Colorado Springs, CO.  Red Carpet Cruises. Luxury Cruise Specialists

Oasis of the Seas is coming to Ft. Lauderdale!

1) Year in review
2) New Qic Pic feature
3) Why use an agent?

1) I thought I'd send out a year-end update on our new cruise business. Although the economy has seen better times, Crystal and I feel very fortunate. We've sent clients to the Eastern, Western and Southern Caribbean, the Mexican Riviera, Hawaii, Alaska, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, through the Panama Canal, Dubai, Bangkok, Canada, South America and Transatlantic to Europe.

Even better, Crystal and I have had a ball cruising ourselves. In the past twelve months we've sailed on Holland America's new flagship, the Eurodam. In February we got to sail on one of the most anticipated new ships of the year, Celebrity's fantastic flagship, the Solstice. In April we did a 15-night cruise through the Panama Canal to South America and Mexico. In September we got a look at Cunard's flagship, Queen Mary 2 on a short Labor Day cruise up the east coast to Canada.

In a few weeks, on November 20, we'll be sailing on the inaugural of the largest cruise ship in the world, Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. If you're up early, tune in to Good Morning America on the 20th to see a live remote from the Oasis of the Seas. Maybe Crystal and I will get our 15 minutes of fame on TV! If you want to lean more about why everyone wants to see this new ship, go to http://www.oasisoftheseas.com to see what all the fuss is about.

To end the year Crystal and I will be celebrating Christmas at sea and will be doing a 10-day Ultimate Caribbean cruise on the Solstice's brand new sister ship, the Equinox. The cruise fare for this 10-day cruise on a deluxe ship, in an Aqua Class upgraded stateroom no less, was only $1,299.00, an unbelievably low price.

So the bottom line I think is that for every dollar we earned in commissions, we've spent two cruising! But we really do love the lifestyle and next year the plan is cruises to the Northern Mediterranean and hopefully Asia. Complete reviews with pics and video of all of our cruises are available under 'Ric's Travel Log' on the home page of our website.

We've learned a ton and have both earned our CLIA ACC certification, typically a two- year process that we completed in just one. Cunard, Celebrity, Princess, Royal Caribbean and NCL have all certified us as experts to represent their product. We have a new website (www.RedCarpetCruises.com) and have updated our look as we're starting to focus more on the premium and luxury markets.

So with cruise prices still incredibly low and over thirty new ships being introduced from 2008 thru 2012 the question is; where would you like to go? We'd love the opportunity to earn your business.

2) We've added a new feature to our Red Carpet Cruises website. It's called Qic Pic and it's a research tool that gives you a more detailed look at cruise options then the basic search function. Qic Pic gives you the ability to not only search for cruises like the current search tool but takes it further by giving you more info on the itinerary and ship as well as show you the exact same prices I see when I do research for a client.

If you wanted to you could use our Qic Pic software to actually book your cruise directly with either Royal Caribbean, Celebrity or Azamara. But I'll explain why I advise against that in the next topic. But go ahead and check it out, it's a really nice piece of software that makes our website even more user friendly and helpful.

3) So why use an authorized agent like Red Carpet Cruises when you can do your own detailed research and book your cruise directly through a tool like our Qic Pic? Here's why: The price you see in Qic Pic is the same price I quote you. You'll pay the same price whether you book the cruise or I book it for you. It's pretty much the same with any dot com travel website. We all tap into the same cruise line servers for our pricing. My compensation comes from the cruise lines and is built into the cruise fare. If a consumer books direct with the cruise line, you still pay the published cruise fare. Only an authorized agent giving an approved ID number upon booking will trigger the payment of a commission.

So the price you pay for your cruise will be the same if you book direct or I book for you. But that's not the only reason and here's a perfect, true example that just happened last week. A customer called and wanted to book a short notice Caribbean cruise over Thanksgiving. The customer had used our Qic Pic software and knew the cruise line, ship, departure date and exact price he wanted.

The customer called and asked me to verify his research. He had everything correct except for the one thing he couldn't have known; that our Cruise Planners franchise happened to have a group booking open for that exact cruise and any client I booked into that group got a $100.00 on-board credit! Had he booked direct he would not have received that free bennie. As you can imagine, he was a happy camper when I gave him the news.

The final reason I ask for your business is that I study the cruise lines, the ships, the itineraries, the weekly specials that hit my email every day. The more Crystal and I cruise, the more we learn the little insider secrets that we then incorporate into your cruise to make sure that you have a truly memorable experience.

So that's my pitch. I truly enjoy this cruise business and if you've never cruised before, once you do you'll understand why.

Until next time,

Ric

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