Category: Vacation Travel

What to Pack for Vacation

5/1/2015

Since Paul was doing some guests posts on our vacation experiences I thought I should do one on packing and what to pack for a lengthy trip.

We are known for traveling for 3 weeks or more and packing can be a nightmare for that length of time. So I've come up with some tips to help my packing go smoother and take up less room.

First thing you need to do is determine the weather as that will dictate your whole wardrobe. Next do you need dressy clothes? Any packing restrictions such as number of bags and weight?

I'll use our next vacation as an example: On a Cruise Ship for 26 days.

Climate will be both hot and cool with the possibility of rain.
Dressy evenings on board ship.
Weight per bag restricted at 50 lbs per airline rules. Carry on limited to 1 bag.

Before packing anything be sure everything is clean and you have tried it on to be sure it still fits. The most frustrating thing you can do is get to a destination, put on a shirt and realize it shrunk or is now too little. If you have shrunk, no worries as you will probably gain weight on the trip with those midnight dessert buffets.

Make a List - I would definitely think about making a list of all the things (toiletries, medications, electronics including chargers, sunglasses or reading glasses if you need them, vitamins or supplements, etc.) that you use on a daily basis that you will not want to forget.
Get Bags Out one week prior to leaving. Do this just in case something is wrong with your bag from your previous trip that way you have time to get a new one.
Lay out clothing and coordinate the pieces. The important thing for me is to be able to mix and match several pieces together and get more wear out of all the pieces. Being on a cruise ship there is laundry service and we do take advantage of that about halfway through the cruise as that cuts down on the amount of clothing needed.
Use packing cubes or bags inside our suitcases. They seem to pack better and get less wrinkles that way. Also be sure to pack things inside your shoes like socks or underwear and then put shoes in a zip type bag to protect clothes.
Put toiletries in Zip type baggies. You could even put plastic wrap around the tops of the bottles then screw on the lid for further protection.

Check out Pinterest as there are a lot of great ideas for packing light and great tips to save space.

Pack my essential oils. This is a great option for anyone as they can help with seasonal issues, digestive issues (yes for that midnight dessert buffet), rough sea stomach, skin irritations, or anything else that may come up when I can't get to a doctor right away. After several trips and taking all kinds of oils with me, I have narrowed it down to about 12 that I always take and use. I also always take some little sample bottles just in case I meet someone that is having an issue and wants to try an oil vs. searching out the ship doctor or trying to find a pharmacy in another country.

My favorite oils to take with me are Peppermint, Lemon, Lavender, Melaleuca, Oregano, Frankincense, Immunity Blend, Respiratory Blend, Digestive Blend and a Soothing Blend. The other oils I take is a Women's monthly blend and a Tension blend.

For more information on how to get your own set of essential oils, please feel free to contact me.

Where ever you decide to travel and whatever you plan to pack this Summer season, I hope you have safe travels. Now I think it's time to get my bags out and organize for my own vacation.

0 Comments

Yes, You can Afford a Cruise

4/28/2015

0 Comments

I don't know how many times I have heard the expression I can't afford to take a cruise. Let's explore the cost of a cruise compared to a vacation that doesn't involve a big ship and oceans. My intent is to keep the two events similar in length and comparable accommodations.   One you don't get to call a Motel 6 a luxury resort and a meal at a fast food joint a gourmet meal. I'm defiantly not saying you can't eat a burger and fries either.

Almost everyone can take seven days off work for a vacation, so our duration is seven days. Destination is going to be a port that has a cruise terminal in a city that is a destination in its self.   I'm going to pick New Orleans for two reasons, one Dana and I have cruised from that port and what a fun city to vacation in. Remember my children are grown and we cruise for relaxation. Those of you with children would probably need to schedule during the summer or school vacations and that is definitely going to change the cost. Let's pick November of 2015 as our time of year.

Our end cost is going to be based on total cost per person based on two people. Food is going to be based on three meals a day with buffet and dining room accommodations.   Entertainment consists of day time activities and a stage show at night. For you adults, a casino is included for some extracurricular activities, we might as well throw in a bar and karaoke lounge. OK, we can add other items as we discover them, but let's get started.

Finding a cruise and round trip airfare from Seattle to New Orleans is our first objective. For those of us not cruising and just heading for New Orleans to enjoy that week we will use the cruise schedule for that vacation also. New Orleans hosts two major cruise lines for 2015 so we will look at both to find for the best deal, just like we will search for the best hotel price.

We will want to fly the day before our cruise departs as the chance of missing the 4PM sailing deadline is possible trying to do it all in one day. I am going to use Kayak to find both the flights and a room for the night. Our best price is with Alaska nonstop round trip Seattle to New Orleans $818 and our room is at the Hampton Inn for $139 for the night. I chose the Hampton as it is a nice hotel that is within walking distance of the cruise terminal. Also, because Dana and I have stayed there and walked to the terminal.

Our cruise choices are Carnival 7 night departs 29 Nov 2015 and returns 6 Dec 2015. Our ports of call are Montego Bay, Jamaica; Grand Cayman; Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Mexico. Our cabin selection is interior for $529, ocean view $579, balcony $739 and suite $ 1,149 per person. Norwegian 7 night departs 29 Nov 2015 and returns 6 Dec 2015. Our ports of call are Cozumel, Mexico; Rotan (Isla Rotan); Bay Islands, Honduras; Harvest Kaye, Belize; Costa Maya, Mexico. Our cabin selection is interior $439, ocean view $569, balcony $839 and suite $1,049 per person.

We now know our base price for our travel and cruise: $818 air fare for 2, $139 hotel room for 2, and $439 inside cabin on Norwegian (best price and more ports of call for the cruise). This gives us a base total for the trip of $1,835, not including taxes and other fees. Meals: Breakfast, lunch and dinner buffet or dining room, are included in the price. You can eat in several specialty venues at a cost per person. Drinks (alcohol and soda) and shore excursions are at an additional cost. Water, iced tea, juice drinks are free.

Now let's look at that same package just staying in New Orleans. Air fare is the same $818, the Hampton had no room availability for that week so we are going to book with Embassy Suites which is just a few blocks closer to downtown at $1,113 for 7 nights. Breakfast averaging for 7 days is around $126, lunch average is going to be about $196 and dinner about $270. This covers our basic needs for one week at a total of $1,523.

Our basic cost per night per person is $262 for the cruise and $217 for staying on land. Remember on the cruise we have nightly entertainment, the ship moves to different ports of call where it costs nothing to get off and walk around. On board activities are available on sea days and there are always places on board ship to just hang out like the pool and hot tub.

In closing I would like to share with you a cost saving way to take that New Orleans vacation. I'll leave the prices the same for convenience and we can add one to two week to our stay. Flight $818, hotel $139, Cruise Carnival $1,058 and on return head next door and check in to Norwegian for the second cruise that departs that afternoon for $878. Now we could add that week in New Orleans to the end of the second cruise for $1,113 and meals $592 giving us a total of two cruises and a week's stay in New Orleans for $4,598 for two.

Whatever vacation you plan to do, cruising is definitely affordable, fun and as a bonus you get to see the world or at least in this case a few more countries.

0 Comments

vacation clubs - visiting another location

4/11/2015

0 Comments

You may want to read Parts 1-4 prior to this edition. You may scroll through older posts or start here at Part 1.

Being rock hounds we have always wanted to visit Tucson in February when the gem and mineral show is going on. It seems the entire city of Tucson transforms into mineral and fine gem shops. Motels, hotels, gas stations, campgrounds and parking lots all become a platform to sell rocks.

Low and behold there is a golf resort in Tucson that is part of the time shares we can avail ourselves of. Besides we now have an accumulation of points leftover from the previous year. It's off to Tucson for a week in February, prime season but what the heck we have a stock pile of points.

Leaving the airport in our rental car we follow the GPS up into the mountains on the outskirts of Tucson. Driving past several golf resorts and seeing several national high-end hotels we finally reach our destination. The condos, like in Napa, are managed by a resort hotel after check-in and our welcome by the Concierge we are given directions to our unit. Here the condos are adobe ranch style town houses scattered throughout the hills with the golf course meandering through the grounds. Our condo faced a ravine with a plethora of fauna and flora to appreciate and none of the wild life missed a chance to stop by the patio looking for a handout. Every morning was an adventure as to which species was waiting for us to arise.

The weather in Tucson is interesting in early February, eighty degrees during the day and thirty degrees at night. One almost must go from short sleeve shirt to long johns in the same day. Our rental car had AC and a good heater so we were not inconvenienced.

I don't want to finish this without mentioning our primary reason for the trip; we visited many gem and mineral venues with Dana buying 97 karats of blue sapphire briolettes and 104 karats of kyanite briolettes and our seeing some of the most amazing specimens I have ever seen. To make it an even more special vacation we had friends who were selling at one of the outdoor locations in Tucson. They were kind enough to haul our purchases that wouldn't fit on an airplane home for us. All in all it was another great vacation.

On a final note it is only fair to say one thing that was an absolute truth from that now long ago presentation in San Francisco, we do take more vacations now because of that timeshare purchase. Our 5000 points allows us to invite guests to travel with us to enjoy a very nice vacation in a two bedroom condo wherever we want to go. Last year we had enough points to go to Phoenix and several weeks later to Napa with friends for a week each.

This has been a rather verbose dialogue to address that original question of “Are Time Shares worth it?” Yes and No, Yes we have enjoyed our luxury vacations for a few years now and always talk about where we are going to go on our next adventure. Not all our adventures are with the time share company we find we like to cruise and have done walking tours of Italy and river cruises of much of Europe. I am not sure if the time share vacations have pushed us on the path of travel, but I suspect we would not have willingly embraced such an extensive nomadic lifestyle otherwise, nor would we be so free if we were still working full time. Every situation is different, for Dana and I the timeshare was an expense we were willing to live with and have taken advantage of what was offered.

Others don't always feel that way with the large cash outlay up front and the annual fees that are mandatory to keeping your timeshare active. Those not retired have to plan more carefully when they can vacation; having children pose another set of difficulties in vacationing. Many of these planning issues can push the vacation into a prime season making it cost more in points and harder to book reservations. I have read many complaints from those who succumbed to the sales pitch that makes a used car salesman look like an amateur. At the time I wasn't very happy either. Could you take a nice vacation every year for the amount you spent on that vacation package? Sure, but would you?

Since I enjoy vacations perhaps it is time to talk about other forms of vacationing Dana and I have experienced. Stay tuned while I give this some thought.

0 Comments

Vacation clubs - purchasing from the secondary market

4/10/2015

0 Comments

You may want to read Parts 1-3 prior to this edition. You may scroll through older posts or start here at Part 1.

Before I talk about the secondary market I should mention the maintenance fees. These fees are based on your home club and the number of points you hold. The formula used to calculate this cost varies between clubs so suffice to say it would be complicated to get into a lot of details. We were shown the formula at the time of our purchase so it isn't something that catches owners unawares. It does add to the cost of the overall vacations and if you purchased that 7500 points those costs add up to some fairly steep fees annually.

Since I buy many things off eBay I thought I would look at time share opportunities there before spending $5.00 a point through the retail sales of the vacation club. I guess I wasn't surprised to find large numbers of offers through escrow companies for various clubs. I discovered through watching these auctions that the average price at that time was around $1.00 a point. I must confess this put a smile on my face. If there were no catch 22s this was going to be the way to get us into that one bedroom condo. In looking for things that could go wrong I contacted the vacation club and asked questions on buying outside their plan. Interestingly, the things that the secondary market points wouldn't cover, was trading points for RCI timeshares in their network. Everything within the club was covered and I had 1500 points that I could trade each year if that was what we wanted.

Now I'm living on eBay looking for a comfortable amount of points to get us to that one bedroom condo. I have finally found a listing for 3500 points in the club I am interested in. Someone had already bid on the auction, but the price is still well below $1.00 per point. I am willing to spend one dollar per point to attempt to win this auction. I place my bid of $3,500.00 and now all I can do is just sit and wait. A week later the auction closes and I find I have won and luckily not at the maximum bid; we actually got those points for $0.80 a point.

I called the vacation company to notify them of my new title holding and they offered to sync the dues payment dates to make it easy for me and told me the points for that year were unused and had been added to my current points. My escrow costs were about $200.00 and the fees had been paid for that year by the previous owner so my costs were under $3,000.00.

Dana and I had started cruising (perhaps another blog topic) so we had our vacations covered for that year and decided to save our points for the next year.

Saving points is a good way to upgrade your vacation or do more than one in a year. Now two vacations in one year is a little difficult while working so we now had around 10,000 points sitting in our account. The trick with saving points to the next year is that those saved points will expire on your dues date the following year; hence we would be taking a vacation club vacation the next year. Overall I was very pleased to have upgraded for significantly less than if I had succumbed to the member upgrade offer of $5.00 a point and to think that we discussed paying that amount.

Visiting another location, Part 5 in this series is the last on the topic of Vacation Clubs.

Just a few photos from that 1 bedroom that I mentioned in Part 3 and the reason we purchased more points on the secondary market.

0 Comments

Vacation Clubs - part 3

4/8/2015

0 Comments

If you haven't read Part 1 and Part 2, you may want to start there.

Our 1500 points allowed us to return to Napa every other year. At that time we had not availed ourselves of any of the other properties our membership owned, but we were very happy visiting Napa. This was our third year of membership and our second visit to Napa. We again booked a studio apartment but got another building. The room was identical and the view similar.

The Concierge invited us to a member update offering $100.00 plus a handsome wine tasting package at far more wineries than we could possibly visit; we accepted and had an appointment the next day at 10:00 Am, little did we know!

There was a small single story office on the property grounds where the meeting was to take place. We arrived at the designated time along with a group of other people. The staff offered coffee and water with light refreshments. I'm starting to see the similarity between this place and the one we first visited in San Francisco (goose bumps on my arms) as we are ushered in to the inner sanctum.

Dana and I along with several other couples were introduced as already being members and whisked off to meet our customer representatives. The first phase of the process was to show us what a one bedroom condo looks like. If you remember from part two I mentioned when we entered our room from the main hallway we entered into a foyer; well that other door was the one bedroom condos.

Oh My! Can you spell luxury. I will post pictures a little later to better detail what the larger condos entailed. Upon entering there is a hallway with a laundry closet that opens into a full kitchen with everything needed to prepare a gourmet meal. Next came a massive dining table capable of comfortably seating eight, then a full living room with big screen TV and a gas fireplace. The bedroom was large with a Jacuzzi tub (big enough for two), a dressing area by the tub with a door that led into a bathroom that was as big as some hotel rooms we have stayed in. I believe my jaw hit the floor when I saw the shower, rain head with optional body spraying heads at several levels and big enough to dance in. A second door led back into the hallway.

At this point I knew we were in trouble, our rep took us back to the office and we began the negotiations. The first thing I noticed was there was very little pressure. He was well aware that we owned a meager 1500 points. His first suggestion was that to do it right around 7500 points was needed and that just for us we could have them for around $6.00 a point. Let's see that's 7500 - 1500 * $6.00 = $36,000.00. Dana and I saw that beautiful one bedroom condo slipping away into the California sunset. I told him there was no way we could afford that price tag.

Here is where I learned that there was some wiggle room in the pricing. Not like our first encounter with the sales people where the amount per point seemed fixed these prices had some flexibility. We haggled down to around $5.00 a point when the talks stalled. Dana and I were ready to get out and continue our vacation so we thanked him for his time and headed for the door. No one tackled us on the way out; must be a perk of being an owner. For the rest of our week we discussed how we could afford the points to allow us to stay in one of those sweet one bedroom condos.

I must confess that our second trip to Napa and the surrounding area just instilled our desire to return again. Our forays took us up both sides of the valley and all the way over to 101 near the coast. We randomly picked wineries to taste and looked for other adventures to fill our time. One of the fun spots was the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield and a winery that was a ranch also.

As our vacation drew to a close we were determined to find a way to see us in that one bedroom. Next up, “Discovering the secondary market”.

0 Comments

<<Previous

Author

In 2012, our life drastically changed for the better when I started using more natural products and creating my own cleaning and personal care products and eliminating toxins from our life. More recently we have had some other life challenges with the addition of our two grand-daughters who are 15 mo old. Join us in the journey to a cleaner, healthier lifestyle and help us embrace life's ups and downs with toddlers.

What to Pack for Vacation

Yes, You can Afford a Cruise

vacation clubs - visiting another location

Vacation clubs - purchasing from the secondary market

Vacation Clubs - part 3

Author

Archives

Categories