Travel Calendar

Before making the decision to take the Broncos’ football program to the Big East, Boise State President Bob Kustra heard from many fans in Bronco Nation. Among their biggest worries was how a move to an Eastern-based league would affect their ability to travel to games.

“I know there will be fans out there that will be worried about travel because Boise State playing in a regional situation has clearly been able to take its fans on the road,” Kustra said this week. “We’re known as a great traveling program. That changes a little bit when you start taking a team on the road. … It’s just what you do when you want to spread the brand.”

Boise State sold 4,000 tickets to this season’s UNLV game in Las Vegas and 2,000 tickets to the San Diego State game through its ticket office. The Broncos brought far more fans to those games.

Fans also have traveled well to season openers against Virginia Tech in Landover, Md., and Georgia in Atlanta the past two seasons. But, by joining the Big East, the Broncos are assured of multiple trips east each season, even with a Western division that includes San Diego State, Houston and SMU.

“There are plenty of great football programs out there that simply do not count on the same number of fans at away games. We’ve gotten pretty spoiled here at Boise State. We can turn UNLV into a home game for Boise State, as I think we did the last time we played against them,” Kustra said. “While that’s great, that has to be measured up against the advantages that accrue to taking a program into Central Florida.”

Central Florida in Orlando will join the Big East at the same time as Boise State, in time for the 2013 football season. South Florida in Tampa is also in the league, along with remaining Big East members Connecticut, Cincinnati, Louisville and Rutgers.

At a time when both Kustra and incoming Athletic Director Mark Coyle have talked about establishing a national identity and brand for Boise State, the ability to expand the Broncos’ conference footprint is seen as a positive by university officials.

“I’d like to think that by making this move, even though we might not have all the fans at Orlando that we had in Vegas, we’re going to open up a whole new window to this university and to its football program so whether it’s to the recruiting side in athletics or the recruiting side in academics, it’s a big plus,” Kustra said.

Fans still will have opportunities to see the Broncos closer to home. Boise State has road games scheduled against Washington, Washington State and Oregon State in the next six years. Boise State has signed a 12-year home-and-home series with BYU, and the addition of San Diego State means a trip to Southern California every other year.

Interim Athletic Director Curt Apsey said the Broncos are open to scheduling games against Mountain West members. Boise State agreed to work on scheduling football games with Western Athletic Conference members as part of its agreement to move its non-football programs to the WAC.

“We enjoy a lot of the so-called rivalries that we’ve created over the last 10 or 15 years. I could see us going back and still participating in contests against schools in the Mountain West or going down into California,” Apsey said. “I think that will be even more opportunity for us now that we’re not in those conferences. We’ll continue to look at scheduling in the West for all sports.”

Brian Murphy: 377-6444

This item was written by Johanna Jainchill, who covers the travel industry for Travel Weekly. Jainchill is serving as Guest Editor of The Cruise Log while USA TODAY Cruise Editor Gene Sloan is away.

Cruise prices are expected to climb overall in 2012, but cruisers can still expect to find bargains in Europe, according to one industry analyst.

Matthew Jacob, a cruise industry analyst with New York-based ITG Investment Research, says that consumers so far have not let concerns about the economy impact their vacation buying habits, and that cruise pricing is already showing signs of strength going into 2012.

Hot pockets for 2012 include Alaska, where cruises are likely to get more expensive, as well as the most popular Caribbean itineraries, and predictably, the newest ships, Jacob says.

ALSO ONLINE:  Five ways to snag a deal on world’s largest cruise ships
ALSO ONLINE:  New USA TODAY cruise giveaway: Click to enter

“Certainly there will be certain itineraries and ships that are discounted from last year, but overall on an average basis we are expecting [price increases] in 2012,” Jacob says.

Europe is still one place that cruisers can expect to find bargains, continuing a trend that began last summer, he says.

“European sailings will continue to be under pressure,” Jacob says. “Certainly the Med has become a less desirable destination due to geopolitical concerns and you will see continued discounts there next year.”

Cruise Loggers, share your thoughts below.

• E-mail
• Print
• Larger Type
  Small Type

Oh, what fun it is to ride around Vegas

Nobody does decorating and celebrating quite like Las Vegas, so you’d expect
the city to dazzle during the holidays. That it does. Here are just a few
merry things you’ll find through the end of the month:

• Santa will visit the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay on Dec. 21,
offering photos and candy canes to kids. More at mandalay bay.com/sharkreef.

• Bellagio’s gorgeous Conservatory Botanical Garden (bellagio.com.
) offers a winter wonderland with igloos, penguins and polar bears (seen
together only in Vegas), and the hotel’s fountains dance to seasonal tunes.

• Impressionist-singer Terry Fator does a special holiday show at the Mirage
(mirage.com/entertainment/terry-fator.asp).

• Jean-Philippe Patisseries at Bellagio and Aria have dazzling holiday
displays, such as the Grinch dancing atop the pastries.

• Spa Vdara, inside Hotel Vdara (vdara.com. ) offers a candy cane manicure,
pedicure and scalp treatment (tingly!).

• New Year’s Eve packages abound. At Aria, the Gold Boutique Nightclub’s
package, at $125 per person, includes your bar from 9 to 11 p.m. A hotel
room at Aria will go for $429; book at arialasvegas.com. Bellagio’s Fix
restaurant offers a four-course dinner for $150 per person and unlimited
champagne for an additional $45. Better book a room ($499 at bellagio.com).

There are more packages. Many more. Check with your favorite Vegas hotel.

Shop, then rest up at Palomar in Dallas

NorthPark Center in Dallas is one of my favorite places to shop in all of
Texas, and it’s dressed up in its holiday finery. Kimpton’s Hotel Palomar
nearby on Mockingbird Lane has a package to make it easier to zip up to
Dallas and shop there. The All That Glitters package offers half off the
best available hotel room rate (meaning you’ll pay rates starting at $139),
$40 dining credit in the hotel’s excellent Central 214 restaurant and free
transportation to not only NorthPark but also Highland Park Village and West
Village – also great places to part with your money. You’ll get the free
wine hour that all Kimptons offer, with seasonal cocktails added. The
package is good through Dec. 30. Book at hotelpalomar-dallas.com or at
888-253-9030 with the code GOLDEN.

New Orleans fetes offer Santa, good eats

You know New Orleans offers a pound of fun for the holidays, right? The
Bourbon Orleans (717 Orleans St., bourbonorleans.com). is doing brunch with
Santa on Dec. 18, with live music and an elf that dances with the kids, as
well as a reading of “The Night Before Christmas.” Tickets are $34
for adults; $19 for children 12 and younger. Reserve at 504-571-4672. .
What’s more, rooms start at $99 next weekend.

And if you’re flying in, you might want to go by the Crowne Plaza New Orleans
Airport (2829 Williams Bvld, cpneworleansairport.com) and check out the
Gingerbread Tea on Saturday. Elves will serve cocoa to kids and tea and
mimosas to adults. There’s a separate buffet for adults ($30) and kids ($15;
it includes grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, chicken fingers and the
like). For more on New Orleans, go to neworleanscvb.com.

At the Denver Zoo, animals are spirited

The holidays are especially charming at the Denver Zoo, where more than 150
animated animal sculptures and brilliantly lighted exhibits highlight the
Zoo Lights celebration. Through Jan. 1, children can visit Santa Claus after
(or before) they’ve seen the animals, and carolers, musicians and dancers
will stroll the grounds. Admission is $9 for adults, $5 for children, $7 for
seniors and free for children 2 and younger. More at denverzoo.org.

Charter a boat to see San Francisco’s lights

San Francisco’s gorgeous to look at anytime, but it’s especially lovely during
the holiday season, with trees and light displays popping up everywhere.
Check it out from San Francisco Bay. The city’s newest bay tour company, Bay
Voyager, is now featuring special rates for private charters during the
holiday season. Prices start at $300 for a private charter of no more than
four people, but if you can get 12 together, it’s $500 – pretty affordable
per person. For reservations, go to bayvoyager.com or call 510-542-4200.

Heading for Europe? Check with Rick Steves

It comes as no surprise that Rick Steves has been named 2011 Travel Journalist
of the Year in the 27th annual Lowell Thomas competition of the Society of
American Travel Writers. I never go to a new European destination without
his book about the place. He’s on radio and TV, and he has a website,
ricksteves.com, that’s immensely helpful in trip planning. (I actually ran
into the guy once in a Sorrento restaurant he’d recommended. He had a huge
entourage.) Anyway, here’s to Rick – a travel writer whom the travel writers
follow.

A series of significant nightly freeway closures has begun, with the complete closure of the northbound San Diego 405 Freeway between Seal Beach Boulevard and the San Gabriel 605 Freeway.

Expect complete freeway closures every night for weeks to come.

On Saturdays and Sundays, the northbound lanes will close from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on weekdays. Once work on the northbound side of the freeway is complete, the work and closures will transfer to the southbound side.

The West County Connector Project is the three-and-a-half-year $277 million project aimed at creating seamless carpool-lane transitions between the 22, 405 and the 605 freeways, along with additional carpool lanes on the 405.

Suggested detours are:

• From the northbound I-405, exit Seal Beach Blvd., turn right and proceed north on Seal Beach Blvd. / Los Alamitos Blvd., turn left on Katella to access the northbound I-605 onramp
• From the northbound I-405, exit Seal Beach Blvd., turn left and proceed south on Seal Beach Blvd., turn right on Westminster Avenue, turn right on Studebaker Rd. to access the northbound I-405 onramp
• From the northbound I-405, exit Westminster Ave., turn left on Westminster Ave and proceed west, turn right on Studebaker Rd. to access the northbound   I-405 onramp
• From the northbound I-405, exit Westminster Ave., turn left on Westminster Ave. and proceed west, turn right on Seal Beach Blvd., continue north on Seal Beach Blvd. / Los Alamitos Blvd., turn left on Katella to access the northbound I-605 onramp

Wildcat fans are still trying to digest Coach Cal’s scheduling suggestions as one of three non-conference series may come to an end. With IU one of the three, and seemingly the front runner for the chopping block, this may be the last time UK and IU meet for some time.  Wildcat fans are hoping all this scheduling talk will not side track the Cats as they focus on the trial at hand.  Indiana goes into Saturday’s game against UK undefeated; one of the two will have a blemish on their record at the buzzer.

The Cats will have their hands full with the Hoosiers’ shooting, 52.3% FG overall; while Kentucky hovers at 49.0%, according to the latest ESPN stats.  The three point shot may very well decide the outcome for UK, on both ends of the court.  Failure to block the 3 could sandbag UK as Indiana carries a 44.0% 3FG.  Coach John Calipari addresses this issue in nearly every post game.  UK, shooting 37.4% 3FG, need not go head to head with the 3; they need to choose their shots wisely. 

UK’s primary obstacles in this game have names; starters 6’11” Freshman Cody Zeller (F) and 6’0” Junior Jordan Hulls (G) who see the most time on the court; 67.7%FG and 57.1% FG, respectively.  Hulls is a danger with his 3 pointer; 53.6% 3FG on the season.   6’9” Junior Derek Elston is comparable to Darius Miller of UK, coming off the bench to score (50.2%FG), rebound (3.1%), and provide leadership.

Essentially, the Wildcats need scorers Miller, Lamb, and SEC player of the week Terrance Jones, while Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, and Jones hit the offensive and defensive boards.  The Kentucky defense must continue to block the easier inside shots.  Against UNC, Kentucky started sloppy and came back to eek out the win.  For a successful outcome, the Cats could use a cleaner start while their player communication continues to improve.  All UK fans know Coach Cal will rarely uses his seat on the bench, so be prepared to see him ‘excitedly’ motivate his players.   

Kevin Perkins/PacificCoastNews.com

Could you give us mere mortals an insight into celebrity puppy care? Especially when stars travel for the holidays?
—Proud Puppy Grandma, Mounds View, Minn., via the inbox

When it comes to their pets, celebrities such as Anna Paquin and Elisabetta Canalis pamper to near excess, with budgets to match.

So what’s it like to live like a celebrity dog in December? Better than many humans:

POOR POOCH: Selena’s dog in sick bay

I’ve already documented the great lengths that celebrities go to when it comes to keeping their pets close. But when stars must stray from their mutts, they generally drop off their dogs at a high-end pet palace.

A popular one in Los Angeles is LA Dogworks, which features a giant indoor dog park, a “den” with bunk beds for smaller dogs, hydrotherapy; aromatherapy; massage therapy; a full grooming salon, and so forth.

But when the holidays trot around, things get even more luxurious, particularly for celebrity dogs. For example, Elisabetta Canalis has a pair of pups that she dropped off personally over the Thanksgiving break. On Thanksgiving, the dogs were fed a human-grade turkey dinner.

“I actually ate it too,” LA Dogworks founder Andrew Rosenthal tells me. “It tasted great.”

And if a star gets lonely for her dog, the folks at LA Dogworks take videos of the pet and send them off to the owner. Case in point, husband-and-wife True Blood team Paquin and Stephen Moyer.

“Stephen Moyer has a dog named Splash, and he’s in hydrotherapy,” as are many older large dogs, Rosenthal tells me. “So I do videos of Splash in the water, with my iPhone.”

Moyer loves getting the messages, Rosenthal says. (I asked whether Paquin and Moyer drop off their dogs themselves. Nope; an assistant does it.)

So how much does all this cost a star? The average is more than $100 a night, I am told. But really, for a taped hydrotherapy session for a dog sent over an iPhone, would you pay any less?

VIPS: Dogs Who Live Better Than You Do

The story you were trying to access could not be found on our mobile site.

View the mobile home page
View the story on the full site

This item was written by Johanna Jainchill, who covers the travel industry for Travel Weekly. Jainchill is serving as Guest Editor of The Cruise Log while USA TODAY Cruise Editor Gene Sloan is away.

A California man charged with murdering his wife on a Carnival cruise ship in 2009 was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in San Diego yesterday.

The Associated Press reported that Robert McGill apologized for his actions during his sentencing but gave no explanation for killing his wife, Shirley, while on a five-day Mexican cruise to Cabo San Lucas.

PREVIOUSLY:  California man pleads guilty to killing wife on cruise ship
PREVIOUSLY:  Court papers recount drama of alleged murder on Carnival cruise ship

McGill, a 57-year-old former teacher, pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder in the death, admitting that he had intentionally killed his wife of five years in their cabin aboard the 2,056-passenger Carnival Elation.

His attorney blamed the murder on McGill’s being drunk, the AP reported, an excuse that U.S. Chief District Judge Irma Gonzalez said could not explain McGill’s ability to clean himself up and go to the ship’s upper deck to smoke a cigar after the beating.

Court papers filed by prosecutors early in the case alleged that McGill had gotten “extremely intoxicated” on July 14, 2009, during the hours leading up to the incident, during a port call in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Several hours later, Shirley McGill was found dead in a pool of blood in the couple’s cabin.

Cruise Loggers, share your thoughts below.

Q My mother would like to come and visit for Christmas. She is 89 and probably shouldn’t be flying alone. Suggestions?

A This question is particularly timely. And worrisome if you’ve ever dealt with a parent who wants to be mobile but shouldn’t be alone.

There are options, and then there are expensive options. Although one should not put a price on Mom’s safety or presence, one must also be prepared for an outlay for both.

Most people know that airlines have unaccompanied-minor fares, but fewer know about the unaccompanied-senior fare, which “mimics the overall concept” of the unaccompanied-minor program, said Bill Miller, senior vice president of CheapOair.com.

Typically, the unaccompanied-senior program can cost $100 and up, Miller said. Check your airline for specifics.

If an elderly parent needs even more supervision, you can hire flying companions.

Kimarie Jones, owner and founder of Preferred Travel Helpers in Englewood, Colo., said she started her business to bring families together. Preferred Travel Helpers assesses the passenger’s needs — is it just assistance or are there medical issues? — and matches an employee with the skills appropriate to the situation. The aide will pick up the passenger at home in a cab, get to the airport, check the bags, go through security and get your loved one on the plane. Upon disembarking,

the aide will turn over your loved one to the receiver with proper ID.

Besides the expenses of traveling (cab, airfare and a hotel, if it’s a long flight), the cost for the four legs of the trip will be about $1,000 for domestic travel (reduced for the holidays, Jones said).

Too much? Consider that the person you love may have problems you don’t know about. My mom, for instance, insisted she didn’t need help, but on a flight from LAX to Washington, D.C., got lost (and later found) on a layover in Detroit. (Our first mistake: putting her on a connecting flight. Our second mistake: not flying with her. Our third mistake: not picking up on the clues that she was in the initial stages of dementia.)

Getting old, as we all know, isn’t for sissies. Traveling isn’t for sissies of any age. But even the most stouthearted among us may need help, whether it’s an older traveler or a frantic, fretting child.

Reader’s Paris suggestion

Re: the Dec. 4 Travel QA on options from Charles de Gaulle Airport: “The easiest way to get to Paris from CDG is with their version of Supershuttle. It is the Navette Bleue (www.paris-blue-airport-shuttle.fr). Reserve and prepay online. They will tell you to wait in front of a certain door. Soon, your blue van will arrive and you will be comfortablly shuttled directly to your hotel or residence.

— Lorraine D’Ambruoso, San Jose

Today’s QA is from the Los Angeles Times’ Catharine Hamm. Have a question of general interest? Send it to travel@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Max Smith, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – If you’ve ever been sitting in traffic, wondering when to tell your family you’ll be home for dinner, you may appreciate the new information coming to I-95.

Starting Monday, the Virginia Department of Transportation is putting travel time estimates on the overhead signs at seven highly-trafficked locations.

Northbound, drivers will see the travel time to the Beltway on signs at Route 234 and Route 123. The travel time to the D.C. line will be posted at the Fairfax County Parkway.

Southbound drivers near the Pentagon will see travel time to the Beltway, then, just before reaching 495, the time to Route 123

Near the Fairfax County Parkway, a sign will show the travel time to Route 234, and near Lorton you’ll see the travel time to Route 3 in Fredericksburg.

The times will be posted from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekends.

VDOT started similar signs on I-66 this summer, and Maryland expanded its program last year.

But some Maryland drivers complained about the signs after they debuted, saying that people were slowing down to look up and read them, which caused delays.

Follow Max and WTOP on Twitter.

(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)