TravelandLeisure

Delta will no longer allow emotional support animals on flights

With new federal rules in place, Delta Air Lines said it will no longer allow emotional support animals on its flights. Airlines and passengers had raised concerns about safety and other issues as more and more travelers brought animals on board. By certifying their pets as emotional support animals, pet owners had been able to avoid paying extra fees when flying. Under the new U.S. Department of Transportation rules taking effect next week, airlines are no longer required to grant special access to emotional support animals. Delta's policy change means it will stop accepting new bookings for ...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Bob Brookover: Phillies’ Dan Baker battling for his return to Citizens Bank Park public address booth

PHILADELPHIA — Fans were not the only thing missing at Citizens Bank Park last season. The familiar voice of Dan Baker, one of the friendliest human beings to ever inhabit this planet, was also absent. "Now batting for the Phillies, No. 34, right fielder Bryce Harper!" Close your eyes and you can hear Baker carefully enunciating each word before emoting the player’s name, which is especially true whenever a superstar like Harper comes to the plate in a crucial situation. When Harry Kalas died a dozen years ago, the late Phillies president David Montgomery declared that the franchise had “lost ...

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Phil Rosenthal: Nickelodeon’s Gabrielle Nevaeh Green and Noah Eagle prepare to call Sunday’s Bears playoff game: ’I’ve been asked a lot if I’m going to get slimed ... I’m bringing a shower cap’

Gabrielle Nevaeh Green and Tony Romo are both set to work Sunday’s Chicago Bears-New Orleans Saints playoff game as TV commentators, yet they and their broadcasts differ in some respects. To start with, Green is 15, not an NFL expert and part of the flashy, effects-filled coverage to be showcased on kid-vid cable’s Nickelodeon. Oddly, it’s not clear at this writing if Romo, who missed the regular-season finale with Jim Nantz because of COVID-19 protocols, will cover Bears-Saints remotely for CBS or with Nantz in New Orleans. Green, meanwhile, will be on site and in the booth with Noah Eagle on...

Chicago Tribune

Curacao lifts travel restrictions for all American travelers

Curacao has reopened the country’s borders to American travelers from every U.S. state and waived the previously required 14-day visitor quarantine, government officials said this week. Curacao had previously limited inbound travel to residents of the New York tri-state area and Florida upon the launch of its phased reopening in October. The Curacao Tourist Board; the Ministry of Public Health, Environment and Nature, and the Ministry of Economic Development collectively classify residents from all U.S. states as “medium risk.” “Curacao has taken a cautious reopening approach,” Paul Pennicook,...

TravelPulse

How tour operators are planning for travel in 2021

Tours are going to look different when travel restarts in earnest. Not only have tour operators made changes for safety circumstances, but travelers will also have increased options and the comfort of navigating a post-pandemic world with the help of guides and experts. Travelers are also looking to travel with a purpose and are looking for tours and destinations that allow them to get off the beaten path and discover new places. PRIVATE TOURS Many tour operators now have opportunities for travelers to travel in private groups. CIE Tours, Globus, Adventures by Disney, Trafalgar and others have...

TravelPulse

As a pandemic diversion and animal ambassador, Wellington the penguin lit up the web

CHICAGO – On the first weekend after Chicago's Shedd Aquarium was forced to close by the new coronavirus that was endangering the country, the penguin handlers had an idea. Taking advantage of the building’s quiet halls, the empty spaces where normally tourists would congregate in front of fish displays, they brought the rockhopper penguin Wellington to the Amazon Rising exhibit, full of South American aquatic life. Wellington looked up. He looked left, then right, and then back at handler Michelle Natasowski, who was recording the scene on her phone. Then he walked over to one of the big tank...

Tribune News Service

After canceling 2020 vacations, travelers are eager to hit the road, but will it be to Europe — or Michigan?

CHICAGO — Last year, Leyla Royale visited Mexico City and London and went paragliding in the Austrian Alps. This year she’s occasionally left her Andersonville neighborhood to drive around downtown Chicago for a change of scenery. Travel-starved consumers like Royale want to get back to their jet-setting ways in 2021, and the COVID-19 vaccine has some feeling more optimistic. Airlines and tour operators are trying to reassure customers with more flexibility and outdoor, crowd-free destinations, but many travelers are still hesitant to make plans. “I’m hoping by fall of 2021 it’s going to be re...

Chicago Tribune

For Tigers, 2020 was an irredeemable, almost forgettable slog

DETROIT — It rained on the last day of the regular season. Of course it did. How else would such a dismal, woebegone baseball season end but in an empty Kauffman Stadium after an hour and a half rain delay, with a Tigers lineup that featured seven players who spent most or a part of the season playing intrasquad games in Toledo mustering three hits in a 3-1 loss? The final three outs of the season were strikeouts. That seemed poetic at the time. There was very little to redeem this 58-game slog of a season. From March 13, when the COVID-19 pandemic first shuttered baseball activities, to the d...

The Detroit News

6 months after CHOP drew nation's attention, Seattle park has reopened, city says

SEATTLE — Seattle’s Cal Anderson Park has officially reopened after a six-month closure that was sporadically enforced and after the removal of an encampment from the park last week, the Parks Department announced Wednesday. The Parks Department will be setting up ping pong tables and outdoor dining areas in the park to help “activate” Cal Anderson, a news release said. The department will also be creating a children’s scavenger hunt in the park, the release said. Officials initially declared the park closed on June 30, as the city grappled with the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) in the...

The Seattle Times

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