Deals and Promotions 9.28.13

Hello!

Happy weekend. Below are some upcoming deals and promotions to keep your eye on:

Norwegian Cruise Lines: Huge Cruise Event starting October 1st - 13th. On board credits, air credits, discount for military and AARP plus reduced deposits.

Don't worry - If you already have a NCL cruise booked with me, I will double check your reservation to make sure you are getting the best value.

Celebrity Cruise Lines Holiday Sailings - Kids Sail Free in a suite! Plus if you book by October 6th you can take advantage of Celebrity's great Pick Your Perk promotion.

Princess Cruise Lines - 3FREE Offer! Free shore excursion credit, Free room upgrades and Free Specialty Dinner for Two!

Fairmont Mayakoba - An amazing luxury resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico is offering up to  40% off their all-inclusive package and their hotel packages. Two children 17 and under stay free in the same room.

Email me at tripwithangie@gmail.com to book one of these great vacations! 

Review: Couples Tower Isle Jamaica

A good friend recently visited Couples Tower Isle in Jamaica and she was gracious enough to share her thoughts with us! 

We traveled to Couples Tower Isle in August 2013.  Here are some of the details of the trip:
At the airport, you'll have to go through immigration.  This took forever (an hour or more for us)!  Make sure you fill out one form per person.  This is different from the US requirements where you fill out one per family.  Afterwards, you'll head to the Couples Lounge where you can enjoy Red Stripe, water, or pop.  Try a Shandy (Red Stripe and Ting--grapefruit pop), it's delish!  Within about a half hour, you'll load into a van and start the nearly 2 hour journey to Tower Isle, with two quick stops at a rest area (you might need to use the rest room after a few Shandys) and Couples Sans Souci (to drop off some other guests).  You'll tip the guy that loads the bags in the van and the driver because these people are not Couples employees.  

After you've arrived in paradise...
You'll check in and a bellhop will take you to your room.  You'll quickly notice that basically the only place that has air conditioning is your room.  That was my ONLY criticism of the trip, since I really like air conditioning.  The room was simple, but very comfortable.  If you sign up for Couples Rewards ahead of time, you can preselect the beverages in the mini bar, so you're set to enjoy another beverage. 

During the week...
Sign up for excursions and dinners as soon as possible.  You'll need to make reservations to eat at 8 Rivers and Bayside, but you can eat at those multiple times during the week.  Friday night is lobster night (in season) in most restaurants, so my suggestion would be to go to 8 Rivers twice---once on Friday and once another time.

The Dunns Rivers Falls Excursion is a must.  

It's mandatory to wear water shoes, so people who visit should try to bring them.  Otherwise, they'll have to purchase shoes ($17) or rent them ($7).  You'll be totally submerged during the hike, so wearing only a bathing suit (and maybe a pair of shorts for the ladies, shirt for the guys at most) is perfect.  Most people just wear swim suits.  You'll have to tip the guide (we gave $10) and there is a market that you have to walk through on the way out.  Bring some cash if you want to shop.  The tricky part is keeping it dry.  You can leave it in the van if you want.  Your guide will follow you out there anyways.  Some people also bring waterproof cameras, but since you'll have to hold hands, you'll need to keep it in a pocket or around your neck.  Bring a towel to dry off afterwards, but other than that, you won't need anything!  It's about a 2-2 1/2 hour long excursion, including transportation.  

The nearby Couples Sans Souci is a great resort.  On Monday, Wednesday, or Friday you can visit that one.  A van will drive you and you'll be there from 9:45-4pm.  For us, this was another "must-do".  The pool bar there had a super fun atmosphere and the restaurant with the lunch buffet (Palazzina) was great!

The Catamaran excursion was also very enjoyable.  You'll just wear a swim suit and cover up.  Bring a towel.  After a ride around the waters, you'll stop for a 20 minute swim in this gorgeous cove and then head back.  They serve rum punch or fruit punch during the ride.
We also went on the glass bottom boat tour.  This is the same boat that will be used for snorkeling, so you don't necessarily have to do both.  It was fine, but we wished we would have snorkeled instead.

You can be as active or sedative as you want.  We were only there 5 days, so we took the relaxing route.  There are many more fun activities to enjoy that we just didn't get around to.

In regards to what to bring, pack very lightly.  A few nice outfits to wear at night, a few swim suits and beach wear, and LOTS of sunscreen (like 4 bottles) is basically all you need.  They provide shampoo, body wash, and lotion.  The ladies might want to bring conditioner with them.  The resort also provides beach towels, so no need to bring your own.  At the end of the week, turn in the beach towels for a receipt so you don't get charged for them.
The week will go by way too quickly, and it'll be a great time.  There are many discussion boards on the Couples website and most of your questions can be answered there.

I love planning all-inclusive vacations. Click here to request my Top 10 Considerations when choosing an all-inclusive resort for free.  

If I can help you plan an all-inclusive vacation,  please let me know. 

Remember - my services are free to you! 

Spotlight on: Walt Disney World Fort Wilderness Campsites and Cabins

Welcome to Fort Wilderness! (Cowboy hat optional) 

The Fort Wilderness Cabins and Campsites offer a great wilderness experience for Disney World Guests. We checked in Friday afternoon September 13th to our tent camping site. The rate was $53/night. The tent and pop-up camping sites have a paved area for your car and a gravel area for your tent. It has a water hose/hook up and an electrical outlet. It also has a charcoal grill and picnic table. 

9.9.13 Cruise Promotions

Check out these current cruise promotions. One benefit of working with a travel agent is that I can notice of these before they are publicly announced so I can help advise you on the best time to book your cruise to make the most of these offers. 

Princess – 3 for Free Promotion 
Free Cabin Upgrades, Free Shore Excursion Credits, Free Specialty Dinner for Two 

Holland America – Onboard Credits and Reduced Fares if you book by September 15th 

Disney Cruise Lines – Special rates on fall sailings from Miami 
5-Night Western Caribbean Cruises (Miami, FL departure)
From $99†* per person, per day/$495 total
Based on double occupancy
Available most sail dates October 27 – November 15, 2013

Norwegian Cruise Lines  - Receive up to $100 on board credit for Caribbean Sailings 
Book selected Caribbean cruises from New York, Tampa, New Orleans, or Miami before September 16th and receive up to $100 on board credits 

Email me at tripswithangie@gmail.com for more information 

Client Review: Royal Solaris Los Cabos

Today's review is from Laura. She vacationed in Los Cabos this August with her husband and sons (ages 18 and 22). 

We had a great time.  Los Cabos is beautiful and we definitely want to go back.   We'd stay at a different resort though.   For a few reasons; mainly the ocean is not swimmable.  The undertow is so strong that the hotel discourages guests from swimming at the beach.  That didn't stop my husband or sons though, they definitely swam in the ocean every day, but didn't not venture out far.  Several guests did the same thing.  We did see 2 people (1 adult and 1 kid) need to be rescued though, so my family swam with extreme caution and stayed close to the shore line.   

The food at the resort was not that great.  But since this is my first time in Mexico and at any all inclusive resort I don't know if that is normal.   The hotel recycled food thru out the day and getting a reservation at the 2 restaurants were next to impossible.   You were supposed to call at 9am every day to make a reservation, if you called at 9:05 it was full.   We did eat at their Mexican rest 1 day and that food was great, but the Italian restaurant was always booked.   By Wednesday, we started to eat off of the resort.  There is a strip right across from the hotel where this is a Rock & Brew (KISS restaurant) that had great live band and Great food and there was a great small taco restaurant down the street that we at at a few times.  The staff at the hotel were friendly, but everything was expensive.   The hotel doesn't offer any shuttles, so the cost to get to Cabo San Lucas from the Hotel was a $35.00 cab ride 1 way or $76.00 shuttle round trip.   The shuttle would have been great, but their times were spread way to far apart so you would be stuck in Cabo San Lucas for 6 hours.   The hotel charged an arm and a leg for everything, if you lost your wrist band they would have charged $70.00 to replace it, lost the key to the safe $100.00 and lost a towel you took for the pool they would have charged $30.00 per towel.   So everyone guarded their stuff like crazy.  :0)    Manuel from Apple vacations at the hotel was not so nice.  He seemed to be upset with me when I told him I booked all our activites prior to arriving.  He wanted to know why we didn't use Amstars website.   I just told him, I liked to be prepared and pre-pay for everything before we got there so I know what we are doing every day.   

I totally forgot what you said about finding and talking with the Flower Printed shirt at the airport.  I knew to find the flower shirt, but after we cleared customs we were bombarded with these guys right before you leave the airport.  I thought it was another process we needed to go thru before I could get outside so we fell for the whole spiel that the guy gave us.  He freaked out my husband and son's because he told us that Royal Solaris resort is not great and no one goes there.  It took me about 10 min to figure out that this was a sales pitch for their resort.  Once I realized that I cut off the conversation and we left.  I told my husband I should have followed my gut and really listened to what Angie said in her email.  LOL  everyone at the airport fell for it though.  Those guys were good. 

I sound like I'm complaining, and I'm really not.   We had a fantastic time, my son's absolutely loved it.  And while my husband wasn't too thrilled with the area when we first got there (he was expecting more greenery and not desert) by the end of our trip he said he'd much rather go to this area than the Cancun area next time.  :)  We'd probably like to stay in Cabo San Lucas the next time we go because that area just had so much more to do.   The Cabo Adventures were great.  The boys did Zip lining and Swim with the dolphins, as a family we did the Snorkling and then my two son's did ATV's and a Land Sea tour by themselves while my husband and I went to Cabo San Lucas to shop and eat dinner. 

Thank you for everything you did for us for this trip.  We will definitely be booking another trip soon.