One of the travel websites that I visit quite often is posted by one of my favorite travel agent owners and writers, Richard Turen. The site is titled “Traveltruth.com”. He and his staff are very intentional in “telling it like it is”. They answer various and sundry questions sent to them by travelers, and one that I thought was interesting and wanted to share was the question about how to avoid getting sick while traveling on an airplane.
We just returned last Sunday from a great cruise experience, cruising the Western Caribbean out of the Texas port of Galveston. It was our 13th September cruise, and a good time was had by all!!!
NCL aptly named their newest ship in the fleet, Bliss. The dictionary defines this word as “great happiness”, and if you go on her and don't find bliss, I don't think it will be the ships fault.
One of my favorite websites to visit regarding regulations in flying on airlines today is the Transportation Security Administration website: www.tsa.gov. There is a world of information on there especially regarding what you can and cannot bring, along with some valuable tips.
Over the past 42 years since I've been in the travel business, travel sellers have had a variety of titles. Probably the most favored over the years is 'travel agent'. But there have been other handles like travel counselor, travel consultant, travel adviser, travel advisor, or as one in our office mentioned, travel slave based on the amount of money I pay her. Interestingly enough, the American Society of Travel Agents, after going by that name for 75 years, made the decision last week to rename themselves. That organization that represents those of us who work in the travel business have decided to name themselves, American Society of Travel Advisors....that's AdvisOrs. Obviously, they didn't have to change the initials.....still ASTA.
Seldom do travel agents extol the virtues of a driving vacation; they can't make a living talking about places where they can't realize a commission for their efforts. But, here in the middle of August, I thought it was about time I praised the efforts of the Texas Historical Commission, Texas Department of Transportation, and Convention and Visitors Bureaus of virtually every city in Texas to make our state a viable vacation destination.
Three years ago, the owner of Viking River Cruises made the decision to return to ocean cruising, but with a different model currently employed by the major cruise lines. He took a hint from the popular features of the river cruising business and morphed them into a new concept of ocean cruising.
Quite often I get asked which cruise line or ship do I prefer, in fact that question was asked yesterday in an interview with a potential cruiser. They usually don't like my answer because I've never been on one I didn't like!!!
For some folks, that question was answered in a survey conducted by Cruise Critic which is an on-line cruise review site. This was a survey covering a lot of “Bests” from their loyal and opinionated website participants.
A couple of weeks back, one of my favorite travel columnist, Richard Turen, had a tongue-in-cheek piece with a little reality included in the Travel Weekly that I thought bears additional coverage. My guess is that he had received several phone calls from folks wanting him to help plan their vacation, but with the caveat that they wanted a “good deal”, and “good, but cheap” vacation.
For over thirty years, we have planned group vacation travel. Most of our plans have been on cruises to different parts of the world, primarily because those types of vacations are easier to plan in addition to having a positive experience. In the past several years, we have limited our offerings to about 4 trips a year; the reason being when I'm escorting a group, I'm not selling!!
One of the more vexing quandaries facing a traveler today is the question posed above.....should I buy travel insurance?
To answer that question depends on several factors.....(1)how big is the travel investment? (2)health condition of the family? (3) how big a gambler are you or what are you willing to lose?
Piggy-backing on last weeks message about summer vacations, I thought it might be a good idea to talk about some trip packing reminders, whether you are going in the summer or any time of the year. Here's some things you might want to remember to pack with you:
Hopefully you are like some “travel smart” people and have already purchased your summer vacation airline tickets, and if so, you have been rewarded with a good deal!! The report came out last week that airline customers and travel sellers should brace up for a series of airfare increases because of the hefty hike expected in the cost of jet fuel.
I was reminded again the other day when a person came in talking about a vacation that they had “won”, but had not been able to make the arrangements to travel on the days they wanted to travel. I was someone they knew and trusted, and I got to help her crystallize their vacation plans, just as she wanted it.
Thanks to the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island, we have a “new” word.....well new to me anyway......”vog”. That's volcanic smog, or air pollution created by vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide gas released from Kilauea. It reacts in the atmosphere with oxygen, sunlight, moisture and other gases and particles creating a haze downwind from Kilauea. One person who lives over there and grew up in Southern California compared it to “Los Angeles-like smog”.
Several weeks ago the travel magazine, Travel Weekly, had a special supplement regarding one of the most visited domestic cities in the United States. It won't quite rival Orlando in annual visitor count, only because there are not as many children who visit there. On the other hand, for the past several years Las Vegas has done their best in trying to make that destination a more family-friendly place to visit.
And......they have much to crow about!!! Tourism officials announced last week that they became the first United States destination to surpass 70 million annual visitors. They greeted 72 million visitors in 2017 which is a 5% increase over the previous year.
Three of the last four weeks we have been visiting with our listeners and readers about cruising. It's a great vacation subject....one of my favorite items to sell in our multi-varied catalog of vacation options. One of the reasons I enjoy selling it is because I vicariously travel with them on their vacations, especially planning some of the details. Another reason is that very rarely, over the 40+ years, I haven't had a dissatisfied cruise customer. That's a real plus in our business!!!
Last week we talked about Royal Caribbean's new ship, the Symphony of the Seas, and since our Carnival sales rep was in for a visit, I was reminded that they too have some “big” ships to boast about. One of them, the Vista, is being re-positioned to Galveston.
A couple years ago, we took the family on a cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale on a Royal Caribbean ship named Allure of the Seas. At the time, she and her sister, the Oasis of the Seas, were the largest passenger ships that have ever been made. They topped out at 225,000 tons and had a passenger capacity of 5400 passengers.
