Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

If you asked me what my secret is to loving what I do and my happiness, I would only have one answer: FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR LIFE. Otherwise, someone else will be able to direct your life like a bullet train to a place you don’t want to go!

When I started in the travel business, I decided to sell ONLY what I would buy. It is much easier to be excited to talk about things that make me happy rather than things that make me insecure or fearful. People everywhere associate me with travel, even people who don’t know me that well. They have heard about me, and by the twinkle in my eyes, they know how I love to travel.

I didn’t sell cruises for many years because I was afraid of traveling on the ocean. One day we decided to see what people were so excited about and then I was hooked.

So, my advice is: don’t be afraid to try different things. Get out of your comfort zone but always keep your eyes and your heart directed towards making YOUR life the best. After all, no one can prove that there is a better afterlife.

Cheers!

Follow me at:
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Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

After our cruise to Canada, Greenland and Iceland we traveled to Holland. The last time we went to Holland was over 25 years ago when our boys were very young. Back then, we drove all around. The car smelled like cheese and the kids were very curious about the souvenirs in the stores (especially the dildos and bongs) and they giggled about the red light district. Those are fun memories!

Fast forward to just a month ago, my husband and I traveled there with a couple of dear friends. We flew into Amsterdam where the streets, canals and bicycles made a beautiful picture. This time, the strongest smell was of pot everywhere. Honestly, I was craving oxygen (or was I stoned?) 

There were open urinals everywhere (I naively thought they were places for handwashing until I saw men using them! LOL!)  When my friend asked where women should use the toilet, they pointed to an enclosed place which you needed to pay for access (kind of unfair in my opinion.) 

The red light  district was very deserted with many windows for rent. Piercing and tattoo shops were all over, with plastic body parts on display – leaving nothing to the imagination.

Many people still call it Holland, but on January 1st 2020 it officially became The Netherlands. No matter what you call it, it  is worth seeing. From my old memories with my kids, to new fun memories with my friends, traveling and living is about creating memories.

Cheers!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

 

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

In the world of social media, what do you really need to promote yourself and your travel business? If you are a one-man/woman show, my answer is so simple: YOU!

Yes, that is it!

I am not going to discourage those who STRONGLY believe in a colorful and beautiful website, logo and business cards (I am not here to argue!) but your face (currently), your enthusiasm, and your presence – together with your phone number and name will bring you more clients than all of your promotions on social media put together.

But how?

Become a conversation piece everywhere you go. Wear a cap with the name of the country or place you visited (or buy one on the internet just so you can talk about it). Wear a t-shirt, bag, any souvenir you can show. Where to wear it? To the market, stores, church, community center, park, or even to people’s homes.

I recently bought a very colorful apron in Barcelona when I was there in May. I decided to wear it when I had my family over. I was so happy to show and tell. My son asked me where I bought it. I answered, “Can’t you see? In Barcelona!”  And he said, “No mom, Barelona!” They forgot the letter “C”!  LOL!

Salud!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

 

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

That car do you drive? Are you surprised by my question?

Honestly I don’t really want to know, this is just a rhetorical question. Many people work hard to have a nice car, house, or houses and cars, the more the merrier.

I wanted that too. I thought that the more I worked, the more I could aim to afford a comfortable life. Then we started to get older and life happened!

Health became more of a concern than money. I started to understand that health is wealth, and my body is my most important possession. More important than any house or car, and changing parts is not that easy. Once the engine (heart) fails, you are headed in the direction of 6 feet under. I can’t replace or upgrade my body or its parts. This is it!

Take care of your health. Watch what you eat, exercise cautiously, be proactive and go to the doctor on a regular basis. And, definitely enjoy life and travel like there is no tomorrow!

Life is too short to worry about how fancy or big your house is. Life is too precious to waste on getting the latest model car of the year. Your health dictates your future, and every day you should realize how precious your life is.

To health, to life, and to many travels!

Cheers!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

 

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

To those who know me, and even more so, my mentees, I had a reputation as the Celebrity Queen! This was so true that I even have cruises booked up until December 2024, and in the past have cruised with them 3 to 4 times a year. Well….. let me tell you about my last 2 experiences!

To celebrate the New Year in 2023 we cruised on the beautiful Celebrity Beyond in the Caribbean and had an incredible time. As always before, I highly recommended it to everyone I could and as a Celebrity Queen, I suggested they experience and enjoy this cruise line.

A long time ago, we booked an itinerary that we were looking forward to, from New Jersey to Canada to Greenland to Iceland on the Celebrity Summit. We have been on most Celebrity cruises since the Millennium, and have always been pleased with food, shows, service and cost/benefits.

This cruise was such a downer! They have now decided to charge for room service. We only learned that when they were late with a room service delivery on our excursion day, and they said, ”Don’t worry, we will not charge you for that!” Oh, now you are nickel-and-diming us!

The shows are no longer like they used to be with beautiful stages, lighting and Broadway style choreography. On the contrary! With many days at sea, our Cruise Director had 3 entertainers performing 2 times each, “because of popular demand.” LOL! (From who??!!!)

The food in the main restaurant had very little variety. The Basic or Premium drink packages didn’t offer good wines.  If you wanted a good wine from Napa or somewhere else, you needed to buy a bottle for about $250. It seemed as though they were “strongly” suggesting that passengers eat in the other restaurants for about $55 per person (minimum) and purchase the alcohol for extra money.

The Aqua class and the suites (which have their own restaurants) didn’t get any better deals than Concierge or Veranda.

What continues to be great is the service from many wonderful crew members, but unfortunately that is not enough. I don’t want to use a cruise line that nickel-and-dimes us. I prefer to pay extra and know that everything they spell out is included.

Unfortunately we are paid and committed to a Celebrity Cruise in December from Singapore to Indonesia on the Millennium. After that, all our bookings are canceled and we are ready to find a cruise line that thinks more about the passengers, and is not hungry and desperate enough to trick us with the only purpose of making money.

Leaving my crown for now, Celebrity!

Cheers!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

In December of 2015 my family and I decided to go see the Northern Lights in Iceland. What an incredible experience to see a country where it was only “daylight” from 11am until 3pm. It wasn’t even sunny, it felt like being in a dark room where you turn on the light and it is not very bright. The rest of the time it was dark as night. We slept with the curtains open because no matter when we woke up, it was night.

We learned to walk on the icy streets of Reykjavík, and we saw the Blue Lagoon, The Golden Circle, The Geysers, went on a “safari” to look for the Aurora Borealis (what a great experience!) and drove over ice (we didn’t want to take a snowmobile).

Since that trip, I have been craving the experience of seeing Iceland in the summer, and we have just returned from there! What a blast! It was a completely different experience, as if we went to a totally different country. This time it was daytime until almost 11pm, and at about 4:30am it was daylight again! (Close those curtains, we need to sleep LOL!)

We saw beautiful waterfalls in so many places. We went to the Black Sand Beach, which was so beautiful that even pictures will not do it justice. Reykjavik was so much fun and there were so many tourists like us dressed warmly, but the locals were wearing  t-shirts and shorts. (It was about 56F.)

We did not want to do the Blue Lagoon again since we had done that before, but we definitely could have spent more days enjoying nature in this incredible country.

I highly recommend visiting Iceland at both times of the year if you can!

Cheers!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/ Advisors,

I usually like to write blog posts about positive ways to promote travel and teach agents how to handle prospective clients and clients who have already traveled before. But, this time, enough is enough!

After seeing 91 countries and traveling a countless number of times, today I am going to write about how ABUSIVE some airlines can be. I want to share my experience with my audience and ask you to tell others.

This is the second time I have used mileage to book business class tickets with Air France. I paid the taxes and got the confirmation. I even got everything confirmed on my AIR FRANCE APP!

A couple of months later I got an “apology” from Air France stating that they had to cancel my flight. No explanation, no nothing. Just that my booking was canceled. This was not 5 tickets for a whole family, not even 2 tickets for my husband and I – just 1 single ticket for me.

As I said, this is the second time Air France has done this to me for just 1 ticket purchased with mileage. Both times they waited a few months to cancel, when the prices to purchase a business class ticket with another airline was much higher, and buying the same ticket with mileage is AT LEAST DOUBLE!

Is AIR FRANCE canceling flights because they are going bankrupt? I really don’t know what to think! Maybe someone in a high level position in Air France can explain to all of us what is really happening. Does Air France not accept mileage? Or are they just GREEDY?

 I am disappointed, frustrated and DO NOT RECOMMEND AIR FRANCE TO ANYONE! THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO BE A RESPONSIBLE AIRLINE!

Thank you, and I hope to hear from someone at Air France who can say something other than “please accept our apologies.” 

Au Revoir!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

Let me start with my own reasons for having Greenland on my bucket list. As a child, my favorite subject at school was geography. I was a dreamer and all I thought about was traveling. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to start traveling until I was in my 30s because before then, money was a big problem. 

As a child I was always curious and fascinated by the size and location of Grœnland (the real name of the country.) Translated to Portuguese it is Groenlândia (not Greenland as we know it in English). I always wondered who would visit such a vast country so close to the Arctic when there were so many other countries (especially Europe) to visit. I thought it was just for those who had already been to many other countries and needed an extra kick. So, I studied more about Greenland. 

Finally, I made it there and it was so exciting! It is a huge country, full of glaciers and fjords. People live in many different parts of the country, and are extremely friendly. Nothing is green. Houses are very colorful and I was surprised to see that supermarkets even sell oat milk.  

When you visit Greenland during the summer PLEASE have a net covering your head. Flies are everywhere. They don’t bite but they are all over you. You might even end up swallowing one! They are very annoying. You want to enjoy your time there – every minute is worth a lifetime! 

On our Celebrity Cruise, we went up to Latitude 66 30’ N to the Arctic! How cool is that! 

Life is beautiful and realizing a childhood dream is even better!

Cheers! 

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/Advisors,

There is a saying that goes, “If you lie, you need to have a good memory.”  Well, I guess I have been blessed with a bad memory, LOL! I am not good at lying and honestly, I always preferred to tell my former clients (travel agents) the truth. The truth creates a better bond and full trust is established. Why am I writing this?

How many times have we not known anything about a destination, but didn’t want to sound “stupid” to our clients? How many times have we completely forgotten to send a quote to a client? Or, to even request a quote for them? Come on, we are all human. We’re not perfect and life – real life – sometimes gets in the way.

But, we always want to sound professional. Almost as perfect as our beautiful business cards or fancy website. Even as good as we do with our social media presence. Does it really matter if we tell a “white” lie?  The email stayed at the draft box, we sent it but don’t know why you didn’t receive it, or, sure I know all about Tanzania but let me call you back, another call is coming in.

Instead, how about you smile, even over the phone, throw up your hands and say, your business is important to me and I care about you but all I know about Tanzania is that it is close to Australia. But, I will find out everything you need to know – give me …… hours/days (a realistic time) and I will create an amazing tour for you and your family. I can guarantee you will love it so much that you will recommend me to your friends, family, and people you don’t even know well.

Be honest, be yourself, be you! Life happens. You’re much better than a search engine! You and your prospective clients are all human, and that makes your connection a most sincere and honest one!

Cheers!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com

Dear Travel Agents/ Advisors,

I like to encourage travel agents to do their best and to show their clients and prospective clients all the reasons they should enjoy and plan fun travel..

But now, I want to talk about the times when “life happens.” Sometimes  you need a little help to keep your head up, avoid throwing in the towel, and stay strong because – life happens! To you, and everyone you love or care for!

As a travel agent, travel insurance is the most important thing you can offer your clients. It provides peace of mind to those who have planned a trip. It is a great investment and saves travelers lots of headaches and money. As a friendly travel agent and friend, remind them that rebooking a trip is a nice way to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and is a great way to celebrate when life allows plans that were once put on hold to be put back on track.

Life is precious and we all should take a moment to be thankful for all the great things we have. We should appreciate all the loving and kind people who cross our paths, and believe that life is a marvelous miracle that God, or a supreme force, creates for us every day.

Life is beautiful. We should celebrate every day. I honestly believe that traveling is the best gift we can give to ourselves, not only because it is a gift, but because it is one of the best ways to learn more about ourselves and others.

I wish your clients lots of learning and travel with the help of you awesome travel agents.

Cheers!

Follow me at:
Facebook @travelwithrosana
Instagram @travelwithrosana
Blogs @ http://www.travelwithrosana.com