SUPER BOWL AT LARGE : Bargain Hunters’ Getting the Drop on Cruise Ship Packages

It’s four days before the game and--get this--prices are dropping.

A few months ago, you would have had to pay $1,285 to book a Super Bowl package aboard the cruise ship Azure Seas, which has been chartered by John Martin, a Virginia Beach, Va., tour company owner.

The package included four days aboard the cruise ship out of San Pedro, with a stopover at Ensenada and a Sunday layover in San Diego, complete with a ticket to the game.

On Tuesday, you could buy that same package for $885.

The reason: The charge for cabins remains the same, starting at $485, but Martin buys his game tickets for those passengers who need them from brokers, and the price of those tickets is plummeting as Sunday approaches.

“My broker was telling me that people in Denver were selling tickets for $800 last week and $400 this week,” Martin said. So he passes those savings on to his cruise customers.

On Tuesday, Martin still had more than 20 cabins left. Most of the ship’s 362 cabins are booked by fans out of Washington and Denver, he said.

For landlubbers, some eleventh-hour deals are popping up around Mission Valley. The Padre Trail Inn, for instance, suddenly found half of its 100 rooms available Tuesday after television station KCNC in Denver pulled out, saying it had booked more rooms than it needed in San Diego, according to motel manager Mollie Haerr.

A few weeks ago, those rooms were renting for $100 a night, with a four-night minimum. Now they can be had for $85 a night, with a three-night minimum.

“Large groups thought they would cover themselves and make more reservations than they needed, and now they’re canceling,” Haerr said. “That’s business.”

A tale of two entertainers:

First, meet Alexis Mitchell, a 24-year-old billing clerk from Glenview, Ill., who will be playing one of the 88 pianos at halftime.

When Chicago radio station WFYR-FM had an on-air audition contest, Mitchell called in, put her phone next to the piano, and performed Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A Minor. “

In the studio was Radio City Music Hall producer Barnett Lipton, who liked what he heard.

The radio station flew the woman to San Diego, all expenses paid; she’ll be on the field at halftime.

Locally, we have David Kell, a 32-year-old juggler from Del Mar who used to pass the hat while performing unsolicited for moviegoers waiting in long lines at theaters.

Since then, he has appeared at Disneyland, at Padres games, in cabarets and aboard cruise ships.

He wanted to perform at the Super Bowl, so he called the San Diego Super Bowl Task Force. Those folks referred him to the producers of the pre-game and halftime shows.

The Radio City halftime production didn’t call for a juggler, but MaggicCom, which is doing the pre-game show--a salute to Bob Hope--needed someone to do a three-minute look-alike of a juggling W.C. Fields as a vaudeville vignette.

The rest is history.

“There will be a hell of a lot of dancers and pianists at the Super Bowl, but only one juggler,” Kell said. “I’ll be juggling four basketballs. Now, that’s awesome.”

The U.S. Grant Hotel may be in difficult financial straits, but it’s hoping it won’t show too badly this week as it struts its stuff for a full house of Super Bowl guests.

Among them are NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, the management and coaching staffs for the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Oilers and Green Bay Packers, and executives from Ford Motor-Canada.

Indeed, this week is the longest stretch of 100% occupancy since the 77-year-old landmark reopened for business two years ago after a massive, $64-million renovation, according to general manager Chris Venner.

While the Garden Room restaurant remains closed as a cost-cutting measure, Venner said the staff--which was reduced from 320 employees to 209--is working overtime to offer the level of service its demanding guests might come to expect.

For instance, room service--which usually isn’t offered past 10 p.m.--is now available 24 hours a day, and the hours of the Grant Grill and Grant Lounge have been extended.

Reduced staffing aside, the U.S. Grant still owns a four-star rating from Mobil--a local honor shared only by the Westgate and the San Diego Marriott.

San Diego Gas & Electric, which has the nation’s third-highest electric rates, had long ago scheduled its annual meeting for today, in which Chairman Thomas Page was to explain its rate structure to the media.

On Tuesday, SDG&E; canceled the press conference.

Did the fact that hundreds of out-of-town reporters are in San Diego and there was a risk that the utility’s predictably bad news about high rates would garner America’s Finest City some sour publicity?

“Super Bowl didn’t enter into the picture,” a utility spokesman said.

But then, no other reason for the cancellation was offered, either.