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On July 11th, 1996, the half-naked body of Blair Adams, a 31-year-old Canadian citizen, was found in the parking lot of a construction site in Knoxville, Tennessee. He had been beaten to death and surrounding him were thousands of dollars in cash, gold, jewelry and travel documents. Detectives soon learned that in the days leading up to his murder, Blair had been acting strange. He told his friends that someone was trying to kill him, and he needed to get to the United States. Then, without warning, he left Canada, criss-crossing the U.S. border, switching vehicles, buying plane tickets, before finally ending up in Knoxville, a city where he didn't know anyone. Nearly 29 years later, investigators still don't know who killed Blair Adams, or why he was in Knoxville in the first place. Blaire Adams was last seen on surveillance footage at 7:37 p.m. on July 10th, 1996, walking out of the Fairfield Inn lobby in Knoxville, Tennessee, just off Strawberry Plains Pike. Early the next morning, his body was found in a parking lot of a nearby construction site, and he had been brutally beaten. Anyone with information in this case should contact the Knox County Sheriff's Office at (865) 215-2243. Editor: Shannon Keirce Research/Writing: Polly Kotowski SUBMIT A CASE HERE: Cases@DetectivePerspectivePod.com SOCIAL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/detperspective/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/detperspective FIND DERRICK HERE Twitter: https://twitter.com/DerrickL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DerrickLevasseur Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DerrickVLevasseur CRIME WEEKLY AND COFFEE Criminal Coffee Company: https://www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Crime Weekly: https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop ADS: 1. https://www.TryMiracle.com/Detective - Use code DETECTIVE for 3 FREE towels and an extra 20% off!
Are you tired of struggling to find the best hotel for your magical Disneyland or Disney World vacation? Have you been told to choose a hotel based on price alone, only to end up feeling disappointed and frustrated with your choice? The pain of not getting the value and experience you were hoping for can be a real downer. What if I told you there's a way to ensure you make the best decision for your stay, whether it's at Disneyland or Disney World? Stay tuned to discover the ultimate solution to your hotel selection woes and learn how to make the most out of your magical Disney vacation. In this episode, you will be able to: Discover the key differences between Disneyland and Walt Disney World hotels to make an informed choice for your magical getaway. Uncover the best value resorts near Disneyland and maximize your budget without compromising on comfort and convenience. Explore the top Disneyland good neighbor hotels and find out how they can enhance your Disney experience. Learn essential tips for choosing Disneyland area hotels and make the most of your stay in the happiest place on earth. Unveil the benefits of staying at Candy Cane Inn Disneyland and see how it can elevate your Disney vacation. The key moments in this episode are: 00:09:30 - Rules of Engagement 00:11:56 - Value Resorts Comparison 00:16:16 - Parameters for Comparison of Hotels 00:20:26 - Review of Castle Inn and Suites 00:26:46 - Comparison of Castle Inn and Suites with Anaheim Hotel 00:27:46 - Anaheim Hotel Pricing and Cancellation Policies 00:28:40 - Anaheim Hotel Amenities 00:31:44 - Anaheim Hotel Charm and Personality 00:33:35 - Camelot Inn and Suites Overview 00:38:56 - Tropicana Inn and Suites Similarities 00:42:09 - Grand Legacy at the Park and its Surroundings 00:44:59 - Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott 00:49:13 - Best Western Plus Anaheim Inn vs. Best Western Plus Park Place Inn 00:52:19 - The Candy Cane Inn 00:55:43 - Proximity of Hotels to Disneyland 00:56:32 - Booking Tips and Availability 00:57:29 - Howard Johnson Anaheim Hotel 01:00:10 - Hotel Amenities and Proximity 01:07:41 - Honorable Mention Hotels 01:10:56 - Parkview Inn and Cold Stone Creamery 01:12:33 - Proximity to Skyliner and Disneyland 01:13:40 - Orange County Hotels 01:15:18 - Creating a Hotel Bracket 01:17:50 - Booking Tips and Other Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Usha Kundu, MD College of Health has launched #UKunduGood, a social good campaign designed to ignite positive change and foster a sense of community across the University of West Florida and beyond.The campaign prompts participants to look for acts of selfless good in the community of any magnitude, from picking up litter on the street to curing cancer, and to recognize those acts by submitting a simple nomination form online. Once the campaign management team has verified the entry, the nominee will receive an invitation to submit their story on the campaign website, where they will be entered in a giveaway, and their story will be shown on a map. The grand prize giveaway - a two-night stay at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Pensacola Beach hotel - will be awarded and announced in January 2025. However, the campaign will continue indefinitely with hopes of spreading positivity for as long as possible. Anyone is eligible for nomination, and there is no limit to the number of times you can submit a nomination. However, nominees are limited to one map entry and campaign giveaway entry. To get involved, visit the campaign website at www.uwf.edu/ukundugood to nominate a do-gooder or read nominees' stories. Catrina Burks shares the details.
1971 Masters Champion Charles Coody shares about growing up in Stamford, Texas, his college days at TCU, and his thrilling Masters victory. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. The program is produced and hosted by author and oral historian Jackson Michael.
Trent R. Nelson speaks with Michelle Ownbey, publisher of the Springfield Business Journal and Illinois Times, about the latest happenings in the Springfield business community and all of the relevant bits fit for the greater community to learn about. Topics Discussed In This Interview: The Crafted Stag Supply, a new specialty business catering to men, is scheduled to open Saturday, April 6, on Springfield's west side. It's Scrapicated LLC, a galvanized steel home décor company, is consolidating into one location and expanding its hours of operation. A local hotel ownership group plans to break ground next month on a Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott at Legacy Pointe. Lutheran Senior Services and Diakon have signed an agreement to bring senior living operations and four life plan communities under LSS, which will make it one of the largest nonprofit senior living organization in the country.. Subscribe to the Springfield Business Journal and their weekly Biz Bites email newsletter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
D.X. Bible shares his favorite memories from his days as head coach of the University of Texas Longhorns football team. Highlights include memories of the 1941 Longhorns and the story behind them almost playing in the Rose Bowl and the 1939 win that he thought made Texas a winning program. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. The podcast is hosted and produced by author and oral historian Jackson Michael.
Head coach Dana X. Bible and members of the 1921 Texas A&M football team share how the Texas A&M 12th Man tradition started in this second episode of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame's Lost Interview series. These priceless clips are firsthand memories of what started the Texas A&M 12th Man tradition during an upset bowl game victory for the Aggies in the 1922 Dixie Classic. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. It is hosted and produced by author and oral historian Jackson Michael.
Texas Rangers players, coaches, and play-by-play announcer Eric Nadel share stories about the magical 2023 season and World Series victory. The conversation was recorded live at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Lone Star Luncheon series and the 2024 Texas Rangers Winter Caravan. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites Waco North and is hosted by author and oral historian Jackson Michael.
Today -- we delve into the ongoing development within the Colorado Outdoors campus, where Lamont Companies, a seasoned developer, is broadening its hospitality footprint. After introducing the Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott in Montrose, slated to open this spring, plans are now afoot for a second hotel venture on the campus.Support the show: https://www.montrosepress.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We've got one of our most popular guests, Kelly Kyle from the firm of Kyle Wynn, on to discuss our most popular topic – wills and estate planning. He's firm has some upcoming estate planning seminars: https://www.kyle-wynn.com/seminars-blog#SeminarsPearl - Tuesday, February 20, 2:30 p.m. • Fairfield Inn, 407 Riverwind DrivePearl - Tuesday, February 20, 6:00 p.m. • Fairfield Inn, 407 Riverwind DriveRidgeland - Wednesday, February 21, 10:00 a.m. • Hyatt Place, 1016 Highland Colony Pkwy. (at Renaissance)Ridgeland - Wednesday, February 21 at 2:30 p.m. • Hyatt Place, 1016 Highland Colony Pkwy. (at Renaissance)Vicksburg - Thursday, February 22 at 10:00 a.m. • Courtyard by Marriott, 1 Underwood Drive (off Clay Street)Clinton - Thursday, February 22 at 2:30 p.m. • Holiday Inn Express & Suites, 495 Springridge RoadMadison - Saturday, February 24 at 10:00 a.m. • Courtyard by Marriott, 601 Baptist DriveYour rights are being determined right now. Find out what's going on. The next season of the MPB News program @Issue will be starting Friday, February 9th at 6:30pm on MPB Think Radio. There will be additional content on our YouTube channel. Michael Guidrey from MPB News will be joined by Republican Austin Barbour and Democrat Brandon Jones for weekly recaps and roundtable discussions about current issues. Will Stribling is at the state capitol as MPB News' Legislative reporter.February 12th is the Primary Election Voter Registration Deadline: Applicants who register in-person in the Circuit Clerk's office on that day and those who mail registration applications postmarked no later than February 12th are eligible to vote in the March 12, 2024 Primary Elections. If you want to have a say in who is nominated by ONE party or THE OTHER for president, or the 4 House of Representatives seats or Senator Rodger Wicker's Senate seat you have less than a week to get registered. https://www.sos.ms.gov/index.php/elections-voting/voter-registration-informationOn Thursday, February 8, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Trump vs. Anderson. Former President Trump and his attorneys are challenging a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that prevents his name from appearing on the ballot in that state.The arguments themselves are expected to be one-hour in length. Attorneys for each side receive 30 minutes to make their case and answer questions from the Justices. We do not how exactly how long the Special Coverage will last - it depends on the precise start and end time of the court session itself, followed by analysis.Podcasts discussed:http://inlegalterms.mpbonline.org/episodes/in-legal-terms-flowers-v-mississippihttp://inlegalterms.mpbonline.org/episodes/in-legal-terms-hippa Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this episode, we discuss: The Lead In class of 2024 has been selected, stay tuned for that to be announced. Brian Keller Day is tomorrow, Jan 27th from 1-5pm in the Downtown District. Join others for a trivia walk and photography expo in honor of O'Fallon's resident photographer and community historian. Tax prep services are now available at the O'Fallon Public Library free of charge. Over 700 people were helped in 2023 and appts will go quickly, so secure yours now if you're interested. Superbowl food options around town, including some delicious subs, pasta and lasagna from Gigi's Italian Market. Our podcast partner, SSM Health. On the calendar, Friday, Jan 26th 5-7pm Cafe Biz 618 Open House Tues, Jan 30th 5-6:30pm Chamber's Business After Hours hosted by The Fairfield Inn. Network with others in a very social and laidback atmosphere. Have an idea for a podcast topic? Submit it here! Follow us on Instagram @The618Now.
In this episode, we discuss: The Bank of OFallon Shoot Out basketball showcase is coming up on Feb 2-3rd. Cory Patton, Scott Seipp, Neil James, Brian Muniz and Rick Gibson have worked very hard to bring some of the region's best high school basketball talent into OFallon. Thousands of people attend; don't miss out! Purchase tickets here. This week's podcast partner, SSM Health. On the calendar: Sat, Jan 27, 5-7pm Cafe Biz 618's Open House Tues, Jan 20th 5-6:30pm Business After Hours at Fairfield Inn & Suites Fri, Feb 9th 6pm Sweetheart's Dance at The Regency Conf Center Have an idea for a podcast topic? Submit it here! Follow us on Instagram @The618Now.
Have you ever done anything for over 35 years? Bennie Hamlett has. Long-time racer, Bennie, dropped in at the UP ROOFTOP TABLE AND TAVERN at the Fairfield Inn and Suites. What a great night of food, drinks and fun stories from a few drop-in guests! We can't wait for you to join us!
Trump is the best-known builder in the United States. That's how he landed the Apprentice. Bill O'Reilly and Mark talked about the migrant issue. Joe Biden caused the crisis by not shutting down the southern border. They also hit on the latest WSJ poll that shows Biden and Trump in a virtual tie.
The Fairfield Inn on Long Island and another hotel have charged the city over 10,000,000 dollars so the migrants have a place to stay. Jimmy Buffet passed away over the weekend he was 77 years old. Trump is the best-known builder in the United States.
Dallas Cowboys legend Bob Lilly hosts a golf tournament at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame each year. The event is attended by many Texas sports legends. Listen to some of their stories in this episode. Learn about Texas Sports Hall of Fame events at Texas Sports Hall of Fame - Home (tshof.org). The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. Author and oral historian Jackson Michael (The Game Before the Money) hosts and produces the podcast.
Today, Ravi Patel brings his expertise to the table as he discusses a few fundamental principles related to building a hotel ownership company from the ground up. We hope you enjoy! As the Co-Founder and CEO, Ravi Patel oversees the family-based culture, strategic planning, and overall operations for all of SINA Hospitality's properties, which include the Intercontinental, Hilton, Choice, and Marriott brands. Ravi leads all SINA construction projects, hotel development and franchise negotiations, financial and industry interactions, and hotel acquisitions. As part of SINA's unique culture, Ravi maintains relationships with all hotel management companies engaged with SINA Hospitality. Ravi is also on the Marriott International Capital Asset Planning + Execution Committee (CAPE) across all Marriott Properties in North America, serves on the board of the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Franchise Council, and is locally on the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce, to name a few. Ravi earned his degree at Virginia Commonwealth University and is based out of our Richmond, VA Headquarters. SINA Hospitality is a leading, multi-award-winning, family-owned developer and manager of 32 premium-branded hotels consisting of over 2600 rooms across the South East United States. If you'd like to connect with Ravi Patel on LinkedIn you can find him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/raviapatel/ You can also follow SINA Hospitality on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/sina-hospitality/ Sick of doing hotel sales the old way? Learn about the new, easier way. Go sign up for your free trial at www.SalesHop.io
IN THE HOUSE, Michael House dropped in with us at the UP Rooftop Table & Tavern at the Fairfield Inn in the Gulch!
This week was a tough one for those of us in the hospitality industry. We lost a kind hearted hospitality hero that was Dylan Beaumont. Dylan was the General Manager at the Fairfield Inn in Eugene, Oregon. When Dylan was not working he spent his spare time researching hospitality history. Whatever he learned he shared with the hospitality community. Dylan was always positive and had an amazing sense of humor. He supported ALL things hospitality. He listened to everyone's podcasts, was a guest on many of them and interacted daily will all of us. He will be sorely missed. Enjoy this encore episode. Rest Peacefully Friend Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week was a tough one for those of us in the hospitality industry. We lost a kind hearted hospitality hero that was Dylan Beaumont. Dylan was the General Manager at the Fairfield Inn in Eugene, Oregon. When Dylan was not working he spent his spare time researching hospitality history. Whatever he learned he shared with the hospitality community. Dylan was always positive and had an amazing sense of humor. He supported ALL things hospitality. He listened to everyone's podcasts, was a guest on many of them and interacted daily will all of us. He will be sorely missed. Enjoy this encore episode. Rest Peacefully Friend Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Well it has been a minute since we had a chance to catch up and record a podcast but in this episode Tamara shares her insights and experience from her recent family trip to Japan. Kim and Tamara also share their love for Scottsdale, Arizona and some of the things they did on a girls' trip together. Read more at: Scottsdale girls weekend Reasons to visit Scottsdale in summer Best Scottsdale Arizona resorts for girlfriends trips Scottsdale weekend itinerary Tamara also talked about her time in Paso Robles, California. You can read her Paso Robles itinerary to get inspired to visit this wine region. Kim attended conferences in Walt Disney World (read her tips for using DVC points to save money on a Disney World vacation), Disney Land, and San Antonio. She also took a family cruise to Alaska aboard the Norwegian Bliss, which was different from her Alaska cruise on Holland America last summer. Kim also took a quick press trip to Iceland, where she was able to explore Reykjavik and visit the Sky Lagoon. We really dug into Tamara's 2-week trip to Japan which included: 5 Days in Tokyo 5 Days in Kyoto 3 Days in Osaka If you are planning a trip, be sure to read Tamara's Japan travel tips! When talking about how great Google Maps can be to figure out transportation in Japan, Kim also mentioned her post about using Google Maps to plan a trip. Tamara was also just back from a short press trip to Waterton and Glacier National Parks. We will be traveling a lot over the summer so expect to hear another episode in the late summer. Then you will hear about Tamara's trip to Scotland & Wales, her river and barge cruises in France, and Kim's amazing trip to Kenya. Full Episode Transcript [00:00:00.000] - Kim Today, we're journeying to the land of the rising sun. [00:00:14.520] - Tamara Welcome to Vacation Mavens a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suicase and Tamara from We Three Travel. [00:00:29.740] - Tamara Kim, I can't believe the last time I really talked to you was when we were together in Scottsdale in April. [00:00:34.670] - Kim I know. It's been a crazy travel season for us. Good. I love that travel's back and everything, but it's also crazy because I thought we would be talking more and we've seen each other so much at the beginning of the year. And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh, summer is almost over. [00:00:47.920] - Tamara Not quite. That was our intent was to have this monthly. We're struggling, guys. So if anyone is still listening and subscribe to us, which I hope that they are, we're going to do a quick little rundown of some of our recent travels. Now you'll see why we haven't been able to connect and record an episode. [00:01:07.600] - Kim Yeah, exactly. It's been insane. The last time you guys heard from us, we were headed to Scottsdale, which was middle of April, and we both, I think, had an amazing trip there. We both published our articles, so you can always head to Wee 3 Travel and Stuff Suitcase and see the stuff that we covered. But I loved Scottsdale. It was great. [00:01:25.720] - Tamara Yeah. I think Scottsdale just continues to be a place I want to go back to because there's so many beautiful resorts and hotels, so there's always some place new to check out. There's amazing spas. Then this time, we did a lot of really cool activities. [00:01:41.370] - Kim I loved how it was really I think Scottsdale is a great destination a combination for being able to do outdoorsy things. We did hot air balloons, horseback riding, a few different things. But we also did wine tasting and shopping and went to some museums. Then, like you said, went to an amazing spot, the Phoenixion. Scottsdale, if you are a spa person, that's where you want to go. [00:02:03.230] - Tamara I've been watching our friend, Colleen, that lives out in Scottsdale. She seems to be hopping around another spa every day. I'm like, Wow, I want to come be your friend right now. [00:02:12.830] - Kim I think everyone's been saying that, I want your job. [00:02:15.790] - Tamara I'm sure. I would definitely say romantic getaway, girlfriend get away. Scottsdale is amazing for that. There's plenty to do with the family as well because of all those outdoor activities. But definitely check out. I know I have an itinerary. You have some great suggestions on things to do in the summer and how to manage the heat out there. D efinitely check those out on our websites to see more. [00:02:39.620] - Kim So where did you head after Scottsdale? [00:02:41.800] - Tamara I went right from Scottsdale to T uson to see Hannah for a little bit. And then the following week, I went to Paso Robles, which I'd learned. [00:02:51.090] - Kim I always said it was Paso Robles. Oh, it's Robles. [00:02:52.980] - Tamara Yeah. And it's actually Robles. And I'm like, I feel silly saying Robles. [00:02:57.270] - Kim Yeah, it sounds like Marbles. [00:02:58.630] - Tamara But that is a wine region in central California near San Louis Biscoe. I just love it. I was there, I think it was nine or eight years ago with the family, and we were checking out some family friendly wineries there. But it has just exploded in terms of the number of wineries, but also really good food now. The downtown has expanded. I stayed in a new boutique hotel that was just I loved it, which was so cool. It has a rooftop bar. It had a wine, actually a champagne vending machine in the lobby. Oh, I saw that. I saw your story on that. Yeah. So I had a great time out there. And I definitely think anyone that's into wine, put that on your radar as a region to visit. You can easily spill a long weekend. I had a couple of really wonderful spots that I went for wine tasting, just those perfect, incredible views, great food, wonderful wine. I think where many, many years ago it was newer to the scene or it was well known for J. L oor, some of the bigger names. There's just so much going on out there. [00:04:02.940] - Tamara Where did you go next? Because I know you were really busy right after our. [00:04:06.130] - Kim Scottsdale trip, too. I had three trips back to back. I did go to Disney World for a conference and I got to ride the new Tron ride. I also checked out a new hotel, which was the Contemporary Hotel, which I had never been to. I loved that. I really do love the splurging on those Disney World hotels that have the monorail access and the ones we've been at Revere too with the Skyliner because, man, it's amazing how much easier it is just to get into and not have to deal with the bus system because then whenever I have to wait for a bus to one of the parks and it's like, inevitably I get there and I'm the last one, I've got to wait for 20. [00:04:39.400] - Tamara Minutes or something. I will say that's what I liked the most about Disneyland because I've never stayed on park at Disney World. I've only stayed at partner hotels and by hotels. [00:04:50.150] - Kim Yeah, it is a big splurge for sure. I have a great article about that, though, because we splurged and used... We rented DVC points to be able to stay, and it's still not cheap. It was for the graduation trip and stuff, and this one does a conference hotel rate. I'm definitely not saying it's cheap, affordable, but if you do want to splurge, renting DVC points, and I have a link, so if anyone wants it, or you can look up the how I saved $2,000 plus dollars at Disney World. I have how we did that in there. I actually just tried to do it for Disneyland, but they didn't have any availability because Disneyland only has one property, almost two. Anyways, I did that. But then right after that, I also went on another Alaskan cruise, which you and I have talked about a few times. I'll soon have a couple of articles updated, but this was more of just a family cruise, so I didn't actually treat it like a work trip, which was nice to. [00:05:39.930] - Tamara Just relax. Which cruise were you on this time, though? Because I feel like was it last summer that you did celebrity? [00:05:44.310] - Kim Holland last August, which I absolutely loved. I loved Holland. I haven't done celebrity in Alaska yet, but Holland America was awesome. This time we did Norwegian because my family has status with there, and so they like to book Norwegian. We did the bliss, which we have been on the bliss before for a little media sailing when they started it. [00:06:02.560] - Tamara That's the one that we took. [00:06:03.920] - Kim To Alaska. Yeah, exactly. Family trip. Yeah. Anyway, so that was that. Then I had one other conference, then back to Disneyland. I hit both the parks within about three weeks of each other, but that was a lot of fun and just... [00:06:17.460] - Tamara You should have really had a Disney. [00:06:19.000] - Kim Cruise in the middle. I should have. That would have been perfect. Yeah, exactly. But anyways, that was a wrap up for me. My final trip that I did was I went at the end of May and went to San Antonio for another conference. It feels like most of mine were conferences. I was just conference out. But San Antonio is a cool city. It's been a while since I've been there. I went there for one day when I went to school in Texas for a little while. It was fun checking out San Antonio. But I know you've done a lot of other travels that did not involve conferences. [00:06:51.170] - Tamara Yeah, I'm like, Have I? I guess. You forget by now. Yeah, that's for sure. Well, I went back to T uson a week and a half later to pick up Hannah and bring her back from school. Then we were home for a week. Then we did our two week trip to Japan. Then I was home for, I don't know, two weeks. Then I just did a real quicky trip to Glacier National Park area. [00:07:14.290] - Kim Right. I forgot you went to glacier and I went to Iceland. I forgot to mention that. Oh, yeah. I'm blanking on June. I forgot June even existed. Sorry, I was just focusing on up to May, but yeah, definitely. I didn't get to experience the Iceland you got to experience because we stuck around Reykjavik and just explored a couple of attractions that were around there. So it was a quick, quick trip. But Mia is quite the little outdoor lover and cultured lover, so I definitely want to go back to Iceland with her because I know she'll just love to do some of the exploration that you've done. [00:07:48.850] - Tamara I was going to say, I'll meet you there. Yeah, definitely. I'm always ready to go back there. Yeah, well, I'll definitely put all of these links to articles in our show notes so you guys can read more. But I think. [00:08:00.800] - Kim That's a good way to do it. But I think we should dive into Japan because it is a very hot destination. I'm still so sad because ours was canceled. We were supposed to be going in April 2020, so we switched off and now you got to finally live the vacation that I was dreaming about back then. I think we should give everyone just a really quick rundown because I know that you have done an amazing job of writing a whole bunch of articles that are really going to be useful for people who are planning a trip to Japan. Let's just start off and give you an idea of how many days were you there and how maybe did you break up your itinerary? [00:08:36.480] - Tamara Yeah, absolutely. We took two weeks because especially coming from the East Coast, it's just such a long trip. Honestly, it's been on the top of our bucket list for so long, but we just haven't had two weeks where we felt comfortable to go that far knowing we're going to deal with jet lag on the way back. And then the flights are just always so expensive. But at least I was able to use points for one of our flights. So we took two weeks. I flew out on a Saturday morning. Yes, I got there on a Sunday, and then we were supposed to come back on Saturday, but we came back on Sunday because of a weather delay. But anyway, so I did five days in Tokyo, five days in Kyoto, and then three nights in Osaka. When I first started planning the trip, a lot of people told me that I would only need two or three days in Tokyo. But as I was looking at everything that we wanted to do, I was like, I really feel like I could easily spend a week here. It's just a fascinating city. There's just the ultra modern, and then there's the more traditional and each neighborhood is so huge. [00:09:42.570] - Tamara I think what many people don't realize is just how large the cities are. It's funny, I was talking to my mom before I left, and I don't think she's kept up on modern times as much. There's no way she's listening to this podcast, so I can say it. But she was like, Oh, I showed a picture when we went. She's like, Sky scrapers? I wasn't expecting that. I'm like, What do you think? It's rural villages. But this is the biggest city in the world. [00:10:09.310] - Kim Yeah, for sure. [00:10:11.080] - Tamara So it's so huge. And I'm used to going to Europe where even though the cities can be really large, we always stay in that historic, more central area where you're mostly walking. You're taking the metro, but you're primarily walking around a lot. And you may pick a neighborhood, I think about Paris. You pick a neighborhood each day. But in Tokyo, to get to a certain neighborhood, it might be 45 minutes on the couple of connections with the subway and stuff. So I'm glad that we did five days. That's crazy. I could end that was within without doing the Disney stuff, which I know many people like to do when they go there. [00:10:49.630] - Kim I do know that as a Disney person, it would be hard for me to go to Tokyo and not do Disney, at least Disney Sea, because it's considered a really unique park. [00:11:00.330] - Tamara Yeah, that's what everyone says. It's unlike any of the others. I get it. But we're not as. [00:11:06.430] - Kim Into the. [00:11:06.990] - Tamara Theme parks. Glenn was like, I am not going around the world to go to theme parks. [00:11:11.590] - Kim Exactly. When you have limited, yes, it's totally valid. I mean, it's very hard to figure out. I agree. I get what he's saying, but I also have that side of me that's like, Oh, but how can you be this close and not do it? So it's very hard to balance that. So, yeah, it sounds good. So you were saying, I know you guys... So I'm picturing Tokyo for my own planning. So you guys were in the Northwestern side of where you look at the downtown to the... [00:11:38.990] - Tamara Right. The Shizuku neighborhood, which some people were like, oh, do you want to stay there? It's like Times Square. And the area right around the train station is lots of neon, lots of crazy, especially at night. But we were honestly within a 10 minute walk to that, but where we were was more like, business, like government buildings, things like that. So it was really quiet, peaceful. It was great. And we stayed at the Hilton, Tokyo, and it was basically on top of... You could go just down an escalator and connect to two different subway stations. Plus they had a free shuttle if you wanted to the Shinkoku train station. So it was really very accessible. It felt very convenient. And there was plenty of restaurants and things around, but it wasn't super expensive. I don't know how expensive, really, but the Ginza area is much more high end. And then the Shiboya would be nice. But it totally. [00:12:43.620] - Kim Worked for us. We were happy with it. Nice. That's perfect. Yeah. I had looked at staying in the ginza area because of a few... I was also liked that it was closer to the Disney side, so it was a little easier to get out there. For those of you planning Genza area is basically opposite, diagonal across from where tomorrow states. I've heard the same thing from my research. You really have to allow a lot of time to transfer if you're going to different sides of what you consider the downtown center, 45 minutes to get across sometimes. Kind of crazy. Great. Well, what were some of the highlights then that you guys did when you were in Tokyo? [00:13:17.970] - Tamara We did a sushi making workshop with True Japan, and we really enjoyed it. The ladies were just really friendly and funny and nice. And so it was fun to see what goes into making sushi. And you probably know that I'm not a sushi eater, really. And we can talk about food later because it worked out better than I expected, except for a couple of times. But it was just fun. It's such a huge part of the culture. So I enjoyed that. We didn't do a whole lot of tours and things. We did a lot of exploring on our own. But the one thing that everybody has to do, which was as amazing as you would think, was the team lab planets, which is that immersive art experience where there's water and flowers and reflections. It's just unlike anything else. And it's really cool. And we've done the traveling, like van go immersive experience. But this was turning that up times 10 or more. And Hannah really loved it. It was really cool. The thing about it is you definitely have to book your tickets well in advance because just one of those things you have a timed entry. [00:14:30.970] - Tamara It's super popular. And honestly, when it comes to planning Japan, you really need to plan really far in advance. I mean, if you want to get restaurant reservations, some of them book up a month in advance. I think because some of them are so small that if they could take reservations, it might be for eight seats. And so they just go really quickly. And we weren't even there during cherry blossom season or golden week in early May when it's extra busy. difficult to do that. It was amazing. But I would say those are definitely highlights. I just loved exploring different areas. We did go, surprisingly, I liked this, but we went to a sumo wrestling tournament. Yeah, I wonder if I saw that. Which sometimes when people are there, they can see a practice. But there was actually a tournament going on while we were there. So that was something that I had figured out ahead of time. And when the tickets went on sale, I was able to book those the day that they were released. And it was a very cool thing. You don't want to spend hours and hours there because you don't know who the guys are. [00:15:33.160] - Tamara But just like you could see how excited everyone was to cheer for their favorite, the local person or whatever. And it's just such a dramatic theatrical type of sport. It was interesting. Yeah, for sure. Those are some of my highlights. [00:15:48.770] - Kim That's awesome. Because I know I saw some of the restaurant experiences you had. It seemed like sometimes you guys went simple and basic, but other times you went really over the top. Anything in Tokyo that you think somebody should splurge on or any savings tips for food or eating in Tokyo other than the restaurants making the reservations? [00:16:08.160] - Tamara Yeah, we did mostly the casual places in Tokyo. What I was trying to do, because I'm not a sushi eater, is have a variety of foods. And in Japan, all the restaurants really specialize in one thing. They do ramen, they do tempura, they do soba noodles, different things like that. So there's so many different styles of food to try within Japanese cuisine that we just booked a different style of food each night. And honestly, in some of them, we had to line up for the first night that we got there, we went to a place where it opened up five, and we got there at 445, and there was already probably 40 people in line for a 10 seat little place. And you basically you would wait till there was enough space in line. There was people sitting at the counter eating and then people standing behind them waiting for the second that they got up to sit in. [00:16:56.790] - Kim Their seat. Oh, my goodness. [00:16:57.810] - Tamara Oh, wow. And you had a vending machine, which is typical. Yeah, a vending machine to order from. So it's typical in a lot of ramen shops. So there's pictures and you just hit the button of what you want. You put in the money, you get a ticket and you hand. [00:17:11.650] - Kim The person the ticket. That's like McDonald's. [00:17:13.780] - Tamara Yeah. I'm just kidding. Those. [00:17:16.820] - Kim Screams in the middle. They have one at Tim Horton's as well. So of. [00:17:20.940] - Tamara Course, I made a mistake the first time because I saw people with a broth, which I thought was a ramen, and then a bowl of noodles. And I'm like, oh, that's so I saw on the machine that they had dipping noodles and they had ramen. And then you could add extra things, but only if you could tell what the picture was because it was otherwise in Japanese. And so I ordered dipping noodles because it looked really good and ramen because I thought that that's what people had. And then when I handed the girl the ticket, she was like, for one person? [00:17:51.710] - Kim Oh, no. And she was like, you. [00:17:53.890] - Tamara Want small or large? Because I was like, oh, is that not what they have? And she was like, no, they have. Because the dipping noodles come with a broth, so I thought it was that they had two. [00:18:02.980] - Kim Different things in front of them. Oh, and bologna. [00:18:04.650] - Tamara Yeah. Okay, got you. But I'm really glad that I did it because both were delicious. So I'm happy to sample both. But then Glenn ordered on his ramen, Scallions, and it was covered. It was like a mountain of Scallions because I was like extra. But it was like, if you get extra cheese on a pizza, it's like extra. [00:18:23.110] - Kim Extra extra. Oh, my goodness. Crazy. I mean, I love Scallions, but I don't know if I could handle the mountain of them. [00:18:27.560] - Tamara It was crazy. So you make those little mistakes. But we did a lot of the more casual things. And the hard thing is that honestly, I kept saying this, but there's very little in between. So there are the places where you... First of all, Japanese people love to line up, which is really hard when you're visiting and you're tired and you want to be able to eat with a certain time. People wait for two hours to get into this little ramen place or whatever. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, because you're like, I'm tired. I've been running all day. We were running like 5 to 9 miles. We were doing a lot of walking every day. So I'm like, I just want to sit down. So that's why we tried to do some reservations. But there were the really casual, inexpensive, really inexpensive places. And then there's the crazy, crazy high end... Some of the Sushi places, I'm like, there's no way. Because some of them charge up to like $500. [00:19:19.820] - Kim A person. Oh, my goodness. [00:19:21.930] - Tamara Insane. That's crazy. So there's just not a lot of middle ground is what I found. Okay, good to know. But the low end, not low end, but the inexpensive stuff is really good. [00:19:31.970] - Kim Yeah, of course. You just have to go on to wait for it. [00:19:35.440] - Tamara Yeah, exactly. And honestly, one day... So we had a bit of a rough start because Glenn had a stomach bug the day before we left. So the whole flight over and everything, he basically didn't eat for a couple of days. And then I had a really bad cold the day before we left. And for two days, I was so nervous, I'm testing. I'm like, Please. [00:19:57.490] - Kim Don't let it be. [00:19:58.350] - Tamara And it was. And it was just a cold, but I was still super congested, so it was just hard. And in Japanese society, you can't blow. [00:20:06.290] - Kim Your nose. [00:20:06.970] - Tamara In public. So I'm trying to be so discreet, going outside and blowing my nose and sanitizing and tucking it into my pocket know, like very... Like trying to be really conscious of that and trying to be super sanitary. But Hannah did end up getting a cold also. One day she was just not feeling up to going out and doing a tour and stuff. So we're like, just stay here and sleep. It was going to be the day that we toured one neighborhood and then we went to the sumo wrestling, and she wasn't super into that anyway. So we're just sleep. And then she went out on her own and she found a 7 11 because just like everybody says, 7 11 has amazing convenience food. So you can buy these really good sandwiches and all that stuff. So there's definitely plenty of ways that you can eat cheap there. [00:20:56.090] - Kim That's good to know. So then from Tokyo, you went to Kyoto? Yes. Kyoto is such a different vibe. Yeah, the bullet train, right? [00:21:05.570] - Tamara Yeah. So a couple of things to know about the bullet train is that we had gotten the JR pass, which allows you to use all the JR trains. We got the national ones, so you could use bullet trains as well, except the super fast ones weren't included. And we had gotten one that allows us to make seat reservations. And you also, if you're bringing luggage on the train, you now need to make a reservation for the luggage. And this is for more of a checked bag size luggage, not the carry on size. But we were there for two weeks, so we had checked bags. So you can make a reservation for the last row of seats where the luggage can go behind you, or there's a couple of spots on a luggage rack, but they're really cutting down on luggage on trains. Or you can ship your bags ahead, which we ended up actually a couple of times just shipping our bags ahead. And it only costs $20 a bag. It's waiting for you in the hotel when you get there. It takes 24 hours. So you need to have a small bag with all your stuff for. [00:22:06.140] - Kim Then one day. Yeah. [00:22:07.320] - Tamara But we took the bullet train and that worked really well. We saw Mount Fuji because it was a nice day out. So and we ended up like, we got to Kyoto and we just put our bags in a locker and then we took a local train out to Nara, which is about a half hour away or so, maybe 45 minutes. And there's a really beautiful, huge temple out there. But also it's known for their deer park, which Glenn, years ago, because we both work for a Japanese company, so he's been to Japan many times, but 25 years ago. And so he would always tell us about the deer in Nara that bow to you to get fed. Oh, right. And the deer have changed a bit in the last few years. [00:22:53.320] - Kim Yes. I've heard about this stuff. They have this issue at the monkey place, too. [00:22:57.310] - Tamara They were so aggressive. That's too bad. They were grabbing my shirt and pulling on my shirt. They nipped my butt. I'm like, Whoa. I feel like all these videos of Glenn and I trying to run away from the deer and we're like, Oh, no. Let's just get away from where the food is so that the deer are calmer. But it's funny because later in the trip, we went to the island of Miyajima, and they have wild deer there also. And one of them followed me into the visitor center, went over to the desk, grabbed a brochure, and then ran out. [00:23:29.250] - Kim Because they like to get the paper. [00:23:31.240] - Tamara And so the person comes running out behind the desk, yelling at the deer. And then there's three people in the street trying to wrestle the paper away from the deer. [00:23:39.390] - Kim Oh, my goodness. [00:23:40.590] - Tamara And I'm like, You think of deer in the headlights, these gentle creatures. [00:23:45.240] - Kim Yeah, exactly. It's sad when humanity is like, Yeah, I won't get there. [00:23:51.560] - Tamara No, it's definitely because there's too many tourists now. They're being fed. Definitely not a great situation. But we did enjoy the day trip out there. Yeah, for sure. I love everything about Japan. It's just so clean and orderly and polite and easy to figure out. My type A personality just really appreciates the order of things. I would like that too. The fact that everybody stands in a line and waits and then you get on when you get on. I love that because in a society where everyone's pushing or whatever, I get. [00:24:27.400] - Kim Super stressed out. Oh, my gosh, I hated it. We were on a cruise, a European cruise, and that attracts a lot of Europeans. I thought, Oh, you wait in line for your turn to go get your food that you want served. But no, people just come up from other directions and just walk right up. There's no line concept. I'm like, Oh, I like lines. What am I supposed to do? So sorry. [00:24:49.240] - Tamara I get that. You would love Japan. I think it's such a wonderful place to visit. I think there must be challenges if you live there within the culture. I recognize that I used to work for a Japanese company. I'm aware of many of those issues, but as a visitor, it makes it so pleasant. But anyway, I was going to say that they have lockers where you can store things. Everything is just easy. The trains, everything is in Japanese and English. [00:25:19.260] - Kim I know they did a big push with that before the Olympics were going to be there. They were trying to... [00:25:25.180] - Tamara And all of the trains have signs that say what the next stop is. Because sometimes you're on a subway and you're trying to look and you're like, Oh, yeah. They might not answer, but you're like, What was that? [00:25:36.320] - Kim What did they say? [00:25:37.460] - Tamara That's Charlie Brown's. [00:25:38.740] - Kim Teacher talking to you. Exactly. I've had that happen so many times. [00:25:43.040] - Tamara So that part was great. And Kyoto is just very different. So it is more traditional in the architecture. They preserved a lot of the traditional architecture. There's tons of shrines and temple s o that's the thing is that you could get a little shrine and templed out, but the architecture is so beautiful. There is a downtown center city that's more city like, but it's nothing like Tokyo. [00:26:09.310] - Kim Or Nagasaki. I remember when we were looking to stay in Kyoto, I seem to recall because we were going to go during... We were hoping for cherry blossom season, but I seem to recall there it's still pretty spread out and there's little neighborhoods in Kyoto even. It's like, okay, this one has more of this vibe and this one I can't remember where we were staying, but I was looking at the different things and getting the bamboo forest, like, oh, well, I'd have to leave here and we want to be near a train station. [00:26:32.970] - Tamara All those plans. Yeah, you do want to be near a train station because the metro system is not as well developed there. So we took a mix of busses, GR trains, private trains that you paid for the same way you'd pay for a subway. But when we stayed at the Hyatt Regency, which was probably about a 10 minute walk to one of the train stations, but there was a bus that stopped right outside that then went to the main Kyoto station, which is where we would get on to go to the bamboo forest. And then, yeah, so it was conveniently located, but you definitely needed to plan your travel because some of those destinations, especially many of them were taking slower local trains, and they could still take 45 minutes to. [00:27:26.150] - Kim An hour. That was one of the things in my planning that was the hardest is recognizing that there are so many different train lines, like brands, and you might have a pass with one, but it doesn't necessarily mean you can go on every train that's coming in. So it's an interesting thing that I've never... I'm sure maybe it's in other places around the world, but it's not something we think about in the states at all. [00:27:49.420] - Tamara The nice thing, though, is that we had our JR pass, which, by the way, I don't even know if they're going to be that useful after this fall because the price is almost doubling. It's going up. It's having some. Unless ticket prices are going up a lot also, you might just want to buy individual tickets. [00:28:04.190] - Kim Individual. [00:28:04.600] - Tamara Ticket, yeah. But we bought, as soon as we got, we had ordered the JR passes ahead, so we had our voucher that we had to turn in to get the actual pass. Then we went to an ATM because you needed cash for a lot of things. We have to also use cash to get an IC card. So this is the rechargeable card that you would use to get on the metro or the bus or something like that. But the nice thing is that unlike, Oh, I'm going to New York, I need a metro card. I'm going to this place, I need that card for their. [00:28:32.660] - Kim Subway system. Yeah, like Long Island Railroad and Metro card. [00:28:35.370] - Tamara Yeah, exactly. This card worked for all of them. And it also works for a lot of vending machines. [00:28:41.990] - Kim Some convenient stores. [00:28:42.850] - Tamara Yeah, the vending machine. [00:28:43.690] - Kim I forgot. And you reload it always with cash, though? You always have to reload it only cash. You can't reload it with cash. [00:28:48.300] - Tamara Yeah, which is so bizarre. It's like this is a digital payment system and I'm loading it with cash. [00:28:53.590] - Kim I wonder if it's because they want to make sure that you're actually paying for it. They don't want you to just be able to dispute it and have gotten the ride for free or gotten the food for free. You know what I mean? I wonder if it's a culture thing. [00:29:04.840] - Tamara I do know that it used to be, before COVID, a very cash based society. Now more and more places will take a credit card. And if you have, there's a lot of... Not many places take Apple Pay, but a lot of them do take a tap payment system, but more one that they have in Asia. I don't know if it's really worth signing up and trying to figure that out. Got you. I just basically used my. [00:29:28.420] - Kim Chip credit card. The IC card and. [00:29:30.030] - Tamara The card anytime for that. And the IC card for the metro, the bus, some vending machines, some required cash still. But yeah, it's just super convenient. So even though there are different trains, so yeah, maybe you can't use your free pass, not for you because you. [00:29:44.710] - Kim Paid a lot for it. [00:29:45.480] - Tamara But it's still pretty easy to get around. [00:29:49.930] - Kim Yeah, it's good. That's great. And I do want to quickly, before we jump over to finishing up Kyoto and going to Asaka, I did want to mention something that you did that I think was brilliant because I even had looked into doing it when we were planning our trip. And that was you had someone meet you at the airport, right? [00:30:05.450] - Tamara Yeah, I did. And don't do it. At least not for the company that I did. Okay, here we go. You and I had talked about it. I think it was about $75 to $100. It was the company that I bought the JR Pass from. I also arranged to rent a mobile hotspot, so that was taken care of ahead of time to pick up at the airport. And I arranged to have a greeter meet us after customs. And then what I was told was that that greeter would then take me to do the things I need to do at the airport, which would be pick up my mobile hotspot, exchange my JR Pass, get my IC card, find where I need to go to get my transfer. [00:30:45.390] - Kim Get the train. [00:30:46.220] - Tamara I figured, hey, it's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things. [00:30:51.800] - Kim And especially. [00:30:52.310] - Tamara After traveling. [00:30:52.820] - Kim For 20 hours. [00:30:53.250] - Tamara And I want to be jet lived. Yeah, exactly. This will be useful. It was such a waste of money because first I'm trying to talk to the guy, I'm like, okay, we need to go to an ATM, and he's not even understanding what I'm saying. I'm like, You're a greeter. I'm not coming in there with like, everyone should speak English, but his job is. [00:31:11.680] - Kim To meet people. When you pay people. Yeah, exactly. I know a lot of times they'll have if you want to in English or if you want to in... You can specify a language, but. [00:31:20.330] - Tamara It seems like it's... Yeah. So one person had my name up and then she called this guy over. So it's like a service they do for multiple people. They had multiple greeters there. I don't know if I just got an inexperienced person, but I went to the counter of the mobile WiFi hotspot place and that person spoke perfect English, no trouble communicating at all. [00:31:40.320] - Kim And it was easy to find. And you were able to easily find everything. [00:31:42.690] - Tamara Yeah. I mean, he led me there, but I could have found it on my own, no problem. And then I was trying to explain that I wanted to go to the JR ticket office to get our pass, but also see if he could help us make reservations. Yeah, exactly. Because I wanted to make the reservations as soon as I had my pass because I wanted to try to get the luggage reservations. And he was just like, Oh, no, they don't do reservations here. And I'm like, Oh, well, that's part of why I wanted to pay for this service because I wanted somebody to help me translate what my need was. And meanwhile, we were back and forth, just not understanding each other. So then I get in line at the JR ticket office. I get up there, perfect English from the person that's behind the desk, completely easy to talk to. They didn't make the reservations there. They told me where to go in the Tokyo station or Shinchu station, whatever, which I did the next day. That person also spoke really good English, was able to communicate no problem. And then I was trying to explain that I want to get an IC card. [00:32:38.620] - Tamara And he was like, Well, you can get the one that requires a deposit or not a deposit. I'm like, I don't care? Can you just tell me where? And he didn't know where to go. Finally, the guy that was behind me in line at the JR ticket office was like, Oh, you want this line right here. And I'm like, Thank you. Then I'm like, What? Then I had arranged for an airport limo bus to take us from the airport directly to our hotel. I just thought first day, and it's really, it's inexpensive. Taxis there are very expensive, but this is inexpensive. And instead of having to drag some bags on multiple trains and subways, I thought it's easy. And so I was like, I thought all that would take us an hour and a half, maybe, from the time we arrived. So I had booked a later bus, but it was really quick to do all of it. So I was like, Oh, maybe we can get an earlier bus. So I was trying to get him to help us with that. No. So I ended up just doing it on my phone. But then he had to come down and he was like, No, I have to wait. [00:33:42.890] - Tamara Because I was like, Okay, we're all set. Thank you. Bye. And he's like, No, I have to wait till you get on the bus. I'm like, All right, well, can you just stand over there? Because I'm like, I'm done. [00:33:52.120] - Kim Yeah, exactly. You did not help me. Wow. Okay, well, that's good tip. Good to know. [00:33:56.970] - Tamara What not to. [00:33:58.150] - Kim Do, I guess. What not, yeah. No, I mean, it's good because I had considered that too because I was thinking the same thing like, Oh, my gosh, how am I going to get my pass? I was thinking all that same stuff. [00:34:07.930] - Tamara Cool. I think a lot of things with travel, it feels so overwhelming. But once you're there, you're like, Oh, this is not as bad as I. [00:34:13.260] - Kim Thought it was going to be. Well, especially in a country that you can't even get around with. It's like, Oh, I speak a little Spanish. I speak a little French. It's just like, None of that's going to help you. You don't want to go in being a ignorant traveler who's just like, Oh, why don't you speak my language in your country? Exactly. I can't stand people like that. But anyways, okay, good to know. Anything else about Kyoto you wanted to mention? I did think it was awesome, your little tip about the bamboo forest. It wasn't really a tip, but I was so happy that you had that experience because I heard the same thing. [00:34:44.990] - Tamara When I was there, even, I saw some people on Instagram that seem to be there at the same time, but a couple of days before me. And they showed just this mass of people walking through. Because the word is out that for many of these things, you need to get there early. And so even if you show up at 7 AM, there's still this massive crowd of people funneling through this little area. And I don't want to do that. It was an hour away. No one's getting up at 5 AM to get to a place by 7 or whatever just to take a photo. My family doesn't roll like that. They're like, I don't really care about your photo. We just want to see it. And so we decided to sleep in a little bit. We went, we had lunch, then we went to the monkey forest. And I will say the whole Arashima area is, for a touristy area, so much nicer than I expected. It was really lovely. And there's a really pretty river that runs along that on some days you can run boats. It was really nice. Anyway, so we went to the monkey park first because Glenn loves monkeys, although it's such a steep climb up there, he was like, This better be worth it. [00:35:53.700] - Tamara Actually, there was a fan of it that was like, This better be worth it for your monkeys. But it was cool. We saw a lot of baby monkeys. The monkeys were not aggressive at all. They just hung out as long as you followed the rules. You weren't staring at them in the eyes to challenge them or something. Then we went to a temple, then we went to the forest. So we got to the Grove, not really a forest. It's much smaller than you think it's going to be. We got there maybe like 2.30, 3 o'clock, and it was fine. There was people there, but no crush of crowd and plenty of space to have a photo. Yeah, there's people in the background, but that's fine. Honestly, we just wanted a couple of family photos. I'm not going to win an Instagram competition over it, but it was nice. And it's really beautiful. It's really pretty. But sometimes I think doing the opposite of what everyone says. [00:36:47.700] - Kim You should do and work out. Especially when it's been around for so long, people are saying do that because it's very much like, oh, the gates open at seven. And so everyone who's built up, it's just like Disneyland. People say, oh, rope drop, rope drop. And you get there. And if you get there late, there's such a long line to get in. And then people come 30 minutes after opening and they walked right up to the turnstiles. There's something about that. [00:37:10.900] - Tamara Yeah. And I looked at Google Maps is wonderful. It was so helpful for the travel, figuring out the trains because it would say what platform, but also what car to get on if you were transferring. And then when you were leaving the station, what exit to take because those train stations are huge. So you're like, you don't know where you are when you come out. So it was really, really helpful. And it would tell you like eight minutes, 3 stops, here's the name of your stop. This is how much it's going to cost. It was really very helpful. But you can also look for attractions, and it'll show you the busiest times, like a little graph. [00:37:47.100] - Kim Yes, for sure. [00:37:47.990] - Tamara I was like, Okay, it looks like 10 to 2 is super busy. Who knows how accurate it is, but let's go. [00:37:53.690] - Kim After it. I have a good article about how I use Google Maps and you can make a custom and saver on map to help you with your planning to help see stuff for not just road trips, but also when you're planning a city vacation. But that's a good thing. I always forget about how they have that busy season section. I should add that to my post because. [00:38:11.540] - Tamara That's a. [00:38:12.160] - Kim Useful thing. [00:38:13.300] - Tamara When you're trying to figure out, especially for public transportation, many times the night before, I would look like, Oh, how long is it going to take? Because we need to know what time should we be done breakfast? What time do we need to leave? I like that there's a little drop down where you can say when you're departing or when you want to arrive because it changes. Especially public transportation may not have as many trains when you're looking late at night versus when you're going in the morning. [00:38:42.000] - Kim Totally. That's awesome. I always worry about the train, the car thing, because even in New York, sometimes I've been like... Because I'm not used to using trains often. When I first started going to New York and doing that, the Long Island Rail Railroad and stuff, they have certain cars they don't open the doors to all the time. During different hours of the day. I'm always like, Oh, how do I know what car I'm in? It's definitely one of those Charlie Brown teacher's voices. Sometimes I'm like, I have no idea where I'm at. [00:39:10.980] - Tamara That's the other great thing. In Japan, it's like, on the avement on the platform, it has numbers. So it's like, you know exactly what car that's going to be. Oh, man. And then everyone lines up single file behind those on either side of the. [00:39:26.830] - Kim Door for. [00:39:27.350] - Tamara Everyone to come out and then they go on. [00:39:29.780] - Kim It's lovely. Lovely. Nice. Okay, so then your last little stop was OSAKA. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Because I had planned that we were going to fly into Tokyo and out of OSAKA, but you ended up going back to Tokyo to go home. But what did you do in Osaka? [00:39:45.130] - Tamara Yeah, flying out of OSAKA would be ideal, but for us, Delta doesn't do that. So we had to go back to Tokyo. So OSAKA is known as the Japan's Kitchen, so it's known for its street food. So I knew I wanted to take a food tour when we were there because it's just that's really one of the things it's well known for. So I ended up... We actually got there, we explored a little bit. We did the... You made a sky building, which actually Glenn did not do. No surprise that when we went up high, especially there's these glass enclosed elevators that go between two towers on the 39th floor. And he was like, Are you kidding me? No way am I doing that. So Hannah and I did that. And then that night we actually went to a baseball game, which was really fun because Japanese culture is really into baseball. And it was like being at a college game in a way because they were playing Hiroshima, so that's not far away. Half the stadium were Buffalo fans and half the stadium were carp fans and they all sat on the right side. [00:40:49.140] - Tamara So it's like one half was red, one half was white. And they each had a cheering section in a band. And so you felt like you were a little bit at a college game with the marching band thing. It was a lot of fun. But then the next day we took a food tour with Arrogato Travel, and they have food tours in multiple cities. If you want to do a food tour in any of the cities, I would definitely recommend them. The guide was amazing. [00:41:13.870] - Kim It seemed like you had a really good time. [00:41:15.920] - Tamara Yeah, she was really wonderful. She had lived in the US for a little bit. I think she went to the University of Wisconsin. She lived somewhere else in the Midwest, too, but it's just such a funky, fun city. We toured this area called Shenzakai. It was built after World War II to attract Westerners and has more of a Coney Island vibe is what they were going for. It has carnival games and all these street food things. It's just so funky and retro. I think anywhere else I would have been like, Oh, this is cheesy. But it was actually really cool. And all throughout that area and the Dontambury area of Osaka, all of the food places, it's like Vegas for food places because they all have these three-dimensional facades with a giant octopus or a giant crab, and they're moving and lit up, and it's just so funky. There was one place where you could fish for your own fish, and then they cook it for you. It's almost hard to describe, but it is just bright lights, really funky, interesting, but lots of street food, lots of fried food on a stick, or like. [00:42:30.660] - Kim A fair. [00:42:31.420] - Tamara No, I'm just kidding. And the takeyaki octopus balls is like, that's where that's from. So that's like really huge. Afterwards, we went to the Don Donburi and we had Okonomiyaki. My family always laughs at me because for some reason I could never get this out. And Hannah and Glenn are like, Why can you not say this word? But Okonomiyaki, so it's like the Pancake type of thing with egg and cabbage and other things thrown in that they make on a griddle in front of you. So they have it in Kyoto and other places, but it's really known there. And in Hiroshima also, they have slightly different versions. That was just fun. So to do all the street food stuff, to have the good food tour, we really loved that. And then on our last, what was supposed to be our last day, we went to Hiroshima and we did a tour. I have a whole itinerary where it has a link to the tour company that I booked. Our guide was really sweet. He was wonderful. I highly recommend that. So we did the whole atomic bomb dome and museum, which was really heavy, obviously. [00:43:36.130] - Tamara And you have very confused feelings. [00:43:39.080] - Kim About it. Yeah, being. [00:43:40.620] - Tamara A member. Our role in that. But then we went to Miyajima Island, which is just a short, like, ferry ride. And it is just beautiful. We were there, it was raining. So there was all these mist and clouds on the mountains. And it just had this magical feel to it. But it was such a... I would love to spend a night there. It wasn't overcrowded, but when the people left, have. [00:44:07.840] - Kim It more to. [00:44:08.650] - Tamara Yourself type of thing. But there's a really famous Tori Gate that's in the water that looks high tide like it's floating, or when we were there during low tide, so you can walk out to it. And just a shrine. It's just a really pretty lush... That's one thing that really, I don't know why it surprised me, but Japan, outside the cities, it's so lush. You're like, Oh, right. These are islands. [00:44:34.300] - Kim Yeah. [00:44:35.380] - Tamara And that's why I liked about Kyoto too, because it's like a city that's nestled in a valley surrounded by these lush mountains. Not like towering. [00:44:43.150] - Kim Mountains, but these really lush. And it has a nice little river or stream or something through it too. [00:44:47.450] - Tamara So that was how we finished. I loved that. And then unfortunately, then we got stuck in a delay on a train coming back because there was a lot of rain. And then we found out our train for the next day to get back to Tokyo in time for our plane was canceled and we were hoping it was going to be all fixed by the morning. But Glenn woke up at five and he said it wasn't. And so then we were up for a couple of hours trying to figure out, what are we going to do? Because we were like, oh, we'll fly up to Tokyo. And by then, all the planes were booked until 3 PM. But we had a 625 flight and we would have had to get our luggage, get to another terminal, recheck it. We're like, that's never going to work. If we get there at 415 or I don't know, it was 435 o'clock or something is when we would have arrived. Never would have worked. So we're like, all right, let's see if we can stay an extra night here and let's book stuff for tomorrow. And let's call Delta and see if they can switch us. [00:45:40.700] - Tamara So then we had such a long travel day home because we flew from Osaka to Tokyo. And then we had to do Tokyo to LAX instead of Tokyo. We were booked on a Tokyo to Atlanta. So then at least the last little leg is short. Then we're in LAX for four hours. [00:46:00.110] - Kim Then you had a six hour flight. [00:46:02.380] - Tamara Well, and then it ended up being delayed. So we came out, we were luckily at the lounge and we actually went on the patio. The Delta Lounge in LAX has a patio, so it's loud but it was really good. It was just nice to get fresh air. [00:46:16.400] - Kim After all. [00:46:16.980] - Tamara That time. I actually went and I took a shower. I didn't even have any clothes. We had even checked everything, so I didn't even have any clothes to change into. But I'm like, I'm just taking a shower anyway. Yeah, for sure. And so then we came out of the lounge. We're like, Go to the gate. They're like, Oh, we're waiting on a crew member still. We're going to wait to board you. And then they started boarding us. We're like, Okay, I guess everything's all set. And then we're sitting on the plane and an hour later, they're like, Okay, the pilot's now in the parking lot. [00:46:42.550] - Kim And we're like. [00:46:43.320] - Tamara Oh, my gosh. Seriously? It was the pilot. They weren't even on premises when you boarded us. So we were delayed a couple hours. So we ended up... We got home at 315 in the morning. We'd been going for 30 hours, I think, or more, like 33 hours maybe. [00:47:02.380] - Kim That one did you have? Did you have any of the upgraded seating for any of those legs? [00:47:06.890] - Tamara Luckily, because we had booked our tickets in premium select, which if you know Delta, there's like Delta 1, which is like the nice pod lay flat thing. Then there's premium select, which has like a footrest that comes out and it reclines, but not like all the way, but it reclines some. Then there's comfort plus, which is basically like a regular seat with a little. [00:47:26.290] - Kim More leg room. Like me coming. [00:47:28.590] - Tamara So the reason we went through LAX is that's what we could get for premium economy. Oh, good. Okay. I mean, premium select on that, the longest leg from Tokyo to LAX. Then LAX to Boston doesn't have that. So I think we were in, I think, we were in Comfort Plus. I don't even know at that point. I was uncomfortable, that's for sure. But yeah. And then we flew into Boston, which we had flown out of Providence. So my car is still in Providence. So I had to get a car service to pick us up, bring us back. T he next day I'm like, Hannah, can you drive me down to get my car? Whatever. That's a. [00:48:03.840] - Kim Whole long story. It worked out. It sounds like you guys had an amazing trip and it was awesome. I know, like I said already and mentioned, Tamara has quite a few blog posts and she'll link them in the show notes, but you can also just go to Wee 3 Travel. I'm sure it's pretty easy to find them, but I know she has all of her itineraries that are if you guys know Tamara, they're very in-depth with a lot of detail. So super helpful if you're thinking of planning a trip. I think it was great. I'm glad you guys had a good time and glad I got to hear about it a little more. [00:48:31.780] - Tamara Yeah, it was definitely a bucket list trip. I think being there and being together as a family was wonderful. I think we all acknowledged, we don't know when we're going to have that opportunity again. Just know Hannah is going to be very busy the next few years. S he's going to be more than happy to take a trip with us when she can. We might just know when that will be. [00:48:52.240] - Kim Exactly. [00:48:52.840] - Tamara I'm glad. [00:48:53.360] - Kim We got to do it. Yeah, that's awesome. Perfect. [00:48:56.710] - Tamara What's next? [00:48:58.290] - Kim I don't even know. You're like, What day is it? What month is it? Exactly. The big thing on my agenda, I'm trying to take the summer off a little bit. We do have a trip up to Canada to visit family coming right up for Canada Day. Happy Canada Day to those of you Canadians that might be listening. Then happy fourth of July to the US Americans that are listening. We are doing that. Then I have a fun trip. You'll be moving Hannah back to school, but I am going to be flying to Kenya and doing a Simara J. W. Marriott stay, which I just got a steal on points for. I'm using points to fly some nice flights as well. That's what's coming up for me. My fall is going to be crazy and booked again, but at least I have. It looks like I'm trying to keep my summer a little more calm. Although that Africa trip, I cannot wait. It's during the Wilder Beast migration. That's a pretty big trip to be. I'm really excited. It's going to be during the Wilder Beast migration, too. So hopefully we'll get some amazing pictures. I got to rent a lens, it reminds me. [00:50:04.360] - Tamara I was telling somebody about the points deal that you got on that. Everyone just can't even believe it. What a lucky straw. [00:50:11.400] - Kim That was. Oh, my gosh, it was amazing. I don't know if this would work always, but I'm just a little tip for you guys, if you guys are points people. If you know of any future opening hotels that haven't opened yet, that are opening in the future, just maybe keep an eye on their points rates because that's what happened. This hotel hadn't opened yet. It was opening in April, and in February or something, I saw someone mentioned, Oh, my goodness, they've got nights for 20,000, 20 ish thousand points a night. With Marriott, if you book five nights with points, you only pay for four nights. So it's like book five nights, get one free thing. I don't know how to. [00:50:49.500] - Tamara Explain it, but you get it. And it's an all inclusive property. [00:50:51.920] - Kim It's all inclusive property. So all the game drives are included, all the meals are included, everything. I'm paying 93,000 points total for five nights for two people. [00:51:00.640] - Tamara That's like one night at a nice city hotel. [00:51:04.320] - Kim Yeah, I know. I was looking at a Fairfield Inn in New York in January, and there were like 65,000 points. So it gives you a little idea there. But anyways, so that's what's up for me. But what about you? [00:51:14.810] - Tamara As you hear this, I will probably either be in Scotland or Wales, depends on how quickly I get this out. So I leave shortly for a week with a couple of other travel writers, a week in Scotland, a week in Wales, and then I'm going to be home for a couple of weeks. And then I'm actually going to have two weeks in France, which I don't think I've even had a chance to tell you about. But I'm going to do... Glenn and I are going to go to France. We're doing the Taste of Bordeaux River cruise on Amman Waterways. Oh, nice. And then something else that came up. I was invited to do a press trip on European Waterways, which does hotel barge cruises. And I was trying to look at dates in the fall, but they didn't have any availability. But they're like, Well, how about this one on August sixth, which would have been the day I was flying back from France. I was like, Well, I will already be in France. It's to an area that I've been to before. So I was hoping to see something new, but I think it just works out for me to do this back to back, a more traditional river cruise versus a hotel barge cruise just to have these new experiences because I'm not a big ship person, but I'm definitely been wanting to try some of these other types of things. [00:52:28.570] - Tamara And my friend Michelle is going to come join me for that one because Glenn can't stay for the two weeks. [00:52:33.830] - Kim Take off that whole time. [00:52:34.800] - Tamara That's awesome. And then as soon as I get back, Hannah will come back and we have one day at home and then we fly her to Arizona. [00:52:43.570] - Kim Okie dokey. Well, thank you guys for tuning in again. If you're still with us and still listening, as you can see, we have a few trips on the agenda, so we're not quite sure when we'll make another episode. But as always, we always appreciate you guys tuning in and we'll try to share again soon. [00:52:58.280] - Tamara Yeah, hopefully, maybe the end of the summer. [00:53:00.250] - Kim Talk to you later. [00:53:01.640] - Tamara All right, bye bye.
Nightfood CEO Sean Folkson provides updates on hotel distribution, recently initiated hotel and airline tests of Nightfood cookies as amenities, and answer investor questions. Nightfood is pioneering the category of sleep-friendly nighttime snacks. Over 80% of Americans snack regularly at night, resulting in an estimated 700 million nighttime snack occasions weekly, and an annual spend on night snacks of over $50 billion. The most popular choices are ice cream, cookies, chips, and candy. Recent research confirms such snacks, in addition to being generally unhealthy, can impair sleep, partly due to excess fat, sugar, and calories consumed before bed. Nightfood's sleep-friendly snacks are formulated by sleep and nutrition experts to contain less of those sleep-disruptive ingredients, along with a focus on ingredients and nutrients that research suggests can support nighttime relaxation and better sleep quality. The brand is focused on establishing widespread national distribution of Nightfood ice cream, cookies, and other snack formats in the high-margin hotel vertical. In March, 2023, Nightfood announced Sonesta International Hotels Corporation, the 8th largest hotel company in the United States, launched Nightfood ice cream into multiple Sonesta chains. Also in March, the Company announced its status as a Qualified Vendor of Choice Hotels, one of the world's largest lodging franchisors. Nightfood ice cream pints can be found in select locations of chains such as Sonesta, Courtyard by Marriott, Holiday Inn Express, Springhill Suites, Hyatt Place, Fairfield Inn & Suites and many more. Hotels are increasingly focused on supporting guest wellness, and one way to do that is by offering healthier and sleep-friendly snacks in their grab-and-go lobby shops. With an estimated 56,000 hotels across the United States, expanding distribution into a significant number of those hotels is expected to lead to profitability, consumer adoption of the nighttime snack category, and a strategically defensible position from which category leadership can be maintained. Questions can be directed to investors@Nightfood.com By signing up at ir.nightfood.com, investors can receive updates of filings and news releases in their inbox.
Highlights from the 2023 Texas Sports Hall of Fame Induction featuring clips from NFL stars Michael Strahan, Robert Brazile, Adrian Peterson, and Priest Holmes, along with baseball star Jose Cruz, Olympians Cynthia Potter and Carlette Guidry, and Baylor men's basketball coach Scott Drew. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. Author and oral historian Jackson Michael (The Game Before the Money) hosts and produces the podcast.
At Anna Lotan PRO, we believe that our senses and sensations are the tools that guide us in selecting the appropriate treatment and home care products for each client. Through our educational programs and professional skin care products, you can confidently sharpen your senses and develop your skills. To ensure you achieve the best results possible, we offer you a professional, sophisticated, results-oriented skin care line that is backed by extensive proprietary research in science and technology. Our professional products for licensed estheticians treat the skin with the utmost care. Using sustainable, naturally derived ingredients within carefully selected carriers enables us to minimize skin reactions. We prefer biomimetic components that mimic the skin's own water and oil-soluble constituents. These will be comfortably accepted by the skin when replenishing what has been lost. Protecting your client's skin barrier function is a primary Anna Lotan philosophy. The Esthetician Summit 2023 will be held at the Plano Event Center in Plano, Texas Dates: April 17, 2023-April 19, 2023 Time: 8a-6p Location: Plano Event Center 2000 E Spring Creek Pkwy, Plano, TX 75074 What is the Esthetician Summit 2023? Get your ticket here: https://ssmoothskinsupply.com/esthetician-summit-2023-registration/ The Esthetician Summit 2023 is a unique esthetic only educational summit dedicated to esthetic education. We provide an unique opportunity to network with esthetic brands and experience esthetic training in real-time. Get your ticket here: https://ssmoothskinsupply.com/esthetician-summit-2023-registration/ What's included in my 1-Day, 2-Day or 3-Day Ticket? **Discount Hotel Rate designated for attendees with shuttle service to the Event Center and back to the hotel. Fairfield Inn & Suites Dallas Plano North 3415 Premier Drive Plano, Texas 75023 DISCOUNTED ROOM RATE LINK General Admission seating (classroom style) in our Esthetic Education Area Access to the Esthetician Experience Area to meet all vendors and speakers up-close and personal Catered Lunch daily Esthetician Summit 2023 Swag Bag ($500 Value) Esthetician Summit 2023 Speaker Schedule Day 1 Speakers: Maxine Drake Maxine Drake Consulting Topics: How to Creatively Crush Economic & Business Uncertainty! Pamela Springer Global Skin Solutions Topic: The Dark Side of Aesthetics Shannon O'Brien Love2Sugar: Topic: $100k the Sugar Way! Barbara Devlin Anna Lotan Pro: Topic: Stop Burning your client's skin!! Learn forward-thinking approaches to treating skin including sensitive & Rosacea Panel Q & A with all speakers Day 2 Speakers: Susan Wade Viktoria DeAnn Topic: The Power of Bioactive Peptides & Why Everyone Needs Them Nicck Townsend Nicck Townsend: 7 Figure Brows Michelle Valeri Holistic Dermal Professionals Topic: The Face Reveals Every Secret We Have Stephanie Laynes Se-Brazil Wax Topic: Every Client Wants the VIP Experience Panel Q & A with all speakers Day 3 Masterclass Speakers: Stephanie Laynes Se-Brazil Wax: Masterclass: Include Products in Your Services with Se-Brazil Nicck Townsend Nicck Townsend Masterclass: 7 Figure Brows Angela Green Skin Biz School Masterclass: The Cost Per Service Panel Q & A with all speakers Get your ticket here: https://ssmoothskinsupply.com/esthetician-summit-2023-registration/
Listen to stories from the inductees of the 2022 Southwest Conference Hall of Fame class, recorded live at the induction luncheon held at the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Learn how to attend future Texas Sports Hall of Fame events by visiting Texas Sports Hall of Fame - Home (tshof.org) and by following the Texas Sports Hall of Fame on social media. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. Author and oral historian Jackson Michael (The Game Before the Money) hosts and produces the podcast.
This week Niki and I welcome Dylan Beaumont, General Manager at Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Eugene, Oregon. Dylan is a longtime supporter of Don't Look Under The Bed and an all around advocate of the hospitality industry. When he is not running the operations at his hotel, he is listening to podcasts, sharing hospitality history and positive energy. Dylan shares with Niki and I what keeps him up at night, the changes in hospitality over the years and much more. Connect with Dylan: IG: @fairfieldeugene Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dylan-beaumont-7a24a6191 dbeaumont02@gmail.com FOLLOW US: IG: @dontlookunderthebedpod niki@dontlookunderthebed.org Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/nikiwade robin@dontlookunderthebed.org Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/robinmoncrieffe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week Niki and I welcome Dylan Beaumont, General Manager at Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Eugene, Oregon. Dylan is a longtime supporter of Don't Look Under The Bed and an all around advocate of the hospitality industry. When he is not running the operations at his hotel, he is listening to podcasts, sharing hospitality history and positive energy. Dylan shares with Niki and I what keeps him up at night, the changes in hospitality over the years and much more. Connect with Dylan: IG: @fairfieldeugene Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dylan-beaumont-7a24a6191 dbeaumont02@gmail.com FOLLOW US: IG: @dontlookunderthebedpod niki@dontlookunderthebed.org Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/nikiwade robin@dontlookunderthebed.org Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/robinmoncrieffe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Matt and Bow come together from a Fairfield Inn in Englewood Colorado to close out the year with one last list. This time? The 60(!) things everybody wants. Best wishes for 2023, we've got work to do, readerspublicistskayteighs. We love you so so much.
St. Olaf professor Oren Saftie and students Joanna Kwon and Hannah Omodt of the St. Olaf Storytellers talk about "An Evening of Laughter and Tears." The St. Olaf Storytellers will kick off the holiday season 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7 at Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott in Northfield, with their first public reading series centered around the theme of finding humor in pain. Admission is free.
In this episode, we discuss: the largest, single day food drive in the nation started here in St. Louis Scouting for Food is coming up! "Hey Siri... remind me to set out the food donations!" Donate food OR donate money by texting "ScoutFood" to 91999. Every $1 donated provides up to 4 meals. Radium Girls! We interviewed several of the student actors from the upcoming theater production at OTHS. Shows are Thurs, Nov 17 - Sunday Nov 20th. Tues, Nov 16 @ 5:30pm in the Fairfield Inn lobby (1180 Central Park Drive) is the Chamber's Book Club- we're discussing Give and Take by Adam Grant. Fri - Sun, Dec 2-4th is the OTHS Madrigal Dinner and Beggars' Feast. Deadline to purchase tickets is Nov 18th, so get them now! Have an idea for a podcast topic? Submit it here! Follow us on Instagram @The618Now.
Kandee Anderson has worked for Marriott since December of 1988—34 years. How many people can say that? Her accomplishments are broad and deep. She started as a Sales Manager at a Residence Inn in Southern California. She worked her way up to a GM position at that property before moving into marketing and sales as a Regional Sales Director. Eventually, Kandee became the General Manager for several properties in Southern California. She's the GM of the Irvine Marriott, located in Orange County. She's led convention marketing strategies, won awards for customer service, received profitability recognition, and has facilitated leadership training within the company. Kandee has done it all. In this episode of Upthinking Finance™ Kandee shares how she advanced in the industry, talks about the challenges she faced along the way, and shares her thoughts on the future of the hotel industry. Don't miss it! You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in...[3:18] What drew Kandee to the hotel industry? [5:24] Finding balance in a demanding job [7:43] How Kandee advanced in the industry [12:53] Defining moments in Marriott's history [17:41] The evolution of Marriott hotels [21:00] The challenges of the expansion process [24:15] How Covid has impacted the hotel industry [29:16] Kandee's thoughts on the future of the industry [31:59] What Kandee is most proud of in her career [34:23] Kandee's favorite hotel in the world The evolution of Marriott hotelsMarriott was actually a food and beverage company for 30 years. It wasn't until 1957 that J.W. Marriot purchased his first full-service “motor hotel.” It was very successful for them and they continued to diversify. In 1987, they purchased the brand Residence Inn. It was their first acquisition. Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, and Springhill suites were all built from within to cater to every possible customer. Their portfolio also includes full-service and luxury hotels, such as the Ritz-Carlton, the Renaissance brand, and many other international brands. The first international hotel was in Acapulco Mexico in 1975. They've grown this amazing machine with different brands. What challenges has the company faced during its extensive growth? Listen to learn more! How navigating Covid changed everything J.W. Marriott founded his hotels with the sole purpose of putting people first. His motto was “If you take care of your associates, they will take care of the customers.” Because of this belief, Marriott was one of the few companies that kept benefits for all of their employees during the Covid pandemic, even if they were furloughed. Now that the world is recovering from the impact of the pandemic, there's a lot more leisure travel. But corporate travel is in flux. Companies are looking at different ways to do meetings. So from an occupancy standpoint, the leisure side is strong. All of the business realm has room to grow. How Kandee advanced in the industryKandee was the first female General Manager at her hotel. When she first started at Marriott, women couldn't wear pants. They were treated differently. But she's never been passed up for a promotion or been stopped because she was a woman. She's broken through many barriers because of her grit and determination. She also had great mentors that encouraged her to keep pushing upward. She had always been fearless and confident, even as a young child. She is always the first person to raise her hand in meetings and is always part of the conversation. She wasn't afraid to raise her voice and bring her knowledge and experience to the table. Kandee is proud to do something she loves while making a good living. She accomplished her financial goals in a way where she was happy and able to spend time with her family. She chased balance and a financially rewarding life. She did what she loved and didn't pursue things that pulled her away...
Texas Sports Hall of Fame curator Jay Black tells the stories behind four historic baseballs that are part of the museum's collection, including a ball that was the final out of the 1920 World Series, a ball signed by U.S. president Warren G. Harding, and a ball signed by Babe Ruth when the Yankees traveled to Waco. This episode of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. Author and oral historian Jackson Michael hosts and produces the podcast. Learn more about the Texas Sports Hall of Fame at https://tshof.org.
Sharon Moultrie-Bruner was the first woman to earn All-American honors at Texas Tech. The Pampa, Texas native starred for the Red Raiders track and field team and has coached high school track in Texas for nearly 40 years. Our "Nine for Title IX" series celebrates 50 years of Title IX with nine episodes featuring women who impacted Texas sports. This is Episode Seven and is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. "Nine for Title IX" episodes are released each Thursday through June 23. #TitleIX #TexasTech
Vicki Brown Sobecki, an All-American swimmer who earned one of the first women's athletic scholarships at Texas A&M discusses the history of Texas A&M's swimming program and how Title IX has lifted women into leadership roles beyond sports. In 2022, the SEC named Vicki as one of the two trailblazers of women's athletics at Texas A&M. The Nine for Title IX series celebrates the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which was signed into law in June of 1972. This is the fourth episode in the series and is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North.
Stacy Sykora discusses her Olympic volleyball career and the impact of Title IX in the first of our "Nine for Title IX" series to celebrate 50 years of Title IX. This episode is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North.
Welcome to Episode 10 “The Biggest Moment of My Life”. A bit dramatic? Maybe. But this was recorded in a random Fairfield Inn parking lot somewhere in NC during my biggest moment of faith and obedience. It had to be documented. This week's episode is for you if you've gone through a recent breakup, are in a current season of singleness, or currently just struggling in a growth season to be obedient. Your Sustainable Wellness Toolkit for the Week: Watch “Interrupting Restrictive + Negative Thought Patterns to THRIVE” right now https://view.flodesk.com/pages/622821b17e7ec064e82a15d2 . It's time you define what thriving looks like to YOU and go after it, boo. Join this week's team devotional: "Obedience Over Hustle: Surrendering the Striving Heart" https://bible.com/p/50117339/5b6291d48ce6f30e61b4157439b15faa Host: Sierra Brown Email: info@melaninwell.com | IG: @iammelaninwell | Website: www.melaninwell.com
John McClain of the Houston Chronicle shares his memories of Dave Campbell, the longtime editor-in-chief of Texas Football. Mr. Campbell was an icon in the state of Texas and an important part of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame community. He passed away in December of 2021. This is episode is the first of two tributes to Dave Campbell. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites Waco North. Author and oral historian Jackson Michael (The Game Before the Money) hosts and produces the podcast. Learn more about the Texas Sports Hall of Fame at https://tshof.org.
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Texas Sports Hall of Fame curator Jay Black tells the story of one of the Hall's treasured pieces, the jersey worn by the great Sammy Baugh in the 1937 College All-Star Game. The college all-stars, led by Slingin' Sammy, defeated the Green Bay Packers, champions of the 1936 NFL season. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites Waco North. Author and oral historian Jackson Michael (The Game Before the Money) hosts and produces the podcast. Learn more about the Texas Sports Hall of Fame at https://tshof.org.
Today's guest spent time working in Japan and brings his cultured view to hospitality. Andrew Benioff is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Llenrock Group. He's also the Founder of the Philadelphia Real Estate Council and the Independent Lodging Congress. Listen to this week's episode as he shares #hospitality insights with Dan Ryan today! Takeaways: Service is the act of serving, but hospitality is the feeling an empathic employee gives to a customer. It's difficult to have good hospitality without great service. Japanese culture is a mentality. A big part of it is the wellbeing of a group of people over an individual. In Japan, perfection is expected in your work. While it can be demanding, it brings out the best work in the person and allows them to achieve the highest goals they have. While perfection is expected in Japan, it's not always a good thing. It's ok to fail at something that is a new attempt. Failure can be a great teaching moment. Try to be flexible in your thinking. A new approach to a process might be an idea that can turn out to be helpful. Two things that hotels absolutely need to have: a shower with great water pressure and a comfortable bed. If a hotel has those two features all other issues are forgotten. Be patient and have an open mind. Try not to think that things need to go a certain way, it's almost more important to know what you don't want rather than to know what you want to do. Quote of the Show: 48:32 “The longer I've done ILC (Independent Lodging Congress), the more I've become interested in indie hospitality in indie hotels. I think that the indie space is fascinating for so many reasons in that it takes so much more attention to detail to work on one of those projects. And it also takes so much more of a connection to the community and the area that the project is in. And so I'm working on a number of different projects that are all indie focused, and I love them because each one of them is so distinct and different. And I love that focus of really digging into the community.” Links: Andrew's Profile: linkedin.com/in/llenrockgroupbenioff Company website: https://precouncil.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/indiecongress?lang=en Shout Outs: 3:06 Danny Meyer 4:12 Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company 6:00 Four Seasons 6:10 Rosewood 8:23 The Rock House in the Bahamas 12:38 Team Building ILC 16:18 McDonald's 19:46 Jiro Dreams of Sushi documentary 24:07 Penn Pacific in San Francisco 24:08 Nico in San Francisco 24:10 Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco 44:44 The Birth of Sake 49:44 Fairfield Inn 49:45 Hampton Inn 50:15 Hortz Schulze, founder of Ritz-Carlton 51:45 Michael Bedner Ways to Tune In: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0A2XOJvb6mGqEPYJ5bilPX Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-hospitality-podcast/id1573596386 Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGVmaW5pbmdob3NwaXRhbGl0eS5saXZlL2ZlZWQueG1s Podbean: https://www.defininghospitality.live/
Hear stories from the 2020-2021 Texas Sports Hall of Fame class! Inductees included track and field stars Leroy Burrell, Francie Larrieu Smith, and Michele Carter, as well as basketball legends Teresa Weatherspoon and Sophia Young-Malcolm, and football stars DeMarcus Ware, Derrick Johnson, Shane Lechler, and Charlie Waters. Stories were taken from the press conference and induction ceremony. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites Waco North. The show is produced and hosted by author Jackson Michael.
Today, Jody brought up an interesting story I had illuded to when we first started this podcast. In the 1970s, I ran a restaurant in the Fairfield Inn in Philadelphia. While there, there was a woman that came in every day and ordered tea. There was a particular instance when this customer decided to complain about the water not being hot. This story sparked the question between Jody and me: should you argue with a customer? This encounter solidified a specific understanding for me: The world does not revolve around Lee. Just get the customer the tea. We have discussed the importance of treating guests as individuals before. When you personalize and individualize how you treat guests, you will have return customers. If you have a customer complain, don't get upset about it. It is about the issue, not you. Your customers and employees know everything you need to know to make your company better. You just have to be open when they come up. Complaints are one way you may receive this insight. Chances are that complaints from one can help you serve the many. Don't be intimidated, but see it as the opportunity to solve a real problem. We all have customers that complain. Rather than argue with them, do something about it. Take care of the problem rather than creating a secondary one. Don't overreact, make the adjustments and deal with the issue. Have a spirit to serve. Be creative. If you keep an open mind and keep the mission to serve the customer at the forefront, you can figure out solutions when situations arise. The little things do matter, so pay attention. If you want to work with people who notice and take care of the little things, you need to check out Magical Vacation Planners. You can reach them at 407-442-2694.
You know how you always hear people talking about getting free stays at hotels or status perks? How do they do that? Find out! This week on the podcast we talk road warrior Ed Pizza from the Miles to Go podcast about the best hotel loyalty programs for families and ways to earn status and free hotel stays. About Our Sponsor: Room Steals Today's episode is sponsored by Room Steals. Listeners may remember Room Steals from our discussion on finding hotel deals in Episode 185, but Room Steals is a Chrome browser extension that works alongside existing booking sites to show you what the wholesale price is for that room. Just install the browser extension and search for a hotel as you usually would on Hotels.com, Booking.com, Expedia, or Google. Once you've done your initial search, Room Steals will show you in a pop-up if that same room is available for less. If it is, you can click on that pop-up and book it directly through Room Steals. Downloading and using Room Steals is free; however, if you want to book a discounted room you have to pay an annual membership fee. Listeners can save 20% off the annual membership fee with promo code vacationmavens. If you travel multiple times in a year, the subscription will quickly pay for itself. One listener already saved $400 using Room Steals on her first booking! To learn more, visit roomsteals.com. That's roomsteals.com and use promo code vacationmavens to save 20% off your membership to Room Steals, and we thank them for their support. About Ed Pizza Ed Pizza is a road warrior and family traveler. When we're not in the middle of a pandemic he travels 100,000 miles a year for work. His family loves luxury travel, all things Disney and even bought an RV during the pandemic. You can check out his podcast, Miles to Go, the same places you catch Vacation Mavens and you can find him writing about travel at pizzainmotion.com. Best Hotel Loyalty Programs for Families Hyatt offers the best loyalty program for families as it is easier to earn and use points (you need fewer points to redeem for a free night than other programs) and they offer great family-friendly perks like free breakfast, guaranteed late check out, and, if you have status with them, the concierge is good at guaranteeing connecting rooms or confirming suite upgrades in advance. The only challenge with Hyatt is that they don't have as large of a footprint as Hilton or Marriott, especially if you are traveling to smaller destinations. Hyatt does have a number of family-friendly brands including Hyatt Place on the lower end and Hyatt House for suites. A few terrific Hyatt properties in popular family travel destinations include: Hyatt Grand Cypress (outside of Disney), Ziva Resorts in Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean, the Hyatt Regency Sydney in Australia (which is more affordable than the Park Hyatt Sydney but still has amazing views), Grand Hyatt Bahia Mar in the Bahamas, and the Driscoll in Austin. Wyndham also is an excellent choice for families. In addition to the hotels, you can use points at many of their vacation rental or timeshare properties, which offer so much more room for families. Wyndham also has a partnership with Vacasa for vacation home rentals. Some great Wyndham properties include the Magic Villages in Orlando, ski lodges and log cabins in Montana, and great properties overseas. Wyndham now has a credit card through Barclay's that helps you earn points and they have bonus points on things like utility bills, which you don't find elsewhere. Hilton has some pros and cons for their loyalty programs. Hilton values treating folks well on award stays and they don't add resort fees, unlike some other programs that still charge fees on free stays. Hilton also gives away a lot of points for stays and through their credit card. The footprint isn't as big as Marriott but larger than Hyatt. Hilton Honors Gold members also receive little perks like free bottles of water at check in and free WiFi. However, Hilton recently rolled back their free breakfast offer for members (at least temporarily). Instead there will be a credit per day to use as you want (drinks from the bar, meals, etc), however it wouldn't typically cover everything that you would get at a free breakfast. Marriott has the largest footprint, but they do charge fees like resort fees and parking on award stays. IHG (which includes Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Hotel Indigo, etc) doesn't offer as much as the other brands but can be good if you do a lot of road tripping and then redeeming points for stays overseas at classic, boutique hotels. Unless you are a road warrior traveling frequently on business, the best way to earn points is through a credit card. Instead of using the brand specific credit card, it is better to use a credit card with programs like Chase Ultimate Rewards or American Express Membership Rewards that you can transfer points to hotels to book award stays. Chase offers a bit more flexibility and value over Amex. When you transfer points, it is often 1:1 transfer so you will get more bang for your points if you transfer to a program like Hyatt where your points go further. If you are going to stay with a specific brand often, a hotel credit card can get you to the next status tier (and related perks) faster and you will often get one free hotel stay certificate per year. You need to make sure you are using the value of the cost of the annual fee. Generally it makes sense to pay for your hotel stays with that card but you will get more points per dollar for other types of stays from other types of cards. Full Episode Transcript [00:00:00.000] - Kim Tate Which hotels deserve your loyalty? Stay tuned to find out. [00:00:15.290] - Announcer Welcome to Vacation Mavens, a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We3Travel. [00:00:29.940] - Kim Tate Today's episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Room Steals. You guys may have already heard of it. Room Steals is a browser extension that you add to Chrome, so that when you're shopping for the next hotel for your vacation, you can see if you are really getting the best rate. You plug in your destination on one of the major booking engines, whether it's Expedia or Travelocity or booking.com or hotels.com, and a window will pop up, letting you know if they found a better deal for you. [00:00:55.810] - Kim Tate The program is free to use, so you can always see and shop and figure out if the there is a better deal out there. And if you do spot a better deal, you can book it through the Room Steals site where there is an annual membership fee. But our listeners get to save on their annual membership fee with the code vacationmavens, they can save 20%. [00:01:14.110] - Tamara Gruber So I was just researching some potential hotels in Dublin in Ireland because we're still trying to figure out where to take Hannah for her graduation trip. And that's one option. And I was going through some of these options because I really want it to be like, nice hotels, like special hotel in for this trip. But obviously I would always like to save some money. So I found one on Room Steals where I could save $142 and then another one where I could save $60. So it's like all these things could add up over the course of a big trip. [00:01:46.570] - Tamara Gruber So it's like even just that one hotel stay would be saving more than the cost of the membership. So I definitely encourage everyone to go check out Room Steals. Like Kim said, it is a browser extension that you can download add to Chrome. And then when you're searching for hotels, you're able to see whether or not there's a deal that you'd like to take advantage of. And just remember, check out Room steals. Com. You can sign up using Code vacationmavens all one word, all lowercase and save 20%, and we thank them for their support. [00:02:15.280] - Kim Tate So Tamara talking about hotels and getting deals through Room Steals. Today we are going to talk with a guest that we've had on before, and he's one of my favorite savvy travel guys. And that's Ed Pizza. [00:02:27.960] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. So he travels so so much every year, he knows all the hotels, all the programs, what the best deals are, what the best credit cards are, and he's going to share all of his knowledge. So I can't wait to jump into that interview. [00:02:40.540] - Kim Tate Let's chat with him. [00:02:49.470] - Tamara Gruber So today we're here with Ed Pizza. He's a road warrior, and family traveler. And when we're not in the middle of a pandemic, he travels 100,000 miles a year for work. His family loves luxury travel, all things Disney, and even bought an RV during the pandemic. You can check out his podcast Miles to go at the same places you can catch vacation, mavens. And you can also find him writing about traveling a pizza in motion dot com. So Ed, welcome back to the podcast. [00:03:15.640] - Ed Pizza Hey, thanks for having me back, guys. It's been a while and I'm excited to be back on talking stuff. [00:03:20.110] - Tamara Gruber I know you're back traveling a little bit for work, but how long did you go without being on an airplane? [00:03:25.780] - Ed Pizza So I was actually in New Zealand helping a friend on the Tarmac when the US announced that they were closing arrivals to Europeans. And that was me coming back into the country. So that was called like, March 14 ish. And I didn't get back on a plane. That was March 14, 2020. Sorry, I didn't get back on a plane until early June 2021, but I have been ramping things up, and I think it's interesting that if you guys hadn't reached doubt to have me come podcast, I was almost going to reach out to you guys because we're following this parallel track and that I spent a couple of weeks in Maine, I think right before you did, Sarah and I just finished coming back across the Canadian border on the east side, Kim to your west. [00:04:11.260] - Kim Tate Nice. [00:04:13.150] - Ed Pizza So a little bit of family travel, mostly road warrior stuff. [00:04:18.470] - Kim Tate Especially now that you have an RV that you were one of the many that jumped into that lifestyle. I've seen some of your things that's kind of funny how you're like, I'm embracing this for my family, but I am not embracing this. This is what I want to do with my life. [00:04:33.000] - Ed Pizza Yeah. I mean, as I've said jokingly a number of times if it happened to burn to the ground and I got an insurance settlement, it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. But the kids and you guys know that your kids are older than mine. And so I think you probably have a better grasp of this than I do. You wake up at some point and you realize that they're going to College and you're like, Well, did I fill up the bucket enough? And our kids still love both of us. [00:04:59.150] - Ed Pizza My wife and I, and they like being with us. And they really love the camping thing. And so as much as I grumble and say bad words, sometimes when things break, which is pretty much every time we roll it anywhere, the memories that they're creating with us, I hope, will be things that when they get to College, it's, wow. That's in the bucket of things that I love doing as a kid. [00:05:21.850] - Tamara Gruber That's good. You speaking to my heart there. [00:05:24.870] - Kim Tate I was going to say Tamara and I are both right there because we both have girls going off to College. As you've probably heard, we're definitely in that wondering how we can keep scraping some more trips in there and then hoping that the College schedules will allow us to keep traveling and that our kids will keep traveling with us through those four years as well, at least for me. [00:05:47.390] - Ed Pizza And I know it's not what we're talking about today, but I think a really good point to make that I've obviously seen with the way that both of you guys travel with your family is that we all make memories in a variety of different ways. But we've all chosen travel as one of those primary ways to create those memories. And just like you, I'm hoping that the work that we put in for travel up until our daughter is a sophomore in high school. Now I'm hopeful that when she gets into College, it'll be, hey, I'd love to go take a Disney trip. [00:06:18.940] - Ed Pizza Hey, dad, mom, do you want to go or, hey, I love Lisbon. Or can we go visit Peggy's Cove in Canada? Whatever that there's a powerful enough connection to a place that they've been. They're like, I want to go and I want to go with mom and dad. [00:06:32.830] - Tamara Gruber I was just thinking mine is talking about the road trip that she wants to do with her friends post graduation, but I know she'll come back to our trips as well. [00:06:41.510] - Kim Tate Definitely. I think we're in that same boat, Tamara. So if you're listening to this and like, do you have a few more years? Definitely. Don't worry about I spent so many summers not planning and stuff because I hated crowds and also because we have such nice summers here in Seattle. But I now kind of regret not using that summertime more efficiently. Although we did take a lot of family trips and visited family and had family here. So I guess it was well used, but definitely maximize your time off with your kids. [00:07:13.940] - Tamara Gruber Well, speaking of traveling with kids and planning and thinking ahead and all of that, one of the ways that we've gotten to travel a little bit more or structure our budget a little bit more is using hotel loyalty programs and trying to maximize some free nights here and there. And I was thinking about which programs are really best for families. And I know a lot of programs have changed recently. And Ed, you came to mind because I know on your Miles to Go, you talk about this a lot, and I think I might know the answer. [00:07:47.180] - Tamara Gruber But when it comes to hotel loyalty programs, what one do you really like for families? So not business travelers, but really for families. [00:07:56.600] - Ed Pizza I'm going to give you my favorite. And then if we have time later, I'm going to give you my sleeper because I think there's someone coming up on the outside turn that maybe doesn't become my favorite, but it started to earn their keep above some of the other chains. But for me, it's it. And for many years it was starwood preferred guest before Marriott bought them because they understood that road warriors have husbands, wives, significant others, in a lot of cases, kids. And they want to take care of those other people because that makes that means the business traveler want to patronize them and high. [00:08:29.570] - Ed Pizza It just where they really get this right, and they get it right in a number of different ways. But I think primarily it's in reducing friction for family travel. So when we think about a family of three or four, we don't all live in one room at home. We certainly don't share one bathroom, especially with a teenage daughter. So being able to have space when we travel, it is huge. And it has benefits like being able to request and confirm a suite upgrade at the time of booking, which is unique amongst the major hotel chains. [00:09:00.780] - Ed Pizza And you say, well, if I know ahead of time where I can get that extra space for my family, that helps drive where we might choose to go on vacation. And there are a lot of other benefits to the world Hyatt program that I think make things easier for families, things like free breakfast, guaranteed late checkout, just things that make it easier for when family travel goes sideways, which the younger your kids are, the more frequently that happens. [00:09:23.820] - Tamara Gruber 100% agree. My husband was ambassador level with Marriott for a while, and he had these five suite upgrades of a year or something to use. And we were looking to book a suite in Amsterdam. I think it was and we like you we want the space. It's all about having a little extra space, not being crammed into those two double beds in particular. And we wanted to book this week, but we're like, do we actually pay for it, or do we take the risk that we can use one of these upgrades and not being able to confirm that, you know, you have that upgrade. [00:09:58.620] - Tamara Gruber It makes such a difference because you're making a totally different choice. And of course, we ended up just doing an Airbnb instead. [00:10:03.840] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And especially when you talk about families in Europe in that the restrictions on the number of people in a room are very different from the US. There are plenty of rooms in Europe where two is the Max Occupancy and a flu or three same in Asia. So that's a complication. And I think one of the things you mentioned, Marriott Ambassador, and I had a Marriott ambassador for a long time. In the beginning, they were great at communicating with the properties and they could advocate on your behalf. [00:10:31.470] - Ed Pizza But I'll be honest with you. For me, at least one of the biggest benefits that world of Hyatt provides for me. I have their equivalent. It's called my Hyatt concierge as part of their globalist status. It isn't even necessarily the suite upgrades. Those are great. And who doesn't love a big plus room with an awesome view and all that stuff? But for me, it can really be as simple as can you just guarantee me connecting rooms? My kids are younger, like we just want connecting rooms. [00:10:56.420] - Ed Pizza I don't need something fancy, and my Hyatt concierge would always contact the property early on my behalf, and they would work with the property to block rooms. And I can say, honest to God, I very rarely use the words always or never. In the ten or so years I've been top tier status with Hyatt, I've never shown up at a property that promised me connecting rooms ahead of time and not gotten them. And as a family traveler, that's huge. I need just a few times a year, but when I need it, I need it and they always say yes, we're going to take care of you. [00:11:29.720] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, Hyatt is not a property or a brand that I get to stay at a lot. There aren't quite as many. I think that's one of the problems that people run into. But when I've had an opportunity to stay at a Hyatt place just in terms of the lower tier, I was kind of amazed. I love this setup where it has kind of a partial dividing wall between the bed and the sitting area with the pullout couch. So when you have a younger child, you have that little bit of that separation of space without going for the larger suite or two rooms. [00:11:59.390] - Tamara Gruber So another benefit to me are some of the Hyatt brands that people may not be familiar with. [00:12:04.310] - Ed Pizza Yeah, no, I agree. And I think Hyatt House is another brand of there where they have multiple room suites. And I've had a reasonable amount of luck in contacting a property ahead of time through the concierge and asking even though it wasn't, isn't a published benefit to say, hey, can I use a suite upgrade certificate to just get a two bedroom unit instead of a one bedroom? And very rarely I've been told no for things like that. So I think it's the flexibility that they work with folks on. [00:12:30.320] - Ed Pizza It's not that Marriott or Hilton or anything to change doesn't have fabulous, unbelievable properties. I think it's for family travelers and for specific needs. We just need a little bit more flexibility at times. And Hyatt works hard to give that that's nice. [00:12:46.630] - Kim Tate I've heard a few other people that are kind of in the point space. They just love Hyatt. I'll admit, one of the things that's kept me from just going all in on them. I find I have a harder time finding properties where if you're doing like a road tripping type family or something like that, those Marriott properties, it seems like everywhere you go there's a Fairfield Inn. So that is one thing that I have noticed. Do you think there's any limitations on property availability with Hyatts? And then do you have any favorite property within that program that you think are great for families to check out if they're looking for a kind of hotel destination? [00:13:23.000] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And I think that's a fair criticism of Hyatt. If there is one is that they don't have the third tier city when you're going to visit friends and family when you're going to visit Grandma, if you're road tripping in the US, that's certainly an area where they're weaker than the other chains. They've expanded their footprint through really interesting partnerships. They have a big partnership with small luxury hotels of the world, which means that they now have over a dozen properties in Italy where they used to have one, and they things of that nature. [00:13:54.090] - Ed Pizza But as you say, I always use Williamsburg, Virginia, sort of my textbook example of the comparison between Marriott Hyatt, and each person will choose what's most important to them. Williamsburg, Virginia, Colonial, Williamsburg, Busch Gardens, all that stuff. It's a family destination. Not far from my house. There are zero Hyatts. There are no limited service properties. There are five Marriotts. They're all kind of dingy, but there are five properties there. And so the choice I make when my family goes to Williamsburg is do we drive 45 minutes from a very new Hyatt place, or do we stay right there at one of the Marriotts? [00:14:28.410] - Ed Pizza That's convenient, but not as nice as property, and I don't know that there's a right answer for that. I think every family makes that decision. But if you're going to make a compromise at times, that's the compromise you'd make with a road tripping in the US where I think they have some really specific fits, though, that work well for families. As you mentioned, what are some of my favorite properties? First and foremost, I think Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, just outside the gates at Disney World, is a big plus, and it didn't use to be as big a plus. [00:14:57.680] - Ed Pizza But as Disney has reduced the benefits you get from staying on site, the Grand Cypress, it hasn't taken anything away. And beautiful property, tons of space, lots of pools, all that stuff right outside the gates of Disney, so it's easy to get to. I think again, when we think about family travel, Hyatt has a brand called Ziva, which is a family geared, all inclusive brand with properties mostly focused in Mexico and the Caribbean, which on points can be a really great way to go on vacation without spending money, because you could generally redeem points for extra guests in your room as well as the two base guests that are normally included in a reservation. [00:15:36.710] - Ed Pizza So you can actually use points to pay for your meals at an all inclusive with Hyatt, which I think is interesting, and it might not be the best value for everyone. But again, if it's hey, how do we take an extra family vacation every year being able to use points to cover meals? It might mean that your family gets to go rent a catamaran for the day or swim with Dolphins or do some other activity that maybe you didn't have the cash for something like that. [00:16:00.530] - Ed Pizza It's a great choice. And then we were really surprised to go further afield. Everybody, all the bloggers talk about the Park Hyatt Sydney is this unbelievably beautiful property that overlooks the opera house, and it's under the Harbor Bridge in Sydney. And I agree with all those things. I stayed there a few times. It's a wonderful hotel, but right down the road from it is the Hyatt Regency Sydney, which opened up a few years ago. And it's kind of a rooftop lounge up on one of the really high floors. [00:16:26.870] - Ed Pizza And so we were there for a week right before the pandemic in 2019. And by the second day of our stay, everybody in the lounge had memorized not only our kids names but the drinks that they liked in the morning, in the evening and what they like for breakfast. And so my kids were doted on by the lounge grew all included with my room as part of our stay, and they never had to ask for anything. They were doted on. They loved it. And my wife and I could enjoy a cup of coffee or out on the terrace on our own and watch our kids through the glass and watch the staff take care of them. [00:16:59.420] - Ed Pizza And it was a really great way to sort of sneak away for a few minutes as a husband wife while our kids were still with us on this epic trip. [00:17:06.460] - Kim Tate That's important. I think that when you can find a good hotel, they kind of recognize your kids as guests as well. Kids love that. And they remember that for sure. [00:17:15.240] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And I might not get this exactly right because I didn't look it up on the charts before we hopped on to record. But I think it's half the points of the Park Hyatt, which again is a delightful hotel, but it's pricey. And then I think there's other fun things. Grand Hyatt Bahamas is a really huge resort property in the Bahamas. So if you're looking for a way to do something like in Atlantis style property, but using points, I think that's a great choice. And then I'm a sucker for old historical properties. [00:17:43.390] - Ed Pizza So the Driscoll in Austin, Texas, is the Yellow Rose, as they call it, is one of my favorite old historic hotels. That's part of it as well. [00:17:51.240] - Tamara Gruber Does it have a collection like that the way the autograph collection for Marriott or gosh, what's the Hilton one. [00:17:58.350] - Ed Pizza There's so many of those different brand like the Marriott Hilton has spawned all these names for different things of all the brands. And the short answer is not only is the answer yes, but there's a ton of them, and some. Some of my fellow travel bloggers have almost criticized the hits and the merits of the world for having you have too many brands. Those things don't necessarily matter as much to me per se. I guess I understand it to some degree, but at the end the day, I think as travelers and especially family drivers, we're just looking for interesting, unique properties. [00:18:29.110] - Ed Pizza And as long as they come up on the website, I'm all years yet they have their unbound collection. And that was where it started with some recent acquisitions. They sort of added a bunch of other brands, so they fall under a bunch of different names, and I won't list all of them out. But like unbound one destination hotels, Thompson Hotels, a bunch of collections that they've absorbed over the past few years and acquisitions. But I think one of the fun things that hit does is they have what's called a Brand Explorer program. [00:18:57.870] - Ed Pizza I don't quote me on this, but I think there are 15 brands right now across the portfolio and in the boundless portfolio and the independent collections. For every five different brands you visit with it, you earn a free night, and so you can earn up to three free nights by staying at all the different brands. So it's a pretty cool unpublished benefit of it is that every time you chalk up one of these, you're closer to a free night at a high in the world. [00:19:22.760] - Tamara Gruber That's interesting. So they really want you to explore the breath of those brands. I mean, I like those kind of collections because then, you know, you're having something that's maybe historic or at least has character and personality versus your standard Hyatt. Hilton, whatever the generic kind of business hotel cool. That's good to know. Well, I am very intrigued by your hinting at a dark horse. So before we jump into our other questions, what would be your number two? [00:19:51.760] - Ed Pizza Yeah. So I'm not sure if this is my number two, but certainly they're right there in line with Hilton, because I think Hilton's maybe just a smidge ahead of them. But Wyndham redid their credit card portfolio late last year. And honestly, it was one of the things I wasn't paying a ton of attention to and through a mutual friend they had asked about sponsoring the podcast, and I'm generally not somebody who does that sort of thing unless it's a brand that I really support a lot of like, I really want to be into something. [00:20:18.520] - Ed Pizza I was like, Wyndham, it's not my favorite. Could there are a lot of lower to your properties that weren't really my fit. The credit card is really geared up being able to maximize points for earning for families, which I think is a hard thing to do if you're not a road warrior. And where I think they really fit for family travel is they have a huge chunk of vacation rentals. So they have some of their own, quote, unquote vacation rental properties. And they have partnerships with brands like Vacasa. [00:20:47.480] - Ed Pizza I never know if I say that correctly, but because of that, that we think of again, when we think of families, or at least for me, I think of space. And so there's a property in Orlando called Magic Villages, which is a Wyndham property, and you can use your points to redeem for up to a four bedroom luxury condo with pools and all that other stuff that are beautifully appointed, big barbecue grills outside at Zero fridges, all that stuff. And you can do that with points. [00:21:18.200] - Ed Pizza And it's equidistant between Disney World and Universal. And then you've got ski lodges and log cabins in Montana and properties overseas. And so I think when I think about family travel and I think about space and Airbnb and the role it plays and how our family travel world has changed. Wyndham sort of forging this middle ground where they say like, yeah, sure. If you want a Wyndham hotel or one of our other limited service brands like, we got you covered. But if you need more space, you can turn those points into Airbnb ish type rental in hundreds of cities around the world. [00:21:56.270] - Ed Pizza And I think that adds a lot of value for family travelers. Not as much for people who like to travel in a traditional way. But I think family Traveler specifically Wyndhams carving at a niche to say you could earn a bunch of points on our credit cards and you can use them for Airbnb ish type stays around the world. [00:22:12.740] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, that's good. I think about Smugglers Notch in Vermont, which is an amazing family ski resort. I used to be part of Wyndham Vacation Rentals, and I have to double check that it is. And I know I have a friends awesome that really love the property in Orlando and love that space option. Like you mentioned. [00:22:33.490] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And the Smugglers Notch is still a Club Wyndham property. And again, people think of timeshares like, oh, I don't want to buy a Timeshare, and that's a whole other podcast for some other day. But I think Wyndham gives you the ability to stay at those properties and not be a timeshare owner. So I think that's what's unique about the them in Hyatt has a very small collection of those properties time shersh sort of residence club properties. In fact, one of my favorites is in Sedona. It's called the Hyatt Residence Club Pinon Point, not that far from the Grand Canyon, but they only have 15 or 20 of those where Wyndham literally has over 1000 with the Club Wyndham stuff, vacation rentals and the Vacasa partnership. [00:23:14.530] - Ed Pizza So if you like that sort of travel where you're not staying in a hotel and you want a little bit more space, Wyndham is really carved that niche. And before when they didn't have a really robust credit card platform, it was harder to earn a lot of points with them. And now, especially if I'm a small business owner, and I understand that not everybody is that. But if you are a small business owner, some of the stuff that they have bonus categories on are very unique, like utility bills and stuff like that, that definitely aren't for everyone. [00:23:47.230] - Ed Pizza But if you happen to be somebody who as a small business owner and you've got all that stuff, it's a great way. Wait a pile on a ton of points that you're not going to find somewhere else. [00:23:54.620] - Kim Tate And do you know, if Wyndham is a transfer partner of either Chase or Amex it's one of the downsides is that they're not really have that kind of the credit card of their own to their credit cards are issued by Barkley's. [00:24:08.960] - Ed Pizza And I think you guys know some of the Barclay cards they've had over time, but they don't really have a flexible currency. Okay, as you say, with Chase and American Express, and even sort of coming around the bend with City adding like, I a partner like American Airlines to their fold, that in doing the and the Capital One is really up their game. This is the area where I think Barclay's as weakest is that they just don't have that robust transfer network. So you'd have to invest in holding a Wyndham card to earn a bunch of Wyndham points. [00:24:41.800] - Ed Pizza And I might be forgetting some other Wyndham transfer partner out there. And if they're out there, I apologize. I'm definitely not a credit card expert, like some other folks are in the space. I my interest has been peaked in a way that I wasn't expecting. [00:24:55.860] - Kim Tate Well, definitely for families. I can see why that might be appealing. So let's quickly just finish up this little bit of a category and touch base about maybe Hilton, of course, Marriott. Maybe even if we have time, you could mention IHG do you see, what are the pros and cons for any of those three type brands for to show up on their loyalty train. [00:25:20.870] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And I'll try to cover all three quickly. I think they all represent slightly different things. One of the things that I think Hilton has in common with Hyatt is that they value treating folks well on award stays. So things like no resort fees on award stays is a really cool benefit of Hilton that it has as well. I think the benefit for Hilton is massive footprint, easy to earn lots of points. And so you sort of got this world where Marriott has really expensive properties that cost a ton of points, but they don't issue a lot of points you've hired as a smaller footprint, and their properties cost less points. [00:25:57.480] - Ed Pizza And Hilton somewhere in the middle, and that they do have an award chart where the resort property can get pricey, but they give away a lot of points for hotel stays, they give away a lot of points for folks who happen to hold their credit cards. And as you mentioned earlier about road tripping, you can find a Hilton anywhere. Marriott is the same way in terms of footprint size, but they do charge things like resort fees and parking and stuff like that on awards stays, so they're not completely quote, unquote free. [00:26:23.030] - Tamara Gruber Can you explain for our listeners what award stays are? [00:26:26.040] - Ed Pizza Yeah. So if you spend on a credit card or you stay on a paid stay, you earn points in the loyalty program. So if you have a Hilton credit card, you're in Hilton points. If you have a Marriott credit card earning Marriott points, and then there's all the transferable partners, which maybe we find time to talk about today. But as Kim alluded to Chase and American Express, so you build up these points. And those points help get you a free room. And not all points are created equally. [00:26:54.150] - Ed Pizza So we like to say that top tier property at Marriott is 100,000 points and a top tier property that is 30,000 points per night. And so it's a lot easier, cheaper in points to get a free room with it. But they don't quite give the same amount of points per dollar. That's where it gets a little bit like funny money math. But Hilton, like I said, sits in the middle where they give a lot of points for folks who stay on paid nights. And you can also earn a lot of points with bonus categories on their credit cards. [00:27:25.740] - Ed Pizza So you you can build up a pretty big balance of Hilton points quickly if your goal is to save up for a family vacation. [00:27:32.140] - Tamara Gruber Now, some of these programs have changed some things recently. Do you want to touch on that? [00:27:37.280] - Ed Pizza Yeah. So again, we talk about family travel. Things like free breakfast is important, and Hilton rolled out some changes that they say are temporary. And I'm actually supposed to be recording with an executive from Hilton on my podcast in October. So hoping to get a more final answer on this. But they've temporarily removed to a benefit where instead of getting free breakfast, you get a credit per day that you can use for breakfast. If you wanted to use it for breakfast, which you can also use it for a drink in the bar in the evening, et cetera. [00:28:08.660] - Ed Pizza It doesn't cover traditionally what a free breakfast used to cover. And sort of where this came from was during the pandemic. A lot of hotels eliminated free breakfast completely in the beginning. It was because we didn't really know how COVID was bread is now sort of become this thing of, well, gosh, we lost a lot of money during COVID, so we don't want to have breakfast out anymore. And I think it's a big question Mark right now on what the future will look like. I think hotel owners don't really want to give free breakfast. [00:28:32.760] - Ed Pizza They've never really wanted to, but it's always been a benefit that's been there. And so there's this unique most moment where a chain like Hilton is trying to move away. It seems from that free breakfast benefit, and I'm going to be really interested to see how this rolls for, because as of right now, it is only listed as a temporary benefit. You guys have been in this business long enough to know that lots of things that are temporary become permanent. So that might be where we end up with us. [00:28:57.450] - Ed Pizza But right now, the breakfast benefit, Hilton is nowhere near as good as it used to be in a vacuum. That being said in my travels, I've seen very few hotels that really have have a free breakfast out, as opposed to a Brown paper bag with a Nutri grain bar, an Apple and a bottle of water [00:29:14.620] - Kim Tate for a while there when we took our spring break road trip, they weren't even stocked with that stuff because they couldn't get supply chains as like we have one almond milk and an Orange going to the first customer down. [00:29:27.910] - Ed Pizza Yeah, it has been crazy and I didn't touch on IHG I think is sort of falls behind those others. I think at this point Wyndham has passed them in my mind and that it doesn't really have the vacation rental part of their platform. And for those that might not know IHG or brands like Holiday Inn, Holiday and Express Intercontinental, they have beautiful properties overseas, Europe and Asia, much more so than I'd say in the US where the I think they can play a role is definitely road tripping. [00:30:00.260] - Ed Pizza And then also, if you happen to be somebody who has some travel for work in the US, I think earning points stand staying at US based IHG properties and then using them for some of the really cool properties overseas. They have some really eclectic older style properties in Europe that I think are a lot of fun. So that would be how I think about trying to use is it would be saying if your traveler road warrior staying at the Holiday Express throughout the year so you can redeem for a really cool Intercontental stay in Europe or Asia. [00:30:34.620] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, they have cool. The Hotel Indigo brand properties are pretty cool too for those boutique type of stays. [00:30:43.570] - Ed Pizza And they are expanding. The Hotel Indigo brand obviously has a lot of change during the pandemic, but I do expect there to be more Hotel Indigo being built over the next handful of years. [00:30:57.260] - Kim Tate A brand I always like the decor and stuff. It's very clean and modern feel and a little bit of the local vibe with local artists and some of that stuff. So that's cool. [00:31:07.960] - Ed Pizza Yeah. Last I checked and don't quote me on this. There's probably about 100 or so Hotel Indigo in the pipeline and there's probably about 100 open right now, so they'll probably double the size of that brand over the next call, four or five years. [00:31:23.220] - Kim Tate So now that you've given us a good layout of all the great programs, and maybe people are thinking of which property or which brand might work best for them. Do you have any tips or suggestions for how to build up points with some of these programs beyond just hotel stays? So you mentioned a little bit about the Wyndham credit cards, so I know credit cards are a huge part of it. So any other tips or what info do they need to know about earning and transferring hotel points? [00:31:49.700] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And I think you keyed right there on the last two words that you said are the two ways that we're thinking about this. Are we earning points or are we transferring them? And so I think there's two separate paths, and I'm going to take them backwards because I think the transferring path is the one that's going to work for more people. Then the best example I like to use for folks is for anybody out there that has a retirement account. I hope you don't have everything all in one individual stock or mutual fund. [00:32:14.850] - Ed Pizza You're diversified. So Kim kind of alluded to this before where Chase and American Express both have their own flexible currencies. Chases is called Ultimate Rewards, and American Express is called membership rewards. And so you can spend on a credit card, a certain Chase branded credit cards and certain American Express branded credit cards. And you can then transfer those points to hotels. And for this, I specifically like Chase better than I like American Express, and that Chase has multiple hotel partners you can transfer to IG. But you can also transfer to Marriott and to High. [00:32:49.820] - Ed Pizza So lots of flexibility there. And if you ultimately decide you didn't want to transfer hotels because you got a really super deal, like you found a super cheap hotel and you want to use your money on your hotels and then use your points for airline tickets. You'd have that flexibility. But this also goes back to what the value of points are. And if you transfer points from Chase Ultimate Reward, so let's say you had, like, a Chase Sapphire preferred card, and you earn points for dining out and groceries and all that stuff. [00:33:17.670] - Ed Pizza And then you transfer those points. They're going to go a lot further with Hyatt, where the most expensive property costs 30,000 points a night versus Marriott, where the most expensive property will set you back about 100,000 points a night because you're still transferring on a one to one basis from Chase Ultimate Rewards to these different hotel programs. So for most folks, I think those sorts of cards offer great flexibility, which I think is what we want in travel, especially for family travelers. If hotels is really the thing that you're most focused on, then yes, absolutely. [00:33:49.470] - Ed Pizza They're or hotel credit cards. And not just because of my bias towards Hyatt, but I also think they have a pretty strong offering for credit cards in that they offer bonus points for dining out airline tickets, gym memberships, which is a fairly unique category. Mass transit, tolls, taxis, just a whole bunch of different categories where you can earn points for the things that you do on an everyday basis and use those to turn into vacation points further down the road. [00:34:19.360] - Tamara Gruber So would you ever recommend having a brand specific card as well? [00:34:24.720] - Ed Pizza You know, I think if your main goal is that you're going to be a free agent from an air travel standpoint where you're never going to use points for that, then I think a hotel branded credit card can make more sense. I think the other thing, too, that's a really solid reason to pick up a hotel credit card is that some of the cards do offer some level of status along with holding the card. That's a benefit of some cards, and it's very different amongst the different cards people use Hyatt as an example is that you do get discovered status with them, which earns you a free late checkout and a bonus on points that you earn. But it also gives you sort of a head start to the next level of status as well. So those can be great ways to sort of bridge across. Marriott has a lot more credit cards than hit us, so you have the ability to sort of maximize that if you're willing to hold multiple credit cards, they also have credit cards from both Chase and American Express. [00:35:23.520] - Ed Pizza But you really do have to sit down and think about as you start to get into multiple credit cards. Are you really getting the value for the annual fees for all these cards? Because some of them have gotten quite expensive for annual fees for five $600 a fee. And we just want to make sure that we're getting that value if we're going to keep that card in our wallet year in, year out. Whereas something like Chase Sapphire preferred annual fee is $95, and it's not hard to get $95 in value on a yearly basis. [00:35:48.640] - Kim Tate Yeah, I was going to say one of the things I have the Marriott, and it is kind of nice when I choose that knowing that I'm earning six points or ten points or whatever it is now on those hotel stays, and I don't even have to think about that. And then it's kind of funny, though, because I get gold with them, which doesn't do anything with Marriott now and then I get gold with my Amex as well. So I'm paying all the stupid fees to get overlap that still doesn't do anything. [00:36:13.730] - Kim Tate But I've been really looking at my Amex Platinum lately to see if I'm really getting my $700 worth or whatever they raise the annual fee to this year. [00:36:23.030] - Ed Pizza Yeah, not to dig too deeply into the numbers of it but again, depending on which Marriott card you have, we talked about the one to one transfer from Chase to Marriott. And so for every day spend, you could still either category where you can earn three, four, five chase points per dollar and then transfer those to Marriott in a one to one basis. So you can definitely make an argument why a Marriott card might be really good for you to pay for your Marriott stays. [00:36:53.350] - Ed Pizza The other bonus categories on those cards generally aren't as generous as some of these, like middle of the road flexible currency cards where you can come out of head. [00:37:02.330] - Kim Tate Overall, I've been trying to figure that with dining. That's been my biggest dilemma lately is when I'm eating out because I don't have, like, a freedom or any of those things. So I feel like the Marriott actually recently looked like it was more. But then when you look at the points value, my Chase ink is probably the best way to go. So I was really torn about that one. [00:37:21.960] - Ed Pizza Yeah, and dining is one of those things. It isn't necessarily a big strength of the Marriott card. The chase cards are pretty weak on those categories, and I don't remember all the American Express benefits off the top of my head. But when you think about the fact that you take a car like the American Express gold card that are in four points per one dollars on dining, that's a pretty sizable bonuses compared to the other cards. And don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that annual fee is 250 where you're obviously a lot higher with some of the premium cards. [00:37:56.360] - Ed Pizza So you get three points per dollar on the Bonvoy brilliant. I was tell the names are confused. [00:38:01.250] - Kim Tate I know they make it. Yeah, I have their business one. I don't know which one that is. I don't have a really expensive one. [00:38:06.490] - Ed Pizza They all have B names, but that one only earns three points per dollar on dining where you're getting four on American Express gold. So again, it's a mixed bag of things. I think if you're going to have a lot of Marriott stays, those can be solid cards for you, but I think at the end of the day it's hey, sit down and make sure you're doing the math on what you're paying for annual fee to make sure you really are getting the value. Because on that one, like a big part of why that card should be in your wallet is because you're going to use that $300 credit that it comes with at a Marriott property, because if not, then you're paying $450 for a credit card on a yearly basis. [00:38:44.060] - Ed Pizza And that's a pretty big chunk of change. [00:38:45.950] - Kim Tate I have the size down one on that one. I don't have that expensive one. The other one boundless or busy. I don't know why they chose to make the full you'll never know makes them hard to say. [00:38:58.580] - Ed Pizza Yes. [00:38:59.470] - Tamara Gruber I will say that one time I got Marriott card for a while. And if anybody has an event coming up, it's a good thing to do. Right. So I hosted my daughter's, bat mitzvah party at a Marriott, and you basically got, I think, like, three times the points. If you're hosting an event there, there was some kind of calculation that I did where I was getting points for the rooms that were booked as part of my group as well as the event itself by putting it all on that Marriott card. [00:39:29.840] - Tamara Gruber So that's how I tried to maximize that for a while. [00:39:33.200] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And you can even triple up and that they have a meeting planner program. So when you're planning larger events like that, you can earn points on top of those points. [00:39:41.940] - Tamara Gruber I think that's what I did. Yeah. [00:39:45.020] - Ed Pizza That's a great way to triple up with you, as you say, when you have things like special family events that can really maximize your earnings. [00:39:51.480] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. Well, as you said, we can dive into credit cards for a very long time. And I suggest anyone that really wants to get into this should definitely be subscribed to Miles to go, because sometimes you guys get into conversations on there where I'm like, Whoa, too much vernacular, too much jargon going on here because you definitely have guests that really know what they're talking about. So I would definitely recommend that. But I'm just curious. As a road warrior in so many hotels, sometimes you always want to write a post about biggest hotel pet peeves. [00:40:22.900] - Tamara Gruber But of course, who would care? But I want to hear what are your biggest pet peeves when it comes to hotels? And are they brand specific? [00:40:29.860] - Ed Pizza Well, and first off, I would care. So if you ever do write that, so let me know what I'll read it for me. Honestly, the biggest pet peeve that's developed over the past couple of years, and I hate to think of just the pandemic, but I think that this was lasting effects after we're done is what I've started to affectionately refer to as what I call no notice. No housekeeping. A lot of chains made changes to their housekeeping rules during the pandemic. In some cases, they weren't coming into rooms at all. [00:40:56.890] - Ed Pizza In other cases, like Hilton, they sort of moved away from the the standard of daily housekeeping. Two rules that make it sound like can't have housekeeping on a daily basis where in most cases, you could still ask for it. But I think the notice is the big part. We're all adults here. Let us make adult choices if you're not going to offer me housekeeping, which for the 40 plus years I've been on this planet has been a standard of pretty much every hotel in the country, minus some very limited narrow set of brands. [00:41:26.170] - Ed Pizza Housekeeping is a thing. We expect it. And so if you if you don't have enough staff or there's not enough money to do it. All those things. Just be honest about it and tell me upfront that. Hey, you're going to be here for six days and we're never going to clean your room. As with anybody in the pandemic, I can understand that hotels have gone through a real tough time not to sound sarcastic. I'm in the restaurant industry. We serve burgers and fries. If a customer pays me the same price they paid for a burger last year, I can't tell them I'm not giving them a hamburger bun today. [00:41:56.150] - Ed Pizza I still need to give them everything that they paid for. And housekeeping. I still just one of those things that I expect as part of hotel stay unless you tell me a time. And if you tell me out of time, hey, we're not going to here are the rules. At least I know the rules going into it. It's the changing of things and not telling customers clearly hear that we're not offering just like we talked about the free breakfast thing. Like, look, it's the published benefit than I expected. [00:42:17.600] - Ed Pizza And if you tell me you're not going to deliver it because of XYZ, at least I can make the choice as to whether or not I come stay at your exactly. [00:42:24.460] - Kim Tate I totally agree. They've been really lazy at notifying everyone even along on booking. I understand they can't always control third party booking sites, but on their own sites, they need to be saying if the breakfast is going to be a grab and grow bag, it should be right there on your reservation page. Or if they're not offering daily housekeeping or daily housekeeping can be added on to your even if they start saying, okay, you can get a prepay rate, you can get a regular refundable rate, or you can also book a rate that includes housekeeping. [00:42:55.990] - Kim Tate Fine, start doing that. But I think the lack of, like, housekeepers has been a big impact, and but I'm with you. Just let us know in advance. [00:43:06.360] - Ed Pizza Yeah, just be intellectually honest with your customers. We're smart enough to figure out that nobody came in and cleaned the room, and we're smart enough to remember we weren't told. So just get it out there ahead of time. [00:43:15.100] - Kim Tate That's the most annoying thing to me is just not knowing and then coming home expecting, especially when you're a family. [00:43:20.740] - Tamara Gruber Right. [00:43:20.950] - Kim Tate And you've got all of your towels are all mixed up and the kids would put theirs all over the floor, beds or carpet. And you're like, who's that never happens. You. Well, your kids are perfect. [00:43:31.790] - Tamara Gruber And not to mention there's that one tiny garbage can that fills up within a minute of arriving. [00:43:37.800] - Kim Tate And then for a while, when you were eating all your meals, like in your room, that worked really well. [00:43:43.740] - Ed Pizza Yeah, I think again, like, we're all adults, we can all cope with a new reality. If you tell me. I've got to put my trash can out by 08:00 at night, and sombody's going to pick it up. [00:43:52.060] - Kim Tate Great. [00:43:52.600] - Ed Pizza Then I know what the standard is. If we're never going to dump your trash can for five days, that's going to get ugly. [00:43:57.390] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. Well, and also back in the day, you were at least given the incentive of you get some points if you bypass housekeeping with kind of I always did not trust the greenness of that. I thought it was more of a way of getting out of housekeeping, but at least you got something for for it, right? Whereas now it's like, oh, no, you have to request it like you're being a diva to request it. It's like, no, if I'm going to say that, I'm not kidding it then give me something for that. [00:44:25.090] - Ed Pizza And the height of the pandemic when hotel rates were like, 50 or $60 a night because nobody was staying, I think it was an understandable quid pro quo. As a business traveler, I paid $300 to stay in a regular old Marriott property a handful of weeks ago and was told that I couldn't get daily housekeeping. It's like I'm paying three hundred dollars a night. That rate should have enough baked into it that you can get somebody clean the room. And if you can't understand, staffing is a big issue, but you need to communicate that. [00:44:51.910] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I told this story recently on the podcast where I paid 250 a night to stay at a really crappy town place suites that was dirty and they didn't even have a pillow for my daughter to use on the pull out bed. It's like those kinds of things, like, no, sorry, it's taking it too far. Yeah, I agree. [00:45:09.430] - Kim Tate So now that we've talked about pet peeves and things that are driving us all nuts, what about some of the amenities or perks that you look for when you're debating between what hotel to choose? Yeah. [00:45:20.830] - Ed Pizza Well, we obviously talked about one of my favorites before, which were those confirmable suite upgrades at time of booking for Hyatt. So I think that's a really big one, just because I can lay that shit down when I need to for that one or two vacations a year and say, here's my ticket. I want that special room and tell me now. So I think that's a big one for me and for our family. I also think we're Hyatt and Hilton have really focused on reducing fees for folks who are on award stays. [00:45:50.310] - Ed Pizza So resort fees for Hyatt Hilton Hyatt went so far as to say we're not going to charge for parking on award stays. And it's not that parking costs a lot of money, but it's more like the nickeling and diming of stuff when you're on vacation, like, here's another fee and here's another fee and here's another fee. So I really like that those two who chains are really focusing on removing those fees when you have a, quote, unquote free room, it's actually closer to free. And that sounds funny for folks who maybe don't redeem points a lot. [00:46:17.830] - Ed Pizza But at some brands, there are lots and lots of fees. I know there are a lot of people that love club lounges. As our kids have gotten a little bit older, we probably use them just a little bit less because we like to get out and sort of explore local cities, if you will. And eating breakfast at a small cafe, Paris or Amsterdam or Lisbon is more appealing than hitting the lounge. But I still think lounges have a tremendous amount of value for families with younger children. [00:46:48.040] - Ed Pizza And so as our kids have gotten older, maybe that one's a little bit less important. But, boy, did we save a lot of money on properties that had free breakfast. And actually, I think the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress was a great example of that pre pandemic. Their lounge has been closed during the pandemic, but before going to Disney World every morning, we'd have breakfast in the lounge. And I would say that's probably worth at least 30 or $40 a day for a family of four to eat breakfast somewhere. [00:47:12.660] - Tamara Gruber Well, I'm with you on the lounges, but also one of my things that I love is free water. So it's like the Hilton will give you the bottles of water. I remember checking in with my husband to a Courtyard Marriott in Portland, Maine, and he's Ambassador level. They didn't have us an upgrade available. And I was like, Can we get a couple of waters? And they're like, oh, we don't do that here. And I'm like, Seriously, you won't give us two bottles of water and the lounges. [00:47:39.520] - Tamara Gruber I stayed recently at a Marriott in Buffalo and had access to the lounge. And I think I was wiping them out on the water because the stuff from the tap just wasn't doing it. And they didn't have any refill stations open. So those little things Kim, knows how much I need my water. So it saves me a lot. [00:47:57.040] - Kim Tate It seems like they've gotten rid of those communal water fill, you know, for, like, some hotels have the little jug in the lobby, but because a COVID they got rid of that. And I have a feeling that's going to be another thing we never see see return. [00:48:10.580] - Ed Pizza Yeah, it's a good point. And I think you're the same way I am Tamara that I drink a ton of water when I'm on the road, just trying to stay hydrated wherever I am. And so that's a huge benefit for us. And you're right, Hilton is very good about offering that every time I check in like, hey, do you need a couple of bottles of water? It's also something that IoT is very good at and not to pile on Marriott. Put your comment about we don't do that there. [00:48:35.510] - Ed Pizza It's kind of sort of like an unwritten model of Marriott. That the property sort of do what they feel comfortable with. And some properties are really good about taking care of their guests. And a lot of the other ones are like, well, there's no financial justification for us to give you two bottles of water so you can buy them. [00:48:50.330] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, they're like, there's a little shop, little. I don't know what to call it, but it's like the main marketplace. Thank you. [00:48:57.540] - Ed Pizza Where you can pay $4 for a bottle of Aquafina. [00:49:01.840] - Tamara Gruber well, you've been on the program before, so you know that we always ask a question about what you wear. But since we've heard that, I thought maybe we would mix it up and ask if you have a favorite type of luggage or brand for a carry on bag or a rolling bag. [00:49:16.240] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And I'm among the minority here. So my favorite brand is Briggs and Riley. They're not the prettiest suitcases. Sometimes my wife kind of looks sideways at them because not all the bags are like the sexiest and sleekest suitcases. But my main Briggs and Riley bag is now almost 20 years old. They've prepared at a time or two. A true lifetime warranty. It's got over a million miles rolled on it. They're just really, really durable, functional bags again, not as pretty as to me, but never had a zipper break on a Brigand rally bag in almost 20 years. [00:49:51.190] - Tamara Gruber That's amazing. [00:49:52.420] - Ed Pizza Yeah. [00:49:52.760] - Kim Tate There's somebody else who really loves those that I'm trying to think of. [00:49:56.000] - Tamara Gruber Is it Eric? Yeah. Okay. [00:49:58.130] - Kim Tate Maybe I couldn't remember. I was like, who else do I know that's a real Briggs and Riley fan. [00:50:02.340] - Ed Pizza Yeah. I mean, I've had really good luck with them. I think the brand stands behind their bags. And I've had so many people tell me about how they tried to send there to me, a bag away to get it repaired. And it was gone for weeks and weeks, and they had to pay for shipping and all this stuff. And I'm just a no nonsense guy. And the bags just work. [00:50:24.330] - Kim Tate Well, you have given us so much great information, but as we've already shared before, you have a lot more out there. So why don't you tell our listeners where they can find you on the line and follow along with all your great travel tips? [00:50:34.900] - Ed Pizza Yeah. And thanks again, guys, for having me on this was a lot of fun for me. I live vicariously through some of the travel that you guys have done over the summer, and I can't wait to get back to some of those fun places. So it's always great to be on the show with you. We do publish a podcast on a weekly basis, just like you guys find me at Miles to go on all the popular podcasting platform where you can find vacation mavens. And you can find me writing at PizzainMotion.com and all the Twitter, Facebook Instagram stuff is all @pizzainmotion as well. [00:51:06.880] - Tamara Gruber Thanks so much, Ed. [00:51:08.100] - Kim Tate Yeah, thanks. We love having you, and we will look forward to chatting with you again sometime soon. [00:51:12.940] - Ed Pizza Thanks, guys. [00:51:17.060] - Tamara Gruber And we forgot to mention at the beginning of the episode, but Kim and I do have an announcement to make, and that is something that we talked about a little bit on the last episode, but is now official. We're going to Portugal, although I'm totally knocking wood as I say that because, oh, my God, things can totally come up last minute. Now, I'm like, scared. Did I just drink this? Kim? [00:51:37.290] - Kim Tate No, no, it's all good. We're good. [00:51:39.300] - Tamara Gruber But we're going to be in Portugal. We're going to be exploring so much of this country. Kim and I have actually gone there together in the past, but now we're going to get to Do Porto and the Duoro and Alentejo hopefully that's how you pronounce it the Algarve. We're going to the Azores. It's going to be an amazing trip. I hope that you will follow us both on social media. So Tam
Ropedrop & Parkhop: Helping you Dream, Plan and Do Disneyland
"Because Mr. Oogie Boogie is the meanest guy around. If I were on his boogie list, I'd get out of town!" - Kidnap the Sandy Claws, The Nightmare Before Christmas lyrics. Katie got home from Disneyland late last night, and she's here to tell us all about OOGIE BOOGIE BASH! This trip, she stayed at the Fairfield Inn across the street from the parks, visited Disneyland one day and partied late into the night with all the villains. She shares some tips with us, plus her favorite treat from this trip! Please, take a second to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and give us a like on Instagram and Facebook: @Ropedrop.Parkhop
Drew Pearson shares about making some of the most celebrated plays in Dallas Cowboys history. Pearson takes us onto the field for his famous Hail Mary catch and his game-winning touchdown against Atlanta in the 1980 NFL Playoffs. He also walks us through his journey to making the Cowboys roster as an undrafted rookie. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North. Hosted by author Jackson Michael (The Game Before the Money).
Baylor baseball legend Dutch Schroeder shares stories taken from a recently-found recording. The late coach talks about a 1930s Southwest Conference football game between Baylor and Texas as well as his memories of playing and coaching baseball at Baylor. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites Waco North. Author Jackson Michael is the host and producer of the program.
Dreaming of sunny skies and palm trees? Us too. Before you plan your next vacation to the Sunshine State, be sure to listen to this week's episode with Joella Doobrow from RovingJo. We break down the best Florida hotels and resorts up and down both coasts (and a few in the middle) for families, girls' trips, and romantic getaways. About Joella Doobrow Joella was born in Venezuela and currently lives in Florida. She moved to the USA alone when she was 18 and is now married with two teenage girls. Together they enjoy outdoor adventures mixed in with a few great city escapes. Travel has been a part of her life since she was a few months old and it has undoubtedly shaped it. Joella now shares her travel experiences through RovingJo.com to help inspire others to find their own adventures and create memories that will shape their lives in a positive way. She believes that no matter how busy life gets, there is always time to travel and discover something new. Even if that something new is just a few miles away from home. You can follow Joella on Instagram. Best Florida Hotels and Resorts If you are looking for a bucket list resort in Florida and budget isn't an issue, look at Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys. Hawk's Cay in the Florida Keys is an excellent choice for families, with villas with kitchens, lots of activities, and even dolphin encounters. While in the Keys you could potentially take a day trip to Dry Tortugas National Park. Margaritaville in Hollywood, Florida is also great for families. They have a Florider surfing simulator, a rooftop pool, and a Parakeets kids club. Just outside the hotel you can walk or bike along the boardwalk or go to the beach. The Margaritaville Orlando is also a great pick for families. In Palm Beach, The Breakers is old world luxury but has a kids and teens club and activities. They also offer activities like golf, kayaking, snorkeling, and complimentary bicycles. The Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne and Amelia Island both offer great properties and kids programs. On the Gulf Coast of Florida, the beaches are softer with white, sugary sand and the water is calmer with a beautiful blue-green color. Marco Island and Naples are favorite family travel destinations on the Gulf Coast. The JW Marriott in Marco Island is perfect for families. They have a beautiful beach, golf nearby, multiple restaurants, kids clubs, and even an arcade/brewery. You can also take Dolphin watching tours and other watersports, or tours out to the Ten Thousand Islands. Twin Rivers Island Resort in Captiva allows locals and visitors to pay a day rate to use the resort. Captiva is a great spot for shelling and watching manatees. In Naples, the Naples Grande or Ritz Carlton are good options for families. The Inn on Fifth in Naples is great for a girlfriend getaway or romantic getaway as it is right in the heart of town. Tradewinds in the St. Pete/ Clearwater area is great for families. They have a large ocean waterpark, five pools, plenty of restaurants and bars, as well as a kids club. It isn't luxury but is great for pure family fun. We also like the Wyndham or Hyatt in Clearwater. Anna Maria Island is a great destination to rent a vacation home, but you could also try the boutique Rod and Reel Resort. They offers suites for families and they offer paddleboards, bikes, and other amenities. In the Panhandle, Port St. Joe, Rosemary Beach, and Seaside are all great communities, but they are better for vacation rental homes. Watercolor is one beautiful resort in that area. For Disney hotels, Animal Kingdom Lodge is a favorite for families because of the pools, playground, food, and, of course, the animals. The new Riviera is also very nice and it is on the Skyliner for easy transportation to the parks. The Swan or The Dolphin are also convenient if you are going to one of the festivals at Epcot, plus you can sometimes use Marriott points. If you want to stay outside of Disney, the Four Seasons Orlando can't be beat. For a girl's trip, head to Palm Beach and stay at either the Eau Palm Beach or The Colony. If you like a spa setting and want to be closer to the Miami action, the Acqualina Resort and Spa is perfect for a girls trip. For a romantic getaway, try the Bungalows Key Largo. It is an adults-only all-inclusive property. Cheeca Lodge is another option but they are remodeling right now. Amelia Island is another great spot for a romantic getaway, but you may want to rent a condo or stay at a bed and breakfast. When looking for deals, you can find good options in the summer when it is hot or during hurricane season in the fall. Read the Full Show Transcript [00:00:00.090] - Kim Tate Craving some sunshine and palm trees today, we're talking about Florida hotels. [00:00:17.120] - Announcer Welcome to Vacation Mavens, a family travel podcast with ideas for your next vacation and tips to get you out the door. Here are your hosts, Kim from Stuffed Suitcase and Tamara from We3Travel. [00:00:32.120] - Kim Tate So, Tamara, before we get chatting with our guest all about Florida hotels, I thought since we've been talking a lot about vacation planning and we talked recently about finding hotel deals, I thought maybe you and I could chime in a little bit on some of the tricks or things that we do when we're booking hotels, because you and I both just booked a whole bunch of hotels for our road trips. So did you want to start us off and share maybe a tip that you utilized or thought about with your booking? [00:00:59.480] - Tamara Gruber Sure, yeah. I think both of us with our road trips recently, we had to choose some destinations based on where we're going. But then some of our in-between destinations were maybe based on where we might have a hotel that we had a connection with, whether it's a loyalty program or, something through the credit card. So I feel like understanding where you are from a point perspective or if there are any certain deals like with your credit card or any certain like rewards points. [00:01:31.550] - Tamara Gruber You know, one of those like get the extra night free or, you know, double points or something like that. A lot of times I tend to ignore those. It's not very good as a a travel blogger, but sometimes I ignore them because I'm very focused on the destination. I like what I want to experience and not necessarily like chasing a particular hotel but I did for this trip try to look at that a little bit more. Some of it was like we also wanted to be like right in the heart of the town where campus was. [00:02:01.820] - Tamara Gruber So that's why in a couple of places I chose a Graduate hotel, because I'm like, OK, I know that this is going to give me like a very close to campus experience, but also a very local, authentic kind of experience because the Graduate hotels are awesome, bringing in local artists and local like culture and themes and things that you almost question. I know when we were in Madison, Wisconsin, and they have like Pink Flamingos and like, what's the deal with Pink Flamingos in Madison, Wisconsin, you know, and you you learn about it. And so I like that element. So we did that. But then we were more in between, you know, we're traveling, we just need a place to stop. I'm like, OK, let's look at you know, we're pretty loyal Marriott members like, what are the Marriott properties? [00:02:42.020] - Tamara Gruber You know, which ones are rated, you know, this where how far off the highway are they? But there are a couple of things that we saw because we were trying to book with points and we were also, you know, with the three of us being on the road, being in the car together so much, it's like, you know, a lot of togetherness. They thought we might want to spread out like a little bit when we get to the hotel and just, like, chill out and maybe have more than just like your typical to queen kind of room. [00:03:06.320] - Tamara Gruber So I was looking at different properties that have an extended room or have a one bedroom suite. So I'd find these Courtyard Marriotts that have a one bedroom king suite. So it's a king bed and then a separate room with a pullout couch. That gives us like lots of space. So I went and created a document with all the links to it and sent it to Glenn because he's the one with all the points and I'm like, can you book these? And he comes back to me and he's like, none of these are showing up. [00:03:36.710] - Tamara Gruber So what I learned is that a lot of times those premium rooms are not available for points, so then you have to make a choice do you really want that space? And the other thing is he is a titanium member so we could get there and get the upgrade potentially. So sometimes I'm like let's book the regular and see if we can get an upgrade. And other times, I'm like, we're going to be very tired. We're there for two nights, let's pay and make sure we get what we want. [00:04:09.380] - Tamara Gruber But when we were paying for it, I saw American Express Platinum card had a certain offer for Marriott where if you spent two hundred, you got a certain amount back. So then I was like, OK, well, let's use this deal. I made sure, like on my itinerary to write like use use Amex card. [00:04:31.040] - Tamara Gruber It wasn't just like an automatic thing. So sometimes like when you get those emails from your credit card, it does make sense if you have a trip coming up to really read through them and understand, because even though sometimes even deals like, I don't know, for restaurant chains or something like that. So I'm like, OK, let's like make a note of that so that I remember to use this credit card. [00:04:54.930] - Tamara Gruber So those are some of the things that we are doing. We also always get into the discussion of is it worth it to pay or not? You know, because as I mentioned, like on one of our episodes, you know, some of the inner city hotels are a little bit cheaper right now versus, you know, more of a leisure property. So we found a lot of good deals. And it's like, well, if it's only like one hundred and twenty five dollars, should we just pay for it, but then we decided towards the end of our trip, we wanted to, like, treat ourselves a little bit. So we decided to use the points. [00:05:24.970] - Tamara Gruber And actually, instead of staying at, like the Courtyard, we're staying at like an Autograph collection hotel, you know, something that's in the city has a little character, sometimes they're historic properties but it just has a little bit more character. [00:05:38.980] - Tamara Gruber I mean, I love a Courtyard and a Hilton garden inn because, like, I know exactly what to expect when we are stopping in Nebraska. I'm like, we're stopping in a Courtyard. I know that they have a washing machine. I know I can do my laundry. Like there's there's a comfort to that. They don't charge for parking. The Courtyards don't do breakfast, but if you stay at a Residence Inn and they do, you know, so you can always kind of figure out like what is going to be your state of mind? [00:06:05.530] - Tamara Gruber Are you in the middle of nowhere? And you really just want, like, a quick breakfast before you hit the road? Or are you staying in a city where you might want to go out to brunch or pick or see like a local place, you know, and therefore you don't need breakfast at the hotel. [00:06:16.780] - Tamara Gruber So I don't know. Those are some of the things that we think about and we thought about and planning our recent road trip. But I know you were a little bit more strategic in the way that you were using, like your points and your certificates and things. So why don't you talk a little bit about kind of what the process you went through? [00:06:32.380] - Kim Tate Well, I think you brought up something really good. I need to go check my Chase offers, because if you guys log into a credit card that you use, the offers will be like on your dashboard. And, you know, like Tamara said, she scored that Marriott one. And so it's always a good idea before you start doing a big trip like this to look and see what, you know, little bonuses you might have. And so I need to go check my Chase ones and see if I had anything from there. [00:06:59.170] - Kim Tate And then I also think that it's good to mention the breakfast thing, because that was something that really has me at a quandary right now, because I'm curious which hotels actually will have breakfast still and what that will look like because. [00:07:13.180] - Kim Tate So I'm not a yogurt eater. So I'm really worried that I'm going to be getting bags of like an orange or an apple and a yogurt every morning on right now when I have the free breakfast ones, because on the West Coast, you know, everything's still pretty, pretty locked down a little bit. So we'll see what happens. I have no idea what to think about the breakfast, but on a road trip, that's definitely something I look for is the free breakfast. [00:07:34.900] - Kim Tate Because for us, you would get this, but I have some late sleepers and it's hard to get up and get going in the morning. And if I have to make a stop for breakfast, then we are totally already going to be hours longer for us. So that's something that I keep in mind for sure. But I think one of the things that I do when I'm doing a big trip is I, I definitely plan. [00:07:57.880] - Kim Tate Like I said already last week that I look at how far I need to drive each week and or each day. And so I look at like, what are the main cities in those destinations? And I think what Tamara already touched on that a lot of us know is if you're doing a road trip, you're going to be doing a lot of these smaller towns. And so you're going to be drawn to a lot of those chains like Holiday Inn Express. [00:08:17.140] - Kim Tate You know, I for like Tamara said, Courtyard's I had a lot of Fairfield inns on mine. So you're going to be kind of looking at that. And I think the important thing is just to log in and check out what those hotels have going for promotions. For example, I saw that Holiday Inn Express, which is IHG, had a stay two nights, get double points promotion and you have to register in advance for it. So I registered in advance for that. [00:08:41.590] - Kim Tate And two of our nights on our road trip, are Holiday Inn Express's. So that'll work out and give us a little bonus on points. It's not that much of a money savings, but it's always nice to give. It's kind of like getting the free money that's sitting there. It's not a big deal if you don't get it, but it is a nice little perk. So that's something I think is important. You know, recently I was booking a Marriott property and I actually found that they were doing a certain promotion and I canceled my previous booking and rebooked it. [00:09:09.580] - Kim Tate And that's the other thing. Talking about cancellation of a lot of hotels offer you a much cheaper rate if you're willing to pay in advance. So you commit and say, I'm ready to do this, but for my planning and just with where the world is right now, I went ahead and paid the extra to get the free cancelation. Or you can cancel at least anywhere from one to three days normally before your trip. However, a little tip I'll mention is that there's nothing that says you can't log back in, recheck those rooms and cancel rebook at the lower the prepaid rate and then cancel the advance purchase rate. [00:09:44.380] - Kim Tate But that takes a lot of thinking in advance. But just a little heads up, you can set a little timer once you know that you're going and there's not any real risk if you have like a day before cancelation, there's nothing that stops you two days before from rebooking at the prepaid rate. [00:10:00.100] - Kim Tate So that's just some of the little hacks and stuff I have. I'm a triple-A, member. I actually need to reminds me I need to add, Lizzie, because I just always felt more. I don't think I've used it once, but I like having it and it just makes me feel comfortable. [00:10:19.980] - Tamara Gruber I used to work at AAA so I'm a AAA fan. [00:10:19.980] - Kim Tate I remember you telling me about making all those triptiks. So I think AAA is another thing to have in mind, that for a road trip it it serves two purposes is it can, you know, offer you the peace of mind if you do lock your keys or need a tow or have car trouble or need a change of tire or whatever your case may be, you have them on, you know, at the ready. And then also because a lot of hotels offer triple-A discounts. And that's a great little way to save, you know, save some money. I saved about I, I think I save, you know, around 10 to 20 percent on a room with it. [00:10:56.880] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, it's funny you mention that because, like, I do that and I don't even think about I don't even think about mentioning it. But yeah, I mean, so many of them, when you're going and you're looking at the price they have like little checkboxes, like if you want to see the AAA. Specifically like ask to see the rate. [00:11:12.450] - Kim Tate And then I know with Marriott you actually have to input your triple-A number when you're making the booking. So it can be a great, I mean based on this trip alone, it paid for itself. [00:11:27.930] - Tamara Gruber By the way, with us I actually went and I upgraded our membership to plus before because our like my car is getting like a little bit older. And so the roadside assistance isn't the built in like that when you buy it. Sometimes it includes assistance for a certain amount of time. So I don't have that anymore. And your typical triple-A is only like a three or five mile tow. And I'm like, we're going to be in the middle of nowhere. And so I want to make sure that I can. So actually, it's funny that you mention that because I didn't even think of it, but we actually upgraded our membership just so we can do that road trip. [00:12:02.340] - Kim Tate And the cool thing about triple A also for you parents who have teen drivers is it works for any car the person is in. So it's a membership for the person. So if your teen is with friends and there's something happens, they can always call AAA and get help even if their friend doesn't have AAA. Same with you. If you're renting a car or, you know, whatever the case may be, your AAA covers you. So it's really getting membership is free. [00:12:34.320] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I recently just got a thing asking me like free two months of the plus or whatever if I signed up for that. So I need to log in and do that because I thought of doing that just for a road trip. [00:12:46.230] - Kim Tate So anyways, that's some of the little tips I have. But yeah, I think hopefully we haven't overwhelmed people, but that's the way our brains work, right. We're always I mean, I'm just always looking for deals because if I can save a little money here and there, it means you can splurge and do a little more in other places. But I think the chains are the big thing to recognize on a road trip. [00:13:04.560] - Kim Tate You're going to be doing a lot of chains. And if you can have loyalty or look for those bonuses, it might pay off a little bit. I know a lot of hotels used to do, you know, stay two nights, get one night free you type certificates. And with my Marriott credit card, I get a free certificate every year. But figuring out how to use those is the tricky thing. And then also considering parking costs, like Tamara said, I considered an Autograph hotel as well. [00:13:28.560] - Kim Tate And one of our stops that was in a bigger city that had that. However, they charged a 35 dollar parking fee. And I thought that doesn't make any sense for us. We'll just stay at the Fairfield Inn and get our nice supposedly free breakfast. The differences between, you know, like just staying on the outskirts at a more of a chain property versus, you know, being in the city at a flagship property, you know, the extra expense can be insane between parking. [00:13:53.550] - Tamara Gruber Then you charge for breakfast and you think about like some of those chains, like I just love, like Residence Inn or, you know, one of the like Springhill Suites is that have also they have like the little happy hour. [00:14:05.820] - Tamara Gruber And then they have sometimes I know Residence Inn like sometimes on like a Tuesday night they have like the manager's reception or something and they'll like grill hot dogs, you know, like something like that. But there's, there's a lot of like little perks to some of the places that maybe don't have you know, they're not the downtown location. [00:14:22.440] - Tamara Gruber They're not the more stylish, perhaps. But I also I like the consistency of a lot of those brands, though, in terms of knowing what you're getting. [00:14:30.990] - Kim Tate Well, and I like the fact that if I'm on a long road trip, it's, a money saving because they're normally pretty affordable. And I just need a place to sleep for the night that I know it's going to be clean and I like the chains because I know that there's a cleanliness standard for the brand. And so you feel a little more confident there, even though they can't be franchised. [00:14:50.850] - Kim Tate So we are going to talk today all about Florida hotels, and I'm excited to hear about that because I'm definitely dreaming of sunshine and palm trees. [00:14:59.970] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, Florida is such a popular destination, so we wanted to cover kind of a variety, you know, from like what's good for family, what's good for girlfriend getaway, romantic, you know, different areas. So lots of, I think a little gems that we're going to talk about today. So I'm excited to talk to Joella. [00:15:24.700] - Tamara Gruber Today, we're here with Joella Doobrow, and she was born in Venezuela and now lives in Florida with her husband and two teen girls, travel has been a part of her life since she was very young. And today she shares her experience through her blog at Roving Jo to help inspire others to find their own adventures and create memories to shape their lives in a positive way. So welcome, Joella. [00:15:45.680] - Joella Doobrow Thanks. I'm really excited to be here with you guys. [00:15:48.350] - Tamara Gruber Now, I've been following you on Instagram for so long now, and I am always jealous of all of the day trips and, you know, weekends and overnights and things that you've been doing, especially as I'm kind of trapped in the cold up here. So I'm eager to get your opinion on some of the your favorite hotels and resorts in Florida. But before we get into some of the details, I'm going to ask you a really hard question. And that is, if you could stay at any resort in Florida with any budget, where would you go? [00:16:17.000] - Joella Doobrow Actually, I think it's this resort, it's called a little Palm Island resort. Tt's a very exclusive. It's on a private island and it's voted like the number seven resort in the USA by, you know, Conde Nast Traveler. And it's really the epitome of luxury and escape. I mean, you need to get there by boat or sea plane. And I just love the idea of no phones, no TVs, no guests under 18 and, you know, really good dining and just secluded and, you know, getting away from the world and having lots of luxury. [00:16:51.770] - Tamara Gruber It sounded perfect to me. Kim and I were actually just talking about this on our last episode briefly, because I was, kind of scrounging around for different ideas for the summer. And I came across it and I was so excited until I saw the price. So, yes, when I win the lottery, that's where I'm going to go to. [00:17:11.600] - Kim Tate So we are going to be talking all about Florida, which I'm sure most people understand is a, you know, fairly good sized state. So let's start on the East Coast. And, you know, there we're looking at Amelia Island, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, the Keys, of course. So what are some of your favorite East Coast beaches and resorts for families that you recommend for, you know, a good, good getaway? [00:17:34.340] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, there's actually several. And like I said, I mean, the East Coast is fairly large. So, you know, starting all the way on the south towards the keys for the family, we really enjoyed Hawk's Cay. So it's not all the way down in Key West, but they have a lot of really, really fun amenities that are for families. They'll do dolphin encounters, you can do snorkeling, scuba packages, sunset cruises, paddleboards kayaks, fishing. They have tons of activities on site, game rooms, kids club, a wonderful playground. [00:18:10.370] - Joella Doobrow They have this little pirate ship type pool putting course. I mean, it's it's just there's everything there and it's getting into the keys. So there's tons of things to do outside the resort as well. It's really fabulous. [00:18:24.440] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I stayed there with my family once quite a few years ago, and I think I've told Kim before, I still have a scar on my knee from that pirate pool. [00:18:33.740] - Kim Tate I actually was talking to them recently and I think it kind of has that it sounded like a very all inclusive feel where or almost like, you know, like staying on on site with Disney in a way where you're kind of insulated. They're they've got everything for restaurants and all your activities. You don't have to think about anything beyond that if you don't want to. So it seems like it's really great. Set it and forget it. Vacation destination. [00:18:56.450] - Tamara Gruber It's a good one for now, too, because they have those villas that have kitchens and it's you know, you're you're really self-contained and self-catering if you want to be. [00:19:06.440] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, they do. They have the both the the hotel side and then the villas. So if you need more space or want to cook your own stuff and or even if I think they even have places where you can dock your boat, it's it's really nice. [00:19:18.500] - Kim Tate Cool, so moving north, what else have you got on the East Coast. [00:19:22.070] - Joella Doobrow So a little bit closer to where I live and we've done this as a day trip or staycation is Margaritaville in Hollywood. And it's really fun because they have you know, aside from the pool, they have the florider where you can kind of like, you know, surf. But yes, it's lots of fun both for kids and adults. And they do have, of course, the rooftop pool with cabanas. And they do have a parakeets kids club with, you know, games and crafts for kids and stuff like that. I think between ages four and twelve. [00:19:53.330] - Tamara Gruber I'm a big Jimmy Buffett fan. And was it two years ago? I stayed at the Margaritaville in Orlando when it first opened and I loved it. So I'm I imagine that they all have a similar vibe. But it just I felt very relaxed when I was there, which I usually wouldn't feel when I'm in Orlando. [00:20:09.140] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, I was really fun. And then right outside the hotel, there's a broad walk or boardwalk. I don't know how people pronounce it, but I mean, you can skate there, ride your bike some there's tons of restaurants out there and cool places where you can get like ice cream. And it has that old town, Florida, feel. And, you know, it's right on the beach, too. So it's great. [00:20:31.700] - Joella Doobrow A little further north, if you go to West Palm, there is the Breakers, which kind of has that old style to it. It's really great for adults and kids because they do have a lot of kids programs. There are even for teens, they have one for teens, thirteen and up, which is great. And they have activities like golf and kayaking and snorkeling and arcades and, you know, complimentary bicycles that you can take and and use for West Palm Beach, which is a great way to get around the area. [00:21:01.030] - Kim Tate Now are any of those, would you say, better for like a beach, like white sand beach vacation type thing, because I know as you move to the keys, sometimes it's not always, you know, sandy beaches and sometimes with currents or tides or, you know, seaweed, stuff like that. So do you have any that are kind of more of a sure bet if you want the white sand beach? [00:21:20.200] - Joella Doobrow Margaritaville is right on the water, and that is sand beach. I feel on the east. It's not as white powdery sand. You'll find that on the West Coast. There's also the the Ritz Carlton, either on Key Biscayne down south or if you want to go north on Amelia Island. Both of them have great family programs. I mean, it is more luxury. It's more that luxury family resort type thing. But they have, you know, different pools once for the family, once, you know, just for the kids and for the adults and the kids club is always really good with Ritz Carlton. So those are beach. [00:21:56.760] - Tamara Gruber They even have those cute little like rich kids check in like a little stepstool so the kids can check it. And I stayed that Amelia Island one one said it was it was nice because I think there's a lot of, like, pirate history up there. So a lot of the kids program activities were involving, like, we're going to look for sharks teeth. We're going to, you know, learn about pirates. And we have like a pirate tuck in and we do stargazing at night in the dunes and some cool things like that that you may not think of as more Floridian, you know. [00:22:25.300] - Joella Doobrow And Amelia Island, the beaches there are pretty nice. So, you know, if you're looking for more of that powdery sand, that's as close as you're going to get, I think, on the East Coast. Cool. [00:22:35.440] - Tamara Gruber Do you have any others that you would want to mention on the East Coast or should we move over to the West Coast? [00:22:39.720] - Joella Doobrow I think let's move on to the Gulf Coast. [00:22:42.550] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, I love the Gulf Coast because there you do find that that powdery sand, but also that blue green water. And it's like calmer and warmer. [00:22:52.840] - Joella Doobrow It's my favorite part of Florida and it's when we want to get away, that's where we tend to go, even if we just go for the day. That's that is, you know, what we love. We feel more at peace there because, you know, you don't have the huge big waves. And like you said, the sand is like super white and powdery and the water is calm and it goes with that clear blue to that emerald green. [00:23:17.290] - Tamara Gruber What areas do you like to stay at or would you like to visit? What do you think families should go to on the Gulf Coast? [00:23:23.380] - Joella Doobrow So our our favorites that that we go to pretty much all the time as either Marco Island or Naples. So Naples, we do a lot of day trips there. And if we want to stay overnight, a lot of times we do, Marco, because we really love the J.W. Marriott that is there. It's really family friendly. You can also use points, which is fabulous. You know, if if you want to reduce cost, they do have three miles of private beach. [00:23:47.560] - Joella Doobrow They have 12 restaurants inside. They have golf courses, you know, water sports day camps for the kids. And, you know, they even have the dove in movie. I mean, I don't know if they're doing that now during quarantine, of course. But, you know, they they used to do that where they had the huge screen outside. And you just you could stay on the pool and watch the movie from there. And on that side of the Gulf, they they can set you up to do the dolphin watching tours, which are fabulous. [00:24:12.550] - Joella Doobrow We've done like kayaking out there and out to the Ten Thousand Islands. And, you know, you can see the domes out there. It's all it's really neat is there are a lot of shelling. So there's kids that, you know, like looking at the different shells and collecting them. It's a great area for that. So we really like staying there. [00:24:31.960] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, we're definitely on the same wavelength here because you and I seem to like a lot of the same hotels. My daughter and I stayed there December of twenty nineteen and we loved it because they had also just open some kind of like microbrew, but it also had like a game room. So it was almost like Dave and Busters kind of place in a way. And so we played a bunch of games and we just had such a blast. And it's not far to the Everglades, too. I know one day we took a day trip down and did an airboat tour, see the alligators, you know, all that kind of stuff. [00:25:09.430] - Joella Doobrow We did a kayaking tour through the mangroves and the Everglades there with a small local company. And, you know, it was fabulous. You get to see the alligators really right next to you and wildlife, all the birds. It's we love that area. [00:25:24.370] - Tamara Gruber Although for some people, the whole alligators may not be right next to them, may not be a positive. I feel like every time I post something from, like a some type of tour that has alligators, they're like, are you crazy? [00:25:39.490] - Kim Tate That's so funny that I live in Seattle, you know, and I've actually done sea kayaking. And, you know, it's funny because I'm scared of alligators. Yet I went out in the sea in kayaked where orcas regularly, you know, will come and they can really flip you. So, yeah, I'm like, I'm probably need to keep my mouth shut and just understand that, you know, alligators probably a lot less scary than orca whales, but. [00:26:01.150] - Joella Doobrow Well, you can always just do the the boat and they take you on the boat. Exactly. You know. Yeah. No problem with flipping the dolphins come right up on you. [00:26:10.570] - Joella Doobrow And then if you if you go when the the waters are warm, the manatees are [00:26:15.530] - Kim Tate I that's what I would love to see would be the manatees that people are they now are the manatees more like inland from the, you know, Gulf side or are they inland? [00:26:25.720] - Joella Doobrow You see them right on the Gulf. OK, yeah. So on the Ten Thousand Islands and you can get there on a tour from Marco all through the canals there. When the waters are warm, you see the manatees, I mean, hundreds and thousands of them. But now, you know, during more of the winter, they migrate from the ocean and they go into the springs closer to central Florida. You see a lot of them up there. [00:26:50.590] - Joella Doobrow And then where the power plants are that keep the water warm so they all kind of migrate to where the waters are warmer. So that's why everybody kind of goes up to the springs to see them there. [00:27:02.200] - Tamara Gruber When we were in Captiva, my gosh, Hannah was probably like four the resort that we stayed at, had a marina and they would always hang out there. So we would just go kind of sit in the marina and watch the manatees bobbing around. I mean, they're so they're ugly but fascinating and cute all at the same time, you know, so. [00:27:18.700] - Joella Doobrow So you said Captiva. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret that us locals here do. There is a little resort down there. It's called Twin Waters Island Resort. And you have to call them the day of if you're if you're local. And it used to be for. Five dollars, but I think it's gone up to 60 now per car, and if they have availability, you pay the 60 dollars, you park your car there. [00:27:42.450] - Joella Doobrow They used to give you, I don't know, twenty five or thirty dollars in credit that you could use in the resort and you could use the facilities, the beach, which is right there, because, as you know, Captiva, there's no real public like it's all like you have to be staying at a home or a resort and so you can use all the property and the amenities and I mean pretty much have a day at a resort. [00:28:07.500] - Kim Tate Florida is really big on right now is day passes and I think that's going to be I did that once when I had a cruise, that we had a late flight out and I bought a day pass to a resort in Fort Lauderdale. And we spent the day we had a room at the resort and we played on the beach and the pool. And then we went to the airport at five pm or whatever. And it was so great. And I know there's a lot of Florida hotels that do that. [00:28:31.140] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, it's great. It's great. This one's kind of hidden. People don't know much about it. Yeah. [00:28:36.750] - Tamara Gruber Now, what about Naples? Do you have a favorite place to stay there? [00:28:40.620] - Joella Doobrow Yes, but I'll talk a little bit about that when we talk about a girlfriend getaway. [00:28:46.230] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, I'd say there are a couple of times and you know, one, I think it was the Naples Grande, which I didn't really love. It was for a family vacation. Yeah. And then the last time Hannah and I just spent a couple of days and I had Marriott points, so I went from the J.W. Marriott, Marco Island to the residence inn Naples. I was trying to balance the use of those points. [00:29:09.060] - Joella Doobrow I have stayed at the Ritz, they have the one by the ocean and then they have the one that's the golf course. And we really do like that. We have stayed up at the grand and it's there's no luxury, but it's we like that beach is really nice, although there's public access to it. And then there's the little inn on fifth. [00:29:29.970] - Tamara Gruber So any other favorite places on the Gulf Coast or even in the other families. [00:29:34.350] - Joella Doobrow I think Tradewinds in the St.. Pete Clearwater area is probably the best bet. I mean it is huge. It's like close to sixteen thousand square feet of floating ocean water park, which I'm sure it's not running right now. But you know, during regular times, having a great floating ocean water park is fantastic. They have five pools, you know, like ten restaurants and bars. Four hundred and fifty cabanas, kids club. I mean, all kinds of stuff. [00:30:03.060] - Joella Doobrow They think they have two different properties with different amenities on each. But and it is not a luxury. It is pure fun. It's a great place for families just looking to really be entertained. So that's what limitation for that tomorrow. [00:30:19.620] - Kim Tate And then we're in Clearwater before. And I think it seemed like an ideal family destination. [00:30:26.350] - Joella Doobrow St. Pete and Clearwater has a lot to do. I mean, even if you don't stay just in the resort, there's tons of things in the area as well. Another place we really love as a family is Anna Maria Island. We just recently stayed in a small boutique resort. There normally will either rent a house or stay off the island with points somewhere and then just commute in. But we stayed at this small boutique resort that only has about eight rooms, and it's called the Rod and Reel resort. [00:30:50.880] - Joella Doobrow And it's super quaint, super nice. It's all inclusive. They provide you with bicycles and kayaks and paddle boards. And the suites are great because there's tons of room for the family. So like we stayed in a two bedroom, which was great. The kids feel like they had all the room to themselves or bathroom and just, you know, kind of on their own like that on top of us. So they really, really liked it. And the island itself is just great for families. [00:31:20.370] - Joella Doobrow There's very laid back, cute little restaurants. You can get everybody by bicycle. And the beaches are absolutely stunning, beautiful sunsets. And we just love it there. That sounds awesome. I know that, you know, it seems like there's these little hidden areas all around Florida, there's so much coastline, I'm sure there's a lot of little you know, I feel this this one's kind of being more discovered now. [00:31:44.150] - Joella Doobrow And it's yeah, it's getting hard to even get rooms there. And they're going up in prices, which is, you know, I think part of. [00:31:50.940] - Kim Tate Yeah, I think that's one of the reasons we wanted to talk about Florida, because it seems like for people who are ready to travel and do feel comfortable traveling, Florida is definitely seeing a huge boom in tourism. So if people are looking for escapes, it seems like the hotels there are welcome. [00:32:05.300] - Joella Doobrow There are definitely open. It's like nothing's ever going on. [00:32:12.980] - Kim Tate Well, one last area before we move on, I just want to ask about is the Panhandle, which I hear a lot of people talking about. Do you have any? [00:32:22.790] - Joella Doobrow I have stayed in Port St. near Port St. Joe, but we rented we rented a house, a home there and stayed on the beach. But I know that there's beautiful areas like Rosemary Beach and Seaside, and I've just never made it up there. It takes me nine hours to get to the Panhandle. So it's not something we've done. [00:32:45.290] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, you have enough beaches close to you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's and I definitely hear that that area is more, you know, for like the vacation rental market, like I've heard of, like what is it, water color in or something that's that's would be very, very nice but definitely more known for its vacation rental home. [00:33:03.820] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, definitely. I mean it's great you do a whole week and you mean you can split it with a family and you know, it's, it's really nice you bring in your groceries and just hang out. We did that in I mean, near Port St. Joe. I don't remember what the name of the town was, but it was in that area. And I have friends who have stayed in Seaside and they've absolutely loved it. [00:33:24.380] - Tamara Gruber Well, obviously, one of the areas that people love to go to in Florida is Orlando. So not on the beach, but do you have any places that you really love if you're in the Orlando area? [00:33:33.380] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, well, I mean, if we're going to talk about some Disney hotels, our favorite is Animal Kingdom Lodge, just because we are big animal lovers and you know, the idea of having the giraffes walking by and it's it's just. [00:33:48.440] Awesome. Plus, I think the pools are really beautiful, the they have like that zero in depth entry that kind of looks like a watering hole. I mean, the way they think they're their hotels is just great. You know, the playgrounds with the ropes and bridge and you can kind of overlook and see the animals on the other side. And of course, the food is phenomenal at that resort. So I'm all about the food, too. So we like it there. [00:34:13.340] - Kim Tate Now we're talking about Disney, my newest favorite little spot is I loved the Riviera resort because it's on the skyline. And just having that way of getting in and out of the parks, especially I two kids who really love Epcot and the Riviera. The skyline has a kind of back entrance to the world showcase in Epcot, which with teenagers, it's really nice because they can you can kind of stay in the room if you're tired and they can go back out. [00:34:37.610] - Joella Doobrow Yeah. For us, when we go to Epcot, we usually stay at either the Swan or the dolphin. Yeah. Just because I mean, it's not over. Yeah. You can walk and it's not it's not technically a Disney hotel, so it's not themed, you know, in that way. But if you have little kids you can still like I think it's the swan has the, you know, the meal, the breakfast, the standards. So you can do that. [00:35:04.130] - Joella Doobrow You know, they do give you perks. You can get transportation to the parks, free parking, you know, the extra magic hours and the complimentary, you know, fastpass plus or whatever that's that's called. You get some of the perks. [00:35:15.980] - Kim Tate But yeah, there are Marriott property. So points person, you can try and snag a room. It's really hard there. [00:35:24.230] - Joella Doobrow And I don't think the redemption is all that great for either. But yeah. Because our prices I mean are are fairly low, especially compared to some of the other resorts that are right there. I mean some of the big Disney resorts that are super expensive are right there. So compared to them, this is a big deal. So that's why we do that. Especially we're going to like the food and wine or something like that. Yeah, we're going to drink a little bit. And you can just walk home. [00:35:50.450] - Kim Tate Yeah. What other places other than Disney do you love? [00:35:55.130] - Joella Doobrow In Orlando, I mean, if we're if we're going to stay in the Orlando area and budget is not an issue, I mean, the Four Seasons is beautiful for a resort. You don't have to leave. Yeah, you really don't have to leave. It's everything is just there. It's just ridiculously expensive. [00:36:13.850] - Tamara Gruber Well, you kind of teased us earlier by talking about some girl trip destinations. Now, Kim and I did a girls trip down to the Keys, but I'd love to hear if you have any places that you love for girls trip to Florida. Yes. [00:36:25.790] - Joella Doobrow And I won't mention the Keys at all. OK, so I actually feel Palm Beach is a fabulous place for girls trip. I would recommend two resorts. I mean, that you can pick depending on the kind of vibe that you want. I mean, there's Eau Palm Beach which actually used to be a Ritz Carlton. So their spa is fantastic. It's like a forty two thousand square foot spots, like one of the best ones there. And it's phenomenal. [00:36:53.810] - Joella Doobrow So if you want to do that with the girls, that's awesome. They have a great adult only pool. And of course, there's all the luxury that comes with with the brand. And then if you kind of prefer that more cutesy Instagram style type hotel, there's The Colony. So that one's not on the beach, but they do take you to the beach. And not only do they take it to the beach, they have a beach butler that will deliver like little bites and stuff in a pink yeti cooler. [00:37:23.450] - Joella Doobrow So everything's kind of very Instagram able. I mean, you'll find pinks and blues and flamingo prince and banana leaf prints. It's just all super cute and Instagramable. [00:37:35.000] - Tamara Gruber So it's a good place to wear your lily Pulitzer dresses. [00:37:37.820] - Joella Doobrow Perfect. And it's just fun, fun place for the girls. And they have bikes that you can take everything in. And Palm Beach is very either walkable or you can get around with a bike. So it's you can just get on the bikes and go exploring lots of really good restaurants. It's a fun place and shopping, of course, lots of shopping. If I was somebody that I follow on Instagram that's been posting pictures from the colony this week and so I'm very familiar with what you mean with that like pastel pink and. [00:38:07.590] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, yeah. Looks very cute. It is cute but is cute and I mean another one. If you kind of like the whole spa thing and maybe want to be closer to some of the Miami action, there is the aqualina resort and spa. It is. It's around Sunny Isles. So it's it's really kind of nice, the location, it's on the beach and it's close to both Aventura and Bal Harbor shops. So between spending time on the beach, pool, spa and shopping, I mean, make for great girls getaway. [00:38:42.600] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, I've heard great things about that hotel also. [00:38:45.930] - Joella Doobrow I've gone there just for spa, like we have a month here that is spa month. So they have like really discounted rates. So we'll we'll take the girls and we'll just go for a spa day though. [00:38:56.610] - Kim Tate So nice. I'm definitely dreaming of a girls getaway. Yeah. So but what about if we're looking for a romantic getaway. [00:39:03.960] - Kim Tate I know Tamara. That's one of the reasons she's eyeing Florida a lot in case her Greece trip doesn't happen. So what do you think about that? [00:39:11.420] - Joella Doobrow Well, if you win the lottery and want to go to Little Palm Island, go for it. If you don't, then I think a little less expensive alternative are the bungalows at Key Largo. That was the other one I was looking at. Yeah, it's an adult only property. It's all inclusive. It's, you know, kind of smaller in size. Has that feel of like you're in Bali. They have like that little spa garden getaway kind of thing. [00:39:36.570] - Joella Doobrow It's it's supposed to be really nice and romantic. I personally have not been, but I would think that that would be a great place. I have been to the Checca Lodge. And that was really nice. I know they're remodeling it right now, so I don't I think it won't be ready till sometime in 2022, but that's another really nice option. [00:39:57.100] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, Kim, that was one that we were maybe going to stay at when we were in Key Largo. Yeah, but then we ended up at Baker's. [00:40:03.580] - Kim Tate I really liked that Baker's Cay spot that they put us up at. I thought that was nice and I haven't even heard of that. [00:40:11.590] - Tamara Gruber That was was that an autograph? I remember one that we stayed at was not autograph. And when we visited was a curio collection by Hilton or I may have flipped those, something like that. Yeah. [00:40:22.660] - Kim Tate I think the curio one was the baker's key I think. Yeah. And then there was the one next door to it too and I don't remember what that one was. [00:40:29.740] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. I playa Largo I think. Well that's some nice options. Do you have any others for a romantic getaway. I mean at this point anything sounds good to me. Yeah. [00:40:38.920] - Joella Doobrow I mean I like, I like Amelia Island on the East but I would rent, I would rent or stay in a little bed and breakfast or something. Right. [00:40:48.500] - Tamara Gruber Yeah, and the Omni has those residences right on property, so you can, like, have your own condo. I mean, that's not maybe quite as charming, romantic as you might be imagining with a bed and breakfast. [00:41:03.170] - Joella Doobrow Yeah, it's an option and it definitely is an option. [00:41:06.230] - Tamara Gruber Cool. Well, that's a lot of ground that we covered are a lot of coastline at least. I was going to say a lot of state. You gave us some great ideas to think about. And now I just, of course, want to travel more than ever. But out of everything that we talked about, do you have a favorite that you've been to? [00:41:23.690] - Joella Doobrow Oh, it's it's hard. I think we just keep going back to the day of Marriott in Marco just because we love the location. The amenities are great. It's the prices reasonable. It just kind of ticks all the boxes for us. Lots of, like little day trips and things that we can do from their little excursions on boats and kayaking and that kind of stuff. So it takes a lot of the boxes for us. So that's where we keep going back to. [00:41:53.150] - Joella Doobrow I feel like the changes by the mood, it's seasonal too, right? Yeah, that's true. I mean, some of them, you know, get decorate are really nice around Christmas when you go, you know, I mean, Disney is absolutely beautiful. During Christmas. [00:42:07.640] - Kim Tate I was just going to ask, is there a season that you think that people, you know, if they're looking for kind of a resort beach, you know, we're thinking more of the traditional Florida beach escape. Is there, you know, any seasons that you think are great for either weather and or money? Like savings, like getting deals? [00:42:24.120] - Joella Doobrow Well, for savings, hurricane season. But yeah, but you probably don't want to travel during hurricane season. [00:42:31.970] - Joella Doobrow Summer usually, believe it or not, has the better deals because it is incredibly hot. So you do get better deals like this time of the year is expensive because it's horrible everywhere else and everybody wants to come to Florida. Yeah, but the weather's great. And that's why everybody I mean, this is perfect weather here now. I mean, you can still go in the in the ocean. It's, you know, seventy three degrees out. You know, it's perfect. [00:42:56.960] - Joella Doobrow I mean, spring is great here, but it's expensive. [00:43:00.650] - Tamara Gruber Yeah. You're in season. [00:43:04.190] - Tamara Gruber Well, I guess we want to wrap up by asking a question that we ask all of our guests, and that is, do you have a favorite travel outfit or brand of clothing that you like to wear when you're traveling? [00:43:14.990] - Joella Doobrow Oh, well, in Florida, I mostly wear like sun dresses and maxi dresses. I have some favorite rap rap style dresses that I get from Lulus when they're on sale. But I'm not I don't like just subscribe to one brand. It's whatever I find. I'm not brand loyal. So if I find something else that's comfortable, it's fine. But if I'm going to do anything outdoors and hiking, which we love to do, but we don't do that in Florida, we go away for that. [00:43:39.290] - Joella Doobrow Then usually we do Columbia. We have a great we have great outlet shops here. So I actually live really close to a Columbia outlet and we get most of our stuff from there. And then, of course, also Prana when they're on sale. [00:43:52.460] - Joella Doobrow So those are kind of my those are two of them, too, like outdoorsy, relaxed, you know, gear. I absolutely love Prana and Columbia both. Yeah. [00:44:00.920] - Tamara Gruber And I know from seeing you on Instagram, you always have very cute dresses. [00:44:06.320] - Joella Doobrow I have I have these wrap dresses from Lulus, which I mean, one, they're super, super comfortable for travel, too. They look fabulous. Some pictures. And, you know, you can dress them up or dress them down. [00:44:19.380] - Kim Tate Great. So, you know, Tamara mentioned seeing you on Instagram, so do you want to let our listeners know where they can find you online? Yes, I do live most of my life there on Instagram, on my handle is roving Joe, I do have the same handle on Facebook and my website is the same as roving Jo Dotcom. [00:44:38.060] - Tamara Gruber And that's Joe with no E at the end. [00:44:39.860] - Tamara Gruber Just so. Yes, everyone knows and we'll link to that in their show notes. So thank you again for coming in and sharing your expertise with us. And we hope everyone does pop over to Instagram and give you a follow and a little shout out there. [00:44:55.260] - Joella Doobrow And thanks for having me. This was super fun and I hope I was able to provide some valuable information. [00:45:01.130] - Kim Tate I think you have us all dreaming of kind of a nice, you know, warm weather beach escape right now. So it's helpful to have an idea of where to look. [00:45:12.530] - Kim Tate As always, thanks for joining us for another week here at Vacation MAVEN's. [00:45:16.790] - Tamara Gruber And stay tuned because next time we're going to be talking to someone all about family travel tech. So your favorite gadgets to help make family travel a little bit easier. [00:45:25.970] - Kim Tate Can't wait for that one, because you know me, I'm all about travel and tech gadgets. [00:45:29.960] - Tamara Gruber So stay tuned.
Four SMU basketball legends talk about their coach, Doc Hayes, and the years that SMU dominated the Southwest Conference. Bobby Mills, Rich Herrscher, Max Williams, and Denny Holman share their NCAA tournament memories and stories about great games in SMU history under Coach Hayes, including SMU's Final Four appearance in 1956. Doc Hayes won more Southwest Conference championships than any other coach in history and is the winningest coach in SMU history. He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1972. This episode is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North location. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is hosted and produced by Jackson Michael, author of The Game Before the Money. #NCAA #FinalFour #MarchMadness #SMU #CollegeBasketballHistory #TexasSports
JAN. 14 Bartizan, 4035 Whittall Way – The following violations were reported during a routine inspection: observed an open can used by an employee; observed foie gras stored on top of veggies that appears uncooked; observed unlabeled bottles of soap; spray hose is leaking; brie has improper temperature because it is overfilled in the make table with paper dividers. Fairfield Inn & Suites, 9937 Mayland Drive – The following violations were reported during a routine inspection: no handwashing signage posted at the handsink; observed cleaners incorrectly hanging over single service items/condiments; observed coffee filters uncovered; hot faucet drips when turned...Article LinkSupport the show (http://henricocitizen.com/contribute)
Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop TODAY'S HEADLINES: You’ve heard the words before, but this time is a big one: Amazon Union. A new effort at a warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama is sweeping up support and is preparing for an NLRB vote in February. Meanwhile, remember when hospitals discovered typical Pfizer vaccine vials contained extra doses of the COVID vaccine? Well, Pfizer isn’t content to let that lie, and are now shipping less vials so they can charge for every last dose. And lastly, the Senate is once again floundering on the filibuster, as Democrats in Name Only Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema announce they won’t be persuaded to end it. Predictable, but still frustrating! THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW: Remember this city: Bessemer, Alabama. In a few months, it could take a permanent place in the history of organized labor, as warehouse workers at an Amazon Fulfillment Center there gear up for a full NLRB election to unionize close to 6,000 employees at the location. The fight for unionization at Amazon’s notoriously brutal warehouse facilities has been ongoing across the country for years, but the Bessemer group is about as close as anyone’s come thus far. That’s in the face of an avalanche of corporate union busting, as is Amazon’s custom. Still, this week the workers got a big boost: the official endorsement of the NFL Player’s Association. The workers are attempting to join the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, which worked with them clandestinely out of a Fairfield Inn so that the Amazon bosses wouldn’t catch on back in the summer. Here’s where things are at now. The prospective union got over 2,000 of the warehouse’s 5,800 or so workers to sign cards saying they wanted to vote on a union, which was enough to the the NLRB involved, even in late December when Trump’s anti-worker goons were in charge. If you remember, one of Biden’s first acts as president was to fire the NLRB’s head lawyer, because the guy was a Trump flunky who sided with Uber in a big worker classification case. So now the Amazon crew in Bessemer has a more sympathetic team at the top of the NLRB. That’s good, because the election is coming up. The NLRB announced that voting will begin next month and continue through March, mostly by mail. It’ll be the first vote for an Amazon union since 2014, when a small group of tech workers in Delaware voted against one. And since Alabama is a right-to-work state that’s pretty hostile to unions in the first place, if the RWDSU and the brave employees putting it all on the line pull this off, it could touch off a wave of similar actions around the country. Pfizer Gouges Government One of the best small miracles to come out of the largely dysfunctional rollout of the Coronavirus vaccine was the discovery that Pfizer’s vials of the substance actually contained more doses than scientists thought. That let doctors usually get more doses in arms faster, although they were often slowed down by overzealous restrictions as to who they could give it to. But big pharma is always gonna big pharma, so you can guess what happens next. Pfizer is going to wring every last dollar from American taxpayers for this thing, making sure it’s paid by the dose. How they did it will piss you off even more. For weeks, Pfizer lobbied the government to change the language of its original order for the vaccines, to note that the vials contained six doses, not five. Doing so could have a positive impact -- in that doctors knowingly can provide more doses faster. But since the sixth dose often requires a specialized syringe to extract, Pfizer is clearly playing the refs to make sure it gets every last penny possible. Its contract states that it gets paid by the dose, after all. And since there’s more doses per vial, the company is now saying it’s required to provide fewer vials. The end result is most important, of couse -- the more jabs we get in arms the better -- but there’s no end to the lengths big pharma will go to maximize profits, no matter the situation. Dems Forfeit Filibuster And finally, you’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: Democrats are floundering a little in the Senate. On Monday, Democrats Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema both stuck by their previous statements that they had no interest in ending the legislative filibuster, a key provision that Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was fighting for in exchange for letting the Democrats take their committee chairship in the Senate. In reality, this is a pretty thin win for McConnell, who didn’t get much besides Sinema and Manchin proving once again that they’re only sort of Democrats. When push comes to shove the Democrats are still clearly counting on Sinema and Manchin’s votes for unrelated bills, which filibuster or not still have a chance to get through. McConnell also backed off on his hard-line demand that Democrats promise to preserve the filibuster, which means they could still take what’s known as the nuclear option and vote to end it with a simple majority at some point this year, provided they can finally convince Manchin and Sinema that there’s no other way to get stuff done. They could of course have done that and just broken a promise to McConnell, but that’s not the kind of hard ball the Democrats usually play. Regardless, the debate for now is done, and McConnell and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can hammer out the rest of the terms for their power-sharing agreement going forward, in which Democrats still have that prized tiebreaker vote. We’ll see what they do with it. AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES: A new study by University of Chicago and Notre Dame Economists found that 8 million people have been pushed into poverty in between June and December as federal pandemic aid programs expired. In related news, Joe Biden indicated today that he was open to putting income thresholds on the next stimulus check that gets sent out. More arbitrary cutoffs for relief, just what we need! But hey, there’s more: Biden did say that he was moving forward to replace notorious racist Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman. As many progressives pointed out, the best possible situation would be sending every American about 100 of those bills each month. The Oregon GOP took the wild but also incredibly predictable step today of officially putting a rubber stamp on Capitol storming conspiracy theories, passing a formal resolution calling the attack a so called “false flag,” perpetrated by leftists in order to impeach Donald Trump. Surprising that they’re the first ones to do it, but we’ll certainly get more of the same! And finally, Joe Biden reversed Donald Trumps discriminatory ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military, making sure that people of all identities can serve the country however they choose. JAN 26, 2021 - AM QUICKIE HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner WRITER - Jack Crosbie PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn
Few industries have suffered as much as the hospitality industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this episode, Dr. Marie Gould Harper talks to Cara Dipietro, area General Manager of the Fairfield Inn & Suites in White Marsh, Maryland. Learn about the impacts to the hotel industry during 2020 and creative ways that hotels are attracting customers through packages like day use rates where families can get away for short periods of time. Also learn how important it is for hospitality leaders to motivate and engage employees during this extremely challenging time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hear legends of the Southwest Conference swap stories in this episode of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast. Southwest Conference greats such as Heisman Trophy winner Andre Ware and Texas A&M football coach Jackie Sherrill were on hand the first annual Southwest Conferece Legends Golf Tournament and Reunion. The socially-distanced event was hosted by the Texas Sports Hall of Fame at the Clubs of Kingwood in Houston and featured an array of stars playing a round of golf with attendees and a lively reception afterward. The Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast was on site to record interviews with Ware and Coach Sherrill, along with Bubba Bean, Matt Wingo, Sean Gay, Alois Blackwell, Trevor Cobb, Edd Hargett, and several other of the many SWC athletes who attended the special gathering. This episode of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites Waco North. The podcast is hosted and presented by Jackson Michael, author of The Game before the Money and Red, White, and Columbia Blue: Chasing the Dream with the 1979 Houston Oilers.
It's a Christmas Miracle, we're finally getting to some of our listener stories in the backlogs. We have a story about an ouija board from K-Mart and a floating purple head. Another ouija board story from a skeptic. A forensic anthropologist assisting with a grave robbing investigation. We got a damn Crystal Lake type story from summer camp. Someone stayed at the Fairfield Inn at Gettysburg and had some weird shit go down. And we close out with a heartwarming story about a Grandfather watching out for their grandkid when he needed it most.Please send us your own true paranormal experiences in either a voice memo or e-mail to funnyfeelingpod@gmail.com.This episode is brought to you by Magic Spoon. Go to magicspoon.com/FUNNYFEELING to grab a variety pack and try it today! And be sure to use our promo code FUNNYFEELING at checkout to get free shipping.Affordable, private online counseling. Anytime, anywhere. BetterHelp will match you to one of 10,000 licensed therapists. Get feedback, advice and guidance from your counselor. As a listener, you'll get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/afunnyfeeling. Join over 1 million people taking charge of their mental health.Advertise on A Funny Feeling via Gumball.fm
Austin City Council considers leasing the Fairfield Inn & Suites for $910,560 in northwest Austin for "emergency housing, isolation, and support services related to COVID-19," the Kalahari Resort in Round Rock will open today, and Austin’s Brick Oven restaurant announces closure after their property owner, HEB, decides to not renew lease. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mike misses his deadline for a second time because his boss wanted him to work for some reason. He needs the job so that he can spend his money on realizing his dream of having a drive through tuxedo shop. What happens when you put 4 sleep deprived men in a Suite at the Fairfield Inn? A very weird podcast. The dropouts talk about their surprising results from The Cool Place RTT, Mike makes fun of Castle a lot, because he deserves it. Surely not one to be missed.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Hospitality, M.D.! This week, Kyle has the pleasure of speaking with Kayla Kuehne from the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Washington. Looking to hear more from Kayla? Send her a connection request on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayla-kuehne-45381a124/ You can find the Hospitality, M.D. Podcast on any of your favorite podcast services. Follow us on all of our socials: Facebook: fb.me/HospitalityMDofficial Facebook Messenger: m.me/HospitalityMDofficial Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hospitalitymd/ LinkedIn Business Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28464166 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnN-svfpsdSxF67utHBag4g Email: Hospitalitymdofficial@gmail.com Website: Coming Soon! :) Kyle: Email: Kyle@Hospitality-md.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-allison-545156115/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kallison100/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kyle_alli_san Greg: Email: Greg@Hospitality-md.com LinkedIn :https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfregoso/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregfreg_ Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregfreg_ Discord Server: https://discord.gg/sWjnPUq Cover art and logo designed and created by the extremely talented Alex Twitter: https://twitter.com/FGamesNemesis YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlnvZ1wzssSDbe5oGX2qMw Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/flashgamesnemesis Commissions: https://fgncommissions.weebly.com/ Intro Music was composed, recorded, engineered and created by our very own Kyle Allison. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/hospitalitymd/message
Jake was lucky enough to know and train alongside a really awesome young woman during his time in Japan. Unfortunately she left everyone too soon. Jake shares his stories and thoughts about that young lady in this week's episode.
Greg Swindell is a University of Texas pitching icon. He still holds school records over 30 years after creating history. The Cleveland Indians selected Swindell as the second-overall pick in baseball's amateur draft in June of 1986 and he was already pitching in the majors for good by that August. Swindell pitched for 17 seasons at the major league level. He was a member of the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks World Series championship team. He made the American League All-Star team in 1989. Greg Swindell shares stories of winning the state baseball championship in high school, playing for legendary Texas baseball coach Cliff Gustafson, and his pitching approaches against iconic hitters of the 80s and 90s. He also takes us behind the scenes of the dramatic 2001 World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees in the aftermath of 9/11. This episode of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites Waco North. The podcast is produced and hosted by Jackson Michael, author of The Game Before the Money and writer/director of We Were the Oilers: The Luv Ya Blue Era!
Recorded in the beautiful Fairfield Inn & Suites, Jacksonville, FL. Guess what rears its ugly travel spoiling head this month? You got it.... the Coronavirus and all the hype and panic associated with it. But wait, there's more. Is Marriott in the thong business, decide for yourself? Plus they can help you to tell your kids that you're getting divorced, but only if you're staying Hawaii. Thanks for listening! Leave a message or shoot me an email at TravelFrick Thanks for listening. Check us out on the web at HypeAmerica or Instagram --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/steve-frick/message
Recorded February 25, 2020, in the beautiful Fairfield Inn & Suites, Duluth, GA. Road food is different than eating on the road, the later will usually involve some destination where you will consume food. Road food is stuff you eat in your car while zipping around. Healthy vs Non-Healthy - food tour vs. wandering around, there are endless scenarios and this week's episode we take on ROAD FOOD. Thanks for listening! Leave a message or shoot me an email at TravelFrick Thanks for listening. Check us out on the web at HypeAmerica or Instagram --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/steve-frick/message
We dish the 411 on our latest hotel stay Fairfield Inn and Suites. We talk towels, customer service, and the highlights and lowlights of our 5 night stay. #hotelreviews #marriot #lifestyleonabugdet #hotel #hotellife #vacationtips
REVISIT: Horse Nation's Leslie recounts her awesome English adventure, horse gal and entrepreneur Mystic Pope tells us about the Hoof Moon Boot, Victoria Spicer has the latest from Horse & Country TV and Rita from BLM Nevada answers Jamie's questions about the Nevada Correctional Center prisoner trained Mustang program. Listen in...HORSES IN THE MORNING Episode 2364 - Show Notes and Links:Link to Sound File for Sight Impaired: Click HereThe HORSES IN THE MORNING Crew: Glenn the Geek: co-host, executive in charge of comic relief, Jamie Jennings: co-host, director of wacky equestrian adventures, Coach Jenn: producer, Chaos Control Officer.Photo: Martha and “Sexy Harry.” Photo courtesy of Martha Sitwell, source Eventing NationGuest: Leslie Wylie, Meeting Martha on Horse Nation Guests: Mystic Pope, HorseEase Moon BootEuropean Report with Horse & Country TVGuest: Rita from the Nevada BLM, Saddle-Trained Wild Horse & Burro Inmate Training ProgramFollow Horse Radio Network on TwitterAdditional support for this episode by: Fairfield Inn & Suites Lexington North & Listeners Like YouSupport the show (https://www.patreon.com/user?u=87421)
Recorded in the beautiful Fairfield Inn & Suites, Duluth, GA. My 2020 travel resolutions and none of them require me to eat less or sweat more. What are your resolutions? Leave a message or shoot me an email at TravelFrick Thanks for listening. Check us out on the web at HypeAmerica or Instagram --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/steve-frick/message
The Texas Sports Hall of Fame celebrates Dallas Cowboys legend Bob Lilly this episode of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Podcast. He tells us about growing up in Throckmorton, Texas, his college career at TCU, and the road to the Cowboys their first championship -- a victory over the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl 6. You'll also hear Bob share about Dallas Cowboys head coach Tom Landry, how the Cowboys found out that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, and a funny story about Bob's first Pro Bowl. Hall of Famer Gil Brandt and former AP editor Denne Freeman also appear on the podcast. Brandt tells why the Cowboys made Lilly their first ever draft choice. Bob Lilly is known as "Mr. Cowboy" and was the Dallas Cowboys first ever draft choice. He was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in 1975. He is also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a member of the NFL 100 All-Time team. Many call him the best defensive lineman ever. This episode of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame is presented by the Fairfield Inn and Suites, Waco North Location. The podcast is hosted by Jackson Michael, author of "The Game before the Money."
“We're the BASF of brand story. We don't make it but we bring it life.” This analogy perfectly captures the inflection point where Christopher Wallace has built his business. InnerView helps marketing teams take the brand from the boardroom to the customers on the front line. This isn't as easy as it might sound at first. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the On Brand podcast. Christopher Wallace Christopher Wallace is the Co-Founder and President of InnerView which is a marketing consulting firm that helps companies align their brand and product strategies with their customer-facing representatives. Prior to InnerView, Mr. Wallace has had previous success as an entrepreneur in the sales consulting and coaching space. He has nearly 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and corporate leadership. Chris’s primary professional focus is to help companies better align the strategies of the board room with their customer experience. Episode Highlights “We're professional translators. We take what marketing is doing and deliver it to the customer.” InnerView has staked out an interesting position in the critical space between marketing who develops the brand strategy and sales and customer service who brings it to life. “People are recognizing that this is something you have to get out ahead of.” I asked Christopher if InnerView was called in earlier in a brand launch or after a less than successful launch. He noted that previously, they were brought in more to clean things up. Lately, marketers have been proactively reaching out to them. “Marketers are recognizing that this is something you don't want to fall down on.” What brand has made Christopher smile recently? Recently he and his team were in Atlanta and used the Fairfield Inn near the airport as their base of operations. He had nothing but raves about the staff and experience. It also perfectly illustrated everything we'd talked about during the interview about brands being aligned from top to bottom. To learn more, go InnerViewGroup.com and connect with Christopher on LinkedIn. As We Wrap … Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. On Brand is sponsored by my book Brand Now. Discover the seven dynamics to help your brand stand out in our crowded, distracted world. Order now and get special digital extras. Learn more. Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to Apple Podcasts and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And, if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!
Today's headlines: Fairfield Inn & Suites to rise adjacent to tennis center in project involving Berry College, Marriott. 100 rooms due by 2021. Third Fairfield in our area. Northwest Georgia's House seat -- will it go red or blue? How about ... Greene? As in Majorie Taylor Greene? Dining: A few 'bytes' on some 'fast bites' all involving a little 'fusion' along Broad Street -- even if we can't remember the names of what we ate Education: Winners announced as area high schools take part in SkillsUSA Region 1 competition hosted by Georgia Northwestern Technical College. Rant of the Day: Northwest Georgia's House seat -- will it go red or blue? How about ... Greene? --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/john-druckenmiller/support
On episode 295, Super Geek Heather Stone Capelle comes on the show to share her vacation including her Galaxy’s Edge experience, private character breakfast and special moments at Disneyland. Fairfield Inn across the street from Disneyland Surprise Private Character breakfast Paradise Pier PCH Grill – All Alone Search for a mural Cafe Orleans I learn about a Muffuletta salad or sandwich Bengal BBQ Mizners going away? Ronto’s Roasters in Galaxy’s Edge Galaxy’s Edge Millenium Falcon experience Dec 5th we learned after this recording is the Rise of the Resistance opening so Heather will have a chance to go on it! Pixie Dust Stories First Matterhorn experience Great Mother/Daughter moment Fireworks Over-rated Comparing Pirates Under-rated Best things for kids Max Pass described Her planning and what she learned Heather’s business to support is https://artistreearts.com/ Contribute to the show at www.patreon.com/geekinonwdw Join our Facebook community by search Facebook for Geekin’ On WDW Podcast Family and asking to join our private Facebook group and friending me Email me at curt.stone@GeekinOnWDW.com Reach Momma and Auntie Judy for trip planning – TravelinTiaras@gmail.com
Recorded in the beautiful Fairfield Inn, Valdosta, GA. Here's the skinny on the Chase Southwest Reward Card. The only reason to apply for the Chase Southwest Reward Card is the Southwest Companion Pass. Thanks for listening, safe travels and enjoy your day. Check us out on the web at HypeAmerica or Instagram or Podcoin --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/steve-frick/message
Marta On The Move Podcast- Hosted by Marta Napoleone Mazzoni
#104 Aaron Kleiber Aaron Kleiber has been on my show once before when I hosted a charity event at Arcade Comedy. He is a hilariously funny human being, and is about to take to the stage once more to record a special one hour live comedy show here in Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead on March 3rd. You should be there, it is being recorded, and will hopefully air on national television one day. You heard it here first! Aside from his exciting news, I really wanted to talk with him about his life on the road. This guy travels the entire realm of North America, frequently. He is married with three kids, and comedy is his full time job. Listeners will get some hilarious stories about him on the road with other comedians he has worked with, including- Bob Sagat. Aspiring comedians could use a tip or two from him on how to balance that work/life relationship while traveling. Aaron gives a ton of helpful suggestions. Also, how to own up into loving yourself and what you do. YOU ARE WORTHY! At one point, I ask Aaron to tell me the worst travel story he remembers from his years on the road, and it is a great one that includes being stuck in an airport when all flights get canceled. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. This episode is sponsored by Marriot Hotels (If you listen to the episode, you will realize why this is hilarious.) I reached out to Marriot after having this conversation with Aaron about his horror story, and how Marriot came through for him in a time when he needed it. If you need a comfortable place to stay while exploring my fair hometown of Pittsburgh, or happen to be stuck like Aaron was a while back, The Towneplace Suites Pittsburgh airport and the Fairfield inn and Suites Pittsburgh airport located in Robinson just 7 minutes from the airport, are the perfect places to lay your head for a few nights while you await your flight. They will even send a shuttle to pick you up at the airport when your flights arrives. No stress, and no extra bucks for a taxi to get you to your hotel, where you will want to just sit back and relax. Book online at www.Marriot.com Marriott International, Inc. is a leading global lodging company with more than 6,000 properties in 122 countries and territories, reporting revenues of more than $17 billion in fiscal year 2016 with 32 brands under our hotel portfolio. Founded by J. Willard and Alice Marriott and guided by family leadership for nearly 90 years, the company is headquartered outside of Washington, D.C. in Bethesda, Maryland. The Fairfield Inn and Suites and TownePlace Suites Pittsburgh Airport Robinson are 2 of the newest Marriott properties side by side, all suites, all amenities included, free airport shuttle and walkable to the Mall at Robinson and hundreds of restaurants, shops and bars. They are easily accessible in and out of the city of Pittsburgh and the entire airport corridor. For more information or sales inquiries feel free to contact their Director of Market Sales, Andrew Frost. He has serviced clients and provided top notch customer service to the Pittsburgh market for over 15 years. Conference Room Suite Entrance to the Fairfield Inn and Suites TownPlace Suites Outside Fire Pit Kitchenette in suite Pool! Nuff Said.
Eric Alegria has that look, at once a genial everyman and a chiseled lead, he could be your hotel clerk (as he was, in Marriott’s Fairfield Inn campaign, starring Mr. T), a star soccer player (Budweiser), or, well, the voice of a gecko (for Jeep, not Geico). He’s also cut his teeth onstage, at comedy... The post How to become a working actor in Hollywood without losing your sense of humor appeared first on Yes Brand Podcast.
John, Chris, and BCD spent four glorious days at Star Wars Celebration Orlando last week and this episode features our thoughts about the show as well as an in-depth analysis of the Last Jedi trailer. Recorded from the show floor and/or our hotel room on the 6th floor of the Fairfield Inn! Email=theblockaderunnerpodcast@gmail.com Twitter=@blockaderun Stitcher YouTube Instagram=theblockaderunner --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/blockaderunnerpodcast/message
Jason has worked on music videos for bands like Placebo, Passion Pit, The Arcade Fire, and DJ Snake and Lil Jon. He was worked on many commercials and including those featuring icons like Mr. T (for Fairfield Inn) and Weird Al Yankovic (for Radio Shack). For feature films, he has worked in the art department including as a Model Maker on The Chronicles of Riddick and in Props on Escape From Tomorrow. For production design in film over the years, Jason has worked on the comedy Pickin & Grinnin and the comedy/musical film, Eternity: The Movie. More recently, Jason worked on the upcoming comedy/horror film, The Greasy Strangler, and the critically acclaimed, Swiss Army Man.
The DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition - A Roundtable Discussion About All Things Disneyland
05/12/15 - Tom Bell and the team take a virtual walk down Harbor Boulevard from Ball Road to Disney Way, discussing hotels and restaurants along the way.
The DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition - A Roundtable Discussion About All Things Disneyland
01/20/15 - The team helps Amy and her niece Darby plan her graduation present: a trip to Disneyland and Southern California.
The DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition - A Roundtable Discussion About All Things Disneyland
11/13/14 - The Disneyland team discusses this week’s news, including City of Anaheim election results and new viewing options for Fantasmic.
Episode Notes: Interview by: Linsey Lindberg Interviewee: Bobby Maverick Original Recording Date: July 14, 2014 Date: Aired: September 15, 2015 Location: Recorded live at the Fairfield Inn and Suits, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Notes about the Image: This image is … Continue reading →
Episode Notes: Interview by: Linsey Lindberg Interviewee: Bobby Maverick Original Recording Date: July 14, 2014 Date: Aired: September 15, 2015 Location: Recorded live at the Fairfield Inn and Suits, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Notes about the Image: This image is … Continue reading →
The DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition - A Roundtable Discussion About All Things Disneyland
07/10/14 - The team discusses this week’s Disneyland news, including a new menu at Golden Vine Winery’s Alfresco Terrace, honors for the Anaheim Fairfield Inn and a lengthy closure for the Napa Rose.
The DIS Unplugged: Disneyland Edition - A Roundtable Discussion About All Things Disneyland
05/29/14 - Tom Bell reviews another Good Neighbor Hotel, this time the Fairfield Inn Anaheim Resort.
Indie Celtic music from The Wild Clover Band, Michael William Harrison, Marita Brake, Tenpenny Travelers, Willie McCulloch, Stuart Martz, Cormorant’s Fancy, Marc Gunn & The Dubliners’ Tabby Cats, Trinity River Whalers, Celtic Music Society, Coyote Run, Celtic Stone, Mr. Ferris Pighouse Collection, Whirly Jig, Rhianon. http://celticmusicpodcast.com/ Subscribe to the Celtic Music Magazine. This is our free newsletter and your guide to the latest Celtic music and podcast news. Remember to support the artists who support this podcast: buy their CDs, download their MP3s, see their shows, and drop them an email to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. Do you download your podcasts by Hand? For shame. Let iTunes do it for you. Brought to you by Song Henge, the online archive of free and legal Celtic music downloads. Find out more at SongHenge.com Notes: Can a Celtic music podcast hit # 1 on the iTunes Podcast Music Charts? Only one way to find out. Subscribe through iTunes and tell a friend. You could win a video iPod? Celtic Podcast Network This week in Celtic Music 00:12 “The Banish Set” by The Wild Clover Band from Behind the Blarney 05:18 “Old Carrion Crow” by Michael William Harrison from First Time ‘Round 08:57 “The Celtic Spirit” by Marita Brake from The Celtic Rose 11:35 “Dapper Dan” by Tenpenny Travelers from Beyond the Gate 17:53 “Outer Hebrides” by Willie McCulloch from Auld Tales & New 20:07 “The Diamond” by Stuart Martz from Threesome Reel 23:59 “The Waves of Kilkee” by Cormorant’s Fancy from An Evening at the Fairfield Inn 27:03 “The Mining Ship the Red Dwarf” by Marc Gunn & The Dubliners’ Tabby Cats from Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers 30:13 “Botany Bay” by Trinity River Whalers from Knotty Tales 34:56 “Four Jigs” by Celtic Music Society from Color Blind 39:26 “Dragon of Cabo San Lucas” by Coyote Run from Pleads the Fifth 42:56 “Do You Love an Apple” by Celtic Stone from Digital Flashbacks 46:30 “O’Neills march / Tralee gaol” by Mr. Ferris Pighouse Collection 49:35 “Bitter Wine” by Whirly Jig from Thing-A-Ma-Jig. 55:50 “Cruel Mother” by Rhianon from A Rake, A Wheel, and Ragged Reel The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather. To subscribe, go to iTunes or to our website where you can become a Patron of the Podcast for as little as $1 per episode. Promote Celtic culture through music at celticmusicpodcast.com.
Irish and Celtic music from Marc Gunn & The Dubliners' Tabby Cats, Celticana, James Raynard, Beyond the Pale, The Elders, Dom Duff, The Muses, Pol MacAdaim, Cormorant's Fancy, Arminta, Barleyjuice, Circled By Hounds, Black 47. Listen. Like. SHARE. http://celticmusicpodcast.com/ Subscribe to the Celtic Music Magazine. This is our free newsletter and your guide to the latest Celtic music and podcast news. Remember to support the artists who support this podcast: buy their CDs, download their MP3s, see their shows, and drop them an email to let them know you heard them on the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast. Do you download your podcasts by Hand? For shame. Let iTunes do it for you. Brought to you by Song Henge, the online archive of free and legal Celtic music downloads. Find out more at SongHenge.com Notes: Climbed to #23 Most-Popular Music Podcast on iTunes Celtic Podcast Network Vote for your favorite song in this podcast All New Pub Songs Podcast Comments, Song Requests, Call 512-879-6398 This Week in Celtic Music 0:12 "Old Grey Cat” by Marc Gunn & The Dubliners' Tabby Cats (feat. Apryl Knight) from Irish Drinking Songs for Cat Lovers 4;33 “As I Roved Out” by Celticana from Soldier's Daughter 9:17 “The Loathsome Worm and the Mackerel of the Sea” by James Raynard from Strange Histories 14:25 “Princess Morgan/The Skipper” by Beyond the Pale from The Music Plays Me 18:11 “Men of Erin” by The Elders from American Wake 22:50 “Miz Du (Black Month)” by Dom Duff from Lagan 27:28 “Jack Haggerty” by The Muses from Passing Time 30:18 “Three Wise Reels” by Pol MacAdaim from Internationale 38:17 “Arthur McBride” by Cormorant's Fancy from An Evening at the Fairfield Inn 41:30 “On the Moor” by Arminta from Forged in the Fire 46:31 “Tartan Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair” by Barleyjuice from Six Yanks 49:01 “Madame I'm A Darling” by Circled By Hounds from The Circle 54:52 “I Got Laid on James Joyce's Grave” by Black 47 from Trouble in the Land The Irish & Celtic Music Podcast was produced by Marc Gunn, The Celtfather. To subscribe, go to iTunes or to our website where you can become a Patron of the Podcast for as little as $1 per episode. Promote Celtic culture through music at celticmusicpodcast.com.
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