Heading South

Hi everyone..tomorrow (May 18th) I'm off for two tours of New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville, touring for the same company I did New England for last fall...UK travelers and Elvis fans! I'll be posting on my blog http://imgbainsf.blogspot.com so check there for details.
I hope everyone is doing well.
Post some news here! Let everyone know what you are doing.
Alice

Just got back from attending Orientation for the TD position with Smithsonian Student Travel. First day in class I look across the room and see Julie. We will both be working the Inauguration, but not as TDs. They already had enough people on board as TDs, but we went through training to prepare us in case any of them fail to show. We will still be escorting smaller groups on the metro and to different destinations around the capital city. We should be getting tours later in the spring, but that remains to be seen. Penny went through the Orientation back in October and she is slated to lead a tour. Emily will be in town taking photos, and of course Mike will be there. Missed seeing him this time as he was on vacation in Mexico. The largest inauguration crowd to date was Lyndon Johnson's and they had 1.7 million....they are expecting 4 million for Obama. Did I ever mention I get a bit claustrophobic at times, or that my patience is somewhat limited ?! What have I gotten myself into??? We should have a lot of stories to share at Symposium.

One of New York City's newest licensees, plus the Super Bowl

Two tidbits from my end.

First, as of last Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, I passed the exam and became New York City's newest licensee. That having been said, maybe there should be more than just a written exam. The very next day, I suggested to my date, who also lives in Florida, that we take the subway from 61st and Lex to Washington Square, rather than a cab. Within minutes, changing trains at 51st and Lex, at about 2 PM, she was attacked (a street musician spat in her face), begging the question as to whether someone who leads another into being the victim of a subway attack within a day of obtaining his license should really have one, even though the station is normally safe. Anyway, don't tell the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs - I still don't have my actual license, just a piece of paper!

For any of you planning to take the exam, I recommend studying more than I did. I was told most people fail the first time, and while I did pass, I did not make a score high enough to have an asterisk next to my name on the web site, even though I grew up in the New York area, have lived in the city, and visit several times a year. There were a lot of obscure historical questions, a lot of questions about obscure points of interest in Queens and Staten Island hardly any out of town tourist would ever visit that I had never even heard of, and a few questions about New York City traffic laws. I'm not even sure I got the only baseball question right, and I used to co-produce and write the questions for a sports quiz show in cable television. The question pertained to why the Brooklyn Dodgers were originally the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers - mind you, the Dodgers (not the Trolley Dodgers) haven't even played in Brooklyn since 1955.

I also finally got certified in CPR this week.

Also, Tim and I will be working the Super Bowl in Tampa, providing meet and greets and other hospitality to CBS employees as I understand it, for a company called Sportsmark who recruited me out of ITMI since I live around here. They just wanted local people, which is why I didn't spread the news, except to Tim who mentioned that he frequents these climes in the winter. Anyway, its not exactly going to be big money, either, but I am very much looking forward to it.

I haven't landed anything else firm. Flamingo Educational, the company Clara has some tours with, told me they would use me but nothing has been set up, but I've been very bad about sending out resumes - probably not even a dozen. To give you an idea of how bad I've been about sending out resumes, I haven't even sent a resume yet to Tauck, even though I spent parts of four days a few weeks ago fam touring one of their long-time employees. The good news from her front is that, even though she was selling tours for the first time, people were still signing up tours, so not everyone is scared away by the economy.

Looking forward to seeing some of you in Texas.

Inauguration Here I Come!!

Just got back from my last Fam Trip of Chicago with Travel Adventures for all there TDs! I really like how they make sure you're well trained and their trip notes is incredible! It could spoil me...but it's a good source for what info should be in a typical trip notes.

Good News...Bad News!!
We'll I and 2 other co-workers received layoff notice and have 60 days to find another job in the company or move on. I've joined the other 600,000+ unemployed people in Michigan. But on the same day, I was assigned a Inauguration tour! I and Jane, senior TD will have 216 8th graders/chaperon on a 4 coach move! My partner is cool and we get along great! She was my roomy during the Chicago Fam trip. With the exception of the Big Event, I found out that TA usually send their newbees to Chicago during their rookie year.

Hope our fellow Einsteins who are going to the Big One will be sharing strategic info for the event.

Mr. Peanut, Chicago & WDC Training

Well...went with a seasoned TD to Chicago with group of high school choir students. Challenge for the trip was a 16 yr old girl in wheel chair. Best advice, make sure you tell your driver to make sure he gets her off the bus as soon as he parks the bus. Also make sure the venues know you have a handicapped person. Look for ramps and seating for handicap. Went to see a play, had to make arrangement for her seating, she was seated away from the group. Theater only allowed to have 1 person seat w/her, but an aunt came along the the trip. I spoke with the seating supervisor and convinced her to let the aunt seat with them if the seats were unused after the intermission.


Was not with our training during this event, but one of the kids defaced something. The kids were detained by security. My trainer convince the company and the security to not press charges, but for the student to pay for the cost of clean up.

I also went on a training of Washington DC, Gettysburg, Baltimore, Mt. Vernon & Lauray Caverns with a group of TDs for the inauguration and for the spring season.
Don't think I'll get a tour group for the big event. Spoke to many seasoned TDs usually tour Chicago for the 1st year. But sales, customer service and marketing was also on the trip. Seems they're interested in my photographic services for the event.
Best advice for the big event, according to seasoned TDs make sure that you utilize the chaperones!! It's very important that they know what is expected of them when leading the students with the amount of people expected for the event!

Student Tour seems much easier as all we really do is to facilitate the tour. Chaperones pretty much care for the students and they handle their own luggage. Just watch out for chaperones who think they are on vacation.

For those working the Inauguration...congrats! It will be a challenge, but you will have support as there will be other staff members at the event if you run into some problem. Good Luck! Hope to see you there and or Texas!

If you have any questions, contact me...emilyhoward@mac.com or call me 248-880-8373

Hopefully I have this figured out...

Hello everyone! I have just caught up on all the blog postings. It's really exciting to see how many people have gotten something in such short time! When we got back from class, I sent out my resumes to several places and literally two hours later, was hired with Educational Tours, Inc. I have yet to actually tour with them but am lined up for 10 or so tours with them. I also went on tour of Springfield with Hemisphere and have a couple with them in the spring- all in Chicago. No winter Chicago tours... I have no idea why no one wants to visit here in the winter which is, sadly, beginning.

Like a few of you, I am going to work with EF Smithsonian for the inauguration and will train there Dec. 17-19. Thanks to Michael for all the info! Living in Chicago makes it even more exciting for me. I was involved in the campaign and went to Grant Park on the election so being in DC during the inauguration will be the icing on the cake.

I look forward to seeing you all in Texas. I know several of you opted out but who is still in?

Finally Seeing Some Action

I'm finally starting to see some action. Flamingo Tours out of Ft. Lauderdale has booked me as TD for two student groups coming to Charleston the last two weeks in March. Better yet....just got hired by Smithsonian Student Travel. Penny was hired by them as well. Thanks go out to Mike for letting me know they weren't requiring the DC guide license during the Inauguration or I probably would have just waited on symposium. I'll either be a TD during Inauguration or at least help out in some respect. I don't think they really have a handle yet on how many to expect. Last count they were looking for 6000 students. Anyway, hopefully I should get 1 tour a month in April and May as well. Can't wait to see you guys at symposium.

Still Tour Guide Jobless

I felt like posting on this blog because I do check it almost every day, and I'm glad some of you have received jobs. I have no exciting news on the tour guide job front. Except I'm putting all my eggs in one basket and trying to get a job with Contiki Tours since they are accepting applications now. (Just a heads up to anyone who is interested). More importantly In case anyone missed it since most of America didn't care. PHILLIES WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!! I hope you are all doing well and I look forward to seeing you in Texas.

JIM

Check out My San Francisco Album..

Hi everyone, I finally finished putting my San Francisco/ITMI pictures into an album presentation. You can check it out by going to http://www.mypublisher.com/
Click on the link in the upper right area called "mybookshelf"
Type in the order # M826391 click "continue"
The password is 1308096

You can view the book as often as you wish by using this procedure to get to it. Place your mouse pointer on the lower right corner of the page and click and the page will turn.
If anyone has any trouble accessing it, let me know and I will help.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Alice

I Finally Signed on to the Blog!!

Hi, All - It's so interesting to be on this Blog (Thanks, Alice for setting it up.). I finally set it up here & got on it. I've just read over all the comments about touring already & I'm so very proud of you for getting out there & Just Doing IT!!! WOW!!!
By the way, this is Tish talking to you. I've not done anything Tour Director-wise as yet. When I came home from the class, I still had that miserable cough so I've given myself the months of Sept & Oct to get me better & then I was going to see about sending info out. Just two weeks ago I had the pleasure of taking a trip to Switzerland for 10 days. The TD on that trip was from ITMI class of 240 - nice surprise!! And then I just came back from Greenbelt MD after a long weekend there for my class reunion. What fun!! So now will I send out my resumes??? Yes, I will!!
Take care, All & so good to hear from you. Tish

Our Instincts were right...

this is the best job in the world!

My first tour is over, I am at a hotel at JFK until I return to the airport to meet my second group.

Said goodbye to the first group last night at 7:30. We had a great tour and they were very happy with their "holiday" and their tour director and their bus driver, as evidenced not only by their words but by the fact that what I earned for the tour was exactly doubled by their gratuities.

I made some wonderful new friends, and learned some funny new phrases to add to my vocabulary, for instance, a lady was telling me about a hotel she once stayed at where the pillows were so thin that she had to "stuff her jumpers" into the pillowcase. This phrase so tickled my funnybone that it became one of the themes of our group. Someone was always threatening to "stuff their jumpers" or someone else's for whatever transgressions, real or imagined. We had a lot of laughs about that.

The group was very warm and good-humored and verbally appreciative of my efforts, which made my job even more rewarding. I never did tell them it was my first tour, and they seemed to think it wasn't so I let that be.

The tour went relatively smoothly, as far as they were concerned anyway. I had a few, shall we say trial-by-fire "learning experiences", but that can only make the next trip more successful.

I took pictures through-out the tour and every night at my hotel I would put the day's pictures into a slide show and show it on the coach the next day. Many people asked me for copies of pictures they were in and I took email addresses to send them. Then I offered to send anyone a cd with all the pictures if they would pay the postage and many of them did that too.

I played music about each state we visited as we drove thru it, (google "songs about..."). And I also bought cd's at local gift shops to add local color to our travel time. I played games, "the first person who can remember..." whatever about what we had seen, or the name of a song or anything else that occurred to me. I gave prizes to the winners, a keychain from the state we were in, or a small trinket from a gift shop. Who doesn't love to win something, no matter how small it may be?

If you would like more details about the tour, visit my blog, it's all there.

I never did bump into Greg, although I looked for him everywhere.

I hope everyone is doing well and can't wait to meet again, in Texas, to share our experiences and have new ones!

Alice

so THIS is tour directing

So here's the update. I just finished my second tour and it was a slam dunk. I earned more than $500 more in tips than the first tour! The group gave me a standing ovation at the farewell dinner and concluded it with "for he's a jolly good fellow". I turned bright red.

Many of the local shops upon seeing me the second time gave me a few books for free and I shared them with my guests as we went down the road. I got some inexpensive maple syrup cookbooks in woodstock VT and a seafood one on martha's vineyard and offered to photocopy two pages for every person on the bus who was interested. this was a big hit.

Here's some good one's alice:
This is called military corn: build it up for thirty seconds as they shout back their doubts...
They're all kearnels!!
"you see these round bails of hay...the cows wont eat them like the brick shaped ones...build up...its not a square meal!"
oh and the 2 pairs of socks routine at the golf course is also classic...

these work remarkably well as everyone is used to believing everything you say...

The ITMI estimates on what you should earn on a tour were well on the low side for these tours, but I also go with about 50 people so the tips really add up.

The reviews were so good that the company offered me one more tour starting the tenth so I'm on the hunt for alice. we do boston, lexington, concord, martha's vineyard, newport, mystic, woodstock, stratton mountain, portland and kennebunkport...do we have any stops in common?

Ive got another tour coming in December for a different company that specializes in foreign exchange students...7 days in New York city! and half the group speaks either French or Spanish...
I guess I will need to get some of the local day tours and meet and greets going around philly to fill in the holes during the slow season. Where did you guys look to find those?