Massive

SWEET stations in the lobby, statues of famous cartoon characters and a rip-roaring theme park right outside your bedroom window.  

This might just be the best family resort out there. 

The new Nickelodeon Hotel, which opened last year at the Land of Legends complex in Antalya, is bursting with fun. 

On top of character meet-and-greets at all times of day, there’s free gaming stations and an energetic kids’ club.  

And that’s before you even get to the splash park and heated pool, available for hotel guests only. 

My kids had watched Land of Legends being built on other family trips to Antalya over the years, and the excitement had grown on each visit. 

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PLAY TIME

I took my kids to the huge slime ‘playground’ at UK’s most famous toy store

But with Joshua and Jessica now 12 and nine, my partner Jo and I wondered if we’d missed the boat, or rollercoaster. 

We needn’t have worried, though.  

Land of Legends, which turns ten this summer, caters for all ages, tastes and daredevil levels. Designed to be a giant entertainment resort, visitors have access to hotels, shopping avenue, waterparks and, of course, a theme park in one place. 

Best of all, anyone staying in the onsite Nickelodeon Hotel can use a private entrance to access the theme park — meaning they can ride when they want, pop back for meals and drinks and then go again.  

Spongebob’s Bikini Bottom became a solid family favourite. The new indoor addition to the park features rides for all ages, including an interactive coaster where you shoot targets as you go. 

Young kids will also love the Star Trek simulator, Family Coaster and the crazy Typhoon Coaster where you go up in a lift before splashing down log flume-style. 

And once me and Josh got our big-boy pants on, we were ready for Hyper Coaster — a ride that rollercoaster enthusiasts travel across Europe to try. 

Trust me, it’s not for the faint-hearted, but I had to at least pretend I was being brave by laughing when Josh was next to me on the ascent, saying: “Dad, I think I’m going to pass out.” 

I couldn’t really hear him over my screams after that, as we plummeted, looped, corkscrewed and flew our way across the park. 

I’m not ashamed to say it took me a good 15 to 20 minutes to be able to feel my knees again. 

For a little less speed, there’s a neat Paw Patrol section of the park and Masha and the Bear area — a favourite of our children when they were toddlers so the boat ride was a lovely trip down memory lane for us all. 

On days when the Turkish heat gets too much, holidaymakers can get more thrills at the waterpark (open April to October). 

Dozens of flumes and the quite incredible Turtle Coaster, where you are propelled uphill in a boat by water jets at amazing speeds, were big hits. Although the group favourite was a rubber-ring ride — especially for Jess, as she found it hilarious that I seemed to go backwards the entire way down the steep slopes. 

As we went early in the season, it didn’t really matter what water attraction we went for first as there were no queues. 

You won’t need to splash out on food at the parks when you stay onsite, either. 

The Nickelodeon Hotel operates a “Full-Board+” concept, which means breakfast, lunch and dinner in La Spatula restaurant and all soft drinks are included.  

Alcohol is served at lunch and dinner times with meals, too. 

The food was tasty, fresh and plentiful — from the omelette station at breakfast to the grilled lamb kebabs in the evenings. 

Magic shows performed over breakfast added another element of fun and Jess was still trying to figure out just how the magician had done it by lunch. 

Most evenings, we were so tired that not even the multi-coloured, themed character rooms could have kept us awake.  

Rooms are spacious and our Dora the Explorer suite had a balcony overlooking the park, meaning the kids went to sleep dreaming of the next ride. You can request room types on different floors subject to availability, themed around Spongebob, Star Trek and Turtles. 

In-room fridges filled with glass bottles of pop, plus a pod-coffee machine and snacks in the drawer were a real bonus for the post-park chill before dinner. 

The “Club Nick” kids’ club was excellent, too, with art classes (we painted SpongeBob, obviously) and nightly dance and character shows. 

Included in longer stays is an afternoon trip to sister hotel Rixos Premium Belek, with a minibus laid on. 

Lunch out was good and it meant we could get a drink by the sea.  

This was our fifth visit to Turkey in three years and the destination never fails to impress. The locals delight at welcoming tourists and showing off their country. 

Not everything is still “cheap” here, but this part of the world definitely knows how to do value for money. 

And if you did want to spend a few more lira, the front of the hotel opens out on to the Land of Legends shopping avenue — a Las Vegas-style strip with a canal, high-end stores and evening shows all centred around a Disney-like castle. 

For a slightly more chilled vibe, there are dancing fountains scattered around the shopping district, which Jo and I enjoyed while Josh and Jess played on the PS5s and arcade games. 

I tended to avoid those because, you know, it’s hard to keep letting them win every game . . .  

WASHINGTON — An effort to ramp up U.S. weapons production and build more ships, planes and drones will require a massive upfront investment, President Trump’s budget director told a House committee Wednesday.

The testimony from Russell Vought jump-starts the White House’s push to increase defense spending to nearly $1.5 trillion in the next budget year, up from nearly $1 trillion this year, while cutting health research, heating assistance and scores of other domestic programs by about 10% overall. Such cuts do not cover mandatory spending, which includes such programs as Social Security and Medicare.

The debate over Trump’s proposal underscored the sharp divide that will shape some of the most significant policy debates going into a midterm election that will give voters the ultimate say on the direction of the country.

“For the industrial base to double or triple and build more facilities, not just add shifts, it requires multiyear agreements to purchase into the future,” Vought told lawmakers. “That cost has to be booked in this first year.”

The White House is calling for about $1.1 trillion for defense through the regular appropriations process, which typically requires support from both parties for approval. An additional $350 billion would come through a separate bill that Republicans can accomplish on their own, through party-line majority votes.

Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democratic member of the committee, said he believes in a strong national defense. But he said the idea of increasing defense by more than 40% while cutting programs that people need shows that the Republican administration’s priorities are “out of whack.”

The committee chairman, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), predicted the hearing would be more “amped up” than usual, and that proved to be true, beginning with his opening statement focused on criticizing Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency. Arrington said he did not know of any president in his lifetime who “inherited such a complete and utter mess as President Trump did in January of last year.”

Since then, Arrington said, Trump has secured the border, cut taxes and constrained nondefense spending.

It was the beginning of several back-and-forths at the hearing.

“You know how bad this economy is when we hear Joe Biden being invoked, we hear trans people being invoked. I was waiting for Jimmy Carter to be blamed next,” Boyle said in response to Arrington’s opening remarks.

Boyle said consumer confidence is plummeting under Trump and noted a gas station he passed in Philadelphia recently was selling gas at $4.11 a gallon versus less than $3 a gallon some six weeks ago because of Trump’s “war of choice in Iran.”

Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) called the proposed defense spending increase shocking.

“We’ve never in the history of this country seen spending like this, paid for by slashing healthcare, education and housing,” Balint said. “Mr. Vought, yes or no, is $350 billion for the war in Iran lowering costs for Americans?”

“It is certainly not defunding child care. We fully fund child care in this budget,” Vought said, not directly answering the question.

Balint went on to incorporate Trump’s “America first” mantra in her questioning.

She said that $350 billion could pay for an enhanced health insurance tax credit for 10 years and that her constituents are asking how the country can continue to spend money on wars and not find a solution to helping people afford healthcare.

Vought said the president has made clear he was not going to let Iran have nuclear weapons, missiles and a navy that affect U.S. national security.

“He is doing what is necessary to keep us safe, while at the same time trying to pursue diplomacy so that we can get out of wars and lower those costs over time,” Vought said.

Vought said it was unclear how much the administration would seek to fund the war during the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. That money would be part of an emergency supplemental spending bill and would be on top of the funds the White House is seeking to boost defense spending next year.

“Would it be more than $50 billion?” asked Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas).

“We’re still working on it,” Vought said. “I don’t have a ballpark for you.”

Freking writes for the Associated Press.

The proposed 76-metre arch would tower over other iconic landmarks in Washington, DC, and has attracted scrutiny.

United States President Donald Trump’s goal of erecting a colossal arch in Washington, DC, has taken another step forward, with a key agency approving his proposed design for the monument.

The US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump, gave its go-ahead to the president’s design for a lofty 76-metre-high (250-foot) arch.

If given final approval, the arch would be built on Memorial Circle, between the Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial. It would tower above other landmarks in the national capital.

White House spokesperson Davis Ingle hailed the commission’s approval as a “step in accomplishing President Trump’s promise to the American people from the campaign trail — to Make America Safe and Beautiful Again”.

But the arch has faced criticism, including for potentially obscuring views of the national cemetery, a resting place for war veterans.

Public Citizen Litigation Group is representing some Vietnam War veterans in a lawsuit against the proposed construction, which they argue needs congressional approval.

Even the vice chair of the Commission of Fine Arts, James McCrery II, suggested that Trump’s proposed “Triumphal Arch” ditch the winged statue and eagles on its top. He also opposed the lions at its base, pointing out that African animals are “not a beast natural to the North American continent”.

The enormous arch is another effort by the US president to leave his mark on the physical landscape of Washington, DC.

In January, he told reporters he wants the arch to be the “biggest one of all”. The commission still needs to vote on final approval for the proposal after reviewing updated designs.

Current plans show the arch would be significantly larger than the Lincoln Memorial, which is 99 feet (30 metres) tall, and about twice as tall as the famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris, which the design resembles.

The phrases “One Nation Under God” and “Liberty and Justice for All” would be written in gold lettering atop either side of the monument.

About three out of every four people who delivered public comments about the project expressed opposition, many of them citing its enormous size.

But the arch is one of several Trump projects that have received public pushback.

Trump has sought to paint the granite of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building white, and his allies plan to close the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a national theatre complex, for two years of renovations, after adding Trump’s name to the exterior.

One of the most permanent changes so far has been the abrupt demolition of the White House’s East Wing, in order to make room for an enormous ballroom, long one of Trump’s priorities.

But that project is likewise entangled in legal battles, with critics arguing that congressional approval is required.

On Wednesday, Judge Richard Leon clarified that construction on underground structures at the ballroom site could continue, as part of an exemption he previously allowed for national security concerns.

But he maintained his short-term injunction against construction on the ballroom itself, batting down Trump’s position that the whole project should proceed.

“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated,” Leon wrote in Thursday’s ruling.

“That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!”

The president responded on social media by calling Leon an “out of control Trump hating” judge. Leon was appointed in 2002 under Republican President George W Bush.