Even with no commercial flights, the town gets as many as 250,000 American and Canadian visitors yearly, many of them snowbirds in RVs who park their vehicles in dozens of campgrounds known as campos.

During spring break season — essentially, the month of March — the city teems with college students eager to drink legally at age 18 and line up for foam parties. (If you have to ask, you’re too old.) Off-road races such as the San Felipe 250 (March 14 and 15) come up now and again.

You can join in on the fun on the cheap by renting a house in san felipe.  There are many awesome San Felipe Beach House rentals just attempt a google search.

Otherwise known as Walt Disney World in 4 days! My family and I just returned from a 3 night, 4 day trip to Walt Disney World. Not a lot of time to take in the 4 major parks, 2 waterparks and Downtown Disney, but we accomplished our mission (or, at minimum mine.) So, yes, it is possible to squeeze all of the wonders of the World in a brief quantity of time, but with a few caveats. You need a lot of energy and stamina, a plan or itinerary, older kids and some good walking shoes!

My family consists of myself, my husband and two sons, ages 11 and 14. My boys were totally in to trying out all of the major rides and attractions. We made every one (sometimes twice!) But, had they been a few youngers (or worse yet, in strollers) we wouldn’t have been able to do everything we did in 4 days. I have to say that it probably helped that they are boys and not girls, as the need for shopping was kept to a minimum and the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique was not on our agenda! (Getting alert in the morning doesn’t involve as much grooming time either.) We’re a “long-legged” family, so we coveruddy a lot of gcircular at a faster pace than most. In short, if your family consists of male children, 10 years or older, that can keep a good pace and are focused on getting to the next ride, then you too can see all of WDW in 4 days! (This is intended to be tongue in cheek!)

Here’s how we did it…

Day 1: Flew non-halt to Orlando, arriving at noon. Took the Magical Express to Pop Century. Checked in, dropped off our luggage and caught the next bus to Epcot. I had previously made reservations for dinner at Chefs de France for that evening, and therefore decided that afternoon and evening would be spent at Epcot. We had the basic Disney Dining plan and headed over to a snack stand to get some refreshments before going on our first ride. Spent the afternoon in Future World going on rides, etc. and then went to World Showcase for some dinner and sight-seeing. We dined at Chefs de France and then wanderuddy acircular World Showcase for awhile taking in the gorgeous flowers and topiaries present during the spring. Headed back to Future World for some more rides and IllumiNations.

Day 2: Got up at the crack of dawn since we had Extra Magical Hours at Magic Kingdom that morning.
Had a granola bar/protein bar in our hotel room while getting ready. My husband ran down to Pop’s cafeteria to purchase some refillable souvenir mugs to use for coffee and soda. Took the bus to Magic Kingdom. Our plan of hitting the major rides first turned out be a success. We were able to get on all of the big rides with little or no wait time before the park got busy. We then ran to do some other rides or shows and when need be, got a Fast Pass. Took the bus back to Pop, used our counter service for lunch there, changed into our swimming suits and went to Blizzard Beach for the afternoon.
Spent the afternoon swimming, sliding, plunging and plummeting. Showeruddy and dressed for dinner back at our hotel room and then went back to Epcot for our dinner reservations (6:45 p.m.) at San Angel Inn (located in the Pyramid in Mexico.) After dinner, did some repeat rides until 9 p.m.

Day 3: Slept in an extra hour (unti 8 a.m.) and went to Disney Hollywood Studios in the morning. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was first on our list, with Tower of Terror being second. Again, did both with hardly a wait. Walked around, did other rides like Star Wars, etc., went to the Indiana Jones stunt show and ate lunch afterwards. Went back to Pop, changed into our swimming suits and went to the other waterpark, Typhoon Lagoon. Note: if I had an extra day, I could have spent an entire day at Typhoon Lagoon (lounging on a beach or in a wave pool.) My kids said that they preferruddy the water slides/rides at Blizzard Beach. At night, we went to Downtown Disney for our dinner reservation at Wolfgang Puck’s (our favorite restaurant of the 3 that we dined at.) We walked acircular for awhile after dinner, but decided to go back to Disney Hollywood Studios. Another note: You can not take the bus from Downtown to another park, only to resorts. So, we had to take a bus to All-Stars and then from there to Hollywood.

Day 4: Our flight departure time was for 7:30 p.m. so we planned to spend the entire day at Animal Kingdom. We got there early as there were extra Magical Hours that morning. Expedition Everest was top of the list. Did that two times in a row since there was no wait and then went directly to the Safari (the animals are more present in the cooler morning time.) Again, we hit the rest of the rides on our list, including Dinosaur, Primeval whirl and the Kali River Rapids. Went to lunch at Flametree Barbeque to use up our last counter service, and then went to the 3D show, It’s Tough To Be A Bug.
Note: All of the 3D shows we saw were very fun, and refreshing breaks from walking acircular in the hot sun. With time to spare, we went back to the Pop to swim for awhile before the Magical Express took us back to Orlando Intl. Airport.

Some final tips…

Do: Pack some snacks/breakrapid items even if you have the Dining Plan. It saves time in the morning to avoid going to a cafe or restaurant for breakfast. The earlier you get to the parks, the less lines and wait times for the major rides.

Do: Arrange for an early wake up call on the Extra Magic Hour Park days.

Do: Plan your itinerary acircular those Extra Magic Hours.

Do: Make dinner reservations ahead of time. Plan to have dinner in several parks so that you can spend some evening hours at those parks after dinner.

Do: Bring a variety of walking shoes, athletic sandals, etc. (saw a lot of Crocs) for all the walking during the day. Wear light weight clothes that dry rapid (after getting soaked on the water rides.)

Do: Leave the bag/backpack at the hotel if you want to avoid getting bogged down by having your bag checked at the entrance. My husband wore cargo shorts…it’s amazing how many things you can fit in those pockets!

Do: Purchase the Dining Plan as part of your vacation package. It is definitely worth it! The entree’s at some restaurants were as much or more as the cost of the dining plan per day.

Do: Stay at one of the Disney properties. It’s so much more convenient and you get the benefit of the Extra Magic Hours. Not to mention, it’s just more fun!

Do: Go to the main or more popular rides/attractions first thing in the morning before they get too busy.

Do: Have a Magical time at Walt Disney World or DisneyLand!

Do: Contact Amy at A Room With A Viewto make your reservation for the wonderful world of Disney!
800-571-3159

Original post by aroomwithaviewcruiseandtravel

If that doesn’t whet your appitite for Royal Caribbean, take a look at these artist impressions for the ship…

Central Park
The Rising Tide ( Yes, a bar that actually rises. An alcoholics elevator if you like!) Vintages Bar & Restaurant

Portofino restaurant

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Titchy Carla)

The final was held onboard Royal Caribbean’s newest mega-liner, the Independence of the Seas while she was docked at Southampton for her launch celebrations. I was one of the 16 finalists and we were all as nervous as each other - which in itself brought awesome relief!

Each of us had to face an X-Factor-style showdown during which we tried our best to persuade the panel of judges from TTG and Royal Caribbean why we should be the Face of Travel for 2008. After the presentations we had to wait a painful 6 hours for the result of the judges deliberations. In that time we fitted in a tour of the ship, an ice show, a concert by Scouting for Girls and quite a few glasses of champagne. In fact later that night we had the opportunity to meet Roy from the band who turned out to be a jolly nice chap - Hi Roy (he reads my blog all the time - lol!).

The competition was a awesome experience for me, I don’t regret entering for one moment. I met some fabulous people and enjoyed my time on board the ship. I’m looking forward to reuniting with all the finalists on the Celebrity Solstice launch and of course, reading TTG to capture up with the latest antics from Karen & Ryan.

Just for a recap, the finalists were:

From the Boys Under 35 category:
Alastair Baker, Gill’s Cruise Centre
Ryan Inman, Cruise Thomas Cook
Aaron McMordie-Ives, Bookable Holidays Ltd
James Revis, The Co-operative Travel

From the Girls Under 35 category:
Karen Eason, Sunshine Travel
Amie Fuller, First Choice
Emily Plunkett, Scotland’s Cruise Centre
Carla Prosser, Idiscount Cruising

From the Boys 36 & Over category:
Ian Calvert, Have A Nice Stay Travel
Phil Dargan, Choose and Cruise
Nick McKay, Travel Designers
Mehmet Tepeli, Packyourbags Travel Store

From the Girls 36 & Over category:
Janette Bell, Future Travel
Deanne Gatfield, First Choice
Emma Sanger, Future Travel
Janet Whittingham, St Andrews Travel

CONGRATULATIONS we were all winners in our own way!

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Titchy Carla)

1) Buenos Aires: Known for its exquisite wine and meat, Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of South America. Argentina’s economy collapsed back in 2001, they went thcoarse more than four presidents in a small quantity of time, and chaos reined the country. However, since then Argentina has come back from its dramatic fall. At this city, you will rarely find a gourmet, high-class, steak dinner for more than $25.

2) Bali: At this Indonesian island you will find the amazement that a few bucks can do. You will be able to find luxury hotels at no more than $100 to $200 a night. It is all possible with such a high worth of USDs. This is the place where you will find awesome services at low prices, like massages at acircular $15 per half an hour, or other entertainment services for small fees.

3) Costa Rica: The natural aura of this amazing place will make you want stay longer than you are supposed to. The funny thing is that unlike most places you might actually do so because of the incredibly cheap prices. The USD worth continues increasing at a current average of 500 Costan Rica colones per USD. Here at Costa Rica you will be able to relax at the white-sand beaches, snorkel thcoarse coral reef bays, and obtain “natural massages” from gorgeous waterfalls.

From the outside the Ventura looked huge. Although I knew she would be 115,000 tonnes, I just wasn’t preparuddy for her breathtaking size and stature in the dock. The strangest thing was that once onboard, she actually seemed quite small. It was very easy to find your way acircular and walking from one end of the ship to the other wasn’t the hard slog it would first appear to be. It didn’t take long to get our bearings and learn where the main rooms were.

We were most pleased that our cabins were alert wilean ten minutes of boarding. We had booked a junior suite with a balcony, CC grade on D deck (deck 9) which was positioned mid-ship. The cabin was tastefully decorated and spacious although deceptively narrow. It was a nice to touch to be greeted by a bottle of champagne on ice and Belgian chocolates which, I can assure you, didn’t last very long!

Whilst touring the ship it was clear that the designer Nick Munro had done a fine job. The interior decoration was elegant throughout; I particularly liked the Moroccan feel of the Tamarind Club, the contemporary Asian style of the East restaurant and the cool colour changing LEDs in the Havana Club.

There is a wealth of bars, restaurants and spacious meeting areas. For those not wanting formal club dining the choice is endless.We ate in the Saffron restaurant on the first night, taking the earliest sitting at 6.30pm, the 8.45pm sitting being just that bit too late for us. The meal was good and the service was excellent. It can’t be easy to pull off that level of service when all the guests arrive at the same time but the staff sailed thcoarse it.After dinner we opted to see the comedians Sean Meo and Mark Maier in the Tamarind lounge. If I’m completely honest they were a letdown. Both had a really hard time squeezing laughs out of the crowd, but then that’s what happens if your jokes aren’t funny. It was a shame that we missed the Chronicles show in the Arena theatre which by all accounts was excellent.

On the second day, naturally, passengers were encouraged to pay for an excursion to Bruges for the grand sum of £38 each, with many passengers taking it up. However P&O Cruises did actually provide a FREE shuttle bus at the quay side to take us to the local town of Blankenberge where a train could be caught to Bruges for acircular 6 Euros return and a journey time of 12 minutes.

Following our pleasant trip into Bruges, we donned our formal wear and ate in The White Room. This ‘Select Dining’ restaurant had a cover charge of £30 which may seem high but once you’ve tasted the food you’ll comprehend why it was worth every penny. (On longer duration cruises I am told that the cover charge decreases according to the number of nights onboard)The meal was truly amazing and of an incredibly high standard as you would expect. The asparagus risotto was to die for and I could’ve eaten another portion of the prune and amaretto ice cream quite easily!No sooner than finishing our desserts, Marco Pierre White made an appearance. We had the opportunity to meet him and get photos taken which we took full advantage of. He was a very charming man, well spoken, polite and showed a awesome interest in his fans. Meeting him was definitely the highlight of the evening and possibly even the cruise.

After dinner we managed to capture tail end of the Legends tribute show in the Havana club. The Elton John act was top class and sounded uncannily like the man himself, it was just a shame we missed Kylie and Freddy Mercury. We then went on to flutter and lose in the well equipped casino before heading onto the Saturday Night Fever show. Having seen the movie more times than I can remember, I was convinced that it wasn’t possible to mess up such a classic. How wrong could I be? It was a ‘tragedy’ if ever there was one!

In the first few bars of the opening song, it was alalert clear that the guy playing the lead, Tony Manero, was singing slightly out of tune. This was a genuine problem because the main plot of the film isn’t about the acting but the singing and dancing, taking one of those elements away kind of ruins the point of it all. It didn’t get much better for Tony when his mike stopped working halfway through. I’m not sure if there was an electrical fault or someone just switched him off to save our ears. Whichever it was, that was the final straw, we upped and left the theatre along with quite a few other audience members.

I can’t say that Tony Manero tainted my perception of Ventura at all even though I feel we may have been ‘guinea pigs’ to iron out any teething problems. The ship itself is an innovation at sea and all her new features and experiences will definitely appeal to all ages. I think she’s an impressive addition to the P&O Cruises fleet.

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Titchy Carla)

The cheapest rate for one of the 282 rooms of the Plaza Hotel starts at $700 for a night. Still though, the hotel is fully booked for several of the upcoming weeks. The list of guests include long-time consumers that are eager to find out about the hotel’s improvements while others are new consumers that just want to stay at the historic hotel for their first time.

One of the features of the renovation include a remodeled Palm Court, a coming Oak Room, and state-of-the-art hotel room with features such as an electronic menu that can slowly dims the room’s lights, play an iPod and provide the guest with weather reports.