In October this year, I will have been a travel agent for three years. I want to be a river cruise specialist. I have just become a Clia River Cruise Champion – it took me six months. The certificate was waiting for me when I got back from the Legend of the Seas shakedown the other day.

I went on a week-long river cruise on Viva Enjoy from Nuremberg to Budapest in May. I had done one river cruise before that and funnily enough that was also on Viva Enjoy, which was built in 2024. The first cruise was a fam trip that finished in Amsterdam, where the Clia RiverView Conference was taking place. We went to Dusseldorf, Rotterdam and Antwerp. We saw a lot of different places. We also went on a day trip to the Dutch city of Delft.

'We beasted it around the cities'

Viva Cruises is so relaxing. You visit all these European cities. You can do as much or as little as you want. In May, on the second Viva Cruises sailing, we actually beasted it around the cities because it was so hot. It seems silly to say that now given we're experiencing our third heatwave of the summer in the UK but the temperature in Europe was nudging 30 degrees then. It was great to get back onboard where there was air-conditioning. I had not been to any of the cities that we visited on either cruise.

Viva Cruises

On Viva Enjoy, there are three onboard restaurants including Viva’s Bistro which offers a Surf and Turf dining experience. Breakfast is either a la carte or your pick what you want from the buffet.

The Viva Enjoy cabins are lovely. I cannot fault them. Showers are often a deal breaker for me but they are brilliant. Plus, the minibar was stocked up every day.

With Viva Cruises, it’s best to explore the product by yourself which I’ve obviously done! The Viva Cruises excursions are so reasonable priced. I paid just £18 for one. We also did a £35 chocolate tour in Antwerp and obviously we had a few samples which is probably what drive the price up a bit.

Christmas Markets group booking

I’ve now got a 16-person group going on a Christmas Markets cruise with Viva in December. A lot of them are people that I know, but they don’t all know each other. I did put it out to the general public so to speak. The whole booking is worth in the region of £12,000 with the flights. It’s such a short cruise. It’s only three nights and it visits Koblenz, Konigswinter and Cologne.

Other than that booking, I had sold one other river cruise before. That was with Riviera Travel and it is going in September. The booking is worth £17,000. I sold that last year before I had even been on a river ship. Riviera has got such a good reputation. The customers had booked a river cruise before so they knew what they wanted.

I’ve had so much river cruise training over the last few months. I’ve been learning about identifying the right customers, what each cruise line offers, and how to market them. It was really valuable going to the Clia RiverView in March. I stayed overnight on Riviera Travel’s Geoffrey Chaucer ship and Emerald Cruises’ Luna. I honestly believe selling river cruises is so much easier than selling ocean cruise. To sell river cruise, you just need to learn about the different rivers and who offers want.