Oct 02
AndrewTravel Disney, Lion King, Musical, Vegas
The Lion King the Walt Disney musical is setting up shop in the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, NV next year. The production is reportedly going to be the full-length feature following the Broadway version, though Vegas shows typically get chopped down to 90 minutes to encourage gaming activities (like Phantom, the shortened version of The Phantom of the Opera running at the Venetian). It joins six other productions of The Lion King around the world, and currently is set for an open-ended run.
Broadway musicals relocated to Las Vegas typically take years to recoup their investment and make money, but MGM Mirage (owners of Mandalay Bay) hopes that the production will be a big enough draw to at least get people into the casino.
Show previews begin April 20, 2009 and debut performance is set for May 2.
Aug 16
AndrewTravel Boston to New York, I-84, I-95, Travel
New York City has always been a striking city, but in my many visits here, I have never thought of it as beautiful. But last night, I got a glimpse of what sits in the hearts of New Yorkers that rests their souls amid the swirl of chaos and the press of people that defines day to day life here.
Yesterday’s drive down to New York City was surreal, and if it set the tone for this long weekend, so much the better. Traffic was decent; there were slowdowns at the two predictable spots. Getting on to I-84 at Sturbridge, the traffic piled up seemingly based on funneling the weekend traffic through the Mass Turnpike toll booth. Because Massachusetts residents are notoriously stubborn about owning a Fast Lane, the queue to pay by cash clogged and backed up traffic about 4 miles down the pike.
It’s amazing that one single barrier could cause that much back-up, but the design of the toll booths, with the two Fast Lane lanes in the middle meant that anyone who wanted to speed past the cash-payers had to weave through a jumble of cars themselves trying to narrow and merge down into two cash toll lanes. We managed to escape the morass by heading off to the far right where a lone Fast Lane lane patiently waited.
By simply keep the Fast Lanes to either side, at least some of the cross-congestion at the exit would free itself up because all the cash payers could just pile to the middle of the toll area. But what do I know?
The delay started before the Charlton service center, forcing industrious families off the road for lunch. The place was a madhouse.
The second delay was predictable, though even that had an unexpected cause. The interchange at I-91 and I-95 in New Haven is always a shitshow. At the onramp for I-95, a pair of police cruisers had were along the side of the road with a sedan and a van. It was hard to tell if it had been a collision or just a pull over but coming from I-91, all lanes of southbound traffic end up merging at the one spot, which was now made substantially slower because drivers were essentially navigating a police stop too.
As we crossed into New York, the first big drops of rain hit the windshield and in the far off sky, we saw brilliant bolts of lightning shatter through the gray clouds. The rain started to fall fast and furious. The sky darkened to a film of black, the wind whipped around the water and the streets begin to roil furiously with water that couldn’t get out of our way fast enough. Traffic dipped down to a crawl, visibility was about two car lengths. Drivers turned on their hazards, some more tentative drivers pulled over to the side of the road. Since the storm was heading northeast, though, they essentially were parking at its front with the entire tail still to come while the rest of us were forging towards the storm’s break.
Then came peanut-sized hail. It started to batter the car and talk became useless. The weather warnings were for a tornado watch, high winds, flash floods and a lightning storm.
We drove as such, about 10 mph, the entire stretch from the New York City border to our exit at the 278 interchange, at which point, it lightened up enough to at least turn off our hazards and speed up to a more reasonable highway speed. About 20 miles.
By now, our quick 3-hour drive was shot to hell. We made it to Long Island City, at a 30-story condo complex near the Citylights Building. The Pepsi Cola sign sits along the water just outside. The view across the East River is a stunning panorama of Manhattan. Somewhere in the distance is the Empire State Building.
Friends invited us to Brooklyn for a Vegan raw restaurant (there are so many things wrong with that sentence, I don’t know where to begin) but something special happened to me on the drive. Staring in awe at the views speeding past our window, I got a glimpse into the city’s soul. I’ve never seen it before, just the idea that there is this awesome engine of life chugging inside the city’s chore. Granted, masked by what we see on the surface, most of it unpretty, unfriendly, unrelenting and what had always been to me uninviting.
I won’t say I’m a complete convert. I’m still an LA boy at heart and it’s hard to realign my allegiance just based on night, but it was strange feeling in my stomach that for once left me feeling joyous instead of tentative about New York.
Jul 16
AndrewBusiness, Travel Airline
Airlines have found new ad revenue in the form of ad space on the boarding pass itself. The ads will be included on boarding passes printed at home, enabling each participating carrier to reach some 30 million customers or more per year. The ads are serviced by Sojern Inc., a company in which the participating airlines have a minority stake.
Delta Airline has reportedly already launched the ad service and US Airways, Northwest, American, United and Continental are all expected to follow later this year. Delta customers have the option to not have the advertisements print, but no official word on whether that option will be available to the other airlines’ customers.
For now, ads are not targeted to the individual, though such a capability is in the works.
Jul 10
AndrewTravel
To save on about 500 pounds of dead weight, US Airways will remove the projector equipment for its in-flight movies on all domestic aircraft. The airline planned to install seat-back TVs in its aircraft, but that plan has been stalled by the airline’s struggle with oil costs. In the meantime, you can now keep the $5 headset you bought on board even though there will be nothing to watch. The airline expects a savings of about $10 million from the move.
International flights will be unaffected by the decision.
In other news, airlines will begin pricing airline tickets based on the weight of the passengers. Because heavier passengers force airplanes to use more fuel to get around the country, the airline will begin to require passengers to disclose their weight when they purchase their ticket. For now, the disclosure is on the honor system, but airline reps haven’t ruled out using the scales already installed at ticket counters to verify a customer’s actual weight. (Editor’s note: to date, airlines have publicly rejected the notion of charging customers by their weight but Newsweek, in fact, reported that the idea has been discussed.)
Jul 10
AndrewHumor, Travel
Actually, that’s pretty much the whole story.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department reported a naked man fled a convenience store when an officer approached investigating a shoplifting call. The man boarded a Citizens Area Transit bus, hijacked the vehicle from the driver (likely with his penis) and drove the bus 200 feet before jumping out. The officer is credited with boarding the bus and bringing it to a stop.
The man was arrested and will face felony charges.
Jul 09
JeremyBusiness, Travel Glenwood Springs, Hotel Business, Hotel Colorado, Sarcasm, Travel
Last weekend, I went to a family wedding in Colorado. The wedding party and many of the guests all stayed in the same hotel. By the end of the weekend, we came to the collective conclusion that the hotel was doing its best to drive customers away. It was the only logical conclusion based on the experience we had. For the convenience of other hotels that may be contemplating similar actions, I have compiled a list of what to do here:
- Lull your guests into a false sense of security upon arrival by presenting an impressive exterior facade and grand lobby
- Hire a staff that treats your guests rudely, especially if the guest is the bride of a wedding party
- Ensure that all service, from the front desk to the coffee shop, is as slow as it can possibly be
- Close your hotel bar at 10:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights
- Make sure that none of your drinks vending machines actually have any drinks in them
- Ensure that bathrooms are cramped and inconvenient in design with no ventilation
- Do not have enough fans on hand for each room, since you don’t have air conditioning in 90 degree weather
- Do not provide standard hotel amenities, such as irons in every room, and be sure that each guest must request such items at least three times before receiving them
- Offer poor quality and high prices in your dining room
- Make sure that relief a guest feels upon checking out is the only pleasant part of the stay
By following these ten easy steps, you too can be an unsuccessful hotelier!
This list is sponsored by the Hotel Colorado.*
* SmartReMarxcom has no affiliation with the Hotel Colorado. Any suggestion of a relationship here is purely sarcastic and not meant to imply that the Hotel Colorado endorses this article. The author, in turn, agrees not to endorse the Hotel Colorado.
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