Get ready to embark on a culinary journey with our brand-new series on TikTok and our blog, where we’ll be sharing mouthwatering recipes from destinations around the world. To kick off this adventure, we’re bringing you the delectable delight of Poffertjes – those irresistible Mini Dutch Pancakes!
Our dynamic duo, Chris and Rose, are gearing up for an extraordinary expedition to Amsterdam in early March. But this isn’t your typical research trip; it’s the much-anticipated River Cruise Summit of 2024! Boarding the luxurious Ama Sienna on the Tulip Time itinerary, they’ll not only explore captivating destinations along the cruise but also dive into the heart of the river cruise experience.
They will have the exciting opportunity to meet fellow travel advisors and representatives from various river cruise companies! It’s not just a summit; it’s a knowledge extravaganza designed to enhance their abilities to tailor dream vacations for clients at Lay Travel Group. We believe in constant learning and elevating our expertise, and summits are just one of the avenues we use to learn more.
Chris and Rose will be returning armed with a wealth of fresh insights, ready to elevate the dreams of our clients. But before they set sail, they’re indulging in some culinary magic, making Poffertjes! Why, you might ask? Because the River Cruise Summit begins and ends in the enchanting city of Amsterdam, and what better way to celebrate than with these scrumptious Dutch desserts!
Now, for those eager to recreate this culinary delight at home, here’s the recipe:
INGREDIENTS
1 ½ c. – Milk *Warmed in Microwave
2 ½ tsp. – Instant Yeast
2 c. – Flour
1 – Egg
¼ c. – sugar
2 tbsp. – butter
½ tbsp. – powdered sugar
LET’S COOK
In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, and instant yeast.
Give the ingredients a quick mix before creating a well in the center.
Pour in warmed milk and crack the egg into the well before giving everything a whisk.
Cover the batter for 30 minutes to an 1 hour until it doubles in size and appears bubbly.
Grease your pan with butter before adding a heaping tbsp. of batter on your pan.
Once bubbles start to pop on top (1-2 minutes), flip your poffertjes.
Cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Dust some powdered sugar on top and serve hot!
ENJOY!
We invite you to join in the fun and try your hand at these delightful Poffertjes. If you would like to see Rose’s reaction to the wonderful Poffertjes, head over to TikTok (@laytravelgroup) to watch her try it. Don’t forget to share your culinary creations on social media and don’t forget to tag @laytravelgroup so we can revel in your culinary triumphs!
I am excited to share I have been selected as a Distinctive Voyages Host with Travel Leaders Network, and my first hosting assignment is onboard the Seabourn Encore September 29, 2024. As a Distinctive Voyages Host, I will host guests for a Welcome Reception onboard, be available throughout the voyage to assist guests and answer questions, and I will escort guests on an exclusive shore excursion.
I love the Mediterranean and I look forward to sharing it with those experiencing the region for the first time or those who, like me, can’t get enough. We’ll visit ports in Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece on this Athens roundtrip voyage. I am especially excited to visit ports that will be new to me, and I’m already studying to learn as much as I can.
The Seabourn Encore is an ultra-luxury mega yacht with only 300 verandas and suites. Seabourn offers attentive service, exquisite dining, and immersive itineraries. Unlike the large ships most people sail, this is a small-ship experience that is able to navigate in waterways others cannot. Seabourn is known for its luxury experience and casual elegance. You won’t need to pack a ball gown or tuxedo; country-club casual is the dress code.
People can sometimes be nervous that “luxury” means formality, stuffiness, and high prices. Seabourn, however, welcomes everyone to be comfortable and relaxed. There is one formal night for every seven days, but if you don’t want to dress formally, there are plenty of dining venues where you can dine without dressing up. You can even order room service at no additional charge and you can do it once or for every meal.
Regarding cost, the Seabourn cruise is mostly-inclusive. Your price includes beverages, internet service, restaurant dining, room service, entertainment, and there are no gratuities. There are additional charges for things like spa and salon services and for shore excursions. Until Jan 31, Seabourn is offering this sailing at 25% off with a reduced deposit and up to $1000 in onboard credit. Compare that to a contemporary sailing in which you need to purchase a beverage package, internet service, dining, and pay gratuities. In the end, this ultra-luxury yacht experience is less expensive and has greater value for your money than a standard cruise crowded with thousands of guests.
Here you can see the comparison between two Mediterranean sailings a week apart, both in the Mediterranean. The Contemporary cruise itinerary is limited to ports where large ships with thousands of guests can navigate. The Seabourn cruise can go where the big ships can’t and does so with a more inclusive offering. Add up to $1000 onboard credit available for those who book before Jan 31, and the Seabourn cruise is not only less expensive, but provides more value.
Travel Component
Contemporary Cruise 7-DaysSept. 2024
Seabourn Encore 7-DaysSept. 24
Cruise Fare
$3,337.50
$3,620
Unlimited Beverage Package
$392.00
INCLUDED
Unlimited Restaurant Dining
$260.00
INCLUDED
Internet Service
$140.00
INCLUDED
Gratuities
$112.00
N/A
TOTAL
$4,241.50
$3,620
Because a Seabourn cruise has more inclusions, the ultimate cost is less than a contemporary cruise sailing a similar itinerary.
If you are interested in joining us for this voyage, call me or any of our Travel Advisors today:
Just buy the damn insurance. Full stop. That’s it. That’s the message.
When I first began working as a Travel Advisor in 2018, I would plan a vacation and then after closing the sale, I would sheepishly say something like, “And would you like to add the travel insurance?” Of course, most of the time, the client would decline and tell me they did not see the point because they were not going to cancel anyway. I would hear, “I’m going no matter what.” And then I would say, “Okay” and move on.
The truth is that I did not have faith in it as a product, did not fully understand it, and just wanted to close sales. Insurance seemed like it was just extra money spent on something most people would hopefully never use. And I certainly didn’t understand enough to make an argument for it. I could see the coverage summary but did what did it really mean? What was the fine print? What were the loopholes that might keep the insurance company from paying anything?
Like most people, I was familiar with insurance as a consumer. Unlike most people, I spent a career working for a large insurance company selling a variety of insurance products. But I worked in the IT department and did not have to dig into the guts of insurance products and policies. Still, it seemed like I should know what I was dealing with.
So, what changed? Why did I go from being unfamiliar with travel insurance and distrustful of it? It just took some time, a few client claims, a few scary stories in the media and a global pandemic. Now, I never leave home without travel insurance. For me, it is a required part of the vacation no matter what. And now it is a part of my clients’ vacation quotes too. I never quote anything without travel insurance included. I do not think I would be doing my job otherwise. How can I claim to be a Travel Advisor and not provide my best advice and guidance to my clients?
Of course, clients can always choose to exclude travel insurance from their vacations. When they do, I require a written declaration that they were offered the opportunity to purchase it and declined it, either in a letter or email from the client or when completing an authorization form that I provide for collecting payment card information.
Let us talk about why it is needed. First, let us talk about COVID since we all lived through it and continue to be affected by it as new variants emerge and infection rates rise and fall. We all remember the lockdowns that occurred all around the world. Officials in several countries began to consider requirements that all future visitors have travel insurance with medical coverage before they would be allowed entry. Finance Expert Sarah Stasik recently wrote in the Los Angeles Times there are forty-two destinations requiring some form of travel insurance and/or health insurance. Many times, travelers will be denied entry unless they can prove they have the necessary coverage. Or, if there is a medical incident and the traveler cannot provide proof of insurance, they may be required to surrender their passports until they pay off their medical debts in the country. There have been numerous stories about injured travelers in Mexico needing financially rescued by family, friends, and even celebrities to pay their medical debts and get their passports returned.
For our clients, we have also seen examples first-hand of the need for travel insurance. Sometimes clients need to cancel their vacations for reasons they could not predict when they booked their trips months ahead of time. Some people use their insurance when their flights are delayed, or their luggage is lost. Some people use it when they suffer an illness or injury. It is important to understand that most of these insurance policies offer coverage for a wide variety of situations. Travel insurance is not just to reimburse travel expenses when someone needs to cancel.
In 2023, one of our clients booked her vacation in January, learned of her cancer diagnosis in March, and had surgery in May on the same day she was supposed to start her vacation in Vancouver.
A family on a guided tour through Europe included a teenager who left a bag at her hotel and then moved on to the next country on the tour. The bag included some important items, including required medication. We were able to use the travel insurance to arrange for a telemedicine appointment and connect her with an international pharmacy to get her the medication she required.
One of our clients planned to travel to a Caribbean island. Her mother was fighting cancer at the time and the client needed to reschedule the vacation multiple times due to her mother’s health. Ultimately, our client wasn’t able to go at all. Thankfully, her insurance coverage included provisions for cancelling due to the illness or death of a family member.
During COVID, we had a number of clients’ vacations impacted. Because of the unusual global nature of the situation, a lot of companies provided refunds in cash or credit. But, for those that did not, we used travel insurance to make claims.
One of our clients was on a Caribbean cruise. She is certain she placed her diamond earrings in the room safe. Nevertheless, they went missing. Perhaps they were stolen. Perhaps they were misplaced. Thankfully, her insurance included lost and stolen articles coverage.
Clients planning a 30th anniversary in London and the Cotswolds were excited for their custom-planned itinerary, but their son experienced an emergency two weeks before their vacation and they needed to cancel. Again, this was unpredictable, so it was a good thing their insurance included coverage for family members’ medical emergencies.
We still have people who decline the insurance. Currently, we have a client traveling to Mexico in July 2024. He has declined the insurance. He is planning to take his 12-year-old son with him and wants to do some exciting excursions. Of course, there is the potential for injury when ziplining, riding wave runners, and swimming with dolphins. For just $126 per person, they could have coverage to protect them should something go wrong.
We have clients in Hawaii as I write this, and they also declined the insurance. They purchased their vacation in April, and they did not know their flights would be cancelled due to a Boeing MAX airliner door plug problem resulting in grounded planes. Not only were their flights cancelled. To get them on new flights cost an additional $600. Also, their luggage was lost for two days requiring them to make unplanned purchases of clothing and toiletries. If they had insurance, they could make a claim to be reimbursed for those expenses.
Now, let me just say, I have a love/hate relationship with insurance. I hate the thousands of dollars I spend each month on insurance: health, life, dental, vision, disability, long-term care, auto, property, liability, business, errors & omissions, and travel. But I love knowing that I am protected from financial harm and ruin should terrible things happen. I understand why so many of my clients question the value of it. But I KNOW its value. I KNOW it will help my clients if they should need it. And I KNOW that it will help protect their vacation investments and make their entire trip more secure so they can just focus on enjoying themselves.
I will continue to include travel insurance on every quote because part of my job is to advocate for my clients and look out for their best interests. So, let’s recap:
I just completed our first ever bus tour and it opened my eyes to another way of traveling that I had been snubbing for as long as I can remember. I always thought bus tours were for old people being shuffled from one souvenir shopping experience to another with some kind of blue-plate special each night at a 3:00 PM dinner service. Boy, was I wrong! It turned out to be a tour for fun people with adventures, shopping, sightseeing, and new friends.
We had a pretty large credit with Globus due to a group tour cancelled in 2020. (Thanks, COVID). The credit needed to be used by the end of 2022 or we would lose our investment in this vacation. Rather than apply it to a new group, we decided to use it for our own booking. We chose a 9-day Glacier National Park & Canadian Rockies tour. I have always wanted to see Glacier National Park and Banff, so it was an appealing option. We flew into Calgary the day before the tour started just because that’s a standard practice and one we recommend to our clients also. In case of flight cancellations and delays, it’s always good to arrive in your tour or cruise departure city the day before.
We arrived in Calgary September 4th and returned to Atlanta on September 13th. We like to travel in September after most kids are back in school and the crowds diminish significantly. But, I was also not looking forward to it because, in my mind, there would be 20 feet of snow already in the western part of Canada. I had never been to Calgary, but still expected a frozen hellscape. Nevertheless, I had always wanted to visit Glacier National Park and Banff National Park, and I figured the terrible winter weather would just be a necessary part of the experience.
I almost didn’t believe the weather reports as the day drew near, and even after landing, it was a very pleasant surprise to find Calgary sunny and warm – in the upper 80s (Fahrenheit, of course; our northern neighbors use Celsius). The city was full of shining skyscrapers reflecting the sunshine onto the surrounding rolling hills of prairie. It was so nice, we took the opportunity to do a little walking downtown and were impressed with how clean, uncrowded, and safe it seemed.
Calgary set behind Saddledome as seen from a bluff over the Bow River.
The next day before our official check-in for our Globus bus tour, we booked a city tour with Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures. I was disappointed I wasn’t able to drive the motorcycle, but still had a great time. Rose and I each had our own personal driver while we sat in sidecars being escorted through the city by Warren and Brian. We caught a lot of attention from people in Calgary waving and pointing as we rolled through the various city neighborhoods. Warren and Brian stopped a few times to point out significant sites, talk about the city they loved, and so we could take photos. Later, we learned some of the people on our bus tour had taken photos of us leaving the hotel. They were disappointed they didn’t book it themselves. I highly recommend it for anyone visiting Calgary. Warren and his wife Nicole own this small business, and we are always eager to support entrepreneurs. They have twenty-two drivers for 6 restored Russian Ural motorcycles. If you visit, check them out and take a tour. You can find them online at https://www.rockymountainsidecar.com/ or on sites like TripAdvisor and Viator.
Rocky Mountain Sidecar Adventures pulled right up to our hotel to begin our tour. Prior to arrival, they asked for a measure of our heads so they could bring correctly-sized helmets. So, when you book, be sure to note how big or small your noggin is. It’s a great tour; don’t miss it.
Back to the bus tour… As I said, I had never been on one, so I was not excited to spend nine days on a bus with a bunch of old people I didn’t know. I really thought it would be awkward and we wouldn’t really have anyone to talk with. And, in our 40s, we were definitely among the younger of the people on the tour. But, I quickly learned age didn’t matter – it was attitude that did. Some of the people we travelled with were well into their 70s, but they weren’t sitting with sweaters on while knitting the whole time. (Actually, my wife Rose did quite a bit of that). These people were fun and adventurous. They were making jokes, getting boisterous, and didn’t shy away from adventure along the way. By the end of the week, I was excited to know bus tours weren’t geriatric field days. It opened up a whole new way to travel that I really had not seriously considered for myself before.
I’ll admit on day 1, I was still stuck in my own head thinking this would be no fun. We were going down the highway as we left Calgary and headed to our first overnight in Waterton Lakes, Canada. Our Tour Director Neela was telling us about our first stop and how much time we had before we had to be back on the bus. Somewhere in my mind, I got annoyed because I immediately remembered middle school field trips. I didn’t want to spend my week being shepherded and treated like a child. But, it was too late because I was on the bus and had the rest of the trip ahead of me, so I tried to put it out of my mind. Then, later that night, like a middle schooler on a field trip, I realized I had lost something. We were planning to cross the U.S. border into Montana the next morning, but I had lost my passport on our first day of the tour! I thought hard about where it could be and was convinced it was on our bus. Neela rounded up the bus driver and they searched for it with no luck. Later, I saw the driver and asked if I could take a look. Thankfully I found it stuck between my seat and the wall of the bus. The next morning, Neela made an announcement to everyone that they needed to check to make sure they had their passports. I stopped worrying about being treated like a child because, apparently, I needed to be treated like a child.
Rose and I proved that once again when she forgot her purse at our Banff hotel. We didn’t want to become known as the forgetful couple, so we called the hotel and tried to make arrangements to get it without anyone knowing. But, the hotel had already called Neela who worked it out for us. At that point, we were so grateful to have Neela there because she was our “fixer.” She just took care of things that needed it. And after talking wither, I realized that it wasn’t about her shepherding us or babysitting us. For her, it was about providing exceptional service so that we didn’t have to think about anything other than enjoying our vacation. Neela is a Canadian immigrant originally from Germany and she loves Canada. She loves the Rockies and the animals and all the amazing experiences. Her job allows her to share that love with others, and she genuinely wants us to love it as much as she does. So, solving our problems was just part of making sure we were focused on the right things rather than distracted by our own silliness.
As we continued along the way visiting amazing places like UNESCO World Heritage sites, five national parks in the U.S. and Canada and seeing places I’ve always wanted to see, I was having an amazing experience and falling in love with the Canadian Rockies. But, there was something more enjoyable also happening: we were getting to do these things with new friends. We met two couples from New York City about our ages, a really fun mother and daughter who like to travel together to amazing places, and couples celebrating birthdays and anniversaries – some 48th and 50th anniversaries! Incredibly, we met a couple from Pekin, IL and another from Peoria, IL. Rose and I used to live near there and it turns out we had familiar haunts and knew some of the same people. We also met Sherry from Teutopolis, IL, close to where I grew up. She knew my high school health and drivers’ education teacher and others.
We learned about their families, other travels they had enjoyed, and their favorite sports teams. We also learned that many of them had been on prior Globus tours and they were planning to do it again. When I asked what they liked about them, every one of them said the same things – they liked how easy and relaxing it was. They didn’t have to think about where to eat, what to do, what to see. They had a Tour Director who prepared them with information and shared personal insights about the places being visited. It reminded me of hearing a client once complain that he was sick of renting cars on his European vacations. He had to focus on the road to drive all over the place while the rest of his family was able to look at all the amazing scenery. On our bus tour, none of us had to drive. None of us had to study and choose restaurants or how to spend the day in our various destinations. And our Tour Director was great about pointing out scenery we shouldn’t miss, keeping us on time, and answering any questions we had. Again, all we had to do was sit back and enjoy ourselves.
Spirt Island on Maligne Lake. The island is spiritually significant to the Stony Nakoda people.
Neela made the whole experience seamless. Each time we arrived at a hotel, she ran in to collect the keys and distribute them to us. We didn’t have to check in anywhere. Our bags were delivered to our rooms and picked up when it was time to leave. Our meals were planned ahead. And along the way, Neela was making phone calls to confirm everything would be ready when we arrived from one place to the next. Genuinely, all we needed to do was enjoy ourselves. At the start of each day, she outlined the planned events and at the end of each day, she reviewed the next day’s plans.
The entire tour was simple, relaxing, and carefree. So what about my other ignorant assumptions – the babysitting and the old people? Well, there was no reason to be concerned. Neela gave us all the information we needed so everyone in our group was on time and where we needed to be for our tour to keep moving as expected. But, we still had plenty of free time each day. A couple of times, Rose and I took naps in our hotel rooms before dinner or before strolling around a mountain town. We made reservations in Whitefish, MT and ate a fancy dinner. (Rose even tried escargot – quite an adventure for her). In addition to our planned tour activities, which included visiting glacial lakes, wildlife spotting, open-air bus rides on steep mountain roads, walking on a glacier, and more, there were also some additional activities available to the group.
Rose and I booked a helicopter tour with Neela and David, one of the other tour guests. It went from Canmore over the continental divide and around mountain glaciers thousands of feet in the air. We booked a river rafting trip down the Athabasca River in Jasper along with 11 of our new tour friends. Ginny and David even had the chance to do the rowing. The other highlights included getting stuck on a rocky shoal and watching our new friends Alfonso and Dave (brothers) get soaked. We also hiked the Maligne Canyon trail with most of our tour group. It was fun seeing people older than my mother climbing steep hills on the rough trail, sometimes steadying themselves down slick stone paths. I enjoyed talking with Sally as we boated across a lake high in the mountains. She was one of the tour guests and nervous about traveling alone as a widow, but not the only solo traveler in our group. Others ventured up gondolas in Banff from town at the bottom to a peak high above. And while in Jasper, no one was worried about the nearby wildfire sending smoke drifting through town. We were all too busy walking around the town trying to find some of the elk and grizzly bears that had been making their way through. So, definitely every one of these “old” people were young at heart. They were adventurous and fun and not only keeping pace with everyone, but often setting the pace. I’m talking about you, David, as you bolted out of the bus at each stop and often surprised us, like when you took the captain’s seat and drove a boat we were on or jumped up right away to steer our river raft. I was especially impressed with Melissa, a lady who walked with a cane and sometimes used a walker. She was maybe slowed, but she was not going to be stopped. She did everything the rest of us did, and often faster. I loved seeing that and being inspired by her.
In the end, my eyes were opened. It didn’t matter that I was on a bus full of strangers. It didn’t matter they were mostly older than I was. It didn’t matter I couldn’t just decide at a moment’s notice to change my vacation and do whatever I wanted. None of those things mattered because I was having a great time. Everyone was fun and nice and adventurous. And one day, I expect to be one of those “old” people surprising some ignorant, younger bus tour newbie. Neela made everything easy and simple. It was everything I loved about vacationing on a cruise or at an all-inclusive resort. All I had to do was enjoy myself. And now that I’m home, I’m ready to plan my next Globus tour. My only regret is I can’t go again with Neela, our driver Genesis, and all our tour friends.
Chris Lay
I am Co-Owner of Lay Travel Group, a Dream Vacations franchise in Roswell, GA. I love to travel and love helping others to travel and see the world. Please visit http://www.LayTravelGroup.com and contact me for your next vacation.
Do you ever experience FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)? Well, get ready to have a bad case of FOMO if you aren’t booking your 2022 and 2023 vacations now. If you aren’t, you’re missing out on some of the best prices you will see for the next year. I know you’re probably thinking I’m saying this just to boost sales. I am a Travel Advisor, after all. But, I am confident I will have sales, so that’s not really a worry for me. In fact, in the first two weeks of January, I’ve quoted nearly as much as we sold in all of 2021. And there are good reasons for it. We’ll get into that, but I don’t want to miss a chance to repeat this call to action…BOOK YOUR VACATIONS NOW. I’m telling you this because I love to travel and love helping others travel, and I’m getting concerned that many won’t be able to enjoy the vacations they want this year if they don’t take action now.
So why am I so concerned? There are a number of converging, related factors that are simply going to eat up the capacity. Those factors stem primarily from COVID’s impact the last two years and its impending demise. That’s right, it will be ending soon, or at least that’s what I’ve been reading and hearing a lot lately.
COVID’s Last Hurrah As a Travel Advisor, I attend a lot of webinars and read a lot of industry news. Over the last couple of weeks, I have attended multiple webinars in which travel industry executives or scientists have said the same thing – COVID infection rates will likely start to improve by the end of February in the U.S. and continue to drop until it is a minor concern as the year continues. Dr. Scott Gottlieb is a former FDA Commissioner and is currently a Pfizer board member, COVID-19 advisor to multiple state governors, and serves as Chairman of Norwegian Cruise Line’s SailSafe Program. Based on the information he shared that has been echoed by others, there are a number of new therapeutics coming and new vaccines taht will help make COVID more treatable and survivable. He also said Omicron has been so contagious that a lot more people now have the antibodies. That coupled with vaccination rates (including boosters) should lead to fewer infections in coming weeks. He shared that, historically, pandemics last three to 5 years and we are entering year 3 now. Looking at South Africa, where Omicron was first detected in late November 2021, peak infections seem to have passed and Dr. Gottlieb expects we will soon see the same occur in the U.S. On Jan. 9, Dr. Gottlieb said on “Face the Nation” that data indicated infection rates in the Northeast and Florida may be hitting their peaks, but did indicate rates could still climb in other parts of the U.S. Nevertheless, he has also suggested that all U.S. regions may see better numbers by the end of February.
More Demand than Capacity Also, remember how COVID began in 2020. There were no vaccines and a COVID diagnosis was scary, a death sentence for far too many. As of now, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports more than 5.5 million people have died from COVID around the world. Early on, the reaction around the world was to enter lockdown and close borders. There was no travel for several months. Travel suppliers issued future travel credits (FTCs) and most need to be used by the end of 2022. While 2021 bookings were better than 2020, they still weren’t back to pre-pandemic levels considering many resorts and cruises operated at partial capacity. In particular, cruise lines kept many ships out of service and sailed anywhere from 40% to 70% occupied. As we start 2022, some of those cruise lines have had to cancel sailings again due to the high rates of infection that come with Omicron. As their crew members test positive and port destinations close, they simply don’t want to sail and give customers bad experiences or further spread infection. The result of all this is that we have people with pent up urges to travel after two years of COVID and people who have FTCs that need to be used by the end of 2022. It’s very possible that those who wait to use their FTCs simply won’t find a vacation available to use them.
Borders are Reopening International borders have been reopening over the last few months and more continue to open. While keeping track of each country’s requirements can be difficult, working with a good Travel Advisor should help. Some countries require testing or vaccination or both. Many require registering ahead of time, submitting test results electronically, and being approved for entry. Some are doing random spot testing upon arrival. A small number may require quarantine regardless of vaccination status, and there are some with no restrictions or requirements at all. But, the overall trend is to get borders opened and keep them open.
2021 Provided a Preview of Travel’s Rebound Last summer as more Americans became vaccinated, confidence grew that we were nearly done with COVID. Of course, that was before Delta and later Omicron presented themselves. But, during those few months of relief, people began booking vacations again. The travel industry quickly found itself grappling with a surge in demand, but limited capacity to meet it. Travelers who did travel learned to be flexible and adaptable. Many who visited Caribbean resorts found some restaurants and bars at resorts closed or service levels diminished due to reduced staffing. Cruisers found the opposite – amazing service on ships that were fully staffed, but had fewer passengers. We cruised ourself on Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady and loved the reduced capacity sailing. We never waited for anything and it was like having much of the ship to ourselves.
People traveling to Europe found they had to limit their visits to fewer countries due to the various restrictions they had to manage. We had clients land in Berlin in December only to learn their hotel was shutting down. Thankfully, they were able to move to a better hotel across the street at no additional cost. And all these travelers had to contend with pre-travel testing, pre-departure testing, and navigating all the challenges with that. We had clients travel to St. Lucia last fall and their test results didn’t meet requirements. Once we were able to help them fix that, I had to track down government officials in St. Lucia to get their entry approved hours before their flights took off. While travel should get easier in 2022, flexibility and adaptability will continue to be incredibly important. Travelers who may struggle with that may want to refocus attention on domestic vacations instead. But, even that will continue to be difficult. Before the end of last year, over 85% of the southwest Florida vacation rental capacity had been booked through the first quarter.
If travel executives and scientists like Dr. Gottlieb are correct, people will soon see infection rates improving and grow much more confident, leading to even more of that capacity getting booked up. You have a chance now to get in early and beat the rush. And remember, the longer you wait, the more expensive your vacation will likely be. As limited capacity gets tighter, there will be less incentive for travel suppliers to offer promotions and sales for 2022 and 2023 bookings.
We Already See Booking Trouble Brewing Earlier I mentioned a family wanting to travel to Italy this coming summer. They are wanting a custom itinerary that covers nearly 3 weeks in Northern Italy. I have designed a plan for them that they love. They prefer to stay in private villas rather than hotels, so that’s where I want to focus my attention first. I need to know the dates for their villa rentals so I can plan all the other components around that. They need villas for 7 days in Tuscany and 5 days around Lake Como. And they want four bedrooms. So far, I’m finding very limited availability with the suppliers I use. My concern is I may not be able to help them and they may have to try booking them on their own using Air B&B. I don’t like that option because it can be tough to get insurance coverage or it may require multiple insurance policies to cover the rentals and then the rest of the vacation separately. But, I need to make a determination this week and advise my clients so there is time to get a booking done before all the suitable properties are booked.
I quoted clients a guided tour in Spain and we have a range of dates, but all within about 2 months next Autumn. There is still availability, but we did find two of those weeks don’t have enough capacity for all 3 travelers. I can book 2, but not the 3rd person. So, we’re now limited to a narrower range. My clients will need to decide on a date quickly or risk missing out.
We just booked clients traveling to Alaska in July. We quoted them a price with flights on Tuesday evening. They contacted us Wednesday morning and told us to book it. But, by then, the flights were more expensive and less optimal. The original flights quoted were all booked up.
Even for ourselves, we’re finding 2023 to be challenging. We have two graduations to celebrate. Our son will graduate from high school and one of our daughters will graduate from college in May 2023. We going to celebrate by spending much of the summer in Hawaii. We are booking at a resort, but because it is for multiple weeks, we’re being advised to schedule it now so we don’t have to worry about switching bresorts as other travelers book their own vacations. We also want to take a cruise around the islands for a week. While there are still cabins available, they’re getting booked quickly. I’m giving myself a deadline to have my bookings made by the end of February to ensure I won’t have trouble. That is 16 months in advance of travel. That gives you an idea of what you can expect – book early or risk your vacation.
So Finish Reading and Book Now!! If you’ve made it this far in this lengthy blog post, then you surely have interest in traveling. Hopefully you can understand now why I’m concerned that many will miss the opportunity to have the vacation they want. Many will instead have the most acceptable vacations they can get, and some won’t vacation at all. As better COVID treatments enter the market in the next 2-3 months and infection rates drop, people will become more confident and want to start booking vacations. Along with growing confidence will be loosening travel requirements and restrictions and easier international travel. This, in turn, will lead to greater travel confidence. COVID confidence combined with travel confidence will be all that is needed to open all the booking floodgates. When that happens, people will find the vacations they want will be less available than they expect and likely cost more than they expect. If you are someone with FTCs, you may even find you can’t make use of them when you want for the vacation you want.
Of course, we could all be wrong. A new problem could develop and surprise everyone. But, I’m less concerned about that because I’ve had the benefit of reading many articles and sitting in on a few webinars lately where multiple experts have all said the same thing – we’re nearing the end of COVID. So, you can wait for the data to prove it, which will be a lagging indicator. And if you lag too long, you will likely miss out on the current low prices, great promotions, and available capacity. Good luck, everyone!
Cruising is one of the safest things you can do in the age of COVID and you are making a mistake if you dismiss it as a reasonable vacation option due to pandemic fear, despite what the CDC may say.
On Dec. 30, 2021, the CDC raised its travel warning to Level 4, the highest level possible, due to recent infections on a number of sailings during the Omicron wave. The warning doesn’t prohibit cruising, but strongly advises against it. According to the CDC, the virus spreads easily between people in close quarters onboard ships. Cruisers that do go ahead and travel are encouraged to be fully vaccinated and boosted and to quarantine for five days after the cruise ends.
Stock photo acquired on Pixabay.
What else does the CDC think we should avoid? Apparently, nothing else should be avoided since the agency continues to apply its warnings and strict monitoring to only the cruising industry. The CDC has not announced warnings for air travel, concert attendance, holiday shopping, subway riding, etc. and it is encouraging public school attendance in person because “students benefit from in-person learning.”
Before its warning level change, the CDC announced it was monitoring 92 cruise ships. That monitoring was triggered when a ship experienced positive test results with 0.1% or more of its passengers within a seven-day period. In Georgia, where I live and the CDC is headquartered, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported a 7-day positivity rate of 21.7% as of Dec. 29, 2021. If the CDC treated its own environment the way it treats cruise ships, why aren’t we hearing warnings to avoid entering the state or warnings encouraging those of us here to flee for our lives?
As of Dec. 30, 2021, Royal Caribbean says it has sailed over 1.1 million passengers with 1,745 positive cases, resulting in a 0.02% infection rate.
Royal Caribbean International
Even without the CDC’s bewildering warning, recent news outlets would have us all believe the infection rates have been much higher and that cruise ships are petri dishes or COVID incubators. The same was said years ago when cruise ships suffered from rhinovirus outbreaks. Following those highly publicized stories, the cruise lines became hyper-focused on hygiene, sanitation, and controlling infectious disease. Since then, any regular cruiser has become fondly familiar with the words “washee washee,” meant to remind you to wash your hands before entering dining halls. And for years, the cruise lines promoted regular use of hand sanitizer with stations setup across ships, long before COVID made it a common practice elsewhere.
Nevertheless, COVID is presenting a new challenge to cruise lines as, once again, they seem to be called out as the only environment for contagion. However sensational the news stories may be, the data proves cruises do not present significant risk. As of 12/30/2021, according to Bermello Ajamil & Partners’ Cruise Recovery Dashboard, there have been 467 documented COVID cases aboard cruise ships since cruising restarted last summer. That is a small number compared to the more than 5.6 million people who sailed during that same time, for a 0.008% infection rate. You don’t hear that on the news, unfortunately.
The Bermello Ajamil & Partners data is not perfect or precise. It is based on news stories and not from the cruise lines, health departments or other sources. So let’s look at another measure – this one from Royal Caribbean International, which has provided data specific to it’s sailings. As of Dec. 30, 2021, Royal Caribbean says it has sailed over 1.1 million passengers with 1,745 positive cases, resulting in a 0.02% infection rate.
The pause in cruising that began in 2020 inspired the cruise industry to take aggressive action to make further improvements to sanitation, implement measures to promote social distancing, and take measures to limit exposure and manage infections once they develop. Examples include reduced-capacity sailing in which 60% or fewer births are booked, requiring vaccinations and testing before boarding, use of masks on some ships, limiting reservations and seating in dining halls, restaurants, and shows, conducting virtual muster drills, and enhancing the medical offices on board.
Think about it – in your day-to-day life, where do you go that requires you to prove you are vaccinated and requires a negative test before entry? You and thousands of others visit grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, gyms, movie theatres, sporting events, airports, and more every day, and none of those organizations employ the strict controls in place that cruises do. So why do we hear about infections on cruises? I think it’s because in all those other scenarios, people enter with infection, spread the infection, and leave within a short time. There is no way to contact trace when a stranger breathes too closely to you next to the dairy case at the grocery store and then you both walk away carrying the disease to your next stops or back home to your families. But, on a cruise, you are there for a few days or more, all together. If someone does get on board with the start of infection (that may still test negative) and it then spreads, they, and maybe you, could develop symptoms before the cruise is over. So, it’s not that cruising is less safe than all those other things we all do each day; you just don’t have the opportunity to leave the ship and never be seen or heard from again, like you do just about anywhere else. There is just greater monitoring and awareness of what is happening on a cruise ship and greater ability to isolate those who test positive, contact trace, and quarantine others who may have been exposed. In reality, cruising is being picked on because the cruise lines have the data whereas no other organization does. They are doing the right things that no other organization is doing.
What non-cruise environment may be the most similar? How about public schools where our children spend hours each day, five days a week, with the same people in “close quarters,” the situation concerning the CDC about cruises? Sure, the CDC thinks kids shouldn’t go to school either, right? Well, actually they think differently about that. And they have used data to justify their position that kids should be in school.
Just one year ago the CDC shared research on its website, which is still there, to support its recommendation for in-school attendance. Among that research was a finding that, of 17 rural Wisconsin schools, the rate of infection was 0.035%, which was lower than the county’s overall infection rate of 0.055%. Additionally, “…only 3.7% of the cases identified in those schools were linked to in-school spread. (I bolded the word only for emphasis). So, the CDC is okay with our children being in environments with as much as a 3.7% rate of infection, but the agency is not okay with fully-vaccinated and tested adults in a controlled cruising environment with much lower infection rates.
So why does the CDC take contrarian views on schools versus cruises? The only explanations are that they either don’t know what they’re doing or they are making policy recommendations based on political factors. I am not suggesting they are bad at their true jobs – studying disease. I am suggesting they are bad at the public policy part of their jobs, or at least they are doing poorly at it right now. They clearly have lost credibility with many of us when they make policy recommendations that do not seem to be based on data or are contradictory at best. The result is that we all must instead make the best decisions we can with the information we have since the CDC is not proving it has the integrity to be a good broker of information.
Think about it – in your day-to-day life, where do you go that requires you to prove you are vaccinated and requires a negative test before entry? You and thousands of others visit grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, movie theatres, sporting events, airports, and more every day, and none of those organizations employ the strict controls in place that cruises do.
For me and my family, we are going to keep cruising. Our next cruise is a river cruise in Europe in just a few weeks. And I’m eager to try and fit in a short Caribbean cruise before then. I realize I may be considered biased as a Travel Advisor, and during this pandemic, our travel agency has suffered lost business and lost opportunities, but most of those were self-inflicted. My customers have eagerly wanted to travel for the past two years. In some cases, borders closed and forced cancellations or reschedules. But, in most cases, I encouraged customers to cancel or postpone vacations because I didn’t want to help put anyone at significant risk. But, at this point, that caution no longer makes sense. The vaccines have been available for all, except small children. The cruise lines have implemented strong controls and management practices. In fact, because there are such great controls and monitoring, cruising is one of the safest things you can do right now, other than being locked down at home, and there is data to prove it.
On the weekend the Omicron news broke out of South Africa, I was on a plane and sitting across the aisle from a passenger who struggled to keep his mask on properly. At the end of the flight, he triumphantly declared he was finishing a very long trip home…from South Africa. Standing at the front of the plane waiting for the door to open, a flight attendant and I both stepped back and looked at each other with concern. That’s about all the protection the airlines were affording – wear a mask and good luck! Despite the breaking news, there was no testing required, no vaccination required, and certainly no CDC warning.
Quite simply, the CDC’s singular fixation on cruising is weird and shows how questionable its credibility is right now as a policymaking body. In all facets of our lives, we are free to be as responsible or irresponsible as we want with COVID. The CDC isn’t warning anyone to stop anything, except cruise. Ask yourself if that makes sense. Then decide what makes the most sense for you. You can listen to weird or you can choose to use real data and make an informed choice. For me it’s continue cruising because I know it is safe and I know the CDC is wrong to say otherwise.
Lay Travel Group 