Today we are starting to head home. We made it almost to Venezuela and will have two days at sea to make it back to Miami. These two days will be back with on-ship fun and conference knowledge.

I woke up early and grabbed a quick breakfast at Taste Bar before heading to today’s general session as part of the conference. Again today we had several speakers from some of our key vendors. Today we also had several speakers from our home office that spoke on new tools and programs that will be launching in 2017

A few highlights include:

• This year is a big year for our company. There three brands within the organization all have milestone anniversaries. For Dream Vacations, April will mark our 1-year anniversary!
• Our marketing department will be launching a new virtual brochure rack. This new feature will enable the to pull together and send ebook brochures to send to you as I am planning your vacations. They also shared that there will be a new loyalty program starting sometime this year. This program will provide incentives to our most loyal clients. Additionally, starting later in the year there will be a new referral program as well.
• Our groups department shared that there are an increasing number of block space and groups. This means that there are more opportunities for you to take advantage of exclusive deals that have been pre-negotiated.
• Resort for a Day shared some of their newest resorts which provide a great option if you are looking for a relaxing port day at a local resort. These packages are all-inclusive and many of them include transfers to and from your ship.
• Windstar will be adding new Asia & Arabia itineraries starting in late 2017.
• Crystal Cruises is introducing luxury Air Cruises that use a customized jet to whisk passengers between different destinations for 15 – 29 days. Additionally, their newest river ship was just voted best new ship in Europe.

After the general session, we were off to lunch at Cucina del Capitano.With this being the last two days on the ship, we wanted to opportunity to try some of the specialty restaurants. The line was very long, but we were able to secure a spot at the community table. We had custom tossed pasta and salads. After lunch I was back to attending classes to learn about marketing my business.

Once the sessions were done, we headed out to explore the ship more. We wanted to make sure we didn’t miss any corner! We ended up in the game room where we explored the different arcade games. We then went back to the room to prepare for dinner.

Tonight was super hero night at the Dive In Theatre, so we decided to do dinner and a movie again. We grabbed dinner at the buffet on the Lido deck and then headed outside to eat and watch the film.

After eating, it started to get a bit chilly. I went to grab popcorn and towels to stay warm. When I got to the town hut, I realized that they had blankets for people during the movie. Perfect!  I grabbed two and we were able to comfortably watch the film.

After the movie, we went back to the buffet to grab some ice cream and then head back to the room to go to sleep.

Reflections and tip:

Take advantage of specialty dining: Specialty dining restaurants affordable a change of pace and new dining experiences. They do typically cost a bit more during dinner, but on some cruise ships like the Vista you can eat there at lunch for free.

Explore, explore, explore: Cruise ships can be huge. Make sure you are exploring all that they have to offer from shopping to different dining experiences (or snacks like ice cream and candy) to entertainment.