We spent the better part of the day traveling today. We left home at 8:00 a.m. and arrived in Kona, Hawaii around 2:00 p.m. local time. The flight felt like your typical butt buster overseas flight and the day seemed to drag on. A funny anecdote is that we had an early breakfast today, flew for three hours and landed in a breakfast time time-zone only to eat pizza for breakfast then proceeded to Hawaii and landed during lunch time.

The rest of our day was a bit challenging and unexpected. Little did we know that Kona airport didn’t have umbilical walkways to the airplane. We actually had to climb down stairs from our jet! We then had to walk about half a mile to get our luggage and no there weren’t any moving walkways either!

We then proceeded to our car rental where a queue of 9 people were being serviced by a staff of two. It only took 38 minutes to get our car! The clerks were eventually attentive and helpful but the long wait was very disappointing. I’m keeping score on all our “vendors” and I’ll summarize at the end of our trip.

We finally drove to our hotel which wasn’t too far from the airport. I was somewhat disappointed with the size of our room. At nearly $300/night for an ocean front view room, you’d expect a little more space. As I checked in there was a couple checking in next to us that complained about the hotels daily resort fee of $20/day. I could over hear part of the argument centering around whether parking was included or not in the fee. Evidently parking was included with our $20/day fee for some reason but they would need to pay an extra $10/day for parking which would bring their total up to $30/day which is quite frankly ridiculous.

The ludicrous fees might explain why during spring break, this hotel of hundreds of rooms had but a scant few people staying here. The beach and pools were totally empty all day today! I’ll post a follow up review of our hotel at the end of our trip.

After arriving at the hotel, we headed out to a nearby shop to get some grub. Be forewarned that there are no fast food restaurants for miles around Kona so if you’re traveling with kids be sure you eat either at the airport or plan on stopping at Costco to pick up something unless you don’t mind paying $20 for lunch per person. We ended up eating at a fish and chips place at Kings Place where lunch for two adults and two kids cost $40 (the kids shared one plate of food).

We picked up a few snacks and headed back to the hotel to check out the beach (sunset) and pools. We ended the day on a high note as the sunset was spectacular and the heated spa pools provided some much needed relaxation after a very long hectic day. The sand here feels strange, it feels more like salt & pepper than typical beach sand. We’ve been to Cancun’s white sandy beaches , Gulf of Mexico brown sugar sands and many other places but this sand feels totally unique. Your feet actually sink into the sand without any water agitation as in other beaches.

And here is a shot of the sunset our first day here!

Categories: Hawaii
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It’s been a long while since we’ve made an entry on our travel blog but Marge and I have been extremely busy these past few months.   We’re planning vacations for 2008 and we’re planning on Hawaii, Acapulco and perhaps a South American cruise later in the year during winter.

We’ve begun planning our Hawaiian vacation and a funny thing has happened to our favorite travel tools, they’ve become fairly useless.

I’ve written about being an avid fan of Expedia and TripAdvisor and while the sites generally provide useful information, the competitive pricing has completely disappeared.   It is cheaper to book flight directly through airlines and hotels directly from the hotels rather than booking through Expedia.

What really hurts Expedia is the fees they charge for booking and exorbitant fees they charge for making any type of change (usually $30 per transaction).   Why pay a fee to change your itinerary when you can avoid or pay less directly with the vendor?

It’s really disappointing that the travel industry is in such a mess and we’re really concerned about getting bumped, delayed, or otherwise hassled during our vacations this year.

We’ll keep you posted on our travel adventures.

Categories: Travel Tools
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We flew out Wednesday July 4th.  Our bus took us straight to the airport but our last night was spent watching the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom.  Unfortunately, without a tripod, the photos weren’t too spectacular.  Over all we had a good time but Disney World is a fairly expensive proposition no matter what the marketing commercials say on TV.

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Categories: Disney World
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Exhausted from the heat and long walks, we decided to head out to the Animal Kingdom with the intent of not staying there too long. We didn’t expect too many attractions that we or the kids would like but we were grateful and surprised about some of the Animal Kingdom’s hidden features.

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First, the Animal Kingdom was built to include many many trees! There were plenty of shaded areas to walk along and stand by when visiting attractions. The sun’s rays were tamed by so much shading.

Secondly, many of the attractions had heavy foliage which also limited the sun’s powerful heat.

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Like other parks, Animal Kingdom suffered from “commercialism” and “consumerism” and lacked some creativity. Here’s a shot of A Bug’s Life character.
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We took the Safari and encountered various animals during the trip….

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The exciting part was how close up we could get to some of these animals.  The ride takes about 30 minutes and is entertaining but we were too exhausted to take advantage of too many other attractions.

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The last shot we took by the Tree of Life.  Note the shade!

Categories: Disney World
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We didn’t have a late start on Sunday despite being very weary and tired from our first two days at Disney World. On arrival, we had booked a fishing tour to go out on the lake and catch a few fish. Our scheduled departure was 7:00 a.m. so we got up at 6:00 a.m. to get ready and head out.

Marge surprised us all by catching the first three fish. Bart was getting a little agitated that he and no one else was catching any fish. Our boat captain took us over to a different part of the lake where the fish were biting for everyone.

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After our two hour fishing tour, we headed back to the hotel to clean up and have breakfast. We ate at the snack facility and headed out to MGM Studios. Unfortunately, there was no monorail connecting our hotel to MGM, so we had to wait for and take a bus from our hotel to MGM Studios.

This was our first visit to MGM for all of us and we enjoyed our day although I had a few complaints. Evidently Disney didn’t think it necessary to plant any trees at MGM because the whole facility seems to be made entirely of concrete and brick. This wouldn’t be too much of a problem were it not for the fact that the sun bears down on you all day long and there is very little shading. The concrete also reflects the heat so it makes it even worse as you walk around.

I won’t complain about the “creativity” factor here because MGM Studios is by default all about making movies and mass consumerism. We visited the Chronicles of Narnia exhibit, A Bug’s Life Playground, and various other attractions which were fun for the kids but rather lame for the adults.

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The more memorable ones however were the stunt shows for Indiana Jones and Light’s, Camera, Stunts.

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The kids had fun painting their faces, meeting various characters and taking photos with them.

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Our night concluded with dinner at our hotel with a few Disney characters from Cinderella’s Castle:

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Categories: Disney World
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We started the day late on Saturday. We were dead tired from Epcot and slept in till 9:00 a.m. We headed down for breakfast at one of the snack eateries and weren’t surprised to see a charge for $20 for breakfast. We took the monorail from our hotel over to the Magic Kingdom. We were surprised to have to connect at a transportation center to get on board a second monorail to actually get to the Magic Kingdom.
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I stated yesterday that I had visited this park about 20 years ago and the park looked relatively the same although it did seem a bit smaller than I remembered it. Marge & Bart headed out to space mountain while Lisa and I rode the kiddie rides. Lisa was too short to get on many of the bigger kid rides but we had fun nonetheless at the Teacups, Carousel, Dumbo, and Cinderella’s Castle.
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We regrouped and waited around for Bart & Marge to ride splash mountain. The wait there was about an hour for them to ride while I waited patiently below to capture the screaming terror as they plunged and splashed down the mountain. I did have some fun taking pictures of other people’s expressions and I’ve included my favorites below.

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We spend the rest of the day visiting various shows and attractions. We stopped by to see one of the many shows at Cinderella’s Castle in the afternoon.

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We left around 5pm that evening right after the above pictures were taken since a storm rolled in and hit hard.  We took a boat ferry from the Magic Kingdom back to our hotel, the Grand Floridian and the rain pounded the little boat.   After the rain cleared, we headed out to the rock pool and relaxed for a few hours.

Categories: Disney World
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It’s been a while since we’ve gone on a decent vacation. Between work, kids school, family events and other activities, we’ve found it impossible to get away for more than a weekend trip getaway here and there. We finally bit the bullet and decided to head out to Disney World this fourth of July Holiday.

We headed out on Saturday and our primary concern was the heavy rainstorms predicted for our four day stay at Disney World.  We flew out in the morning and arrived around noon at Orlando International Airport.   I was extremely pleased with Disney’s luggage pickup and delivery service.   Disney essentially grabs your luggage for you and delivers it to your room.  No need to wait at baggage claim!

We didn’t rent a car for this trip since we knew we could get free transfers to and from the airport through Disney.  We checked in rather quickly and were on our way within minutes!   The bus ride from the airport to our hotel took approximately 30 minutes.   The only complaint we had is that the bus makes a stop or two before getting you to your hotel.  Our bus stopped first at the Polynesian Hotel then took us to our hotel, the Grand Floridian.

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We weren’t sure how much money we were going to end up paying for this trip.  Since we booked at the last minute, we simply booked an Expedia package that included Air & Hotel at the Floridian.  The cost for the trip so far had been $3500 but when we checked in, we realized the price tag would be much higher.   First, the hotel asked if we wanted to leave a credit card for “incidentals.”  Disney offers a credit card like card which serves as your room key, park entrance, and “charge” card.  We agreed to a revolving line and the clerk quickly authorized $1500!

We didn’t think anything of it but by the end of the trip, we’d use a little over $1500 in Disney charges during our stay.

After getting settled, we decided to head out to our first park, Epcot Center.   The kids were excited about riding the monorail so we headed upstairs to board the magnetic train.

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I had visited Disney World as a kid about 20 years ago and at the time, there were only two parks: Magic Kingdom and Epcot Center.  Back then, Epcot had cheesy animatronics talking about the “world of tomorrow”  and it hasn’t really changed much in those twenty years.

There were some new rides which were fun, Mission to Mars was Bart’s favorite as we rode that twice and wanted to go back for more but  we had to meet up with Marge & Lisa who were enjoying some of the kiddie activities.

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The new entertainment attractions basically centered around popular movies like Nemo (see pictures below) and perhaps that’s my primary complaint with Epcot and Disney, the “creativity” factor has gone away and has been replaced with “consumerism popularity” and “merchandising” far too much.

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The rides that did have some creativity were all booked solid.  We desperately wanted to get on Soarin but there was a 90 minute wait time.  Epcot (and the other parks) have “Fast Pass” access which allow you to get a ticket for faster entry but this ride wasn’t issuing any more Fast Passes so we were bummed.

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We ate our first meal in “Canada” at Epcot center.  We were so tired and hungry from our travel and first park visit that we simply decided to stop at the closest restaurant which happened to be a Canada themed restaurant.   I had New York Strip steak and Marge had some pork chops, the food was quite good but as soon as we got the tab, we realized the $1500 authorization would be “eaten” up rather quickly.  Our tab for dinner for two was $80!  We had spent another $10 buying chicken nuggets for the kids at a kiosk a few minutes earlier so the entire cost of the food for a half day was almost $100!

After a few hours, we decided to head back to get some rest.

Categories: Disney World
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This past weekend we made our first foray into Las Vegas as part of our anniversary celebration. We stayed at Venetian Hotel and I can only summarize our visit in the context of “The Good”, “The Bad”, and “The Ugly” but I will say that Las Vegas is definitely the most overhyped city in the world…

“The Good”

There is plenty of entertainment in Las Vegas. Any kind of activity from scenic mountain trips to concerts, plays, and other shows are available at various times throughout the day. You can pretty much find any kind of gambling gaming activity nearly anywhere. Lastly, we had a great time celebrating someone special’s birthday up there and eating fine dining and watching the fountain show at Bellagio.

“The Bad”

To start with, service was bad pretty much everywhere. From the beginning of our trip with “Cattle Car Airlines” to the Starbucks at Treasure Island to city infrastructure it was all BAD, BAD, BAD!

Where to begin? First, I can plainly see why the service can be so bad; there are simply car loads/airplane loads/truck loads of people arriving all the time. Why provide excellent service when you can easily make it up in volume!

But the first thing that annoyed us was the poor airport infrastructure. I’m told in 1990 there were 300k people living in Las Vegas and today there are 2 million. I don’t think the City Government has expanded the infrastructure in any way. What are they doing with those billions of tax dollars?

Second, the taxi lines are too long! It’s pretty ridiculous when you have to wait 40+ minutes for a cab at the airport and at pretty much any hotel (the ONLY place you can get a cab is at hotels)!

Third, the traffic is horrendous. There are too many cars trying to drive down the same strip of road. Worst yet the traffic lights aren’t syncronized so you may drive for one or two blocks only to be stopped at the next traffic light.

I mentioned to a cab driver why they don’t simply install a train from airport to the strip and he said, “yeah that’d be great for tourists but bad for us.” So there are vested interests in keeping the cash flow going and keeping the tourists unhappy.

Fourth, the casino action was pathetic at most hotels. We stayed at the Venetian and the place reminded me of the movie Night of the Living Dead as the patrons wandered aimlessly throughout the casio, shops, and hotel. The zombies sitting at the tables were quiet and subdued creating an atmosphere as exciting as a public library. The action wasn’t much better at Bellagio where the zombies were a little more animated. There was some hot action at a few key places and I’ll tell you where down below.

“The Ugly”

With too much traffic comes too much pollution and this left the air on street level hardly breathable. Between the thousand cars driving down the strip and the smoke eminating from every other cigarette dangling from the mouths of zombies the oxygen level must have dropped down to 8% of the air!

Speaking of pollution, there were thousands of lewd sex solicilations strewn across every sidewalk as well as being handed out by some pretty desperate people. It’d be nice if the trash were picked up every now and then.

Lastly, it was plain ugly having to wait for taxi cabs or being forced (ala Baatan death march) to walk up and down the strip amongst a bunch of zombies. The best course of action is to plan you hotel stay either for the casino action or for the proximity to the events and activities you want to do.

“The Summary”

Would I return there? Not really except if there were a very special occasion in which someone wanted me to attend.

As for some hot casino action I would recommend:

The Wynn Hotel, Excalibur Hotel and MGM Grand (in this order).

I walked most of the hotels and I found the Wynn with the best combination of hot casino action and luxury accommodation and atmosphere. What do I mean by “hot action?” I mean action where people are excited to win (or even lose); they create an energized atmosphere (much like a sports arena) where you cheer on your fellow patrons. I didn’t see any zombies at the Wynn nor even Excalibur and only a few at MGM so if you want exciting game action go to the Wynn.

A word of caution

The higher end hotels (Bellagio, Venetian, Wynn) offer the best and wider variety of liquor whereas places like Excalibur offer basic liquor choices so there is a trade off: the higher the luxury, the colder the casino action and conversly the cheaper the liquor (Excalibur, MGM) the hotter the action.

The only exception was the Wynn where casino action and liquor selection were top notch too bad we stayed at the Venetian!

Categories: Hotels, Las Vegas
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This past Labor Day Weekend we made a short trip over to Galveston, TX.  Unfortunately, we didn’t take any photos but we did stay at the Moody Gardens and had a great time.  The hotel was decent and the pool was pretty cool.  We had a swim up bar along with a fairly large heated pool/jacuzzi.   We had a decent time at Schlitterbahn but unfortunately, everything was a bit pricey.  We had two margaritas and a coke at one of the swim up bar.  Tab ended up being $18!  We spent our last day there at the beach.  We’re busily working on planning on next vacation trip to somewhere exotic.  Stay tuned!

Categories: Galveston, Hotels
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I wanted to updated everyone on our Capital One Fiasco. As I posted earlier, we had called Capital One to let them know we were heading to New Zealand for an extended stay and we would be making various large charges. Upon arriving in New Zealand, we had to make numerous phone calls to the “fraud” department to “unlock/unfreeze” our credit card. We ended up spending about $80 in cell phone and calling cards calling back to the US from NZ. We sent Capital One a letter expressing our dissapointment with their fraud department and customer service department. Yesturday, we received a response with an apology and a credit of $80 to our account. I must say that I am happy Capital One did the right thing and covered our expenses for the expenses and inconvenience that their overzealous fraud department caused us during our trip.

Categories: Money
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