All those people—such as myself!—who complain about what New York City is like today? Too much anecdote, not enough fact. What really happened to New York City? I thought of one way to find out. Over the last month, I have read the Metro section from each issue of the New York Times—starting in mid-2000 and ending with today's paper. Here's what I learned.  read more »

THE DISNEY NEWS Updates From Affordable Walt Disney World Vacation January 16, 2008 Copyright 1999 - 2008 by John P. Gross. All rights reserved. ================================================= To subscribe to Affordable Disney's blog, click the following icon: Or copy and paste the following URL into your RSS Reader: http://affordabledisney.blogspot.com/atom.xml : My Yahoo! users can instantly add our blog content to My Yahoo! Add My Yahoo! : You can also subscribe to our blog at MSN! Add to My MSN! ================================================= Hi Everyone! NOTE: If you want to visit Walt Disney World when there is no deal for the general public, you will need to follow the discount strategies that are revealed in our online book, "Secrets To An Affordable Walt Disney World Vacation," to make your vacation affordable. Now on with the show... In this blog... * Deals and specials - Room discounts for Floridians, Disney cruise line discounts for Floridians, Bellagio Resort & Casino discount, and perks at Treasure Island Resort & Casino * The latest news from around the "World" - are the Russians coming to Epcot?  read more »

THE DISNEY NEWS Updates From Affordable Walt Disney World Vacation January 23, 2008 Copyright 1999 - 2008 by John P. Gross. All rights reserved. ================================================= To subscribe to Affordable Disney's blog, click the following icon: Or copy and paste the following URL into your RSS Reader: http://affordabledisney.blogspot.com/atom.xml : My Yahoo! users can instantly add our blog content to My Yahoo! Add My Yahoo! : You can also subscribe to our blog at MSN! Add to My MSN!  read more »

Our management had decided that our site should include "good original content on the most important ski resorts in the States". In our meetings we tried to figure out what does it mean "The most important", and came to the understanding that for us (being a website) it means the one and only Google would be the judge. It came to me, that in many ways Google is "The Lord" of the internet. It decides which site would flourish and which would be forgotten. It has a set of 10 commandments of what is considered "Positive White Karma" / "Kosher" ways to promote your site in terms of SEO and on the other hand the classification of "Black hat SEO magicians". It has its secret knowledge and many seekers and followers who perform various kinds of meditations and prayers in order to collect hints on that knowledge, and predict their future. And of course the gurus and priests... So, anyways, we went to our research team to tell us what they know of Google's list of highest rated ski resorts. In turn, the research team went to do their meditation and came back with a list. They said it's the closest thing to something that makes sense, and they went through all those tools like Yahoo's Overture - Keyword Selector Tool and Google AdWords: Keyword Tool   and various other statistical tools and realized that the only tool to give precise data Google Trends demands a huge amount of work - but then again, it came from our management... So, here's the list they came with based on the last 12 months of Google Searches in the US: Breckenridge Ski Resort - Colorado Vail Ski Resort - Colorado Heavenly Ski Resort - Lake Tahoe, California Blue Mountain Ski Resort - Pennsylvania Park City Ski Resort - Utah Keystone Ski Resort - Colorado Winter Park Ski Resort - Colorado Copper Mountain Ski Resort - Colorado Whistler Ski Resort - Canada Killington Ski Resort - Vermont Aspen Ski Mountain Resort Area - Colorado Liberty Mountain Ski Resort - Pennsylvania Steamboat Springs Ski Resort - Colorado Taos Ski Valley Resort Area - New Mexico Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort - California Alta Ski Resort - Utah Mt.  read more »

THE DISNEY NEWS - Affordable Walt Disney World Vacation January 9, 2008 Copyright 1999 - 2008 by John P. Gross. All rights reserved. ================================================= To subscribe to Affordable Disney's blog, click the following icon: Or copy and paste the following URL into your RSS Reader: http://affordabledisney.blogspot.com/atom.xml : My Yahoo! users can instantly add our blog content to My Yahoo! Add My Yahoo! : You can also subscribe to our blog at MSN! Add to My MSN! ================================================= Hi Everyone! NOTE: If you want to visit Walt Disney World when there is no deal for the general public, you will need to follow the discount strategies that are revealed in our online book, "Secrets To An Affordable Walt Disney World Vacation," to make your vacation affordable. Members should log in to get the updated email address for Beth, our travel agent. Beth writes: "About a year ago Time Warner/Roadrunner traded many of their internet accounts with Comcast so that they'd each be more efficient. My account was a casualty of that change. Until a few days ago email sent to my old Roadrunner address was being forwarded, but that has officially stopped now. Anyone using that old address will get the email returned. Therefore, it is very important that you update your address book to reflect the new address." Now on with the show... In this blog... * Deals and specials - annual passholder discount, dining certificates sale, discount Disney cruises, California resident ticket discount, and AARP discount * The latest news from around the "World" - Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa bans children * Laurie writes about a shooting star and the magic of Disney * Disney parks in search of CMO - Chief Magic Official * Disney/Pixars "Toy Story" comes to the stage on the Disney Wonder * This week's coupon - save at BB King's House of Blues in Orlando ================================================= NEW THIS WEEK WALT DISNEY WORLD Annual Passholders save on rooms now through the first week in February with our discount code! Value resorts from $79; Moderate resorts from $139. -------------------------------- OUTSIDE WALT DISNEY WORLD For a limited time get $25 dining certificates for restaurants near Disneyland California and Walt Disney World Florida - and across the USA - for only $5! -------------------------------- DISNEY CRUISE LINE Two Disney Cruises in January for $299 per person! -------------------------------- DISNEYLAND CALIFORNIA Californians residing in these zip codes can gain entry to both Disneyland parks for the price of a one ticket! AARP Members and up to 5 guests save $8.00 per ticket at this popular San Diego park!  read more »

THE DISNEY NEWS - Affordable Walt Disney World Vacation December 26, 2007 Copyright 1999 - 2007 by John P. Gross. All rights reserved. ================================================= To subscribe to Affordable Disney's blog, click the following icon: Or copy and paste the following URL into your RSS Reader: http://affordabledisney.blogspot.com/atom.xml : My Yahoo! users can instantly add our blog content to My Yahoo! Add My Yahoo! : You can also subscribe to our blog at MSN! Add to My MSN! ================================================= Hi Everyone! NOTE: If you want to visit Walt Disney World when there is no deal for the general public, you will need to follow the discount strategies that are revealed in our online book, "Secrets To An Affordable Walt Disney World Vacation," to make your vacation affordable. Donna and I would like to thank all of you for your support in 2007. 2008 marks an important milestone for us - our 10th year online! Where did those 10 years go?  read more »

NCL pullback a hard hit as tourism cools The governors of California and Hawaii on Friday urged the federal government to reject new rules for cruise ship port calls that they said will hurt their sta...

The governors of California and Hawaii on Friday urged the federal government to reject new rules for cruise ship port calls that they said will hurt their states' economies.

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The governors of California and Hawaii on Friday urged the federal government to reject new rules for cruise ship port calls that they said will hurt their states' economies.

 read more »

The governors of California and Hawaii on Friday urged the federal government to reject new rules for cruise ship port calls that they said will hurt their states' economies.

 read more »