Category Archives: travel

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre

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Manns Chinese Theatre

Originally uploaded by Jon_W.
Hey, you won’t see us in this picture because I *erased* about 50 pix I took here and along the walk of fame today. Thanks to Jon_W for taking a better pic than mine anyway!

However we really were hanging near Hollywood and Vine today at the Mann Theater complex, where people dressed up as movie characters are walking around.  It’s near the middle of the “Walk of Fame” with hundreds of sidewalk stars for stars of stage, screen, TV, and music.
In the courtyard of Mann’s are the hand and footprints of Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, the cast of Star Trek, and many more.

Across the street is the El Capitan theater. Today was the premier of Disney’s “Meet The Robinsons” and there was a red carpet and a lot of press but we couldn’t recognize any of the people going in, though I’m SURE they were, like, like, so famous!

We’re Going to Hollywood!

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I’m going to use this post to collect helpful info for our trip to Southern California. I just ordered Disney Tickets from Ares Travel for a bit less than Disney itself. 3 day passes for Disneyland and Disney California Adventure were $127 (each)+15 for overnight. That was a quick $500 for the family but I’m sure it’ll be worth it.

I was planning to get tickets to a TV show because that’s a really interesting glimpse into the action of Hollywood, but instead we are going to be *in a movie*! Well, technically we are though it’s just as part of a big crowd watching a basketball game in the new Will Ferrell / Woody Harrelson / Andre Benjamin film “Semi-Pro” about basketballers in the 1970’s. Here’s the website for tickets to many TV shows and also this company handles some films. This looks like a lot of fun and you can’t beat the price = free. NOTE: TV tickets are always free. If you are vacationing in Hollywood and offered TV show tickets for money they are probably bogus.

1000 places to see before you die lists only a few Hollywood items, namely:
Hollywood Hollywood Website
Walt Disney Concert Hall | Disney Concert Hall website
Mann’s Chinese Theatre | Mann’s Theatre Website
Universal Studios Hollywood
Musso & Frank Grill
Spago Beverly Hills
Hotel Bel Air | Hotel Bel Air Website
Hollywood Bowl | Hollywood Bowl

We’ll head to Mann’s Chinese Theatre (formerly Graumann’s Chinese Theatre) to see all the star’s prints in the cement. Hey, here’s the webcam – look for us next week!

Betsy at About.com has this advice for Hollywood Boulevard, which is apparently a lot nicer than the last time I was down there:

Hollywood Boulevard between Vine Street and Fairfax Avenue is the stuff of legends. Attractions here include the Walk of Fame, footprints at Mann’s Theatre and Hollywood at Highland complex.

Parking advice from Answerla website:

Near Hollywood and Vine
There is plenty of parking conveniently located near Hollywood and Vine. Street parking is available on Hollywood and on many side streets to the east of Vine.

Near Hollywood and Highland

You can also park near Hollywood and Highland and walk or take the Metro back to Vine. There are pay lots on most streets between Vine and Highland, just\nnorth\nof Hollywood Blvd. A large lot is on Las Palmas (1 blk east of Highland) just north of Hollywood Blvd.

Parking at Highland is very easy and cheap ($2.00 for 4 hours with validation). There are also pay lots north of Hollywood on Highland. Parking there runs from $5 to $10 for the whole day. After parking at any of those spots, you can walk back to Vine (15 min) or take the Hollywood and Highland Metro one stop east to Hollywood and Vine.

There are open-air pay parking lots south of Hollywood Blvd. near Argyle. More pay lots are on Vine, just north of Hollywood Blvd. Parking runs from $5 to $10 for the whole day.

Several enclosed lots are reasonably priced. The Arclight Cinema lot on Sunset, just west of Vine is only several dollars with validation. The small shopping mall on the northwest corner of Sunset and Vine is also only several dollars with validation from the nearby Borders book store or Baja Fresh. Hollywood and Vine is just two blocks north of both of those lots.

Near Hollywood and Highland

You can also park near Hollywood and Highland and walk or take the Metro back to Vine. There are pay lots on most streets between Vine and Highland, just north of Hollywood Blvd. A large lot is on Las Palmas (1 blk east of Highland) just north of Hollywood Blvd.

Parking in the Highland mall is very easy and cheap ($2.00 for 4 hours with validation). There are also pay lots north of Hollywood on Highland. Parking there runs from $5 to $10 for the whole day. After parking at any of those spots, you can walk back to Vine (15 min) or take the Hollywood and Highland Metro one stop east to Hollywood and Vine. Map of the area around Hollywood and Vine.

Tickets for TV series and game show tapings at many studios, including CBS Studio Center, Culver Studios, and Universal Studios, can be obtained through Audiences Unlimited by calling

818- 506-0067. Paramount Television also tapes a number of hit shows. To obtain tickets, call (323) 956-1777. “The Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno” is taped at NBC Television. Call  818-840-3537 to obtain tickets for NBC. Warner Bros. Studios (4000 Warner Blvd., Burbank) offers a two-hour working studio tour, which involves some walking. Reservations are required. Call  818-954-1744 at least one week in advance to reserve a spot. Mann’s Chinese Theatre (6925 Hollywood Blvd.) is open to the public and features the famous cement-hand and foot prints. The Hollywood Sign, one of Southern California’s most recognized icons, can clearly be seen throughout most of Hollywood, while the Hollywood Walk of Fame honors show business immortals along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. At the new Hollywood and Highland Complex, you can enjoy shopping, movies, restaurants, hotels, entertainment, and the Kodak Theatrethe new and permanent home of the Academy Awards, concerts, live theatre, and special events. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (333 S. La Cinema Blvd., Beverly Hills) is responsible for the Academy Awards every year. The library is open to the public but space is limited. Call (310) 247-3000 to make reservations. The Museum of Television & Radio (465 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills) features a collection of more than 95,000 television and radio programs. Call (310) 786-1000 for details.

Some Disneyland tips

Travel, 21st Century Style

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A German Artificial Intelligence lab is working on a travel information network that will use on board navigation to alert drivers to  trouble down the road.     Working in real time the system would alert drivers just a few minutes down the road to dangers ahead.   As autos get smarter and transportation info networks evolve we should see a lot of benefits.  Traffic congestion could be reduced substantially in metro areas simply by providing “early warning” to commuters via websites and alternative routing using on board navigation systems.    Rural problems tend to arise from weather problems and this type of information is already flowing online, though it’ll really be useful when drivers can easily access this information from their cars.     An example is Oregon’s TripCheck website which displays road cams and conditions information and Yahoo’s integration of mapping and traffic information for some metro areas.

BBC Report

SmartKom Website (warning – this odd site is NOT the way to write for a non-technical audience, or even for a technical one?)

Travelers Advantage is a Traveler’s DIS advantage

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It should be called Traveler’s DisAdvantage

I’ve had really bad results with Travelers Advantage over many years of membership. The only reason I stick with this horrible service are the “bribe” rebate coupons they send each year when I threaten to cancel. These roughly cover the cost of this horrible travel service but it’s time to get rid of it. I think the “hotels at half price” may still be about the same as online pricing if you have the time to mess with it and make a lot of calls but their call in reservations system is scandalously expensive given that you are *paying them* to find deals. I’d like a *single example* of TA beating Hotwire pricing for comparable hotels or a few examples of them beating out a Kayak.com hotel search.

Example: Booking for a specific Days Inn in CA today I was getting many different rates. I called TA and asked them to match the online price. Nope, they said, and suggested deceitfully that they were using “real time” rates and probably I could not get the lower rate. Travelers Advantage had $75 plus taxes where my initial search gave me $67 including taxes. I pulled up their “low price guarantee” and read it to the customer servicer who just kept insisting on the high rate. Although it’s possible they would have eventually refunded the difference I’ve seen such “guarantees” before and they often try to take advantage of loopholes and BS. I didn’t want to book and then hope to get justice months later.

So… back to Days Inn website which had even lower rates than earlier (or I missed an option there), so I went ahead and booked at 204+tax for the 4 nights vs the 300+tax I would have paid Travelers disAdvantage.

But here’s the funny part: After I booked at Days a chat box came up saying ‘hey, would you like to save $30 on today’s reservation? Sure I said. Up came this: “JOIN TRAVELER’S ADVANTAGE!”

I explained I’d already joined and they gave me a higher rate than I’d got -literally- one second ago from this website and asked why.

She never answered me, just disconnected. Sad, but at least I got my good rate in spite of all the wasted time with 1) My existing Travelers Advantage Membership and 2) Another prospective Travelers Advantage Membership.

PT Barnum would be proud of you, Travelers disAdvantage, because you, like he, act on the knowledge that a sucker is born every minute.

San Diego, California

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We are heading down to So. California in a few weeks so I’m pulling together information about what we’ll try to do during our week in the area.     Southern California is one of the world’s top travel destinations so there are literally thousands of attractions.    The challenge there is not finding things to do, rather it’s focusing on the “best” of many great attractions and experiences that are suited to your tastes.

The Travel Channel just had a nice feature on San Diego and I’ve sketched some of their advice below.  I’ll flesh this out and add links later.

With 1.2 Million people San Diego is the USA’s 7th largest city.

Mission San Diego de Alcala

Balboa Park

San Diego Zoo

Sea World, San Diego. You can dine with Shamu. Trainer for a da.

La Hoya. “Beverly Hills on the Beach” Exclusive shopping.

Surfing. South Coast Surf Shop is the place for gear. Surf Diva Surf School is all girls but they also have guys class.

History

Weather

Navy Town USA. Principle port for the Pacific Fleet of US Navy. 1846. Maritime Museum of San Diego, home to HMS Surprise of “Master and Commander” fame, and Star of India 1863, the oldest active sailing ship in the world.

USS Midway operated for 47 years 1992 is the US’s longest serving Aircraft Carrier. at total of 225,000 sailors served on this ship at some point in the history of the USS Midway.

Port of San Diego is huge, and supports both Cruise lines and shipping.

Hotel del Coronado. “Hotel Del”. This lavish hotel, inspired by railroad architecture, 1958 “Some Like it Hot” was filmed here.

Mexico!

Old Town

Bazaar del Mundo in Old Town

Dining: 6400 restaurants in San Diego and surrounding cities. Point Loma Sea Food on San Diego Bay is among the most famous Seafood Restaurants in the world, and arguably one of the finest. Their smoking process and tartar sauces are secret recipes are guarded carefully.

The Marine Room in La Hoya. On the beach since 1941 offering some of the most elegant seafood dining in California.

Casa de Pico is one of the best Hispanic restaurants in the USA, offering famous, and huge, Margaritas. El Agave Tequileria offers a Tequila Museum as well as one of the finest collections of Tequila in the world. 1500 types of Tequila are here and you can sniff and sample El Agave’s spectacular selection in special Tequila glasses.

Fish Tacos: deep fried pollock in corn tortilla with lime and cabbage?. Ralph Rubio may be the guy who brought the Fish Taco to America. He opened Rubios Fresh Mexican Grille, with 150 restaurants all over the country. The very first Rubios is still open in San Diego.

Gaslamp district

East Village Neigborhood.   108 redevelopment projects are underway.  Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres is making this one of the key new hotspots for the city.

Mobile Muppet Laboratory at Disneyland’s California Adventure

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The Mobile Muppet Laboratory is roaming Disney’s California Adventure this spring.  I’m glad our family is heading down their in a few weeks for spring break.   We’ll be able to see how this advanced animatronics display is interacting with people all over the park.

Engadget and the LA Times  seem to approach this using the “will this put Mickey Mouse out of work” angle which is unfortunate because the big story on robotics is 1) Robots are here to stay and as AI improves they’ll be taking over more and more jobs, allowing humans to blossom in creative rather than mundane physical tasks.   2) Robots have been helping us for decades – they’ve just been in “boring” jobs like car assembly.  3) Robots are cool.

China’s Mega Dam – Three Gorges Dam Project

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Don’t miss the Discovery Channel’s fascinating inside look into the history and construction of the Three Gorges Dam project on China’s Yangze River.     This massive project is the largest public works project in human history.   It will create a 400 mile long reservoir so massive that it may actually affect (very slightly but measurably) the rotation of the earth.    Three Gorges Dam is displacing over a million Chinese who live upriver from the Dam, though it appears that in many cases they’ll be relocated to better housing at higher ground.   36,000 square miles will be inundated as the river above the dam slowly rises.    Although some measures are being taken to preserve historical monuments an incalculable degree of historical and human emotional treasure will be lost from this dam.

The Mega Dam special gives some incredible insider looks into the control rooms of the power generation and shipping lock facilities as well as a brief look at some of the computer controls, which appear to have  very intuitive graphic interfaces.

A critic quoted in the film suggested that the benefits of the dam are effectively shipped off to big cities and larger farmers at the expense of the million plus Chinese who are getting displaced.     However other aspects of the story do not seem to support this vision because it appears that the relocated cities are generally of higher quality than those they are replacing.  One advocate suggested that this would be hard on the old relocated folks, but for the children the relocation would bring better health, education, and opportunity.

Discovery Channel Mega Dam Web page

Industry sponsored research? Leave it on the shelf!

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Over at Marketing Pilgrim, an excellent resource from Andy Beal and friends, I’ve been giving Jordan a hard time about citing a radio industry study that (surprise!) shows that radio is awesomely effective. I see a ton of this in the travel sector and these bogus studies that “prove” economic or advertising effectiveness are really starting to piss me off, because this is an abuse of the correct notion that research is a great way to measure the effectiveness of things. Ironically you don’t even need any “cheating” on these industry sponsored studies to get bad results for the reasons I discuss with Jordan below:

Joe Duck Says:
Supported with fundingprovided from Radio industry companies
Studies by agencies like this generally *will not* publish anything but favorable things about radio. All such industry sponsored research is therefore suspect.

Jordan McCollum Says:
Well, yes and no. They might not publish their studies that don’t have favorable results, but (I hope) they’re not screwing with their methodologies to produce results skewed in their favor in the experiments that they do publish.

And while increasing unaided recall 450% is a pretty nice stat, it’s the only concrete, conclusive, across-the-board improvement found in the study. The other positives were significant for some brands studied and not others, with aggregate totals of almost no change. That’s why I said that it can influence them, but “well-established brands” might not be as effective.

Thank you for the comment, though. You’re right–you gotta follow the money.

Joe Duck Says:
Jordan it’s a very slippery slope to use industry studies due to the selectivity, though it is really common. Interestingly studies like this don’t have to screw with anything at all to create problems for people who want unvarnished truth. Assume for example that they did 3 excellent, methodologically sound studies on this topic and 2 of them indicated “zero increase in unaided recall”. The logical research conclusion is to be skeptical of the recall claim, but if we only see the positive study we’ll draw wrong conclusions. It’s rarely this cut and dried and you rarely see industry studies with good sets of assumptions, so all I’m also suggesting that studies like this are better left on the shelf if you are building a quality marketing strategy. One should stick to research done by people or groups who will still be around regardless of the outcome of the research.

Mardis Gras a billion dollar tourism event? I’m skeptical.

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CNN just reported that New Orleans’ Mardis Gras can bring a billion dollars in economic benefits to New Orleans, though they implied it would be less this year with “only” 700,000 visitors to Mardis Gras this year.

I’m initially very skeptical of both these numbers. I was in New Orleans a few years ago and it sure didn’t look to me like the French Quarter could sustain anything approaching that number of people.

I’ll check up but I’m guessing this is a bogus statistic based on unreasonably large multipliers. It’s a common trick in tourism metrics used to justify budgets and ad campaign results, and greatly confuses analysis of the tourism situation in various regions.

Let’s run some fuzzy math here: The main thing at Mardis Gras is drinking. Let’s assume drinks reflect half the economic impact of the event and cost an average of $5 per drink. That would suggest that during Mardis Gras 1 million people drink …. 100 drinks each!?

More:

New Orleans CVB Economic Development report says 300 million impact of Mardis Gras, 5.5 Billion Annually from 10.1 million tourists. This is less than a third what was quoted by CNN for Mardis Gras, but still is a pretty unbelievable $545 per *person* per visit so I’d like to see where they are getting these numbers.