A Romantic Getaway

Kristina Stubblefield  0:00 

planning your honeymoon? A quick getaway after a family member's wedding.

Michael Gaddie  0:04 

How do you go about choosing a destination? Do you need travel insurance? What do you need to know when traveling during a pandemic?

Sharon Rumsey  0:12 

Listen to this episode to learn why having a qualified travel agent in your corner can make all the difference. As our guest Eryn Murphy with the Dehoney travel shares her expertise with all of us.

Kristina Stubblefield  0:24 

You got engaged. Now what? Happy? Yes, joyful time, of course, stressed and overwhelmed. 100%. Don't worry, you're in the right place. Welcome to the ring, the bling and all the things where we will get you from down on one knee to down the aisle. We'll cover all things from yes to I do's and all that happens in between. Hi, I'm Kristina Stubblefield, one of your hosts, along with my two good friends, Michael Gaddy. And Sharon Rumsey. With over 50 years of wedding experience between us. We have seen it, heard it, done it and found a way around it. So buckle up and enjoy the journey. Now, let's get started with this episode.

Okay, so I'm super excited to be here with you all today, along with my two good friends. I'm going to let them talk but not just yet. This company I've known for quite a while and been very fortunate to work with them in the past. But what I'm excited about most is the information they're going to share and the tips, I think can really help, especially with what we're going on right now at the time of recording this. We're still in the midst of COVID. And without further ado, I want to introduce Eryn with Dehoney travel. Eryn, thank you so much for taking time to join us on this.

Eryn Murphy  2:00 

Thank you for having me, Kristina. I'm excited to be here.

Kristina Stubblefield  2:03 

So tell everybody go ahead tell them a little bit about yourself. Well, I've

Eryn Murphy  2:07 

been with Dehoney travel for over 15 years. We handle all over the world traveling and and going on cruises and land trips, we do groups, we can get you pretty much anywhere you want to go so

Kristina Stubblefield  2:22 

really exciting. Mike Sharon, is everything okay? Today you haven't said anything yet. We were

Sharon Rumsey  2:27 

just waiting for you.

Kristina Stubblefield  2:31 

So we know that this is a hot topic when it comes to planning your wedding, your honeymoon or really travel for your guests to come in town. And Sharon, you deal with us as a wedding planner a lot. And I know you can speak more about it.

Sharon Rumsey  2:45 

I am super excited to have Eryn on today. Eryn my poor couples besides having to reschedule receptions and ceremonies and everything else that we've dealt with this year, so many of them are struggling with honeymoon. rescheduled rescheduling I've had couples that lost money on their honeymoons and then my couples for next year. They're scared to plan their honeymoons. So super excited to have you on and just to get us started. Like what advice can you give to couples getting married? You know, next year 2021? Because they want to go ahead and plan but they're scared?

Eryn Murphy  3:24 

That's a good question. I would have to highlight first highly recommend, before you do anything before you finish making your deposit. Make sure you talk about insurance with whoever you decide to travel with the insurance will help you in the long run. A lot of the insurance companies did not cover pandemics epidemics, anything COVID related, well, then they all had to actually change that. So now a lot of them are including canceling if you do test positive for COVID. And then you would get your full refund. Just make sure you read the fine print. A lot of them will cover your medical expenses while you're traveling to Wow. But a lot of these airlines and hotels and tour providers have made exceptions for some of these people. In the beginning, there were some issues with not getting the refunds back immediately. So it did take some time. Every once a while it still does take some time. But it all depends on who you travel with and their policy at the time.

Michael Gaddie  4:33 

So let me ask you about insurance. I mean, when you when I take out an insurance policy, is that something that you all provide? Or is it something that I need to contact my own insurance company and take that out?

Eryn Murphy  4:45 

We do provide insurance at Dehoney actually been handling insurance for several years now over eight years. So it's something that I deal with on a daily basis when it comes to making sure that you're fully covered for your trip. And when it comes to the insurance. I

Michael Gaddie  5:01 

mean, you say polite. But does that cover? Like say we had we were on a cruise and we purchased excursions and does it cover everything from the price of the flight going there? The room, the ship, whatever it may be. does it cover all that?

Eryn Murphy  5:19 

Yeah. So everything that is covered, everything that's non refundable is covered. So if you have something that is partially refundable or fully refundable, we don't necessarily have to include that in the insurance costs. But some of those shore excursions are non refundable. So we want to make sure that we do cover the full trip costs. That's interesting.

Kristina Stubblefield  5:38 

And when we're talking about insurance, I want to bring up a point. Does most travel agencies offer insurance? And if they don't, can you get that separately? For those that might not be local? We're recording here in the Louisville Kentucky area.

Eryn Murphy  5:53 

Yeah, so we can I've had people that don't book any travel with us. And that contact us just to book travel insurance. Oh, so you have to have a licensed insurance specialist to sell insurance.

Kristina Stubblefield  6:06 

So this brings me to another point, travel agent versus going out on the internet. Let's touch on that just a little bit. Because a lot of people use the internet these days of for their travel, could you just maybe tell them what the importance of using a travel agent is besides insurance, of course,

Eryn Murphy  6:27 

I've been dealing with this for a long time. Yeah, so when you have a travel agent, you have that person there for you, we do have 24 hour, seven days a week assistance. So even if it's after hours, you can still call us. So we're there to help you. We're there to do the work for you. So a lot of times we have people that will want to come in and or call us and they're just shopping around for the best price. In reality, we can all get the same price. And so with that being said, With Price,

Michael Gaddie  6:57 

I mean, with all this going on right now, are you seeing less expensive trips? Or are the prices the same? Or are they more expensive? Or? What do you see in there?

Eryn Murphy  7:09 

Yeah, so a lot of people thought that things were going to be, we don't like the word. But a lot of people thought they were going to be cheaper. And that hasn't been the trend, because they got hurt, too. So you have the airlines that were hurt during this hotels were her travel providers. So if anything, the prices are still the same, you may find a deal here and there. But somewhere, it's not, you're not, you're gonna be missing out on a piece of it. So if you get a deal, they're probably forgetting to put something in there.

Sharon Rumsey  7:43 

I'm sorry, No, go ahead. I don't one of the things that comes up that my clients asked me a lot when I recommended that they get a travel agent, is they think there's an additional cost to using a travel agent. So they try to do everything on their own. And it's very similar to trying to plan your wedding on your own, you need that person in your corner, that's going to be there for you. Can you explain how a travel agent actually works to those people who maybe have never worked with a travel agent? Yes,

Eryn Murphy  8:11 

that's a good question. So a lot of fees are a huge thing in the travel industry, because essentially, the internet could wipe out travel agents. So but we do have to make our money somewhere. After 911, the airlines stopped paying travel agents, any kind of commission. So we do have to tack on some sort of fee to do that research and do that work and to handle that ticket. So if you have an issue come up or you need to change your ticket, we're putting in hours to help you. Or if you're staying at the airport, we're there to help you. So those fees could essentially run anywhere. And we you can charge any amount. Some agencies have certain fees, hotels, usually pay travel agents commission, and certain providers, Disney vacation Express sandals, all of them pay travel agents to use their provider or their product. So so the client doesn't

Michael Gaddie  9:13 

pay your fee.

Eryn Murphy  9:15 

Well, sometimes so so say you come to me and you want a 10 day 12 day trip to Europe, and I'm piecing it all together and I'm putting hours into it. There will probably be a research fee there.

Kristina Stubblefield  9:31 

But what you're saving the person is you're you've traveled there, yes you but honestly you actually have family that live there, but you are not you're also helping them with their planning process because you personally know of things they can go and do that experience that expertise. Good luck trying to piece that together yourself on the internet. I mean you could be saving them so many hours and doing that and truthfully end up with a Better trip because you've went from personal experience versus just looking at pictures on the internet.

Sharon Rumsey  10:06 

I think also what I hear you saying is, I'm the worrier of our group. It's like my job if you need someone to worry for you, I will. She really said that, but what I hear you saying is, if it's two o'clock in the morning, and I'm stranded in an airport, I'm not on my own, I can call my travel agent, and they're going to take care of that for me.

Kristina Stubblefield  10:25 

And unfortunately, I'm on Joe. I've worked with him for a while this is and we got some stories I want to bring up. But the best part, you're not calling an 800 number, you're calling Eryn, or you're calling that direct person that you've worked with. Think that's

Michael Gaddie  10:39 

priceless. Yeah, that is price,

Eryn Murphy  10:41 

especially for the worrier. And that's a huge deal. But really, for anybody, it should be

Eryn Murphy  10:45 

Oh, yeah, I've been on the phone with somebody at one o'clock in the morning, because they were so upset, they're sitting on the airplane, snow came through, they're trying to get to Israel, and they were just so frustrated the long day that they had, and all I did was just sit there and just listen to her cry, because she was so upset. And really, it was out of our hands. She was on the plane she was gonna get there, it was just taking her longer than expected to

Sharon Rumsey  11:13 

be a great wedding planner, want to work next weekend.

Kristina Stubblefield  11:17 

But in all honesty, the comfort of giving someone just to be an ear to listen to because you knew what was going on, you had worked with her. That can mean a lot just to listen to someone. But then one of the things that I want to go back to is, you mentioned the 24, seven assistance. And I know this because I worked on a project with Eryn, when you can have something happen an example you all gave overseas, someone had an accident, and you facilitated them getting medical help, because you want to explain why with the partnerships. Yeah,

Eryn Murphy  11:50 

so with with we use all aeons I'm just gonna go and throw it out there. They're a great insurance company. I've stand behind them 100%. But they have been working with us for so long. And what we did is we contacted Allianz, and then they directed us to the closest hospital for that person to go to.

Kristina Stubblefield  12:12 

But the other thing is these partnerships you've made in these other areas that are not I don't want to say they're not called travel advisors that people boots on the ground.

Eryn Murphy  12:22 

Yes. So they like on location providers, we do have on location support in those places. We've worked with some of these people for decades now. And they have they take care of our people overseas. So if you do get hurt, they're going to take you to the hospital, probably before you can even call the insurance company.

Sharon Rumsey  12:44 

I know my son and daughter in law, they got married and Santorini, Greece. And they thought they could do it on their own. And when they started planning, they realized they didn't know where to stay, they didn't know what towns they wanted to see, they didn't know what sightseeing they wanted to do. So they ended up getting a travel agent who did everything. You know, like they had an itinerary typed out for them, it included all their flight numbers, they were able to give it to their family. So we knew what flights they were on and where they were just in case something happened.

Eryn Murphy  13:18 

I just can't say enough about the peace of mind that having that agent gives. Yeah. And that's what we want to do for you is to be there from the beginning to the end, if you need anything, I've had people where they've, we've had people where they've left stuff on the bus that they were on with a group. So it was a matter of us contacting them to see, you know, trying to find that iPad or your bag or anything like that. From that too. We've had people have I've had a client where his hotel caught on fire. So he needed, he needed to be put to a different hotel. So it was a matter of us doing that for you. You didn't have to sit there and call and try to find someplace to go.

Sharon Rumsey  14:01 

So I think is, as Kristina pointed out earlier to if I've never been I mean, my son, this was his first time out of the country. They they didn't know what they wanted to see. Right, you know, they didn't know even what was available. So they were really, really thankful and grateful for all the help that their agent gave them. And so was I.

Kristina Stubblefield  14:20 

The other thing that I think about and I don't know that much about travel, but I would think you're talking about an airline's potentially a hotel, potentially a cruise line, or an excursion place, you could be talking about 678 10 moving parts, just call one number, you know, and I think that if you're going on your honeymoon, you know, you don't want to have to worry about all of those different things because in the world we live in, you know, probably the pandemic has made some of the stand out even more. It's not. If something's going to happen, it could potentially be what's going to happen and how As a person on your side, even like whether hurricane, you know, you go somewhere to Cancun or somewhere like that you could be potentially, what if a hurricane comes through? You know, how do you handle that situation

Eryn Murphy  15:14 

with if a hurricane came, usually hopefully we would know beforehand before you got there that the hurricane was coming through. And usually a lot of those hotels or resorts will accommodate you in rescheduling. But it's a you're there. And that happens. I mean, usually they'll give you some sort of credit. We just tried to not we try to catch that beforehand. When it comes to natural disaster like that, you know, it is kind of rare. It is rare. When that happens. A lot of the cruise lines, if there's a hurricane, we will, they'll redirect the cruise as well.

Michael Gaddie  15:49 

So if a couple comes to you, well, I have the couple hasn't come to you yet. And what advice would you give them? If there is an A, B and C couple that's never traveled before? How would I choose a travel agent? I mean, how do I know that? Why would I pick you over someone else?

Eryn Murphy  16:10 

That's a good question. Um, you know, I would say, it all depends. Experience. Our agency has a lot of experience all over the world. So if you wanted to go to any somewhere in Asia for your honeymoon, we have someone on staff that knows Asia, like the back of his hand. You know, my coworker, she loves Hawaii. She loves Hawaii, so she could tell you everything about it. Me. I don't know that well.

Kristina Stubblefield  16:39 

But Marin can tell you about some chocolate core song. I mean, did I say that?

Eryn Murphy  16:43 

Right? Yes, you did. I do love France.

Kristina Stubblefield  16:47 

A little bit about that trip? Because we did a little project together. And that's when that's stuck with my mind when she said that. I mean, you had me at chocolate. Okay, sorry.

Eryn Murphy  16:57 

Yeah, so that was just a, it was a river cruise. Actually, we're supposed to go to Germany, the waters were too low. Two days before, we get an email saying, we're going to have to change your cruise to France. And I'm thinking I've already been to France, once I haven't been to Germany, I really want to go. And they worked with us. They paid for our change fee for our airline, the cruise line did. And then they just moved everything over. And then two days later, I was off to France and did a cruise around these small little villages outside of Paris, went up to see Normandy and it was Yeah, it was something it was I've never I love river cruising because you can see those little villages and towns that you would not normally see. I would love to do that. Oh my gosh,

Michael Gaddie  17:51 

I never even thought of I wouldn't even see I wouldn't even know where to begin. So I may be calling Yeah.

Kristina Stubblefield  17:56 

Nothing that we're talking about is couples, this could be their first time traveling together, even you know, out of the country, in some of the stuff that she's talking about. It makes me think that experience, I want to know about those villages that she's been to the river cruise, I would have never thought about that until I just heard her say that. So I think you can go to maybe a travel agent with this is the experience we're looking for on our honeymoon, we want to do nothing. We want to sit on a beach, drink some drinks, sign me up, I'm headed in my direction. Or you might want to be we want to have days filled of activities, and all of that stuff. And Mike, I'm gonna act like you're not over there just making comments on the microphone. But I like the fact that I and Eryn can correct me if I'm wrong, but or I might not even know where I want to go. This is the kind of experience that me and my significant other want to have. Were places you'd recommend. And maybe I could Google that. But Google hasn't been there on my computer to tell you know it. It's just different. I feel like coming from a person. Well,

Eryn Murphy  19:01 

yeah, so even if you typed in river cruise, you're gonna come up with 10 different river cruise providers. But if you have a couple that wants to play in their honeymoon, say in their mid 20s. There is a river cruise out there for them, which is new. That's when I went on it's called u by uniworld. It's only like two ships, but they have activities where you do the wine and painting or you they have bicycles you can just take off and go they do pub crawls and stuff like that as their excursions and excursions. Some of these excursions are included. But then you say you have a couple that they're in their mid 60s. You know, I would recommend someone like Avalon. They are going to be geared towards them and then even on up there's multiple different options. But when you go online, you don't know the difference. So you can basically age base Everything across the whole trap. Yeah, age base, but then but then I wouldn't necessarily pinpoint it that you know, if you have someone that wants to stay active, there is something for you. If you have someone that doesn't, that they'd rather just go out and see things and not have to be on a, you know, a schedule. There are there are cruise lines because some of these some river cruises have a schedule. Once you get off, you know, you're doing this, this and this. So I mentioned the chocolate croissant, but we didn't even get into it as a foodie.

Kristina Stubblefield  20:32 

I'm going to say that travel agents can probably recommend, do you want fine dining? Like this is a restaurant that is highly recommended on this trip that you're taking? Or here's a couple of I call them holes in the wall. You know, mom and pops that I love a good dive. Yeah. Yeah, you know that? Who would know other than a local or someone that's been there before? So the food experience, too. I'm sure you can give input on

Eryn Murphy  20:58 

Yeah. So a lot of these places like I've had people that will go on trips to Croatia, and they're like, Where can we eat? And I'm like, I actually have never been to Croatia. But I do know people there that I can contact. So we'll send an email saying, Hey, I have these people. They want something they want a nice restaurant. Where do I send them? And then so but then you have someone who goes to Paris and they're like, well, where should I go? And then I can tell you? Well, there's this great pizzeria. It's right across from the Eiffel Tower has amazing views. So there are different things out there today. Please, like sounds

Michael Gaddie  21:35 

like she would be a great tour guide. So when I'd go on my trip, you can just plan on going with it.

Eryn Murphy  21:40 

It's fine. I say that because there's been times New Orleans is actually one of my favorite places here in the States who's very similar to Paris. And every time I'm in New Orleans, whoever I'm with, I'm like, let me take you on a tour. So they trust me with it. I have

Sharon Rumsey  21:55 

a friend that actually went to Paris for her 20th anniversary. And they took some kind of tour. That was a sweets tour. And it just took them around to all of the different fancy. Oh, yeah,

Eryn Murphy  22:07 

the patisseries and stuff. Yeah.

Sharon Rumsey  22:10 

They still talk about that is like the highlight of their whole trip.

Eryn Murphy  22:13 

I did a sidecar motorcycle thing. That was just, yeah, I love it. Most sidecar motorcycle and my tour guide was this retro Parisian and he was just telling me all these things that I had no idea like, wherever in Paris until he like took me around.

Kristina Stubblefield  22:32 

I would have never even known that's an option. But Eryn touched on this. We haven't talked a whole lot about the states. You know it. travel agents can also help you with excursions or adventures or trips in the states as well.

Eryn Murphy  22:47 

Yeah, so there are several things that we can offer here in the States. You know, Amtrak vacations is a huge thing where you can take the train out west. We do a lot of we do a lot of Disney Disney's huge so we can do Disney World Disneyland you know anything on the west side, especially here in the Midwest, you know, people like to go over to the west coast. I think that you know, things like doing like a Florida condo. Honestly, I do recommend people doing like Airbnb, we can help you with it. But we will have to tack on a fee just because Airbnb vrb o does not pay travel agents, anything.

Kristina Stubblefield  23:30 

But if it's an area you've never been at, and you want the experience, I want that peace of mind as Sharon mentioned, whatever that fee may be worth it if you're going to a new area.

Eryn Murphy  23:41 

Oh yeah, if you've never been to Key West, I mean, you can and you want to stay in an Airbnb, just, we can call and we can set it up for you. There's just a little initial fee to it.

Michael Gaddie  23:51 

I think you've said the word fee and you've said the word fate of a couple of times. So if a if a couple is looking in, is that a patient something they should be concerned with? I mean, I mean, well, this travel agent charge 10% this one charges 15. How should I look at that or what I even look

Sharon Rumsey  24:07 

is it a percentage or is it a flat

Eryn Murphy  24:08 

fee? Everyone's different so some people are percentages. Some people are flat fees? You know for us it does range it all depends on what kind of trip that you have coming. You know if you're wanting meats I did. I don't know if I pointed this to you Christine or not. But I did like a three month long trip for somebody. And it was it was a road trip which something we don't normally plan or road shows. Yeah, I was I got excited got the map out. Was

Kristina Stubblefield  24:39 

this part of the pivoting?

Eryn Murphy  24:42 

Or was it before?

Eryn Murphy  24:43 

It was before Yeah, this was this is years past but yeah, but you do have people want to do road trips and stuff like that. And it was a matter of putting a fee but what I what I'll do is I will show you this as the price. This includes a $200 fee or This includes I will let you know that I know up front. Yeah, I there's for for us personally, we would not like just send you a bill and just surprise you with like a $500 fee or something like that you would know beforehand.

Sharon Rumsey  25:16 

Go ahead and go to couples that are wanting to get married. Say like my son and daughter in law. And could I call you and say, I want to get married in Santa rini period. And I want you to find everything I want you to find an officiant, a photographer a place to stay look at Eryn's eyes light up.

Eryn Murphy  25:38 

Do That sounds fun? No, but but in that situation, I would tell you, I'd be glad to help you. With this, if you want these pieces, there would be an additional fee. And then,

Kristina Stubblefield  25:52 

but in all honesty, when we're mentioning these fees here, with any wedding vendor, or truthfully any service out there, you can't expect it for free.

Sharon Rumsey  26:02 

I mean, that's exactly what I do with my couples, I just do it local. So yeah, I'm you know,

Kristina Stubblefield  26:06 

you're paying for that experience and it to me, you know, but what you're saying is you need to ask you're every agency is different, but you should expect there to be some kind of charge, but depending on your trip, some of it may be taken care of, by the places they're holding, like you mentioned. Exactly,

Eryn Murphy  26:27 

exactly. You know, if you say you do go to sandals, or something like that sandals does have a nice commission for travel agents. So and especially if it's a quick, you know, oh, I want seven nights in Jamaica, I want to stay here, this is what I want to do. That's pretty, pretty straightforward. What

Sharon Rumsey  26:44 

are the really, in your opinion, popular honeymoon spots? Right now? I mean, it's 2020. It's a crazy year, but what would you say are like your top three?

Eryn Murphy  26:55 

Will for for 2020. Right at the moment,

Kristina Stubblefield  27:00 

currently, so

Eryn Murphy  27:00 

currently with travel restrictions and everything like that we have been getting a lot of Mexico in because Mexico currently does not have any kind of restrictions on any kind of COVID test or quarantine. So Mexico and Mexico has always been great. I love Mexico. And there are a handful of times I would definitely recommend Mexico to everybody. Mexico, Jamaica. And then I would say probably Florida, I mean, like, but I mean, that's just because they don't want to quarantine or take a COVID test

Sharon Rumsey  27:38 

post COVID because I'm I'm trying to insert some hope, posts COVID What are you thinking the top ones are going to be?

Eryn Murphy  27:47 

I really think that Europe will come back. I've seen a lot of requests for Italy next year, Italy did get hit hard in the first part of 2020. I do think Italy is going to come back around. We've gotten several requests. And we do have some people on the books for 2021 for Italy. I also believe that places like France, pretty much Europe, you know, as a whole, and then we've gotten but more of the Caribbean. But but but but Europe is isn't is always there. Yeah, I had an image for Australia though.

Sharon Rumsey  28:28 

I had a couple of mine. They got married, gosh, two years ago. And they went to Thailand. Oh, yeah. And I really like when they told me that I was like, I would have never thought of that for a honeymoon. But

Eryn Murphy  28:40 

it looked amazing. So there's some very gorgeous places in their pictures where Asia like all I mean, and the good thing about Asia is their accommodations for some of these resorts over there are I know I don't like this word, but they're cheap. These resorts, the only thing about getting to Asia is the flights because sometimes they that is the price. They told

Sharon Rumsey  29:03 

me that not only the places they stayed, but like eating out everything was so much less expensive. Oh, it's so

Kristina Stubblefield  29:08 

affordable, but the flight is, right. So I know we just talked about past COVID or as we go into what we're all hoping for is some kind of new normalcy. Or, you know, I think most of us would like to think that that's around the corner. But let's talk about we've mentioned COVID what do people need to look into or ask from a travel standpoint? If they are planning a honeymoon or maybe they're not if they're listening to us and they're not even getting married, but they're thinking about or planning a trip? What questions would you recommend they asked with the COVID situation?

Eryn Murphy  29:51 

Um, that's, that's a tough one. I would have to say with asking those questions. You know, a lot of them are What what kind of documentation Are we going to need, especially with all the talks of the vaccine coming out? You know, we've already seen a few airlines that are requiring vaccine like quantas, as one of them that we've heard will say that you have to have a vaccine to travel. And some people won't like that. But I do think that that I don't know if they kind of jumped the gun on releasing that information. But I feel like that is going to be the biggest thing. What will I need to travel documentation wise, I highly recommend does everybody to get a passport? That's one thing I think that you should do now? Because it's one of those things where you never know, around the corner, what can be presented to you as a trip? And I think that you do there are, I mean, this kind of goes back to Mexico versus Florida, you know, an all inclusive and Mexico is going to be a better price than getting a condo in Florida, because you're going to have all your food and drinks are included and stuff like that. So I think having your passport readily available, I never would have thought of that. I wouldn't have either. Yeah, we've we've price comparison, and it's definitely a better, better bang for your buck.

Kristina Stubblefield  31:15 

When we're thinking about COVID do we do people need to ask about quarantining? You know, just different things like that? Yeah, so

Eryn Murphy  31:23 

right now in the US coming back into the US it's only recommended you quarantine from certain countries. But a lot of these countries are different. Like right now, you know, my brother, he does live in England and I if I went over there, I'd have to quarantine for they moved it from 14 down to five days. So right now, it's kind of off limits if you want to be self isolated somewhere. But there are certain places that I think she I don't even think you can get into Australia right now. at all even quarantine wise. So there are some places, yes, that is one place, or one thing that I would check on to see exactly where where you're allowed to go to just

Kristina Stubblefield  32:05 

because you need to know what you need to account if you're going to have to quarantine or take extra time off from a job. You know, things like that. The can we I know we mentioned about porn or about COVID. But the other thing that just came up was all inclusive. And Mike, I know you've taken some trips and stuff before.

Michael Gaddie  32:22 

Well, I was gonna ask about cruises. I mean, you know, we're big cruise people. And I don't keep up with the trends right now with what's going on. But because I'm too busy Sharon.

Eryn Murphy  32:34 

He's the busiest person in the universe just wandered in for him to be a

Kristina Stubblefield  32:39 

co host with us. Can we just take a moment and please really appreciate that

Michael Gaddie  32:44 

back to the top. For cruises, I mean, are you are they even doing cruises? I couldn't even tell you.

Eryn Murphy  32:52 

So they you know the cruise dates for cruises Starbuck up have been being Push, push push back. Last I heard was they were starting to do cruises again for seven days or fewer. So anything over seven days, they're not actually doing at the moment. You know, we did have some cruises that were set to sail in March. But they were either postponed or canceled due to the length of the cruise. And in that situation, what they they you can they give him a few options where you can push it to a later date. or move it over to like future cruise credit. You know, with cruises, we still get contacts for people wanting to cruise. You know, people love to cruise. So it's, you know, if it's a matter of cruising Hawaii, or cruising Europe or just the Caribbean, it's cruising is always going to be a thing. I think it's just a matter of them trying to figure out how to make the the safety the COVID safety protocol. If

Michael Gaddie  33:52 

I wanted to book a trip like now for January, February, we could you can do that.

Eryn Murphy  33:57 

Yeah, as long as it's under seven nights. Yeah. That's it.

Sharon Rumsey  34:00 

He's too busy to be gone.

Kristina Stubblefield  34:04 

Well, and I think that brings out a good point, because some people are just saying, oh, the cruises aren't happening right now. They're not going on to say it's the ones that are more than seven days or go ahead

Eryn Murphy  34:16 

and book for next year. Exactly. Exactly. And a lot of people are hesitant on booking things for next year. And this kind of goes with what we're talking about earlier, for little hesitant on booking things because they don't know where we're going to stay on come March or April. This is where I would say, see what their cancellation policies are. See what the change fees, get that travel and try and get the travel insurance.

Sharon Rumsey  34:40 

I learned a lot today. Yes, me too,

Kristina Stubblefield  34:42 

actually. And that's another good reason you can if you have a travel agent, I would think they'd help you understand those policies and you'll be able to ask them questions.

Eryn Murphy  34:51 

Yes, that's what we're here for.

Kristina Stubblefield  34:53 

Okay, so we're gonna leave you with a couple of questions. For those out there. Getting in engaged, just give me three top things that come to your mind that you would want to say to them.

Eryn Murphy  35:07 

That I would want to say to them.

Kristina Stubblefield  35:11 

And it can't be don't do it.

Eryn Murphy  35:13 

I was gonna say this good luck. That's a good one. Yeah, if you're getting engaged and you're wanting to plan a trip, or you plan your honeymoon, I would just think about a few things of first, you know, where is the ideal place that you want to travel to? What do you feel comfortable and safe with? We all have our own comfort levels, as we all know that, if anything, where where is your ideal place, because honestly, you can probably actually go next year, if all goes according to plan. But that's the first fight have a destination in mind. And anything can be done. I mean, we can we can plan anything for you. So if you want to do a hot air balloon ride, you can do one, if you want spa treatments, just think of what you want to actually do on your honeymoon. If you don't want to do anything. You don't have to do anything. Sharon, I know we're shaking our heads at chat. You can just just keep ordering drinks all day long. I want to

Kristina Stubblefield  36:16 

be of service. Yes, I need that.

Sharon Rumsey  36:19 

Yeah, an umbrella and my drink. Yes.

Eryn Murphy  36:21 

Okay. And I'm not going to cut you off your third, you got one?

Eryn Murphy  36:24 

Well, third one, I would just say, you know, think about, think about how much you do want to spend on your trip. On your honeymoon, it is a trip of a lifetime. But you also you can go for very little you can go for a whole lot. So really just think about how much you want to spend on it. And but then you have to realize, if you if you have a budget in mind of just $1,000 you're going to get $1,000 worth. So you might be cutting corners, if you want say you have an ideal trip of you know, you want to go to Tahiti, Tahiti is going to be 7000 Plus, but you have a budget of 2000 it's not really gonna work.

Sharon Rumsey  37:08 

I know a lot of my couples now instead of the traditional registries, you know, with a blender and a toaster. They're setting up these honeymoon funds. And I think it's the smartest thing ever. I

Eryn Murphy  37:20 

love it. Yeah, they have honeymoon wishes. So you can you can make your honeymoon registry and say you go ahead and book your trip to Jamaica. And you want to do some sort of zip lining tour you can put on there that you want to do zip line you want spa treatments you want to romantic dinner honeymoon

Sharon Rumsey  37:36 

wishes. That's a website, it

Eryn Murphy  37:38 

is a website. Yes

Sharon Rumsey  37:39 

and no. Yes.

Michael Gaddie  37:41 

Absolutely can make an appointment with you to discuss

Eryn Murphy  37:44 

Of course, yes, I'll let you know.

Kristina Stubblefield  37:50 

And I know we're talking about tips that have to do with travel in general. But just so our listeners know, if they want to contact you in which before we wrap this up, we'll let you list your contact information. You can help people no matter

Eryn Murphy  38:03 

where they're located, no matter where you're located. We can we can help.

Kristina Stubblefield  38:07 

Okay, any other questions before I surprise her with our last question. We don't tell anybody about anything? No, I've

Sharon Rumsey  38:14 

learned a lot. Thank you. So

Kristina Stubblefield  38:15 

we might need a part of this because we'll ensure and actually one thing I want to tie in about she said about budget, it ties back to a previous episode we talked about about having the conversation and not having in your mind that people are going to pay for certain things, right? This might be have a conversation with your partner, how much do you want to spend? what's realistic, but what do you all want to do together? You know, maybe having that heart to heart that way? It's out in the open about your honey mantra. And

Sharon Rumsey  38:48 

really, Eryn, we're being a little selfish here because Kristina keeps promising us that if we continue to do good on our podcast that she's going to take us to Bora Bora next year so

Michael Gaddie  38:58 

we'll be talking about that role.

Sharon Rumsey  39:00 

So we'll be calling you so Kristina herself is promising to take us to Bora Bora to record

Michael Gaddie  39:06 

so I hope our budget

Kristina Stubblefield  39:08 

Okay, well that sounds good.

Sharon Rumsey  39:11 

I just need a book and a drink with an umbrella and just like

Eryn Murphy  39:13 

cabana

Michael Gaddie  39:14 

I want the cabana.

Kristina Stubblefield  39:15 

Right. Be service are y'all Okay, so full disclosure here. Eryn, I had a conversation with Robin, our listeners aren't gonna know who we're talking about. Robin is another person at Danone. And I said you know, when we talked about doing this podcast thing I had said I told my friends Mike and Sharon that if this went well and people liked it that our our big down the road like something we'd love to do is go to one of those hut type things my hood I don't mean like, you know, falling apart. I mean like on the water, nothing else around but the water

Michael Gaddie  39:51 

that runs into

Eryn Murphy  39:54 

like an overwater bungalow. Yeah.

Kristina Stubblefield  39:57 

With our podcast equipment and able to record some episodes from that. And do you know what Robin told me?

Eryn Murphy  40:05 

What did she say

Kristina Stubblefield  40:06 

we can help you with a week? And she was like that's fully possible.

Sharon Rumsey  40:11 

So all she had to do was mentioned it to Mike and I and I mean, I've started packing because

Kristina Stubblefield  40:16 

I'm Sharon's marketing stuff for her planning. It says, What's it say

Sharon Rumsey  40:21 

have a luggage will travel. I love a good destination wedding.

Kristina Stubblefield  40:24 

Mike being the busiest person in the university letter.

Michael Gaddie  40:28 

I will make time

Kristina Stubblefield  40:30 

time to travel.

Michael Gaddie  40:31 

I will not do that without

Kristina Stubblefield  40:33 

Well, here's what I was thinking is, I think this person right here might be a good person to have along.

Eryn Murphy  40:39 

I will with I will be your tour guide she is.

Eryn Murphy  40:42 

She has luggage and will travel.

Eryn Murphy  40:44 

She is yes, I will travel tomorrow

Sharon Rumsey  40:46 

if you need me. Okay, we'll need you because none of us have ever done anything like that. To be honest, this has been fun. But honestly,

Kristina Stubblefield  40:53 

I've personally learned a lot that I didn't realize. And I've worked with Dehoney for for quite a while with their marketing stuff. But okay, so Eryn, before we let you run off, yes, because I'm sure you've had enough of us. This is great. We do this little surprise thing we don't tell anybody about. Okay, I'm gonna ask you three questions. That doesn't have anything to do with travel. Oh, okay. And you're just supposed to say the first thing that comes to your mind.

Sharon Rumsey  41:20 

Oh, rapid fire

Eryn Murphy  41:22 

rapid fire. Thank you, Sharon. Okay. Are you ready? Okay.

Michael Gaddie  41:28 

She's like, What?

Kristina Stubblefield  41:31 

You You're the first person to the bar at cocktail hour?

Eryn Murphy  41:34 

Yes. What do you order? bourbon and coke.

Sharon Rumsey  41:38 

That's my girl. There

Kristina Stubblefield  41:39 

we go. Okay. I bet I know the answer to this one. But you know which one I'm gonna go. Okay, here we go. Do you run towards the dance floor? Or do you run away dance floor?

Sharon Rumsey  41:52 

I'm gonna do I could have said that.

Kristina Stubblefield  41:54 

What are we gonna ask her? For the third one? You all always put this on me? Oh, okay, thank you. It's the busiest person in the universe saying

Sharon Rumsey  42:02 

what do you love? And you cannot say your family or any of the normal mushy answers. What today do you love?

Eryn Murphy  42:11 

But I feel like my answer would be mushy, because I was gonna say myself, go girl. That took a lot. I mean, that's taken me like 33 years to actually own it.

Kristina Stubblefield  42:23 

Sharon that plays right in to what we've been talking about outside this podcast. So and travel and travel, I should

Eryn Murphy  42:29 

have said and travel.

Sharon Rumsey  42:32 

I love travel. She loves herself enough to take herself on a trip. And she's gonna go with us as our tour guide. Yeah, I'm

Kristina Stubblefield  42:38 

all for it. That's excellent answer. Okay. So tell them how can they connect with you, Dehoney travel, give them all the details that you want to share with us? Well, you can we are open Monday through Friday, nine to five. But again, you can email us after hours. It's info inf o at Dehoney travel.com. Or you can call one 800 number. It's 800-325-6708. And you can find us online on Facebook, on Twitter. All sorts I can't wait to share on our social media when we air this episode of some of these video projects. I got to work on even some fun ones. Eryn will be so excited. I think I'm going to repost that on our Instagram. So make sure to look on our social media. And but know you can learn more about Eryn onto honey travels website and see some of our favorite places things she likes to do all of that stuff. And Eryn, thank you so much for taking the time.

Michael Gaddie  43:43 

Thank you so much. Thank

Eryn Murphy  43:44 

you. Yeah, we

Eryn Murphy  43:46 

enjoyed it. Thank

Sharon Rumsey  43:47 

you. She's

Kristina Stubblefield  43:47 

gonna be hearing from us individually. We're gonna be reading.

Eryn Murphy  43:53 

Right. Alright. Thanks, Eryn.

Eryn Murphy  43:54 

Thank you.

Kristina Stubblefield  44:07 

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the ring, doubling and all the things. If you liked what you heard, make sure to hit the subscribe button to get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website, the ring, the bling and all the things.com for past episodes, and make sure to connect with us on social media. If you would like to help us get the word out about this podcast. Make sure to share with your family, your friends and anyone you know in the wedding business.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai