Daily Pampering: St. Regis Washington DC warms up with Washington Ballet

by Melanie Nayer on

The St. Regis Washington, DC is getting artsy this year, thanks to a partnership with the Washington Ballet.

Celebrating the spring 2011 performance of Carmen on May 19th, the exclusive hotel offer includes VIP, behind-the-scenes access with The Washington Ballet’s Artistic Director Septime Webre, viewing of dress rehearsals as well as a stay at the St. Regis Washington, DC.

Available from May 17, 2011 through May 21, 2011, the package includes:

  • Access and transportation to a private afternoon dress rehearsal which will offer a sneak peek of the Opening Night performance
  • Limousine service to and from the Harman Center for the Performing Arts on Opening Night
  • Attendance to the Opening Night showing of Carmen, with an exclusive backstage tour led by Septime Webre himself during intermission
  • An invitation to the celebratory Opening Night Party, attended by company dancers, Ballet VIP’s and board members
  • An intimate lunch at Adour at The St. Regis Washington, D.C. with Septime Webre to discuss his creation
  • Accommodations for four nights in a luxurious St. Regis suite
  • Spanish wine accompanied by light tapas waiting for guests in-room upon arrival
  • A signed copy of the ballet’s Wonderland coffee table book, which offers dramatic glimpses of life backstage and photos of the dancers in landmark Washington locations
  • Access to signature St. Regis Butler Service throughout the stay

The price of this prima ballerina pampering? $5,000, and 20 percent of the proceeds from the booking will be donated to The Washington Ballet.

Get more luxury travel ideas from daily pampering.

Troubled baby gorilla at Disney World being treated like a kid

by Leigh Caldwell on

Visitors to Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park often spot a tiny baby gorilla along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. What most of them don’t know is that she’s much tinier than she should be. Lilly was born last year at Walt Disney World, one of only 10 to 15 gorilla births each year in the United States. And she’s not growing and developing the way she should.

Lilly depends on her mother for many things that a gorilla of her age should be doing independently, and her left side seems to be weaker than her right.

Disney World scrambled for months to solve the mystery of what is wrong with Lilly, according to the Orlando Sentinel. She’s even been seen by doctors who specialize in treating human kids, and gone to a local hospital for an MRI. But, while they have ruled out many serious things that could have been ailing the baby gorilla, her caretakers haven’t found the problem.

So Disney has innovated and switched the focus from diagnosing Lilly to treating her. An occupational therapist who usually works with autistic kids comes to treat the baby gorilla once a week, and she gets therapy sessions twice daily from her trainers.

Everyone involved with Lilly attests that she’s making progress. She remains along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, where you can probably see her on your next visit to Orlando. Here’s video from the Orlando Sentinel of Lilly and the progress she’s making:

Cruise lines score environmental awards

by Chris Owen on

Cruise lines get a lot of criticism for fouling up the air with tons of bad stuff emitted from their diesel burning engines. Environmental groups say “rightfully so” as dirty engines can emit a ton of gunk into the atmosphere each time they dock. But there was good news for Norwegian, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean cruise lines who all three won awards from the Port of Seattle for making an environmental difference recently.

In the first annual Green Gateway Partners Awards the lines were recognized for participating in the At-Berth Clean Fuels program, or use of shore power to plug in and turn off engines while docked at shore.

“Each of the companies recognized have demonstrated that you don’t have to choose between the environment and the economy,” said Port of Seattle CEO Tay Yoshitani.

Earlier this year, Princess Cruises Island Princess plugged in at the Port of San Francisco to a system that was built as a cooperative effort by the Port of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Environmental Protection Agency, Holland America Line and Princess.

Princess’ shore power program made history debuting in environmentally extra-sensitive Juneau, Alaska in 2001, expanded to Seattle in 2005, and then to Vancouver in 2009. Currently nine of the line’s ships have the capability to “plug in” to a shore-side power source, representing an investment for Princess of nearly $7 million in equipment.

It’s a topic that comes up often these days as cruise ports green up and look to the future.

Last month, he Port of Los Angeles completed it’s World Cruise Center solar rooftop project. Estimated to produce 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, the $10.8 million project will also result in an estimated $200,000 in energy cost savings.

It looks like they’re sailing in the right direction environmentally.

Flickr photo by Leandoe

Virgin America grows, buys new aircraft

by Grant Martin on

News from the airline nerds yesterday morning was that the brass over at Virgin America was on a secret mission to Toulouse, France, the headquarters of Airbus. The goal? The acquisition of sixty new aircraft for use in the fleet starting in 2013.

Sixty new aircraft! That’s a lot of growth for the fledgling San Francisco based carrier, which is good news for us consumers. As they expand through the US market and even into the far reaches of North America, more competition among carriers means that costs will stay low and that quality will stay high — two great things for any airline passenger.

January’s order includes 30 of the new A320neo configurations, the fancy New Engine Options that burn almost 16% less fuel and have blended winglets. And as usual, all of the aircraft will carry the trademark mood lighting and bang up in flight entertainment.

Hopefully this means that expansion across North America will ramp up through 2011 and 2012 — the Midwest is getting lonely with its legacy carriers!

New Pixar Pals parade disappoints many Disney World fans

by Leigh Caldwell on

Walt Disney World debuted a new parade – Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun! – at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Sunday. The new parade features characters from Pixar films Up! and Ratatouille that have never appeared in a Disney parade before.

New stuff at Disney is frequently met with breathless wonder by the many fans of all things Disney out there. But when it comes to this parade, reaction from Disney World fans, including many locals who turned out to see the parade’s debut, has not been good.

In the comments sections of blogs and YouTube videos about the Pixar Pals parade, Disney fans are describing the parade as “low budget,” “horrible” and “disappointing.”

Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun! replaces the Block Party Bash, a street party-parade hybrid that moved through the streets of Disney’s Hollywood Studios and stopped at certain points to bring the audience out to dance with characters from popular movies including Toy Story, Monsters, Inc. and A Bug’s Life.

The main beefs with the parade seem to fall into two categories: First, that the parade is not different enough from its predecessor Block Party Bash, and second, that the parade is too short.As for the charge that the Pixar Pals parade is too similar to Block Party Bash, well, it is pretty similar. Many of the floats are the same; the rest are simply repainted. Cast members’ costumes and props are also unchanged.

“All of the floats are recycled from Block Party Bash, merely repainted and slightly re-themed and the music isn’t original. Overall, it comes as a disappointment to many who had high hopes for the new production,” writes a blogger at easyWDW.com.

And is the parade, which has a soundtrack made up largely of Todd Rundgren’s “Bang the Drum All Day,” too short? At less than 8 minutes in length, it is shorter than other Disney Parks parades, which typically clock in closer to the 15-minute mark.

Shelley Caran of OnTheGoinMCO.com describes Pixar Pals as a “lack luster eight minute blink and you missed it.”

About the only positive reaction we could find in the blogosphere comes from Ricky Brigante of Inside the Magic.net, who was a vocal opponent of the way the Block Party Bash stopped in the theme park’s walkways each day: “At least it doesn’t hog the streets for extended periods of time like Block Party Bash once did.”

So, while kids may enjoy catching a glimpse of their favorite movie characters, the overall consensus from the grown-ups seems to be that Disney’s previous afternoon “parade,” Block Party Bash, was superior.

StudiosCentral.com, a blog devoted to the Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park where the new parade debuted, writes: “The previous two daytime parades at the Studios, Block Party Bash and Stars & Motor Cars Parade, were far superior displays and much more of an engaging experience. … For those that have enjoyed quality Disney World parades over the years, you may find yourself disappointed and underwhelmed.”

Now that you’ve seen the video, what do you think?

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