Leisure … more than a word, it's a lifestyle

I’ve got to confess that in writing this blog, I really don’t get fishing! I’ve never been into standing on the side of a river bank, or a lake, and dangling a line into the water in the hope something will latch on to it. Fishing just isn’t my idea of fun.

That said, I have been sea fishing a couple of times and I have to confess to quite enjoying the experience. I suppose it must have been the lure of the ocean and the fact you never quite knew what you might catch.

My dislike of fishing started when I was a youngster and lived not far from a place called “Pool Hall” in Wolverhampton, England. I worked in a factory and heard these guys going on and on about it so one day I decided to join them. I thought it was going to be a fun time but boy was I wrong! These guys just sat beside the lake for hours and hours…even going through the night! Fortunately I was too wise for that and decided the creature comforts of my bed had better attraction so slumped off when their backs were turned!

Another time, I went fishing off the coast of North Wales with a friend. It was the first time I’d done that and within a few seconds of “casting” (see I know the techno speak) my line into the water I felt the unmistakable twitch of something being on the other end. I reeled it in and lo and behold, found six mackerel on the line. Now what?

I’d never handled a fish before and the others on the trip were looking at me. I stretched out my hand and instantly recoiled as I touched the thing on the hook. It was disgusting! Many years later I look back on that trip with fond memories…but I’ve still never understood why fishermen fish. I’ve also never understood how they can eat a sandwich after dissecting their prey either.

So all of that brings me back to the subject of this blog…fishing in Florida. Apparently Florida is the fishing capital of the world because it has a huge variety of sportfish species. It has large mouth bass in nearly all its fresh waters, redfish along the shorelines and sailfish offshore. Yes, I got that sentence out of a book because I’ve no idea what it means!

Also, more International Game Fish Association records are set in Florida and more anglers come here to fish than anywhere else in the nation and I suppose that’s simply because people who love to fish can do it year round.

At Florida Leisure we often get asked if there are any lakes or waters where guests can fish and the simple answer is “yes, usually right outside your front door” as many of our homes are on lakeside communities. The next question we get asked is about licenses and just so you know, fishing licenses are required by law if you are aged between 16 and 65. I’ve no idea why there is an age restriction but I do know it’s possible to purchase a license from places like Walmart or by calling 1-888-FISH FLORIDA (347-4356).

Another question we get asked is “Can we organize fishing trips?” and the answer is “Absolutely”. So if you want to do some fishing, Florida is the place and if you want some quite time after a busy day at the parks, a Florida Leisure Vacation Home is absolutely perfect for that!

Hot on the news that Tiger Woods had to be treated in hospital after a car accident yesterday comes some rather better news for Orlando Golf.

Orlando has just been voted “North American Golf Destination of the Year 2010” by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO). This news was announced in Malaga, Spain at the annual international awards ceremony for the golf tourism industry. The event was widely covered by print, online and broadcast media including CNN International, ESPN Star Sports Asia and the Golf Channel.

IAGTO Chief Executive Officer Peter Walton said, “This is outstanding recognition for an aspect of the Orlando experience that is outside of its world-renowned theme parks. This award acknowledges not only the quality of the golf offerings in Orlando but the service provided to golfers and tour operators worldwide. With this award, our members recognize that Orlando has achieved a winning combination for golfers worldwide.”

“Orlando is well-known for its theme park thrills off the course – it’s very exciting to see that we are now becoming known for our thrills on the course,” said Gary C. Sain, president and CEO of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau, Inc. “With 177 golf courses providing every type and level of golf experience, we like to say that Orlando is golf’s ultimate theme park. We are honored to have this prestigious award from IAGTO and the acknowledgment from its members for the efforts we have put in to developing our vast golf offerings from our award-winning golf courses, to our top golf instructors and the acclaimed professional events we host every year. “

The selection for winning destinations is made through votes cast by over 300 golf tour operators from 50 countries who consider customer satisfaction; quality of golf courses and accommodation; value for money; support from suppliers, tourist boards and airlines; professional conduct of suppliers; and accessibility to tee times. North American finalist destinations nominated for the award included Hawaii, Miami, Fla. and Palm Beach Fla.

Orlando is a great place to play golf. Our vacation homes are just moments from several fabulous golf courses that will test every skill range. The Orlando area has 23 golf academies, is host to more professional tour competitions than any other city and is home to the Golf Channel, top-rated professional players and golf course architects. Orlando is also one of the few places in the world that can confidently meet the needs of any type of traveling golf group. Golfers of all levels, interests and budgets will find a fitting golf experience in Orlando. For more information on Orlando golf courses, just ask our concierge at www.FloridaLeisure.com to tailor make a great golf vacation for you.

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Well Black Friday rolls around again and as usual it’s a very busy time in Central Florida. There’s some great shopping to be had and plenty of bargains out there this year. Also, Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at 9.44 am at Runway 33 at Kennedy Space Center this morning and the sonic booms echoed all over Orlando for the 127th space shuttle landing and the 72nd at Kennedy.

Also, if you wander along to the Orange County Convention Center you will see some great new vehicles at the Central Florida International Auto Show. The fee for entry is $9 adults, $5 senior citizens, military, students, $3 children aged 7 to 12 and children 6 and under are free. The show is open today and tomorrow from 10am to 10pm and on Sunday from 10am to 7pm.

Entering into the spirit of Black Friday here at Florida Leisure, we have decided to extend our very successful Thanksgiving promotion where we actually double your savings if you make a reservation today. Full details of the offer are at www.FloridaLeisure.com and do make sure you check out our latest Orlando video below

‘Thanksgiving’ is based upon the story of the Pilgrims and their thankful community feast at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

The Pilgrims who set sail from Plymouth (England) on a ship called the Mayflower, on September 6, 1620 were, in fact, fortune hunters bound for the resourceful ‘New World’. The Mayflower was a small ship crowded with men, women and children and also, of course, the sailors working on the ship. Aboard were passengers comprising the ‘Separatists’, who called themselves the “Saints”, and others …. whom the ‘Separatists’ called the “Strangers”.

After land was sighted in November, following 66 days of a lethal voyage, a meeting was held and an agreement of truce was worked out. It was called the ‘Mayflower Compact’ and the agreement guaranteed equality amongst the members of the two groups. They merged together to be recognized as the “Pilgrims” and elected John Carver as their first Governor.

Although the Pilgrims first sighted land off Cape Cod, Massachusetts, they did not actually settle until they arrived at a place called Plymouth. It was Captain John Smith who named the place after the English port-city in 1614 and who had been settled there for over five years. Thus, it was here that the Pilgrims finally decided to settle as Plymouth offered an excellent harbor and plenty of resources. An added bonus was that the local Indians were also non-hostile.

However, their happiness was very short-lived because they were ill-equipped to face the winter on this estranged place and were ravaged thoroughly!

As luck would have it they were somehow saved by a group of local native Americans who befriended them and helped them with food. Soon the natives had taught the settlers the technique to enable the cultivation of corn and how to grow and store (for hard days) the native vegetables. By the next winter they had raised enough crops to keep them alive. The winter came and passed by without much harm. The settlers knew they had beaten the odds and it was time to celebrate.

They celebrated it with a grand community feast wherein the friendly native Americans were also invited. It was very similar to the Harvest Feast, the Pilgrims used to have in England. The new recipes entailed “corn” (wheat as the Pilgrims called it), Indian corn, barley, pumpkins and peas, “fowl” …. especially “waterfowl” ….. deer, fish and yes of course, the wild “Turkey”.

However, the third year was real bad when the corn got damaged and Pilgrim Governor William Bradford ordered a day of fasting and prayer and very soon ….. the rains followed! To celebrate, on November 29th of that year, it was proclaimed a day of ‘Thanksgiving’. This date is believed to be the real beginning of the present ‘Thanksgiving Day’.

Today ‘Thanksgiving Day’ is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of every November …… this date was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and approved by Congress in 1941. Earlier it was the last Thursday in November as was designated by the former President Abraham Lincoln. However, sometimes the last Thursday would turn out to be the fifth Thursday of the month and that falls too close to Christmas! That left businesses even less than a month between to cope with these two big festivals and hence the change.

Last week I visited a couple of food stores I’d heard plenty about but hadn’t been along to before. If you’re visiting Orlando on vacation or on business, you may want to check out these places as well because they stock all kinds of food and drink you can’t get in normal supermarkets.

WARNING: You can spend plenty of time and plenty of money if you visit them!

First stop was the International Food Club on L B Mcleod Rd in Orlando. I’d been told that this place had food from all over the world and I wasn’t to be disappointed. They had stuff from Brazil, The Middle East, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, South Africa, Israel, The Caribbean, Canada, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bolivia, Malaysia, Colombia, Argentina and many other countries.

Also at the International Food Club you can enjoy a quick lunch in their cafe and bakery as they feature wraps, salads, gyros, sandwiches and a whole lot more! Their web site can be found at www.InternationalFoodClub.com but I’d really recommend a visit… it’s well worth it.

The next port of call was Whole Foods on Turkey Lake Rd, Orlando 32819. An absolutely fabulous store. The first thing that strikes you is how well it is laid out. It’s very easy to get lost amongst all the wonderful stuff they have here and the meat counters, the cheese areas, the beer displays and the hot and cold food available to purchase is beyond belief.

The web site is at www.WholeFoodsMarket.com and this store is just 20 to 25 minutes from most of our Florida Leisure Vacation Homes, so it’s nice and easy to get to. Great food is essential to a great vacation and a trip here to get all your essentials not to mention your richly deserved treats (shhh…I won’t tell) is pretty much essential. Sure, we have many Publix supermarkets just 3 or 4 minutes from our vacation homes but for variety and excellence in food, this is the place to visit.

Enjoy!

Hot off the press is a new article by Marva Hinton of WDBO Local News in regard to “holiday tourism numbers being very ugly”. Here’s the article and you can click above to get to the original one on WDBO:

One of the area’s top hotel owners calls bookings for the holiday season depressing.

Harris Rosen says a lot of independent owners are struggling just to stay in business. He says he hasn’t seen things this bad in 35 years.

“It used to be that we would by this time be completely sold out for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and if we’re at a 60 percent occupancy for Christmas, we’re very lucky,” said Rosen. “It’s very ugly out there. This is not a recession in the hospitality industry in Florida. It’s a depression.”

Even deep discounts don’t seem to be enough to encourage folks to travel. Rosen attributes this to so many people losing their jobs.

“So all of these properties that cater to leisure travelers are suffering,” said Rosen. “You know Disney’s still offering buy four get three free, and when Disney does something like that you know that something is not right.”

Hotel owners in the area may get a boost depending on which teams are selected for the Capital One and Champs Sports Bowls. Out-of-state teams that travel well could generate big bookings for late December into January.

And Rosen says he believes things will turn around. He’s not sure when but since his properties operate debt free, he’s in a better position than most. Now he says he’s refurbishing a lot of his hotels and renovating rooms, so he’ll be ready when the industry rebounds.

Interesting isn’t it? But I still don’t get it.

Sure, visitor numbers are lower than they have been for some time because people are feeling the economic pinch but the fact is people are still going about their daily lives and are still spending money in selected areas. Have you tried to get into a decent restaurant lately? I have, both in Atlanta and in Orlando and I’ve had to wait.

The Malls still seem to be plenty busy and finding a parking space is still difficult. And, according to economic figures, assuming you believe the Government, then the nation is pulling out of recession.  So this appears to be good news…but not, apparently, to Orlando hotel owners.

That leads to one question. Why?

The answer is pretty simple and I alluded to it in my post of 27th October when I talked about the hotel experience. Since I wrote that article, I have been and stayed at the Sheraton Hotel in Atlanta for a convention and frankly, it wasn’t that great an experience.

It started out the wrong way at check in when the pleasant enough girl behind the counter told me that I would be charged $20 a day to park my vehicle. As I coughed and spluttered, she added that the Radisson was one of the cheapest in town for parking and that elsewhere I could pay as high as $28 per day!

She wasn’t wrong…

If we then add in a tip for the valet all of a sudden parking your car is costing you $30 per day or more!

To make matters worse I was then told by colleagues that internet access was $15 a day and I personally witnessed the high food and bar prices the hotel wanted so I made other arrangements to eat and drink outside the hotel where prices were more reasonable.

An example of this was that a decent breakfast in a local diner was around $8 as opposed to the hotel wanting $15 to $20.

And then we come to the room rate. Fortunately the people who put the conference on had pre-booked a number of rooms at a more favorable rate of $159.00 than the web site price of $189.00 per night so I managed to save some money there.

However, when we total all this up and add in the local and state taxes, my bill for four nights excluding food and drink was around $900.00 or put another way $ 225.00 per night. And what exactly did I get for my money? A 300 to 400 sq ft room with a bathroom that was so small that I could literally stand in the middle and touch every wall without moving. Is this an “experience”? Of sorts, I suppose it is.

So, no, I won’t be returning to it… even though there is another convention being held at the same venue at the start of December that I’d like to attend.

I’ve no doubt Mr. Rosen is a very successful businessman and it’s interesting to note that at what should be a busy time of year for his business he is choosing to remodel his hotels. I’ve no wish to tell him how to run his business but instead of dealing with the fluff wouldn’t he be rather better advised to talk to his customers and find out what they really want?

Nice rooms would be a big improvement for most hotels (see Friend’s Don’t Let Friends …Stay in Hotels.com) but the bottom line is that today’s guest wants a great deal more from their stay than what is currently being delivered. Of course, price is important but there are many other considerations and frankly, guests are absolutely fed up not to mention utterly pissed off at being nickled and dimed by extortionate car parking, beverage and internet fees. Quite rightly they are looking at their options and deciding to stay in places that highly value their business and give them great value for their money. It’s time the hotels woke up and started delivering some of this … otherwise the vacation rental industry will continue to erode away at their market.

Just recently I had a comment on a blog post of mine that demanded I be a little more honest with my readers. Here was the comment :

Hotel Manager
askmeDave@gmail.com

Hello,

What is the current occupancy for vacation homes? The reason occ is up is because the aggregate occ numbers for homes are almost nil to begin with. Be a little more honest with your readers…

Well the only thing I can do to reply to that is quote some facts and figures to back up my case isn’t it?

So the aggregate occupancy numbers for homes is almost nil to begin with is it? That’s obviously a statement from someone who feels threatened by the vacation rental industry in the Orlando area and by someone who clearly doesn’t know the numbers involved.

Studies commissioned by Central Florida Vacation Rental Managers Association, Kissimmee CVB, Polk County CVB show that the economic impact of the vacation rental business in just two counties, Osceola and Polk county show that the combined economic impact is approximately $3.3 BILLION. That would be clue number one that occupancy in vacation rentals is and has never been “nil to begin with”.

If we then go a stage further and take a look at the actual sales tax collected by Joe Tedder, the Polk County Tax Collector in 2009, then we’ll see a number of 62.6% being collected due to the vacation rental business as opposed to 33.7% by the hotel/motel industry.  That’s clue number two.

Clue number three is to compare those percentages with last years numbers and we’ll actually see that hotels actually increased their number marginally from 33.4% to 33.7% whereas vacation rentals went from 61.4% to 62.6%.

I’d say that my original post from 27th October was pretty much on the money and in no way misled my readers. What do you think?

Space shuttle launches are certainly happening more regularly these days but each and every one is still a very special event. Here’s my video following this afternoon’s Atlantis launch. Why don’t you come and join us for the next one?

Dan Kennedy & Nigel Worrall

Last week I was lucky enough to grab a copy of Dan Kennedy’s new book “No B.S. Sales Success in the New Economy” prior to it’s official launch and having just read it, I think it’s a very important “must read” for all business owners and their employees.

As usual, Dan Kennedy hits the bulls eye with his insight as the book touches on the emerging new economy and how to market and sell to it. Dan covers important topics such as how to stop prospecting once and for all, how to employ takeaway selling, why dumb sales people / business owners work 10 x harder than necessary, six ways that sales people sabotage themselves, how to create trust fast in a trust damaged world and so much more.

Dan Kennedy signs his book for Nigel

I was also delighted to see that Dan featured us in his book on pages 86 and 91 as he relates some of the things we do with our MyDreamsComeTrueClub.com, FriendsDontLetFriendsStayInHotels.com and FloridaLeisure.com to the reader. I’ve no doubt that this book will become another best seller for Dan to add to his list and I’m proud to play a very small part in it. Congratulations Dan. It’s yet another great tool from you for business owners and their staff to use to create great companies and fabulous experiences for their customers.

Oasis of the Seas that is!

The Oasis of the Seas was accompanied by a flotilla of small boats and doused by water cannons as it headed into its new home port of Port Everglades on Friday. Royal Caribbean executives and local leaders waited to greet the $1.4 billion ship, which has taken six years from conception to completion.

This year has been one of the most exciting in the cruise industry as by year end it will have seen the introduction of 9 new cruise ships. The biggest and most discussed new vessel is, of course, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas. Slated for her first voyage in December, this floating city will rank as the largest cruise ship in history. Weighing in at 220,000-tons, the 5,400-passenger ship has created a buzz ever since Royal Caribbean announced the project. The Oasis will feature neighborhoods that replicate land based sites like Central Park and the Boardwalk. Other innovations include an onboard “zip-line”, Aqua Theater and a bar that raises five stories like an elevator. These are in addition to the many distinctive features that are already present on Royal’s Freedom class ships.

While the Oasis may have been making the biggest splash, several other lines are showcasing new ships this year. Carnival are debuting the Carnival Dream. The Dream is the first brand new design for the company’s Fun Ship line since 2002. Some of the new features include the indoor-outdoor Ocean Plaza, with coffee shops, bars and ocean views, Cloud 9 Spa (Carnival’s Largest), two twister waterslides, (the longest at sea), and a two-deck mini-golf course. There will also be a new range of cabin types such as “cove balcony” cabins—closer to the water line than any other ship’s verandah staterooms and family-friendly accommodations with two bathrooms and sleeping arrangements for up to five people.

Many prefer somewhat smaller ships and the different ambiance they provide. Costa has taken a different approach by building a ship that can transit the Panama Canal. (many of the new builds can’t). The Costa Luminosa boasts a 3D cinema and a rollerblading track as well as a more extensive choice of itineraries. In a unique dual naming ceremony, Costa will be introducing Costa Pacifica, a sibling to the Costa Serena style of big-ship design, as well as the Luminosa.

Other new stars on the horizon include the Seabourn Odyssey, Silversea Cruises’ Silver Spirit, and Viking Legend that will all lay claim to new designs and be the largest of all their fleet mates. The Odyssey will feature the largest spa on any luxury vessel. The 11,400-square-foot spa will span two decks and include indoor and outdoor treatment rooms, as well as a Kinesis wall in the fitness center and spa villas available for rent.

Many sister ships make their debuts this year with the introduction of Costa Pacifica, MSC Splendida, Celebrity Equinox, and AIDA Luna. These ladies take their design from their trend-setting older sisters and will share the title of biggest in fleet. The amenities on most of these ships will be fairly similar, with the exception of some changes in specialty restaurants and minor design modifications.

One thing is for certain, no matter your size choice, 2009 has been a great year to take a cruise and our office at CruisePlanners has been very busy as vacationers rush to book their cruises at bargain basement prices. It won’t last long though even with the arrival of all these new ships.