Jaunted

Travel Snapshot / LGA / Plane Spotting / Blimps / US Open / Baseball Travel / → All Tags

An Evening Of Baseball And The Goodyear Blimp At LaGuardia Airport

Hopping off a flight and returning to New York's LaGuardia Airport yesterday evening, we looked out of the terminal at a pinkening sky, enhanced by the high-wattage lights of both the Mets' Citi Field and the US Open's Arthur Ashe stadium.

We've shown you the same view before, but reversed: LaGuardia as seen from Citi Field. This time however, we have a few extra visitors: the moon, and the Goodyear Blimp. There's no doubt that LaGuardia greets its arrivals with some of the best scenery of the NY-area airports. Or would you rather watch the sun set behind Newark?

Bonus points: can you spot the plane on final approach, just about to head over the stadium?

Related Stories:
· Watch For Fly Balls And Landing Planes At NY's Citi Field [Jaunted]
· Travel Snapshots [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jaunted]

Cruises / Ships / Royal Caribbean / Blimps / → All Tags

Has the Oasis of the Seas Test Blimp Vanished?

[Update: CruiseCritic has just Twittered that the blimp has been located. Phew!]

According to CruiseCritic.com, who translated a Finnish news report, the test blimp attached to the new cruise ship Oasis of the Seas has gone missing.

The blimp, called the Aerostat was launched earlier this week for testing as a new adventure amenity aboard the cruise ship which is also in its own sea testing trials. For passengers who are tired of walking around and around the ship, the Aerostat would enable them to get off the boat for a little while. The blimp would rise about 165 feet high in the sky but would still be tethered to the ship.

Except somewhere in testing that rope has snapped off.

The 220,000-ton, 5,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas is scheduled to return to the STX Europe Finland shipyard in Turku today, but the current whereabouts of the blimp are still unconfirmed. No one was onboard the object, which was being tested for use as a balloon ride onboard the largest cruise ship ever built.

And this is exactly what we would keep us from riding a cruise ship's baby blimp. Meanwhile, the blimp is still out there. We hope Royal Caribbean can find it soon.

Related Stories:
· Would You Ride In A Cruise Ship's Baby Blimp? [Jaunted]
· Update: Oasis of the Seas' Missing Blimp [CruiseCritic.com]

[Photo: CruiseCritic]

Cruises / Ships / Royal Caribbean / Blimps / → All Tags

Would You Ride In A Cruise Ship's Baby Blimp?

The annals of shipboard entertainment are a study in the growing ADD-ness of travelers; there once was a day when week-long ocean crossings were happily passed with games of shuffleboard and skeet shooting, and then we graduated to learning napkin-folding and wine pairings during Caribbean cruises. These days however, it seems as though even 4-night trips require access to D-list celebrities, rock climbing walls and mini-golf greens.

Would you believe that we've done all of the above—well, we watched the skeet shooting and never touched the celeb—and yet we remain flabbergasted by the amenity that Royal Caribbean is trying to bring onboard their new Oasis of the Seas. It's a freaking blimp-on-a-string!

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