OUR FIRST SUPERLINER HAS US ON CALL

YOUR WEEKLY “TRAVELLERS GOOD BUYS”

Week beginning 15 October 2007

travel tips: with david ellis

OUR FIRST SUPERLINER HAS US ON CALL

THE imminent arrival in Australia of the first superliner ever to be
permanently based here, P&O’s 70,000 tonne Pacific Dawn saw the
company take a record near-3000 phone enquiries at its Australian call
centre in just one day last week. It was 30 per cent more than
average, and the company says was a combination of increased marketing
of Pacific Dawn that will make her inaugural voyage from Sydney on
November 9, and an 18 per cent growth in the past year in Australians
opting for cruise holidays.

CUNARD meanwhile have ordered a new 92,000 tonne liner to be named
Queen Elizabeth to keep up with world demand for cruise holidaying.
She’ll replace the QE2 that will become a floating hotel in Dubai at
the end of next year, and will be launched in 2010 with a capacity for
2092 passengers.

QANTAS Holidays has a night’s accommodation at the Hotel Ibis World
Square in Sydney and an ‘A’ Reserve ticket to Billy Elliott the
Musical from $213pp. The musical is scheduled to run at the Capitol
Theatre from November 13 to February 24; book through travel agents.

TRAFALGAR has 8-day Northern California coach tours between May and
October 2008 that include San Francisco, Sonoma and Napa Valleys, Lake
Tahoe, Yosemite National park, Carmel and Monterey from $1985pp
twin-share. It includes breakfasts daily, some other meals,
first-class hotels, air-conditioned coach travel, professional tour
guide and airport transfers; air travel is additional.

Highlights include wine and dinner aboard the Napa Valley Wine Train,
Gold Rush Old Sacramento, the historic Old Mission San Juan Bautista
and giant redwood forests; see travel agents or visit
www.trafalgar.net.au/America

AUSTRALIA’s biggest outdoor festival, the Big Day Out returns to the
Gold Coast on January 20, Sydney on January 25 and Melbourne on
January 28 and Student Flights still has accommodation and ticket
packages to suit all budgets and group sizes; Gold Coast packages also
include transfers to the festival. Details on 1800 069 063 or visit
www.studentflights.com.au

DOCTORS at Mackay in Queensland are reported to have drip-fed an
Italian tourist with a full case of vodka over three days after he
swallowed anti-freeze. The vodka acted as an antidote to the ethylene
glycol poison in the anti-freeze, and doctors say because he was
unconscious when he arrived at hospital and was kept in a
medically-induced coma, the man reported no hang-over and made a full
recovery.