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

Manta is coming

The Summer of 2009 sees the opening of Sea World’s new ride “Manta”. This promises to be something a bit different… a mix of 3,000 animals and a flying coaster! Unique, novel…we’ll see but the early signs are that SeaWorld will hit a home run.

The new attraction will have 10 aquariums holding 184,000 gallons of water in total and over 60+ species will call “Manta” their home. According to Sea World we’ll see 20 sea horses, 23 sea dragons, 304 rays and an incredible 2,500+ fish.

The underwater viewing areas promise floor to ceiling viewing as well as a 220 square foot overhead viewing panel for observing schools of rays circling above. Meanwhile up in the air the flying coaster will see four people sitting face down and horizontal! The coaster reaches 140 feet in height with a maximum drop of 113 feet and a top speed of 56 miles per hour will be attained.

There will be a total of 4 inversions…yes, that’s the posh word for being upside down and the length of the track will be 3,359 feet. In football language…because it’s Superbowl weekend… that’s nearly 10 football fields in length!

The manufacturer of the ride is a Swiss company (go figure!) called Bolliger (no…not the champagne) & Mabillard and it’s reckoned that the ride time will be 2 minutes and 35 seconds. So with 4 people abrest and with 3 trains per track x 32 people on each train, 1,500 people per hour will get to enjoy a coaster and an aquarium delight!

Well, I didn’t receive an Oscar nomination, but my son’s reaction to my cameo in “Beethoven’s Big Break” was just as satisfying.  Here are a few stills from a movie that is a lot of fun if you are looking for something to entertain the kids with.

It was fun shooting at Universal Studios with Eddie Griffin, Stephen Tobolowsky, Rhea Perlman and Johnathan Silverman.

As you know, we closely follow the movie world and this morning the Oscar nominations were announced. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button leads the way with 13 nominations with Slumdog Millionaire right behind on 10.

Dark Knght and Milk have 8 nominations each and the late Heath Ledger has been nominated for “Best Supporting Actor” while Meryl Streep has scored a 15th Oscar nomination for her role in the film Doubt, alongside Kate Winslet for best actress in Stephen Daldry’s The Reader.

Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire join Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon as contenders for the coveted best picture prize.

In contention for ”Best Actress”  are Anne Hathaway, for Rachel Getting Married, Melissa Leo for Frozen River and Angelina Jolie for The Changeling.

“Best Actor sees Jolie’s real-life partner Brad Pitt in contention for his role as Benjamin Button – a man who ages in reverse. Pitt goes head to head with Frank Langella, for his role as disgraced US president Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, Sean Penn, as gay rights activist Harvey Milk in Milk, Richard Jenkins for The Visitor and recent Golden Globe winner Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler.

The full list of nominees is as follows:

Best picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best director
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant – Milk

Best actor
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Best actress
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – The Reader

Best supporting actress
Amy Adams – Doubt
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler

Best supporting actor
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey Jr – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

Best foreign language film
Revanche – Austria
The Class – France
The Baader Meinhof Complex – Germany
Departures – Japan
Waltz With Bashir – Israel

Best animated feature film
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

Best adapted screenplay
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

Best original screenplay
Happy-Go-Lucky
Milk
Wall-E
In Bruges
Frozen River

The winners of the awards will be announced on 22 February at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles and it promises to be quite a night.

The problem with travelling or going on vacation is that very often one or two members of the family can’t come. Yes, I’m talking about pets.

It’s a dilemma that a lot of people face and the fear of guilt and the fear of leaving a beloved member of the family behind often overwhelms people so much that they choose not to go anywhere. It’s a distressing time for everyone. Family members become distressed leaving their pet behind and the pet also becomes distressed when going to unfamiliar territory. And then there’s the cost… it’s not cheap these days to board your cat or dog.

Some owners do solve this by taking their pets to one of the few hotels that allow them in their rooms but even this has disadvantages. Many pets become distressed at all the noises in other hotel rooms and in the corridors that are common in hotels. Most hotels have very limited space to walk a dog and very little space to feed your pets not to mention storing their food. Further, there’s also the chance that the house keeping staff will either let your pet get loose or stress them out with vacuum cleaners and the nasty chemicals they use for cleaning.

Here at Florida Leisure Vacation Homes we are helping to solve this problem and we are pleased to highlight some of the homes we currently have available to pet owners wishing to visit Orlando in 2009. You and your pet can enjoy an entire home with plenty of room to relax in. In a vacation home your pet will not become distressed as there are no other guests other than the people you invite. Your pet also has the luxury of a private back yard to walk and play. All our homes are located in vacation rental communities that have walking areas and little car traffic. This makes it safe for both you and your pet to get some leisurely exercise. The best part is our pet friendly vacation homes all have screened in private swimming pools for the family and pets to enjoy together. Some of our pet friendly vacation homes even have safety fences around the pools to protect kids and pets when they are unsupervised.

If you have a pet and you wish to vacation in Orlando this year, you no longer need to worry about where to house Fido while you are away. Simply bring your pet with you and enjoy your vacation. Please do note that there aren’t many of these types of homes in our inventory so early booking is a must. You can find them here.

PS.

Don’t worry if you don’t have pets…we have plenty of other homes available for you…and we guarantee that no pet has ever set foot inside them!

Some good news at last! Orlando is THE place to visit in 2009. While everyone else in the travel industry is in free fall, Orlando is bucking the trend. The first week of 2009 saw a 14.75% increase in hotel occupancy according to Smith Travel Research and here at Florida Leisure Vacation Homes we were in excess of 20%.

It seems Orlando is THE place to visit and there’s a long list of reasons for that. First we have the world famous theme parks. Walt Disney World with Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, then there’s Sea World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Discovery Cove and hundreds of smaller places to visit to entertain the family.

We then have the beaches…within 90 minutes you can spend a day on the Gulf Coast or the Atlantic Coast. You can visit Kennedy Space Center and watch a shuttle launch or you can simply chill and do nothing.

Rounding it off, we have some world class shopping and a lot of really great dining experiences.

So while the rest of the country sees their numbers dropping, it seems now is the time to take a long weekend break and enjoy the sun and some down time.

We’re almost there… MLB Spring training that is!

At least five teams are hosting their Spring training within a short drive of Orlando this year and the action begins on February 24th and runs through to April 2nd. If you’re a fan of Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies or Washington Nationals you’re going to want to be in Florida before long!

Not only is the weather great at the moment but there’s so much for you to do, see and enjoy. The team schedules are posted and you can see them here. If you’d like to know where is each team is going to be located here’s a full breakdown:

Atlanta Braves – Disney’s Wide World of Sports, Lake Buena Vista

Houston Astros – Osceola County Stadium, Kissimmee

New York Yankees – Steinbrenner Field, Tampa

Detroit Tigers – Joker Marchant Stadium, Lakeland

Philadelphia Phillies – Bright House Networks Field, Clearwater

Washington Nationals – Space Coast Stadium, Viera

Boston Red Sox – City of Palms Park, Fort Myers

New York Mets – Tradition Field, Port St Lucie

St Louis Cardinals – Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter

Toronto Blue Jays – Dunedin Stadium, Dunedin

Baltimore Orioles – Fort Lauderdale Stadium, Ft. Lauderdale

Cincinnati Reds – Ed Smith Stadium, Sarasota

Florida Marlins – Roger Dean Stadium, Jupiter

Minnesota Twins – Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers

Tampa Bay Rays – Charlotte County Sports Park, Port Charlotte

Pittsburgh Pirates – McKechnie Field, Bradenton

Orlando is the perfect place to stay if you fancy taking in a few games and our vacation homes are perfectly located to get you there and back in good time. You can also enjoy the theme parks, the beaches, the shopping, the dining and best of all, your own home away from home. Orlando is the place where everyone is going this year… so don’t miss out!

Over the weekend I finally sat down and watched “The Dark Knight“. Colin (admin) had previously posted on this blog on 18th July (Click here to read)  how great Heath Ledger had been in the role of the Joker and having now watched the movie I can say that he was absolutely spot on! What a performance… and quite by chance, as I hadn’t realised the Golden Globes were on last night until my daughters turned on the TV, I was delighted to see that he posthumously got the recognition he deserved as best supporting actor.

Also amongst the honors were Kate Winslett who won best actress for “Revolutionary Road” and best supporting actress in “The Reader“. Mickey Rourke earned best actor for his role in ”The Wrestler“ while Bruce Springstein won best original song for his track in the same move.  

Most interesting to see was the fact that low budget movies seemed to triumph over their major studio rivals as romance “Slumdog Millionaire” won a leading four honors including “Best Drama”. “Slumdog” is the story of a young Indian man looking for love and money while competing on a television game show and it earned awards for director Danny Boyle, screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and composer A.R. Rahman for best musical score.

Also collecting four honors was “John Adams” which is HBO’s mini series about the second U.S. president and it was also good to see “30 Rock” collecting three honors for the talented Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin as the best TV comedy and best comedy actress and actor.

After last year’s writers strike it was good to see the Golden Globes back and although they are a bit self congratulatory and over the top at times, it’s nice to have a little bit of light relief for an evening. The part I enjoyed most was Steven Spielberg’s speech. I though his comments were very poigniant and his comments about the impluse to make movies for a broader audience during these tough economic times were interesting. He went on to say that “we can’t ever forget that we are also an audience of individuals, and without the kinds of movies nominated tonight, we would be in danger of losing the very thing that none of us can live without.”

That hit a mark for me. For the last decade we at Florida Leisure Vacation Homes have been trying to offer unique vacation experiences to our guests and while the temptation is to follow the crowd, Spielberg reminded us that it’s a dangerous path to chose. I’m glad he said what he said as it reminds us to stay focussed on what we are good at and to deliver special vacations for those staying in our vacation homes. 

The whole night also reminded me how great the movie business really is and that I really should spend more time watching some of the great entertainment they provide. And…maybe you should do that as well particularly next time you’re staying in one of our vacation homes as most of them are now equipped with big screen TV’s to give you the movie experience!

In 2009, the road to NFL greatness leads to beautiful Tampa Bay and Super Bowl XLIII. Tampa Bay is an  exciting place with year-round sunshine, white, sandy beaches and thrilling attractions. Best of all, it’s just about an hour’s drive from Orlando and Central Florida and that makes it a great day out if you fancy a day at the beach rather than at the theme parks or lounging by the pool at your vacation home.

This years Superbowl is on 1st February and kick off is at approximately 6.30pm at the Raymond James Stadium, Tampa.

One of the things we enjoy most about the Superbowl is the advertising and this year it promises to be different. It seems that Dreamworks Animation and Pepsi’s SoBe beverages are teaming up with NBC and Intel Corp. to create a 3-D ad break set which will appear at the end of the second quarter.

Apparently the commerical will include a 60 second advert for SoBe Life Water that features the popular SoBe lizards, who appeared in 2008 game, and also a trailer for the upcoming Dreamworks movie “Monsters v Aliens’.  The ad will include a modern interpretation of Swan Lake, the famed ballet but will also feature the players and creatures in a rhytmic effect as they are infused by the refreshing SoBe Life water.

So this year will be different as previously advertisers have generally focussed on themselves and their product. This time round it looks like they are deciding to try to work together. Now there’s a novel idea!

Whether you’re a Giants, Bears, Patriots, Cowboys or another team’s fan, February 1st will be an exciting day. If you can make it to Florida we’d love to welcome you to one of our fabulous vacation homes  but if not, enjoy the game and the entertainment provided.

All good things must come to an end so the old saying goes and one of these will shortly be the last pouring of the complimentary beer tastings at Anheuser Busch-InBev two theme parks Sea World and Busch Gardens.

Personally I think this is a mistake and it’s not going to help the company in keeping its customers loyal. I know big business has to look at the bottom line but the bottom line is made up by customers who pay admission fees to enter the park and this was one of the nice little extra’s that adults enjoyed during a hot day at the theme park.

The decision has been reached by Belgian based InBev who are the new owners of Anheuser Busch as they look to sell off the entertainment division to help pay the $52 billion acquisition they finalized last year. So from 1st February 2009 the complimentary beer tasting will stop and all we can hope for is that the entertainment division is sold off quickly and that the new owners come to realise how important this seemingly trivial part of a day out at Sea World / Busch Gardens really is.