Avoiding Vacation Surprises (Part II)

Major surprises not withstanding there is always a chance for other surprises to pop-up during your much anticipated trip. A seemingly lesser vacation nightmare but just as traumatic is quite more common. I am talking about losing your valuables while on a ship or at a resort. Your identification, credit cards,camera, cellphone, and all other contents you must travel with that define you (OK, not really define you but you'd be surprised at the sense of loss of one's self albeit temporarily when this happens), can be taken away by the "unsavory element" that may be waiting for you or traveling with you.
Picture it, you're on a beautiful magnificently large floating hotel/city, the dream cruise you and the family have finally sailed on with 3,000 of your soon to be new friends or you have just settled in with your first cocktail on the beach into your posh lounge chair. The kids take off for the amazing youth program, your wife is doing her best to win back the cost of the cruise from the slot machines but you have established the family "turf" on deck or on the beach. Just you, your drink, the lounge chair and beautiful scenery...ahhh...relaxation at last, the only care you have now is the beach bag with the family valuables (credit cards, cash, room keys, camera, $200 sunglasses, you get the picture) in it you have been assigned to guard. How hard can this be?
Fellow passengers or guests if you are staying at an all-inclusive resort, start to pass you with food with amazing aromas, you hear talk of sushi and a chocolate fountain, the lunch buffet is open (finally, it has been what 2 hours since breakfast)...time to partake of the afternoon feast.
The biggest question of the day (besides what is the cocktail du jour of the day), "Do I collect our stuff and lose our family turf, our temporary stonghold by the pool or beach or do I try to sneak off hoping no one is watching me leave our bag of goodies at the chair unattended?" Hmmmm...quite the conundrum (sorry, I just like the word, had to get it in there somewhere).
Cruise line security is pretty good but they cannot possibly be expected watch everything or everybody all the time. All-inclusives have less security and do their best but again they can't watch everything all the time.
When you're on the beach or on a shore excursion in a foreign country you have to be vigilant, no one else is really watching out for you or your belongings, in fact some may be watching you just for the chance to take them.
Losing these items can be a disaster, a nightmare is too nice a word for it, not to mention you have now reversed that relaxing, carefree vacation  (and you paid for this?) I have found the beach very challenging, while cruise ships have narrowed the chance by using your room key as a charge and virtually have eliminated the need for cash resorts or "days at the beach" have not.
To avoid the nightmare and more so for piece of mind some sort of waterproof, fanny pack type carrier helps if you like carrying things while taking that swim or snorkel in the crystal clear blue water.I came across an interesting product, developed by a couple of entrepreneurial women that can ease your mind and let you get back to the carefree vacation you so desperately needed. The company they formed is Lock-A-Bye.
They developed a revolutionary locking bag (hand bags, beach bags, etc) that keeps your belonging's safe and secure. They offer bags of various sizes and styles on their website ( http://www.lockabye.com/ ) that have a patented dual locking mechanism that allows you to lock the zipper and secure a cable lined strap to any stationery object. I'm thinking the palm tree next to my favorite Tiki bar or my prime lounge chair poolside on the Lido deck, you can paint the scene yourself.
This product will free me up so I can eat at least two more lunches and desserts on that cruise ship while our belongings are still safe attached to the lounge chair (I'm guessing if someone, even fellow passengers saw someone trying to hack off a leg of a deck chair to get a cabled bag off of it they would speak up or tell a crew member) and I look like the hero to the family by not giving up our family turf. So freedom at last thanks to their invention, check out their website( http://www.lockabye.com/ ) and use PROMO code LAB1299 to receive a 20% discount.

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