Thursday, September 20, 2007

My first blog

Well, the sun has risen off the east coast of Florida and I am actually catching up with something before it becomes obsolete- starting a blog.

So here goes - I absolutely love cruising!!! I used to say that to me the worse cruise I could be on still beats the best day at work! Except, now my work IS about cruising.

When the opportunity came about back in the later part of 2001, (on the advice of my own agents who told me I knew more than they did), I became a cruise specialist and had the opportunity to share my "limited" experience at that time with others. Limited in the fact that we had been on 9 cruises (in 4 years) at that time and never was involved in the travel industry.

Now, we (and the we part is my beautiful wife and full time partner in everything Helen) have been on over 30 and I also have the great privilege to be the Recruiting Mgr. of New Agents for the National Company I am associated with.

Helping others to enjoy the cruise experience the same as we have has been a pleasure and we have made many friends in all parts of the country with our clients and get to sail with many of them at different times.

And helping others to become a cruise specialist themselves, helping them to earn extra money for things they want and maybe mentoring them to a small degree so they have the same fun we do, is really a great and rare privilege.

This blog will be dedicated to both - whether you are looking to pick the right cruise to vacation on or pick the right company to be an agent for, I hope to share thoughts, ideas, and secrets you can benefit from.

As time permits or information of interest becomes known, I'll share with you things I learn, have learned, or will be learning. I hope this is worthwhile for all of us.

Sincerely,

Al

5 comments:

Tra Tra nise said...

Hi Al,
It was a pleasure talking to you. You are an inspiration!

Anonymous said...

Hi Al,
The interesting thing is once someone takes a cruise you never here them say they were bored. Most of the time they say I wish I had more time to do this or that. When they find out how enjoyable a cruise vacation is the usual question is. Where should I go on my next cruise ?

Bob from Boston

Anonymous said...

Al and Helen rock!

I "met" Al when I booked our first cruise with him over the phone. Since then, we have booked 7 cruises with Al and Helen, and have also had the pleasure of cruising with them. We're happy to call them our friends. If they ever want to take a vacation in the north lands, we would welcome them into our home.

Cruising is an outstanding way to vacation and see a variety of destinations! I say cruising is like staying in a first class hotel and waking up to a different city each day---without having to repack your bag and drive to do it. How great is that?

OK, the rooms are small, but the common areas more than make up for that. You only need the room to change your clothes and sleep ....and you will never sleep better than you do on a cruise. It's really the only time I get a good night's sleep....very relaxing.

I had to work very hard to convince Bruce to take his first cruise. But, when we got off the ship at the end of the cruise, he asked "when's our next cruise?" We haven't stopped since then.

Ms_Lyonese said...

What about on the other type of cruising ships like the ones that actually use Sail to get around the Islands of the Bahamas, Grenadines and stuff like that

Al Richman said...

Put a new post on re ms_lyonese question. (I love your bio by the way :-)We are practically neighbors depending on where in Hollywood you are.