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

Orlando Wesh 2 news did a follow up piece to the vacation home scam that we helped out on earlier in the week. Here’s the video:

A farmer named Bill was overseeing his herd in a remote pasture in Norfolk  when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Armani suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the farmer, “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?”

Bill looked at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looked at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answered, “Why not?”

The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his Dell notebook computer, connected it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfed to a NASApage on the Internet, where he called up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then fed to another NASA satellite that scanned the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opened the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exported it to an image processing facility in Hamburg.

Within seconds, he received an email on his Palm Pilot that the image had been processed and the data stored. He then accessed an MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response.

Finally, he printed out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer, turned to the farmer and said, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”

“I guess you can take one of my calves,” said Bill.

He watched the young man select one of the animals and looked on with amusement as the young man stuffed it into the boot of his car.

Then Bill said to the young man, “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?”

The young man thought about it for a second and then said, “Okay, why not?”

“You’re a political adviser to the Obama Government”, said Bill.

“Wow! That’s correct,” said the yuppie, “but how on earth did you guess that?”

“No guessing required.” answered the farmer. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don’t know a thing about how working people make a living – or about cows, for that matter.  This is a herd of sheep. ….

.

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Now give me back my dog!!

Star Wars Celebration V is underway at the Orange County Convention Center. It started yesterday and as expected, the lines were long before the doors first opened. Long lines then continued inside at many of the booths offering exclusive and free merchandise such as Lego, Hasbro and Disney. Don’t worry if you’re still planning on attending, most booths are only offering a limited amount each day so that they don’t run out too fast.

Also, there are many photo opportunities that are free, some cool free giveaways and lots of neat things to see. Besides the show floor, there are panel discussions going on all day as well as movies, games and costumes to check out.

The Star Wars convention runs through Sunday so if you’re a fan, hurry there….we don’t know if the event will ever come back to Orlando.

Yesterday Walt Disney World announced that they saw slight declines in park attendance over the past few months. Theme park attendance at the company’s domestic parks fell 3 percent overall in the three months ending on July 3, the Walt Disney Company said as it announced third quarter financial results. Walt Disney World attendance dropped 2 percent while Disneyland saw a 4 percent decrease in visitors.

Disney said the fall in park attendance was in part due to a shift in timing of the Easter holiday in relation to the company’s financial reporting periods. Disney estimated that park attendance only fell one percent from year-to-year after the holiday period is taken into account.Park guests did spend 5 percent more in Q3, which the company attributed to higher average ticket prices.Revenue from Disney’s parks and resorts increased 3 percent to $2.8 billion in the quarter, while operating income decreased 8 percent to $477 million.

Over the past few months, Disney has attempted to scale back promotional offers for theme park visitors, a strategy the company reiterated during Tuesday’s earnings conference call. Jay Rasulo, Disney’s chief financial officer, said the company expected to see fewer visitors as discounts were scaled back.In May, Rasulo pointed to more guest spending in exchange for lower attendance.

In the second quarter, Disney said occupancy rates at the company’s hotels fell 8 percent, but both guest and room spending increased by the same amount. Rasulo said the company expected to be back at “normalized” pricing by 2011.One year ago, Disney reported that occupancy at its Orlando hotels was 91 percent, which it attributed in part to promotional discounts. In the past two quarters, occupancy has been 81 percent.Walt Disney World saw a slight increase in hotel occupancy in the most recent three months, to 83 percent.

Overall, Disney’s revenue grew 16 percent from last year to $10 billion.Disney credited its success in large part to the success of film releases “Toy Story 3”, “Iron Man 2” and “Alice in Wonderland”. Studio entertainment revenue grew 30 percent from year-to-year in the third quarter.Disney’s largest segment of growth was interactive media, which grew 74 percent from a year ago.

So, now would appear to be the right time to make a trip to Orlando and Disney World. The parks will be more enjoyable as lines are less and Disney are still offering some promotional offers. There hotel figures are interesting and maybe it’s a sign that people don’t want to stay at overpriced hotels, no matter how convenient, when there’s a better option just 5 to 10 minutes from the parks in the form of a vacation home?

It seems that vacation home rental scams just won’t go away. Last month I had to help a party of 150 people out when the homes they had booked through a vacation rental agency failed to materialize and today I have found myself in a similar position. On local WESH 2 news last night a family told the story of their planned vacation and of how, after just arriving in Orlando, the vacation home they had rented failed to exist.

After hearing the story, I was more than pleased to be able to offer a helping hand and we managed to find them one of our Florida Leisure vacation homes to stay in for the next few days. In this case, three of the family had traveled ahead to prepare for the arrival of other family members so the others were forewarned there was a problem. Happily all of them will be getting together this afternoon after traveling to Orlando from New York and Miami today. It all ends well and you can see more on the story on Wesh 2 Orlando at 5pm tonight.

Here’s the link to the news story last night :

http://www.wesh.com/video/24587981/detail.html

I also gave Hilda and her family a copy of my book “What You Need To Know About Renting A Florida Vacation Home” so this never happens to them again!

Update: Other members of the family have arrived

The 5th Star Wars Celebration starts tomorrow at  the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL and is the official Lucasfilm event celebrating all things Star Wars, produced by fans for fans. This is where you will find the largest Star Wars parties, featuring cast and crew celebrities, fans, costumes, music, live entertainment, autographs, collectibles, and panels — but mainly friends who gather to have fun and celebrate their love for the saga.

From fans who first experienced A New Hope in theaters to kids just discovering Star Wars through Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Celebration touches on anything and everything connected with that galaxy far, far away.

The first event took place back in 1999 and it doesn’t have a permanent home. Instead, it travels around the world to avoid Imperial detection — and to bring Star Wars to as many fans as possible. The event runs from August 12 – 15, 2010, and commemorates the 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, celebrates the continuing televised adventures of the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and looks forward to exciting new Star Wars projects to come.

Opening times are:

Some of the stars who will appear are Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill while George Lucas will be interviewed by Jon Stewart onstage Saturday morning. The field of folks signing autographs includes Anthony Daniels, Ray Park, Warwick Davis, Peter Mayhew, Daniel Logan,  Julian Glover and Temuera Morrison.

Single-day admission is $48 for adults, $27 for children; four-day passes are $128 adults, $54 for children.

One of the best ways to cool off this Summer is to visit a water park. Here in Orlando we are a little spoilt for choice.  There’s Wet ‘n’ Wild on International Drive, Sea World’s Aquatica and then the two Disney water parks of Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon.

Today we’ll explore the very popular 56 acre Typhoon Lagoon with its twisting tides, roaring rapids, wonderful waterways and relaxing rivers. As you enter Typhoon Lagoon you walk up a short hilly path past an old beach patrol ‘woody’ station wagon and some live macaws. As you reach the top you’ll see Placid Palms Resort with its storm damaged thatched roof buildings. Leading from here are palm lined pathways that meander off to the left and the right.

It’s now your choice as if you take the path to the right you’ll pass Singapore Sal’s Beachwear Gifts and Sundries where the whole front wall appears to have blown away. Near here is the High ‘N Dry Towel and Locker hut and a small wooden footbridge that leads to Castaway Creek.

The water all over the park is heated to 75 to 80 degrees and on hot days it feels fabulous…but be warned, on cooler days, it can feel a little chilly!

The centerpiece of Typhoon Lagoon is the Surf Pool and it’s here you can have a lot of fun just bobbing up and down as the waves crash into you. Be warned, some of the waves can reach 6 feet tall and can be powerful! As you look up you’ll see Mt. Mayday and stranded on the mountain’s summit is Miss Tilly, one of the shrimp boats that was caught in a storm out of Safen Sound, FL. Streams flow down the mountain and from time to time a 50 foot geyser of water erupts from Miss Tilly’s smokestack as the foghorn from the boat sounds at the same time.

The beach at Typhoon Lagoon literally surrounds the lagoon on three sides and it’s a wonderful area to grab a chair and relax for a while before running off to the next thing to do. On the left side of Mt. Mayday you will find three raft rides, Keelhaul Falls ( tube ride), Gang Plank Falls (family raft ride) and Mayday Falls (the wildest tube ride!)

On the right side of Mt. Mayday you’ll find the body slides. Humunga-Kowabunga is the first and it has three triple slides that drop you 50 feet at roughly 30 mph! Next up are the three Storm slides which wind their way back down the mountain.

Crush ‘N’ Gusher is a white knuckle roller coaster type of tube ride and it has a choice of three different routes… Banana Blaster, Coconut Crusher and Pineapple Plunger and you twist and turn through tunnels and spillways before plunging into Hideaway Bay.

On the more gentle side is Shark Reef…seriously, here’s where you get to swim with real sharks! You probably won’t be allowed too much time in the water in this area but don’t worry too much as the sharks are small and usually harmless.

I jest.  I am told the sharks really are harmless and the real reason you won’t be allowed much time in the water is not because they’ll bite you, it’s just the fact the snorkeling experience is usually very popular! It can also be pretty chilly as well  because as you enter the water you’ll notice that it’s actually much cooler salt water that you’re entering rather than the warmer water located elsewhere around the park.

Finally, there’s a really cool kids area called Ketchakiddee Creek. It’s located on the far left side of the park and provides wading pools, bubbling fountains, mini slides and raft rides for the little ones. Remember that children under 10 should be accompanied at all times by an adult and if you have kids of diaper age, they are required to wear snug-fitting rubber pants over their diapers or special swimming diapers.

Excited? Want to go? Watch this short video as Rebecca, the Florida Leisure concierge, takes you on a trip to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon…

July was one of the warmest months on record in the Central Florida area but it seems the weather has now done a complete turn around. Cooler temperatures and overcast days seem to be in our upcoming forecast this week and it seems we are going to get a lot of rain in the next few days. With that in mind, I thought I’d put together a list of some of the things you can do during the wet weather.

1. Visit A Museum

Museums are educational as well as fun! The Orlando Science Center and the Orange County History Center have lots of activities to occupy all the family for the day. On the cultural side you can visit the Orlando Museum of Art which has a nice selection of American Portraits and Landscapes.

2. Go to the Movies!

Your vacation home is a great place to while away the rainy hours with it’s games room, large screen TV, internet access and other fantastic amenities but sometimes you just want to get out and about. A visit to a local movie theater to catch the latest flick is a great way to spend some time. Downtown Disney, The Loop and the I-Max theater at Point Orlando are all great places to enjoy a movie and have some fun.

3. Wander the Malls.

When its raining is a great time to visit the Malls. Mall of Millennia, Florida Mall, Orlando Premium Outlets and many of the other malls are always an enjoyable place to visit and get that shopping bug out of the system. Orlando has some great shopping and dining places..go out and explore them!

4. Visit the ‘Distraction Attractions’

Sounds odd but the ‘distraction attractions’ are a great place to visit when the bad weather arrives and when wandering the main parks is no longer any fun. Places like the Titanic Exhibition, Orlando Science Museum and Wonder Works all have interactive exhibits that will amuse you for hours.

5. Visit the Library

The Hart Memorial Library at 211 Dakin Avenue, Kissimmee or the West Osceola Library at 6070 W Irlo Bronson Highway, Kissimmee are two great places to visit to find some great reading material. You can surf the web, browse through magazines and newspapers or  simply hang around and enjoy a great book.

6. Disney Quest

DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive theme park is a one-of-a-kind gaming experience in the Downtown Disney area. Discover 5 floors of cutting-edge technology, virtual reality and 3D encounters fueled by Disney innovation and imagination.

Don’t miss Pirates of the Caribbean, Virtual Jungle Cruise, CyberSpace Mountain, Buzz Lightyear’s Astroblasters, Animation Academy and much more!

7. Visit the Theme Parks

Lots of folks take a look at the weather and decide to visit the theme parks on another day. However, visiting the theme parks when it’s raining can be fun and it almost always means the lines will be shorter. Remember, most attractions and shows are indoors or in covered pavilions…it’s only getting to them that may cause you to get a little wet. So break out the poncho or the umbrella and go for it!

Disney & Universal Orlando have both announced their theme park ticket prices are rising a few dollars. Disney announced their price increase first and two days later Universal followed suit. A one day, one park ticket has now gone from $79 to $82, a 3.8 percent raise.

Annual ticket price increases have been a normal occurrence for all the theme parks in Central Florida during the last several years. Traditionally Disney is usually the first to announce increases and they are then followed by Universal and SeaWorld, although both claim their ticket increases aren’t tied to what Disney does. Yeah right!

When asked the reason for increased gate prices, Disney gives the same answer each time, “We continuously monitor the marketplace to ensure pricing that reflects a strong entertainment value.” They also say that nearly 9 out of 10 guests rate the value of the Disney parks as good, very good, or excellent.

Theme parks generally also raise their rates this time of year to ensure next year’s guidebooks and travel companies have the correct information.

Here’s a breakdown of the Disney price increases:
One day: $79 to $82
Two day: $156 to $162
Three day: $219 to $224
Four day: $225 to $232
Five day: $228 to $237
Six day: $231 to $242
Seven day: $234 to $247
Park hopper option: $52 to $54
Premium Annual Pass: $619 to $629
Regular Annual Pass: $489 to $499
Premium Annual Pass, Florida resident: $489 to $499
Regular Annual Pass, Florida resident: $369 to $379
Seasonal Annual Pass, Florida resident: $249 to $259

Universal Orlando announced most of their ticket prices are also going up today, Aug. 7, 2010. A one day, one park ticket is going from $79 to $82, the same as at Disney.

Similar to what a Disney spokesperson said, Universal spokesman Tom Schroder was quoted in the Orlando Sentinel saying 94 percent of their guests tell them they deliver good to excellent value for their dollar.

Here’s a breakdown of Universal’s price increases:
One Park Tickets
One day: $79 to $82
Two day: $119.99 to $124.99
Three day: $134.99 to $139.99
Four day: $144.99 to $149.99

Park to Park Tickets
1-day: $109 to $112
2-day: $149.99 (unchanged)
3-day: $149.99 to $154.99
4-day: $154.99 to $159.99

Annual Pass ticket prices stayed the same. These are at the gate ticket prices. Universal offers special deals for most tickets if you order online. All of the major theme parks in Central Florida also offer special deals to Florida residents.

The question is, how long can the annual increases continue before attendance significantly drops? At this rate it won’t be too much longer before guests are asked to pay more than $100 per day for a day of fun.

Want something to do during an Orlando afternoon storm? Then go ten pin bowling!

I’ve always had something of a love / hate relationship with this game. For a start it was one of the first dates my wife and I went on and for me, there’s always been something not quite right about a game that amuses so many by hurling a ball down an ally to knock ten pins down. I can’t get my head around what it is but I suppose others don’t understand golf either.

As a family we hadn’t been bowling for some time but my daughter requested it as a birthday treat so it was off to Kissimmee Lanes at 4140 W Vine Street to have some fun. The afternoon didn’t start out so well as when we got there they had no record of our reservation for a lane but all was sorted out smoothly after a short time. Tip: If you call ahead to make a reservation …ask for the person’s name at the other end!

Our game only lasted an hour…that’s about as much frustration that I can take, and was punctured with pins actually being hit…occasionally. I’ve attached a short video of the venue…and of my youngest’s bowling style! At least she had fun