- Life is Better Traveling

Weekend Getaway to the Bahamas.

I am excited to report that I recently took a 3-night Bahamas cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Enchantment of the Seas. This was my first Royal Caribbean experience. Why did I choose Royal to take my cruise? My client’s suggestion. Even though it is my job to give my clients my suggestions on travel and travel suppliers, I also listen to my client’s and get their feedback of which suppliers they like. Royal has been consistently reviewed by my client’s as a great experience and highly recommended. When something comes highly recommended you tend to what to try it.

I took my husband with on this familiarization trip and we decided to leave a night early. Our ship didn’t require us to embark until Friday so we thought it would be fun to go down Thursday night and maybe get dinner at Downtown Disney. Unfortunately for us, there were thunderstorms up and down the east coast which made for a very bumpy plane ride. It is also hard to walk around Downtown Disney when it is raining so we opted to eat near the hotel. I normally don’t say this when in Orlando but the rain actually ended up being a good thing because even though our hotel had shuttles to the Disney theme parks, it did not have one to take us to Downtown Disney. Yes, Downtown Disney is part of the Walt Disney World Resort and even though this hotel was a Disney partnered hotel, they just didn’t offer a shuttle there. We found a Giordano’s Chicago Pizzeria in the shopping plaza right next to the hotel. We ate at the original one in Chicago and we loved their pizza. Their pizza was also great in Orlando!

After a great night’s sleep, we woke up to beautiful weather. Since we stayed in Orlando for the night we needed a way to get to Port Canaveral so I decided to book us a private transfer through Viator. I really like this company because they offer transfers, tours, long weekend getaways, etc. all over the world and the pricing isn’t too expensive. We ended up having Mear’s motocoach company which is Disney’s go to motorcoach company. Our driver was on time and the car they chose for us was a Lincoln SUV. The car was clean, spacious, very high end amenities, comfortable, and didn’t smell. Our driver was great! He was from Venezuela and talked with us the whole way to the cruise port which was about an hour drive.

Now, it has been 15 years since I took a cruise out of Port Canaveral. I had no idea what to expect. Once we came over the bridge and got our first glimpse of several ships, excitement rushed over me and then panic. There were three cruise ships that we saw: Disney Dream, Carnival, and what I believed to be MSC but we couldn’t read the name. No Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas! Now Royal has their signature blue anchor on their ship’s stacks. No fourth ship and no blue anchor, time to panic! We had the right day, we were there five hours before the ship was supposed to leave dock, but where is it? Our driver took us to the Carnival cruise line terminal. He pops the trunk and gets ready to let us out figuring that the ship had to be close by. Well, when 3000 plus people are trying to get on one ship, you can image how hectic it is with everyone trying to get their luggage onto carts, and unpacking their cars. This is where I take after my mother, but I demanded that he ask where the Royal Caribbean ship was. He asked one of the luggage attendants about Royal Caribbean and the guy told him no this is Carnival. The driver asked again where the Royal Caribbean ship is located, the luggage guy said at the new port just down the road. Feeling relieved, the driver got back into the car and look confused. We started off to the new port and within a few minutes we could see a single ship off in the distance. Hope! Blue anchor on the stacks, Enchantment of the Seas on the bow, and people unloading their luggage. Whew, we made it!

Now with all of my travels, one thing that I have learned is to listen to my instincts. If you feel like something is wrong then something is wrong! Don’t be afraid to ask questions and demand answers if you have too. When I don’t listen to my instincts I have lost a whole large box of souvenirs, almost didn’t eat for 9 hours, and slept on a mattress that was about 100 years old. We learn from our mistakes so I wasn’t about to make the mistake of being left at a port where I didn’t see our ship.

It was nice that our driver admitted that he didn’t know this was here and apologized, but I was still a little upset feeling like he was just going to leave us a the Carnival Cruise line terminal. There would have been no way for us to walk to the Royal Caribbean terminal as it was about one mile away. Even though the driver had learned something new that day, I would highly recommend this company as they showed up on time, did get us there on time, and the car was clean and didn’t smell.

Now, we did pay for the transfer up front but tip is not included in the pricing. For a transfer service I typically recommend 10% to 15% of the net rate, taxes not included. Since the driver had a nice clean car that didn’t smell, was personable, got us to the correct terminal, and took out our luggage for us, I felt that 15% was well earned.

We Made It!

Fill out the form below to get started planning your next European Vacation. Looking for a motor coach tour, self-drive, or private tour, we can easily put together the perfect European vacation for you and your family’s needs.

When you book your vacation with a member of the Life is Better Traveling Team, you are supporting local families and business. Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past 4 years, we have become an AMAZING travel agency due to your support!

Name *

First

Last

E-mail *

Confirm Email

Phone *

Destination(s) *

What is your Budget for this vacation for flights, hotels, transfers, rail, tours/sight-seeing, and travel protection? NOTE: If you do not put a budget into the box we do not return requests. *

Please understand we get several requests per day for European vacations. We provide experiences for our clients that provide a lot of value. If you are looking for a budget vacation, that is NOT us.

Dates of Travel *

How many days will you be traveling? *

How many people will be traveling in your party?

Airport preference for departure in US

Additional Information or thoughts you have regarding this vacation?

Mary's is an expert with a wealth of knowledge in European Vacations. Her expertise is why people work with time and time again. She charges a travel planning fee starting at $300 per trip. Do you understand that the customized planning will come with a fee? Ye

Website

Beware of Booking Travel Online: Read the fine print.

Liz Hough on

I recently had a friend ask me what to do when she needed to change their flight that they booked through one of these large travel booking engines or in the travel business what we call an Online Travel Agency (OTA). The problem was that the airline they were using was now using Expedia or Travelocity exclusively and not offering direct booking on their website. When they needed to change the flight, they had to call the booking engine company directly and not the airline. They had a lot of trouble speaking with a person and once they did they were charged all these extra fees to change the ticket. These fees were almost as much as the cost of the original airline ticket! So why do we use these travel booking engines, is it easier?

So many people ask me “why should I use you or any other travel agent when I can just book on-line?” People who are looking for a “deal” only think that they can get that online. Unfortunately, when you book online if something goes wrong it could end up costing you many hours, energy, and money to get it fixed. My friend not only had to pay the airline fees to change the flight (which can be up to $150 on domestic or $200 on international) but they also had to pay the travel booking engine fee. For example, Travelocity’s fee to reissue an airline ticket is $40 per passenger in addition to the airlines fees.

I looked further into these “fees” that some of these online booking engines charge. I found that Travelocity also charges a “Processing Service Fee” for all cruise line reservations. There is no set amount so it may vary depending on the price of your cruise. When booking vacation packages they have a “Facilitation Fee” that you pay them for facilitating your travel arrangements. Again, there is no amount so it probably is a percentage of your total amount of the vacation package. All of these fees are incorporated into your final amount. So double check when you get to the payment page the additional fees from the travel booking engine should be clearly listed.

Other travel booking engines like Expedia have similar fees but you really have to look deep in their website to find them. If you don’t have the patience to do this then I would suggest going through the booking steps until you reach the final payment page to see how much the additional fees are and then decide if you want to continue.

If you did or didn’t know that you were paying these fees, do you still feel the same way about booking online? Now my question is, why not pay a travel agent service fee to have a real life person to talk to and handle your reservation for you? Some travel agents don’t have service fees but to me the ones that do are the one that are serious about what they do. When we think of lawyers they charge a service fee and the more they charge we think the better they are. So why not think this way about your travel agent?

I truly believe that if you are paying a service fee to a travel agent you should be able to get that person on the phone every time you call them and they should take care of any and all changes for you. Having a travel agent also gives you peace of mind that when something goes wrong you have someone who is in your corner and already knows your information and details. You won’t have to repeat it 10 times like my friend did with the booking engine company! Also, travel agents can sometimes get you incentives that you won’t get from booking on-line. Want a free massage, a suite upgrade, a $250 resort credit, or a free tour? Yes, these are all incentives that, if available, a travel agent can provide to you. When you book on-line you get what you order. If you book a standard room you will get a standard room. That’s it, no frills.

When it comes to finding a travel agent find someone out there who has a niche for where you want to travel. Try them out. They may or may not be a good fit for you. When picking a travel agent make sure you do your research. You don’t want somebody who doesn’t know what they are doing or hasn’t been to the places they are selling. I am speaking from experience, having had a great travel agent for our first Mediterranean cruise. She helped us find tours we never would have found on our own. So when you find a travel agent you love, DON’T LOSE THEM!!!! Good travel agents are like good doctors, they are hard to find but when you find them hold onto them, even if you have to pay a service fee! Besides you will be spending a lot of money on your trip and you want the special touches and reassurance that a travel agent can give you.