Following the Dream (Part 3)

So if you have read parts 1 and 2, you are probably trying to now make the connection between going into real estate and following my destiny into the realm of travel. Life is like a big puzzle and the full picture never really appears until more and more pieces are connected. So follow along now as I reveal more of my puzzle.

I decided on real estate because I felt I was a good fit. I had a marketing and sales background coming out of college. I studied buyer behavior as well as developed skills in customer service throughout my corporate career. I also knew real estate would provide a great chance for me to learn the ropes of entrepreneurship and self-employment. I knew that, to succeed as a business owner, you had to commit 100% of your time which is why I knew I needed to quit my full-time corporate job and jump all the way into the pool...so to speak.

So fast forward again with me...I am now in real estate. I have a good client base being built up. I am focusing on service which is also making me referable. Things are going well, so well that my wife and I start to plan a future as a mom and dad. Without going into a long history...we were childless due to medical complications associated with a brain tumor that my wife had survived right before we got married. We always knew that someday we may consider adoption so my new career was also going to be a good fit with being an adoptive parent since I could be home each day. So we started the process that one must go through to adopt through private agencies. Life was just moving along down the path that we thought we were going to be staying on for a while.

But then it happens. Life throws you a curve just to see how you can handle change and adversity. No one can really prepare you to hear those words spoken to the one you love. But there my wife and I were in the Dr’s office as he was letting my wife know in the most gentle way he knew how...she had cancer. (to be continued)

Following the Dream (Part 2)

As I continued down my road (not knowing or seeing yet how it would all someday be part of destiny), I found myself one day accepting a position at a company in rural Tennessee. Little did I realize that this job would mark the beginning step into my career in travel. Also little did I know that this new job would soon send me to the very place I dreamt about as a child...Japan. My first view out of the window of that jumbo jet was the rice fields and tiled roofs of the houses and farms surrounding Tokyo’s international airport. It made me acutely aware that I was now a foreigner in a strange Country and I had become the traveler I had wondered about so often as a child.

Those many trips overseas taught me a great deal about people, culture and life, but I was also learning the intricacies of how to travel abroad.

It is funny how the pieces of life seem to all start coming together. While I had begun to stress over the amount of time I was spending away from home, away from my wife during all of my business related trips, I was slowly looking inward to find out what I truly wanted to do and what gave me true fulfillment when it came to my career and work.

I knew I wanted to be in control of my own destiny. I learned that working hard in the corporate world did nothing to truly give you true peace and security. So I had made my decision to seek some form of self-employment where I felt more in control and where I could work while still spending more time at home.

So off I jumped...pulled my chute and trusted I would succeed in the world of...real estate. (to be continued)

Following the Dream (Part 1)

Many of you know me through the various social media outlets that I participate in while others know me from the old days where we connected while I was on a totally different career path. Some of you know me simply by what you read here on this blog. But I am not sure many really know or understand how I got here and really what I do on a day to day basis for a living.

This series of posts will give all of you more of a glimpse into who I am and how I ended up here; here as in writing and talking about travel related stories.

It seems sometimes that destiny has a path for all of us, but it is up to us to be flexible enough and sometimes brave enough to jump on that path and remain there so destiny can come to fruition. My destiny started very early on. Growing up in the State of California, I was privy to learning about different cultures and people at a very early age. My best friends in grade school were from all heritages and backgrounds; Spanish, Korean, Filipino, Japanese, Taiwanese etc. That early immersion started to give root to the desire to learn and see more of what was outside the mid-sized city that I was growing up in.

I can remember way back to the times that I would be driven over to the San Francisco International Airport with my parents to pick up friends and family. I would sit there in that airport and watch large jumbo jets take off and vanish out of site over the coastal mountain range that separated the airport from the Pacific Ocean; I would sit there and daydream about the far off land that the plane might be headed to. Were they going to Japan? Maybe they were headed to Australia or China. I would sit and watch and it seemed like time just stood still.

That curiosity never waned as I got older. I would still get in that airport even as a teen and young adult and walk over to the international terminal just to see the guests arriving from various foreign countries and just wonder who they were and where they were from and why were they here? I knew that someday I would be the one arriving through customs and it was just a matter of time.

Well..fast forward. I did travel domestically through my college years and on into my corporate careers after graduation. Since college and life took me away from my home state of California, I found myself being a tour guide for those friends of mine wanting to travel from the midwest out to the west coast. I found that I had a knack for arranging different aspects of trips for friends and co-workers so much so that many co-workers would come to me first for flight and hotel suggestions before they would eventually call our corporate travel agent to officially book their trip. The light bulb started to go off a bit when I found out that I was basically doing the travel agent’s job and all he/she was doing was taking the order. But I was not yet open to where destiny was trying to take me even though most of my co-workers jokingly would say...”you should be the travel agent for our company.”

The destiny bulb was starting to flicker, but not fully lighting up as of yet... (to be continued)

What is Behind Door #1?

If you are like me when you travel, you always have wondered what is going on behind the scenes at various places. We all want to know what is going on behind the scenes after we wave goodbye to our luggage at the airline check-in counter; sometimes we regret we didn’t spend a more quiet intimate moment with those bags during that goodbye as we later discovered it would be the last time we would ever spend time together. So naturally our minds try to guess at the mysteries that take place in the area where us mere mortals are strictly forbidden. It is like trying to sneak a peak at Oz.

Well...that same wondering takes place every time I step foot on a cruise ship. I have often wanted to see and hear of the goings on behind those doors that plainly read, “crew members only.” How is it that a cruise ship can feed thousands of patrons every night with such speed and accuracy? How can thousands of beds and staterooms get tidied up while we are gone for what only seems like a few minutes? It is like something out of an “I Dream of Genie” episode. We know that what makes a cruise a real vacation is the attention to detail by the crew and the royalty treatment that we all receive that helps us all escape some of the stresses of everyday life for just a while.

But I am afraid that many have forgotten that it is the back-breaking work of each crew member that makes a cruise one of the best vacation options available. We lose site of that because we never get to see what is going on behind those closed and forbidden doors, that is until now.

Warning...sometimes reality can alter perceptions. You can now get an idea of what it is like to be an employee on these floating cities that we call cruise ships when you pick up a copy of “Cruise Confidential,” written by Brian Bruns. I just picked up a copy of this book the other day and I am losing sleep because I cannot put it down. I have to admit that I was a bit apprehensive at first. I was not sure if I was ready to see the truth of what really goes on “below deck,” as I will refer to it. Was I ready to know how the employees are actually treated? Was I prepared to learn of the hours that each crew member is required to work during each cruise? Did I even fully understand how each crew member is compensated and did I really need to understand that?

The book is a must-read in my opinion for anyone who has made cruise vacations their primary means of getting away from it all or even for any future cruiser. It is brutally honest, not only of what life is like working on a cruise ship, but also honest of how cruise vacationers are perceived by the crew, especially Americans. Now before you discount what is said of the American tourist, please know that the book is written by an American crew member. He let’s us all see how many are viewed when it comes to our consumption of food, or should I say the over-consumption. The book has helped me understand the everyday struggles that a crew member must work through, but also helps me see that we (the passengers) can make their struggles much greater by the way some act and treat them as if they are their indentured servants.

As Brian states in the book, each food service employee is required to work all day, breakfast, lunch and dinner with virtually no breaks in between. The tips we all give them at the end of the cruise is the majority of their income. So don’t think for a minute that you are over-tipping someone with the standard $10 per person per day recommendation. And don’t think, as some do, that just because you only ate in the buffet each night somehow relieves you of having to tip any of the dining help. Each person you see, the person getting you water or tea at the buffet, the person clearing your plate after you ate lunch by the pool, the person keeping the buffet lines full of plates, every person there relies on your tips as their main source of income and they are working VERY hard to earn those tips (80+ hours a week on average).

The book also gives you some insight into the mass of international humanity that is below deck. Every crew member, with the exception of the rare American like Brian, is from some other Country and speaks at least 2 if not 3-5 languages. They all have to know and speak English when they are “above deck” where the passengers are. The book will help you see how we all should be patient with the crew since they are having to switch between their own native tongue and English just for us. And for those who have the idea that they should speak English because they are in “our Country,” uh...they are not actually. Just because the ship has its home port in the U.S. does not make it a U.S. territory. It sails you and me to FOREIGN Countries where we are the minority along with the crew members so just chuck that line of reasoning right out the window and be respectful. We are all a part of the human race are we not?

In summary...the book did a great job in helping me understand more of how it all works behind the scenes. Knowing how it works may alter some of my decisions as far as how I order in the dining room and how much extra I may tip those that went above and beyond to make sure I had a great time. The book will help me be more patient with any crew member in any situation where I may think something is not going as I had planned or expected.

So I encourage you to pick up Brian’s book and realize that knowing the truth of what does happen behind the forbidden doors can help us all have a better overall vacation experience.

Princess Cruise 2010--A Summary

You know you either had a great vacation or a really bad vacation when you find yourself sitting and reflecting on all the different things you did on your trip days and even weeks after the vacation is over. Well…I have already stated that our vacation with Princess Cruise Lines was a GREAT vacation and I still find myself pondering all of the great things we were able to experience. Some of the things I have continued to think about even include more of the “pros” that the Emerald Princess has to offer and Princess Cruise Lines in general.

My previous two posts did not mention some of them that I feel should be pointed out before I leave the subject entirely. In fact, I can’t believe I had forgot to mention this one in Part 1. Those of you who have cruised before with other cruise lines know that, in most cases, you cannot access your stateroom on the day of embarkation until sometime after 1:30 or 2:00PM. That means that, if you board the ship before that time, you have to carry some of your carry-on luggage with you as you go to the “welcome aboard” buffet or as you tour the ship. It can be quite a burden if you were one of those who probably packed too much in your carry-on. With Princess we were able to get into our stateroom as soon as we boarded which was just a little past 12:00PM. This may seem small to some of you who have never cruised before, but trust me, it is a big deal for those of us who have waited in some cases until 2:30PM before we were allowed into our staterooms. So again…thumbs up Princess.

The last pro I will mention is another one that I am mad at myself for overlooking in the previous posts. Again, for those of you who have at least one cruise under your belt, most likely you were directed to a check-in line at the cruise terminal where you either waited in the general boarding line or you were lucky enough to be in one of the “frequent cruiser” or suite passenger line. I am a fan of how Princess breaks the lines up into deck categories. So, for example if you are on the Plaza Deck, you only have to go wait in the line designated for that deck. That makes it easier for the personnel as well since the stateroom keys are already broken down by deck and placed near that line. I know…you are probably thinking that I am really getting too detailed, but trust me, those little things can make the whole process go much smoother and can get your vacation off to a great start.

So with all of this said…I will leave you with a video showing the pictures and visuals of why I say that our vacation was one of the best ones we have had so far. Please leave comments, questions, opinions etc.

Princess Cruise 2010 Part 2

I want to continue my review of the Emerald Princess. I had mentioned that I would be discussing some more of the ship herself and then briefly talk about the ports of call.

The ship has some quirks that I want to mention. The best way to describe them is to simply call them “dead ends.” For example...if you want to get to the Botticelli Dining Room on Deck six near the back of the ship (aft) and you happen to be in the forward or middle part of the ship, you have to go up to deck 7 and walk towards the back and then go back down to deck 6. And just try to get to the quiet, adult pool in the aft part of the ship from deck 15 or 16...you must navigate your way through all of the buffet dining areas to get there. You saw a lot of people walking around looking confused at how some of the areas were laid out. I say all of this just to prepare you and give you ample time to pack your compass or GPS unit.

Another “con” I will mention is the Thermal Suite in the Lotus Spa. For those of you who are experienced spa-goers, you know that these areas are supposed to be for unwinding and relaxing. They are generally considered “quiet areas.” Some ships such as the Disney Wonder will have nice peaceful music piped in to help set the mood along with the low lighting. Well...the Emerald’s Thermal Suite had neither and more often had clientele who felt the need to yammer on about some mundane issue in a very loud, less-than-soothing tone of voice. Most of these folks were in there with friends and used the area more as a social venue than one of relaxation. Since you must pay a fee to use these areas, I feel Princess needs to address this and simply mount some “quiet please” signs as you enter and also let patrons know that it is meant to be a place of tranquility.

Ok...enough of the quirks and cons. Here is another “pro.” We have been on some ships where we felt the shopping was less than adequate, but that was not the case with the Emerald. Some ships load up their shops with large selections of alcohol and cigarettes that you can buy duty free and then leave little room for those items that some of us prefer to shop for on board such as logo apparel or other souvenir-related items. The Emerald Princess had a great selection in “Calypso Cove” of both souvenir clothing and other things that you might want to purchase in order to take home as a cool reminder of your cruise experience. I am also pleased to say that their pricing for some of the duty-free items such as perfume or cologne were not that much different than the prices on shore at some of the more well-known duty free shops. So budget accordingly!

Ok...time to get off of the ship and talk quickly about the ports of call. We made 4 stops; Princess Cays (their private island), St Maarten, St Thomas and Grand Turk. We have been to 2 of the 4 ports on a previous cruise so I will only just touch on what we did on this cruise that was different than the previous cruise. First, we booked an excursion for St Maarten through a 3rd party excursion company called Shoretrips.com. It was a short, 3-hour island tour of the Dutch and French sides of the island with 3 stops along the way. It went great. The van was comfortable and air-conditioned and the driver was very nice and courteous. I would recommend using this company if you want to be more in control of your schedule and want to pay a little less than what the cruise lines usually charge for basically the same excursions. The tour itself was OK, but not great and one we will probably not do a second time. We got to see the French town of Marigot, try some tasty French pastries and snap a few pictures of Orient Beach. Those were pretty much the highlights of the tour. Most likely we will just stick to shopping on the Dutch side the next time we visit St Maarten and take advantage of getting back on the ship early. I should also say that St Maarten now is probably our least favorite port of call in the Caribbean (Nassau is our least favorite of all time).

In St Thomas we decided to go on our own and see what we could find to do in town. I had done a little research and found that there is a very cool walking tour that you can do after you catch a cab from the pier to the main downtown area. You can ask to be dropped off at Emancipation Park and from there you can slowly work your way up the hill to Blackbeard’s Castle, passing several historic homes and buildings along the way. The scenery, as you make your way up the hill, is breathtaking so make sure you take lots of batteries for your camera.

The 2 biggest surprises to us on this cruise (surprise in a good sense of the word) were the stops in Grand Turk and Princess Cays. First let me say that both are beautiful islands. The various blues and turquoise that the ocean paints for you is just hard to put into words. Both stops had beautiful beaches loaded with palm trees. My expectations were not that high for Grand Turk which is maybe why we felt blown away by what we saw. It is still a fairly new stop for cruise ships and the new cruise ship center is clean and basically just a few steps away from where you dock. But I must admit that the nicest surprise was the beach adjacent to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. It is a FREE beach with loads of lounge chairs and plenty of room (especially if you happen to be the only ship in port as we were). And to top it off...the pool at Margaritaville was also FREE and again had an abundance of lounge chairs which made the stop very similar to the one we had at Princess Cays. Both were days where we felt completely relaxed and didn’t feel any need to plan any additional excursions. Thumbs up to Grand Turk!

But I want to end this review mentioning more about Princess Cays. Previous to this cruise, I had been able to visit 2 other cruise line private islands; Disney’s Castaway Cay and NCL’s Great Stirrup Cay. Princess Cays blew both of them away in my opinion. I know I know...if you are a Disney fan, that will be hard to fathom, but it is true. The only and I mean only advantage I see that Disney’s Castaway Cay has over Princess Cays is the fact that the Disney Cruise Line Ships actually dock versus having to be tendered in as you do with Princess. But that is it. Princess Cays is just as beautiful, just as pristine and the barbecue was just as good. To me, what makes Princess Cays better is that you did not have to take a tram to get to the main beach area and the beach actually seemed larger. I also felt the overall landscape was more scenic than both Disney’s and NCL’s island and gave you lots of room to move and walk around. The tendering process went very smooth and quick. My wife and I both agreed that our stop at Princess Cays may have been the best one out of the whole cruise and frankly we cannot wait to get back there.

So to keep this post from being another novel, I will just sum it all up by saying that I can recommend Princess and the Emerald Princess without hesitation. If you are a family...just know that they do have great kid’s programs, but the overall “kid population” may be much smaller than what you will find on other major cruise lines such as Disney, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Case in point...this cruise had over 3000 passengers on board and only 77 of them were under the age of 18. Depending on your perspective, that could either be a pro or a con. But I say give Princess a try if you have not already. I do not think you will be disappointed. If you would like to see pictures of the ship and ports of call...click HERE

Thanks Princess for a wonderful experience.

Princess Cruise Review 2010

I want to just hurry and say something right at the beginning of this review so everyone understands...we had a GREAT time onboard the Emerald Princess. In fact...I will even say that this was the best cruise so far.

So with that being said...this review will discuss both the positives and negatives of the ship. Cruises are like hotels...each should stand alone on its own merits. In my opinion, it is not fair to judge an entire hotel chain based on one good or bad experience at a particular hotel in a particular city. I feel the same about cruises. It is not fair to judge an entire cruise line based on one good or bad experience. The overall experience relates directly with the management and regular staff that is onboard that particular ship just like a hotel.

So this review comes from the perspective of my experience aboard the Emerald Princess and I will be comparing it to my experience with other ships such as Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas and the Freedom of the Seas as well as NCL’s Norwegian Sky and Disney Cruise Line’s the Disney Wonder.

So let’s get started. First let me mention the ship’s overall appearance. I found the ship to be strikingly beautiful. It is still a fairly new ship so I expected everything to be shiny and clean and it did not disappoint. I noticed the staff on a regular basis cleaning, doing touch-up painting and staining and keeping it as sparkling as possible. Lot’s of calm color tones (earthy versus the bright neon on Carnival ships), lot’s of deep, dark wood colors in the lounges with comfy leather chairs and elegant artwork throughout the ship. I am a traditional sort of person which is probably why I found the ship’s public areas to be more appealing than my wife did. She prefers more of the modern decor that is found on the Royal Caribbean ships. But overall...I give the public areas an “A” grade as far as decor and cleanliness is concerned.

Next...let me mention the staff. Attentive, caring and friendly are words that come to mind when I think of how we were treated onboard the ship. Most of the staff that you passed in the hallways were always ready to give you a smile and warm hello. Our stateroom attendant was probably the best so far out of all of our cruises. He was ready to go get whatever you needed and was extremely aware of making sure you had your laundry back in time for the dinner’s each evening. Thank you Isidro! Our dining staff (Saulo from Peru and Cecelia from Brazil) were top-notch. We judge the wait staff simply by how present they are (at the right times) and how willing they are to help you find the right food choice. We also judge them by their ability to pay attention to the simple details. My dinner drink of choice was simply an ice tea with lemon and my wife’s was a diet coke with lime. After the first night...we never had to ask for those again. We were greeted each evening with our beverages and refills were always done promptly. I can say that this is not the case with some of our past cruises so we appreciate the staff that makes it a point to pay attention to the small things. So again my grade for the staff is an “A+.”

Moving on, let me discuss just briefly our stateroom. We were on the Plaza Deck (deck 5) in P309 which is right off of the art gallery. We were in an ocean view stateroom. The location was excellent! We spent a lot of time at the various public areas of deck 5 such as the International Cafe which serves wonderful little treats of all kinds throughout the day (including my wife’s favorite, “Cookies and Milk”) and we also frequented the Internet Cafe where we kept folks updated back at home. We would choose this deck again for any future cruises aboard the Emerald or any of its sister ships. The stateroom itself was adequate for 2 passengers, but I cannot imagine adding a 3rd or 4th. The bathroom was probably the smallest that we have had to date, but the closet and storage space was the best so I guess that is the trade-off. Here is the only exception to what I said earlier about the decor; the decor of our stateroom can be summed up in one word...BLAND. It just was not as nicely decorated as any of our previous cruises. We had a flat-screen TV which was nice and we were thrilled to see that they actually play old episodes of “The Love Boat” onboard (we love that old show). For those that may not know...Princess Cruise Line’s Pacific Princess was “The Love Boat.” Overall stateroom grade...a “B.”

Ok enough about the stateroom. I have to next mention the food. I can say that the food was good, but not great in comparison to some previous cruises. I was hoping it would be a “wow” experience when we ate each meal and it was just not that. Don’t get me wrong...I enjoyed the meals, but some of the dishes just lacked some overall flavor. We ate most meals in the main dining room (Botticelli) where we also chose to do one of the traditional dining times (early dining at 6PM). The staff more than made up for the lack of wow food experience. The buffets were ok...food was warm to hot on most occasions, but the buffet areas are crowded and not laid out well. We prefer the way Royal Caribbean designs their buffet areas which minimizes the congestion around each food station. We enjoyed the pizza pool-side as well as the hot-dogs and burgers which were all near the pool areas. Food tip: if you like gelato...make sure you try some at the International Cafe on deck 5. For a small fee (under $2), you get 3 heaping helpings of their gelato and it was excellent.

But now for my first real negative (outside of the bland stateroom decor). We ate at one of the 2 specialty restaurants...the Crown Grill. The Crown Grill resembles some of the best steak houses on land. The decor is warm and elegant with lots of dark woods and low lighting. It would have been a great place to celebrate a special occasion such as an anniversary etc. BUT...the food was disappointing along with the service. The server was very nice, but he messed up our side-dish order and never brought me an ice tea that I had asked for at least twice. Remember what I said about attention to the small details? But really the most disappointing part was the steak and other dishes. I ordered the filet mignon (8oz). It was very bland and frankly tasteless. I salted it at least twice trying to get some flavor out of it and it didn’t work. And the grain of the meat resembled more of a roast than a good filet. The sides were the same with the exception of the corn casserole. You pay at least $25 per person to eat in the specialty restaurants and I have come to expect a “wow” experience in each one that we have eaten in and this was less than that by far. So save your $25 and stick with the dining room or maybe try Sabatini’s (the other specialty restaurant option). So if I were to grade the overall food experience...it would receive a “B-.”

Hurrying along, the entertainment onboard was excellent. They put a lot of time and money into each production show and it really does show. We were also able to see at least 3 comedians onboard. Our 2 favorites were Kevin Hughes and Phil Tag. We were also able to see Phil Tag again in the Explorer’s Lounge and he did not disappoint. The only negative about the shows is that the Princess Theater is very small compared to the number of passengers onboard. Tip: Get to either the early or late show at least 30-45 minutes early if you want a seat. Another great entertainment option onboard is what they call “MUTS” or Movies Under the Stars. The staff prepares each lounge chair with a blanket and a comfy chair cover with a built-in pillow and they also provide fresh popped popcorn for each movie. The same movie screen shows movies and music videos throughout the day. Entertainment...an “A.”

Since I have probably lost you attention along the way in this lengthy post, I will end this portion now and write a part 2 a little later on where I will discuss a few more aspects of the ship as well as the ports of call. I will also be posting a link to all of the photos taken during the cruise a bit later so stay tuned and feel free to comment or ask any particular question that you may have about the ship, the cruise line, etc.