Sundance Vacations gave away a free Las Vegas vacation to one Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers fan during the Conference Semi Finals game against the Kentucky Horseman at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pa on August 8th.

Alice Makowski was randomly picked among hundreds of fans who turned out for the Pioneers Semi Final Playoff game. The free vacation was a fan appreciation giveaway. Sundance Vacations provided the lucky fan and one guest with free airfare for two, room accommodations to The Orleans hotel in Las Vegas, and tickets to the Pioneers game against Spokane Shock. “Oh my God, we’re going to Vegas,” boasted Makowski. “I won the Sundance Vacations free trip to Las Vegas. My dream is really true thanks to Sundance Vacations. I really wanted to see the Pioneers play in the finals,” added Makowski.

Sundance Vacations congratulates the Makowski family on their huge win! We hope Las Vegas was a blast with the Pioneers!

Have you ever followed your favorite team into the Playoffs? How far would you go?

A few Sundance Vacations employees including Founder Tina Dowd have been working on core values and designing a corporate culture that will be beneficial to the company. While at a conference in Las Vegas, Tina attended a seminar given by CEO Tony Hsieh from Zappos. Mr. Hsieh explained 10 solid core values that act as a formalized definition of their company culture. Zappos core values weren’t formed by a few people from senior management that sat around in a room at a company offsite. Instead, they invited every employee at Zappos to participate in the process. That’s what we hope to accomplish at Sundance Vacations. What matters to you? What values do you live by daily?

The final list Zappos collectively came up with include:
1) Deliver WOW Through Service
2) Embrace and Drive Change
3) Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
4) Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
5) Pursue Growth and Learning
6) Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7) Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More With Less
9) Be Passionate and Determined
10) Be Humble

The cool thing about the Zappos core values is that they can be used as personal values as well. The Zappos CEO explained that his core values work because, his employees live by them. We want you to come up with a set of core values, or even just one. If you live your life by a certain value and you think it would benefit the company, we want to hear from you! According to Robert Bundy, “If there are no common values, there can be no image of the future.” Please be an image of the future for Sundance Vacations!

What core values are important to you?

Did you ever see someone blend a yard rake in a normal functioning kitchen blender? I know you’re probably thinking, yeah right! This is a true story. While attending the Social Media for Communicators Conference in Las Vegas I saw just that. Interested? www.willitblend.com.

Besides blending, the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh also attended the conference and gave a great presentation on what Zappos is all about. According to Hsieh, the ultimate aim of the Zappos brand is to be the very best when it comes to customer service and consumer experience.

Hsieh firmly believes in creating a ‘wow’ experience for the customer and investing in a corporate culture that allows employees freedom and space. “If you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like great customer service or building a brand will just happen naturally”, said Hsieh. Zappos has formalized the definition of its culture into ten core values and employees are hired and fired based on those values. The company culture is different because it is not driven by the CEO or Management, but the employees who themselves determine how they want the culture to evolve.

Needless to say, Zappos has Sundance Vacations CEO Tina Dowd in a frenzy and willingly changing the corporate culture at Sundance Vacations. Just check out the corporate intranet!

Gosh, this conference sounds more like a seminar for women. With blenders and shoes, one would think. But, it was actually very fulfilling and taught me a lot about all the different types of social media, blogging, vlogging, and tweeting. I learned a lot about web strategy and building a successful brand for Sundance Vacations. Also about building an online newsroom, which is currently in the works. Don’t worry, this isn’t the last you’ll hear of social media. Pretty soon I have a feeling Sundance Vacations CEO Tina Dowd will be tweeting from the moon!

The conference was presented by Ragan Communications and the Public Relations Society of America. The conference was held at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas.

What companies have you been impressed by? What impressed you most?

Sundance Vacations’ travelers often look for advice about the notorious sin city; is it appropriate for kids?  Yes.

I took my kids to Las Vegas several years ago.  Although my daughter’s elementary school teacher made a negative comment about Las Vegas being inappropriate for kids.  She was wrong.  Sightseeing Las Vegas with your kids allows you to see the city in a whole new way.

 

Sundance Vacations suggests the following activities for kids in Las Vegas:

 

Flyaway Indoor Skydiving is located on Convention Center drive.  Following some brief instructions and an introduction about crash positions your kids enjoy suiting up in a wind suit and jumping on a giant fan.  The fan allows you to hover in the air similar to skydiving.

 

The Wet N’ Wild waterpark was a favorite for my kids in Las Vegas. However, this park closed in 2004.  Plans are underway for LasVegas Wet which will open in 2011.  The project will include one of the largest indoor water parks in North America plus an Indoor Snow Dome.  Kids visiting Vegas will be able to ski and snowboard on man made snow.  An indoor snow play area is also being planned for younger children.

 

The rising torrents of the Excalibur castle are a definite draw for every young prince and princess.  My kids enjoy the Tournament of Kings jousting dinner show.  Be prepared to eat with your fingers and remind yourself that five star restaurants are overrated and stuffy anyway.  Arrive early so the kids can enjoy the carnival games on the Fantasy Faire midway.  Excalibur also has a Sponge Bob Square Pants 4 D ride.  Kids must be 42” to ride.

 

Our favorite free entertainment for Kids in Las Vegas is the lion habitat in MGM Grande.  The giant glass enclosure guarantees a great view for kids.  Watching the lions interact with the animal handler is an extra special treat.

 

Don’t worry parents we haven’t covered a lot of distance….yet.  Excalibur, MGM Grande and NewYork New York Casino are all on the same corner of the strip. Adventurous kids in Las Vegas will love the Roller Coaster on top of the New York Casino.  The extra elevation really adds to the thrill.

 

The Adventuredome at Circus Circus is another kid favorite.  It’s five acres of Indoor Theme Park fun including the Canyon Blaster an indoor double loop roller coaster.  Adventuredome also hosts several family friendly rides including a carousel and a mini Himalayan ride just to name a few.  Circus Circus also has a midway filled with carnival games.  Center stage at the carnival midway is home to the largest permanent circus.  Performances take place daily and best of all, they are free! 

 

The rides on top of the Stratosphere are truly terrifying.  At one hundred stories in the air, these thrill rides are not for the timid.  X-Scream is a giant teeter-totter that takes riders over the edge of the tower and 866 feet from the ground.  Insantiy, the Ride, is a giant arm that extends over the edge and spins riders at a force of 3 G’s.  Even my daredevil daughter declined.  The tower itself is worth the trip.  The Stratosphere is the tallest observation tower in the US.  You and your kids will have a great view of the Las Vegas skyline.

 

Bring your little shark lovers to The Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay.  It  is a 1.6 million gallon aquarium with 14 exhibits.  Guests experience two walk-through tunnels that give a divers view of  15 different species of shark, including some of the most dangerous predators in the world. 

 

The list of things to do with your kids in Las Vegas can go on and on.  Bodies The Exhibit resides at the Luxor Casino.  The exhibit has 13 whole body specimens and over 260 organs.  After days of thrill rides and carnival games, the Bodies exhibit is a nice opportunity for education.  Don’t tell them it’s educational of course, your kids will just think it’s cool and gross to see real “plastinated” bodies.  The diseased smoker’s lung next to a healthy lung makes a great, albeit gross, point about the dangers of smoking.  Check to make sure the show hasn’t moved on to a new location, before planning your visit.

 

Fountains, a botanical garden and a gallery of fine art await Kids at Bellagio.  Mature kids will enjoy the sophisticated offerings at Bellagio.  The choreographed dancing fountains can be viewed from sidewalk but you’ll need to step inside to see the beautiful themed display in the botanical garden.  The Bellagio artists and “gardeners” change the display at least each season.

 

The Sundance Vacations Client Blog is an excellent resource for travel advice.  This is just the tip of the iceberg of the many great things to enjoy with your children while visiting Las Vegas.  Check back as we discuss evening entertainment and shows for kids in Las Vegas.

Sundance Vacations executives attended the annual American Resort Developers Association (ARDA) convention that was held in Las Vegas last week.  ARDA is the vacation industry trade group.  Many years ago, ARDA attendees were solely timeshare developers.  In those early days, it was lonely being one of the first wholesale vacation companies.  It wasn’t just a perception of being an outsider. It was reality.

The Witchhunt

I remember attending a round table discussion (1994 approx) where a boisterous timeshare developer stood up and called his colleagues to action.  “What are we going to do about these new groups?  We’re building resorts and real estate, what are they building?”  He was clearly referring to us and the message was clear that we were a “cancer” that needed to be dealt with.

Better Method for Sundance Vacations

He was right about one thing. We weren’t building new resort properties.  While he was building x number of units in one location, we were searching and buying on the whole ownership condo market including a couple of oceanfront condo’s in Brigantine Beach, NJ; several townhouses at a ski area in the Poconos and many units at a resort in Myrtle Beach.  To this day, we believe our method is better for client choice.  He had units in one location but was dependent on someone else to help his customer’s trade.  We on the other hand had built our own network of properties. 

We’ve grown quite a bit since then and so has the industry.  Attendees at this year’s convention represented a wide variety of vacation companies including luxury residence clubs, points programs, cruise clubs, new companies to service the easy exchange or trade of inventory and of course, wholesale sales companies like Sundance Vacations.   

We haven’t focused on buying single units one at a time.  Recently, we’ve added several entire resort properties to our inventory.  A thirty-unit complex, Esplanade Suites in Wildwood, New Jersey was added in late 2006.  A twelve-unit oceanfront complex in Daytona  (Sierra Suites) was added in summer 2007. Nineteen quaint cottage units at Woodfield Manor in the Poconos were added in February 2008 and many, many others were added through Travel Advantage Network.

I haven’t seen the mentioned developer in quite a few years, I wonder how much inventory he built since 2006?

-Tina Dowd