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.

Branson Missouri...Enjoy a Smoky Mountain Christmas...and Get a Branson Hotel

Branson Missouri has slowly crept into the conscienseness as being a destination resort. Branson has been heralded as one of the greatest cities to in having the most shows and theaters. Well if you happen to be in the Branson area there is a great celebration that the people from this charming town of the Ozark Mountains Celebrates each year. It's called the Smoky Mountain Christmas Celebration. The general time line of this celebration begins the day after the pumpkins are put away from Halloween and culimnates on New Year's Eve. This year, 2008 marks the 20th Annual Celebration of this Festival

Let's take a look at some of the great things to take part in at Branson's Smoky Mountain Christmas Celebration.

Silver Dollar City - This is a Theme Park in the area that offers rides, entertainment, shows and great food. Further, the park is modeled and themed for 1880's America. During the Smoky Mountain celebration the theme park turns into a winter wonderland. Every night during the Smoky Mountain Christmas Festival, Silver Dollar City puts on a wonderful Christmas Parade that includes floats that have over 100,000 Christmas lights combined on them. Imgaine pulling that line of lights out of a knot.

DollyWood - Named after the famous entertainer Dolly Parton, this theme park is just as wonderful for the Smoky Mountain Christmas Celebration. This year Dollywood's theme is Babes in Toyland. This is a wonderul musical that has over 20 people in the production and is backed by a tremendous professional orchestra. The show is put on every night and will run to January 3rd 2009.

Last on our tour of Branson's Christmas Bonanza is the Shepherd of the Hills Trail of Lights. I can honestly say words don't do it justice, because it really is amazing. The drive is called the Magical Christmas Wonderland and takes the tour of the entire city up to what is called Inspiration Tower.

This weekend you might be able to find some great Branson Hotel Deals. The average rates I'm seeing right now fora stay starting tomorrow, December 20th, are about $100 a night. Remember I said average, which includes the higher end properties. One of the more incredible spots is the Chateau on the Lake in Branson. Another solid property to visit is the Radisson Hotel Branson. Both hotels are offering rates in the neighborhood of $129 and $69 respectively.

For more information about the Smoky Mountain Christmas or for more information about Branson Missouri and all there is to see and do check out the link provided.

Christmas in Italy...Traveling to Rome During the Holiday Season..

Our gregoreous and happy go lucky purple ape, known to many you affectionately sure does love to travel. Oddly, as he was reviewing the posts to his blog he realized that he has neglected to talk about the beauty and style of destinations outside of the United States. Once again, trying to maintain a theme of reflecting on the holiday season our simian friend thought it would be fun to discuss both traveling to a destination outside of the United States and doing so doing the Holiday season. That is, what kind of traditions, fun, events, etc, etc, could the would be traveler find should he or she venture to a foreign land during the holiday season. We chose the beautiful and ancient city of Rome Italy.

If any of you out there have family or friends of Italian desent, or have the priviledge of being so, you can all attest that the traditions, feast and events surrounding the Holiday season for the Italians is bright, fun and festive. Oh, yeah, and the food is just incredible. Venturing outside to Italy itself does offer a slight variation on the traditions and foods one might find in an Italian American household or party during the Holiday season. If you do happen to go on a Rome Italy Vacation, and it is during the festive holiday season here are somethings to expect. What one has to remember is that Rome, as a city, is ancient and much of the traditions for Christmas date back to the actual Roman Empire era or antiquity. One of the traditions that was very common in Italy, but I have reccently found out, is that during the Christmas season the Holiday is ushered in by festivities including fifers, or to best translate, musicians that play a bagpipe type of instrument. The sound carries through the city and really offers a "feel" to the season. As I mentioned, sadly, this tradition is fading from the scene. Now unlike the United States, in Italy a decorative Nativity scene is the focal point of decorations in homes and around the city. Another difference in Italy is the legend of Santa Clause. Children in Italy still look fondly to Christmas to venture to sleep and but look to a female version known as La Befana. This Christmas gift giver is said to fly around on a broom but their night comes on the day of January 6th for the Feast of the Epiphany. The day to celebrate the arrival of the three Wise Men visiting baby Jesus.

There are many other great traditions, but you can see for each country a little something different and wonderful is a part of the tradition. If you happen along to Rome Italy, be sure to enjoy all the holiday has to offer.