Jacksonville Cruise Specialist

Your neighbors in cruise travel

Premier Travelers was opened in Jacksonville in early 2025 by Trip and Cindy Sturtridge — a brand-new agency, but built on a lifetime of personal travel in this area. We know the local cruise market the way a resident knows their own neighborhood: the seasonal deals that appear for JaxPort sailings, the best day to cross the Dames Point Bridge before an early embarkation, the pre-cruise hotels near I-95 that have reliable airport shuttles, and the parking structure at JaxPort that fills first on summer Saturdays.

We are not a national call center with agents who could be anywhere. We are Jacksonville travelers who have personally sailed more than 80 cruises (as guests, with our family) and just launched a travel agency around the belief that a vacation planned by someone who genuinely loves to travel feels completely different from one processed through a booking engine. Trip brings more than 26 years of business experience — but this agency itself is new.

Cruising from JaxPort: what to know

Carnival Cruise Line currently homeports the Carnival Elation year-round at JaxPort, offering four- and five-night sailings to the Bahamas and the Western Caribbean. JaxPort Terminal B is compact, efficient, and serves travelers from a wide geographic radius — Northeast Florida, Southeast Georgia (Savannah, Brunswick, Fernandina), and as far west as Tallahassee and Gainesville.

The four-night Bahamas sailing is one of the best introductions to cruising available anywhere in the country — affordable, short enough to test the waters, and close enough that a missed Friday ferry translates to a short drive home, not a cross-country scramble. For travelers who have done the Bahamas and want more, we add pre- or post-cruise hotel nights and use JaxPort as a gateway to the Caribbean circuit, sequencing sailings across different itineraries over multiple years.

Embarkation at JaxPort is remarkably easy by large-city-port standards. Arrive in the 11am–noon window for the smoothest check-in, use the north surface lot for day-trippers or the covered garage for multi-night sailings, and expect to be aboard by early afternoon. We brief every first-time JaxPort cruiser on exactly what to expect from the moment they leave their driveway to the moment they feel the ship move under their feet.

The wider world from Jacksonville

JaxPort is the easiest on-ramp to the cruise world for Northeast Florida travelers, but it is only the beginning. Port Canaveral is two and a half hours south — close enough for a comfortable early-morning drive — and opens up Disney Cruise Line, Royal Caribbean's Icon and Oasis class ships, Norwegian, MSC, and a full Caribbean program. We frequently build drive-and-cruise itineraries that pair a Friday night in Cocoa Beach with a Saturday embarkation in Port Canaveral.

For travelers willing to make the five-hour drive to South Florida, PortMiami and Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale unlock the full luxury and expedition cruise market — Silversea, Regent Seven Seas, Oceania, Celebrity Xploration, and transatlantic repositioning sailings at a fraction of their normal cost. The drive-and-cruise package with a pre-cruise Brickell or Las Olas hotel night is a regular request from our Jacksonville clients who want to go beyond the Caribbean.

And when it is time for a truly international departure — Venice for a Mediterranean sailing, Athens for the Greek islands, Copenhagen for a Nordic fjords cruise — Premier Travelers handles the international flights, pre-cruise city stays, and available hotel perks when eligible, seamlessly, turning a Jacksonville departure into the first step of a world-class journey.

Personal service in a neighborhood business

When you book a cruise with Premier Travelers, you are not assigned to a rotating agent pool. You work directly with Trip or Cindy — the same people who will answer the phone when you call from a port in Nassau, track down your delayed luggage in Cozumel, or rebook your dining reservation when the ship changes its schedule. Our clients have direct contact information, not a ticketing system.

That personal relationship is why clients come back for second, fifth, and twentieth cruises. And it is why we receive referrals — not from incentive programs, but because a neighbor who works with us tells another neighbor how their trip actually felt. Twenty-six years of that word-of-mouth is the strongest credential we have.

Beyond cruises: full vacation planning for Jacksonville families

Premier Travelers is a full-service travel agency with a cruise specialty, not a cruise-only shop. Our Jacksonville clients also book all-inclusive resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean, honeymoon travel to Santorini and Bora Bora, African safari expeditions, European river cruises, and custom multi-country itineraries. Every booking receives the same personal attention, the same available supplier perks when eligible, and the same direct contact you would expect from a local business that has been here for twenty-six years and intends to be here for twenty-six more.