More for Your Money: What's at stake in fight between American Airlines and online travel agencies

The airline is maneuvering for control over how its fares and services are presented to customers. Critics say its actions and AA Direct Connect may make it harder to find a good deal.Call it "The Case of the Disappearing Flights."

Recent visitors to two big websites that help travelers shop for airline tickets may have noticed a missing player: American Airlines. In a dispute over how American's flights are displayed and at what cost, the third-largest U.S. carrier in December pulled its fares from Orbitz, one of the top five online travel agencies.

Expedia, the biggest such agency, soon stopped listing American too.

Then Texas-based Sabre Holdings Corp., the largest provider of airfares to online travel agencies (including Expedia) and other travel marketers, weighed in. Accusing American of withholding some fares, Sabre pushed the airline's flights down the list on its displays and increased service fees to American, which last week responded by suing Sabre.

The fast-moving showdown, which was still unfolding last week, has frustrated consumers by making it harder to comparison shop for the best fares. In the short run, it's a squabble over booking fees that American pays to travel sellers such as Orbitz and also to Sabre and other so-called global distribution systems.

But that's not all that's at stake. American's bold moves may be the first shot in a war that could change how travelers buy air tickets and also, critics say, make it harder to find a good deal.

"It's 100% about control," American spokesman Ryan Mikolasik said of his airline's scuffle with Sabre and the global distribution systems industry. "They're fighting for control over the airline's products and services and how they're presented to the customer. We're fighting for control."

American wants to sell tickets through its own electronic pipeline, called AA Direct Connect, mostly bypassing global distribution systems such as Sabre, unless, it says, the systems adapt to its demands, which include displaying its lucrative fee services, such as checked baggage and priority boarding, and its many fares that bundle these services.

That move could change how travel sellers such as Orbitz and Expedia display fares, now typically by schedule and price, which makes it easy for travelers to compare airlines' offerings. American wants more choices in fees, fares and services to pop up.

"These changes will ultimately benefit the consumer," Mikolasik said, by tailoring the fare to the traveler.

Sabre and some consumer activists disagree.

"We see American's actions as making it harder to comparison shop, adding costs and disrupting the process," said Chris Kroeger, senior vice president for Sabre Travel Network, the division of Sabre Holdings that runs its global distribution systems.

Without such systems, travel sellers would have to retool to integrate AA Direct Connect into their reservation systems, and "that cost will be passed onto consumers," he said.

Charlie Leocha, director of the nonprofit Consumer Travel Alliance, said AA Direct Connect is "simply a heavy-handed attempt by American Airlines to prevent consumers from easily searching and comparing its fares against those of other airlines."

For a peek into your flight-buying future, as envisioned by American, try booking a round trip, as I recently did, between Los Angeles ( LAX) and New York (JFK) on its website, http://www.aa.com.

My search called up fares from $311 to $2,779 in six categories such as "Instant Upgrade" and "First Flexible." Clicking on a category produced a pop-up chart that paired the six categories across the top with 12 types of services (such as "Same-day Standby" and "PriorityAAccess" and "Checked Bag Charge") that each type of fare might or might not include. Total cells in the chart: 72.

At the top of the chart, a drop-down menu sorted the results by four levels of membership in the airline's frequent-flier program, plus the option "Non-Member." By my count, that made for 360 possible cells in the chart.

Is this any way to buy an air ticket?

Yes, it is, said American's Mikolasik. And 360 cells is just the start.

"We anticipate there could be tens of thousands of different combinations," Mikolasik said.

He said he didn't find the grid confusing.

"Most people are going to look at price first," he said. "They're going to hit the 'Economy Super Saver,' especially if they travel once a year and want a low fare. But if you want more, the grid gives you choices. It gives you so much more flexibility. Instead of hunting for this information, you can proactively ask for it."

For now, he said, AA Direct Connect displays the same basic price and schedule information as a global distribution system. But in the future, it will look more like American's website, with many options.

"Our website is pointing toward the future," he said.

One day, he said, you may start your online airfare search at sites such as Orbitz by entering not only your destinations and dates, but also options such as checking bags and getting in-flight Internet and priority boarding. Your search might call up, for instance, $215 for an American fare that included all these options and $219 for a United Airlines fare that did the same.

American is not the only airline with multiple fare categories tied to services. Southwest Airlines, which has long withheld its fares from online travel agencies, offers three on its website: "Business Select," "Anytime" and "Wanna Getaway." Australia's Qantas offers up to 12 fare categories covering five types of services.

But American, which has several global distribution systems contracts coming up for negotiation this year, has been the most vocal airline in challenging the traditional ways of doing business, and it sees itself as leader.

"We expect competitors and other folks, as their contracts expire, to probably go through a similar thing," Mikolasik said. "We expect them for now to sit back and say: 'Thanks, American, for plowing the road.'"

At the end of that road lie many unanswered questions, said Douglas Quinby, senior director of research for PhoCusWright Inc., a company based in Sherman, Conn., that studies the travel industry.

"As more airlines unbundle, rebundle and merchandise, how will agents and consumers be able to compare offers, when apples to apples become peanuts to pineapples?" he asked. "Agencies and consumers have good reason to be concerned."

Source:http://www.latimes.com/

Malaysian Tioman Island shirks most development, thrives on natural beauty

The largely undeveloped Malaysian Tioman Island has vivid coral reefs, great backpacking areas and a few resorts. A perfect spot for the budget-conscious beach lover.Reporting from Tioman Island, Malaysia — Even when you tell people where Tioman Island is — that it's a patch of jungle off the east coast of peninsular Malaysia — you'll still get no glimmer of comprehension. Fine with me, because that makes Tioman everything I want in a castaway island, especially when seen from the perspective of a chilly Southern California winter's day.


I came here while traveling around Southeast Asia in October because I wanted to crash on a beach for a few days without spending a fortune. I'd read that Tioman is a regular Bali Hai, rimmed by beaches and a handful of villages — or kampungs— whose budget digs are colonized by divers and backpackers.

It has a single police station, airport and ATM, about a mile of paved road and just one large, self-contained resort that caters chiefly to package vacationers from Singapore and Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.
The otherwise undeveloped island is a Malaysian national park. Think thriving coral reefs, strangler plants, giant palms, flying squirrels, monitor lizards; don't think king cobras and reticulated pythons, but know they are here.

October seemed the right time for Tioman, just before the monsoon season essentially closes the island to visitors from November to March. So I booked a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tioman for $70 round trip and reserved a beachfront chalet with air conditioning for $100 a night at an isolated eco-resort known for its natural setting and sea turtle breeding program, then took it from there.

Sometimes I like to travel without a lot of information. You can go wrong, for sure. Or you can have an adventure.

The little airport on Tioman sits beneath long-extinct volcanic peaks in the main village of Tekek, an agglomeration of mom-and-pop resorts — to use the term loosely — cafes and dive shops splayed along the waterfront. The Malaysian government recently completed an oversized marina in Tekek, vacant when I was here, and made the island a duty-free port, meaning cheap cigarettes and beer.

After landing, a couple of kids headed north on foot toward the backpacker hamlet of Air Batang and a bus from the big Berjaya Resort (a favorite, it appeared, of honeymoon couples) picked up everybody else.

I waited at the dock for my transfer to the Melina Beach Resort, which eventually arrived in the form of a small, sea-worn vessel with an outboard motor known as a bumboat. It took me south from Tekek, past villages with traditional Malaysian houses on stilts and government piers built hundreds of feet into the surf to ensure access during low tides. The scenery got wilder as we rounded the coast, a scalloped pie crust of sandy coves bounded on both sides by apparently impassable headlands.

Melina Beach, which gets a star in the Lonely Planet guide to Malaysia, is marked by a burgeoning beach almond tree and mounds of huge, surf-modeled boulders. The resort, whimsically designed and built by hand to avoid disturbing the natural environment, has no dock. I got my skirt wet walking about 50 feet from the boat to the beach, a carpet of coral shards, some shells and the occasional plastic bottle, washed ashore, perhaps, from the Texas-sized "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

Also posted are hand-lettered signs that say "Falling coconuts." Although most of the signs had fallen down, even upright they seemed superfluous. Who in the world would be unlucky enough to get beaned by a coconut?

The maitre d' — again using the term loosely — an ageless Malaysian named Cheng Siong Suan, interrupted his sandbagging of some surf-eroded steps to give me a glass of frothy, freshly squeezed pineapple juice. He introduced me to the house cat, the hugely pregnant Marco Polo, pointed out treetops where macaques hung out and showed me the pen where endangered baby sea turtles, bred from locally purchased eggs, were kept before their launch into the ocean.

The resort's previous owner, a German named Peter, had started the hatchery, Cheng told me pointedly. The Irishman named Patrick Hedderman who had taken over a year ago would be there shortly, he added with a dour expression.

Remote little inns like Melina Beach often have their own stories. This one was "The Tempest," with Hedderman as the lonely wizard Prospero and Cheng as the doleful slave Caliban. They played an engaging tug-of-war.

Hedderman, who came to the resort as a guest for more than a decade before taking over, later explained that he bought it with his sister who runs a Singapore-based ecology field trip company for private school children. Even more than eco-tourism, exposing kids to nature is the Melina Beach mission. Part of the open-air dining pavilion is given over to a classroom with tropical fish charts and specimen jars, and bungalows in a tight semicircle at the rear of the camp-like compound serve as student quarters.

My room was in a dark and creaky cabin on the beach, so drably decorated that I kept wanting to hang new curtains. It had a feeling of tropical desuetude along with a porch, a net-swathed double bed and a private bath. The wall-less shower got everything wet when in operation and was irresistible to mosquitoes. I tried to kill as many of them as I could every time I went in; it was swat or be eaten.

I'd been hoping for a Malaysian Post Ranch Inn, so I was mildly disappointed. But I loved sleeping under mosquito netting and the AC proved effective. Besides, the resort's raison d'etre is the natural environment — mosquitoes included, I guess.

And what an environment it is.

I immediately pulled on my bathing suit and waded into the surf, snorkel mask at hand. As the shallows deepened, I swam, eventually finding the reef, a garden of staghorn, brain, table and tunicate corals so brightly colored you'd swear they were fake. It was like the backdrop for an underwateropéra bouffe made of mauve, chartreuse, cherry and sulfur yellow coral mountains with a cast costumed as tropical fish. Later I used the resort's natural history booklet to identify some of the varieties: golden damsel, banded butterfly fish and red-breasted wrasse.I'd never seen such a flourishing reef. Two hours flew by while I snorkeled, plunging deep to inspect groves of long-spined, silver sea urchins; huge, phallic sea cucumbers; and orange clownfish foraging in pink-tasseled sea anemones, their symbiotic partners. Sometimes I felt a nibble at my feet and jackknifed to catch sight of a snapper in speedy retreat.

After that there was no flashy tropical sunset. The pale pink and blue of the sky just got softer and softer until it was night and the lights in the dining hall came on. Over barbecued tiger prawns and vegetable stir-fry, accompanied by a glass of Australian Sauvignon Blanc, Hedderman described the reef's vulnerability to great and small dangers, including bumboat anchors and a new international airport planned on reclaimed coast in front of the resort but postponed when conservationists protested.

Given the construction that has turned much of mainland Malaysia into South Florida, Tioman's relatively pristine state seems miraculous. It has escaped intensive development, Hedderman said, not so much because of environmental concerns but because of the country's bumiputera laws, aimed at keeping land in the hands of ethnic Malaysians. On Tioman they live in ramshackle houses with jerry-built utilities. There's little incentive to change. Even for stray cats, living is easy and lush.
I wanted to explore the nearby villages of Genting and Paya, connected to the resort by an overgrown path through the jungle, presumably creeping with giant millipedes, lizards and snakes. After inspecting the trail head at the back of the resort, I decided to stay put until I started talking with one of the eco-field trip teachers from Singapore. Her students were so pampered and citified that some of them didn't know how to make their own sandwiches when they got there. But after a week at the resort, they were identifying briny sea creatures and thrashing, dauntlessly, through the rainforest.

So I tagged along with them the next morning on a walk to Genting, about half a mile south of Melina Beach. The rocky path was steep but well-worn, with dilapidated bridges over ravines. The group stopped to observe a long-tailed macaque in a jackfruit tree and listen to the call of a tailor bird.

When we arrived at the village, the kids took out their cellphones to call home and bought postcards in little variety stores. But I went on, passing the waterfront volleyball court and mosque, a monitor lizard on a tree in someone's backyard, a group of village men playing poker.

At the last resort before the path petered out, I met a Malaysian couple breakfasting on fried fish they caught that morning, sat down with them for a taste and talked about their recent trip across Asia on the Silk Road.

Every morning after that I found resort guests to join me on field trips — a bumboat cruise to Asah waterfall south of Melina Beach and a hike across the island to the village of Juara, just as dilapidated as Genting but smaller. Cheng lightened up marginally. When I told him I was scared of snakes he caught a baby python and displayed it at breakfast.

Hedderman told me about his plans to build new bungalows, grow herbs and hire a biologist to take guests on nature walks and snorkeling expeditions.

Every afternoon I went back into the fish bowl for another episode in the continuing saga of "As the Reef Turns."

On my last morning I was lying on a wooden chaise waiting for my bumboat transfer back to the airport when I heard a thud and realized a coconut had dropped about 2 inches from my shoulder.

I was shocked at first, but then I laughed.

Truly, it's as Caliban says in "The Tempest":

The isle is full of noises,

Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

travel@latimes.com
Source:http://www.latimes.com/

Fort Mose: In St. Augustine, Fla., a celebration of black history

A state park on Florida's Atlantic Coast was once the site of a fort where escaped slaves could live free.

Reporting from St. Augustine, Fla —

"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to

obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility

to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that'an unjust law is no law at all.'"

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Letter From a Birmingham Jail"

April 16, 1963

St. Augustine is not only the patron saint of theologians such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., but also the namesake of the oldest city in the U.S. And in 1964, as St. Augustine prepared to celebrate its 400th anniversary, the famed civil rights leader came here to denounce racial segregation.

"We're preparing for a long, hot summer [across the country], and we see our push here in St. Augustine as a purifying prelude," King told supporters that June.

Racial tension was near the boiling point that summer in this charming community on the Atlantic. Black marchers carrying placards saying, "Let us all see eye to eye" and "I'm an American, also" were greeted by white crowds who hurled jeers and bottles at the protestors and waved signs saying, "Don't jive with my freedom" and "Kill [the] Civil Rights Bill."

Ironically, blacks seeking civil rights had found those rights here more than 200 years earlier. As visitors discover, the roots of equality were planted in St. Augustine in 1738.

In the 18th century, the nation's first underground railroad didn't move escaped slaves north. Instead, they traveled south from plantations in the Carolinas to St. Augustine, where Spanish settlers at Ft. Mose granted liberty to the 100 or so who survived the arduous journey.

"There was no I-95 or U.S. 1," says Thomas Jackson, a leader of the Fort Mose Historical Society. "You had palmetto bushes, bobcats, alligators — all of that along the way."

Each February (Feb. 12 this year), Jackson dons a white, ruffled shirt, scarlet leggings and a royal blue tunic to portray a captain in the Mose Militia, an all-black unit created to protect the Spanish stronghold. The reenactment of the so-called Flight to Freedom takes place at the state historic park where the fort once stood.

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PLANNING YOUR TRIP

THE BEST WAY TO ST. AUGUSTINE, FLA.

From LAX, Southwest offers direct service (stop, no change of plane) to Jacksonville, Fla., about 47 miles from St. Augustine. Delta, Continental, American, US Airways, AirTran, Southwest and Jet Blue offers connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $248.

WHAT TO DO

This year's "Flight to Freedom" living history event takes place Feb. 12 at Ft. Mose Historic State Park, (904) 823-2232, http://www.floridastateparks.org/fortmose. Admission is $4 a car.

TO LEARN MORE

St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra and the Beaches Visitors & Convention Bureau, (800) 653-2489,http://www.floridashistoriccoast.com, has brochures about the city's historic sites, including the Freedom Trail, Fort Mose and Castillo de San Marcos.

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"It's a first-person interpretation of the slaves' trek down from the Carolinas," Jackson said. "When the visitors come to the site, they're told that they'll be meeting characters along a wooded trail."

The first interpreter is "Rebecca," a young woman who told of the dangers runaway slaves encountered. Probably more feared than any wild beast were the slave hunters, one of whom greets visitors farther down the trail.

"He's searching for Rebecca," Jackson said. "It's just a job to him, to support his family [and] to return property to its rightful owner. He's not a real popular character [along the walk], but history is what it is."

Eventually, the visitors meet Jackson, dressed smartly in his officer's uniform. A handful of men then demonstrate their skills with rudimentary muskets.

During the civil rights movement more than two centuries later, other blacks would seek sanctuary inside St. Augustine's oldest African American church — Trinity United Methodist — as they retreated from angry white mobs. The church is now a stop along the city's Freedom Trail.

A marker on the front lawn describes the church as a place where leaders met to plan their peaceful protests.

"Their courage and determination impressed the world and led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964," the plaque says. Just across Bridge Street, outside No. 83, another marker begins with the words "Martin Luther King Slept Here." This house, like the one next door, is one of several in which King stayed.

"Because of tension, violence and fear of attack, it was unsafe for Dr. King to spend more than one night at a single location. Consequently, he was moved about regularly," the marker says.

When Jackson was a teenager, he served as a "runner," shadowing other blacks at demonstration sites, including the Woolworth lunch counter.

"They would go in and sit at the counter and ask for service," he says. "I would observe and then report as to whether the group was arrested, whether there was any violence, [and] what number was on the vehicle that took the demonstrators away."

Jackson didn't learn until he went to college that a fort guarded by blacks had indeed existed in his hometown. While growing up, he thought people were confusing Ft. Mose with the majestic Spanish fort, Castillo de San Marcos, north of downtown.

"There was always a wives' tale that we had our own fort," Jackson says. "It just wasn't believable."

travel@latimes.com

Source:http://www.latimes.com/

Cruising Asia's modern miracles and ancient wonders aboard the Ocean Princess

Ocean Princess' stops in Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan offer a lesson in Eastern life.

Reporting from aboard the Ocean Princess —

On a windy, showery February evening midway through our 16-night cruise from Laem Chabang, Thailand, to Shanghai, my wife, Laurel, and I stood on the balcony of our stateroom aboard the Ocean Princess, berthed at the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula. Across Victoria Harbour, the astonishing array of skyscrapers on Hong Kong Island had grown lively with light, a multicolored, ever-changing display of patterns and advertising icons — and there was more to come.

The ubiquitous Star Ferries — green and white, double-ended, distinctive in profile — scuttled back and forth, and other excursion boats joined the armada. Then, at 8 o'clock, laser beams, white and blue, erupted from buildings, further brightening the swirling clouds, and we felt ourselves at the magical heart of things — finally.

Until then, our cruise might have been called "The Great Container Ports of Southeast Asia." We'd sailed from Laem Chabang, a two-hour cab ride from Bangkok. After tendering into Koh Samui, our second port, also in Thailand, we docked in Singapore at an immaculate and orderly terminal, distant from the heart of the city, with acres of containers stacked as neatly as dominoes.

The biggest disappointment came next when the ship docked at Phu My instead of continuing up the Saigon River to Ho Chi Minh City. This meant 21/2 hours of bus travel in each direction, leaving us little more than three hours to explore this frenetic city, where motorbikes swarmed like hornets. We rushed through the Reunification Palace, the Rex Hotel and the Ben Thanh Market, grabbed a quick lunch, then, breathless, reboarded the bus, most sights unseen.
Planning your trip

Ocean Princess, (800) 774-6237, http://www.princess.com, will make four Asian cruises similar to ours, plus two longer ones, from February through April. Fares begin at $2,895 per person. Our cruise cost just under $2,000 per person, including insurance — and port charges and government taxes, which were substantial, though we still thought this was an excellent value for 16 nights in a balcony cabin.
For Laurel and me, the Ocean Princess' small size (our voyage was sold out with 652 passengers) had more to recommend it than just the port access it sometimes allowed. In fact, the vessel had everything we could wish for: a spacious, well-designed dining room, the Club Restaurant, with an adjoining bar; two alternative dinner spots (with a cover charge), the Sterling Steakhouse and the Italian-themed Sabatini's Restaurant; the Tahitian Lounge, with floor-to-ceiling windows; an open promenade deck with views of the sea and wooden deck chairs (and deck blankets, which I chose to call "steamer rugs"); the Casino Bar, which takes its name from its proximity to the ship's modest gambling venue but is really a cozy piano bar; and a fine library.

British roots onboard

The Casino Bar, Club Bar and library seemed right out of a British country house, with dark wood paneling, fireplaces (faux, of course), wing chairs and comfy sofas. The Casino Bar's only awkward touch was the wall of fake books behind the piano, the imperfect illusion fully blown when it was opened to control the room's electronics.

The library's books, of course, were real and plentiful, well selected and ordered. I happily repaired here when the winds blew so fiercely that the outer decks were declared off-limits or, during the final, most northern part of the cruise, when the weather was too cold even for steamer rugs. The wood paneling creaked companionably as the ship flexed in the high seas — a sound, like the room itself, reminiscent of the old liners.

We chose the Tahitian Lounge for cocktails when the lingering light of late sunsets — or the sparkling skyscrapers of Hong Kong — offered vistas. Otherwise, we preferred the Casino Bar, where we listened to Aussie David Crathorne play show tunes and old favorites. There, our drinks were served by Liseth, a Peruvian bar steward just arrived from Cuzco. She may have needed a quick study on the subtleties of unfamiliar cocktails, but she had nothing more to learn about charm.

Cabins tend to be cookie-cutter spaces and much alike from cruise line to cruise line, but we thought ours on the Ocean Princess was unusually comfortable and handsomely decorated, with furnishings tending toward French Provincial. The loveseat, coffee table and vanity were at the outboard end, separated by a wall of glass from the balcony, which was the best feature of all.

Football, lectures and a choir

The Ocean Princess, of course, had other spaces: The spa, a tad pricey as always on shipboard, and attached exercise room with a view of the sea; the Panorama Buffet, serving from early morning through late evening, and the Cabaret Lounge, the venue for performances, parties, movies and lectures. For us, its most significant events were the Super Bowl, which we watched on three giant screens amid a large, vocal crowd; the invaluable talks by Hutch, the port lecturer; two captain's cocktail parties; and the passenger talent show "featuring the Amazing Ocean Princess Choir."

This chorus was organized by Crathorne, who held rehearsals every sea day (there was one between each pair of ports, an ideal arrangement, allowing R&R to alternate with energetic touring). When this group —15 strong, Laurel among them — appeared onstage, tricked out in black and white and singing a program that included songs from "West Side Story," I couldn't have been prouder. ("That was better than the shows," I heard a passenger say as we were leaving.)

Two captain's cocktail parties were an anomaly, occasioned by a change of command in mid-cruise, also unusual. Captains do set the tone for life onboard, and both Stefano Ravera and Carlo Servillo, who replaced Ravera when he began his vacation, were attractive presences around the vessel. Capt. Ravera, who often turned up for a swim in the pool, stopped by to chat with us most evenings in the Casino Bar. There, on his last night, he requested the wistful "Lili Marleen" and shook hands with the stewards on duty.

Hutch's talks typically took place three days before each port call, allowing ample time for planning — and for canceling pre-booked, ship-sponsored shore excursions, which in most cases we did. Hutch has been at sea since 1984 in roles as varied as chief purser, cruise director and port lecturer. With his good, specific advice, we negotiated most ports on our own.

Birthplace of Singapore slings

In Singapore, we took the metro (with an inexpensive day pass) to Raffles, one of the world's great hotels, resplendent after its recent restoration, where we walked in the garden, envied the $135 (U.S.) Sunday brunch in the Bar & Billiard Room (where W. Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward once drank), and caved in and ordered Singapore slings at the Long Bar, their reputed birthplace. As Hutch had warned us, they were the most expensive ($18) and vilest drinks we'd ever quaffed, but we just had to.

We walked to Clarke Quay for a short boat tour on the Singapore River, passing the Merlion fountain (an iconic spouting statue of a lion with a fish's tail), then had a riverside lunch at Jumbo. We ate the local specialty, chile crab, dished up in a wok, slathered with chile sauce and served with a cracker, chopsticks and no napkins. The crustaceans were delicious, but we practically had to be hosed down after we finished. After a jaunt to Little India, we headed back to the ship.

In Hong Kong, on the lunar new year, we used our Octopus card (a debit transit card good on all public transport) to take a ride on the double-deck trams, then hop a bus to Aberdeen on the far side of Hong Kong Island to the ur-Jumbo for a dim sum lunch, a local New Year's Day tradition at the huge floating restaurant on three levels.

From the Taiwanese port of Keelung, we took a local train to Taipei, then the metro to Taipei 101, the idiosyncratic skyscraper, reminiscent of a bamboo stalk, that once was the world's tallest. Though we were warned that visibility was nil, we rode the world's fastest elevator to the observatory. In Okinawa, our last port, a monorail took us to Shurijo Castle Park, a post- World War IIreconstruction of structures that had evolved over centuries.

Only in Vietnam did we buy organized shore excursions, and, with Duc, our excellent guide, the tour to Da Nang and Hoi An — an ancient trading center and now a World Heritage Site — was successful. But it was always good to get back to our ship — "your mobile home," Duc called it.

travel@latimes.com

Source:http://www.latimes.com/

Navigating 2011's cruise offerings

A Disney ship with a roller coaster, the introduction of megaships and river cruisers, and special-occasion voyages will help define the year.

Just when you thought cruise lines had done it all — Central Park at sea (on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas) and Cirque du Soleil afloat (on Norwegian Cruise Line's Norwegian Epic) — here comes Disney with a roller coaster aboard the Disney Dream, which debuts Jan. 26.

The Dream, the third and largest ship in Disney Cruise Line's family-oriented fleet, will carry as many as 4,000 passengers on three- to five-night cruises from Port Canaveral, Fla., to the Bahamas.

The cruise industry has enjoyed 7.5% average annual growth in the number of passengers since 1980, and that is expected to continue in 2011, said Jan Swartz, an executive vice president at Princess Cruises and the incoming head of the marketing committee of Cruise Lines International Assn., a nonprofit representing 25 lines. She attributes the success partly to "innovative, trend-setting" onboard experiences.

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Fifteen ships from Cruise Lines International member lines — megaships to river cruisers — will be introduced in 2011. Among these is Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Magic, a 3,690-passenger "fun ship" that will make seven-, nine- and 12-day Mediterranean cruises May 1 through Oct. 16 before starting seven-day Caribbean cruises Nov. 14 from Galveston, Texas. Onboard innovations will include a white-knuckle ropes course suspended above Deck 12.

Celebrity Cruises' newest Solstice-class ship, the 2,886-passenger Celebrity Silhouette, debuting July 23 with a seven-night cruise from Hamburg, Germany, to Rome, will introduce classes in pizza making — including the dough toss — and a grill-your-own-steak option at its Lawn Club Grill.

Seabourn's newest luxury yacht, the 225-suite Quest, will make a three-day, pre-inaugural voyage round trip from Monte Carlo on June 9. The 2011 itinerary includes a 36-day grand voyage from Monte Carlo to Istanbul, Turkey, on June 12.

Other lines will mark special occasions with special sailings. The Norwegian passenger and freight line, Hurtigruten, will observe the 150th anniversary of the birth of Norwegian explorer and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Fridtjof Nansen with an eight-day "climate voyage" to the northern Arctic on the Fram, departing July 21 from Reykjavik, Iceland.

Holland America Line, which 40 years ago changed its focus from transatlantic voyages to cruise vacations, will note the anniversary with two nostalgic nine-day crossings aboard the Rotterdam. The ship will sail July 3 from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to New York, with a call at Southampton, England, and July 12 from New York to Rotterdam, calling at Cobh, Ireland. There will be big-band music, themed menus and a museum at sea chronicling the line's 138-year history.

Crystal Cruises has replaced several Mexican Riviera cruises with Pacific Coast voyages round trip from Los Angeles in 2011 aboard Crystal Symphony. "Coastal Escape" and "Pacific Sunsets," each seven days, will visit Santa Barbara, San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico, with overnights in San Francisco. Departures are Nov. 20 and Dec. 4.

Princess Cruises will debut two voyages melding land and sea adventures. The 16-day "Ancient Petra and the Dead Sea," with departures starting May 15, combines a four-night land tour with a 12-day cruise aboard the Pacific Princess from Athens to Rome. There will be a single sailing July 31 of "Timeless Cities of the Rhine River," which starts in Basel, Switzerland, with a seven-night Rhine River cruise on Avalon Waterways' Avalon Felicity, followed by overnights in Amsterdam and Copenhagen and an 11-night cruise aboard Emerald Princess.

Cunard Line's Queen Victoria will embark on its first Americas' season with a "Panama Canal Adventure" from Los Angeles to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on March 3; a four-day Mexico getaway round trip from Los Angeles to Ensenada on Feb. 13; and two 14-day "Hawaiian Adventure" voyages, round trip from Los Angeles, on Jan. 30 and Feb. 17.

Disney Wonder, which is shifting from Port Canaveral to the Port of Los Angeles, will have seven- and 10-night Mexico cruises from Los Angeles on Jan. 23 through April 17. For the first time, the Wonder will also visit Alaska next summer.

Norwegian Cruise Line made headlines this year with its Norwegian Epic, a 4,100-passenger ship with 128 solo suites for single travelers, an option that definitely got the competition's attention. The Epic, which has been cruising the Caribbean, will make a 15-day combined transatlantic crossing and Mediterranean cruise, departing May 7 from Miami, with Barcelona, Spain, its final destination.

Where does the industry go from here? It's all about innovation. Norwegian Cruise Line Chief Executive Kevin Sheehan says to expect more "I never thought they'd do that on a cruise ship" features.

Info: http://www.cruising.org.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/

Cunard's old-school travel continues tradition on Queen Elizabeth

The Queen Elizabeth 'maiden world voyage' from start to finish was filled with Cunard tradition, including formal dining, lectures, extensive libraries and fireworks.

Reporting from aboard the Queen Elizabeth —

I'm standing in front of the mirror in our stateroom, looking over my wife's shoulder and tying my black bow tie. It is our first sea day and the first of three formal nights on our leisurely eight-night early January crossing on Cunard Line's spanking-new Queen Elizabeth, on the way to New York from Southampton,England. The cummerbund is belted on, the studs are securely in place on shirtfront, but I've saved the neck knot for last, reminding myself of how my father first taught me how to do this on another transatlantic trip a half a century ago.

Black-tie affairs may be waning on other ships, but not on Cunard vessels, which, if anything, have become slightly more formal in recent years. How like Cunard to flout a trend. That charming defiance stems partly from Cunard's transatlantic mission, which dates to 1840, the year Samuel Cunard began sailing his ships across the Atlantic.

Our trip is the first leg of Queen Elizabeth's "maiden world voyage" and its first trip to New York, on the route once so busy with ships of many nations that it was called the "Atlantic Ferry." Scattered throughout the Elizabeth are paintings of the current and former fleet, photos of famous Cunard passengers, ship models and artifacts of all kinds. History and tradition are our constant companions.

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The festivities as we left Southampton were brilliant, as the Brits (who dominated this crossing, 1,357 out of the total of 1,893 passengers) are fond of saying. After fireworks illuminated the foggy, rainy sky, Queen Elizabeth slid slowly by sister Queen Victoria, close enough you might have flung a baseball from deck to deck. Both ships' whistles sounded again and again in a spine-tingling mutual salute. We passengers waved from balconies and decks, and when the whistling stopped, cheers from both Queens echoed across the water.

The Queen Victoria would shadow us across the Atlantic, moving away only when the fog rolled in or the seas became seriously rough. Almost exactly three years earlier, my wife, Laurel, and I had made the same crossing, that time aboard the then-new Victoria, accompanied by the iconic Queen Elizabeth 2, on the verge of retirement.

Sailing with us then and now were a clutch of friends, Cunard devotees. Naturally we and others compared the sister ships, more similar than different, though the Elizabeth's décor emulates the Art Deco aesthetic of the first Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and the Victoria's décor is, not surprisingly, Victorian. For me the Elizabeth's highlight is a 19-foot-tall marquetry panel above the sweeping staircase in the Grand Lobby. It depicts the first Queen Elizabeth ship, with inlays of nine rare woods typical of use aboard the original ship.

"Cunard," Bill Miller told me when we chatted in the ship's glass-domed Garden Lounge, "is for people who like old-school travel." Miller, whose moniker is "Mr. Ocean Liner" and who has made about 400 voyages on many lines, was one of five lecturers on our crossing, and these lectures (three or four most days) are a Cunard hallmark. Others speakers included Terry Waite, the former hostage negotiator and later hostage, and Ted Scull, a maritime expert like Miller but who on this crossing provided an introduction to New York City for the British passengers.

"Cunard is the most cerebral cruise line," Miller said. "Its lecture programs are among the most enriching on the high seas, and it has the biggest libraries." On the Victoria and Elizabeth they're two decks tall, connected by a spiral staircase. The Queen Elizabeth, still building its collection, now shelves 6,000 books; the Victoria has 8,000, and the Queen Mary 2, 10,000.

"During the day you see more people carrying books than on any other line," Miller said, "and at night more tuxedos and war medals. The Brits love those." The QM2 also has a planetarium.

I asked Scull's opinion on two sometimes controversial issues. Transatlantic crossings were traditionally multi-class, in later years always "first" and "tourist" with "cabin" often in the middle. Cunard retains a vestige of this, with those in the best cabins dining in the open-seating Princess Grill or Queens Grill and having access to an exclusive lounge and decks.

"There are people who want to pay for a more luxurious and intimate setting," he said. "I have no problem with that."

And how about all the proud Britishness, the naming by Queen Elizabeth II, whose brand-new portrait hangs aboard, considering that Cunard is one of seven lines under the umbrella of an American company, the outgrowth of Carnival Cruises?

"I think the parent company has wisely let each brand keep its independent identity," he said. "That way there's a line for everyone."

On Day 6 of the voyage, about 6:30 in the morning, I get an unrequested wake-up when my water glass slides off the table and into bed with me. While I mop that up, the ice bucket rockets off the coffee table and empties its slush on the carpet. The winter North Atlantic is kicking up its heels, and the Queen Elizabeth is pitching and rolling but holding its own. The seascape is a magnificent muddle of dark gray streaked with white. Pink clouds on the eastern horizon suggest more weather ahead.

The other unmistakable portent is of journey's end. In less than 48 hours we'll have steamed up theHudson River and be fast at the Manhattan Ship Terminal next to the Queen Victoria. QM2 will be docked at the Cunard terminal in Brooklyn's Red Hook section.

More than 1,100 passengers will disembark from Queen Elizabeth, our small group included, and when the ship refills there will be substantially more Americans aboard. (On a typical QM2 crossing the passenger list will typically be 50% British and 40% American. On cruises from the U.S., the balance will shift.)

That evening the three Queens rendezvoused in Upper New York Bay, off the Statue of Liberty. Such a meeting happened only once before, three years ago, and the third Queen then was the QE2. TheEmpire State Building was bathed in Cunard Red for the occasion. Fireworks again illuminated the sky.

Who but Cunard could pull this off? "If three other ships met in New York," Miller told me, "no one would care."

travel@latimes.com

Source:http://www.latimes.com/

Queen Elizabeth liner caters to formal cruisers

Reporting from aboard the Queen Elizabeth — Let the other ships have their rock climbing walls and their water slides, their come as-you-are and do-as-you-please ambience. On the new Queen Elizabeth, it's lawn bowling and croquet, formal nights and afternoon teas, assigned seating and fixed dining hours.

Indeed, Cunard's elegant Queen Elizabeth is the very embodiment of British civility.

The 2,068-passenger Queen Elizabeth, successor to the storied QE2 (now docked in Dubai, where plans to convert it into a floating hotel are on hold), made its debut Oct. 12, christened by Queen Elizabeth II (the flesh-and-blood monarch). It joins the larger Queen Mary 2 (2004) and the slightly smaller Queen Victoria (2007) as the last of Cunard's new queens.

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I was onboard in late November for its Gallic Debut, a five-night round trip from Southampton, England, with calls at Amsterdam, Zeebrugge, Belgium, and Cherbourg, France. Sleet and snow greeted us on the way as the big chill descended over Northern Europe.

Embarkation at Southampton's Ocean Terminal was a tedious 75-minute process and included mandatory shoe removal as we passed through metal detectors. I had not experienced this on any of my 10 or so post- 9/11 cruises.

By the time I got to my stateroom, my luggage was already there. The cabin was light and cheerful with blond wood and burgundy and gold accents. A 242 square feet , it felt spacious, with a king bed, desk-dressing table, mini-fridge and flat-screen TV. But what was with the hair dryer tethered to the dressing table with a cord so short I couldn't look in the mirror while drying? (I'm told the matter has been addressed with the designers.)
PLANNING YOUR TRIP

Fares for Queen Elizabeth cruises range from $1,195 for an inside stateroom on a five-night voyage to $199,995 for the top Queens Grill suite on the 107-night world voyage that will depart Jan. 10, 2012, from Southampton, England. These fares are per person, based on double occupancy, and do not include taxes and fuel supplements.

The ship, which left Jan. 5 from Southampton on its maiden world voyage, will call at San Pedro on Saturday, embarking on a 24-night voyage to Sydney, Australia, with ports of call including Hawaii, and on to Southeast Asia, India, Egypt and southern Europe, returning to Southampton on April 19.

The Queen Elizabeth will sail in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean during the year and will make a maiden voyage to the Holy Land, from Southampton on Oct. 28, calling at Jerusalem and Galilee/Nazareth as well as Gibraltar, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece.

Info: (800) 728-6273, http://www.cunard.com.


Unlike the Queen Victoria, which was woefully short of drawer space when it first sailed, I found storage aplenty, including night tables with drawers. I counted 43 wooden hangers among the 21/2 closets. Although the bath was small, with a barely adequate prefab shower, it too had good storage.

There was much to like, starting with the Art Deco public rooms. The Victoria incorporated bright red and blue into its décor, but Queen Elizabeth's softer color palette of blue, gold and burgundy flowed more smoothly from space to space. These sister ships are essentially alike, but Queen Elizabeth has 35 more cabins aft and a larger games deck. Some Cunarders had hoped for radical changes, but, said ship's Capt. Christopher Wells, radical change is costly, and "at the end of the day it's all about pounds and pence."

There are no singles cabins. "Cunard doesn't feel obligated" to do that, Capt. Wells said, noting that most luxury hotels don't offer this option. Although he acknowledged the demand — Cunard is popular with single, older women — he said, "You could never build enough. You can never win."

The ship was built in Italy, and Cunard is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp., but Cunard hasn't forgotten its British roots, to the delight of its many British passengers. (Baked beans at breakfast and all.) Formal nights are a must. We had one on our cruise, and it was lovely to see women in real evening gowns, not cobbled together make-do outfits. As I watched from the mezzanine, women of a certain age were being led around the ballroom floor by Cunard's gentlemen hosts. As elegantly turned out couples danced to "The Anniversary Waltz," a silver-haired man next to me said, "Now that's what I call ballroom dancing. That stuff on TV? That's acrobatics."

Traditional didn't mean stuffy. In the Yacht Club disco one night, couples were dancing under strobe lights to the strains of "Hound Dog." In the Queens Room ballroom, a quartet of Beatles imitators always packed the house. I was horrified to realize that this was a trip down memory lane.

On karaoke night in the Golden Lion Pub, I caught Londoner Vicki Adams-Salmon, a building surveyor whose hobby is costume-making, belting out "Lipstick on Your Collar" à la Connie Francis. Adams-Salmon sported a strapless red gown and a screamingly bright red wig. She smiled and said, "It's pink underneath," as she lifted the wig and showed her hair. She was celebrating her 30th birthday with boyfriend Clive Cheer and thought the ship was "brilliant."

Other things that floated my boat: The casino amidships is not overwhelmingly intrusive. The two-level, wood-paneled library has a spiral staircase and leaded skylight. The multiple bars and lounges and variety of entertainers, including pianists, a harpist and a string quartet, seemed to suit nearly every taste.

A new concept for the 800-seat, tri-level Royal Court Theater is the Queen Elizabeth Theater Company, a resident troupe presenting shows in repertory as varied as Neil Simon and Shakespeare. Ours was "Hotel Royale," a thinly plotted musical set in a faded hostelry.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/

READMORE:http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-queenelizabeth-20110124,0,6153467.story

Seek Treatment: A Vietnamese Hotel Where the Spa is Free

Why didn't anyone think of this before? The Fusion Maia resort in Da Nang, Vietnam, is the first five-star hotel in Asia with unlimited spa treatments included in the regular room rate. And by regular room, we mean, at minimum, a 50-sq-m suite with a private pool. There are multibedroom beachfront villas available, but you don't need to book the flashiest digs in this boutique property: unlike its more famous neighbor, the Nam Hai, Fusion Maia has created inviting common spaces on pristine China Beach. The spa menu is abbreviated, but that means the therapists have mastered each service (a back, neck and shoulder massage felt far longer, in a good way, than its appointed half hour) and have the capacity to provide each guest in the resort — even if it's fully booked — at least three treatments per day.

Fusion is the goal of the overall resort experience, with guests encouraged to nurture spirit as well as body. Not many meccas to self-indulgence organize trips to local orphanages, for example. Fusion is also the point of the artful Western and pan-Asian cuisine. Don't miss the stellar handmade noodles with beef and foie gras, or the faithfully American vanilla-bean pancakes. Speaking of pancakes, breakfast is also gratis, any time or place — so, if you miss the well-curated morning buffet, you can order in your room whenever you want. Laze away the morning in your four-poster bed, or on the masseuse's table; the eggs can wait.

Visit fusionmaiadanang.com for more.

Source: Time Magazine
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/travel/article/0,31542,2043337,00.html#ixzz1BwgUsx84

World's best bartenders talk about cocktails

In making cocktails, understanding alcohol and finding the right balance of ingredients is the most important thing, said the world’s top two bartenders.

Erik Lorincz, the 2010 Diageo Reserve World Class Bartender of the Year, and Eom Do-hwan, the runner-up, are having another “competition” here to provide their own unique cocktails.

Lorincz came to Seoul to participate in Ritz-Carlton Seoul’s promotion of “The World Class Battle,” held at the Ritz Bar of the hotel from Jan. 19 to 21.
Source:Korea Times

The head bartender at the American Bar of the Savoy Hotel in London was crowned the best bartender in the World Class competition last year.

Organized by Diageo, World Class is the biggest international bartending competition. Some 9,000 bartenders took regional preliminaries, and 24 people from 24 nations participated in the finals in Greece in June, demonstrating their creativity, knowledge of alcohol and mixing skill.

Lorincz was named the best barman after six “challenges,” and Eom was named runner up.

"What is important to make a really good cocktail is dedication to it and finding the right balance to recognize the flavors, balance of the right ingredients with the right flavor. So you have to understand the liquor,” Lorincz told The Korea Times during an interview at the Diageo Lounge in southern Seoul, Tuesday.

The 31-year-old started his career 10 years ago, when there was no cocktail bar in his homeland Slovakia. After seeing bartending on TV, he went to Prague to attend a bartender school.

After several years of experience in the city, Lorincz said he wanted to learn more in places where cocktail culture is a tradition such as London and New York. “I moved to London, learned English and dived into the bartending world, because London is recognized as the capital city of bartending. They are much more developed. In terms of ingredients, knowledge and products, everything was already well established.”

The six challenges of the World Class are comprised of tests which the contestants could prepare in advance for, testing their knowledge and technique; and those for which they had to come up with ideas on the spot ㅡ in the Cocktails and Canapes challenge, for example, they had to choose two out of six dishes, which they didn’t know in advance, and make cocktails to match them.

"In such challenges, you don’t know what you were going to prepare. That was the challenge that really pushed the limit,” Lorincz said. He was always in the top three of all the challenges, and became the No. 1 of all in the end.

“For the first two days, it was something I couldn’t believe. Today I really enjoy it because it gives me a lot of opportunities to travel, explore and see new people in different countries,” the barman said.

He and other runner-ups will become judges of regional preliminaries for this year’s competition. Lorincz will visit Australia and Singapore soon. “When you travel, you meet people from new countries and you always learn something new as soon as you go to the bars there. It’s lifetime experience,” he said.

The mixologist said he always think of new recipes. “I look for a recipe from almost everywhere. I come up with cocktails when sitting on the bus, thinking about combing ingredients and come back to the bar and try to use them. The inspiration is coming from everywhere.”

Famous for making cocktails characterizing regions and seasons, such as Russian New Year and Chinese New Year, Lorincz said he would love to make a Korea-related one someday. He said he uses “gochujang,” or Korean red pepper paste, in his Bloody Mary. “People say that is one of the best Bloody Marys they’ve tasted. Gochujang is my spice agent. It also gives a smoky flavor as well and goes really well with tomato juice and other herbs,” he said.

Lorincz recommended Korean bartenders to be more challenging and try spirits other than whiskey. “There are so many spirits. Give guests an opportunity to try different spirits, and that will help develop drinking culture.”

His friendly rival, Eom, captain of the Ritz Bar, was the runner-up as a whole, but he won the Market Challenge, in which the contestants were give 40 euros and bought ingredients at a local market and made two cocktails.

“While preparing for the finals, I thought of Greek salad. And I could buy the ingredients of the salad at the market, like olive oil, cucumber and feta cheese. I ground them and used the juice for the cocktail. And I stuffed a cherry tomato with the ground ingredients and used it as a garnish. I named it ‘My Own Greek Salad’,” Eom said.

He also bought rosemary and made “Smoky Rosemary.” “A rosemary stem is rolled in the cocktail, and the judge told me that it looked like a laurel wreath,” he said.

When asked what the attraction of bartending is, the 33-year-old barman with 10 years experience said he enjoys talking with guests. “Meeting various kinds of people with various jobs, I like to get to know various lives,” he said.

Eom said the most important thing in making a cocktail is to make most use of the base alcohol. “Each liquor has its own flavor, and it is important to show the base liquor’s flavor,” he said.

During the promotion, Lorincz and Eom will create cocktails using Johnnie Walker Black, Green, Gold and Blue. For more information about this unique opportunity to sample their interpretation of these classic whiskeys, call 02-3451-8277.

Source:Korea Times