Mind Trip to Antigua - Day 2

So yesterday we left off on our "mind trip" just after visiting Devil's Bridge in Antigua.  Just to catch you up in case you didn't read yesterday's posting and are too busy right now to go back and review it, we've decided to take a virtual trip to Antigua in which money is no object, because after all, in my imagination, money has never been an object.  During the trip we are staying in a Caribbean Beachfront room at Sandals Grande Antigua Resort and Spa at a total cost including air, all inclusive amenities, roundtrip air to hotel transfers and insurance of $6792 per couple.

Now don't let this price scare you off from Antigua.  It can be done much more cheaply depending on where you choose to stay.  But since money was no object during this virtual trip, I chose the best!  What can I say? I'm a dreamer!

So we arrived in Antigua on Saturday after a relatively painless flight with one stop in Charlotte for only an hour and 20 minutes.  We were checked in and out on the beach before sunset.  After spending a couple of days enjoying all that Sandals Grande Antigua has to offer, on Monday we decided to rent scooters and spend a couple of days exploring this beautiful island.  So far we've been to English Harbor where we spent several hours visiting Nelson's Dockyard, Shirley Heights, and the Pillars of Hercules.  Then we drove up the coast to see Devil's Bridge and snapped a ba-zillion pictures there in order to get a perfect shot.  Today we're going to finish circumnavigating the island on our 150 CC scooters from Cheke's Rentals.  So let's head out!

Leaving this morning from the hotel, we'll be driving just a few miles on our scooters through Potters Village to the Stingray City Antigua headquarters for a morning of feeding stingrays.  I've done this a couple of times before in Grand Cayman.  But this will be my first time in Antigua. Once we arrive at our starting point we'll have a little time to enjoy the monkeys and parrots at the headquarters before boarding a speedboat that will take us out to Stingray City.  Antigua's Stingray City is located not too far off shore in a shallow sandy bottom pool on a coral reef.  Now, I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that the stingrays don't naturally hang out there all day long waiting for squid to be fed to them by humans who come up on boats.  They come there because, like Pavlov's Dogs, they know that when one of those boats comes up, there will be squid.  They tolerate the humans because the humans have thumbs and can get the squid out of the buckets for them.

This whole Stingray City concept began in Grand Cayman on a sandbar a little ways off shore where the fishermen used to clean their fish in the evenings.  They would throw their scraps out of the boat and the stingrays came up and fed on the scraps.  It was an effortless meal for them.  Over the years, the stingrays came to understand that when a boat stopped on the sandbar, they got easy food.  So, they came up to the boats.  Eventually, someone took a boat full of tourists out and let them feed the rays.  Now it has become a multi-million dollar industry for Grand Cayman (and seriously most of the commitment in the business comes from the squid).  There can be no doubt that someone in Antigua saw what was happening in Grand Cayman with the tourists flocking to pet a stingray and they found a good spot to start feeding rays off of their island.

Even knowing that the rays are just conditioned to come up to the humans because they want squid, it's still a thrill to get in the water with them and feel their weird alien bodies rubbing against your legs as they vie for a spot closest to the squid bucket.  When one takes the squid from your hands it is a bazaar feeling.  I'm totally against those dolphin swims in which the dolphins are in captivity and you get into their "pool" or even fenced in bay with them.  But I really don't have a problem with feeding wild animals in their natural environment and then taking advantage of that conditioning to get close to them.  Maybe some animal rights people would disagree.  But I figure the animals can swim away whenever they want.  They can go find their own squid that doesn't come in a bucket.  Or they can tolerate me for a few minutes while I feed it to them. The choice is theirs.

So after the stingray swim, the boat takes us back to the Stingray City Antigua headquarters where we'll have a free rum punch and browse their gift shop before hopping back on the scooters.  Oh, by the way, the headquarters has a coconut tree freshwater outdoor shower to rinse off once we get back.  So, once we have most of the salt off of us, we can head back out and enjoy the rest of our day.

Out next stop will be Betty's Hope, an old sugar plantation which was established in 1650.  It was actually owned and run by the same family from 1674 to 1944 but it is no longer operational and is now simply an open air museum.

Betty's Hope is really nothing more than a 30 minute stop to take a few photos and get off of the scooters. Then we'll be in route to another stop.

Our next stop will be Parham where we'll visit St. Peter's Church. Parham is the oldest town in Antigua and it was established in 1632.  The church is beautiful, but here's the problem... or maybe it's not a problem at all.... you be the judge. There are very few pictures of it on line since it is sort of off the beaten path and not such a big tourist attraction. So, while I hear and read that it is beautiful and has a scenic graveyard, I'm not finding many decent pictures to illustrate this point.  So your mission if you choose to accept it is to book a trip to Antigua (through your favorite travel agency - like.... let's just say.... Places You'll Go Travel), rent a couple of scooters for a day or two and visit St. Peter's in Parham and take some truly amazing pictures to send to me so that I can post them in a future travel blog.  Your photos will be famous, you'll be celebrated! People all over the world will refer to your pictures when they speak of St. Peter's church in Antigua and I'll be able to show my 12 readers how beautiful the church really is!  Win - Win!  But for now here is a semi decent picture of the inside.

The ceiling is wooden and is said to look like the upside down inside of a ships hull.

Okay, I have to admit, that the graveyard photo above is kinda creepy.  But it's also kind of pretty in a creepy sort of way.  Again, you go take some pictures and get back to me.  We could make you famous to at least 12 people!

So, after the church and the graveyard, we have sort of hit most of the highlights that Antigua has to offer from a touristy point of view.  I mean, let's face it.  You don't go to Antigua for long drawn out museum tours with droning tour guides.  Right?  This place is all about sun, sand and salt water.  So, after the graveyard, we'll spend the rest of the day riding our scooters along the coast just enjoying the scenery and stopping whenever the mood strikes us to take pictures or have a relaxing beverage.  There is a donkey sanctuary that you can visit if you are so inclined.  I just don't see that being a big draw for me.  But you do whatever you want.

At the end of the day, we'll return our scooters and take a taxi back to the hotel where we'll spend the rest of the week being waited on hand and foot. Did I mention that our resort reservation includes a $100 spa credit?  Yeah... going to have to make time for an open air massage.  After all, you never know when you'll get another chance to enjoy something like that.  This is a 7 day trip so we'll be leaving on Saturday.  The flight on the way back has another quick stop - less than 2 hours and you'll be going through customs, so there really won't even be time to sit down and catch up on Facebook before you'll be back in flight.

I hope you've enjoyed this virtual trip to Antigua.  I know I have.  The only problem now is that I have another location to add to my bucket list.

Have a Happy New Year!  Make 2014 your year to see the world!

A Mind Trip to Antigua!

Here's the deal.  Last night I decided that I wanted to take a virtual trip this week and I left it up to my followers on Facebook to suggest locations.  There were a number of very good suggestions.  However, Tricia Mixson was first to respond with Antigua and since I have had questions about Antigua in the past anyway, I thought it would be the perfect place to start with.  So, after just a little bit of research, I have put the following trip together. Now, you must keep in mind that since this is a virtual trip we aren't paying for it. With that in mind, we aren't going to settle for anything but the best.  MONEY IS NO OBJECT!  I LOVE saying that!

So, we're flying from DFW to Antigua with a short stop in Charlotte via US Air and will be on the island by 3:30 in the afternoon.  We'll be staying at the all inclusive Sandals Grande Antigua Resort and Spa in a Caribbean Beachfront Grande Luxe Club Level Room.  I looked at the Butler Level Suites, but I didn't want to get spoiled during this mind trip we're on so I decided to just stick with the beachfront club level room. Sandals includes roundtrip airport transfers.  So, we're saving like $25 on that so why not splurge?  Right?

If we were paying for this trip, our total price for the 7 night package including All In One Travel Protection would be $6792.  But lucky for us, we're just taking a cheap little mind trip and that doesn't cost a penny!

Caribbean Beach

Depending on which type of room you choose you could be on one of two beaches.  We've chosen a Caribbean Beachfront room which means we are in one of those rooms in the photo above that actually looks out onto Caribbean Beach.  Nice, huh?  Honestly, you could probably stick me in a broom closet in this resort and I wouldn't complain too much.  What's to complain about?  I just want to lay on one of those chairs in that pool and have this smiling young man wade up to me bringing more champagne all day long.  As long as I can get one of these pool chairs, I don't care what kind of room I'm in.

Hey!  How did I get in that picture?  Oh wait, that's just a girl who LOOKS a lot like me.... ;-)

Who could resist a nice moonlit dinner with ships passing by in the background?  Not me!  At Sandals, premium drinks are included in the price and you have a mini bar in your room which is refilled regularly.  There are a couple of pools, the big one above and this smaller pool below which is located close to Caribbean beach where we'll be staying. Although I could spend all week just laying around this hotel, I think we're going to need to get out and explore the island. So, lets rent some scooters and take a drive!

At Cheke's Rentals, we can get scooters by the day or week.  They are $400 each for the week or we can just get them by the day for $65.  If we choose to keep them for 2 days or more, the price is $60 per day. We're probably going to need scooters for at least 2 days.  So, I'm thinking we'll take a taxi over to Cheke's on Monday and pick them up for 2 days.  The island is only about 54 miles around so we ought to be able to see most of it in a couple of days.

Our hotel is located at St. John's and we are picking up our scooters at Falmouth in English Harbor which is on the south side of the island.  So we'll start off by exploring Nelson's Dockyard.  It was named for Admiral Horatio Nelson who actually lived there in the 1780's. Since Antigua is a big sailing destination for the rich and famous, this is a great place to go and see some amazing yachts and sailboats.  There is also a museum in the dockyard as well as various shops and restaurants.  There's even a wine bar.... They had me at wine.

English Harbor including Nelson's Dockyard and Shirley Heights

English Harbor is a deep water harbor and is well protected making it a safe harbor during storms.  Just around the corner from Nelson's Dockyard is the Pillars of Hercules.  We can get there on foot from the dockyard.  Just off shore is a great place for diving but not so great for snorkeling since the water is about 30 feet deep.  But the currents are strong here.  So you'll want to be careful.

Pillars of Hercules

After leaving the English Harbor area, we'll make our way up the coast to Devil's Bridge for a photo opportunity.  This is an area where the water has eroded the rock creating a natural bridge.  If you wait around for 30 minutes or so, you are sure to get a shot where the water is spraying up on you as you stand on the bridge.

Devil's Bridge

There is much more to see and do in Antigua and it can't all be done in a day so I'll finish telling you about it tomorrow.  I hope this little trip to Antigua is helping you to warm up on this miserably cold day.  The heater repairman is on his way to my house right now.  So, I'll talk to you tomorrow!

If I Won That Jackpot

If I won $365 million, or there abouts, I can't even fathom what I would do with all of it.  Don't worry, you'll continue to see my blogs for at least the not too distant future.  This morning as I checked my ticket against the winning numbers, as usual, I didn't get a single number right. So, if I'm currently working on a trip for you or a Business Plan, I will continue to do so.

But if I did win that kind of money, the possibilities are really kind of endless.  I always used to say I'd sell everything here and head to Grand Cayman with my cats where I'd open a charter boat business.  I'd take the tourists out to see the sting rays everyday enjoying the sun, water and nature.  The passengers would all call me Cap'n Susan.  I like that part best!  I always wanted to be called Cap'n Susan.  But the more I think about it, with a jackpot like this one, why would I sell everything here?  Why not just keep what I have here so that it could be my Dallas house and buy a new little multi-million dollar place in the Caymans?  Besides in the Caymans, money just turns into more money, right?  Isn't that why rich people are always sending money down there?

In recent years, I've re-thought that local a little.  I always used to say Grand Cayman.  Now I waiver between Grand Cayman and Roatan. I might just be able to send some of the money to Grand Cayman, you know so that it would multiply and I'd go to Roatan.  It's something to consider. I like Roatan for several reasons, the first of which is that you can still get into a place on Roatan pretty cheaply.  Of course, the prices go up every year.  But they aren't even close to Cayman prices yet.  I know what you're thinking. Ummmmm.... It's $365 million that I'm looking at here.  But I don't want to be one of those irresponsible lottery winners who blows all the money and ends up homeless in 10 years. Plus your good ol' US government is going to get half leaving me with only a measly $182.5 million.  Why, a girl can hardly make it on that!  I say your good ol' US government, because you know.... I won't live here anymore.  Sorry, I didn't mean to giggle maniacally....  Sure, I'll still have the Dallas house and I'll still visit from time to time.  But let's face it, Fox News is going to take a serious hit when I stop watching because I suddenly don't care anymore what those idiots in Washington are doing with your tax dollars.

After I got settled into my house in Roatan or Grand Cayman, I'd probably have to hire a house boy.  I'll need someone to take care of the cats when I travel.  So, I'm definitely going to need a house boy.  He'll also do all the cleaning and probably bring me Mai Tai's on the deck while I watch sunsets.  He won't have to cook though, because I'll have a personal chef for that.  You can't leave the cooking to a barefoot and shirtless house boy.  Wait, did I mention shirtless before?  No?  Well, I sort of thought it went without saying.  In addition to the house boy and chef, I'll have a personal trainer and will probably be skinnier than I ever imagined being.  And my personal trainer won't be Jill or Bob.  (I can't stand the girlish screaming of either of them!) No sir!  I'm going with Dolvett!  On the house boy's day off, I'll just have Dolvett take his shirt off.

One of the best things about winning the jackpot will be passing some of it on to others.  Of course my church would get a nice little sum.  Then there are a few charities I'd like to support.  Mom and Dad wouldn't have to worry that I suddenly live further away because they would have enough money to either come and visit whenever they wanted or buy the place next door to me if they decided to do that.  My brothers would suddenly experience similar wealth.  But that's where the passing out of money would have to stop.  I might gift a friend with plane tickets to come see me periodically.  But again, I don't want to end up one of those crazy homeless lottery winners.  It's all about responsible lottery money spending with me.

Of course my charter boat business would flourish.  I'd probably have to add boats and eventually have a fleet of them.  I think the best part about having boats in a tourist location like that would be naming them. They'd have names like Cha-Ching and Jackpot.  When my boats sailed by, people would get a little chuckle and think wistfully to themselves... Ahhhhh... if only I were as lucky as Susan.....  I like bringing a smile to people's faces....

Well, I have sat here and dreamed about money that people in California and Georgia won long enough.  I guess it's time for me to get myself in gear and start this day.  Have a great Wednesday.  I hope yours is half as good as mine will be.  I'm getting rid of a piano today and I get to have coffee with my Dad.  Winning!!!

Dallas Marathon Canceled... Boo!!!!

I have a number of friends who were supposed to be running the Dallas Marathon right now.  In some instances they have trained for months and this was to be their first marathon or half marathon ever.  Of course others of them run marathons regularly and likely already have another one on the books.  I know what your disappointment is like this morning, believe it or not.  Several years ago, I trained for the White Rock half, you know, back when it was still called White Rock.  Then just 6 weeks before it was to take place I blew out my knee and spent the next several months in rehab.  On the day the doctor told me I wasn't going to be able to run at White Rock, I was devastated.

The good news for you guys is that you have two healthy knees and as soon as some of this ice melts off you can go right back to running.  So, now all you have to do is find another marathon to run in the next few months and I'm here to help!  Unfortunately, the Honolulu Marathon is taking place later today and it's too late to get a flight out for that one at this point.  But worry not.... we'll find you an event to run.  I've found this handy-dandy website that lists all the marathons available.  So all we have to do now is find a great place to run and then book your trip.

Just scrolling through the list.  The first one to catch my eye is the Maui Paradise Run on January 12th.  I mean you definitely wouldn't have to worry about ice on the roads there, right?  But reading the reviews for that run, it would seem that it's a small local event and if you don't carry your own water, you'll collapse midway through since it's so sparsely attended.  One reviewer said that in 2009 they only had about 50 runners.  You probably don't want to fly all the way to Maui to collapse and die during a marathon.  So, let's look some more, shall we?

Of course on the same weekend as that Maui run, you could fly the other direction and do the Disney World Marathon.  I have several friends who have run this one.  People really can't say enough good things about it. You run through 4 Disney parks, what's not to love?  We could set you up in a Disney World Resort and you could do the Goofy Challenge if you are goofy enough to put yourself through that.  Or you could just run the marathon, enjoy a few days at Disney and then come on back.

But if you are really aching to do a Hawaii marathon, the following weekend, January 19th is the Maui Oceanfront Marathon.  This one only allows 600 entrants.  So it might be too late to register.  But it is a qualifier for Boston.  And apparently based on the reviews, you're probably going to be running past humpback whales jumping off the coast along this course. Plus who doesn't want a shirt from that marathon, right?

Looking to stick a little closer to home but still have a great experience?  Let me just tell you about the New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon on February 2nd!  Guess what folks, it's a rock n' roll marathon!  Come on, seriously, you are going to have the time of your life.  Why isn't this the biggest marathon in America?  Bands playing along the route every mile, in NOLA, I would assume that you get beads in your goody bag and surely they must pass out Hurricanes at the water stations, right?  Who's in?  Heck, I'll even come with you to cheer you on.  One of the things that a lot of the reviewers seemed to like about this one is that the 1/2 runners start with the marathoners, so you get 12 miles with the 1/2'ers and that seems to make for a good pace and upbeat runners.  Let me know if you need me to book you a room for this one.  The nice thing is that you can drive to this one if you don't want to spend money on a flight.

If you are looking for something even closer to home, February 16th you'll be in luck.  On that day you can choose between the Austin Marathon and the Koala Health and Wellness Galveston Mardi Gras marathon. Austin is a big one with 22,000 plus runners while Galveston is going to have a much smaller group of runners.  It's only in it's third year.  Reviewers say that the Austin race course can be a little boring in some spots as far as scenery.  In Galveston assuming the fog isn't too think at race time you at least have the Gulf of Mexico to look at.  Austin starts and ends at the capital.  Galveston basically takes you around the island twice, the first time with the 1/2 runners and the second time with just the much smaller group of marathoners.

Want to stay even closer to home?  Then let's talk about the Cowtown Marathon on February 23rd.  This race gets really great reviews.  So why don't we hear more about it locally?  If you did this one, you'd probably want to get a hotel room over in Ft. Worth the night before just to make sure you don't miss the start.  Otherwise, you are spending practically no money other than on registration.  Even parking is free. And are you ready for this?  You get TWO shirts!!!!  Yep!  One for registering and another for finishing.

So despair not runners.  There are other events out there you can run to make up for this one.  If you wanted you could run one every weekend of the year... and we haven't even touched on the ones in foreign countries yet.  I'm thinking a travel agent could make a living just setting you crazy people up with hotels and flights for your races.  Have a great Sunday and stay warm!

Donny Osmond As He Relates to Travel

Well, last night I had the time of my life.  I went to see Donny and Marie in concert at Verizon Theater in Grand Prairie.  I know some of you are thinking to yourselves as you read this.... And I trust her with my travel needs??!?!?!  But your trust is well placed.  After all, you never hear about a wild mob of Donny Osmond fans rioting in the streets or trashing hotel rooms.  Nope, wild mobs of Donny Osmond fans are more likely to go on a cleaning binge or hold some kind of a crazy cookie bake off.  Donny Osmond fans are wholesome and trustworthy, just like you want your travel agent to be.

For those of you who haven't worked with a travel agent before, and the more I do this the more I realize that most of you haven't, you build a pretty strong relationship with your travel agent.  You are sort of trusting them with a very memorable week or so in your life.  I mean honestly, some of my best memories in life occurred while I was on vacation. So I know that you can't trust those precious memories to just anyone. It's got to be someone you can trust and who will go the extra mile for you. It's my job to make sure that each vacation you plan with me becomes one of the best memories of your life.

Now there are a lot of uncontrollables in travel.  You can't control what the weather will do, or whether or not a volcano in Iceland will erupt disrupting air travel for half the world.  You can't predict more than a few days out a super storm in late October holding more than 20 cruise ships just off the Atlantic coast in horrible conditions and you can't even predict a drunk ship's captain ramming his vessel into rocks off the Italian coast, sinking it.  But you can take precautions to make sure you are in the best possible shape if any of these issues occurs.

When you book travel on Expedia or Travelocity, you usually get a pretty good price.  Sometimes, it is better than a price I will quote you.  But sometimes for an important trip, you need to take into consideration what you are getting.  It's a do it yourself vacation.  YOU are responsible for everything on that trip.  The last step on many of those websites is to ask you if you want travel protection for an additional fee.  But you've already been sucked in by the amazingly low price and you don't want to have to go and tack another $150 per person onto your price.  So, I would guess that about 85% of the time, that answer is a resounding NO! When I quote a price on a vacation, unless my client tells me otherwise, up front, I always include the price of travel protection in each of my quotes.

I think it just makes sense to protect your $3,000 vacation with $300 worth of travel protection that will allow cancellation for any reason in many cases right up until airport checkin time.  It protects you medically above and beyond what your Blue Cross Blue Shield might cover, it covers lost luggage, missed flights, and will even compensate you for flight delays that result in an aborted itinerary. When I went to Europe 5 years ago, one piece of my luggage didn't make the trip.  I finally got it back 3 weeks after I got back home to Dallas with several items missing out of it.  If I had used travel protection and had a travel agent who explained it to me, I would have been able to file a claim that would have not only gotten me some new clothes and luggage during my trip but I would have received additional compensation later on.  Instead I was left to try to fight it out with an uncaring airline who continually insisted that there was no wrong doing and that if I had travel protection, it would cover that.

Earlier this week I listened to a webinar for FareBuzz. They are the new travel search engine on my website, which you can reach by the way at www.placesuwillgo.com, and one of the gentlemen conducting the webinar began to talk about the insurance offered by FareBuzz.  He was one of those people whose travel plans were effected by that Icelandic volcano a few years ago.  Now obviously in a situation like that the airline will attempt to get you on another flight.  But if there are no flights heading out for a week or two and you were scheduled to board a $7,000 river cruise the next day you are completely out of luck.  The airline is only going to try to reschedule a non-refundable ticket, but they won't give you any money back on the ticket even in the event of a natural disaster.  If you miss your river cruise completely and therefore decide not to reschedule the air, you lose all of your airfare.  The river cruise is going to leave it's home port on it's scheduled day whether you arrive or not.  If you miss the cruise and you don't have travel protection even if it's due to a volcano, you lose every penny you spent on it.  With just one volcanic episode your dream vacation could turn into a very expensive nightmare quickly.

I recently worked with a family who planned a $10,000 Disney World vacation.  It was, for them, to be the trip of a lifetime.  But due to the illness of one of the people traveling the entire vacation had to be canceled. Now, even without travel protection, Disney was set to give them a full refund since they weren't set to travel for more than 130 days from the cancellation date.  However, the airfare for all 8 members of the family was non-refundable and would have been lost without travel protection.  They got all their money back except for the price of the insurance saving them more than $2,000!

I haven't even mentioned yet that with most travel protection plans that you get through a travel agent, if the price of your trip goes down between the time you book it and the time you travel, you can get the lower price!  That's right, there are some occasions when your travel protection is paid for by a price reduction before you ever even leave town!  The caveat here is that if a component of the trip sells out prior to travel, then no other price reductions can be taken.  In other words, if you book a trip to Cancun on flight XYZ with American Airlines staying at Best Resort Ever in Cancun and flight XYZ sells out of seats a month after you book, then obviously the price of the trip is frozen at that point since that EXACT trip could not be booked at a lower price by anyone else at that point.  Likewise, if Best Resort Ever runs out of rooms exactly like yours for that week, no one else can book the trip at a lower price exactly as you booked it so the price of the trip is frozen.

I don't like being a voice of doom.  So I'll close today with this.  If you book through Travelocity or Expedia or any of the other travel sites, consider the travel protection, generally the peace of mind it can provide is worth the price.  If you would prefer to have someone else do the worrying for you and explain all aspects of the travel protection options while you just flit from location to location taking photos and creating memories, work through a milk drinking, Donny Osmond loving travel agent.

Have a great Thursday and stay warm!

Cruise 360 or BUST!

Yesterday was a momentous day in the world of Places You'll Go Travel.  I made the decision to attend Cruise 360 in Ft. Lauderdale this April.  I am now officially registered, booked in a hotel and on a flight and have scheduled classes and ship tours for each day I am there.

I'll be touring 5 ships during my trip including 2 Royal Caribbean ships, 1 Princess, 1 MSC and 1 Celebrity. I'll have 2 - 3 hours on each ship and hopefully will be able to see most of the really important stuff.  As details are finalized I'll give them to you so that if there is anything you want to know about each of the ships I'll be visiting you can send me your questions so that I can get you the answer you want.  This will be my first CLIA event and the beginning of me getting my CLIA certification.  I'm very excited about this.  CLIA stands for Cruise Lines International Association and it is the be all, end all for travel agents who book cruises.  They train you, send you communications regarding cruise industry news and just generally are the go to organization for travel agents who book cruises.

During the trip, I'll be attending classes on social media, marketing, the "new face" of luxury cruising and multiple other topics as well as attending three 2 hour long general sessions in addition to the 5 ship tours.  It promises to be a very busy 6 days in Ft. Lauderdale.  My major concern at this point is, will there be beach time???? I mean, really!  It's going to suck if I spend 6 days in Ft. Lauderdale and barely have time to drive by a beach, right?  Although this is going to be work, I am considering it my birthday gift to myself.  After all, nothing makes me happier than all things cruising related.

There will be vendors there from all 26 cruise lines associated with CLIA North America.  In fact, there will be more than 300 booths to tour.  I'll get one on one time with cruise industry people to ask questions and just visit.  Then at the end of each day, I'll be staying at the Hilton Marina in Ft. Lauderdale.  You can't beat that.  When it's all said and done, I get credits toward my certification.  So, I'm calling it a win - win!

This will also mark my first time to fly Spirit which is a pretty big deal.  I have booked a few passengers on Spirit and so I'm aware of their policies regarding luxuries, you know,  like water.  On Spirit, it costs money to carry on luggage, to check luggage, to eat a peanut or drink a glass of water.  Nothing is free with them. But as we all know, you can buy bottled water or anything else you want to carry on to eat or drink once you pass the TSA checkpoint at the airport and make yourself a little picnic once you sit down in your seat. So that seems a pretty small price to pay for a $200 discount for the next lower priced airline.  As long as I arrange for my luggage prior to travel on their website, the prices aren't extraordinary.  One checked bag is $20 and a carry on is $25.  I'm thinking I can probably do this trip with either one checked bag or a carry on and a personal item.  I've kind of gotten out of the habit of checking luggage when flying.  But since it is $5 less than a carry on, I'm thinking it might be an option.

So anyway, that's my big trip that I'll be going on in April.  It will be filled with work, but since I have the funnest job in the world, I'm not going to complain about that.  I mean, seriously... how could you complain about running around Ft. Lauderdale and Miami for 6 days from one ship to another checking out the amenities?  Oh and by the way, I'm told that it is also very important for me to check out some of the excursions that are available there so that I can recommend them to clients.... hmmmmmm.....  What should I try out??!?!?!?!

Have a great Wednesday!  I'll be spending my Wednesday evening with Donny and Marie!