About Us

David Jenkins

David Jenkins was a news and sports reporter for the Edmonton Journal newspaper for six years while he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (B.A) and a Law degree (LL.B.). He also worked for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) as an on-camera news reporter.

Very active on campus, he was Editor-in-Chief of The Gateway student newspaper and President of the Students' Union. He won the World University Service scholarship to study in Sweden at Uppsala University. 

The scholarship included a voyage from Montreal to Rotterdam on Holland America Line... "a real eye opener for a young man from little old Edmonton," says David. "Perhaps the experience of that wonderful cruise is the reason I ended up in the cruise business," he says.

David was then elected National President of the National Federation of Canadian University Students (N.F.C.U.S.), headquartered in Ottawa. He gave speeches at 40 universities in Canada and in the U.S.A.. He travelled the world representing Canadian university students, giving speeches and attending conferences and meetings in New Zealand, Sweden, England, the U.S.A. and other countries. Next he was John Diefenbaker's full-time speech writer in Ottawa.

In 1978 he graduated from Advanced Management Program at Harvard University, Boston, Mass.

In 1979-80 David had the great honor of serving in the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa. He was a full-time strategy advisor. He was also head of Loto Canada. In the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics, David was third most senior head of the Canadian delegation - - and became head of the Canadian delegation after the departure of the Governor General and Minister of Sports.

Well-known in Canadian business circles, David was President of Calgary-based Carma Developers Ltd. and President of Allarco Group Ltd., headquartered in Edmonton, both public companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. 

He is a co-founder and a past Director and past Chairman of the Board for 10 years of Western Financial Group, a T.S.X. company. David is also a co-founder of Bank West, a chartered bank established in 2003 under Canada's new Bank Holding Company rules. Bank West is owned by Western Financial Group. 

He and his wife Maureen have been on more than 175 cruises and have built Cruise Vacations Inc. to where it is the largest cruise agency in Alberta and one of the largest in the world.

David was a member of the Senate of the University of Alberta and has served on various committees at the university.

Since 1994, David has applied his extensive business, finance and insurance knowledge to the travel and transportation industry. He is co-founder and owner of Cruise Vacations Inc., based in Edmonton. David is part owner of Ensemble Travel Group, North America's largest travel company. Ensemble has offices in New York City, Toronto, Montreal and Sydney, Australia and operates in more than 900 locations in the U.S.A, Canada and Australia.

David has been involved with Ensemble and its predecessor organization, Giants Travel, for more than 21 years. Ensemble deals with all aspects of travel world-wide, including cruise lines, airlines, railroads, hotels, ground transportation, etc.
"I am very pleased with our expansion to Australia," says David. "Europe will be next"

David is also a member of the world-wide advisory board for Holland America Line, one of the world's largest cruise lines.

He is invited to the launching and inaugural voyage of new ships for many cruise lines and participates in many conferences and meetings.

David welcomes calls from all the people he has come in contact with over the years.

Maureen Jenkins

Maureen grew up in Ottawa, and has also lived in Calgary, is regarded as one of the leading authorities in the cruising industry. She and her husband David are founders and co-owners of Cruise Vacations Inc. 

Her interest in travel showed itself early -- when she served as President of her high school's travel club and organized tours to places as far as Quebec City for Winter Carnival.

Over the years she worked for four different travel agencies as a cruise specialist, gaining a wealth of experience before she and her husband David opened Cruise Vacations Inc. in Edmonton in 1994. 

She was educated at Algonquin College in Ottawa.

She has earned many awards, including the prestigious "Centurion" award from Holland America Line. The Centurion award goes to the top 100 agencies in the world as measured by annual volume of bookings with Holland America. 

Maureen has also been awarded "Gold i-Excel" status with Princess Cruises.This means that Cruise Vacations Inc. is one of the top 75 agencies in the world in sales with Princess Cruises. 

"I love to cruise and guess it shows," says Maureen, She and David have been on more than 175 cruises. "We're cruise addicts," she says.

If you're thinking of a cruise, Maureen has probably been on the ship you're thinking of and has been to all the ports you're interested in.