Gulf Coast Oil Spill Watch: June 10th

by Leigh Caldwell on

It’s Day 52 of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Here’s a look at the latest news about how the spill is affecting travelers:

Tar balls have arrived on the beaches in Perdido Key, Florida. The Pensacola News-Journal reports that a mile-long stretch of the beach was covered with greasy clumps about the size of peas.

Want to help? Alabama’s governor tells WAFF TV that it’s as simple as renting a condo or eating a seafood dinner.

The Tennesean reports that renting that Gulf Coast condo could be a great deal, as last-minute Gulf Coast lodging deals are plentiful.

But those lodging deals don’t extend into Central Florida, according to the Orlando Sentinel. Orlando-area hotels say oil-spill discounts could be viewed as “cashing in” on coastal hotels’ misfortune.

And what of the predictions that oil will spread all the way up the Atlantic Coast this summer, or that it will travel west and reach Texas beaches? The Houston Chronicle says to “take them with a grain of salt water.”

[Image credit: Flickr user lsqcp]

GadlingTV’s Travel Talk – Orlando, Florida

by Stephen Greenwood on

GadlingTV’s Travel Talk, episode 17 – Click above to watch video after the jump

It’s no secret that Orlando is the top city for tourism in the United States – but Orlando has more to offer than theme parks & thrill rides. If you’re planning a trip to Orlando this summer, then tune in this week as we sample Orlando’s high life – and the younger, wilder side that draws families in from all over the world.

In this episode, we discuss Orlando’s history as a tourism destination and why Walt Disney chose to build an empire in central Florida. As we explore the finer side of the city we’ll show you where to practice your golf swing, how to properly cut a cigar, and we get a special tour of the Macallan from brand ambassador Eden Algie.


Stay tuned on Friday as we witness a live Shuttle launch, ride rollercoasters, and teach Stephen how to wakeboard!


If you have any questions or comments about Travel Talk, you can email us at talk AT gadling DOT com.

Subscribe via iTunes:
[iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V).
[RSS M4V] Add the Travel Talk feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.

Links
Want to get instruction from a PGA Pro while in Orlando? Check out the Brad Brewer Academy at Shingle Creek.
For an introduction to everything about Cigars, check out the Corona Cigar Club in downtown Orlando.

And a special thanks to Eden Algie and the Macallan for taking us through a tour of some of Scotland’s finest whisky!



Hosts: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea
Special Guests: Eden Algie, Brad Brewer.

Produced, Edited, and Directed by: Stephen Greenwood, Aaron Murphy-Crews, Drew Mylrea

All music used in partnership with nonstopmusic.com

First Marriott Edition hotel to open on Waikiki Beach

by Melanie Nayer on

The first new brand of Marriott hotels, EDITION Hotels, will debut in Waikiki Beach this October. The concept, conceived by Ian Schrager in partnership with Marriott, will create a hotel brand that provides a “personal, intimate, individualized and unique lodging experience.”

EDITION will debut in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, this fall, and and will also open a property in Istanbul later this year, according to a company press releaes. Planned openings are also scheduled in Mexico City, Barcelona, Bangkok, and other major metropolitan cities around the world.

The concept of EDITION is focused on the business traveler. According to the press release:

“Each highly stylised hotel will function as a “home away from home” for leisure and business travellers. In addition, each hotel will cater to the modern day business traveller by offering functional, technologically sophisticated working environments that provide the comfort and ease of actually conducting business in an “office away from the office”.”

All of the hotels in the EDITION group will have completely different looks and designs, offering a unique feel to each property. The design of each hotel is derived from the hotel’s location and capitalizes on the mood and spirit of the city. As for the first in its family…

  • The Waikiki EDITION will offer:
  • A restaurant by world-renowned chef, Morimoto
  • The exclusive Crazybox nightclub
  • Sunrise Pool with landscaped gardens
  • An exclusive Private Sunset Beach with its own lagoon and imported sand from the neighboring Hawaiian islands
  • An intimate Lobby Bar hidden behind a secret passage
  • A bar at the Sunrise Pool and Bar at the Private Sunset Beach
  • Custom and individually designed Surf and Bikini Boot Camps, complete with custom vegetarian and organic spa menus.
  • A full service spa
  • An outdoor movie theater
  • Retail shop, and much more.

Doesn’t sound like such a bad place to do business…

[Read the entire press release here]

Disneyland to livestream “World of Color” premiere

by Leigh Caldwell on

You don’t have to make a trip to the park to see Disneyland Resort’s newest nighttime show, “World of Color.” Disney plans to livestream the show’s debut Thursday, June 10.

The broadcast is set for 8:45 Pacific Thursday night on Disney’s official Ustream. It will be a live feed of World of Color’s first showing during a private event for VIPs and the media.

The show officially opens to the public on Friday, June 11.

World of Color features digital projections of Disney and Disney-Pixar animation, accompanied by music, fountains, fire and lasers. It all happens at a 1-acre superstructure “stage” built in the middle of Paradise Bay lagoon at Disney’s California Adventure theme park.

The show is the latest in a multi-year expansion of the Anaheim, California, theme park. Next up is a new attraction, The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, set to open in 2011. Three new attractions in the 12-acre Cars Land will open in 2012.

Flickr’s New York: A tale of two cities

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Tourists photograph Midtown and Lower Manhattan, while locals click their cameras in the East Village and Chinatown. So, it’s clear: tourists and locals don’t mix in New York.

Eric Fischer, a computer program, used geotagging data from Flickr and Picasa to plot maps of New York and 71 other cities, using a system he created for determining which shutterbugs are locals and which are from out of town.

Using this system, we can divine the following:

  • Tourists shoot Yankee games, while there are more locals snapping away when the Mets are playing at home
  • Locals prefer the Manhattan Bridge, and tourists flock to the Brooklyn Bridge … yet Brooklyn itself is packed with local photogs
  • Nobody goes to the Upper West Side (unless he or she lives there)
  • Governors Island is about as tourist-free a place as you’ll find in New York