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After a week-long court battle between Sea World Orlando and the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the presiding judge has postponed the case until Mid-November. The case revolves around the February 2010 death of longtime whale trainer Dawn Brancheau. Brancheau, 40 was dragged into the tank by Tilikum,  Sea World’s largest killer whale. Brancheau and Tilikum had just completed a show in Shamu Stadium when the incident occurred. Tilikum has been implicated in other human deaths, including a trainer death in 1991 and the death of a homeless man who climbed into the tank after hours in 1999.

The disagreement at the heart of the court case involves how closely Sea World’s trainers can interact with its killer whales and large mammals. After Brancheau’s death, Sea World conducted its own investigation of the incident, calling it an accident that occured when Tilikum was distracted by Brancheau’s long ponytail. OSHA disagreed, citing eyewitness reports that Brancheau was pulled into the water by Tilikum, who dragged her in by her arm.

OSHA is seeking to fine Sea World $75,000, a nominal amount compared to the park’s billion dollar plus yearly revenue.  Of greater concern to Sea World, OSHA also seeks to modify the way that human trainers interact with whale performers. Under OSHA’s proposed guidelines, human trainers would no longer be allowed in the water with the whales, regardless of the perceived aggression level of the whales in question. This change would drastically alter the way that Sea World trains its performers, and the shows that are presented year round in the park. OSHA asserts that a barrier should be between the whales and trainers at all times, to prevent the risk of other injuries or deaths.

Sea World has begun addressing the water work safety issue by designing safety vests equipped with emergency equipment for for trainers. Other proposed changes include installing rapid rise floors in the killer whale tanks; these floors could be quickly pressed into place in the event of an emergency and are designed to remove the water from the pool in under a minute.

The outcome of the case could impact all of Sea World’s theme parks. Other industry parks are watching the case closely, since the outcome could effect other shows featuring large or predatory animals, regardless of the location.

Fall travelers can make a scary addition to their 2011 Orlando vacation, when 25 creepy nights of screams and scares kicks off tonight at Universal Orlando. Halloween Horror Nights kicks off its 21st year of chills with a theme of “luck”. If you’ve ever attended a Halloween Horror Night event in the past, then you’ve probably already guessed that the luck you’ll experience will be horrifically bad.

Guests can expect to be immersed in scare zones, including the NightMaze, Acid Assault and the  Canyon of Lost Souls. This year’s haunted houses include a diverse mix of  themes surrounding Edgar Allen Poe, Steampunk and a World War I era haunting. The popular Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure show returns this year as well, and promises to balance laughs and screams for the crowd.

Halloween Horror Nights features film-quality special effects and is not for the timid or faint of heart. Expect unpleasant and scary surprises and plenty of gory effects when you attend. Halloween Horror Nights is scary enough that children are not admitted to the event; parents of young teens are strongly cautioned.

Separate tickets are required for this event; Universal Orlando will be closed for the evening, since Halloween Horror Nights will take over the entire park. If you will be in Orlando for a few days, consider buying a multi-night Halloween Horror Night ticket; you may need more than one night to cover the entire event.

Costumes are not allowed in the park; anyone you see in a scary or gory get-up works at Universal and is an official part of the event. Leave your own costume at home; you won’t be able to wear it during a Halloween Horror Nights event. If you love a good scare, consider Halloween Horror Nights a “don’t miss” part of your fall Orlando vacation.

Have you noticed that the stock market is swinging up and down like a yo-yo? There is definitely a lot of uneasiness in the market place right now. We have high unemployment, fear of a double dip recession, fears from the Middle East, and the financial mess of the European nations. While! I getting scared just typing this right now.

I thought it would be a great idea to see how the swinging in the stock market has effected people’s ideas about going on vacation. The fortunate thing is that we can look at really two major cities in the United States (Orlando and Las Vegas) to gauge if people are still willing to travel, or if they have decided to cut back. Looking at the Orlando market, it is about the same as it was last year, and last year was huge improvement over 2009.

I think as long as we do not go into a deep recession, the rest of 2011 and first part of 2012 will look pretty good or at least on par with end of the 2010 and beginning of 2011. However, I do expect that 2012 will be a better year than 2011. I feel that the stock market will calm down a little bit, and hopefully some of these companies that are sitting on a pile of cash will start to spend it again and hire people.

I recently read an article that Orlando hotel packages are up about 7% over 2010 numbers; however, since most hotels have cut their rates so dramatically to entice guests to stay with the that their profits were not much higher. Now, we all know this cannot go on much longer, heck some area hotels are barely keeping their doors open. We do expect rates to go up in 2012 but nothing drastic maybe 5% to 6%.

Well, it looks like we have dodged another hurricane here in the Orlando area. It looks like Irene might just slip by to the East of us and head up to North and South Carolina. Take it from someone who has been through 3 hurricanes, they are no fun. Not only is it nerve racking to get prepared for, but it is almost a given that you will lose power for a couple of days and possibly drinking water. YUCK!

I thought I would take this moment and give you, our readers, Orlandovacationhotels.com Hurricane Policy. Our policy is to put our guests first, and trust me we do not want you to risk life and limb getting to Florida if a hurricane is coming. If a hurricane disrupts your travel or if your flight is cancelled we will either move your hotel arrival to a latter date, or we will simply cancel your reservation and refund your money in full. If you need to alter your Orlando hotel plans please feel free to give us a call and we will do our best to assist you.

Please note, we do need you to call us if you wish to cancel your reservation. If you do not call us prior to your arrival date we will keep your room reserved for you.

This is always a fun time of the year. The busy season is starting to wind down and now we can breath a little easier and start looking forward to 2012. The first thing we do when preparing for a new year is talk to all of our current hotel partners about rates. There is some good news heading into next and some bad news:

1) The hotels are expecting the travel business to stay relatively hot for the next couple of years, and they do expect hotel rates to rise a little bit. Now when I say a little bit, we are talking about $5 to $6 per night…nothing drastic. That is the good news.

2) Extra fees…almost every Orlando hotel is adding a resort fee and some are adding parking fees. Now, some of these fees are valid as to run a shuttle bus to Disney 3 or 4 times a day is not cheap, and to offer free internet and business services are not free either. However, you do need to watch yourself because many hotels are using the resort fees as a way to make a lot of money. Some hotels have even suggested that they might even go to a resort fee of $15 a night…now that is ridiculous. This is the bad news.

All in all, a Disney World vacation is going to cost about the same in 2012 as it did in 2011, with maybe a slight increase of 1% possibly 2%. Our promise to you is that we are going to fight as hard a we can to offer you the cheapest rates possible on Orlando hotels and Disney World tickets.