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Travel, Vacation & Flying Tips 07/30/2010 New Festival Celebrates Retro British Cool If Mad Men Sunday nights don’t roll around fast enough, perhaps it’s time to hop a plane for Southern England. August 13-15 will mark the first annual Vintage at Goodwood ... 07/30/2010 House Passes Aviation Safety Bill MSNBC / Associated Press — The House voted Wednesday to toughen regulations on pilot training, qualifications and work schedules, a response to a fatal crash in upstate New York in February and other ... 07/30/2010 Opening: Eco-Friendly InterContinental Times Square Yesterday Times Square welcomed the InterContinental to the neighborhood. On the corner of 44th Street and 8th Avenue, this is the newest hotel to be built from the ... 07/29/2010 Domestic Airfares on the Rise USA Today / Associated Press |  If you think airfares have been rising, it's not your imagination. ... 07/28/2010 Contest: See Lady Gaga in Vegas for FREE Lady Gaga. If you’ve never heard of this international artist—I say artist rather than musician because what she does is art, in so many fo ... copyright 2010 Axis Mundi Systems, LLC all rights reserved; rss2html template created by FeedForAll                                     GoTo TOP http://www.usatoday.com 07/28/2010 Traveler's Aide: Overweight flier policies enforced inconsistently Any policy on seating for larger passengers should be administered respectfully. But that's not always the case. 06/30/2010 Points reward refund goes to wrong credit card When you redeem points for a ticket and then cancel, you might get points or miles back. 06/02/2010 Traveler's Aide: What does an airline owe you when you're forced from first class? Opt for a downgrade refund rather than simply accepting vouchers towards future travel. 05/26/2010 Traveler's Aide: Hotel changes pet policy, turns dog owners away Some 29 million Americans travel with their pets every year, but finding pet-friendly hotels isn't always a walk in the park. 05/05/2010 Traveler's Aide: Wrong name on plane ticket leads to rough ride for a refund Changing your name on an airline ticket may not seem like rocket science, but it's anything but simple. copyright 2010 Axis Mundi Systems, LLC all rights reserved; rss2html template created by FeedForAll                                     GoTo TOP Comments, opinion and advice from the founder of Frommer's Travel Guides 07/30/2010 When A Ship as Lux as the Celebrity Solstice Charges Only $699 for a Weeklong Cruise, You Know the Market is Weak Three days ago, I took issue with the statements of various cruise ship spokespeople who claim that cruise ship bookings are strong. I did that by simply turning to the prices on the website of a leading cruise discounter, and discovering that they were reducing the normal cost of a one-week Caribbean cruise this autumn, from Florida ports, by as much as 77%, resulting in cruise prices as low as $349 per person for the week (in inside cabins). Photo Caption: Relaxing onboard the Solstice. deborahdel/Frommers.com Community. I've now been handed further confirmation that matters aren't rosy in the cruise world. It comes in the form of an announcement by Online Vacation Center (tel. 800/760-5417; www.onlinevacationcenter.com) that they will be making verandah cabins available -- and let me repeat that, verandah cabins -- on two one-week August sailings of the Caribbean (the 22d and the 29th) from Ft. Lauderdale of the elegant Celebrity Solstice, for just $699 per person. It's one thing to report that ordinary ships of popularly-priced Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line are selling in autumn for as little as $349 per person in inside cabins. But to then report that verandah cabins on an upscale ship like the Solstice are selling for only $699 per person is a startling revelation. In the summer of 2009, I sailed the Mediterranean on the Celebrity Solstice, and I can tell you it is an excellent ship appealing to a thoughtful, well-read, convivial audience. It is unusually spacious, has an excellent library, many quiet places to read and converse, good lectures by destination specialists, and an absolute absence of boxing rings, rock-climbing walls, and zip lines. 07/30/2010 Iceland Express' Bargain New York to London Flights Will Continue Beyond October The only basis I have for this important report is an article by Bev Fearis on the British travel news website TravelMole. She claims that the end of October termination date for Iceland Express' four-times-a-week service from Newark to London-Gatwick (via Reykjavik) has been removed, and the upstart, cost-cutting, heaven-sent Iceland carrier will now fly year around between North America and Britain. What's strange is that no such statement appears on Iceland Express' website (www.icelandexpress.com), nor in any Iceland newspaper or other news outlet. But it's hard to imagine that the reliable, cautious TravelMole would make such a statement without firm support -- and the time for rejoicing, therefore, is now at hand. Iceland Express has been flying round-trip from the U.S. to London for as little as $450, including all taxes, fees and fuel surcharge, and even when it charge more, it undercuts the normal U.S.-to-Britain carriers by at least $300. Those sensational fares have filled 90% of the seats of the Newark-originating, four-times-a-week departures of Iceland Express to date, creating an obvious profit for the upstart carrier, and it's good to see a budget-oriented company succeed so brilliantly. Keep in mind that, from Reykjavik, Iceland Express flies to a dozen other European destinations as well, and you will see how useful its services have been to the cost-conscious American traveler. Photo Caption: Aerial view of Reykjavik. Kevin Posey 07/29/2010 An Air/Land Package to Beijing and Shanghai for Only $884 Demonstrates that China Continues to Play an Important Role in Mass-Volume Travel Yesterday I wrote about the failure of China to give meaning to its announcement of about six weeks ago that it would increase the value of the Chinese Yuan. It obviously doesn't plan to strengthen its currency to any meaningful extent. The fact that China will remain one of the great travel bargains for some time to come is confirmed by the action of several tour operators in announcing stunning rates to China for this coming autumn. What makes those programs so significant is that they are offered not by specialists in China tours, who you would expect to enjoy preferential air and hotel rates, but by general tour operators that have simply added China to a large array of destinations. SmarTours (tel. 800/337-7773; www.smartours.com) provides a dramatic example (I'll name others in blogs to come). It certainly isn't a China specialist, and yet it has just set a price of $884 to $984 per person for 10 days/8 nights in China, including round-trip air to China (on Air China) from San Francisco (including all air taxes, fees and fuel surcharge), air transportation within China between Beijing and Shanghai, all transfers, high-quality hotels in China (Marriott Courtyard Beijing for five nights in Beijing and the high-rise Holiday Inn Vista for three nights in Shanghai), and full buffet breakfast each morning. Now it's true that these stunning prices for an air-and-land package to a destination as remote as China are brought about in part by the elimination of meals other than breakfast (you are free to choose your own restaurants for lunch and dinner). And the package deliberately excludes escorted sightseeing (you are offered optional full-day tours in each city for $60 per full-day). And yet the price, which is less than the airfare alone that you'd pay to some locations, remains a sensation. (The program is also well-suited for travelers who have been to China before and want to dine and tour on their own.) Some further details: persons choosing to fly round-trip from New York can do so for only $129 more. And the $884 price is for the departures of November 29, November 30 and December 6; $984 is charged for the departures of November 2, 8, 15 and 22. SmarTours accepts payment by check only. You can imagine the response we will soon be receiving from the companies known for their price leadership to China. If little SmarTours can charge $884 for a decent-quality tour of China, what will China Focus and China Spree come up with? 07/29/2010 Act Now to Snare an Unusual, Three-City, Irish Fly/Drive Vacation this October for $879 Ever heard of Dooley Vacations? It's a long-established, well-regarded, Irish tour operator that doesn't seem to enjoy the same attention that travel writers heap on SceptreTours, Aer Lingus Vacations, and Brian Moore International. But now it has created a product -- good only if you book on or before August 3 -- that seems to me superior to all other current air-and-land packages to Ireland. It costs $699 plus $180 in taxes and fees, flies you round-trip (from New York or Boston) to Dublin this October, puts you in a manual-transmission rental car with unlimited mileage for a week, and then gives you accommodations in four-star hotels (with full Irish breakfast daily) for two nights apiece in Dublin, Belfast, and Sligo. Photo Caption: Ferris wheel in Belfast. birdy1969/Frommers.com Community It other words, it gives you the ingredients for a far-ranging, six-day, self-drive vacation not simply to the Republic of Ireland, but to Northern Ireland (Belfast), and not simply to the east coast of Ireland (Dublin) but to the west of Ireland (Sligo). I, for one, have never seen a fly-drive Irish vacation that invites the visitor to cross the border into Northern Ireland. Having extensively visited Northern Ireland myself, I can attest that its attractions (which include the birthplaces of the families of numerous early U.S. presidents) and scenery aren't simply on a par with that of the Republic but are considered by many to be superior to it. You book the package by phoning Dooley Vacations (tel. 877/331-9301; www.dooleyvacations.com) before the end of the day on August 3. And if a reservationist should ask you where you learned of the package, answer that it's one of this week's "Last Minute Pricebreaker Deals" of Priceline.com. 07/28/2010 Travel Tidbits That May Have Bearing on Your Next Vacation On June 21, nearly six weeks ago, China announced it would raise the value of its currency, the Yuan -- and in the next several days, the Yuan went from a rate of 6.82 to the Dollar to 6.77 to the Dollar; it strengthened, in another words, by a fraction of one percent, and everyone cheered. Today, six weeks later, all appreciation of the Yuan has ceased; it stays almost rigidly fixed at a rate of either 6.77 or 6.8 to the dollar; one day it strengthens to 6.77, the next day it returns to 6.8, the next day to 6.77, and the same back and forth continues day after day (you can follow the repetitious charade at www.xe.com). It's obvious to me that the Chinese know a good thing when they see it, and will not be increasing the value of their currency to any appreciable extent over the year to come. Chinese travel will thus remain a great value. But incidentally: most of the China tour operators (see www.chinafocustravel.com, as one example) have recently revised their prices to include all government taxes, fees, and airline fuel surcharges, instead of adding those extras at a later time. This creates the misleading impression that their prices have increased; they are actually exactly the same as those that were announced six months ago. One of my favorite Las Vegas websites, Las Vegas Advisor (www.lasvegasadvisor.com), has recently published a list of Vegas hotel prices for the month of August, and the information is tremendously revealing of the extraordinary low rates in that month: Aria Hotel ($109 a night per room), MGM Grand ($70 a night), NYNY ($42 a night), Harrah's ($33 a night), Luxor ($55 a night), Mandalay Bay ($89 a night), Imperial Palace ($25 a night), Excalibur ($54 a night), Bally's ($39 a night). A travel reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Sarah Nassauer, has reported on the use by savvy hotels of the hotel comments sent by hotel guests to their friends and placed on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. Since every hotel can pull up all the tweets that contain the name of their hotel, and thus obtain direct knowledge of a guest's reactions to the hotel, an innocent tweet stating "I very much enjoyed my stay at the Marriott Chicago" could be followed by an e-mail from the hotel to that person suggesting that they send an approving comment to a user-generated hotel website. A tweet complaining about service will touch off a phone call to the guest asking whether anyone can be of help. A tweet stating that it's awfully hot in town will touch off delivery of a bottle of beer to the room of that tweet's author. Seems to me that a smart traveler can game the system by deliberately sending out tweets that he hopes will be read by hotel personnel. Some hotels, apparently, are assigning members of their staff to constantly read tweets containing the hotels' names. copyright 2010 Axis Mundi Systems, LLC all rights reserved; rss2html template created by FeedForAll                                     GoTo TOP

07/31/2010 the arrival of the Godfather .mchunG posted a photo: 07/31/2010 P1190970 Chipmunk Perry Dovell posted a photo: I want to THANK everyone for your visits to my photostream and your comments, favorites, and your support. ______________________________________________________________________ Please respect my Copyright © 2009 - 2010 Perry Dovell all rights reserved. All my images are protected under international author’s copyright laws and you may NOT! Prints, download, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated or edit any of my images without my prior written permission worldwide. You can contact me using my yahoo e-mail account dovell59@yahoo.com for further information and or licensing agreements. 07/31/2010 P1190984 Down town deer Perry Dovell posted a photo: I want to THANK everyone for your visits to my photostream and your comments, favorites, and your support. ______________________________________________________________________ Please respect my Copyright © 2009 - 2010 Perry Dovell all rights reserved. All my images are protected under international author’s copyright laws and you may NOT! Prints, download, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated or edit any of my images without my prior written permission worldwide. You can contact me using my yahoo e-mail account dovell59@yahoo.com for further information and or licensing agreements. 07/31/2010 Boardwalk & Baseball, Defunct Haines City, Florida Amusement Park Mike Woodfin posted a photo: Approximate location of Kansas City Royals Minor League Field #1. Most of the area has been either bulldozed or has The Posner Mall built on it. If you look really hard on a Google Maps satellite photo you can still make out a very small curve of the outfield of #2 and a slight bit of the infield of #4 Check out: www.dizzyrambler.com/features/ThemeParks/BnB/BnB.html#pag... 07/31/2010 Boardwalk & Baseball, Defunct Haines City, Florida Amusement Park Mike Woodfin posted a photo: Approximate location of Kansas City Royals Minor League Field #1. Most of the area has been either bulldozed or has The Posner Mall built on it. If you look really hard on a Google Maps satellite photo you can still make out a very small curve of the outfield of #2 and a slight bit of the infield of #4 Check out: www.dizzyrambler.com/features/ThemeParks/BnB/BnB.html#pag... copyright 2010 Axis Mundi Systems, LLC all rights reserved; rss2html template created by FeedForAll                                     GoTo TOP

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Preferred Customer Benefits:

1. Access to Price Comparison Service (based on policy)
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When you register as a Preferred Customer you can also qualify for YOUR GETAWAY VACATION:

1. For you and your companion - no charge
2. Enjoy 2 FUN-FILLED DAYS and 2 EXCITING EVENINGS of delux hotel accomodations at one of the beautiful destinations around the United States, Mexico, Aruba, St Thomas, and the Dominican Republic.
3. Hotel Participants include: Holiday Inn Hotels / Resorts, Sheraton Hotels, Ramada, Marriott Fairfield Inn, COUNTRY Inn & Suites or AmeriSuites
4. Cities Include Orlando, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Hilton Head, Las Vegas, Branson, Gatlinburg, Palm Springs, Atlantic City, Lake Tahoe, Maine Coast, Massachusetts Lakes, Myrtle Beach, Pafosa Springs, Pocono Mountains, Reno, St Pete, Sedona, Scottsdale, Williamsburg
5. Aruba, Dutch Caribbean; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Cozumel, Mexico; Dominican Republic; Hawaii; or St Thomas, Virgin Islands
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All you need to do is:

1. Register as a Preferred Customer (NO CHARGE) at this site: http://bit.ly/TS-Preferred
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3. Start sending people to the site and once 5 people fill out the registration form the same way you did, I will send you the certificate for your GETAWAY HOLIDAY within the next four weeks after the last person registers. The certificate is for the cost of the hotel only.
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Just want to try things out before you do anything else? Then register as a Preferred Customer (NO CHARGE) at the same site:  http://bit.ly/TS-Preferred

Bruce has travel photographer press credentials from the National Press Association and the ITWPA.  Bruce Oliver is known as an internet consultant, Business Development Info, Virtual Tour Travel Photographer and World Traveler.  He is listed as a Biographee in MARQUIS: Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Education.   Visit other sites listed here:  WAH  BDI