We tried our damnedest to cook up a travel angle on the whole Miley Cyrus drama, but we just couldn't do it. So instead of stretching, we're gonna set you up with a classic travel news link dump to wrap up the day.
Europe--and Lonely Planet--wanna see your travel videos, and Tijuana is picking up the pieces after an insane gun battle. Protesters *won't* be greeting the Olympic Torch in Pyongyang. And, yes, everyone wants a piece of the Gossip Girl action. (Including us!)
That's Delta's new safety video above. It's been making the rounds on the Internets recently and stirring up quite the dedicated fan base for Katherine Lee, a.k.a. "Deltalina," the real-life Delta flight attendant featured in the clip. Yeah, she's cute.
As you can see, in today's airline industry, there is no more valuable an asset than a shiny-haired employee with a soothing voice. Both Deltalina and her comrade-in-spirit, Sir Chuck Ogilvie of Virgin America, have been pimped out by their respective employers, and with good reason. These two need to record a book on tape together--we'd buy, like, 1200 copies or more. SkyMall would sell out of them in record time.
Also, they belong together. In holy matrimony. Forever!
After we told you about the Star Wars show opening in Philadelphia, we had to go check it out. We got to the Franklin Institute right about 10 am Saturday to watch this lightsaber duel and see a bunch of Imperial Stormtroopers march all over the place. And after navigating the crowd of kids and adults acting like kids, we finally managed to scope the show.
Now, with the disclaimer that we're Star Wars geeks, it was awesome. There were heaps of models from the movies, costumes and taped interviews with Lucasfilm artists. The token attempts at science--questions like could people really survive on Hoth--were also nice and good for the kids.
We skipped the $5 extra for the Millennium Falcon experience. We wish we would've skipped the Star Wars planetarium show. (The theater is nice; the show was bad.)
Your exhibit ticket gets you into the rest of the Franklin Institute, so if you're taking kids, you can make a full day of it. If you'd rather not, we'll have more geeky Philly recommendations this week including comic book shops and sneaker boutiques.
We had a chance today to get out to the slopes before the Sundance insanity begins in earnest. And though it was pretty damn cold out there, it was an awesome day for riding. With everyone flitting around town making final preps for the film festival, we were still carving corduroy at 11:30.
PCMR started a new thing this year: The resort's divided its massive amount of terrain into "MountainZones," which are manageable chunks that each give a nice mix of beginner to expert slopes. When you've only got a few hours to spend, this is really helpful; you don't get overwhelmed by the size of the place and can focus on enjoying yourself.
We spent most of our day rocking the Bonanza zone, where the lift lines were non-existent and the terrain didn't kill us. We also ducked into the Summit House restaurant (elevation 9,250 feet!) and had a chance to warm up by the roaring fireplace.
While we were enjoying the laid-back lifestyle of Eleuthera, we couldn't resist dropping in on the Eleuthera tourism office in Governor's Harbor. There we barged our way into the office of tourism manager Jackie Gibson and demanded she tell us why people should visit Eleuthera.
Ok, ok. So maybe Jackie was expecting our visit. But she wasn't expecting to be on-camera. Still, she managed to overcome some stage fright, ringing phones and other unexpected visitors to tell us what she loves about Eleuthera. Listen to her explain what Eleuthera has to offer to its visitors from beaches galore to the Glass Window Bridge to the constant waving of the friendly islanders.
The Diving Equipment and Marketing Association has launched a new initiative--and released a commercial--that they hope will lure you to the sport. DEMA's $1.2 million "Be a Diver" campaign is the biggest, most expensive program so far to encourage more people to become certified scuba divers. Should be a useful skill when global warming one day leads to Biblical floods!
The campaign's main goal, of course, isn't just to up the number of certified divers, but to increase the sale of scuba-related supplies. Though the campaign promises info on diving education and destinations, DEMA also wants you to try out all sorts of fancy, must-have scuba gear at its traveling road show. This past weekend, for example, they set up a shallow swimming pool at the Adventures in Travel Expo in NYC.
We're still waiting to see what the full "Be a Diver" website will look like. When we checked in for a preview earlier this morning, the new site was still unavailable. Definitely not a good way to kick off a campaign.
While we dawdle around in the US, asking if the airlines would please, maybe, hopefully sorta respect us, passengers in Buenos Aires are letting Aerolineas Argentinas know exactly how they feel. As labor conflicts wear on, delays and cancellations have stranded passengers expressing their feelings by smashing computers and offices while hurling soda cans at weary airline employees.
Thousands of passengers have been stranded at Ministro Pistarini International since Friday when the trouble started. Some news reports blame baggage handlers and pilots for the flight cancellations, though the pilots union says it's members are ready to fly. Passengers suspect that Aerolineas Argentinas is overbooking flights.
It'll take at least another epic summer of delays in the States before we see this kind of rioting at JFK--though it might be the kind of drastic action we need to get our airlines working again. ¡Viva la revolución!
We already have a soft spot for MCI (aka KCI) in Kansas City because the airport's had free WiFi for ages. But now we have another reason to love it: a commercial starring a chimp.
Honestly, this little fella does everything right when it comes to air travel. He books his flight online and checks in from home before heading to the airport. Before heading out the door, he checks his flight status on MCI's website. (He also could've Googled it.)
We usually like taking public transportation to the airport, but our traveling chimp does live in Kansas City--not exactly the world's foremost subway city. But we do like that he's only toting a single, small suitcase. As Peter Greenberg says, "There are two kinds of bags: carry-on and lost."
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