If you don’t believe in true love, you will after you have booked your vacation with Cliff Marchbank and his wife Eldine.  Married for 38 years, 64-year old retired Navy veteran Cliff and Vincentian born Eldine 61 met each while he was stationed in St. Vincent, and the rest is history. 

“Being stationed was a bonus because I got a wife out of it,” quipped Marchbank.

These parents of two, one being their son and the other their six-year entrepreneurship, the dynamic duo set out to create the Florida-based Cruising with Cliff and Eldine travel website, which focuses on destination and cruise vacations, predominately in the Caribbean — after all this is where they met and where their son was born.

Their love for the Caribbean runs deep, and is displayed in the way they design ideal vacation packages for their customers that has also spawned the 'Let your Caribbean girl book your Caribbean vacation’ philosophy.

They are able to accomplish successful trips for their clients by taking a lot of FAM trips, which allows the couple as well as other travel agents to become more familiar with a destination. It proved to come in quite handy for the Marchbanks who scoped out a resort in the Dominican Republic to determine whether it was big enough and suitable for a couple who wanted a destination wedding.

Indeed it was, exceeding the expectations of their clients which resulted in a job well done.

“Knowing the places that we sell makes a big difference, especially with many of our clients being snowbirds from up north, looking to get away from the snow.”

With a long history traveling with the military, Marchbanks does admit that his wife’s knowledge and family ties in the Caribbean are incomparable.  And even with such a passion for the travel industry, acknowledging the setbacks that come with it can also be the key to success, especially in a technology dominated world where the younger generations of travelers are quite tech savvy.

“The challenge is to get people away from the internet and taking what is written on websites, our research, what we have learned, and the experiences from people who know to create an unforgettable vacation experience.”

However, what this power couple offers is something that is rarely seen in businesses: a 34-year old love for each over other that brightly shines in the way they cater to their vacationers.