{"id":11382,"date":"2020-12-13T15:06:37","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T20:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acendasvacations.com\/?p=11382"},"modified":"2022-07-22T06:22:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-22T06:22:02","slug":"making-lemonade-out-of-lemons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acendas.com\/vacation\/making-lemonade-out-of-lemons\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Lemonade out of Lemons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lee and Maggie Valenta had their hearts set on the perfect 40th anniversary trip to St. Lucia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&nbsp;&nbsp;<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-11385\" src=\"https:\/\/acendasvacations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_4528-250x445.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"356\">Then the pandemic hit and new travel rules were put in place. They could still go, but the prospect of dedicating extra days to quarantine wasn\u2019t going to work for them. Do they cancel and wait until next year? Or, was there an alternative that would allow them to still celebrate this special milestone?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Enter Acendas Travel advisor Ann Gray, based in Minneapolis. She had designed the St. Lucia trip and she knew just how much it meant to them. So, she sat down with them and explored the options. She suggested that Sedona fit their personalities and offered the amenities and experiences that would make for a memorable experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe have been working with Ann since 2014,\u201d Maggie Valenta says. \u201c We had a bad experience with a different agency so we were leery, but she came highly recommended by a friend. We\u2019ve used her for countless international trips. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ann is always amazing. She is always prompt in returning emails and never misses a detail. This includes details from beginning to end &#8211; best airfare, private walking \/ driving tours of cities, restaurant and hotel recommendations etc.&nbsp; She has literally made our trips successful. That says much about her and Acendas Travel.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Says Gray, \u201cwhenever you have a trip cancelled that you were looking forward to, there is naturally some disappointment. So, I wanted to find a place where they could go and have a similar or better experience. Sedona made sense because the weather in late November was going to still be good, there were nice accommodations and t<\/span>he food, hiking and art amenities met their interests.\u201d<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11383 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/acendasvacations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_4556-250x188.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSedona made perfect sense for us,\u201d Maggie says. \u201cWe had been there 25 years ago, and it has only gott<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">en better. We did a little bit of everything. We enjoyed the art, the spa, took hikes, and even took a plane ride around the Grand Canyon. We got<\/span> so close to the features that you&nbsp;felt you could reach out and&nbsp;touch them. After the flight, we took a Jeep ride around the south rim. It was&nbsp;just spectacular.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">From a housing standpoint, the Valenta\u2019s were not disappointed. Rather than stay at a hotel , they opted for the L\u2019 Auberge de Sedona, which featured small cottages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cBecause Ann knew how important the view was in our hotel on our recent trip, she searched until she found the best room and then protected it,\u201d Maggie says. \u201c When we checked in, the clerk said: \u201cthere is a note on your reservation that says \u2018DO NOT MOVE!\u2019. Now, that is an excellent travel agent.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Valentas are seasoned travelers, so even though the circumstances were different, they were not fazed by the new protocols. In fact, they felt the travel experience may have been one of the better ones they experienced. As Maggie noted, \u201dif you are a tr<\/span><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11384 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/acendasvacations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/IMG_4544-250x188.jpg\" alt=\"\">ue traveler, then you are naturally adventurous and know you will face challenges.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the pandemic has caused some angst and roadblocks to their wanderlust as they near retirement age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe\u2019ve been to 50 different countries, and our goal was to get to 70 by the time we hit 70 years of age,\u201d Maggie says. But with Covid that is going to be difficult. Of course, with Ann helping us, I am sure she can make it happen!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lee and Maggie Valenta had their hearts set on the perfect 40th anniversary trip to St. Lucia. &nbsp;&nbsp;Then the pandemic hit and new travel rules were put in place. They could still go, but the prospect of dedicating extra days to quarantine wasn\u2019t going to work for them. Do they cancel and wait until next [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[39,71,36,209,210,211,212,35,49,213,81,50,116,99,51],"class_list":["post-11382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-acendas-travel","tag-acendas-vacations","tag-adventure","tag-anniversary","tag-excursions","tag-grand-canyon","tag-hiking","tag-luxury","tag-resort","tag-sedona","tag-spa","tag-travel","tag-travel-advisor","tag-travel-agent","tag-vacation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Making Lemonade out of Lemons - Acendas Vacations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acendas.com\/vacation\/making-lemonade-out-of-lemons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Lemonade out of Lemons - Acendas Vacations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lee and Maggie Valenta had their hearts set on the perfect 40th anniversary trip to St. Lucia. &nbsp;&nbsp;Then the pandemic hit and new travel rules were put in place. 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