Sundance Vacations Blog

Sundance Vacations hosted their second customer service appreciation event on Saturday August 23^rd .  The event took place at the Esplanade Suites in Wildwood, New Jersey. Sundance Vacations wanted the opportunity to give back to their customers and say thank you. Many of the customers who were vacationing at the Esplanade were excited to see Sundance there to greet them. Frequent Sundance travelers staying at the hotel were treated to a lunch buffet, delicious desserts, and free Sundance gear. The children had fun with Customer Service Manager Judy Romanelli. Judy set up a cake eating contest as well as a hula-hoop contest. The winners received prizes varying from Sundance beach bags, to sand pails for the beach. Everyone had a great time sharing stories of their recent and past vacations. It was great meeting each customer and finally being able to put faces to the names over the phone. 

Hawaii is always a popular destination among travelers and it certainly ranks tops for me. During our most recent trip to Maui this summer my two teenage girls tried surfing. According to them, “It’s easier than it looks.”   We purchased a lesson from Maui Beach Boys.  They offer lessons at the Cove of Kalama Park. The Park is right in the middle of Kihei and close to the Maui Banyan, our home property on Maui.  

We booked a group lesson but there were only 4 people total in the group so it was like a semi private lesson anyway.  The out of water instruction was brief and the girls quickly made for the water to learn by doing.  The instructor helps each person judge and catch the wave, so Madison was able to stand up on her first wave. 

Travelers can contact Maui Beach boys at www.mauibeachboys.com

Tis’ the season for vacations, and most people are taking advantage. Sundance Vacations employees know the importance of vacations; after all we are working for a vacation company. We also work very hard to make vacations more affordable and memorable to numerous families across the nation.

This year, a popular spot for vacationing is the Jersey Shore. The main attraction you ask? Most people would say, the boardwalk. In South Jersey alone, three resort towns have them, Atlantic City, Ocean City, and the Wildwoods. The Wildwoods, which consists of Wildwood, North Wildwood, and Wildwood Crest, hold a plethora of activities. The towns are widely known to have some of the finest beaches in New Jersey. At the shore, you will find boardwalk standbys in multiple amounts. From t-shirt shops and jewelry stores, to arcade casinos the shore provides it all. In addition to the boardwalk and beaches, Wildwood also offers amusement and water parks to entertain the family. Pizza, hoagies, ice cream, fudge, soft pretzels, and the ever so famous saltwater taffy dominate the boardwalk menu. Just the thought makes your mouth salivate.

Sundance Vacations occupies 22 vacation properties for your convenience at the Jersey Shore. Some include: Surrey Beach House (Voted “Best Shore Motel” by Philadelphia Daily News), Wildwood By the Sea, and Mali Kai to just name a few. As the archway in North Wildwood boasts, the shore is home to “the happiest people in the world.”

Hopefully you’ll get a chance to vacation this summer, and if you do remember the Jersey Shore is waiting for your visit.

Have you visited the Jersey Shore? What was your favorite spot? What is your most memorable vacation?

I’ve just returned from my family’s annual vacation. This year we visited Ocean Village in West MD. Our unit was a beautiful three bedroom, 3 bath, two story, very clean and in a very peaceful and serene location. I was able to jog every morning around the resort without the fear of being mugged; this was a pleasant experience since I live in the hood. My five children, husband and I had a wonderful time. We all played tennis, poorly, but we played nonetheless. There was also a gym, an indoor and outdoor pool, a Jacuzzi and a basketball court.

We visited the beautiful MD beaches as well as Rehoboth beach and their boardwalks. We ate at the ever-popular Green Turtle, which was absolutely delicious whether your going for a light seafood fare or your heavy-duty sliders, I know because being the parent of five; it is my God given right to try everything they order. We also ate at Salvatore’s Italian restaurant that made all of their meals fresh and I mean from pasta to bread and pizza dough!! It was very good and we were told by our waitress that we were the happiest family she ever had the pleasure of waiting on…of course we were, we were on our Sundance Vacations vacation, together!! We ate at several other restaurants but these two were our favorites this year.

My four daughters were in heaven because they go to shop till’ my husband and I dropped at all of the outlets!! "But Mom, look how much money we saved you!!" How can you argue that?

As we packed to go back home, six sad faces were asking me, "can we take one more vacation this summer and if not, where are we going next year?" The six sad faces included my husbands, as usual! I can’t blame them I feel the same way!!

It’s a tough job to try out these resorts so we can better assist our clients, but someone’s gotta’ do it!!

Seriously, thank you Sundance Vacations for the opportunity and thank you TAN and Lani for the joy and ease in booking these vacations!!

-Judy Romanelli (Customer Service Manager for Sundance Vacations)

My family and I were fortunate enough to spend a week in Ocean City, MD at the Club Ocean Villa II. We started by attending the Sundance Vacations company picnic at Dorney Park and Wild Water Kingdom. It was a SPLASH! Now it was time to head down to the beach. I have two small children, ages four and five, who were very excited to be going on our first family vacation. The weather prediction was calling for warm to hot temperatures and sunshine all week. The kids usually dictate our plans around how long they can stay in the sun and stay awake, but we did more activities that we thought. Our unit overlooked the lagoon; we were on the second floor so the view was absolutely amazing. There was a private dock at the bottom of the stairs with a patio area where we chose a night to bar-b-que while doing some fishing and crabbing. With full kitchen available to us, I prepared a few meals at home. The private indoor/ outdoor pools were a lifesaver the first two days because the weather did get a bit hot, but the breeze from the water kept us cool at night. With the beach just a short walk away, we were able to enjoy making beautiful sand castles, swimming, and the hot sun every morning. We could see tons of people enjoying many water activities such as parasailing, fishing, riding jet ski’s, wave runners, and boating. The only thing that was a must do on my to-do list for the week was to rent/ charter a boat and get my girls out onto the water and do some fishing, and have a nice family-style lunch.

We rented an affordable pontoon boat from Macky’s on the Waterfront. We set sail at 10:00am and went out for a four-hour cruise with some fishing and crabbing. My girlfriend and I ate a late lunch at Sandals "Jamaica USA" where we were able to enjoy Mojito’s as we dangled our feet in the ocean at the tiki area. We visited Jolly Rodgers Water and Amusement Park; and started that day in the water park. Once we entered the amusement park we discovered two of the major attractions were closed. A wonderful park attendant gladly reimbursed us with passes to their pier park.

We planned to spend our last day cruising along the shops of the boardwalk and indulging in a nice dinner at Melvin’s Steakhouse. However, the free pier passes held our attention as we spent the day along the beach and the boardwalk. We did devour a delicious meal at Melvin’s that evening. To sum it up, we had a wonderful week with great weather, great food, great company, and great family experiences. It is a vacation never to be forgotten! Our utmost thanks you to Sundance Vacations for bringing my family that much closer!

-Dyan McCarthy (Sundance Vacations Employee)

Sundance Vacations has a new home. The company will move their corporate headquarters on June 13^th. The new corporate address is 264 Highland Park Boulevard, Wilkes-Barre, Pa 18702. The new office is actually a hop, skip and a jump away from the previous Sundance Vacations office. All phone numbers will remain the same, so don’t worry there isn’t any extra work for you. Just make sure you take notice to the new address. Sundance Vacations is proud to be moving into a bigger building. The company is growing rapidly, hiring more and more employees each day, so as you can imagine we needed more space. The new office is 47,000 sq. ft and Sundance Vacations will occupy about 17,000 sq. ft. The company plans to lease out the other remaining space. Sundance Vacations founders, John and Tina Dowd are sad to leave Kidder St, but happy that they are finally going to settle into an office that provides more room for growth and expansion if needed.

What will you miss about the old Sundance Vacations office? Do you have any memories you would like to share?

Sundance Vacations employee Abby Wheeler just returned from a trip to Panama City Beach, Florida. If you’re looking for a great time Panama City Beach, FL is the place to go. I enjoyed my first vacation of the year there and had an unbelievable time. The nights were an experience of their own. My friends and I enjoyed the Shaggy Marlin on our Saturday night where we rocked out to a band from Atlanta, Ga and danced to an amazing DJ. Also, for all you non-smokers the majority of the bars in Panama City Beach are non-smoking including the Shaggy Marlin.

We enjoyed the authentic Mexican restaurant for Cinco de Mayo where we enjoyed top shelf margaritas, quesadillas, nachos, and salsa. Panama City Beach is also a spot for Spring Breakers and bikers. I was amazed by the "Thunder Beach" rally while there I saw hundreds of bikers lining the main road. I missed out on the Spring Break festivities, but I heard it was one crazy time. MTV is also known for hosting one of their Spring Break spots in Panama City Beach, so you know its a good time! But, If you’re looking for the kind of action I would recommend not planning your vacation during the months of April or May.

The beach was beautiful. (White sand, teal-green water) what more could you ask for? The peaceful, calm water was a relaxing experience especially after our crazy night at the Shaggy Marlin. The atmosphere coupled with the people in Panama City Beach was yet another unexpected experience.

Everyone was laid back and friendly. I enjoyed conversation with people from London, Boston, and Atlanta. I enjoyed myself so much I’m planning to go back this summer. So if you’re looking for a relaxing, yet eventful time, Panama City Beach, FL is the place to go!

Abby Wheeler-Harrisburg, Pa-Sales Office

This is a sampling from our first blog post several years ago. We can’t expect customers to dig around in years of archived posts to find this very important information so we have decided to repost the content.

Hello!

Welcome to the Sundance Vacations corporate blog! Now that the blog is up and running, I sit-rubbing my palms together in anticipation…why? I am very eager to write about the company I know and love.

Blog Goal

Joining me in this blogging endeavor is my friend, Tina Dowd. Tina and her husband, John, are the founders of Sundance Vacations. Tina and I are “blogging virgins” but that won’t stop us from jumping in with two feet! In addition to writing for the corporate blog, we are organizing a client blog where three to four travelers will be featured each month. The purpose of the corporate blog is to reveal the truth about Sundance and to hopefully enlighten those of you who have questions or concerns about the company. Our goal is to post new content weekly. There are many things we want to address. At this time, we feel it’s most important for you, our clients, that we address the many misleading rumors about Sundance Vacations floating on the Internet.

So, who am I?

Please indulge me while I qualify myself as someone who can speak honestly and knowledgably about the company. My name is Kathy O’Mara; I am the Communications Director for Sundance Vacations, and have worked here in several different capacities for almost eleven years. I began as a marketer, and after time was promoted to mid-level management. As the company and our client base grew, I was offered and accepted the position of New Client Services Manager; there I stayed for eight and a half years. I left the company last September to work in the hotel industry; it was fun, but for me, not satisfying. I made the decision to leave my position, and called John to let him know I was entering the job market, “You better move fast,” I joked, “Or some other incredibly fortunate company will scoop me up!” The timing was perfect all involved, and viola! Here I am, the new Communications Director. It feels like I’ve come home and am back where I belong, working for Sundance and its clients.

Work History/BBB Award

It’s been my pleasure over the years, to work side by side with people who truly care about providing their clients with the best possible product. Sundance Vacations holds high ethical standards for their employees. “Try to see things from the client’s point of view,” and, always approach each situation with clients, “in the interest of customer service,” are attitudes all employees are taught to embrace. When I was the New Client Services manager, it was my responsibility to make sure we took whatever steps were necessary to ensure clients were satisfied (and usually pleasantly surprised) by the way we resolved their concerns. Because of its high standards, I chose to nominate Sundance Vacations for the 2005 Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania Better Business Torch Award. The competition was tough, but our values and principles won the award for Sundance Vacations.

Why Listen to Me?

I’ve worked here a long time and know how much thought, time and effort the owners and the employees put into this company. I can’t help but take it personally when the business I know to be honest and ethical is wrongly attacked. But, why should you listen to me instead of an anonymous posting? Because, I am telling you the truth of whom I am, someone with genuine first hand knowledge of Sundance Vacations.

Disgruntled employees, competitors, litigious public, and of course, actual clients

Damaging posts come from a variety of sources: disgruntled employees, competitors, litigious public, and of course, actual clients. Because it’s difficult to know which posts are fabricated and which are factual, we are creating the corporate blog to reveal the truth about Sundance Vacations.We are 100% committed to the satisfaction of our clients. Any person who truly needs assistance is encouraged to call customer service at 1-800-264-3802, or you may e-mail me at komara@vacmail.com.

What to Look for in the Coming Weeks

We look forward to showing you the Sundance you don’t know, and within the next few weeks, we’ll be adding to the blog. We’ll talk about the differences between our product and a traditional timeshare product. We’ll dedicate a week to discussing the fee structure. We’ll reveal future expansion plans for Sundance Vacations. Talk about exciting sponsorships.Share information about important community involvement and charitable endeavors and unveil new resort properties as we acquire them.

Of course we’ll talk about all of the popular destinations where Sundance Vacations (with the assistance of Travel Advantage Network) excels, like: Orlando, Myrtle Beach, the Poconos, Colorado, Hawaii, South Florida, Mexico, the Caribbean, the Wisconsin Dells, Williamsburg and so on. We will reveal our favorite restaurants, our favorite activities, some tried and true tips and some major blunders.

Please Share

If you’d like to share on the corporate blog, please send me your comments. Posts with inappropriate language will not be published, and posts not related to the subject being discussed will not be posted. If you have ideas for discussion topics, bring them on. We welcome criticism and praise (not necessarily in that order!). If you are interested in writing for our client blog (don’t get scared it just means sharing your personal vacation experiences with other Sundance travelers) please email me at komara@vacmail.com or call me at 800-220-9400 x 130.

Happy Blogging!

Kathy O’Mara

Kathy is no longer with the company but you can reach Communications Director Amanda Miller at pr@vacmail.com.

I hope you enjoyed re-reading our original post.

Sundance Vacations employee Heather Henning visits Wildwood by the Sea. See post below.

A co-worker and I recently stayed at the Wildwood By the Sea in Wildwood, NJ. The condo was very clean, comfortable, nicely decorated, and located only half a block from the boardwalk and beach. Since we were so close to the boardwalk and the beach, we were able to leave our vehicle sit because everything was in walking distance. WE SAVED A LOT OF MONEY ON GASOLINE!

It was a great time browsing through all of the nifty shops. We went crazy buying clothes for ourselves and other unique gifts for our families. We found the boardwalk shoppes to be well stocked with fun beach apparel and a ton of other items that were very inexpensive.

We had unlimited choices of great restaurants within walking distance. We also have the option to cook meals if we wanted. We drove only 10 minutes to Cape May to have dinner at the Lobster House. The food was excellent! Every dish was fresh and perfectly prepared. The service was just as good as the food, absolutely outstanding! I highly recommend the Lobster House while visiting the Jersey Shore.

All in all we had a great experience. I cannot wait to visit again at the end of the summer. I might even take my fiance along this time!! 

-Heather Henning - Sundance Vacations, Harrisburg, Pa

The word scam is tossed around a lot.  What is a scam?  According to dictionary.com- scam means a fraudulent scheme to make a quick profit.

I think the phrase intentional should be part of the definition.

We recently visited Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  The popular Orlando theme park offers an upgraded ticket for avoiding long lines, Express Pass Plus. In addition to their admission, thrill seekers spend up to $45.99 to have the Express Pass Plus option added to their admission.

We found the wait times to be grossly exaggerated at each attraction.  Could it be that you can’ t sell expensive extras if the wait time is only 5-10 minutes?  That’s where I think the phrase “intentional” is important.  I don’t know if Universal execs are trying to under promise and over deliver or if there is an intentional exaggeration of wait times in order to “make a quick profit” on the Express Pass Plus sale.

Even though the wait was posted as 10 minutes we walked right on the Flying Unicorn.  But the peculiar event that raised my suspicion was that the line was so short we were tempted to ask the attendant if we could stay on and ride again.  We chose to exit and walk around because there were a handful of people(about 10)  waiting to get on.  When we got around to the posted wait time it was being changed to 25 minutes!  We knew it was bogus so we entered the queue and walked back on.  We experienced a similar exaggeration at Spiderman.

In closing, while visiting the Disney theme parks (where they do not charge extra for the Fast Pass option) we found the wait times to be very accurate.  We were asked on two occasions to carry timer cards to the ride attendant so wait times could be measured accurately.

So you decide, intentional scam or inept measurement.  Either way, enjoy your next Sundance Vacations’ trip to the Orlando area.