Good morning.
Yesterday I told you my sister and I would conference call for plane tickets. We did it! We got our tickets and the flights aren’t too bad but I will tell you that it was one of the most challenging bookings I’ve ever done. I had both my desk top and lap top going to check the different sites. Twice we went to book a fare only to be told the price had changed. The fares were jumping up right in front of me!
I have Kayak.com set to send fare alerts for the trip and I didn’t get one until today and 
that one is still over $100.00 more than the flight we booked. All I can say is I’m glad that’s done. We are flying Southwest. I haven’t been on Southwest in years but their “got to getaway” online price was better than anything else I could find besides, “Bags Fly Free” on Southwest 🙂
While I had Sandy on the phone I reserved the rental car. We were in for a shock there. The base cost of the rental was reasonable but then the taxes and miscellaneous charges kicked in almost doubling the cost of the rental! I’ve rented many times before and don’t remember this. I’m not sure if Arizona has extra fees or if I just never noticed it before. This may bear looking into for future reference.
After that call I got back on the phone and booked the Grand Canyon Railroad. I tried booking online but it never asked if there were seniors in my party and it didn’t let me add the Rim Tour so I called. I got a wonderful agent who applied the appropriate discounts, Senior and AAA and waived the National Park fee of $16.00 because I have a National Parks Pass.
That done I moved on to the Verde Canyon railroad and the Blazin’M.
We lucked out with that call because they said they were running a special on first class on the train when you combine it with the Blazin’M. The cost for first class and dinner was only a couple of dollars more than the coach cost so of course we’ll go first class.
2 more tours to book.
I moved on to the Bottom of the Canyon Tour. I pulled up the reservation page on the Native American journey’s web page and filled it out. I haven’t heard back or paid anything. It seemed to me it was kind of “up in the air”. I will give it a couple of days to get a response and it if no luck I will call them. Since I don’t know if we got the day I requested I held off booking the trail ride.
It’s coming together.
I’m going to sign off for now. We have snow on the way and I want to run down to New Bedford to the Whaling Museum. I still need to collect my stamp from my last visit and it’s in the New England National Park Challenge so I can get my first stamp in the challenge. I’ll let you know how I make out in my post tomorrow.