Kudos to the Disney Swan Dolphin Resort

My view of judging a company's customer service is not how they do things right - but how do they respond when something does go wrong. We ship packages on a daily basis to the many Disney resorts in Lake Buena Vista Florida at Walt Disney World. In the six years of doing business with Disney I can't remember ever having a problem or a lost package. So I was very surprised when last Sunday night our JetSetBabies phone rang and it was a customer who had just arrived at the Disney Swan Dolphin Resort and had been told they could not find her JetSetBabies package.



I first looked through our notes on the package and we had called the hotel a few days prior and spoken with an employee at the Concierge Desk and he confirmed that he had the package and it would be held there until the guest arrived Sunday. I called the concierge desk immediately and talked to the person working that night. The employee we spoke with had already left for the day, the package was not there, and it had not been logged in their book. He stated that he had put in a call to security to look for the package.



I then called my employee who had spoken with the hotel earlier in the week. He stated that he still had the number for the Receiving Dept at Swan Dolphin and he had originally spoken with the department manager - he would call again and see if he could reach anyone.



Well, this is where I think Disney really shined. My employee dialed the number. The Receiving Department was closed but the phones forwarded to Department Manager's cell phone who answered our call at 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday night. He said he remembered everything clearly - he knew exactly where the package was, and if the security guard was unable to find it, please call him back and he would drive into work and get it for the guest!! Now that isn't just good service - that is what I consider great service.



By the time I called the concierge back with this information, they had already found the package, and had delivered it to the guests room. I called our customer as she was unpacking the box. She was thrilled and I was thrilled. So hats off to Disney Swan Dolphin for an opportunity for both of us to show our great customer service skills!

Trekaroo - kids, trips and tips.

Trekaroo is a trip planning website that is designed specifically to help parents overcome the stress of traveling with kids. Trekaroo takes intuitive tools and combines them with the power of a fast-growing, grassroots community of moms and dads. The website is designed to connect users to a community of families who have traveled to popular destinations all over the world. Parents can use search tools that allow them to discover tips and ideas based on their budget or their children’s ages.

Trekaroo is a fast-growing, grassroots community of parents who are passionate about exploring the world with their kids. It’s a guide filled with thousands of activities and places to stay ranked by the reviews of moms and dads and also a place to get your travel questions answered by knowledgeable parents who’ve already been there.

Next time you are ready to plan a trip, find tips or have travel questions please visit http://www.trekaroo.com/ to see how is works.

P.S. - keep watching for a chance to win some great prices from Trekaroo and JetSetBabies!

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Travel Deals

Two weeks ago I purchased airline tickets for my family to travel to Washington DC this summer. The Northwest Airline tickets from Minneapolis to Washington DC were a great bargain at $250 each! However, ever since them I have been hearing stories of airline ticket discounts and worried - did I pay too much? I just finished checking on Expedia and discovered the tickets are actually higher today by $48 than when I bought them. That's good new for me...but made me wonder about other travel deals.

Here are a couple of great items I found in about 15 minutes of research. Expedia currently has a "No Booking Fee" special going on for a limited time. This is worth looking into further.

And of course my favorite travel site Travel + Leisure has some fabulous bargains on hotel specials right now. The one that I liked the best was Caribbean Beach Resorts from $125! That's a great deal and we have alot JetSetBabies customers traveling to places like Aruba, St. Croix, St. Maarten, and other islands right now. In addition, to great airline discounts, and great hotel rates, international shipping prices are down slightly also. So shipping your JetSetBabies packages are also a bargain compared to six months ago.

For more great travel bargains, including airline tickets from NYC to Spain for $150!! check out Travel + Leisure Hot Deals.

Kids Travel Happy

KidsTravelHappy.com is a website dedicated to high quality, unplugged travel games, toys, lap trays, books and activities for kids of all ages. Items are great for on the go, or play at home. They also have a small storefront in Bethel, Maine that’s open 3 days a week.

Their goal is to help other families embark on the great adventure of travel with their kids. With a little luck, their products make the whole experience a bit easier and less stressful for all involved. Another unique aspect of KidsTravelHappy.com is that they provide 7 options for on-the-go playing surfaces (trays and lap desks depending on age, car seat type, travel mode etc.). Then, one can shop by tray type to find which toys work best for their choice. OR, there is the ‘no tray necessary’ category.

Please check them out at KidsTravelHappy.com for more info.

http://www.kidstravelhappy.blogspot.com/

Tastybaby - organic baby food

Are you looking for some great organic baby food? If so Tastybaby takes strides to make sure their baby food is high in nutritional value, healthy & delicious. They make 100% USDA-certified organic products gluten-free and as unrefined as possible by leaving out any preservatives, trans-fats, sugar or salt. They want to ensure that you or your child can enjoy Tastybaby without the worry of an adverse reaction. They are happy to assure you that all 10 Tastybaby flavors are 100% USDA-certified organic & gluten-free. Packed with vitamins & nutrients (thanks to state-of-the-art blast-freezing technology), easy single servings are as eco-friendly as they are palate-pleasing. They use BPA-free / recyclable containers & biodegradable cardboard printed with vegetable-based inks.

At Tastybaby, they embrace the idea that foods should be processed or altered to the bare minimum. Ideally, they would all live on farms and grow the food we eat. Some lucky folks, like the Organic farmers who grow our ingredients, actually do. The rest of us have to recreate that organic simplicity in our own lives.Organic foods are grown without toxic pesticides and fertilizers and are minimally processed without artificial ingredients, preservatives, irradiation or cloning. Organic foods are produced without antibiotics, synthetic hormones, genetic engineering, sewage sludge and other dangerous practices.And Organic food tastes great! The color and vibrancy of natural ingredient are left unadulterated, so the delicious, natural flavor of fruit and vegetables is undeniable.

I tried these great products out on my son and he loved them. The shipping was quick, the packing was great and they were easy to store.

Check out http://www.tastybaby.com/ for more info.

Latest in baby travel gear - the POP-A-TOT

The lastest baby travel gear item is now available at JetSetBabies, and its wonderful. The Pop-A-Tot is a portable stationary activity center for babies 6-18 months. PopATot gives you a safe environment for your child when you're busy doing something else; and it goes everywhere! Literally, take it everywhere, because you never know when you need a safe place for your child. The perfect travel gear for baby - use it in your hotel room, at the beach, at the park. PopATotTM opens and closes in seconds with one hand -- while you hold your child with the other. This high quality sports gear for your child comes with a shoulder bag and is perfect for camping, backyards, baseball and soccer games, Grandma's house, the beach, or wherever you need a safe place for your child. It's the most practical baby sports gear in your collection of kids stuff.

We tried one out before offering to our customers and we loved it - as did the children of the moms who work for JetSetBabies. Its light (only 8 pounds) and compacts small and comes with a tote bag for easy carrying. It sets up easily and has loops to tie down baby's toys, and has cup holders for babies drinks and snacks.

We think you'll love it, too! And for a limited time, we have it on-sale so check it out today.

Making sense of all the airline baggage fees

It's been difficult to keep up with all of the different airline policies and prices on number of bags allowed in carry-on and checked baggage, as well as the various overweight bags. In additional to the three different types of fees, the prices change depending on whether you are flying first class, economy, national or international and more!

Now there is a source of information that has all this information on one website and the data is accurate and easy to understand. The website is Airline Ala Carte and it is the perfect resources to make sense of all the confusion.

In addition to containing baggage fees there is a great page containing other resource information to websites that track flight status, travel documents, the TSA, and other resources.

Airline Ala Carte is definitely the place to go for reviewing baggage charges and policies!

Fabulous website for traveling with children.

Sticky Fingers Travel Ltd is an Irish company dedicated to providing information to parents who wish to travel with their children. They are a company run by parents and all of their travel is researched by parents for parents. They provide independent and unbiased advice on family friendly holidays, accommodation, activities with children and things to do and see so that you can plan the perfect family holiday.

They have done the research for you on holidays in Ireland and abroad, hotels with kids clubs, adventure holidays, short breaks, self-catering and much more.

They also feature real parent’s experiences and reviews in Parent’s Travel Forum so that you can have your say, get tips from other parents and plan a family holiday that is enjoyable and relaxing for all of you. Children are only young for so long so travel now and enjoy the experience.

You will find lots of family friendly travel tips and advice in Sticky Fingers Travel research and advice section to help you book the right family holiday. You must check out their travel tip section - it is a fabulous on-line resource, regardless of where you are traveling to.

Visit Sticky Fingers Travel for more info.

TSA announces Family Lanes at all airports

Just in time for the busy holiday travel season - the Transporation Security Administration has announced the installation of Family Lanes at all U.S. airports. The lanes allow families and individuals unfamiliar with air travel procedures and travelers with special needs to go through security at their own pace. This is especially helpful for families carrying formula, or individuals carrying medically necessary liquids, aerosols and gels in excess of three ounces.

For more information go to the TSA website.

Traveling across time zones with a baby

This blog comes to you from Bree, a JetSetBabies customer who recently traveled all the way to New Zealand with her baby. I wondered how the baby would handle the time zone changes and Bree was gracious enough to send us this story. I hope you enjoy it. If you have a great travel story to share with our readers, please contact me at patty@jetsetbabies.com. If we use your story, we'll send you a gift certificate to use on our website JetSetBabies.


From Bree:

We had a fantastic trip to New Zealand - it was everything we had hoped for and more. We really did love it there, and if it weren't so dang far away, we'd consider living there! we liked it that much. :)

As for the jet lag - interestingly, Logan did not seem to have an issue one bit on the way over. Our flight was pretty rough at first - he fell asleep on take off and slept for about 2.5-3 hrs, but then he woke up and just would not go back to sleep, for about another 3 hrs - I don't think it was due to any sort of jet lag at this point since we were still on our time here, and it was "in the middle of the night" for him. instead, I think he was just way too distracted with everything going on in the plane..... anyway, we finally got him back to sleep and then he slept for the majority of the remainder of the flight which was great.

When we arrived into Auckland, approx. 5am, we were all awake and met friends there -went out for breakfast and then walked around town to see some sights. We then hopped into our car and took a 2.5 hr drive to the cabins we were staying at for that night. Logan was fine the entire day - he took a couple naps, like he always does, but otherwise was fine. He didn't seem to notice the time change at all! He finally got super fussy and cranky while we were at a restaurant for dinner - but, it was about 8pm local time, which is when he normally starts getting tired anyway. He passed out on me, we took him back to our cabin and put him down for the night.

Throughout the trip, MOST nights he would wake up once in the middle of the night, take a bottle then go back to sleep. There were a few nights, usually when he had been more active the day before, where he'd sleep through the night. But, honestly, I'm not sure that had anything to do with the time change since that's how he's always been at home too.

On our flight back home, it was great. Our plane was delayed an hour or two - so we really wore him out playing and exercising and crawling, etc. in the airport. He passed out during take off and slept for 8 hrs!! he woke up for another 1-1.5 hrs and played at our feet and had a meal, then fell asleep again until we landed. We couldn't have had a more positive experience with the flight home.

The few days after we got home was another story entirely. It was a LOT harder to adjust back to "normal" life. Our schedule was really off those first few days back, since Logan seemed to be struggling with adjusting back to Pacific Time. But, more than that, I think he was also having a hard time adjusting to life without Mom and Dad 24x7 (since we both work so he goes to a daycare during the day). So, that probably was the MOST challenging part of the entire trip, was when we got home. He was very clingy, wanting me and only me, when he was super tired, exhausted and needed me to comfort him to put him to bed. He would also cry every time we dropped him off or picked him up from daycare (which he's NEVER done before), had a lot of trouble sleeping at night, often times crying WHILE he was sleeping (not sure how it's possible but he was doing it) but then the minute I'd pick him up to rock him he'd settle back down and snuggle into my shoulder fast asleep.

Each day was a tad bit better, but it took almost a full week before we started getting a full night's rest again and before he was doing better back at daycare. So, it's a good lesson learned for us. It won't stop us from traveling again, but it's good to know what challenges we may face when we get home *after* the next big trip. :)

Bree