Hi all. I’m back from a recent MSing adventure and have been fairly absent from these board over the past few weeks. Those who know me know that I love to gang shops together and I’m always pushing it a little further. I basically shop for the experience and reimbursements, often spending any profit derived from the shop along the way. I decided earlier this year to see if I could travel all of the way around the world and make at least $5 out of it. The bad news is that I failed. The good news is that I had a great adventure and still managed to profit $3.89! Here are a few statistics from the trip:

My shop took 7 weeks and brought me to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Paris, Quebec, Las Vegas, Orlando, Cozumel, Miami and San Francisco, as well as a few other interesting places. I spent 5 days on a cruise ship, 54 hours flying, 14 hours driving and 6 hours on trains. I utilized 6 different currencies and spent $19,384.09, with reimbursements and fees totaling $19,387.98. Whew!

I can’t count the number of crème brulees and Caesar salads I’ve consumed, but I somehow managed to loose 2 lbs., which is the most surprising statistic of all, considering the meals I was required to eat. I also have lost track of how many hours I spent reporting all of this, but the cruise alone took 38 hours.

Many things went haywire along the way and I missed a flight, missed trains, had one train (in Thailand) straight out cancelled due to the flooding, got a flat tire, lost a credit card, caught a cold, and was turned away from a restaurant in Paris for not asking to be seated in French. I don’t recommend this type of assignment for newbie’s or anyone who can’t speak basic French. My trusty iPhone helped me with just about every problem that came up, though. It really is a digital Swiss Army knife!

Was it worth it?....absolutely. Would I do it again?....no way. Once is enough and next time I travel around the world, I want more pictures of me. If this site allowed me to post photos, you wouldn’t see much because of the over 1,000 photos I took, I’m in about 10 of them. Most are of room service trays and dusty hotel bathroom vents.

Anyway, for those who want to travel through MSing, know that’s possible with a little planning, some research and a lot of hard work to go just about anywhere you desire and still make a buck or two.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and I hope you all find the shops of your dreams, whatever they are.

Absolutely amazing! I'm shaking my head in wonderment at it all.

May your Thanksgiving be peaceful and relaxed, you need it

Hi Steve and welcome home...bet it's great to have our soil under your feet.
Sounds amazing, glad it was you, not me. I identify with the Paris language, when I was there, and couldn't speak French, was greatly taken advantage of, totally understand.

Welcome home, enjoy the day and anxious to hear the stories, and maybe, just maybe, you'll write a book one day, and go on another round the world tour, this time the publisher will pay....

Wow! Quel voyage! What an experience!

Welcome back Steve

Wow! Very impressive. You know, you could write a book about it. I think it would be very interesting to read about your experience.

i agree about the book... i think you could title it "travel around the world and get paid for it" or something like it...

if nothing else perhaps a blog... maybe a generic google+ account? or a myspace page... at least just the highlights of it... and you wouldnt have to do it all at once you could just do a few event updates a week...

im sure you could find a out of work english major to either write your book or make a page for some money... not sure how much it would cost but its something you could try...

either way you might make it to that magical $5 mark with a little extra work... lol

or perhaps a thread hear with an update whenever you want...

either way i would love to hear it and looks like others would as well...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2011 01:41AM by cooldude581.

Here's an idea for you to possibly get a few more bucks out of that trip

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You know you are my HERO!!! Seriously dude - welcome HOME!!!! Thanks for the dinner and drinks in Vegas, thanks for being my friend, and thanks for tallying it all up - I love stats.

While I don't think I will ever attempt what you did - I am so glad you made it through.

To the rest of you - don't believe him when he says he will never do it again, give him a month and I am willing to wager he will be right back at planning the next round the world trip via MSing.

Wow, I can hardly believe all the work it would be to coordinate those shops. Amazing!

I know plenty of folks who will set up 10-15 shops in a day over a route. This was the same idea, only on a larger scale.

I anchored my route with larger shops that took me to each continent I was visiting, then filled in the gaps with smaller shops as they became available. Some of the shops were not even set up when my initial flight departed.

The resort shops averaged from 2-5 nights, with most being around 3 nights. I also was not evaluating every single night. I used to hotel points received from shops to buy free nights here and there while I caught up (as much as I could) with reporting.

My final itinerary was not what I started with. I juggled hotels around as some expected properties were not available at the times I wanted. I added a resort mid way through that I had not initially intended to go to, and declined a really nice property that fit right into my schedule, because the workload would have buried me (not to mention maxing out my credit card).

In a way, setting up the travel was easier than a daily route because I was only looking at 3 types of shops; Hotels, fine-dining and airport shops. They were also from a limited number of MSCs whose clients and schedules I knew well.

WOW...and to think my routes of 10+ shops hardly ever take me out of NJ. You're my MSing idol. Very interesting reading...Hope I get the courage to try something like that someday before I need a walker to navigate. I'm scared to try a plain ole restaurant shop from Coyle, whom I assume was one of your main MSPs during your journey.

Welcome home!

Oh wow! Awesome!!

Two of the assignments were from Coyle, as was the the shop that I turned down. I spaced the apart from each other.

I once did 3 back-to-back shops Coyle and it was VERY hard to keep up with the writing.

You did a cruise with Coyle? I haven't had the nerve to even apply for one. the restaurants are daunting enough.

Wow, impressive, awesome, I think they are all under statements. I'm not sure I can comprehend the planning it took and the work you did while traveling. If there is someplace to give credit were credit is due this is it. A tip of the old hat is due.

Awesome! and all the other groovy words expressed. Can I be your guest the next time you go? LOL!

Get in line....

ArizonaShopper Wrote:
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> Awesome! and all the other groovy words expressed.
> Can I be your guest the next time you go? LOL!

I am in awe! I can barely coordinate going into another county! Thanks for sharing.

So that's where you've been! Good for you, fella!

I can barely coordinate going to another town doing shops!

Good for you! I was recently on a cruise and contacted you-know-who before to see if my ship was available for evaluation and it was not. Of course, I return and now it is up again on the boards. Strangely enough, I think I met the shopper who snagged my cruise evaluation on the ship I went on. Isn't that a pip?

Steve,

Welcome back and where is my postcard??? !!!

Seriously, glad you enjoyed it and can you tell us who the msc is ???

Many Thanks

The WSJ would pick that story up in a heartbeat: "Travel around the world for free"

There is one reason why I would never ever do what you did, and this is it: I am too CHICKEN! I haven't done enough traveling to feel comfortable enough just being a tourist, let alone playing the part of one while spying on people.

BTW, my husband is an author and publisher and he says he would be happy to offer you some (free) advice on how to turn your adventures into a book!

if i ever get better credit i think this will go on the bucket list...

It's all perspective, Spygirl. I don't see it as spying, per se. I see as going on a vacation and simply reporting what happened along the way. I'm not peeping at the concierge from around the corner. I'm just presenting a question and seeing how they respond.

But then, I'm sometimes asking a question I already know the answer to, or pretending to be interested in things I may not be, so there's an amount of deception going on that's kind of spy-like. Perhaps that's what you meant by spying.

Don't take on anything you are uncomfortable with, but I definitely recommend using MSing to see other places if you can. You may not be sure if you are interested in visiting somewhere, but if you get paid to go there and hate it, at least you are not out your hard earned money for a terrible experience!

I use the term "spy" because you're taking a look at people and things but are not to be detected while doing so, even though it's all in plain sight! So it makes me feel like a spy, which can be a bit nerve wracking sometimes. And that's why, when added to the nervousness I'd feel in a new situation (i.e., new country, new language, etc.), I'd simply be too chicken. Bok bok bok!


SteveSoCal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's all perspective, Spygirl. I don't see it as
> spying, per se. I see as going on a vacation and
> simply reporting what happened along the way. I'm
> not peeping at the concierge from around the
> corner. I'm just presenting a question and seeing
> how they respond.
>
> But then, I'm sometimes asking a question I
> already know the answer to, or pretending to be
> interested in things I may not be, so there's an
> amount of deception going on that's kind of
> spy-like. Perhaps that's what you meant by
> spying.
>
> Don't take on anything you are uncomfortable with,
> but I definitely recommend using MSing to see
> other places if you can. You may not be sure if
> you are interested in visiting somewhere, but if
> you get paid to go there and hate it, at least you
> are not out your hard earned money for a terrible
> experience!

Spygirl - as a fellow woman, and someone who is traveling throughout several countries where English is very limited - I totally know how you feel (I don't speak Spanish and my French is bad). I do think it is far easier to travel alone as a male than as a female. Plus, it is terribly isolating and lonely to be in countries where you do not speak the language - you have nobody to talk to! (which is why you are finding me on these boards way more than I usually am).

Luckily, at least in my experience, if the hotel is having a US based company doing the evaluation, that means that the hotel staff is required to have staff speak English. I will say shops in other countries where English is not widly spoken are a little more difficult in that sometimes it is near impossible to accurately quote a greeting (since it often is in the other language until they figure out that you are an English speaker), getting names is harder since they are unusual names or spellings that we are not used to, we are not used to the foods so it is difficult to accurately evaluate if the foods are properly prepared, etc.

I know for me, travel MSing has really pushed the envelope, and made me get out and experience things that I never, ever would have done on my own dime. As Steve pointed out - it is a lot easier to have a horrible experience in a new area when at least you are not paying for it (I can recall a horrific 6 hour driving experience on the coast for France where we were stopped 20 minutes from our destination due to a rampant forest fire and forced to re-route 300 miles out of our way, in the middle of the night, and of course we - my mother and I - had no idea where we were going so we had to enlist the help of a kind taxi driver who agreed to escort us there with me following in the rental car - when we finally arrived it was 2 AM, no food was to be found, and we had to go to bed starving as we had not eaten for almost 16 hours). Thank god I did not have to pay for any of it, including the very large fee I paid the wonderful taxi driver - even though he actually asked for much less.

It also is possible that you learn about a new place that you would love to go back to and visit, perhaps a place that you would not have otherwise visited or ever thought to visit.

Long before msing, I was a traveler (on my dime). Having a daughter that lived in London after college and traveled through Europe on a $300.00 train pass, her Dad gave her a three month trip, but she ended up falling in love and staying 10 months working at the Univ. of Edinburgh in Intelligence. I met her in Italy (Florence) coming from Milan alone, and we traveled together through Italy and Austria. I went to Europe before, and my only bad experience was in Paris, everytime I asked for directions, I got the wrong ones...they prefer (being kind), you ask in French, even though the desk clerks do understand English. I have been to Isreal alone, great trip, never felt safer. These days I'm not travelling alone, but do want to start seeing our country. Europe, been there, done that, and a had a great learning experience. Not sure I'll ever be ready to msing my way through different countries, just too lazy to do the work required...hats off to Steve.
Many woman travel alone today, for work or they go with friends...don't let that stop you.

I started travelling when I would accompany my (now ex) hubby on his business trips. No way was I going to sit around a hotel and wait for him, so I went touring with a folded map and not much else to guide me. Today we have GPS, Google maps, translator apps, and so much more. The only thing I am missing is $$. I am now inspired to shop my way to my favorite travel destinations.