Blog #2: Journey Mapping

Louis is a tall slender man, starting to bald, who is approaching his late fifties.  He has a quiet disposition, but is passionate about things he cares about (his job and his kids). He has been a workaholic his whole life. Finally, in his fifties, Louis has seen the importance of exercise (as he enjoys Pilates twice a week) and tries to eat healthier (a salad whenever he can).  He has a love for the outdoors. He kayaks, sails and hikes on the weekends.  Louis spent much of his life working hard at his job to provide for his family. His career has involved only working for a handful of companies. He values education (he is an engineer and has an MBA) because he can take on leadership roles with confidence. He believes that an education is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Louis earned his Executive MBA (with a 4.0) while working full time and starting a family. He quickly learned the value of time management. He is also an optimist, and approaches every problem like he will find the best solution. He isn’t usually ruled by emotion, and is a very analytical person. Louis likes to stick to his plan, and prefers timeliness. Louis enjoys crunching numbers, creating spreadsheets to weigh the pros and cons of a decision, and reading reviews before making high involvement purchasing decisions.  Louis likes to feel like he is making the smartest decisions with his time and money. Louis dresses professionally, but is not concerned with the latest trends and fashions. He doesn’t care about what is ‘cool,’ but buys both clothing based on comfort, functionality and quality. He also tries to stay up to date with technology because of his profession, and because he considers himself a first mover in terms of both hardware and software programs. Louis has all the latest gadgets because he thinks they provide utility to his life. He sees no use for social media, and doesn’t want to take the time to understand it. He does find value when looking at online reviews and uses Yelp, Zagat, Trip Advisor, Priceline, Kayak, and Google reviews among others when planning a trip. Despite his love for a routine, Louis is still open to new experiences and adventures that enrich his life. He is always motivated to learn something new.  His children jokingly tell him that his theme song should be the Indiana Jones theme song.

In December of 2011, Louis decided he wanted to give himself and his children the ultimate Christmas gift – a family vacation.  His three kids range between the ages of 18-25.  His objective was to spend quality time to bond with his children, make memories and provide an educational experience.

The first journey milestone was inviting family to travel. Louis knew he only wanted to invite his three children because it had years since a family vacation. Louis rarely took time off from work, and since his divorce, he really wanted to prioritize being a dad. Although his children were older, he still wanted to make memories with them and be influential in their lives. Louis’s children no longer lived with him, so he made a point to communicate with his kids through email, phone calls and text (he learned for them) on a weekly basis. He wanted to invite his children on this trip to provide an educational experience for his family. He also didn’t know when else the four of them would be able to take a trip together, and Louis wanted to seize the moment.  This holiday time seemed like the perfect opportunity. It makes Louis feel good to act as a leader and provide the opportunity for his family to have new experiences.

Once his three children agreed to go on the trip in December, Louis started looking for available dates that worked with all four schedules. A main factor for making this trip happens was the availability of all four travelers. It was stressful to coordinate school and work schedules. Once the dates of December 16 to 21^st were locked in, Louis was thrilled and relieved. He was glad the schedules matched up. It is important to him to have a good relationship and make good memories with his children. With less than a month to plan, Louis began to research places within the United States. He felt that it would be more economical to stay within the United States, and there were so many places he hadn’t been. His primary influence was picking a place that the whole family could enjoy. He looked at travel sites, and top cities in the US to visit. Since it was around the holidays, Louis narrowed the choices down to snow skiing (he last took his children when they were too young to remember) or New York City (because his children had never been, and he had gone once in the third grade). He opened up the decision to his children, and New York was the top choice. Louis was excited that he could really start planning. He felt that NYC could provide an educational opportunity in terms of culture, restaurants and activities. The price for airfare also influenced selecting the destination location, and the flights to NYC were priced better than the flights to Colorado.  However, after Louis purchased the plane tickets for his family, he worried that he might have been able to find a cheaper deal. He felt like he got better prices through browsing multiple travel sites, but he also worried that better deals were always coming up. He didn’t have too long to brood over this decision, because there were more parts of the trip to book. Ever the optimist, Louis knew he would find a way to make it all work out.

After the airfare was purchased, Louis started researching hotels. He wanted to find a quality hotel in the center of the city. He also wanted a reasonable price, and he did price comparisons on sites such as Priceline, Kayak and Travelocity. Louis was trying to adhere to a budget, and assumed they would barely be in the rooms for all the activities they were planning.  Louis also wanted to pick a hotel close to the activities of the city so that they could walk to all the activities rather than rent a car. He also wanted to experience the subway system in New York and the art of hailing a taxi. Louis felt like this would add to their trip. In the end, he booked their hotel rooms at the Sheraton. He liked the convenience of the location, and the quality of the rooms. Although it was a little more expensive than he had planned, he reminded himself it was a vacation after all.

Once these details were established, Louis started inputting trip details into a TripIt app. In case the group got separated, everyone on this trip to know what activities were scheduled per day. Louis planned all the tours in advance, and even chose the restaurants prior to arriving in New York. He used online reviews to base his decisions, and wanted to maximize their time.  Since everything was planned, he thought it was help his family pack accordingly for each activity. The weather was another consideration to what clothes were packed, and for which activities were scheduled per day. For example, Louis said he scheduled the Statue of Liberty tour on the day least likely to rain.

As the trip approached, Louis and family strategically packed gloves, hats and long coats. The flight from Texas to New York went seamlessly, and Louis was happy with the travel arrangements he had made.

Since it was such a short trip, so Louis worked to incorporate activities that would be capture the essence of New York. Louis initially found Real New York Walking tours on Trip Advisor, and was influenced by the thousands of positive reviews.  Louis thought, all these people can’t be wrong; I want my family to have this much fun seeing New York. He liked the uniqueness of seeing the perspective of a “real New Yorker” rather than just getting a complete tourist experience by self-guided tours. Louis selected the tour guide Ben because he seemed to identify with his family – he had a love for food. Louis thought to himself, I’m really proud that I was able to find this; my children are going to be so surprised by this experience. Louis recounted what a great time they actually did have on this walking tour. He tried dim sum for this first time, and had a real New Yorkers’ view of the city. This activity far exceeded Louis’s expectations.

Louis had never been to a Broadway show, and his children hadn’t either. His youngest son begged to go to The Book of Mormon over Wicked, so Louis relented. The Book of Mormon had received numerous awards, and was written up as a great comedy. Although very expensive, Louis purchased the tickets to make his son happy. His children laughed hysterically at the show, but Louis felt uncomfortable during parts of it. Louis didn’t appreciate all the lewd jokes, and said it wasn’t anything he would have picked to see. He did enjoy the experience of attending a Broadway show, and he was glad his children at least enjoyed it. Louis maintained a positive outlook about the whole experience.

On the following day, Louis and his family took the ferry to an iconic US landmark. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island were highlights of the trip. The Statue of Liberty was under renovation during the time, but nevertheless very impressive. Louis was overwhelmed by the history and significance of these places. So many families immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island, and Louis wondered if any of his relatives were among them. Louis and his youngest son were fascinated with history, and this was a highlight of the trip for them.

Since Louis and his family loved trying new food, this became a main component to the trip. They learned of more restaurants from the walking tour than had been initially selected from online reviews. Louis made it a personal mission to find the best pizza places in the city – his two sons supported and appreciated this greatly. Di Fara was a hole in the wall pizza place located in Brooklyn. Zagat, New York Magazine and New York Daily News ranked it #1 Pizzeria in NY. So, this was a restaurant the family didn’t want to miss. In order to get to this pizza place, the family had to navigate a subway from the hotel to make it to Brooklyn. Louis remembered the long trek, but it was well worth it. It was the best pizza he and his family had ever tasted. To this day, they still reminisce about Di Fara’s pizza.

Louis also took his family to Rockefeller Center, the Rockefeller Christmas tree and the American Museum of Natural History. Although he enjoyed all of these activities, he mainly spoke of the previous listed activities during our interview.

Once the New York family trip ended, it was time to pack up and head back to Texas. The family was exhausted from all the walking and sightseeing, but Louis thought it was an overall successful trip. They accomplished all the activities he had planned to see and more. After the family returned home, they shared photos from their vacation. Louis was happy that they could all share these memories.