golf1804

disney cruise Ports of Call

While the Disney cruise ships themselves are a fabulous vacation destination, they are also a floating 'Fantasyland', traveling to beautiful and exotic ports of call. If you can manage to tear yourself away from the activities and amenities of the disney cruise ships for a few hours, many wonderful adventures await you when the ship docks.

The disney Wonder departs each Sunday from Port Canaveral for a 4 night cruise, and again each Thursday for a 3 night cruise. Both itineraries include stops at Nassau, Bahamas and Castaway Cay, Disney's own private island paradise. The 4 night cruise also includes either one day at sea, or an additional stop at Freeport, Bahamas.

The disney magic departs from Port Canaveral each Saturday for a 7 night cruise, and it alternates between cruising the eastern caribbean and the western caribbean. The Eastern caribbean cruise includes stops at St. Thomas/St. John, St. Maarten and Castaway Cay, while the western caribbean itinerary includes stops at Key West. Cozumel, Grand Caymen and Castaway Cay.

This summer of 2007. The disney magic has departed from its usual journey around the caribbean, and instead has traveled across the Atlantic to cruise the Mediterranean for the summer months. It is departing from Barcelona, Spain for 10 and 11 night cruises to beautiful cities on the Mediterranean, with stops in Italy, France, Spain and Sicily. Next summer, the disney magic will travel through the Panama Canal to spend the summer on the Mexican Riviera, with stops at Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallerta and Mazatlan.

Beware that the passport rules for American travelers have changed, and may or may not affect your travel plans. As of today, passports are required for all travel across borders by air - including Mexico, the Bahamas and the caribbean, but not for travelers who arrive by cruise ship. They are planning to make passports required for cruise ship travelers soon - perhaps as early as January, so be sure to keep posted as to the rules. Even when passports are not required, having one certainly makes disembarking much quicker, and the wait for passports is extremely long due to the changing rules, so if you need a passport, be sure to apply sooner rather than later.

Stephanie Larkin is the editor of http://www.WaltDisneyCruise.net, as well as http://www.CruiseNewsOnline.info. She and her family love to cruise - her 3 children especially love the towel animals and chocolates left on the beds at night!

# posted by 26146 : 10:07 PM  0 comments

weight loss motivation is a BIG problem especially if you have a lot of weight to lose.

The problem can just seem IMPOSSIBLE!

How do you get the motivation to start your weight loss plan and more importantly to stick to it? This 7 part series will help you to overcome the 7 most crippling problems faced by people trying to stick to a weight loss plan and offer the solutions that allowed me to break free of the weight loss plateau.

This brings us to the first problem that can destroy your weight loss efforts:

Problem 1: I don't have time to exercise

Finding the weight loss motivation you need is hard but it is so much easier to make excuses.

Classic weight loss motivation excuses:

• I work several jobs and don't have time
• I have kids and they take up all my time
• between kids, my job, housework and hubby I couldn't possibly fit it in
• The problem is just too big. I can't do it.
• I can't manage to exercise for very long at all. What I can do is insignificant. It's hopeless.
• The exercise and hunger is too painful
• I am not getting results. Shouldn't I see some change within a few weeks?

weight loss solution No.1 - You don't need to exercise for very long to make a difference.

When you start just do 20 minutes per day. Do it in front of the tv or whilst listening to the radio. Do it with a friend. Park an extra block away form work giving you a short walk each day. Don't use the tv remote. Walk to the tv each time you want to change the channel.

Brainstorm 10 creative ways that you can incorporate exercise into your existing daily routine. You will be surprised! Short bursts of regular exercise are actually better for you than a long session that never happens.

As I am a trained maths teacher, allow me to give you a little maths lesson.

If you commit to just 20 minutes a day for 4 days a week and deduct 8 hours per day for sleeping then you are committing to only 1.1% of your time in a week!

Only do as much exercise as your body can handle. You body is smarter than any weight loss expert and if you listen to it you can feel how much you can safely handle and stick to on a daily basis.

weight loss solution No.2 - EASE THE PAIN!

When you first commit to a change of lifestyle there is an inevitable adjustment period. You must adjust to regular exercise, smaller meals and hunger for starters.

Make your exercise fun with a few warm up exercises that you enjoy. Break it down into steps and goals. Your first goal may simply be to get your body moving. Do 5-10 minutes of your favourite exercise, 5-10 minutes of an aerobic activity, 5minutes of resistance training then a short warm down. Exercise doesn't have to be pain and work. It can be as fun as you can make it!

EASE THE HUNGER

There is a way to actually control your appetite without hunger pains.

CBS and ABC news ran an article about a cactus like plant called Hoodia that grows in the Kalahari Desert of South Africa. The native Bushmen of the area have been using the cactus to suppress hunger and thirst on their hunting trips through the desert for hundreds of years.

This cactus is now available in a supplement form that allows people from all over the world to take advantage of the Hoodia cactus.

The appetite suppressant effects have allowed thousands of Americans to finally get their appetite and cravings between meals under control where other products have failed in the past.

WERE YOU SCAMMED?!

It can take several painful experiences to finally purchase a hoodia product that is not a fake or full of useless additives. There is nothing more disheartening than purchasing a product and finding it does nothing and you are back to square one with no weight loss solution in sight.

Hoodia is a very rare product and the huge demand for this product often outweighs its supply. The South African Government has placed limits on the amount of Hoodia that can be exported to avoid the cactus being over-harvested. This has resulted in many companies offering fake Hoodia supplements or supplements with so little authentic Hoodia in them that they are a waste of your time and money.

An authentic hoodia cactus extract is a popular form of appetite suppression that has worked for thousands of people. But unless you plan on losing your money rather than your pounds there are the 3 things you absolutely must AVOID! These clues on a manufacturers website will help you to identify the scammers and which products to stay away from.

Visit Trusted Weight Loss Review and discover what you need to know.

This article only addresses one of the problems that can destroy your weight loss motivation. You can also download the full ebook The 7 Problems that can CRIPPLE your weight loss efforts for free at Trusted weight Loss Review and get the full story.

weight loss "wanna be" or weight loss success? Discover a wealth of resources and reviews of the products that have helped our readers to attain a slimmer, healthier, sexier you. There are no gurus here. No hype. Just real people who have achieved the body they have always wanted.

Discover how at http://www.trusted-weight-loss-review.com/Hoodia-Report1.html

# posted by 26146 : 4:37 PM  0 comments

For a real links-style golf experience we discovered the royal St. Cloud Golf links, located in St. Cloud, about 25 minutes southeast of the Orlando airport or the Disney area. The royal St. Cloud links greet you with a rolling layout of links-style fairways, punctuated by classic links bunkers that feature names such as Hell, Spectacles, Devil's Pocket and Hoofprint. True to its link heritage, every club in the bag will be utilized as the terrain is naturally varied.

Unlike other Orlando golf courses, the royal St. Cloud is free of any residential developments and offers a pure golf experience. The design features four sets of tees and from the blue tee offers a championship length of 7,111 yards and a 74.6 rating, all on flawless fairways and silky-smooth Tifeagle greens.

Its motto, as printed above the entrance to the club house is "Original Golf Played Here", and indeed the royal St. Cloud features original style golf at its unpretentious best. I had a chance to talk to Bill Filson, the Director of Golf and since 2002 co-owner of this facility.

Bill has an extensive teaching background. He has personally studied under some of the top-ranked teaching professionals and brings 12 years of teaching experience that featured beginners to PGA tour professionals. Bill has consistently been a top-ranked PGA Professional. The royal St. Cloud's teaching staff is complemented by Dave Rummels who brings 17 years of valuable PGA tour experience with him and can share advice from the Tour with the students. Associate Professional, Doug Holloway, has 16 years coaching experience.

At the royal St. Cloud Golf links the commitment to teaching the game of golf commitment includes state-of-the art video equipment and even a teaching tent for inclement weather. Lessons, programs, and clinics are offered for every skill level and requirement. Bill explained that they run very reasonably priced children's clinics at $7.00 per clinic and the club has 120 members in their junior program. Ladies can also learn the sport without embarrassment in a relaxed, comfortable environment. And with every family membership at the club kids play for free.

Bill prides himself on offering one of the greatest values in golf in the Orlando area. For the 2005-2006 season rates vary from $46 to $48 from November 1 to January 10, and $64 from January 11 to April 30, 2006. Discounted tee time rates are available after 11 am or 12 pm respectively, 7 days/week. Bill went on to say that the fees at the royal St. Cloud are always reasonable, and that he aims not to oversell his course, but to exceed the visitors' expectations.

In addition, he offers a very unique proposition: a 100% money-back guarantee with no conditions if you didn't enjoy your playing experience at the royal St. Clouds. He said in the almost three years since he has run this course only 2 people ever asked for a refund; a phenomenal achievement, considering that several tens of thousands of rounds are played here every year.

One of the very unique features of this course is the handcrafted stonework which is evident in four bridges found throughout the course that have been hand-built by one individual brick by brick. Bill said that some of the bridges are even a little bit crooked, just to give them more character. The most famous stone bridge can be found on the 5th hole and many of the British visitors to this golf course come here specifically for this unique feature.

Bill explained that his golf course serves a value-based market that is composed of local residents, snowbirds escaping the cold northern winters, and British golfers, a very loyal crowd who refer this facility to many of their friends back home.

The royal St. Cloud Golf links have been rated as one of the Top 5 most Underrated Golf Courses in the Orlando area and they have hosted the 2004 and 2005 British Junior Amateur. With its wide-open fairways the course looks deceptively simple, however, I experienced very quickly the unique challenges offered by the royal St. Cloud. Traditional links golf is played on the ground, unfortunately I still managed to find water several times, despite the generously open fairways.

The other feature I really enjoyed were a number of the ponds on the back nine of the course that were playing host to a variety of local wildlife and water birds. I particularly enjoyed watching a very rare specimen of wood stork stalking the edges of a pond for food, and a crane standing upright with stretched out wings. The course had a very relaxed, casual and friendly feel to it and we enjoyed a tasty hot dog after our game on the beautiful patio outside the clubhouse as a way to cap off a very enjoyable golf experience on a gorgeous day.

Driving directions from the Disney area:
royal St. Cloud Golf links is an easy 25 miles from the Disney area.
(25-35 minute approximate drive time)
* Take Osceola Parkway to the Florida Turnpike
* Take Exit 244 to Hwy 192, turn left.
* Go 4.6 miles to Vermont Ave, turn right.
* Take Vermont 2.1 miles to Creek Woods Road, take a left.
* Go only .7 miles to Michigan Ave, take a right directly into the Golf Club.

Statistics
Par 72 Yards Rating Slope
Blue 7111 74.6 128
Gold 6680 72.2 125
Green 6083 69.2 115
Citrus 5531 66.6 111

For more information please visit royal St. Cloud Golf website or call them at (407) 891-7010.

This entire article including photos is located at http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/orlando_royal_stcloud_golf.htm

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of http://www.travelandtransitions.com, a web portal for unconventional travel & cross-cultural connections. Check out our brand new http://www.travelandtransitions.com/ebooks.html FREE ebooks about travel.

# posted by 26146 : 2:02 AM  0 comments