Traveling with the Flow

I ran across an interesting quote today online that sums up my views on travel.

"travel" and "travail" have the same Old French root. Go with the flow and treat travel as the character-building endeavor it invariably is."

I like to check out reviews when I have free time and it seems most often complaints arise when people either don't have reasonable expectations (which I addressed in an earlier blog) or are so rigid that one little mishap snowballs into a ruined vacation. Remember that you are visiting a foreign country with different customs. That is the very reason why we are visiting them! Natural beauty combined with an unhurried pace characteristic of the Caribbean is the anecdote for our American plugged-in, fast paced routines.
If you allow it, you'll learn something. We have enjoyed so much getting to know the crew and staff of the ships and resorts we have been to. (usually more than fellow guests) I remember all of my head waiters in the dining room of cruises and of course the bartenders at resorts! Not in a patronizing way, but a genuine personal exchange. I've met someone working to ensure a better life for their children back in the Phillipines, an Ivy League hospitality trained crewmember from India and an Irish-Mexican singer moonlighting as a waiter until they moved back to Ireland with family. Tell me you can get stories like that on your average day at home. Listening to someone can put a whole new perspective on your life and opinions. I met someone in Cancun that was heartbroken over not being able to visit their children in America...put a whole new spin on the immigration issue for me. Another great quote I posted earlier is "Travel is fatal to prejudice..." When you relax you can't help but see we are all much more alike than different. And believe me, once you stop acting like a walking American wallet more than likely you'll be treated better.

New Horizons

I'm posting early for a change instead of very late! Since it is Father's Day, I believe I'm supposed to be making breakfast or something, but I'm using the rare quiet time here to review brochures and information I picked up at the Latin America Virtual Trade Show. I 'met' some great tour companies that specialize in personalized travel to Central and South America listened to a National Geographic reporter detail his journeys through the Amazon and gained valuable knowledge about the region's tourism options. The diversity of experiences is amazing...Chilean Wine Country tours, Tango in Buenos Aires and skiing to name a few. Two of the New Seven Wonders of the World are located here, Machu Picchu in Peru and the Christ the Redeemer Statue at Corcovado in Brazil.
I don't think I'll be visiting the Amazon anytime soon, but definitely some of the other sights. Look for website updates as I hightlight the different tour options offered.
Now that the boys are up let me go do something that doesn't look like work...Well I guess I can make this sort of Father's Day related since I'll be posting my husband's pictures from Brazil and Peru. =)

According to the USTOA you can afford a much nicer vacation package this year than last.

Get a suite at the resort or a balcony cabin this time! Sometimes consumers can be discouraged by price alone, make sure you are looking at the total value of a vacation. Are transfers included, butler or concierge service? If you're tired of taking my word for it that awesome deals are available right now, check this out...

6/17/2009 -

TravelPulse.com reports that the latest U.S. Tour Operators Association (USTOA) survey shows that tour prices have dropped an average of 20 percent this year, compared to 2008 prices on the same packages, due to the tough economy and a stronger U.S. dollar. The USTOA survey found that 60 percent of consumers said tours and vacation packages offer more value for the dollar.

(Credit: USTOA)

Great Travel Quotes

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ~ St. Augustine “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” ~ Rudyard Kipling “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” ~ Henry Miller “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~ Ray Bradbury
	“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” ~ Paul Fussell “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” ~ Mark Twain “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” ~ John Steinbeck “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” ~ Lin Yutang
	Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. ~Benjamin Disraeli “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” ~ Henry Miller “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” ~ Freya Stark “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” ~ Miriam Beard “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” ~ Martin Buber
“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” ~ Jawaharial Nehru “A wise traveler never despises his own country.” ~ Carlo Goldoni “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” ~ Paul Theroux “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson “Two roads diverged in a wood and I ~ I took the one less traveled by.” ~ Robert Frost “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” ~ Lao Tzu
	“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” ~ Charles Dudley Warner “A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ~ Lao Tzu “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” ~ James Michener “The journey not the arrival matters.” ~ T. S. Eliot “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” ~ Islamic proverb
“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” ~ Tim Cahill “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” ~ Lao Tzu “Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J. R. R. Tolkien “Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” ~ Maya Angelou
	Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe” ~ Anatole France “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” ~ Seneca “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” ~ Jack Kerouac “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” ~ Lillian Smith “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” ~ Mark Twain “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” ~ Aldous Huxley
“Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” ~ Freya Stark “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” ~ Samuel Johnson “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” ~ G. K. Chesterton I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep ~ Robert Frost

Now is the time

I am returning to updating the blog after about 3 weeks of helping my little one recuperate from tonsil and adenoid surgery. Well it was more like making sure he didn’t jump off the counters or swallow something to send him back to the hospital since he didn’t seem to realize he needed to be still… By the 2nd day one would never have known he had any surgery. He did amazingly well, was ready to eat real food and jump off anything as usual…while taking painkillers. I think he must be an alien with an endless supply of energy and no need for sleep. (Ever wonder why my posts are frequently in the wee hours?) I still have all the popsicles, pudding, applesauce and soft stuff they recommended we get for him. He wanted “lots of food” as soon as the anesthesia wore off. Some parents report a month of absolute hell after this procedure so I am truly grateful he returned to normal so quickly. Aside from being compared to the Exorcist by the nurses when he awoke from the anesthesia and tried to rip out the IV, he was a model patient and back to my happy little guy within a day. (He is strong as an ox and they didn’t expect it to take 2 people to hold down such a little person) We were so worried about putting him through surgery at such a young age and felt the biggest sense of relief when it was over. We are so blessed to have such a resilient and healthy child.
Back to the travel… while my schedule was a little crazy during this time I took the opportunity to brush up on supplier offerings, attend some ‘virtual’ trade shows and training. A little time away gave me some perspective on where Great Scott Getaways was headed and where I want to go in the future. One of the best workshops I did was the annual Sandals refresher. The theme was “Now is the time”. I left feeling so motivated and full of positive energy. I’ve decided it’s time to quit treading water and swim! (Well, it could also be due to the nonstop childrens programs and books last month also, but whatever it worked! Dora and Diego are pretty motivating too)
Last Sunday’s Parade magazine also had an interview with the CEO of McDonald’s. I cut out the following quote and tacked it to my bulletin board.
“I always tell people to chase your passion, not the money. If you love what you do and work hard at it, add value and differentiate yourself, you will be successful.”
Of course we all know this consciously, but do we really believe it and apply it? One of the things I always notice first is a supplier’s commitment to customer service. The attitude of those you encounter on a cruise or at a resort will be the stuff of your memories. A positive attitude can do wonders for you and those around you. We’ve met people at the drive-thru that just make you want to pull them through that little window and others that make you drive off with a reciprocal smile. Why? Each of them is selling the same burger. There’s also the fancy restaurant that uses the ‘best of everything’ but feel so cold you’d rather go back to Olive Garden? If the luxury is there, why does the experience fall flat? They’re missing the passion.
Passion for guest satisfaction is what sets the great cruises and resorts apart from the pack. You may or may not have the top of the line 10k count bed sheets, and 50 head shower, but does your room steward smile, or the waiter respond with an ‘of course!’ to your request? Just about everyone I have met with Sandals conveys such a positive attitude about their jobs it is contagious. I mean the CEO on down to Andrew here in the pic at Sandals Negril. They aim to make you feel at home and never ready to leave. Right now that kind of positivity is just the medicine for the doom and gloom of the economic news. The time IS now to seize the moment and follow your passion. Of course the great deals are out there at prices not seen in years, but that’s just part of the reason why you should be traveling right now. We are so bogged down in negativity that everyone could use a break to recharge, refocus and remember…remember why you got married, why you have the best kids in the world, why you love the sun & sand, why you love to eat out, or why you love to sleep in.
I’ve decided it is time to start remembering why I love travel so much. It is not that I can help people get great prices; it’s because I love to help people create great experiences.