Orlando International Airport

Start celebrating July 4th now – at the airport

Events, Holidays, , , ,

The July 4th travel ‘season’ is evidently already underway, as airports around the country have already rolled out their in-terminal holiday celebrations.

Orlando Philharmonic

Courtesy Orlando International Airport (photo from 2012 performance)

Orlando International Airport starts celebrating this weekend (Liberty Weekend) with a free concert by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra in the Hyatt Regency Hotel atrium (which doubles as the main atrium of the airport) on Saturday, June 29 at 7:45 p.m.

The concert is free and in the pre-security area of the airport and everyone who attends will receive American flags, pins and three hours of complimentary parking.

Orlando International Airport has another patriotic event underway in the atrium: a display of 50 tempered-glass poppies (The Remembrance Poppies) by Craig Mitchell Smith. Poppies have been the American Legion’s symbol of  symbol of tribute to fallen soldiers since World War I.

POPPIES HI

Miami International Airport also starts celebrating early (this Friday, Saturday, Sunday and again on July 4th) with a parade in the terminals, photo ops with George Washington and other activities.

And in Washington, D.C. both Dulles International Airport and Reagan National Airport are running a fun promotion with President Obama. (Well, a cardboard cut-out of the president).

BUMPED INTO OBAMA

Starting today and running through July 7th, there will be red, white and blue menus at many airport restaurants, patriotic displays in the shops and a fun photo contest called #BumpedIntoObama.

Look for “the President” outside various shops in either airport (you can find out where he is by checking the IAD and DCA social media sites); get your picture taken with him, share the photo on Twitter or Instagram (@IADFoodandShops or @DCAFoodandShops) with the hashtag #BumpedIntoObama and you’ll not only have a fun souvenir – you’ll be entered into a daily drawing for a $25 Gift Card.

Disney World is 40; Orlando Int’l Airport is 30

Entertainment, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff,

Central Florida’s Walt Disney World turns 40 on October 1 and on the Disney blog there’s a cool infographic offering a timeline of Walt Disney World Resort and a list of the special events that will take place to mark the anniversary.

Here’s a clip from an early press conference announcing Walt Disney World.

There’s another party taking place in central Florida this weekend. On Sunday, October 2nd, Orlando International Airport is having a Community Day to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

There will be plenty of music and lots of character appearances, including Shamu from Sea World, Miss Kitty from Hello Kitty, Duffy the Bear from Disney, The Astronaut from the Kennedy Space Center and Woody and Winnie Woodpecker from Universal Studios.

A live Alligator from Gatorland will make an appearance as will the Kanani Nicdao Polynesian Dance Group.

Sound like fun? All events at the airport – including parking – are free.
Tickets to Disney World are definitely not free – but you can see the fireworks for free from the top level of the parking garage at the airport.

Souvenir Sunday: Build-a-Bear at Orlando International Airport

Air Travel, Airport guides, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs, , ,

Each Sunday at StuckatTheAirport.com we take a look at some of the fun things for sale in airport shops.

Usually it’s an inexpensive item that’s a bit offbeat and “of” the city or town. Something like the  “Fly SUX” souvenirs for sale at Sioux Gateway Airport (SUX) in Sioux City, Iowa.

 

This week, the Souvenir Sunday pick is something that’s just fun and a very good fit for Orlando International Airport.

The first airport Build-a-Bear Workshop opened last week at Orlando International Airport. Customers are promised “an interactive make-your-own stuffed animal retail-entertainment experience,” and after making their way through a variety of  hands on stations (Choose Me, Hear Me, Stuff Me, Stitch Me, Fluff Me, Dress Me, Name Me and Take Me Home) they end up with their own custom-made bear, bunny, dog, kitty or other animal. The cost: between $10 and $25.

I’m not sure if we’ll be seeing the Build-a-Bear concept popping up at other airports. But it’s a great fit for Orlando International Airport, which welcomes so many families and already offers so many treats, including free Wi-Fi, fun art, theme-park character statues for free photo ops, two Kennedy Space Center gift shops and several game arcades.

Want to more about Orlando International Airport (MCO)? Take a look at the MCO airport guide I created for USATODAY.com.

Tidbits for travelers: Pep rally at PIT, Oompah at Gatwick, Kong at Orlando Airport

Exhibits, Fun Stuff, Openings, Sports, , , , ,

PIT T REX Steelers

(Even PIT’s T Rex is excited about the Steelers being in the Super Bowl)

Super Bowl mania is reaching into airports: four airlines have added extra flights from Pittsburgh to Dallas for the Super Bowl and on Friday morning (February 4th), Pittsburgh International Airport will be hosting a black-and-gold-themed pep rally for Arlington-bound Steelers fans.

The rally will take place in the airside terminal between 8:30 and noon and feature live music, special guests, “Hudsy” the Dog from Hudson Booksellers, Steelers merchandise and lots of excited fans.

To celebrate two new airberlin routes, The Bavarian Strollers will be playing oompah-filled songs at Gatwick Airport and Victoria Station on Monday, February 7th. The song list will be made up of requests voted on via Twitter and four random voters will win airberlin tickets from Gatwick Airport to Nuremburg or Hanover.  Details on the airberlin oompah contest here.

And there’s a new video arcade at Orlando International Airport: the “King of Kong” arcade is in the main terminal near the food court.  At the grand opening Twin Galaxies, the authority on video game high scores and world records, unveiled a set of video-game-related trading cards. The first two cards in the series feature Billy Mitchell and Walter Day. Mitchell has numerous world records for Donkey Kong and Pac-Man; Day is known as the founding father of organized video game playing and competitions.

Flashmob at Orlando Int’l Airport sings Hallelujah Chorus

Airports, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Music, , ,

Orlando’s Messiah Choral Society & Bach Festival Choir popped in to sing the Hallelujah Chorus at the Orlando International Airport on Saturday, December 18, 2010.

Earlier in the week, scenes from the Nutcracker Suite were performed by the Orlando Ballet Company.

There are 16 days of events and entertainment planned for the busy holiday travel season – including some more surprises – so be sure to look & listen when you’re making your way to or through Orlando International Airport.

Free classical concert at Orlando Airport; free terminal tour at San Jose Airport

Air Travel, Airports, Architecture, Art, Design, Entertainment, Exhibits, Power Outlets, Seating, , , , , , ,


As part of its Liberty Weekend festivities, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) will present a free concert by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert will take place at 8 pm, on Saturday June 26, 2010 in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which doubles as the public lobby area for gates 60 to 129.  All attendees will get three hours of complimentary airport parking.

Saturday June 26th and Sunday June 27th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, unticketed visitors are invited into Silicon Valley’s Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) for a sneak peek at the new high-tech Terminal B.  The new building includes seating areas with built-in power ports and public art that includes German multi-media artist’s Bjoern Schuelke’s Space Observer, an interactive, two-story tall robot-like structure with three legs and propeller-equipped arms.

San Jose Airport public art "Space Observer"

(Watch a Space Observer movie.)

Registered visitors will be able to walk through the terminal, see the art, buy a souvenir and enter drawings for prizes that will include airline tickets and travel packages.

If you plan on visiting the terminal, you’ll need to register in advance on the SJC website by Wednesday, June 23rd and pick the day and time you want to stop by.

In the meantime, here’s a link to a great photo slide show of the San Jose Airport through the years from The Mercury News.

Tidbits for travelers: LAX views, Orlando news, & KCI cruise

Airports, Architecture, Events, Festivals, Free Stuff, free Wi-Fi, Fun Stuff, Layover, Observation Decks, Openings, Wi-Fi, , , , , , ,

Here’s great news for anyone who finds themselves stuck at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on the weekend.

The Observation Deck at the top of the Theme Building, which has been closed since 9/11, will finally re-open to the public this Saturday.

(A view of the old version of the observation deck; courtesy LAX. New version: under wraps!)

There will be a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday morning (June 21, 2010) but the official public hours of the deck will be Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Go take a look through the new telescopes and enjoy the view!

Orlando Airport getting Google-ized?


According to this story in the Orlando Sentinel, the Orlando International Airport (MCO) is in discussion with Google for a two-year deal in which Google would pay the airport more than $100,000 a year to sponsor the existing (free) airport Wi-Fi and provide a variety of other amenities, including free Internet kiosks for passengers traveling without laptops and phone booths at the international gates offering free long distance calling.

Sounds like Google is talking to other airports about this same sort of ‘experiment,’ but no word yet on where.

And this sounds like fun:

(courtesy Hot Rod)

This Saturday (June 19th, 2010) Kansas City International Airport will be hosting its fourth KCI Cruise. Not a sailing ship cruise, but the sort of cruise where hundreds – in this case up to 500 – owners of classic, muscle and special-interest automobiles gather in a parking lot to show off their cool cars.

The event runs from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. (weather permitting; wouldn’t want anything to happen to those cars!) and money raised from the sales of donated food and prizes will go to area charities. The prizes are nothing to sneeze at. They’ll be giving away Frontier Airlines tickets, Chiefs and Royals tickets, Justin Bieber concert tickets (!), hotel stays and more. For more details and for directions to the event, see the KCI Cruise page on the Kansas City International Airport website.

When will all airports have free Wi-Fi?

Airports, Free Stuff, free Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi, , , , , , , , ,

This month, my “At the Airport” column in USATODAY.com is all about airport Wi-Fi.

And all about why more and more airports, including those in Denver, Pittsburgh, Orlando and, just recently, Seattle and Boston, offer this welcome amenity for free – and why some don’t.

Here’s an edited version of that column:

Free Wi-Fi was on Sea-Tac’s to do list for years, but the airport had to wait until its contract with AT&T ran out before making the service free. “It’s almost become a required amenity,” says Sea-Tac airport spokesperson Perry Cooper, “Passengers expect it now. Especially in places like Seattle where folks are very tech-savvy. In fact, it’s been our number one customer service request for years.”

Silicon Valley’s Mineta San José International Airport started offering the service back in May 2008, says airport spokesperson David Vossbrink, because “we serve a high proportion of business travelers and road warriors who have laptops and mobile devices surgically implanted and [they] expect to be able to always be connected.”

It’s pretty much the same story across the country. Everyone wants to stay connected and everyone wants the Wi-Fi at the airport to be free. But how can airports afford to make it free?

Advertising and sponsorship may be the way to go.

At Denver International Airport, which began offering free Wi-Fi in November 2007, between 6,000 and 8,000 travelers now sign on to the system each day and revenue from advertisers help offset the cost of the service. Sea-Tac Airport has asked Clear Channel, which already sells advertising space throughout the airport, to find additional ads to support the new, free Wi-Fi service as well. And at San Francisco International Airport, advertising is being considered as negotiations get underway to figure out how to support a free Wi-Fi program as well. If they can figure out how to fund it, representatives from Nashville International and many other airports say they’d offer travelers free Wi-Fi as well.

Like LAX and the airports in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport still charges passengers for Wi-Fi access. “We know many travelers would love to see free Wi-Fi,” says airport spokesperson Patrick Hogan, “The bottom line is that airports like MSP must generate the funds to cover all airport operating costs…There is no such thing as free airport Wi-Fi. It’s really just a question of who pays to cover the cost of providing the service.”

For the full posted version of this column, read Free airport Wi-Fi takes off in USATODAY.com. And if you’re want to know which airports currently offer free Wi-Fi, the folks at Jaunted.com have been keeping a good tally on their free airport Wi-Fi map.

And if you do use a free Wi-Fi service at an airport, a hotel, a coffee shop or somewhere else, the Wi-Fi Alliance encourages you to use a personal firewall, make sure you have anti-virus software, and keep these other safety tips in mind:

  • Make sure that you are connecting to a legitimate hotspot – those that require a password have more protection than those that do not.
  • Use a virtual private network or VPN, which establishes a private connection across the public network. This may be supplied by your employer, or you can purchase one.
  • Surfing the web and sending e-mail is fine, but doing your banking for example in a public hotspot is not advised.
  • Configure for approved connections: Many devices sense and automatically connect to any available wireless signal. To regain control, simply configure your device to not automatically connect to an open network without your approval.
  • Disable sharing: Your Wi-Fi enabled devices may automatically open themselves to sharing / connecting with other devices. File and printer sharing may be common in business and home networks, but you can avoid this in public networks.

Got that?

Power up at Newark-Liberty International Airport (EWR)

Cell Phones, Power Outlets, , , ,

Goods news for gadget-toting travelers:

There are now 50 free 4-outlet charging stations scattered through Terminals A, B, and C at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).

The charging stations are courtesy of Samsung Mobile, which sponsors similar power charging stations at five other major airports (so far): John F. Kennedy International Airport (54), Los Angeles International Airport (51) LaGuardia International Airport (12), Orlando International Airport (18), and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (22). In addition, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport has eight Samsung Mobile Travel Centers, which also offer couches and other amenities.

Power charging stations (both free and pay-per-charge), desks with working power outlets, and banks of seats with built in outlets seem to be popping up at more and more airports these days. But don’t leave your extension cord home just yet: during high traffic times a spot at the charging station is harder to get than a seat in the sports bar during a playoff game.

Swords to Plowshares at Orlando International Airport

Art

Taking the family to Disneyworld this summer? Be sure to spend some time exploring the art at Orlando International Airport (MCO).

The permanent art collection includes this oh-so-appropriate piece by Duane Hanson titled The Traveler. (It’s in the Main Terminal, Airside 2 security checkpoint).

mco-traveler.jpg

Through September 30, there’s also an intriguing collection of World War I metal trench art on display in the ARTport Gallery next to the security checkpoint for gates 60-129.

Trench art?

It seems during WWI and II, soldiers with downtime between battles, prisoners of war, and wounded men convalescing in military hospitals used artillery shells, bullets, pieces of airplanes and other bits of brass and scrap metal to make ashtrays, lamps, and all manner of decorative and functional items.

trench_art.jpg