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WestJet cancels fuel surcharge

September 18, 2008 by admin Leave a Comment

WestJet today honoured its commitment to monitor the fuel environment and remove the fuel surcharge if and when the price of fuel subsided. The airline announced the removal of the fuel surcharge, effective 1 p.m. MT today, in acknowledgement of the recent decline in fuel prices.

“The decision to eliminate the fuel surcharge is in line with who we are,” commented WestJet Executive Vice-President of Guest Experience and Marketing Bob Cummings. “The WestJet brand is all about caring, straight talk, trust and best value – our advertising is effective because we walk the talk.”

The elimination of the fuel surcharge supports WestJet’s commitment to providing the best value to its guests, which is the premise for the airline’s new advertising campaign. This latest addition to the successful and award-winning owners campaign extends WestJet’s caring reputation, demonstrating the airline’s commitment to offering guests the best value in air travel.

“We are proud of the transparent approach we have to our pricing and the superior value we provide to the travelling public,” continued Bob Cummings. “Our latest owners campaign highlights those key differences between us and the competition. The campaign is done in a light-hearted, fun way. [Read more…] about WestJet cancels fuel surcharge

Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton Hotel

June 25, 2008 by admin Leave a Comment

Winnipeg is the capital city of Manitoba in canada and is a nice place to visit as a family. There are a lot of attractions including the famous “Coldest Street Corner” in Canada at Portage and Main and the Forks which is where a lot of the winnipeg festivals are held.

I was in Winnipeg last week for work and purposely stayed at the Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton. The Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton is a great Airport hotel that is situated right acoess the street from the Winnipeg Airport which is great for travelling quickly overnight but if you are staying in Winnipeg for vacation it is not so good. The sheraton Four Points hotel and the Winnipeg Airport are about a 45 minute bus or 30 minute drive from downtown Winnipeg.

In staying at the Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton I had a chance to check out the amenities and dealt with the staff. First of all for some reason my room card failed to work in the morning at the hotel so I needed to get it reactivated and the staff did this really quickly, because they were a little short staffed they switched the card and then advised me that if it did not work that they would go ahead and send someone up.

The girl at the front desk knew exactly where my room number was on the floor and told me that there is a courtesy phone on a desk right behind me if I need to call them from outside my room. [Read more…] about Winnipeg Four Points Sheraton Hotel

The Golden Age of Amercian Family Vacations

June 6, 2008 by admin 1 Comment

Susan Sessions Rugh has written a great book about the history of the family camping or at least car driving adventure. The book is called The Golden Age of American Family Vacations and in it she captures some of what I grew up with in the 70’s the travelling of the family to the campground and prts unknown, the excitement of family vacations.

Americans have been making fun of family vacations from the time they came into style after World War II. The emergent medium of television captured some of the travails of the traveling family in late-night variety shows. Morey Amsterdam opened his show one evening in 1949 with a monologue reporting that he was just back from a vacation to Florida with his family: “I steered, my mother-in-law drove.” He commented on the expense of the vacation: “It cost us $400—a day.” It was “ten dollars for an aspirin.” He suffered the usual fate of the New York tourist in Florida when he admitted he went out on the beach and “walked away one big beautiful blister.” Morey Amsterdam’s jokes made television viewers feel better about spending the money and putting up with their families on vacation because they could laugh at themselves. Perhaps at least they recognized they weren’t alone in their stupidity!

In their comedy show on NBC television in 1952, Bob and Ray satirized the summer vacation by offering for sale a summer vacation kit “for people who want to be uncomfortable without leaving home.” It included a dozen items, among them “a bathing suit that makes you look kind of silly” and “a hard table so you feel like you have slept in a camp cot.” It came complete with a beach umbrella, along with a “handsome lifeguard to divert your wife’s attention while you are setting up the umbrella.” Finally, the sound effects man added the sounds of a day in the country: bullfrogs, owls hooting, crickets chirping, waves pounding on the beach, moose calling, the horn of a passing train sounding. Summer vacations were a lot of trouble and not really much of a vacation, but the men were caught up in this travel ritual for the sake of the family. [Read more…] about The Golden Age of Amercian Family Vacations

Dole pineapple plant

May 24, 2008 by admin Leave a Comment

On a day that we rented a car in Oahu we went to the Dole Pineapple plant and took a tour. This was a great way to spend a few hours but we had to battle against the heat in the middle of the island.

The trip to Dole was one of the great side trips on Oahu that we wanted to do. The big things at Dole are the tour of the plantation and the biggest maze in the world. There is also a train ride but we didn’t do it, the kids were too hot and tired by then.

Tour of the Dole pineapple plantation

The tour of the plantation is either a walk around by yourself or you can follow around a tour guide. We followed the tour guide and he was great. We learned about the growth of pineapples, the history of Dole and how to pick pineapples the guide was a real cool guy that let us know lots of stuff and loved to ask and answer questions.

The worlds biggest maze

The pineapple maze is huge and a lot of fun. My daughter and son went with me but my poor 4 year old son was just too hot and gave up. My daughter and I finished the maze in about an hour and a quarter and it was a lot of running around and getting lost. There are two ways that you are able to do do the maze, with a little map which helps a lot but is still difficult, or just freeform which is super hard and is a way that you can become a legend at the maze. The record time for the day and all time is listed at the maze and when we were at the Dole Pineapple Plantation is 30 minutes or so…really tough. This is cheap to do as well as the tour and I thought was a lot of fun for the family although it can cause a bit of fighting (No not this way that way instead).

Dole is great and is a pretty cheap trip for the family. $4 for the tour and $6 for the maze per person but I think that you get a lot of entertainment for the money.

Waikiki Movie on the Beach

May 21, 2008 by admin Leave a Comment

One of the strangest tourist events I have seen is the movie on the beach in Waikiki. There is a giant screen setup on the east end of Waikiki beach and they play movies for free for anyone that wants to watch.

The event is called Sunset on the Beach

The movies are not often the newest movies but are usually good movies and the place you are seeing them is great. You get to the beach, called Queens Beach and sit around and watch the sunset and as soon as it is dark enough the movie starts.

Did you want popcorn or food while you are watching the movie? No problem, there are food vendors around and of course there is a lot of food in the neighborhood anyway, it’s Waikiki.

The movies are free and are sponsored by local businesses and organized by the Hawaii tourism bureau.

To find the spot just look for the area pictured above by walking east along Waikiki Beach until your are past the kiddy pool and you will see the stands and screen frame.