Daily Pampering: Last-minute holiday escapes with Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach

by Melanie Nayer on

You could spend your holidays shivering in the cold wondering when your Jimmy Choo hunter wellies will dry off so you can debut them again, or you can grab your bikini and your best friend and head to the beach.

The Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach is channeling Mother Nature this holiday season to give travelers a reason to leave the cold behind and head to warm and sunny weather for the holidays through 2011. The holiday spirit is in full swing in South Florida and is calling to you from Palm Beach. Take a vacation from the cold, wintry weather of early December, leave your jacket and gloves behind and spend the night pampering yourself surfside at the Ritz-Carlton, Palm Beach with this “Escape the Chill” package:

  • Overnight accommodations starting at $619, based on double occupancy
  • Warm welcome amenity upon arrival; hot chocolate, hot toddy, tea or coffee
  • (2) 60-minute Eau Spa by Cornelia treatments in a Couple’s Villa. Select from: Self-Centered Massage or Signature Essence Facial per night stay
  • All day garden access to swings, dipping pools, Eau Zone and Bath Lounge

Soak in the sun, hang out for the holidays and leave your winter worries behind. This daily pampering starts at $619 USD based on double occupancy. The deal is good through March 2011, so you have plenty of time to escape the winter blues.

Want more? Get your daily dose of pampering right here.

New photography book on food and travel profiles meals around the world

by Laurel Miller on

There are a few key things that unite mankind, one of which is the need to eat. Whether the act itself is one of indulgence or subsistence is largely a cultural and geographic, and not just economic, issue. It’s this dichotomy that forms the theme for a fascinating new addition to the food and travel book genre.

What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets is the work of photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith d’Aluisio. The duo traveled to 30 countries to profile 80 vastly different people and the “food that fuels them over the course of a single day.” Each profile features extreme examples of the subject’s diet and caloric intake, rather than a daily average, and provides a window into world foods we might not otherwise be aware of.

The authors also note on their website, “While we have been diligent about providing cultural context and geographic relevance in each of our stories, the people profiled represent only themselves and no one person, or even five, can represent an entire country. Please use this work to further your exploration and understanding of the world.”

Profiles include a Maasai herder in an extreme drought in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, a Bangladeshi seamstress, a Latvian beekeeper, a Minnesotan teen who works in a mall, a Mexican rancher, and a Tennessee man who is a candidate for obesity surgery.

You can see a slideshow of sixteen of the book’s subjects on Time’s website, here.

East coast flight delays continue, tensions rise

by Grant Martin on

Snowgasm™ 2010 continues in earnest today, as hundreds of flights across the eastern seaboard are canceled, rerouted and shuffled together, resulting in thousands of passengers stranded at airports and howling with rage.

It’s a lose-lose situation for the passengers and airlines, as underpowered air carriers try to manage a massive influx of rebooked fares and confusion reigns. Here at Gadling Labs we’ve been rebooking fellow travelers left and right, and the exasperation that we hear on the phone and among passengers is extraordinary. Just last night a colleague needed to be rebooked from Birmingham, AL to NYC and had to accept a flight three days later due to oversold and canceled flights.

Several community blogs including travelsmartblog have published tips and solace for stranded passengers, but as in all weather disasters, rebooking and organization take time. Our advice? Settle in, find a wall outlet, get some snacks and call the airline for rebooking: it’s going to be a long few days. Here are the numbers you need for rebooking.

American Airlines: 800-433-7300
Delta Airlines: 800-221-1212
Continental Airlines: 800-300-1547
Southwest: 800-I-FLY-SWA
United: 800-864-8331
Virgin America: 877-359-8474

[image via Wikipedia Commons]

Another fatal Disney bus accident

by Leigh Caldwell on

There’s word this morning that a tourist has been killed at Walt Disney World. The 69-year-old Massachusetts man was in the parking lot at the Port Orleans Resort when he stepped into the path of a Disney bus.

It appears that the bus driver was not at fault and will not be charged. There were passengers on the bus at the time, and none of them were injured. This marks at least the fourth Disney bus accident this year at Walt Disney World, including one in April that killed a 9-year-old boy.

Earlier this year, there were concerns that a computer dispatching system on board the Disney buses, dubbed “Magic in Motion,” was a distraction for the drivers, though none of the earlier crashes this year was attributed to the driver being distracted.

Disney acted anyway and altered the system this summer so that the drivers cannot interact with it unless the bus is at a complete stop.

The Florida Highway Patrol is still investigating last night’s crash, and I’m sure that Disney will conduct its own internal investigation, as well. If there are safety problems found, they need to be corrected.

But it’s also time to examine Disney guests’ behavior on vacation.

Disney’s bus system is extensive. In fact, it’s larger than the city bus systems in nearby Orlando and Tampa. The highway system and parking lots there are also extensive – there are 40 square miles to cover and hundreds of thousands of cars travel the roads each day.

Yet, I continually see distracted people in “vacation mode,” pushing strollers through parking lots while their face is in a guidebook or map, children running off unattended in parking lots and, yes, people darting out in front of buses and cars and not using crosswalks.

So, don’t forget your common sense and safety rules when you go on vacation. While much of Walt Disney World is about the illusion – the “magic” – those are real cars and buses driving around the roads and parking lots.

[Image credit: Flickr user Darren Wittko]