Las Vegas celebrates Carnevale at the Palazzo and the Venetian with $149 midweek room rates and a discount "passport" this summer. The real Carnevale is celebrated during the 40-day run-up to Easter, but Vegas considers this three-month celebration a tribute to Italy's summer festivals.

The deal: Rooms at the Palazzo start at $149 plus tax for a 720-square-foot suite with a king-sized bed, sunken living room and table for three. Free parking at the garage comes with this deal, too.

The rate is available Sundays through Thursdays and comes with a Passaporto di Carnevale, which includes discounts on events such as a wine walk, beer fest, dining specials and more. Use the code "EPCRNVL" when making a reservation by phone.

When: The offer is good through Sept. 7.

Tested: I found a Palazzo suite July 7-10 for $149 a night instead of the usual $189 a night. The cost doesn't include a $25 per night resort fee or tax.

Info: The Palazzo, (866) 863-0619, and the Venetian, (866) 403-8046

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If you missed out on a ticket to tour the new Tom Bradley International Terminal, you may have a second chance: Because of demand, more free tickets for Saturday's preview have been made available.

Tickets for 90-minute LAX Appreciation Day will continue to be issued while they last, a spokeswoman said. It's the first time the public will have an opportunity to see the new south concourse gate areas, the Great Hall and the new retail/restaurant area created in the airport renovation.

No specific opening date has been given for the terminal.

During the tour, participants also will see 18 new boarding gates (three of which are open), check out special exhibits and public art, and meet dogs that are part of the airport's new Pets Unstressing Passengers program.

You must register at LAX Appreciation Day to receive tickets (called boarding passes) and parking passes for a specific time Saturday. After you register, you'll receive an email confirmation. Don't bring backpacks and large bags....

The Las Vegas party train, which was supposed to begin service from Orange County to Las Vegas in time for this coming New Year's Eve, has been delayed.

Michael Barron, president and chief executive of Las Vegas Railway Express, or X Train, said this week it would be “another year” before the train began regular service between Fullerton and North Las Vegas because the company doesn't yet have a train station on the Nevada end of the line.

"That process will take about one more year to complete," a letter to shareholders said. "We have begun the site planning and architectural and civil engineering and now have our preliminary plans into the city to review and approve."

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Those fees hotels tack on? Starting July 1, add Las Vegas' Golden Nugget to the list of accommodations that do that.

The good news is that the Golden Nugget's fee is lower than many others on the Strip.

The Golden Nugget, the only downtown property to consistently get a four-diamond rating from AAA, is calling its extra charge a “Fremont Street Experience Fee.” Except for New Year’s Eve, the Fremont Street Experience is a free attraction.

“It isn’t free to us,” said Amy Chasey, the Golden Nugget’s vice president of marketing. "We pay close to a million dollars a year in upkeep and maintenance for the Fremont Street Experience."

Chasey said that, even with the added fee, the Golden Nugget continues to be a better value than most hotels along the Strip.

“We haven’t raised our rates in several years and it was time that we needed to raise...

The birth of Prince William and Kate Middleton's first child is expected to bring $380 million to the British economy in the coming weeks. Talk about a baby bump.

The money will come from the sale of souvenirs and trinkets and other festivities related to the royal birth, according to a report released Monday by the Centre for Retail Research in Nottingham, England. British retailers and even the royals themselves are getting into merchandising for the baby due in July.

"Three million bottles of Champagne and sparkling wine will be opened to celebrate the new baby," the report projects. From July 1 to Aug. 31, the center expects festivities (and that includes alcohol sales) to bring in $136 million; souvenirs and toys, $125 million; and books, DVDs and media to bring in $119 million.

"This is a good news story and there really is no downside. With the birth coming in July, people will have time to get involved, and that means additional spending," the center's director, Joshua...

Conde Nast Traveler has selected the Well Spa at Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells as one of the top 100 spas in North America for 2013. Here's a chance to sample a spa treatment along with a room for the low midweek price of $125 a night.

The deal: The Simply the Best package charges $125 a night Sundays through Thursdays and offers this choice of spa menu items from the on-site the Well Spa: a 50-minute customized Maestro Massage or Watersource Facial. It's one spa treatment per night's stay. Ask for the package by name when reserving by phone and use the "BeWell" code when reserving online.

When: The offer is good through Aug. 31.

Tested: I found plenty of availability for this offer when I checked online, including the nights of July 14-16. Note the price doesn't include $28 per night resort fee, $8 daily parking fee and tax. If you want to go on a weekend, the spa package is available but starts at $180 a night, plus fees and taxes.

Info: Miramonte Resort & Spa, (800) 237-...

The numbers alone tell an interesting story. To wit:

— 5,412 seat speakers, three for each of the 1,804 seats.

— 234 moving lights

— 28 strobe lights

— 587 lighting fixtures

— 295 custom-built LEDs in various set pieces 

— 2,200 Swarovski crystals lighting performers’ faces

— 26 video projectors that help fill the room with images and the music of Jackson (who, by the way, sings every song through the magic of audio and video).

— 63 performers from 17 countries including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Israel, Kenya, Russia and South Korea.

— A 26-member creative team that includes 11 dance and acrobatic choreographers.

But does it have any soul? Based on a preview I saw, yes. It was easy to channel my inner Jackson.

“Many of the choreographers have...

A small museum in Guadalupe, Calif., has unveiled some long-lost relics from Cecil B. DeMille’s classic silent movie “The Ten Commandments.”

Most of the massive set remains buried in the coastal dunes outside Guadalupe in northern Santa Barbara County. When DeMille shot the film in 1923, he left behind the towering City of the Pharaoh, which stood 120 feet tall and included 21 sphinxes, each weighing 5 tons.

The head from one of those sphinxes, measuring 3 1/2  by 6 feet, was among the artifacts revealed during a celebration on Friday at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center. It’s in a 1910 Craftsman house along Highway 1.

 "This is the only set of its type from early Hollywood that still exists,” Doug Jenzen, executive director of the center, said in a news release.

A giant concrete lion’s paw is among the other ruins unearthed in October from the shifting sands.

The Dunes Center and documentary filmmaker Peter Brosnan, who has spent 30 years...

Things are looking up for tourism in Mazatlan, Mexico.

The Pacific Coast resort, with 20-plus miles of beaches and dozens of high-end resorts, has long been a favorite with American tourists. Mexico’s ongoing drug war, however, caused concern on both sides of the border.

But recent infrastructure changes, coupled with an overhaul of Mazatlan’s police force, have quieted fears.

Now the Mexican Riviera city has just had its best spring season ever and is poised to have a record-breaking summer season, according to tourism bureau statistics.  

The London Financial Times named it one of the Top 10 American Cities of the Future, rating it as Mexico's top medium-sized city in terms of its future economic expectations and cost effectiveness.

Several upcoming improvements may increase Mazatlan's popularity as a tourist destination, including a new highway scheduled to open this fall will provide a high-speed land route between Mazatlan and the southwestern United States.

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