In many instances, airlines seem to assume that passengers have a pretty high threshold for discomfort and inconvenience. Yes, they seem to think, you can handle sitting on a tarmac for a few hours, perhaps with no A/C or working toilets. You’re tough, right?
But according to a recent CNN report, American Airlines has declared a limit to what humans should have to put up with while in transit, and the repeated singing of “I Will Always Love You” is clearly over the line.
You assume, if your credit card gets stolen when you're on vacation, that the bandit will make a beeline for a local electronic store. And if your phone gets stolen, most of us would assume that the device just gets sold.
But London ad exec Mike Clear discovered a new, dizzying level of travel theft last month when he was vacationing in Spain.
According to a Daily Mail article by Martin Robinson, Clear’s phone got stolen one day in Alicante by pickpockets—lousy luck, to be sure. But the real shock came when his phone bill arrived: the bill, usually about £100, was now approaching £15,000 (about $23,000 Stateside).
As it turns out, the crooks were repeatedly calling a “premium rate” number that cost a whopping £21-a-minute, which racked up the exorbitant bill in just about two hours. It appears the crooks also set up that premium rate number, connected to their own bank account, and just needed to “recruit” phones to help them generate customers.
The article speculated that the pickpockets were also savvy enough to have some software that cracked the security code on Clear’s phone, which he had locked. 'There must be plenty of people who think that remote locking their phone when it's lost or stolen will give them some protection,” Clear told Robinson. “But it's a more or less useless security measure.”
For the first several days after the bill arrived, the story details, wireless provider O2 maintained that Clear was indeed responsible for his lofty phone bill. Happily, after further investigation, the company agreed to forgive the charges. A spokesperson for O2 called the crime “unprecedented.”
The lesson for the rest of us: if your phone ever gets stolen, cancel the phone—and any security code—stat.
Unless you’re allergic to primary colors—or LEGOS, of course—the biggest problem with the new Legoland Hotel in Carlsbad, California, may be that it’s not taller.
For a lot of grown-up guests, the coolest part about the otherwise kid-centric, three-story hotel may be the “disco elevator.” Inside, the walls are decorated with nightclub-ready LEGO characters, a strobe light hangs from the ceilings, and when the doors close, the lava floor panels light up and the music kicks in: ABBA, the BeeGees, the Village People. It makes you think: How many elevators out there have wasted an opportunity to be fun? (The hotel has figured out how to make everything enjoyable: there’s also a jump-able whoopee cushion corner in the elevator lobby.)
Nigel Woods, the project designer who created the elevator, told us that he felt he had to up the ante set by the elevator at another theme park hotel, the Alton Towers Splash Landing Hotel, in the UK. “It plays some ‘Hawaii Five O’ music,” he told us by email, “which my children (Emily, 9 and Lucy 6) and I loved to dance to as we went up to our room.” Then, he recounts, he saw a YouTube video of a disco elevator, “and fell over laughing. From there, the Legoland disco elevator was born.”
While at least one reviewer has pooh-poohed the elevator as a little intense for toddlers (or parents who haven't had their morning coffee)—most guests at the hotel's opening in April seemed to love it. Some of us may have wished the ride lasted longer than just two floors up from the lobby. Then again, some guests booked on the ground floor were guilty of mere joyriding.
Spring Airlines, based in China, probably thought they had a fun promotion on their hands: Dress the flight attendants in themed costumes to liven up the flights from Shanghai. Their first idea, posted on the Facebook page? Classic, and maybe short-skirted, maid costumes. Folks like to feel that they're getting good service, right?
Indeed, from various reports published in the past months, it seems that the bad ol’ days of “Coffee Tea or Me” for flight attendants might be making a comeback. Both Ryanair and Thailand-based Nok airlines have been dinged recently for selling calendars featuring flight attendants (or models posing as flight attendants) in skimpy outfits, while Vietnam’s VietJet Air actually staged a beauty contest down the aisle of an aloft flight last year, to celebrate a new route. (In that case, at least the bathing-suit-clad contestants weren’t crew members.)
For Spring Airlines, the frilly-skirted maid joke clearly fell flat. Some bloggers and Twitter usershave taken the airline to task—for objectifying the crew members, certainly, and perhaps even for putting their onboard safety at risk, due to those teeter-y heels. The airline responded by posting on Facebook that “We'll never objectify any of our staff; in fact this idea came from our international crew of qualified Chinese, Japanese and Thailand cabin staff.”
Pack up the hot-pink convertible: It may be time to take your Barbie-themed vacation.
On May 6, two official Barbie Dream House Experience attractions will open on our planet: one in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz Square, and the other in Sunrise, Florida.
For admission starting at $14, both sites promise to offer a life-sized immersion into Barbie’s plastic townhouse. You can take an elevator from room to room, create a virtual cupcake in the kitchen, explore Barbie's "endless closet" and experience the "walk-through glitterizer." On the attraction’s web site, you learn that you will see Barbie there "in unexpected ways," as well as encounter sister Skipper, the always-controversial Ken, and other characters including Raquelle, Ryan, and pets Blissa and Taffy. Florida opens May 6, Berlin May 16.
But not everyone is popping the pepto-pink champagne. According to The Independent, the Berlin branch of the Dream House has been attracting preemptive protestors, including one 27-year-old who launched an "Occupy Barbie Dreamhouse" Facebook page. "Barbie Dream House is the expression of a conventional role model that isn’t OK," Michael Koschitzki told The Independent’s Tony Paterson.
Meanwhile, the Dream House is not the only attraction for Barbiephiles. Royal Caribbean is now offering a Barbie Premium package, on certain voyages, which includes perks like a pink-décor stateroom, a tiaras-and-teacups party, and a fashion show. And this past January, a diner-style Barbie Café, also licensed by Mattel, opened in Taipei.
Interesting to note: Royal Caribbean seems to take pains to point out that its Barbie experience is meant for girls ages 4 to 11. The Dream House, meanwhile, more slyly acknowledges that Barbie’s appeal spans the generations (and genders) by declaring it for “fans of all ages.” And perhaps trying to reach those same fans, the Barbie Café in Taipei clearly has a bar.
He's been blamed for the deaths of millions of his subjects—as well as the murder of his own father—the ancient Chinese emperor Yang Guang has also, apparently, put one over on thousands of tourists, even if he did so inadvertently.
According to a CNN Travel report by Frances Cha, archeologists recently discovered a tomb at a Yangzhou construction site, where tablets indicate that it was the actual resting place of the infamous ruler, who lived from 569 to 618. The site also features an adjoining tomb that may have belonged to Yang Guang’s empress.
Memo to Ryan Gosling and Jon Hamm: Steer clear of Riyadh.
According to a story in The Telegraph based on a report from the Arabic news site Elaph, three male delegates from the United Arab Emirates were recently asked to leave a cultural festival in the Saudi capital and subsequently deported back to Abu Dhabifor the crime of being too good-looking.
If you’re in La Jolla for lunch, you might think twice before asking for patio seating.
According to various reports including one from The Associated Press, seriously stinky breezes are leaving tourists and business owners gasping for air.
"We've had to relocate tables inside," Christina Collignon, a hostess at the cliffside steak restaurant Eddie V's, told the AP. "Because when people go out to the patio, some are like 'Oh my God. I can't handle the smell.'"
The area of La Jolla Cove is home to some of the city’s best restaurants, posh boutique hotels, and a few famous, well-heeled residents like Mitt Romney. It's also an area of "special biological significance" by California law, which means there are strict regulations to protect local marine life, like dolphins, sea lions, harbor seals, and countless birds.
Those rules have made the area attractive to large numbers of two endangered species, brown pelicans and cormorants. Both species have flocked to La Jolla, no pun intended, and have covered the seaside rocks and outcroppings with guano—lots of guano. The resulting scent, according to a San Diego Union-Tribune article, is akin to a blend of “rotting vinegar and human body odor.”
For years, La Jolla has been the site of another wildlife-related debate: the seals that have taken up residence on the previously human-covered Children's Pool beach. A new “beach cam" monitors both the seals and any humans who might bother them.
One La Jolla waiter, meanwhile, says that this may be the price one pays for natural harmony. “People come here because they want to see nature,” Anton Marek told the AP. “Poop is a part of nature.”
When Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip rode the amphibious tour bus, the Yellow Duckmarine, for a tour of Liverpoollast year, they may have elevated this rather conspicuous mode of tourism to a slightly more dignified position.
This week, the image of these tours has sunk again—rather literally. Over Easter weekend, a lunchtime run by the Beatlemania-tinged tour—which passes by several local landmarks, including the Cavern Club where the Fab Four got their start—ended abruptly when the boat began to sink in the River Mersey. Luckily, as The Daily Mail's Becky Evans reports, all of the passengers were evacuated safely to a pontoon. (Beatles nerds might note that "Ferry Cross the Mersey" was not a Beatles song, but a hit for Gerry & The Pacemakers.) From the shore, many passengers watched (and documented) the Duckmarine sinking, not unlike Pete Best’s star potential back in the day.
Buried treasures aren't just for pirate tales: Visitors to New Mexico can now act out their It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World dreams by finding an actual treasure buried somewhere in the hills.
Jeri Clausing of the Associated Press recently reported on Forrest Fenn, an 82-year-old owner of Old Santa Fe Trading Co, a gallery in Santa Fe and author of the self-published a memoir, The Thrill of the Chase. The book details Fenn’s own colorful history from his humble youth in Texas, decorated service in Vietnam, and years of entertaining celebrities like Jackie Onassis in his art galleries, while dropping clues to readers about where he hid a 40-pound chest full of gold, trinkets and exotic jewels. Fenn says the booty is out there, free for the taking, somewhere in the mountains north of Santa Fe.
