Published for the Travel Agents of Suffolk County |
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REMINDER:
No meeting in August
Enjoy your summer!
See you again on Sept. 14th
at Shandon Court
Installation of 2022-24 Board
Sandals & Jamaica Tourist Board
TASC will be sponsoring
a cocktail hour
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SAVE THE DATE!!!!!
Our 2022 TASC Trade Show will be held on
Wednesday evening - NOVEMBER 9TH
from 5:30pm - 7:00pm
at the Holiday Inn Airport East
located at Exit 63 off the
Long Island Expressway
(This will replace our regular dinner meeting)
Light supper refreshments / Raffles
Suppliers may contact our Trade Show Chairperson; Jeaneane DeCicco at jeaneane.decicco@gmail.com
to reserve your table.
Cost for a table is $300 per supplier
includes TASC membership
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Dear Members,
I hope our members are enjoying their summer whether you enjoy travel, camping, the beach or your own backyard pool.
It's great to just kick back and relax and recharge.
Another great turnout we had for our July meeting with presentations by 6 different cruise reps. Members again got to enjoy a cocktail hour & mini trade show. Thank you again to American Cruise, Carnival, Celebrity, NCL, Ponant & Windstar.
Remember, we do not hold a meeting in August so the next meeting will be on Sept 14th. We will be holding our postponed installation of 2022-24 TASC officers along with presentations by Sandals and the Jamaica Tourist Board.
TASC will also be sponsoring another cocktail hour prior to the meeting.
Stay cool, enjoy the summer, see you in September!
Respectfully,
Susan Bonesso
There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.
-- Mary Wilson Little
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Congratulations to the newly elected
2022 - 2024 TASC Executive Board
Installation has been moved to the September meeting.
President - Fran Raupp
Vice President - Liz Henn
Treasurer - Ginny De Feo
Secretary - Angela SanFelippo-Szemico
Director Owner - Honey Pressgrove
Director Agent - Jeffrey Austin
Director Affiliate - Kim Daino
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UPCOMING TASC MEETING/EVENT SCHEDULE
AUGUST - NO MEETING
SEPT 14 - SANDALS/JAMAICA TOURIST BOARD & INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS - COCKTAIL HOUR
OCT 12 - BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS TOURIST BOARD & THE MOORINGS/SUNSAIL & LITTLE DIX BAY RESORT
NOV 9 - TASC TRADE SHOW
DEC 14 - TASC HOLIDAY PARTY
Attention suppliers! 2022 is now fully booked.
However all of 2023 is currently available at this time. Get your choice of dates, always the 2nd Wednesday of each month.
You may contact our Programs Director, Fran Raupp at franr@baytravelandtours.com to book your program.
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Current Industry Affairs (CIA)
Sandals Royal Curaçao hotel management confirmed that their resort’s infinity pool experienced an issue with one of its glass panels and the pool area was forced to close unexpectedly. A small number of guests were provided immediate support and medical attention for minor injuries.
Sandals says in a statement that there is nothing more important for them than the safety of their guests and while the impacted pool is currently closed for repairs, guests can continue to enjoy the many additional pools and special features of the resort as well as Curacao's pristine beach.
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Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises eased vaccination requirements on sailings from certain destinations, starting Sep. 5.
For cruises departing U.S. ports in California, Louisiana and Texas or from ports in Europe, Covid-19 vaccination is not required on Royal Caribbean ships.
Royal Caribbean still "strongly recommends" that guests are fully vaccinated. Guests who are not fully vaccinated will need to bring a negative test result taken within three days of boarding.
Celebrity said that for sailings departing on or after Sept. 5 from Los Angeles and Europe (excluding sailings departing from Iceland), vaccination is not required. For most sailings, Celebrity still requires a negative Covid-19 test result as a condition for boarding.
The changes came just days after the three Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) brands eased vaccination and testing protocols, ending testing for vaccinated travelers and allowing unvaccinated ones to cruise with a negative test from most destinations, starting Sep. 3.
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Princess Cruises canceled 11 sailings on the Diamond Princess from San Diego due to staffing issues.
The cruises had been scheduled to depart from September to mid-November and visit the Mexican Riviera, California coast and Hawaiian Islands.
"Like others in the global travel industry, we have experienced some labor challenges," the cruise line said in a statement. "With rising occupancy levels on the ships that have already returned to service and our commitment to guarantee the Princess experience is exceptional, Princess has made the difficult decision to cancel a limited number of voyages on the Diamond Princess beginning Sept. 1, 2022, through Nov. 13. This will provide us with the additional time needed to overcome our labor challenges."
Affected guests will be offered the option to a transfer to an equivalent cruise with an onboard spending credit of $100 per person, a future cruise credit offer of 100% the value of the cruise fare paid plus a $100 onboard cruise credit, or a cash refund.
Princess said it will protect all travel agent commissions on all bookings paid in full as of Monday, Aug. 8.
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For current travel restrictions for Europe:
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TASC sends get well wishes to long time member Joelle Butner who was hospitalized recently.
Cards may go to her at 150 Kimberly Court, North Babylon, NY 11703.
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TASC sends condolences to Past President Garrett Simulcik on the unexpected passing of his nephew, William J. Simulcik.
Cards may sent to: 17 Mullholland Drive, North Babylon, NY 11703.
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TASC ANNUAL DUES
Your annual TASC membership renewals are
now due. They are still only $40 per year.
Membership forms were emailed to you earlier this month. If you did not receive it, one is available at our website or from the sign in table at the
TASC dinner meeting.
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Your TASC board has a new email address: TASCEMAIL@OPTIMUM.NET
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If you have any member news that you would like posted in this newsletter please send an email with information to: tascemail@optimum.net
In addition to the get wells and condolences, we can also list job postings
or pertinent industry news.
If we don't know about it, we can't post it!
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WWW.LI-TASC.COM
This is our website. Visit us !!!
Also visit our TASC Facebook page and “like us”.
Only TASC members will be able to post on the Facebook page.
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The "lighter" side of Travel - Part 2
WHY SOME AMERICANS SHOULD NEVER BE LET OUT THE COUNTRY
(Actual comments from US travel agents)
A woman called and asked, "Do airlines put your physical description on your bag so they know whose luggage belongs to who?" I said, "No, why do you ask?" She replied, "Well, when I checked in with the airline, they put a tag on my luggage that said FAT, and I'm overweight, is there any connection?" After putting her on hold for a minute while I looked into it" (I was actually laughing) I came back and explained the city code for Fresno is FAT, and that the airline was just putting a destination tag on her luggage.
I just got off the phone with a man who asked, "How do I know which plane to get on?" I asked him what exactly he meant, to which he replied, "I was told my flight number is 823, but none of these darn planes have numbers on them."
A woman called and said, "I need to fly to Pepsi-cola on one of those computer planes." I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, "Yeah, whatever."
A businessman called and had a question about the documents he needed in order to fly to China. After a lengthy discussion about passports, I reminded him he needed a visa. "Oh no I don't, I've been to China many times and never had to have one of those." I double-checked and sure enough, his stay required a visa. When I told him this he said, "Look, I've been to China four times and every time they have accepted my American Express."
A woman called to make reservations; "I want to go from Chicago to Hippopotamus, New York." The agent was at a loss for words. Finally, the agent said, "Are you sure that's the name of the town?" "Yes, what flights do you have?" replied the customer. After some searching, the agent came back with, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I've looked up every airport code in the country and can't find a Hippopotamus anywhere." The customer retorted, "Oh don't be silly. Everyone knows where it is. Check your map!" The agent scoured a map of the state of New York and finally offered, "You don't mean Buffalo, do you?" "That's it! I knew it was a big animal!"
I had someone who wanted to stay at the Bob Newhart Inn in Connecticut. When I explained that the inn was fictional, the customer became very irate and she insisted "I know it is real, I see people check in every week!"
A secretary called in looking for hotel in Los Angeles. She gave me various names off a list, none of which I could find. I finally had her fax me the list. To my surprise, it was a list of hotels in New Orleans, Louisiana. She thought the LA stood for Los Angeles, and that New Orleans was a suburb of L.A. Worst of all, when I called her back, she was not even embarrassed.
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Supplier Rep Updates
We would like to welcome several new supplier reps that have recently been assigned to the Suffolk County area.
American Cruise Lines - NEW
Sara Hamilton-Moran,
sara.hamilton-moran@americancruiselines.com
Barbados Tourism - NEW
Deborah Millington, deborahm@visitbarbados.org
Explora Journeys - NEW
Christopher Cestari, christopher.cestari@explorajourneys.com
Homeric Tours - NEW
Nicole Tsakanikas, nicole@homerictours.com
Playa Resorts
Pedro Spignolio, pedro.spignolio@playaresorts.com
RIU Resorts - NEW
Luis Chaverri, lchaverri@riu.com
Star Clippers - NEW
June Muenzer, june.muenzer@starclippers.com
Windstar Cruises - NEW
Meg Daly, meg.daly@windstarcruises.com
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President
Susan Bonesso
(email) susanbtravel@optonline.net
Vice President
Fran Raupp
(email) franr@baytravelandtours.com
Secretary
Liz Henn
(email) lizLbac@gmail.com
Treasurer
Ginny DeFeo
(email) gindef@hotmail.com
Director Owner
Honey Pressgrove
(email) empress965@aol.com
Director Affiliate
Gavin Simmons
(email) gsimmons@uvi.sandals.com
Director Agent
Jeffrey Austin
(email) jaustin@vacationwiser.com
Past President
Garrett Simulcik
(email) gsimulcik@cruiseplanners.com
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Rogers Travel
Bay Travel & Tours
LBAC Travel
Empress Travel
Empress Travel-Bayport
Sandals
Vacation Wiser
Cruise Planners
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631-289-5252
631-447-6440
631-648-8032
631-698-7767
631-363-9522
631-526-3301
631-499-4483
631-274-5490
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ACCOUNTING
Richard Chester
AUDIT
Jeaneane De Cicco
AUTOMATION
Lou Fenech
BUDGET
Marie Foley
BY-LAWS
Susan Bonesso
CURRENT INDUSTRY AFFAIRS
Susan Bonesso
HISTORIAN
Ginny DeFeo
HOSPITALITY
Kathy Collins
LEGISLATION
Bill De Cicco
MEMBER BENEFITS
Jeffrey Austin
MEMBERSHIP
Honey Pressgrove
NEWSLETTER
Susan Bonesso
NOMINATIONS
April Whymark
PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURES
Robert's Rules of Order
PAST PRESIDENTS
Garrett Simulcik
PROGRAMS
Fran Raupp
PUBLIC RELATIONS
RAFFLES
Kathy Collins
SUNSHINE
Honey Pressgrove
TRADE SHOW
Jeaneane De Cicco
& Past Presidents Committee
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631-585-7070
631-289-5252
631-563-3440
631-363-9522
631-289-5252
631-289-5252
631-698-7767
631-225-7569
631-289-5252
631-499-4483
631-363-9522
631-289-5252
631-672-9497
631-274-5490
631-447-6440
631-225-7569
631-363-9522
631-289-5252
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Every statement made at TASC meetings or published in TASC News is a personal opinion of the speaker, editor or contributor to this newsletter. No comment spoken at the meeting or printed in the newsletter is an endorsement or to suggest that they are the opinions of TASC, its Board of Directors, or members.
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TASC | PO Box 49, Bohemia, NY 11716 | www.li-tasc.com
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