Frequently Asked Questions.
The questions most travelers ask before moving forward.
If your question is not listed here, you can reach out directly through the contact page or submit an application and I will address it personally.
FAQs
What services do you offer?
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Luxury cruise design, international land itineraries, milestone travel for couples, multi-generational journeys for families, honeymoons, group travel, and wedding room blocks. Every engagement is designed with intention, not assembled from templates.
What is the difference between your service tiers?
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Every engagement begins with a planning fee paid before work starts. The fee is 100% non-refundable and is separate from the cost of your trip, flights, hotels, and experiences. Cruise planning (most requested) starts from $400 and covers cruise planning, pre-cruise hotel placement, transfers, and travel insurance coordination. Full design starts from $600 and covers the entire journey as a single cohesive plan, including the land portion, international routing, properties, timing, and experiences between ports. Transfer and integration starts from $250 for travelers who began the process elsewhere and need it properly finished. Booking-only service, for travelers who already know exactly which hotel or cruise they want, is complimentary.
Are planning fees refundable?
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No. Planning fees are 100% non-refundable. They reflect the research, strategy, and coordination that begins the moment the engagement is confirmed. This is not a consultation fee — it is the beginning of the work.
How far in advance should I reach out?
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For most travel, six to twelve months is a reasonable starting point. For world voyages, expedition sailings, peak season cruises, or any multi-generational or group itinerary, twelve to twenty-four months is strongly recommended. The best suites, sailings, and properties do not hold. The travelers who plan early are the ones who travel better.
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Do you recommend travel insurance?
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Yes, without exception. Travel insurance is strongly recommended on every trip. It protects your investment against supplier cancellations, medical emergencies, delays, and circumstances outside anyone's control. Cruise planning includes travel insurance coordination
Do you book cruises, land travel, or both?
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Both. The Suite Stories designs full journeys - ocean voyages, land programs, pre- and post-cruise extensions, and hybrid itineraries that require multiple components to work together precisely. The focus is always on the complete experience, not individual bookings.
What happens if something changes during travel?
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I remain a direct point of contact during active travel for all managed engagements. Supplier changes, flight disruptions, and on-the-ground coordination are handled as part of the work — not as an afterthought.
What does the inquiry process look like?
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Inquiries are submitted through a short application at thesuitestories.com/apply. There are no phone calls at intake. Within one to two business days, a personal response arrives with an assessment of fit, a recommendation, and next steps. All communication is conducted via email. A planning fee begins the work.
Is this the right fit for me?
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This is the right fit if your time is genuinely limited, you have traveled well before and know what the upper tier feels like, and you are planning a trip that needs to be exactly right.
This is not the right fit if you are looking for the lowest price, want to manage the details yourself, need to be persuaded that a planning fee is worth it, or expect communication outside a structured email-primary engagement.
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What kind of clients do you work with?
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The Suite Stories works with a small, carefully selected roster of clients each year. Most arrive knowing what they want but not how to build it - executives, physicians, entrepreneurs, and families planning travel that requires real design, not just reservations. The practice is application-based and intentionally limited in size.
What destinations do you specialize in?
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The primary focus is luxury and expedition ocean cruising: Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn, Explora Journeys, and Oceania, alongside long-horizon international itineraries across Antarctica, the Galapagos, the Arctic, East Africa, Japan, and Iceland. The work is less about destination and more about designing a journey that fits the way a specific client moves through the world.
The Suite Stories Travel Co. is based in Lenexa, Kansas, in the Kansas City metro, and I design travel for clients nationwide. Engagements are fully virtual and email-primary, by private application.
Yes. Multi-generational design is one of my three areas of focus: properties and itineraries that work for every generation, without compromise.
Honeymoons fall under milestone travel. Everything begins with a private application at thesuitestories.com/apply. I review scope, timing, and fit, and if we are aligned we confirm the engagement and the planning fee in writing before design begins.
The official website of The Suite Stories Travel Co. is thesuitestories.com.
Through my agency partnership, my clients receive Virtuoso-affiliated preferred partner access. I am also a CLIA Certified Cruise Counsellor.
My ultra-luxury focus is Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, Seabourn, Explora Journeys, and Oceania, plus expedition lines, matched to the right ship, suite, and sailing for your trip.
Why work with a luxury travel designer instead of booking on my own?
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Access, timing, and design. A luxury travel designer holds preferred partner relationships with properties and cruise lines that carry tangible benefits - category upgrades, onboard credits, early embarkation, and direct lines to people who can solve problems in real time. Beyond access, the value is in the architecture of the journey itself. The sequence, the pacing, the decisions made six to twelve months out that most travelers don't know to make. Booking on your own is possible. Designing travel well is a different skill.