Friday, April 20, 2007

Hitting the Spot!

Last Saturday, my wife and I went to sort out our flight tickets for our trip to the UK in June. The travel centre we go to isn’t big, but it’s good, and we know the guy there, so that makes a difference. Unfortunately, when we arrived he was busy with another couple, and since we wanted to see him rather than going through everything again with one of the other staff, we waited. And waited. We waited for at least and hour and possibly longer. I kid you not.
The couple were planning a trip to Fiji, and trying to decide on which resort they were going to stay at. It had to have this, and it had to have that. No, it couldn’t be too far from the beach; in fact if the beach was on the doorstep that would be best. There had to be things for the kids to do, and if there weren’t what were the kids going to do? They must have separate sleeping accommodation for the parents; they must! No, they didn’t want to walk eight or nine minutes to the next beach; that defeated the purpose of a relaxed holiday – and this holiday was a reward for the wife, she said, for achieving well in her medical training.
Every time the travel agent got them settled on something, another issue would come up, and he’d have to start all over. I think if the husband had been on his own, he’d have had it sorted in five minutes. It was the lady who kept finding new ways to delay making a decision.
At the end of their time, they thanked the travel agent very much, and said they’d take it all home and think about what they were going to do. Am I glad I was not in their house that day.
Which brings me to Vacations.net, a site that features all-inclusive holidays. No, all-inclusive doesn’t mean everybody can come; it means everything you want on the holiday is included in the price, such as your room, your meals, the drinks and activities. This is a good idea, as it means you can budget before you go. (If you can afford to go – although we cut $1000 off our flight prices last Saturday, through choosing a different airline.)
The pictures are very enticing on this newly redesigned website, I must say. On the main page they’re advertising places like Hedonism III (!) and Couples Sans Souci (I had to look this up and remind myself that sans souci means ‘carefree’).
Vacations.net now has a customized booking engine and intuitive functionality. Hmmmm. Intuitive functionality. Sounds just a little like something Homer Simpson would roll around in his mouth.
I didn’t really explore the intuitive functionality on this site, but kept getting sidetracked by pictures of places where there’s a staff-to-guest ratio of one to one, along with a nanny for the kids. (That’s at the Franklyn D Resort, by the way – kinda cute name, huh?)

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