The Part I Hate about Traveling

April 9, 2011 - Our day started out easy enough.  The limo picked us up for the airport early.  Great start!!!  Got to the airport in Nashville 2 hours and 15 minutes before our scheduled departure.  Although we spent 450,000 frequent flier miles to fly busines class, we knew this was going to be worth it. 
Spent some time in the Delta Club Room and relaxed before we boarded our flight to Atlanta.  Scheduled departure was at 12:00 pm.  We were off the gate at 12:03 pm.  Great start!!
We were scheduled to arrive in Atlanta 58 minutes later with a 54 minute connection to the international terminal.  But, alas, fate was not on our side and we sat on the runway in Nashville for 50 minutes awaiting air traffic control to clear arrivals into Atlanta.  With that delay, we just knew we weren't going to make the second leg of our flight to JFK and then to Prague. However, our pilot put the pedal to the metal and got us there in 38 minutes. Got into the terminal in Atlanta and had 20 minutes to make our flight. 
Running through airports when I was young wasn't fun, and now it definitely isn't.  But, 10 minutes later and having to go from the A concourse to the E concourse, we made it.  But did our luggage???
Made it to JFK and made the connection to Prague with no problems.  The flight was uneventful, but thank goodness for seats that recline 45%.  We both got a "little" sleep.  Not much, but a little and arrived in Prague at 10:00 am on Sunday morning. 
When we finally cleared immigration and made our way to baggage claim, we held our breath.  Did our luggage make it??? 
It did!!!!!  Yeaaaaaaa!!!  Our vacation could now officially begin.  More tomorrow on Prague.

Outta Here!: Redbuds, Dogwoods and Blackberries

Outta Here!: Redbuds, Dogwoods and Blackberries: "I'm from the South. I was born and raised in Nashville, TN, the buckle on the Bible belt. I like my tea sweet, banana pudd..."

Redbuds, Dogwoods and Blackberries

I'm from the South.  I was born and raised in Nashville, TN, the buckle on the Bible belt.   I like my tea sweet, banana pudding with a huge meringue topping, meat and threes and cornbread dripping with butter or covered in gravy.

In Middle Tennessee, we have four distinct seasons.  We have snow in the winter.  Hot, hot, hot summers and colorful falls.  But our most beautiful season is when everything blooms in the spring.  And, when I say everything, I mean everything.  The first sign of spring is when the buttercups and tulips peak through the soil.   Warm, sunny days and lots of rain in the spring bring out the blossoms on the Bradford Pear trees - beautiful but stinky. 

But, alas, our warm weather will give way to a number of cold spells and short-lived winters, of sort, that will last two or three days.

We had rain yesterday and a cold front pushed through last night.  Our days of needing air-conditioning quickly turned to needing the heat this morning.  And, as we drove to church today, I saw the redbud trees in full bloom - our first mini-winter, Redbud Winter, has officially arrived in Middle Tennessee. 

Before the first of May, we will experience two more winters, one which will concur when the dogwood trees bloom near Easter and the third, Blackberry Winter, when the blackberry bushes bloom around the first of May.

It's good to live in the South with our redbud, dogwood and blackberry winters, slower way of talking and gentile way of life.  I wouldn't trade my upbringing here for anything.  And, I definitely wouldn't trade our Springtime to live anywhere else. 

Okay, it's like this...

So, we're cruising along on Southwest at 30,000 feet on our way to Las Vegas to speak at the Travel Leisure conference as I write this.  It's amazing to me all the things we can do today that we couldn't when I first got into the travel industry in the 70s.  Technology has changed all of our lives!  As travel agents we no longer have to rely on airlines for our air ticketing systems. We don't have to use the telephone to call our cruise line and tour operator partners to book their products.  We can now book air tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, cruises and tours online The Internet has changed the way travel agents purchase travel for our customers.  It is certainly more time and cost efficient, and because of this, we are able to pass on additional savings through private sales to our customers.

But, the Internet has done more than that.  Now Mr. and Mrs. Consumer can purchase their travel online as well at what, at first glance, seems to be at lower costs than by booking through a travel agent. 

Or, can you really???

Would you consider doing your own taxes if you had a lot of deductions and filing your taxes took you hours and hours of your precious time?  If you are a two-person working household, would you be willing to give up sending your laundry out and losing that time on the weekends and nights that would be required to take up your time washing and ironing all of those shirts and pants?  Or, if you had appendicitis, would you consider going on the Internet to find out to take it out yourself to save a few bucks?

Of course not!!!  But everyday, we hear of people who are booking cruises online themselves based strictly based on price.  Because we are travel professionals, we know that there are distinct differences in cruise lines, just as there are in hotels and restaurants.  The worst thing that can happen is to book that cheap cruise for your honeymoon and find out that the cabin has upper and lower beds.  That's right, bunk beds!!  But, it was at a better rate than a travel agent quoted.  Why?  Because we know what the categories on a ship are and that we would never give a quote to  honeymooners in a cabin like that one.  Yes, our price maybe $25 per person higher, but it's not bunk beds!!

The Internet is a great place to research travel, especially destinations.  But, when it's time for the pedal to meet the metal, it's time to talk with a professional who can direct you to the vacation that is compatible with your lifestyle.  Save yourself heartache and let us help you fulfill your dreams.

Outta Here!: It's Showtime!!!

Outta Here!: It's Showtime!!!: " Charlotte Lawson, our NCL rep Well, it's that time of year again. We are definitely in Wave Season, as the cruise lines call it,..."

It's Showtime!!!



Charlotte Lawson, our NCL rep

Well, it's that time of year again.  We are definitely in Wave Season, as the cruise lines call it, when the wave of bookings for vacations for the year, picks up steam and culminates in a tsunami as we had last Sunday.  On January 30th, we held our 24th Annual Cruise & Vacation Supermarket at the Cool Springs Marriott in Franklin, TN.  After a very, very snowy week, we didn't know what to expect.  But on that day, the weather was perfect - 50 degrees and overcast.  

Sabrina Hampton, one of our agents





  

We set up our show the night prior and all of our reps from our travel providers were in town getting ready for our show.  We had done all the right things.  Our advertising had been effective and people were calling our office and the hotel daily to get more details.  The unknown in this equation was how many people would show up and how much business we would book.  As it turned out, everything gelled perfectly.  We opened the doors at 10:00 am and about 100 people swarmed in.  By 10:30, our reservations area was full.  By 11:30, we had a line waiting to see an agent to make a reservation.   What an incredible day!!! 

By the end of the day over 3000 had come through our doors.  They attended our seminars on Alaska, Europe and the Caribbean.  They visited the Holland America Alaska motorcoach parked outside the hotel.  The won hundreds of door prizes from our travel providers.  And, they booked vacations - lots and lots of vacations and cruises!!!  We are still booking vacations as hard and fast as we can.  If you were unable to attend, you can still take advantage of our show specials and super sail deals by clicking here.  

We could not pull this show off without the support of our travel providers - Sandals, Island Routes, Travel Impressions, Regent Seven Seas, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Apple Vacations & AM Resorts, Holland America Line, Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Cunard, Globus Family (Avalon Waterways, Globus, Cosmos, & Monograms), Azamara Club Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, and Celebrity Cruises.

The room at 10:30 am

Here's some more pictures from our show.  Don't you deserve a vacation this year?

Royal Caribbean's booth was very busy all day

Celeste Pevahouse with Princess and Cunard



Erin Miller with Apple Vacations and Carlos Gonzalez with AM Resorts

Dawn Bolte and Kyle Brock with Sandals



Steve Smith from Oceania Cruises



Tracie Mosley with Carnival







January 4, 1988: The Rest of the Story

Well, it actually all began in October, 1987.  I had been in business with a partner for six years.  Our little company, Pacesetter Tours, was an outbound tour operator.  We took about 3000 people to the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, TN from my office in the basement of our house.  After the Fair, I found us booking more and more groups like taking University of Tennessee fans to the Sugar Bowl, and Vanderbilt University fans to the Great Alaskan Shootout in Anchorage.  We were also booking a lot of incentive groups on cruises.  Then, we started getting more and more requests from individuals who had travelled with us wanting to book cruises.

Charlie and I talked at length that October about changing the entire direction of the company and becoming a cruise-only agency.  Being the pragmatist that he is, Charlie insisted that I contact a number of cruise-only agencies around the country in markets similar to Middle Tennessee.  I had a list of questions, and the last question on my list was "If you had it to do all over again, would you?"  Every single person I spoke with answered with a definite "Yes, but I just wish I had done it sooner."  That solidified our decision to proceed with plans that we had been formulating.

The first week of November, 1987, Charlie went out-of-town on business.  When I picked him up at the airport on Friday night, he asked me what I had done all week.  When I told him I had contacted all of the cruise lines and told them that we would be opening as a cruise-only agency on January 1, Charlie's first question was "What year?"  Naively, I said 1988.  He immediately said we had to do a business plan, buy my partner out, find an office, and an entire laundry list of things that had to be done.  While he was gone, I had found an office.  The picture isn't our first office, but it was very similar.  I think you get the idea that we started our small, very small.

Well, long story short, we put together our business plan, went to our friendly banker who turned us down for a loan because we just needed a line of credit, bought out my partner, and opened our doors as Just Cruisin' , Tennessee's first cruise-only agency, on January 4, 1988.

I had done a lot of preliminary work getting press for our little company for our big opening week.  We had stories in the Tennessean, the Nashville Business Journal, were on a radio talk show, but on January 8, I was scheduled to be on "Talk of the Town", a midday local TV show on our CBS affililate. On that particular day, Nashville got a BIG snowfall - 8" to be exact.  Because of the weather, I was the only guest who showed up that day, and my 6 minutes segment turned into 12 minutes.

The company consisted of me - and Charlie when he could help because he was a chemical engineer and had a "real" job that sustained us for a time - and we left our phone on the recorder while we were gone.  Upon our return, the machine was full with 30 messages, all wanting information on cruises!!!

And, as Paul Harvey would say, that, folks, is the rest of the story...