Janet Bava, Chief Commercial Officer, Windstar Cruises

Hello, passionate cruisers! This is Paul. This week on The Joy of Cruising Podcast, I am delighted to welcome Janet Bava, Chief Commercial Officer, Windstar Cruises. We have had several small ship specialists on the podcast as well as leaders from some of the lines, and of course passionate cruisers providing us their cruise reports from their time on various small ship and river cruises. This is the first time we have exclusive focused on Windstar Cruises, and I am excited to meet Janet and learn about Windstar.

Cuban born and Miami raised, Janet Bava found her love for travel at a young age. She had her first taste of cruising at the age of 15 when she celebrated her quinceañera onboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and never looked back. She describes herself as a cruise lifer and internationally travel driven — she even met her husband while traveling through Italy during her college years.

Prior to joining Windstar Cruises during the summer of 2023, Bava was most recently the Chief Marketing Officer for AmaWaterways River Cruises, and she has spent upwards of 20 years working in the travel industry. Most notably, prior to AmaWaterways, Bava was the VP of Marketing (The Americas) for Silversea Cruises where she fell in love with small-ship luxury cruising. Graduated from Florida International University with her Marketing and International Business degree, she always dreamed of working for a global brand poised for expansion and that would allow her to focus on bringing people from all over the world closer together. As a member of Chief [Professional Network for Women], she enjoys connecting and supporting women executive leaders and emerging future female leaders in the corporate world.

She prides herself on being a results-driven professional who is able to lead by example and set a clear vision for her team. Bava values collaboration, creativity and innovation. She sees the advantages of leveraging new emerging technologies to consistently deliver results and she looks forward to further elevating the Windstar experience ensuring every touch point with our guests can be 180 degrees from ordinary.

There's one thing Bava has that never expires — her passport. If she could, she would explore the whole world on a ship with her beloved colleagues, family & friends. With an already accomplished travel portfolio, Bava is most eager to experience Tahiti and the Middle East the Windstar way, on an intimate private-yacht style cruise delighting in the culinary experiences this award-winning global travel brand is renowned for.

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