You get what you pay for… – Geocaching Adventures

Some of our group adventures have an extra (we think small) cost added to them to cover a few things. Hopefully, you feel there is excellent value in the majority, if not all, of the following. Here is a breakdown:

PRODUCTS:
Easily seen items include a trackable geocoin, luggage tags, a lanyard (sometimes), a trackable tag and the cost of shipping these to you. These are relatively low cost, but wait, there’s more!

BEHIND THE SCENES COSTS:
There are real costs associated with the following:

booking ship-board and/or hotel meeting rooms,
Consumer Protection BC membersion,
annual membership in the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies,
liability insurance that we are required to carry and hopefully will never need,
website maintenance costs to promote the trips, and
paying our design staff to create the graphics that are used on the coins, tags, and T-shirts that people tell us they like.

TIME – THE OFTEN-IGNORED COST THAT’S PUT IN BEHIND THE SCENES (ON YOUR BEHALF):
Then there is time… we hope you value our time. We don’t charge you much for it, but so you know, here is what we spend a LOT of time doing to bring these trips together for you:

Researching the various trips and deciding which ones to put out there for our community. This includes selecting an itinerary from the thousands that are out there to find ones that will work well with a geocaching group.
There is a lot of time that goes into organizing and coordinating group dining, group hotels, group excursions, group meeting rooms, and group everything, with the various vendors that include cruise lines and independent local tour operators.
Arranging private group excursions where geocaching can be involved. For example – in Ceuta, Spain, we were able to organize a private excursion with Holland America to Morocco. This was an excellent adventure and this was the only shore excursion on the whole ship that went to Morocco – due to ours and Tara’s efforts. This is one of a myriad of private tours we’ve organized over the years. Some of the best include Russia, Iceland, Yukon and White Pass Railway, Albania, and Grand Turk among so many others. These private tours are only possible when we have the numbers to warrant private groups. So booking outside of the group affects everyone because some of these types of adventures will not be possible.
There is also a lot of time that goes into the marketing and the website presentation. This includes newsletters and reaching out to our larger community to bring together the folks who are able to join us for any particular adventure.
Once onboard a cruise ship, we also often end up advocating for various people who are sometimes not getting everything they should from their cruise experience – we see this mostly on Princess, but it’s not just them – keep in mind, we’re there for you. Also while onboard, we also coordinate on-board group communication and onboard activities and get-togethers.
There is the time that goes into the preparation of things like the photo seminar that Chris often provides on cruises to help people take the best holiday photos.
The countless hours outlined above serve one purpose – it is our reason for organizing these trips. We work hard to bring a community of geocachers together for a fun group experience. This always was, and always will be our goal. We try very hard to apply our organizational skills to these trips so you can enjoy a worry-free travel experience and be part of an awesome group experience.

GROUP VALUE:
Group value comes in a variety of different forms. Some people feel a kinship with folks they regularly travel with and enjoy being in the company of other like-minded geocachers. Others join us because we offer experiences that they may not independently be able or comfortable to arrange themselves. Others like the ease of having all of the arrangements looked after for them – just show up and you’ll have a wonderful experience!

Regardless of the reason, almost everyone who has joined us on our travels has enjoyed being part of our groups and feels there is some intrinsic value in this activity above the basic cost of the cruise. While we do our best to keep additional costs low, we do hope you feel you receive excellent value for your money that covers the costs and time needed to bring groups together for international geocaching travel, and that the small extra cost is well worth it.

When we bring a group adventure together, we use the fact that we have 30, 40, 50, and sometimes over 70 people, to negotiate benefits for the group. Not all of the following apply to all trips, but they are all things we work hard to provide. It is only because we have a group that we are able to provide things like:

Private group tours,
Group dining areas,
Group get-togethers on cruises,
Extra onboard spending credits,
Group discounts,
Reduced, refundable deposits,
Private group transfers to and from hotels and airports, and
Private meet and greets and group seminars.

WHAT ARE THESE FEES? HOW MUCH MONEY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
The fees are typically show up in either of two places…

LANDSHARKZ FEE – this is usually between $75 and $100 per group trip. It is designed to compensate for all of the things stated above. In some cases, it is billed separately from the cruise cost; in other cases it may be included in the trip cost. Either way, it is usually there.
TRAVEL AGENT FEE – This is somewhere in the order of $100 per traveller, but will be quoted by Tara when you make a booking. It covers the extra work required to keep the group together. It takes a lot of time to organize group travel, coordinate arrival times, block-book hotels and transfers, etc. All this while travel providers like airlines cut agent commissions amid record profits.

Given that we are often able to negotiate group discounts and on-board credits, the final cost of your travel adventure – even with the above fees – is often less than the cost of booking the trip on your own. It doesn’t always work out that way, but we always work hard to get there. But if your final cost is a little bit more, you are paying for all of the things mentioned above and we hope you see value in that.

CONCLUSION:
If you choose to use our website, marketing, and the time we invest in carefully selecting exceptional geocaching adventures from the thousands of travel options available, we ask that you book as part of our group. Group participation benefits everyone and is what makes it possible for us to continue organizing these trips.

We’re committed to delivering strong value and a great experience, and we always welcome your feedback on how we can improve.