Dining Reservations - Maximize Your Vacation Time

Time is precious.  This is also true when on vacation.    Nobody likes to waste time waiting in lines.  One of the biggest time wasters is waiting at a restaurant to be seated.  How can you maximize your time away without compromising the experience?

Many vacation destinations are now offering advance dining reservations.  Disney allows guests to make reservations as early as 180 days prior to the vacation start date.  The online reservation system lets the requester see real time availability and book immediately.

Several of the cruise lines are also offering advance reservations for their specialty venues.  Having these reservations in place ahead of time lets you get on board with no worries for that special celebration dinner.

Check with your travel professional to see if advance dining reservations are available for your destination.

Bon Appetite!

You Deserve a Vacation - Now more than Ever!

The current state of the economy has everyone cutting back.  Families are making changes to keep up.  A lot of folks are having to take on extra duties to make up for shortcomings.

One area that should not be cut out is vacation time.  Studies have shown that time away relieves stress and can actually improve productivity.

There are ways one can enjoy a vacation without busting the budget.  Here are a few tips to consider:

• Plan a getaway during off-peak or low season for the best values.
• Take a shorter trip (5-days vs. 7-days)
• Look for options closer to home to save on airfare.  There are many cruise ports within driving distance to a variety of places.
• Consult a Travel Professional.  They can save you time on finding the best values.

These are just a few tips that can get you that much needed vacation without breaking the bank.  Have tips of your own?  Feel free to share.

Now, contact your Travel Consultant and get ready to relax.

Loyalty - What Keeps You Coming Back?

Last week, Carnival unveiled their new loyalty program, the VIFP Club.  The new levels and benefits of the "Very Important Fun Person" Club caused quite a bit of debate and uproar.

All this debate caused me to ponder why we loyal to certain brands.

Is it the comfort of knowing what to expect?  The vacation can be much more relaxing when you know how you will be treated and what the ship or resort has to offer.

Is it the overall value?  With today's economy, everyone is looking for the most bang for their buck.  This can also be tied back to the expectations too with being familiar with what the brand has done in the past.

Is it the status?  A lot of programs have unique identifiers for their most loyal.  For example, different colored room keys, etc.  This allows the staff to recognize the traveler as someone special.

Is it the perks and freebies?  Most loyalty programs offer some perks and benefits.  These can be anything from additional discounts to gifts and free services.  Everyone likes to get free things.  Also, going back to the value, it becomes a better value when there are extras or upgrades offered.

It would be great to think that a little bit of all these factors come in to play regarding loyalty.  What we also need to understand is that the companies offering these programs are businesses.  They too, are dealing with the economic issues that we as individuals are.  So, where do they make changes to improve the bottom line, but not affect their product?  Instead of increasing rates or cutting back staff, it would make sense to cut the "freebies" and little gadgets that a lot of people enjoy receiving, but really have no use for.

Hoping that as long as the company is continuing to put out the quality product that has come to be expected, the loyal will continue to be loyal.

Full service vs. Self service - Makes Travel $ense

With everyone's busy schedules nowadays, it just makes sense to do things that help to free up time.  The current economy also makes it important to find the best value.

Planning a vacation is one of the activities that can take up a lot of time.  Especially when research is involved for new destinations and types of vacations.

This is where a Travel Agent/Consultant or whatever other term may be used to describe them comes in as a valuable time saving tool.  The education and day to day experience that agents have afford them the ability to offer suggestions on the type of vacation that is being considered.

We often hear "but that is the same price as the website".  Here is where the added value comes in.  Does the website personally respond to emails, answer the phone, return calls?  Will the website offer unbiased opinions and alternative suggestions?  Will the website be there after the deposit is made to answer questions?   Try getting the website to file a complaint after travel on something that may have gone wrong.

Think of it this way.  When driving down the road and the full service gas station is offering the same price as the self service station, which would you prefer?