The Exterior of The Gaylord Opryland

If you’ve never been to one of the four Gaylord Hotels located in the US, you are most definitely missing out.  These hotels go well  beyond the standard hotel room and are full entertainment, dining, and lodging destinations all under one glass roof.  This holiday season, they are offering a fabulous Christmas Memories package for guests.  I can only imagine how beautiful these hotels look all decorated for Christmas!

The Christmas Memories package is available from mid-November through early January, 2012 at all four of the Gaylord Hotels.

• Gaylord National in National Harbor, MD (metro D.C.)
• Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, TN (the Music City)
• Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee, FL (Orlando area)
• Gaylord Texan on Lake Grapevine, TX (near Dallas)

The Christmas Memories package, which starts at $99 per night (depending on the hotel), includes the following:

• One night room accommodations
• Ticket to ICE! featuring DreamWorks’ Shrek the Halls (at the Gaylord Texan and Gaylord Palms) or featuring DreamWorks’ Merry Madagascar (at the Gaylord Opryland and Gaylord National)
• A souvenir photo

If you are traveling with kids, you may also consider booking the Dreamworks Experience at the Gaylord Hotels, which includes scavenger hunts, a welcome amenity, gingerbread decorating, holiday shows, and much more!

Visit the Gaylord website to learn more.

Photo credit: The Gaylord Opryland

With less than a month to go, football fever is building up and all roads now lead to the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, TX. Those who haven’t planned for Super Bowl XLV still have a small window of opportunity to get affordable hotel rooms on the dates (Feb 6, 2011) in question.

Cowboys Stadium & Hilton Anatole

Here’s a listing of the best hotels in Arlington, in terms of rates and proximity to Cowboys Stadium, and the hotel’s connection to the NFL and sports in general.

Hilton Anatole: The 1,606 room hotel is the official NFL hotel and headquarters for Super Bowl XLV. Spread over 45 acres with 3 swimming pools and 12 restaurants and bars and a private art collection, the hotel has recently undergone a complete transformation and reflects all the effort that Dallas has put into remaking itself in time for the Super Bowl.

Holiday Inn Arlington: Just around a mile off from the stadium, very much affordable and has an indoor pool and whirlpool. Sports fans won’t even have to go around looking for sports bars in Arlington, because the hotel has a media room with a 62′ flatscreen television and stadium seating, and also the Sporting News grill restaurant.

Courtyard Dallas Arlington/Entertainment District: Walking distance to Cowboys Stadium (0.8 miles), affordable and offers free wi-fi all over the hotel, and has an excellent lobby Bistro.

Days Inn Six Flags Ballpark Cowboys Stadium:  The closest hotel to the Cowboys Stadium (0.3 miles) and an affordable one at that. Has stadium view rooms and guests can expect a free breakfast and free high speed wireless internet.

Sheraton Arlington Hotel: The closest full service hotel to the Cowboys Stadium (0.9 miles) with 3 restaurants, an outdoor pool and spa. Guest rooms are very well furnished with granite counter tops, plasma television and walk-in marble tile showers.

Hyatt Place Dallas/Arlington: Just around a mile and a half away from Cowboys Stadium, guests can live it up here with spacious rooms and a whole lot of freebies including free wi-fi, breakfast and onsite parking. They also have a 24/7 guest kitchen that serves made-to-order snacks and entrees. Best part is that the hotel offers a Cowboys Stadium tour package.

For cheapskates, there are three or four inns/motels less than a mile from Cowboys Stadium including Century Inn (0.6 miles), an Econo Lodge (0.9 miles), the Fiesta Motor Inn (0.6 miles) and the Caravan Motor Hotel (0.7 miles).

Photo credits: bobbyh_80; Hilton Worldwide

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Breakfast with a View of the Texas Stadium Implosion

Being homeless is a bitter, painful experience but sometimes a little window opens and a ray of light shines in. For 500 homeless men and women in Dallas, this window just opened because they’ll be spending their Christmas in the warmth and comfort of the Dallas Hyatt Regency Hotel, courtesy the Soupman.

This is the 6th straight year that the Soupman and a volunteer army are doing this at the Dallas Hyatt Regency. This year, they’ve taken over the hotel’s entire skyline tower – all 14 floors.

At 6 am on Dec 24, six buses start cruising the streets of Dallas, picking up needy people off the streets who will eat and sleep in the hotel overnight, take warm showers, and get new clothes and gifts on Christmas morning.

As the buses roll into the hotel entrance, 1000 cheering volunteers await them with a red carpet welcome and a high school band playing the theme song from Rocky. At 1 pm, there’ll be a huge banquet in the landmark ballroom of the Hyatt Regency with 50 tables of guests being served by volunteers including Tom Leppert, the Mayor of Dallas.

The founder of Soupmobile is David Timothy, and they’ve been at this since 2003. All year round, Soupmobile serves 600 hot meals every single week day to the homeless in South Dallas. The difference is that they deliver the meals to the homeless, unlike other soup kitchens.

As for the 1,120 room Dallas Hyatt Regency Hotel, they’re paid by 14 different sponsors, each of whom is sponsoring one floor each. The hotel is an AAA four diamond hotel, with rates starting from around $179. So that makes at least around $90,000 for the 500 rooms. There’s also the banquet and other arrangements, so the total tab should be well over $100k, even with discounts.

More info:- http://www.soupmobile.org/

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Hyatt Regency Dallas Makes Christmas Dreams Come True
Dickens of a Christmas in McKinney, Texas

As the San Francisco Giants take on the Texas Rangers, fans for both teams are making last-ditch plans to invade enemy territory. Hotels in Dallas are having a ball milking Giants fans, and San Francisco hotels likewise have hiked rates well above normal.

2010 World Series

Here’s a few world series hotel packages, featuring hotels in both cities that know how to respect and treat baseball fans, regardless of which team they support.

The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas:  Sunday and Monday night guests wearing a Texas Rangers or San Francisco Giants cap or other apparel item when checking into The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas will receive a certificate for one complimentary breakfast to be enjoyed either in-room or at Fearing’s Restaurant.

In addition to all kinds of baseball themed food and drinks, Fearing’s will also honor visitors from San Francisco with a house cioppino inspired by northern California’s fresh seafood delicacies. The in-room menu features smoked Texas pecans with ice-cold Anchor Steam beer from San Francisco.

The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas also has baseball concierges at the ready to answer guest questions about games, teams, players, TV broadcasts and baseball history. Also, the hotel spa is offering a special 50 min sports-lovers’ World Series wind-down massage during Texas game dates that includes a complimentary choice of Texas or California beer.

The Westin Park Central, Dallas: World Series package includes free breakfast (for a family of four) and free transportation to and from Arlington Stadium.

Larkspur Hotels, San Francisco: The three Larkspur hotels (Villa Florence, Abri & Larkspur Union Square) are offering a World Series special with 10% off the best available rate plus a free upgrade at check-in. Use promo code BALL for online bookings.

The Westin St. Francis, San Francisco: They don’t have a world series package per se, but this Union Square hotel has something better – the Texas Rangers, who are staying at the hotel. It’s good enough for the Rangers, so fans should have no complaints. Besides, what better way to show your support?

Photo – Red3biggs