Dream Vacations - Chick's Beach Travel

I booked a cruise with Dream Vacations in Summer of 2017 for an August 2018 itinerary. I picked the company because I was aquatinted with owner Cory. I am an experienced cruiser with eight under my belt and have both used agents and booked on my own. I compare prices and typically find agents can be worth their fee for the value offered. Not all agents bring the same value, so I was thrilled to work with Cory and his wife and give them a try. From the very beginning of researching different cruise lines and itineraries Dream Vacations was on top of it. Typical communication was through email, but I also spoke with owner Cory as well. The research on itineraries, cruise lines and pricing is where a savvy agent makes the difference. The entire process was made easy and Cory also researched transportation options to the port. Prior to departing we received four industrial strength luggage tags with printed off info included that made it hassle free. Pro tip is pack light, one suit case max per passenger. Also in the packet was necessary documentation to board, called boarding documents. If 18 & over plan on obtaining a passport months in advance. Children under 16 may not be necessary, but original birth certificates required. I would recommended passports for traveling 8 and over with a 10 year expiration date.Our family had a great week in the Caribbean on Princess and recommend the line as a great middle to upper line option when cruising. Dream Vacations reviewed all lines and cabin options that fit our budget and they nailed it too! First time cruisers must understand it's necessary to build into the budget transportation, staff tipping excursions and souvenirs. All told the extras do add up, so be prepared. Our chocolate covered strawberries complimentary of Cory was a nice touch during the week. I found it necessary to reach out to Dream Vacations during the trip to receive documentation. It was swiftly handled within an hour. If you are considering a cruise then give Dream Vacations a shot at planning your adventure at sea. I recommend them and have confidence your experience will be as stellar as mine.

Full disclosure, I've known Cory and Shellee, the Owners for years, long before they were travel agents. I think the travelling circus that my wedding and honeymoon became may have planted the "We can do this better" seed in their minds. And they do it far better than the all online, nothing worked as planned wedding/honeymoon I did back then. I had been leery of going on cruises, because after numerous 7-11 month long trips on Navy boats, and a couple years working offshore oil, the last thing on earth I wanted to do was get on another bleepin boat. Abby wanted to go on a cruise. She hates flying. I finally said OK, we'll try this. But then, work, reserves, job change, reserves, laid off, new job cross country moves (TWICE!) sick parents, hurricane damage to parent's house, etc basically kept happening. That said, Cory knew I needed to go on a vacation, since I hadn't had a non working vacation in five years and that my wife wanted to go swim with dolphins, and go on a cruise. We were talking about me going to Florida to go fix things at my parents house (working vacation strikes again) and basically planning things around my wife's work schedule. Cory said he knows of a cruise that would said out of Port Canaveral in Florida, I was already going to be there having driven down to work on my parents house, and would work time wise with Abby's job and meetings she had to be back for. About two hours later I get an email from Cory as I'm watching the football game and the price was far better than anything I could get on my own. So the next day I go over to Cory's office (this can be done online or on the phone, but it's about a block away so I just went over) and then we go through everything, plus as someone who has cruised a lot, he had lots of "pro tips" that made the cruise even better. I may have drunk texted him going "BOOK IT" but he waited until I wasn't a six pack of IPA into the Patriots game to make sure.People may ask "why do you use/pay a travel agent, the internet lets you do it yourself, etc"News flash. You are paying a travel agent even if you use Orbitz, company's website, anywhere. You just don't see/talk to them. They also don't tell you things like "do the dolphins in Freeport, it's cheaper, and there are things other than Dolphins you probably want to do in Nassau" I also didn't guess about what was a good cabin, should I get X Y or Z, whatever. Cory handled all that, and explained it all. And saved me a boat load of money over what I would have spent booking it myself. All the work I did was basically looking over the basics, and giving Cory my payment. That was it. I left his office with boarding passes, bag tags, everything I needed. Once we got on vacation, the cruise line had to change the itinerary due to a bad storm. Cory tracked that, updated my Dolphin shore excursion, and sent me the information. I didn't have to call anyone or do anything. I literally got a text/fb/email all pop on my phone going "Dolphins are now 10:30 on the new day in Freeport, it's all handled"And Abby got to swim with the Dolphins. We're going on a cruise again, the only question is where. We will be using Chicks Beach Travel for all our travel needs. They do more than cruises.

This is the second vacation cruise that we have booked with Cory, both have been fantastic experiences. We have given him some general parameters of what we would like and he has put together recommended itineraries and suggestions that we can choose from. Cory offers sound professional, timely advise on times to travel and cruise lines to use based on our personal preferences. We highly recommend Cory and Dream Vacations to anyone seeking a quality travel experience.