Passionate about Packages!
In addition to cruises, here at Cruise Planners we also specialize in arranging customized travel packages. We use reliable favorites such as American Express Vacations, Funjet, and Pleasant Holidays, to name just a few examples. These big package operators have huge buying power, so they have excellent property selections and room allocations, competitive pricing structures, and "live-inventory" travel agent booking engines that enable us to put together just about anything a traveller could want!
What they do is allow you to choose the components you want and conveniently bundle them under one reservaton. This almost always saves you money versus making individual bookings. Some typical types of packages might be: an all-inclusive resort stay only, air+hotel+car, air+hotel+transfers+tours, hotel + Broadway (or Vegas) shows, air+resort+transfers -- or any combination of services you need. Unlike an organized land tour, with a custom package you make your vacation your own!
Over on the "True Stories" page you can see examples of how some of our clients put their vacations together, and how we saved them money -- in some cases it wasn't a huge amount, but in others the savings were quite dramatic. How will you know? Well, one of the services we perform for free is to compare: we price the package you want, then go to the individual suppliers and see what the amounts of the components would be if we booked them separately. 99% of the time the package is the better deal, but you won't be guessing or taking our word for it: we'll show you the savings.
Other things you should know about packages:
1. Air schedules. We'll certainly be watching the price, but even more important is the schedule. Nobody wants to waste their first day with a late departure from home, then have to turn around and get up before the crack of dawn on their last day! Often, just a little more research will reveal much better flights. Sometimes a few more dollars will gain you hours and hours of precious vacation time! We also look for charter air when it's available (great money-saver), and steer you away from bad schedules (for instance, who wants to spend 4 hours wandering around the Mexico City airport?). Overnight flights, changes of airports -- we'll let you know, then you can decide if the price is worth it -- it's your package.
2. Property quality and location. It's no bargain if you end up spending all of your time and money just getting to the action! We can also see exactly what is included and what those room categories really mean. Internet agencies are often just promoting what they want to sell you -- but just like with your air, we will do the research! Many times superior properties are available for the same price -- and wouldn't you want to know?
3. Convenience and peace-of-mind. I'll always remember my sister's anniversary vacation in Hawaii -- she needed air, 3 hotels, 2 car rentals, and inter-island air. We could have been looking at 7 separate reservations. We bundled the whole thing together through Pleasant Holidays -- then she only had to worry about ONE booking! She got a really nice travel document case, luggage tags, and had only a neat packet of tickets instead of a big mess of papers to keep track of. Besides her significant savings ($500), she was relieved that one company had everything perfectly coordinated, knew exactly where she would be and when she was supposed to be there, and would look out for her and give assistance if there were any delays or problems. Of course everything went smoothly, and she and her husband were completely delighted with the trip.
4. Great service and "extras." Many times, our clients get little unexpected perks like car rental upgrades, superior rooms, free lei greetings at the Hawaiian airports, free transfers in Cancun, and things like that. We can't guarantee this will happen every time, but we're using the BEST package operators and if such enhancements are available -- our clients are the ones who get them! Oh -- one more detail about my sister's trip -- the Ritz-Carlton on Maui was actually sold out, but Pleasant Holidays still had a room allocation so we got her in!
I think using the internet is great for research, but let's face it -- those online agencies are just giving you a "self-service" booking engine and making you do all the work. Cruise Planners has superior booking systems (and the power of American Express) and we will do the work for you for free! So -- that's why we're "passionate about packages," and we're confident you will be, too. Call us now and let's start putting it together...
Europe -- Hawaii -- Mexico -- South America -- Costa Rica -- Caribbean -- Canada -- Las Vegas -- New York -- Disney -- wherever!
