CruiseOne®/Dream Vacations Celebrate Top Travel Professionals
With Royal Tour of London and Luxury River Cruise
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (April 12, 2018) – CruiseOne®/Dream Vacations recently recognized its top-producing travel agency franchise owners who are members of the home-based network’s prestigious “Circle of Excellence.” The week started with a royal guided Monograms tour of London hosted by Globus and continued with a luxury river cruise experience aboard the Crystal Bach on the Rhine River.
“Achieving Circle of Excellence status is the ultimate goal of many within our network, and it is an accomplishment that we are pleased to celebrate,” said Debbie Fiorino, senior vice president of CruiseOne/Dream Vacations. “Circle of Excellence members not only have impressive sales year-after-year, but they are engaged leaders within our organization who are always willing to share their expertise with others. We recognize that their success is due in part to the support of our travel partners, who also make this trip possible.”
In London, attendees experienced hand-crafted, unique city tours coordinated by Monograms, as well as the celebrity treatment with a private boat ride and VIP experience aboard the London Eye for breathtaking city views. While aboard the Crystal Bach river cruise which departed from Amsterdam, attendees received five-star treatment coupled with unmatched luxury and intimate tours while exploring the Dutch countryside. The trip concluded with a memorable canal boat ride in Amsterdam followed by a Crystal Signature Event of a classical music performance.
The Circle of Excellence rewards trip provides top-selling agents, not only with unique vacation experiences, but also the opportunity to network in an intimate environment with key suppliers from the travel industry, as well as members of the CruiseOne/Dream Vacations leadership team. Michael Lawson, account manager for key partners, and Kristen Steele, manager of key partners with Globus family of brands personally escorted the group while they were in London. Escorting the group during the river cruise portion of the rewards trip was Carmen Roig, senior vice president of marketing and sales; Walter Littlejohn III, vice president & managing director at Crystal River Cruises; and Jason Douglas, strategic business development manager represented Crystal Cruises.
Other VIP guests and trip sponsors included:
- Vicki Freed, senior vice president, sales, trade support and service at Royal Caribbean International
- Joseph Casal, manager of national accounts at Royal Caribbean International
- Janet Wygert, vice president, strategic partnerships at Carnival Cruise Line
- Cindy Botelho, manager, national accounts at Princess Cruises
- Gina Garrett-Mancuso, group service specialist at Norwegian Cruise Line
- Barbara Julian, strategic market manager at Celebrity Cruises
- Tracee Adams, director of national accounts at GoGo Vacations
- John Restuccia, director of national accounts at Uniworld
“Babe Ruth once said, ‘The way a team plays together as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t get along well together, the team won’t be worth a dime.’ This is the way I feel about our “Circle of Excellence” group, we are all successful individually, but as a group we really shine,” said 2017 Dream Vacations Franchisee of the Year and Circle of Excellence member Mike Ziegenbalg of Jasper, Ga. “If you ask any member why they come on the trip, the most important answer from the majority would be that it’s the collective knowledge we each share, the experiences, the laughter, and even sometimes the pain. It just makes us a much stronger brand. I truly value the one-on-one time getting to know more about each member of the Circle of Excellence. Together with the support of headquarters, the weeklong trip affords me an opportunity second to none. I come home fueled and ready to move my business forward with great anticipation for the next Circle of Excellence trip.”
The Circle of Excellence is an elite program that recognizes agents for top sales achievement and is an honor that many agents strive to attain. Members receive benefits such as priority-access to corporate support phone lines and training programs, complimentary agent site visits and business planning sessions, select free marketing collateral, one complimentary cabin at the annual award-winning National Conference, invitations to select inaugural cruises, a “Circle of Excellence” logo for use in marketing materials and more.
