At the end of Q4-2024 we completed the development of several enhancements slated for release in early January of 2025.
The primary focus was to support Day/Side Trips at the location level with full website and Mobile Trip Profile integration. For these changes, several other areas of functionality needed to be enhanced as well.
Changes include modification to the Travel Planner and Activity Groups to provide full integration with the Mobile Trip Profile. Location Groups were introduced allowing the grouping of similar locations along with flagging locations as Day/Side Trips. All related Help Pages have been completed with examples and procedures on adjusting arrival dates when creating Day/Side Trips.
A Day Trip is when you travel to one or more locations that are close enough to make a round-trip within a day, but does not require an overnight stay.
A Side Trip is when you travel to one or more locations with an overnight stay, before returning to your base location.
A Base Location is where you are staying and plan to depart and return for a Day or Side Trip.
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Activity Groups |
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Activity Groups have been in place for some time,
but we have updated the help pages to better explain the procedures for defining and assigning groups to activities. The help pages for 'Day Trips as Activities' have also been updated explaining using groups for Day Trips. |
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Location Groups |
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Location Groups have been introduced allowing you to define a group with a title and highlight color. Once a group has been created, it can be assigned to your locations. You can also flag a group as a Day/Side Trip
so that Day/Side Trip indicator will display with the group title and highlight color to indicate the location is a Day/Side Trip.
The Trip Builder pages and the Mobile Trip Profile have been updated to display the group title and highlight color, making it easy to see related locations and the locations that are Day/Side Trips. |
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Day Trips / Side Trips |
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The ability to handle
Day Trips and Side Trips at the Location Level has now been completed, offering full website and Mobile Trip Profile functionality. Previously Day Trips were only available at the Activity Level, with limited functionality.
Day/Side Trips are an important part of defining a trip. You may plan to leave your Base Location for a day or even a night away before returning to your Base Location. These Day/Side Trips are handled differently as they disrupt the sequential departure/arrival dates of a typical trip.
We have created a simply way to adjust your location departure and arrival dates, allowing you to insert Day/Side Trips anywhere in your itinerary. The implementation of Location Groups also helps to define and identify Day/Side Trips. |
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Travel Planner |
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The selection of the travel mode and travel duration between locations has been removed from the Travel Planner, making it easier to set the departure and arrival times of your locations. As it's typical to create an activity defining the trave mode and duration for travel between locations, requiring the entry of travel mode and duration on the Travel Planner was not necessary.
The Initialize Travel Planner page has been enhanced to better handle the initialization of departure times and arrival times between locations based on your transportation type activities.
The Mobile Travel Planner page has been removed as the information is now fully integrated with the Mobile Trip Profile. On current travel days, time at a location, remaining time at the location and graphs will now automatically display. Current day activities will also display the same information. |
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Mobile Trip Profile |
Using the Mobile Trip Profile, you can now select a specific Location Group to display. You can also display the 'Entire Trip' and 'Main Trip' locations. The 'Main Trip' includes all locations that are not flagged as Day/Side Trips.
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The Route Map icon will now show for any transportation activity such as train, car, gondola, etc. It will be linked for travel from the current location to the activity title text. |
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Locations assigned to a Location Group will display with the location group title highlighted with the group color. If the location has been flagged as a Day/Side Trip, the indicator will also be displayed. |
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Activity Duration Report |
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The report shows the total duration of each activity by location. A specific activity can be selected to view the locations where the activity has been assigned. The report will also display the total duration of each activity as well as a breakdown of the 'Average Duration per Usage-Day' and the 'Average Duration per Trip-Day'.
The report is helpful for reviewing the amount of time,
or duration that you plan to spend on each activity. Based on the duration, you may decide to adjust your trip to spend more or less time on certain activities. For example, you may decide to adjust the number of locations you plan to visit, based on how much time you would spend traveling between those locations. You only have so much time on your trip, so maybe spending less time traveling and more time in certain locations may make more sense. |
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Activity Alert Icons |
New activity alert icons have been added, helping you know when you may or may not bring your backpack into an area or site. We have also added the 'Free' alert icon to flag activities that have free access or entry.
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Backpacks Allowed |
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Backpacks Not Allowed |
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Free Access/Entry |
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Help Pages |
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Help Pages for Activity Groups have been updated to expalin the different ways to create a Day Trip at the activity level, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Help Page for Location Groups to define Day and Side Trips have been completed and fully explain the process for creating and assigning the groups.
Help Page complete for the Activity Time Report.
The Help Pages for Trip Nights/Dates have been updated to explain in detail how to adjust dates forward and backward to handle arrivals and departures at locations for Day/Side Trips.
Help pages have been implemented as a guide to help you create Day and Side Trips.
The Travel Planner help pages have been updated to show examples of manually setting location departure and arrival times.
The 'Initialize Travel Planner' page has been updated with detailed information on using the initialize process. |
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Updates for the previous year: 2024 |
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New Activity Type |
September 2024
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New Tips: Selfie Sticks and Charging / Data Cables
-We did some research on different sticks to give you some ideas of what to consider when it comes to using Selfie Sticks with your smartphone, traveling lite and a comparison with tripods and cameras.
-We have also added a page on USB Cables for your Smartphone and other devices. |
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Selfie Sticks
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Charging / Data Cables
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New Activity Type |
Augest 2024
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Due to recent requests, Champagne has now been added to the list of Activity Types for selection. |
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Activity Icons & Definitions
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'Jump to Location' sections display 'Day Trips' in lists |
Augest 2024
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To provide a quick view of the locations that have 'Day Trips' assigned, the 'Jump to Location' sections of the Trip Master, Trip Summary and Mobile Trip Profile pages have been modified to display 'Day Trips' that have been assigned to the locations.
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Google Image Search & Language Translation
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July 2024
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Update to the main Mobile Profile page to include a link to a new page providing high level information on how to use Google Image Search and Language Translation.
These are two very helpful Google features that may come in handy during your travels. From the page, there is a direct link to Google to easily access the features.
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Mobile Blogging & Mobile Photo Upload
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Q2 2024
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Mobile Trip Profile - Premium Services: Apply to any trip to access Mobile Blogging (Trip, Location & Activity levels) and Mobile Photo Upload (Trip Activities). |
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See how Premium Services integrate seamlessly with Mobile Features
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