A new magazine article on the sinking of the Costa Concordia cruise ship details a series of blunders and errors on the part of her captain that led to the deaths of at least 32 people and the largest shipwreck in maritime history.

The shipwreck in January off the coast of Italy precipitated a nightmarish scene of almost unimaginable chaos after the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, delayed calling for rescue aid after his navigation blunders forced the cruise ship onto rocks, according to the story.

Journalist Bryan Burrough, writing in the May Vanity Fair magazine, paints an unsparing portrait of that chaos in which passengers — given almost no information about the calamity that had befallen the ship — fought to find their children and other family members, free themselves in darkness from under deck as the ship tipped onto its side and attempted to reach life boats. 

Burrough, who interviewed dozens of witnesses, also details previously unsung heroes from some crew members to rescue divers and Italian Coast Guard officers and even the deputy mayor from the small town overlooking the wreck who combined forces to save most of the ship’s 4,200 passengers.

The story is damning in its details of Schettino’s actions, many reported for the first time. They include:

• One passenger’s claim, though it is elsewhere unconfirmed, that he saw the captain and a friend “polish off a decanter of red wine while eating” prior to the catastrophe.
• That the captain was going too fast for the conditions and seemed to be navigating by eyesight rather than with the aid of maps and radar, when he saw a set of rocks off the Tuscan coast prior to the crash. “What he failed to notice was another rock, nearer to the ship,” that was largely underwater, the story says. “An officer later told investigators he heard the captain say, ‘(expletive)…I didn’t see it!’ ”
• The captain, who was casually talking on the phone when the ship approached the rocks, wrongly ordered the ship to turn to starboard, rather than port, to avoid the mostly submerged rock when he finally did see it. That caused the ship’s stern to swing around and slam into it, ripping open a 230-foot-long gash below the waterline.
• When crew members spoke with the Coast Guard, Schettino ordered them to say that there was only a blackout on board and they did not need any immediate assistance. Schettino’s apparent refusal to “promptly admit the Concordia’s plight — to lie about it, according to the Italian Coast Guard — was not only a violation of Italian maritime law but cost precious time, delaying the arrival of rescue workers by as much as 45 minutes,” the story says.
• When the ship began listing to starboard, the captain dropped its massive anchors to prevent it from tipping further, but played out too much line — so the anchors never caught and were of no help. It was a “jaw-droppingly stupid mistake,” according to a veteran American captain and nautical analyst, John Konrad, quoted in the story.
• The captain, who made it ashore in a lifeboat he claims to have fallen into, begged in a phone call with a Coast Guard officer not to be sent back to the ship to look for survivors. That shocked the officer, who in return threatened Schettino by saying, “Tell me how many people are still on board and what they need. Is that clear? ... I’m going to make sure you get in trouble. I’m going to make you pay for this.”

In one of the few lighter reported details in the story, the ship’s hotel director survived for more than a day inside the tipped ship, trapped on a table above flooding waters, by drinking cans of Coke and bottles of Cognac he found floating by.

The ship remains on its side, and will take more than 10 to 12 months to remove, according to the story. As for the Schettino, he could face charges of manslaughter and illegally abandoning his ship. “Several survivors remarked on afterward, that amazingly, in a world of satellites and laser-guided weapons and instant communications almost anywhere on earth, ships could still sink,” the story says.

Read an excerpt of the article at Vanity Fair.

More on Overhead Bin

• 5 more bodies found in Costa Concordia wreckage
• Cruise ship survivors sue cruise line for $460 million
• Carnival Triumph sails from Gavelston after legal issue settled

Courtesy HomeAway

A vacation home in Holetown, St. James, Barbados. Declining real estate prices, low mortgage rates and solid demand for vacation rentals are attracting vacation-home buyers.

Before the economic downturn hit, Larry Kron purchased a vacation home, then several others, both to provide rental income and to use for vacations. But Kron, who owns Discover Vacation Rentals, didn’t dip his toe back into the vacation home market until recently, when the combination of declining real estate prices, low mortgage rates and solid demand for vacation rentals pushed him back into the hunt.

“Now is the time,” Kron, a Toronto resident, said in a phone call from a vacation property in Costa Rica. “If it’s not the perfect storm, it’s awfully close to it.”

Kron has plenty of company, according to a new survey by the National Association of Realtors, a professional membership group, and Home Away, a national online vacation home rental service. That survey found that sales of vacation homes pushed up 7 percent in 2011 over the previous year.

The survey notes the median sales price of vacation homes has dropped 19 percent in 2011 over 2010. Of the owners who purchased vacation properties last year, that was a real incentive: 33 percent bought primarily because of low real estate prices. The vast majority of the buyers, 91 percent, say they plan to rent their new property within 12 months. (Unsurprisingly, 71 percent of those respondents said rental income influenced their decision to buy.)

Related: Hamptons real estate heating up again

Tim Cafferty, owner of Outer Banks Blue Realty Services in Kitty Hawk, N.C., which manages rentals for 225 vacation homes and provides real estate sales services in the area, said he’s not surprised to hear about the survey results. Things are looking up in both local rentals and sales, Cafferty told msnbc.com.

“I had probably best year I’ve seen for rental demand in 20 years” in 2011, he said. “Some weeks, I could have rented our properties three or four times over. The real estate sales side has also been really good … Especially over the last two quarters, we’ve had a good influx of buyers.”

It looks as though some of the new owners have been sitting on their money, waiting for the right opportunity, says Walter Molony, spokesman for the National Association of Realtors: 42 percent of the vacation-home buyers paid cash.

“There’s a bit of pent-up demand,” Molony said. “You can see it in the median age of the buyers – age 50. The typical vacation home buyer was (previously) in their mid- to late 40s.”

Molony said many of the sales are not occurring in nationally known vacation home areas and developments, such as posh ski or beach resorts. “Many are in lesser-well-known areas, places known mainly on a regional basis.” That includes places like Gatlinburg, Tenn., Brown County, Ind., and Williamsburg, Ky.

“Name destination resorts are only a component of the picture,” Molony said. “Most people want to be within an easy drive of their (vacation) home.”

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• Allegiant Air charging up to $35 for carry-on bag

Tony Gutierrez / AP

A sign shows gas prices as a driver pulls in to a newly opened QuickTrip filling station March 26 in Dallas. High fuel prices are expected to curb Americans' vacation plans this summer.

Whether traveling for business or pleasure this summer, rapidly escalating fuel costs — gas is now above $4 a gallon at many West Coast locations — will cause travelers around the nation to cut back on trips, according to a new survey by the nonprofit U.S. Travel Association.

The survey found that of vacationers who plan to travel by car this summer, 54 percent said an increase in gas prices would affect their summer leisure travel plans, while more than 25 percent of business travelers said higher gas prices would affect their summer business travel plans.

The survey questioned 2,500 people around the country, and had an error rate of plus or minus 2 percent.

Furthermore, higher airfares due to rising oil prices will impact leisure travelers more than business travelers, according to the survey. About 43 percent of leisure travelers who plan to fly said that an increase in airfare due to higher oil prices would affect their summer travel plans; 25 percent of business travelers said their plans would be affected.

Carroll Rheem, research director for PhoCusWright, a travel research and analysis company, isn’t surprised by the survey results. High fuel prices have emerged as a threat to several segments of travel, she said, including long road trips and travel requiring flights. 

“I think it’s definitely a potential damper to summer travel and the travel industry,” she said.  “It’s a little bit frustrating to watch. We’ve been waiting for this recovery, and as soon as economic factors improve, the price of gas rises.”

Though it’s a bit hard to predict at this point, tourism destinations only accessible by plane, like Hawaii, may well feel the pinch as consumers decide to stay closer to home when faced with expensive tickets, Rheem said. “Travelers who might have flown, they’ll be grounded,” she said. “Especially families who are buying four tickets instead of two.”

On the other hand, national parks and camping destinations may well see a boost this summer as families look for more economical vacations, she said.

Nancy White, a Washington, D.C.-based spokeswoman for AAA, said higher fuel prices will change some behavior on the part of travelers, but it’s hard to tell exactly how much.

“At this point, it’s still a bit difficult to pinpoint where gas prices will end up” by the summer, White said. “From what we’ve seen from our travel counselors, the picture is more encouraging. We have 7,000 travel counselors at 1,000 branch offices, and we did a quick poll of them. They told us AAA members are not canceling trips. They are altering distances (driven), and perhaps number of destinations they go to. It’s still a kind of wait and see as to what the impact will eventually be.”

Their travel agents have noticed that consumers interested in purchasing airline tickets are closely watching fares but holding back on booking flights in anticipation that fares may come down, according to other AAA officials.

But don’t wait for any major airfare sales, Rheem cautioned. “The airlines are very willing to cut back capacity rather than lower fares to ensure profits,” she said. “They’d rather cancel a flight then run it half full. They just can’t afford to do that anymore.”

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• Airlines push through fare hike for third time this year
• Turning historic buildings into fine hotels
• Disruptive fliers may be charged for plane delays

A spring break packed with warm beaches and partying until all hours has increasingly become a reward for tens of thousands of college students every year. But those breaks can be far from carefree, as one young American found out.

Joseph "Zeke" Rucker had gone to Cancun in 2010 for a relaxed holiday before starting law school, but less than a day after his arrival, a brutal, as-yet unsolved apparent attack left him with permanent injuries.

Rucker and his family told the TODAY Show that the attack came outside his hotel when he was resting on a lounge by the pool after a night spent clubbing. He had gone to Mexico without any particular spring break safety concerns: “No, not at all. I mean, everyone does this, right? How could it possibly hurt someone?”

It’s true that tens of thousands of students party in Cancun annually without harm. But Rucker wasn’t so lucky: He was found by that hotel pool unconscious with multiple skull fractures. He remembers nothing of what happened, but his parents say they’ll never forget the phone call from a doctor who told them that their son was on a ventilator and near death.

The hotel never reported the attack, according to Cancun police.

“You just can’t believe it and everything become surreal form that point on,” Annie Rucker, Joseph's mom, said, “and you’re just living in a nightmare.

The organization Fight Back! On Spring Break says that while students should have fun, they must remain cautious on spring break, especially when drinking alcohol (There is no evidence this played a part in Rucker’s situation.) According to a University of Wisconsin study, 75 percent of college males and 43 percent of females reported being intoxicated on a daily basis during spring break, the organization says.

Erin Weed, founder of the organization, says drinking or drugging and any sort or mood altering substance is going to affect one’s personal judgments.

“Personal safety comes down to smart decisions,” Weed told TODAY.com. “We don’t want to be victim blaming, but at the same time we do live in a world where we must acknowledge people with bad intentions. We don’t need to be paranoid, but we always need to have a safety plan, whether on campus or in Mexico.”

Fight Back! offers the following tips for students to protect themselves:

• Be responsible. Pace yourself if you choose to drink, and avoid hard alcohol or other drinks that are powerful and have fast effects. (And remember that drunks make easy targets.)
• If you do decide to drink, know the liquor laws of wherever you’ll be vacationing. Drinking and driving is always dangerous, so avoid this by having a safe mode of transportation home planned before you go out.
• Try to go the ATM in groups, but avoid being complacent about safety because you’re traveling in numbers. Also try to go during daylight hours. When you approach the ATM, do a full 360 degree scan, looking completely around you to see if anyone is hanging out where they shouldn’t be. When punching in your pin number, use your other hand to cover the keypad. Always be on the lookout for anyone suspicious. If someone is creeping you out, go to another ATM.

Rucker remained in a coma for weeks after his attack. It took months for him to walk and talk again. Law school was put on hold for him to relearn the basics.

“I was certainly brain damaged, you know,” he said. “If I were to describe how I was, it was like I was sort of a small child.”

Mexican police told TODAY that Rucker’s case is unusual, and indeed, Cancun’s tourist beaches are exempt from a U.S. State Department’s warning about travel to Mexico. But that doesn’t mean Mexican tourist hot spots are immune from the troubles roiling that country. Last week, 22 cruise ship passengers were robbed at gunpoint while ashore in the tourist haven of Puerto Vallarta.

“To an American, it's surreal that something could happen like it did to me,” Rucker said. “And basically, no one cares. The hotel doesn't care, the police don't care and there was no real justice.”

Weed says that is key to keep in mind.

“Many times students say what happens on spring break, stays on spring break,” she said. “This is a very popular moniker. Clearly based on this example, it’s just not true.”

Related stories:

• 22 cruise passengers robbed at gunpoint in Mexico
• Mexico looks for rebound in U.S. tourists
• Time to say adios to Mexico travel?

When she heard the cost of shipping a pet via United Airlines from the Pacific region to the United States would shoot sky high, Mary Seward-Yamada knew the calls would start pouring in — and they did. Seward-Yamada, a kennel owner and pet-shipping expert in Okinawa, Japan, said the military families she serves were panicked that fees of up to nearly $4,000 would be needed to send their pets home when they were reassigned to the states.

So news that United on Friday decided to backtrack on their fee policy for servicemen and women comes as a great relief. “People were already trying to find homes for their pets because they didn’t have the money to ship them home,” Seward-Yamada told msnbc.com. “There’s been a lot of panic in a brief amount of time.”

Mary Ryan, a spokeswoman with United, said that they were happy to change the rule for those in the military.

“After all the feedback we were getting, we realized the impact of the change in policy,” Ryan said, “specifically in Japan with the third-party freight forwarding fees. We’ve developed a special process for these families by which they can technically check pets as luggage.”

The rule change is an exemption only for those in the service, she emphasized. “Obviously, it’s a very special exemption for families traveling on orders or what they call a permanent change of station,” she said. “That means it doesn’t apply to leisure travel. I think the (military) families are happy with it, pleased that we thought about it and what we could do to alleviate their burden. We value our relationship with the military very much.”

The rule change United had proposed to take effect next month would have reclassified pets as cargo, rather than as excess checked baggage. Many military personnel are placed on commercial flights with United because of government contracts with the carrier, but personnel must pay any fee required to ship a pet.

That change in how pets were classified would have triggered Japanese fees on third-party cargo shipping that greatly increased the total cost from several hundred dollars up to as much as $3,900, depending on the size of the animal. The news about the pending fee increase sparked scores of comments, many angry or outraged, on social media sites this week, including on the airline’s Facebook page, and accompanied online media accounts.

Seward-Yamada said it means a great deal for military families to be able to take the four-legged members of their family home with them when they are transferred.

“When you drag a military family complete with children halfway around the world they have to give up so much,” she said. “Then sometimes you’ve ended up in a foreign country and your husband has to leave for six months to a year on deployment and your pet is like your mainstay, a little bit of home.”

More from Overhead Bin:

• United's new pet-travel rule set to give soldiers sticker shock
• Pet travel tips from the Dog Whisperer
• Startup airlines face uphill battle to get off ground

A new United Airlines fee set to take effect next month would dramatically increase the cost of shipping a pet home from Japan and surrounding areas to the United States -- to as much as $3,900 for large animals -- and may especially affect members of the military transferred under orders.

The rule will reclassify pets as cargo, rather than as excess checked baggage. Many military personnel are placed on commercial flights with United because of government contracts with the carrier, but personnel must pay any fee to ship a pet.

The news about the fee increase sparked scores of comments on social media sites this week, including on the airline’s Facebook page. One man who identified himself as a sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps posted “(I) just would like to take the time to inform you that with your new outrageous charges on your pet policy…and having two dogs and being stationed in Okinawa, Japan…I will never again ride United (and) I will try with all of my might to purchase tickets from your rival airlines. I hope and pray every military family and those who support us will follow my lead.”

One woman wrote on the Facebook page that the airline’s “decision to do away with checking pets as accompanied baggage on United flights internationally is adversely affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans stationed overseas working for the military, State Department and DOD (Department of Defense).”

Some comments expressed fears that military families would be unable to afford to take beloved pets home with them or that pets might be abandoned altogether.

United Airlines spokeswoman Mary Ryan said the change in how pets are classified for flying comes as a result of the adoption of Continental Airlines’ “PetSafe” program, which she called the best in the business. The two airlines recently merged, and have become the largest carrier in the world. Ryan said that the fees by United to ship pets remains competitive, but that Japanese fees on cargo shipping has increased the total cost.

“Japanese law dictates that with cargo, you have to pay a third-party freight forwarder fee,” Ryan said. “That is a Japanese law…that is adding to the cost of shipping animals.” 

For an animal from zero to nine pounds, United's fee is $259, while for an animal 10 to 50 pounds, the fee is $309, she said, rates that were part of the Continental airline pet program. The increase in shipping costs comes purely from the Japanese fee for cargo shipping, she said.

“What I would say is our transportation rates are competitive,” Ryan said. “It’s the best pet travel program in the industry.”

A spokeswoman with the Humane Society of the United States in Washington D.C. called on the airline to carefully consider the new fees.

“All that we would say is that we support that families and pets stay together and would hope that United Airlines would be sensitive to the needs and concerns of servicemen and woman whose pets are valued members of their families,” said Inga Fricke, director of sheltering and pet care issues for organization.

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Rioting involving up to 80,000 demonstrators in Athens over the weekend undoubtedly is raising concerns among tourists headed to the popular destination, but travel experts say trips to Greece are safe at present.

The most important thing to realize is that the riots, which led to dozens of looted shops and buildings lit afire, have been located in the downtown core, specifically Syntagma Square, said Rich Sorensen, travel news editor for Europe Through the Back Door in Edmonds, Wash. The riots were touched off by the Greek government’s consideration of tough austerity measures to deal with its ongoing debt crisis. The government approved those measures Monday.

Syntagma Square is bordered by important government buildings, including Parliament, and so it’s a natural magnet for legitimate demonstrators and troublemakers alike, Sorensen said. And that also means it’s a compact area easily avoided by tourists.

“From what I can gather, it’s a fairly typical government unrest situation,” he said. “Almost anywhere in the world, demonstrations focused at governmental policies are going to be focused at government buildings or a main square. You want to be smart and avoid being enmeshed in that type of situation, but 99 percent of the city is safe and nothing is happening.”

Nikos Papaconstantinou, Greece’s press counselor to the mission to the United Nations in New York City, echoed Sorensen. Reasonable common sense, such as staying away from the main square and the places where buildings have been burned or damaged, is the best precaution, he told msnbc.com.

“They should try to avoid these sad sites,” Papaconstantinou said of tourists. “There are other things that can be seen, such as the Acropolis. (Visitors) can even go shopping, which is a great welcome to the local merchants. But basically, for people in big hotels, it doesn’t affect their stay, it doesn’t affect their eating in restaurants or going out. It’s all going back to normal very quickly, aside from the buildings damaged because of the fire. The (rest of) the city is intact and quite spectacular.”

All major archeological sites and museums remain unaffected, he said: “(Visitors) will have a good time,” Papconstantinou said.

The United States embassy in Athens did issue an emergency warning over the weekend, warning “the situation is unpredictable, and we want to remind U.S. citizens that there exists the continued potential for violence during the demonstrations outside Parliament.” Things were much quieter on Monday, however, and no further warning was issued.

But given the ongoing nature of the economic crisis in Greece, it pays to remain cautious, the U.S. embassy said in the warning: “Remember, even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and possibly escalate into violence without warning. Avoid areas of demonstrations and, if you are within the vicinity of any demonstrations, remain vigilant and exercise caution.”

Beside Syntagma Square, demonstrators frequently congregate around the Polytechnic University area; the Exarchia and Omonia Squares in Athens; and Aristotle Square in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, the U.S. State Department warned. University campuses in particular are exploited as refuges by anarchists and those involved in crime, as Greek police are generally prohibited from entering their premises, the state department added.

Sorensen said that the staff at hotels as well as travel guides are invaluable in helping visitors navigate such situations. “Talk to your hotel people and find out what’s going on, what parts of the city to avoid,” he said. “Just be smart and talk to people and ask questions. Things like this don’t have to cause your trip to end early or cause you go on a detour. Don’t overreact. The fact is, you can have a wonderful time in Greece right now.”

Slideshow: Glorious Greece

Julian Finney / Getty Images

See all that the country has to offer, from ancient sites steeped in history and religion to modern-day attractions that awe and relax.

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Related stories

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AP Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau, Brian Jones

Visitors watch lions play at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino Lion Habitat in this 2008 file photo.

A slower economy and changing times are taking their toll on one of the most well-known hotel-casinos in Las Vegas.

MGM Grand is shuttering its popular free lion exhibit on Jan. 31, and the mega hotel and casino is closing its once groundbreaking Studio 54 nightclub in early February.

“It’s something of a big deal,” said Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor, a consumer-oriented travel newsletter. “Studio 54, when it came to Vegas, pretty much kicked off the Vegas of today. Prior to Studio 54, only a few places had stuck their toe into the nightlife, the wilder night scene. It was big in the day — back in the ’90s, it was a happening thing. But it’s since been surpassed.”

It’s no secret Las Vegas has been affected by the sour economy — annual visitor rates fell with the recession, from 39.1 million in 2007 to 34.4 million in 2010, according to the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. 

Casinos and hotels are doing everything they can to attract ever-scarcer tourist dollars. That means turning a hard eye on attractions that are facing too much competition, such as the plethora of night clubs all going after a slice of the same pie, Curtis said.

“It’s part and parcel of what made Vegas vulnerable to the bad economy,” he said. “There was too much of everything in Vegas to support. People aren’t coming in spending money like nuts like they were five years ago. The older places just really couldn’t make it anymore. You need the latest and greatest.”

Ethan Miller/Getty Images for MGM Resorts International

Rappers Treach, left, and Vin Rock of hip-hop group Naughty by Nature perform in Las Vegas at a post-fight party for UFC 116 and birthday celebration for mixed martial artist Wanderlei Silva at Studio 54 inside the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in July 2010.

As for the lions, well, their day has come, too. Lions are practically synonymous with the hotel — home to 5,000 rooms and one of the world’s largest casinos — but it’s time to change things up as part of a major renovation of the property, said hotel spokeswoman Yvette Monet. Iconic bronze statues of lions will remain on the property.

The free exhibit, which opened in 1999, showcases real lions roaming around — or sleeping — in a habitat. The lions don’t actually live there — they’re brought in from a ranch run by an animal trainer. The exhibit closes Feb. 4, Monet said.

“It’s part of a $160 million overall renovation,” she said. “We’re also doing a revamping of all hotel rooms. We’ll be making changes to the casino and public areas as well. We’re always looking for a fresh attraction, a fresh product for our customers, to keep the MGM Grand fresh and new.”

Monet said she had no information yet on what would replace the lion habitat.

Curtis wasn’t surprised the lions are being sent back to their ranch. “It was a cool free thing,” he said. “They could afford to do that when people were coming and throwing money around like crazy. It drew more legs into the place. But now they’ve got to be more targeted ... They made a decision to go for that nightlife crowd, not the day, fanny-pack crowd.

“The whole marketing emphasis has shifted. They want to attract the young, money-spending crowd.”

Slideshow: Viva Las Vegas!

Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Sin City is a major entertainment center and business travel destination, known for its carefully cultivated image, gambling and nightlife.

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Susan Miller made it to Las Vegas on Delta Air Lines. Her suitcase didn’t.

The airline, she says, told her that day in November 2010 there was nothing they could do. So stuck without essentials, the Key West, Fla., woman spent $315 of her own money to buy some warm clothes, replacement medications and toiletries to tide her over until her suitcase showed up. Which it did, several days later.

It’s a story replayed countless times every day in airports across the nation. But Miller took a step that few travelers ever do: she filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and other passengers against Delta this month, asserting the airline failed to tell her it has a legal obligation to reimburse travelers up to $3,300 if bags are lost, delayed or damaged in transit. She is requesting both compensatory and punitive damages.

“She’s mad as heck,” said Miller’s attorney, David K. Tucker of Coral Gables, Fla. Miller made a claim with Delta requesting her expenses be covered several weeks after the incident, but was rejected, he said.

“People don’t know what their rights are,” Tucker said. “Therefore, they’ll get maybe just $25 or $50 (when their bag is lost) and get the runaround and be on the hook for the rest of their expenses.”

An official for Delta said in an e-mail that the company does not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida asserts that Delta has a contract with passengers to reimburse them up to that $3,300 amount if their bags are delayed. “Delta ignores the contract and often tells passengers they are only entitled to $25 to $50 in daily expenses ... Passengers are left in the dark when their bags are delayed.”

The airline’s practices could potentially affect a huge number of passengers and involve an enormous amount of money, according to the lawsuit, which says that in the first 10 months of 2010, Delta reported receiving more than 270,000 reports of lost, delayed or misplaced baggage. “Such tactics allow Delta to pocket millions and millions it would have had to pay out if it had abided by its contracts with passengers,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit also claims that signs are not clearly posted informing passengers of their rights in this matter: “Instead (Delta’s) frontline employees routinely deny that this obligation exists and/or informs consumers there is an artificial dollar or daily limit on claims for reimbursement.”

In the case of his client, Tucker writes, the company “did not as much offer her a blanket to stay warm.”

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Lots of folks know about Yosemite’s festive lodges in the winter, the excitement of viewing buffalo in the snow at Yellowstone or alligator spotting in the Everglades. Emphasis on lots of people. But there are a number of other lesser known national parks that are gems in the winter, when crowds are down, stargazing is amazing and temperatures range from temperate to pretty terrific.

“Some of the beauty of going to any of the parks in the wintertime is that you’re not going to encounter the crowds you would in the summer or fall,” said Kurt Repanshek, editor of National Parks Traveler, a website devoted to the national parks.

Slideshow: America's lesser-known national parks

Repanshek, who has had a lifelong passion for preserving and protecting national parks, says some of the most memorable visits he’s made to many of the parks happened in the off-season. One of his faves: Virgin Islands National Park on the island of St. John. The park includes 5,650 acres of submerged lands that protects beautiful coral gardens and seascapes.

“Ideally, visit in the wintertime if you’re sick of the slush and snow and all that,” said Repanshek, who loves to snorkel the park’s waters and hike its trails. “It’s 75 to 80 degrees in the winter, no humidity, with beautiful turquoise water.”

Other notable parks to visit in winter:

Death Valley

Alamy

Late winter or early spring is a good time to see wildflowers in Death Valley National Park, Calif.

Yes, you could visit during the park's hottest season — summer (it hit 134 degrees here once) — but winter, when temperatures can average from the 50s to the low 70s, is when the park's 3.5 million acres really allow fun. “I went to Death Valley in (the winter) about three years ago and it was almost a little chilly — 55 degrees,” Repanshek said. “It’s just nicer to have those milder temperatures to enjoy the sand dunes and hiking in some of the canyons.”

Death Valley has great stargazing in winter, but later in that season or early spring, visitors may be lucky enough to come following one of the park’s brief rainy periods, which unleashes cactus blooms and wildflowers, he said.

Biscayne Bay

Copyright Thomas M. Strom / National Parks Conservation Asso

Biscayne National Park near Miami has the third largest coral reef ecosystem in the world.

National parks also include underwater ocean wonders such as those found at this treasure near Miami. This park obviously offers lovely weather in winter, plus abundant water sports. Just 5 percent of this park is land, so it’s all about the ocean, including the third largest coral reef ecosystem in the world. It’s possible to view the reef’s plants and animals by glass-bottom boat, including a chance to glimpse fish, shrimp, crabs and lobsters. “It is incredible to see the marine world at Biscayne National Park,” said John Adornato, Sun Coast regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “The coral reef and reef fish are absolutely spectacular.”

Channel Islands National Park

National Park Service

Channel Islands National Park off the Southern California coast has plants and animals found nowhere else, including the island fox.

Amazing marine animals are on offer in the waters around these Southern California islands in winter: whales, dolphins and porpoises. (Possibilities: gray, blue, humpback, minke, sperm and pilot whales, orcas and dolphins.) The park, accessible by park concessionaire boats and planes from Ventura, is made up of five separate islands, all with varied terrain, wildflowers and views. “It’s called the Galapagos of the United States,” said Neal Desai, Pacific Region associate director for National Parks Conservation Association. “(Each island) has unique plants and animals found nowhere else. If you’re out there, you may well have the opportunity to see an island fox, which is the size of a house cat.”

Even though it’s only an hour’s drive from Los Angeles, plus the boat ride to get to the islands, it can be very peaceful, Desai said. “It’s so close to Los Angeles, but not so many people know about this national park. I like it a lot — it’s a complete package. There’s everything from hiking to bird watching to sea activities like kayaking you can do, even snorkeling.”

Lewis and Clark National Historical Park

National Park Service

At Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, visitors can learn about how the explorers lived and worked.

Visitors may contend with rain in the winter, but it’s still very temperate and mild compared to much of the country, minus the traffic and crowds of summer. Visitors following the trail of the famous explorers can experience rain forest, the Columbia River and the drop-dead gorgeous Pacific Coast. A highlight: visiting a replica of Fort Clatsop, the fort built by the explorers to winter over in. Fort Clatsop also features interpretive costumed rangers and trailheads for some amazing hikes.

“It’s probably one of the hidden gems of the national park system,” said Sean Smith, Northwest policy director for the National Parks Conservation Association.

Fort Clatsop is a great destination for families, because it can teach so much about how the explorers lived and worked, Smith said. “It was built using period tools and techniques. They had detailed notes that Lewis and Clark made, including the number of logs used. Trees aren’t as big now, so they but had to use more logs.”

The park overall incorporates some state parks, with sites on both the Oregon and Washington side of the river as well as the Pacific Ocean, he cautioned, so driving can take some time between stops.

Winter is a great time to visit, he added, to truly get a sense of conditions the explorers experienced. “(Lewis and Clark) would have spent their time on the Oregon and Washington coasts in the winter months, so they would have been seeing a climate and winter much like a current visitor does.”

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Bad boy actor Alec Baldwin, already known for his colorful personality, got himself kicked off an American Airlines flight Tuesday for ignoring flight attendant requests to power off his iPad.

Baldwin (who was apparently playing the popular game Words with Friends when asked to turn off his iPad) joins a list of other celebrities, including actor Josh Duhamel, Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong and diva crooner Whitney Houston, who have had in-flight kerfuffles in the past year.

Related: Alec Baldwin apologizes to fellow passengers

Are these incidents a sign of a toxic celebrity entitlement culture or an understandable reaction to the stressful nature of travel these days?

“I think especially the first-class passengers feel entitled,” said George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com and a frequent flier. “They expect more than the airlines, at least the domestic ones, are prepared to provide. I see bad behavior all the time, especially in first class. People don’t say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ I flew from Los Angeles to New York yesterday and the guy sitting next to me, when attendants told people to shut off their electronic devices, just put it in his pocket and didn’t shut it off. I see it all the time — flight attendants must ask three or four times, ‘Oh please, sir, put it away.’ It’s like dealing with children.”

American Airlines posted a statement about the Baldwin incident on its Facebook page, asserting that “when the door is closed for departure and the seat belt light is turned on, all cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off for taxi-out and take-off. This passenger declined to turn off his cell phone when asked to do so at the appropriate time. The passenger ultimately stood up (with the seat belt light still on for departure) and took his phone into the plane's lavatory. He slammed the lavatory door so hard, the cockpit crew heard it and became alarmed, even with the cockpit door closed and locked.”

Related: Baldwin shutters Twitter account, airline speaks out

For his part, Baldwin tweeted after the incident, “Flt attendant on AA reamed me out 4 playing WORDS W FRIENDS while we sat @ gate, not moving.”

The FAA did not comment specifically on the incident, but spokeswoman Alison Duquette did say, “Our rules and expectations are that passengers abide by the directions given by the cabin crew.”

Travel psychologist Michael Brein of Bainbridge Island, Wash., cautioned that the exact details of the incident aren’t clear and that there are always two sides to such stories. Travel personnel sometimes ramp up inappropriately, too, he said.

And everyone is tense, because flying isn’t exactly a lot of fun these days, from pat-downs by the Transportation Security Administration to crowded flights and struggles with heavy carry-on baggage.

“Take it with a grain of salt,” Brein said. “That sense of entitlement works two ways. We think that celebrities are acting out of a sense of entitlement because we think that’s what celebrities do. But the level of frustration (for travelers) begins with the TSA. Our level of discomfort and anxiety is higher than it used to be because of this. Flight personnel, because of the power of the TSA and their increased power of deciding who is flying and who doesn’t, have a sense of entitlement as well.”

And that’s led to increasing rudeness on the part of both passengers and airline employees, he said. “Maybe Alec Baldwin boarded that plane having a bad experience through the TSA, and that ratchets up his discomfort and anger…(and) the person on working on the aircraft are asking things a little inappropriately because of their levels of frustration.”

The solution? Listen to your mother and use your party manners when traveling.

“It’s just an effort everyone is going to have to make,” Brein said. “Be conscious of and make more of effort to be polite.”

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Elaine Porterfield is an msnbc.com contributor.