This Week In Travel

Welcome back to TWIT (This Week In Travel). Another week has passed, and I’ve finally found a new show to watch. “Normal People,” which is a bit dark, has managed to keep me interested for about eight episodes and is a good offset to the silly “Scrubs,” the other show that I’m on.

In any case, even with the world shut down, I’m still finding some interesting stories that are worth sharing. Here are a few of them.

You’re Welcome to Visit. Just Lose the Appendix.

I thought that this was a joke at first, but it’s on Wikipedia, so it must be true.

Have you ever thought, “Boy, I’d like to visit someplace that’s so remote that I need to start removing body parts because they don’t have much in the way of medical facilities?”

Neither have I, but apparently, they do exist. Villas Las Estrellas is higher on the list for scientists and Chilean military folks than it is for tourists, but long-term visitors and residents have one thing in common. Or, perhaps, they have the lack of one thing in common: an appendix.

Apparently, the Antarctica settlement is so far away from the nearest major hospital that they wouldn’t be able to get you there on time in the case of an “appendemergency” so, if you’re gonna be there for a while, you’ll have to lose it before you arrive.

More Changes for the TSA Protocol
Week In Travel

The TSA is COVID-proofing the security checkpoints and, naturally many of them are more for sure than anything else. So here’s another list of regulations that you can follow before the virtual strip search:

• You’ll scan your own boarding pass now, instead of handing it to a TSO to screen. Seems reasonable enough.
• Separate your food into a plastic bag and pull that out to screen separately. That’ll allow the TSOs to grab a snack on the way down the line.
• You may now take 12 oz of hand sanitizer with you, but all other liquids are still restricted to 3.4 oz. That’ll fool the terrorists who don’t think to put their explosives into hand sanitizer containers.
• Social distancing at the checkpoints and wearing facial coverings, which you’ll have to pull down for the ID check. I’m still waiting for somebody to explain how the ID check makes me safer, but it sounds good, anyway.

One thing that they aren’t doing (yet) is temperature checks. Frankly, I’m a little surprised, since spending billions of dollars on thermometers that don’t work is typically right up their alley. Perhaps, I’ll be reporting on this soon in the next “Week in Travel” update.

Opinion Piece – Return to Vegas
When You Return To Las Vegas, You’ll Be More Likely To Fly Southwest

When is Vegas opening up again?

If you want to know the scoop on Vegas opening, alongside discussion surrounding what games will be available, the future of your favourite poker room, what the current state of the Las Vegas strip is, then you can’t afford to not watch the replay of this week’s ZorkCast Live with Anthony Curtis of Las Vegas Advisor.

Do you wish you could have asked our experts a question? We’d love to see you join us in the chatroom for our live webcast presentation. Be sure to register to get the free link to the live webcast. Our next live webcast features Vegas’ favourite blogger, Scott Roeben of Vital Vegas, as our special guest. Scott’s Twitter feed, @VitalVegas, is one of the most-watched in Las Vegas (3.5 million Tweet impression per month), and he can always be relied on for the latest scoops (and rumors) from Las Vegas.

DoubleTree Gives up its Last Secret:
The Cookie Recipe

DoubleTree, one of the Hilton brands, is a moderately priced chain known for one thing: the free cookies that it gives guests when they arrive. Granted, the cookies were a lot tastier when they didn’t put the calorie count on the sleeve, but their popularity hasn’t declined.

And now, in the spirit of helping out during COVID-19, they’ve done what would have formerly been impossible: They’ve released the recipe for the cookies. And this is the real thing. We’re not talking Ann Landers Urban Myth Neiman Marcus cookies. These are the real thing.

So you may be stuck inside, but at least you’ll have something to bake.