An interesting article in today's Toronto Star:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/a...pic-dream?bn=1

First hoteliers refused to sell any room, then try to charge a ridiculously expensive rate, and then........

".....But after discounting rates at least twice, from $1,000 (U.S.) to $275 a night, Newwest on Tuesday cancelled the cruise because of “slower than expected sales,” said company president Dennis Laliberte.

......When the company cancelled the cruise, it stranded hundreds of people who had booked the month-long voyage from Los Angeles to Vancouver, starting next Wednesday. The ship would have become a floating hotel at the Games, making a return cruise to L.A. beginning March 2. The Olympics start Feb. 12.

Newwest, an Edmonton limited partnership that had chartered the 1,119-room Norwegian Star for an estimated $12 million, promised refunds and “every effort” to help passengers find a room for the Olympics. The ship could accommodate nearly 9,000 people.

Norwegian Cruise Lines was told Tuesday that Newwest was cancelling its charter, originally booked a year ago, said spokeswoman Courtney Recht."

After seeing the reported cost of the cruise ship charter, I have no idea how Newwest expected to make money.

$10,000,000 for the boat charter. Used for 16 nights = $625,000 per night.

2,200 (reported passenger capacity) guests = $284 per person per night. Might have been some money repositioning before and after.

This may not include the visa cost for crew which was reported to be $200-250,000 + docking fee + security arrangements. Not sure if the ship charter included food, fuel, crew, etc.

Risk of civil liberties oppression at the Five Ring Circus is high:


http://2010oppressometer.com/

Risk of protestors who need to get a job causing problems at the Olympics is HIGH.

Risk of protestors being taunted by people having fun at Olympic events is also HIGH.

Photography in public places prohibited: http://www.straight.com/article-2883...olympic-centre

Getting much to be like taking photos of trains in the U.S.

I'll take a little oppression if they would lower the ticket prices. :)

Just not enough bang for my vacation buck to go to these Games.

For those wanting the spectacle, excitement and gore of ancient and not-so-ancient games/circii (e.g., chariots at the Circus Maximus and NASCAR/stock car races), the bobsled/luge/skeleton track will be the events to watch.

The track drops 152m, the most of any track in the world, and top speeds are approaching up to 160 Km/h. A Georgian luger has been reported to have been killed (RIP) in a training accident today.

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/2...532/story.html

http://www.vancouversun.com/2556861.bin

http://www.ctvolympics.ca/skeleton/n...ml?cid=rsstgam

http://www.vancouversun.com/Horrific...583/story.html

In 2004, the IOC, has chartered it's own airplane.
This Aircraft, the B747 was painted in the Olympic Flame livery. It flew all over the world to bring the flame as peace in the world.

Who knows something about the current airplane? in use for the OC of Vancouver promotion?


O, Yan
Belgium

Plane was owned by my company (at the time) and I've flown it many times. The company was (is) Air Atlanta Icelandic. It took the torch around the world along with dignitaries.

I don't believe it has been done since.

When the 2010 Winter Olympics torch flew from Greece to Canada, it did so this time around on a Canadian Forces Airbus A-310.

Just attended the women's 3000m long track in the morning and then a victory ceremony in the evening on Sunday with tickets my buddy got. They were like $185 and $50 a pop respectively.

From a value/bang for your buck perspective...
Felt that $185 was a bit steep for 2hr event with about 14 races. A bit jammed in like sardines too. If this wasn't an "Olympic/major sporting event", I'm not sure if I'd spend more than $50 to attend an equivalent event.

$50 for the victory ceremony was about right at the upper limit. Nelly Furtado was the headliner and she went for about 45min. Happy that she included all of her hits. They also had a variety of dance groups prior to the medal ceremonies. The medal ceremonies kind of got repetitive after the third one though.

So spent $235pp for one event and one victory ceremony. It was kind of fun spending the day doing focused on Olympic stuff. Glad I did it once but I'm not sure if I'd consider paying to go see another live event. It's fun being in the atmosphere but the value isn't there for me. Plus, with the ticket prices being as they are, I feel like I'm subsidizing all the free seats that are obviously being given away for various reasons (Olympic family, sponsors, government, etc). :p
However, having done my live events, I'm still going to have fun visiting more pavilions and houses.

There's an updated post reporting that the ISU doesn't share the same views around limiting photography in the original article:
http://www.straight.com/article-2892...rity-unit-says

The problem with such massive operations is that (1) it's tough to get everyone on the same page giving out the same message (particularly the grunts who hear it 3rd hand and may interpret the original message differently) and (2) you've got people setting "policy" for their teams to enforce that might not necessarily have footing from a legal perspective.

Is this "victory ceremony" something new -- like a new way to get even more money out of ticket holders? I've never seen one: usually, the medals are awarded at the end of the event. Sometimes in summer athletics, medals might be awarded at the next session.

I've only been to one winter Olympics, Albertville in 1992. Speed skating was the event you'd go see if you couldn't get tickets for anything else. I think we paid about $15 a session.

If the Olympic committee can find people willing to pay $200 to see speed skating, God bless 'em. At those prices, I'm happy to watch on TV.

I'm pretty sure Salt Lake had a medal ceremony at a central location where they handed out all the medals for the previous day. I don't think it was quite to the extent of Vancouver, with 20,000+ ticket buying people each night at the stadium.

Yes - I'm going to one on Sunday. It's a medal ceremony, combined with a concert. For example, the other night Apolo Ohno received his medal at a ceremony, followed by a Nelly Furtado concert.

You can read more here:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm..._ceremony.html

At $22 it's a great deal.

That's what happens when you host a Winter Olympics in Canada, in a sports-crazy town that's a 45 minute drive from the US border...