One royal couple, two nations to visit, two rather different approaches

Canada Day Fireworks. Pig-tailed girls at Anne of Green Gables. Canoes in the Northwest Territories. Cowboy hats and bucking broncos at the Calgary Stampede.

To be followed by a charity polo match in ultra-posh Santa Barbara, California with a three-course meal going for $4,000, and a star-studded Hollywood dinner for British filmmakers.

Yeah, I guess you could say California is taking a slightly different tack on the upcoming visit by the royal couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, aka Will and Kate.

The hype, of course, is already beginning. The Mirror in London today was running a huge headline with the startling news that, wait for it, Kate was wearing a ... gasp ... knee-length BLUE DRESS on the plane to Canada (see photo). Talk about a scoop.

The royals' visit starts in  Ottawa today. They'll celebrate Canada Day Friday, then head to Montreal (at least they get a bit of big-city glam), Quebec City, Prince Edward Island, Yellowknife and Calgary.

Kevin MacLeod, the Queen's Canadian secretary, told the Montreal Gazette that the idea is to showcase Canada.

"We have to be conscious of the fact that through the lens of a camera, yes, we'll have the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in the foreground, but what's in the background?" he said. "Is it the Rockies? Is it the beaches of (Prince Edward Island)? Is it the wide-open expanse of the territories? It's such a huge, unique opportunity for the world to look in, not only on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but to look in on them in a uniquely Canadian setting."

Yeah, but I still think it's RIDICULOUS that they're not visiting Toronto. I mean, are we going to continue to market ourselves FOREVER as the country of Moose and Mounties? Folks overseas love the Rockies and a good canoe trip, and so do I, but not many people outside of North America know how much Toronto has grown and how it's prospered as a hotbed for the arts and entertainment. It would've been nice to give the royal couple a small taste of the new AGO and some hot restaurants on Ossington. A killer cocktail on a swanky patio downtown would've been a tremendous boost. But I forgot. This is a Stephen Harper production...

No such problems in California, where Will and Kate (who surely had a hand in the decision-making) will be in lovely Santa Barbara (see photo) and then down in Hollywood. Nice choices, for sure. Santa Barbara has glorious weather, great beaches and excellent food. The local wines are among some of California's best, with luscious Syrah and Pinot Noir and excellent Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay all being grown just over the hills in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Folks in California are embracing the visit, but of course they want to make a buck like anyone else. The Beverly Hills Hotel has a presidential suite for $10,800 a night. On a budget? You can snap up a $15 Royal Fizz cocktail at the Luxe Rodeo Drive.

 

Major improvement at Pearson Airport customs,.Man left behind on Barrier Reef

Imagine not having to stand in front of a customs guy and having to explain why you were in Florida in January. Instead, you simply fill out your customs card on the plane and, when you land, swipe it in a machine.

Mind you, you still have to hand your passport and the customs declaration card to a customs officer, but it dispenses with the mandatory "where you were and what are you bringing back" questions that we all find annoying, and speeds things up.

There's no guarantee when it'll happen, but I had an interesting chat with Darin Juby, general manager of "guest experiences" at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, GTAA, which runs Toronto Pearson Airport, and he told me the "Automated Border Crossing" machines could be coming early in the new year.

"Any Canadian would have access" to the card-reading machines, Juby told me. "There would be no preregistration needed."

Juby said they're going as fast as they can to bring it in and hope for early in 2012. "But with the government you never know," he said.

The machines would be available for trips from both the U.S. and overseas. Obviously, customs would have the right to pull people over if they had just cause. And anyone bringing back more than the allowable amount of wine or clothes or cigarettes or whatever would have to declare that, and you'd still have to have receipts for what you purchased in case you're asked for proof.

Still, it sounds like an improvement, so congrats to the authorities and the GTAA.

I'll have more on the GTAA and the baggage claim issues I wrote about yesterday in a future column in Star Travel, so stay tuned...

STRANDED ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF...

When I was in Australia for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, my wife came along at the end and we visited the Great Barrier Reef for a snorkeling trip. It was nice, although not as overpowering an experience as I had hoped. Maybe I had the wrong tour company but I've seen more interesting fish and coral in other parts of the world.

Anyway, it was weird because the day after our trip my wife was reading Bill Bryson's hilarious book about Australia "In A Sunburned Country," and found a passage about a couple who went diving on the reef off Port Douglas in 1998 and were left behind, never to be seen again. Their name was Lonergan, same as my wife's maiden name, which was pretty spooky. 

The latest incident involves Ian Cole of Michigan, who surfaced from underwater the other day only to find his tour boat was gone. He swam to another boat and was apparently unharmed, but it still shouldn't happen. What if he was in a more isolated area, for goodness sake?

The tour operator, which gave Cole a whopping $200 dinner voucher, apparently fired someone but they also claim Cole is exaggerating. Nice.

Cole told The Cairns Post he panicked when he pulled his head from the water at Michaelmas Cay and found the boat had left. He was forced to swim to another vessel owned by the same company, whose employees radioed for Passions of Paradise to come back.

"The adrenalin hit in and I had a moment of panic, which was the worst thing I could have done at that point,"  he said in a story posted on the Sydney Morning Herald website. "I was able to calm myself just a little bit because there was another boat still out there and I made my way to that vessel.

"Lucky it was there because otherwise I may have drowned, I did not handle the situation well and I was tired."

A friend here at the Star said when went to the Great Barrier Reef, her tour company was adamant that people sign a form when they went in the water and then sign again when they clambered back on board. Anyone that failed to register was made to eat a teaspoon of vegemite," she said with a laugh. "If you did it twice, you got a tablespoon. Six of us had to swallow a teaspoonful. One person did it twice and got the tablespoon."

How was the vegemite, I asked.

"Ugh."

 

 

 

America goes topless? Thank goodness for Canada's competition watchdog

I'm constantly amazed at how Americans (I was born and raised in the U.S. so no hate mail from down south, please) can put up with senseless violence on the streets and on TV but be so prudish when it comes to sex. I don't get it.

So I was mildly surprised today to see a Trip Advisor study in which 78 per cent of Americans said it was okay for women to go topless at the beach or the pool. The study DID have an important caveat, that being that this would only be okay in places where toplessness is deemed "culturally acceptable." Which, presumably, means no topless beaces on the Great Salt Lake or along the Mississippi in Iowa.

Damn.

On the other hand, it could mean a chance at loosening of laws in places such as South Beach in Miami or Ocean Beach in San Francisco, where, trust me, you don't really want to shed much clothing, even in summer.

We've already seen topless pools in Vegas (see photo from the Moorea Beach Club), a trend that shows little sign of abating. So let's go for it. It's not that big a deal, folks. Now, fat guys in Speedos....

CANADA'S COMPETITION WATCHDOG BITES BACK

I've been critical of Ottawa for not giving more landing rights in Canada to the likes of Emirates and Etihad. It seems to me the Tory government consistently makes rulings that favour our bigger airlines and ignore consumer concerns.

But yesterday came the news that our competition watchdog is trying to block Air Canada's proposed merger-like deal with United/Continental.

The Air Canada-United Continental proposal “would mean the integration of all their North American operations,” commissioner of competition Melanie Aitken said in an interview published in the Star this morning.

“That leads you to eliminating competition between the airlines. And when you do that, you increase prices for consumers and businesses, and you decrease service and you decrease choice.”

The airlines say they’ve suspended any move toward the joint venture “pending further developments," The Star's John Spears reported. She said similar arrangements in the U.S. have led to price increases in the range of 15 per cent; a sizable sum given today's sky-high air fares. On a $500 ticket, a 15 per cent hike would be $75. Multiply that by perhaps four people in a family and it's a $250 difference.

I don't know Melanie Aitken but I admire the heck out of her for taking a stance. Canadian airlines aren't allowed to merge with U.S. ones, and it looked to me as if this was going to be a merger in very thin disguise, or at least something strongly resembling the same.

Air Canada (which does a pretty good job and is several steps above most North American airlines in terms of its airplane setups) disagrees, of course, as do the folks at United/Continental. They issued a press release spouting the usual, broad-based and utterly silly comments about how the move would mean "lower fares, better coordinated flight schedules and connection times, more route choices, and improved frequent flyer benefits.”

I can see the frequent flyer benefits and maybe some route improvements. But better coordinated flight schedules? What does that mean? And I simply don't believe their claims of lower fares. If you've got a monopoly on that many flights, you're not going to reduce fares I don't think.

The Star, as well as the Globe to be fair (and maybe others), published an interesting chart that showed the potential impact of a combined operations/merger-like deal between Air Canada and United/Continental. It showed that, if it went through, 100 per cent of several important routes would be controlled entirely by the company. Among them: Toronto-San Francisco, Toronto-Houston, Toront-Washington, Toronto-Cleveland, Toronto-Denver, Calgary-Houston, Montreal=Washington and Ottawa-New York.

Yikes.

Aitken has applied to the federal competition tribunal to block the proposed joint venture, Spears reported in the Star. So there's still some chance, I think, that this deal will go through. Tough odds, though, given Aitken's tough words.

 

 

 

Pearson Airport improvements? I don't think so ... Bad hotel room tippers

The folks at the Greater Toronto Airports Authority made a great show of things earlier this month, establishing a new logo and promising everything from new shops to posted wait times for security and baggage.

Those may come some day, but what people really want is improved service. And, so far, I don't see any signs of it.

I flew into Pearson Sunday night and the lineup at customs was terrible; snaking around and around. It took folks about 20 minutes to get down to the baggage carousel. That's far too long to make people stand around waiting to declare they brought back three bottles of wine from the Napa Valley instead of the set limit of two.

Mind you, there's little point in getting through customs quickly when it simply means you'll waste time standing around waiting for your luggage. I've flown many places in the world and there's no single airport I know of that has worse baggage service than Toronto Pearson. They might exist, but I haven't seen them. On Sunday, it took 39 minutes from the time my Air Canada flight from San Francisco  reached the gate funtil the first piece of baggage from my flight to arrive, and that was for folks lucky enough to get the "priority" stickers owing to their frequent travels.

Undoubtedly, some folks had to wait closer to an hour for the final suitcases to tumble down a conveyor belt that repeatedly stopped moving on Sunday night. That's simply not acceptable, but it's standard at pearson. Occasionally bags arrive in a reasonable amount of time, but most of the time I end up waiting a good half-hour. Most other airports I visit, the wait is usually only 10 or 20 minutes.

So instead of worrying about posting the wait times for luggage, folks, how about skipping the fancy signs and getting the bags to people faster in the first place? And how about designing a new exit from the baggage terminal so you don't have to wait in line to hand in your customs form after you finally get your bag? Last night, there were some 200 people in line at various stages, all of them being funneled past two - TWO - customs officials. What a joke.

The GTAA says it wants to start referring to airport users as "guests." I say it's time they start treating their guests with a little - no, make that a lot - more respect.

BOY WE'RE CHEAP

Spotted an item on cnn.com today that said, get this, 30 per cent of Americans tip the maids or cleaners at their hotel room.

THIRTY PER CENT? I'm no math whiz, but I'm pretty sure that means 70 per cent of Americans DON'T GIVE OUT TIPS AT ALL. And that's absolutely appalling.

My goodness, if you're going to spend $100 or even $40 (not in Canada, of course) on a hotel room, surely you can manage a toonie or two for those poor people who come in and have to clean up your mess. There's a reason we like arriving in a hotel room; the beds are made and the carpets are vacuumed and the bathroom fixtures are (usually) sanitized. Who on earth do you think does that work, people? And how much do you think they get paid?

Geez. I used to tip a couple dollars per night but have since upped that to $4 or $5 a night. It's not much to me, but it surely helps people earning minimum wage.

I'd be curious to see if a Canadian survey found similar results. I certainly would hope not.

 

 

GONE FISHIN' (GOLFING AND TO THE BEACH, REALLY). BACK JUNE 27

TAKING A BREAK IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. SEE YA MONDAY JUNE 27 or TUESDAY the 28th....

 

jim

Star Travel guy heads to Japan's tropical paradise, where life is long

I'm away on holidays, so here's a guest blog from C. James Dale...

ISHIGAKI, Japan -- When I first see Gentetsu Maeshiro, he's way down the beach, a stick figure bent over by the shore doing god-knows-what. It's mid-afternoon and I'm one of six people enjoying a long stretch of sand on the east side of Ishigaki, one of the southernmost islands in the so uthernmost part of Japan -- Okinawa. I pass by a couple who's just rented a small inflatable ring so they can go float in the calm waters of the East China Sea. They're from Saitama, just north of Tokyo.

"What do you think of this place," I ask them.
"It's so pretty," the woman replies, looking out at the turquoise water.

The stick figure that is Gentetsu Maeshiro is still down the beach, still bent over, still working intently at something. I'm intrigued. I head in that direction, walking slowly on the rough sand that's covered
with small pieces of broken coral. As I arrive, I can see Maeshiro is stringing freshly cleaned fish to a clear line. He'd been gutting them in the water and now he's ready to take them home to his wife and
three-year-old daughter.

"How did you get them," I ask, after I introduce myself.
"Spearfishing," he says with a warm grin, holding the colourful catch a little higher, tropical fish with names I couldn't even guess at (especially the Japanese ones).

"Are you a fisherman," I inquire.
"No. A farmer."

Turns out the 31-year-old, who was born and raised on this picturesque island, has a beef farm with about 90 head of cattle. Talking to him on Sunset Beach, Tokyo and the post-March 11th turmoil further north, seems a country away. In many cases, mainland Japan might as well be a neighbouring nation. Okinawa, once known as the Ryukyu Islands, didn't become part of Japan until the 1870s. Even today, the Okinawa people are different, fiercely independent and culturally distinct. This plays out in many ways here:  in their mindset, in their music, and in their food, among other things. The low fat, low salt Okinawa diet, filled with fish, tofu, seaweed and local vegetables (such as the bitter goya) is one reason people here have the longest life expectancy in the world.

More than 400 centenarians reside on these islands (at last count).  No wonder Gentetsu Maeshiro has no desire to live in Tokyo, or in any concrete jungle for that matter.  He's happy just where he is.

"Weather good, food good, air good, everything good," he says in staccato English, with a wide smile.
As the sun started to lose its intensity, we parted ways, he with his dinner in hand and me now one of three left on Sunset Beach.

For more information on Okinawa, visit ilovejapan.ca

Great hotel deals in Canada and around the world this summer...

Here in Canada, Starwood Hotels is having a nice Canada Day sale.

Special rates are on offer at 53 participating Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, W, Aloft and Le Meridien hotels across the country.

The sale is available for stays through Sept. 5 and must be booked by 11:59 p.m. daylight savings time on July 1. Rates start as low as $79 per night, based on single/double occupancy and availability. A limited number of rooms are available at each property and blackout dates may apply, so check early and often.

For information, visit www.starwoodpromos.com/canadaday or call 1-888-625-4950 and mention account number 380841.

New hotels in the program this year include Le Westin Montreal, the Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland, Four Points by Sheraton Levis (Quebec), the Aloft Montreal Airport and the soon-to-open Sheraton Vancouver Airport Hotel.

I went online and spotted deals for the Westin Calgary for $109, for Le Centre Sheraton in Montreal from $119 and the Four Points by Sheraton Niagara Falls Fallsview for $119.

Not to be outdone, the folks at Accor Hotels (www.accorhotels.com) are offering a 50 per cent discount on stays from July 8 to Sept. 4 at nearly 1,000 Pullman, McGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure and Adagio hotels worldwide, when booked at accorhotels.com.

  The "Crazy Prices" deal is online only and is valid at destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. the deal is only for participating hotels and blackout dates may apply.

I went online and for July 21-24 I found hotels in Paris for as little as $119. The Novotel Ha Long City in Vietnam, a very nice hotel with good food and a great pool (see photo) along stunning Ha Long Bay was just $52 for the night; about what it takes me to get a cab to Pearson Airport from Yonge and Lawrence. So there definitely are good deals out there.

 

 

 

Celebrate Canada Day with a Hawaiian shirt ... Poor New Zealand!

Oh, sure, celebrate Canada's birthday on July 1.

Me? I'll be right there with you. But I've got two things to celebrate; a great country and the greatest shirt ever "invented."

The puffy shirt from Seinfeld? Nope, July 1st marks the 75th birthday of the Aloha Shirt, otherwise known as the Hawaiian Shirt, otherwise known as that one article of clothing no self-respecting Jimmy Buffett fan would be caught NOT wearing to a concert.

Here's the back story. Apparently the Hawaiians many years back were looking for something more casual that folks in the islands could wear and look nice and stay cool in the semi-tropical heat. There were plenty of nice Philippine-styled shirts or Japanese or south Pacific prints, but it wasn't until 1946 that the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce appropriated US$1,000 to study suitable designs for clothing businessmen could more comfortably wear in Hawai‘i’s tropical climate.

They passed a resolution that allowed open-necked sports shirts in the hottest months of the year, but banned the aloha shirt because of the loud patterns. The next year, during the annual Aloha Week celebration, they decided to allow colourful aloha shirts for an entire week, thus creating the thin edge of the proverbial wedge.

The rest is history. Not always pretty, but history. We've all seen some pretty garish shirts with cockatoos and crazy fish and airplanes and hula girls (always a favourite!) and palm trees and all that. I've had a couple wild ones over the years but generally now stick to black or the occasional one with hibiscus flowers, which I just love; especially blue shirts with the white hibiscus. I have many t-shirts with that pattern, as well as a few Maui Jim t-shirts.

When summer comes, I just can't resist. So, now, I've got even more to celebrate with. So here's a toast to the Aloha shirt, with a photo taken at a somewhat unlikely (as in dry and far removed from any ocean and not a Beach Boy in sight) spot.

NEW ZEALAND WOES

Those aftershocks in Christchurch haven't done New Zealand tourism any favours. Tourist businesses are apparently still suffering, and now they've had to deal with ash from a volcano all the way over in Chile. Not to mention a warm spell that has hurt their winter tourism market.

A report on travelmole.com said For the first 12 days of June, domestic passengers arriving at Christchurch International Airport had dropped 16,000 from last year to 125,000. International passengers were 6000 down from the same period last year, to 35,000.

I didn't make it to Christchurch, but here's a shot I took at Whare Kea Lodge near Wanaka (not far Queenstown, on the South Island). Let's hope for better times ahead for an absolutely marvellous country.

 

Air Canada strike over? Vancouver shoots itself in the foot with Stanley Cup riots

The Star's Vanessa Lu is reporting a tentative deal has been reached in the Air Canada strike; excellent news for travellers.

The Canadian Auto Workers, which launched a strike at midnight on Monday, has called a press conference for 2 p.m. CAW spokeswoman Shannon Devine confirmed the deal, but said nothing else would be released until the briefing.

Union officials criticized the government's quick decision to end the strike.

Stay tuned for more.

VANCOUVER'S WALK OF SHAME

It's not bad enough their star players performed like chumps in the Stanley Cup finals. Now, Vancouver has suffered a black eye around the world.

Many folks don't pay attention to hockey, but lots of people have surely noticed the headlines and terrifying photos of the looting and fires in downtown Vancouver following the Vancouver Canucks' embarrassing loss Boston on Wednesday night. Don't think so? There were photos of the riots as of noon eastern time on the front pages for the websites for both the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times; papers that represent prime markets for Vancouver's charms.

It's funny. A year and a few months ago, hockey served as the icing on Vancouver's cake at the Olympics. Sure, there had been issues and some negativity about the 2010 Winter Games early on, but by the time Sydney Crosby did his magic in overtime it all had been wiped away. Vancouver positively glowed in the after-party, and the reviews from press all over the world was remarkably positive.

Not today. Not when besotted youths set fire to cars and carry on like that. Shame on them. Someone's car can be replaced. But when people behave like that, they sully the reputation of an entire city and, by association, all of Canada.

Don't think it was all that bad? Check this report from the Star's Damien Cox, who witnessed it first-hand:

"First, it wasn't a small group. We're talking hundreds, probably thousands, of citizens involved in the ugliness that erupted even as Gary Bettman was handing the Stanley Cup to Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. Having been around other sport "riots," I can tell you this was a whole other level.

Vancouver was an ugly, dangerous city last night, and people got hurt. Frightening. Not just police cars on fire. Not just looting and tear gas. Stabbings. Vicious, fights. Wanton violence accompanied by the joyful whoops and hollering of young people who apparently believed they were part of something exciting and were having a great time.

The game ended at about 7:45 local time, and by midnight weary riot police were still trying to disperse crowds. As I watched from my hotel balcony on Burrard St., a line of riot cops walked up the street, police dogs barking, police sirens wailing, a police helicopter overhead shining a light down on the street."

It's even worse than that, really. The Star's main web site has a video - posted this afternoon - that shows a man being horribly beaten after trying to stop looters. It's all over Twitter, as well.

I don't think anyone from San Francisco or L.A. is going to cancel their vacation to British Columbia because of a few idiots, but when you're in a competitive tourism market it can't help.

 

 

It could be back to work soon for Air Canada strikers ... day one "shortcuts"

Interesting that the Tories in Ottawa wasted so little time in talking about sending striking Canadian Auto Workers folks back to their jobs as customer service agents for Air Canada. You'd think they'd wait a few days but I supposed if one is going to legislate people back to work, you may as well do it right away.

Dithering is decidedly not one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's issues, I guess, and it can hardly be a surprise. It sounds, however, like it might take a few days for legislation to pass so we could easily have another week of disruptions, less or more.

Tuesday was, as far as I can tell, pretty normal. My flight out of Vancouver was an hour late taking off but we landed 20 minutes late is all, so not bad. Because we were late, they didn't charge people who asked for a glass of wine with lunch/dinner. They didn't advertise free booze, but if you asked for something there was no charge.

The luggage issue wasn't a problem at Pearson, either (the usual slowness but not horrible), and the mood on board the plane was pretty good.

One worker, however, told me there were definitely some "shortcuts" being taken.

"A lot of paperwork isn't getting done," they said. "It's not critical and it's nothing the public knows about. We had to get permission from the ministry of transport people to ignore some stuff.

"It looks calm but behind the scenes there's a lot of work."

No doubt. Interesting about shortcuts, though. I'm sure it's all pretty routine, but it makes you wonder....