103. What I Learned About Luxury Travel at the Travel Agent Forum in Las Vegas

Butler service, jaw-dropping all-inclusives, and a sneak peek at Virgin Voyages’ brand new Brilliant Lady ship...yes, please! I just got back from the Travel Agent Forum with the latest luxury travel updates from Sandals, Xcaret, and Virgin Voyages, and in this episode I'm sharing insider details that might just spark your next getaway.

Connect with Michele on IG: @jetsettingwithmichele or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/MMTinsiders

Contact Michele to plan your next vacation: www.makinmemoriestravel.co/contact

This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher: www.ThePodcastTeacher.com. 

Transcript

Hello, jetsetters, and welcome back to another episode of jetsetting with me. I am going to tell you all about what I learned about luxury travel at the travel agent forum in Las Vegas. So I had an opportunity to go to a travel agent conference for training and to meet with different suppliers and have one on one meetings with them. And I am very honored that I was chosen as a select representative, which meant I was sponsored to go there, and I got some special time to meet with gosh. We got to meet with, like, 25 different one on one meetings. Plus I had breakfast and lunch where I could learn more in-depth with some of those suppliers. And I got to pick those sessions and pick who I wanted to meet with. And so I'm going to share some insights from that about three of the different suppliers that I met with.

So pack your bags. Join me for this insider's guide to the latest and the greatest from the travel scene of those that I met at the travel agent forum. Obviously, I can't tell you everything about the travel scene because it's always changing, but insights for me. And the three that I'm gonna focus on that I got to spend some in-depth time with and really learn about is Xcaret, sandals, and virgin voyages. Now I know you have heard me talk about Xcaret and virgin voyages before. I have never talked about sandals before, so this will be a first. But I learned more about both of them that I maybe haven't shared with you. So I'm kind of excited to dig into all of those.

So let's start with Xcaret. For those who don't know or haven't heard me mention them before, they are Mexican all inclusive company. But, really, they're not just known for their hotels, which are luxury to the nth degree, but they are known for their theme parks. They are a % Mexican owned business group, and they are extremely passionate about their Mexican heritage, the culture. They love sustainable tourism, and they're all fun, inclusive model. So I wanna tell you a little bit about the theme parks. So they have several of them, and I can't talk about all of them. But I'm just gonna mention, they have Xcaret, Mexico, which they say is the majestic paradise.

And as I said, they are passionate about their heritage. This park celebrates the best of the country. It's got 50 natural and cultural attractions all in one place. They have Seija. They put an x in front of everything that is pronounced like an s. So pardon me, Xcaret, if I don't get these right. Seija, which is where you can snorkel in the river and in the inlet. They have a scenic lighthouse.

All of these, by the way, have unlimited food and beverages, adult and unadult. Although, at Xcaret, you cannot drink alcohol before you go in the water. So they have Xcaret Explorer, which is where you can do your zip lining. Again, unlimited food, water. They have the only toboggan, which is a five in one water slide. Then at night, turns into and it's, you know, even cooler with the night lights and all lit up, and that's the adventure, although they have more adventure too. They have senses, and that is where you challenge your sensory it's kinda like the Museum of Ice Cream, like, very Instagrammable. They're gonna challenge your sensory.

There's a 35 photo spots if you're looking for that Instagram. It's considered like a half day experience, so good for kids. Really good for kids. They have, as I said, they have another adventure park, which is one that is beyond my limits. Although, it does have a whitewater ride, and it's the only one in the Yucatan Peninsula. It's called S Savage. And then, of course, that one, they do at night as well. But the two that I really want to try is Xochimilco, which is a Mexican floating fiesta.

Now, I know I've talked about this before, but I learned even more. It has dancing, singing, fun Mexican fiesta. It's got a night tour through the canals, course an open bar, and a tasting menu of typical Mexican dishes. I'm gonna highlight this for all of my Austin friends and family who hopefully listen to this. It is not Tex Mex. It's an interior Mexican food. And then you get five genres of live Mexican music. So there's mariachi, which I think we all kinda know.

But I did not know these other four that are Mexican music, ranchero, marimba, Arana, and Norteno. I still don't know really what Arana and Norteno are, so I definitely plan to go to the next time I get a chance to go. And I plan to stay at their gorgeous Hotel Xcaret. So they have three hotels. I diverge. I'm going back to the other park that I most want to go to, which is Cenotes. Obviously, they provide round trip transportation from the hotel that I'm getting to that I wanna stay at, but you get to picnic in the middle of the jungle, and you can rappel, you can zip line, you can kayak, but, really, I just wanna swim in a cenote. As many times as I have been to Mexico, you would think that I have done that, and I haven't.

And it is a bucket list experience for me. So I definitely plan on getting to Hotel Achaure, Mexico. And they're all fun and inclusive that I mentioned means your round trip transportation is all included within their hotels. Now they have three of them. Two of them are strictly adults only, but the one that I actually think looks like the coolest is the one that has family friendly, but they do have an all adult inclusion. Or, excuse me, an all adult portion of the resort. And you can actually reserve to be in the all adult one. And I don't know.

It just looks beautiful. It's got 900 suites. It's a five diamond service. The others, they're beautiful, and they're luxury, absolutely, but they definitely are for the more Mexican culture. So they have one Hotel Arte, which is about painting, weaving. You can do dances and workshops. They have experts who come, so a little more on the how do I wanna say it? The artsy fartsy people than me. I want a good spa.

And then La Casa de la Playa is, definitely where you get that world class gastronomy. Maybe this is where I wanna stay. Private transportation and luxury cars. They do have butler service. Yeah. And then they have a chocolate shop where you can get a chocolate tasting with a wine tasting. And so maybe that's where I wanna stay. But the cool thing about staying at La Casa de la Playa, which is adults only, is that you can also eat at either of these other two Estuary hotels.

And, of course, they do all get to the parks, which I didn't really even mention all of the parks, but I hit on the two that I most wanna go to. So as we all know, it's really all about this little travel princess. But if any of you think that what I like sounds like what you like, then we definitely need to all go to Esherald together. Okay. On to sandals. So you probably have never heard me talk about sandals before. I have to be honest. I've always been really tentative about it.

But, man, did I come full circle, and I am so, so excited to book with sandals and to get you down there. Did you know you can get a free honeymoon? You can get a free honeymoon at Sandals. And if you do that, then you have money to upgrade to butler service. Now I learned so much more about their butler service. When I have stayed at Sandals in the past, I've seen the butlers, like, putting the towels and the ice and the beverages out by the pool, and I kinda really thought they were there to save your space by the pool. Like, they go out in the morning, and they nobody's at the pool, and they reserve the seats. Well, I learned it is so much more than saving you a seat at the pool, and it's more than delivery of pizza at the pool, although they will do both of those things. Your butler experience can be tailored.

Everything, and I mean everything, is included. The butler can craft unique experiences. They're gonna talk to you before you visit, and they're gonna reach out with a previsit workshop. So if you tell them, I love a good spa, they're gonna preschedule all those appointments. If you tell them, you know, you really want a great gastronomic experience, they're gonna preschedule that dinner reservation. They're gonna let the chef know what your allergies are, and you're gonna have, like, a tasting menu. Like, these butlers are magic makers. Like, I think I was blown away by how cool it is.

And, also, I learned and granted, I've stayed there. I've just never keyed in to these really cool things that they have. I learned that from the moment you retrieve your bags until it's time to pack them up again to go home, you do not have to touch them. The minute you retrieve your bags and you walk out, there is a sandals sign or a, like, sandals lounge where they're gonna give you water or juice. Your transportation to the resort is ready to go, and there is no tipping. I mean, no tipping. So, really, one of the people told me she takes $20 in cash so she can tip her driver to get her to the resort, and she can tip her driver on the way back. And everything else is if she wants to buy merchandise or, you know, an upscale something that they have at the boutique.

That's it. Everything else is all included, including your gratuities. Now I also learned about this really cool thing that they do every week. It's called the seven seven seven specials, and you can go to the sandals. I think it's just sandals.com, and there's a place where it says suite deals, s u I t e, suite. That's because, obviously, they only have suites. So and for seven days, you can get an extra 7% off on seven eligible room categories. And then you just let me know which one you want, and I book it for you.

It's that easy. So Wednesday at 12:01, I think the new specials start, the seven seven seven specials. So how cool is that? So the resort of sandals, they have I'm sorry if this is wrong sandals. I think I learned they have 17. I still need to do their, like, online training because I've never done it before because I was never excited about sandals. And now I'm so excited that I'm gonna start their training today while I'm on a plane. They have 17, I was right, award winning all inclusive resorts, and they're all throughout The Caribbean. They are Caribbean born and raised.

Like, the owner of the company was born and raised in The Caribbean. They have two, new ones in Jamaica that I'm going to get to experience this summer. Looking forward to that, but they have one in Antigua, One in The Bahamas, Two in Barbados, One in Curacao, One in Granada, Seven in Jamaica, but two are brand new. Three in Saint Lucia and one in Saint Vincent. One of the ones in Saint Lucia is also brand new. They're our newest resort, and they continue to grow, and they have a lot of land. And so they redo their resorts all the time, and they turn them over. So places you can go to over and over again.

If you like golf, if you like scuba, there's scuba classes. You can get certified scuba at any of their resorts. They have unlimited water sports. They have spas. They have restaurants, bars. Unlimited golf greens are included. So I'm just really pumped. So anybody who wants to experience sandals or go to some of these ABC islands and experience true Caribbean hospitality, sandals is gonna be the place to go.

And finally, you know, I can't get enough of my Virgin Voyages. I just love them. And they have a new ship coming out. It's the Brilliant Lady. So I learned about some new things coming to Virgin Voyages and Brilliant Lady. First of all, she's gonna have a new dining experience and some new entertainment that is only gonna be on Brilliant. So, of course, I need to go to experience this new restaurant, which is called Rojo by Razzle Dazzle. So Razzle Dazzle was the concept, and it still is on Valiant and Resilient that was, like, naughty or nice.

So it was like their veggie forward restaurant, but they also had the best hamburgers. They had secret menu items. They had boozy milkshakes. Like, it was and breakfast there is chef's kiss. That's where you get the colored croissant and the great waffles. I love razzle dazzle. But for some reason, the nighttime razzle dazzle veggie forward concept, even though they had the naughty side of the menu, it didn't necessarily translate the way they wanted it to. So razzle dazzle at night is getting some updates.

Like, on Scarlet Lady, now she's got, like, a upscale Chinese vibe. And so on Brilliant Lady, she's going to have a Spanish vibe. So you can spend an evening in Spain at Rojo by Rosal Dazzle, and it's gonna be Virgin's take on modern Spanish inspired fare, so paella, tapas, a delectable menu of Spanish inspired cocktails. So then, you know, the other side of the ship has pink avocado, which is their Mexican restaurant, and pink agave excuse me. I said avocado because I was thinking about the guacamole, which is so good, and Pink Agave. Pink Agave won, like, best restaurant at sea. So you get an interior Mexican experience there, and then you get a Spanish experience in Rojo, and that's on Brilliant Lady. But, also, they are doing, like, four mer maiden voyages.

So if you have ever wanted to go on, like, a brand new ship on one of their first journeys, I got to do that on the Disney Dream. Like, when you walk on, I'm not lying, new ship smell. You're like you feel like you're the first person in your cabin. It's, like, a truly amazing experience, and they are doing four. And they're literally once in a lifetime, five to seventeen night journeys. And the one that I have my eye on is I've never done a fall foliage experience. And I live in the South. We well, in the mid, like well, in Texas.

We do not have four seasons here. We have hot and hotter. Like, it's gonna be 90 degrees today, and this is early April. So I really wanna do this New York to Quebec itinerary where you go to New York City, Boston, Massachusetts, which I love Boston. I really do. Eastport, Maine. I've been to Maine, but I've not been to the Seaboard of Maine. I've been more inland.

Saint John, which is in New Brunswick, which is where you can walk in the water, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Quebec City. I went to Quebec City when my mom turned 50. We went for her fiftieth birthday, and it is the most romantic, quaint, old school French village. I mean, it is French Canadian, obviously, but they speak French. They oh, Quebec City. It's got the Chateau Frontenac, and then you take a funicular down to the old city part. It is just so I can't wait to go back. I'm speechless about it.

So that's ten nights on the brand new brilliant lady, and cabins are starting at just $29.82. 2 thousand 9 hundred and 80 2 for ten nights from New York to Quebec. And so very excited about that that itinerary, and you will definitely find me there, and I hope that you will come with me. I'm looking for the dates really quick because it's already on my calendar. I'm very excited. And by the way, if I've never mentioned that you can book now and pay monthly, then I mean, come on now. I'm still looking for the date. September twenty third of twenty twenty five, and that date has special significance for me.

September 23 was my dad's birthday. So I feel like the universe is telling me it's brilliant lady's inaugural season. It's a fall foliage, which I've never done. It's going back to Quebec City, and it embarks out of New York on my what would have been my dad's birthday. So I'm definitely going. I would love for you to come with. And that, my friends, is some of the highlights that I learned at the travel agent forum. I always try to get the names right because there's also travel agent conference, which I am going to in May in Salt Lake City, and that's really the annual conference put on by our professional association, ASTA, which is where I'm verified and certified.

So definitely always go to that one. So this one is the travel agent forum. Again, I was lucky enough to be hosted, so it was very exciting for me. And I learned, as I said, about more about Xcaret and Virgin Voyages and all about sandals. Hello, people. A whole new thing that blew me away. I mean, it's not new. They've been around.

But new to me. I look forward to you reaching out to to me about any of these suppliers or anything else that is sparking your jet setting dreams. And please subscribe to the podcast. Hit that follow button. Share it with friends. If you have time to leave a review, I always love reviews. It makes me feel loved and seen, which, you know, we all love to feel loved and seen. And with that, my friends, happy travels.