This is What's the Deal. Grosse Ile the podcast that explores the people places history and events that make Grosse Ile unique. I'm your host Ben fote. At the risk of sounding like a Home Depot commercial grocery aisle is a place of doers. Past episodes have introduced people like Tracy Pearson, her good news, grassy hill, businesses that neighbors have started because the island should have that kind of business. The real which waves of gross eel exists simply to entertain and socialize, that can do spirit goes back to the islands founding and beyond, even to the people who made Southeast Michigan home before European settlers found the Great Lakes. Today we're talking about the gross yield travel club, something that came about when an islander wondered if anyone would be interested in traveling the world from our little island. We talked in December, so you might notice some references to this year, which is actually last year. So weaving the gross heel travel club are Lewin McElwain and Anne Marie vez. I'm so happy to be talking with you about the travel club. And I'm sure glad we're going to find out what the deal is.
Well, the deal is Luann is really the one who started the club. So I will kind of defer to her. And let her tell us a little bit about her story and why she wanted a club started.
Well, my late husband and I used to travel extensively, probably about five times a year. And when COVID hit it, unfortunately took him from me. And I thought one night, I really don't want to give up traveling, but I don't really want to travel by myself. So I went on Facebook, and I put a post out dysprosium NIDA travel club. And within one hour, I had 65 hits saying yes, yes, yes. So I contacted the Emory because I known her from high school and working as nurses, which we are retired from now. And she said Luann I think you might have some here. So we just started it. And she had an associate that lives right here and grow seal, Tricia Evelyn. And the three of us mainstreamed and started getting Excel spreadsheets together. Advertising, we had our first meetings in parking lots during COVID With lawn chairs and a cocktail. Now we're moving out of our place that we've had for a year because we grow on in our size for our meetings to the VFW and Macomb street.
Oh, great. So what's the general aim of the travel club?
The general aim is to get the community together to travel with each other and at least have some point people that you may know, and that no one is really a stranger on the trip. So if there are widows, single divorces, what whatever the case may be, or their spouse just doesn't want to go on vacation. You can travel comfortably with other people. You're not a joint at the hip by no means but at least you have point people.
Okay, is there a membership to the club? Is there any kind of structure to that part? Or is it just there
is no fee? Okay. When somebody joins through Facebook, we have to approve because we really want some kind of connection was someone we don't want just say Joe Blow from North Carolina says, oh, I want to join the grill seal travel club. Oh, why? We pretty much will accept just about anyone, we have had to kick one person out due to inappropriate behavior, but we won't go down that road with this conversation. So we do kind of keep tabs on things just so people feel comfortable at all times traveling with the group.
Okay. does most of the discussion happen on Facebook then?
Sounds like there's no We have monthly meetings every third Monday. Okay.
At the VFW there. We already live on an island. Why would anyone want to go anywhere else? With our children see,
there's only so much you can see. And education is priceless. And yes, we don't have the palm trees here, even though there are some artificial lighted palm trees. But you just you know, you still want to travel. And we just expanded to doing some bus trips. And we're hoping to do a few more. The logistics on that are a little bit different than just booking a trip and going say to the Greek Isles or to Italy or wherever you wish to go. Here you have to get more of an idea because you need to fill a bus
for Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I know buses aren't as cheap as they seem.
No, there's a fuel charge. They're pretty costly. Probably three quarters of the class of the day trip.
Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure there are lots of advantages to traveling with a club like this. What are what are some some advantages to having this, aside from from knowing everybody or their financial advantages?
There are a lot of times when you book with a group, you get group pricing if you get so many people to join the group, so of course, that carries on plus, let's say you're talking a cruise you're also talking about, besides the discounted price, you're also talking about amenities that you can't get without paying for as an individual traveler.
Oh, great. Great, and certainly nobody's going to book a bus for themselves, that sort of thing. So that means we've got two types of destinations, then I guess we've got the day trip destinations, and we've got the longer extended things. So where has the group gone so far?
Ahead and Marie. Oh, the first trip that we did was the Rocky Mountain there, which is a luxury train trip. And it went from Denver to Moab F Utah. And after we got off of that, we actually had a guide. And our first trip had seven people on it. We've been growing with every trip since. But we basically had a private tour of all of the parks in Utah and some in Arizona, the national parks, and it was just awesome. Oh, that
sounds great. So that was the first one and I heard about a trip to Italy.
Yes, that was September of this year. And what did we have a lovin on that one? Emory?
Yep, loving on that one.
And then the daytrips I know Shipshewana was one.
Right. And then I'm working on the second one going to the Purple Rose Theatre.
So what what was there to see in Shipshewana, a
big flea market and shopping, eating? Yeah.
And I can tell you a lot of the women in this trip love to shop in Italy. There was a lot of shopping that was done while we were there.
I remember a Master Gardener group I was a part of I was Master Gardener back in the day. The Master Gardeners had a bus trip from from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they always went a different direction each year. And they the bus was they kept they kept their luggage to a minimum. It was a multi day trip, but they kept their luggage to a minimum because they bought things like trees and plants. They'd stop and buy all this stuff and they try to shove it underneath the bus there so I know the shopping. Yeah, so some of the future destinations.
Well, we have a trip plan on dead Danube river with two nights in Prague and a seven night river cruise scheduled for I believe it's May 5. It will end in it will start in Prague and end in Budapest. We'll go to Austria and some little towns along the way. And then our trip that really is growing and expanding and we're almost out of space is we have an Alaskan cruise in August August 5 And it'll be a seven day cruise up the from Vancouver to Whittier, which is the port for where the ship's dock for Anchorage. And then a train ride over to Denali, where we'll be going into Denali National Park spending two nights there. Then moving to the Denali Princess Lodge, which has a beautiful view if it's accessible if the weather cooperates of Mount Denali. And then we'll end up for one night in Anchorage before departing back to Detroit. And so far we have 19 cabins sold on that.
Wow, that sounds wonderful. Yes. So how do reservations work?
Reservations work when people decide they want to book they call me and then they give me the information I need to book the cruise and then their credit card information. I go directly to the cruise line book with them. They send me an invoice I forward that on to the client and then that begins our relationship. What we'll do is once final payments made which in this case is May 7 Then we'll start having some get togethers with the group to discuss shore excursions and things to do and what the group is going to do on the trip. And how to pack and all those good things to get excitement going for going on the cruise.
And that may 7 date is for the Alaska cruise Alaska correct. And I'm guessing the European cruise ship trip on the river That's February is that's that's closed off right now.
Is is pretty much gone because you have you can only hold group space for so long. There is however room on the ship. So whatever that river cruise ship is off Waiting for amenities or price people could still get on at that price.
Okay. Okay. Anne Marie, you're in the travel business. Do you have an office on the on the island? I know Trisha works works with you. Yeah, we
actually don't. Because of COVID A lot of people have given up their brick and mortars. So my business model has always been, I've been a home based agent. So I usually meet people at local places, either at like a Starbucks or Panera Bread or, you know, Lord's on the island, if I'm meeting someone here. And then if you know, I meet them for lunch, I pick up the tab for that. And we have a nice discussion about where they would like to go and what they would like to do. And nowadays, you know, it's between zoom and emails and phone calls. I actually have clients all over the US. It's not a problem.
We do have access to an office space if need be. And that is Jeff Forrester. He's an attorney on Macomb, because I work for him a few hours a week. And if we need to meet a client and have an office space, we've got a place to go.
That's great. Do they still have posters? I you know, I? I haven't been in a travel office. I think my parents used to do triple A for that. But But I see what was it the Americans was a TV show where the Russian spies were, we're, we're,
we still have lots of posters. I should have taken and sent you some pictures of my office. I do have an office in my home. And I have pictures that I've had framed from my trips. Plus, I have Princess cruiseline, flyers or posters, depending on I've got all kinds of posters. So yeah, they still do make them sandals is another one. They will leave in. If you do the Sandals Resort all inclusive, they will even do your car for you and put one of those all their advertisement on your car for you for free. If you'll drive around with their sandals stuff on it.
Wow, we do have a display table set up at the law office to so people walking down Macomb are driving by if they just want to stop in and pick up a flyer they can get them there.
Okay, that's great. Or
in the grocery store, or the drugstore, or the restaurant, wherever I have done? Yeah, probably
probably all the realtor offices on on Macomb Street.
No, I haven't hit them. enough that they're on fliers. That's true.
They have an awful lot there. That's for sure. What else can a travel agent do for us these days, so many people are using, you know, online booking and that sort of stuff. But
one of the online booking is great, I'm not going to trash it. The problem is, when you get in trouble when COVID hits, and you need to cancel your trip, for whatever reason, who's going to have your back, you're going to be on hold for 789 hours with those online agencies trying to get your money back with me. I booked directly with the company, whether it be a cruise line, whether it be a travel company or tour company. And so instead of you waiting on hold for 11 hours, I stay on hold for 11 hours and take care of you.
Sounds like such a fun job.
Well, you know there that COVID was a nightmare. And believe me, I'm glad it's over with. But you really be would be surprised how much of an advocate your travel agent is for you. We can put pressure like I have a client, some clients that are going to Mexico and they want to stay in a certain section of the hotel. Well, I can call and I can keep on that hotel and I have connections at that hotel that I can call and say hey, my guests want to stay in this section, please make sure to happens and they will make it happen for me. I also am a strong advocate of travel insurance. When we were in Italy we had out of 11 people. We actually had two claims I had to file. One claim was for a client that delta canceled their V their flight the night before. My goodness, we got them rescheduled but they had to pay another night at the hotel plus expenses. Plus, their water taxi to the airport from Venice was covered if they would have left that day when they were supposed to but having an add on an extra day. They have to pay for the wrong Water Taxi which was quite pricey. I was surprised. I put in I they didn't have to do anything but send me the receipt. I had everything else. I sent it all in I filed their claim for them. And both of them have their money back so well. That's great. People don't realize but you know, we do take care of that too.
Yeah, I had an experience That Emory and Tricia both helped me with and that was when we had to have the PCR testing before we went on a cruise. Mine did not come back in time. And I was literally getting ready to go to the hotel room because I went in a day ahead of time, and still didn't have it. So they got on the horn and said, If you go to the dock that you can have a test done over there. By the time I got to the dock, the test came over my phone, but I was that close to not having it.
Yeah, my my family, I was busy at work. And my family was just a Disney. And I think they would have benefited from a travel agent because they they booked you know, normally in the in the before times, Disney really was on top of everything but but they their hotel, they got two rooms, but they were in different buildings. And so my kids were in one building, and my my wife and her mom were in another building. And they said it worked out fine. But you know, 12 and 14 year old in a hotel room by themselves, you never know, right? And then booking the reservations for dinners, they didn't get them done on time. So that again, didn't get the places they wanted to be at the right time. And I think that experience of having a travel agent, I know, I know, you get to experience some of these things ahead of time, or when they refresh things, they at least update you on how those things work. And that's something that a normal person doesn't necessarily get. Right without a lot of work. So, so I really appreciate that work. And I think we'll be giving you a call next time.
To help you with that Disney is kind of a mess now. And people don't even realize that they actually have to make a reservation just to get into the park. Right? They never had to do before. You could go whenever you want it to now we have heard via the grapevine that hopefully things will be changing after the first of the year. But until I actually see that come across my desk, I'm not putting a lot of faith in it.
Well, they didn't realize that there wasn't transportation from the airport anymore. They had to book their entrance, they didn't realize that they'd have to, you know, get a cab or whatever. And, and they didn't know that till they got to Orlando. So all those things are sort of, you know, things are changing or changed. And nobody's used it lately. So so it seems.
And there are other trip transfer companies that could have done that. And you know, had she booked with a travel agent, they would have been able to steer them in the right direction.
Yeah, excellent. Well, what's the best? Where's the best place you've ever traveled to?
Oh, gosh, that is the hardest question. He's I've been so to so many wonderful places. One thing that I'm really lucky about being a travel agent is I've got to experience places that I never would have had I not been a travel agent. Probably one of my best trips was a trip that we're actually going to recreate for the girls sail travel club, and 2024. And again, we're going to use the rocky mountain air. And we're going to go to the Canadian Rockies. Oh, wow, those are absolutely beautiful. We'll be stopping at Banff and Lake Louise and Jasper. And those are just absolutely beautiful.
I think PBS shows a documentary of that train trip across Canada.
You can't words can't describe it. And you can see pictures all you want, but until you're actually in it and see like the 360s surround, it's just unbelievable. And we were able to actually go up to the glaciers and with our get an empty water bottle and stick it in the glacier water and drink it and have the freshest water in the world that was just
out of this world. Oh, that's great. And you said that's 2024 2024
Yes. And we probably also in 2024 will be repeating Italy, but instead of doing Northern Italy we will be doing Southern Italy.
My favorite place I would have to say would probably be Greece. But Sydney is is right there to Sydney is absolutely gorgeous. The harbor is gorgeous. So much to see and it's so clean. It's just a long plane plane ride. Yeah.
Well and of course we've got our last question everybody everybody anticipates here. What is a wish you might wish for grow seal
to grow to the point where we are scrambling for space to even have a meeting.
Oh for the club. Yeah.
Yes. Do you have two or three trips going on? Out at the same time? Oh, wow. I mean, also we have as to go up? No, we're not gonna go down. We're just we just have room to go up and and to have this community build upon their friendships is a really great thing in my opinion.
Now I have to say that I wish for great roads on goal zeal, I hope those those come soon. And but I really feel that Grosse Ile has a great sense of community. I grew up here and lived here most of my life. And I just think it's a beautiful community. And I think the people are wonderful here. And there is such a sense of community and I hope that continues to grow and flourish.
Well, thank you for sharing the travel club with us. As much as we all love it here, there's always a chance to experience something new, and to be taken care of a bit to be pampered. I really appreciate you and all the effort you've put into to giving us a new, a new activity for the island, something that we can we can get out there and get to know each other even better.
Well, thank you for letting us. Thank you for letting us voice it because without a voice and people hearing about it, it becomes mute.
Sure. Absolutely. Especially in these times.
Yep. Thank you so much, Ben, we really appreciate you letting us talk a little bit about our baby and how it's growing on the island.
Luann and Anne Marie are just the sort of folks that can make things happen like we were talking about at the beginning of the show. I'm already trying to clear my schedule for 2024 So I can go in that Canada trip. Links to the club in the agency or in the Episode Notes. I sure hope you have a chance to join the club for a trip, even if it's just the other side of the state. The show is produced by me Ben fote and float Media Productions find links to other episodes and ways to support the show in the episode. Thank you for listening to What's the Deal Grosse Ile
