Entry 005: The Truth About Last Minute Travel

There’s Just Not Enough Pixie Dust!

Some days I’m the travel fairy godmother and it takes exactly five minutes.

A dad walked in yesterday knowing precisely what he wanted for his family. Universal Orlando. On property resort. Driving down. Dates picked. Three Day Park to Park with one day at Epic. Halloween Horror Nights tickets. Oh, and they leave the 26th of this month.

Boom. Booked. Done. Go have the best time, Halloween people.

This is the secret nobody tells you about last minute travel. It’s not the timeline that trips us up, it’s the guessing game. When you know what you want and you trust me to go get it, I can move fast. Really fast.

So tell me, are you a “here’s exactly what I want, go” traveler, or a “surprise me, I have no idea” traveler? Both are welcome here, I just handle you differently. But I’ll be honest with you, not every last minute trip goes that smooth, and I think it’s time I told you why.

Meet Last Minute Lottie. Lottie doesn’t know where she wants to go. She just knows it needs to be someplace impressive, and she needs it in a week, and it would be great if I could just work my magic. Except Lottie wants a destination that takes real research, not a quick Google and a shrug. And while I’m digging through flight options and permit rules and trying to figure out if she even needs a visa for this fantasy trip she just dreamed up on her lunch break, guess who’s waiting on me too.

The couple who booked their Rocky Mountaineer trip through the Canadian Rockies months ago, with every transfer and excursion and hotel already mapped out because they wanted it done right, not done fast. The couple doing the Hawaii trip with two islands and an inter island flight because they can’t decide between Maui and Kauai, so we’re doing both. The family with the cruise that has four days in a port city before and three after, and every one of those days needs a plan. The first time cruiser who has never done this before and needs me to explain what a muster drill even is without making them feel silly for asking.

Those clients planned ahead. They trusted the process. They deserve my full attention, not whatever’s left over after I spend an afternoon trying to build Lottie a dream vacation out of thin air and good intentions.

Here’s the truth about last minute travel. It’s not that I can’t make it happen. It’s that making it happen well takes time, and time is the one thing everybody wants more of and nobody wants to give me. So if you’re a Lottie, I still love you, but give a girl a little runway. Your dream trip deserves better than a rush job, and so does the family whose spot in line you’re standing in.

And that dad with his Universal trip? He got his five minute miracle because he did the one thing that makes all the difference. He knew what he wanted before he walked in the door. That’s the real secret. Not luck, not magic, just knowing your own trip well enough to hand it to somebody who can go get it for you.

XOXO, Jani 🪄