Cheerie Dorris

I started working as a vacation planner for Royal Caribbean over 12 years ago working with my own group of clients. Once the pandemic closed down cruising and the cruise line made us remote workers, I decided to launch my own travel agency, knowing that people would still travel, even if they couldn't cruise for the time being. It was the best decision I ever made. I love helping clients fulfill their bucket list travel dreams and enjoy experiences that they only imagined were possible. 

I've since grown Cheerie Travel, LLC by bringing on ILAs, several former colleagues, who like me, were vacation planners at Royal Caribbean, who wanted to help their clients experience more than what Royal Caribbean could offer. We all specialize is ocean cruises of course, but have since branched out to river cruises, all inclusive resorts, escorted tours and really anything you can think of. Each of us has our own specialties, so if a client has a special request that their agent doesn't know well, we send it to our agent that does. It makes Cheerie Travel perfect for all clients with any type of travel request.

We book a lot of Caribbean obviously, Alaska, the Mediterranean, and northern Europe as well. Transatlantic cruises are very popular with our clients as well as Australia now that it's opened up again. 

We are experts in ocean cruising because we each worked for Royal Caribbean for many years plus, we all cruise a great deal. Beyond that, we each continue to develop our knowledge by attending supplier hosted FAMs, Avoya immersion academies, the annual Land Forum and Conference, industry events, and every supplier web training we can possibly fit into our schedules.   

We all book a lot of Royal Caribbean obviously since so many of our clients are loyal to Royal, but we also book a lot of Princess, Norwegian, Virgin Voyages, Disney, Holland America, Oceania, Regent, Cunard, and AmaWaterways. I also book a variety of Globus escorted tours and one of my agents books Kensington custom tours for some of her luxury clients. We also book a lot of flights with the new Avoya Flights and hotels program as well as all-inclusive vacation packages with ALGV. We really offer full service, so whatever a client can dream of, we can make happen.

I believe what makes Cheerie Travel, LLC unique is our dedication to our loyal clients. We pride ourselves on really knowing them after working with them for so many years. I sail with my clients when they become Pinnacle (the top tier of loyalty with Royal Caribbean – 700 nights of sailing) just to thank them for their business and celebrate their milestone achievement. Their referrals are the lifeblood of my agency and that's contributed to our continued growth. We now book their children, grandchildren, friends, colleagues, and neighbors, and even other people they meet on their cruises that call us when they get home.

It's the best feeling in the world to know you have a happy client who enjoyed the vacation that you helped them plan and they can't wait to go again!