Lynn Rudin has always enjoyed travel and has the fondest memories of trips her family took when she was growing up. Though they traveled often, they had never taken a cruise. As soon as Lynn took her first cruise to Alaska, along with her husband and three sons, she fell in love with the cruise experience. After she returned from that ship, she simply couldn’t get her mind off cruising. One day, at a birthday gathering, she spoke to a travel agent who had been on 50 cruises, and Lynn knew that she wanted to be able to look back some day and say the same thing. Lynn immediately began searching for travel training programs and found the Los Medanos College Travel Marketing program. Although Lynn hadn’t been in a college class for over 25 years, she was convinced it was worth a try. Lynn enrolled in several classes and soon found that her passion for learning, combined with her love of travel, made the program a perfect fit. It turned out to be an invaluable decision. The online program not only gave Lynn the opportunity to fit the work into her already busy schedule, but also allowed her to develop relationships with classmates that are now treasured colleagues.
In 2010, Lynn opened Cruising Along Travel; a company focused on provided a once-in-a-lifetime cruise experience to each and every client. As a cruise focused agent, Lynn is a member of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and holds the designation of ACC (Accredited Cruise Counselor). As Lynn values ongoing education, she is currently working on receiving her MCC designation (Master Cruise Counselor).
Another passion of Lynn’s is music. She recently took a leap and combined music with cruising. Her second company Divine Jazz Cruise creates intimate group travel opportunities for jazz lovers to sail with a group of remarkable musicians. Lynn’s goal is to keep the group small, giving her clients an exclusive opportunity to spend time and interact with the artists, in addition to enjoying some great performances.
What Lynn finds most challenging about the travel industry is that every client is different, and every trip is unique (even if the destination is the same). The education that Lynn received from her Los Medanos instructors has trained her to view each potential vacation with fresh eyes, and the goal to craft the perfect trip for that particular client. What she finds most rewarding is the gratitude the client has when they return and share treasured memories from their once-in-a-lifetime adventure.