If Coffee Could Fly

If coffee could fly, we would all be flying first class.  This will be a brief look into the psyche of the American traveler. Proceed with caution, I may be talking about you.

We live in an age where everyone wants Ritz Carlton accommodations at Motel 6 prices.  Americans will spend hours searching high and low for the absolute cheapest price on every aspect of their vacation.  Travelers will opt for flights that leave at 5:00am with connections in 3 different airports and that does not arrive at their actual destination until 11:00pm that night to save $100 on airfare and then complain about not getting a bag of pretzels for free.  That same traveler will book a room at a hotel that they found on patheticallydirtcheapgetaways.biz and then spend 45 minutes with the motel’s manager complaining about the fact that the room is located near the hotel’s trash compactor.

But get this; that same traveler, the one who just nickeled and dimed every part of their “dream vacation,” will then march down to their favorite coffee venue and order a double-shot, no foam, non-fat, latte with a hint of cinnamon sprinkled on top and pay over $3.00 for a Venti and never complain a bit about not getting a free muffin.  Oh…and they do that 5 days a week or more.  You do the math.

Go figure…

Travel Safety: Why Mexico Gets a Bad Rap

This article is being contributed by guest blogger Matt Smith.  Matt owns and operates Detour Travel and you can visit his blog by clicking on this link.

Many people hear that Detour's tour destinations include Mexico, and they seem surprised. They think the whole country must be like the ugly stories that make the news.

Meanwhile, I've never heard anyone say they wouldn't visit Philadelphia, New Orleans, or Washington, DC... even though they're all in the top ten "Most Murderous Cities" in the U.S.

I had this conversation with my grandfather. He was freaked out by the word Mexico. Once I explained that it's a great place, he still wanted me to cover Detour's website with assurances that you'll survive our trips in one piece.

This is the same guy who took my family on a trip to DC last year in honor of his 90th birthday. We went to museums and restaurants, rode the subway and walked the streets - without once fearing for our lives. Simply being within the city limits doesn't get you shot. There are other factors involved.

Mexico is similar. Setting foot in Mexico doesn't automatically put you in the middle of the drug wars. Our tours, to Guadalajara and a few nearby communities, stay far from the border areas and major drug corridors. We pay attention to the U.S. State Department's recommendations on what areas are safe, and we ask our friends in Guadalajara. (They all feel it's a safe place to be unless you're personally involved in the drug trade.)

We recommend the U.S. State Dept as a resource on travel safety no matter where you're going. They offer country-specific information as well as general tips on traveling safely.

Common sense disclaimer: Safe is a relative term. Nothing is certain. We could go to the safest place and still encounter random violence... just like we could bundle up, wash our hands, pop vitamin C pills, and still catch a cold.

What is your impression of traveling to Mexico?

Disney's Beach Club Resort

I am long overdue for this review.  We traveled again to Walt Disney World back in January of this year (2012) and we had the privilege this time of staying at the Beach Club Resort.

The Beach Club is in the deluxe category per Disney’s own classification system.  The resort is located adjacent to Epcot and is also extremely close to Holly Studios.  It offers amenities for all age groups.  It has 1 table service restaurant (Cape May), 2 quick service food locations, 2 pools (1 awesome water slide), 2 lounges, 1 pool bar, spa, fitness center and much more.

The decor will remind you of turn of the century resorts that dotted the eastern seaboard landscape; elegant, but casual and relaxing.  Lots of soft blues and yellows and rich wood accents. 

The grounds are chalked full of beautiful flower beds everywhere you turn to look. It is well worth the time to just simply walk the grounds with your camera and take advantage of all of the photo ops that it offers.

So you can probably tell already that this is going to be a positive review overall.  But as I always try to do, I will mention the good and also point out areas that may need improvement or at least something you should be aware of before you go.

So let’s get the negatives out of the way first. 

There are 3 areas that I want to quickly address.  First, the shopping at the Beach Club is not the greatest.  We found the selection of merchandise to be quite a bit smaller that some of the other deluxe category resorts such as the Contemporary, the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian etc. 

Second, the quick service venues offered far fewer choices than again some of the other resorts within the deluxe category.  This can be a bigger disappointment for those guests who are using one of Disney’s dining plans.  I again am comparing the one marketplace area inside the Beach Club to such places like Captain Cook’s inside the Polynesian or the Contempo Cafe inside the Contemporary.

The third and final negative would be the layout of the hotel itself.  There are a lot of lefts and rights that you will most likely make before ever getting to your room once you leave the main lobby.  My advice, blaze a trail on the way to your room and pack a few snacks to eat along the way.

Those are really the only negatives that I feel are worth noting.  Now I have read other reviews where some like to point out the age of the resort and claim it is looking worn and tattered.  But what most of those naysayers fail to mention is that Disney does dispatch personnel to fix major issues outside of their normal maintenance and sprucing up schedules.  In fact, I observed one guest getting a close up of a broken door hinge on one of the doors leading from the rooms out into one of the courtyard areas.  I am sure that person was making sure everyone saw how old and broken things are.  But what they probably will not tell you is that the door was fixed during our stay as well.  Every resort has times of the year that are more advantageous for routine fixing of things and that usually corresponds with off-seasons.  We were there during the off-season and I witnessed major repairs going on every day from painting to replacing door handles and locks on every room. 

I say all of that to say...please take the negative reviews with a grain of salt.

So now let’s move on to the positives.  There is a big one for this resort that, to me, trumps, some if not all of the negatives...LOCATION!  If you are a fan of Epcot and Hollywood Studios, then you cannot beat the location of this resort.  Our room was located in such a way that we would walk out the door downstairs, hang a left and be in Epcot within 5 mins.  Or...if we were feeling a tad more adventurous, we would take the bridge over to the Boardwalk Resort and walk the trail from it over to Hollywood Studios and be in the park in about 20 mins. 

Now this benefit also applies to the Yacht Club, Swan and Dolphin and also the Boardwalk resort which are all deluxe resorts in the same area, but only the Beach Club is that close to one of the parks (5 mins or less).  That makes this area of resorts my first choice when looking at staying a one of Disney’s deluxe resorts.

That means that you only need to take a bus to the Magic Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom.  And that means you will be maximizing your time in the parks and not spending as much in transit.

The resort was beautiful.  The staff was gracious. The grounds were immaculately manicured.  The standard rooms are clean, offer double vanity sinks in the bathroom, have decent sized balconies and have very comfortable bedding.  The pool and water-slide were a blast, but all of those were just nice add-ons to me.  The location alone would make us choose this resort again in a heartbeat.

So you are probably sitting there saying...is that it?  Is that the full review?  Yes it is.  We were so pleased with the location that it really did make our trip one of the best so far.  It helped us relax more knowing we could simply walk back to our resort if we got a little tired (the days we were in Epcot and HS naturally).  We were able to do everything we wanted to do and feel fairly refreshed after our trip.  What more can you ask for after a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth??

Do You Charge Me a Fee?

That is a standard question that travel agents get asked by prospective clients.  I am finding that the majority of today’s travelers do not understand how travel agents get compensated.  So I wanted to write and answer the question, “how doe a travel agent get paid?”

In 99% of the cases where I am working with a client on a particular trip, my services are free to the client (I will explain the 1% in a moment).  The travel “system” as I will call it, has a travel agent’s compensation built in and is invisible to the client.  For example, major hotel chains, cruise lines and even resort destinations such as Disneyland and Walt Disney World offer commission to travel agents as a way of saying “thank you” for bringing clients their way.  The price the consumer pays would be the same whether they used a travel agent or not.  Naturally there are benefits for using a travel agent, but that has already been addressed in previous posts.

So please understand that our compensation is being paid by the suppliers to us (the travel agents) there are no additional fees being tacked on to the consumer’s cost.  

But here is where the exception comes in, the 1% that I mentioned; airlines quit paying commissions to travel agents several years back due to their own economic issues.  So if a client is only interested in booking airfare through a travel agent, the travel agent has to charge a service fee in order to make any income.  Those service fees are discussed ahead of time so there are no surprises.  I personally charge a small fee unless the client has booked other commissionable items such as a hotel, rental car, cruise etc, in which case I waive my fee.

But please understand this one last point.  Almost every professional travel agent out there works off of commission only.  We do not get paid salaries.  So if you go to a travel agent for help with learning about a destination or a cruise and so on, and then choose to take that information and book it yourself, that professional just worked for nothing.  Travel agents have bills to pay and families to feed just like every other working person so please consider that before taking their professional advice and info and then rushing out to book something on your own because you think you can get a better deal.

I hope this answers the question.  Please feel free to ask other questions or offer a comment or opinion.

Dear TSA...

Dear TSA in the Kansas City International Airport,

Your job is to simply inspect bags.

Your job is not to scowl at every passenger that gets within your presence.

Your job is to make sure everyone gets through the detectors that determine if you have anything metal on you

Your job is not to yell at someone who may be new to the process

Your job is to have the procedures clearly defined on signage before someone steps up to the baggage inspection conveyor

Your job is not to treat someone like they are an idiot or criminal because things were not adequately explained beforehand

Your job is simply one of inspection

Your job does not make you someone of supreme authority

So here is my simple advice...just stick to doing an effective job and be human about it and try less to be a posterior orifice to everyone you meet

Sincerely,

Someone who simply wants to get from point A to point B without much hassle

If I Ran an Airline...

If you are a fairly frequent traveler, one of the things that probably frustrates you the most is flying.  Most airlines have done a successful job of making it a huge hassle from start to finish.  Now granted some of the aggravation has nothing to do with the airlines and more with the security process we all most go through now.  But you would think that at least one airline would grab a clue and see that airline passengers are becoming increasingly hacked off well before they ever step through the door of an airport.

From the time you click on an airline’s website, you immediately feel tension because nothing is simple anymore.  Do you want to pay for “coach-flexible?”  Or how about the “super-triple-saver-web-only” fare?  If you have a bank account in the Caymans with a few million in it, you may even want to buy the “business class-flexible-early fare.”  That is just the beginning.  Now that you have selected the time you want with the fare that is going to require a new mortgage on the home, it is now the time to decide if you want to actually select your own seat.  Most likely there will be a charge for that so don’t tally up the final cost quite yet.  Or how about wifi or luggage?  Do you plan on actually changing clothes on your trip?  That’s gonna cost ya.  Ugh!  I am getting frustrated just typing this.

To top it all off, we still have to listen to airlines whine when their quarterly reports come out showing that they are still losing money.  So here it is, here is what I would do, if I ran an airline.

First...I would do away with different fares across all flights and all times.  Each valued guest would pay only one fare of $250 for a roundtrip ticket.  How many times have you boarded a plane and sat down and wondered what the person next to you paid for the same exact flight in the same exact row of seats etc?  If you are like me, you are afraid to ask.  You don’t want to know that you maybe paid double of what that person paid.  So away with varying fares. Away I say!  One fare only.  And if you want to sit in first class (I would do away with business class), you all pay one fare of $500 for a roundtrip flight.  No more upgrades.  No more using mileage to get bumped up.  Just pay the fare and the seat is yours.

Second, you would only be able to book a flight via the internet. You could still go through a travel agent or tour company, but they too would have to book via the internet.  That would significantly reduce the number of employees needed and would allow me to properly staff and train the customer service department which would still be accessible by phone. My customer service staff would be the best of the best to handle any form of issues that might come up during travel and they would be able to handle existing reservations etc.

Third and finally, No more nickel and dime’ing the passengers.  There would be no charge for 2 checked bags per person.  Each flight would offer free wifi.  Each flight would offer complimentary snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.  Each flight would also offer fresh baked cookies and satellite radio for free.  

Think about that now...each flight, no matter of where it flies and at what time, would all be the same flat fare of $250.  That would fill up the flights with the most desirable times and connections quicker.  If someone knew what they were going to pay, they would want to book further ahead of time to ensure they get the best times etc.  No more last minute sales to fill seats.  

So the question is, would you fly with my airline if it was structured that way?  Would you be willing to pay the $250 knowing that you were going to get great service and no more “extra fee” surprises?  Would you be more willing to buy in advance when planning a vacation?  Would the extra $250 be worth it to upgrade to first class?

Now I just need to come up with a catchy name...

Making Lasting Memories

Disney’s latest theme at their parks is “Let the Memories Begin.”  That is what vacations are all about isn’t it?  Making precious and lasting memories with the ones you love?  Well...that is exactly what we did during my family’s Walt Disney World vacation this past September.  In fact, there were so many memories, I am not even sure where to begin.  

I guess I could begin with the memory of us climbing through the storm clouds as we left the Branson airport and having my arteries shocked into overdrive due to a direct hit by a lightning bolt.  Thank goodness I took along some extra personal items in my carry-on bag.  What a memory!  

Or maybe I should reflect on the memory of my wife trying to step into a van we had rented on Disney property and hearing her blurt “OUCH” as she sprained her ankle.  I certainly have the memory of her searing my brain with her eyes as she declared it was my fault that she was distracted while trying to enter the vehicle.  

Better yet, one of the greatest memories was when my dear sweet mother was given a full-body massage by several of the TSA therapists at Orlando’s International Airport.   One man who witnessed the event declared, “wow, she is a pistol packing mama!” Come on people...does she really look that threatening?

But probably the most lasting, unforgettable memories took place on day 2 of our trip.  I had already received the wrath of Kahn for my involvement in the ankle sprain incident and was further encouraged to improve later that day when I was slow at going to get ice for dear wife in order to apply to the injured area.  The lesson was so learned that I was ready to jump at the next opportunity to be at my wife’s beck and call and do what I can to make her trip more enjoyable.  I was punchy at the same time, fearful I may have a relapse and fall short in the area of superior customer service.  I was so punchy that the next morning’s most memorable event was inevitable.  My wife had graciously offered to go get her own ice while I hurried into the shower.  We were very eager to get this day (day 2) off to a better start and get to one of the parks.  Remember the lightning and the ankle sprain?  That was all on the first day and a half of our trip.  So as she left to get the ice, I jumped in the shower.  A few minutes passed and I thought I had heard a banging on our resort room door.  Blood pressure rose and so did my level of fear because I was picturing my wife standing outside our room in her PJ’s, standing on a sprained ankle and not having her room key with a similar look on her face that she had the day before.  I was not going to let her down this time so I lunged out of the shower, leaped out into our room and there she was; she was sitting quietly on the bed with her ankle propped up, ice pack applied, looking at me in pure wonderment.  And there I stood, sopping wet, butt-naked with my heart racing and eyes wide open only to hear her ask...”what on earth is wrong with you?”  That was then followed by uncontrollable laughter.  Now that is a great memory!

There they are...the most memorable moments from our big family Disney grand gathering.

What are some of your great memories from some of your past vacations?

(Seriously...we did have some other great memories not associated with pain or fear of death etc, but these just stick out for some reason)