, 2012; March 30, April 6, April 13, April 27 and May 4, 2013.
Wine Country Coastal: Los Angeles to Vancouver -- A special seven-day sailing offered with wine lovers in mind, this sailing will offer the chance to explore the California wine regions of Santa Barbara and San Francisco -- as well as visit the microbreweries of Astoria, Oregon. Themed excursions will be available in many ports to enhance the local wine focus. In addition, guest experts will showcase the world of food and wine with special presentations. The cruise aboard Sapphire Princess will depart from Los Angeles on May 11, 2013, sailing to Vancouver with calls at Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Astoria, Seattle and Victoria.
British Columbia and West Coast Coastal -- This week-long voyage explores the west coast from the fall foliage of British Columbia to the shores of Southern California. The Vancouver to Los Angeles cruise calls at Nanaimo, Victoria, San Francisco and San Diego. Sapphire Princess sets sail on September 29, 2012.
Pacific Coastal: Los Angeles/Vancouver -- Passengers can choose to travel between Vancouver and Los Angeles in five or three days with two coastal itinerary options. The five-day journey between "the City of Angels" and Vancouver features calls in San Francisco and Victoria, departing on May 9, 2012 aboard Coral Princess. The three-day option features two leisurely days of cruising the Pacific Coast with a variety of sailing dates aboard Golden Princess, Coral Princess, Island Princess and Star Princess.
Pacific Coastal: San Francisco/Vancouver -- Two ships will travel between San Francisco's legendary Golden Gate and picturesque Vancouver on a two-day cruise. Island Princess departs on September 26, 2012 and Star Princess sets sail on May 13 and September 24, 2012. Pacific Coastal: Vancouver/Seattle -- For a quick getaway, overnight sailings between Vancouver and Seattle offer the perfect opportunity for a taste of Princess hospitality. Golden Princess will sail September 22, 2012 and May 11, 2013; while Star Princess sails on September 23, 2012 and May 11, 2013.
In addition to sailing along the Pacific Coast, passengers can also choose to visit a variety of destinations from the West Coast ports of Los Angeles and San Francisco.
From Los Angeles:
Mexico -- Sapphire Princess will sail "south of the border" to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas on six sailings between November 17, 2012 and April 20, 2013.
Hawaii -- Golden Princess and Sapphire Princess offer 14-day cruises, departing on Wednesdays and Saturdays, respectively, to the volcanic wonder of the Big Island (Hilo), the capital city of Honolulu on Oahu, the beautiful beaches of Maui (Lahaina) and the lush Garden Isle of Kauai (Nawiliwili). The season runs between September 26, 2012 and April 24, 2013.
Hawaii, Tahiti & Samoa -- For those looking for a longer tropical vacation, this 28-day itinerary offers the opportunity to sail not only to Hawaii, but also visit the South Pacific islands of Pago Pago, Apia, Bora Bora, Moorea, and Tahiti. These cruises sail round-trip from Los Angeles, aboard Sapphire Princess on October 20, 2012 and on Star Princess on March 26, 2013.
Panama Canal -- Coral Princess and Island Princess offer a variety of Panama Canal transit itineraries that begin or end in Los Angeles. These sailings include a full transit of one of the world's wonders of engineering plus Princess' signature 2-day experience in Panama for extra time to explore the country. Cruises also include visits to a variety of sunny Caribbean ports as well as calls in Mexico and Central America. Sailings run between September 20, 2011 and May 4, 2013.
From San Francisco:
Mexico -- Grand Princess and Star Princess each offer a sailing roundtrip from San Francisco with calls at Catalina, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas and San Diego. Star Princess sails on Sept 26, 2012 and Grand Princess departs March 31, 2013.
Hawaii -- Star Princess and Grand Princess will begin offering 15-day itinerary round-trip voyages from San Francisco, also calling at all four main islands. The ships will offer 10 departures between March 19, 2012 and April 25, 2013.
Alaska Inside Passage -- Sea Princess will once again sail roundtrip from the City by the Bay to the wonders of the 49th state, with calls at Juneau, Skagway (or Haines), Ketchikan and Victoria, plus scenic cruising in Glacier Bay National Park or Tracy Arm Fjord. Sailings depart between May 13 to August 31, 2012.
Hawaii, Tahiti & South Pacific -- Sea Princess sails from San Francisco to Sydney on a 27-day voyage across the Pacific with calls at Honolulu, Maui (Lahaina), Bora Bora, Tahiti, Pago Pago, Auckland, Christchurch, and Dunedin, with scenic cruising through Fiordland National Park. The sailing departs on September 20, 2012.
Panama Canal -- Island Princess will sail on a Panama Canal voyage from San Francisco to Ft. Lauderdale, featuring a full Canal transit, plus visits to Cabo San Lucas, Costa Rica (Puntarenas), a 2-day canal experience in Panama (a day in port in Fuerte Amador plus the transit through the canal locks), and stops in Cartagena and Aruba. The sailing departs on September 28, 2012.
Additional information about Princess Cruises is available through a professional travel agent  http://www.princess.com/news/

South America Cruise Photobook

Princess Cruise Line has been voted the best for romance and the best for weddings and honeymoons. We chose an itinerary around South America for our own wedding and honeymoon and thought you'd like to see what kind of activities and sights you might see if you chose the same itinerary. This was a back-to-back cruise, which means it was two two-week cruises put together. The first was Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile, and the next was Santiago to Rio de Janiero, Brazil. Click here to see Our Cruise Around South America .

Scrapbooking Traveler

Many years ago, I fell in love with the business end of a camera. As a child, I set up a dark room in my parents' kitchen and was lucky enough to attend a high school that offered photography and yearbook classes as electives, along with a workstudy program in offset printing. I learned how to put the science together with the art of composing photos and layouts that are both compelling and pleasing to the human eye.

Then my children came along and like any good parent, I created baby books and photo albums. Not content to just add photos to those old magnetic-page albums, I scouted magazines and old books and ephemera to cut out little embellishments for the pages. With a tiny pair of scissors, I practiced scherenschnitte to create my own little stickers and borders for the pages. Fast forward 25 years and the scrapbooking industry is in full swing with hundreds of thousands of embellishments, cutting and embossing systems, inks and stamps, fibers and brads, all available for purchase by the leisure crafter. Like quilting bees of old, ladies now get together at "crops" to share stories as they cut and paste beautiful albums of their favorite photos. While the younger women are busy creating memory books of their childrens' first day at school, soccer games and sleepovers, many of us are also documenting our travels.

This week, I just finished an album that displays all the fun, romance and nature we encountered on our Star Flyer cruise from this past December. We have photos of our land tours of the Espiritu Santo Coffee Plantation where Calvin got to strap on a harvet basket and actually pick ripe coffee "cherries." We enjoyed petite cups of the plantations best freshly-brewed organic coffee, so I took pictures of the little coffee cups. We toured the plantation owers' residence (a rustic two-room shack with cast iron stove and no plumbing), the weighing and sorting equipment, painted oxcarts, and terraced rows of coffee plants under a canopy of shade trees. Everywhere we looked, there were opportunities to make beautiful photographs, and that was just our first tour of the day. A wooden bead and basket factory tour followed, including the water wheel that powered the saw mill. On to Sarchi where we saw the largest painted oxcart in the world, as verified by Guiness Book. Marvelous! Centuries-old churches, a handcrafted nativity scene in the village's central park, and local Ticos (Costa Ricans) all provided many opportunities to make pictures. Traveling to new worlds is an opportunity to see how other people live, and photographs help you remember when you return home.

Sailing on the clipper ship is an experience everyone should have at least once in their lives. Especially on relatively calm seas in a tropical climate, sailing is easy when strong young men in striped sailor shirts take care of all the work of raising the sails and tying them off. For a photographer, the 21 sails, ships wheel and nautical compass make excellent subject matter. For a traveler, there is nothing more relaxing that watching the moon and the stars glide by as the sails gently sigh and clap. Day or night, passengers can relax with a boat drink and a good book, visit with fellow travelers, eat fabulous meals and plan the shore excursion at the next port of call. With a digital camera, you can spend a whole afternoon making detailed photos of ropes and sails, nautical equipment and beautiful scenery of the beaches and hills over the rail as your ship rolls by.

On this Costa Rican cruise, each time we went ashore, there was a "wet landing." This means we took a zodiac raft to the beach and jumped out into water about two feet deep. Fun! We were prepared with an underwater case for our camera that kept it from drowning. We used it while snorkeling, and also out of the water for photos of interesting rocks and shells that we wanted to remember but not cart home. A waterproof case also floats, so if you happen to drop it off your kayak while getting video of two fighting iguanas, you don't have to jump into the river with the crocodiles to retrieve it. Bonus!

Here are my recommendations:
1. Travel.
2. Enjoy.
3. Take plenty of photos.
4. Come home and re-live your trip as you scrapbook your adventures.

The Commodore Certificate

When the mail arrived at the Suite Romance Travel office today, it contained this certificate. I had been waiting for it for several weeks and it finally arrived with my matching lapel pin. I wish the envelope and the certificate inside hadn't been wrinkled, but it doesn't diminish the knowledge I gained while studying with the Princess Academy. I intend to take advantage of the Academy's new courses as they are developed or updated, so I will have the latest information for all of my Princess clients. 

Local Travel Agent Earns Prestigious Top Rank in Princess Cruise Academy

Vacaville, CA (January 11, 2011) – A Vacaville travel agent has achieved prestigious Commodore status in Princess Cruises’ Academy training program, certifying her as an expert cruise professional. As a Commodore, Staci Kendrick-Jones of Suite Romance Travel joins an exclusive group of travel agents who are now recognized by Princess at the Academy's highest level for their unique qualifications and knowledge as a cruise planning professional. Staci earned this distinction after completing the minimum 25 courses necessary to graduate from the program.

“We at Princess are very proud of Staci’s dedication, as she put in extra effort to offer clients exceptional knowledge regarding our cruise vacation product as well as our worldwide destinations,” said Jan Swartz, Senior Vice President of Customer Service and Sales at Princess. “Travel agents who reach this top level in our Academy program have completed hours of course work to become a cruising expert, which will prove invaluable to providing clients with a great vacation.”

Princess Academy is the cruise industry’s most comprehensive online training program available to travel agents in the U.S. and Canada. Agents who complete the extensive coursework become experts on a wide range of topics, offering travelers full knowledge of important details about a Princess vacation such as the different passenger amenities on the line’s 17 ships, the company’s worldwide destinations and the many special programs available onboard.

“I'm thrilled to be a Princess Commodore. Along with my personal cruising experiences, the knowledge I've gained from the Academy makes me a more valuable resource for my clients, and enables me to recommend the very best vacation to match all of their needs,” said Staci Kendrick-Jones.

To become a Commodore, travel agents must fulfill 25 required and elective classes and exams, representing course work covering worldwide destinations, onboard programs, and customer service skills. As they complete courses, agents receive their “stripes” through four levels: First Officer, Staff Captain, Captain and finally Commodore. Agents can continue to take elective courses to expand their knowledge and keep their Commodore status current. Also, as a member of the Cruise Lines International Association, Inc (CLIA), Staci has also successfully completed all of the coursework required to become a CLIA Accredited Cruise Counsellor.

Suite Romance Travel is a local agency owned and operated by Staci and her husband, Calvin Jones, and can be contacted at www.suiteromancetravel.com. With travel consortia partners like Princess and Vacation.com offering the best in competitive rates, Staci offers personalized service to her clients not available through internet shopping. The agency offers a full line of travel services including hotel and resort accommodations, transportation, and family fun parks. Suite Romance Travel specializes in cruising and the romantic opportunities that cruises offer for weddings, honeymoons, anniversaries, family reunions and other special occasions.

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