Cynthia
Neu McCluskey is the Travel Coordinator
and co-founder of the     .
She's a former newspaper and television reporter,
TV News anchor and bureau chief based in El Paso,
TX; Washington, DC; and Moscow, Russia for 33 years
prior to creating this new concept for fitness cruises.
Cynthia enjoys visiting ports of call and
recommending to guests what they may want to
see upon arriving to new port cities.
Cynthia worked for
the Fred Hervey Foundation in El Paso in the
1980s as a speech writer. Before CNN ever existed,
Cynthia had brain stormed with fellow TV anchor
Peter Heinline about one day creating a news bureau
in Washington, D.C. that would satellite reports
back to TV stations out west covering issues important
to America's western towns. The
two TV anchors at the CBS and NBC
affiliates in El Paso convinced Mr. Hervey to invest
in creating Sun World Satellite News. Within 10 years
their independently owned and operated TV News Bureau
on Capital Hill broadcast daily reports to 365 ABC,
NBC and CBS TV affiliates across the Southwest. Peter
Heinlein later joined the Voice Of America.
And by 1990 Cynthia was on her way to the Soviet
Union to open a second TV News bureau in Moscow.
It too sent back reports via satellite on Soviet
matters affecting those same western towns in the
USA. Oil and military actions were major stories
in Russia then, just as they are today. President
Mikhail Gorbachav's Soviet government permitted Ms.
Neu to do this because Mr. Hervey's corporation,
the Sun World Corporation, agreed to publish in English,
and distribute in the USA, the first ever Soviet
free-press newspaper.
That brave, underground weekly newspaper printed
in Moscow was called Nezavisamaya Gazetta. It means,
the Independent
Newspaper. It advocated Russia become a democratic,
independent country with free press, free speech and
free enterprise for all Russians.
It became world famous in
1991 as, "the
first media ever to rally Russians to bring down
Communism." So reported the Wall
Street Journal Aug. 21, 1991 in its front page
story describing the "late
night heroic deeds led by Russia's only
Independent Newspaper." When
military tanks rolled into Moscow after midnight
Aug. 19, 1991, determined to destroy any free press
in Russia, Nezavisamaya Gazetta was the only
press that continued to illegally print and distribute
itself throughout the city until dawn calling for
citizens to stand up and fight Communism.
This famous Russian newspaper is still published
weekly in Moscow. It was while working for the newspaper
in Moscow helping it to develop advertising
that Cynthia first learned about the cruise industry's
impact on travel. She decided then to leave
TV News and start to cruise!
Cynthia is a 1975 graduate
of the University of Texas at El Paso where she attended
on journalism scholarships and grants. She was married
to the late Ron McCluskey, an El Paso attorney,
who had also served as Chief of Staff in Washington,
D.C. to the late Congresswoman Gladys Noon Spellman
of Maryland. Ron and Cynthia's son, Patrick McCluskey,
lives in Austin, TX with his wife Shannon and their
two children. They soon will have three.
Upon creating the popular     Cynthia
became certified by Aquatic Alliance International
(AAI). "I wanted to understand what all our Fitness
Hosts go through to create
water exercise programs," she says. Today Cynthia
is also certified by the Arthritis Foundation and
is a Red Cross Certified Water Safety Instructor
who teaches preschoolers how to swim. Spring Hill,
where Cynthia teaches, was named Best RECenter in
the nation in 2006. That same year Fairfax County's
Park Authority was named the Best Park Authority
in America. The    
in 2007 was named Royal Caribbean's
#1 Business
Partner in the Mid-Atlantic states of Virginia,
Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C. That same year Cynthia
was named Top Aquatics Instructor at
Spring Hill RECenter in McLean, VA. |
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Jim
Seeley, who is Program Director and co-founder of
the     ,
has been a certified fitness instructor
in Fairfax County, VA for 20 years. He specializes
in water aerobics, yoga and tai chi. He's been
certified by the American Council on Exercise (ACE),
Aerobics Fitness Association of America (AFAA),
Aquatic Exercise Association (AEA), American Aerobics
Association International (AAAI) and the Arthritis
Foundation. Jim has taught exercise classes at all
nine Fairfax County Recreation Centers in Virginia.
"My exercise philosophy
comes from a song I heard as a child," says
Jim. "It
says that 'a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine
go down.' We've been truly blessed with club members
who agree with this philosophy. We strive to make
all our exercise classes great fun when we cruise,
and they are!"
While serving as Program Director
for   Jim
has created a bank of nearly 200 certified water
exercise teachers who qualify
to take their own students on fitness cruises. The     is
a registered trade mark with more than 3,500 club
members nationwide.
Jim is a 1986 graduate of
William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. He is
fluent in Spanish, having worked 7 years in customer
service for American Airlines in Los Angeles, Washington
D.C. and Miami. Jim is single, but keeps very busy
with his parents, 10 brothers and sisters and their
families. In 2005 he began producing and hosting
a new TV show he created for Cox Cable TV in Fairfax
County. His bi-weekly show is "Forever Young." Guests
are members of the     ,
as well as other popular retirees in the Washington,
DC metro area, who participate in volunteer projects
promoting good health and social activities for active
seniors. His television show is a top rated program
in both Fairfax and Arlington Counties in Virginia
and in Montgomery County in Maryland.
During the past 11 years,
while escorting fitness cruises, Jim has become an
expert on the design and history of cruise ships.
He knows all the deck plans and layouts of each ship
his travel club cruises. He shares this knowledge
with guests by taking them on walking tours of each
ship the first day a new cruise begins.
"Doing this makes it much easier for our guests
to find their way around our cruise ships," he
says. "No other travel agency
adds this touch.
It is part of our promise to take you on a cruise
with us and not just send you on a cruise somewhere
by yourself."
Jim and Cynthia are the co-founders
of Ventures in Travel, (DBA) doing business as the
    . Ventures
in Travel is a subsidiary of Ventures in Video, Inc.,
located in Falls Church, VA where the company has
been in business more than 27 years. It is owned
and operated by Michael Williams of McLean, VA. Chief
Accounting Officer for both companies is Rick Bynaker,
CPA, also of McLean. The club's Fitness Host Coordinator
is Barb Batson of Nashville, TN. Chief Photographer
and Webmaster is Cliff Crittenden, assisted by Huy
Do and Evan Hambrick. Innovative Projects, Inc.,
in Fairfax, VA is the club's ad agency where Bonnie
Burroughs serves as top designer. Andrea Dickerson
of Annandale, VA and Matt Hilferty of Herndon, VA
are Assistant Travel Coordinators.
The Fairfax County Park Authority,
for which both Cynthia and Jim teach,
was named Best Park Authority in the nation in 2006.
Their fitness travel club, created in 1998, was named
by Royal
Caribbean in 2008 as
its #1 Business
Partner in the mid-Atlantic states of Virginia,
Maryland and Delaware and Washington,
D.C. The award winning     was
given this honor after being selected from among
104 other travel agencies on the east coast.
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