Disney just announced that their famous party corner, Pleasure Island will be closing its door for good this Saturday. All 6 night clubs will be closed forever, however the rest of Downtown Disney will remain open as usual.

Pleasure Island opened in 1989 and since then had attracted million of tourists who visit the place for a night of partying, drinking and fun.

Disney is keeping as a secret what their plans are for the place, but the company said they will make an announcement soon.

I am not sure if this is related to the new Disney’s initiative to attract sports fans with the construction of the biggest bowling alley in the world

I’ll keep you post it as soon as I find out their plans… hopefully it will be something fun.

If you ever thought that being a flight attendant is the coolest job in the world, I invite you to read this great article of Michelle Higgins, a travel columnist for the New York Times.

Michele spent two days as a flight attendant with American Airlines to write her article titled “Flying the unfriendly skies”

She reported that unruly passengers, crying children, long working hours, and relative low salaries make flight attendant jobs very hard. Gone are the days where stewards would fly for 4 hours, then hit the beach on an exotic destination to wait for her fly home the following morning.

Among the most interesting facts she found about flight attendant jobs are::

• Flight attendants make an average of $35,000 a year.
• They only get pay for the actual flight time (if the flight is delayed or if they have to spend the night over they only get $1.50 an hour flat rate)
• Flight attendants earn between 7 and 20 percent less today than before 9/11
• Though the benefits, like free flights for your entire family, still exist on paper, they are hard to claim as airlines continue to pack planes full of paying

The article was an eye opening for me, and I really recommend you read it if you are thinking on changing careers.





If you are getting old and looking for a good reason to celebrate your birthday, here is a couple of good ones: free food, free cruise and free entrance to a Disney Park.

 Free Disney Park Ticket

 Disney just announced a new marketing plan to give free park tickets to any person on their birthday. That’s right, if you want to celebrate your birthday with Mickey, you can do it w/o having to pay a penny and go see the famous mouse.

All you have to do is register on their website and they’ll email you a coupon valid for a free ticket to the park that you can print and present at the park entrance along with an ID to show it is really your birthday and that’s it.

Please not that the free ticket offer is only good the day of your birthday, not a day before or after, so plan accordantly. Here is the website with all the FAQ and the page where you can register

 Free Cruise

Yeap, you can even take a free cruise to the Bahamas any time during your birthday month. Discovery Cruise Line takes you from Fort Lauderdale to Bahamas on a one day cruise where you can enjoy a little bid of gambling, sun, or simply doing some shopping at the Bahamas.

All the information about this offer can be found here

 Free Food

Do you remember way back when Denny’s  Restaurant used to invite you to have free dinner on your birthday?. Well those days are gone, but there are still plenty of places that offer you free dinners, ice cream and other food related items during your birthday.

I found an excellent list on this site, so check it out and Happy Birthday!.

Bald Head ad

Bald people now have a reason to celebrate their lack of cranial hair. New Zealand’s national airline is looking for 50 bald people to use them as walking billboards by temporarily tattooing an ad on their head advertising a new speedy check in service the airline will begin offering.

For allowing the airline to use their bald head, each person will receive $666.00 (any resemblance to the “mark of the beast” is just pure coincidence as this is the equivalence of $1,000 NA dollars each person will receive)

The idea is that people standing in line at the check in line can learn about the service by reading the ad on the head of the person in front of them.

Would you shave your head and temporarily tattoo it for $666.00? With the economy the way it is, I would at least consider it!

How many times have you booked a flight, rented a car or hotel room only to discover out later on that what you were promised is not what you got?  Perhaps they are trying to charge you more, or give you different hotel room or deny that free car upgrade you got online. If you call the customer service department of any of those online reservation sites most likely you would get nowhere. Most front line customer care staffs have very little authority to issue a refund, or get your problem solved. So what is the alternative? Contact the company corporate office if everything else fails.

Big companies hate bad publicity, and they know that it only takes a dissatisfied customer to post something negative on a blog or a forum to create an avalanche or negative press.

But the problem with contacting any corporate office is that it is hard to find their phone number. Many times their own front line staff doesn’t know it or are not allowed to give it to customers. Your other alternative is search it online, or discovered it buried in some obscure web page in the company’s website.

I have compiled a list of the 4 most popular online travel sites (Expedia, Travelocity, Price Line and Orbitz) corporate contact information (actually the number is even higher considering that Expedia owns Hotel.com, Trip Advisor, and Hotwire) When possible I provide the top executive phone numbers or email address.

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In an effort to increase revenues in a slow economy, Jet Blue has decided to put to auction several round trip tickets and vacation packages on eBay, the most popular internet auction site.

Bidding started around $0.10 per ticket; however a quick look at the Jet Blue auction site, showed that a lot of people had bid on the tickets, and the prices continue to rise, so at the end, I really don’t think they would make too much difference compared to regular ticket prices.

The site also has “mystery vacation packages” where you would bid for a hotel and air fare package to one of the several Caribbean destinations where Jet Blue flies.

The round trip tickets originate from Boston and more than 20 other cities, and all of the flights will depart on a Thursday or Friday and return on a Sunday or Monday, with the last one landing on Oct. 6.

The auctions can be found at www.jetblue.com/ebay. Taxes and fees are additional and will vary according to the route. Bidders will need a PayPal account.

 Have you ever booked a cruise only to find out later on that a fellow passenger paid much less than what you did for the same cruise and even the same category and cabin type?

 There are several myths among cruise fanatics regarding how to save money on a cruise. The most common one is to wait until the last possible minute to get a great deal on a cruise, based on the idea that cruises will lower the price of unsold cabins as the embarkation date approaches. This might have been true in the past, but as cruises have become more and more popular and security measurements increased greatly post 9-11, the reality is that those last minute special have almost disappeared completely.  

 What many people don’t realize is that every cruise line provides travel agents with specials codes that allows them to get additional discounts for their clients. If you have an honest TA, he/she will use those codes to save you money. On the other hand, if your TA is more interested in a big commission rather than getting you a cheaper cruise, you are out of luck.

 Booking codes usually translate into big savings. For example, sometimes Costa Cruise has kids free special cruises, where up to 2 children can cruise for free when accompanied by two paying adults (except for port fees and taxes) But unless your TA enters the code KIDS when doing the booking, chances are you won’t benefit from the offer. Other times, there are special codes for past guests or military personnel and their families.

 The following table gives you a list of current discount codes for the most popular cruise lines.

 



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