The Informed Traveler
The Informed Traveler
AI Travel Planning & Regent Seven Seas Grandeur
Have you ever used AI to plan out a vacation itinerary? Sounds simple, you just input where you want to go, what you want to see and when and poof, in seconds you have your vacation all planned out. Turns out that itinerary may be full of errors so on this week's show travel expert Onanta Forbes will join me to share the pitfalls of AI itineraries. Then David Yeskel, the Cruise Guru will join to give us his review of his recent 12-day sailing on Regent Seven Seas Grandeur through Scotland and Wales.
Well, hello and welcome to the Informed Traveler Podcast, a weekly travel podcast, where our goal is to help you become a more informed traveler. And I'm your host, Randy Sharman. Have you ever used AI to plan out a vacation itinerary? Sounds simple, doesn't it? You just input where you want to go, what you want to see, and when, and poof, in seconds, you have your vacation all planned out. Well, it turns out that itinerary may be full of errors. So in a few seconds, travel expert Onanta Forbes will join me to share the pitfalls of AI itineraries. And then David Yeskel, the cruise guru, will join us to give us his review of his recent 12-day sailing on Regent 7C's grandeur through Scotland and Wales. But first, let's kick things off chatting with travel expert Onanta Forbes, who joins us each week to discuss some of the travel news and travel trends. You can follow her adventures on Instagram, Facebook, and ex at Onanta Forbes. OnantaForbes.com is her website. Hello, Onanta.
SPEAKER_01:Hi, Randy. How are you?
SPEAKER_02:I'm good, thank you. Uh interesting write-up by uh Christopher Elliott. Elliot Confidential is his uh newsletter, which I subscribe to, and elliotconfidential.com is where you can find it. But uh he always has interesting topics, and I found this very interesting, uh, where AI-generated itineraries are not necessarily uh what they're cracked up to be.
SPEAKER_01:And it's a timely article because AI and ChatGPT, there's so many different avenues that um consumers can look at and research thinking that they're going to get the best advice um ever. But it's it's not always, right? Not always I think yeah, I think AI is good to brainstorm ideas and maybe compile um options. But you have to keep in mind that it also could suggest hotels, restaurants, and attractions that no longer exist have changed hours or closed. So it it's um it's only as good. I always say this of the internet, it's only as good as the information you put in. So the broader you are, the broader it will be. So you you might even have to narrow it down a bit. And then you have to consider pricing accuracy. So flights, hotel, activity prices may not be up to date, and they can't AI um can't always guarantee real-time rates. Um, and that goes with like seat sales, or if you go on a different day, is it a better place, right? Or a different time. So, and also all and this is becoming really important. Um, immigration, customs, or health requirements may be oversimplified or wrong, and these need to be confirmed with the official sources. So you can see that right now, um, going to different destinations. Like in October, uh, Europe is definitely changing some of their entry and exit um regulations and guidelines. So you have to be up to date on that as well. Um, so it's it's I think it's um it's good to do the research. And I'm kind of saying this in the middle of our conversation. Well, and I'll say it again, you might want to start with AI, but finish with humans, like your travel advisor, because they know what's going on. Um, the other thing you have to kind of look at is it may not be tailored to your specific interests, it may be overly um, they may suggest like overly tourist activities. Um, so if you are an upscale um traveler, you might not want to have um a group departure or a group um activity. Um and then in and then AI may not always like catch all the local holidays or events and um seasonal closures that might affect your plan. So um keep that in mind as well as there's special requirements like for individuals, like maybe dietary mobility, um, special needs um or language may not be fully addressed. So keep that in mind as well. Now, some AI-powered travel tools may not may favor, I should say may favor certain partners or providers limiting your options, and that could be because of advertising dollars thrown at certain um sources, right? So keep that in mind as well. And then um recommendations may not always respect cultural sensitivities or highlight authentic local experiences. So there's lots to there's lots to um to think about. And if you rely too much on AI, um lack of internet slash like data abroad can leave you stranded without access to your plans. So it may not seamlessly link with booking systems or loyalty programs or even travel insurance. So lots of things to consider in in the overall. But I was playing with it. And as a travel advisor, you always want to know what your your clients are looking at. And it is it it can be quite slick and it can be quite compelling, but um again, you it will tell you only what you put in. So you I I always like this um this uh quote you don't know what you don't know, right?
SPEAKER_02:I was just gonna say that. You don't know what you don't know, so if you don't put in the right information, you're never gonna know.
SPEAKER_01:Right. That's it. So some some best practices when using AI for travel is to cross-check your your details, like with official sources. And hopefully you will end up working with a travel advisor because they will know um, you know, the right direction um to guide you. And as per your budget and as per um who you are as a person and your travel preferences. Um you know, using AI for inspiration and rough planning is good, but confirm the bookings directly with your travel agent or your provider, and um and and you you pair it, as we said, with trusted human input. So some of the do's is are some of that, you know. Um, and then also check recent reviews, right? Let's uh people like to do that right today. They like to see what TripAdvisor has to say or or different um like monarch and so on. Um, and but don't rely on AI for retail retail real pardon me, real-time pricing, because uh fares like airfares and hotel rates change constantly. Um and don't assume all recommendations are safe or verified. Some list is maybe outdated or fraudulent, and um don't overlook local content, like as far as hotels, festivals, seasonal closures may not show up. And um be careful about sharing sensitive information information, like avoid entering your passport or your credit card details into untrusted tools, and um AI won't remind you about uh travel insurance, but pre protection is essential, like uh protect yourself, protect your travelers, protect your financial investment.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm, for sure. Uh it's funny some of the things that well, the things that you mentioned are in his article too. You can start with AI, use that as a starting point to give you some ideas, and end up with uh you know getting a human to check all the errors. And this goes back, it says, you know, uh uh he um uh Christopher Elliott Elliott is quoting the uh SEO travel company. It's a UK digital marketing uh agency, and they uh put AI to the test and found that 90% contained at least one error, nearly one in four recommended permanently closed restaurants or attractions, and over half suggested visiting places outside their operating hours. So, yeah, um it's full of uh uh bad information, basically. So, you know, you gotta take with a grain of salt and and like you were saying too, um, you know, use it as a starting point. And it is kind of cool. Like you you like you said, you just put in the information, and seconds later, bang, you've got yourself, you know, a Monday you're doing this, Tuesday you're doing that, Wednesday you're doing that, and and it's all planned out for you, but it may be a really uh poorly devised plan.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, yeah. I don't think, yeah, it travel's a very personal experience, it's it's emotional, right? So you want to make sure that you have what you're looking for um uh booked for you and planned for you and within your budget. So that's why you do need that human kind.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm, for sure. The article is Why the Brave New World of AI travel planning is already broken uh by Christopher Elliott. You can find it on his website, uh Elliot Confidential.com and his newsletter, uh Elliot Confidential. It's a great newsletter. I love it to get uh all kinds of uh good advice from it. And you can get all kinds of good advice from Onanta Forbes, too. She is a travel expert. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and ex at Onanta Forbes. Her website is onantaforbes.com. Good stuff, Onanta.
SPEAKER_01:All right, always good to talk to you.
SPEAKER_02:This is the Informed Traveler Podcast. I'm Randy Sharman. Just want to remind you of our website, the informedtraveler.org. That's where you can find our contact page if you have any questions or comments about the podcast. You can also email me too with any show segment ideas you might have or any questions. My email address is Randy at theinformtraveler.org. And you can check out our social media pages too at facebook.com slash informed traveler, Instagram at informed traveler, or on X at Informed Traveler. That's where you can find a number of videos and reels on our visit to Charleston a few weeks ago and posts from our other adventures as well. Plus, you can now sign up for our monthly newsletter. It's released at the beginning of every month. Our October issue is now available. Just go to our website, theinformedtraveler.org, click on the newsletter button, and it'll take you right there. Or better yet, you can subscribe to it and have it arrive in your inbox each month. Well, we always enjoy having David Yeskel, the cruise guru, on as a guest. He always has great insight and advice on cruising. And his latest adventure was a 12-day sailing on Regent 7C's grandeur through Scotland and Wales. And David joins us now to share his experience. You can follow him on X at Cruise Guru, and his website is oceancruise.guru. Hi, David. Hey, Randy. It's been a while since we've chatted, and I always like following you and your adventures uh on X. Uh recently, you were on board the uh Regent Seven Seas Grand Jur, which was uh, according to your notes, started in Amsterdam. A little tour of 12-day tour of Europe. But uh, let's start uh where the cruise started in Amsterdam.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, sure. So, you know, it'd been about oh, probably 25 years since I'd been in Amsterdam, and and just uh it was great rediscovering the city. It has so much to offer, just even for two or three days, you know, I'd say maybe three days, you can pretty much get everything in. I only had two days, but cruising through the canals, you know, visiting the Anne Frank House, world-class museums, of course, like the Reichs Museum with the Rembrandts and the Van Gogh Museum, um, eating the local foods, you know. I like to do a like a street food tour wherever I am. So I looked at what tour was available that was for sale on Get Your Guide or The Tour Guide, and I just recreated it myself by going to the same outdoor food market that the tour goes to and had you know all the favorites like streets, scroop waffles, pea soup, Dutch pancakes, and lots of herring. There's herring and every kind of form and and and preparation you could think of. But a great city overall. I mean, the the red light district is like nothing else in the world. That's the only city that has something like that. Uh just English is widely spoken. The city's super safe and and very easy to get around using mass transit or Uber. So so I certainly recommend Amsterdam for you know two or three-day visits.
SPEAKER_03:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_02:And then you boarded the uh Regent Seven Seas Grandeur, uh 12 days. Uh just give us some some background on on uh Regent Seven Seas, and then we'll get into some of the nuts and bolts of it.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. So Regent competes in cruising's top luxury tier. You know, their their primary competitors are Seaborne, Silversea, Crystal, and um newer entrant explorer journeys. And I can tell you, now that I've been on all of those in within the last couple of years, they all do a great job. I mean, it's gourmet cuisine, fine service, personalized service, near one-to-one crew-to-passenger ratio. Uh but I can tell you that Regent's ships, especially Granger, their newer this newer class of ships, is just drop dead gorgeous. I mean, it's the decor is beautiful. There's 1,600 pieces of art, original art on the ship. And they even have an art walk built into the app, Regent's app. So we did an art walk around the ship as you would do in a museum, using your phone and headphones, of course, uh, telling you about all the different pieces. So just beautiful. Uh the ship is really, and the public rooms are beautiful. Uh and I was really read there to write more about the cuisine, uh, which was excellent. I mean, all the gourmet hip top dishes you would expect, lobster, lobster bisque, iberico ham, plenty of caviar. They pour great uh their house champagne is a great is a great champagne. They they include they're they're a little more inclusive than their competition at the top level. So they include all specialty dining, uh, premium alcohol, a few shore excursions in every port, and that's the difference with with regions. So there were about, I'd say, three to four included shore excursions in every port. And so those were nice. Valet laundry service included, gratuities are included. Um, so you really don't have to open your wallet you know at all, typically. And oh, and all guests can use the the wet area of the spa. That's not always available, regardless of whether you have a spa appointment book, you can use this on other wet areas. So it's just a great product. Ships about 750 guests, uh you know, like I said, on near one-to-one crew to passenger ratio. And um from a food and beverage standpoint, which is my focus, just excellent. Uh and uh and they do they do a great job for their the clientele are are I'd say primarily baby boomers, you know, upper upper middle class to upper class, baby boomers from North America. That's their core clientele, although there were people from you know all over the world there, but that's that was the core, at least on this cruise, which was primarily 12 nights through Scotland and Wales.
SPEAKER_02:And we've talked about this before with other cruise lines and just cruising in general, that the difference value for dollar. It's not so much always the the price tag that you're seeing when you're going through the booking process. But when you talk about all the things that you're you're getting, the shore excursions, the the uh specialty restaurants that other cruise lines, and I don't mean to pick on other cruise lines, but that that always gets added on afterwards, and it's almost this sticker shock uh you know at the end of your cruise, which is almost the same price as the cruise itself.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's true. And and so I I I think for for a luxury product, they offer an incredible region offers an incredible value proposition. And I would compare it not necessarily to other cruise lines, but to luxury hotels in large cities. So as an example, I would use in this case is so I live in the Los Angeles area, as you know, and um, you know, there's a hotel down the coast, the Montage in Laguna Beach. And uh I regularly look at rates there, you know,$1,300 a night is not uh, you know, unheard of. Excuse me, and that's just for the room, right? That's$1,300 a night for the room. On Regent, and I've seen some fairs that start at$650 per person per night, maybe so for the same rate, you not only get uh you know a gorgeous, gorgeous accommodations, but uh service level that you couldn't touch at a shoreside uh uh resort, um, very personalized service. All your gourmet dining, premium alcohol, uh shore excursions, uh laundry included. So uh that's the value proposition when you compare uh really any any of cruise cruise the the cruise industry's tiers with a land-based resort, but especially on the luxury end, uh I think the difference is is even more vast and more pronounced. So for people who are used to traveling at that level, uh the region's fares are are really a great value proposition.
SPEAKER_02:Mm-hmm. And as you mentioned too, and we've talked about this before as well, is there smaller ships you get to go into different uh uh ports of call that the bigger ships can't go into, and thus the the itinerary, I think, I'm just guessing here, uh is is what the result of the of the cruise that you were on.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly. So we were in in almost every port except one, uh Ranger was the only ship in port. So that's an advantage, certainly. And some of these places, these smaller cities, these smaller um towns and cities we were in in Scotland, like Invergordon or Kirkwall or or or the smaller cities, you know, can only handle a smaller ship. I mean, we were in larger cities too, like Edinburgh and Glasgow, but um being to get able to get into the smaller ports and discover the smaller towns with all of their their intricacies and and be able to learn about these smaller places in Scotland was was very interesting too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And even in the in the bigger centers that you're that you're mentioning too, you you kind of just blend in. It's not like you have sixteen cruise ships and it's cruise ship day. Right, exactly. You know what I mean? I'm sure you see that too.
SPEAKER_00:It's not Nassau.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right. So let's talk about some of the the ports of call. Uh any favorites or anything that stands out?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I I thought Edinburgh had a great feel to it. Um, you know, fair-sized city, a little bit edgy, so that was that was kind of cool. Um great castle, the you know, the the the large castle there is a real attraction. Uh they have a music festival there every summer. We just got in on the tail end of that. Uh it's it Edinburgh and Glasgow uh were both great cities, but I really enjoyed the smaller places like Invergordon, which is population 1,500 now, and learned about the history there. It was a it was a major World War II um port for the Royal Navy. And and after the war, the you know, then the Navy left, the jobs cleared out, and the city kind of hollowed out. And now what's there is this uh small city that's struggling a little bit to survive, but uh interesting to see interesting to see and and to learn the history of. And I can say about Scotland, friendly people everywhere, super friendly, beautiful green rolling hills, uh more sheep than people. And and and and a lot of distilleries and medieval castles. A lot of distilleries they're very proud of. They're they're single malt whiskey, of course, you know, Scotch, uh, and uh and the medieval castles are great to tour, uh, and some of them are very intact. So I bet yeah so Scotland has all three of those in abundance, um castles, distilleries, and sheep uh outnumbering people.
SPEAKER_02:Uh speaking of the of the shore excursions, though, just getting back to that uh briefly, uh do you have to reserve your spot? I'm assuming you do. There's only so many spaces, so you you probably want to do that right away, right?
SPEAKER_00:You do, you do, right. And the shore excursions open up before the sailing starts, so you know you can get online and book those. Some do fill up, but what we learned on board is that some people just drop out and you know they don't show up or they cancel their planned excursion once they get on board. So so we were pretty much we were shut out of a few when when we booked online prior to the cruise. After we got on board, even if it was the day a couple days before, space opened up in some of the excursions that we did want. And so we were able to get on those, uh, you know, not not even fairly last minute, Mike, with a day or two. And some some they advised us, you know, if you just want to show up in the morning, um half an hour before the excursion begins, where where the meeting place was, and there are always cancellations. And we did that once and got right on. So good. So you could pretty much get on the free shore excursions. Like I said, there was a few of them. There were a few of them in each port, and it wasn't really a problem getting them.
SPEAKER_02:Nice. That's good.
SPEAKER_00:Uh anything else uh as part of the itinerary Yeah, so the itinerary was great, and then we ended up the last day, it was all Scotland, and the last day was Holyhead, Wales. Uh and and that was actually the best, the most impressive castle we saw on the whole trip. That was Balmaris Castle, um, just outside of Holyhead. Uh and that was just this perfectly intact 15th, 6th, 15th century castle that um had never been finished originally, so it was kind of interesting to see from that standpoint. Um just a nice feel. Um Scotland and Wales just had a great feel, uh, and then we ended up in La Have, France, um, was our disembarkation point. And from there it's about a two and a half hour drive to Paris, which is where most of the guests uh went after after the cruise.
SPEAKER_02:To fly home from is is what I'm guessing.
SPEAKER_00:To fly home from Paris, and most spent a few days there. We just spent uh I actually just spent 24 hours there on a really intensive 24 hours in Paris itinerary that I used Gemini, I use Gemini AI to help me plan for it, depending on what we were seeing, what I wanted to see. And I have to say it did a great job with uh I've often used Gemini when I have a tight timetable and want to fit in a few things. Um and it was right on and with walking directions and from my hotel and where to go first and what to do next. So I certainly recommend people use the AI tools um to help plan itineraries when especially when they have a limited time.
SPEAKER_02:And and I suppose uh you added a few days in Amsterdam, but you could probably do the same in Paris uh if you and really get a nice visit uh in Europe for a couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely, you could absolutely do that. So uh so most people did um you know two or three days extra in Paris. Uh I had to get back for other business reasons, but um the the 24 hours we saw the Pantheon did a and and I booked a couple tours too, um, in addition to that. So we did an evening cruise on the CEN with the CEN cruise first. There was a package from um the tour guy. We did the Seine cruise first, and then uh the guide led us to the Eiffel Tower, and that was maybe we got to the Eiffel Tower at maybe uh 8:30 p.m. Um we had to skip the line past, but it was super quick to get in anyway. Fewer crowds, so I definitely recommend that for you know Eiffel Tower visit evening, and you did you do want to skip the line tour, so you know you pay a little extra for that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But um the one thing I will uh mention about France, Paris and France in general, is it's um if you happen to be in France on any day that ends in a Y, you're you're likely to run into a demonstration, a labor strike, some kind of shutdown that seemed to happen with regularity in France. So the day we were gonna leave, the our second day there, the the the the back half of the 24 hours, um, there was a there was a social media movement uh online that was sparked by the the walking back of a couple of uh paid holidays. And so my the social media movement was to quote block everything, unquote.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00:So that was a little bit of an ominous name for what you know, depending on what we were trying to do the next morning, which was go to the Louvre for a quick visit of the Louvre on a tour, and then get to the airport in time for our flight back to LAX.
SPEAKER_02:So so uh just be aware, is what you're saying.
SPEAKER_00:Just be aware. I mean, we got to the Louvre, we had skipped the line tickets, the Louvre opened two hours late that morning because people didn't show up to work there. So so we waited two hours there, had to like do a rushed one-hour tour of the Louvre, in which we saw almost nothing, and then get back to the hotel and leave early for the airport just because we were concerned there might be uh intersections that were blocked and it would take longer. So it messed up the second half of our Paris day. But just have to be aware of that. These happen often in France, uh, and you just have to be aware and plan or plan around them.
SPEAKER_02:David Yeskel is uh cruise guru. Uh you can follow him on X at Cruise Guru. His website is oceancruz.guru. It's always fun to chat with you, David. Thank you. Appreciate the time. That is our show for this week. If you have comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you. If you have a show idea, send that along as well. My email is Randy at theinformed travelers.org. And if you like what you heard, tell a friend. You can check out our website too at theinformed travelers.org. In the meantime, thanks for listening. Travel safe and be an informed traveler.