Ritzy but a little less stuffy

The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, one of Southern California’s coastal luxury landmarks, is finishing a $40-million makeover with a beachy color palette, an expanded spa and a two-story fitness center with Pacific panoramas.

By the end of this month, the hotel is set to open a restaurant overlooking the ocean. And within six months, wireless Internet access will be available in the pool area and elsewhere.

The renovation project, the biggest since the Ritz opened in 1984, lends a lighter, more casual look to the hotel and improves technological options for guests.

“Twenty years ago, you came into the hotel with a suit and tie on and you didn’t wear jeans,” said General Manager John Dravinski. “You didn’t know what a laptop was, and no one carried a cellphone.”

Most of the 393 rooms have been redecorated in sand tones and light blue and silver and furnished with 42-inch flat-screen TVs and triple-layered glass panels designed to suggest an undersea world.

The spa, opened in June, has 11 massage rooms and trendy treatments, such as the $220 Botorelax Facial, billed as “an alternative to the more invasive Botox treatment.”

The new ocean-view Restaurant 162’, named for its height above mean low tide, will replace the Terrace. (The Club Grill & Bar supper club will continue to serve dinner Wednesdays through Sundays.)

Summer room rates start at $425 per night. For information: (800) 241-3333, www.ritzcarlton.com.

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High-speed Acela Express back on track

Amtrak has resumed limited operations of the Acela Express for the first time since April, when the high-speed fleet was pulled from service because of cracks in many of the trains’ brake rotors.

Weekdays, the Acela makes two daily round-trips between New York and Washington.

Eighteen remaining Acela trains will be returned to service once they have been equipped with the new brakes, said Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell.

No date was announced for resumption of Acela service to Boston.

“Acela Express is enormously popular with our passengers, and we’re very glad to begin rolling these trains back into service this week,” said Bill Crosbie, Amtrak’s senior vice president.

The cracks were noticed April 14, when Rich Thomas, a safety specialist for the Federal Railroad Administration, found them during a routine inspection after a test to see whether Amtrak could speed up the Acela trains slightly in New Jersey on curves between Trenton and Newark.

Contact Amtrak for more information: (800) 872-7245, www.amtrak.com.

Associated Press

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New Orleans offers August meal deals

Lending a new meaning to “hot meal,” more than 40 New Orleans restaurants will offer special three-course lunch menus for $20.05 and three-course dinner menus for $30.05 during the steamy month of August.

New Orleans’ first Parade of Cuisine is similar to restaurant weeks held in New York City and elsewhere -- except it lasts a whole month.

Participants include such well-known establishments as Antoine’s, Commander’s Palace, Emeril’s and NOLA.

Some restaurants require reservations for the special menus, available Aug. 1 to 31.

For information, visit www.neworleansrestaurantmonth.com.

-- Compiled by Times Staff