My desire to take advantage of flight deals and see new places often takes me to destinations I might not have otherwise considered. An $89 round trip flight from Chicago to Louisville, for example, is how I ended up discovering that there’s a lot more to Kentucky‘s Bluegrass region than horses.
Louisville
The Louisville airport is larger than Lexington and receives more daily flights, which means for most people, it will be cheaper to fly into Louisville than Lexington. The two cities are an hour’s drive away from each other, so you can easily see both over a long weekend, no matter which airport you fly into. Louisville is the larger of the two cities- actually it is the largest in Kentucky. It’s not a major city though, and if you come expecting a Bluegrass Chicago, you may be disappointed.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of things to do in Louisville though. Boxing fans will want to visit the Muhammad Ali Center and baseball lovers can’t miss the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. The West Main area, also known as museum row, is home to several impressive art, history and science museums. Fort Knox and the Belle of Louisville (the oldest Mississippi-style steamboat still in use in the US) are also popular attractions.
In Louisville, I stayed at the 1888 Rocking Horse Manor. A totally restored historic house just south of the downtown area (an easy 15 minute walk), it features its original stained glass, antique furniture, free wi-fi, and a cooked-to-order breakfast included in the rate. The furnishings look a little like they came from your grandma’s house, but the hosts are helpful and friendly, the breakfast (and soft, chewy cookies available all day) is delicious, and the house is full of hidden nooks and crannies where you can escape and relax. Rates start at around $85 per night.
To find Louisville’s trendy scenesters (yes, they do exist), head to Proof on Main, a lounge/restaurant in the 21C Hotel. The menu features artisanal small plates (like bison bone marrow or grilled fennel relish) and eclectic main plates like roasted beet risotto and Amish chicken that start at $15. The drink list emphases the local Bourbon. The $10 Woodland Cider (bourbon, clove and apple cider) was excellent and you can take your drink into the adjoining museum and browse the modern art installations while you sip.
For a more casual meal, check out the pub grub at Bluegrass Brewing. They serve all the standards like burgers, pizzas and salads, plus local specialties like the Hot Brown – a giant sandwich of turkey, tomato, bacon, cheese and Alfredo sauce. After a few Bourbon Barrel Oatmeal Stouts, it’s just the kind of food you may need to avoid a morning hangover.
Lexington
Lexington is pure horse-country. The airport is just outside of Keenland, where you can place your bets and watch athletic Thoroughbred horses speed around the track. True horse enthusiasts (and anyone with kids) should head to the Kentucky Horse Park, a working horse farm, event grounds, and museum dedicated to all things horse. The park is home to over 100 horses (less in winter) and often hosts horse shows and competitions like the Rolex Kentucky 3-Day Event. Admission is $15 for adults and well worth it. Plan on spending at least 3-4 hours onsite. The farm offers horseback and pony rides (as do several other farms in the area). Many racing and breeding farms also offer tours (by appointment) to visitors.
The Bourbon Trail runs between Lexington and Louisville and features eight distilleries producing Bourbon, which is the United States’ only native spirit and is produced only in Kentucky. You can visit one or two (I highly recommend Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark) or head to the Whiskey Heritage Center to try multiple brands in one spot.
If Bourbon isn’t your drink of choice, you can also visit several wineries in the area – there are over a dozen within an hour’s drive of Lexington. At Wildside Vines, about 20 minutes west of the city, you can sample eight of their award-winning wines at no cost. Be sure to try the creative dessert wines like Blueberry and Blackberry.
For a fun night on the town, try the Cheapside Bar and Grill, a local favorite tucked away on a side street in the downtown core. It’s always packed, the daily drink specials are a great deal, they often have live music on weekends, and the Kentucky Bourbon Ale is strong and cheap.
There are many familiar chain hotels in the downtown area and further out of the city, you can stay the night at several working horse farms that offer accommodation. For $55 a night, you can also try the Motel 6. It’s a five minute drive (or $10 taxi) out of the downtown core. It’s basic but clean, and with the money saved, you can afford a few more bottles of Bourbon or Kentucky wine for souvenirs.
Here are the hottest gear deals for today, Tuesday November 17th 2009. Remember, these deals are often valid for just one day, so act fast before they are gone.
Today’s first deal is for the popular Garmin Nuvi 205 GPS unit. At just $89.99, it is one of the cheapest (new) GPS units you’ll find, short of getting up at 3am for Black Friday. On sale over at Drugstore.com. Click here for this deal.
Next up is a deal on some noise isolating headphones. They are just $12.99, and come with 6 different colored silicone ear gels. Click here for this deal.
The Lowepro Factor M messenger/laptop bag is still on sale for just $13.68. This is a great quality bag, at a really low price. Click here for this deal.
And finally in today’s lineup, head on over to “deal a day site” Pennywize.biz where you’ll find a pair of men’s Thinsulate wool gloves for just $7.99 plus one penny shipping. Click here for this deal.
Ever wanted to try a 100 year old Scotch chilled to perfection? Than listen up, this story is for you!
According to this article from the BBC, the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust has announced plans to retrieve a pair of crates buried in the Antarctic ice following a failed attempted to reach the South Pole more than a century ago. The crates contain bottles of McKinlay and Co whiskey, and were first discovered back in 2006 beneath the remains of a hut built to shelter explorers from the harsh polar climate. That expedition, led by Ernest Shackleton, came within 97 miles of reaching the Pole before turning back, leaving equipment and supplies, including the whiskey, behind to lighten their load and speed their progress.
The Trust hopes to recover the whiskey, and restore the bottles, before placing them in another one of Shackleton’s huts located on Cape Royd. The organization is slowly rebuilding that hut so that it exactly resembles the condition it was in when the famed explorer and his team set off on their epic journey.
Of course, the Trust isn’t the only one interested in recovering the crates from the ice. Whyte and Mackay, the distiller that now owns the McKinlay whiskey brand, hopes to get their hands on a bottle as well. This particular blend has been out of circulation for decades, and they would like the opportunity to recreate it and beginning selling it again too.
Shackleton was one of the foremost polar explores of his day, and at the time of the expedition, he was locked in a desperate race to become the first man to reach the South Pole. He would eventually lose that race to Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, but his exploits in the Antarctic would continue for years to come. In 1914 his ship, the Endurance, became trapped in the pack ice, and Shackleton and his crew spent 10 months at the mercy of the shifting ice. Eventually, the ship was crushed, and all hands were forced to abandon ship. It would be another five months before they were rescued, but not a single life was lost on the expedition, making it one of the greatest survival stories of all times, and cementing Shackleton’s place in exploration history.
Imagine this – instead of sitting in your car, slowly driving through the Lion Safari Park in Johannesburg, one of the cast members decides to pay you a personal visit.
The 300lb lion was able to open the rear door with his teeth, and right as he was about to climb aboard for lunch, the driver hit the gas and drove off.
A car behind the vehicle was able to catch the incident with his camera, and as you can see above, the lion was pretty close to getting into the car.
The car sped off, with the lion chasing it, obviously annoyed that his delicious snack was leaving him. A park warden was able to hold the lion back by throwing stones at it.
Lesson learned: lock your car doors whenever you are surrounded by wild animals. According to the park, all animals are well fed, and it is “unlikely” that they’d attack any tourists. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not take that chance.
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Last week, I took a 3 day cruise “to nowhere” on board the newest member of the Carnival Cruise Lines fleet. The Carnival Dream is the first in their “dream class” line of ships. The ship itself is massive – 130,000 tons, space for just under 3500 passengers, spread out over 11 decks. Embarkation
Unfortunately we’ll start with the worst part of this trip – getting on board the Dream was nothing short of a disaster. Carnival chose the Manhattan cruise terminal as its departure point, and it is obvious that this port is not equipped for ships this size.
I arrived at the terminal at 1pm, and was not at my stateroom until 3:55. Keep in mind, that time includes me being lucky enough to be allowed to use the “VIP” security line, which shaved about an hour off my wait. I spoke to one couple that had been waiting in various lines since 11am, and did not board until 4:50pm. The procedure involved waiting for security, waiting for the ticketing desk, then waiting for your boarding group to be called, then waiting in line for actually getting on board, then waiting about 30 minutes on the ship for an elevator. Because this was just a 3 day cruise, no luggage service was offered, and dragging your bags up 9 flights of stairs was not an option for everyone.
Carnival apologized for the delays, and a New York port worker told me that they had never dealt with anything this large. The ship is in fact so big, that the covered gangways could not reach her, forcing everyone up a slippery temporary walkway.
This embarkation is not a huge deal for Carnival – the normal home for the Dream will be down in Florida, where they are much better equipped at dealing with large ships. Carnival apologized several times for the boarding hassles, and they were clearly pretty annoyed by it as well.
On board – the stateroom
I was assigned a balcony stateroom and was quite happy with its layout. The room features 3 large closets, a desk with power outlets, two beds that form a queen bed, a sofa and a surprisingly large bathroom. The bathroom in my room was larger than other cruise ship rooms I’ve sailed on. The bathroom comes with a dish filled with various sample sized amenities, including 4 packets of Pepcid – a warning of things to come in the food department?
The room itself is nice and bright – lighting comes from the desk lights, overhead fluorescent lights and 2 lamps on bedside tables. At night, the cabin steward makes the towel animals Carnival is famous for.
In front of the bed (on the wall) is a flat panel TV. Sadly, the TV service on the ship was quite limited – 28 channels, 12 of which were Carnival promotional channels for the various (paid) attractions on the vessel. The local news channels were Denver affiliates of ABC and NBC (no idea why they picked Denver) and the TBS station was an odd mix of Spanish and English content. In total, there were only 3 or 4 “normal” channels in the lineup. In addition to this, Carnival have also blocked the video inputs on the TV, which means your iPod won’t work on the TV in your room.
Despite the nice room, things did get spoiled by really bad noise isolation. Not only could I hear people in the room next to me, I could actually hear every word they said, without needing to put my ear on the wall. The hallway noise isolation is also very bad – and I woke up in the middle of the night several times thanks to loud drunk passengers.
On board – attractions
The Carnival Dream is the first ship in the world to offer a full water park. On the top deck is where you’ll find two water slides, as well as various other water related fun. One deck above the water park is the Serenity “adults only” area. This is where you’ll find somewhere to get away from screaming kids and relax in one of the hot tubs, or on a hammock.
There are three pools on the ship, and none of them are indoors. With the lousy weather, all these pools were drained. In addition to the pools, the ship also has two other hot tubs that extend over the edge of the ship – these were a huge hit, and despite the rain and wind, many passengers took advantage of a dip in the warm water.
Non-aquatic entertainment comes from a big variety of attractions. Towards the rear of the ship is the three level Encore theater. This is also one of the 5 muster stations where passengers are briefed on safety aboard the ship. Unlike other vessels, passengers were not required to wear their life jacket to the briefing.
Deck five is the heart of the entertainment district. It is where you’ll find the casino, shops, sports bar, ice cream bar, sushi counter, comedy club and piano/jazz/karaoke bar. Starting at the Casino, you can make your way from attraction to attraction, while getting your cup refilled at each of the bars. The margarita bar was a very welcome attraction.
Deck 10 is home to the main pool, and the Carnival outdoor theater. On a massive screen, you can watch blockbuster movies (we were treated to Mall Cop and Star Trek). Sadly, the weather was so miserable that it wasn’t much fun to be outside for more than 10 minutes at a time.
In the evening, the screen and outdoor area are home to a fantastic laser show. The show combines lasers with a video presentation, music and smoke to create a really cool effect. The effect itself is quite like what you’d expect from most discos in Europe, but it is still nifty to experience on a cruise ship.
Of course, the ship also offers the standard things you’d expect from any cruise ship – mini golf, a spa and various cozy corners with nice chairs where you can sit back and relax with your beverage of choice.
On board – food and drinks
Food on board the Carnival Dream can be described in three words – hit or miss. My first meal was in the Lido deck buffet. Now, I’ll admit that most people were probably starving from their 4 hour embarkation fiasco, but the wait in line for food was about 35 minutes at each station.
One hidden gem in the buffet is the pasta bar. It is accessible via a narrow staircase to the 11th deck. At the pasta bar, chefs prepare fresh dishes. When you arrive, you fill in a form “designing” your perfect pasta dish, hand it to the cook, and a waiter will deliver it to your table.
The main buffet area is split into 2 zones. At each zone, you’ll find a desert line, a salad bar, a custom line (where you’ll find custom omelette’s in the morning, burritos for lunch, and a Mongolian wok for dinner). Towards the front of the ship are two real gems in the buffet lineup – a deli and a Tandoori/Indian counter.
The deli serves surprisingly good sandwiches, freshly created and grilled to perfection. The Indian counter features fresh Naan bread, Tandoori chicken and various other dishes. At the beginning of the buffet area is the pizza bar and the “grill” (hot dogs and burgers). The pizza bar is one of the 24 hour locations, along with a snack selection at the buffet and a couple of soft serve machines.
Food in the dining room was the real miss part of hit or miss. Service was fairly spotty, and it was quite hard to get a refill of your drink. On the first night, I attended a dinner with my various press colleagues. This was of course the perfect opportunity to be food critics. Sadly, my appetizer was the most pathetic Caesar salad I have ever seen. My table mates were actually laughing at it – it was that bad. It was followed by a really good Chateaubriand. Desert was supposed to be the signature molten chocolate cake – which was actually just a dried out piece of chocolate cake. Oddly enough, the exact same dish served in the buffet was very, very good.
Dinner was sadly spoiled by a fairly poor singing and dancing performance by the dinner staff – in what is supposed to be a classy dining room. They were all doing their very best to entertain us, but their performance just out of place in a formal dining room.
On the final night, I decided to test the room service delivery. I wish I had not. From the moment I placed my order, till actual delivery took an hour and a half, and the food arrived cold. The ship was only on her third voyage, so it is understandable that there are still a couple of issues to be resolved.
Technology on board
The Carnival Dream offers a good amount of technology for its guests. So much in fact, that I’ll devote a second article to the various hi-tech services you can enjoy. The ship has various “fun hubs” where you can access the Internet (for a fee), access the ships social network or read the news. WiFi is available in all rooms and cellphone access is provided.
Final thoughts
The Carnival Dream still had that “new cruise ship smell” – it was nice to be on board a vessel that is still in such great shape. The staff were all smiling and had most of their tasks down to an art. Rooms are nice, there is a decent amount of entertainment and despite the “hit or miss” food, it was not too hard to find something tasty.
But at the end of the day, there just didn’t seem to be too much really special about this new ship. I’ve cruised before, and this felt a lot like any other ship, only larger. The water park was closed due to the bad weather, but it does look like it’ll be a ton of fun when opened. The laser show was mildly entertaining, though the thick fog did make it a bit more fun.
As with most ships, a lot of emphasis is placed on the paid attractions. Shops, photo galleries, the casino and the paid ice cream bar all add to your “ship and sail” credit account. Unless you come prepared, you’ll quickly find yourself bored and in need of some of these paid services. Thankfully, there are plenty of free things to do if you keep a close eye on the schedule in the Carnival Capers, the nightly paper you’ll find in your room.
Despite these very minor issues, I can highly recommend a voyage on this new ship. At her home port, the boarding procedure won’t be an issue, and I suspect Carnival will make some tweaks to the buffet setup and room service to reduce the long wait.
I would like to make a special mention of cruise directors John Heald and Todd Wittmer – these guys do an absolutely amazing job, and they have an awesome entertainment team to work with. Their “good morning” TV show was one of the funniest things I’ve watched in months.
Important disclaimer: Carnival paid for this trip – but the opinions in this review are my own.