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Thank you!
Well 2016 has been a crazy year a lot of ups and downs, just look at the news!
We try not to let any of that stop us, the same with many of our clients, and hope you new clients will have the same interests that this world is always changing.
2016 started off well, we had decided that since my husband and co-owner, Nelson Echevarria, was going to retire from 40+ years working in the aerospace industry, that we were putting our house up on the market, that we made a decision to move to Orlando, FL.
Put the house up for sale, and started getting people interested, we did not do much traveling until the middle to the end of September.
But that hasn't stopped us for serving all of you and making plans for 2017.
Also, our location shouldn't stop you from working with Echevarria Travel, in fact, we are now in America's Playground, Orlando, and we have been to some of the places, that we have just read about, and will continue to explore these areas for you. Since we are a home based agency, we service everyone from coast to coast. Remember we do vacation packages, we do not do individual airline tickets. We have also instated at $25 per person consultation fee, this applies only to newbies, first timers! We feel if you are truly looking to travel, we want you to go out there and explore your options and then come to us and let us sort it out for you. Let's us work for you, since there is so much stuff out there, we have the options of not always getting you the best price compared to the online booking engines, but the plus side of this is, we are real people, we have the ability to contact our sales team with that cruise lines, destination, location, and see if we can get you a better room, activity that extra that you may not get with just the price. If it is a matter of $50 - $100 difference see what we can offer you. Because being a consultant means, consulting you on your travel, finding out what you really want, knowing the difference of locations and places, and then doing the little extras, this takes time, not hey I want a quote on that, how much is it. We don't work that way! We customize for you.
We also work with other travel experts in destinations that we may not full know about. Example, if we don't know about India, and you want to go to India, then we will reach out to that agent that knows the information and get that to you. We would rather say, hey we don't know about that area, but I work with someone who does, let me ask them and get back to you within a certain time frame.
But getting back to the rest of 2016.
Places we have been:
In September, Nelson and I moved to Lake Nona, (Orlando), FL and we are going to be moving to Kissimmee in July/August 2017 since we are building a house there.
We have been to Sandals All Inclusive Resorts - Ochi Beach Property in Jamaica - We were invited to come and speak to the tour operators that work directly with http://www.Islandroutes.com tour company, and also met with Adam Stewart - CEO of Sandals Resorts International which is Sandals for Couples in Love and for their Beaches for Everyone By Sandals Properties in the Caribbean. Also at this conference was Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Tourism Minister of Jamaica.
I was the only travel agent invited to this 3 day event, since Jamaica is trying to improve their tourism with my impact and hands on travel, and for those of you who do not know, I am legally blind! I am an advocate for everyone to travel more independently and to focus on the reality that there are over 1000+ invisible disabilities from food allergies, diabetes, age related travel, scooter, wheelchairs, service animals, etc. There is a lot of myths out there, and working in this capacity helps all of you travel more independently.
We were supposed to go to Sandals/Beaches Home Based Travel Conference in October but someone by the name of "Matthew" hit the Caribbean and the Florida and Southern Coast of the United States, that it was canceled until January 11-16, 2017. So we will report on this upon our return.
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| Nelson, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, and Me! |
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| Me and Adam Stewart - CEO Sandals Resort International |
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| Richard Moss (Island Routes, Me and Nelson) |
Let's see we went on a tour of the Disney Dream, which sails weekly out of Port Canaveral for 3 and 4 day cruises to the Bahamas, and Disney Cruise Lines is not just for the children, less than 20% of children sail with Disney and also visit their theme parks and resorts. Most are Teens, young adults, newlyweds, and yes even Seniors!
To see any of our photos you can visit us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Echevarriatravels
Here is the link to our tour of the Disney Dream
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| Me on the Disney Dream Ship October 2016 |
Also you can visit us on Youtube here
We also went on a travel agent tour of some of the resorts at Walt Disney World with the sales team for all the updates. We love Disney. Go to Disney Springs, or downtown Disney what it used to be called for free live events, shopping and restaurants or just sit and enjoy the day.
We also joined the East Orlando Chamber of Commerce and we went on our 25th Anniversary, Thanksgiving and Christmas Trip. This is something we do for each other instead of a present, we take a trip. The memories last longer.
This year we stayed at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside from Thanksgiving until November 30, 2016. We loved it. I am still posted pictures and videos our our trip there. We loved doing the things we liked, taking the time to enjoy the whole experience. We, of course, made our dining reservations 180 days prior to arrival to get the places we wanted to do again and the ones we wanted to try. Check out the Tiffin's Restaurant at Animal Kingdom Video.
We love the decorations for the holidays which are available once Halloween is over until January 6 at Walt Disney World. If you haven't been yet, or you haven't been in awhile there are new things coming that you will not believe.
Some things in Orlando that are coming as well.
Now that we are settled, here it has calm down. We have taken day trips to places like Gatorland, Tampa, International Drive. We will be taking day trips down to the Space Coast, which is Cocoa Beach and the Kennedy Space Center.
We will be doing other things that you didn't know was happening in this area.
Now for 2017, we will be focusing on more hosted group trips, we will be doing at least 1 hosted cruise a year, 1 to 2 bus trips around the USA a year, one trip to the Caribbean and 1 trip to either Europe, South American or Asia.
We want to travel more and we want you to join us.
We will also focus on you, the client! We will be going to like I said Sandals in January, this is the Royal Bahamian property for our annual conference. We will also be going in February to the only all inclusive resort in the United States Clubmed Sandpiper which is located near West Palm Beach, FL about 2 hours from us.
Romance, Family and Group Travel that is what we know and what we do!
Trip we are planning for you and those that we have already organized and just waiting for you to book!
Trips we are planning
Spain and Portugal early summer
Hawaii
Italy
Bus trip to New Orleans
Bus Trip to New York
Plus, we have started a Meetup group here in Orlando, so if you want to take advantage and help decide where we go next, or you want to suggest an event, as long as you can bring along others that are 21+ years and older, we can go and organize that location.
Let us know which ones you are interested in, if not then these will be cancelled, again, you do not have to live in Orlando to participate!
Enjoy and Happy New Year
Cheryl and Nelson Echevarria
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