What We Provide Potential River Cruise Clients—Our Passion and Purpose!
Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist
We spend a lot of time thinking about how we can better serve potential customers. Evaluating our business sometimes moves us out of our comfort zone—there is a lot to be good at, and we have to be critical of our services if we want to get better to help you.
So, I thought we should write a blog post about how we can help you have a better vacation on a river cruise. It is a blueprint for you to determine if we are the right travel advisor to help you get the best trip for your vacation. We hope it shows our passion for river cruising and our purpose to exceed your expectations; help you make wise choices; eliminate hassles; and help you get the best value for your money.
This blog is about how you should discover what we offer and evaluate if we are the right person to advise and help you.
Discovery About Our Services
Discovery is simple—do our prospects think we can help them get the best possible river cruise for their vacation?
After potential clients become aware of our business, you now want to discover how we can help you.
You want to know if we have the experience, knowledge and qualifications to help you, how we operate and what it costs to use us, and do you trust and like us. It is all about credibility.
Credibility includes accreditation by recognized travel organizations, having relationships with our key industry suppliers and partners and providing superb customer service, to include matching you with the best possible river cruise line for your trip.
Kristin Karst, co-owner of AmaWaterways, poses with us in 2012 on our Tulip Time Cruise
AmaWaterways friends at the 2023 ASTA River Cruise Expo
Our busness development manager Laurie who helps us with AmaWaterwas River Cruise at a trade show in 2025
Our business development manager Kelly of Riverside Luxury Cruises who helps us with Riverside bookings
Kelly with me at a 2025 trade show
Kelly’s display area
Jill, our business development manager who represents Scenic and Emerald river Cruises
Director of Education, Alvin took a picture with Anne and I at the 2025 ASTA River Cruise Expo
We were a finalist for River Cruise Advisor of the Year at the 2025 ASTA River Cruise Expo
It is no different than what you want when you buy something someone is selling—we all make these judgements.
Here is where our website and our phone calls come in—we highlight how you will have a better trip by using us; and how we talk with you in person or on the phone—our confidence and knowledge provides a good start in the discovery process.
First, we provide you with a list of our recognized travel organization credentials and what they mean on our website (I wrote a blog a while back and posted copies of most our certificates). Here are just 2 of our certifications:
Anne’s Certified Travel Counselor (CTC) which is considered the gold standard for Travel Advisors and means she is considered among the highest standards of industry professionalism
My Accredited Cruise Counsellor (ACC) certificate from the Cruise Lines International Association
Second, our knowledge is unmatched about river cruising. Like some proof? I will say without hesitation we have the most complete content of any travel professional about river cruising on our website. There are 162 + day-by-day route itineraries from the 8 river cruise lines we follow; over 140 river cruise blogs organized by topic for easy search; onboard reviews of the 8 different river cruise lines we follow, and all feature our pictures to get a sense of what we experienced and saw during sailing on 29 river cruises and countless training sessions.
Our Home Page for our website www.dreamdestinations.com
Our River Cruise Page from our website. Notice on the left side links to cruise companies which has 162 day-by-day cruise routes with our pictures.
We also emphasize this in our telephone calls—often spending up to an hour or more teaching and answering questions. Most potential clients have researched river cruising before they reach out to us, due in large part to our extensive digital footprint—we rank on page one for the most important river cruise topics. Most will quickly know if we really have expert knowledge about river cruising based on their personal research.
In short, we are the real deal!
How to Evaluate Us
I think the answers and tone of our responses you receive to these following series of questions will help you best decide if we should be your travel advisor.
Evaluation is also simple—are we the right person to help you? (This is the bottom line and final evaluation!). You will determine this by these questions and our interaction with you.
Do we match you to the right cruise line for your travel style that is on your desired route, at the right time?
Do we have the right credentials, and can you verify these credentials?
It is judgement time—do you think we will find you the best option for your trip?
Do we deliver timely, accurate answers to your questions and concerns?
Are we easy to work with?
Can you trust us to do what is best for you, not us?
Will we solve your pain points about traveling?
Do we explain our availability and the means to best contact us along with our normal working hours?
Are we available to support you during the trip, to include possible emergency situations?
Do we have clear payment policies, and do we help you understand cancellation policies of the vendors we sell?
Do we discuss travel protection for your trip?
Do you find us reliable, trustworthy and well-suited to help with your specific travel needs?
We try to address these points during your evaluation phase by answering these questions during our phone conversations. Our responses will often be the determining factors in your decision to use us as your travel advisor.
I do think your gut will tell you one way or the other, and by researching our website, you will see we do have extensive knowledge about river cruising and are eager to help you make the best decisions for your trip.
Testimonials (We have a Traveler Hall of Fame page on our website along with testimonial quotes on various pages of our site) and good reviews help—we use both, as well as A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
We hope these thoughts about how to evaluate us helps you get a clear picture of what it will be like to work with us.
Our Final Thoughts
Wow, this is really a good look at our business. There is a lot to live up to in the discovery and evaluation phases of our business. Scrutiny is important.
We think we pass the discovery and evaluation phases during your search for the right advisors, and we try to improve all the time. We hope you feel the same!
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 26 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.
HANK is a certified Western European Destination Specialist (DS) who has been traveling to Europe for 53 years. He is also an Accredited Cruise Counselor (ACC), conferred by the Cruise Line International Association (CLIA). 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
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Riverside Luxury Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Brit Agent
