Effective date: October 5, 2026
Who we are
First Chapter Travel is an Independent Affiliate of A. S. A. P. Cruises Inc.
First Chapter Travel respects your privacy. This policy explains what information is collected through this website, how it is used, who it is shared with, and the choices you have.
Information you provide
When you submit a planning request through this website, you provide information such as your name, email address, phone number (optional), number of travelers, budget range, approximate travel dates, where you are traveling from, destinations and trip preferences, how you heard about us, and anything else you choose to include in your message.
We use this information to respond to your request, provide travel-planning and booking services, communicate with you about potential or active trips, and keep business records.
How form submissions are handled
Planning requests are stored in this website’s own database, which is hosted by our website hosting provider. Each request is saved together with a contact record for you, so that repeat requests from the same email address are kept together, along with our own notes about your trip planning and the status of your request.
When you submit a request, a copy is emailed to First Chapter Travel, and a confirmation with a summary of your answers is emailed to you. These emails are delivered through an email delivery service.
Along with your answers, we record the page you submitted from, the website that referred you (if any), and any campaign information in the link you followed (for example, that you arrived from an Instagram post).
To protect against spam, your name, email address, message, IP address and browser information may be checked by Akismet, a spam-filtering service operated by Automattic. Your IP address is also used briefly, without being stored with your request, to limit repeated submissions.
Email newsletter
You will only receive our newsletter if you choose to join it, for example by ticking the newsletter box on a planning form. When you do, we record the date, the form you used and the exact wording you agreed to, as a record of your consent.
Newsletters are sent through a third-party email marketing service, which receives your name and email address for that purpose. Every newsletter includes an unsubscribe link, and you can also ask us directly to remove you. Submitting a planning request without ticking the box does not add you to the newsletter.
Cookies and your choices
When you first visit, a cookie banner lets you accept all cookies, reject all optional cookies, or choose by category. You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link at the bottom of every page. If you withdraw consent, analytics cookies set on this site are removed.
- Necessary (always on): a cookie that remembers your cookie choice (kept for 180 days), and cookies used when site administrators log in. These do not track you.
- Analytics (only if you allow): Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, described below.
- Marketing (only if you allow): used to measure advertising and campaigns. We do not currently run advertising on this site.
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat it as a request to opt out of marketing cookies and any sharing of personal information for advertising.
Analytics
If you allow analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics (including through Google Tag Manager) to understand how visitors find and use this website, such as which pages are visited, how long visits last, and the type of device and browser used.
If you allow analytics cookies, we also use Microsoft Clarity, which records how visitors interact with pages (clicks, scrolling and mouse movement) to create heatmaps and session replays that help us improve the site. Clarity is designed to mask text typed into form fields.
If you do not allow analytics cookies, Google Analytics does not set cookies on your device, but Google may still receive limited, cookieless signals (for example, that a page was viewed) that it uses to estimate overall statistics. Microsoft Clarity and Google Tag Manager are not loaded at all.
You can learn more in how Google uses information from sites that use its services and the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
Information collected automatically
Like most websites, our hosting provider automatically records limited technical information, such as IP address, browser type and the pages requested, in server logs used for security and site administration.
Payments
This website does not process payment card information directly. If payment is required for a service or booking, payment is handled through a separate secure payment process, supplier, or booking platform.
How your information is used
Information collected through this website may be used to:
- respond to inquiries and planning requests
- provide travel-planning and booking-related assistance
- communicate about services, requests, reservations, or updates
- send newsletters to people who have opted in
- understand how inquiries reach us and improve the website (in summary reports)
- protect the security and integrity of the site and prevent spam
- maintain business and administrative records
Sharing of information
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
We share information only as needed to run this website and provide our services, with:
- our website hosting provider, which stores the website and its database
- our email delivery service and, if you subscribe, our email marketing service
- Akismet (Automattic), for spam filtering
- Google and Microsoft, for analytics, only if you allow analytics cookies
- our host agency, A. S. A. P. Cruises Inc., and the cruise lines, travel suppliers and booking systems needed to plan and book your trip
- authorities, where required by law or to protect our rights
Data retention
Planning requests and contact records are kept for as long as reasonably necessary to handle your request, provide our services, and meet record-keeping, legal and accounting obligations. Newsletter subscriptions last until you unsubscribe; we keep a record of your consent and of your unsubscribing so that you are not added again by mistake. Your cookie choice is remembered for 180 days, after which you will be asked again.
Your choices and rights
You may contact us to request access to, correction of, or deletion of the personal information we hold about you, subject to any records we are required to keep. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time, and change your cookie choices using the Cookie settings link. Depending on where you live, including California, you may have additional rights under local privacy laws; we will not discriminate against you for exercising them.
Third-party links
This website contains links to third-party websites, such as our social media pages. First Chapter Travel is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of those websites.
Security
Reasonable administrative and technical measures are used to protect information submitted through this website, including encrypted (HTTPS) connections and restricted access to stored requests. No internet transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.
Children’s privacy
This website is not directed to children, and personal information is not knowingly collected directly from children through the site. Information about children traveling in your party is collected only from you, as the adult planning the trip.
Contact
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or about your information, contact:
First Chapter Travel
kathryn@firstchaptertravel.com
(949) 274-8075
Changes to this policy
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. The revised version will be posted on this page with an updated effective date.