Sue2
  • (Member) (Topic Starter)
(Member) (Topic Starter)
So, what does everyone think of the new brochure. I was hoping there would be more new holidays. After all the suggestions there is only one new USA (I love Florida so am pleased about that) and I can only find one completely new in Europe. I sure someone will correct me!
nixon
  • (Member)
(Member)
Hi Sue

Pg 2 says there is a total of 10 I think new holidays covering the whole set up... I have my eye on Florida looks very interesting...

Cindy

JY Will
(Member)
Hi Sue,

we are really excited to have 10 new or substantially revamped holidays for you in our new brochure.

We are really pleased about the new holidays we have got on offer and we hope that you can see where we have responded to your feedback.

We have listened to your suggestions for more rail holidays, a longer China tour, a Florida holiday and more in Italy and Croatia.

We are already planning our 2014 holidays for you and so do feel free to suggest anything that you would like to see.

Thanks

Will

the_baron1
(Member)
Hi Will,

Just received my new JY brochure this morning and had a quick look through it.

Although all your holidays are excellent the only one I would consider is the Vietnam / Cambodia tour but infact might wait for 2014 to see if you do put Hawaii in as a destination. My partner says can you reconsider Maderia for 2014 again.

Eric

Hils
  • (Member)
(Member)
'Sue2' wrote:

So, what does everyone think of the new brochure. I was hoping there would be more new holidays. After all the suggestions there is only one new USA (I love Florida so am pleased about that) and I can only find one completely new in Europe. I sure someone will correct me!

Hi. I am very disappointed with the new brochure - there are no NEW Worldwide tours - South African Explorer (which I did last year) is basically 2 days less and more expensive and Inspirational China is just revamped. Please please JY, put back on Kerala and Namibia. I'm not interested in 5 tours to the USA! I want to get all my Long Haul trips done before my travel insurance goes up. Sad also to see Costa Rica go, and Morocco - both of which were wonderful. 2014 maybe? Looks as though I may have to travel with Travelsphere instead, which is a shame as JY is excellent.

omoorem
(Member)
'the_baron1' wrote:

Hi Will,

Just received my new JY brochure this morning and had a quick look through it.

Although all your holidays are excellent the only one I would consider is the Vietnam / Cambodia tour but infact might wait for 2014 to see if you do put Hawaii in as a destination. My partner says can you reconsider Maderia for 2014 again.

Eric

Hi Will & Eric

Would agree that a Madeira holiday would be a great idea.

Maggie

Chloesonic :)
(Member)
Hiya

Yes I reed through the new broucher yesturday trying to plan my next holiday to China seeing a perfect one in the last broucher 2012/2013

just to comfirm the date and prices hadent changed.

They have taken two of the China holidays out and put a new 12 day one in ( that dosent look that good to be honest) even though the China holidays are always fully booked and popular Im gutted, setting my heart on that one. My friend from my last JY hol said something about the American holiday. so I might plan on booking Thailand instead :D

Chloe xx

Avocet64
(Member)
Hi Will/Sue

At the risk of upsetting the product team I feel I want to come out in support of Sue, somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to remember Ben promising "new and exciting holidays" in the 2013 brochure, well I think they forgot to put them in mine! (apologies to Ben if I dreamt it).

I guess if people are fairly new to JY there's a whole choice of holidays for them to choose from, but what about the people out there like myself who have been with JY for a while (11 long haul and 2 short haul), what's "new and exciting" for them. And I've lost count of the holidays that have disappeared since I started holidaying with JY.

I know there's 10 new holidays but looking down the list only 2 actually stood out for me, the one to Florida which I have no interest in as I have no desire to go to the USA and the one to Calabria which as a lover of Italy looks like a really good choice, but I hadn't planned on a short haul holiday just yet.

The Walking in the Ahr Valley is now by rail so I guess its just the train that makes it "new" not the holiday itself.

The South Africa Explorer has been changed a bit and had 2 days knocked off so I guess that could be classed as "new" but a big chunk is still the same as 2012.

Inspirational China. For anyone who has been to China in the past Shanghai and the Chendu Panda Breeding Centre may not be new as they used to be in a holiday to China that disappeared, but I think it would be a good holiday for anyone travelling to China for the first time.

Will says "you can see we have responded to feed back", feed back from who? It must be remembered that not everyone who goes on a JY holiday uses the community website and joins in the debates and discussions on there, if fact I have met people who didn't know it even existed and I dare say that there are people like myself who only dip into it now and again to see if there is anything relevant to an approaching holiday or because they have a gap in an otherwise busy day, like its pouring with rain and spoilt my plans for the day.

Will, I would like to see some NEW holiday destinations with a culture/lifestyle completely different from our own, somewhere in Asia or South America would be nice.

Hmmmm! I do see Calabria beckoning at some point tho.

JY Will
(Member)
'Avocet64' wrote:

Hi Will/Sue

At the risk of upsetting the product team I feel I want to come out in support of Sue, somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to remember Ben promising "new and exciting holidays" in the 2013 brochure, well I think they forgot to put them in mine! (apologies to Ben if I dreamt it).

I guess if people are fairly new to JY there's a whole choice of holidays for them to choose from, but what about the people out there like myself who have been with JY for a while (11 long haul and 2 short haul), what's "new and exciting" for them. And I've lost count of the holidays that have disappeared since I started holidaying with JY.

I know there's 10 new holidays but looking down the list only 2 actually stood out for me, the one to Florida which I have no interest in as I have no desire to go to the USA and the one to Calabria which as a lover of Italy looks like a really good choice, but I hadn't planned on a short haul holiday just yet.

The Walking in the Ahr Valley is now by rail so I guess its just the train that makes it "new" not the holiday itself.

The South Africa Explorer has been changed a bit and had 2 days knocked off so I guess that could be classed as "new" but a big chunk is still the same as 2012.

Inspirational China. For anyone who has been to China in the past Shanghai and the Chendu Panda Breeding Centre may not be new as they used to be in a holiday to China that disappeared, but I think it would be a good holiday for anyone travelling to China for the first time.

Will says "you can see we have responded to feed back", feed back from who? It must be remembered that not everyone who goes on a JY holiday uses the community website and joins in the debates and discussions on there, if fact I have met people who didn't know it even existed and I dare say that there are people like myself who only dip into it now and again to see if there is anything relevant to an approaching holiday or because they have a gap in an otherwise busy day, like its pouring with rain and spoilt my plans for the day.

Will, I would like to see some NEW holiday destinations with a culture/lifestyle completely different from our own, somewhere in Asia or South America would be nice.

Hmmmm! I do see Calabria beckoning at some point tho.

Hi there,

I really appreciate you taking the time to let us know your thoughts.

You are absolutely right to say that only a small percentage of our customers use this forum. We take our feedback from a number of different channels such as letters sent into us, Tour Managers who are interacting with our guests, our Product team actually getting out and talking to our customers face to face, surveys, customer satisfaction questionnaires, competitors and many many more places.

You will see that we have made some changes to a number of our holidays such as China, America's Golden West, South Africa, National Parks and more. These changes are as a direct result of people giving us their feedback.

We also introduced Route 66 holiday last year in response to a number of requests on this forum.

I understand that you are disappointed that there are no brand new long haul destinations this time around - but our product range is constantly evolving and so hopefully in the not too distant future there will be something that excites you.

One of the main challenges that we have is to design holidays that will appeal to a good number of people. What I would hate to happen is come up with a new holiday to somewhere a bit new and different, have someone book thinking they have found the holiday of a lifetime only for us to then have to tell them that only 5 people have booked and them not end up travelling.

We desperately want to please all of the people all of the time here - we only exist to put together holidays for our customers to enjoy. However, it takes a lot of time to put together a perfect holiday and so there is a limit to how much we can do for each new brochure. Your holidays with us are meticulously planned and that will never change.

I'm really disappointed that the new brochure hasn't been what you were hoping for and I assure you that I will discuss your thoughts with my colleagues.

Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to give us your thoughts on what we are doing and I hope you will find a holiday to join us on soon.

Thanks

Will

nixon
  • (Member)
(Member)
Can I just say it must be a logistic nightmare trying to build a new tour, and all the work that must go on behind the scenes.

I always book a on the go tour, there has to be somethings that interest me, that I want to see and experience. I can remember going on a USA tour to a place called Fort Sumpta (East Costliner I think) and thinking what's this all about and yet another lady was raving about it.. so that's what makes these journeys interesting it cannot just be tailor made for me it has to appeal to wide range of peoples tastes.

I was torn between 3 USA tours for 2013, 2 old ones and the new Florida one, I have gone for Florida..I can always find something in the brochures, the orient etc does not appeal to me, but I shall carry on travelling for as long as I can.

Cindy

paul s
  • (Member)
(Member)
Hi

Afraid i'm another one who is disappointed with the new brochure. I'm quite new to JY as far as holidays go - only done the one (this year) but have used a rival company for about four years and have done eight long haul trips with another to come next month with them in this time. I have always had a look at JY's holidays but whenever i've liked the look of a trip it has either been dropped or changed the following year. I had really fancied doing the Canadian Rockies & Alaskan cruise for this year but 12 months ago JY dropped the Alaskan cruise, so i booked Costa Rica and Nepal trips with the said competitor company instead. Next year i had been thinking of doing the S. Africa and Zambia holiday, but it appears it has now been shortened and no longer includes Swaziland. I am now not quite so keen on the look of it for the price!! Places such as Borneo have also disappeared over the last few years which i really liked the look of as well.

I really do wish JY would do some of the trips that Travelsphere do - Mexico, Burma and the Sumatra, Java and Bali holiday all really appeal! For me there are too many USA holidays on offer and not enough places with a different culture. I hope this changes for 2014 as i can see myself not going with JY next year again, which is a shame because i thought my trip earlier in the year was very well organised.

Paul

katy1717
(Member)
Will

I've only done one JY holiday so far with another booked for next month. So still a fair number of tours in the brochure on my wishlist. Just wanted to add my feedback on the new brochure, the positives and the negatives. I love Italy so am very very happy to see 2 new Italy tours in the new brochure, the Venice and Veneto and Calabria - which I have added to Apulia as tours on my to do list as soon as I have time, hopefully next year for at least 2 of these. There are also some other short haul holidays in other locations I will do when I have time. However, there are still lots more tours in the Travelsphere brochure in Italy and I would be very happy to see more in JY!

Was also glad to see the new Florida holiday which is now on my wishlist (along with the Parks and Little Big Horn and Route 66 trips). But am only likely to be able to do one of these next year, the others will have to wait for 2014/15 unfortunately. However, along with a lot of others I would really like to go to Alaska and to Hawaii - would be really happy to see these added.

As far as other long haul destinations am interested in Vietnam and maybe Oz and NZ (although a bit lukewarm on the latter two trips). But while I'm sure a lot of the rest are great, they're not really my interest - I guess we all have our different must sees.

I do take the point that you need to put on tours that enough people want to go on to make them economical and that the planning takes some time. I am also very appreciative that you listen to our views and opinions.

Katy

Bosuncat
(Member)
'nixon' wrote:

Can I just say it must be a logistic nightmare trying to build a new tour, and all the work that must go on behind the scenes.

I always book a on the go tour, there has to be somethings that interest me, that I want to see and experience. I can remember going on a USA tour to a place called Fort Sumpta (East Costliner I think) and thinking what's this all about and yet another lady was raving about it.. so that's what makes these journeys interesting it cannot just be tailor made for me it has to appeal to wide range of peoples tastes.

I was torn between 3 USA tours for 2013, 2 old ones and the new Florida one, I have gone for Florida..I can always find something in the brochures, the orient etc does not appeal to me, but I shall carry on travelling for as long as I can.

Cindy

I've looked at the new brochure with interest. Because of work problems I cannot book anything yet sadly. Got really excited about Croatia/Makarska Riviera. Thank you for that. Also Calabria. Again thank you! I saw this originally in the Page and Moy brochure and the hotel looked a real cracker.

The other one I liked the look of was Venice and the Veneto. A part of Italy that I have not been to. Good also to see that Just You have had a change of hotel in Lake Garda. Also that they are using Rijeka Airport instead of Zagreb for the Rabac trip. Certainly cuts down on the transfer time!

Sadly though for me its the old problem of flight times. Two of the trips I have looked at flying back to Gatwick do not land until late at night (according to the brochure) and would certainly mean overnighting down there. I usually use a guest house there if I have to, to cut down on costs and they dont do a transfer from the airport after 7pm and do not have a 24 hour reception. I do appreciate that there is not a lot that Just You can do about flight times but it is kind of a pity.

Thank you anyway for listening to some of the suggestions!

Gwyn
  • (Member)
(Member)
I know that I've banged on about this in earlier threads, but I wish JY would offer one or two more holidays during the English school holidays. I'm very happy to take the usual teasing about our long holidays, but the one problem we have is inflexibility of dates! I'd love to do an Italian Lakes holiday (Garda, Como etc), but none is available yet again in the new brochure.

A reasonably experienced teacher will often be cash rich and time poor. Personally, I would happily pay a couple of hundred quid extra to access some of your destinations which I currently have no chance of enjoying until I retire!

I'd also love a return of a revised version of my very first JY holiday in the Zell am See (I hope I got the spelling right!) area of Austria. That was a great holiday, though the hotel was somewhat eccentric!

I love JY holidays!

shyanne
(Member)
At the risk of being repetitive, I am so disappointed at the few holidays in August that school staff can go on - and none flying from Manchester! I really find it a pain getting to Heathrow or Gatwick for a weeks holiday, is add two extra days travelling for me when there is a big international airport on my doorstep!

And I am still waiting to get the new brochure.

Guess I will be looking at a different holiday company this year

Anne

PS There was a lot of negative feedback about the hotels used in Prague, Vienna and Budapest yet I see you are still using them - the one is Vienna was particulary poor and really does not represent value for money. Makes me wonder if there is amy point filling in the questionnaire or posing messages on the forum.

Avocet64
(Member)
'JY wrote:

'Avocet64' wrote:

Hi Will/Sue

At the risk of upsetting the product team I feel I want to come out in support of Sue, somewhere in the back of my mind I seem to remember Ben promising "new and exciting holidays" in the 2013 brochure, well I think they forgot to put them in mine! (apologies to Ben if I dreamt it).

I guess if people are fairly new to JY there's a whole choice of holidays for them to choose from, but what about the people out there like myself who have been with JY for a while (11 long haul and 2 short haul), what's "new and exciting" for them. And I've lost count of the holidays that have disappeared since I started holidaying with JY.

I know there's 10 new holidays but looking down the list only 2 actually stood out for me, the one to Florida which I have no interest in as I have no desire to go to the USA and the one to Calabria which as a lover of Italy looks like a really good choice, but I hadn't planned on a short haul holiday just yet.

The Walking in the Ahr Valley is now by rail so I guess its just the train that makes it "new" not the holiday itself.

The South Africa Explorer has been changed a bit and had 2 days knocked off so I guess that could be classed as "new" but a big chunk is still the same as 2012.

Inspirational China. For anyone who has been to China in the past Shanghai and the Chendu Panda Breeding Centre may not be new as they used to be in a holiday to China that disappeared, but I think it would be a good holiday for anyone travelling to China for the first time.

Will says "you can see we have responded to feed back", feed back from who? It must be remembered that not everyone who goes on a JY holiday uses the community website and joins in the debates and discussions on there, if fact I have met people who didn't know it even existed and I dare say that there are people like myself who only dip into it now and again to see if there is anything relevant to an approaching holiday or because they have a gap in an otherwise busy day, like its pouring with rain and spoilt my plans for the day.

Will, I would like to see some NEW holiday destinations with a culture/lifestyle completely different from our own, somewhere in Asia or South America would be nice.

Hmmmm! I do see Calabria beckoning at some point tho.

Hi there,

I really appreciate you taking the time to let us know your thoughts.

You are absolutely right to say that only a small percentage of our customers use this forum. We take our feedback from a number of different channels such as letters sent into us, Tour Managers who are interacting with our guests, our Product team actually getting out and talking to our customers face to face, surveys, customer satisfaction questionnaires, competitors and many many more places.

You will see that we have made some changes to a number of our holidays such as China, America's Golden West, South Africa, National Parks and more. These changes are as a direct result of people giving us their feedback.

We also introduced Route 66 holiday last year in response to a number of requests on this forum.

I understand that you are disappointed that there are no brand new long haul destinations this time around - but our product range is constantly evolving and so hopefully in the not too distant future there will be something that excites you.

One of the main challenges that we have is to design holidays that will appeal to a good number of people. What I would hate to happen is come up with a new holiday to somewhere a bit new and different, have someone book thinking they have found the holiday of a lifetime only for us to then have to tell them that only 5 people have booked and them not end up travelling.

We desperately want to please all of the people all of the time here - we only exist to put together holidays for our customers to enjoy. However, it takes a lot of time to put together a perfect holiday and so there is a limit to how much we can do for each new brochure. Your holidays with us are meticulously planned and that will never change.

I'm really disappointed that the new brochure hasn't been what you were hoping for and I assure you that I will discuss your thoughts with my colleagues.

Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to give us your thoughts on what we are doing and I hope you will find a holiday to join us on soon.

Thanks

Will

Hello Will

Thanks for your reply. In spite of my knocking the 2013 brochure I would like to say I really appreciate that yours is not an easy job and that you will NEVER be able to please all of the people all of the time how ever hard you try, everyone has different expectations on what they want from a holiday. I personally don't really have a "dream" holiday, I just enjoy anywhere where I can see a different way of life and I have learnt so much about other cultures with JY, whether it be with your team or others who have gone before you, so thank you. Oh, and just make sure you put Tibet in the 2014 brochure, I've seen the himalayas from Nepal (that was a good JY holiday), I would quite like to see them from the other side, only joking!

patricebry
(Member)
Hi,

Unfortunately all the holidays I'm interested in are from Gatwick and Heathrow - fewer than ever from Manchester, I have done the Manchester to Heathrow trip several times (and again in 2 days) but enough is enough. It costs me a total of £180 to get to Heathrow. It's bad enough having to do this for a long haul holiday but ridiculous for a European one.

Pat

pat534
  • (Member)
(Member)
As someone who has done several long hauls and a couple of European holidays with Just You I was looking forward to some exciting new long haul destinations.I have no interest in USA and prefer to go to countries which have different cultures.India,Costa rica, S Africa,Kenya and Borneo were thoroughly enjoyable.I am going to Vietnam next year so not many others left that appeal.

I would love to go to some of the European destinations but flights from Heathrow or Gatwick mean extra expence travelling from Manchester especially if flights leave early morning or return late thus involving an overnight stay.

I love my Just You holidays . I hope I will be able to continue holidaying with you.

Bosuncat
(Member)
'patricebry' wrote:

Hi,

Unfortunately all the holidays I'm interested in are from Gatwick and Heathrow - fewer than ever from Manchester, I have done the Manchester to Heathrow trip several times (and again in 2 days) but enough is enough. It costs me a total of £180 to get to Heathrow. It's bad enough having to do this for a long haul holiday but ridiculous for a European one.

Pat

i agree. Weirdly enough I am off to Heathrow on Friday for my yearly private trip to Detroit. Because I am being picked up on the way back its actually marginally cheaper to get a taxi down instead of going down on National Express and then overnighting at a hotel.

Back to the point though. ALL the holidays I have looked at fly from Gatwick only again. And all of them would mean me overnighting either on the way out or back. Because of National Express having hardly any direct buses back now to Nottingham from Gatwick (it's now changing in London) its the length of the journey I object to. I think that I have mentioned on here before that in May after my wonderful trip with Just You to Rabac that after leaving the hotel at 730am I didnt get home until after 11pm at night.

I know, and appreciate that there is not a lot that Just You can do but for a short flight of just over 2 hours the travelling time and the cost is becoming very difficult. Train is an option of course (as long as I can avoid London) but still expensive and even so I would have to overnight.

Iris C
  • (Member)
(Member)
I want to thank Just You for giving us Singles the chance to holiday in exciting places and meet great people, but I am also very disappointed with the new brochure. I favour Asia whilst I am still able to do long haul but there is little on offer. I did Vietnam and Cambodia this year and that was fantastic. I have also toured China which again was wonderful. I am now looking at another Singles holiday company to do Sri Lanka next year. I have looked at the Travelsphere holiday to Sri Lanka but I have no wish to be "billy no mates" with a tour full of couples. Come on Just You, give us more variety. Australia and South Africa are out of the question because of cost and the length of the holiday. America is way down my list of "to do's" as I have been to some of the places in the brochure. There are a number of tours to Italy but I am trying to avoid Europe whilst I am still able to do long haul. Although I was looking at Prague, Vienna and Budapest, the poor hotels that Just You are using have put me off going there. Perhaps the team could come up with alternative Asian tours for next year's brochure.

Iris

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