Tag Archives: hotels

A trip of a Lifetime

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How does one start to tell a tale of a trip of a lifetime? Maybe I should just say that this was the 2nd trip of a lifetime for me. The first was The Big Island of Hawaii.

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Now I can add a cruise tour to Alaska as my 2nd “Trip of a lifetime”.

This didn’t just happen overnight. This trip was in the planning and discussion and saving stages for over 2 years. We finally said lets just do it before the glacier’s melt!

A big part of it was the saving part.

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This was, without a doubt, the most expensive venture I/we have undertaken yet but Alaska is so big the task of putting together a vacation there seemed overwhelming. So after my sister and I hammered out the basics of what we wanted to do and see I turned the problem over to the professionals at AAA.

The trip I am about to describe to you is the result.

The first decision was do we cruise to Alaska or fly in and vacation like we usually do on our own. Since this was my sister’s Dream  Vacation I let her choose. She had only 2 requests; to see the glaciers and to spend 3 days in Denali National Park. A cruise tour would accomplish both goals.

We settled on a “shoulder season” because it’s less expensive and money was certainly a factor. In May the animals are just coming down out of their wintering grounds and having babies. In September they have the northern lights (aurora borealis). We  chose to go for the animals. We also  chose to go south to north to give the northern locations a chance to warm up a bit more. In Alaska a couple of days can make all the difference. As it turned out spring was about 2 weeks late this year so we had a lot more snow and cold weather than is usual for this time of the year.

I think by far the hardest decision was which cruise line to use. They all cruise to Alaska these days, even Disney, and they all offer some combination of land and sea. I was leaning toward Royal Caribbean but Sandy liked Holland America. In the end we went with the travel agent’s recommendation of Princess Cruise Lines.

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I drove from my home in Massachusetts to my sister’s in New York on Saturday May 11. I left my 3 cats in the capable hands of my long time pet sitter, still this is the longest I  have ever been away before. My fingers were crossed that there’d be no complications for Diane to deal with.

That Saturday night we took our mother out for Mother’s Day dinner and then headed back to my sisters for an early night. We had an early cross-country flight from Albany Airport into Vancouver in the morning.  By arriving a day early we sacrificed the airport transfer but got a day in Vancouver before we had to board the ship on Monday.

Our flight was uneventful and we spotted a rainbow as we flew into a misty, wet Vancouver. Our hotel , The Best Western Sands, was a block from the waterfront and very nice.

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I had been to Vancouver once before many years ago and I remember the residents being very friendly, warm and helpful. That hasn’t changed at all. I still think it is one of the most friendly cities I have ever been in. What I do think has changed is the fabric of the city. We saw a great melting pot of people of many different nationalities and ethnicities. This only serves to make an already lovely city more cosmopolitan. Vancouver has really come into its own.

What an Opportunity!

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Can you write a lively blog? Do you like to travel. Are you free for 35 days? This job quickly caught my eye. I wonder if I can bring my cats? But then I saw it. The one thing that would break the deal…Fluent Finnish and English, Russian a plus. Guess I’ll have to pass. Maybe I should look into that Rosetta Stone program?

HELSINKI (AP) — Fed up with the neighbors? Pipes burst in the kitchen? Or, you just want to get away from it all for a while?

Hotel Finn in the heart of Helsinki might just be the ticket — they’re seeking a “professional sleeper” for 35 days to test their rooms and write all about it.

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Hotel manager Tio Tikka says he thought up the stunt to help promote the hotel after lengthy renovations.

Tikka said Wednesday that they were looking for a “dynamic person to write a quality blog” about their daily experiences at the basic hotel, which has no bar or restaurant.

Requirements: Fluent Finnish and English, Russian a plus. The job opens May 17 with applications closing end of April.

So far more that 600 would-be hotel sleepers have applied.

Associated Press

Ramada Inn

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This post is for my sister. She is always interested in the places I stay. I mean literally. She wants the scoop on any motels, hotels or time share condos I visit on my travels.

This time I was in a Ramada Inn that I found on Hotels.com. I had looked into using the time share but it would have cost me almost as many points for 3 nights as it would if I was staying  for a week so I chose to rent a hotel instead.

The deal I got was $56.25/ night. That was pretty inexpensive . Of course  Florida doesn’t have an income tax (or so I’m told) so they make it up in other ways. There was a charge of $62.58  for “Tax recovery and service fees.” Still even with the fees it was less than $80.00/ night.

At that rate I was a little concerned about the hotel and I did pass through a rather sleazy area on my way but by the time I reached the Ramada the area seemed fine. This one is located at 5100 North State Rd 7, Fort Lauderdale. I had a non smoking room with one King Bed. It could use a desk but other than that it was quite a nice room.

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I was impressed with the hotel.

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One of the best things was washer and dryers on the 2nd and 4th floors. I was on the 2nd floor and they were right down the hall from my room. They were coin operated and change and supplies were available at the front desk.

They had everything there…a heated pool, basketball courts, tennis courts and a restaurant on premises that served breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also had a beauty shop, gift shop, game room and gym. Wi-fi was free throughout the hotel.

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Although I used Golden Corral for meals quite a bit over my stay I did enjoy a couple of meals at the restaurant. It was buffet style and the food was only so-so but it was convenient and the price was quite reasonable.

The Wi-fi turned out to be slow and spotty. Clearly it wasn’t sufficient to support the number of users during  the week. Sunday night was different. The hotel emptied out and voila…I was surfing again.

All in all, this was a very nice place for the price. One cautionary note. There was a “Welcome Center” off the lobby and restaurant. The ATM was located here and a rack of brochures.  The back part was divided into cubicles. When I woke up the first morning there was a paper under my door inviting me to the Welcome Center to pick up local maps and coupons for discounts.  Sounds nice doesn’t it. Well it wasn’t. The Welcome Center is just an euphemism for a sales pitch. Similar to a Time Share presentation the representative tried to book me for an appointment to hear about a “Vacation Club”. Another time another trip and I might have said yes but on  this trip I just wasn’t interested. That didn’t sit well with the booking rep. I made the mistake of telling him my plans when we first sat down. Now he made fun of them and told me how I was wasting my time. When I asked him where the maps were the invitation promised he practically threw them at me. At that point I stood up, thanked him for his time and left. But on my way out I stopped at the front desk and lodged a complaint. That made me feel better.

No way would I let the rough start to the day put a damper on my spirits. The sun was shining. I just knew the rest of the day was going to be awesome.