Top 10 Reasons to Use a Travel Agent

1. You've Googled "Mexico vacation," and come up with 17.8 million responses. Need a little help editing those choices?

2. Remember when you used that obscure website to book your hotel, and when you got there you spent your beach vacation overlooking a parking lot?
3. How many hours were you on hold with the airline when your flight was canceled because of a snowstorm?
4. Did you really mean to spend your honeymoon at that resort whose one tiny pool was filled all day with 12 screaming children?
5. Who knew that when you booked that "villa" in Tuscany, it would be a small room with a kitchenette and no air conditioning? Funny, it looked much better on your computer screen.
6. No one explained to you that in July, it's winter time in Rio, and so you showed up there with nothing but five Hawaiian shirts and three pairs of swimming trunks.
7. How about the time you really needed a restful vacation, and you ended up in New Orleans during Mardi Gras and someone threw up on your shoes?
8. Yes, I guess that hotel must have used a telephoto lens when they took a picture of those guest rooms that you saw on their website.
9. I suppose contacting the Attorney General to resolve the fact that that Internet site has billed your credit card three times instead of once is the only route to take at this point.
10. It was definitely odd that there were no cab drivers at the airport at 3 o'clock in the morning when you finally landed in Costa Rica, but booking a transfer to your very remote hotel would have been a good thing to remember when you purchased your airline ticket and hotel online.

(Thanks to Ruth Terrero)

Merry Christmas!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!
Still need a special Christmas gift? How about one that will have lasting memories? Give the gift of travel. Contact me for a gift certificate either for a certain destination or you can decide on where you want to go later in 2013.

Disney Dream Cruise

Here is your chance to experience one of Disney's newest ships at a reasonable price!

 Cruise on Disney's Dream on Dec. 13 for 3 nights to Nassau and their private island, Castaway Cay.
The Dream was new in 2011 and is 40% larger than Disney Wonder or Disney Magic and offers many new experiences onboard.

Prices start at $399 per adult plus $52.74 taxes and fees on Dec. 13. Kids are even less!
Or cruise for 4 nights on Dec. 9 for only $499 per adult plus $46.74 taxes. Same itinerary with a day at sea.

You will love the Disney experience!  Call me for prices on other dates - 336-922-1837.

Vacation Checklist

Before you leave home here is a checklist to help you prepare:

1. Purchase travel insurance and make sure you keep contact info with you as you travel.
    This will protect your investment in case you need to cancel due to illness or death in the family. It will also cover expenses up to a certain amount if you should lose your luggage or it is delayed. Your insurance will also protect you if you should get sick on your trip and need medical attention or to fly home (and that can get very expensive). I ALWAYS buy this for myself. It's a small price to pay for piece of mind.

2. Make sure you have your passport and required I.D. Your passport must not expire within 6 months of when you are traveling.  Also if required obtain necessary visas and immunizations.

3. For a cruise pre-register your guest information online and print out your edocs.

4. Don't forget to call your credit card company and let them know you will be out of the country and the dates. Otherwise if they see charges on your credit card which look out of the ordinary they may put a freeze on your card.

5.  Leave a copy of your credit card and passport with a family member or friend. I also take a copy with me and put it in my safe.

6.  Remember to stop mail and newspaper.

7.  Reserve any shore excursions. You can do this online or your travel agent will be happy to help you with this. Many times I can reserve an excursion which has fewer people and costs less. I can also give you some recommendations of can't-miss sights based on my experience as well as the experiences of my past clients.

8.  Print out any hotel or transfer vouchers which your travel agent emailed to you.

9.  Go and enjoy!

I will cover some packing tips in an upcoming blog.
Happy travels!

Wow! Look at this January cruise!

January is a great time to head for warmer weather but you must act now to take advantage of this low price. It is on the Caribbean Princess departing on Jan. 19 from Ft. Lauderdale. Ports of call are Aruba, Curacao and Princess Cays. Usually you have to book a 10 day cruise or depart from San Juan to visit Aruba and Curacao but now you can cruise there on a 7 day cruise from Florida.
Not only is this a different and interesting itinerary but look at these prices! Inside cabins start at $633.47 per person including all taxes and govt. fees. Ocean view is only $50 more pp. and balcony cabins are $883.47 pp.
Call me soon to reserve this and I will also give you $50 shipboard credit per cabin to use as you wish.
Contact me at 336-922-1837 or email becki@cruisetogether.com.

Last Reflections of My Med Cruise

This was a really awesome cruise and I feel we did most things right. There is not much I would change. I chose this cruise for the itinerary. I wanted to see a fair amount of Italy but also wanted to experience Greece, Turkey and Spain and I got to do all that  in 12 days. Yes I would have liked to stay longer at many of the places but then I would have a had a 30 day cruise. Perhaps somdeday I will make it back to some of these places to see them more in depth.  We only had one day in Barcelona and that was not enough. I would also like to go back to Venice to spend more time. All of Italy was heavenly.

The Princess Ruby seemed to have the best itinerary and it was a nice ship and at the right price. I also considered Azamara for this cruise because I like the smaller ships for Europe but the price difference drove me back to Princess. I found myself eating at the International Cafe many days rather than go to a restaurant. They had some great salads and gelato.

If you can swing it I would recommend a balcony cabin for Europe. The scenery going into and out of the ports was breathtaking and I was too tired at the end of the day to go up on deck. I also saw some very pretty sunrises and sunsets from the balcony. And when you consider you are in your room for 12 days the little bit extra cost for a balcony room is really not that much more.

I used euros or my credit card everywhere I went. The ship had machines onboard to change our dollars to euro which was quite easy to do. I did have to get some euro at the airport in Barcelona when we landed at the beginning of the trip in order to pay the taxi to the hotel but after that I just exchanged my money on the ship. When I used my credit card I did make sure they swiped it in front of me and only once as I have heard of instances where people have been double charged. I had no foreign exchange fees with my card as I had a Capitalone. And of course call your credit card company before you leave the country to tell them or they may put a freeze on your card.

I had heard alot about pick pockets so I carried my money in a belt under my shirt although I still carried a bag for other essentials such as water. sunblock, camera etc. Our group had no problems at all and never did we feel at all threatened or unsafe.

I think the best thing I did was to reserve some drivers for us before we left. We had drivers pick us up at the ship in Florence, Rome, Naples and Kusadasi and then take us back to our ship late in the afternoon after our private tour. Our drivers also got us "skip the line passes" at the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and Colosseum.This worked out really well. We got to see what we wanted and did not have to wait for 50 other people on a bus to go to the restroom etc. Because we divided the cost of our driver between 8 people the cost was less than booking a shore excursion on the ship. We also had a driver take us directly to the airport on the last day in Venice which was very convenient.

In the entire 12 days we did not experience a drop of rain which I'm sure must be unusual. However, I would recommend taking a rain poncho just in case. There is no going back to the ship to get something once you leave it in the morning.

We started our trip on May 30 which worked well too. The only place we had huge crowds to deal with was in Rome. It was a holiday so I'm not sure if Rome is always that crowded but I understand that July and August are more crowded and hot too. Spring and fall are the best times to go.

Because this was a destination cruise we had only 2 days at sea and we needed those to rest up. The Ruby is a big ship and I thought it might be nice to have walkie talkies if you were not in your room and wanted to find someone but we managed without. I really can't think of anything much we would have done differently.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and email me at becki@cruisetogether.com if you have any questions or comments.
Now it's time to plan that next trip! Where will that be? Stay tuned.

Gorgeous Venice

After spending a day at sea and traveling 849 nautical miles we slowly cruised through the canal network on this Sunday morning. At about 11 am the 8 of us met on our balcony and had a short worship service as we cruised into our port in the center of Venice. What a beautiful memory!

We had the best view from our balcony.

After disembarking our ship we took a water taxi to Piazzo San Marco aka St. Mark's Square. This was $17 roundtrip.

It is a huge piazza. St. Mark's Basilica is the primary tourist attraction. Although there was a line it did not take long to get inside.

There were signs to not take pictures inside. It was beautiful with alot of gold and the church is still being used today.

A clock tower with moving parts was fun to watch.

Later in the afternoon we heard many bells ringing in the square and there seemed to be a celebration of some sort. The bishops came out of the church carrying a canopy with the people of the church following them around the square. Some of it was blocked off. The tourists all stopped and watched the ceremony which lasted probably an hour. After we got home we read that it was an annual holy day called the Blessing of the Eucharist.

There are many streets off St. Marks Square with lots of shops. We bought some Murano glass pendants which are quite pretty.  I saw some artwork when we first arrived which I wanted but did not want to carry it with me. Unfortunately the artist had picked up his booth by the time we got back.
Of course there are canals everywhere. I took a picture of people on a gondola while she took a picture of me.

This is one city I hope to get back to someday and explore further. We had a very early morning flight out the next day for home. We had a driver waiting for us to take us to the airport which was very easy for us. It only took us about 20 minutes to get there and we had to wait for the airport to open at 6:30.

Next time I will share some reflections (and tips) from our entire trip.