Learn how personal trauma and a love for planning travel led one woman to launch her own agency, Troi & Co. Travels, specializing in cruise packages for family and friends.
World travelers have a genuine interest in understanding and appreciating diversity. They are open-minded, adaptable, and willing to step outside their comfort zones to fully embrace the rewards that come with travel.
Travel Agent Angela Jones fits that mold. She wants others to experience the thrill of going here, there, and everywhere.
Jones has always loved to travel abroad, having visited many destinations in the Caribbean Islands like Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Aubra, Curacao, and Honduras. Angela has been on 31 cruises, her mom Irma Smith 27, and her god-sister Belinda Washington 24 – those counts are still adding up. She planned and executed all aspects of the trips herself.
Enter life. Jones’ nursing job as a registered nurse for 23 years, and a December 2021 stage 4 bone and liver cancer diagnosis didn’t mix, she couldn’t do both. Something had to give way. Her job as a nurse was no more.
In October 2022, the cancer was much better, and Jones organized a celebration cruise for a large group of her friends and family. She planned and booked everything, including bus transportation, hotel accommodations, and the destination, the Caribbean Islands as well as other needed details.
The cruise also featured an uplifting tribute, a celebration of her ongoing cancer journey. Jones had on a hot pink t-shirt that said, “I am the fighter.” And the other 91 cruisegoers’ t-shirts read, “Her fight is our fight.”
“I did that cruise for 92 people and not being a travel agent,” says Jones, 58. “People would ask me, ‘Can you do that for me, plan my cruise?’ Yes, I said, but not for free.” This is when she decided to become a travel agent.
With the experience gained from planning annual group cruises for family and friends and the job as a nurse no longer in the picture, it was a perfect time to launch her travel business, TROI-CO TRAVELS. Named after her two adult children, daughter Troi, and son Courtney, who is called “CO” comes the unique business name, TROICO.
Jones is a full-service, certified travel agent. She plans vacations and individual and group cruises, be it for family reunions, weddings, birthdays, or just-needed getaways!
“I have partnered with a great transportation company that will take care of your group large or small for ground transportation and hotel accommodations for the night before you sail,” Jones says. “Airport pickup to your hotel next morning transportation to the cruise port.
“After your cruise, transportation will be outside for a ride to the airport. City tours and excursions are available for late flights home or group activities on arrival day,” she continues. “Let me show you how to make a great vacation affordable for your family. Payment options and payment plans are available, too.”
Jones is also offering an extremely affordable St. Louis Family and Friends “It’s A Party on the Ship” cruise, July 8-12 to Princess Cay and Nassau Bahamas. Prices are subject to change until a deposit is made.
A few tips for cruising from Jones:
- The further in advance a cruise package is booked, the better the price. Cruises can be booked as far out as two years.
- Even if you have a special rate code or loyalty rewards card, you can still get the same benefits using a travel agent like Jones, who likes to be called a “personal vacation planner.”
- Deposits are as low as $50 per person
“Don’t wait until the last minute,” she adds.
Jones’s first cruise was in 1999, the year she graduated from nursing school with an associate degree. That began a yearly excursion on the seas she organized and joined with her family. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 2011.
A few years later, the unthinkable – breast cancer entered her life. In 2015, she was diagnosed with stage 1. She continued to work as an RN for six more years. The cancer became stage 4 in 2021 after having spread to her bones and liver. She travels back and forth to the Chicago area for treatment at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, which is now City of Hope. Her treatment includes oral chemotherapy twice a day and a daily anti-hormonal medication. She has to take these medications every day for the rest of her life to prevent the cancer from spreading. She makes the roundtrip to Chicago every three months.
The cancer inflicting her body greatly challenged her emotionally as genetics, a seemingly family history connection of the disease, raised its ugly presence in her mind. Her sister, Wanda Renae, was diagnosed with stage 4 bone and kidney cancer in January 2018 and died six months later in July 2018. She was 54 years old.
“In six to eight months, I assumed I was going to die as well,” Jones says. “But my faith in God and belief in His healing powers has kept me here for two years.”
Adding to the personal trauma, 10 years ago, her son Courtney, now 35, was shot in the head as part of a triple shooting which left him paralyzed on the right side of his body. The bullet entered the left side of his brain, leaving him unable to talk. Although he is nonverbal, she is her son’s caregiver and the two communicate well through text messaging. The other two victims died in the shooting tragedy.
“I don’t refer to my son as handicapped but as handi-capable,” she warmly says.
Life goes on and traveling continues for Jones as she’s packing her bags for one eye-opening and amazing getaway adventure departing March 27 on a 31-day transpacific trip from Brisbane, Australia on Carnival Cruise Lines that will take her to Guam; Japan cities of Naha, Okinawa, Hiroshima, and Tokyo; Anchorage, Cruise Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Ketchikan in Alaska; and ending it all in Seattle, Washington on May 1 her 59th birthday.
If her cancer journey hadn’t come about, would she be in the travel business? “I’ll still be traveling but not as a travel agent,” she says. “I would be too business working as a nurse.”
Jones will return to St. Louis on May 3 and be available to assist with any new bookings, reservations, or questions. Please feel free to leave a message and will return calls when she returns.
For more information about TROI-CO TRAVEL or to book a cruise, call Angela Jones, at 314.448.6521 or visit https://www.evotravelagent.com/troico
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