Ocean & River Cruise Specialist

Very thorough. Provides many options for travel. Always checking for for fare discounts.

She's a great travel agent.
She communicates great ideas to me and I end up going to interesting places in the area I did not even think about going to before she mentioned them to me.

She was great and helped me make last minute travel plans to attend a friend's wedding.

Gretchen was so helpful for this new cruise traveler. She walked me through every step of the way. Gretchen was patient with all of my questions. She provided guidance, suggestions and support. I would highly recommend her and Far Far Away travel

I have cruised before, but wanted to try to a new cruise line. Me and my partner choose Virgin Voyages and I felt I needed a bit more help due to it being such an unfamiliar process.I searched for a travel agent which Virgin Voyages refer to as a First Mate, and came across Far Far Away Travels where I was introduced to Nichole and Gretchen. I had probably a gazillion questions, all of which were promptly answered by email. They do offer the ability to speak on the phone as well. We spoke about prices and where I wanted to go. We were even offered some packages for travel insurance, which were indeed good packages, I just lived life a bit on the edge and went without. After I felt prepared to pull the trigger, I put down my deposit for virgin using the link they provided. They do offer discount for military and im not sure if it's just due to leaving out of the port of Miami, but they have discounts if you are a Florida resident. Regardless, they offer decent perks. We also were able to get some sailor loot, which is money that you use while on the cruise for various expenses including excursions, bingo, room service, alcoholic drinks (even though you can purchase a bar tab) and more. To stay organized there is an additional app I found helpful that they provided called Trip Plans. In here my flight information was recorded, as well as my cruise and you could direct message Gretchen about anything, which I did, even while on the cruise. Leading up to the trip, I recieved emails regarding helpful tips about the cruise, including what to expect for Scarlett night, the pj party, how to book shore excursions, how to book resturants, and where to stay if I wanted to book a hotel for the day prior to cruising. Literally anything I needed was provided. My time on the ship was nothing short of amazing and I plan to book another cruise with Gretchen again.

Both Nichole and Gretchen were wonderful. We got all of our questions answered ahead of time and they were able to help us with all our bookings. When we had to come home early, they were so helpful in guiding us through that process! I will not use anyone else!

I am very grateful to Gretchen for helping me join my family on their cruise late in the game. There was not much left, but she managed to find me a great cabin near my relatives and kept me well informed of everything I needed to know for my first Virgin Voyages cruise. I had a fantastic time and will definitely use her and Nichole again for the next one.

I found Far Away Travels due to a very useful online post and worked with them on our cruise. It was the first time I used a travel agent for any type of travel and I highly recommend them. We received useful information and assistance resolving an issue with the cruise line.

Gretchen did a great job planning and coordinating our cruise for a group of 12. Highly recommend her!

The cruise was fantastic and easily met our expectations. Gretchen (and Nichole and Karen) were awesome to work with. They made things very easy and we had a wonderful, very low stress experience, from booking, to keeping tabs on us prior to the cruise to make sure no issues prior to and during the cruise.

Very helpful and prompt with response.

We found Gretchen searching online for advice on Virgin cruises. We travel with a lot of other companies but we knew that virgin voyages was different and we were curious and intimidated by all the information online. Gretchen gave us a review of the company and also gave us a lot of tips and tricks of things to do before the cruise to maximize all the activities and the restaurants. After booking with them, We received tips and recommendations every week and all were extremely useful. Any doubt, she would reply very fast. We just came back from our first virgin voyages and we can’t wait to take our next one, and we will definitely book it with her. Thanks for all your help! You made our experience amazing

We used this company to book our first virgin cruise. The help with planning was great, Gretchen was always responsive. Would definitely recommend and we would use them again!

It has been such a great experience working with Gretchen the past couple of years. She has taken care of us on two cruises and will be working with us on three more in the future! She does an excellent job of finding the right cruises for us. In working with her, it feels as if we're treated as valued friends, not just clients. She's always looking out for our best interest on our trips.

I had the pleasure of Gretchen as my travel agent for a European Virgin Voyages cruise and was very happy with the kind, timely and knowledgeable service that Gretchen provided.

Working with Gretchen and Nichole was an absolute dream come true! From our very first interaction, their passion and expertise shone through. They were phenomenally responsive and helpful, answering every question with a wealth of knowledge that made planning a breeze. We were blown away when they found us an even better deal for our sailing without us even asking! Their incredible advice extended beyond our cruise and elevated our entire vacation. We couldn't be more grateful for their guidance. It was a 10/10 experience, and we are already dreaming about the next trip we'll get to plan with them!

Very helpful with the process and provided great advice. Responded very quickly. Would definitely recommend this travel agency for your travel needs.

So happy to have used gretchen. She helped us nail down what would be best for us to do and where to go, and helped us set up the plans. The details frequently changed and even when flights got canceled and we had to add a day, we were able to then figure out a visit to Stonehenge. The hotels were exactly what we needed and the detailed itinerary and information was so helpful. Couldn't imagine a trip without her!

We had always handled our own travel arrangements, but when we started looking at a Virgin cruise, Gretchen with Far Far Away Travels came highly recommended! We also used her to book our most recent cruise on Celebrity Reflection. We have already found her to be very easy to work with, always prompt to respond to questions, and very helpful--and we look forward to working with her in the future!

This was my very first cruise and Gretchen was very helpful with getting me ready for the trip.

I have booked plenty of trips by myself but decided to contact Gretchen to talk about one of the Virgin cruises. She was so lovely and patient with me, I was sick and sounded awful! Gretchen answered all my questions and helped me with cabin selections and itineraries. I was so impressed that I contacted Gretchen again for information on several more cruises. She always gets back to me in such a timely manner too! It doesn’t hurt to use a TA but it 100% helps! Do it, use Gretchen’s knowledge and expertise, you will not regret it.

Great service and support from our travel agent/first mate Gretchen! Loved all the emails she would send out leading up to our Virgin cruise on how to prepare and make the most of everything available on the ship. She also was able to help us out with getting our bar tab secured prior to sailing, and was always quick to respond with any questions we had. Will definitely be using this agency and her in the future!

Working with Gretchen was seamless, with quick communications, follow-up, and support. We did NOT love the hotel (Don Rafa) that was recommended - it was far too noisy both from inside and outside, but otherwise had a great overall experience. In the past when I worked with an agent, they often left a note or something small as a thank you in the room, which we didn't find this time. It didn't impact the experience, but those touches are often nice and valued.

Gretchen was always available to help us with all the needs pertaining to our trip. She was quick to respond to all our questions, patient and enthusiastic. We never felt we couldn’t contact her.

Gretchen was amazing. She was so knowledgeable of everything, answered questions very promptly, was super responsive, kept our large group organized, and just fun to work with! I would recommend her to anyone booking a trip.

Working with Gretchen is like working with your best friend who said she'd help plan your trip. She shared in the excitement of planning our trip with us, and made sure that we were well taken care of. Whenever I reached out to her with questions, she replied within a day.

When there were some kinks in our travel plans due to the global internet outage, she was right there making sure that we could make it to our next destination in order to catch the ship across the Atlantic. I have recommended her to several friends and have already booked two more vacations through her. She's a top-notch professional!

I just wanted to comment on this post to say thank you to Far Far Away Travels for sorting out my Virgin cruise. I’m based in the UK and they were great at communicating and getting me the best offers (including additional onboard credit for my cruise!).

I even booked a cruise through them and realised I was busy and could no longer make it. The agents were fantastic and were able to speak with Virgin and cancel/move with no issues whatsoever.

They’re helping me every step of the way and gives me great confidence in using them even though we’re thousands of miles apart! Highly recommend!

Gretchen is amazing to work with! She goes above and beyond to ensure you have the best time on your cruise.

Gretchen was fabulous. She's was super speedy at replying to any silly question I had. Or cruise was great and everything went super smooth. Thank you so much for a wonderful vacation!

I so appreciate how quickly Gretchen secured/transferred my booking and the many informative and fun emails leading up to my trip.

I had an amazing experience working with Gretchen! She answered all of our questions very quickly and guided us through the whole process of booking our cruise, making sure at each step we were getting the best value for our needs, all completely for free. She gave us several high value offers that we would never have gotten by ourselves (which we took), and we always felt like she was acting in our best interest. We also never got pressured to get any add-ons or other other paid services (which was one of our biggest concerns before with travel agents), which I really appreciated. Overall, 10/10 would recommend working with her to anyone looking to book a cruise!

I am someone that likes to do the research and planning myself. Mostly I told Gretchen what I wanted and she made it happen for me. I have learned through prior experience when things go wrong its nice to have a TA on your side and this was the case on this trip as well. There were some medical issues that came up and Gretchen either had the information at her fingertips already or was able to find the information very quickly and was able to give me the peace of mind I so desperately needed while dealing with unexpected medical issues.

Cheerful, rapid response to questions,willingness to look at multiple options to find best trip.