Why You Need a Travel Agent

We once had a friend who was wrongly accused of committing a crime. He talked with numerous attorneys and found the rates they would charge to defend him would be higher than he wanted to pay. He realized that he could go to the Internet, learn what he needed to know about defending himself in court, and save a tremendous amount of money. He’ll be out of jail in eleven months and twenty-nine days.

Sound silly? It’s no sillier than thinking you can save money in doing your own dental work, or removing your own appendix, or even in booking a vacation or cruise that will make memories for the rest of your life. In today’s cyber-space world, it’s easy to sit down at your computer and book a round-trip airline ticket to go visit your family in Pittsburgh. But, when it comes to booking a tour of Australia and New Zealand, finding the documents you must have to enter these countries, arranging complex air itineraries and finding guides in each city to show you what you don’t want to miss, you can easily become overwhelmed.

You need a travel agent.

Here are some things you may not know about travel agents:
* Travel agents earn commissions from the tour operators, hotels, and cruise lines.
* Travel agents do NOT earn commissions from the airlines. In other words, we make zero on air tickets and have been forced to charge service fees to issue tickets.
* Travel agents cannot visit every hotel, sail on every cruise ship, visit every destination and fly on every air carrier. We do, however, have access to information on everything we sell.

Here’s what a good, reputable travel agent can do for you:
* A good travel agent is in the “custom-tailoring” business. We’ll fit the right cruise ship, resort, tour or hotel to your desires.
* A good travel agent can handle every aspect of your trip from airline tickets to lodging, ground transportation, activities, event tickets, tours and more.
* A good travel agent will use their time to find the right vacation instead of using yours. Our reservation systems will allow us to look at multiple airlines, cruise lines, hotels and rental car companies, comparing rates and itineraries, instead of going from one website to another.
* A good travel agent will take the time to learn about you and your lifestyle so that your vacation exceeds your expectations.
* A good travel agent will be your advocate if the need arises. Should you have a problem during your trip, good travel agents can act on your behalf to see that proper restitutions are made.
* A good travel agent will use our expertise, knowledge and access to the latest promotions to be sure you get the best value for your budget.
* A good travel agent is an expert in helping travelers get where they need to go and in helping to create possibilities most people never would have dreamed were possible.
* A good travel agent will help you understand supplier policies and rules associated with your reservation.
* A good travel agent will help you prepare and organize any necessary documents that you may need in order to travel outside the country. They can direct you to your local passport office, and they know where you need a visa, as well as any other documentation that you might need to along the way.
* A good travel agent will offer that “personal” touch” to your travel planning experience, offering help and advice that a website cannot provide.

In the past few years, we’ve heard that travel agents are a thing of the past. People will only book online. However, travel agents must be doing something right. Did you know that travel agents still sell 51% of all airline tickets, 87 % of all cruises, 81 % of all tours and land packages, 45% of all car rentals and about 47% of all hotels.

It just makes sense to use a travel, because without a travel agent, you’re on your own.

This One's Going in our Book

As travel agents, we get asked some of the strangest questions - some so incredible that we're going to write a book. 

There was one when a lady called our office in a panic at 7:00 am one morning. My husband, Charlie, was there alone, but answered the call, and she told him she was so glad someone was there early.  She explained that she was leaving on Saturday, and just realized that her passport had expired, and it was just three days before departure.  She said she was a teacher and it was the end of the school year, and she had just forgotten to get one because she had been busy with exams and grades.  Charlie pulled up her record to find out she was going to Hawaii.  He said, "Ma'am, you're going to Hawaii."  She said, "I know, and my passport has expired!"  Charlie assured her that she didn't need one because Hawaii was a state, not a different country.  The irony was, she teaches our children!

Or the couple going to Europe who, when their documents arrived, realized that they needed an extra day to fly to Europe overnight.  They thought their flight would be like one going to Miami. 

Our favorite occured about eight years ago.  It was a Friday afternoon.  We could hear one of our agents laughing hysterically.  She had a lady on-hold.  Seemed the lady wanted to take an Alaskan cruise, but would not give our agent money to hold the cabin unless we could guarantee that the "glaciers would still be out in September."  Charlie told our agent to take the credit card because if the glaciers aren't there, we had a much bigger problem than a charge-back.

There are some client concerns that are easier to answer than others.

How Hot Is It?

In Nashville, TN, it's hotter than Hell!!!  That's right, it's hotter than it is in Hell, Grand Cayman.  Today in Nashville, the official temperature got up to 102 with a heat index over 110.  In Hell today, it was a balmy 88 degrees.
Grand Cayman is one of the three islands that make up the Cayman Islands in the Western Caribbean - Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman.  Hell is a village on Grand Cayman.  The village is made up of a post office, three tourist shops, and an interesting rock formation from which Hell took its name.  This rock formation may give an intimidating impression of what the other Hell may well be like.  It is half the size of a soccer field, and is not actually lava, but a mixture of limestone and dolomite.

Hell is harder to find than you may think.  Part of the problem is that Grand Cayman is covered in churches, but has very few road signs.  There is no clear path to Hell!  And, if you go there, you must send all of your friends postcards postmarked from Hell.  This is your opportunity to tell all of them to "Go to Hell"!! and really mean it.
Grand Cayman is a beautiful island with its famous Seven Mile Beach, turtle farm, Stingray City, Rum Point, and the amazing snokeling and diving opportunities to see one of the world's most incredible coral reefs.
Don't you want to go to Hell!!  To get out of the heat we've had here, I'm ready to get outta here!!

A Charming Vacation

Growing up, I lived in a "Leave It to Beaver" household.  My mom was a stay-at-home mom and my dad was the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for a drug company.  Although Daddy traveled extensively in his job, vacations were usually just staying home and going to the pool or a trip to Chattanooga to "See Rock City".  When I started working in the travel industry, the whole world opened up to me.

We opened Just Cruisin' Plus in 1988, the same year my dad retired at 63.  He and Mom were healthy, vibrant sixty-somethings.  They had bought a camper and had traveled all over the U.S., but had not traveled outside the country until that year.  Within two months of Daddy's retirement, they were off to see the world.  Their first trip was a cruise to Scandinavia and Russia.  Their journeys to six of the seven continents had begun.

Their travels took them to Hawaii, Alaska, the Holy Land, the Mediterranean, the Far East (Japan, China and Korea), the British Isles, Canada and New England, Australia and New Zealand.  They took a 16-night river cruise through Europe from Budapest to Amsterdam, the one city my mom wanted to visit so she could see the Anne Frank House.  They experienced more in twenty years than most will experience in a lifetime.

Mom and Dad were never big souvenir shoppers, but Mom collected thimbles and charms in the many places their travels took them.  Their house was broken into a number of years ago, and one of the things that was taken was her charm bracelet with all of her memories.  About five years ago, our family decided to replace this bracelet for her for Christmas.

A year ago today, we began a journey with Mom that would end on October 13 when she finally took her final journey.  My dad is now living in assited living and has Alzheimer's.  He still knows all of us and can call us by name.  I talk with him every day.  He can't remember things that occurred 20 minutes ago, but he can tell us about all of the many trips he and Mom took to places most of us long to visit.

When we were cleaning out the house they shared for 50 years, I came across Mom's charm bracelet.   There's the Canadian maple leaf, a cruise ship, a hula dancer from Hawaii, a pyramid and sphinx from Egypt, Scottish bagpipes, a windmill from Holland, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, a gondola from Venice, the Capitol in Washington, the Colosseum in Rome, the Statue of Liberty, Big Ben in London, a Chinese lantern, a kangaroo from Australia, a shamrock from Ireland, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, where Mom and Dad had their first home when Daddy returned from Guadalcanal after World War II.

Of all the things at their house, this bracelet means more to me than anything else I found.  I helped them see the world, but more importantly, they were able to enjoy retirement as it is meant to be.

Chicken Salad Days

We love to entertain, and last Friday, twelve of our preferred suppliers were invited to lunch at our office.  We did this for two reasons:

• We wanted to show appreciation to those suppliers who have supported us in the past year and show off our new office.
• These reps travel on business almost every week.  They get tired of eating in restaurants, so I made all of the food, except for the chocolate and pecan pies that LaDonna, one of our agents, made.

Our menu consisted of chicken salad on croissants, a Mediterranean orzo salad, beefsteak tomatoes with mozzarella and homemade balsamic vinagrette dressing, a melon boat, and of course, LaDonna's wonderful pies.

I had a lot of requests for the chicken salad recipe.  This is a recipe that I got from a friend of mine, Linda B, and that I modified a little.

So for those interested, here it is:

Chicken breasts with the bone in and skin on - as many as you want to cook
Hellman's Mayonaise
Durkee's Sauce
Pecans, chopped
Celery, chopped
Red seedless grapes (optional), halved
Lemon juice
Lemon Pepper

Stew the chicken breasts for at least two hours in a large pot.  Cut the tops off the celery and throw them into the pot.  Add two chicken bouillon cubes per chicken breast.  After the chicken has cooled thoroughly, pull off the bone, shred, and discard the bones and skin.

Chop up as much celery and pecans as you want to add to the salad.  Same with the grapes.  Mix some of the mayonaise with a small amount of Durkee's - I used 9 breasts in the batch I just made up and it took about 2 cups of mayonaise and less than a teaspoon of Durkee's.  Add some lemon juice and lemon pepper to this mixture and mix into the chicken, celery, pecans and grapes.  This will distribute the flavors evenly.  Add more mayonaise if needed.  It's better to start out with a smaller amount of mayonaise and add more after you initially mix this up. 

That's it.  Pretty easy and the best I've ever had.  Thanks, Linda B, for this wonderful concoction.

Money Saving Tip for Any Office

In a travel agency, we need pads that we can take copious notes on reservations we are making for our clients.  Whether it's a price comparison, or just getting the data we need to make their reservations, our agents keep 70-page spiral notebooks at their desks to take these notes. 

Well, today, WalMart has 70-page spiral notebooks on sale for 15 cents each.  Yep, that's right - 15 cents.  Steno pads were costing us over $1.00-$1.50 each.  BIG cost saver here. Might be a good idea to go out and stock up today.

Insider Info on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas

As I mentioned in my first blog, sometimes we'd give you a little "insider" information from the travel industry. Well, the biggest buzz in the industry now concerns Royal Caribbean's newest addition to their fleet, the Allure of the Seas, scheduled to debut in November. A sister to the Oasis of the Seas, which began sailing last December, this will be the second largest passenger cruise ship in the world. With seven neighborhoods and over 6000 passengers, she will be a small city.
At the recent Vacation.com Conference that we attended in Orlando, we met with some of the executives at Royal Caribbean and were given some details of what to expect on this mammoth ship.
1. CHICAGO - the Broadway musical will be performed on each sailing, and the cost of your ticket is included in your cruise fare.
2. Dreamworks is also coming onboard with all of the Dreamworks characters. There will be character meals for the kiddos as well as for the adults who like to think of themselves as kids.
3. There will be 3D movies onboard at no additional charge
4. iPod docking stations will now be in each stateroom.
5. If you didn't know there is an Aqua Theater on the Aft of the ship where water shows, diving exhibitions and dancing fountain shows are held. On the Allure, the penguins from Madagascar will do a water show.
6. There is also an ice skating rink onboard, and the show in this theater will be How to Train Your Dragon.
7. There is a Coach store on the Oasis. There will be a Guess store on the Allure.
That's the scoop on the Allure. Will let you know when we hear more incredible things about this fantastic ship.