Relationships Matter
Hank Schrader, USMA '71, Europe Destination & Europe River Cruise Expert
Anne Schrader, Certified Travel Counselor & Certified Luxury Cruise Specialist
Relationships matter. It is the foundation of our business. In simple terms, we try to create a partnership that benefits us both.
We are fortunate to help over 100 folks this year on curated trips that we have planned to help our clients have great vacations. This is very important to us that we get them the best possible trip that they desire along with their budget and time constraints.
So, let’s explore what relationships we desire to make with the folks we are lucky enough to help in the past, this year and on to the future.
Our Core Principles
We want to be your trusted travel advisor. For me, a trusted travel advisor puts the client first.
We spent a lot of time thinking about who we wanted to be in the business world. It first started with our mission statement.
Our mission is: Anne & Hank Schrader, of Visit Dream Destinations LLC, are certified travel professionals who will provide you with the highest quality, expertly planned domestic and foreign leisure travel with a focus on cruises, European river cruises and European vacations for discriminating travelers.
Our Tag Line—Savor life . . . make memories . . . Visit Dream Destinations! Your journey starts here!
I think it really sums us up—we are all about creating trips that are exceptional; that will help you enjoy life better; make unforgettable memories by traveling to great places; and it all starts with us.
But what does this mean for you?
I think it means we have to develop a way to work with you to achieve our mutual goals of a great trip.
For us, it boils down to the core values of trust, knowledge, and care.
Our Services
It is no secret that our primary business is European River Cruises. We believe that for many of our clients, this is a great opportunity to see a lot of Europe in an efficient and luxury style. It is also a style of travel where we can add significant value to our clients.
We are really educators to teach our clients about what is possible and how they can enjoy these travel opportunities. I like to call them educated travelers.
I think there are 4 characteristics of an educated traveler. They are: 1) They look for engaging travel experiences; 2) They look for enriching travel experiences; 3) They look for transforming experiences and 4) They like to collaborate with locals at their destinations. Maybe not on every aspect of their trip, but on at least part of their trip.
Here some picture examples of what an educated travel can learn and experience:
Anne and I in front of the famous step pyramid in Egypt. This structure is over 4,700 years old and is among the oldest remaining intact structure in the world.
The entrance to the great Temple of Karnak. The sheer size of the Temple with 134 columns is overwhelming. I could only imagine an ancient peasant coming to worship and feeling the awe and power of their gods and the pharaoh Ramses II.
A model of the ship from the Red Star line that brought immigrants from Europe to the New World. This museum documents the entire journey from Europe, what the folks who bought tickets went through, and how difficult the who process was for them. This museum in in Antwerp Belgium.
The Pont du Gard Aqueduct crosses the Gardon River in France. The Roman aqueducts were amazing feats on engineering, figuring out a small gradient drop to bring fresh water from a source to another place. The precision required to get the flow just right is stunning—in the 31 miles the change in gradient is only 12 meters (a little over 36 feet). This aqueduct was part of a system that brought fresh water 31 miles to the city of Nimes.
Sometimes just trying different foods, or traditional dress helps you learn about new cultures. We have learned a lot about our Scottish roots by attending festivals and wearing traditional dress
Hank in his kilt
Anne in her kilt
When you look at travel in this manner, it becomes clear that the reason for your travel to a new destination or an old destination, is that you are looking for experiences.
To get those experiences for you, we rely on our core values of care, knowledge, and trust.
So, do we care about you, have enough knowledge to help you and do you trust us?
I don’t think a good educator can be effective without excellent knowledge (I would also add experience) and being able to match you to the right trip for your travel style. The last part is the care and trust part—is it right for you?
I honestly don’t think you will find many who are in our industry as advisors, who know as much about Europe River cruises and travel to Europe as we do. We have taken 24 river cruise, traveled to Europe between the two of us for 52 years and we love developing excellent relationships to enhance our value to you.
On our website, we have about 115 day-by-day cruise itineraries for 7 different cruise lines we follow. There is no other resource like this I can find on the web that includes personal pictures of the port stops. We speak from firsthand knowledge.
The next part of this blog addresses the care and trust portion of our relationship.
Why Bother to Use us—What are the Benefits to You?
We strive to make your travel experience better by helping you make wise choices, eliminate hassles, and help you get the best value for your money.
We treat each of our clients as friends, because we don’t sell travel to clients—we sell travel to friends. There is a big difference—how your trip goes makes a world of difference to us.
Our 2019 Cruise group in the Chef’s Table on a AmaWaterways cruise—they are friends, not clients
We often say we are small enough to deliver personalized service but big and experience enough to get you just the right trip. With almost 30 years of experience as travel advisors, it is always a pleasure to help folks.
We try to match you to just the right experience and make it logical, realistic, and affordable in your price range. We do not sell on price—we sell on value.
We are excited to help but know the boundaries—the truth is we want to form a partnership with you—not sell you something.
It is as simple as this—we inform, you decide.
We also realize you are busy, and we respect your time by trying to contact you in the form (phone, text, email or written) that works the best for you at the time that is the best for you.
In short, we respect you!
Care and trust develop by how we treat you, so we can earn your trust to help you get a better trip.
We hope that knowing how we operate, you will choose us as your trusted travel advisors.
Industry Relationships
Our vendors and travel advisors like us need each other—the more we know about their products and travel services they offer, the better we can help you get a great vacation. Then we have to make judgements about their products and how they will treat you during the trip.
As with any business relationship, some vendors are more eager to work with us than others. Business relationships sometimes are about production (how much we sell) but the best relationships are how well they deliver to our guests and treat us in conjunction with our sales.
Do they nurture us, help us grow our business, or are we so small we are seen as just a transaction. Do they really care about our clients, or have inflexible policies that preclude them going to the top of our preferred list?
Just like you, if they earn our trust, we sing their praises within reason. It is a constantly changing dynamic all small business must navigate. The fortunate thing for us is that most of the vacations we help clients with fall in the luxury category, and most vendors do a great job for our clients.
It is a narrow path we navigate—we don’t deliver any travel services as advisors, yet the experience of the clients is also our responsibility—did they get the trip they desired or was our advice wrong?
St. Patrick’s Day 2023 in Budapest with some of the members of AmaWaterways who particiapated in the River Cruise Expo.
Our Final Thoughts
Relationships matter. We hope we reach out to you often enough to keep good relationships intact. We also want to know how we can improve. Don’t be shy about reaching out to us—we want to hear from you.
After thinking about this topic, I’m sure we will try to be more proactive and try to reach out respectfully. Only good things can happen while we work on our business relationship—Relationships do Matter!
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@dreamdestinations.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 50 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
Viking River Cruise Specialist
Scenic River Cruise Specialist
Emerald Waterways Specialist
Avalon Waterways Specialist
Brit Agent
