Greetings from Cyprus!
It's been an action-packed and actually quite challenging week. In normal times I would have done these inspection trips ages ago, but with all of the turmoil and uncertainty of the past year, the only real window to get to Europe opened a few weeks ago.
We came up with the concept for these LiveAways last summer while the pandemic was still raging as we were trying to imagine what kinds of trips and travel experiences would be most beneficial to travellers coming out of a long period of being stuck at home and an entirely new series of hurdles as far as testing, risks and so on are concerned.
The response from the community was great, we put together some great programs, and since then we've been inching closer to making them happen. The challenge in all of it was that we had to rely only on our local partners as I was unable to make it over to inspect things myself to make sure our lodgings, planned excursions, and other amenities were up to standard...and actually in both Madeira and Cyprus, the hotels we originally had selected were unfortunately not up to par.
The good news is for Madeira we have succeeded in securing two other hotels (one with spectacular sea views) that are much more in line with the experience I expect our LiveAways to deliver. We just got the new photos and prices from the hotels and they are in the updated itinerary, which you can find below. You can also check out the replay from our recent update webinar on the program here.
In Cyprus it has been a similar situation, perhaps even more pronounced as it is my first time visiting here (#88!). Without putting boots on the ground I couldn't be sure we were in the right spot to make an optimal experience, and again unfortunately we were slightly off the mark in our original estimation. After running all over the island, I've found some more suitable options, and I'll be presenting those in our rescheduled Cyprus webinar, which will be this Friday, November 19 at 11AM EST.
If those were the only challenges, I'd say we did well! But we've also had a number of problems with our email software, which has come on top of a large influx of inquiries from our community. On this note, I have a small favour to ask of you - we are a small team endeavouring to provide as much of a personalized service as we can, and your patience and understanding at this time would be most appreciated.
We will absolutely get back to you all as soon as we can, though we may need just a little more time than usual to do so. Smoother sailing always returns eventually, but sometimes there's choppy patches to get through first. Thanks ever so much for your trust and understanding.
Cheers!
Gordon Dreger
Founder, Wheel & Anchor
Gordon Dreger is the founder of Wheel & Anchor and has been in the travel industry for over 30 years. Travel is a self-expression for him, and there is nothing he likes more than talking about travel and sharing all of the joys of it with others.
Leave a comment!