Testimonials

Testimonials

Carnival Inspiration 5/2010

Thank you so much for the "goodies"...I will pass them out to the kids. It has truly been a pleasure working with you on this trip. I can't wait to do the next one. Thank you for all of your help. Cruise Planners are the BEST! If you want to cruise call Vera or go to her website www.CruiseVIPStyle.com.

Debbie Peterson

Just a quick note to tell you about Vera Kuemmel, cruise specialist.  The best experience I ever had.  It was like making plans with a good friend. Vera made sure that our rooms were next to each other. She took care of everything, right down to cruise insurance.  She mailed us everything we needed as quickly as possible.  Called to make sure that we received everything.  She was just wonderful.  She even sent my grandchildren birthday cards on their birthdays.  They were so excited to get them. Vera really is a cruise specialist!  I also consider her a good friend.

 Steve & Estelle Taylor

Emerald Princess / Norwegian Epic

Vera/Cruise Planners has been the most enjoyable experience when trying to figure out where to travel to! This was my 5th cruise I was going and my now husbands 1st cruise. If I would have known her prior to all my other cruises I definitely would have booked them through her! It was so easy! It all started with my honeymoon.  I contacted Vera to see what deals she might have for a cruise and boy did I have my options. When I finally figured out which cruise to take she made it so easy for us.  Vera was able to book everything from my room to what time we wanted to eat dinner. She would email me with all the shore excursions so we could purchase those before we even got on the boat. I never once had to call the cruise line to set anything up for our Spa appts or extras we wanted to do, she did it all. Any questions I had I would email her and get a response back within the hour. Vera has been to many of the islands so it was great to ask her what she thought would be fun to do and what not to do.

Once we boarded the Princess Emerald it finally felt like our honeymoon. Everything I had requested for the week happened. We did a couples massage, had a balcony breakfast and it seemed like every night we got to eat chocolate covered strawberries! The islands were so much fun to tour. We took a lot of Vera's advice when it came to the islands. We went and swam with the stingrays in Grand Turk. We took a fun tour in St. Thomas that ended with sampling Rum made on the Island. St. Maarten was so much fun too! We did an island tour and went to Orient Beach, which has been on the Travel Channel.

I truly love to cruise and now my husband has been suckered into it as well! I really enjoyed working with Vera so much that before I even went on my honeymoon I had already purchased my one year anniversary cruise! Let's just say I am glad my husband did end up enjoying the honeymoon cruise or I guess I would be going on the anniversary cruise by myself

The anniversary cruise is going to be on the Norwegian Epic! Vera keeps me up to date on everything that is going on with the ship. Each time I read a new article about the ship it just gets me more excited! I am already trying to figure out what excursions to take and where we are going to eat. November can't get here fast enough!

Thank you-
Amy Hammond-Peck

Norwegian Epic

"My experience with Vera @ CruiseVipStyle is exceptionally well .. She made it so simple for us to decide to book our trip with Norwegian Epic. Such as easy to read Itinerary, competitive pricing and what is currently available to choose from. I like about being straight forward - no hidden charges and also like her responsiveness on all our inquiry regarding this trip. We were able to book our trip within a day. Given this experience, I will designate her as my point of contact to book my cruise vacation in the future. " Thanks Vera :-)

Peggy Mak

Norwegian Epic

Vera has been a great agent helping me and our friends find the best rates on the EPIC.  My husband and I cannot wait to sail on the new EPIC especially with all the updated highlights she sends us!  Her speedy response to all questions has been also wonderful and very assuring for us.
Kitty Brown

Celebrity Solstice 1/2010

Flournoy Family

On the first day of our very first cruise (Celebrity Solstice/ E. Caribbean), when my daughter, Madi was checking out the spa, she found out that in the afternoon several drawings would be held for 8 different mini massages of various kinds. She made each of us (4) fill out entry forms, and hustled us up to the spa at 5 pm for the drawings. There were probably 60 people there, all hopeful of being picked.  To make a long story short, we won 3 of them. Since the results were announced by stateroom, there was some confusion, and even a few ruffled feathers as our stateroom was announced so many times. There was an attempt to deny us more than one winning, until Madi (she is tough) informed them that the entries were made by different people (us). After we had won 3 times, there was one more winner to be announced, and a big German guy, not unkindly, called out to me to just go up and claim the ticket before the number was read. Some in the crowd laughed, some scowled. So...Madi took the facial, Lorrie, my wife, the scalp, and Brent, my son, a head, and shoulders. I also bought them each a full body massage. Brent came back in love, since he had never had a massage before. We got a laugh out of that one.

And then, to prove that when your stars are lined up, they are truly lined up,  Lorrie and Madi went to a glass blowing exhibition on the top deck. I wandered by as they handed out raffle tickets to see who got the beautiful bowl they made, and Madi told one of the artists "give my dad a ticket". So, I took it, and............you guessed it. I won. There were several people in the crowd who had witnessed our family's monopoly of the spa drawings who clearly thought that there was some kind of conspiracy afoot. Just our lucky week!

The entire week exceeded our expectations in terms of service, food, and general ship ambience. We broke the average weight gain number of 5 pounds per cruiser, but it was worth it. The most delightful thing for all of us, I think, were our adjoining state room balconies.  The divider was taken down by the room attendant, so we were able to share a large balcony, where we had breakfast in the mornings (room service took about 5 minutes), and drinks in the evening before dinner. Sleeping with the sound of the ocean just outside will cure any insomniac.

Bob Flournoy

Carnival Sensation 1/7/2010

John Lovret

Had really great time. The food was excellent. The waiters and cabin stewards really were exceptional. I haven't traveled with Carnival since 1992. I wasn't a fan of theirs then, but I am now!

Thanks for all of your help.

John

Norwegian Pearl 1/2/2010

Kim & Manny Pimental

Hi Vera,
I just wanted you to know we had a wonderful cruise. Norwegian Cruises are just as nice as Carnivals. I was very happy with the cruise. I really enjoyed the free styling and the not having to get dressed up. I was not happy with the port of Samana it is not ready for cruise lines. The beaches were great but not the land tours. Thank you so much for helping us at the last moment. We really enjoyed it.
Kim & Manny

Carnival Victory

Peter Yannucci November 2, 2009

We just returned from a week long Carnival Cruise vacation (oct 25th-nov 1st) and I must say it totally exceded my expectations. Vera Kuemmel set up the trip and she did an absolutely amazing job in doing so. The boat was the Carnival Victory. Although an older ship it was refurbished several years ago and looks brand new now. The service on the boat was incredible. The food was too. You can eat eat and eat until you cant eat no more. The food is unlimited. Every deck at every moment was serving some kind of different food. I was amazed at how vast the service was. We enjoyed the spa and gym on the boat and just relaxed every night. The boat, the entertainment was awesome too. Every night was a different show. The cruise director Lenny Halliday did an outstanding job too. I cant say one bad thing about this carnival victory cruise ship or its staff and entertainment.
The islands were great. This ship travelled to the southern Caribbean. Such islands as St thomas, Domenica,St Lucia,Barbados, Antigua and St Kitts and left out of Puerto Rico. Each Islands offers something different fromthe next one. I look forward to another cruise soon. Perhaps on the Oasis???

Secrets Capri, Cancun

11/9/09 Kristin David Cawn

"Vera/Cruise Planners went above and beyond to coordinate with our resort to have sterilized water ready for us in our rooms which my husband and I needed for medical reasons. It was such a huge help and allowed us to relax, forget about logistics, and just concentrate on enjoying our honeymoon!"

The resort staff were all exceedingly well-trained, professional, and helpful (from the moment of check in to our departure, and all of our encounters with housekeeping and waitstaff in between). Any issues we had with Secrets were so, so minor, like: the dining room in the "Himitsu" restuarant was too warm for us the night we ate there (but we enjoyed the dinner anyway). The waitstaff spoke pretty good English, but they were also happy to converse (clearly) in Spanish when they got the impression that Zac and I were having fun practicing our Spanish. Our wake-up calls were prompt. The themed parties were fun. We kayaked, Zac tried the archery, we played pool, and we both went on a fun "Kitchen Tour" which revealed that the kitchens are very clean! All in all, we felt like we were at adult summer camp. We could do as many or as few activities as we wanted, and didn't feel bored just hanging out at the resort, and it was not too big. The computer room did smell musty, like it had gotten wet at some point. But Zac and I agreed we didn't need to be spending our time in the computer room anyway! :) Oh, also our room was on the 3rd floor, which meant we had a great view of the ocean, past the pool area. They would have upgraded us for a fairly reasonable charge, but we were very happy with our room.

Tulum Extreme was great. They take you rapelling from a tower, zip-lining from 3 towers, and snorkeling in a natural cenote with lots of interesting stalagtites, and then feed you a good grilled chicken lunch before you visit the Tulum ruins with a guide. We liked it all except that the rapelling was somewhat difficult for us: we didn't feel able to stop ourselves properly (and the rope got really hot sliding through our gloves). Diet time! :) That was a little minor thing, and we had a fantastic day.

Coba Express was also great. They take you straight to the Coba ruins and and back (no stopping for a cenote or Mayan village visit), so the price ($65 pp) and time commitment were right for us. Our guide was an ethnologist by education, who did a good job introducing us to the Mayan culture.

I would recommend all of these. We also took a cab to Playa del Carmen ($14 from Secrets), but the street-barkers trying to get you in their doors, and the price-haggling thing is not really our scene. It was interesting, but we actually had more fun exploring Playa's "Wal-Mart" and "Mega" stores to see how they are different from our own grocery stores. :) For one thing, the "beans and rice" aisle is much bigger!