About The Cruise & Vacation Authority

On this page you'll see quite a few awards and accolades we have earned over our 25+ years in business. While these are always nice to receive, they are awarded to us by the vendors we represent and organizations we are members of. It is their way to say thanks for putting a lot of people on their trips and ships.

This, however, isn't what The Cruise & Vacation Authority is about. Of course it's gratifying to be recognized for achieving sales thresholds, but (and pardon the expression here) it isn't what floats our boat.

You know what gets us excited? Planning a perfect trip for a client. Pretty simple, right!

Except that it isn't so simple.

There are so many variations of even the most basic of vacations it can make your head spin. Go ahead, search on the internet for a hotel in say, Rome. You need to ask yourself... where is it? is there an elevator? is there air conditioning? are there any decent restaurants nearby? Is it 3-star, or 4-star, and on who's scale is that measured?

Now, put together a couple of different hotels, a cruise, transfers, restaurants, entertainment, tours and your flight and see what happens. Now, out of all of these options try and piece together a memorable vacation - one that is memorable to you. Oh yeah, try not to spend 80 hours doing this! Here's where it gets interesting... and here's where the rubber meets the road.

We (Howard Moses and David Bittner, owners) are really proud of the folks here who work tirelessly day after day helping to guide our clients through the myriad choices involved with any vacation. Our travel consultants are not only up on what's going on out there, but they take trips, attend seminars, go through webinar training on an ongoing basis. Quite simply, they are what makes The Cruise & Vacation Authority great. These are people who really care that every component of your vacation is well conceived and is put together for you.

Howard Moses started the company in 1988 and has sailed on almost 180 cruises. Hard to believe, we know. A self-described "lousy employee", he's been at this for a long time and always promised himself that if he ever got to run a business it would be a great place to work and people could just focus on their client relations and avoid many of the "issues and politics" associated with working at a big company.

David Bittner joined The Cruise & Vacation Authority in 1997 after tours of duty with the likes of Avis, Williams Printing, and a large Danish company whose name no one in the U.S. could pronounce. Equipped with an MBA in Finance from Georgia State University, and a load of management and finance experience, he managed to corale the zany doings of the company and bring us gleefully into the 21st century.

Howard and David have been friends for over 30 years. Both are former band geeks who attended the University of Georgia a long time ago.

About 15 years ago a new niche literally fell into our lap - theme cruises. It occurred to us that this is where the travel industry was headed - some people just aren't satisfied sitting by the pool with a cool drink in hand while reading the latest best-seller. We know, crazy, right! But some people just insist on doing things, having new experiences and learning about all kinds of crazy stuff, not to mention hanging out with other crazies like themselves.

Today, we spend much of our days creating and implementing theme cruises of all flavors. Let's see, there's the typical cruises... food and wine, religion, politics, music, history, bridge, authors and the like. Then, there's the really spicy stuff which we can't list here because this is a family-friendly web site. (Here's a hint, go to www.themecruisefinder.com and check out the alternative lifestyle heading!)

Our view is that the only accolade that matters is the ones that come from our clients. You're invited to drop in and check out our wall of fame, but its really more interesting to talk with one of our vacation consultants and let them inspire you.

In addition to booking your cruise vacation, we also book hotels, resorts, tours and other various types of travel. We hope you'll give us a call - we have many value-added amenities available to our clients for travel options world wide.

Our Staff

Owners

Travel Specialist

Supporting Staff