- Disney's newest dream ship will be welcomed to Port on Tuesday
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PORT CANAVERAL — In true Disney style,
the theme-park giant is planning a spectacle for early Tuesday at Port Canaveral
to mark the arrival of its newest ship, the Fantasy.
Fireworks will light up the predawn sky over the port,
as the 4,000-passenger ship makes it way into the harbor channel. Disney Cruise
Line plans to bring hundreds of Disney employees — Disney calls them “cast
members” — to the port, including some costumed characters. The ship also will
be greeted by a flotilla of watercraft.
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- Disney to build multiple-attraction 'Avatar' land in Animal Kingdom theme park
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The Walt Disney Co. will build a theme-park “land” based on the movie “Avatar” in Disney’s Animal Kingdom as the first step in a broader licensing deal that will lead to similar attractions in Disney parks worldwide.
The deal announced Tuesday gives Disney exclusive theme-park rights to use elements from the 2009 blockbuster and from sequels due out in 2014 and 2015. “Avatar,” which was directed by James Cameron and grossed nearly $2.8 billion in worldwide box-office receipts, is widely considered one of the most valuable intellectual properties not already tied up by a theme park.
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- Brevard homes sales up 23 percent in August
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Brevard County’s existing single-family home sales jumped 23 percent in August vs. the same period in 2010, the Florida Association of Realtors said today.
The Realtors group said there were 593 single-family home sales in August compared to 484 during the same period a year earlier.
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- Florida bouncing back, and recession not likely, report says
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MIAMI – Sept. 16, 2011 – Florida’s improving economy should avoid recession, even as the recovery fights significant headwinds from a devastated real estate industry.
That’s the conclusion from the latest outlook for the Sunshine State by Wells Fargo, which sees South Florida and Tampa leading the rebound in hiring this year. Both markets have seen modest job growth in recent months, and payrolls are up about 1 percent in both regions during the last three months.
“Florida is slowly battling back from its worst recession in modern times,’’ the report reads. Wells Fargo expects economic growth to hit 2.2 percent next year in Florida, despite growing anxiety that the nation is heading for a second recession.
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- Kids Prepare Satellite Beach Junior Production of 'The Sound of Music'
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Satellite Beach may be a long way from Austria, but it's going to sound a lot like it for the production of "Sound of Music" at 7 p.m. Friday at the David R. Schechter Community Center Gym.
The shortened junior theater version of the popular movie is being put on by the musical theater camp at the recreation center, taught for the past eight years by Kelly Mucci.
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- How to Make Your Dog's Days of Summer Safer
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Ready for your dog's days of summer?
Everybody seems to have a list of tips.
Most are no-brainers. Don't leave dogs in hot cars or let them walk on hot asphalt, play too hard or get too much sun. Apply flea and tick repellents, and if you're in a mosquito-prone area, talk to your vet about heartworm prevention pills. Take dogs on walks early or late to avoid midday heat and provide ample drinking water.
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- Blooming Hibiscus Beauties in Brevard
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Exotic-looking hibiscus flourish in Brevard's subtropical heat.
Their hues echo every stripe of the rainbow, in a dazzling array of shades that range from a whisper to a shout. Hibiscus fans find their exotic color combinations equally intoxicating.
And while their names can sound like a lot of work -- think Aztec Sun, Bodacious Burgundy, Lemon Empress, Flameball and Red Planet (plus many, many more) -- hibiscus don't need your undivided attention, collectors say.
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- Patrick's New Digs a Major Deal for the Air Force
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PATRICK AIR FORCE BASE — Questions came up during congressional budget reviews whether an important surveillance organization that monitors nuclear detonation and testing worldwide should remain located in hurricane-prone coastal Florida.
But historic hurricane data, weather vulnerability in other locations and discussions about the importance of retaining highly technical staff still favored keeping the Air Force Technical Applications Center at Patrick Air Force Base.
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- SeaWorld to End Popular Ticket Promotion
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With attendance rebounding, SeaWorld Orlando is ending a popular ticket promotion that allows Florida and Georgia residents who buy one-day tickets to keep coming back for the rest of the year.
Beginning tomorrow, SeaWorld will stop selling $79.99 "Fun Cards," as it aims to shift more guests into pricier annual passes, which begin at $109.99. The annual passes are good for 365 days from the date of purchase — rather than the remainder of the calendar year — and include some extra perks, including free parking.
SeaWorld will also begin offering guests who buy single-day tickets an option to pay an extra $5 to continue returning through the rest of 2011.
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- Local Economy Prospers as Brevard Zoo Expands
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Wildlife park adds zip lines, more attractions in quest to be big Central Fla. player.
Deep in the woods off Wickham Road, a network of aerial zip lines soon will propel people across the leafy canopy above alligators, crocodiles, swampy wetlands and the forest floor.
Brevard Zoo is constructing Treetop Trek, a $500,000 zip line excursion that opens July 2. Harness-clad participants will latch lanyards onto steel cables and traverse an aerial array of tightropes, swinging bridges, "crab walks," nets and slides up to 40 feet above ground.
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- Space Coast Wine Guild Crafts Friendships, Award-Winning Vino
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Author Robert Louis Stevenson called wine "bottled poetry," and if that's true, members of the Space Coast Wine Guild are veritable Keatses.
For example, of 17 double-gold medals awarded to amateur winemakers in February at the Florida State Fair in Tampa, SCWG accounted for 12. Fifty-six wines from Brevard County won gold, silver or bronze medals, a quarter of all awards handed out.
Not bad for a group of oenophiles who live in an area where conditions don't support the growth of the types of grapes usually associated with fine vintages.
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- The Strength of Summer: Space Coast Attracts Visitors by Thousands to Enjoy Unique Features
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While winter brings snowbirds to the Space Coast, as frostbitten Midwesterners, New Englanders and Canadians flee their chilly homelands for our area’s temperate clime and sandy expansive beaches, summer brings thousands of visitors to Brevard, as well. They’re lured by the beaches, recreational opportunities and Kennedy Space Center, the world’s premier spaceport.
That space connection will make this summer unlike any other with as many as 1 million people expected to flock here to witness the final shuttle launch, which NASA said Friday is
scheduled for July 8.“We are anticipating record crowds,” said John Stine, director of sales and marketing for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
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- Brevard County Set to Consider Dog-friendly Beach Area - Group lobbies for code change
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VIERA — Last year, Barbara Arnold wanted to take Bailey, her Catahoula leopard dog, and Emma, her mixed-breed shelter rescue, to splash and play at the beach.
But Brevard County code prohibits dogs on beaches. So Arnold drove her pets all the way from Rockledge to Smyrna Dunes Park in Volusia County -- a 125-mile round-trip commute she described as "kind of an all-day thing."
"They swam and played and met some new friends," she said. "We had five or six dogs and five or six people, having a good time together and just hanging out. I think we need that closer to home,"
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- Rockledge Honored for Crime Fighting
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Criminals have a hard time staying hidden in Rockledge.
Neighbors spread the word about a man who battered a woman and a suspect was quickly caught. City sanitation workers spotted marijuana plants growing along a roadway and told police. Business owners identified counterfeit bills that led to an arrest.
For those efforts, the National Sheriff's Association is honoring the Rockledge Police Department. Officers and the people who make up the department's city, neighborhood and business watch groups are celebrating their contributions to public safety.
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- Cobb Merritt Square 16 Introduces New, Interactive Movie Experience
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Instead of just watching a cannonball blast the Black Pearl, now you can feel it strike the hull.
Cobb Merritt Square 16 has installed 20 motion-enhanced seats in one of its auditoriums that will literally move audiences in sync with the action on the screen.
"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," which opens at midnight tonight, will be the first movie at the theater to feature the technology. Combined with 3-D, it will truly be an interactive movie experience.
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