<![CDATA[baker travel & co - Blog]]>Tue, 07 Dec 2021 22:33:31 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[First Time Cruiser...Fun Times ]]>Thu, 23 Feb 2017 17:29:30 GMThttp://bakertravelco.com/blog/first-time-cruiserfun-times​It is almost intimidating when you see your ship for the first time. As a first time cruiser, you have an idea of what to expect but until you actually see it you really cannot fully comprehend the size of these ships. They are a complete marvel to see and even more impressive to board.
Not knowing what to expect, my anticipation was high and the Carnival Fantasy did not disappoint! It is one of the older ships own by Carnival, but you would not have known. The interior was beautiful and the atrium was beyond impressive. Although our room was small, it was the perfect size for the two of us.
We chose the ‘Faster to the Fun’ option, which was one of the best choices we made. This allowed us to do exactly as it sounds, get to the fun faster. It got you on board before others, into your room immediately, debarkation before others and many more perks. If your ship has this option, I highly recommend it.
We were unsure how we would know what, when and where everything was going on, but Carnival takes care of this too. ‘Fun Times’ is a daily schedule provided by your cabin steward. Every night when we would come back to the room we had a new towel animal and the next day’s ‘Fun Times,’ This was beyond beneficial and allowed us to fully plan the next day, without delaying the fun.
Between contests, shows, dancing and the casino there is something on board for every cruiser. This is especially true at Christmas time. There were extra shows and events to get involved in. The Grinch was even around causing mischief like always. I personally enjoyed the music trivia games. As our cruise director said, they were really more 2% trivia 98% party. We spent that time dancing and singing away in the atrium. There were game shows and deck parties, kid’s shows and bingo. There was no way you couldn’t find at least one thing on board to partake in.
Although there is plenty to do on board, a major part of a cruise is the ports and excursions. We had two stops, Cozumel and Progresso. If you are looking for shopping, Cozumel is the place to go. Every gift I wanted for others or myself, I found with no problem. As for a port to take an adventure in, Progresso was perfect. We took an excursion to Uxmal, a Mayan ruin. Our guide had so much knowledge and made this one of the most interesting tours I have ever been on. We were even able to climb one of the temples and it was amazing, even if I was exhausted by the time I reached the top.
There are so many things that could be discussed about a cruise, I could go on forever. I will say there is only one thing I did not like, the end. Due to the amount of fun, the end arrived quicker than I thought. However, if I was asked what a good vacation was I would encourage a cruise to anyone. I personally cannot wait for my next one.
]]><![CDATA[What the sliding Euro means to you]]>Sun, 29 Mar 2015 14:39:32 GMThttp://bakertravelco.com/blog/what-the-sliding-euro-means-to-youPicture
With the euro approaching parity with the United States dollar for the first time in over a decade, it’s time to dust off your passport, grab your wallet and embark on a shopping spree in Europe.  As recently as 2008, the euro was trading at $1.60. Whiles in Europe last week, it dipped below $1.05, just a hair above parity. (Among other conveniences, that eliminates the need to use a calculator while shopping or reading a menu.)  The weak euro increases demand from travelers spending dollars, sellers who cater to that market can quickly adjust prices, even if those prices are quoted in euros and the products are sold in Europe. Airfares between Europe and North America are determined by aggregate demand on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the supply offered by the carriers, and they’re not cheap: The round-trip coach fare between New York and Frankfurt next month on Singapore Airlines was over $1,200.  What does all this mean?  Bargain travel is out there, but you need an expert to guide you...

What day should you travel, Where should you stay,  How long should you stay?  BAKER TRAVEL & COMPANY, have affiliates all over the world.  It's our pleasure to place you with the best Resort, Vendor, and  Airlines that fit your special needs.  Although airfare to Europe is staying steady, when we bundle your package the savings are remarkable.  Hotel, entertainment, rail and excursions are all built into the package at a huge discount.....Our preferred suppliers have deals daily and steals, and we have special cruise amenities for particular sailings to Europe.

 The cheapest trip isn't the BEST vacation!  The Best vacation is one that is molded just for you...... Be sure and take advantage of the free service that Travel Agents provide.....We see a European Destination is in your future!!


]]><![CDATA[June 01st, 2013]]>Sat, 01 Jun 2013 13:46:15 GMThttp://bakertravelco.com/blog/june-01st-2013“YOU have a great gig,” I said to the mermaid as I sat down beside her in the
giant clamshell. “You don’t have to schlep around.” ...We pressed our heads together and smiled for a photograph as she replied, “But I wish I had legs.”        

So goes small talk in New Fantasyland, where old-guard princesses like Snow White and Cinderella are suddenly neighbors with the next generation of Disney box office royalty: Ariel of “The Little Mermaid” and Belle of “Beauty and the Beast.” The kingdom, you see, has undergone some changes.
        
 May 20th, 2013 - New Fantasyland — the largest expansion in the 41-year history of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla.  I was there to check out the new additions, including Ariel’s Grotto  (where, like me, visitors can have their picture taken with the Little Mermaid);  Bonjour! Village Gifts where aspiring princesses can snap up $64.95 Belle costumes; and the Be Our Guest Restaurant where, in defiance of Florida weather, soft, romantic snow perpetually falls outside the windows.        

Having been to this park more than two dozen times,  beginning with family vacations when I was ...., well younger.  I figured I was qualified to review an expansion. I remember gingerly wrapping my arms around Pluto, walking into the Haunted Mansion; fear rising in me like the ghosts that would soon materialize. I remember being surprised, as I peeked over the edge of my boat in It’s a Small World, to spy hundreds of pennies shimmering in the water. I wondered how many of those wishes would come true.  

So of course, I longed to see how Fantasyland had changed. At the same time, I was apprehensive. Might the old magic be eclipsed by slick, new attractions? Would Disney be able to strike a delicate balance between nostalgia and innovation? I came to find out.        

Fantasyland is the most popular land in the most popular Disney park in the world (the company has 11 theme parks in the United States, Europe and Asia). Still, Disney had a problem. It had successfully minted a new generation of princesses in movie theaters— but it had nowhere to put them in the park. Millions of little girls and boys grew up in the 1990s with “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Yet Ariel and Belle had neither ride nor realm in the Magic Kingdom.  If Disney were the White Rabbit, it might have been muttering to itself, “I’m late! I’m late! I’m late!” It was time to catch up. And so about five years ago the company’s Imagineers — who have expertise in 140 different disciplines like electrical engineering, landscape architecture and graphic design — began dreaming up ways to literally put visitors into their
favorite new fairy tales, from eating croque monsieur in the Beast’s castle upon
a hill, to riding through the Little Mermaid’s grotto under the sea. They devised methods to make meeting the characters from those tales more intimate (perhaps a bit too intimate in the case of the Little Mermaid, who poses with fans in a bandeau top) and more orderly than the street encounters that I grew up with, which could be chaotic. And while they were at it, they looked for ways to make waiting in line entertaining.        

To make all this fantasy a reality, Disney more than doubled the size of Fantasyland, to 21 acres from 10 acres. Along the way, there  were casualties, like Snow White’s Scary Adventures, a ride that had been in the  park since it opened in 1971. Purists grumble when a classic ride like that is  shuttered. Yet evolution is as much a part of Disney’s DNA as mouse ears. The parks are always changing. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park didn’t exist until I had my own children. Another year, I arrived to find beaches in a spot where I didn’t recall so much as a grain of sand.  A few weeks ago, I zoomed along on the newly re-engineered Test Track Presented by Chevrolet at Epcot.  As new Magic Kingdom attractions pop up, old favorites disappear, be it Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.        
  
And so it was with hope, and a hint of trepidation,  that I stepped into a new Fantasyland.      

 Inside, visitors meet Belle and use props to help  recreate the fairy tale. It’s part role-play, part princess meet-and-greet, and part of Disney’s broader plan to make visitors’ interaction with its characters  longer and more personal. As usual, I met characters mainly by stumbling upon  them in the streets: a delightful surprise. But because there were no lines, it generally rewarded only the pushiest children and paparazzi parents. The upside of the newer arrangements is that there are not only lines, but also Disney cast members to ensure that each child has a chance to meet a character. Plus, it  provides a splashier backdrop for photos. In Ariel’s Grotto, for instance, you meet the mermaid underwater in front of a supersized seashell.   Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid     

The trade-off, however, is serendipity: that lucky feeling when, out of the blue, you run into Donald Duck. When I asked an Imagineer about this, I was told there would still be street appearances, though I can’t help but wonder if there will be fewer of them. In 2013, other princesses — including Cinderella, Rapunzel and Tiana — will have their own  meet-and-greet domains in the new Princess Fairytale Hall, suggesting that
chance encounters on the sidewalks will be less frequent.        

Princesses aside, the real eye popper at  Enchanted Tales with Belle is Lumière, the flamboyant talking candelabrum from “Beauty and  the Beast,” and one of the most advanced Audio-Animatronics characters Disney has ever created. He moves with the whimsical, boneless freedom of a cartoon character and yet he is three-dimensional. As he sat atop a mantle talking to the audience, moving his eyes and lips and flailing his arms like a cartoon in 3-D form, I experienced what in Disney parlance is known as an “eyes up, jaws down” moment.  I was dazzled by the Audio-Animatronics in Pirates of the Caribbean. With age came the ability to see the workings of the magic. But Lumière makes even a grown-up say wow.        

 Lumière is among the first characters the Imagineers developed with Disney’s feature animation group. In the past, he  explained, Imagineers would gather in a room with, say, a mechanical hand and  attempt to interpret how a cartoon would move in three dimensions. But for Lumière they asked feature animation group members to translate their own  cartoon into three dimensions. The result? An astonishing re-creation of the original animation.  Pretty cool!      
 
THE “Beauty and the Beast” theme continued at the Be Our Guest Restaurant , Disney’s most immersive and sophisticated eating experience. The entire park is full of themed dining spots, like Tony’s Town Square Restaurant (inspired by “Lady and the Tramp”), but none as transporting.  At Be Our Guest, a stone bridge leads to wrought-iron gates and into the castle where there are three dining rooms. The main area is the ballroom with a 20-foot coffered ceiling painted with clouds and cherubs. Beyond 18-foot-tall windows, snow falls like ticker tape against a night sky.   But the most compelling room is the West Wing, modeled after the dark, forbidden space in the film. On a table, a glass bell jar containing a red rose slowly sheds its petals (the Beast can become a prince again only if he falls in love before all the petals fall off). I thought this dying rose effect was born of high-tech artistry, but Imagineers told me that it’s one of the oldest and simplest illusions: Pepper’s Ghost, named for the
scholar who popularized it, John Henry Pepper. “That effect is 100 years old,” 
referring to a technique that uses plate glass and lighting to make it seem as if objects are disappearing and reappearing. Also look for the portrait of the man over the fireplace: every so often lighting flashes and the portrait morphs from prince to Beast.        

During dinner, there is table service but at lunchtime, the restaurant goes high tech. Guests select what they want to eat from touch-screen computers. The process begins when you are given a “magic rose” to tap against the screen. After ordering and paying, you take the rose, pick a table and wait for your food to be delivered. Radio-frequency technology associates the rose with your order and enables waiters to find you. This is a game changer. Eating lunch in the parks has always necessitated a divide-and-conquer approach: Mom hunts for a table like a lion in the Serengeti while Dad stakes out the shortest food line. Both try not to lose the kids. This new system could restore sanity to lunchtime.  The “French-inspired” menu, with dishes like croquet  monsieur and whole roasted hen, does not seem wildly adventurous. But that’s true of most restaurants in the parks, which aim to please children as much as  adults.        

When just a snack will do, there is Gaston’s Tavern,  meant to evoke a French lodge with its antler light fixtures and hunting trophies. On the menu: roasted pork shank. “He’s a manly man,” said the Walt Disney World executive chef Lenny DeGeorge about Gaston, Belle’s narcissistic suitor. “Pork shank was just a natural choice.” Personally, I was pleased to see hummus and chips on the menu; it wasn’t always easy to find healthier fare.      
   
A BIG challenge for any theme park is line management, and Disney takes it seriously. There is typically something to do or watch to  take the pain out of waiting. And the lines in New Fantasyland are some of the most entertaining yet. In Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid, songs and Audio-Animatronics recreate the story of the animated film. Guests board clam-shaped vehicles that glide through various scenes, including the mermaid’s underwater grotto. The ride is similar to others Disney has done, but the line for it is more interesting because you can play a nifty game with digital crabs created using the Pepper’s Ghost effect.   Should you happen to be in line for Ariel’s Grotto at high noon on any Nov. 18 (Mickey Mouse’s birthday), you may find a “hidden Mickey” — images or outlines of Mickey Mouse that are slyly added to the design of a building or an attraction. There are hundreds of them in the parks (the book “Hidden Mickeys: A Field Guide to Walt Disney World’s Best Kept Secrets” attempts to catalog them) but on the 18th sunlight will stream through the rocks to create one of the most unusual (and fleeting) hidden Mickeys.       


These interactive lines have long been a Disney specialty, but even Disney found it challenging to wrangle people at Dumbo the Flying Elephant, which has been expanded and set in New Fantasyland.  August- 1994, Mike and I stood in line for two and a half hours in the heat so our boys could ride Dumbo;  Waiting in that line in the sweltering heat could sometimes feel more like an endurance test on “Survivor” than the prelude to soaring magical elephant. How to fix the line? Imagineers simply got rid of it.  Now, visitors enter an air-conditioned circus-themed play area with slides and  climbing nets. A sign says “Play while you wait!” Instead of standing in line,  guests receive a pager (it’s like being at the Cheesecake Factory) and can play  until they are notified it’s their turn to fly.   “What was a couple of minutes on Dumbo is now an  immersive 15 minutes,” said Phil Holmes, vice president of Magic Kingdom Park.  Although ....I saw some children more interested in hanging out in the play area than taking Dumbo for a whirl.  
     
The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train , is the 4th addition to the New Fantasyland and is scheduled to open in early 2014.  Guests will be taken on a magical journey on a rollicking, musical ride into the mine “where a million diamonds shine.” Sounds like a girls best friend ride!! 
 
NEW FANTASYLAND is cotton candy: light and sweet. It made room for princesses loved by Disney’s youngest fans without crowding out my memories.        

Other Disney parks are making changes, too.  I’m intrigued by the company’s collaboration with the filmmaker James Cameron on an  Avatar-themed land within Animal Kingdom (also in Florida).   Disney is revitalizing its Downtown Disney eating and entertainment area as well. One welcome addition is the opening of a  50,000 square-foot bowling, billiards and entertainment space called Splitsville Luxury Lanes. There is a sushi bar,  a D.J., and televisions on which to watch sports.        

For families, the sprawling new Art of Animation Resort opened in May and
offers cartoon-themed rooms. A Disney “value” resort, it has suites that sleep
up to six people starting at $248 a night.   The Grand Floridian will begin selling its vacation club suites in mid June, 2013 to non-members. 

10 P.M.- My feet where throbbing and I could hardly feel my legs.  From the early Extra Magic Hours, offered to Guests of select Walt  Disney World Resorts, to the spectacular "Wishes" fireworks display - we had managed to exhaust the day and ourselves.  As I was leaning down to gather my "things" someone said something I couldn't quite make out.....“Sorry?,” I said, looking up . I was tired and fighting a cold- The magic was fading.  Then the man leaned closer and said: “Have a great
day, princess.”  I felt the fairy dust; threw my bag on my shoulders and headed for Space Mountain, the park was staying open till Midnight! 


Attractions
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
it's a small world
Mad Tea Party
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Peter
Pan's Flight
Barnstormer
Ariel's Grotto
 
Dining
Gaston's Tavern
Cinderella's Royal Table
Pinnochio Village Haus
The Friar's Nook
Mrs. Potts' Cupboard
Enchanted Grove 
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