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Am I Afraid to Travel?

3/11/2020

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I have read lots of reports from the experts like, Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, seen the news from the State Department on their recommendations, and read some of the media hype.

I’ve been silent (at least publicly) so far -- but after the State Department recommended no cruise travel on Sunday evening (I KNOW it only said for those elderly with underlying medical conditions, but the original news reports buried that piece of clarification) I had to comment.  I’m not going to lie. With the government even hinting that people should stop traveling or cruising it felt like a gut punch.

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Do you have what it takes to be a Travel Professional?

2/12/2020

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Well, first let’s answer a few questions. How you answer these will give a pretty good indication of if this is the career for you.
Are you looking to be available for your traveling clients 24/7? 
Are you looking for something that you work hard at?  
Do you enjoy helping people?
Do you think that being a travel agent is super hard work?
Do you enjoy being on hold?
Do you enjoy working for free?
Do you believe in real customer service?
Do you look at this as a way to help people?
Are you looking for a rewarding career?
Are you willing to learn about various destinations?
Are you prepared to answer the question “why use a travel agent?” numerous times a day?
Are you willing to work long hours?
Have you used a Travel Agent for your own trips?
Do you look at being a travel agent as a way to get ‘free’ travel?
Are you looking for something that is a hobby?
Do you think being a travel agent is easy?
Do you look at this in terms of what can I get from it?
Are you looking for a part time job?
If you can answer the first section of questions with a resounding “YES”, then you might be the right candidate for the position.  However, if you answer the second set of questions with “Yes” then this is not the career for you.
Being a Travel Agent, Travel Professional, Travel Advisor, or what ever the current ‘in’ title is, is both a teaching and a customer service position.  And with those two jobs comes a lot of learning on your part.  It is not as simple as telling people what to pack, it is explaining different cultural views on some articles of clothing.  It is explaining the why’s of needing a passport book vs passport card; why’s of using a Travel Professional; why’s of getting to your cruise port a day early, and doing it multiple times (sometimes to the same client). It is knowing when you don’t have the answers to be able to advise a client on a particular destination, and when to hand it off to a more experienced agent.

It’s about researching a destination until it seems the information is coming out your ears, only to discover that your client has a simple question that you don’t know the answer to, and TELLING them that you will find the answer and get back to them!

It’s about customer service from the first call until after they are home.  It’s about making the client feel like they are your only concern for the day, even if you have multiple clients that you are talking to today.  It’s about letting your clients know that their trip ( wether it is an expensive bucket list trip, or a quick weekend trip) is more important to you than it is to them!

It’s also about knowing your worth.  No one wants to work for free, but sometimes it happens.  Setting those expectations to your prospective client prior to giving away free information is crucial.  

And yes, a good deal of geography knowledge is needed!  As well as a good sense of humor and tact.  (Explaining to a client why they cannot do a trip from Atlanta to Honolulu with 15 stops and layovers and still feel like seeing two islands in one day.  Or why they can’t drive from one island to another!)
If you think I was joking about those questions, then this would not be a career path for you!  If you think you have what it takes, then contact me and we can set up an interview.  Serious inquiries only!
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Is it really necessary to Plan a trip to Disney?

1/18/2020

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If you haven’t visited Disney in a while, you might question the need for all the planning.  I know on our first several trips to Disney, there really was no need for much planning.  We picked a resort, made a dining reservation, and winged the rest!

Now, the parks have grown so much, and are so much more crowded, that planning is the only way to be able to do anything.  I’m not saying you have to plan out minute by minute (while some do just that).  I’m saying the days of deciding on Monday that you want to do Disney next week are all but gone. 
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The first decision is when you want to visit.  This used to be simple, but now, not so much.  There really are no more uncrowded times to visit.  When Disney sees the rooms aren’t filling as fast as they want, they might throw a limited promotion out to get more people in. 

And, as much as I love Disney, I have to agree it is getting harder and harder to do Disney inexpensively.  The days of Disney being a cheap vacation are long over!  Those promotions?  They are always very limited.  The number of rooms available for that promotion on that date in the room category of the resort you want, were probably grabbed as soon as the promotion was released.

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Five things you need to know about travel insurance!

1/15/2020

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With all the crazy 'stuff' happening in the world today, I thought we should revisit this topic! 

Do I recommend Travel Insurance?

Short answer...YES!!
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New Year's Resolutions?

1/4/2020

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Another year has come and gone.  Every year people make tons of resolutions.  

Exercise more. Eat better.  Be a better (fill in the blank).  Spend more time with my family.  And on and on.
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Everyone gets busy and things you meant to do get lost in the endless ‘work’, and suddenly you forget that trip you had meant to plan with your family until it was too late to get what you really wanted or you end up spending way more money than your budget liked.  I can relate!

This year, how about you make some resolutions that are more fun.  Ones that you can easily keep for a longer period of time.  And, maybe include some of those other resolutions that often get pushed to the background.

TRAVEL!
That’s right.  It is as simple as TRAVEL.   Want to spend more time with your family?  Travel with them.  Want to Exercise more?  Travel to a beautiful location that will scream “get out and enjoy!”  Want to save money?  Book your travel EARLY!  Want to be pampered?  Cruise!  Want to catch up on some reading?  Travel to a nice beach resort.  

Yes, it really IS that easy, and I’m here to help. I plan amazingly stress free family vacations for busy families who want a magical getaway before the kids are too old to enjoy it!
Yes, I do Disney and Universal, but I do so much more!  Are you looking to cruise?  How about a Caribbean All Inclusive?  Yes, I can do that and so much more!

Ready to get started?

Give me a call at 770-207-0135 or email at Jeanne@JMorrisTravel.com.



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Universal's Endless Summer Surfside Inn and Suites

7/20/2019

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Universal opened up a new resort geared to families on a budget a few weeks ago.  Of course, that meant I needed to do a recon trip!  And in order to see how well it worked for 'families' I needed to drag my family with me!


First Impressions!

Upon arriving, my first impressions were over all a very bright lobby!  Themed as an under the sea adventure.  Check in went smoothly, with a very nice and helpful staff!

Lobby area was very easy to find your way around.  Much easier than Cabana Bay!  There are two towers on each side of the lobby, and lobby is clearly marked with excellent signage!  There is a small store that has devoted half the space to Harry Potter merchandise while the remainder of the shelves are divided between generic Universal merchandise and other characters.  There is also a pretty good variety of those items you may have forgotten to bring!

Staff was extremely friendly and went out of their way to find me two birthday buttons!

Multiple elevator spots (Unlike Aventura where all elevators are in one spot and always busy!), and elevators were quick and clean.  The one issue to remember is that if you go to one of the front elevator sections for either tower, you have to scan your room key to get it to work.  They are right beside an entrance from the outside. It is a security thing, and not a problem as long as you are told at check in.  It is amazing how many people weren't aware of that!  

We had a 2 bedroom suite.  My first impression was TINY!  It was only slightly larger than what a standard room would be in a Disney Value resort.  The main area had two beds, as well as the kitchen area with a picnic table a bench and two chairs.  There was a small sink, a coffee maker, microwave and small fridge.  The bathroom sinks were also in the main room area but in  an alcove.  With a standard toilet and shower/tub in the actual bathroom.  The second bedroom, had a bed with only a few feet of space to walk around the bed.  

The floors were a tile that looked like gray driftwood.  Actually very nice, and had small area rugs on each sides of the three beds to put your feet on when waking in the morning.  

There is a serious lacking of storage!  This room sleeps six people but there were only three drawers and one small 'closet' with only a cloth covering it, not a door.  I suppose that saves some space, but when you consider all the wasted space the room had, it made no sense!

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There is a phone area/desk.  Below it is the three drawers, so you couldn't pull a chair up to it for a desk.  Above it is a picture.  Completely wasted space.  This becomes important when you see that in addition to the three drawers, all you have for storage is open shelves under the bathroom sinks and under the kitchen sink!  The area under the bathroom sink is where the towels were kept as there are no towel rods in the bathroom!

The 3 drawers are in the main room and the 'closet' is in the second bedroom.  This made for quite a bit of difficulty in getting dressed in the mornings!  The only thing that made it semi workable was the fact that we at least had two bathroom sinks!

Luckily I was sleeping in the second bedroom because the air conditioner was very LOUD in the main room!  Our family's other complaint was there is no exhaust fan in the bathroom.  Since we were on the 9th floor, there wasn't a lot of updraft in the vent...and with four people taking showers the room was always humid!

I had originally had some concerns about the distance from the main parks and the travel time in the bus.  Most trips were about five minutes (same as it was when we stayed at Cabana Bay) and only at times closer to closing did we really see an issue with longer trips.  Our longest trip was still under 20 minutes, so no real concern there!
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Major pros of this room was the number of outlets!  At least twice the number you find in Disney's Art of Animation suites!  And most of the outlets also had a USB port!  Made charging five iPhones, one iPad (plus other miscellaneous electronics)  much easier!  


Now for my major complaint about the resort.   Housekeeping!

On the first day, only a  few minutes after we checked in, my daughter and I stayed in the room while the guys went down to get the luggage.  Suddenly, without warning, the maid used her key and came in.  I'm not sure who was more surprised, her or us!  She screamed, we screamed... she didn't seem to know that we had checked in.  I have no idea why she was there, as the room was cleaned.  She quickly left without speaking and we thought it was strange, but forgot about it.
The next day, when we went back to the room briefly at 5, our room had not been cleaned, but we saw the maid in the hall and she said she would have it done before we returned.  On Monday, my daughter became sick from too much heat and went back to the room at 2 pm.  The maid had not come but came and knocked on the door a few minutes after.  She said she would only take about 20 minutes and my daughter went down to the lobby.  After thirty minutes, my daughter came back upstairs and the maid was standing in our room talking with a couple other people.  (not in any way identified as being part of the staff!) and the room had not been touched!  It was after 5pm before my daughter could return to the room.  She had not been able to take a nap as she had planned, so she missed dinner.
At this point we were still chalking it up to a fluke.  However, the next day we returned from the park at 4pm due to a short storm.  Our room had not been touched and our maid was no where to be seen.  After 45 minutes, I went downstairs to see what was going on.  
Finally about 5:30 a supervisor came and took out the trash (which had not been emptied the day before) and brought us some towels.  She offered to make the beds, but I declined.  At this point we wanted to get showers and back to City Walk for dinner!
I discovered later on the bus, that everyone on our floor was complaining about the housekeeping, or lack there of!

I'm sure this is due to it being a new resort, and some training issues.  I know that our maid just quit in the middle of the day for unknown reasons.  She didn't seem to let anyone know she was leaving.  So this is all on the particular maid and not the resort itself, however I do have to wonder what they are going to do when the sister resort Dockside opens in a few months with twice the number of rooms as Surfside!  When a resort is brand new you expect things to go wrong.  You expect hiccups along the way.   I'm concerned that resources are being spread a bit too thin at the current time.

So, would I recommend this resort?  Possibly. It's price point alone makes it attractive.  
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Cuba Beyond the Beaches: Three Must See Cities

1/23/2019

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Cuban cities have so much to offer through its culture, history, natural beauty, and delicious cuisine. Exploring the many cities in Cuba allows tourists to experience this countries preserved architectural heritage and covers all manifestations of arts, literature, sports, and science. The town and cities throughout Cuba are just the right size for you to enjoy them without ever feeling overwhelmed. Cuba is truly a country of indefinable magic! Here are three cities you should consider visiting when traveling to Cuba.

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Best Beaches in Cuba

1/22/2019

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Vacationers from all around the world flock to this beautiful Caribbean island for the warm beautiful weather. The beaches in Cuba are simply magnificent! The warm climate and turquoise waters invite tourists throughout the year. Cuba has plenty of fantastic beach resorts where you can kick back and relax while enjoying a delicious mojito. Here are five great Cuban beaches to consider visiting on your next trip to Cuba.

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Guide to seeing Rome in 3 Days!

1/16/2019

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Rome is an extraordinary capital and it can take weeks or more to get in all the sites, cuisine and culture.  Travelling can often be stressful when visiting a place that has so much to offer.  This list will pinpoint the absolute best places to visit if time is of the essence.

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Amazing Facts about Dubai

1/16/2019

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Dubai is known for extravagant shopping, present-day design, and an enthusiastic nightlife scene. Dubai is the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates. This beautiful city is a cosmopolitan oasis of ultramodern architecture and luxury lifestyle. Here are some amazing facts worth knowing about Dubai:

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