Cruise specialist opens in Barcroft Plaza

Mary Ann Mitchell at Expedia Cruises.

Expedia Cruises, a travel franchise that helps plan cruises and other vacations, opened Dec. 6 at 6345 Columbia Pike in Barcroft Plaza.

Cruises are complicated and expensive, so a travel agency can help people find the option that best suits their needs for the best value, says Mary Ann Mitchell, who owns the business with her husband Mark Mitchell. 

Expedia Cruises does a lot more than cruises, Mitchell says. They help people book all-inclusive resorts, flights, hotels, theme parks, coach and rail tours, homes and villas, travel insurance, and vacation packages. 

“We help people from the time they leave until they get back home,” she says. If a client has a problem on a trip – if a hotel shuts down, for example – Expedia Cruises can find them another hotel.  

Instead of staff, the shop relies on independent contractors. Expedia Cruises is owned by the Expedia Group, which also owns Hotels.com, Orbitz, Travelocity, Hotwire, Vrbo, Trivago, and other online travel brands. 

The Mitchells got into the travel franchise because “we wanted to do something new and different” after they retired, says Mary Ann, a former preschool teacher. Mark was an acting assistant secretary of defense and had spent 30 years as a Green Beret in the Army Special Forces with numerous deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

They both expect demand for travel to soar when the Covid pandemic winds down.