Travel has certainly changed over the last two years (to say the least). However, some of these changes we actually like and want to see stick around. We’ll share our favorites today!

Changes We Like!

• Mobile ordering/mobile reservations for attractions
• (Particularly at Universal) – the pre-ride dose of hand-sanitizer
• Shortening of final payment schedules
• Masks – so many people travel (go to work, school, etc) while sick
• Included travel protection with packages
• Some of the new trends in travel, like traveling with friends and family, environmentally-conscious travel
• No more buffets (from our friend Sharon)
• Tickets and limits in National Parks (from our friend Andrew)

Question: What changes in travel from COVID would you like to see stick around?

Please let us know in the All Things Travel Podcast Facebook group!

Where in the World is All Things Travel?

• Sherwood Park, Alberta

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Episode 95 Transcripts

Episodes are transcribed with artificial intelligence so there are likely some highly amusing translations!

Ryan: Hello and welcome to All Things Travel has certainly changed over the last two years to say the least, however, some of these changes we actually like and want to see stick around. We’ll share our favorites today. You’re listening to all things. Travel episode 95 original air date, September 9th, 2022.

Our hundredth show is pretty darn close.

Ryan: so Shayne, what has been the biggest change in travel over the past two years? And I’m sure we could spend the next 14 hours answering that question, but as a travel professional, as a personal traveler, as a family traveler, what has been the biggest change that you’ve seen in.

Shayne: Other than not being able to do it for a long time

Ryan: Well,

yeah. Okay. There, there, There you go. There you go.

Shayne: Definitely the COVID restrictions for each of the destinations

Ryan: Yes.

Shayne: every place has their own of rules that they want to enforce to protect themselves. And you kinda gotta be aware of where you’re going and what the.

Ryan: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I think for me, it’s just, it’s the uncertainty of how travel’s gonna go. know, you can do all the planning, you can have everything nailed down and I’ve had this happen multiple times, know, the week before a couple of days before things totally change.

Shayne: I think a lot of this is going to smooth out some of the processes and logistics will smooth out and things will get back to the way they were. then some of these new things we’ll get to keep.

Ryan: Yes. And I think that’s, you we don’t want to dwell on the negative here, actually today. We want to talk about some of these changes in travel, whether it’s how you travel, what the resort or the hotel or the city is like, when you’re there how you plan your travel. Some of these things, we actually really.

And we want to see stick around. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today, but first Shayne. I want to know where the world is All Things Travel.

Shayne: Sherwood park Alberta.

Ryan: All right. Welcome Alberta.

Shayne: Yeah, just east of Edmonton. Some might call it maybe a subsidiary. Yes. Perhaps it’d be a

suburb of Edmonton.

Ryan: suburb in Canada is a subsidiary.

Shayne: area. It’s Canadian. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t speak Canadian, but I’m pretty sure that’s how they say it.

Ryan: Gotcha

Shayne: And just based on the name alone, having trouble with words, words are difficult to say

Ryan: words be hard. Say tonight.

Shayne: Yes. based on the name alone, the Sherlock Holmes.

Ryan: Yes.

Shayne: Yeah,

Ryan: Absolutely. The game is afoot!

Shayne: and they’ve got a nice mix of Canadian beers with Sherlock Holmes theme, they’ve got some brews [from the UK and a lot of good wines. So it looks like a fun place.

Ryan: and I can find where my Sherlock Holmes had out on the town.

Shayne: I think you could wear that anyway.

Ryan: Well welcome Alberta. We are so glad to have friends up north listening to All Things Travel. Hey, do us a favor, reach out to Shayne or I either on the Facebook group or directly via email, we have a nice little thank you gift for being featured this week show and Hey for everybody, I’ve got one little last bit of housekeeping before we start talking about our topic.

Take the time to leave All Things Travel a review, would really appreciate it. And it would also help others find the podcast that you like to listen to. So take the time, us a review, give us five stars. Tell us what you’re enjoying about the show. We would love to share that with everybody who’s listening.

So, Shane, what have been some of the changes in travel over the last few years that you actually want to see stick around? What’s one that you thought of for this topic?

Shayne: This is kind of funny because a couple of the ones I picked are things that I don’t like to do. And when I don’t have to do them, I don’t do them. But for very selfish reasons, I like that. Some places make us do these things. And so the first one is going to be

a

Ryan: a very confusing introduction to what you’re going to share with us.

Shayne: you’re welcome. Well, the first one is specific to Universal.

Ryan: Okay.

Shayne: even though I don’t like using hand sanitizers, my hands get really dry and it dries them out even more. I like having to do a little squirt of hand sanitizer before getting on the ride, just because I know, you know, you’re going to have your hands on the bars on the seats.

And I just like knowing that maybe everyone’s hands are a little cleaner all those surfaces.

Ryan: Yeah. You know, I think you’re absolutely right. You can get into a big argument about masks and whether we have to wear masks, but I don’t ever hear anybody bad mouth washing your hands more often. Sanitizing your surfaces.

more often. It just makes common sense.

Shayne: And talking about it and doing it. That’s things.

Ryan: you’re right. The ability to sanitize, the ability to use hand sanitizer more, just keeps germs away and that’s good for everybody.

Shayne: Yes. Even though I don’t like doing it, I appreciate having to do it,

Ryan: Well, my first one is having more options to mobile. Or having mobile reservations for attraction. So when I’m talking about mobile ordering we know that the theme parks are doing this, but now more restaurants are even doing

Shayne: Oh, yeah,

Ryan: or at airports and places like that, you can mobile order your food.

And also having mobile reservations for places like museums or theaters or events. That’s just, those things have grown and opportunity. And it’s just, I absolutely.

Shayne: Some of this was available before the pandemic but

Ryan: it’s just, yeah, I think it’s just more people are more comfortable using those things now.

Shayne: And it forced everyone to do it and everyone got used to doing it and now it takes a little pressure off of the whole process and makes it all go a little smoother. And it’s the good part of this, it’s hard to find a silver lining, but there’s some innovations that we’re re enjoying as a result of.

Ryan: absolutely. So being able to what I’ll give you a perfect example, yesterday. My wife and mom and I were traveling to our daughters, our swim meet, and we wanted to have lunch and we wanted to take lunch with us to the swim meet. We were going to stop and do some shopping beforehand.

So I was able to order directly from the restaurant. that wouldn’t normally have mobile order before, all of this, I was able to put my information in, pay for it, go pick it up. It was nice and easy. And that’s just an at-home example in travel.

It’s even bigger. And there’s more opportunities to do that opportunities to chat with the front desk opportunities to mobile order things brought up to your room. It just, it’s just been really nice, especially for an introvert like me, who, if I CA if I can go without talking to a lot of.

people face to face, I I will use my chat function all day long. So what’s your next one?

Shayne: It’s another one. And we even mentioned it a little earlier, something I don’t like doing, and it looks like we might get away from it some but masks, cause there’s other things that people can be sick with. And before the pandemic, you could always see people on planes, on buses, at school, at work at the grocery store who.

Or sneezing and coughing and maybe not covering it up. And

like the hand sanitizer. I don’t like wearing them, but I like knowing that maybe some of the germs that people are breeding out or maybe sneezing out are copping out, but some of them are trapped in whatever the cloth or the paper that they’re wearing on their face.

Ryan: We’re at least more cognizant about how our germs and our space impacts other people’s

space. And I think that makes a big difference.

So for me, my second one was the shortening of final payments for a lot of places, whether it’s resorts, definitely cruise lines and other places having more opportunity to wait to make those final payments until much closer to your vacation. hoping sticks around for a much longer time beyond.

Shayne: Yammer the flexibility that a lot of destinations. We’re offering there when they were starting back up was really nice. We didn’t get to keep all of that, but the, what we have got to keep, and these shortened final payment schedules have been really nice.

Ryan: Yeah. And I think it’s just, I think what the travel partners are seeing is customers appreciate it. They enjoy it, and they’re actually booking more because. I have that flexibility. So I think there weather as generous of deadlines are here to stay. I don’t know, but I don’t think we’ll necessarily go back to the, long months and months of payments sitting there.

Shayne: Another thing I’m liking are some of the trends that have developed. I’ve mentioned a few of them before people are traveling with friends and families. Some of the environmentally conscious travel options.

That’s a growing option of travel. things like that. There’s a few more options. People are thinking differently about what’s out there to see and do. And it’s not necessarily big ships or in big resorts.

Ryan: Yeah.

Shayne: lot of fun experiences to have that we haven’t thought about.

Ryan: my last one is a lot of vacations are now including some form of travel protection with their packages. Both of us, Shayne are big proponents of travel protection and this just makes such good sense. it’s so nice, as a professional talking with clients and just saying, yep, it’s already included or here’s an easy way to add this on.

just makes travel sense now.

We asked this question on our Facebook group about two weeks ago. And. We got some good responses for some of our fellow travelers on the All Things Travel Facebook group and Hey listeners, if you’re not part of our Facebook group, you probably should get online. Get on Facebook type in All Things Travel under the groups tab and join our group. there were a couple things that were traveling. And then there were a couple things that were actually Disney’s specific. Cause we all know that We are Disney fanatics,

so let’s see. Sharon says no more buffet. Now I kind of pushed back a little bit with this. I said, even if there are servers present, you don’t like buffets.

Because to me, I’ve had some situations where I’ve traveled or I’ve been out to restaurants and there still have been the buffet options where people are serving it to you. And she said that was fine. That as long as there were servers, she liked the idea of still having buffets, but definitely not people getting their own.

Shayne: I think Sharon and I probably see eye to eye on some of the hygiene aspects

of a lot of this where

Ryan: get it. Absolutely.

Shayne: it’s nice having the servers there that, you know, they’re washed up and clean and there’s, they’re serving it for us versus, just people not using the sanitizer and then handling the utensils.

Ryan: Right. Right. Andrew said having ticketed and limited admission to the national park. I really like this one, because I know the national parks can become over touristed. I don’t know if that’s a word, but over touristed. And I get that. I totally get that. And when I visit those places, I want to have the time and the space to appreciate them.

And so having a ticket with a time with a reservation, I agree with you. Andrew sounds perfect. Makes perfect sense to me.

Shayne: Lines of too many people are not the wildlife that we want to go to the parks to.

Ryan: So a couple of Walt Disney World specific ones. So Sharon came back and she said that she hopes that the character cavalcade stick around. So Disney. Stopped

Shayne: yeah.

Ryan: scheduled parades and would have shorter little pop-up parades instead. actually this past week, they’ve talked about having those regular parades and still having the cavalcades come back, I really like.

Shayne: That’d be okay with that. If they bring back the parades, as long as they keep those cavalcades. Cause those are a lot of fun, not as long, it’s a lot shorter. And that’s why it’s called a cavalcade,, but it seems like even though we’re distancing, you still feels like a more up close experience with the characters.

Ryan: Right. Right. And Michelle echoes that she loves the cavalcades. Mike Reed, who’s been a guest on our show, also talked about the cavalcades and he said one of the things that he has appreciated and he specifically mentioned Disney. There’s we’ve seen other instances of this having family-style meals versus buffets.

So restaurants that have normally been buffets now have a family-style option. I like that too. I think that’s the food seems fresher. It seems more cooked to order rather than mass-produced. I like it.

Shayne: That’s probably an issue with in general too, is anytime he can have the food brought out to you, it’s going to be better than when it’s sitting. For a while, because they’re making enough for everybody. Not really knowing who’s going to get wet, but then when you order it is brought to you, it’s fresher. And th there’s something about when it comes out in a portion, a bowl of the food versus a little scoop of the food. There’s something. About making it in a bigger volume where it tastes better for some reason.

And I know a lot of these they’re made in volume and in served in smaller sizes, but there just seems to be something about it, getting it in that family-style.

Ryan: Yeah. Yeah.

Shayne: just be a perception, my own perception, but I think there’s something there.

Ryan: Oh, my goodness. You’re onto something. Well, I think a lot of these changes, Shayne for me when I look at our list and I think about our conversation today, a lot of it comes down to, I want to have control over my travel. I want to be able to order things when I want to order them. I want to be able to pay for things when I can pay for them.

I want to be able to map out exactly how I’m going to do it. Types of travel places, I’m going to travel. How I plan my travel. As much as those places can accommodate me. It’s all changed for the better, I think. What do you think about that? Is that a fair assessment?

Shayne: They had to make travel, seem more accessible safer and not just safer from the standpoint of, are you going to get sick? How clean is everything going to be, but safer in what if something comes up at the last minute and I can’t go, then we’re a little safer and not losing that deposit or whatever we paid with of the friendlier schedules.

Ryan: Absolutely. Well, travel will continue to change, folks. There’s no doubt about that. And so the most important thing is to work with somebody who can help navigate those changes with you. Shayne, who might several of those people be?

Shayne: I would recommend contacting one of the fine travel advisors from Creating Magic Vacations. And I just happen to know a couple of them very well.

We would love to help you plan your next amazing vacation. are both travel advisors with Creating Magic Vacations, an authorized Disney planner. You can reach R Y A N at CreatingMagicVacations.com or S H A Y N E at CreatingMagicVacations.com.

Ryan: Most families are confused and overwhelmed when they want to plan in a vacation. We work with you to plan a perfect trip for your interest, which saves you time, money, and stress.

All right. Why don’t you tell us how to reach us

now, allow myself to introduce myself.

Shayne: I do kinda like the Austin Powers reference,