By: Katie Wegener
Wegener Travel and Cruise started with a love of vacation planning and daydreaming about the possibilities of travel. When planning vacations, Darren would meticulously arrange everything down to the smallest detail and gather all the required documents into a binder, so we would be prepared for anything. One day we’ll do a post about Darren’s travel notebooks, and you’ll see that this has always been a calling for him. Often the included itineraries are accurate down to the minute! My passion for travel began when I was young. My family took a lot of road trips, and we would often get off the freeway and take longer, more scenic routes that provided a more local experience. I take this philosophy with me in my travel advisor role, and I hope to continue this tradition of “slow adventure” and family-focused fun with my own children. As a lifelong history enthusiast, I also enjoy dragging Darren to museums and seeing how people lived in the past, travel provides many opportunities to do this. Because we all like to do something a little different while vacationing as a family, we love cruising. Cruises allow everyone to have a personalized vacation experience while still getting together time. For example, I am an early riser and Darren prefers to stay out late, and cruising gives us a chance to both have the vacation schedule we want. We also both love food! Trying regional cuisine is one of the best (and most delicious!) ways to experience local culture.
Since we love so many distinct aspects of vacations and travel planning, it seemed like an obvious step to start our own travel agency. What better way to share our enthusiasm for travel than with people who also love it? As a bonus, our different interests and strengths complement each other and allow us to offer a broader range of expertise to our clients in our online travel agency than others.
Some highlights of our travels together:
- We got engaged on a Royal Caribbean cruise which was the beginning of my love for cruising. Being able to disconnect from screens for a week and simply spend time together was a valuable experience, and it’s one that we keep returning to.
- Our children have enjoyed cruises and Disney vacations since they were babies. Our son’s first cruise was at nine months old, and he loved the kid center (he still does)! Getting him a passport was an adventure! It turns out three-month-olds don’t hold their heads up well enough for photos and after a few rejections, he was finally approved. It’s hard to believe, but he’s now four and he’s due for a renewal already.
- We’ve been watching cruise and Disney travel vloggers in our spare time to get ideas for our personal vacations for years, and now all that information is proving immensely helpful in this new endeavor!
- We love Disney and Universal Studios. I like shopping so Disney Springs is always a highlight for me. Our daughter is into Minnie Mouse right now and she loves seeing and interacting with all things Disney! A memorable experience for her was a character dinner where she met Minnie and her friends.
- Of course, we still love our land vacations. Our trip to Great Britain and France was for our honeymoon and we did extensive research into our itinerary and finding our ideal hotel. Some of our favorite stops were Buckingham Palace, The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Harry Potter studio tour, and the Louvre. Darren’s personal favorite was seeing Harry Potter and Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre in the West End. Mine was afternoon tea at Claridge’s.
- . Darren’s favorite game of all time, fascination, is at Seaside, Oregon and we enjoy teaching our kids to play and watching them improve every time we go! Fun fact, while hugely popular in the first half of the 20th century, there are now only eight operating locations left in the United States.
Going forward, this blog will mostly focus on topics that I find interesting that relate to our online travel agency. Overwhelmed with the different cabin types that cruise ships offer? Debating whether to get that drink package? All-inclusive or cruise? We’ve got you covered. It will also focus on our journeys together as a family and offer advice and stories on how to make family travel not just a trip, but a vacation for everyone. We will particularly be focusing on what we know best as travel agents: cruising, and Disney and Universal theme parks. We also have a Facebook and Instagram that will showcase current promotions and offer shorter, more interactive content, so be sure to check them out!
With our passion for discussing and learning about travel, starting our own online travel agency seemed like an exciting and rewarding step. After countless hours of back-end business set up, many late nights and early mornings completing vendor trainings, and working to establish relationships with respected organizations within the travel industry, we’re ready to launch our travel agency: Wegener Travel and Cruise. Give us a call, send us an email, or reach out on Instagram or Facebook. We are honored to be your travel agents and help plan your most memorable vacation yet!