Roadboy's 2014

Should Be Exciting

Roadboy consistently avoids making New Years Resolutions. I find them to be a waste of time.

Instead on New Years I bring out a spreadsheet that I've updated for years. I use it as a planning tool to contemplate long-term travel plans. It overlays work and anticipated family milestones with opportunities for travel. I also use it to confirm prior year goals.

The key is to write things down. When I write my goals down, they seem much more likely to become real.

Well, my list is full!

And (with any luck) will stay full till I die!

I still have South America (Brazil, Patagonia, Mendoza, and Iguazu Falls) on my list. I still plan on a 6 month sabbatical to live in Guadalajara Mexico where I will take cooking and Spanish Language immersion classes. There is Machu Picchu awaiting. Across the ocean there is Tahiti, Bora Bora and the South Pacific. I still have a return visit to mainland China on my list. There is an African photo safari in there somewhere. And finally here is a trip to Istanbul and the Greek isles.

As the last few years of my life have been a bit chaotic, some of my goals have moved forward and some unexpected and spontaneous trips have emerged.

This year my daughter has decided to relocate to London for 6 months starting in the Spring. So I'll be using that opportunity to visit the UK. The trip will also allow time for a "roots" tour of Ireland.

Happy New Year!


Roadboy's Travels © 2013

Looking Toward 2014

Peering Into Roadboy's Crystal Ball.....

Well for us road warriors, 2014 will clearly usher in significant change.

Hotels:
Expect to see lots of change in the hospitality industry. The seeming avalanche of "rebranding" will continue. What used to be a Hilton hotel may well be a Doubletree on your next trip. It seems like some hotel chains are finding it much easier to upgrade and rebrand their tired flagship properties, rather than undertake the type of renovation needed to maintain 'flagship" quality. So we can expect a lot of superficial paint and finish upgrades. The old toilet will remain but the shower will be surrounded in new tile.

As sad as this can seem, I must admit I prefer re-branding to what happened to many old Sheraton properties a couple of decades ago when the once venerable "Sheraton" brand was allowed to rapidly deteriorate. It got to the point where a visit to a Sheraton was an inconsistent hit-or-miss affair that spanned from great to really decrepit.

Hilton is the chain I'll watch the closest in 2014. Hilton was "flipped" (again) in late 2013 by its private equity owners. Sadly, when hotels slip into a series private equity potato tosses, they tend to simply extrude short term profits at any cost. Room rates go up and maintenance goes down. It may well also result in the degradation of the perks enjoyed by their most loyal customers. I am a diamond Hilton HHonors member, so I hope I'm totally wrong.

However, if I am right this situation will pose a dynamic window of opportunity for Starwood and/or Hyatt to attract many fXus once loyal Hilton HHonors clients ands sprint ahead in market share.

Hotels Become More Global
2014 will almost certainly witness the rapid transformation of an increasingly worldwide hotel industry. More boutique international chains will likely venture into the US. Hopefully even smaller chains like the wonderful Spanish Room Mate chain will choose to expand in key US markets. Even Ikea is starting a hotel chain.

And, some high dollar recent expansions suggest that the superb Asian Langham Hotel chain is positioning itself for substantial growth in North American. And while domestic chains seem bent on  reducing the value of our points (pissing off their most loyal customers), Langham has developed an amazing loyalty program.

Co-Branding
Marriott seems to be steadily enhancing its selection of fine Autograph and Edition "code sharing" properties. I can only say "awesome!" Marriott also announced it will soon introduce America to Europe's design-forward and meticulously run AC Hotels.

Repackaging to the Millennials
Many hotel chains are currently working very hard in their "design labs" to create a new generation of hotels that are xvzmore stylish, techno friendly and functional.

While I certainly welcome creative enhancements I have to stress that hotelier's keep their eyes on the ball. In my last three stays in Homewood Suites and two Doubletree's I had one toilet that didn't flush, one heater that didn't heat, and one shower drain that didn't drain....

So....I ask Hotelier's to, first and foremost, remember that what Road Warriors really want are:
• Quiet rooms with acoustically rated doors.
• Great beds made up with great linens (Most of us don't care if we get 50 pillows).
• Rooms that have no smell of mold or mildew.
• TV remote controls that actually work.
• Luxury shampoo's and conditioners.
• At least two decent sized trash cans and one decent sized recycle bin.
• Robust WiFi that delivers netflix.
• AC's that cool quietly in summer.
• Heater units that heat quietly in winter without smelling like burning dust.
• Toilets that effectively flush and do not run all night.

And most of all.....
• Showers and sinks that drain (standing in water YUK!)

Frequent Flier /Loyalty Programs
Ever notice that as fast as most of us assemble frequent flier points, the airlines and hotel chains are annually increasing the redemption requirements for our points making sure that our hard-won points become less and less valuable.

So start using them!

Airlines:
The "New" American

The slowly improving US Airways will soon evaporate just like America West did before it.

As soon as the federally imposed 4-year moratorium expires, expect the "new" American to immediately recompose its hub and spoke airports. There will likely be some big winners and there will be some big losers (remember how PIT was decimated after the collapse of the old US Air?). I am confident Sky Harbor will not be one of the losers.....

I mean being that most fliers hate LAX almost as much (if not more than) Atlanta and O'Hare, preserving Sky Harbor seems logical.

I also predict the new American will absorb all of the bad characteristics of American's rather awful frequent flier and first class upgrade policies, while allowing all of US Airway's best perks to evaporate. New American! Please make this Chairman a liar!

Southwest
In 2014 Southwest will end its much loved free checked baggage policy. They will also institute change fees. Deal with it.

Southwest's cabins will also lose that beloved legroom as their planes undergo reconfiguration. Seat cushions will shrink and an additional row of seats will get jammed into all those 737's.

As I've lamented in the past, IMHO Southwest has lost its way. All of the distinguishing features that made it special are continuing to disappear one by one. I'm sure a lot of the die hard Southwest fans will still keep flying it. But, it now frequently offers the highest fares and is rapidly becoming "just another airline".

Violence in Coach

New and reconfigured airplanes cabins are being designed to serve an increasingly poor America.

Hence, already cramped coach cabins are going to become (impossible you say!) even more cramped. Expect to see the end of reclining seats.

Sadly, as all studies show, such conditions will result in increasing violence.

Business / First Class Become More Lavish
Just as the evaporation of our middle class is resulting in more hellish coach cabins, the increasing concentration of wealth by America's uber rich is resulting in airlines starting to add lavish (and breathtakingly costly) new classes of business and first class cabins on domestic transcontinental flights.

On the other side of the drapes the 1% that does not own their own private jets will enjoy new business and first class cabins similar to those offered on long-haul transoceanic flights. Imagine Jet Blue with a section in front featuring lay-flat beds. Well Jet Blue's slumber suites are on the way.

The 1% have made it clear they are more that happy to pay whatever it takes ($3,000 to $4,000) to avoid having to share the misery found in the back of the plane.

Luxury Buses
As airline coach cabins become more and more awful, I expect more and more of the point-to-point luxury bus lines to emerge. Where they are starting to appear, they run from downtown to downtown, offer clean spacious cabins in new buses. They offer power for your tablet and free wifi. As travelers become more aware of their service I believe they will expand mainly in high traffic corridors.

Rental Cars
Rental car companies are in a state of absorption. And product identity just gets more and more confusing. All of the big legacy rental car companies struggle to figure out how to market their newly acquired "leisure" market rental companies.

Expect some new names too ("Firefly" has emerged at many of Thrifty's locales.)

And, as the big car rental firms price themselves into oblivion, expect to see the continuing expansion of the upstarts. Fox, EZ and Advantage all seem to be improving while offering rental rates that are typically 1/2 what you'll pay at Avis or Hertz. And their cars are frequently newer and cleaner. Of course the shuttle experience on the upstarts is typically spotty and miserable.

Ahhh Roadboy's crystal ball is now becoming cloudy....


Roadboy's Travel © 2013

Christmas in Cars Land

Shiny as a New Hubcap

Update 2014

After such a nice holiday visit in 2013 Team Roadboy visited Disneyland, California Adventure and Universal Studios again in 2014. This time we attempted to visit New Years Eve,  New Years Day and the following Saturday.  

While I contend the parks are at their finest between Thanksgiving and New Years, I must advise against visiting the days just before and after Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Years.  The crowds are just too overwhelming.  See resulting blog post: Universal Nightmare.

Had the chance to visit California Adventure last week.  What a joy! All my favorite rides were open. It has been a few years for me and this trip I see that they have completely reworked a new entry (Buena Vista Street), added Cars Land and a first rate sit-down restaurant (Carthay Circle). The seasonal Worlds of Color Christmas show was spectacular and the whole park was festooned for the holidays.

By the way (as always) these photos are embedded at full resolution. Feel free to click them to see more detail!

  

The New Carthay Circle 

Restaurant and Lounge

(Home to the Member's Only Club 1901)

My Favorite Photo of Walt Disney

In The Shadow is His Favorite  Mouse

(The Photo Was in a Private Dining Room in The Restaurant)

A little digression; the real Carthay Circle was actually the theater built in 1929 at 6316 San Vincente Boulevard in LA. It carried sentimental value to Disney since it premiered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia (for which a sophisticated new sound system was installed). 

The original theater was decorated with early California motif's and unique in that it had a circular auditorium. Sadly, it was demolished in 1969. 

The new Cars Land was great. The imagineer's attention to detail is simply amazing. 

Radiator Springs Racers Zip By 

The Peaks Are An Homage to Classic Cadillac Tailfins

Christmas At Cars Land

Dining at The V8 Cafe

The "off season" near the holidays is a particularly great time to visit California Adventure and Disneyland! So go enjoy some Disney Magic. A word of advice, if you go over the holidays avoid weekends if you can. Except for Thanksgiving Thursday's and Fridays are typically perfect and have reasonably long hours! 

Roadboy's Travels © 2013

Roadboy's Visit To Hollywood's Magic Castle

Just Whisper The Magic Words To Enter

For years I've heard about a club located at 7001 Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood Hills known as the Magic Castle. This is a one-of-a-kind club that is the exclusive domain of magicians. Every night  members practice their craft and perform both up-close and formal magic shows. Members and their guests from round the world come here to attend the presentations.

But, being a private members-only club, no one gets in without an invitation from a member.

Period.

Hollywood's Magic Castle

In 2013 the castle celebrates its 50th year. So this is the year I decided to finagle a visit. To do so I used the one loophole available to non-members. If you book a night in its adjoining Magic Castle Hotel you may ask them to book you a visit to the club.

Except for brunches on weekends club guests must be 21 years of age, pay a guest fee ($20) and book dinner in the club's dining room. But, after dinner you have full run of the club. 

Guests must adhere to a strict dress code (suit and ties for men, evening attire for women). No photos are allowed once inside the club. 

The building was created from the 1910 Rolin B. Lane mansion. In fact, the development of the Academy of Magical Arts and the club itself were the defining factors that saved the mansion from the wrecking ball in 1961. It opened as the Magic Castle in 1963.

The "castle" is much larger than it appears. After registering in the reception lobby you whisper the magic words and a bookshelf slides open offering you entry to the club. 

There are multiple bars, a small gift shop, an elaborately decorated dining room, a seance room, and a variety of showrooms. There is even a magic piano whose ghost (Irma) plays requests when guests leave a tip in her empty birdcage nearby.

We arrived for dinner at 6 PM and then enjoyed presentations by 4 magicians. There were 13 different performers in the castle on the night we visited. We chose one close-up show and the main Palace of Mystery show.

We left a little before 11 PM. The club closes at 1:00 am.

All those years of waiting paid off, our night in the Magic Castle was perfect!

Roadboy's Travels © 2013

Real Magic At The Magic Kingdom

A Perfect Flight

Friends and I visit the Disneyland and California Adventure theme parks almost every year. And, while there are always new things to see, I tend to return to my old favorites time after time. 

My hands-down favorite attraction in California Adventure is Soarin' Over California. As a native Californian, it reminds me why the Golden State, despite failing schools, crumbling infrastructure and lousy governance, retains such a powerful allure to visitors from around the world.

Sadly, this trip we all noticed a rash of shoves, line cuts and general rudeness during our visit.

But, then, I witnessed the moment that made up for it all.

Once past the lines at Soarin' we requested to wait a cycle, letting others pass, so that we could sit in the middle of the ride. Next to us a family of four also waited. I took the family to be a mom and three sons. One teenage son was confined to a wheelchair where everything is adjustable and upholstered. 

During the wait the family adjusted this and that, smiled and talked in tones that conveyed nothing but pure affection to the young man who clearly had been in that chair a very long time.

While we boarded our hang glider they worked, with military precision, lifting him as a team, getting him carefully strapped in. It was a symphony of coordinated effort. While waiting I noted that, discretely, every one of them kissed him.

They were completely oblivious to a world that was sneaking stares. Their focus was laser sharp. 

They were in Disneyland and they were enjoying their day.

Some might argue they'd been dealt a bum hand. But the family I saw demonstrated no resentment at all. They were as special as the young man they accompanied.

In the space of a 4 minute ride, we soared together and I came to love them.

But I don't kid myself.....

They soared higher than I ever will.

Roadboy's Travels © 2013 

Philadelphia Street Art

Philadelphia Is America's Best Street Museum!

As most of my readers know, Roadboy is a total fanboy of good public art. I think my most "googled" post is one from back in 2008 showcasing my favorite public art from coast to coast. Click here to check it out.

A couple of weeks ago during a visit to Philadelphia I came to realize that this is a city rich in great public art. Walking in Philadeplphia is akin to a visit to an outdoor museum. There are iconic sculptures, fine traditionalist war memorials, parks filled with intricate bronzes (especially Rittenhouse Square) and, of course, there is the iconic "Love" sculpture. Philadelphia, I was delighted to discover, has arguably America's largest and most important collection of street murals.

Lincoln Legacy 

(A Small Section of Joshua Sarantitis' Luminous 2006 Mural)

707 Chestnut Street

A Peoples Progress Towards Equality 

Jared Bader 2006

(Note the Scale - Car in Bottom Left)

South 8th St. at Ranstead

Another of Philadelphia's Amazing 3,600 Murals

The evolution of Philadelphia's murals is a wonderful story. In 1984 Mayor Goode asked muralist Jane Golden (an artist who had developed a street murals project in Southern California) to establish a program designed to redirect the energy of the Philadelphia's graffiti "artists". Ms. Golden did just that. Over the following 30 years the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program has grown, empowering a generation of young artists to "mend the aesthetic thread" of Philadelphia by beautifying, rather than vandalizing, neighborhoods. The mural program also employs art in restorative justice by offering opportunities for those recently released from prison. 

OK This Cracked Me Up

So after walking, appreciating murals, and window-shopping on Chestnut street, I arrived at Rittenhouse Square where I enjoyed viewing its various sculptures.

Duck Girl

Paul Manship 1911

Lion Crushing A Serpent

Antoine Louis Barye 1832

After Walking around and through the square, it was time to start heading back to the hotel. First up on my return was Philadelphia's most recognizable piece of public art: its "Love" sculpture. The sculpture is so emblematic that many residents refer to JFK Plaza as "Love Park". Nearby there are lots of other examples of not-so-successful pop art from the same era. Dominoes, chess pieces etc. All pretty much the worse for wear.  

Love 

Robert Indiana 1976

As I continued on my way I the huge "Crashed Grumman" and the giant paint brush outside the America's first school of fine arts, the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). PAFA is an amazing institution whose students have included Mary Cassatt, Maxfield Parrish, architect Louis I. Kahn and filmmaker David Lynch.

The Grumman Greenhouse at PAFA

Jordan Griska 2011 

(The Former Tracker II Airplane Now Grows

Nutritive and Medicinal Plants)

I finished my day in the section of the Pennslvania Convention Center that was once the Reading train terminal. It also has some great murals inside this huge awesome space.

Murals Romanticizing Rail Travel

The Right Mural Depicts Philadelphia's Stainless Steel Streamliner 

"Crusader" 

(Which Commenced Service Here in 1937)

All in all a wonderful walk, though a wonderful city. My sincere advice to anyone visiting Philadelphia? Take some good shoes, arm yourself with one of those little hotel street maps and go out exploring an amazing city!


Roadboy's Travels © 2013

Heartache At LAX

Sorrow at LAX 

Over a lifetime I have spent too many hours at LAX as a traveler. As the world's busiest destination airport it is always chaotic. I guess it is simply a microcosm of LA itself.

More recently, I've had the opportunity to work there planning a new HQ for airports police. 

So yesterday's news of the shooting at Terminal 3 struck a deep chord.

My condolences to the family of the fallen TSA agent. And my prayers will beg for the full recovery of the other injured folks.

I know first hand that the LAX police are well trained and professional. I only wish it did not take such horrific events to remind us to thank them for the courage and willingness to run towards danger on our behalf.

Roadboy's Travel © 2013