Archive for July, 2009

Why Sundance Vacations is No Scam – Video – The best video clips are right here

The Jersey Shore’s cutest tradition, Wildwood’s annual Baby Parade celebrates its 100th anniversary on August 6th. The first batch of charming and delightful youngsters participated in the Wildwoods Baby Parade in 1909. Ever since, this event has become a shore tradition, drawing huge crowds of locals and tourists with a soft spot for beautiful babies parading down the famous Wildwoods Boardwalk in decorated strollers and floats. This year’s special Centennial Celebration is sure to draw even bigger crowds to the 100th Anniversary of the First Baby Parade.

The 100th Anniversary of the First Wildwoods Baby Parade will take place at 6pm, Thursday, August 6, 2009. Registration for the event starts at 5pm at the Wildwoods Convention Center. The parade starts at the Wildwoods Convention Center, proceeding up the famous Wildwoods Boardwalk, and ending at 16th Street in North Wildwood, where winners and awards will be announced. Be sure to come out and celebrate a century of fun, tradition and cuteness on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at the Wildwoods Baby Parade!

Looking for a place to stay? Sundance Vacations has numerous places on the Jersey Shore. Try Key Largo, Esplanade, Leaming Avenue, or Mali Kai. http://www.sundancevacations.com/beach-resorts.html

*Photos are courtesy of the Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority and the Best of NJ website.*

When thinking about vacations which I do every day at Sundance Vacations, a few things come to mind; relaxation, spending quality time with loved ones, the beach, golf, funny drinks with umbrellas in them, and no set routine. Although all of those things are great, I do have to say my favorite part is the anticipation. The countdown!! 12 days..11 days..10 days..9 days to go. Getting passports ready, shopping for vacation clothes, cleaning my golf clubs, packing, finding out who’s going to take care of the dogs. To many people this part is stressful. However, for me it’s like Christmas morning when I was 8 years old. Just the thought of what’s about to happen gets me excited.

In the beginning of June I and my girlfriend Helena booked an Excess Inventory week to the Village Inn and Spa in St. Lucia. Yes! That’s right $198 for 8 days 7 nights in a resort that retails for $180 a night. This will be our first full week vacation together in 3 years. Since booking the trip I’ve been doing a lot of research on the Island. There is so much we are looking forward to. The Village Inn and Spa is an all-inclusive resort, a number of restaurants and bars at the resort itself. St. Lucia had a drive in volcano. I can’t wait to zip line. The thought of being harnessed to a cable zipping from tree to tree in the jungle is exhilarating. The resort also offers 3 rounds of complimentary golf at St. Lucia’s champion golf course to any guests that stay 5 nights or more.

There’s so much to look forward to. That to me is what anticipation is all about. We leave on August 2nd and return on August 9th. I defiantly will not blog to all of you while on vacation. NO WAY. However, when I return I’ll tell you all about it.

-Danny McGowan (King of Prussia)

Every year right before the annual company picnic, Sundance Vacations holds an essay contest for all employees and their children. This year’s essay topic was “What is your favorite vacation destination?” There were two age groups. The first was age’s 8-13 and the second was age’s 14-college. One winner was picked from each age group and awarded a $500 scholarship. The essays were judged by Sundance Vacations Founder Tina Dowd. A small ceremony was held at the company picnic (Dorney Park in Allentown, Pa) Sundance Vacations VP of Marketing Joe Molitoris announced the winners.

This year, for the age group 8-13 the 2009 winner was Courtney Allen. Courtney is 11years old, and a 6th grade student. Courtney is saving her money for a rainy day. Some of Courtney’s interests include: Drama, Basketball, and has participated in Forensics with her school. Courtney currently made the honor roll for the 08-09 school year. Courtney’s mother Christina Allen is a Manager in the Inbound and Rescheduling Department for Sundance Vacations.

For the 14-college age group, the 2009 winner was Marie Ripa. Marie is a night shift marketer in the Sundance Vacations Mount Carmel office. Marie is 18 years old. She is a student at Brown University. In her spare time Marie enjoys hanging out with friends, reading, playing the violin, and playing on the computer. Marie is very modest about her “hard to beat” bowling skills. She is currently also learning four different languages, Spanish, French, Italian, and Latin.

Congratulations to both girls!

As you walk through the gate and hand the attendant your ticket, you can sense the excitement. You can hear screams and laughter, you can smell the mouth-watering French fries, and you can feel the hot sun beating on your face, tempting you to run to the nearest log floom ride. If you haven’t guessed, I’m talking about Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pa.

Sundance Vacations celebrated their annual company picnic for all East Coast employees at Dorney Park and Wild Water Kingdom on Sunday, July 12th. If you were at the park, you couldn’t miss a Sundance Vacations employee or one of their guests, as they all sported blue T-shirts with the bright orange and yellow Sundance Vacations logo and their Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania pins. This year, 900 employees and their family members came out to enjoy the festivities, which increased from only 600 last year. “At the first company picnic, we only had 20 employees, and you could remember everyone,” recalls Sundance Vacations Founder Tina Dowd. “Our current size makes that a lot more difficult. However, I take advantage of the opportunity to meet and greet everyone,” added Dowd.

Sundance Vacations gave away prizes to children and employees. Prizes varied from IPod Nanos to Cool Pix Digital Cameras. The weather was perfect, and I think it’s safe to say that everyone had a great time! Thank you Sundance Vacations!!

What did you like most about the Sundance Vacations annual picnic at Dorney Park? What was your favorite ride this year?

At Sundance Vacations we try to educate travelers about the importance of taking time for a vacation.  Our lives are a string of memories and very often travelers report that some of their best memories revolve around their vacation experiences.  Children are no different.  Read what the children of Sundance Vacations’ employees have to say about their most recent vacation memories:

“I never dreamed of what would happen next…he asked me to pick out a horse, a helmet and a saddle.  They got me ready to ride a horse! My first time ever!”

“The Expedition Everest is a roller coaster ride looking for the infamous Yeti monster.  If you don’t like Yeti monsters, I do not recommend this ride.”

“We went to the pool… we saw ten frogs.  There was one big frog and nine baby frogs.  We put them all in the trees.  It was so cool.”

“My favorite part of my summer vacation….I enjoy the time with my mom and dad.”

“My dad dug a huge hole in the sand and both my brother and I could sit in it.  I wanted to leave him there, but Mom wouldn’t let me.”

“It’s the only time of year other than Christmas that I get to spend time with both of my parents and my brother at the same time.”

The Better Business Bureau, one of the first organizations to rate businesses on their honesty and fairness to customers, has improved their rating system. The new and enhanced ratings are now shown as letter grades. The new business ratings are shown as letter grades A+ through F.

The letter grades provide more specific information for businesses to find suppliers and vendors, and at the same time provide a more precise guide to improving their own operations. The new ratings also help consumers to find trustworthy businesses. Previously the Better Business Bureau was using satisfactory and unsatisfactory ratings. The new grades give consumers a better idea of where a company stands with the public. The new letter-grade concept was tested for more than two years at selected BBB’s.

As part of its strategy to build trust in the marketplace, the Better Business Bureau also recently changed the way businesses affiliated with the organization were designed, from “BBB Member” to “BBB Accredited Business.” The “Accredited” designation highlights the fact that businesses have been evaluated by BBB and have contractually agreed to meet and uphold BBB’s high standards for integrity and reliability when dealing with customers. (BBB Alert, June 09, pg. 1)

Sundance Vacations is a member of the BBB in every market we operate in. The grades for each location are as followed: BBB of Washington DC and Eastern PA (Harrisburg, King of Prussia, and Wilkes-Barre): A-, BBB of Wisconsin (Brookfield): A+, BBB of New Jersey (Princeton, Rockaway): A+, BBB of Illinois (Downers Grove): A+.

For more information on BBB ratings and to find out ratings of local businesses, go to www.bbb.org.

I found this Sundance Vacations complaint while reading an article about the success of the Harrisburg Music Fest on PennLive.com.

Posted by jandree22 on 07/03/09 at 10:45PM

We were up today and it was a decent sized upbeat crowd considering the cool, showery weather. Tomorrow should be much nicer though.

The one complaint I must say, is I am sickened with how many solicitors there are up there. I was hassled about signing up to win this car, win that car, win free windows, Patriot News, etc. Oh and the friggen Sundance Vacations people hit us up at least 5 times! Beware the blue polo shirts, they were EVERYWHERE. I don’t like to be rude, but I eventually had to just flat out ignore them. I don’t mean to discourage people from going because we still had a great time, but event coordinators really need to get a handle on this.

I respect Jandree’s right to post her opinion.  In fact, her comment illustrates our need to devise a way where Sundance Vacations can interact with fans effectively while reducing the overlap of  requests.  The event staff is large and employee B has no idea that employee A has already approached a particular consumer.  We expect consumers to simply say,  “No. Thank you” or avoid eye contact.  We should and will think about ways to improve the customer experience.  Thank you for the comment Jandree22.

That being said, we do offer something of value to every consumer in attendance.  Sundance Vacations’ sponsorship of the Harrisburg Music Fest provides the much needed capital to host the event in the first place.  Without sponsors, there would be no Harrisburg Music Fest for Jandree  and others to attend.

Some consumers may prefer that solicitors be eliminated entirely.  They may be the same people who dislike junk mail, disapprove of telemarketing calls, have a TiVo to avoid commercials and a SPAM filter. I firmly believe, as members of society we have an obligation to each other to participate in its economy.  You may be disappointed by having to say “No, thank you” one too many times but the $80 million in travel sales that Sundance Vacations generated in 2008 is a gift to the economy.  I can’t think of a single job that an event attendee might hold that isn’t tied back to the success of Pa’s businesses.  When our employees (event staff, marketers, managers, secretaries, sales staff and even janitors) spend their paychecks at your restaurant, in your retail store or at your garage we keep you employed for one more day. Our sponsorship money pays the bands and entertainers who then are able to feed their families or buy a new equipment truck.

We all help each other and are responsible to each other.