An award-winning online cruise travel agency called Cruise.com has relocated its headquarters to Dania Beach, Florida. Cruise.com is the largest online cruise agency and offers all-inclusive cruise packages worldwide. The company's CEO, Jeanne Wyndrum, chose Dania Beach for its retail location and sense of community. Cruise.com plans to promote local businesses and offer cruise education events for the community from their new Dania Beach office.

1. World Class Cruise Agency Docks In
Dania Beach
By Kerry Ashline
An award-winning online travel agency has moved to Dania Beach
with visions of providing south Florida residents with all-inclusive
cruise travel packages to worldwide destinations, including the
Caribbean, Alaska, Europe and Asia. The firm occupies the for-
mer county library building on Dania Beach Blvd.
Cruise.com, a subsidiary of Omega World Travel, is the largest web
site specializing in cruises on the Internet. Some of its notable awards
include Travel Agency of the Year for 2008-2010, from Vacation.com;
Agency of the Year from Norwegian Cruise Lines, and Online Agency
of the Year from Royal Caribbean Cruise lines.
I recently had a chance to sit down with Jeanne
Wyndrum, Senior Vice President of Cruise.com
at her office and among other things asked her
why the move to Dania Beach.
“We moved to Dania Beach from Port
Everglades.” explains Wyndrum. “While that
location afforded us great visibility to people
traveling into the port it really did not provide
us with the proper retail setting we were look-
ing for. While there were plenty of potential
customers, they had already booked their vaca-
tions. We were looking for an area with good
access to the I-595 corridor. We looked at
almost every commercial property in Broward
County before choosing our new location.”
The Dania Beach community “really welcomed
us” Wyndrum said, and the company plans to
give back to the community that it now calls
home.
“One of the main reasons we came to Dania
Beach is there is a great sense of community
here. We were warmly welcomed by neighbors and local business part-
ners,” Wyndrum added. “We are members of the Chamber of
Commerce and participate in the Community Redevelopment
Association meetings. We have spoken with other Dania Beach compa-
nies to see how we can work together to grow each other’s business on
a local level.”
Wyndrum said she plans on promoting Cruise.com through local busi-
ness advertising, by offering coupons in business flyers for special
website deals.
I asked Wyndrum what makes Cruise.com different from other online
cruise sites. “Cruise.com’s business model has always focused on hav-
ing a personalized approach even in the online setting.” said Wyndrum.
“Our phone number appears prominently on every page of our website.
We encourage clients to call us. All of our agents have direct exten-
sions and emails. Each booking goes through a rigorous process to
ensure accuracy. In addition, we also offer online lectures designed to
educate the consumer on a variety of cruise and travel related topics.
The move to Dania Beach allows us to expand those programs by
bringing cruise and travel consumer events to the local level.
Cruisecritic.com, which reviews web based cruise agencies, agrees
Cruise.com is doing something right.
“Cruise.com, Inc. is the largest web site specializing in cruises on the
Internet and sells more cruises due to its advanced search and booking
technology, greater content, and discount prices. Purchasing cruises
online or offline, Cruise.com's experienced cruise specialists provide
the highest level of traditional personal service on every booking.”
Travelers can book online cruises from a weekend cruise up to nearly
140 days. Specialty cruises include choices such as culinary, wine,
group, kids or wedding cruises. The website has the flexibility of
choosing cruise packages based on cruise line or destination.
Customers can get helpful travel tips like what to pack, documents
needed, and types of shore excursions available at destination ports.
Cruise.com is definitely a full-service travel agency. Sales consultants
handle tours and land packages, custom designed itineraries, cus-
tomized shore trips, hotel stays and home and villa rentals. The web-
site offers travelers the benefit of booking their lodging accommoda-
tions at homesandvillassinternational.com as part of their travel pack-
age.
When a customer visits the Dania Beach office, they are in for a treat.
Customer service reps
are fluent in English,
Spanish, French,
Yiddish and Hebrew.
The facility includes
presentation rooms for
special “lunch and
learn” seminars
planned to “introduce
the excitement, fun
and affordability of
cruising to the com-
munity in a different
way,” said Wyndrum.
The office includes a
proposed TV studio,
where promotional
videos and commer-
cials will be produced.
The company already
has travel videos
available on their
YouTube site: YouTube/cruise. The company has commercials airing
on Channel 7 and The Travel Channel.
Cruise.com even has a mobile app for smart
phones that will be introduced shortly.
So, has the economy taken the wind out of
the cruise ships sales? Wyndrum thinks not.
“While the economy has been a challenge
for everyone our business remains strong.
Cruising offers a great value for anyone
looking to travel. A number of great promo-
tions are being offered such as kids sail free,
reduced business class or free/reduced air-
fare as well as some incredible pricing on
cruises in general.”
With so many amenities on cruise ships such
as bowling alleys, spas, restaurants, theatres,
live music and shopping, the ship becomes
the destination, especially on the shorter
Caribbean cruises.
When she’s not busy keeping her ship afloat
here in Dania Beach, Wyndrum is a world
class traveler. Some of her best cruises have
been to South America; east to Buenos Aires
and cruising Chile on the western coast.
Another trip was an Alaskan cruise where
“You can almost reach out and touch the
glaciers”. But her favorites are cruises to Asia, Hong Kong to Shanghai
and Hong Kong to Singapore. But even on vacation it seems her work
is never done. She told me that when she travels with friends they des-
ignate her as their “travel director”.
“It’s a lot of work!” she laughed.
Executive Vice President, Jeanne Wyndrum and President, Anthony
Anaway hosted successful Cruise.com open houses in October.
Hundreds showed up to find out about cruise opportunities and a
chance to win a free cruise and other prizes.
Cruise.com
255 E. Dania Beach Blvd.
Dania Beach, FL 33004
954-266-6601 or toll free 888-333-3116
UPDATE DANIA BEACH
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