Category Archives: Uncategorized

Attractions, Disney, Family Travel, Summer, Uncategorized, Universal Studios

Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure

Sometimes my clients say to me, “We’ve done Disney. We want to do something different. How about Universal?” That’s exactly what I said not long ago, when we wanted to go somewhere for my son’s birthday. We enjoyed one day in both parks. Being Disney lovers, we made most of our observations in the form of comparisons against WDW, so some of what I’m going to tell you is a view through that lens.

Universal has the big, scary, intense rides like the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit and the Incredible Hulk coaster. Those are too much for me, so I said no thank you to those. But if you like the more intense coasters, Universal is your spot. Without those, there are still some great coasters that are more geared to wimps like me: Flight of the Hippogriff (delightful), Revenge of the Mummy (awesome), and Harry Potter’s Escape from Gringotts. I just don’t do the upside down rides or the ones that drop you thirty stories.

Universal and Islands of Adventure are connected by the Harry Potter train, which is a fun experience. If you purchase the pass that allows you to go into both parks, there’s no reason you can’t tackle both parks in one day happily. Many of the rides are motion simulators, which honestly make me a little sick. If you space them out carefully and choose the ones you’d really like to do, you can avoid motion sickness. The most nausea-inducing one we did was the The Simpsons ride. I just had to close my eyes to avoid hurling. Another trick is to look up at the mechanism moving your vehicle and keep in mind that you are really just in a seat that’s being moved. But for the love of all things Bart, just don’t look at the screen, if you feel sick.  If your equilibrium is not bothered by these rides, then more power to you!

Another ride I really enjoyed was the Jurassic Park River Adventure. A word of advice: wear a poncho, because you will get wet! The big drop is super fun, but it will catch you by surprise.

Unless you’re there in a very slow season, I do recommend getting the Express Line passes if you’re trying to do both parks in one day. But the appeal of all the rides is so very broad that it’s unlikely you would want to do absolutely everything. If you paid the same amount for one day of Disney with a Hopper pass, you’d never be able to do all four parks in one day. But with Universal, it can definitely be done.

Lest you should think it’s all big coasters for older kids and adults, there are sections like Seuss Landing that appeal to the little ones in your family, too. And let’s face it, do you ever really age out of Dr. Seuss? It’s wonderful just to walk through there and imagine you’re in one of his books.

There’s much more to Universal, so don’t hesitate to contact Azalea Travel to help you plan your Universal vacation!

Hotel/Resort, Uncategorized

Why I decided to try Uber

I’m fairly stubborn about change and trying new things, unless they sound a) completely safe and b) awesome.

So when I started hearing about this whole Uber thing a few years back, I gave it a dubious side-eye. It’s not a taxi. I’m supposed to get in the car with some random stranger and let them give me a ride? I wasn’t having any of that. Even as it became more commonplace and almost everyone I knew was using Uber (and now Lyft), I just couldn’t do it.

So when I met up with a friend a few months ago in Miami, her suggestion that we get an Uber to the hotel was met with my sour frown and (I thought) very sensible suggestion that we go to the Super Shuttle kiosk. Here begins the adventure.

We loaded up into the appropriate shuttle bus going to downtown hotels near the cruise port. There were a mother & daughter, a senior couple, a younger couple, and my friend and I brought up the rear in the back seat. The ride from the airport was short and easy, and before we knew it, were turning in front of a Courtyard Hotel. The older gentleman said, “Oh, that must be our hotel.” But the driver continued and pulled into the Doubletree next door.

The mother and daughter hopped out and went to the back to retrieve their bags. The older couple also got out, but after brief discussion, they got back into the van. “We could just walk over there,” the husband said, but the driver insisted in broken English (because this is Miami), “No, I take you.” Okay, then.

Off we went, past the Courtyard and away, in spite of protests from the older couple to stop. It wasn’t long before we pulled up in front of a Holiday Inn. Being right after Hurricane Irma, this particular hotel had flooded and was boarded up. The driver turned around and said, “Dave?” No one answered. Again he called, “Dave?” Silence. The driver looked at his iPad worriedly.

Finally, the older gentleman spoke up and said, “My name is Dale, not Dave. This isn’t my hotel, because you passed my hotel back there, but aside from that, I don’t think this is anyone’s hotel!” The driver assessed the boarded doors and windows and seemingly nodded in agreement. And then, again, he called, “Dave?”

Well, all the passengers started to look at each other and chuckle at this point. So the driver, not fully convinced that DAVE was not on board and somehow holding out on him, proceeded to look each passenger in the eye individually and ask, “Dave?” We each replied with a “no” and our own names. The older gentleman again stressed that his name was Dale and he was due at the Courtyard, not the Holiday Inn.

The driver made a phone call that I could not hear, then finally turned off his flashers and abandoned the idea that anyone was going to the Holiday Inn except maybe ServPro. He dropped the younger couple at a Hyatt. They turned to the rest of us with raised eyebrows and said, “Good luck!” My friend and I were next. He took us to the elegant J.W. Marriott on Biscayne Bay, and all was well for us.

I bid adieu to the older couple, our fellow players in this Miami transportation comedy. Dale (not Dave) assured me that the driver had finally agreed to take them to the Courtyard, so I was able to sleep that night, not wondering whether they were still driving the streets of Miami looking for Dave.

But the next morning, when we were charged with getting to the cruise terminal, I said to my friend, “Yeah . . . let’s do that Uber thing.”

That was another foreign language comedy because . . . well, Miami.  It was almost as exciting as being asked 48 times whether my name was Dave. So the real moral of the story here can be best described as, “Buy the cruise line’s transfers.” But those are not always available, so I would prefer an Uber to a shuttle service in the future. It will get you there faster anyway, and our very short ride from the hotel to the cruise port was less than $3.

To book your next cruise (ahem, along with the transfers), contact Azalea Travel.

 

Family Travel, Group Travel, travel philosophy, Uncategorized

You don’t always see a monkey in the rainforest.

About twenty years ago, I traveled to Costa Rica with a bunch of fellow travel agents. It was a whirlwind trip – not much more than a long weekend – and we were on a tight schedule of hotel inspections and fly-by experiences. On one afternoon, we had the choice between taking a dip in the hot springs at a volcano or hiking through the rainforest. The hike sounded more my speed, and I had all kinds of romantic ideas about seeing giant snakes (from a safe distance) wrapped around trees. I especially wanted to see some monkeys swinging to and fro.

After a long bus ride to a lodge at the foot of a mountain, we set off into the jungle, as it were, and listened to the guide tell us interesting things about the foliage and the forest itself. I kept my eyes peeled. Sometimes we were on boardwalks, and other times we were on a little worn path on the forest floor.  I walked carefully, but I kept glancing up and around to see if I could spot monkeys.

We went on like this for an hour or more.

I think I saw one or two interesting birds, but nothing I would consider exciting. Certainly no monkeys. I was a little disappointed.

But then I thought cheerfully, I can still say I’ve hiked in a Costa Rican rainforest. And it was beautiful, cool, and damp in there. I learned a thing or two about the forest and the plants. I have met some nice new people here, and I have walked across different soil than my own back home.  Who can complain?

That’s the point, isn’t it? We may have things that we want to see or do and then be disappointed when reality is different from what we dreamed. But we have to be flexible and look at what we did get to do and see. When you set off to see a new place, it may look different from what you expected. That’s one reason we travel: so we can know what it’s really like.

We rode back to the resort, and I felt grateful for all of the experiences I’d had that day. And just as we turned into the gate, the driver exclaimed for us to look up. Guess what was hanging around in the trees? A whole bunch of monkeys! What a delight – I was able to stand outside my hotel room and enjoy them for far longer than I might have on that hike.

I got my monkeys, but they were hanging over a parking lot instead of swinging from vine to vine in the rainforest.

So be cheerful and flexible when you travel. With a good attitude, you may be surprised at the experiences you do have, even if they turn out differently from what you expected.

 

Book your Costa Rica tour or cruise with Azalea Travel.

Cruises, Uncategorized

Fathom’s Dominican Republic Cruise, Part 1

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You’ve probably seen the Fathom Adonia in the news lately as the first ship to travel directly from the US to Cuba in over 50 years. Two weeks per month, you have an opportunity to take advantage of that incredible new itinerary. But during the other weeks, this innovative new cruise line is taking a different kind of journey. On a seven night cruise to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, you can sun yourself, go ziplining, or whatever you like, but you can also leave the Dominican Republic a little better off than you found it. You have opportunities to do volunteer work while you’re there. It’s called Impact Travel, and I just returned a few weeks ago from their second such sailing in the history of this new company.
Take a good portion of what you know about cruising and forget it. Impact Travel is a new category of travel, unto itself.
Sure, you still have an elegant, beautiful ship with lovely staterooms, outstanding service, fine dining, and a pool. It was a P&O ship in its past life.

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But this is so much more than vacation. This is life-changing. It’s important. And I’ll venture so far as to say it’s not for everyone. I thought I was going down there to check out this new cruise experience for the sake of my travel agency, and I was even excited about the prospect of helping people in a third world country. But what I received was unexpected. I have never felt such appreciation and love from perfect strangers. Sure, you get “all the feels,” as they say nowadays, from doing something good for someone else. But this went beyond that in the gratitude I felt from the beautiful Dominican people.
If you’ve ever wanted to see more than the plastic-peddling tourist shops and really get inside the local experience, you will love this. All those things you might normally like to do in a cruise port are available. You have plenty of time to visit a museum or go snorkeling. But there’s also time to explore the deeper experience that is offered here. Get beside the locals and communicate with them. Go into a local home, or visit a classroom in a local school. See what life is really like, and be a part of it. I’ll go more into the impact activities in my next post. Some of the choices include: making water filters for families with no access to clean water, pouring a concrete floor in a home with a dirt floor, helping children with their English so they can get a better job when they graduate, helping local business women meet demand for their products so that they can afford to hire more Dominican workers, creating more local jobs.

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Fathom operates on this concept of alongsidedness. It may not be a real word (yet), but it’s a very real concept. They asked the people of the DR what they needed most. The answer was help with education, the economy, and environment. It’s not a handout, though. In fact, handouts are not permitted. Some well-meaning person on my ship took a bag full of school supplies and was told she couldn’t take them to the school she was visiting to help children with their English. What Fathom is doing is better than just giving stuff: you’re helping the people build the resources that will enable them to get things for themselves. And they are so thankful.
Now, up to the point where you get on the ship, the experience feels pretty much like a traditional cruise. Once on the ship, you meet your Impact Guide, who is going to help you learn about the Dominican customs and essential facts. Your Impact Guide will lead your cohort group, where you can share things before and after your stay in DR: your expectations, what you learn about yourself and others, and how to move forward in your own life with this new information.
If you’re rolling your eyes about what sounds too touchy-feely for you, please know that nothing is mandatory! You are welcome to lie on the pool deck and have a drink or read in the gorgeously-appointed library instead of going to the sessions. Nothing on the ship is mandatory, even impact activities. But if you just want to go on a 7 night cruise, you might just want to choose another cruise line. I heard some folks complaining last week about things like, “There’s no soft serve ice cream machine in the buffet restaurant.” Really, that’s not why we’re here. And you can still get ice cream in a couple of other places on the ship. If you’re looking for the casino or the video arcade, you might feel a bit lost. Those are things which are not exactly in keeping with what Fathom is doing. 99% of the passengers I encountered were ready to go do some good and were excited about sharing that with other passengers.
As DR grows in tourism, there will be more and more jobs created for Dominicans who can speak English. The only problem is that not many of them do. Another one of the projects you can participate in is to go to someone’s home and help a family with their English, so they can be better equipped to work in tourism. You don’t have to speak Spanish, and the curriculum is provided for you. It’s the same curriculum we used in the classroom experience. All you need is provided. You just have to show up and have a heart open to helping.
In my next post, I will go more into detail about the projects in which I participated, and the impact we had. Rest assured, this has the potential to be a life changing trip. This is not simply a marketing gimmick. Fathom travelers are truly going to do some good in DR, and they already have. After spending four days in Puerto Plata, I told my rickshaw driver that I loved his beautiful country and its beautiful people, and that I hoped to come back again and again. I really meant it. I came away feeling a special bond to this country that I had never thought about visiting before.

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I also left this place a tiny bit better than I found it. If you want to feel this way about a trip, call me. I can help you get there.
Azalea Travel

Click here to see Part 2 of my Fathom experience!

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Uncategorized

Choo-Choo-Choose Chattanooga for Family Fun

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Pardon me, boys. Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?  Well, if it’s not, it’s one that looks just like it.  And you can stay overnight in it, if you like. The Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel is located in an old train depot, Terminal Station, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Pullman cars in the courtyard aren’t just for show, either. Yes, I meant it when I said you can stay in one. They have guest rooms so you can pretend you’re a luxury-style traveler on a long journey in the late 1800s. There are restaurants and events in the hotel making it easy to enjoy yourself without going too very far. But, you’ll want to venture out, even if you do stay there, because there’s plenty to see in this town.

If trains aren’t your thing, another unusual place to stay is the Delta Queen Hotel, which is actually an old steamboat. Moored at the shore, the boat never cruises anywhere, but just allows you the unique experience of staying on a steamboat instead of a regular hotel. Sure, the cabins are a little small compared to a regular room, but it gives you a taste of how travelers in 1925 made their way down the river.  Accommodations range from upper and lower bunks to luxurious suites.

Now, what to do?

  1. Tennessee Aquarium: Voted as a Top 10 US Aquarium on TripAdvisor, this one is a must-see. You can spend a morning there enjoying the fish, alligators, penguins, and other species. This is the kind of learning that happens when you don’t even realize it, because you’re having fun. From mountains to coral reef, see what lives in each habitat.
  2. Steamboat tour: Just a stone’s throw away, you can pick up a riverboat cruise, if you’d rather ride than stay on one. Catch lunch, dinner, or a sightseeing cruise aboard the Southern Belle Riverboat. There are also special events for the season, and the boat is available for private parties. This would make a great spot for a family reunion or celebration.
  3. Incline Railway: A slightly tense but fun ride up the side of the mountain on one of these rail cars will allow some fantastic scenery. While you’re up there at the top, you are within walking distance of some Civil War attractions. After you make your way back down, you can enjoy the restaurants and shops at the base on the railway.
  4. Ruby Falls: Now, this is really something. If you’re claustrophobic, you may want to skip this attraction, but almost everyone seems to be able to handle this one.  Ride an elevator over a thousand feet down into the inside of a mountain and take a short hike with your tour guide to see something you’ve probably otherwise not seen before – a waterfall inside a mountain. The water isn’t actually red, as the name would indicate, but rather named after the wife of the spelunker who discovered this fascinating place. At one point while getting to and from the falls, there’s a rather short portion where folks need to duck a bit to walk under the rock. But it’s not uncomfortable.  Be advised that this is not a great activity for people with physical handicaps. Allot a couple of hours for this.
  5. Rock City: You must see it! That’s what the roofs of red barns have always told us. Now it’s mostly just the birdhouses, which I find delightfully campy and fun. Sad to say, this is one big Chattanooga attraction I have actually missed on my previous trips, but I do plan to hit it next time. See seven states from atop Lover’s Leap, let the kids mine for gems, amuse yourself in the Fairyland Gardens, or make your way across the Swing-a-Long Bridge. This attraction is another that will take roughly a couple of hours.

Don’t hesitate to call me at Azalea Travel for more information, or to plan your next trip to Chattanooga.