Travel briefs - MiamiHerald.com
Theme Parks
Disney plans 'Avatar' attraction
The Walt Disney Co. last week announced an attraction based on James Cameron's Avatar at its theme parks, starting with its Animal Kingdom park in Orlando. Construction is set to begin in 2013 and is expected to be finished about three years after that.
Cameron, who is working on the second and third installments of the top-grossing film of all time, said the attractions would be a way to bring the lush world of Pandora to life, and would include animatronics and multimedia shows that use 3-D and holographic technology.
"This is a pretty darned exciting project," Cameron told reporters.
California
Zoo goes online
with condor cam
San Diego Zoo Global has launched a webcam that gives visitors a birds-eye view into a California condor nest at Safari Park.
The new camera, launched last week, allows people to see events such as courtship, egg incubation and hatching that previously had only been seen by animal handlers and biologists. Zoo officials say the condor breeding season begins in November and the webcam will focus on a nest.
Las Vegas
Caesars tower taking bookings
The Caesars Palace resort on the Las Vegas Strip has begun taking reservations for stays just after the New Year in the hotel's nearly $1 billion, 662-room Octavius Tower expansion. The tower is the sixth in the Caesars Palace complex. It features 60 suites, six luxury villas and direct access to the Garden of the Gods pool.
Construction began in 2008.
Space tourism
Virgin Galactic
opens plant
Space tourism is closer to reality after the completion of an $8 million Mojave Desert production plant where the world's first fleet of passenger-ready spaceships will be built. The Spaceship Co. facility is a joint venture of Mojave-based Scaled Composites and British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides tells the Los Angeles Times that completion of the production facility moves Galactic closer to sending paying passengers into space. A ticket will cost $200,000.
National parks
No swimming
at Yellowstone
Biologists at Yellowstone National Park are killing rainbow trout at three lakes in the park so they can restock the waters next year with native fish.
The work will include Goose Lake in the lower Geyser Basin and two other lakes nearby. Rainbow trout were stocked in the lakes decades ago.
The park will put up warning signs at the lakes and visitors will be advised not to swim in or drink from them through mid-October. The park will reintroduce Westslope cutthroat trout to the lakes next year.
Miami Herald wire services
25 Sep, 2011--
Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGIOPBhMOW9oIzRymbStDc2F67gMw&url=http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/25/2418247/travel-briefs.html
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