Parking ticket from Municipal Parking Corporation

A few of my friends have received one of those fake parking tickets from Municipal Parking Corporation in the last year, hot spot being Sheraton Parkway. "The good news is, by law, you don't have to pay them," according to CityNews interviewing the Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley. Despite of that, the corporation keeps sending out mails from their collection department claiming that they have the right to do all kinds of things to you. Here I put together everyone's experiences.

• Don't bother to call the "General Inquires" number on the back of the ticket to fight the ticket. It's just a machine asking you to key in your credit card number.
• Don't need to go back to the shopping mall to ask the ticket to be waived. The only people who can void the ticket is the landlord.
• Don't even bother to send in a dispute. They require you to send by register mail which is like $10 to start with. Nobody received any response so far.
• Don't use the payment website. If you have decided to pay although it is not legal, you will get an internet purchase receipt. Congratulations! Yes, you've just made a purchase, not fine payment. However, they have your credit card and the 3-digit security number now. You always have the option to send the payment to their P.O. box though. There is no real address.
• Don't be freak out by those letters or calls claiming that they can do all kinds of things to you. There are calls like those machine telemarketers which stops after a month or so. Just hang it up gracefully like what you usually do to the telemarketers. Nothing had ever happen to anyone.
• Don't setup a campaign to boycott the shopping mall or anything like that. Come on, it doesn't worth the afford.

In closing, Ontario Transportation Minister Jim Bradley is working on closing the loophole. Instead of wasting the time on the ticket, you may want to reflect your concern to your local MP and ask for an update on the fake parking ticket issue and confirm that you don't have to pay. A simple email or call will do.

Cayo Coco - NH Krystal Laguna Villas & Resort - Food

One of the important component of a resort vacation is great food. NH Krystal has 5 a la carte restaurants and 2 buffets. All the restaurants are fancy but the foods are medicore. You may call me picky but I am not. My requirement is simple - just better than or at least equal to what I usually have in Toronto. Later on, I am told by a few friends that all Cuban resorts serve medicore food. (LP, traveling with you, I don't mind eating pastas every day. 鹹魚白菜也好好味.)

• Steak house. The services and the decor were really good. The steak was cooked to coal while I ordered medium. The cake dessert was good though.
• Italian. The veal was seriously overdone and the pasta was under cook. We looked at our neighbors and our neighbors looked back at us. We laughed out loud and decided to go to the buffet to have some pastas.
• Seafood. What a beautiful restaurant on the lagoon!
• Cuban. The restaurant was closed but the front desk was not even aware of that. The staffs insisted that the restaurant was open.
• Moonlight. It is the poolside grill restaurant. The view was charming. The fish and seafood soup were too fishy.
• Buffet. To me both buffet restaurants are the same. I love the pastas. However, there was always over 10 minute lineup for the cook-to-order food such as omelet and pasta, partly because of under staff and partly because of the talkative Canadians. What can we do about that!?

We were very lucky that the buffet restaurant served lobster on the day that we don't have a la carte reservation. Haven't had huge 2 lbs+ lobsters for a while. I just couldn't eat the cooked to coal steak at the steak restaurant... The seafood restaurant is a open patio on the lagoon. Both the view and the dishes were gorgeous. The Italian restaurant does not have filet mignon. All it got is pastas, Parmesan and pizza. The bread were really good. We loved it! The house wine and the Crystine beer were great and really strong! After this trip, we have decided not to drink any alcohol for a month. The coffee at the buffet was terrible. Be sure to ask for cappuccino fresh from the machine instead.

Cayo Coco - NH Krystal Laguna Villas & Resort

That is another unforgettable vacation. We had a romantic getaway in Cuba. The NH Krystal Laguna Villas & Resort, Cayo Coco is a 4-star resort. We got a great deal of $910 per person including round trip flights, 7 night deluxe accommodation, a la cart dining, buffet and unlimited beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Be sure to check travelocity for the great deals. NH Krystal is two resorts in one, Emperrodor and Laguna. The Villas suite Laguna room is the best room available and it absolutely worths the extra dollars. We were lucky that we got upgraded to the Villa suite on the lagoon. We were both impressed by the amazing lagoon view. The room had great air-conditioning and clean. The mini-bar was stocked with bottled water and beverages almost daily. The con is that the room only had hot water certain time of the day. The beach is out of the world! White sand, blue ocean, and sunrise... The entertainment team did a great job! We liked the dance and the mini horse show. The guest games were boring - male guests performing strip dance and the resulting kids pretending to be vomiting and screaming old women.I will write about the controversy food in the resort in my next post.