Worst of BT June
We are distressed to report there will be no Best of BT this month. Budget Travel, for a while among our favorite travel magazines, has gone downhill fast in its June issue. We don’t know if this is new editor Nina Willdorf’s doing or if it’s due to the all-too-common budget cuts in the magazine world these days, but it’s bad. Really bad.
1. Jason Adams’s “Taking the Plunge” is badly written but worse than that, is about a virgin “cruiser” finally taking his first cruise trip. Jason spends way too much of his word count describing his fellow passengers and cruise entertainers, including “every guy on this boat is body-shaved within a millimeter of a baby’s bottom.” Thanks for the visual, Jason, and how is this relevant, funny, or even interesting to us as readers? The banality continues as he attempts to convince us that a rendition of Sweet Caroline with a bunch of strangers at the ship’s piano bar was actually fun times and then that the elephant-shaped towel left on his bed completely brightens his mood. What’s next – breaking out into song (another Neil Diamond oldie-but-goodie, perhaps) when a waitress draws a smiley face on your check?
2. You all know our feelings about so-called girlfriend getaways, so you will not be surprised when we tell you we are horrified, horrified, we say, to find an advertisement for BT’s Girlfriend Getaways magazine in this June issue. What, did they have extra of the supplements they sent to all BT subscribers? Did some people send them back?, she asks, fingers crossed. Do they actually expect people to call the number they give and shell out $6.95 for this drivel? To be fair, the price “includes shipping and handling” so they really know how to treat a gal.
BT, we expected more. Let’s not make this a habit.
Nina, I think we might be of the same mind about the “Girlfriend Getaways.” We should plan a trip for a makeover, some plastic surgery, a lot of pricey spa stuff, and shoe shopping together.
Okay, I could really use a massage.