A Millennium of World Wide Web Sites

Maybe you plan to spend next New Year’s Eve swigging champagne as your cruise ship crosses the international date line. Or, convinced that the “millennium bug” will wreak havoc with everything from air traffic to elevators, you intend to hunker down with a supply of freeze-dried food in a rented desert hideaway. Either way, you’ll find an array of millennium-related travel resources on the World Wide Web.

And despite breathless pitches from marketers hoping to turn the arrival of the year 2000 into a sold-out combination of world’s fair, Olympics and Mardi Gras, time is still on your side. Most hotels and airlines are just beginning to take reservations, while several cruise lines that had boasted long waiting lists are now reporting empty cabins (albeit at premium prices).

For an overview of who’s peddling what--and how growing jitters over computer glitches may wind up impacting how and where you celebrate--head to Countdown2000 (https://www.countdown2000.com). You’ll find news items and links devoted to “celebrations” and “travel”--right next to information devoted to “Y2K” and “doomsday.”

While its travel section is a bit thin, Countdown 2000 does a good job of highlighting major and offbeat millennium events around the world, from Greenwich, England’s, mainstream, much-hyped Millennium Dome (https://www.greenwich2000.com) to Taos, N.M.’s, drumming celebration (https://www.allonetribedrum.com) and Cape Town, South Africa’s, 24-hour “psychedelic trance concert” (https://www.southafrica2000.com).

At a similar catchall site, aptly named Everything 2000 (https://www.everything2000.com), you can shop for millennium-themed champagne glasses and countdown clocks, read about new hotel packages or take a survey on whether you’ve already made plans for the big night. (As of late December, more than two-thirds of respondents were still mulling their options.)

In an attempt to soothe the ire of those who contend that the millennium doesn’t start until 2001, the International Register of Millennium’s Eve Parties (https://www.jepa.co.uk/shopping/party.html) invites its readers to post shindigs for both dates. Alas, neither night seems very busy. A recent check turned up fewer than 20 invitations for next New Year’s Eve, with even less interest the following year.

EventsWorldWide 2000 (https://millennium.eventsworldwide .com) offers more alternatives, but not all of them are tied specifically to New Year’s Eve. A search for “South Pacific” and “special” between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31, 2000, turned up a dozen possibilities, though several didn’t include any contact information.

If you’re just as concerned with where you’ll be staying as how you’ll be celebrating when those nines turn to zeros, check out the “millennium special offers” at VacationSpot.Com (https://www.vacationspot.com), a directory of several thousand rental homes, condominiums and small hotels. But be prepared for sticker shock: According to VacationSpot.Com, millennium rates are already running about 1.8 times higher than normal for the same time of year, and could go to four times the usual asking price by the fall. Hoping to ring in the new century with Mickey and Minnie? Disney World’s hotels have been booked for years, but “The House at Pooh Corner,” a five-bedroom “executive villa” in Kissimmee, Fla., can be yours from Dec. 18 through Jan. 6, 2000, for $4,500--up from $750 a week.

And then there’s Vamoose (https://www.vamoose.com), billed as “the Internet’s first Y2K relocation and safe haven site.” While clearly aimed at hard-core survivalists, Vamoose does offer a few alternatives for Y2K worriers who’d rather hedge their bets by renting.

Late last month, Vamoose’s listings included a two-bedroom trailer in southwestern Missouri. Price: “$500 per month until the electricity goes out or the banks close. Then 50 hours of bartered labor with your landlord plus baby-sitting.”

Electronic Explorer appears monthly. Laura Bly welcomes comments and questions; her e-mail address is LSBly@aol.com.