Jessica Vanda

As a retired U.S. Navy Veteran, one of the things I loved about my 21 years in the Navy was the opportunity I had to travel both for work and family time. During my service I visited 25 countries, lived in two countries outside the USA (Bahrain and the United Kingdom), and enjoyed vacations, cruises and theme parks with my family. I’ve traveled around Europe, Alaska, the Caribbean, and even a few places in Asia, not to mention having driven across the United States twice during military moves. As a military family, traveling together was a great way to explore our new locations after a move and a way to bond back together as a family when I returned from my 6-9 month deployments.

While we love theme parks of all types (there have been a few trips to Universal Orlando, Cedar Point, and Legoland California), we are definitely a Disney family! We have been to Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney World (over 15 times), and Disney’s Vero Beach. My husband even stopped at the Tokyo Disney Resort for a day during a layover when he was coming to visit me on one of my port calls while I was on a Navy deployment. I have participated in two Run Disney race weekends (Disneyland Paris Half Marathon and Disney Princess Half Marathon at Walt Disney World) and am working on getting back “up to speed” on running so I can participate in more in the future.

My love of Disney began at an early age – I can remember riding Big Thunder Mountain (my favorite Disney thrill ride of all time) during my first visit to Walt Disney World in 7th grade. That being said, my favorite Disney park is EPCOT – I love walking around the world showcase (especially during the Food & Wine festival), but my favorite attraction in all of EPCOT is Living with the Land in The Land Pavilion. That is a “must ride” for me each time we visit. Not only is it a relaxing (and air conditioned) ride, my whole family has a great time looking for all the hidden Mickeys they have among the plants. It is so cool knowing that some of the food you are eating in Disney restaurants is grown right there on site. One of our bucket list items is doing the “Behind the Seeds” tour that gives you a backstage view of that whole area.

Although I love Walt Disney World, my favorite way to vacation is on a cruise for multiple reasons. First, there is obviously my love of being on the water (why I joined the Navy!). One of my favorite memories comes from our cruise on the Disney Magic in 2017. I spent some time sitting in a huge window porthole where they had cushions along the bottom so you could sit IN the porthole. I lost track of how much time I spent there reading and looking out at the water. It was so relaxing and peaceful. I must have passed my love of watching the sea down to my son. I have a wonderful picture of him sitting in a similar porthole in our Deluxe Family Oceanview Stateroom wearing his Jack Sparrow costume for Pirate Night on our very first Disney Cruise on the Disney Fantasy in 2012. He didn’t want to leave for dinner any more than I wanted to stop reading in mine.

Second, I love the fact that you can visit multiple destinations, but you only unpack once! Our family has been on five Disney cruises and two Royal Caribbean cruises. A few have been similar itineraries, so if you take out duplicate cities – we have been able to visit around 20 different cities in 13 different countries while only unpacking seven times! Although you are only in each location for part of a day, I think of it as a taste test to determine if I’d come back on a separate vacation to just that city.

So, when looking at what I wanted to do after I retired from the Navy, my love of travel – especially Disney, Universal, and CRUISES – kept swimming in the back of my mind. I often found myself chatting with coworkers, fellow military families, parents of my kid’s friends, and even my doctor, giving advice for their upcoming Walt Disney World visit or on the benefits of Disney Cruise Line versus Royal Caribbean cruise line for what they were looking for. It seemed like an obvious next step to tie that passion of mine into my own small business.

I’m so excited to be an agent and here to help you figure out what is the best vacation for you and your favorite travel partners! Let’s get started!