Airlines’ rising fees confuse and anger their passengers

An explanation of rising fees and a chart that breaks them all down by airline and type of fee.

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Air charter only way to fly — if you can get over costs - Bo

Comparison of pros/cons of charter airplanes over commercial planes for getting where you need to go in a timely an comfortable fashion!

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Seattle moves up list of top U.S. tourist destinations; now

While Seattle is number 18 in the top 20 destinations in the US to visit, one should look closely at all Seattle has to offer a visitor, whether staying for business or for pleasure!

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NCL Pearl - Fun Things To Do On Board

Some of the best of a cruise is all the things you can do while on a cruise (besides eating and drinking!!).  The Pearl just happens to have some of the most fun things to see and do. 

There is “Bar Alley”, a multitude of restaurants, Like this picture of Cagney’s 

 

And nearby Cagney’s is the Star Bar, pictures showing here:

 

Then there are all the other bars, lounges and eateries.  Here are a few pictures of just a few of the others:

Entry to Mambo's

Mambo's

Mambo's

Piano Lounge

Sushi Bar

Magnums

Cagny's

Entry To The Star Bar

Star Bar

 Well, there is always another day on board the ship to look at other areas of the ship, to experince dining and drinking, to go on excursions, to bowl or climb the “WALL”, or play tennis with the Wii……until next time, boys and girls…….

NCL Pearl, con’t - Courtyard Villas

Still enthralled with the Pearl, today I am covering the Courtyard Villas.  Also on the top deck of the Pearl are the Courtyard Villas.  Sharing a common terrace, the suites are absolutely lovely. There is, of course, a terrace to be shared, but only with the Garden Suite, the Deluxe Owners and Owners Suites.  On the terrace you will find a private swimming pool, hot tub, covered Balinese-style lounge areas providing lots of shade, oversized comfortable chaise lounges, as well as a fitness area with steam room.  You also get a butler for personal service-just ask, your butler is there for all those little items and needs.  There is a retractable domed sunroof for year round comfort and a separate oceanview deck upstairs for more sun tanning.

Amenities include priority embarkation, butler and concierge  service, butler to unpack your luggage, sparkling wine, gourmet  hors d’oeuvres and bottled water.  

For true VIP living, the villas offer up to 572 square feet of serenity, luxury bathroom with tub  and shower, a separate guest bedroom  with bath, aprivate balcony and a flat screen TV with DVD &  CD library.

Additional privileges include an invitation to VIP cocktail party, 24-hour room service with special suite menu, a full in-room breakfast menu, hors d’oeuvres delivered once during cruise, fine linens, duvet and feather pillows, plush bath robes and towels, luxurious bath amenities, fresh flower arrangement and fresh fruit basket, mini-bar and an espresso/cappuccino  machine.  There is also priority boarding of tenders to shore and priority disembarkation. 

Here are some of the pictures  took while doing the site inspection:

Courtyard Villas - Terrace

Courtyard Terrace - Refreshment Bar

Retractable Dome Ceiling - Courtyard Villas

The Courtyard Terrace Pool and Hot Tub

 

Norwegian Cruise Lines - The Pearl

While it may sound like a cliche, in my opinin there was a reason NCL named that ship “The Pearl”!   She is truly a pearl of a ship.  I had the pleasure of doing a ship inspection  yesterday, Sunday the 8th day of June.  Under cold, grey and damp skies, the Pearl was shining.  I had actually done an inspection of her almost exactly a year ago at the Seattle “Cruise-a-thon” that travel agents attend every year in a port city.  If I am to sail a cruise, I want it to be on her!

There were about 100 travel agents, few from Seattle, many from the central and west coast of the US.  Doing a “fam” is grueling and exhausting, with lots of information imparted that has to be digested and soemhow communicated to our clients and prospective clients.  I was able to sleep in my own bed, but I had to negotiate my way home each evening.  Instead of climbing into a big, comfortable bus to return to the hotel each night, I trekked home up 6 blocks of steep hills to Belltown from the waterfront.

Back to the Pearl.  On the ship, at the top, is a private area that is wonderful for families to occupy, as well as, let’s say, 3 couples who are close friends, or a batch of executives from the same company who want to have privacy to talk about their goals setting/planning/stragetizing for an upcoming change in their business or planning for the upcoming year.  There is a large living area (complete with baby grand piano), three bedroom suites (each has their own door key and private bath) and a private terrace with outdoor seating areas.  All this is accessed by key card, so no one but those assigned to the villa can intrude.  It will, however, hold up to 100 people in a cocktail setting (in case one hundred of your closest friends happen to also be sailing with you).    Here are  some pictures: 

I can not imagine anyone saying they would not like to spend a week in a garden villa!  I have many, many more pictures and stories to tell of this weekend and have set a goal to do a blog entry with pictures every day this week.  Shall see, shall see. Until we meet again……

Dept. of Homeland Security, Customs & Border Patrol, & Your Electronics

For what it is worth, this is my opinion of the CPB/DHS & electronics conundrum, along with some (hopefully) good ideas to be implemented: 

For several months now I have been reading about the crisis of international travel and re-entry into the good ole’ US of A with electronics in hand.  I have several clients who regularly travel internationally.  As their travel consultant I try to read up on, be informed and forewarn them of issues and events.  One of the most worrisome is that of having your computer, ipod, cell-phone, camera, blackberry or any other electronic method of carrying data being perused, rifled and even confiscated - sometimes to never be seen again.  Recently there was a an article that I “dugg” earlier this weekend and posted yesterday about this issue and some very good advice offered.  If you consider yourself a “regular” person, with no particular interests that could be thought of as deviant or political or any other classification that DHS &CPB would consider interesting, you probably think it will never happen to you; that it happens to people who “deserve” to be scrutinized; and/or people who may be ethnically, politically or religiously different than you are.  What this and other articles I have read emphasizes is that this is actually “non-discrimatory”.  It can happen to anyone who travels internationally, re-enters their home country, and is carrying a piece of electronics with them.  

So I offer this opinion and information as a means of helping our country remain safe from terrorism while protecting travelers from distress, loss of personal or privileged information and to protect against potential opportunity for identity theft, and/or, at the least, loss of valuable property.  Yes, sometimes they take a computer or other electronics.  You never get to see it again and have no financial remuneration for it.  You may also have lost the only copy of everything you have on that device.

#1:  Before you travel, back up everything on your device. Depending on the size of your memory device, you may need to purchase a portable hard drive and back up, back up, back up.  What the heck, you should be doing that anyway in case your device dies an unexpected death.  You would not want to lose that novel you have been working on for the past 10years, now would you?  Or last year’s tax return you did not print a copy of for your files?

#2:  You travel a lot and you travel internationally occasionally.  You might want to think about getting some online storage space for your truly valuable, potentially confidential, potentially damaging information.  It may seem scary to put it on a server, no matter how secure the owner says it is, and to access it through a secure connection over the internet.  But that is not as scary as having unscrupulous people rifling through the information or having it become public without your permission.

#3:  Do not carry any electronics with you and become a person who uses some of the oldest tools around - a pencil and paper. 

Mostly, just think about what personal (and otherwise) information is contained on the electronic devices you carry on your person.  Use discretion, no matter where you travel:  on the streets of your hometown, across our nation, or around the world.

Laptop searches at the border: No reason? No problem

The Ninth Circuit says that customs agents in the US can legally search laptops without needing a reason. The debate turns on whether a laptop is more like a piece of luggage or the human mind.

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Ground Transporation - So Many Choices Coming Up

Christmas Day, 2007: 

I took a ride on Christmas Day on the South Lake Union Trolley.  After some fun was made in the local newspapers about the acronym, the name has been changed to the South Lake Union Streetcar.  It was really cool.  One car was red, the other was purple.  Being new, they were nice and clean without graffeti and garbage.  No damage has yet been done to them.  It was a pleasant ride between the downtown Seattle shopping areas and the South Lake Union business and entertainment areas. There were not very many people willing to brave the cold wet weather just to ride from one closed area to another. Being as how it was Christmas Day, no stores or restaurants were open. But it made for a pleasant ride with the ability to take a few quick pictures with my little point’n’shoot camera.

For those who live in South Lake Union and work in town, or for those who live (as I do) in Belltown, but enjoy the restaurants in South Lake Union, it is a very pleasant method of transportation. It will be priced like the metro bus system at $1.50 or one can use their bus pass, their transfer or even a credit card (at some locations) to purchase a ticket to ride. And so far, the people who regularly ride the metro buses in the free ride zone have not indicated a willingness to pay for the same comfort on the Streetcar.  A pleasant ride, all in all.

And I just read where the Amtrak’s Empire Builder will get a new stop. This is particularly exciting as it will be stopping in Leavenworth, WA. Leavenworth is about 20 miles west of Wenatchee on Highway 2. The Empire Builder runs between Seattle and Chicago. It already stops in Wenatchee, WA. This is supposed to all happen sometime in late 2008. Right now, other than the tour buses which go to Leavenworth for Christmas lighting events and other touristy kind of opportunities, there is access only by car. For me, it is a major hassle to drive up there, find parking, etc. etc. Being able to reserve a room for a night or two, shop and dine, and generally enjoy the quaint atmosphere without the hassle of the car is going to be very enjoyable. And then there is simply the train ride. Since moving to the Northwest, I have grown almost addicted to the soothing ride on a train. In other areas I have lived I would never have considered being without a car for a moment. But here, with the public transportation being so convenient and affordable, I save huge amounts of money every month by not having a car.And train rides are such fun! More choices in ground transportation are becoming available, pleasant and affordable. How much more can one ask of getting around as we leave 2007 and start into 2008?

The Travel Business: MLM Host Agencies

A couple of years ago, some “host” agencies decided to try the multi-level marketing approach.  The down side to this was their marketing ploys.  They suggested that if you sign up as an agent with them you would get cheap or free travel as long as you paid them a sign up fee, a monthly fee and an annual renewal fee.  There might or might not be other fees as well.  You are encouraged to “sell” your family, friends, acquaintances and business associates on the idea of signing up also so they could travel on the cheap or for free.  For each individual you brought into the host, you would receive a “commission”.  

There are three levels of status in such a company:  the “director level”, the “rep level” and the “referring agent level”.  As I understand it, the “rep” makes some money by selling the “referring agent” a website which is provided by the company. 

For the “Referring Agent” to have access to this personal website, they must pay an upfront fee, a monthly fee and an annual renewal fee.  This website is then used to attract people who want to book a vacation or a trip of some sort.  There is a booking engine behind it and the referring agent makes a commission for any trip setup through their website.  They go out and give people their business card and website URL and make money.  Sounds easy enough.  On a website I found,  the majority of the “referring agents” were averaging sub $100 per month in commissions…..mmmmmmm…….well, they are covering their monthly costs to the company for the website.  And they were promised “cheap” or “free” travel as part of the “pitch” to buy in.  Whether they get “free or cheap” travel remains an unanswered question in my mind.

Maybe the better level is to be a “rep”.  Your whole job is to find people who have enough money to “buy” the website and pay the company monthly fees.  And the more dups,, ah, excuse me, agents you bring in, the more money you make.  I read on that website that said “some” reps make as much as $1000 per month.  Still an, mmmmmmmm……

Gee, money for free, travel for free…sounds good, huh?  Well, like someone once said, there is no free lunch.  These “Host” MLMs charge upwards of $1000 for the upfront privilege of becoming one of their agents.  Then your monthly fee can be anywhere from $30 to$100 per month.  The renewal fee is usually in the mid hundreds.  And all your friends, relatives, acquaintances and business associates are also paying that kind of money to the “Host”.  The commission split (should you actually find a vacationing client for travel arrangements) ranges from 40%-60% of the commission paid by the supplier.  Since most suppliers pay only 10% commission on the base rate (not including taxes and fees) of the travel supplied, a $2000 vacation will earn $200 in commissions.  So as the referring agent you can earn $80 to $120 dollars.  Of course, the referred client has to decide that the travel offered is the best deal for them and actually purhase the travel.  On the other hand they can be lured into spending the money on joining the “Host” and getting the so-called cheap or free travel.

I was not able to get the comp plan to open, nor find out what the “director” level does or exactly what they get paid for.  I did manage to see that there were 94 directors in a “power team” position who received $30k plus in the month shown.  Now, I would not mind being in that group!

And who knows if all “MLM” host/travel agencies work like this description.  I have not researched all of them.  I am not even sure if I know the names of all of the MLM type of host agencies that have started up.  I just don’t think I want to give a lot of money to this host just to have them give me a website and allow me to operate under their umbrella.  The thing is, there are some host agencies that do not look any different than these MLM ones. 

Take for instance the one I initially signed up with.  It does not look a lot different than the one I have described above, other than it is local, a lot smaller, not as much “splash”, and have not taken their company “public” and have stock for sale.  I could take a wild guess here and think that the little guys are “wanna-be’s”.  They see the big ones making a lot of money for themselves and hope to cash in on the action.

I do not have answers to the questions running through my head.  I sense that the issue is a real hot potato and may cause hard feelings to emerge between friends and family members who enter this fray.  In the industry it is certainly causing friction.  Factions for all sides are lining up and the hissing match has only just begun.  Every day, every week brings new sides being taken, issues coming out. 

As I see it, when the “public” starts reading about it on page three of the business section of the Sunday edition of their hometown newspaper, we are going to see “comsumer protection” taking a stand and then the “government” is going to step in to protect the innocents.  From there it will all go downhill.  But this is just my opinion.