Enjoying New York

As I write this I am sitting out on the balcony of Mr. Flint's room enjoying a cool and beautiful New York evening.

I took a short rest earlier before I went to Amy's bread to pick up the cookies for tonight's gathering. Of course, I had to have another chocolate cupcake.

Mostly today I have been sitting in the lobby waiting for group members to arrive. I did go to lunch with several of the folks at John's Pizzeria which was very good.

I just finished setting up the food for the gathering tonight. The balcony isn't as big as the one I had before so I'm a little disappointed about that.

I am very excited to see the Odd Couple tonight.

Oh, and another thing...I found out that the band that played on Letterman last night is staying here at the hotel. I'm not very enamoured of them, but it's kind of a fun bit of trivia.

More Later.

Welcome!

Today is a day of welcoming. Most of the group is arriving today. I am dressed and hanging out in the beautiful small lobby of the hotel awaiting the arrival of each member of our group.

I slept fitfully last night for some reason. Could it possibly be the HUGE piece of wonderful dark chocolate cake right before bed?

When I got up this morning I went running in Central Park. I walked to the park, then ran 3 miles and walked back. Central Park fascinates me. I've been through it on more than one occasion, but there is always something new to discover.

I think I'm going foraging for pizza in a while.

More Later

What a day

I am beat. What an exciting day it haa been. As you know, I traveled early this morning with little sleep. Since then I've been to my ticket broker to pick up our Producers tickets, I've been to Amy's Bread to eat and to order cookies for tomorrow. I've been to the David Letterman Show and out to eat at Cacio e Pepe. (Very good.) After that we went back to Amy's Bread and ate a huge piece of cake.

We've been on the subway and walked all over. We ate at Hello Deli as well.

I mentioned earlier that Law and Order (SVU) is filming here. They tell me that the episode will air in October. I'm attaching a picture of a camera here in the lobby, but I am not sure if it will post.

The Letterman show was fun. They did pan out to the audience a couple of times. I am on the side of the audience where the band is. I am wearing a tan sweater.

I am writing this from the lobby of the hotel. The Law and Order people are supposed to be shooting on the street in a few moments and I might like to stay and watch.

More Later

Wow!

This will be a short message. I have just arrived at the hotel. Law and Order is filming in our hotel. How cool is that?

I am off to get lunch and pick up tickets

I've Arrived

Well, almost. As I compose this I am still in the air. It looked for a moment as though we would have a center seat empty ("we" being myself in the window seat and the stranger in the aisle seat in my row). At the last moment a lady that appeared to be quite unhappy came and sat between us.

She looked like she had a story to tell, so I asked her if this was a last minute trip or if she booked the center seat on purpose. Apparently she got to the airport this morning ready to fly to NYC and was informed that her reservation had never been ticketed and was cancelled! So, rather than spending 250.00 on this trip, she got tobspend 1000.00 and sit in a center seat.

Okay, now I am in baggage claim and it is taking forever. I will sign off for now.

General Observations

I am sitting at gate C25 at DFW airport. The airport is quite busy this morning, I am really surprised.

I am also irritated. I guess I already knew that American Airlines is charging 2.00 per bag for curbside check in. Today is the first time I've experienced it. What a crock. First of all, I had two bags. I would have only had one bag, were it not for the restrictive weight limits on the bags. I had to pull things out and put them in a 2nd bag. Was it worth 4.00 not to roll my bags up the escalator? No, I think not. So, if it was AA's intention to decrease the tips of the curbside porters, irritate me and lengthen the lines upstairs.....good for them, they've succeeded.

Another thought...(I have just boarded the plane) I think I should be able to sell my overhead bin space. The flight attendant just announced that there is sufficient space up there for one bag per person. I don't put anything up there....hey....If AA can maximize revenue at every turn...why can't I?

Well, I will sign off for now so I can transmit before I have to power down.

Again with the technology....

Please excuse the brief test message on my last post. I was playing with the ability to post to the blog from my new Treo 650 from Verizon.

I am escorting a corporate incentive group to New York City. I'll leave Thursday morning. While I'm gone I'll be seeing a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. I also have tickets to the Odd Couple with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. The whole group has tickets to The Producers. We'll also be taking an extensive walking tour of the city and enjoying some fine dining.

While I'm gone, I wanted to be able to easily blog..hence the test message.

That is all...move along now...nothing to see here...yet.

Test blog...again

Once more....with feeling

.pdf files...What a wonderful thing....

Excuse me while my inner geek shines forth for a moment.

I've really become enamored with .pdf files. I found a free .pdf writer that can be downloaded here.

It's so handy. Just now I completed a rather complicated rail itinerary that I would really like the client to see and approve before I pull the trigger. One option would be to call and verbally recap it to the client. Another option would be to, at the office tomorrow, print it out and fax it. The problem with this option is that a) I won't have a record of them having reviewed it and b) I would have to wait until tomorrow.

..enter .pdf. I just did a print screen, but I printed it to a .pdf file. This way I was able to email to him as an attachment...he'll review it and email me his approval. I'll have a record of it and it'll be speedy.

Technology...I just love it when it makes life easier!

The City That Doesn't Sleep

Early Thursday morning I'll be winging my way to New York City to escort a corporate incentive group. Most of the group is arriving on Friday, but a few folks have elected to come in on Thursday. I always arrive a day ahead of the group so that I can make sure that everything is in place.

We Thursday arrivers will be attending a taping of the David Letterman show. I must also pick up our theater tickets for Saturday's performance of "The Producers" that day. Additionally, I would love to visit the office of a European wholesaler we use extensively.

On Saturday we also have a private walking tour of New York as well as a very nice dinner at The District. We will be staying at The Muse Hotel.

Today (Sunday) I am busy trying to make sure I've thought of everything, I am also beginning to pack. I just checked and the scheduled guest at the Late Show is Antonio Banderas. I am trying to figure out when I can make time to run in Central Park. I love to run in places I visit all over the world.

I am trying to think about what I haven't thought of...what might come up that I might need to be prepared for..what do I need to take? This is the first group I've escorted to somewhere that wasn't an all inclusive resort. Will everyone enjoy themselves?

Stay Tuned!

Amtrak Adventure

Bottom Line:

A great idea, poorly executed.

You might remember that the kids and I rode the Amtrak from Dallas Union Station to McGregor (near Waco) Texas this past weekend. It was certainly interesting.

First of all, the train ran three hours late on Friday afternoon. We had taken the DART light rail down from Plano and had allowed an hour between trains. This left me with three backpacks and two kids for four hours on a Friday afternoon in Downtown Dallas.

Additionally, the train car itself was dirty. We spent most of our time in the lounge car which had an upstairs area with sofas and lounge chairs. Downstairs is a fast food area with tables. I moistened a napkin with water and attempted to wipe down the table where we ate our mediocre cheese pizza (which Trey loved). The napkin was quickly black.

The attendants on the train were rude and we were clearly an inconvenience to them. The food was bad and expensive. One of the things the kids were looking forward to was eating in the dining car. We were unable to get a reservation.

Having said all that, I do enjoy train travel. I've done a great deal of it in Europe.

Our fellow travelers were of great interest to me as well. There were basically two groups of people on the train. There were those, like us, who were traveling the train for the novelty of it. There were several sets of grandparents with grandkids. Then there was a whole other set of folks who were traveling the train due to the cost factor. There was one little girl (probably 4 or 5 years old) that came and sat with us, played cards and shared our mediocre pizza. She was with us for over an hour before a group of adults walked through the car and waved at her. They were, apparently, her family. They didn't seem at all concerned that she was sitting and sharing food with strangers.

Finally we arrived in McGregor.

For the return trip, I came equipped. We had purchased a package of bleach wipes and proceeded to clean the entire lounge car. We purchased an assortment of child amusement items. Playdoh....crayons....coloring book....paper....army men.

The lounge car turned into to Romper Room on Rails. We had probably 8 kids engaged in various activities. When we got off the train we left the toys with the children.

I was glad to have done it, but I think I'll wait to take another train until I'm in Europe.

What Am I? Chopped Liver?

I recently attended a travel show in the company of my long time friend and employee, Marty.

Everybody loves Marty.

Seriously, every agent he has ever been on a fam trip with along with every rep he has ever met acts like he is a long lost friend when they spot him from the other side of the room.

Philip and I get asked all the time "Legacy Travel....isn't that Marty's agency?"

We have long since resigned to just answering "Yes." I don't think even one time anyone has stopped him to ask if he works with Philip or myself.

Oh well, I can comfort myself with the following quote from Erma Bombeck:

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Network Administrator

I wear many hats in our office. One of my main hats is "Keeper of All Things Pertaining To Technology".

Today that was pretty much the only hat I had time to wear. About noon, all of a sudden we completely lost Internet connectivity. Since we utilize IP telephony, that pretty much leaves us dead in the water.

Fortunately, Philip is in Alabama at his parents house. His phone was connected at the time, and I was able to send Marty to my house here in Plano where I keep an extra IP phone hooked up. So, I had Philip in Alabama and Marty here at the house fielding all of our incoming calls.

Meanwhile, I did various things to isolate where our problem was. Turns out, our Linksys WRT54G router decided to stop working. Amazing how something small like a dead router will really throw a kink in a network.

So if you tried to call us during the mayhem that was today, please forgive me.

We're all fixed now and I should be able to catch up tomorrow on that cooking and bottle washing.

"So what are YOU doing for spring break?"

People ask me alot about the travel habits and preferences of me personally and of our family. Since we've been in this business for close to 18 years I guess people figure that we must have the inside scoop. I guess, in many ways, we do.

So now, in a Travel Tales exclusive, I'm going to let YOU in on the "Inside Scoop".

The Inside Scoop:

Don't travel when hoards of other people are traveling.

There you go. That's the inside scoop of travel. Yes, I know you might have kids in school or maybe you're a teacher yourself. Maybe you only have time off when school is out. That's fine. Just understand that you'll have to pay more for your trips and perhaps endure more crowds than if that weren't the case.

If you do have the flexibility, you should certainly consider going at off peak times. For instance, go ahead and book the Yucatan or the Caribbean in the Fall. Yes, I'm well aware that it's hurricane season. Buy the insurance and go anyway. Even though the storms make the news constantly, most people who travel during that time of year are completely unaffected and enjoy low prices and low crowds.

Another idea, even if you are limited to the school schedule, is to consider less than orthodox places for your trip. Nothing says you HAVE to go to a beach for Spring Break. It's a fairly inexpensive time to go to Europe, for instance. You might be surprised how much there is to do even for elementary school aged children. Consider departing on the Saturday when the break begins and returning home on the very last day. This leaves you a good window to experience something quite out of the ordinary.

Give it some thought. Oh, and what AM I doing for Spring Break? Well, I'm taking a short train trip with my kids to my Dad's house. He and his wife live in Waco, so it isn't very far from Dallas. We're looking forward to the train ride though.

Always looking for something out of the ordinary!

Hello....the price of your trip went down...

This morning Terrah got to do something particularly fun. We routinely check the price of trips booked with us to see if they've gone down. It is so much fun to call someone and say "Hello, the price of your trip went down...you'll see the refund on your credit card...have a nice day."

Hotel Photo Tours

I've finally had time this weekend to accomplish something I've had on my mind for quite some time.

A while back we contracted with a company from Austin who developed hotel photo tours with photos taken agents on hotel site inspections rather than cropped, retouched and staged photos normally found on the hotels own websites. We felt like that was a fantastic service to provide to our clients because we could provide honest information about the hotels.

Sadly, that company went under a few months ago. (Good product, long story)

Since then I've had it in my mind that I could provide the same thing on our site. Sure, it would take a little coordination, but I feel up to the challenge.

FINALLY this weekend I've put together the first four tours. Check out the this page of the Legacy Travel website and look around.

I should be able to add about 6 Jamaica properties next week when I see the pictures Terrah came home with.

FAMiliarization Trips

As travel agents, we are expected to maintain a level of familiarity with the most popular resorts and destinations to which we send our clients. One way this happens is with familiarization trips. As the name suggests, these are trips specifically designed to aquaint us with a destination.

This weekend our very own Terrah is in Jamaica. She is with a group of agents hosted by Funjet Vacations. They are doing a number of site inspections all around the island. They are splitting their nights between the Riu Ocho Rios and the Riu Negril. She will come back with a great deal of information and photographs from Jamaica.

I am working on how to integrate the photos into photo tours on our website. Right now my photo software keeps locking up my whole computer, so I'm not getting far.

I guess it's time for a reboot. :-)

Public Speaking

Last night I had the opportunity to speak to a club. I spoke about Intergenerational Travel since this particular group was comprised of a fair number of grandparents. I've also spoken to various groups about family travel, European travel, and a number of other subjects I can't immediately recall.

I enjoy speaking to groups. I enjoy preparing the talk, I enjoy taking questions from the audience...I just enjoy the whole thing.

Singing...now that's another thing...don't ask me to sing in front of people!