I just wanted to write and wish everyone a Happy New Year! I am reflecting on my 2025 plus I’m getting ready for 2026! 2026 will be the year of growth & travel for me!
Growth is my word of the year. I want to grow my blog, my YouTube page, my businesses and myself on a personal level.
2025 was my best year of selling travel. I want to match or beat that this year. I’ve been selling travel for 14 years and, minus 2020, most years have had an increase in sales.
I started a YouTube Channel in late 2025. It’s in the very early stages, but I am hoping we can make something people will watch.
My 2025 Travel Year in Review
Cruise Nights: 38 Nights on a ship. (Disney Treasure, Disney Fantasy, Royal Caribbean Utopia of the Seas, Celebrity Apex, Royal Caribbean Star of the Seas, Disney Destiny Preview and the Disney Fantasy again.
Disney Resort Stays: Grand Floridian (for Dopey January 2025! I still can’t believe I finished Dopey at Walt Disney World!); Bay Lake Tower (August, my birthday weekend); Fort Wilderness (Dave’s birthday weekend); Wilderness Lodge (Thanksgiving.)
Weekends away: To Clearwater Beach and Universal Studios.
Countries Visited: Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Grand Cayman, England, Belgium, Norway, Italy and Paris.
International Flights: 3
Countless gluten free meals with friends! It was a good year!
What I have planned for 2026
January: Disneyland for RunDisney. The last scheduled RunDisney event there for the foreseeable future. Are you running? Let’s schedule a meet up!
February: Back to Disneyland. WHAT?! I was offered an opportunity to do a Travel Agent training there. My husband is very supportive and we decided I shouldn’t pass this up even if it was a week after I return from my race weekend.
March: Spring Break on the Celebrity Apex. We loved our cruise on her last summer and her winter/spring home port in Port Canaveral makes it very easy.
April: Back on Celebrity for an adults only getaway. I will share more about this during and after!
May: A work cruise on the Disney Fantasy! Can’t wait to cruise with this special group of people again.
May/June: We head to Europe for an epic summer vacation! Hopefully it involves an Adventures by Disney Adventure (these can get cancelled if there aren’t enough people booked and this concerns me about this trip in late May). We will have a few days in Paris including a night at Disneyland Paris. (Eating gluten free in Disneyland Paris scares me.) Then we are ending it with a 9 night Greek Isles cruise with a stop in Malta on Disney Cruise Line. I’m 50% Maltese and I’m so excited to visit this tiny country for the first time. Do you have any recommendations for our day here? We have a late departure so we will be eating dinner on the island somewhere.
July: Group Podcast Cruise for the DCL Podcast. You can join us for the first ever podcast cruise!! 5 nights on the new Disney Destiny with stops in Cozumel and Castaway Cay. July 18 – 23.
August: We have a Disney World weekend planned for my birthday.
September: The one month with nothing booked or even tentatively planned. I’m hoping my sister and I can do a trip during this month.
October: A Disney World weekend for my husband’s birthday is planned. (We like to be away for our birthdays so we don’t have to do house chores, cook or clean. DVC helps us to do that each year.)
Thanksgiving: A short Disney World stay for Thanksgiving has been our tradition the last couple of years and we will do it again. The resort is up in the air still.
December: A Disney World weekend in early December for my mom’s birthday. Then we will do something for Christmas. These plans are still being finalized. We have a couple of options.
What are your plans for 2026?
Thanks for your support and your follow! If you are not working with a Travel Advisor that you love I would love to help you plan your travels for 2026 and beyond. Reach out if you would like to work together at no additional cost to you!
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Any friend of Jen’s has to be a friend for me as well! I envy all the travels you are able to do. I’m over 80 now and the majority of my travel days are over. The spirit is willing but the body is not. My daughter was a travel agent in Oneida, NY before an untimely auto accident took her life. I enrolled in some travel agent courses at our community college and worked for a short time at a local agency after that. But her death took its toll on me and I didn’t continue. We took some wonderful trips together. My love of travel though continue with my husband and we took almost 30 cruises mainly on Celebrity with Disney sprinkled in for our grand kids. Now it’s just me and I’m counting the days to a 12 day disney vacation at the Polynesian the end of February. After almost 28 years of DVC I and my family continue to enjoy it. My daughter knew Jen when she lived in Texas and introduced me to her Utube videos and podcasts quite a few years ago. I hope you have a great year!
Fondly!
Helen Jane Kachmarik
Thank you so much for your kind words. Enjoy your amazing stay at the Polynesian!