This is the Right River Cruise For You and Here’s Why!
Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist
I recently read these words from an email from Charles Sylvia, Vice President, Industry and Trade Relations for CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association).
I agree with him it is a powerful statement that deserves a complete examination of how we arrive at that moment with our clients, since we often say, “this is the right cruise for you and here is why”.
I disagree with him about one part of the email, as it was a promotion for their RiverView Certificate Program, designed to help travel advisors better understand river cruise destinations, ships, onboard experiences, emerging trends, and the sales strategies that turn knowledge into business.
I have earned the RiverView Certificate, and since we specialize in river cruising and helped hundreds go on river cruise vacations, I believe we are qualified to discuss the merits of this certification. I also plan to tell you about the importance of CLIA to our agency and the benefit to you from our membership.
My take is simple. It is only a good general overview and not nearly enough knowledge to really help us determine which river cruise might be right for you.
The whole point of this blog is to examine what qualifications and knowledge will help you get the right cruise for you, and do we have both of these attributes?
The Importance of CLIA for Us and You
We are a CLIA agency (Cruise Lines International Association). CLIA is the world’s global industry trade association. It represents ocean cruising, river cruising (7 of the 8 lines we follow are CLIA members) and expedition cruising. There are currently 57 cruise line members. There are 70,000+ travel advisor members.
We are travel advisor members. CLIA provides professional development and certification and allows a method for us to make bookings by providing us with a unique number that travel suppliers need to ensure we are a legitimate, professional agency.
CLIA is more geared to ocean cruises, and they expect members to keep appraised on the trends of the cruise industry. We take an annual “state of the industry” course to make sure we are up to date in the ever-changing world of cruising. For ocean cruising, the information is excellent.
They are not as informative about river cruising. This is where our specialization benefits you as we are relentlessly learning about every aspect of river cruising. One important part of this is our deep personal relationship with the river cruise lines. As you read the rest of this blog, you will understand how much our knowledge will help you get “the right cruise for you and here’s why”.
The other major certification is known as the IATA/IANTAN card which provides verified travel agents a number they can use to make bookings with travel suppliers. IATA is shorthand for International Air Transport Association. IATAN is the abbreviation for International Airlines Travel Agent Network.
As you can see, CLIA is vital for our business to succeed. It is the mark of professionalism and important for you to ask about when vetting us as your advisors.
Now, we can look at our CLIA certifications and our other certifications.
Is Certification Important in the Travel Industry?
I think it is essential agents have some level of professional certification, but it is only a starting point. Agents can have too little certification or too much certification.
There is also another problem of no real professional standards in our industry requiring that travel advisors are properly trained. Too little certification means the advisor is not really fully qualified to help you and should be a red flag to you.
We have always been strong believers in travel education, and the Travel Institute has the best education programs in the travel profession.
Anne is a Certified Travel Counsellor (considered the gold standard for professional certification in our industry), a Certified Travel Associate and we both are Destination Specialists for Western Europe. All 4 of these certifications we earned were awarded by the Travel Institute.
Anne’s Certified Travel Counselor Certificate
Anne’s Certified Travel Associate Certificate
Anne’s Western Europe Destination Specialist Certificate
My Western Europe Destination Specialist Certificate
Infographic from the Travel Institute citing 7 Reasons to use a Certified Travel Agent
We have both earned the Accredited Cruise Counselor designation conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). CLIA certification is the only professional designation in the cruise industry. Anne is a CLIA Luxury Specialist. Both of these certifications are excellent and are an important part of our professional development.
Anne’s Accredited Cruise Counsellor Certificate
Anne’s Luxury Cruise Specialist
My Accredited Cruise Counsellor Certificate
I am also a Verified Travel Advisor (VTA), certified by the American Society of Travel Advisors. It is a premier professional creditial. The VTA is highly regarded in our industry and signifies an advisor’s elite commitment to legal compliance, ethical standards and advanced industry expertise. We hold multiple river cruise specialist certifications.
My Verified Travel Advisor Certificate
I believe we have exactly the right amount of education to properly advise you and protect your trip with the highest possible degree of professionalism.
There is a real danger of advisors that chase too many certifications and then they do not use this knowledge effectively to help their clients. We do not fall into that category.
How We Help Educate You
Ok, we are certified professionals, but our real role is to properly educate you. We do this by the content on our website and by our blogs.
We have several blog articles which are on page-one of Google (the three most read are My Favorite Features on 8 Europe River Cruise Lines (5,694 views so far in 2026); Best European River Cruises Route Guide (11,748 views in 2025) and Europe River Cruise Company Comparisons 2025-2026 (11,902 views in 2025).
We have written over 140 river cruise blogs.
Perhaps the most unmatched resource on our website is the 162 day-by-day itineraries from the 8 river cruise lines we follow, with our pictures showing what potential river cruisers will see and do on their cruise.
This includes what features are on the rivership, pictures of scenic cruising, and port visit pictures--we have over 5,000 pictures on our site, most taken by my wife Anne, who is an awesome photographer.
In a recent article in Travel Market Report about travel advisor specialization, written by Denise Caiazzo, she declared that a good specialist should be able to go beyond what is easily found online. Right on cue for us, she cited a river cruise specialist and examples of what true expertise was.
Her example was a Rhine River Cruise and she listed these points to emphsize her idea of expertise. I couldn’t help but jump in to see if we met her expectations (our responses in the parenthesis following her list). She wrote they should be able to explain:
differences between ships (our website has complete ship tours)
differences in itineraries (we wrote a blog about the routes that is # 1 on Google)
inclusions (included on our 162 day-by-day intineraries on the 8 lines we cover)
clientele (covered in the river cruise lines vibes blog and other blogs)
cabin categories (covered on ship tours PowerPoints))
activity levels and seasons (covered in the 162 day-by-day itineraries)
While she ended with then telling the potential client which option is best for a particular traveler, she could have said “the is right cruise for you and here’s why”.
I think we passed with an A+!
How Our Expertise Benefits You
I think there is no doubt we are river cruise experts. Our best skill is matching you to the right cruise for your trip or even to decide if river cruising meets your desires for a vacation.
To accomplish matching you to the right cruise, we have to have in-depth knowledge of the cruise lines, ships that sail the route, what the experience will be onboard, and the experience of the trip included excursions.
The RiverView Certificate Program is designed to help travel advisors better understand river cruise destinations, ships, onboard experiences, and emerging trends.
Doesn’t our in-depth matching skills sound like the goal of the RiverView Certificate?
My point is that the RiverView Certificate is not enough alone to benefit you, but it is a good start.
It is the extra study and material we provide you with to get a complete picture of a river cruise vacation that makes the difference in our ability to help you find a great river cruise that is perfect for your travel style.
This doesn’t mean the RiverView Certificate program is bad; it just isn’t in-depth enough as a stand-alone certification to adequately benefit you.
Personalizing River Cruising for You
We are unaware of any other travel agency that has personalized river cruising to provide potential clients with a real sense of the included value of river cruising from as unbiased an opinion as possible.
Clients expect us to be the expert and make sound recommendations for a meaningful trip, but they do not expect us to have been on every trip they are interested in taking.
This might sound strange from our first-hand experience of sailing on 31 river cruises, but even with that exceptional amount of sailing experience, we can’t have experienced every possible river cruise line and route.
Here are some cool pictures of some of the rivers and port stops we have sailed on during all 4 seasons:
Kuekenhof Gardens in the Netherlands in the Spring. Photo Anne Schrader www.dreamdestinations.com
Rothenburg in the summer during a port stop on the Main River. Photo Anne Schrader www.dreamdestinations.com
The vibrant fall colors on the Rhine River. Photo Anne Schrader www.dreamdestinations.com
Christmas Markets in Colgne, Germany in the Winter
The solution is that we must spend significant time learning about the differences between river cruise lines, what are the key ports on a route and then be able to provide that information in a clear, concise format to help our clients decide what is best for them.
We also use feedback from clients who have sailed on routes we have not experienced and as a constant check on how our recommendations have actually worked for their river cruise vacation.
Trust me, we spend an inordinate amount of time learning and updating our knowledge for your benefit. You should expect nothing less of us and we are proud of our efforts to continuously learn and provide up-to-date information to you.
Our Final Thoughts
This is an exciting time for river cruises, as new opportunities and travel options expand by both new companies and enhanced offering from the more established river cruise lines. New ships are coming, new itineraries are being introduced, and more cruise brands are investing in the river cruise space. It also makes our expertise more important than ever. It is a little bit of the Wild West with the current expansion, and you really need our help to sort it all out.
We hope you find this blog interesting and meaningful to you. The better we can connect with you, the better we can serve you. Please reach out to us with news of your life, any travel dreams even if you are not quite ready to travel and, of course, a trip you want us to plan.
We are travel experts, ocean and river cruise specialists, and Europe destination experts. We have first-hand knowledge of almost anywhere you want to visit in Europe. We know our products and the vendors who sell them to you. We have designed special tours for dozens of clients, led several and will continue to find just the right vacation that will exceed your expectations.
When you are spending your hard-earned money for a vacation, you want an advisor who can match you with the right trip. You want someone who will understand your expectations and fuel your anticipation (or excitement) to get you the best possible trip experience. And, you want someone who can help you with the decision-making process. We think we have all these qualities.
Whatever your Dream Destinations are, we are here to help you get the best possible vacation based on what is important to you! We will provide you with high quality, expertly planned travel. Please give me a call 713-397-0188 (Hank) or email me at hschrader@visitdd.com . We want to help you: Savor life…make memories…Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey begins here!
ANNE has earned a degree from the University of Houston in Hotel and Restaurant Management. Serving as the President of Visit Dream Destinations, LLC, since 2016, she is uniquely experienced professional travel advisor with over 30 years’ experience in the travel industry. Among her numerous certifications, she is a Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) by the Travel Institute, considered the gold standard in travel agent certification and she is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC) by the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), as well Luxury Cruise Specialist also from CLIA. Having traveled often to Europe since 1989, she has expanded on her certification as a Destination Specialist in Western Europe (DS) with extensive first-hand experience in luxury vacations. She holds numerous other specialty designations from individual vendors. An expert photographer, she delights in capturing the true essence of destinations to share with all. Her river cruise certifications are:
AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Riverside Luxury Cruises Specialist
Uniworld River Cruise Specialist
HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 55 years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). His last major certificate is a Verified Travel Advisor (VTA) certificate earned from the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA). This recognized expert in cruise and leisure travel is a retired Army Officer, and taught World Geography for 8 years. He is a `71 graduate of West Point and has earned 2 master’s degrees. His other Certifications:
AmaWaterways River Cruise Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
CLIA Riverview Certificate
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Riverside Luxury Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Brit Agent
