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TravelMusings

May 28, 2009
Donna M. Airoldi
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If you’re planning a Chicago family vacation this summer, odds are you’ll include a visit to what is arguably the city’s most popular attraction: Navy Pier. If so, don’t miss this deal:

 

Photos: Navy Pier, Affinia Chicago

 

Navy Pier and its official hotel Affinia Chicago are offering the A Day of Fun in the Sun package, which includes the following:

 

  • Rates starting at $229 per night

  • Four tickets to the IMAX Theater at Navy Pier

  • Four tickets to ride the Ferris wheel

  • Four tickets to ride the carousel

  • Four tickets to ride the Wave Swinger

  • Four tickets to the miniature golf course

  • Navy Pier coupon book

 

All told, there’s up to $144 in savings to be had. (If staying at the hotel on a Saturday, guests also get a free trolley ride to the Pier.)

 

This package is especially appealing if traveling with little ones in tow—though I know plenty of adults who would enjoy these perks too, especially when considering that the hotel’s seafood restaurant, C-House, is under the direction of hot celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson, of New York’s Aquavit, and there’s the 29th-floor rooftop C-View lounge, on which to enjoy cool evening breezes off nearby Lake Michigan.

 

So what are you waiting for? A Day of Fun in the Sun is available for stays now through Aug. 31, 2009 and can be booked online or by calling 866-246-2203 and referencing booking code PIER.

0 Comments Permalink Tags: travel_deals, summer_savings, chicago, family_travel
A.E. Smith
0

Photo by GlennFleishman

 

The list of places in the world where you can safely avoid updating your Facebook profile got smaller last week with Virgin America’s launch of in-flight WiFi on all its 100 daily routes. Unless you were one of the working stiffs on the test flight out of San Francisco (pictured above) access will cost $9.95 on short flights (under three hours), $12.95 for longer hauls, with discounted rates for handheld users and Web junkies taking the red-eye.

 

So, let the airborne Internet races begin, or rather, speed up: The announcement sucked the wind out of news earlier in the week from AirTran that it will begin offering the service on all its flights in July, and you already may have stumbled onto Wi-Fi-enabled flights from American Airlines, Delta and United, which have partnered with Virgin America’s service provider Gogo; trial runs of JetBlue's free-but-buggy BetaBlue; or Row 44 satellite-enabled flights on Southwest and Alaska Airlines. Internationally, onboard Wi-Fi is also in the works at Air Canada (through Gogo) and Norwegian Air Shuttle (Row 44).

 

I’m eager to see this capability become universal, as it seems it will, but for now I can’t decide if the possibility of having Wi-Fi would make me choose one carrier over another when booking a flight. Especially since, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out earlier this month, it’s going to be a while before companies with many more planes than Virgin America’s 28 will be able to guarantee in advance which ones will have Wi-Fi capability. Plus, with the baggage fees and the snack charges and so on, will I really want to throw down another chunk of change just so I can blog mid-flight? Is this blog post worth $12.95? Don’t answer that.

 

0 Comments Permalink Tags: air_travel, airlines
Andrew Weiss
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Club Med offers an “[invitation to happiness|http://www.clubmed.ca/cgi-bin/clubmed55/SP/offersDescription.do?page=INSTANT-INVITATION-TO-HAPPINESS-61US&PAYS=61&LANG=US]” at its many resorts. Since happiness is a crucial tenet for all my vacation planning, I appreciate the offer.

 

To bring this beachside bliss to multiple generations, Club Med also is offering a Kids 15 & Under Stay Free special at resorts in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Sandpiper, Fla.; and Ixtapa and Cancun in Mexico. Included in this pursuit of happiness are all the activities of Mini-Club Med, for kids 4 to 10 years old, including tennis, soccer, sailing, arts and crafts, and an outdoor “funscape” of dollhouses, trains and slides.

 

Photo: Club Med Ixtapa Pacific

 

At the Punta Cana and Cancun locations, there’s also a kids-only pool for those little ones who enjoy splashing about. When they’ve had enough of that, circus school provides workshops in juggling, walking the tightrope and swinging on the trapeze. For teens, activities in the Club Med Passworld — such as a variety of performing arts, sports and evening gatherings—are included, as is the opportunity to swing on a trapeze. Because you’re never too old to swing on a trapeze.

 

Reservations must be booked by June 30, 2009, for travel until Dec. 19, 2009; one child 15-and-under stays free per paying adult. For more information, visit www.clubmed.us or call 800-ClubMed (258-2633).

0 Comments Permalink Tags: family_travel, travel_deals, club_med

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