Cathal Armstrong & Family

Cruise Holidays of Alexandria strives to offer our clients unique travel experiences.  Those that are a bit out of the ordinary and a notch above, in order for you to have truly memorable vacations.  After all, your vacation time is precious, and we want you to make the most of it.

That's one of the reasons we are so delighted to have successfully negotiated with award-winning chefs, Michel Richard of Michel Richard Citronelle, and Cathal Armstrong of Restuarant Eve, to serve as guests chefs aboard Regent Seven Seas Cruises.  Regent alone would be an extraordinary experience...having won year over year recognition as among the very best cruise lines in the industry (and this year the best).  We've taken that experience a notch above, by offering our clients the opportunity to travel with two chefs that are at the pinnacle of the culinary world.  For those of you who have eaten at Michel Richard Citronelle in Georgetown, and/or Restaurant Eve in Old Town Alexandria, you know the amazing talents that these two men bring to the table (so to speak).  Richard won 2007 Outstanding Chef award by the prestigous James Beard Foundation.  Armstrong appeared on the cover of Food & Wine Magazine as one of the top 10 new chefs.  And those are just 2 of their many, many awards. 

Not into the culinary arts?  The good news is you can still enjoy a fabulous menu on either one of these cruises that will be prepared by the chefs during these 2 cruises, and enjoy all the fabulous ports and luxury amenties offered by Regent with these 2 incredible itineraries.  And best of all, you aren't paying extra because the chefs are onboard...you get to enjoy their many talents for no more than you otherwise would pay had they not been aboard.  You would pay upwards of a couple hundred dollars or more for you and a companion to dine in either one of these gentlemen's restaurants, but onboard these cruises, you can sample their cuisine for free as part of your larger cruise voyage.

What are these voyages?  Chef Armstrong will serve as guest chef aboard Regent's Seven Seas Voyager on a 10-night Europe cruise sailing June 9, 2008, from Monte Carlo to Dover (England).  Of course, there will be many ports along the way providing you with plenty of opportunity to explore the wonders of some great European cities.  We are even offering our clients a complimentary 1/2-day shore excursion to Alahambra and a gourmet picnic (for a limited time).

Chef Richard will serve as guest chef aboard Regent's Seven Seas Mariner on a 7-night Alaska voyage sailing July 16, 2008, from Seward, Alaska to Vancouver, Canada.  What a fabulous opportunity to experience the incredible sights and sounds of this great wilderness land while enjoying the absolute delight of 6 star cuisine.

As our client, you will enjoy special perks on each voyage that aren't available to other passengers on board.  For example, you will be invited to attend an exclusive cocktail reception to welcome you aboard, an exclusive private shore excursion (optional), and the knowledge that a portion of the proceeds we earn from these cruises we are donating to benefit the many children with cancer who depend on the services of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  I hope you will join us.  Definitely give us a call for more information...it truly is a chance of a lifetime.

Jim with McKinley Background

As many of your know, Cruise Holidays is a network of 120 plus independently-owned stores that has existed since the 1980s.  As such, Cruise Holidays is the oldest and largest network of cruise speciality stores in north America.  Each year, Cruise Holidays has an annual convention, and this was our store's third year to participate in the convention.  It was wonderful.  It started with 2 days in Seattle, followed by 4 days on the Celebrity Mercury.  Make no mistake, this was a working convention, with activities, guest speakers, and conferences scheduled from early morning to late into the evening, all with one purpose in mind:  how do we make the customer experience exceptional, beyond reproarch, each and every time without exception.  We had guest speaker Linda Ford of Atlanta Georgia...what a phenomenal speaker.  We also had Nolan Burris, who grew up on travel industry and now is a travel industry consultant.  What we took away from this convention not only underscored what we always have strived to do, deliver you the very best client service and personal attention you expect and deserve, but also how do we build on our efforts to date to make the experience even better.  There are some many exciting initiatives that will be launched in the coming months dirctly aimed at doing just that...making your experience even better.  Providing unexpected touches for you that we hope will make you stand up and say "Wow."  Touches that we hope will make you glad you got to know us, and also comfortable enthusiastically referring your friends, family and colleagues to us, and that will keep you coming back to us each and every time.

In addition to sharing with you a taste of the substance of our conference, I also wanted to share with you my impressions of the Celebrity Mercury.  Celebrity is a premium brand, owned by the same company as Royal Caribbean.  It is considered a step above Royal Caribbean, and is appropriate for those travelers who don't need or want all the action offered by a Royal Caribbean cruise, but instead or more interested in the level of service and the quality of cuisine offered onboard.  Of course, there are nightly shows, a casino, and multiple lounges onboard, but the experience is more sedate, more sophisticated than on a Royal Caribbean cruise.  The Mercury is one of Celebrity's older ships, and while the ship is beautifully maintained, it certainly shows its age when compared to the brand new ships debuting year after year.  However, that notwitstanding, I enjoyed my experience during the 4 short days I was aboard.  I found the staff to be terrific.  We were greated with champagne upon embarkation, and every time a member of the staff or crew past us in the hallway, we were greeted with a "Good Morning," "Good Afternoon," or "Good Evening."  It's a little thing, but it is a sign of great service.  The food was also quite good onboard...perhaps not the best at sea, but better than Royal and a couple of the other brands on which I have sailed.  We were told the ship was sailing at full capacity, but I found that so hard to believe.  It never felt crowded...the deck, the common areas, the casino never gave the sense of being crowded and rather gave quite the opposite impression...almost empty.  Perhaps that's just an indication of the great space ratio available on the Mercury.  I would recommend this ship to couples and adults who don't look for the kyoke bars, the fancy nightclubs, water slides or walk climbing walls, but instead just want to relax and be on the water. 

Finally, I can't close this post without mentioning how proud I am that, with you, our clients support, we managed to walk away from our convention with two great awards.  In just short of two years of opening our doors in Alexandria, we won (or I should say Jim Work won) an award for "Knock your Socks Off" customer service and an award for "Million Dollar Seller."  I believe these two awards are inextricably linked together...Jim does what he does best...providing personalized, exceptional client service day in and day out.  His clients recognize this, and naturally through his hard work and dedication topped the year in excess of $1 million in sales.  Thank you to our clients for making us a success.  We sincerely appreciate it more than you can know.

We are providing this forum for you, our clients and prospective clients, to share you reviews of your cruise vacations, to post your questions about cruising, or generally to comment on the cruise industry.  We ask that you be respectful in your comments, and look forward to hearing from you.  Happy travels!