Go Back to the 70's and Dance Your Disco at Boogie Nights in Atlantic City.

For some the 1970's meant high gas prices and long lines at the pump. To others it was a weird time between the 1960's and 1980's. Well whatever it meant to you if you were there, or if you wanted to experience it for yourself, there's a club in Atlantic City at Resorts Casino called Boogie Nights. 

As the song that carries the same moniker of the club "Ain't no Doubt we are here to Party" and the fun is hot in this throwback of a dance club on the boardwalk.  Resorts Atlantic City Hotel Casino dubs the club as the "ultimate 70's and 80's dance club" where patrons can find great specials on Friday and Saturday Nights. 

The club gets grooving at 9pm and admission is $10 regular and free for Elite and Ultra Members. You can also get reservations for a table at Boogie Nights for a VIP Table. Call 609-340-7698.

Get your polyester shirts out and go have some fun in Atlantic City with Boogie Nights.

Spring Training is Just around the Corner. Why not catch the Action in Florida.

It seems just like last week that Travel Ape's beloved Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball won the World Series. Well as quick as the time has passed since that rainy week in October of 2008, the new MLB Season is almost upon us as teams prepare to organize for spring training.

Few places capture the esssence of spring training like that of the state of Florida. Cities from across the state of Florida have clamored and held their fingers in hopes of being chosen as a spot for a Major League team to host their spring training. Here's a few place and cities across Florida that might be worth checking out if you are also interested in taking a vacation to escape the cold of winter. Spring Training for all teams begins officially February 25th, 2009.

There are about 14 teams in the MLB that have a city in Florida be there home away from home during spring training. We'll highlight some of the top teams and provide links for checking out prices and rates on hotels for the cities that the teams are located during spring training. Trust me, if you've never thought about it, mixing in a trip to Florida with sping training is one of those little thought of ideas that are golden. The tickets for exhibition games are a fraction of the price for games during the regular season. So we'll let you know where the teams train and give you links for checking out hotel rates in those areas.

First to the defending World Series Champions, the Fighting Philadelphia Phillies. The Phillies have been training in Clearwater Florida for some time. There should be some extra excitement around camp this year due to the World Series victory. Check out rates for Clearwater Hotels for the end of February.

Next we have the New York Yankees. Sure the Bronx Bombers had a disappointing season last year, but the Yanks are still a major brand in sports recongnized world wide. The New York Yankees train up and around the Tampa Florida area. We just checked and it looks like there are some great deals for Tampa Hotels around the time that spring training begins. It also might be a good strategy to check out dates the few weeks following the beginning of spring break for even better deals.

Last on this list we decided to go with the Boston Red Sox. Yeah, we know, another team that came up a little short, but come on, they almost made it back to the fall classic. And yes, we're fully aware that we have two American League teams featured. Not done on purpose. To that end the Boston Red Sox have been training in and around the Fort Myers Florida area for many years now. There has been some talk about the team moving to another location in the state of Florida, but for now they are staying put. The Fort Myers area is actually unique because it's located around several other key tourist destinations including Naples, Cape Coral and Port Charlotte. All are located along the gulf coast and make for great places to stay and visit. Palm trees abound. Check out complete Fort Myers hotels with this link including rates, reviews and maps.

We're doing our homework about the teams that use Arizona as their homes during spring break and will have info about them in our next post. Until then, for all you hardcore baseball fans only 25 days and counting till spring break begins.

Some Rides at Epcot So Real Even though Virtual.

Travel Ape and I happened to be discussing the changing nature of amusement and rides found at some of the best and brightest theme parks in the world. Much of the conversation was how much the evolution of virtual reality rides.  I happened to mention, and this was from over ten years ago, the incredible realistic feeling the Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios Orlando was to me. Travel Ape, being the man that he is, had to one up me. The story he told blew me away and has me wanting to get a trip to Florida just to take a ride on the "Mission to Mars".

The Mission to Mars ride is located at the Epcot section of the Walt Disney World Resort. The ride was unofficially opened to test the likes and dislikes of users in August 2003. Since then the ride has, for lack of better words and no pun intended, skyrocketed to being one of the most sought after theme park rides to try.  An excerpt from a press release by Disney themselves have the description as "Guests who accept the mission will engage in a one-of-a-kind astronaut experience that launches them into a simulated space adventure -- from pulse-racing liftoff to the sensations of traveling though outer space on a mission to Mars. The new attraction is the most technologically advanced ever created by Disney. In association with former NASA advisors, astronauts and scientists, Walt Disney Imagineering developed Mission: SPACE as the first ride system ever created to take guests straight up in simulated flight."

This description doesn't do the ride any justice. Travel Ape went on to tell me that the reality of the scenides that get the hair on the back of your neck standing up and your stomach doing tumble saultses, the way the ride moves, the propulsion felt was worse than any real life roller coaster he'd ever braved to partake. Travel Ape really is a pain in the back rear when it comes to giving away to many secrets of fun he'd like to have his friends try, but what he did say was that if you've ever seen one of those centrifuge machines they have in movies where astronauts are training, I'd have a pretty decent idea of one of the things I'd be getting myself into by going on the ride. The final assessment was he'd never come close to feeling like he was about to vomit, but by the end of the ride, had it gone just 5 more seconds, that would have inevitably happened. A glowing endorsement or a stark warning I still can't tell. All I can say is that if you are an action junky and love rides that get the hair on the back of your neck standing up and your stomach doing tumble saults

A Time for Excellence in a Dying Economy.

Recently a friend of TravelApe's spoke to him about the utter frustration he had with the site Hot Wire. Hot Wire, for those of you who may not know, is a site that offers a unique pricing mechanism while looking for travel services. Specifically, as it relates to this post, we'll be discussion the booking of hotels.

Well to eliminate much of the waste in the story I'll provide some big facts. First, the friend was looking to book a reservation for a hotel for a destination in Florida. To that end, it took him 6 tries to book the reservation during which time his reservation was not confirmed, but either a hold was placed on the cash in the account being used to make the purchase or actually removed from the account where a refund was necessary.  All totaled the friend had about $1200 "out there" that needed to be accounted for and where services were not delivered. 

In this day and age, where the economy is tumbling, where consumer confidence is dwindling by the day the major brands in the world need to pay attention even greater than they ever have before, to help reverse these trends. Poor service, confusion on the web sites, frustrated consumers only magnify the situation. The trend is a familiar one and scary. First the economy is bad anyway so people stop making purchases. Then those that do make purchases run into the bad issues with Hot Wire that I spoke about above in this post. What comes next, the obvious, less people use the service. The effect then is that Hot Wire as a business loses credibility and there goes the dynamite !!

Travel conglomerates like Hotels.com, Priceline and Travelocity, in addition to smaller brands like TravelApe.com and Reserve Vacations need to seize this opportunity to show greatness in a declining market. The markets, God willing, will rebound, and consumers will return. That being said, those brands and companies that stand the sizable tides in front of them and weather the storms will be those that survive for a long time to come.

Find Hotels in Florida.

Sticking with a little bit of a theme due to the excessive cold that old man winter is sticking it to the North East of the United States we at Travel Ape have been looking into options to get to warmer weather. It appears that the best bet, as it were, for vacations is either in Southern California or Sunny Florida. Today we'll give some options for Florida. 

A great site that we've noticed and have had some communication with is State of Florida Hotels.  Now before we go any further just one note. The site is very simple, but trust us it's chock full of complete information related to hotels and the cities all over Florida. That being said, let us be completely clear so you really see the full value of this site. State of Florida Hotels doesn't just offer information and hotel information for the major destinations, but to almost every city in the state that has a hotel, motel or some kind of commercial accommodations.

Sure you can find great information for Orlando Hotels, Miami Hotels and Fort Lauderdale Hotels, but there are many other great cities that you can check out. Just so we continue to offer solid info here are some featured hotels and pricing for these major destinations. If you're looking to escape to the American Riveria of Miami and it's famed beaches we'd like to suggest one of the best hotels in the entire area, the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort and Club Miami Hotel located at 19999 West Country Club Drive in Miami. Ok, the rates I'm about to quote may seem excessive, but this is one incredible hotel located in the heart of paradise. If you book a hotel room there rates are about $400 a night. If you have the cash don't miss out on this fabulous hotel. If you head a little North of Miami to Fort Lauderdale we suggest getting right on to the beach. The hotel of choice, the Sheraton Yankee Clipper Resort. When we checked for rates at this hotel for this coming week the average price seemed to vary in the hundreds. Definitely worth a look.  Last if you want to maybe get to Florida but have some family you need to bring along obviously Orlando is the choice. The Buena Vista Suites Orlando Hotel is the perfect choice. Here you get great quality, your near the main gates of Disney World and the price is perfect at about $140 a night. That's fantastic.

Of course there are many other destinations worth checking out if you get the chance to go to Florida, and the site offers equal the information about Tampa Hotels, Fort Myers Hotels, Key West Hotels and Naples Hotels. 

Whatever you do if Florida is on the map for a trip this site is very much a great place to check out. 

A Great Site for Unique Vacation Packages.

Every once and a while we at TravelApe.com come across some unique places to find travel and travel related services. Recently that has happened once again, as we have stumbled across Reserve Vacations, a great place to find unique vacation packages.

Now what makes ReserveVacations.com so unique. First, the pricing. You'll find vacation packages that have accommodations that are priced at up to 75% discount on regular rates for hotel rooms. That's not a misprint. At a high level you can find up to 75% off regular rates. Second, the packages come with great premiums.  The one catch is that many of the resorts that offer packages are time share properties and require a 90 minute to 2 hour tour and exhibit to get the deal. I know, I know, the phrase time share connotates scam or too goo to be true. That being said, and having done a little home work on the topic, this image really is unfounded, especially as of late. The timeshare industry has undergone a dramatic change and shift from this image and the big thing is the vacation packages do not require that a purchase be made. Just enjoy the facility, take up to, at most, 2 hours out of your trip and you get a deal that can't be matched. 

You'll find like with an Orlando Vacation Package, premiums that offer 2 free passes to the gems of the theme park world in Disney World, Sea World Orlando and Universal Studios Florida. One such great Orlando Vacation Package called the Family Disney Fun Vacation offers such a deal with 2 day passes to Disney World. Or how about with a group of Myrtle Beach Vacation Packages that offer great golf packages or simple vacations. One featured Myrtle Beach Vacation Package offers what is called the Golfer's Dream and can be found at Myrtle Beach Golf Vacation Package for $199 for 4 Days and 3 Nights, full accommodations plus two rounds of golf that include a cart. I'm talking about incredible rates.

The only issue we've found is that transportation to and from the destinations are not included in the packages. It can be a little bit of a pain to organize the flight if the destination is a little far away, but again, with rates like these it's worth a look. Reserve Vacations has a section for Hot Vacation Deals and is worth a look periodically if you're thinking about taking a vacation soon. 

Spirit Airlines Showing Cracks in the Armor.

As many of you may or may not know our friend Travel Ape has headed south, and in good time, to miss out on the cold of the Northeast. Well good for him. That being said, however, in a phone conversation yesterday I can tell you that our Symian Friend was not very happy with his flying experience on Spirit Airlines. To say it bluntly Spirit Airlines wasn't good.  Now let me remind all of you that in the past and for quite some time Travel Ape has been very happy with his traveling service brought by Spirit. It just seemed like from the very beginning that there were going to be issues. 

In the first place, the only flight offered to his destination, which was the South West Region of Florida heading to places like Bonita Springs, Naples, and Fort Myers departed at 7:30am in the morning. Doing what he always does, Travel Ape headed to the airport to arrive at 1o minutes to 6am to find a line out the door. The Spirit Airlines staff only had 4 people at the counters and the line moved very slow. Having worked his way through the gauntlet he next came to another long line, but in all fairness this was managed by the staff of the Atlantic City International Airport.  Now to be fair to Spirit Airlines, it appeared that this point in the trip was where things went sour. Travel Ape conceded that, although he had never been to prison, the style and manner in which the staff cattle prodded people through the line and the way they spoke to people, including senior citizens, reminded him of what he had seen as new inmates came off buses and were being brought into the state pen for the first time. Next due to the short amount of time from being let into the gate area to being able to sit down and eat, he had literally 15 minutes and they started to board the plane. 

It only got worse for some reason. The plane was delayed because the staff had not cleaned it from the previous flight nor was able to, in a timely manner, de-ice the wings and then the flight itself took more than 45 minutes than was expected. 

Again, many of the issues may have to be just chalked up to acts of God, but in the totality of things, Spirit Airlines needs to address these issues. One such thing that has nothing to do with the flight itself is the very booking process on the site. There used to be such an easy interface to book seats after the reservations were made, but now for the last two flights that Travel Ape has used Spirit Airlines the interface was impossible.

I'm sure he speaks for most when he prays and hopes that Spirit's Brass see the issues and we'll address the issues quickly and efficiently. The travel world is bad enough without having issues of bad customer service.

Getaway to Florida before the Snow Hits - A Message to the Northeast United States.

Ok, maybe the title to this blog post is not fair, but if you have the means and money heading to Florida, and doing it soon is the right move. Travel Ape sure is doing it. On Monday morning Travel Ape will be heading to the West Coast of Florida to visit places like Naples, Fort Myers Beach, Bonita Springs, Marco Island and other great places along the coast.

If you haven't heard, the Northeast is about to be socked with some dreary weather adding to it possible snow fall. It is fortuitous though, because Travel Ape hadn't planned on leaving on a whim, he had his trip booked for over a month now. It just looks like genius.

To that end here are some cool places that Travel Ape plans on visitng while on the Gulf Coast of Florida.

First to Naples Florida. Of course we have to give out the gratuitous pointers to Naples Hotels and one Featured hotel in Naples, Florida being the Quality Inn and Sainte Golf Resort located at 4100 Golden Gate Parkway. To that end while in Naples Travel Ape will definitely be making his way to the famed Fifth Avenue Block of Naples. This really is a wonderful place that he's dubbed the mini-rodeo drive of the Gulf Coast. You'll find hip places to drink plus any number of great restaurants. From European style dining to eclectic fare you'll find it on Fifth Avenue.

Next to Fort Myers Beach, where again, we'll offer some Fort Myers Hotels suggestions and this one featured Fort Myers hotel, the Hyatt Coconut Plantation Fort Myers Hotel located at 1800 Coconut Plantation Drive, which is actually in Bonita Springs, but if you know the area they are right near each other. Now when Travel Ape heads to Fort Myers he loves to go to this little out of the way place called Junkanoo on the Beach Bar and Restaurant. If you look at the link provided you'll see that this place has what Florida is all about. An open bar to the beach and some of the best sites you'll see. You'll think you're in heaven.

If you don't have the time, money or resources to get to Florida, that's ok. Travel Ape will have plenty to tell you about so you can plan very soon to get down there.

 

Preparing for the Super Bowl in Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay is home to the 2009 Super Bowl, or better stated Super Bowl XLIII. The game will be played at the home field of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccanneer's, Raymond James Stadium on February 1st 2009. Now that all of the formalities are out of the way, Travel Ape is here to offer a little bit of advice on what to do and see if you're lucky enough to be visiting the Tampa Bay area for this year's Super Bowl. 

Tampa is a great city to visit regardless if it is hosting a Super Bowl or not, but with all the fanfare that an event like this can offer, the city will truly be jumping the week of the Super Bowl. Ok for starters let's get to some tips about what to do for game day. Do yourself a favor and look up your seats and the complex parking lot to see what section best suits you for parking and will be available that day. The information is provided directly off of the official Raymond James Stadium Web Site. Now for the schedule of game day openings we have 9am the NFL controlled parking lots will allow cars to begin to park. This will allow visitors and ticket holders to be there for the 11am NFL Experience event. Then at 2pm the stadium will be open for seating.

There may be some very little help to find any number Tampa Bay Hotels at this point but here are some hotels that are still available. The La Quinta Inn and Suites Tampa has an incredible deal for $199 a night from January 30th to February 1st. The Howard Johnson Express Suites has room rates available for the same time period at $254.15 a night.

I can't say for how long that these rates or even availability will be around for long, so if you've decided to attend this year's Super Bowl jumping on the rates available now would be advisable. 

Three Great Golf Courses in Myrtle Beach

Myrtle Beach is syonomous with golfing. To some it's considered to be a mecca of golf to others the golf capital of the world. We've tried to get an official number but its figures that Myrtle Beach offers more than 100 golf courses in the city alone. To try and sum up the Top Golf Courses in Myrtle Beach is not an easy thing to do so we've gone out to our members. Criteria such as difficulty, layout, location, services were all taken in to consideration. Here are some of the results. We offer to you the TravelApe.com members Top Three Myrtle Beach Golf Courses.

The Dye Course at Barefoot Resort - The Barefoot Resort in Myrtle Beach is home to four courses, but the Dye Golf Course is the signature golf course to this resort area. The Dye Course is named aptly for its' designer Pete Dye. Be forewarned, this is not a course that a beginner should take on his or her first shot out. The Dye Course is notoriously known for being extremely challenging even to the most skilled golfer. All totaled the course is laid out in over 7,000 yards and is a Par 72. Greens Fees are a little pricey too, for a round of golf can go anywhere from $100 to $180. With all the pitfalls and difficulties the course offers there is no way to discount the beauty of the landscape. This course is a work of art. The Dye Course at Barefoot Resort lies along the coastline that gives way to beautiful white sands of the Myrtle Beach back bays. Of course with a golf course such as this the play is not only the highlight of your visit. You can enjoy Five Star Dining or partake in any number of other great amenties the resort has to offer.

The True Blue Plantation Golf Club - This public golf course is one of the most famous in the world of golf. Offering over 7,000 yards of links and a Par 72, this well manicured, curvaceous course is magnificent. A few of the top features of the True Blue Plantation Golf Course is the significant elevation changes from hole to hole and from tee to greens. To add a little more to the list of awards and credentials of True Blue Plantation, Golf Digest named it as one of the Top 50 Golf Courses in the United States. From our research we've found out that a lot of changes and "fixes" were made to fill in waste areas and bunkers and to redo a good portion of the links.

Rivers Edge Golf Club - This golf course is a dream. The Rivers Edge Golf Club was designed by none other than Arnold Palmer. This golf course offers a 72 Par Handicap with about 6,900 yards of links. Greens fees are actually not bad, relative to other courses in Myrtle Beach, where the average greens fees are $89 to $109. To that end just as it was stated with the Dye Course, the Rivers Edge Golf Course is very difficult. The word punishing actually came up several times when this course was discussed. For the golfer, sure playing the game and withstanding the pressure each one puts upon himself is a rush, but we can not discount the beauty and magesty that many of these courses have to offer. The Rivers Edge Golf Course is named so for just the reason of it's location. It is located and situated along the Shallotte River.

We will be coming back with more reviews of golf courses as time passes and as always we welcome the comments and questions by you our users. Till then good golfing.

Happy New Year from TravelApe.

The fanfare is mostly behind us. The holiday season is making it's last whimper into the cold and new beginning of January as 2009 greets all of us. On behalf of the great Travel Ape and all of his friends we wish all of our supporters, contributors, friends, acquaintances the best in the New Year.

Some very exciting things are happening at TravelApe.com in 2009. Towards the end of 2008, as many of you have seen with our posts here, Travel Ape is expanding and upgrading its content and the number of destinations it covers. Further, TravelApe also introduced new travel products and services to its vacation package section with unique vacation packages.  TravelApe.com has become the wise man on the block, as it were, having successfully completed it's 8th Year online in February 2008 and about to celebrate year number nine in less than a month. Once again we've found another great partner in ReserveVacations.com  .  Reserve Vacations LLC, the parent company of the website offers unique vacation packages to great destinations. To make it easier follow the accompanying links for Cancun Vacation Deals, Atlantic City Resort Packages, Las Vegas Vacations, Williamsburg Travel, Branson Vacation Deals, Myrtle Beach Resort Deals, Pigeon Forge Vacation Packages and most recently Orlando Vacations.  

You can follow some of the new sections on Travel Ape with these other helpful links. Orlando Vacation Package, Atlantic City Vacation Packages, Myrtle Beach Vacation Packages, Pigeon Forge Vacation Packages and Branson Vacation Packages. Again, a lot of exciting things are happening. 

Keep coming back and keep visiting the main site of TravelApe.com. We pride ourselves in extracting the fun that is out there and we're pretty happy with what we can offer.