Not intended as meaning curious, spirited or eager; the adjectives you'd think would be associated with passengers who are experiencing the trip of a lifetime. Rather, this line is intended as a verbal slap and is the same as saying "You're being a fucking idiot".
This line wouldn't exist if it wasn't from experiences during the season. I went into this job bright eyed and hopeful that my passengers would be eager young travelers like myself. To be fair, I'd say 90% were and I've made some lifelong friends around the world. However, it's that other 10% that the stories are always about.
If you are preparing to book a tour, whether in the states or abroad. Here are the Top Five Passenger Do Nots.
1) "Why isn't the Wi-Fi working?" - Guess what, your tour leader does not care and finds it insanely petty that you can't be disconnected from the world for a few hours or at most a few days. Turn off the phone and interact with the people or nature around you.
2) During a drive in the middle of the country - "What's that (insert completely random object like fence or post box sign here)?" - Believe it or not, America is HUGE and no tour leader, regardless of how many seasons on the road, is going to know every mile of every road and every fence post on every street corner. If you couldn't answer the question about the middle of nowhere in your own home country, we can't either.
3) Insanely specific questions about things you don't honestly care about - "How deep is this random alpine lake that we stopped at for lunch?" or "How tall is the tallest tree on this hike?". We can see right through your gimmick. We know you don't care and are just testing our knowledge to see if we are capable of answering. Quit being a jerk and save it for when you actually are curious for the answer.
4) Google Fact checking your guide = Not cool. Sure, we all make mistakes. Maybe I said 510 ft and it's actually 520 ft. But guess what, I was close and you get the picture or point. When a passenger uses Google to double check some fun facts I'm spitting out, you're just being a show off that nobody likes. As guides, we are trained and study our asses off but nobody is perfect. Again, you don't actually care about that answer or the specific measurement; you're just being a dick.
5) Thinking that because you have a guide, you don't have to act like a human adult - Yes, you have a tour leader who is supposed to prep you and plan things and make your travel as stress free as possible. However, this is not permission to act like a complete insufficient human being. Pick up the garbage you dropped, leave the area the same if not better than you found it, stop trying to feed a goddamn squirrel after being warned countless times that they are wild animals, and quit complaining about things that can't be changed like the weather or how long the drives are.
As a tour leader, I love my job and find it immensely rewarding. I have the opportunity to do amazing adventures and take people on fantastic itineraries around a truly beautiful and diverse country. Yet the passengers and group members can make or break even the best planned trip and most senior tour leader. Some senior leaders say that one day, I'll quit actually caring about my passengers and their experiences and it'll just be a job. I don't want that day to come. I hope I continue to genuinely care about making a lifetime experience for people. However, as a potential person on one of my future tours, all I can say is; "Don't be such a Passenger" - be a traveler and explore with some intelligence and common sense.
Visual example of an awesome group #CurtisCrew
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