Send us Fan Mail Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. I am delighted to welcome this week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, Tosh Junior and George Hodges, owners of GNT Travel Pros, a Dream Vacations franchise, where they work full-time as travel advisors. During their very busy stint as relatively new travel advisors—they went through TA training in the same class as Cheryl, Shornay, and me in late-2024—they took the time to celebrate George’s 70th birthday with a spectacular combination land and sea vacation so grand I had to invite my colleagues on The Joy of Cruising Podcast to talk about it. Tosh spent 30 years as a corporate IT executive, traveling the world for GE, Citrix, Atlassian, and McDonald's Corporation, among others. A Chicago native and University of Illinois graduate, he's called Fort Lauderdale home for the past 13 years. His credentials read like an operations manual — PMP, ITIL, ISO, Certified ScrumMaster, LEAN Six Sigma Black Belt, and an MBA — and he's since added a Certified Travel Advisor designation and ACC accreditation with CLIA. The through-line between the two careers is the same: complex logistics, handled so completely that the person on the receiving end never has to think about them. 30 years of leading teams also taught him the part no certification covers, which is that the job is service. George, Tosh’s partner, brings the other half of the equation. After 30 years in interior design and sales at Crate & Barrel, he retired with an eye for how a space is supposed to feel and a career's worth of practice reading what people want before they've said it out loud. They don't plan trips from a desk. In the past year alone, they've sailed more than 15 cruises across nearly every major line — Icon of the Seas, Celebrity Ascent and Apex, Norwegian Luna, Star Princess, MSC World America, Carnival Celebration, Virgin's Scarlet Lady, and an Azamara sailing through the Mediterranean, to name a few. On land, they've covered the map: London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Budapest, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, Tuscany, and the Amalfi Coast in Europe; Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Delhi, and Dubai in Asia and the Gulf; Sydney, Rio, São Paulo, and much of Canada beyond that. That's the differentiator. When they recommend a ship, a port, a neighborhood, or a restaurant, it's because they've stood in it — whether the trip is budget or luxury, a couple or a full group. They have a particular soft spot for planning group travel, but they'll book anything, large or small. Do you have a dream car? Support the show Support thejoyofcruisingpodcast https://www.buzzsprout.com/2113608/supporters/new Support Me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/drpaulth Contact Me https://www.thejoyofcruising.net/contact-me.html Book Cruises http://www.thejoyofvacation.com/ US Orders (coupon code joyofcruisingpodcast) The Joy of Cruising https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruising Cruising Interrupted https://bit.ly/CruisingInterrupted The Joy of Cruising Again https://bit.ly/TheJoyOfCruisingAgain Intl Orders via Amazon
