One Family's Epic Vacation Shows Value of a Good Travel Agent
by Richard D'Ambrosio /
It was June 2016 when Dana Wine Johnson mentioned to her travel agent, Sally Black, that one day she would love to break the cycle of her family’s U.S. domestic family vacations, and journey further afield with her husband and two small children.
England might be a safe and easy first overseas trip, Johnson suggested. But could her son and daughter, younger than 10 years old, handle the long flights? Could they get excited about something that wasn’t a warm, tropical Caribbean cruise?
On a January 2017 call, Black, who owns Vacationskids.com, a Kunkletown, Pennsylvania, agency specializing in family travel, probed deeper with Johnson.
“We had been doing the same old for a few years, an Alaskan cruise, a couple of Caribbean cruises,” said Johnson. “We found it was a really good way to vacation with our children while they are young because it is so easy to see multiple places, but still have the child care, no airports or traveling in between cities or countries, packing and unpacking.”
Living near Charleston, South Carolina, the Johnsons also had the convenience of driving to their departure port, negating airline flights. A flight to Europe would require at least one transfer and possibly an overnight stay at an airport.
“We had taken the kids on a cross-country flight once. It was daunting to think about the flight to Europe, the time change. It sounded like we were biting off more than we could chew. But we discussed how it couldn’t be harder than the 6-7 hour drives we took them on to Florida for our Caribbean cruises,” she said.
The Johnsons son and daughter in St. Petersburg.
Finding inspiration from personal memories
Johnson got more intrigued when Black asked about a cruise through the Baltics. Her grandparents were from Poland, and migrated to the U.S. after World War II. Her grandmother, Guta Weintraub, was liberated from a concentration camp in April 1945, and none of her family had ever visited the country since the couple left.
Also, Johnson valued the life-altering events she experienced as a young world traveler, thanks to her intrepid parents. By the time she reached her early 20s, Johnson had traveled extensively on her own – and with her parents. After her freshman year in college, Johnson’s parents handed her some travelers checks and a plane ticket to Amsterdam (with a return flight from London), and sent her on her solo way.
“I had to do everything myself when I got to Europe, including figuring out how to make it to London on time to catch my flight home. I learned how to change money, find a hotel. Everything.”
When she was 21, Johnson again traveled solo, this time to the Middle East, including Israel and Egypt. “Learning how to handle yourself at 21, when you’re detained in Amman, shapes your personality, teaches you life skills,” she said, recalling an incident transiting through the Jordanian airport on her way to Egypt. “That’s what traveling does for children. It’s not just about fun and the family memories.”
More to consider
The idea of exposing her children to countries and cultures different from the U.S. and Caribbean inspired her to let Black investigate further. But how would the children do in places with different languages, and cultures? When Black suggested a 14-day vacation, including a 9-night cruise, longer than the family had ever taken, Johnson had even more to consider.
“Everything seemed so daunting,” she said, pondering the logistics. And what about the cost? Wouldn’t it be ridiculously expensive for a family of four?
Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood St. Petersburg.
But Black walked her through her options, demonstrated how a cruise was a great value, with lower transportation costs than hop-scotching by air or rail through Europe, and the savings from two meals onboard ship.
“When you start adding up meals for a family of four, and that our schedule would allow us to have breakfast, leave the ship for the day in port, and come back for dinner at night, it all started to work for me,” she said. She and her husband, who had never been to Europe, finally approved Black’s plans.
An epic experience
With an overnight stay at a Washington Dulles International hotel, the family was off, on a flight to Copenhagen that went even more smoothly than Johnson could have predicted. Her children “were mesmerized that the flight attendants were serving them their meals on a tray. They slept a little, and occupied themselves with the video screens.”
The Johnsons spent three days in the Danish city, staying at an Airbnb, before boarding their ship for Germany; Gdansk, Poland; St. Petersburg, Russia; Tallinn, Estonia; and Stockholm.
“It was really interesting for the children to be somewhere where their language wasn’t spoken everywhere. In the Caribbean, everyone speaks English as a second language. This was something new to them, particularly in Russia.” Johnson and her husband try to teach their children basic phrases in local languages when they travel, like thank you and please.
The Johnson’s son loves history, and he was struck by how much older European cities and buildings are, while the Johnson’s daughter, who is more artistic, enjoyed the ornate nature of St. Petersburg. “She thought it was amazing.”
Johnson also taught her children about her family’s history while they were in Poland. “It was really cool to talk to my children about how this is where my family comes from.”
Johnson believes the trip did indeed change her children’s global perspective, and make them more confident about traveling abroad. As they were preparing for the trip, the global media firestorm about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 U.S. election was raging on television and the internet.
“My 10-year-old was saying, ‘They won’t like us in Russia. Will we be safe? What will happen to us? We’re Americans.’
“I realized that I could take him to Russia and have a great time, and he could see that Russia is not this hostile place that you could infer from the media. It helped show both of them the world is even bigger than they realized, but they also saw how people and things are the same the world over.”
Their Baltic cruise experience has opened the Johnsons to taking trips to even more distant and different destinations. “I feel like I could take them so many places now. I can see us going to Southeast Asia, or Israel, when they are a little older.”
When they got back home, showing their pictures and raving about their trip to family, Johnson’s two sisters expressed interest in taking a similar vacation. One sister has five children, “so she likes the idea of a cruise for the same reasons I did.” Future clients for Sally Black?