FORT LAUDERDALE -- For beginners, CruiseWorld is a chance to start making connections. For veteran attendees, it's a family reunion of sorts. They all came together Thursday afternoon for the trade show, where the floor buzzed with hundreds of advisers and over 200 suppliers.
"This is my fifth year at CruiseWorld, and every year it gets better and better," said Craig Satterfield, an agent with Cruise Travel Outlet in Salem, N.H. "I think it's a combination of seeing friends again as well as making new friends, suppliers as well as agents. One of the most important parts of something like this is the networking with other travel professionals along with vendors themselves -- you have to make time to do that."
Sally Black, director of the Family Travel Association and founder of agency Vacationkids in Kunkletown, Pa., called CruiseWorld "a family reunion for me."
Some agents are bringing others into the fold, like Jill LaBarre of Jill's Great Escapes in Orlando. LaBarre is a CruiseWorld veteran, and this year encouraged fellow Oasis Travel Network agents D'Lane Maselunas of D'Lane Maselunas Travel in Dallas and Kareem George of Culture Traveler in Detroit to attend the show for the first time.