Tour the World with Your Fellow Mustangs
The Cal Poly Alumni Association’s (CPAA) partnership with AHI Travel offers alumni discounts on group travel worldwide and allows for one-of-a-kind experiences with fellow Mustangs. Through AHI Travel, CPAA offers several amazing trip options every year, each with a different price point, destination and duration. This year’s trips include tours of Spain, a cruise down the Rhine and Moselle rivers, the Amalfi Coast, Normandy, Italy’s Lake District, Croatia and the Dalmatian Coast, and Southern Africa.
Cal Poly alum Terry Morgan (Social Sciences, ‘85) and his wife Laura Morgan (Social Sciences ‘79) recently returned from a Dutch Waterways alumni river cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium booked through AHI Travel. The cruise was on the Amadeus Imperial ship and included all meals, drinks, excursions, and transfers.
“The difference between an ocean cruise and this river cruise is that the ship is smaller,” explained Morgan. “There were only 120 people on board and it was only really two stories. We felt we were in our own little boat with very large picture windows. It's much more subdued, relaxed. And so that experience was very nice.”
CPAA's partnership with AHI Travel offers alumni trips that are a blend of group and individual travel experiences. Each one is designed to showcase local must-see sights as well as unique experiences thanks to the help of local experts and knowledgeable guides. Daily itineraries allow travelers to fully immerse themselves in their destination through planned excursions, while also providing leisure time to pursue individual interests.
Additionally, if enough alumni sign up for a trip, a Cal Poly host will go along as well. This past April, Cal Poly alumna and CPAA Executive VP and Senior Director of Alumni Engagement Jennifer Fanning (Recreation Administration, ‘01) played host to a group of 15 Cal Poly alums who traveled to Europe for the Dutch Waterways cruise, including the Morgans.
“Cal Poly is proud to partner with AHI Travel to offer these incredibly unique travel opportunities to our alumni,” said Fanning. “These trips are a chance for Mustangs to bond with fellow Mustangs, and to meet other alums from other universities as well, since these trips are only accessible to travelers affiliated with a university.”
This was the second CPAA AHI Travel trip that the Morgans had gone on together.
"Three years ago, my wife and I went to Ireland through the CPAA, and we absolutely loved it,” said Morgan. “They were very organized, and everything was lined up with great accommodations. We had a guide with us the entire time who took care of all our rooms, where we were going to eat, and made sure the bus was there on time.”
Each of these trips has an educational component to it. Guests can choose from various planned excursions throughout the trip, and local experts are brought in to give guests more context, history, and background to what they will see and experience.
“It was more of an educational trip as opposed to a party atmosphere,” said Morgan. “It was a little bit more serious, more academic because we learned a lot about where we were going, why we were going, what the people did for a living, and what the environment was all about.”
Morgan spoke fondly of one of their excursions to Gouda, where they were able to watch how the city’s renowned cheese is made and processed, and then sample and enjoy the tasty end results.
"We went to a place where they taught us how the cheese is made and learned about the cows that they have there to get the milk and how to make it,” he explained. “It was very interesting. And we were able to buy cheese there and brought it home.”
Since returning, Morgan has talked up the trip to his friends and has recommended that they try one, even those who don’t usually prefer planned trips. “I've talked to a lot of my friends who don't like organized trips,” he said. “They don't like tours and things like that. They want to do it on their own. But you save a lot of time and energy by not having to do it yourself. And really, I'm 68 years old, so it's nice to be pampered. And you always felt taken care of there.”
Fanning agreed with that sentiment. “I think the value for what you get is incredible,” she said. “If you don't want the headache of trying to plan out a trip yourself, every detail is planned out for you. A few people have said, and I agree, this was the least stressful trip I've ever taken. Everything was taken care of.”