Jaunted

Amusement Parks / Theme Parks / Roller Coasters / New York City Travel / Coney Island / → All Tags

Coney Island Scores Two New Coasters for Summer 2011

After years of decline it looks like Coney Island has finally found its place in the 21st century, and things seem to be moving full speed ahead into the future. Last year Luna Park joined the theme park offerings, and this summer looks to welcome a pair of brand new roller coasters. Sure they aren’t the extreme offerings at some of the country’s bigger parks, but these are the first new coasters to hit the boardwalk in more than 80 years.

Scream Zone is one of the area’s newest amusement park spots, and recently they introduced the new rides. Soarin' Eagle and Steeplechase were welcomed by coaster fans—including Mayor Bloomberg—last week.

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Airports / Airport News / EWR / LGA / JFK / New York City / → All Tags

Is New York City Getting Another Airport Nearby JFK?

Everyone knows that the New York City area could use another airport—or at least a major revamp of the existing facilities—but the problem is that there’s just no darned space to construct what's required. Well apparently there’s some underutilized property in Brooklyn that could be the area’s third airport—or fourth if you’re cool counting Newark. Floyd Bennett Field was once home to famous aviators like Amelia Earhart and Howard Hughes, and now some want it to reopen as a hub for the modern traveler.

The old airfield sits on Jamaica Bay with JFK Airport not too far off in the distance, so it’s in a pretty decent location to help out all those airplane traffic jams. With the new advances in air traffic control technology, the thinking is that this spot could be used without interfering with all the comings and goings at JFK. The only issue is that the airport is hardly ready to go, as runways would need to be lengthened, terminals would need to be built, and Uncle Sam would need to hand it over to someone like the Port Authority.

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Brooklyn Travel / Tourism / New York City / Cheap NYC / → All Tags

Is Brooklyn's Gritty Gowanus Canal to be NYC's Next Tourist Attraction?

A few days ago, The Brooklyn Paper published a most intriguing article that enlightened us to the fact that Brooklyn is attempting to get its Gowanus Canal and the surrounding neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Sure, it's been around forever, and mills began operating on the Canal as early as 1645, but that doesn't change the fact that anyone who know a little bit about Brooklyn knows that, these days, it's one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country.

Still, local preservationists are all about getting the Gowanus neighborhood designated as a city historic district, which could possibly attract tourists to the area for its rusting, industrial, native Brooklyn grit. Because that's what the tourists to NYC want, right? Gritty, but pretty.

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Tragedies / Accidents / United / TWA / Vintage Travel / Airplanes / Brooklyn Travel / → All Tags

50 Years Ago Today, a Mid-Air Collision Brought a United Jet Crashing into Brooklyn

Although it's never nice to talk about past air incidents when they have the possibility of freaking you out before flying, but it's important to note that today marks the 50th Anniversary of one of the most tragic airplane accidents in history. At the time, in 1960, it was the deadliest, killing 128 people in the sky and 6 on the ground. Here's what happened:

In the morning of December 16, 1960, a TWA Constellation carrying 44 was heading to land at LaGuardia Airport while a United DC-8 Jet with 84 on board was on its way to land at Idlewild Airport (now JFK). Because of lower-tech air traffic control systems of the time, and because the United jet wasn't in the spot it thought it was, the two planes collided over Staten Island. The TWA prop plane was sliced into three pieces and fell straight down onto a military field in SI, while the United Jet managed to continue as far as Brooklyn, where it eventually fell into a church and intersection in the Park Slope neighborhood, killing 6 on the ground and setting buildings on fire.

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Reality TV Travel / TV Travel / Television Travel / Brooklyn / Jersey Shore / Brighton Beach / → All Tags

'Brighton Beach' Reality Show Will Go Up Against 'Jersey Shore'

Are you tired of MTV's Jersey Shore yet? Your response to that doesn't really matter because either way, another show very similar to it is due to hit the TV, and it'll focus on an area not very far at all from Jersey Shore's Seaside Heights: Brooklyn's Brighton Beach. Auditions for the proposed Russian-American reality show wrapped in March, and now it's been confirmed that the series is coming to Lifetime next year.

Originally, the producers wanted "the Russian Snooki" and someone who attends "birthday parties at Russian restaurants every weekend," but now, with Lifetime's backing, they're recasting for families in order to tell a "multigenerational women’s story about life in the community." Hmm, that sounds like every other Lifetime movie they already have, except that this one will be a 12-episode series.

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Technology / WiFi / Cruise Travel / At-Sea WiFi / Queen Mary 2 / Cunard / Ships / → All Tags

How Much Does Using the Internet Cost on a Cruise Ship?

In the world of travel WiFi, there are three big players: hotel wifi, in-flight wifi and airport WiFi. Actually, now that Amtrak and many European have installed the internet, we could even add "on-track WiFi" to the list too. But let's take a step further than these. Let's go to the frontier of travel connectivity. Let's talk about at-sea WiFI.

On our recent tour of Cunard Line's massive Queen Mary 2 liner while she was docked in Brooklyn, we started wondering if we could ever settle in for a 9-day transatlantic crossing as the passengers boarding were doing. Our hearts told us yes, but our minds know the reality of the situation, and that is how we'd probably develop a tick if we had to go more than two days without the internet, especially out in the middle of the open ocean.

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Ships / Queen Mary 2 / Cunard / Cruise Travel / Space Travel / → All Tags

Inside the World's Only Floating Planetarium

Last week, Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2 arrived to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal after a transatlantic voyage to from England, bringing with it many ash-trapped travelers who threw their worthless airline tickets out the window in favor of sailing back in style. Before the ship headed back across the pond, Cunard invited us aboard for a quick peek and some canapes with chef Todd English.

Looking at the QM2, she seems every bit a classic ocean liner; there's no multi-deck-high water slides or putting greens on this baby, but then she's got have something special for modern cruisers. And what she has—aside from that classic appeal—is the world's only planetarium at sea.

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Ships / Food Travel / Cunard / Queen Mary 2 / Boats / Todd English / → All Tags

Why is Chef Todd English in the Queen Mary 2's Captain's Chair?

What's he saying? 'All ahead flambe!' or possibly 'Release the gravy boats!'

Get down from there, chef Todd English! While onboard Cunard's Queen Mary 2 yesterday, English took first position on the bridge and determinedly surveyed New York harbor. Luckily, it was only for a second, as the QM2 was safely tied up at dock at Brooklyn's Cruise Terminal, taking on new passengers for a transatlantic crossing to Southampton and Hamburg, where she'd drop off some long-stranded European travelers affected by the volcano ash and unwilling to deal with the airlines any longer.

Cunard invited us onboard for a quick tour of the behemoth boat, which is longer than the Chrysler building is tall and more packed with passengers than a whole line of A380 superjumbo airplanes. Needless to say, we were impressed, and the heady combination of the world's only at-sea planetarium, lemongrass-infused champagne and Todd English's bedroom eyes made us want to stowaway in a closet onboard and never return to dry land.

Food porn for sure, after the jump

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Neighborhoods to Know and Go / New York City / New York Travel / Brooklyn Travel / Food Travel / Travel Tips / → All Tags

Neighborhoods to Know and Go: Brooklyn's DUMBO

It's finally spring in New York City, and do you know what that means (aside from the return of the tourists)? It means that everyone is shedding their coats and trading in their winter boots for bicycles and new running shoes. New York is an active city, and nowhere will you find more to do with better views than down in the Brooklyn neighborhood of DUMBO.

"Dumbo" means "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass," because the small area—dominated by the buildings that print a certain religious organization's magazine—sits mainly underneath the roadways of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Being down in a warehouse-y district underneath bridges may sound sketchy, but Dumbo is populated by the rich and powerful who actually care about their area. We resided in Dumbo for a period ourselves, and found it to be one of the most pleasant urban communities we've ever set foot into. All of the chocolate and bookstores probably helped our opinion too.

You can easily reach the area by taking the F train to the York Street stop and walking downhill from there, or the A/C trains to High Street-Brooklyn Bridge. Or just walk across the Brooklyn Bridge from downtown Manhattan—your call.

Join us in DUMBO, after the jump.

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Chocolate Travel / Food Travel / Brooklyn Travel / Easter Travel / → All Tags

Where to Find the Most Decadent Easter Treats: Chocolate-Covered Peeps

Can we talk about chocolate for a second, please? It seems like every time we walk into a drug store or market, we're confronted with rows of vibrant foil-wrapped chocolate rabbits and Cadbury eggs. But there's so much more to be discovered in the world of Easter chocolates, and so while down in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn this weekend, we stopped by a few of the area's specialty stores and uncovered these mini miracles: chocolate-covered Peeps.

At $5 for a pack of four, they aren't cheap, but their name—the "Chirp-N-Dales," is too cute to resist. We got a pack of the dark chocolate-dipped bunnies, but the chicks in chocolate tuxedos were tempting too. They can be found at the flagship chocolaterie of chef Jacques Torres, who calls himself "Mr. Chocolate" and is often found guesting on talk shows or the Food Channel, discussing the ways of chocolate. He is someone who truly has fun with the rich stuff, because we usually swing by his chocolate-dipped Cheerios and espresso beans. But these Peeps had us at "hello."

More Peepin', after the jump!

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Travel Snapshot / New York City / Tourists / Brooklyn Travel / Bridges / → All Tags

It's 70 Degrees in New York City and the Tourists Have Reemerged

It's 70 degrees in New York City today, and before the flurries come again this weekend and next week, we hopped out with our WiFi card to work under the sun in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Sitting nearby the water taxi dock and the River Cafe, noshing on some chocolate-covered Peeps from the Jacques Torres chocolaterie down the street, we watched as busloads of international tourists emerged from their winter hibernation and explored Brooklyn—well, the yuppie neighborhood known as "DUMBO," or "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass."

It's like the birds returning from their migrations in the spring, when the tourists show up in their sunglasses. It's even more telling when said busloads are Italian, and they're looking up into the sun and sighing happily.

Next time you're in New York, you should make your own pilgrimage down to the Fulton Ferry Landing in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood (if you haven't already), and savor the city in the spring and summer, especially now that they're readying to open a new section of the park. Perhaps you'll even catch one of the free outdoor films they show in the park, and then you'll really thank us.

Related Stories:
· Dining in Downtown Brooklyn: It's Always 1977 at Junior's [Jaunted]
· Travel Snapshots [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jaunted]

Travel Media / Blogs / Bon Voyage / Victor Ozols / → All Tags

Such Sweet Sorrow: Farewell From Your Weekend Editor

Back in June, 2008, I was a correspondent for a blog called Gridskipper, a snarky travel site run by Gawker Media. Gridskipper wasn't hitting its numbers, so Gawker sold it to the Curbed Network, which relaunched it as a luxury travel site. I don't blame them for trying something new, but I didn't love the direction it was going, so I decided to jump ship. I got in touch with the editors at Jaunted, Gridskipper's longtime competitor, or, as I often described it, the Pepsi to Gridskipper's Coke. Jaunted was good enough to take me on as a weekend editor, and I spent the next 18 months posting 363 entries (now 364) on topics as varied as the vagaries of TSA I.D. requirements and the vacation habits of my Russian barber, Oksana.

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