Possible side effect: seasickness

A new ride that propels inflatable rafts along more than 400 feet of roiling water is to open Tuesday at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Patrick Brennan, the ride’s lead creative designer, described the Crush ‘n’ Gusher as a “water roller coaster.” It sends two-person rafts through slopes and turns, tunnels and even uphill, pushed by water jets.

The rafts travel though a mock fruit-exporting factory, wrecked by a storm, in a mythical tropical setting at Typhoon Lagoon, a Disney water park that includes a wave pool for inland surfing.

Entering Typhoon Lagoon costs $36.21 per adult and $29.82 per child, ages 3 to 9, including tax. Packages are available that combine access to Typhoon Lagoon and other nearby Disney theme parks.

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The iPod is now a perk

Forget wireless access, spa tubs and 400-count bedsheets.

The latest must-have hotel amenity is an iPod, the hand-held personal music player by Apple Computer that carries thousands of tunes.

Hotels from Mexico to Canada are providing iPods for free in guestrooms or for rent at the pool or gym.

KSL Resorts Collection this week will begin adding iPod Minis, the iPod’s smaller cousin, in most of its seven hotels, including the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego; La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, Calif.;

and the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, Phoenix.

At the year-old One & Only Palmilla resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, some rooms come with iPod Minis that staff will load with guests’ requested music. At Las Ventanas in the resort town, “pool butlers” hand out iPods to sunbathers.

At the 20 lodgings run by W Hotels, you can check out iPods for free.

At the Crescent Hotel in Beverly Hills, iPod Minis, preloaded with music, are secured inside Lucite boxes in guest rooms. In many other places, you can detach and cart them around the hotel.

If the iPod disappears permanently, hotels say they’ll charge the cost to your credit card.

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2004 was very safe for flying

Last year was the safest since World War II for commercial air transport, according to an industry global trade group.

Of the more than 1.8 billion passengers carried by airlines in 2004, 428 people lost their lives, compared with 663 the year before, the International Air Transport Assn. said last week.

The death toll was nearly identical to that of 1945, when 9 million passengers flew.

The IATA officials credited air-safety campaigns for the good showing.

Reuters

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LAX adds more flights

Air-INDIA on March 28 will begin daily direct service between LAX and India. Four flights will go to Bombay and three to New Delhi. The airline currently flies to India five times a week. All flights stop in Frankfurt, Germany. Information: https://www.airindia.in or contact a travel agent.

— Compiled by Jane Engle