Here is a look inside Royal Caribbean's enormous cruise ship, Oasis of the Seas. The giant ship arrived in Port Everglades, Florida last week. The ship is five times the Titantic. It has five different themed areas, 2700 cabins, 16 decks and cost $1.5 billion to make. Take a look:
This enormous fish tank is the second largest aquarium tank in the world.
This video was shot by Jon Rawlinson at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan. The tank is called the Kuroshio Sea. It holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world's second largest acrylic glass panel. Whale sharks and manta rays are some of the many fish and sea creatures inside the tank. Take a look:
CNN reports that a computer flight plan glitch is causing cancelations and delays in flights nationwide.
WSI Inc. -- a company that provides CNN weather and other information -- said the computer outage started at 5:10 a.m. ET and service was restored at 8:22 a.m. ET.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the system went down at 5:15 a.m. ET but did not say the problem had been resolved. FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said air traffic controllers were having to enter the flight plans manually, a process that causes delays.
The problem appears to be across the nation.
The AP says the FAA does not know when the flight plan computer problem will be fixed. Flight plans are currently being entered manually at many airports.
Update: USA Todaysays the issue has been fixed but the backlog it created could cause problems for travelers the rest of the day.
Bloomberg reports that Mattel's massive six-story Barbie story is Shanghai is falling well short of initial sales expectations. Mattel has lowered sales estimates for the store from initial expectations by over 60%. Bloomberg says Mattel has already had to lower sales estimates for the Shanghai store several times. The new general manager of the store says initial sales targets were "astronomical."
"The initial sales targets were astronomical," said Dann Murphy, who took over as general manager as his predecessor left eight months after the store opened. Targets for the six-story outlet’s restaurant and "retail experience," which includes designing personalized Barbie dolls, have been revised down three times since its opening in March.
Paul French, founder of Shanghai-based market research company Access Asia, told Bloomberg the store is open long enough that it should be working by now. He thinks the initial concept behind the store was wrong.
"Every retail store operates at a loss when it opens, but they've been open long enough that it should be working by now," said Paul French, founder of Shanghai-based market research company Access Asia. "They overestimated their brand recognition in China. I just think the concept is wrong."
Mattel has revised the overall sales target for the store to between 65 percent and 70 percent of original expectations, said Murphy. The store has started meeting its sales targets on product sales, including dolls and toys, after the targets were downgraded twice, he added.
Dann Murphy, the store manager, also told Bloomberg that the restaurant - the Barbie Cafe - is struggling because customers can't find it or aren't aware it exists. Murphy says, "Sometimes customers don't even know the restaurant is there. So they get to the sixth floor and are like, ‘Where am I?'"
It is possible the store simply offers too much Barbie and that Barbie products work better when they are sold at other retail outlets. Shanghai could also be too distant of a destination for many of Barbie's most loyal fans. The store does have a lot to offer for Barbie fans including a Barbie fashion runway, a design center where you can customize your own Barbie, and a full-service day spa featuring Barbie beauty products. If you are not in Shanghai you can explore the store on its website.
The Telegraphreports that a hotel in the French city of Nantes has a suite called the "Hamster Villa" where guests can live like hamsters. The suite even contains a giant wheel for exercising and hay stacks for sleeping. Guests staying in the room are served hamster grain.
For 99 euros (£88) a night, visitors to the hotel in Nantes can feast on hamster grain, get a workout by running in a giant wheel and sleep in hay stacks in the suite called the "Hamster Villa".
It is the latest venture from owners Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho, who run a company which rents out unusual venues to adventure-seekers. Both architects, the men designed the room in an 18th century building to resemble the inside of a hamster's cage.
Here is a video about the strange hotel room. The hotel even offers hamster costumes. Take a look:
CBS Newsreports that hotels are offering lots of unusual perks to get people to book rooms. Some of the perks offered include Harley Davidson motorcyles, surfing lessons, roller coaster rides, tattoo services and the use of a luxury car. The main reason for the perks is the hotel industry is struggling because of the weak economy and they need to do whatever they can to get more guests. Hotel occupancy rates have been falling despite falling room prices. Take a look:
The Burj Dubai is a skyscraper under construction in Dubai. It is to be the world's tallest tower when it is finished. Here is a video shot by a man from the top of Burj Dubai. It looks really, really high. Take a look:
In today's busy world it is hard to stay caught up on your sleep. If you fall behind it is not easy to catch back up. The Arch Group has come with a solution called the Sleep Box. The Sleep Box is a small cubicle which contains a thin bed, an LCD TV, Wifi and power outlets. The sheets inside the Sleep Box change automatically.
The main functional element in it is a bed 2x0.6 m., which is equipped with automatic system of change of bed linen. Bed is soft, flexible strip of foamed polymer with the surface of the pulp tissue. Tape is rewound from one shaft to another, changing the bed. If a client wants to sleep in maximum comfort, he can take the normal set of bed linen for an extra fee.
The idea would be to charge people for every 15 minutes of sleep time and have the sheets change automatically when someone exits.
After the clients exit, automatic change of bed linen starts and quartz lamps turns on. Payment can be made on a shared terminal, which provides the client with an electronic key. It is possible to buy from 15 minutes to several hours.
Maintenance and cleaning would be key with these Sleep Boxes should they go into public use. They could also cause someone travel troubles if they entered a Sleep Box and slept through their flight. Charlie Sorrel at Wired thinks two people might try and sneak in a Sleep Box at one time.
Normally your frequent flyer miles can be redeemed for air travel, car rental, hotel stays or merchandise. But Finnair Oyj, Finland's biggest airline, has gone a step beyond with it's frequent flyer program. Members can cash in their points for plastic surgery. The phrase "racking up frequent flyer miles" takes on a whole new dimension in Finland.
Breast implants, hair replacement surgery or a face-lift performed by the Nordstroem Hospital in Helsinki are among the newest offerings in the carrier’s Finnair Plus loyalty service, according to the program's Web site.
"Finnair contacted the hospital," Mikko Tuomainen, the airline's director of loyalty programs, said in a telephone interview. "The idea was to incorporate partners and services from all walks of life."
About 1.3 million flyers are enrolled in Finnair's loyalty program, Tuomainen said. Earning the 3.18 million points for breast augmentation surgery requires 120 round-trip, business-class flights between Helsinki and New York, according to a points table on Finnair's Web site. Miles earned with the airline are valid for five years.
Finnair, which added the cosmetic surgery service about a month ago, is in talks with medical practices to offer other health care services, Tuomainen said. Points can also be combined with cash and used for services ranging from restaurants and clubs to car rentals and hotels. Frequent flyers use three-fourths of all points for flights, Tuomainen said.
Once you've accumulated enough points, you go have a consultation at the hospital. After that, you turn in your miles for a voucher that can be used to pay for the surgery. So far, no one has redeemed their miles for surgery.
Finnair is having major financial troubles; the hospital said it is participating in the program to help out the airline. The government of Finland owns 55.8% of Finnair.
Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas arrived at Port Everglades, Florida today. The ship is currently the world's largest cruise ship although it will likely be dwarfed by ships made in the years to come. The AP says the ship is five times bigger than the Titanic was. The massive cruise ship has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members. The huge ship even has its own Twitter account, @oasisandallure. Take a look:
Hilton Worldwide is
expanding in the Middle East. The hotel chain is planning on opening more hotels in Mecca to take advantage of all the religious tourists needing a place to stay. Mecca is the birthplace of Islam and many Muslims make religious pilgrimages there. But accommodations in Saudi Arabia are insufficient for the traffic, according to Hilton.
"We don't have enough of a supply of hotel rooms," Shuja Zaidi, Hilton's vice president of projects in Saudi Arabia, said in an interview in Riyadh yesterday. "There is a tremendous amount of money going into Mecca."
Hoteliers and property developers are tapping new business opportunities in the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina as the Saudi government seeks to accommodate more pilgrims. Saudi Arabia is building a $5.3 billion rail line that can transport 3 million people between the two cities and is expanding Jeddah international airport to handle 30 million passengers by 2012.
Over the next 10 years, developers and hotel companies will invest as much as 150 billion riyals ($40 billion) in Mecca, Zaidi said. Kingdom Holding Co., the investment company controlled by billionaire Prince Alwaleed, will open a five-star hotel with 1,000 rooms, restaurants and retail space.
Jabal Omar Development Co., a real-estate developer in Mecca, is building 27 hotels with a combined 15,000 rooms, with the first to open in 2011. There will be multiple Hilton properties there, Zaidi said.
"Every major hotel brand in the world will be present in Jabal Omar,” Zaidi said. "Hilton is a small portion of that."
As Paris Hilton might say, religious tourism is huge. Hilton Worldwide was purchased by the Blackstone Group in 2007.
This amazing looking floating building is called "Fluid." It is a floating exhibition space that will be used at the 2012 World Expo in Yeosu, South Korea. Afterwards it will sail off to another city where it can used for another exhibition. The building was designed by Australian architects at Peddle Thorpe Architects (PTA). You can find more photos of the building here on Dvice. Inhabitat says the building was also designed to have a minimal impact on the surrounding coastal ecosystem.
Designer Erik De Nijs introduced with this set of suitcases at the Dutch Design Week. The set of four suitcases called Suited Cases can be combined to form a sofa. You may wish you had these if you end up stuck overnight at the airport but generally transforming your luggage into a hideous couch is not going to be very practical. You may not even always want four pieces of luggage given the rising luggage prices charge by airlines. The suitcases that have a seat embeded in them - like the ZucaPro - are more practical.
Bloombergreports that Disney has won a government approval to build a Disney Theme Park in Shanghai.
The agreement to construct Disney's fourth park outside the U.S. in the world's most populous nation "marks a very significant milestone," Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Iger said in a statement. Disney and its Shanghai partners are now allowed to move toward a construction and operation agreement, the statement said.
Disney's foothold in mainland China comes after a decade of negotiations and will cost 24.5 billion yuan ($3.6 billion), according to Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po. The expansion targets the wealth of China’s middle class and the fastest growth of any major economy as Burbank, California-based Disney suffers from lower spending at its U.S. theme parks, tumbling ad sales and falling DVD revenue.
"It gives Disney an opportunity to monetize its brand without necessarily having to produce filmed content," said David Bank, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in New York. Expanding in China without facing the risk of regulatory hurdles is "the real key to making money in China for the media companies," he added.
Disney should not have any trouble finding people to visit the park. Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group, told Bloomberg that there are 80 million people within 3 hours driving distance of where the theme park will be built. The 1,700 acre park will be modeled after Disney's existing parks and incorporate characteristics from Shanghai. It will be 57% owned by China and 43% owned by Disney.
Reuters reports that Galactic Suite plans to offer citizens the opportunity to travel to space and stay in an orbiting hotel pod starting in 2012. A three-night stay in the The Galactic Suite Space Resort will cost $4.4 million. This price include an 8-week training period on a tropical island in the
Galactic Suite Ltd, set up in 2007, hopes to start its project with a single pod in orbit 450 km (280 miles) above the earth, traveling at 30,000 km per hour, with the capacity to hold four guests and two astronaut-pilots.
It will take a day and a half to reach the pod - which Claramunt compared to a mountain retreat, with no staff to greet the traveler.
"When the passengers arrive in the rocket, they will join it for 3 days, rocket and capsule. With this we create in the tourist a confidence that he hasn't been abandoned. After 3 days the passenger returns to the transport rocket and returns to earth," he said.
More than 200 people have expressed an interest in traveling to the space hotel and at least 43 people have already reserved.
Virgin Galactic has a competing space tourism project with a spaceport being built on an island in the Caribbean. Construction also began earlier this year on a spaceport in New Mexico called Spaceport America. Virgin will be the anchor tentant for Spaceport America.
Normally your frequent flyer miles can be redeemed for air travel, car rental, hotel stays or merchandise. But Finnair Oyj, Finland's biggest airline, has gone a step beyond with it's frequent flyer program. Members can 
Bloomberg 
