Explore North America's National Parks with Globus [Webinar]

hello and thank you so much for joining to learn more about the North American national parks with your team at the cruise web celebrating an amazing 30 years so as we wait for everybody to filter in I'll just give it a few moments before we get started and again thank you so much for joining us we know that you enjoy working with the cruise web for all of your vacations at se and we're so excited to be their partner for helping you explore the world on land so again thanks again all right well it looks like we have a great amount of people here so um just so you know I am not going to be looking at the chat through the presentation I will have a little bit of time at the end for Q&A and for whatever I am not able get to um the team at the cruise web is certified in our company the Globus family of Brands so they will be able to direct you so without further Ado let's get started okay so my name is Andrea hbert I go by Andy I'm a business development manager for the Globus family of Brands so especially for those of you who have only done um uh ocean cruising the might not be a household name but I do want to assure you we have been around for 96 years um and our family of Brands is made up of three different brands the one we're going to be focusing on the most today because we'll be speaking about the national parks is Globus so Globus is a fully escorted tour company that has amazing Hotel locations and a lot of great inclusions Cosmos is also a land brand for us but it's a little bit more value driven so little bit more free time less inclusions um and then Avalon is our River Cruise Company so across all three brands or all three uh companies within the Globus family of Brands we can help you explore 543 different vacations across six continents and 71 countries so that is a lot of choices one of the reasons that the Cruise web wanted to partner with us is because we do have all of these amazing options for you and it's with of the help of their team that they're able to help narrow down those choices for you so that you can actually get to pick the right vacation and location for you and anyone that you're traveling with so I do want to take a moment to share with you a short video about the history of our company which I think will help bring everything to life it began with a dream a small Dream from a man on his rowboat on Lake legano Antonio Monaga had a vision of doing more than transporting goods across the lake he dreamed of taking people across the globe and in 1928 when he created Globus Antonio exchanged his rowboat for motor coaches and initiated a ripple in travel that changed the world by 1950 Globus expanded from Swiss day trips to Italian holidays and with help from another entrepreneur Werner albeck the company unveiled the world's first multicountry European touring vacations in 1961 Globus created Cosmos for costc conscious Travelers generating another Ripple of change and over the next few decades Globus and Cosmos expanded to Africa Australia North America and Asia by 2004 the ripple from Antonio's rowboat led the company back to its roots to make waves on the rivers of Europe with the launch of Avalon waterways in 2011 Avalon changed the tide of cruising again with the world's first sweet ship then a fleet of sweet ships all while elevating cruising all the while globas continued to innovate touring taking Travelers beyond the globe's go-to landmarks to uncover undiscovered towns and coasts without crowds leading wayf fars to extraordinary moments and the me memories waiting for them today the ripples Antonio's dream inspired are at the heart of everything we do from one Robo to 95 years of fulfilling travel dreams across the globe the globous family of Brands continues to row toward awe and wonder this is how we row feel the current so I just love that video so Antonio mataga and his family are from Lugano Switzerland that is our inter AAL headquarters and as I shared it has been an almost 100e history with that family at the helm so we are familyowned we're debt free um we do have a US office in Denver which is where actually a few of our tours for the national parks start so let's talk a little bit about what we're going to focus on today so North America the Beautiful and by North America I mean not only the us but I also mean our neighbors to the north Canada um you know as you saw from the video we have a lot of different ways to explore the world you literally can explore the world with us but it is so often that we neglect to experience the beauty that is around us so I will tell you if you're not taking advantage of it you're missing out the national park tours that we offer are huge hits um and some of them have very limited departures so they do sell out um a little bit about why the cruise web has chosen to partner with Globus when it comes to land but especially why they're using us for anybody interested in the national parks there are three main things so the first is we actually with our history have perfectly planned Logistics I always joke I'm a big movie fan and I was just watching that really old movie from the 80s National Lampoon's Vacation where the family decides to plan it all themselves and you know they end up having some car issues and weather issues and other crazy things that happen along the way the nice thing is in partnering with Globus everything is planned out perfectly so once you start your tour you're going to meet up with your group and have an amazingly perfectly planned experience where you're going to have a nice mix of free time but also making sure you hit all of the major sites that you were hoping to visit because of our amazing history we are also the largest tour operator to the national parks I'm going to show you a video momentarily that talks about you know just for the Grand Canyon there's over three and a half million people that visit the Grand Canyon every year so it's nice to know in partnering with us we have a great relationship with the parks and there are some special benefits including oftentimes being able to stay at a hotel inside the park um that other people don't necessarily have that option to whether they're traveling uh on their own or with somebody else so really great benefit there and of course what ties it all together are the people that are going to help guide you on these Great Vacations so um on our escorted tour we have a dedicated driver for your safety so his sole job is to make sure he's paying attention to the road and then we have an expert tour director so the tour director is kind of your coner your liaison he is with you the entire time or should say Ori um that was with you the entire time um they're going to make sure they're your sort of primary point of contact for all of the included excursions including in uh liaisoning with the local guide so we're going to talk about the different experiences that you'll have included as part of a Globus tour especially when it comes to the national parks but really there is so much history there's even some geology that's involved when you talk about the national park so it's really great these tour directors have been with us for double digigit years and the gentleman that I'm about to share a video of his name is Steve he is one of our longest standing tour directors and his personal passion is for the national park so he does jump around to the different tours actually my friend was lucky enough to just have him on a tour she just returned home from and I'll talk more about that in a minute but let's hear from Steve himself as to why he likes being a tour director and what that means for you traveling with [Music] Globus hi my name is Steve oston I'm a guiding tour director for the globous family of Brands I do a lot of our tour programs all the way from Yellowstone right on down to the te T Bryce Zion and here to the beautiful Grand Canyon of Arizona people often ask me why is a Grand Canyon one of your favorite national parks and really the answer is simple you're looking at a Gorge that's over a mile deep and 277 m in length the favorite part of my job here with a globous family of Brands is our interaction with people getting to bring a group here to a point like Mather point and letting them look down into the depths of this a inspiring Grand Canyon is pretty amazing there are times you get people almost moved to tears when they see the beauty and Grandeur for the first time I think it's really important to have a guide to talk about the history of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the Grandeur of the Majestic Tetons or the vastness of the Grand Canyon our tour directors at the globous family of Brands can really give the best Touring experience to our clients through environmental interpretation helping them to understand the geology the history the Natural History everything that's taken place here in an easy and understandable manner bringing a group of people here to the rim of the Grand Canyon can be a really a inspiring experience in itself watching their compassion and kindness towards one another is only part of it I mean sometimes friendships are built where guests will meet on one tour and 2 years later you'll see the four of them back together again I mean that makes it really really special there are so many benefits to taking a group tour with the globous family of Brands when you come to a place like the Grand Canyon for starters you don't have to drive we've got got a professional driver that'll do it for you secondly rooms trying to get rooms in a place like this that gets 3 and2 million visitors per year Globus has booked your rooms more than a year and a half in advance and that means you don't have to worry about accommodations and certainly having a tour director is going to help you plan your time accordingly showing you the best spots so I love Steve he really is passionate and can go on and on about a lot of the benefits of doing a tour to the national parks with Globus so just a few things that he touched on and that I would also like to remind you of is you know when he mentioned the hotel so it because of our longstanding history we do have hotels in the Parks which gives you more time uh my friend who actually just had Steve as a tour director um they were able to spend two nights in Yellowstone so it gave them the opportunity to not only have some free time um but also they were able to go see Old Faithful throughout different times of the day which is really nice so my friend got up at sunrise to see it did some of the included sightseeing and then also came back in the afternoon and saw it at Sunset um and when we talk about what's included so obviously we have our beautiful coaches um they're usually three years old uh or less they're all new coaches and we we update them all the time so make sure that you have a comfortable ride throughout your experience we also have as I mentioned the driver and the guide so they each kind of Separation they they have their duties to make sure everybody stays safe and has a great trip but also you have have your hotel included and when we look at the national parks you're going to usually have breakfast every day and you're also going to have some additional meals depending upon what you choose so again this is really where the cruise will be able to guide you and tell you based on what you've selected if there's any additional meals like lunches or dinners um often times our tours will have a welcome dinner or a farewell dinner included so that's where the cruise web based on what you're picking will tell you exactly what to expect from a meal inclusion we also include handling your luggage um so the porterage on a Globus tour is included as well so you hand your bags off to go under the bus you know they bring them to your hotel room and then they're going to bring them back on the bus for you so it makes things really nice and easy really don't have a lot to to deal with when you're there um when it comes to experiences throughout your time we always have VIP access where you're going to skip the line so it's a little bit more prominent when you look at people who have gone to Europe and they said oh my gosh the line just buy tickets was around the corner so not quite the same thing with the national parks because you do have to make sure you are arranging all of that in advance and that's part of that VIP experience with Globus so if there are any things that require um Advanced access you know anything from you know per person access to the to the parks or other experiences we take care of all of that for you and if there's any lines you are definitely going to be skipping them so as I shared the tour director is going to give you a lot of great overview throughout your experience but they work in conjunction with some local guides as well to help bring you some local favorites that you wouldn't get without stopping and really interacting with the people who are from these amazing areas um and again we do have some structure on the tours but I don't want to scare anybody where it's go go go go go you have a lot of freedom to have some time on your own for exploration as well um and again we're talking about being in the national parks that have a lot of mountains and things so the signal is not always great but we do have free Wi-Fi on our coaches and at our hotels and again we have a lot of included tours um but one style of touring with Globus is something called Choice touring so that allows you to personalize your tour um the tour that my friend just went on which is called sunny days and starry nights um there were certain areas that they stopped for you know like two nights in a destination instead of W and on those days they had three choices of what they could do included in their tour um that works out really great if you have people that have different personalities um so my friend and her best friend are more adventurous they did rafting or floating down a river um their other friend who's a history buff did a tour of a historical mansion in the area in that town and then their other friend who's a little bit more like me is a more of a foodie so they ended up doing a beer tasting tour so this is just an example of you know what is included and what makes us different uh again because we have all of these choices you're going to want to make sure you talk with the cruise web team to talk about when you want to go how long you're able to be away for um you know all of these great things they'll help guide you so I'm going to begin to talk about some of our more popular chores and this one happens to be a long one this is round trip from Las Vegas so if you have points you can use those uh but the cruise web team can certainly do independent air for you or air as part of your tour with Globus um and you could see you're going to hit a lot so um I know one of my friends has like a check mark she wants to visit every state as does her sister so they're in competition with one another um and then her sister also actually has um a big water jug that has stickers so every time she visits a national park she kind of also has a a check mark competition going with her about what park she's going to visit along the way so this is a great tour and as Steve mentioned and as and I'm reiterating with you you know one of the benefits of booking this particular tour with Globus through the cruise web is you are going to be staying at the Grand Canyon Lodge so that gives you that extra time in the park um and really a unique opportunity obviously people who are coming in and out of the Grand Canyon they always want to stay here but again we're the ones who are securing it in advance for you and when we talk about the different local favorit so again as I mentioned you know you're going to have breakfast included but the Navajo cookout is a great combination of you know local culture but also this becomes an included lunch for you on this particular tour so this is an example of not only a local favorite but also something that's giving you an extra meal inclusion and again not too much of a history buff I am a movie buff I was just watching uh the Second National Treasure and of course they have all of those scenes over at Mount Rushmore so whether you're a movie buff or history buff you could definitely appreciate the amazing scenery surrounding Mount Rushmore and the history around the Crazy Horse Memorial I know in the previous slides we've shown you a lot of the rich Reds and greens and even almost purples at sunset for some of the the national parks that are out west but don't forget that Alaska actually has a national park as well which is Denali National Park so we have our spectacular Alaska which begins and ends in Anchorage and just because of the different scenery and you know scope of the land you're going to have even more types of transportation and experiences included so obviously you're going to have time on the beautiful coach but for this particular tour you're also going to have time on a FS Cruise as well as some Rail and the big draw here when we talk about National Parks is of course Denali National Park and I know a lot of people when you hear the big five you think of like an African Safari which is true we have those too but when it comes to the national parks we have our own big five so of course as you're exploring whether it's on the coach or on the train you're going to have to keep a keen eye out for our furry friends and speaking of furry friend so this is not part of the national tours national parks per se but in addition to this particular trip Globus offers a escorted tour during the derod which is of course the famous Alaskan uh race and um if you would like to experiencing that experience that the cruise web can get you access to that and there's a few other um you know main name events throughout the us that they have access to as well with Globus so there is a hot air balloon festival in New Mexico and uh if you've ever wanted to go to the Rose Bowl we also have a great New Year's Rose Bowl package as well so just keep that in mind outside of the national parks there's some other great tour to explore North America but getting back to this particular tour um Everybody of course knows the idod and wants to learn what these amazing dogs go through for training so there is an Olympian that talks at the Happy Trails kennel that talks about how much the dogs enjoy training and racing but of course they all have to start out as puppies so if you want to hug a great puppy and you're missing your fur babies back home this is a great way to get some cuddles in and learn more about the amazing history and all the training that goes into all of these dogs for the idod and again because you're in a different scenery you're going to have advantage to take a small FS Cruise so again I know so many of you have worked with the cruise web for your ocean voyages and that's a great experience but getting up close and personal on these smaller vessels is a great way to explore and you have these opportunities when you're opting for a land exploration and then as I mentioned north of us is Canada so they also have their own national parks as well and this tour the Majestic Rockies is roundt trip from Vancouver I love British Columbia um I had the opportunity to visit a few years ago and it really is an amazing experience so you'll continue on to B National Park um and again when we talk about the tour guides and kind of knowing what to see they're also good at helping you set up pictures too so her local guide for the B National Park had her sit on this rock right here um and then basically um took a beautiful picture of her overlooking the lake that she uses even on her um Facebook gallery to this day so that's just a kind of a silly example of you know different things that they could do um our hearts are with the people in Jasper right now they're recovering from some Wildfire so for this year um I know some of the remaining itineraries are spending more time in bam to kind of go around Jasper as they have some time to heal but we're hoping that Mother Nature with her amazement will allow us to include Jasper back again in the fold for this particular tour and then the reason that this chore is so popular is we partner with the rocky Mountaineer so the rocky Mountaineer experience is part of this chore um in the price of the tour we include the Silver Service and you can work with your team at the cruise web to upgrade to the gold service which has a little bit more inclusions but you have all of those beautiful Vistas um as you go throughout the beautiful Rockies and then for local experiences this is the one that I love um so buar Gardens I admit I love flowers but I cannot grow anything to save my life so I really appreciate the true Talent of the horticulturalist here it was a beautiful experience to not only walk through the gardens I love taking you know closeup and Far Away photos of all of these amazing flowers I was here in mid-september so there were still a lot of things in bloom which was Gorge gorgeous um and then also um I actually opted to enjoy lunch here at the buar Garden so it wasn't included um but I did have a nice little high tea lunch while I was here in the buar garden so for local favorites this is also my favorite as well um we've talked a lot about you know sort of warm weather exploration of the national parks but we do have some tours that allow you to experience these parks in the beauty of winter so there's Beauty in all seasons and I really love just how stunning Yellowstone looks in this winter wonderland tour um I did look a little bit earlier and I think there's only two seats left there this tour is in February there's two departures and on one of them there's literally only two seats left for February of 2025 so if you'd like to see uh Yellowstone in the winter please reach out to the cruise web ASAP to see if you can grab those last two seats so Grand Teton which is one of the parks that Steve mentioned um obviously he goes there throughout different times of year but it has a very different look when everything is just fully covered with the snow and of course the Bison even have their thicker winter coats to protect them and of course no matter what time of year you travel Old Faithful is called Old Faithful for a reason so rain shine summer winter or fall you're always going to have a spectacular show um at Yellowstone with Old Faithful so I know I've been talking a lot so let me get a sip of water um as I shared I've been letting the questions filter through so I'm going to take a gander and take a look at some of the more common ones um if as I shared earlier if we don't get to your questions to right now um You can reach out to the cruise web and as I shared they are certified Globus family a brand Specialists so they can help you oh so the coach is the size of the coach I'm so sorry um the the average size of the number of seats on our coaches in North America is 44 um obviously for some of the more popular departures all 44 seats will be filled but more often than that we average about 38 people um for each of our escorted tours on Globus um and one of the nice things that the cruise direct the tour director will do um is they make sure people kind of rotate seats so that you kind of can get different views um as you're you're doing different things on the coach which is great um one of the things that you might want to talk to the cruise web about is there are some dates that we call our small group departures so what that means is you have your 44 seat coach but on certain departures we limit the amount of people that could be on that particular departure date so usually that means there's only going to be about 28 people on that departure so there's some extra room um to move around and spread out so my husband and I are bigger people we really appreciate you know we like each other but we don't necessarily have to sit next to each other so um on on tours like that we're able to sometimes separate and and kind of each sit on you know have our own road to ourselves on on the on the coach uh oh luggage yes I did mention that the porterage was going to be included with Globus so because of the space limitations under the coach and also um we include the porterage from the coach to your hotel room and back um as part of Globus so you are allowed to have one larger like carry-on roller checked roller bag style that's the one that will go under the coach um and then we encourage you to do like a backpack style carry-on for the coach itself so the backpack style carry-on is usually where I would kind of keep your you know your wallet your camera your charger any medications you know this is just kind of becomes your day pack um as you go out and explore on all of your included tours um so that way you have the the larger roller bag under the bus and then you have your kind of day pack um that you have with you which is great um groups oh yeah so uh we did talk about groups so when Steve was talking about a group he means when he's a tour director he's always leading the group of everybody who happens to be on his coach for that tour but you can talk to the cruise web about taking any one of our existing tours and making them private so that it is just your group of people that you know so there there's a couple options for groups you know you could be a group within a larger group on that 44 person coach groups begin as about eight people um but if you are part of a community organization a fraternity a sorority um if you're part of a religious organization that has like a travel club or anything like that um we do have the ability to take any of the tours to privatize them so it's a little bit more per person to do that usually to make it cost effective you need about 20 people but then that way you guys are the you guys know everybody um and it's your private experience for one of our existing tours so again um if you have a need for that whether it's friends whether it's family or some type of a community organization um that is something that the cruise web can work with you to accomplish um kids yes so um if you are on one of our Globus or Cosmos tours the minimum age if you want to travel with children the kids must be five years or older um and again when you think about you know they're going to be on and off the bus they're going to be paying attention to people talking like I think kind of having them school age is good um but I will say if you do privatize a tour you know you could bring kids of any age because you're the only ones on that particular uh tour if you privatize it and then if you are looking at River cruising um eight or older but the average age of most people who tour with us um is between 50 and 70 um usually um and again depending upon the length of tour and the time of year it goes so in the summertime when people are off from school maybe people will be more inclined to take two weeks off from work um but usually on the longer tours you get a little bit more toward the older side of that range um but obviously everybody who is looking to experience this is want wanting to be up and active um so what else I think that's it so we talked about the inclusions we talked about luggage we talked about being able to do groups or privatizing it we talked about the ages of who usually goes and bringing kids um so I think that brings us to the end of the time that have with you right now so again I just want to say thank you for joining and remember the cruise web you know we talked about the world of choices that Globus offer so make sure you're working with the cruise web to make sure the world of choices that we have shared with you today they can make it easy for you to pick the right tour the right dates and the right season for you to travel so thank you again for joining us if you have any questions you can reach out to the cruise web their number is 1 800 377 9383 so thank you so much and take care