Things To Do In SW Florida

Walt Disney World has introduced a two-park ticket that’s valid at just two of its parks: Epcot and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The deal, available to Florida residents only, is called the Disney 2-Park Explorer Ticket and sells for $159.

This ticket doesn’t come with a park-hopper option; it’s one theme park per day for a total of two admissions on two separate days, Disney World’s website says.  The tickets are valid through Sept. 29.

The tickets from this offer require date-specific, park-specific reservations, and Florida residents must show ID at the gate.

The Explorer Ticket can be enhanced with the water park and sports option, which includes choices such as a day at Typhoon Lagoon water park, an outing at one of Disney’s two miniature-golf courses and others.  With this add-on, the Explorer Ticket is $194.

Theme Park Rangers Radar: Auto museum, Disney’s Orange Garage rules, popcorn droid

Florida residents also currently could buy the Disney Summer Magic Ticket, which is four days of theme parking for $229. It also is valid through Sept. 29 (with blockout dates Sept. 1-4).  There are park-hopping options and water park add-ons for sale as well. read more

Money is moving faster than ever, and that’s a good thing for businesses, consumers and the entire economy. The Federal Reserve has created a new and instantaneous money transfer technology that will allow immediate receipt of payments, even over the weekend when the Fed’s current ACH transfer system is closed. It’s called FedNow.

Let me say upfront, that this new “pipeline,” which will be used by all financial institutions including local banks and credit unions, has nothing to do with a digital currency. Rather, it applies the latest technology to remove the lag that exists in current payment processing.

You may already benefit from using apps like Zelle, Venmo and PayPal. To consumers, it looks like the money is being transferred to you instantly when using the apps. But there is actually a slight delay. FedNow removes all that, enabling the behind-the-scenes banking system to work instantaneously.

If you’ve been around for a while, you remember when it took two or three days to clear a local check, and as long as five business days — a full week — to clear a check on a bank from out of town. In fact, some companies took advantage of those delays by issuing paychecks and other payments on out-of-state banks, and using the “float” (money in transition) to earn interest until the checks cleared. read more

A health-related attraction that takes visitors on a journey through the human body is the latest addition to the $2 billion Everest Place resort district on Osceola County’s tourism corridor.

The CORPUS Body Museum in The Netherlands has welcomed more than 2.7 million visitors over its 15 years and recently opened a second location in China.

Now the museum will open its first U.S. location alongside the Regency Health medical campus of the 224-acre resort at U.S. Highway 192 and State Road 429, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

“It’s really, really cool,” Everest Place Marketing Director Jared Hansen said. “You basically get to take a tour through the human body. So when you’re walking through the different parts of the body, on the outside, you’re on the inside, and it has different features like the stomach, the brain, the eye. It’s really fascinating.”

Regency Health, led by Dr. Ashley Ansara, will consist of four components: the 62,000-square foot museum, 20,000 square feet of high-end retail, structured parking and a 3-story medical office building with an ambulatory surgical center, urgent care clinic, radiology center and a pharmacy on the first floor. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Drivers are in for another headache at the pump as U.S. gas prices continue to rise.

The national average for gas prices stood at about $3.78 a gallon on Tuesday — about 25 cents higher than that seen one month ago, according to motor club AAA. While today’s prices at the pump remain far lower than they were last year, when energy costs soared worldwide in the months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, experts say such a jump is unusual.

“Usually it takes a hurricane to move prices that much,” said AAA spokesperson Andrew Gross, who said the rise is especially interesting as “fewer people are are fueling up” their cars this summer compared to years past.

In the U.S., gasoline prices are highly dependent on crude oil. West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, has stayed above $80 per barrel since Thursday, standing at over $81 as of Tuesday afternoon. That marks a $12 jump since July 3, according to OPIS global head of energy analysis Tom Kloza. read more