Nancy D’Andrea

Growing up, my family would travel most weekends, so I’ve always had this love of ‘getting away.’ My parents also planned the traditional yearly vacation, be it Walt Disney World, the Pocono Mountains, Vermont, the Land of Make Believe or numerous local trips. As a Staten Island native, New York City was in my backyard. So we’d go to places like Radio City Music Hall, the Museum of Natural History, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island (well, technically those last two are in New Jersey – feel free to debate amongst yourselves).

After graduating college, I secured a position as an outside sales agent. New Jersey was my territory, so I easily drove 800-1,000 miles a week, exploring the back roads (and avoiding the traffic jams). I loved going out, meeting new people and learning about them. After a job change, I landed a position where my travels took me to over half of the United States. I probably saw half the states alone just because I went to trade shows across the country, setting aside time to explore once the show ended.

When I was in middle school I studied Greek mythology. I liked it so much I took Western Literature as a minor in college. I then fell in love with the geography of the stories and swore that I wanted to go see the places where these stories supposedly took place. Several years later, with my husband, Joe, I took my first cruise of the Mediterranean, visiting Greece, Turkey and Italy. I was blown away by the trip and instantly fell in love with cruising.

Of course I had traveled before this. I had been to Switzerland, Holland, Italy, France, Belgium, various Canadian provinces, and plenty of other destinations. However, once I was on a cruise I was amazed by the beauty of the sea and the coastlines of the countries.

My fervor for travel increased after that first cruise. My husband and I visited the Western Caribbean, including Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen and Key West. The following year, while pregnant, we went on an Eastern Caribbean cruise that included St. Maarten, St. Thomas/St. John and a private island in the Bahamas. Recently, my husband and I took our one-year old son, Alexander, to Bermuda, leaving from Boston. I can now confirm that my son has taken to travel at least as well as I did at his age (perhaps even more), and my husband certainly enjoys traveling.

As an Engineer, I wore many hats. One of them included that of travel agent for the office, and I really had a lot of fun booking trips for people. I soon discovered I enjoyed booking trips for people and seeing to it that they had a great time, even if they were business trips. I decided I wanted to do something else other than just raise my son, and so I left Engineering and became a cruise agent, since I loved cruising far more than just traditional travel.

I enjoy providing a service to people that will bring them adventure, relaxation and fun. I expect to continue increasing my knowledge of other countries and people, and I’m very pleased to provide this service – helping others experience other parts of the world through cruising.

Nancy Ann D’Andrea
Owner, Topsail Cruises

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Ships I’ve Been On

• Carnival: Celebration, Conquest, Fantasy, Freedom, Imagination
• Cunard: Queen Mary 2
• Norwegian: Dream, Spirit, Sun
• Oceania: Regatta
• Princess: Crown Princess, Grand Princess, Regal Princess
• Regent Seven Seas (formerly Radisson): Diamond
• Royal Caribbean: Explorer of the Seas, Vision of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas