Testimonials

My clients weigh in:

Disneyland Half Marathon weekend, 2008

Hi Melody,

The trip was AMAZING.  Words can't even begin to express our gratitude for you.  Everything worked like clockwork.  The hotel was perfect-right across the street from the park, the 5K and just a short walk to the start of the 1/2 marathon.  Your attention to detail blew us away and you made our vacation absolutely perfect!  You have customers for life!  Thanks so much for everything-we loved using our goodie bags and it's contents.  
There is absolutely nothing else you could have done-you thought of everything!  Oh, and the Alladin show was amazing!  I'm so glad you told us about it, we may not have gone otherwise!
Mom loved the Nemo ride, but I chose to use my time more wisely by going on Indiana Jones. :)
Crowds weren't too bad surprisingly so that helped.  The only I would have changed was the weather-horribly muggy! :)
Thanks again so much, you're the greatest!

Kari 

Boulder Family Spring Break, 2008

Dear Melody:
 
We had a marvelous cruise!  Lots of fun!  Great family time!  Wonderful adventures! Everything was great!  Following are a few of the details:
 
Getting two cabins was the best choice for us!  The girls came and went as they pleased and yet we had plenty of wonderful family time together.  The cabins being balconies was something we would absolutely recommend.

Within 24 hours, both girls found friends their same age to hang out with.  We heard there were over 300 teenagers on the ship our week – again, a great choice.

We nearly didn’t get to stop at Grand Cayman.  The winds were too rough at the regular place the ships anchored for the tenders and several other ships there on the same day just left.  Our captain took our ship around to the south side of the island to a wind-protected harbor where the tenders could meet us and take us ashore.  We got our horseback ride in; however, the stingray city tour was cancelled due to the winds.

Cozumel – what a difference since we were there last.  Way too commercial for our taste.  Both girls swan with dolphins, I can’t remember the name of the facility – it was the one out of town about 10 – 15 minutes with the beach and all.  Again, a grand time had by all!

Because of too many ships at once, our captain switched the order of Belize and Honduras – the effect was the number of other tourists at each port was nearly negligible.

On Honduras, we had booked the Treetop Adventure (zip line) through the ship, but had learned when we boarded that it had been cancelled.  With a little research, we found out that a tourist had died on the activity a week or so earlier; however, the ship never acknowledged that was the reason.  Instead, we did the beach trip from Carnival to Tabyana and it turned out to be the only real beach time and snorkeling we did.  We talked to another family who did the snorkeling trip from the ship to Coral Cay and it sounded like the snorkeling there was even better than Tabyana.

On Belize we got our zip line adventure in.  We did book it through the ship because time was going to be short at the port.  It was a fantastic experience!  We fell in love with Belize and we thought it was the one place we would like to go back and visit more of.

We only had time to do any significant shopping at Grand Cayman.  Roatan has no shops to speak of, and our time in Belize was short.  Cozumel felt more like a shopping center here in the states, but boarding the ship we saw lots more little mom & pop shops down the street we couldn’t see when we had the time.  We would get out of the shopping center and visit them if we were to go there again.

The food on the ship was superb the first 2 nights, then dropped off to good.  There was always plenty to eat around the ship so it wasn’t a problem, just interesting.

Getting on and off the ship was a breeze.  We had booked a hotel for the night we returned so we wouldn’t have to rush back home and it was a wonderful idea.  As it turned out, we no sooner got home and the whirlwind of life picked up even faster than when we left.

All in all, all four of us describe our trip as a whopping success.  If you have specific questions, I’d be happy to answer them – I tried to give you as much information as I could remember.  Thanks for your help in making this dream-trip come true for our family.

Bill,

Boulder, CO

Robertson Family Vacation at Walt Disney World, July 2007:

WE HAD A GREAT TIME!

Thank you so much for helping us Melody...boy, I am pooped though! We had TOO much
fun and playing catch up on sleep and rest for 2 days now! I get a smile every time I think
of our time there. I literally cried on the bus ride to the airport...it was so magical and very
good family time together with Tyler and Greg.

We did everything! All parks, every day! My favorites were the MGM and Animal Kingdom.
I loved them! I also loved the water parks...ESP the lazzzzzy river! So relaxing! We did rent
a car on the weekend we were there and went to the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral
and Coco Beach! We loved it there too! It was a nice break from the parks but I could not wait
to get back to it on Monday!  We also used the time to go to WalMart and get some groceries
which was also great.

The Hotel was great too...the weather was hot but had lots of fireworks daily with the thunder
and lightning but it was welcome to the constant heat. I loved the hot weather though and it was
HOT...even when it rained!

We ate at several places with little to no wait at all - no issues at all. We ate a lot at the parks
the first week with no issues during the day and at the hotel at night. We did try Bongos and
it was just ok. Kinda expensive with ok food. Scale 1-10 - I give a 5. We also ate as ESPN
Zone on the Boardwalk and it was about a 7. Little less pricy but better food. We at at Fultons
Crab house and it was also pricy but very good. There were a few others but cannot remember
now but will send to you later after I recall. k? Other places were in Coco Beach which was
our favorite...less expensive and lots of great seafood.

Leach Honeymoon, Pride of Aloha, 7 night Hawaiian Islands cruise, July 2007

We had a wonderful vacation in paradise!  It was a perfect honeymoon & we met other honeymooners. Although, I recommend a trip when kids our in school because we never got to use the pool once on the ship it was so crowded w/kids-even the hot tubs were full of adults.
NCL works hard at making a wonderful cruise experience.
The few drawbacks we discovered was that they do not have a laundry room (as Princess does) and that they allow smoking in certain outside decks of the ship-which when the bulk were dining on ship made it challenging to find a table w/o being exposed to smoke. However, a lovely woman from Columbia Yennie Reiner escorted us to a haven away from the smoke & made a point to offer us assistance whenever she spotted us.
We met lots of nice people from all over the nation.
Since NCL made the airline reservations we were not allowed to make our own seating assignments.  Since we flew in & out of Honolulu on a Sunday alot of stores & events were closed.  We did not have the opportunity to see the Polynesian Culture Center as they were closed. So we it was a long day that last day waiting for a flight home.  We would have rather left sooner in the day.  We were off the ship by 9am but could have left sooner.
We took all of our excursions thru NCL & discovered most were 1/2 the fee when purchased directly w/the vendor.  The NCL reps we reserved our excursions were not knowledgable about many of their tours & were unable to answer most of the questions we had.
For example, we wanted to snuba 8-10 and helicopter 11-3; however, they did not know the snuba was located at the shore they dropped us off & that we could have done both adventures. We went on 4 bus tours. The first 3, I could have worn sandals & wore a swimsuit to enjoy the beaches.  The 4th when I did wear sandals, had quite a hike & we were unable to swim at the beaches.The bus tours were long 6-8 hrs which was tiring.Next time we'd rent a car/motorcycle/scooter and jet around on our own staying longer where we wished & less time where we were unimpressed. The only bus tour that was a disappointment was the Waimea Canyon.  The showed 1 waterfall & the canyon yet it took 6hrs.the driver was Hawaiian & spoke in a monotone.  In contrast, a Hawaiian trolley driver was extremely informative, fun& humorous in Maui. Maui & Kuai were our favorites & where we'd return to visit. Dale wanted to move there. On the cruise we attended "Tony & Tina's wedding" & we enjoyed it. It inspired us to take dance lessons which we started last night.
We only ate breakfast & either lunch or dinner on the ship and often a meal on an island.
We snorkeled at Molokini Crater and Turtle reef which was the best activity. We saw sea turtles and got a tan. The catamaran captain was extremely pleasant & the crew helpful.
Most everyone wanted a monetary tip so next time we'd reserve our own trips & w/the savings, pay a generous tip to all we appreciated.ABC stores sold calendars for $1.49 ea.
We didn't know what food items we could buy & return w/. We wish we'd brought back a pineapple and coconut syrup. We gained 2-5lbs each so we didn't glutton as many we saw did. The ono fish was our favorite, though we had maui maui. The purple poi was cooked w/sweet potatoes so we liked it. We did not make it to a luau.Dale got caught up buying clothes at Kmart in Kaui.

Blowe Family, Mexico vacation, January 2007

Melody,

The trip was GREAT! Everything was perfect and you did a great job planning everything for us. I have already began  referring you to family and friends. We thank you and look forward to future engagements.

Thanks,
Lincoln & Denise

Heilbron Family, Walt Disney World vacation, December 2006

Hi Melody,

We had a fantastic time!  Everything went really well and I can't believe it's already over and we're home....

We were able to do a walk-in lunch at the Norway Princess lunch.  It was so cute to watch Megan - she was more than just a little excited.

With the confusion with the dinner when I thought we were susposed to get passes into Fantasmic - the manager felt bad and got us the tickets!

Mike called one day during the week and was able to get the dinner package for the candle light processional at Coral Reef.

Everything you planned for us worked perfectly.  We got the kids autograph books and they got a ton of autographs from the breakfasts and while in the parks - Megan got all the princesses except Snow White!

We ended up canceling Victoria and Alberts dinner. We found out that we were too tired in the evenings.  I think that may have been one of the drawbacks of being remote - or perhaps just of having 2 young kids with us.

Thompson's Anniversary Cruise, September 2006

Hi Melody,
 
Thanks for helping us book our cruise.  We had a wonderful time on the ship.  There is so much to do!  The ship is spectacular and we meet so many interesting people.   We enjoyed the exursions.  St Thomas was our favorite.  What a beautiful island.  We had lots of fun and probably ate too much like everyone else.
 
The flight out of Denver to Memphis was on a very small plane with only 50 seats.  There was not a lot of room to be comfortable.  In the future, we would preferto have a larger plan to travel on.  Other than that,  we had a terrific time.  
 
Take Care.
 
Rick and Fran

Family Disney World Vacation, 2006

A pleasure working with Melody, although it wasn't really working on my part, she did all the work. Melody answered all my questions about Disney World and offered many excellent pointers that I didn't even think of, to make our trip great fun. She is quick to respond and proactive in her approach. I would recommend her and will use her services again in the future.

 Ron T., Longmont, CO