Growth & Grace

Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program.

Wesley Knight 0:05
The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Even better than that was the last time, baby

Music 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back.

Leaha Crawford 0:46
Hey, Julian, we missed you. How you doing? We missed you doing the March Madness. Man No,

Julian Rosado 0:55
used to woman's Oh, they put a woman. They put a beating. They put a beating. UCLA, they put a beating on them. What's wrong?

Leaha Crawford 1:07
Yeah, my face is tight, yeah, I saw it. But I want to tell you this, though I love doing stately. Oh, I think you I mean UCLA, I think it was a well. I mean, it was a well played game, and they earned it. Yeah, those seniors, those seniors have been working together for some years. Yeah, but please don't discount University of South Carolina. Don't ever discount University South Carolina. I know I what I love is, is that these women are going into these programs and now women's sports. I mean, people are really looking at women's sports. Yeah, and that's huge, because they've been playing women's sports forever, but now they're, I mean, they're really getting the spotlight, and I enjoy it like WNBA is starting soon.

Julian Rosado 1:52
Yeah, I don't know what the men's have to do, but the women's basketball is way more entertaining. It is way

Leaha Crawford 2:00
more entertaining it well, okay, well, depending who you talk to, right? Because, some people, because some men, some, you know, some mask, you know, I don't watch women's sports. I know women's sports is way more it is. And they, when I tell you those women were playing, yeah, those women, those women and shot, I mean, shout out to all the teams, because it's a lot to get it's a lot to get there, especially

Julian Rosado 2:21
when it's one and done. It's not like, it's

Leaha Crawford 2:23
not like, Well, you got a few times to make it up. You got one time to get out there and make it happen. So shout out to all of them. Did you watch the other game in Michigan and watch them all? You did okay, because I, you know, I was UConn, but, you know, and my son was like, Yeah, you would be. I was like, I'm just saying, but good. I mean, it was, it was a good time. But what I love now is that they're also promoting the weekend, yeah, so promoting people to go to the town to enjoy the weekend in college sports. And I was like, you want to know? Maybe we'll know one year we'll go and see a Final Four or not, just wait for it to come to Vegas, but just travel to go see what it's like to be Yeah, around March May, no, NBA team

Julian Rosado 3:04
is coming here. I heard,

Leaha Crawford 3:07
I heard, I heard they're trying to find a name,

Julian Rosado 3:09
yeah, yeah. It's either going to be Seattle, it's three, it's going to

Leaha Crawford 3:13
be the Seattle. No, they're getting, I thought they were getting an expansion team.

Julian Rosado 3:16
Yeah, but it's going to be Seattle, Portland, or I forget what the third is, yeah, I wouldn't

Leaha Crawford 3:25
even talk about that because I think, I think they're not, they already have teams.

Julian Rosado 3:29
Yeah, no, but they're, they're leaving their cells.

Leaha Crawford 3:32
I thought that we were getting an expansion team. We're getting our own team. No, no, they're there. No, I think, I think I think you're wrong. Julian on this one. I believe. I believe, no, we're no, they're expanding the league, and we're getting an expansion No, we're getting our own team. They're not coming from somebody else. I think we're getting, and check your facts on that one, but I think we're getting an expansion team. So we'll have, it will be a Las Vegas team, but I think that's going to be huge with the NBA. I think, I think with all the stuff we have going on. But today, y'all, we're talking about traveling, right? Going to see all these places. We have the amazing Christy case on here with us today, and we're going to talk about, yo, how do we do this travel thing? Because it's almost summertime, and we got, we got to move around. Oh yeah, hey,

Christy Cason 4:16
Christy, hello. Hello, everyone. I'm wonderful. How are you today?

Leaha Crawford 4:21
So Christy, tell us a little bit about where. Where is Miss Christy from?

Christy Cason 4:25
Well, thank you for having me here today. First of all, I appreciate it. I'm Christy Quezon with case on travel and tours. I'm originally from Detroit, Michigan. I relocated here to Las Vegas about 28 years ago. Been serving the community proudly. So yes, case on travel and tours, we're a full service travel agency. We book trips all around the world. We create VIP experiences for our clients. So we specialize in fun,

Leaha Crawford 4:55
fun, so you take the stress out of travel.

Christy Cason 4:56
That is correct? We like to make travel easy. Easy for our clients and make it safe. And make it safe. We want to make it safe because we know there's turbulence that happens in our world sometimes. And you know right now, some people don't want to travel as much, but it's okay to it's a cycle. It will change.

Leaha Crawford 5:17
All right, so from Detroit, Michigan, been here for you. Said, what?

Christy Cason 5:20
Almost 30 years, 28 years I have been here. I know I don't even feel like a transplant anymore. Oscar Ray said,

Leaha Crawford 5:26
No, you, you look 28 so, so you came here as a baby. I did came here as a baby, okay, in diapers, in diapers, all right, I got it. So, traveling. So if you, because I hear a lot of people talk about, and I've wanted to bring you on the show, because sometimes we believe that travel is not accessible to us, right? Yes, and just to know, just to, you know, let's, let's take away that myth, because, or people wait, you know, I'll travel when I get older.

Christy Cason 5:58
Yes, that's not a good plan. I'm going to be honest. I say if you if you're young and healthy, why you have the energy, the stamina, you don't have those aches and pains to worry about. We are most of us give vacation time so you can just spend your discretionary time traveling. Because sometimes, when you get older, you're ill, you don't have the energy to travel. You have aches and pains. You might not want to walk around Europe on cobblestone streets on cobblestone you might not want to walk to the Parthenon, the Acropolis, where they have where the streets are smooth, and you could possibly slip and fall. I've been there before. I know. Okay. So going up those stairs, you have to be agile, you have to have good balance. So my tip is travel. Now, while you are young, you're youthful, you're vibrant, you can explore the world. You can see what you like, and then perhaps when you're older, you can go back to those destinations that you saw, that you like. I've been traveling up a storm for the past 40 years. I did not want to wait till I was older to travel. I want to have fun. Now. There's so many things to see in the world. Where's your favorite? My favorite destination is South Africa. Wow, is it. Talk to us about that. You know, I love South Africa. I've been there twice only, and I want to go back several more times. So the people there are friendly. You're stepping on to Mother Earth. It's a difference. They welcome you home. When you go to Africa, there's a big sign right in the in the airport saying, Welcome home. Wow, because life started in Africa, right? So it's very nice there. The the food is great. Everything's freshly made. You're not getting a lot of fast food like we're used to here, processed fast food. You know, people were concerned about that. Well, how is the food going to taste in Africa? It was awesome. Everything freshly prepared. Just great. So the experience is nice. You get to experience South Africa. We went to Soweto. We went to Nelson Mandela's home, his home that he grew up in. It's a museum now, okay, so you get to see that. You get to see Bishop tutu's home. I mean, they're on the same block, Nobel Prize winners, peace winners, so Nobel Prize winners? Yeah, it's fabulous just to see that area. Go to the apartheid Museum. You get to learn a lot about South Africa. I'm into learning a lot about different cultures, so I love to investigate the cultures. When I go there, go to the museums, different things of that nature. Look at the art. So you're a tourist. That's the best way to say you're a tourist. I am. I am a tourist. And that's what got me into the travel business. I was in the banking industry before I started and travel. I was in the banking industry for 12 years, so that was the financial industry. And then I said, now, what would I like to do? What type of job would I enjoy? I didn't want to just get another job for the sake of having a job just to make a paycheck, right? So, you know, I took about six months. I researched everything, and I landed right on travel, and I've been here for 31 years. Oh, wow, it's been 31 years, wow, since I've been in the travel business. So I enjoy helping people fulfill their dream vacations.

Julian Rosado 9:14
What is the process for traveling? Because I know, like when my sister, when she went to, well, she's currently in Japan. So what is the process for somebody to travel out of the country?

Christy Cason 9:24
Well, if you want to travel out of the country, first of all, you definitely need to have a passport. So I would suggest you apply for your passport. Passports, they have a value of 10 years. They last for 10 years, so you can travel around the world, but you definitely need to acquire that passport. It takes about four to six weeks when the government is not temporarily shut down. It takes about four to six weeks to receive your passport, but I would say allow extra time right now, with all the things that are going on, some of the departments are shut down in the government, so get your passport, and then you can call a travel. Professional like myself, and I'll help you plan your vacation. I'll take the stress out of planning your vacation. I know which airlines to look at, I know which hotels are nice to stay in. I know how to get you from the airport to your hotel. We can design tours for you. So the planning process is very good. You can plan up to, you know, almost a year in advance, wow. So that way you can put a deposit down on your vacation and make payments on you don't have to pay for everything at once.

Leaha Crawford 10:28
Wow. And I think that's a that's, that's

Julian Rosado 10:31
a big factor too. Yeah, it's a key,

Leaha Crawford 10:32
because they see and, know, sometimes you look at it and you just see the ticket price, and you're

Christy Cason 10:36
like, yes, and right now,

Christy Cason 10:38
all at once, all at once, right? So I

Christy Cason 10:40
know we make it easy for you can put down a deposit, and then you can make monthly payments on your vacation. So it's like a layaway plan. Layaway plan for a vacation. Yes, indeed. So it's not, not too expensive,

Julian Rosado 10:53
not too expensive. What about the language barrier?

Christy Cason 10:56
Well, of course, you have language barriers going to different places, and that's one of the things I love, you can learn a new language, or at least learn a few words of the language, because when you go to other countries, they do expect you to know their language, not fluently, but they expect you to at least try to speak their way.

Leaha Crawford 11:14
Say yes, yes. Like, don't want that one. No.

Christy Cason 11:18
You don't know where the bathroom is. You want to know the currency. You want to know help.

Leaha Crawford 11:27
This does some basic words, basic words, some basic word. I'm not asking you to hold, I'm not asking you to speak fluently. I'm just saying Correct. Just get some basic words. Yeah, they have a lot of apps out there now to do they wear apps where you can, where they can talk into it, it'll translate, and you can talk into it, and it'll translate back. Sometimes I wonder, though, if you don't know the word, you don't know what they say,

Christy Cason 11:49
that is correct. And just a quick Funny story, years ago, probably before all of the internet this translation came out, we went, we went to Spain, and my mom and my aunt got there a day later because of the airlines. So my sister had typed out some cards with information so they could show the driver because they didn't speak the language. And when he saw that, he was like, yes, yes, I know exactly where to take you, like, see, see. And my mother thought, you're giving me cards to show the driver, and then she said, Thank you. Was so helpful well,

Leaha Crawford 12:25
but I guess you wouldn't if you've never traveled abroad, those are the little things that could cause you to be frustrated.

Christy Cason 12:32
That is true. You get to Italy or you get to someplace else, and most people do not speak English. We take for granted that everybody speaks English because they do here in the States, but it's not true. You need to learn basic words when you're traveling to other countries. It's most helpful. It's most helpful.

Leaha Crawford 12:49
Okay, Christy, so you got some some things coming up soon, so let's talk about that.

Christy Cason 12:55
Let's talk about some fun stuff in October. Right now, we're planning a wine tasting tour over to Sedona. So a lot of people don't know there's a nice wine tasting region over in Sedona, the valley, verde region. Wow. So we're going to go over there. We're going to stay for a night. We're going to go to probably about three different vineyards. We'll take a tour of the vineyard. We'll do wine tasting, and as they call it, wine flights. So when you go to the vineyards, you'll take a flight, a tasty flight. Be careful.

Leaha Crawford 13:25
You want and you want somebody to be driving.

Christy Cason 13:27
That is why I charter a bus. So we sit back and relax. The bus driver does all the driving because it's a flight. We can take the wide flights, and we can bring wine home. If you want to purchase wine in that area. You can bring it home. You don't have to worry about, we're on the airplane, and you cannot take bottles of wine on the plane. You don't have to worry about that. It's eliminated when you're on the bus. It's nice. It's leisurely. You can take as many bottles of wine home as you like. Plus they ship also from that region. I love it.

Leaha Crawford 13:57
I love it. So in Sedona. So Sedona is Arizona, correct?

Christy Cason 14:00
It is, that's the Red Rock region. It's beautiful there. So we'll go to the wine tasting region. We'll stay at a hotel casino there, so people can get their gambling on and bowling and different things of that nature at the hotel. And then like so we'll venture out to the wineries, and then we'll venture into Sedona itself, because the town of Sedona, there's lots of dining shopping. There's quaint restaurants, ice cream shops. That sounds so cool. It is. You just walk around. You're looking at all these red rocks. It feels fabulous. It's something medicinal about the red rocks. And you're walking around that region, it just feels calm. You can just sight see if you want to, you can sit and people watch, you know, or you can shop

Leaha Crawford 14:45
so, and then you're not driving, because

Christy Cason 14:46
you can relax on the bus. You can even have a glass of wine on the bus, you know, we have food on the bus, things of that nature. What's your favorite one? My favorite wine? I would have to say probably whites and. Find Dave.

Leaha Crawford 15:04
So and what date

Leaha Crawford 15:07
in October, October the

Leaha Crawford 15:08
17th, October the seventh. So leave on the 17th and come back on the 18th.

Christy Cason 15:12
Yes, so it's a Saturday, come back on a Sunday. You don't, most people don't need to take time off of work. Only take up, okay, yes, just a small, close trip, something in town, you don't have to fly you don't need to fly out of the country, right? I know that's a concern with some travelers right now, so we're providing some things that are closer to home, so people don't have to worry about that. People don't have to take off work. They can take a weekend trip.

Julian Rosado 15:34
Have some fun. What's the weather out there?

Christy Cason 15:38
It's nice. It's warmer than here. But in Sedona, in that region, it's not super hot, because you're in Valley verde. So it's the wine region around there, so the temperatures are just a teeny bit cooler. Wow, yes. But it's warm there, typically year round.

Leaha Crawford 15:56
So I see also, because you handed us this, this icon of the seas, this, okay, we're talking about getting one, I'm sorry, a ship. I called it Robo, right?

Christy Cason 16:07
The icon of the seas by Royal Caribbean. It's sailing from Miami. So again, we have a cruise selling a boutique Jazz Fest at sea. It's departing January the ninth through the 16th of 2027 so it's leaving for Miami. All you have to do is fly into Miami. Is so much to do on this ship, as you can see in their brochure, it's adventure, if you like adventure, if you just want to relax, if you want to play golf or basketball, play golf. It's all on the ship. On the ship, they have a putting green on.

Julian Rosado 16:38
Looks like you'll forget your I see

Christy Cason 16:41
exactly, it's a floating resort, actually, okay, it's a floating resort. You might think you're walking around the MGM Grand or something of that nature. There's a spa, there's a casino, you have karaoke, you have piano bars, and they have shows on water, on ice. They have an ice skating rink on this cruise ship. You can lace up your own skates and go skating, or you can just sit back and watch it.

Leaha Crawford 17:09
Ice show. You can go, okay, so you

Julian Rosado 17:14
play basketball and then play basketball,

Leaha Crawford 17:17
and then go swimming.

Christy Cason 17:19
And if you want to learn how to surf, they have a surf simulator on board the ship, and they will teach you how to ride that surfboard on the ship. Yes, indeed, all of it on the ship. Oh, some of these ships even have zip lines on them, so you can zip right across the ship as well that you can see the ice shows. You can see shows on water. They have an aqua theater where the divers perform. They do deaf diving performances. So you have your option. You can do it all or do nothing at all. On these ships, you have no excuse to not have a good time, no excuse. And if you don't want to do anything, you can relax on your balcony, just look at the ocean and listen to the waves. Oh, wow, so, but you can do it all. There's a spa on board. So I'm a spa junkie. I love to go to the spa every day on board the ship. They have the steam room, the sauna. I love those. It's so good for your health, okay? And that ties in with travel. Travel and wellness. They go hand in hand. Travel and wellness. You need to travel in order to maintain your wellness and your balance. Okay, you have to change your scenery. It resets your brain. When you change your scenery, it gives your brain a chance to reset. Oh, wow. And we all need that Okay, y'all need that reset.

Leaha Crawford 18:39
Need the reset. All right, you are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford. This is Julian Rosado, and we are talking about traveling. And thought it was very important, because I you know, just how do we get up and go? How do you the first trip? Now, when you book someone's first trip, tell me, talk to me about the because it's the pre before they go. I'm sure you get a whole bunch of different questions.

Christy Cason 19:04
Indeed, I typically talk to my clients about seven times on average, to finalize their trip, to make sure we have everything as they want it. So a client will come to me and say, Hey, Christy, I want to go to Jamaica, or I want to go on a cruise. So I'll ask some questions, of course, to find out, what type of travel Do they like when they want to travel, the number of travelers in their party? So I will definitely qualify the client. The client first, okay, and then I'll present options to them for their trips.

Julian Rosado 19:37
They probably over pack too.

Christy Cason 19:40
A lot of people over pack. I'm guilty of that. When I first started traveling, I don't do it now, I know how to pack with one suitcase. Now, really, I'm trying to tell you, I was like, when I went to Australia, before I had three suitcases, it was too much. Oh, my three there for 11 days. I was there for 11 days. I was like, I need all these clothes, and then you don't wear half of them, because when you're on the cruise ship, it. Casual. Everybody's walking around in their shorts, their jeans, their casual clothes, their gym shoes, everybody's just chilling on board the ship. It's a moving ship, so you want to have some comfortable flat shoes, some rubber shoes. Okay, so it's just,

Leaha Crawford 20:15
let's talk about that. Because packing, because, yo, I've seen I'm like, so where are you going? Okay, so you need five bags. How long you staying?

Christy Cason 20:27
Some women have one bag, just full of shoes. I've learned not to take excess jury. I used to take all of this jury that I don't wear. Okay, you're on vacation. It's light, it's like, I don't even feel like putting on Jerry, okay? And I bring it sometimes. So I learned to pack light. Okay, I know that.

Leaha Crawford 20:45
I grab that though. Describe No, no. For real. Describe packing light. Because I think, okay, the because when you're going on a trip and you're looking at everything, it's like, okay, I want to do. I'm gone for seven days, yes, and for seven days, I'm going to dinner, probably about five of the days out to dinner. But I'm during the day, I'm going swimming. I want to go to the spa, right? I want to I want to ice skate. So the outfit for ice skating is different from the outfit that you're going to wear to the pool. That's correct. So how do I account for all these activities in this one bag?

Christy Cason 21:26
Well, my tips are to take light clothing, cotton clothing, okay, things that you can fold easily, things that might not wrinkle a lot as well. You also might want to take something that you can repeat you might have a pair of pants or or something that you might have a pair of black slacks, you might change it up with a different shirt once or twice, or your blue jeans. You know, people wear jeans, you know, several days sometimes. So you might want to take jeans and different shirts. Me, I'm a spa person. I love to get in the whirlpools and the swimming pools. So I take seven swimsuits. I take a different swimsuit for every day because that is because I do not want to wash while I'm on vacation. Okay? I don't want to wash clothes or cook or clean. That's part of being on vacation. I take seven swimsuits, and I take plenty of cover ups. You need cover ups. You need light casual clothing. As far as shoes. Ladies pack a pair of black shoes, a pair of white shoes, a pair of gold shoes or tan shoes. You can kind of wear them. You can mix and match those with everything. You want to take gym shoes. You might want to work out. Of course, you definitely want to take some good walking shoes and good gym shoes, because when you

Leaha Crawford 22:35
Well, that's a whole bag. Christy, you need about five that's the whole bag.

Christy Cason 22:39
You can pack those five shoes in one bag. So you're

Leaha Crawford 22:41
saying when they bring in, they bring about 20 pair of shoes when they got the whole suitcase, exactly. That's because I'm look I was looking at. So how could you travel for seven days, and that cute little carry on bag, the two carry on bags. Are you talking about a carry on I want? I said, Two. I said, No, well, too, well, I did say too, because it cute little set that has the tote carry on. It has the tote and it has the roller, and you put the roller, the tote on top the roller, my thing is eased through the airport, because part of it is just getting through the airport and making sure that when I arrive, my luggage arrives. That's for me.

Christy Cason 23:23
You definitely have to pack light. You have to know how to roll your clothes. Okay, you can roll your clothes. You need to fold. They got a YouTube video for that. You have to fold. There should be one. They'll show you how to pack very light, fold your clothes, roll your clothes, put your clothing in those shrink bags. Okay? Sometimes you'll see those plastic bags so you can put your clothing in. I utilize those when I travel. Compress it. It helps. It really does help. Okay? So definitely utilize that. And just don't overthink it. We overthink it. Take too many clothes a lot of times when we travel, and then you don't wear half of them. I go home sometime I said, Well, there's three outfits I didn't wear.

Leaha Crawford 24:02
Yeah, that's right. I ain't gotta think about and put that on tomorrow. All right, okay, right, right. Put that on.

Christy Cason 24:06
It's easy. So you definitely can't pack light. And I would suggest it, because, as you said, it makes your travel easier. When you're going through the airports, you want to lift all this luggage up. You want to hurt your shoulders. You don't want to, you know, back in the day, you used to be able to pack 75 pounds in the luggage. Now you can. Now it's 50 or 40 on some air, some airline

Leaha Crawford 24:27
it is. Well, let's talk about that, though, because I guess having someone like you that has traveled, you know, what those requirements are on a different airlines? Yes, because what if I am on one airline, but then to go overseas, I have to

Christy Cason 24:42
get on another airline. And that's correct. And overseas and in Europe, their requirements are less than ours. Oh, they don't want you to have a 40 pound carry on on the plane. They might want you to have a 23 pound.

Leaha Crawford 24:57
So that's the side. That's that's the weight of the luggage.

Christy Cason 24:59
I mean, I'm so it's. It's definitely different when you go to different countries and don't expect them, you know, if we we measure in pounds, they measure in something different. You better know what they measure in, because they're not going to be so easy to tell you. So a lot of times, I carry a little weight, a handheld weight that you can pack in your luggage, and it'll give you what the pounds are, what the kilometers are, things of that nature. So you can weigh your luggage, make sure it's not too heavy. So when you get to the airport, you're not standing there trying to unpack and shift your clothes to different pieces of luggage. We've all had to do that before.

Julian Rosado 25:37
What sort of hiccups does a client usually call about, I'm sure they call, call you once they arrive, and say, like, Okay, I'm dealing with this issue.

Christy Cason 25:48
I don't get a lot of hiccups, thank goodness,

Leaha Crawford 25:51
because you play, because you plan it, and you Oh, yeah. A lot of it is awareness.

Christy Cason 25:54
Yes, you have to be in detail, so that way, you know, a lot of times it's a flight delay, or my luggage is missing. I didn't get my luggage for two days, but that's

Leaha Crawford 26:05
why I would take my stuff and

Christy Cason 26:07
sitting with me. You can do it that way, or you can also take our trip cancelation insurance, especially if you're going overseas, over, you know, to another country, a different continent, because it also covers baggage, delays, lost luggage. A lot of people are not aware of that. Oh, wow. So it covers that for if your luggage is lost for two days, for two days, then they will give you an allotment so you can go out and buy the things that you need so you can still enjoy your vacation. Well, Christy,

Leaha Crawford 26:33
I hate to cut this conversation short, but I'm gonna have to, but I'm going to continue it, though, because I'm gonna bring you back one next week, and we're going to continue talking about this, because there are some more questions that I have for you, but you are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford. This is Julian Rosado, and we're going to talk we're going to continue talking to Christy, because I think traveling, it's a skill, and you have to learn it. And we're going to give out some more tips on next week's show. So until next week, y'all, peace and blessings. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai