Yes, prices went up today with Carnival, and I suspect we’ll see more increases with other travel packages during the year. There are some very real indications that the travel industry as a whole is experiencing growth once again.

That doesn’t mean that very real and substantial deals can’t be had however.

YTB Travel Network has partnered with Pleasant Holidays once again to offer substantial savings (up to $500 per booking) to some very exotic and attractive destinations. The live webcast will air right here on your computer tomorrow night, March 23rd, simply by clicking on the link found on BandBVacations.com. It all starts at 8:00 Eastern, with a rebroadcast again at 9:00PM and 10:00PM Eastern Standard Time. Phone lines will be open from 8:00 to 11:00PM Eastern toll free at 866-400-9382.

This is the perfect opportunity to invite friends, and family over to see if something might fit for their next vacation. What could be better than a tropical getaway to Hawaii, Mexico, Fiji, Tahiti, Moorea, or Bora Bora? You really need to see these exotic properties during this Sale-a-Thon to see how incredible these sale prices really are.

To give you a heads up on what kind of specials we’re talking about here Pleasant Holidays has produced a number of fliers for you to take a look at.

And here they are:

Special savings to Fiji – $500 savings per booking.

• Your vacation Includes: Air from Los Angeles on Air Pacific, meet & greet with shell lei, round trip Airport transfers, 7 nights’ accommodations at Sonaisali Island Resort Fiji, Beachfront room, two FREE nights, breakfast daily, complimentary welcome cocktail, free jungle cruise per person, special invitation to the General Manager’s Monday cocktail party, one scuba pool splash per person, FREE kids club & Travel Protection Plan.

Special savings to Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora – $500 savings per booking.

• Vacation Includes: Air from Los Angeles on Air Tahiti Nui, round trip inter-island air on Air Tahiti, Round trip airport transfers, 7 nights’ accommodations at Le Meridien Tahiti, Garden View room, two FREE nights & Travel Protection Plan.

Special savings to Hawaii – Free Hertz Rental Car.

• Free Hertz rental car with a minimum 5 night stay on the island of Oahu, Kauai, Maui, or Hawaii’s Big Island for travel through 3/31/10; 5/1 – 5/31/10; 9/1 – 12/15/10. Save $100 on a Hertz car rental with a minimum 5 night stay for travel from 4/1 – 4/30/10 & 6/1 – 8/31/10.

Special savings to Mexico – $100 savings per booking.

• Vacations Includes: round trip air from Chicago and 3 night accommodations to Cancun, Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta, and Los Cobos starting from just $262 for new bookings made through May 1, 2010.

One of the nice features about these webinars is that it’s designed to educate you with the best, most knowledgeable Managers Pleasant Holidays has to offer. They know their business better than anyone and can offer tips and insight on just how and why you need to take advantage of these special deals with them compared to someone else.

So check out Pleasant Holidays for your next vacation – they’re one of the largest tour operators in the business with destinations to Mexico, Costa Rica, Las Vegas, Caribbean, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific.

Hope to see you then!

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I’m guessing I’m showing my age here – but you can’t bring up Princess Cruises without “The Love Boat” Theme running through my head. Truth is, the show was partly responsible for me wanting to work in the travel industry. The show certainly portrayed a very glamorous lifestyle that I wanted to be part of.

Little did I know at the time what the future had in store for me with an opportunity like YTB.

Several years ago YTB came up with this idea of hosting a “Sail-a-thon” on the Internet to promote both key partners and destinations for our customers. The field loves it because it gives many an opportunity to host a party at the house. Partners love it because it costs them nothing. They simply piggy back on the technology and infrastructure YTB has invested in – giving them an opportunity to promote from a single location to thousands. YTB has been hosting these “Sail-A-Thons” for years with several companies and since they keep on popping up every couple of months – everyone involved sees value in the events.

Cruise nights aren’t new however. CLIA (Cruise Line Industry Association) actually came up with the concept five years ago with the “World’s Largest Cruise Night“. Hundreds of Agencies still get together in a collective effort each year in October to promote the joy of cruising to clients.

All YTB did was modernize the concept, making it easier for clients to become informed and educated, while at the same time saving Cruise Lines some serious money by reaching the same number of clients (if not more) from one centralized location over the internet. Most recently, YTB partnered the webcast with Facebook to make it even easier for YTB Agents to send a simple link to friends and clients to enjoy specials and promotions on the worlds most popular social networking site.

Adding Facebook into the equation makes it interactive, an element that was missing with a simple webcast. When YTB tried it for the first time with Carnival back in November, we had no idea the power it possessed and how much fun it could be. Thousands of people posted their favorite cruise pictures and some even won prizes! (Like yours truly. ;-P)

Thursday night, Princess Cruises gets into the act with a new twist called Trivia Night. The hour long broadcast will ask six Trivia Gold questions about Princess and/or Alaska to give viewers a chance to win prizes by answering the questions. In the meantime viewers also become educated on the value of cruising – and more specifically why Princess Cruises is the premier cruise line when it comes to an Alaska destination.

For example, a 7-night Voyage of the Glaciers cruise is followed by 5-nights on land featuring 1 night at McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, 2 nights at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and 2 nights at Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. It’s the only cruise of it’s kind. Princess has invested millions into these lodges and you won’t find these type of amenities from any other cruise line.

This cruisetour offers the ultimate vacation for the entire family, ensuring you see all the best of Alaska by land and by sea. You just can’t get that with any other line. 

As an added incentive to “come aboard”, Cruise customers will see some great prices for all destinations with the following benefits:

• Up to $100 onboard credit per stateroom
• Reduced deposit of just $100 per person
• Coupons worth up to $325 in onboard savings

The entire savings package can be found right here, and you can pull up a direct link to Princess Cruise Lines here to investigate and price out your next Princess Cruise.

The Sail-a-Thon should be a lot fun. From what I saw, Facebook fans enjoyed interacting with each other during the Carnival Sail-a-Thon a few months ago.

Technology – aint it grand?

Hope to see you there and of course some of you will be singing it with me until then…

Love, exciting and new
Come Aboard. We’re expecting you.
Love, life’s sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.

If you’re too young to remember the song that’s okay. Just remember to join us tomorrow night!

Hope to see you then!

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Heading out today for fight the chaos in the stores?

Not us. We’ll be spending more time as a family this year as the girls crowd around the laptop and check out Facebook for the best shopping deals of the weekend.

Confused about what Facebook has to do with Black Friday and the busiest shopping weekend of the year?

Just another innovative idea from the good folks at YTB who will be posting cyber specials all weekend long to help me, you, and anyone else who wants to avoid the crowded malls – saving both time and money this holiday weekend.

I gotta hand it to the YTB Home Office. They really know how to marry and capitalize on the latest and greatest market shifts.

Let’s face it – purchasing products over the internet is more the norm these days rather than the exception. Stores like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Macy’s, Sears, The Home Depot, Bass Pro Shop, The Finish Line, Champs, Target, Boarders (all right – you get the idea here) wouldn’t create these sites if people weren’t actually spending money on-line right?

Because I do so much shopping on-line my inbox has been flooded with all kinds of cyber deals this week to get ready for Black Friday. Best Buy is sending me this – Boarders is sending me that – and the vast majority of the deals are internet only. Some may be as small as free shipping and others are an additional discount for shopping on-line with them. The point here is that each of these retail stores have a new medium to reach customers in order to increase profits at a time of year that could make or break their bottom line.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 MILLION people also subscribe to Facebook to connect with friends, post pictures, post links to funny videos and find the best deals for this years Christmas list.

Haven’t seen that last bit yet about the Christmas list? You will if you know where to look.

Because shopYTB has the inside track from hundreds of stores this holiday season, they’ll be posting all their specials this weekend on their three top fan pages for you to simply browse, find a deal you like and then go out and snag. If a deal from one of these major retailers wasn’t good enough, you can access the store through the shopYTB portal (something you can sign up for and do for free right here) you’ll get additional savings in the form of cash back.

Don’t have a Facebook account? Not a problem – each of the following pages are public – meaning you don’t need a Facebook account to see the long list of deals that will be posted this weekend.

www.facebook.com/CoachTomer
www.facebook.com/JKimSorensen
www.facebook.com/YTBDealsandSteals

Simply hit up one of these pages during the weekend for a list of specials and stores that are offering up some great savings this weekend. You can forget the crowded malls, the traffic, and the chaos that Black Friday always brings this time of year.

Save more time with family.

Save money.

Save your sanity.

It’s just a better way to shop for Christmas this year.

Thanks YTB!

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I lost count how many times I’ve said this…but I’m gonna say it again.

A cruise is the best vacation money could buy.

It was nice to have family (including extended family) together for another cruise. Our daughter called it “The best birthday EVER!” and our son has caught the same bug we did some 12 years ago when Ronda and I took our first cruise.

I did hit the internet for a grand total of 25 minutes, but didn’t even open the laptop until almost the very end of the cruise to download a couple gigs worth of pictures that I took. (Some 400 shots all together on a Fuji S9000 camera I just love.) I uploaded about 60 of them on my Facebook page and will get around to putting more up on Webshots at some point. (Then again – I still have pictures from our last cruise I haven’t uploaded.)

The kids have really gotten the hang of cruise thing. Brittany thoroughly enjoyed dressing up for formal night. (So much so, that she had to get all dressed up for her birthday night.) Brian found the ice cream machines and the 24 hour pizzeria and hardly ate anything else the entire week. Camp Carnival was FABULOUS for both kids. When they ask if they can go, you just know it’s a hit. (Which impressed both Ronda and I.) They really had a great time and our hats are off to all the counselors who took great care of our kids.

Our daughters birthday was an exceptional day in Gran Cayman. The entire family got involved on the Cayman Pirate Adventure as the kids and I were recruited to swab the deck (I was given a tooth brush) and “Mommy Spank Bottom” was tied up and forced to promise to never spank the bottoms of our kids again. Afterward, everyone walked the plank and enjoyed the warm tropical water.

Later that evening we celebrated Brittany’s birthday with the family and wait staff of the Universe Dinning room. Brittany loves to be the center of attention any other time, and handled her birthday no differently. The entire ship was told it was her birthday and she ate up all the attention. (As she always does.)

It’s still amazes me how many first time cruisers I continue to run into. We talked with a number of first time cruisers on this trip who raved about the service, the food, and the size of this floating resort. Non of them had any idea what they were missing, and have all been transformed into cruise-a-holics like we are.

While it’s nice being back, I miss the romance and relaxation of the sea. I bit warmer down in the Caribbean as well. We’re already planning our next cruise and may turn it into a neighborhood event. With another Carnival Sail-A-Thon coming up next week, it would be a perfect time to get the neighbors together to discuss the option of going. (More on the Sail-A-Thon here later, and in this weekends newsletter.)

A trip like this one is part of my “why” I stick with YTB.

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Do You ZamZuu?

For the fifth consecutive year, CLIA will host the World’s Largest Cruise Night tonight. Thousands of agents will be hosting events all over the country and YTB is no exception. Princess Cruise Lines will partner up with YTB for it’s second Sail-A-Thon this year to help celebrate.

October is National Cruise Vacation Month. Tonight, you can join YTB as they host Princess Cruise Line for a Sail-a-thon during CLIA’s World’s Largest Cruise Night. The event will be hosted live from YTB booking engines at 6:00 pm Central with a special rebroadcasts at 7:30 pm and 9:00 pm Central.

In one 24-hour period, thousands of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) member travel agencies will participate in the World’s Largest Cruise Night. Travel agencies across North America will join together to promote cruising as the vacation option of choice – all in a single day.

This is the perfect opportunity for friends and family to book incredible cruises. Tonight’s broadcast will feature a new Alaska Family Cruisetour with 25% off for the Entire Family.

This 7-night Voyage of the Glaciers cruise is followed by 5-nights on land featuring 1 night at McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, 2 nights at Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge and 2 nights at Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. It’s the only cruise of it’s kind. Princess has invested millions into these lodges and you won’t find these type of amenities from any other cruise line.

This cruisetour offers the ultimate vacation for the entire family, ensuring you see all the best of Alaska by land and by sea.  It will enable the entire family to “Escape Completely” – with Princess.

Alaska not your thing? Want Europe or the Caribbean for your next destination. No problem. As an added incentive to “come aboard”, Cruise customers will see some great prices for all destinations tonight along with the following benefits:

• Up to $100 onboard credit per stateroom
• Reduced deposit of just $100 per person
• Coupons worth up to $325 in onboard savings

CLIA’s World’s Largest Cruise Night has been gaining recognition and exposure over the years. According to the CLIA press release, which announced this years event:

In 2008, over 4,000 agents participated in WLCN events and online Virtual WLCN promotions estimated to have generated almost 43,000 bookings, $41.4 million in sales and nearly $5.4 million in commissions.

A record number of over 65,000 CLIA member line videos were viewed by consumers during virtual WLCN cruise events held by over 3,000 agents. These CLIA members who participated in Virtual WLCN promotions, sent email invitations to consumers inviting them to visit a customized Web site with cruise line videos, agency contact information and special offers. Over 1,100 agencies conducted traditional WLCN events, also a record. Nearly 500,000 consumers were invited to visit a customized WLCN website to obtain information on special offers. All of Liberty Travel’s locations participated with in-store events along with many of the leading vacation agency distributors in North America.

Cruise Lines and Agencies pull out all the stops for a night like tonight not just to get customers on their ships, but to show the benefits of cruising. We’ve been telling people for 13 years that a cruise is the best vacation money could buy. It doesn’t matter if you’re a avid cruise-a-holic like us or first time cruiser – the best time to check out what’s available is tonight.

So sing it with me now…

Love, exciting and new
Come Aboard. We’re expecting you.
Love, life’s sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.

Now that you’ve got that song firmly cemented into your head for the day – you’ll be sure to remember to join us.

Like I said…we pull out ALL the stops! ;-P

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Pleasant Holidays is celebrating it’s 50th year in business. When the doors first opened in 1959 their specialty was Hawaii and this privately held company has turned into one of the largest tour operators with destinations to Mexico, Costa Rica, Las Vegas, Caribbean, Europe, Asia and the South Pacific offering a comprehensive range of products and destinations. Pleasant Holidays has long-term partnerships with some of the world’s leading airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, travel agencies and is also the official travel provider to the NFL Pro Bowl annually in Hawaii. (With the possible exception of 2010 when it’s hosted in Miami, but will once again say Aloha in 2011 and 2012.)

Tonight starting at 8:00PM Eastern (7:00PM Central, 6:00PM Mountain, and 5:00PM Pacific) YTB Travel Network will host it’s fourth Sale-A-Thon with YTB’s third supplier Pleasant Holidays. The webniar which can be viewed from the comfort of your own home is designed to educate viewers from the best, most knowledgeable Manager Pleasant Holidays has to offer. The hour long broadcast will offer insight about the Pleasant Holidays product and exclusive specials for some spectacular deals to destinations they specialize in.

What kind of specials will you find if you click in? As an example you’ll be offered $100 off any 3-star property or $200 off any 4 or 5 star property in Hawaii, Mexico or the Caribbean for travel dates from April 22 through December 15, 2009. (Vacation package must be a minimum of 5 nights with air and hotel accommodations.)

You can view our webcast at http://travelshow.ytb.com or by clicking on the link from BandBVacations.com tonight starting at 8:00 Eastern, with a rebroadcast again at 9:00PM and 10:00PM Eastern Standard Time. Phone lines will be open from 8:00 to 11:00PM Eastern toll free at 866-400-9382

This is the perfect opportunity to invite friends, and family over to see if something might fit for your summer vacation. What could be better than a great tropical getaways to Hawaii, the Caribbean or Mexico? You really need to see the incredible properties shown during this Sale-a-Thon to see how incredible these sale prices really are.

So take some time and click to see what Pleasant Holidays has to offer, direct from…well…Pleasant Holidays!

Hope to see you there tonight!

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Do You ZamZuu?

I’ve said many times that the truth always has a way of coming to light. With so many rumors, misleading, incorrect comments, and even flat out lies concerning YTB, it gives me great pleasure to announce that a company critics attempted to sway to their side of the mud pit has fallen short. A couple months ago, critics attempted to spin comments I made concerning Pleasant Holidays just sitting on YTB’s booking engine as “dissing” the company. While I never really understood how my comment could even be considered as a “dis”, shortly after that post was written I noticed a number of hits from a particular IP address based in California. After putting two and two together, I realized that the hits were coming from inside Pleasant Holidays.

For clarification, here is the excerpt in question as written back in early February.

So while John attempts to convince everyone that YTB costs suppliers money, a supplier himself provides a rather unique Freudian slip and let’s the cat out of the bag that suppliers don’t hire YTB, suppliers don’t provide Co-op advertising to YTB, and suppliers only pay YTB for what YTB produces. That’s my friends is a model that suppliers NEED in an economy such as this, and the smart suppliers that actually get that concept such as Carnival Corporation, Globus, Trafalgar, MSC Cruises, Apple Vacations, Disney, and many other preferred suppliers reap the rewards of our business model. I can’t remember the last time Pleasant Holidays was even mentioned in a Travel Compass, a training call, or at Funshine. They do sit on our site, but nobody pays any attention to them because nobody from the company is promoting their features, advantages, and benefits. In all honesty, how much would it cost the company to get on a conference call the we provide, or hop in front of a camera for a video that we produce?

But no…they would rather spend thousands with a bunch of struggling Agents who demand co-op dollars in order to promote them with no guarantees of any return of their investment, when one call, or webinar would drive traffic and sales to help thier bottom line costing them virtually nothing.

After reading that again, it’s not hard to deduct the real problem was Traditionalists felt threatened and I was in fact dissing the Traditional Agent model itself. In anger and in an attempt to deflect attention off themselves, my article was twisted to take the focus off them and throw it back at me. The problem however came when critics decided to rat me out to both Pleasant Holidays and YTB and pitch what a bad boy I had been. (An activity they spend a considerable amount of time doing in attempts to discredit my experience and insight.)

In a very nice twist of poetic justice the business minds at either YTB, Pleasant Holidays, or both decided that what I offered in terms of a solution, (which was the original intent of the article) made considerable business sense. Less than two weeks after the smoke cleared, Pleasant Holidays showed up on a Thursday night training call for the first time since July of 2008.

Now to add even more insult to injury, our next sale-a-thon has been announced for next Wednesday and I’ll give you three guesses to just who that supplier might be.

And the first two guesses don’t count.

Not only was the sale-a-thon concept created to show the power of the what an army of MLM’ers can do to produce revenue for suppliers, it’s now expanded to our third supplier in recent months. As hard as critics tried to take what was said out of context and manipulate the message to mean something entirely different you simply can’t hide or deflect a good business idea that offers the absolute best ROI in the travel industry. No co-op money, no advertising money, no increase in staff to man phones, and you reach hundreds of thousands of potential customers in one night to generate revenue for your bottom line.

All while critics just won’t let go of this pipe dream that YTB costs suppliers money and the kick and scream that suppliers don’t even like YTB. I can’t say that I’m concerned any longer with the way critics attempt to perpetuate the myths and misconceptions of how YTB operates or how the vast majority of suppliers view our model. (Especially when examples like this keep surfacing.) I still can’t help but wonder if some will ever let go of their illusions of grandeur and move on, or get back to doing what they emphatically proclaim they love. (Quality service and selling travel.)

You would think they’d be much happier and far more pleasant to deal with if they did. But instead they feel that agitating, condemning, or policing others is the way to go with the idea that vomiting will make them feel better.

Which begs the question with what we’ve just learned.

How’s that workin’ for ya?

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Do You ZamZuu?