By Tim Larison
I recently posted a video slideshow I made of our CLazyU Ranch vacation (see the slideshow here ). We took over 700 pictures and videos on our CLazyU trip and condensed those down to a few for this 10 minute video.
One of the most enjoyable parts of a vacation for me is reviewing our photos and all the memories they represent. The Memories on TV software made it easy to tell the story of our vacation through photos, videos and music.
by Tim Larison
Did you know Walt Disney once owned a bowling alley, and that it was used to train workers for Disney World? One of the fun places to visit in my youth was Celebrity Sports Center in Denver. Celebrity was the first major Disney construction project after the completion of Disneyland. Celebrity opened in 1960 and was owned by Disney until the late 70’s. It featured 88 bowling lanes and an Olympic sized indoor swimming pool.
Celebrity used to have a great “passport to summer fun” program in the summer that I took advantage of with my friends many times. For one price (as I remember around $6) you could have a day of unlimited bowling, unlimited swimming, and play in Celebrity’s “state of the art” video arcade. What good times we had! I remember bowling 15 games one day at Celebrity!
We were sad to see Celebrity torn down in the mid-90’s, replaced by a large hardware store. But the memories live on. Recently an excellent history of Celebrity was published on the web - read it here. And another Celebrity tribute site is here. For kids growing up in the Denver area in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s Celebrity Sports Center will always be fondly remembered.
MSNBC published a good article last week about cell phone usage outside the U.S. Columnist Tim Leffel writes “Start asking people about international cell phone and data bills and you’ll get a lot of scary stories. Most aren’t as shocking as Steve Surjaputra’s tale of a family who was billed $19,370, but what’s surprising is how often people get socked with hundreds or thousands of dollars after what they thought was minimal use.” Read what to be aware of and some good tips in Tim’s column.
For my trips to Europe I have used a Mobal phone I like with Mobal you buy the phone and can use it on multiple trips - you are only charged for the cell time used. This is good if you only need to call home rarely. The Mobal phone worked great on our 12 night Mediterranean cruise but I found it did not work as well in Austria when I attempted to use it on my Avalon river cruise.
A friend of mine reports he has had good luck with his AT&T cell phone when traveling internationally, but that the phone doesn’t work as well back home.
There are lots of different options for international calling, as the msnbc article explains. What option is best for you depends on your particular trip and needs, but a little advanced planning in this area can definitely save you significant dollars.
by Tim Larison
Today we are announcing our new familytravelgurus.com website. You may have noticed we haven’t been “blogging” in the last few months. Behind the scenes we’ve been working on the site and we are very excited to announce this grand opening!
Our goal for familytravelgurus.com is to share with you the joys of traveling as a family. Many of the pictures and videos displayed here were taken on our own trips. We write of our past journeys on our Review pages. We invite you to participate by submitting the stories of your travels, too!
As a travel agency specializing in family travel, we are glad to help with your vacation inquiries and to help plan your next trip. Regardless of whether you use our agency’s services or not, all are welcome on this site to learn and share their travel experiences.
by Tim Larison
As a lifelong baseball fan I like to take in a major league game when traveling. We have been to major league games in Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, and St Louis in the past, in addition to many outings to watch our hometown Colorado Rockies. But this July we had a new experience - attending a “rookie league” baseball game in Casper, Wyoming.
I was invited to attend a game of the Casper Rockies - the Rockies affiliate in the rookie Pioneer League - as a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). A special treat for our group was to meet with the Casper manager, Tony Diaz, before the game. That’s Tony in the picture above with Josh and Andrew.
Tony gave our small group an interesting glimpse into what life in the low minor leagues was like. Many of the players on the Casper team are from Latin America and do not speak English, while others are fresh out of U.S. high schools. The team takes long bus trips to their away games (the closest opponent is 550 miles away!). For a good number of players it is their first time using wood bats in competition. Given these challenges many players get home sick. Tony said often playing baseball is the easy part - it’s the cultural adjustment that is the most difficult for his players. To help with this the Rockies place the players with host families in the Casper area. 
We enjoyed the atmosphere of the game itself. Minor league baseball teams can have some creative promotions and the Casper Rockies were no exception. On this night it was “Johnny Cash” night with a Cash look-a-like brought to the ballpark by helicopter before the first pitch. Throughout the game Johnny Cash songs were played during the inning breaks and prizes were given for 
Johnny Cash trivia answers (”the first person who can tell the concession stand where Johnny Cash was born gets a free pizza!”). We saw many families in attendance, with young children playing with their friends and Moms chatting away, seemingly oblivious to the baseball game being played a few feet away. The hometown Rockies were to lose 3-2 this night, but the local fans did not let that spoil the evening for them.
When planning a trip like this I try to add other activities to make the adventure fun for the whole family. The hotel I picked, the Parkway Plaza , had an indoor swimming pool and a miniature golf course next door. Josh, who is not much of a sports fan, said he liked most “playing minigolf before the game and swimming at the hotel!”. Andrew, our baseball player, said “I liked sitting closer to the field than we usually do at a major league game. I didn’t know the players well, but it was fun!”. Anne said “I really liked meeting with the manager before the game. It was interesting learning about the culture shock these players experience and the small town feel of the stadium.”
At first when I suggested this outing I was met with some strange looks from the family. “We are going to drive 5 hours just to see a baseball game??” But the whole experience exceeded everyone’s expectations. What was the response I got when I asked the family how they liked our short Wyoming getaway? “When are we going to do this again?!!!”
by Tim Larison
Before I was a travel agent, I worked 22 years in the telecommunications industry as a software engineer. In my previous career I often came across co-workers who would never take a vacation. One person I knew got this feedback on his year end performance review: “You’ve got to start taking time off. You have two months of vacation saved up!”
Who was this person who never seemed to take a break from the job? Me!
While this may seem hard to believe when you read of my family’s travel adventures in recent years, it was indeed the case. For me what really changed the way we vacationed was buying into the Disney Vacation Club (DVC). With DVC we had so many vacation “points” to use each year, which forced me to start scheduling vacations months in advance.
Skipping vacations because of work is common in today’s workplace. In a recent story in the Denver Post 57% of small business owners say they are taking one week vacation this summer, down from an average of 67% last year. Alice Bredin from American Express Small Business Monitor says in the story “The double-edged sword of running a small business is that when you’re not busy, you worry about going away, but when you’re really busy and you’re in better financial position to get away, it’s even harder to get out.”
If you are one not to take a vacation because of work, I encourage you to schedule one soon. What helped me was to take out the calendar and mark off a week or two far in advance for a vacation, schedule our DVC stay for that time, and tell my employer “I’m taking off these weeks, no matter what!” Now as a small business owner I do the same thing - we schedule our trips months in advance. Business issues have a way of coming up right before or during a vacation, but we don’t let that stop us from getting away.
Our trips have allowed us to return to work refreshed and re-energized, and have drawn us closer as a family (that’s Anne and the boys - left - relaxing in our DVC one bedroom villa during a 1999 vacation). And in the end is there any work issue more important than that?
We did, however, have one instance in which our bag was damaged; fortunately the bag was still usable.
Here are some tips dealing with bags and luggage as you take your future vacations:
Pack lightly –
It is a good idea to buy lightweight luggage. For most commercial airlines the weight limit is 50 lbs per bag. We have had many instances where we knew our largest bag was heavy and we were holding our breath as the check-in agent watches the number rise on the scale. You may have to pay an extra $25 to $50 if your bag is over the 50 pound limit.
Don’t overpack –
Overstuffed luggage is more likely to burst open en route.
Alternative to locks –
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) advises travelers not to lock bags so screeners can efficiently open them for additional screening, if necessary. But you’re actually not prohibited from doing so. One option is TSA-approved locks that screeners can open without damage. Or as a simple alternative, use plastic zip ties, available at hardware stores.
Cover losses with insurance-
Airlines normally reimburse travelers for expenses if their luggage is delayed. But reimbursement is typically limited to $25 a day, up to a maximum of $125 to $150, and you must present receipts. Also if your bag ends up lost for good, anything the airline gives you up front will be deducted from your final settlement and the airline may have limits that will not cover the true value of your luggage and the contents. Travel insurance may pay for the difference. Depending on the insurer and policy type, baggage coverage can range from $500 to $2500.
Ship it!
If you would rather pay someone to deal with the hassle there are private luggage- shipping companies that will pick up and deliver your bags door to door.
The best advice is to be prepared.
On Wednesday Disney Cruise Line released prices and dates for their 2008 Panama Canal and Mexican Riviera cruises. With thousands of people wanting reservations on these cruises, Disney’s call center was sure to be overwhelmed when they opened that morning.
We had a good number of requests from our clients who wanted a reservation on one of these cruises. We had a plan. Days before I had prepared a cheat sheet for each client - what sailing and type of stateroom they wanted, their past Disney cruise history (if any), their information that Disney would need to make the booking (birthdates, home address, phone #’s, etc). That’s us above holding piles of “cheat sheets” and folders for our clients - come 6 a.m. our time Wednesday morning we had our headsets on and we were ready!
But things don’t always go exactly to plan. We woke up at 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday to 7 degree weather and lots of snow still outside from the rough winter we have had. It was ironic that we’d be reserving many tropical cruises for clients on a day that was so cold in Denver! We divided our reservations into two and each starting hitting our speed dial buttons to the Disney Call Center shortly before 6 a.m. - we wanted to be the first to make reservations. After several busy signals we finally were put on hold - we each were told the wait would be 49 minutes.
Andrew and Josh had to be driven to school at 7:30 a.m. Anne knew she couldn’t possibly be through with Disney by that time, so she had one of our sons call a friend at 7 a.m. asking for a ride to school. The friend’s mom was happy to do it. Whew! First hurdle cleared.
I finally got through to Disney at 7:10 a.m. On the first reservation I booked I asked a question and the Disney agent said, “Let me put you on hold and find out the answer.” I said, “No!! Don’t put me on hold!! I don’t want to get dropped!!” The agent said, “don’t worry, I won’t drop you”
You can guess what is coming next. The agent put me on hold before I got a chance to say “forget it”, and sure enough I was dropped from the call. I tried to call back but it was hopelessly busy by that time.
Fortunately we had a backup plan. Starting at 6 a.m., while on hold with Disney, both Anne and I were feverously making as many reservations as we could over the internet. We held a number of staterooms for clients this way. But for some reservations we had to talk to a Disney agent (such as for clients moving their cruise dates from 2007 sailings). By having us call on separate phone lines, we each had a backup should one of us have difficulty getting in. Anne finally got through to Disney on her phone line after waiting over three hours! (9:15 a.m.). Anne made a few reservations on the phone, and then I took over and was on the phone with Disney for another hour and a half.
In the end we did get all the reservations that we wanted to for our clients, but not without some anxious moments! There was a huge demand for the cruises - by the next day one of the Panama Canal cruises was completely sold out!
This weekend the Super Bowl will be played in Miami. Wednesday was the Super Bowl for travel agents - we had alot of people counting on us and rooting us on to get the reservations they so coveted on these cruises. Was it worth it? Yes! And we went out to dinner that night to celebrate!
We’ve taken our sons Andrew and Josh all over the World on our vacations - from the glaciers of Alaska to the canals of Venice. These trips have not only been great fun, but educational, too! Here are Andrew and Josh sampling bananas right from the plant on a December 2006 visit to the Caribbean - they’ll never eat a banana again without thinking of how this fruit is harvested in St Lucia.
2. Buy each child a camera. Disposable cameras are inexpensive and even digital cameras have come down significantly in price. Or do what we did - Anne and I bought new cameras in 2006 and gave the boys our old ones. A long “historical” type tour may seem boring to kids, but Andrew and Josh found even these tours interesting when they were taking their own pictures.
3. Have your kids keep a trip journal. We have the boys write a journal entry each night before bedtime of the day’s memorable activities.
4. Seek out local guides. Pick a tour that is limited in size and led by a native of the area. Our tour last month (by Cosol at www.cosol-tours.com ) was a wonderful mix of fun, sight seeing, and education of Cosol’s St Lucia home island. Often the smaller the tour group, the more time the guide has to interact with your kids.
With these tips we’ve had some educational and fun vacations with our kids, with many more to come!
by Tim Larison
Recently I was planning an international trip for a client of mine and she said “this is one place I want to see before I die.” She was in her 30’s in fine health, yet had a sense that we all have only so much time to pursue our dreams in this life.
The trip of a lifetime for me was our Italy trip in May 2006 (that’s me to the left with Anne and our sons Andrew and Josh at a familiar site in Rome). I am Italian and I always wanted to see Italy, which we did on my 50th birthday. My parents, who speak Italian fluently and had their parents immigrate to the U.S. from Italy, never visited Italy and are at an age now where International travel isn’t practical. “We wish we had visited Italy when we were younger,” my Mom recently told me.
Do you have a trip you have always wanted to take? I encourage you to consider taking that trip in 2007. Our two week Italy and Mediterranean cruise did stretch our budget a bit, but it was worth every penny as I will never forget the many fascinating sights we saw and the people we met. The memories from that trip will last a lifetime.
A travel agent friend of mine has a slogan on her business card, “See The World Before You Leave It” I believe in this motto, too. There are so many more interesting places in the World I want to visit. As 2006 draws to a close I’m exploring possibilities for another “dream” trip for my family in the summer of 2007!