123 Gone!

The last several years.... You know, since just after Al Gore told us all that global warming was going to melt the polar ice caps and we would all be floating around in a water world the likes of which only Kevin Costner could imagine soon, the winters have seemed to last forever in North Texas.  I've never been a fan of winter.  I'm a life long Texan just like all of my family generations before me were and if Texans didn't deal well with warm to hot weather most of us would just pack up and move to Minneapolis... or if we just couldn't make ourselves leave the state, perhaps Amarillo, where the major part of the year is much colder than here. As a state, we are more warm weather people.  So this isn't going too well for many of us.  If you disagree, you are entitled to your opinion.  Go ahead and get your own blog and express your opinion as much as you like.

Today, fortunately, our temperatures here in Dallas will be in the 70's to almost 80 degrees.  But then tomorrow we go back down to freezing with chances for sleet Sunday or Monday and a definite hard freeze on Monday weather we get the sleet or not!  Yuck!!!!!  Three or four years ago, it snowed here in Dallas on Good Friday and that year, if I'm not mistaken, Easter was in early April.  That, my friends, is crazy weather even for Texas!  I blame it all on Al Gore who apparently pissed off the warm weather gods when he started preaching his global warming agenda. I'm over this bizarro world "global warming".  If this is global warming, I'm the Elaine of this bizarro world and I can't even find Jerry, George or Kramer.  So, let's just leave bizarro world and go to a happy place.

***Please note*** This is NOT a paid political announcement, but just an embittered rant from someone who is sitting in front of a space heater in her office drinking massive amounts of coffee to try and stay warm until the temperature warms up into the 70's later today.  Now back to the blog....

Celebrity's final day of their 123 Gone sale is today!  In case you are not aware, the 123 Gone sale goes like this.  You pay whatever the going rate is for the cruise you choose, but then you can choose from one of the following bargains to enjoy during your cruise.

1. Free drinks for you and your roomy during the cruise up to $88 a day. That's at least 4 drinks a day each if you drink the fancy ones and even more if you are a cheap drunk!
2. Free gratuities for your cabin.  This is worth about $30 a day for the length of your cruise.
3. Onboard credit - $100 for 3 to 5 night sailings
                               $200 for 6 to 9 night sailings
                               $300 for 10 + nights

Obviously, if you drink, number one is going to be a better bargain for you.  If you don't drink, you could probably go with either two or three and it would work out the same way.  So anyway, yesterday Celebrity was kind enough to send me an email reminding me that today was the final day of the sale which prompted me to look at itineraries that they currently have available for 2015 to see if I saw anything interesting.  And oops!  I found something for January 16, 2015.  I didn't want to find this but here it is....

Date	Port/City	Activity
Day 1	Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Day 2	At Sea
Day 3	At Sea
Day 4	Gustavia, St. Barts	Tendered
Day 5	St. Croix, U.S.V.I.	Docked
Day 6	San Juan, Puerto Rico	Docked
Day 7	Labadee, Haiti	Docked
Day 8	At Sea
Day 9	Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Yes, you did read that right!  It's an 8 night cruise from Ft. Lauderdale that goes to St. Barts, St Croix, Puerto Rico and RCCL's private island Labadee, Haiti!!!! (Royal Caribbean owns Celebrity.) So as luck would have it, several years ago when my travel buddy, Jenny and I were on a Celebrity cruise, we went to the future cruises office during the last day at sea and paid a $150 deposit on a future open ended cruise. You see, while you are on a cruise, if you book your next one, the deposit is MUCH cheaper than normal.  But cruise lines figured out several years ago that not all people can plan one vacation while still on their current vacation so they started doing these open ended reservations where you just pay your deposit on your shipboard spending account and they give you a confirmation number showing that you have already paid a deposit on a future cruise.  Then you have 10 or so years to figure out when and where you want to go and book it.

So.... Jenny and I have to go on a Celebrity cruise and we only have 5 or 6 years left to get it done before we lose our $150 deposit.  It's not that I want to go on this cruise.....  I sort of have to go on this cruise.  So I sent Jenny an email yesterday afternoon to see if she would be willing to make the sacrifice and book it with me and the only concern she expressed was that she didn't know what the water temperature in the Eastern Caribbean would be like in January.  Understandable, I mean the last thing you want to do is leave this Siberian climate we are becoming accustomed to in Texas only to go to a place where it is too cold to get in the water.  So, I looked up the average water temperatures in the Virgin Islands.  Ummmm, it's a very chilly 79 degrees in January as opposed to 84 in the summer months.  Yikes!  We may get frost bite!!!!  So, I haven't gotten final word from her yet, but I am very hopeful that I'll be booking us on an Eastern Caribbean cruise today.  If you are interested in getting a quote on this terrific itinerary, let me know.  If you want to get in on the 123 Gone Sale, you have to book today.  So don't delay!!!!!

Have a terrific weekend and stay warm out there fellow Texans!

What's YOUR Dream Island?

I keep doing those dumb quizzes on Facebook and I keep getting angry with the results.  You know the ones I'm talking about where they ask you 20 random multiple choice questions and none of the multiple choice answers answer the question adequately so you just pick one. Then at the end of the quiz it announces to the entire Facebook world that your Disney personality is Cruella de Vil (which could not be further from the truth) or that you should move to freaking Tennessee because you aren't really a Texan based on the lame answers they listed.

So, after I was told by the last one that I'm not really a Texan I swore I'd stop doing those quizzes all together.  Then last night I saw one that a person who I used to work with had taken proclaiming that her "dream island" was St. Barts.  Now I thought to myself, this is a quiz with no downside (unless your dream island turns out to be somewhere in the Antarctic and what are the chances of that?)! So I took the quiz.

This quiz didn't ask stupid multiple choice questions like:

If you were a mammal other than human what would you be?
A. Squirrel
B. Lemur
C. Walrus
D. Impala
E. Wolf

For the record, my answer to this question would obviously be Walrus.  I mean seriously, who wouldn't answer it that way??!!!!?!?!?!  No sir, this quiz asked scientific questions related to the topic like,

Over your bathing suit at lunch, you wear....
A. A maxi dress and matching jewelry
B. Quick dry shorts and a sporty tank
C. A pretty sundress
D. A sarong or cover up

Well duh!  Of course the correct answer is D. I don't even want to vacation in the same hemisphere with someone who goes to the trouble of picking out matching jewelry for something that they would use to cover their swimsuit.  What kind of a sick-o does that?  And I don't understand what the point would be of putting on a pretty sundress if you aren't going to shower first and put make up on.  But here's the thing.  I'm guessing that if a man took this quiz, they all end up with the same dream island since there aren't a lot of guy answers to these questions.  In fact the questions themselves are really kind of girl questions.  It's a very sexist quiz if the truth be known.  Honestly a man doesn't wear anything over his bathing suit to lunch.  He just throws a tee shirt on, if that! If a man answers anything other than B to this question, I'm thinking your room is going to need two queen beds rather than the one king.  Know what I mean?

So this morning after giving this a little thought, I went back through all the questions and decided that there was really only one answer a man could give to most of these questions without totally losing his man card, so I re-took the quiz and gave the answers I thought a man would give and guess what.....  I got the same result that I did last night when I took the quiz as myself.  Apparently, my dream island whether I am a man or a woman is definitely Kauai!  I've never been to Kauai but I've written several blogs about it.  In fact, I get so many queries from clients who are interested in going to Kauai that I send the Kauai blog links to that they are among my most read blogs ever.  Now, I know that's not saying much.  But still, I thought it was interesting that the place I wrote about a mind trip to last year turned out to not only be my "dream island" but also would be my "dream island" even if I were a man.

My question now is, do all men get Kauai when they take this quiz?  There is really only one question that I think they could answer differently than I did without having their masculinity questioned.  I mean, we all have to agree that the answer to the following question if you are a man is a pretty easy one....

To show off your beach ready pedi at dinner, you where....
A. Sporty but cute sandals
B. A pair of stylish, open toed flats
C. This seasons hottest wedge sandals
D. Flip flops

If you are answering the way you think a man would and you answered anything other than D we really need to talk and you need a tune up on your gay-dar.  Coincidentally, I answered this question the same way both times that I took it.  After all, I'm very low maintenance on vacation.  So, maybe that's why I got the standard "man dream island".  Men are generally pretty low maintenance on vacation too.  Hence, they can pack for two weeks in Hawaii using a backpack, while a woman needs a full set of luggage and ends up spending more on airline luggage fees than she did on her airline ticket. Or maybe it was the beverage question that got me the "man" answer.

Your ideal vacation libation is....
A. A local brew
B. A fresh and frosty margarita
C. A flute of something bubbly
D. A crisp glass of white wine

Now, as a woman I could have chosen any of those answers depending on the circumstances.  But when I took the quiz, the image that popped into my mind on this question was of me laying on a hot and sandy beach and when I am hot and sweaty and have an option for a refreshing drink, I almost always want a Corona Light.  It's my "sun" drink of choice. However, if it's dinner time depending on the atmosphere and my mood, I might choose a glass of white wine or champagne. You never really know what I might order. I'm unpredictable that way.

All in all, I think this tells us two things:  One, a girl wrote this quiz.  And two, a LOT of men should be calling me to book trips to Kauai and when you do, maybe I'll see you there!  I'll be the girl in the flip flops sipping on a beer.

Slow Down and Enjoy the Scenery!

Sorry I haven't written a blog post in so long!  It's been a busy week here at Places You'll Go Travel. Everyone seems to be working hard on getting summer vacation plans squared away. If you haven't started planning yet, you might be behind the 8 ball.  But we can still get you taken care of.  I'm excited that so many people are planning on going to places that neither they nor I have ever been to before.  It gives me the opportunity to do research on brand new locations! Doing all this research almost makes me feel like I'm going myself.... almost!

I have other clients who are planning trips to their old vacation stand by's. There's something nice about going to a place that you've been to before for vacation.  If you visit the same all inclusive resort every year, I think after the 2nd or 3rd year you could begin to experience a state of relaxation so deep that people would have to come around with a mirror to stick under your nose every hour or so just to make sure you are still breathing.  For me, when I am in a new location, I have a little trouble relaxing because I feel like I have to see and do everything since I have a limited amount of time to do so. I always think, what if this is the only time I'll ever be here??!?!?!  Just in case, I better do everything!!!!  So, I spend my vacation running from one sight to another in a tourist frenzy the likes of which you have probably never seen snapping pictures every 20 seconds along the way.

I know I've told the stories about the trip to Europe before, but that is exactly the state that my travel buddy, Jenny and I were in while we traveled in Europe several years ago.  It was our first time to travel together and it turned out that we were sort of on the same page.  We both had an overwhelming urge to rush to each sight, snap multiple pictures as quickly as possible and then move on to another sight.  I think one of the few times we slowed down and really enjoyed a tourist attraction was at Park Guell in Barcelona.  When we first arrived at Park Guell we were still in the tourism frenzy mode that we spent most of the trip in as you might be able to tell if you saw how many photos I took in the first hour.  But then we came across this guy who was testing the boundaries of the acoustics in the pavilion and and things changed.  Suddenly a state of peace came over me and I felt the need to slow down and just enjoy all there was to see and experience.

In a place like Park Guell your photos can go one of two ways.  Either you will end up with photos of people you don't know from some other country posing for someone else in front of whatever land mark you are trying to photograph, or you can wait around indefinitely until all the other tourists clear out and try to get a picture of the actual landmark with nobody else in  front of it. Partially due to my lack of patience, most of my photos usually have other tourists posing in them.  In my opinion, life is too short to spend it waiting for all the other people in the world to finish taking photos in front of a giant mosaic lizard at Park Guell. The other reason is that I assume that someone besides me will someday look at my photos and I want them to get that same sense that I had when I was visiting the location that this is an important sight, hence all of these people are in the photos.  I mean, seriously....  if you visit the Great Pyramids and take a bunch of photos of just the pyramids and no other humans are in he photos, in 500 years if someone comes across the photos are they going to think, Wow!  Those people in the 21st century were so self involved they didn't even realize what a big deal those pyramids were!!!!!   Let's face it, we are pretty self involved.  It wouldn't be a big jump for someone from the 26th century to make that we were too self involved to recognize history when we walked right through it.  So, this is what the entrance of Park Guell looks like on any given day with a ga-zillion tourists all stopping to take photos of one another in front of the different pieces of art.

But here's the really amazing thing.  After we saw the guy in the pavilion playing his music and we relaxed and began to just walk around slowly, suddenly there were photo opportunities all around us with no other tourists squeezing between you and the landmark you were trying to photograph.  And that was pretty nice too.

So I guess my point is, sometimes even if you think it might be your only visit to an area, it's best to just slow down, take it easy and enjoy the sights that you do have time to visit. Have a terrific Saturday!

Day Two of Our Mind Trip to Key West

Yesterday was pretty busy and I didn't get a chance to write an installment on our mind trip to Key West that we began on Wednesday.  But today, let's pick up where we left off.  If you'll recall, it was cold and miserable in Dallas on Wednesday.  So I booked us a last minute flight to Key West on Delta and we had to take one of the few hotel rooms available in Key West which just happened to be an oceanfront room at the lovely Westin in Key West.  Hey, this is a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it....  Now this is only a 3 day mind trip, so you've got to make the most of every imaginary minute you have in the Keys.

If you didn't read Wednesday's blog, you are welcome to go back and read it if for no other reason, just to look at the photos and links.  But I'll go ahead and tell you that we didn't arrive until a little after 2:00 PM Then after checking into our hotel, we made stops at Margaritaville, the Earnest Hemingway Home and The Green Parrot before heading to Mallory Square for the daily Sunset Celebration and then dinner at Sunset Pier.  It was a pretty full afternoon.  Today will be no different.

Since this is a short little vacation, I've decided to sleep in a little and so I don't wake up until around 9:00 AM and then decide to spend the first couple of hours of the day relaxing around the hotels magnificent pool with a Bloody Mary to accompany me. Perhaps you're a Mimosa person. That's fine, you can order whatever you want as the waiter walks by.  But for me, it'll be a Bloody Mary - after all, that tomato juice contains a full days supply of 8 vitamins and minerals. (I'm such a health freak, right?)  Around 11 we decide to get dressed and head out for some fun around Key West.  We've got a lot of stuff to pack in to a very short amount of time today. Tonight we have reservations at La Te Da where we'll have dinner and then enjoy the Caberet.  I can't wait!  Ever since I saw The Birdcage years ago, I've wanted to see a drag show. This is my chance and the shows at Cabaret at La Te Da get rave reviews as does the restaurant.

But before all that, I've never had a chance to visit Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.  It's the US's southernmost state park, (like everything else in Key West) and in addition to a historical sight, there's a beach. What more could you ask for?  We arrive at the park just in time for the daily tour which begins at noon and find out all there is to know about Ft. Zach before heading to the beach to lay around for a little while. The beach at Ft. Zach is a good one by Key West standards. If you are looking for surf, you are in the wrong place. The Keys are protected by a barrier reef which means no surf. Walking into the water is like walking into a kiddie pool.  Because of the lack of surf, there is also a lack of sand which means a lack of natural beaches. So, most of the beaches here are man made and small.  The beach at Ft. Zach is a little rocky, but since it's part of a state park, it has bathroom facilities, and watersport rentals and there is a neat little cafe, Cayo Hueso on the beach where we get a cuban sandwich and a large bottled water for lunch for under $10 per person.

After spending a few hours on the beach at Ft. Zach, we head back over toward Duval St. to listen to a little live music this afternoon while enjoying an adult beverage or two before going back to the hotel to dress for dinner and our very exciting show! One of my favorite things about Key West is how casual everything is. Just throw a swimsuit cover up and flip flops on and you are welcome in any bar coming straight from the beach or a snorkeling trip in the Dry Tortugas.  Today we've decided to stop off at Sloppy Joe's and listen to some live music while perusing the specialty drink menu.  After much consideration I decide on a Sloppy Mojito and I am not disappointed.  A couple of mojitos later, we make our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

After dinner and a truly wonderful show at La Te Da we spend the rest of the evening and an hour or two of the morning doing the Duval Crawl hitting as many of the hot spots as possible along Duval St.  Tomorrow is our last full day in Key West then we'll fly home on Sunday so we still have a lot of stuff to cram into a short amount of time.  So let's stay hydrated folks and keep your game faces on!  We have work to do.

Tomorrow will be our funnest day yet!  Have a great weekend!

A Little Mind Trip to Key West to Warm Us Up!

Okay, I know this weather is supposed to improve for the remainder of the week.  But for now I can't take it.  Warm weather people should never be made to endure a long winter.  Somebody needs to shoot that damn groundhog the next time he comes out of his hole.  So, with that said, we're going on a mind trip.  It's going to be a short one and we aren't even leaving the US so no virtual passports required!

So, here's the deal, I typed that paragraph and then I went into my system and created an itinerary to get to Key West arriving 2 weeks from today and staying through that Saturday and guess what.... Not a single hotel room available within 60 miles of the Conch Republic.  I guess we aren't the only ones who are fed up with the weather.  So, I re-ran it and our little mind trip will start 3 weeks from tomorrow.  We'll fly into Key West on Delta with a 2 hour stop in Atlanta.  Just long enough to get a quick breakfast and arrive in Key West at 2:09 PM.

Now, you can go one of three ways as far as transportation goes in Key West and I think all three work just fine depending on what your plans are during your trip.  You can either rent a car, but this is Key West so it pretty much has to be a convertible, you can take a cab or a shuttle to your hotel and spend the weekend walking or riding bikes to your destinations or you can rent scooters after you check in to your hotel.  

Key West is small and the tourist area is very compact.  So depending on the location of your hotel, you can easily get to anything you are interested in by foot or bicycle as long as you don't plan to drive up the Keys during your visit.  We're staying at the Westin Key West which is located on Front St just one block from Duval and right next to Mallory Square.  We'll only be here for 3 nights so there's really not time for driving the Keys and I've done it before anyway.  So I've decided to forego a car.  There was not much of a selection of rooms available so we're just going to have to rough it in an oceanfront room at the Westin... heheh... (There went the budget!) The view is spectacular.  But we won't be spending too much time in the room because after all, we'll only be here for 3 days and the sun is shining! So we'll take a cab from the airport to the hotel.  But be aware!  Even though it's only a 2 mile cab ride, it'll cost about $25.  Taxis in Key West are not cheap!

So as soon as we drop our things off at the hotel, we head out to make the most of our time here.  Now, I've only been here once before and on the previous visit although we hit a lot of the highlights, there were a few things we missed and I don't want to miss them again.  So our first order of business is to walk up Duval St. and stop into mecca (Margaritaville) for a Cheeseburger in Paradise with an ice cold Landshark and then we'll be heading to Ernest Hemingway's house.  On my previous visit, we walked by and took pictures from outside the gate but decided not to go in.  We were a little pressed for time and still had a lot to do on that trip. So today we'll do the full tour taking pictures of plenty of the 6 toed cats around the place. The light house is right across the street but I've visited it before and have taken pictures of and from every location in and around the light house.  So, we'll just pass by and maybe snap a few shots as we go.

 After all of that sight seeing, we'll probably be starting to get a little thirsty, so it's time to head back down toward Mallory Square walking down Whitehead St. but first we'll need to stop and wet our whistles and I know just the place for an afternoon cocktail.... We're stopping at The Green Parrot Bar which boasts itself as A Sunny Place for Shady People.  Sounds like my kind of place. After a drink there, we are ready to set out on our journey again.  By the time we get back to Mallory Square the Sunset Celebration is already in full swing so we join in stopping off to watch the nightly performance of Dominique the Cat Man and his amazing flying cats.  After getting our fill of flying cats, we'll stop off for Will Soto's nightly high wire act and then head over to Sunset Pier for dinner.

Hope you have enjoyed this first day in Key West and you are nice and warm after a day of walking around in the Key West humidity. I know I feel better. Tomorrow we'll do some exploring and maybe rent scooters!  Have a great Hump Day!

Photo Organization Might Not Be For Amateurs!

I have a travel page on Pinterest.  In case you are interested in checking it out, here's a link.  I'll try to place it strategically throughout this post so that you won't have to move that mouse around too much.  I know how troublesome that can become.... (Insert eye roll here.)  The reason I bring it up is because a few weeks ago I started a board called Beaches but then I never added any photos or anything to it.  I knew in my mind that I wanted boards on this Pinterest page called Boats, Beaches, Bars and Ballads (in addition to many others) because you know that's the name of the Jimmy Buffett boxed set from many years ago and I think it sort of relates to my travel style. Ballads hasn't been set up yet.  But Boats and Bars have been going for a while, because let's face it, a girl's got to know her priorities and have them in line.

So anyway, I had this Beaches board but I had no photos on it.  Then yesterday, during a lull in the travel business (ok, I admit it, I only talked to two clients yesterday) I decided to start posting some beach photos from my travels.  But here's the deal, I put one of those new Pinterest maps on this board which I haven't done in the past. But it seemed like the right thing to do with the board being travel related and all.  But, I guess when you have the map there, you have to choose a location first.  Then you can choose your pin. Normally, I just browse through pictures I've taken and find one that has good memories or that I like the composition of or something and then I Pin it.  I don't plan ahead like that.  I've never been that much of a planner (which I'm sure would make the people at the former employer who shall not be named twitch a little since Planner was in my job title for about the last 7 years I was there) and I'm not sure that I can change that at my age for the sake of Pinterest.  I mean, we all know, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, right?

So anyway, yesterday after about 30 minutes of consideration and contemplation, I finally got one "Beach" photo Pinned.  And here's the thing....  I really don't even know if I consider it a Beach photo.  I really consider it a Sunset photo.  It should be limited to spending space on my Sunset board, which if I'm not mistaken it already does!  Take a look at the photo in question and you be the judge.

Sunset in Sitges, Spain

Sure, if you try you can see just a little bit of beach off to the right there.  But beach is not the subject of the photo, the sunset is.  The sailboats in the harbor are a much larger part of the picture than the beach.  This wasn't even the picture that I had in mind when I typed Sitges, Spain into the field on Pinterest.  I was thinking of a photo that my travel buddy, Jenny took of me on the beach in Sitges.  You see it was cold. It was November and although it was the greatest trip ever, there were a few moments during the trip when we both wished we could be there during the height of the Mediterraneans tourist season so that we could spend time on the beautiful beaches along the Mediterranean.  So on this particular evening in Sitges, we ran down to the beach right after this photo was taken from the steps of the church and took our shoes off and walked around in the sand so that we could say we had.  The temperature was in the 50's and all the people who were on the tour with us thought we were crazy. I know they did, because they kept talking about us.  While we were on the beach we could hear them off in the distance saying something like "Is that the Texas girls??!?!?!  They have their shoes off!!!!"  But it was something that we had to do and I'm glad we did.

The problem that I face when it comes to finding specific photos that I have in mind is that I have 11 flashdrives of photos (probably 60 or 70 gigs) not to mention all the photos I have just randomly filed on my computer and backed up on CD's (God only knows where) that I didn't plan out too well when I saved them. (Once again that planning issue comes into play.)  The ones on the computer are filed by date.  So it is fairly easy to find them. But the ones I don't have saved on the computer and only have on flashdrives are a little bit of a challenge. There is absolutely no organization to that madness.  Here's the other issue.  When Jenny and I travel together, sometimes she gets a photo and I take a photo of something else.  We both know that the other has a photo that we will need a copy of but it isn't necessary for each of us to go photograph what the other already got.  So, at the end of the trip, we exchange photos.  Those photos are all stored on flashdrives for me.  Then I just piggy back onto those flashdrives.  So, I might have a flashdrive that has photos Jenny took in Europe along with photos I took three years later in Hawaii.  These are those little memory sticks.  There is no room for labeling the 32 subjects that are contained on that 8 gig stick so, I just try to remember that the cute little flowered stick has Key West on it and the tiny little blue one has Seattle and so on.  If I'm looking for one individual picture taken by Jenny 5 years ago, it could take me a week to find it because although it was taken in Europe, it is on the flashdrive that my RCI cruise from last January pictures are on.  See my problem?

I know that I could sit down with several empty memory sticks and totally get this mess organized if I had the patience and 2 or 3 months of complete solitude.  But I have neither.  So, today rather than making file labels for new clients and copying travel documents to mail all day, maybe I'll take a few hours this afternoon and go through memory sticks noting the locations of photos that I want to post so that I can just hit this thing from a different angle.  Yep, I think that's the ticket!

Have a great Tuesday!  I have a very exciting Globus webinar today, then I just might spend a little bit of time looking for beach photos.  Don't forget to take a look at my Pinterest Boards and Follow me if you are so inclined.

Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres - Wanna go?

Who knew that if I made MUST READ part of the title for a blog posting on a regular run of the meal day in February that I would get more readers than I have ever gotten?  I must say that it is making me feel pretty powerful!  It kinda makes me wonder what other phrases I could put in my titles to get readers....  Here's one....  I'M GIVING AWAY GOLD BARS!  Catchy?  I know some people for sure who would open that blog posting.  My parents to name just a few would open it.  You know, to see where the hell I got the gold bars and why they hadn't heard about it yet.  But other people would open it as well.  Of course, I'LL GIVE YOU A REFRIGERATOR apparently wouldn't get the attention of my nephews or niece.  At least not unless the subtitle is AND I'LL DELIVER IT TO YOUR HOUSE FREE OF CHARGE...  But you didn't open this blog today to read about that.  Nope you are here to learn about some travel topic that I chose at random this morning.  So I hope this satisfies your need for travel knowledge today.  If it doesn't and it will make you feel better, there's a free refrigerator sitting in my garage that you can have if you'll just come and get it.

So today let's talk about Isla Contoy and Isla Muejeres.  I've never been to either of these islands.  But I have a lot of clients who are slated to go to Cancun in the coming months and I am going to make it my personal mission to get some of them to visit one or both of these places while they are there. Isla Contoy is a small island a little over an hour away from Cancun by boat.  It's a national park.  People don't live on the island.  It is a wildlife reserve at the very northern point of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and home or a nesting place to more than 150 species of birds and more than 500 species of fish.  So if you are into bird watching or you like snorkeling this is your kind of place.

The island is only 4 miles long and 1/2 a mile wide. So it is a tiny little spot that birds literally flock to. Since it's a protected area you really have to plan ahead.  They limit visits to only 200 tourists a day to help preserve the area. But the website says that they actually only get about 100 people a day.  So, it's not going to be one of those over crowded touristy places. Tour boats leave from both Isla Mujeres and Cancun to visit Isla Contoy.  They do allow private boats to visit, but they require a pass that must be applied for in advance.  So the best way to visit is on one of those tour boats.  The tours run anywhere from $55 to $95 per person US for adults and it's pretty much an all day trip.  Some pick you up from various Cancun hotels or Isla Mujeres hotels in the morning while others require that you meet them at a designated place.  The boats can range from a small fishing boat with an outboard motor to a replica of a pirate ship.  On many of  the boat rides over to the island, they will stop on the reef for a short snorkel if the weather permits.  Then once you arrive on the island there are informative lectures that you can attend given by the resident biologists or you can just enjoy the beaches, the walking paths, the water, the snorkeling and the birds.  Here are a few things you might see during your visit.

Now I mentioned stopping on the reef for a snorkel earlier.  I suppose I should explain, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the second largest barrier reef in the world. It begins at about Isla Contoy which is the confluence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean and goes south for several hundred miles all the way down to Honduras. With a barrier reef you get a great variety of fish to see. In fact, very near Isla Mujeres (30 kilometers south of Isla Contoy) is a feeding ground for whale sharks. So, while there are no guarantees, Isla Mujeres is one of the few places in the world where you get a pretty good chance of swimming with the biggest fish in the world.  But we'll get back to that shortly.

Isla Contoy is also a nesting area for sea turtles.  So, if you love these little cuties like the one in the picture above, it's a pretty good place to go. Sting rays some with 5 foot wingspans regularly come up to the beach area to be hand fed by the tourists.  I've learned that rays are apparently moochers.  It would seem that they are worse than my cats when I open the bag of treats.  They know how to beg for food and they have no shame.

I love taking pictures of birds.  So, I think I might like the bird aspect of the island almost as much as the sea life that I could see.  While I've seen flamingos many times on the Texas gulf coast, I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing them.  They are just so darn pretty especially against the unbelievably blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. I know they smell bad.  But the trick is not to be downwind when you are taking photos of them. The photo below is a little hazy but what can I say, I didn't take it.... :-)

Getting back to the whale sharks, these fish amaze me!  How can a creature that big live off of plankton??? Seriously!!!!  They are apparently gulping massive amounts of plankton. So as I said earlier, Isla Mujeres is a feeding ground for whale sharks.  Whale shark season goes from June to September and they usually have about 400 of the endangered sharks there at any given time during those months. So the chances of seeing one or more are really great.  There are lots of different tours and companies that you can go with.  Many tours originate from Cancun and will only take 6 hours or so while others require that you stay in Isla Mujeres with your whale shark group.  (These are the more serious whale shark tours which are apparently designed for professional underwater photographers and videographers.) Prices on whale shark tours can range anywhere from $100 to $350 a day if you go with the pros.  If you go with the cheaper groups, they only allow 2 people in the water at a time with the sharks and the time that you are out is very limited to about 10 minutes per person. Once everybody has had a turn in the water, they are done.  The $350 a day group is a package and with them you do 5 days.  Which means your price for going out on the boat each day turns out to be $1,750.  In addition, you pay for your hotel with the group, meals, transfers, ferries, tips etc.  So this package is going to run you around $3k without airfare. But you go out in the mornings very early before the other tour boats coming from Cancun get there.  This allows more people to get in the water with nobody else around and more shifts of people to get in the water.  So you do rotations and get a lot more time with the fish.

Here's another consideration.....  If you don't have a wide angle lens for your underwater camera rig, then don't waste the time going.  Whale sharks are BIG!  The ocean is dark and no strobes are allowed.  After all, you don't want to frighten a 30 foot long, 20,000 pound fish so that he feels the need to escape and inadvertently swishes you with his tail.  So, I'm thinking the no strobe light rule is a good one.  With all that in mind, you aren't going to get any pictures in which you can tell anything without a good wide angle lens.  The shark will have to be very close for a good shot with visibility underwater being what it is and once it gets close, without a wide angle lens, all you are going to see is a few dots on something dark in the water.  With a wide angle lens, you might see something like this.

And now you see why I want to go to Isla Mujeres.  So there you have it.  Two places that you really kind of need to visit during your next trip to Playa or Cancun.  Call me so that we can plan your trip!

Not in Sochi

It's Friday!  If you could be heading anywhere else in the world today, where would it be?  I think about this a lot.  I think it would be so cool to be one of those people who just picks up the phone and says something like "Get me on a flight to Tahiti this afternoon....  I'll buy new clothes when I land."  Do those people even exist?  If they do, I want to be one of them in my next life.

Maybe you're thinking you'd like to be on a flight headed to Sochi right now.  I can honestly tell you that Sochi is the last place in the world I would like to be headed right now.  Have you seen the photos of the water????!?!  And apparently hotel guests are being told not to get it close to their FACE!!!  I personally don't want to know what is wrong with the water if you not only can't consume it, but you are told not to even come close to consuming it.  Somebody said it was being piped in from Chernobyl... Nice..... Radioactive water.....

I have a friend who every time I mention wanting to visit anyplace in the far East she starts talking about no toilets and just holes in the ground that are used for toilets.  I always have to clarify that I don't travel that way and when I consider visiting the far East, I imagine myself staying in places like this.... Hotel Intercontinental in Danang....  Yeah, check out that website. Now that's my kind of accommodations.

I could be wrong but I'm thinking this bathroom probably has running water....

I'm thinking I could probably tough it out in this Vietnam hotel room.  I mean realistically, where are they going to put a hole in the floor for one to use as a toilet in a place like this?  Right?

But I'm thinking that in Sochi side by side toilets are just barely a step up from holes in the floor.  Have you seen the photos of that?  Talk about awkward!!!  Yep, I'm thinking Vietnam is looking a LOT better than Russia.  Plus, the weather is way better!  If I want snow and ice I can stay in Dallas for crying out loud. I'm way more into what the weather is like in Vietnam. Now this is what I call vacation weather.  Take a look and then tell me you'd rather go to the Olympics.You'd have to be nuts!

Other places I'd rather be than Sochi consist of but are not limited to Hawaii, Key West, anywhere in Europe except Russia (even the really cold parts), anywhere in the Caribbean (because there are no cold parts), Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and in fact, anyplace in South America, anyplace in the US except Oklahoma (I have standards), and on any island in the South Pacific.  So, I'm not really all that picky about where I would go this weekend if I had the money to just pick up a phone and demand a flight.  But you know where I wouldn't go.

Have a terrific weekend.  Enjoy the opening ceremonies tonight!

June Royal Caribbean Cruise -MUST READ!

Hmmmmm....  It's snowing in Dallas this morning.  Maybe if we had known a few years ago what this winter was going to be like, we could have gotten the Winter Olympics here rather than in Russia....  With a little more snow they could shut down LBJ and Central Expressway and use the High 5 for downhill skiing.  That would work, right.... you know, until tomorrow when it melts?

But if you are cold right now and your thoughts are turning to the Caribbean where it's warm and sunny, it might be the perfect time to plan your summer vacation. And for the next 24 hours, I have got a terrific deal for you!  I have 4 remaining rooms blocked on Navigator of the Seas sailing out of Galveston on June 8th, that's the Sunday after Texas schools get out.  This is a 7 night cruise with the following itinerary:

Date	Ports of Call	Arrive	Depart	Activity
Sun 08 Jun 2014	Galveston, Texas		4:30 PM	Boarding
Mon 09 Jun 2014	Cruising			Cruising
Tue 10 Jun 2014	Cozumel, Mexico	8:00 AM	4:00 PM	Docked
Wed 11 Jun 2014	George Town, Grand Cayman	10:30 AM	6:00 PM	Tendered
Thu 12 Jun 2014	Falmouth, Jamaica	8:00 AM	5:00 PM	Docked
Fri 13 Jun 2014	Cruising			Cruising
Sat 14 Jun 2014	Cruising			Cruising
Sun 15 Jun 2014	Galveston, Texas	7:00 AM		Departure

I have the following cabins available:

Category	Description	Qty	Price
E1	Deluxe Balcony	1	$1219.16 per person / double occupancy
J	Inside Virtual Balcony	2	$849.16 per person / double occupancy
N	Inside	1	$789.16 per person / double occupancy

But here's the significant thing.  If you wanted to book these cabins yourself today, the prices are as follows:

Category	Description	Qty	Price
E1	Deluxe Balcony	1	$1450 per person / double occupancy
J	Inside Virtual Balcony	2	SOLD OUT!
N	Inside	1	$1232 per person / double occupancy

You see as ships fill up, the prices go up.  I reserved these cabins last year right after the cruise schedule for 2014 was announced and locked in these prices.  So, I am able to sell these cabins at a price that you can't get anywhere else.  But the catch is, that on February 8th.... TOMORROW, Royal Caribbean will take these four cabins back from me and raise the price to their current prices.  So, if this cruise sounds the least bit interesting to you - you MUST call me today!  The deposit required at booking is only $250 per person and final payment isn't due until March 25th!

In addition to the huge savings you will get if you book through me within the next 24 hours, I will get you $50 on board spending credit per cabin for booking through me.  You can't get that from Royal Caribbean because they aren't offering this.  You can only get that from your personal travel agent at Places You'll Go Travel.  That's right.... you've happened upon my crazy SNOW DAY CRUISE BLOW OUT!!!!!

I, myself will be on this cruise.  You see the prices are so good, I couldn't resist.  Additionally, my mom, 2 cousins, 3 aunts and 1 sister-in-law will be with me.  We're doing a little girls cruise and you could tag along. But if you aren't a girl or just don't relish the idea of traveling with me and my family, don't worry!  Your reservation won't be connected to ours in anyway.  In fact, with over 3,000 passengers on board, you may not even see us during the cruise.  

Now, you may be asking yourself, What the heck is an inside virtual balcony and why have they sold out?!?!??!!!!!  Well, let me tell you.  It's an inside cabin with no windows.  But one wall in the cabin has been turned into a video screen which will display a live feed from fixed cameras mounted on the outside of the ship that will give you a video feed of the sea as it goes by.  While you are in port, you will be able to see a view of whatever is going on outside there as well.  If you don't want to see what is going on outside, you are free to turn it off whenever you like.  But it gives you the illusion of having a window without the hefty price tag.  

Some other things you should know about the ship is that it is just coming out of dry dock where it has undergone an extensive revitalization in which they added these virtual balconies in addition to a Flow Rider. Now, I don't know if you have ever seen a Flow Rider, but let me show you what that is....

The Flow Rider on Freedom of the Seas

It's an  onboard surfing simulator.  The water in the Flow Rider moves so fast, they say, (I've never seen this happen) that it can actually rip a guys swim trunks right off if the drawstring isn't tied. I will admit, that I have spent a number of hours watching the Flow Rider with my camera in hand just in case such a thing occurred. It's a blast to watch.  I don't think I'm brave enough to ever try it although I know a number of people who have.  During the dry dock they also added some new dining options and updated a lot of areas of the ship to make it fresher and more modern.  

This itinerary is significant too.  Let me tell you about it.  First of all Grand Cayman is one of my favorite places in the Caribbean.  It is one of those British islands in the Caribbean where the cars drive on the wrong side of the road and everybody is always happy.  They are famous for their sting rays. I've told you about them before. But just to recap, there is an area a mile or two off shore where there is a sandbar.  Back in the day the fishermen would clean their catch on the sandbar and throw the scraps overboard before coming in for the evening.  The sting rays would come around and eat the scraps each day and they became so used to this that when a boat stopped near the sandbar, sting rays came from all over in expectation of being fed. Now boats take passengers out to the sandbar which is now known as Sting Ray City and you get in the water with the rays and feed them squid by hand. It's a truly amazing thing to experience at least once in life. 

A ray swimming through our legs looking for a squid handout.

In addition to feeding the sting rays at Grand Cayman, they have an amazing turtle farm that I just love to visit and a rum cake factory.  Plus if you are so inclined, you can go to Hell....  That's the name of a little town on Grand Cayman where you can mail a post card from and the post mark actually reads "Hell".  It's a pretty cool little place with a coral rock formation above ground that is so freakish that the founder declared it to look just like Hell and the name stuck.

One of the other stops is Falmouth, Jamaica.  Falmouth is the newest port in Jamaica.  The new cruise terminal there is really nice and clean and there are about a million shops and restaurants.  Additionally, it is very close to Dunn's River Falls, so you can climb the falls without spending half a day on a bus to get there. 

The picture below was taken at Falmouth as we were leaving there last January on board Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas.  Do you want to see a sunset like this?  All you have to do is call me today. Don't miss out on this terrific opportunity, they don't come around that often. 

Have a great Thursday and stay warm!

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smeyers@placesuwillgo.com

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