[Travelandtourism] Discussion: Traveling during the holidays, where did you go and what was your means of getting around.

Fri Jan 6 00:23:27 UTC 2012

Hi Cheryl et al,

I actually did a little bit of traveling this holiday season, or rather the
pre-holiday season as we did travel on the 22nd of December and returned on
the 24th.  I am located in Western WI, and although we have good
transportation, it is more of a matter of figuring out how to get their the
quickest and least expensive way.  If were to drive, and we did attempt to
try to locate a driver, this would have been the most ideal as we were
basically heading 100 miles west.  However, what we ended up doing is taking
an OTR, Over The Road bus called Jefferson Lines north and west to
Minneapolis.  From there we caught a ground/air shuttle that took us into
Mankato.  Both my girlfriend and I traveled with our guides, and the cost
was $100 round trip on the OTR and $65 one way for the shuttle.  We were
fortunate to get a ride back to Minneapolis to catch the bus back  home, but
this was really the best route we knew of.  We did find out that we could
probably have caught a similar shuttle in Rochester MN which could have
saved us a little more, but the challenge was getting to Mankato.
Nonetheless, we made it and it was all-around good.  Generally, we take
Amtrak as we can generally get many places via this method.

Steve 

-----Original Message-----
From: travelandtourism-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:travelandtourism-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of cheryl echevarria
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2012 12:26 PM
To: travelandtourism
Subject: [Travelandtourism] Discussion: Traveling during the holidays, where
did you go and and what was your means of getting around.

Good afternoon all and happy holidays:
I would love to start a discussion here and I am hoping it will continue to
other forms of travel as well.
Since the Holiday Season is coming to an end with Kwanzaa and The Three
Kings celebrations either going on or coming up, or in general of what do
you do for the holidays.
This particular discussions has to do with not what you do once you get
there, but how to decide what forms of mobility to choose and why.
Some of us just use a cane, some use cane and sighted guides, some use guide
dogs.
This is not to blast someone on their decisions it is to find out how you
get around traveling. I might sound like I am apologizing for what I do, I
do this, it is me. Just like you are who you are.
Let's see where this goes.
For myself as a person who tries and travels as much as possible, with or
without my dog or my husband, all depends on the traveling I am planning on
doing.
Mind you this is my own reasoning, like everyone else has there own reasons
for traveling and planning.
In November and December, I traveled in many forms such as Planes, Car and
Cruise Ship.
November started out by me doing a cruise on the Norwegian Gem with Nelson
and my guide dog Maxx.  Now this was a different situation than most of you
will probably be doing, since I was doing this as a travel agent, and this
was a graduation cruise, a little different planning then if I was going to
start planning this cruise as travel agent for a regular cruise passenger.
This time I had decided to take my dog, Maxx, with us. Yes, Nelson was going
with me, since the reduced rate for this cruise included one guest for me to
travel with.
I found out about this cruise, in April of 2011, and there is limited time
to reserve for this since I was not the only travel agent doing this. So I
booked it as soon as I could.
Maxx had never cruised with us before, just my own reasons, which might not
be the same as others and I will indicate below.  But this time since it was
cruising out of NY, and I needed the experience of traveling with my dog on
a cruise and know what to expect so I can educate others when bringing their
dogs with them on a cruise, and also to see how well he would behalf, etc.
I had to plan with the vet prior to cruising a week prior, and also get a
permit from the Island of the Bahamas, to bring Maxx into the Bahamas.
In the past, I had decided not to bring the dog was not that he couldn't do
the job, it was more of a personal nature, that many who are guide dog users
may not agree with, but we all do things differently than others.  Meaning,
when we cruise, I go with my husband, and we  like alone time, Maxx works
all the time with no problems, and there are times when I feel that Maxx
would be better being boarded at his guide dog school. It also helps me with
my other skills, such as my cane skills when I travel. The reasons of our
forms of mobility shouldn't  be questioned, it just gives me the knowledge
of what to expect when traveling with a guide dog, would I recommend someone
not bringing there dogs, of course not, I would give them the knowledge I
have.
Now in Walt Disney World, some might think that boarding a dog is easy if
you don't want to take the dog with you all day, in that case they might be
wrong, since I decided not to take my dog with me this time to Walt Disney
World in December.
Planning again, this was another place that we went that I have taken the
dog before, and thought before I go, let me find out about the Kennels
should I decide to put Maxx in one.  First, they are not free to use, there
is a fee.  Second, it is not easy to get to. If you are staying at the Walt
Disney World Resort, the buses that take you to the theme parks, do not take
you to the Kennel which is located near on of the resorts but you still have
to get there, yes, you can ask for one of the porters to drive you over to
the Kennel to drop of the dog, but, that can take all morning to do, and to
pay for something like that is about $16 a day to start.
Just checking it out before I decided whether I wanted to bring the dog, and
whether or not I would board him on any particular day if I had decided to.
Again, being there before, the dog is great, but there is a lot of walking,
and getting into and out of rides that the dog can go, I decided since I was
going with my daughter, that I would leave Maxx home with Nelson.
But that being said, it doesn't mean that I would never take him to these
places again. It was my decision. 

The point is knowing you can do this and have the options to them.
Now

Leading the Way in Independent Travel!

Cheryl Echevarria
http://www.echevarriatravel.com
631-456-5394
reservations at echevarriatravel.com

For daily updates read our blog at
http://www.echevarriatravel.wordpress.com

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