Get your Disney deals and resources from AOL Travel

by Scott Carmichael on

When it comes to Disney, I’m rather weird – I can recite almost all of Finding Nemo, but I’ve only ever managed to visit their theme parks once. Thankfully my daughter is now at the age where a trip to Disney is going to have to be on the agenda pretty soon, or I suspect there will be rioting.

Our friends at AOL Travel have compiled a fantastic collection of Disney resources. Their articles can help with everything from where to find the best deals, to picking the best time of year to visit Disney World.

The main information hub also offers a great gallery of images from some of the lesser known attractions. Take for example the Richard Petty Driving Experience or the Disney Wide World of Sports – two attractions I had never heard of.

So, next time you start researching Disney, head on over to the Disney pages at AOL Travel. From the main Disney hub, you can also research Disney Cruise Lines, Disney Adventures or the Disney Vacation Club. The pages are easy to navigate and thanks to the daily updated deals, you’ll be able to research and book all from the same site.

Marriott elite members get free Internet – the rest of us can still pay for it

by Scott Carmichael on

Starting May 7th, all gold and platinum members of the Marriott Rewards frequent guest program will get free Internet access when they stay at a Marriott, JW Marriott or Renaissance hotel.

All other Marriott properties already offer free Internet access for all their guests, so if you are staying at a Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, Springhill Suites, Residence Inn or TownePlace Suites, you won’t need to worry about being elite enough to get online for free.

This of course raises the question why Marriott can’t offer Internet for free, for everyone? The three hotels brands within the chain that still charge for Internet access are the “upscale” brands – and you’d expect the more expensive rooms to come with free access.

I’ve written about this before – in my opinion, every hotel should offer Internet for free to all its guests. By offering access for free to elite guests, Marriott gets one step closer to this, but this still leaves plenty of guests that will need to fork over some of their cash just to get online. It never ceases to amaze me how hotels tend to ignore this important perk.

Bellmen know everything – Hotel tip

by Gadling Staff on

The best way to divide and conquer a hotel is to over-tip the bellmen, then pepper them with questions.

In my experience, the bellmen are the eyes and ears of a hotel: they have access to the premium deals and insights that make a hotel run. Furthermore, the average bellman is a male aged 18 to 25; they can suggest the best places in town for partying or point you to their city’s secret dives.

Snooze tips from a NYC sleep concierge

by Amy Chen on

No matter how posh a hotel room is, sometimes it’s hard to sleep well in new places.

Anya Orlanska, the Sleep Concierge at the Benjamin hotel in midtown Manhattan, shares some tips gleaned from 2.5 years of fielding requests from weary business travelers. Though 400-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets can help, there are other tricks to help you catch some Zs.

What do your guests always ask you?
I spend a lot of time recommending the appropriate pillow. The Benjamin’s sleep menu is placed on the bed prior to the guest’s arrival and any (or all) of the pillow options can be delivered to the room with just one call to me.

Are any pillows more popular than others?
Some of the most popular from our 12-pillow menu include the Swedish memory foam (conforms to the body and keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer), the water-filled pillow (for instant relief from headaches and neck pain, fill it with warm or cold water), the five-foot body cushion (helpful if you’re used to sleeping with another person, also great for expectant mothers), and the “lullaby” pillow that you can plug an iPod into, so you can fall asleep to your own music.

What are some common mistakes that travelers make while on the road?
Doing work or eating in bed, eating a heavy meal or consuming a lot of alcohol and caffeine before bed–and making the room too hot (it’s best to sleep in a cool environment).

Is there anything you can recommend for people who are fighting jet lag?
If you’re staying in a hotel with a spa, get a massage before going to bed.

Booking Details: “The Art of Sleep” package at the Benjamin starts at $578 for two nights and includes a consultation with the Sleep Concierge, a nightly snack of PB&J finger sandwiches, 20 percent off a spa treatment at the on-site Wellness Spa, the National Sleep Foundation’s sleep kit (eye mask, lavender bath salts, a CD, and a copy of A Good Night’s Sleep), and late checkout at 2 p.m. Valid until Dec. 31.

Tip: Room service can deliver milk and cookies, but it’ll cost you a whopping $20.14, with taxes and delivery charges. Each of the rooms at the Benjamin hotel have a microwave, so find a nearby bodega, stock up, and warm up your own snack before bedtime.%Gallery-67351%

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Minnesota lawmaker wants to ban state workers from hotels that sell “violent” pay per view porn

by Scott Carmichael on

Minnesota Senator Tarryl Clark is sponsoring a bill that will ban state workers from using public money to stay at any hotels that sell violent pornography on their pay per view TV system.

In the bill, provisions are made for the State Department of Administration to keep a directory of approved facilities.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not entirely sure how the state plans to compile this directory. One option would be to have the hotels email or fax a monthly “menu” of their porn offerings, which would require a state worker to determine whether the porn is violent or not. Who decides whether “monster cock 12” is violent or not? That doesn’t sound like a very nice job.

Whatever happened to trusting their own workers not to order violent porn? Or perhaps the best option would be for the state to mind its own business?

Nobody is forcing anyone to watch pay per view porn when they are on the road. But most importantly, who gets to decide what is violent, and what is not? I’m not up to date on the latest trends in porn, but I’m pretty sure that even the porn industry has some limits on what they’ll sell to hotels and I doubt hotels offer anything that is so violent that it could be considered illegal.

Thankfully, the bill does offer an exception for employee’s who can’t find a porn free hotel on their journey.

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