Swoop into the McMurdo Dry Valleys and the bare, naked ground comes into focus, as does a most bizarre sight: a rust-red waterfall oozing down the face of a mammoth glacier. Welcome to Blood Falls—one of the world’s strangest places.
In an increasingly familiar world—where guidebooks and Google Earth would seem to have exposed every last nook and cranny—it’s refreshing to discover places that still surprise. Sure, they may not be as easy to access as, say, the Rockies (which are divine, if not revelatory), but it’s precisely this isolation that has allowed them to evolve their odd characteristics. Venturing into unknown lands may be surreal, but it’s also impressive—and rewarding.
Blood Falls is just one example of how Antarctica “will change the way you think about life,” says David Dallmeyer, professor of geology at the University of Georgia and guide for Abercrombie & Kent.The resultant bustling canyon-land gives the impression of being a human-populated coral reef (a perfect location for "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope", which was filmed there).
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That was the first of our many multigenerational vacations, all the more poignant because my dad died a few months later. Maybe that's why we still talk so much about that trip — the seafood feasts our housekeeper whipped up, seemingly effortlessly for us, the hours my dad, already ill, spent playing in the pool with the kids, the stellar snorkeling and gambling expeditions led my dad to a nearby casino, the bug bites that covered my 8-month-old daughter, and, of course, the Morning of the Coconuts.
At the time, it all seemed pretty exotic for our family. My mom had plucked a tiny ad from the New York Times and, sight unseen, (no Internet virtual tour in those days, no TripAdvisor reviews), had rented the place overlooking the ocean for two weeks. It wasn't quite what we expected, but that's another story.
And why settle for one bathroom when you can have two? Step outside and music from a nearby baby grand fills the hallway, down which you’ll find the spa offering ayurvedic massage. Welcome to your sleeper car aboard India’s Deccan Odyssey train. Price tag: $3,000 per night.
If you’ve boarded an Amtrak train recently, rolling palaces with doting cabin stewards, king-size beds, and marble and gold interiors may seem like a fairy tale from a bygone era.
Beyond the “standard” features such as individual climate controls, a stocked refrigerator bar, and a safe for your bling, the most luxurious sleeper compartments are set apart by their generous size (the Deccan Odyssey’s Presidential Suites are nearly 200 square feet), commodious beds (king size on the Pride of Africa), rich furnishings (antique brass radiators and Turkish drapes on the Royal Canadian Pacific), and attendants who provide wake-up calls, deliver breakfast, tidy your room, and remember your drink preference.
For now, anyway, this is a strictly overseas experience (though you can charter a private rail car in the United States).It’s not that American companies haven’t tried to create a luxury line: the most recent such venture—a partnership between Amtrak and GrandLuxe Rail Journeys that traveled between Washington and Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago, and Chicago and San Francisco—launched in 2007 but stopped running after less than a year.
So, until some brave company resurrects luxury train travel in the States, you’ll have to go abroad for your fix.
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Royal Caribbean spokesman Rodrigo Dionisio says the 310 people who suffered gastrointestinal disorders aboard the Vision of the Seas have recovered.
He says the ship's 1,987 passengers and 765 crew members started leaving the ship Friday morning.
The vessel will undergo a a thorough cleansing before leaving on another cruise later in the day.
The ship arrived in the port of Santos early Friday from the coastal resort town of Buzios where the first case was detected earlier this week.
Most of the ill were Brazilians.
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Last week, UAL Corp's United Airlines increased fares by $10 per round-trip, and other top carriers followed suit. But by Monday afternoon, most airlines had rolled back their prices, Farecompare.com Chief Executive Rick Seaney said in an email.
"This is (the) second, relatively modest hike to fail this year," he wrote.
Low-cost carriers like Southwest Airlines did not raise fares, which may have hurt major airlines' ability to make the higher fares stick, said Morningstar analyst Basili Alukos.
"There's always a lot of competition," Alukos said. "You've got low-cost carriers preying on weaker legacy carriers to pick up (market) share. I'd attribute the failure of the price increase to that."In the most recent round of quarterly reports, major airlines said they had seen greater demand, particularly from business travelers, who tend to pay higher prices.
Business traffic rose 1.7 percent in December 2009, the first month of year-over-year growth since May 2008, the International Air Transport Association said on Tuesday.Still, IATA said evidence suggests some business travelers are increasingly traveling in economy seats, indicating recovery is still a ways off.
"We have to look for new ways to fly in a cost-effective manner," Alukos said of his own company's policy.
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Pound on the door at any hour — seriously, it's OK to arrive at 4 in the morning — and the 67-year-old former auto worker will escort you through his discombobulating, floor-to-ceiling collection of photos, records, figurines, cardboard cutouts, candy wrappers, clocks and other random kitsch featuring the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
"I'd give my life right now if I could bring this guy back," MacLeod says in his auctioneer's staccato, his gray hair slicked back in a '50s style.
MacLeod says he rarely leaves Graceland Too, sleeps only sporadically and is fueled by 24 cans of Coca-Cola a day — a claim at least partially verified by the aluminum pull-top tabs he collects in sandwich bags and the stacks of flattened red cardboard boxes on the back porch.Graceland Too is in Holly Springs, a northern Mississippi town of 8,000. It's a convenient stop for fans on an Elvis pilgrimage, sitting about halfway between Elvis Presley's birthplace in Tupelo, Miss., and the King's final home and resting place, the unaffiliated Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn.
No. 1 attraction
Until Graceland Too became a magnet for offbeat tourism, Holly Springs was best known for its traditional — and tastefully kept — white-columned antebellum homes.
"He's our number one attraction," says Suzann Williams, assistant director of the local tourism bureau.
She says that people call daily wanting information about Graceland Too, and that the Japanese and the British are the largest groups of overseas visitors. MacLeod doesn't have a telephone, but the tourism folks take him notes to let him know visitors are coming.
MacLeod is so obsessed that 36 years ago, he named his only son after the man he considers the world's greatest entertainer and humanitarian.
"My son was born Elvis Aron Presley, with one A for Aron," he says, noting the spelling Presley used for years. "I didn't put the other A to his name until Vernon Presley put it on his son's grave."
Floors creak beneath visitors' feet as they walk through the 157-year-old home warmed by space heaters that sit perilously close to raggedy shag carpet and stacks of papers and magazines.
For $5, visitors get to experience sensory overload, harshly lit by unshaded bulbs.
Doorways are decorated with several Elvis-patterned curtains in '70s-era hues of turquoise and lime. There are photocopies of a newspaper with MacLeod's all-time favorite headline: "Elvis Presley Excites Girls, Scares Critics."
A poster-sized display in the entryway declares — sans punctuation — "The Universes Galaxys Planets Worlds Ultimate Elvis Fans."
It’s me or Elvis
"My ex-wife told me, 'Make up your mind. Either me or the Elvis collection.' So that put an end to that," MacLeod says with a chuckle.
MacLeod says he has owned his home since the mid-1970s, and that he's had 368,000 visitors since he started opening it to strangers since the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Heaven help the fact-checker who'd have to verify the statistics he tosses out during his tours, which typically last an hour and a half.
Fans say the random, nonstop flow of information is part of the campy appeal.
Garreth Blackwell, a 27-year-old journalism teacher at the nearby University of Mississippi, said he has been to Graceland Too a half-dozen times and recently took his wife and three friends for a nighttime tour.
"It's kind of hard to talk about this guy, because you come enough you hear the same things over and over again," Blackwell says. "It kind of puts that in your mind, 'Well, maybe this is all true.' You don't ever know. But it doesn't matter because it's a good time."
MacLeod says that he became an Elvis fan when he was 13, and that he attended 120 Elvis concerts.
In Graceland Too, MacLeod claims to have 35,000 records and 25,000 CDs. He says he has 185,000 square inches of carpet that once was in Graceland. He constantly monitors radio and TV broadcasts and records any mention of his idol, claiming to have 31,000 videotapes and 43,000 audio recordings.
Then there's the scrapbook filled with teensy slivers of paper — 1 million mentions, he says, of the name Elvis Presley.
"There's my burial suit up here to come back and haunt my ex-wife," MacLeod says, pointing to a gold number in one of the front rooms.
Walking encyclopedia
Robert Lopez of Los Angeles, who has performed 21 years as El Vez, the Mexican Elvis, says he has toured Graceland Too at least a dozen times and is attracted to its folk-art oddness. He once donated one of his stage outfits to MacLeod's collection — a maroon crushed-velvet jumpsuit with a cape featuring a sequined Virgin of Guadalupe.
He says Elvis MacLeod is a walking encyclopedia about Elvis Presley who helped his father give tours for several years, but was a calmer presence: "The son would translate in a slower monotone: 'What my father said was ...,'" Lopez recalls.
The younger MacLeod moved to New York in the 1990s, and a phone listing for him could not be found.
Lopez also cautions that Graceland Too "might be a slight warning about what too much love can do."
The ceiling of the TV room is covered with baseball card-size Elvis pictures and visitor comments printed on fluorescent pink, blue and yellow paper. Wrote one man from Pensacola, Fla.: "This Elvis shrine is as close to Heaven as an Elvis fan can get. This is the ULTIMATE."
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Chief Financial Officer Hank Halter said at a New York investor conference that was broadcast on the Internet that even if a modest recovery occurs in 2010, the world's biggest airline hopes the industry maintains flat capacity.
Capacity is measured by the amount of available seats a carrier offers multiplied by the miles flown.
Halter said Delta could eventually increase capacity 1 percent to 2 percent once demand shows strong signs of coming back. He says demand won't really gain steam until passengers feel that the recession is firmly in the rearview mirror and it is safe to spend.
"People are holding onto their money still," Halter said in his presentation during the Morgan Stanley Transportation Corporate Access Day. "When they are flying, they are flying in the back of the aircraft."
Many carriers have shed capacity over the last 18 months. The impact of the recession on business travel has been especially painful for airlines, which rely on sales of premium seats to boost revenue.
"The challenge for the industry is to make sure we don't come back and start flooding the market with more capacity ... when the demand isn't there," Halter said.
The comments came as Delta, based in Atlanta, continues its efforts to lure struggling Japan Airlines away from its partnership with American Airlines and into an alliance with Delta and its SkyTeam partners. Executives from Delta and American were scheduled to be in Tokyo on Thursday to meet with reporters.Delta and its alliance partners have said a billion-dollar offer is on the table to lure JAL from its affiliation with American. JAL President Haruka Nishimatsu has said he will make a decision on the offer by the end of the year.
American is working aggressively to try to keep Japan Airlines in its oneworld alliance. American, a unit of AMR Corp., which is based in Fort Worth, Texas, has said that if JAL switches from the oneworld alliance it will cost JAL up to $500 million in lost revenue in the first two years after the changeover.
That figure assumes Delta initially will only be able to replace about half the revenue-sharing and other money that JAL currently gets from its oneworld partners, including American.
During the investor conference Wednesday, Halter did not address the status of Delta's talks with JAL, saying only, "All of SkyTeam would benefit, as would JAL, if JAL would come into the SkyTeam alliance."
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Now in its fifth year, the survey—which was open to the online voting public this past summer—covers 30 U.S. cities and was expanded this year to include even more urban areas, such as Cleveland, Providence, and St. Louis.
Its “People” category consistently ranks as the most talked about, with voters weighing in on such topics as what U.S. city has the most attractive people (Miami) or the least (Philadelphia). Not surprisingly, the question of which city is home to the country’s smartest people has also sparked discussion.
Some may credit the weather—for keeping people indoors with their noses in books—for the high IQs of Twin Cities residents, but the heady city is full of clues: top-ranked Macalester and seven other colleges; the Utne Reader and beloved independent Common Good Books; Minnesota Public Radio and the smart radio stylings of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion; the revered Guthrie Theater; and a local culture that prides itself on being in the know—and knowing it all.Other cities, however, are the class clowns to the straight A students above. Orlando, for example, may be home to the most magical place on earth, but survey-takers voted their residents’ intelligence a bit less mesmerizing. Dallas, too, ended up toward the bottom of the intelligence list.
Sure, smart people live all over the United States, but maybe some cities really do have more collective brainpower than others.
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Port officials and prosecutors announced Tuesday that police had arrested 17 men at Kennedy International Airport in an enforcement sweep timed to coincide with a new law imposing tougher penalties on unlicensed hacks. An 18th driver was arrested at LaGuardia Airport.
Under the new state law signed last month, the drivers could face up to 90 days in jail and fines as high as $1,250. Previously, violations usually resulted in the equivalent of a traffic ticket.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said the new legislation "should go a long way toward putting an end to the days when airport hustlers accepted paying a minimal fine simply as a cost of doing business."The crackdown takes aim at the small army of quick-talking drivers who approach passengers as they emerge from the terminals and offer them a ride into the city for an under-the-table fare, negotiated on the spot.
These trips aren't always a rip-off. Unlicensed drivers often charge equal to, or less than, the legal flat taxi rate of $45.50 (plus tolls) for all taxi trips between Manhattan and JFK.
But these unauthorized pickups can be problematic, too, especially when drivers come across someone who isn't familiar with the city or U.S. currency. One driver arrested Monday at JFK had offered an investigator a ride to Manhattan for $85.
In one case in June, a group of French tourists were effectively held hostage for a time as the unlicensed van that had picked them up at JFK was chased through the city by police.
Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward said enforcement of the law would keep "potentially dangerous" drivers off the streets, including those who lack proper insurance, while protecting the livelihood of those who do business legally.
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This was unacceptable to us since it was our honeymoon, so we called the airline's customer service department. They were unable to find us a closer flight so the agent said they would just refund our money. We ended up buying new tickets on another airline.
As you can probably guess, we never received the $1,374 refund we were promised. The tickets were paid for with a debit card so the refund should have been issued back onto the card.
We tried calling American Airlines about this and they said the refund had been issued. But when we called our bank to ask them about it, they said there was never any refund. I have also e-mailed American Airlines customer service about this and they just replied that the refund had already been issued. Then, when I emailed them again and asked for some sort of proof that the refund had been issued, there was no response.We're stuck. Is there anything you can do? — Sarah Paynter, San Diego
A: American Airlines should have refunded the money you spent on your tickets by now. On second thought, it shouldn't have ever come to this. When your flight was canceled, the airline should have found a way of getting you to your destination in a timely manner — not two days later.
Your rights as a passenger are outlined in American Airlines' conditions of carriage — that's the legal agreement between you and the airline. (Here's a link to the full document). See paragraph 18, which deals with delays, cancellations and diversions. It specifies that when cancellations and major delays are experienced, passengers will be rerouted on its next flight with available seats."If the delay or cancellation was caused by events within our control and we do not get you to your final destination on the expected arrival day, we will provide reasonable overnight accommodations, subject to availability," it adds.
Not so long ago, airlines would buy a ticket on another airline if the delay were their fault, like a mechanical problem or a crew shortage. Ticket agents at some carriers still have the authority to endorse a ticket to another airline.In a situation like this, having a skilled travel agent would have also been useful. A trusted travel adviser — especially someone who specializes in honeymoon vacations — would have known whom to call at American. If nothing else, that would have saved you and your husband from a lot of unnecessary stress.
As to your refund, airlines often talk a good game when it comes to returning your money. In fact, they take weeks, and sometimes months, to process your credit. Why? I haven't heard a good explanation yet.When you're trying to track down a refund, you're better off sticking to e-mail. If the airline sends you something in writing that promises a refund, finding the money will be much easier for your bank. Even if the money never shows up, your financial institution may return the funds if it interprets the correspondence as a letter of credit, or an intent to pay you. That can't happen if you call the airline.
I contacted American on your behalf and it promptly issued a $1,374 refund to your card.
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Yet strip malls are precisely where you’ll find some of the most surprising—and best—cuisine in Las Vegas.
The gastronomes and food critics who now glut Las Vegas—all fiercely proud of their knowledge of the city’s "locals only" restaurants—will advise you to forget the big-name chefs for at least a few meals during your visit. Sure, the big names are all here; you can sample their food both on the Strip and from the trademarked boxes in the frozen foods section of your local grocery.
But head off the Strip, and you’re more likely to find chefs actually in their kitchens and changing Las Vegas from a town that relies on its chefs’ marquee names to a city that really cooks.But often, the seedier or more generic the strip mall, the better the surprise. For example, Commercial Center, a 50-year-old whitewashed collision of disparate storefronts on the fringes of downtown, holds Lotus of Siam, a Thai restaurant with a nationwide cult following (that may or may not look past its neighbors, some of whom practice a profession even older than cooking).
Sometimes these great restaurants require a short drive—and some sharp eyes. On the other side of town in Las Vegas’s Summerlin neighborhood is Rosemary’s. You might pass it several times before you spot it next door to the Stein Mart.But this is where you’ll find some of the Strip’s most renowned chefs on their nights off, digging into carefully crafted Creole and Midwest-influenced American dishes. Others, like French bistro Marche Bacchus, hold an entire secret landscape beyond their storefront portals.
Bon appétit.
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The Las Vegas Strip hotel announced the winner of its Vinny vs. Vinny spokesVinny competition on Monday, declaring Vinny Blue "the ultimate go-to guy for all things New York-New York."
His real name is Thomas Cassell, and he's originally from New York but now he lives in Las Vegas. Voters cast ballots at the hotel and online.
The battle to be The Vinny included a Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest, an ESPN Zone arcade challenge and an Irish jig showdown at Nine Fine Irishmen.
Cynthia Kiser Murphey, New York-New York's president and chief operating officer, said Vinny's job is to give guests an idea where to go, what to do, what's hot, and what's not — all in a New York kind of way.
New York-New York is a subsidiary of MGM Mirage.
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The string of simple coral-rock cottages is anchored by a lodge with batik-covered daybeds and a bar fashioned from the hull of an old sailboat—but has no phones or TV. You don't miss them, though, with all the kayaking, snorkeling, nature trails, shelling, and diving.
At night, kids eat in the ramshackle rec room, stocked with board games and coloring supplies, while adults mingle with staff members over conch fritters in the lounge. Communal tables and ample portions of home-style food—think cracked conch, freshly baked orange cake—give things an easygoing dinner party feel; hey, even sports fans need some downtime (242-368-2014; smallhope.com; doubles, $470, all-inclusive).
For the laid-back familyBook at the cheery Hope Town Harbour Lodge; the ferry will drop you right at the hotel's pier, and the staff will carry your gear—bodyboards, strollers, and all—up to your room. Oceanfront cottages have decks so you can keep an eye on the sand-castle construction from above (242-366-0095; hopetownlodge.com; doubles, $175-$225). The tiny town is best explored on foot or bike, and because it's closed to motor vehicles, kids can run free.
Sun Dried-T's, a harborside kiosk, rents bikes with big baskets for beach gear (242-366-0616; bike rentals, $10 a day). The more ambitious should call Froggie's, which can arrange daylong snorkel trips to nearby Abaco National Park (242-366-0431; froggiesabaco.com; day-trips, $70). At night, hit the beloved Harbour's Edge—kids will scarf down conch fritters before scampering off to raid the board game collection, leaving adults to watch the sunset (242-366-0087; entrées, $20-$32).
For the multi-generational family
There's Grandma. And the teenagers. And your sister and her toddler. Luckily, Grand Bahama has something to satisfy every constituency. There's no need to rent a car; simply base the crew in Lucaya, a self-contained resort area just beyond Freeport with both ocean and intracoastal marina access.
The beach side is dominated by the sprawling Our Lucaya complex, which has two resorts, four pools, and 13 restaurants linked by paths. Book the older generations at Reef Village, where the tranquil lanai suites have their own private beach (242-373-1333; lanai suites from $700). Closer to the action (and the water slides), the ten-story Radisson has two-bedroom suites with kitchens (242-373-1333; ourlucaya.com; suites, $589). If Our Lucaya is a bit too Disney, try the marinaside Pelican Bay Hotel, where the friendly staff will track down beach reads and DVDs for movie night (242-373-9550; pelicanbayhotel.com; suites, $189-$209).
And watch the horizon for ...
Another reason to go to Andros. We're predicting that the island's improved Tiamo Resort will become an instant fave among families when it reopens this October. Major renovations will add more solar panels and a bio-diesel generator. But what really makes it family friendly is the variety of outdoor activities, from sailing to up-close encounters with rock iguanas. Thanksgiving break in the Bahamas, anyone?
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His shocking crime?
Awarding Tokyo more three-star restaurant ratings than Paris, thereby crowning the Japanese metropolis the new gastronomic capital of the world.
"Trust me, they'll wait for me at customs there," Jean-Luc Naret, director general of the famed guide to exceptional eateries, joked Thursday at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. "Because they'll say how dare could you have more three-stars in Tokyo than in Paris?"
Michelin's latest Tokyo edition goes on sale in Japan on Friday, and Naret has been in town this week promoting what many consider to be the bible of culinary skill. This time, Michelin's undercover team of inspectors has bestowed its highest three-star rating to 11 restaurants in Tokyo, one more than in Paris.
Tokyo also beats Paris in the total number of stars received — 261 awarded to 197 establishments.
That's 34 more than when the venerable guide made its Asian debut in Japan in 2007.
Michelin's ranking system considers the quality, consistency and value of a restaurant's food, with three stars designating "exceptional cuisine, and worth the journey," without taking into account the service or ambiance, according to the guide.
The first Tokyo edition sold 300,000 copies — 150,000 of which were snapped up in the first 24 hours. Since then, Michelin has released guides for Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Osaka and Kyoto in western Japan.Not everyone in Japan was pleased that Michelin had landed in Tokyo. Critics attacked its culinary selections. Some chefs said they didn't want to be in the book. Others questioned how a group of foreigners could judge Japanese food.
To mollify naysayers, the company used only Japanese inspectors for the 2010 Tokyo edition, Naret said.Placating his fellow Frenchman may be another matter.
"Forget everything that you know about Japanese food," Naret said he would like to tell Parisians. "Just go to the other side of the world, and you will understand what Japanese food is all about."Naret added that statistically speaking, it's not really a fair contest. Tokyo is home to 160,000 restaurants, compared to 60,000 in Paris.
And France still wins the country count with 25 three-star establishments nationwide to Japan's 18.
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A man who works at a casino was sitting next to me in a restaurant not long ago. He had a watch that looked like a hubcap from a Bentley, except that it had diamonds on it. He'd worked for Bellagio, the hotel-casino that helped reinvent Las Vegas as a luxury destination for the masses in 1998. He'd worked for MGM Grand.
He'd worked for Wynn. He would be going to Las Vegas in a week, he said, and he would be staying in a room that was 900 square feet, where you could talk on the phone and watch a flat-screen TV while you were in the Jacuzzi.
"The thing people don't realize," he said, lifting his glass of pinot noir, "is that if you want a better price on a room in Vegas, all you have to do is ask. So I'm planning to negotiate. In Las Vegas, you just can't be afraid to ask."
Las Vegas has always been the place where Joe Six-pack could live like a high roller for a weekend. If you couldn't afford to go to Paris and stay at the Hôtel de Crillon, you could at least go to the Paris hotel in Vegas and have men in French sailor hats open the door for you.
But in 2009, those of us on this side of the check-in counter find that the math is even more in our favor. Last year, Las Vegas added close to 9,000 hotel rooms to the existing 133,000. And in 2009, 14,000 more hotel rooms are scheduled to open.
Meanwhile, you've got slumping demand: Last year tourism was down 4 percent compared with the previous year, and this year's numbers are expected to be even lower. That's why you hear about extreme measures. We're talking rooms going for $40 a weeknight at places like the Excalibur.
These days, there are simply too many ridiculous rooms with hot tubs and wet bars and views of the bright, gleaming desert floor to go around—and I consider it part of my patriotic duty to not let all those marble baths go to waste.
Having been to Vegas several times, I have identified what I believe are the six best luxury hotels: the Bellagio, the Venetian, the Palazzo, the Wynn, the Encore, and the Trump (there's the Ritz, too, but it's miles from the Strip, so it doesn't count for me). I want to stay exclusively in those hotels—and in the high-roller rooms at that. And that's just the beginning. I was going to test the man with the watch's theory and find how much you can get in Vegas simply by asking (and asking, and asking).
Method one: The Internet
The air just smells different in the Wynn Las Vegas. They pump in a fragrance that makes it feel like stepping inside the lint trap of a large, well-maintained dryer. The smell hits you as soon as you enter the atrium and make your way to the front desk, hidden, as all things in Las Vegas are, somewhere beyond the casino floor.
A woman dressed like a flight attendant from a superior society greets me at the front desk with a smile. I wait for her to see that I reserved my room through Priceline and realize that she doesn't have to kiss my butt. It's one of the 2,063 Resort rooms, the lowest grade. The rate for it on Expedia was $200, so I called the Wynn directly. The agent said she could do $189. I called back and told them I gambled a lot and wasn't very good at it. I told them I was going to stay at the Bellagio if they didn't give me a better price.
Every time I called, I got a different rate: $209, $179, $129. But they wouldn't go under $109 (9 is apparently their lucky number). Then I went on Priceline and started the bidding at $60. I kept going up by $5 increments and ultimately scored at $90—a day before checking in.I'm pretty psyched about the rate, but the thing is, once I'm at the front desk, I want to ask for more; after all, I'm just getting started with this challenge, and I have lots of tricks.
My plan is to call downstairs when I get to my room and tell them something inventive—my room smells bad?—and see where that gets me. But the woman preempts me: "It looks like we're all sold out of our Resort rooms. You've been upgraded to the Tower Suites." My new room would have gone for $350 at full price. I have to admit I'm a little disappointed. It's that easy?
Besides the high-end hotel room glut, there's another high-end glut in the food scene. Ever since the Bellagio opened its doors and introduced America to Le Cirque, casinos have been all about signing up name-brand chefs to open name-brand restaurants.
It's actually not so bad eating at 6:50, which is when I'm seated on my first night and served a tasty glass of viognier. The meal starts with an amuse-bouche (a lobster knuckle on a cracker, topped with green-tea cream) and ends with a plate of petits fours. There's also a very fine piece of skate served with a brown-butter sauce over pureed potatoes and roasted cauliflower. I take a not insignificant pleasure in knowing how much money I'm saving on all of these delicious things—in this case, about $20.
It's Thursday. Tomorrow is the weekend, when Las Vegas will get more expensive, but for now the dream of the "Scarface" suite for $14 lives on. Today I'm going to test out the cash-in-hand theory. You may be able to negotiate on the phone from your hometown. But, logically, you should have more pull when you're standing there with your bills.
My strategy is to start with the Expedia rates so I know what I've got to beat. Then I'll go to all the hotels and see if I can do better at the front desk.
"But I got the identical thing at the Wynn last night for $90!" I toss back.
Still, I am denied.
I'm quoted a great deal at The Palazzo Resort—$179 for the basic room, and the upgrade to the Siena Suite is only $100. That's $279 for a 1,283-square-foot room with a Jacuzzi, two bathrooms, and a living room that could very well be sunken, the agent says, if I am lucky. I try the Bellagio last. But when the deal isn't as good, I call the Palazzo from the Bellagio's lobby on my cell phone.
"That'll be $469 for the Siena Suite," the woman on the phone says.
"I was just there," I say. "The guy at the front desk told me to be sure to say I wanted the walk-up rate. It was $179 plus $100 for the upgrade."
The "walk-up" rate seems to require just that. Because once I'm back at the front desk at the Palazzo in person, I'm quoted the $179 rate again—or $279 for the whole-shebang suite, which I go for, naturally. Having checked in, I seek out the fourth floor of the hotel, where, spanning the expanse between the Palazzo and the Venetian, is Canyon Ranch SpaClub, one of the largest known spas in the universe. I got nowhere bargaining with the folks at the Wynn's spa or the one at the Bellagio. Some of them are doing 20-percent-off deals for locals, but I think getting a counterfeit driver's license stretches the journalistic boundaries of this story.
But Canyon Ranch is running an online special: $280 for a 50-minute massage, a 50-minute facial, access to the gym for the day, and a $20 gift certificate for lunch at Canyon Ranch's grill or café. All told, you're saving about $60. And, since I was able to convince the staff to tack on gym and spa access for the next day (normally it runs $40), it's closer to $100 I'm not paying. After three hours of hands-on services and pan-flute music, I emerge from Canyon Ranch in as relaxed a state as I've ever been in Las Vegas. Which lasts about 17 minutes.
Method three: The gamble
And that brings us to what is perhaps the craziest glut in Las Vegas: four separate shows of Cirque du Soleil. There is "O, Love", and "Zumanity", and the act I get tickets for, Kà. How are there that many people on earth who can put their own foot in their ear while bungee jumping through a flaming hoop?
After picking up my ticket, it's back to the Palazzo for my free day at Canyon Ranch. I do everything—the steam room, the Finnish sauna, some kind of herbal hot room that has a rock crystal fixed to the ceiling—and then I fall asleep in one of the relaxing chairs next to a naked guy reading a Martha Stewart magazine.
We were both eating at the bar, having the winter tasting menu, which is a beautifully obscene amount of food: four appetizers, two kinds of steak, scallops, three side dishes (including a copper pot filled with Yukon gold potatoes pureed with at least 17 sticks of butter) and a cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream. The pit boss told me that the best time to get a deal on rooms is at 8 p.m. At that point, all the rooms the pit bosses haven't doled out to high rollers are turned back over to the salespeople, who are deputized to sell them cheap.
I make the rounds of all my target hotels, step up to the front desks, and ask for deals. It's Friday night, so the prices have soared. The Encore is $750 online, and the staff won't go below $279 at the front desk. The Bellagio's best walk-up rate is $199 (about $50 less than the phone rate), but the woman at the front desk says there's no chance for an upgrade. At the Trump, though, the man on duty quotes me $169.
I pause and see if he'll take the bait.
"Sir, we can go to $129 if you want the best possible rate," he says, poker-faced. "Or we can do our 900-square-foot suite for $169."
I go to my room—a view of the pool and the Strip beyond, high-thread-count white sheets, and a kitchen with a Sub-Zero refrigerator. Then it's off to Kà, which basically blows my mind. I sit in my seat and mouth "holy crap" over and over (I am not exaggerating, sadly).
Before the show, the couple next to me tell me they paid $150 each for their tickets. I give them the card for Tix4Tonight. Then I start boring them with all the ways I have learned to get luxury on the cheap. The man is polite for a while, but there's an exciting explosion on the stage that indicates showtime is approaching.
"Fireball!" he says, meaning "let's not talk any more." "Fireball!" I say. I refrain from telling him how much I'm paying for my hotel room.
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Stealth investigations of 56 ships operated by 9 large cruise lines found evidence that only about 30 percent of frequently touched bathroom surfaces were disinfected daily.
Though visibly clean, public toilet seats and flush devices, stall handholds and door handles, inner restroom door handles, and baby changing tables "on most, but not all, cruise ships" are not being cleaned and disinfected thoroughly, Dr. Philip C. Carling, of Carney Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, noted in an email to Reuters Health.
Lack of disinfection, he and colleagues note in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, may significantly increase risk for illness, and particularly for the severe diarrhea and vomiting caused by highly contagious Norovirus.
Therefore, Carling cautions cruise passengers to minimize public restroom use, wash hands with soap and water rather than alcohol-based hand rubs, and be aware of the disease transmission potential from all publicly touched surfaces.
Carling's group enlisted 46 health professionals to check 273 randomly selected public restrooms daily during cruises between July 2005 and August 2008. The ships, most originating from U.S. ports and 82 percent from the 5 largest cruise lines, accommodated up to 3600 passengers each.
Armed with handheld ultraviolet lights to pick up florescent traces of a transparent, but easily cleanable solution they had previously sprayed on surfaces, the cleaning spies identified surfaces left uncleaned for 24 hours.Of the 2010 toilet seats evaluated, just 50 percent had been cleaned. Likewise, just 42 percent of toilet flush devices, 37 percent of toilet stall doors, and 31 percent of toilet stall handhold bars had been cleaned.
And, only 35 percent of interior bathroom door handles and 29 percent of baby changing tables had been cleaned.
Post-outbreak cleaning and disinfection practices on cruise ships, although important, are not enough, the researchers say. Increased efforts to prevent outbreaks with better disinfection practices are clearly needed.
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