Things To Do In SW Florida

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay will open Wild Oasis, a rainforest-inspired realm inside the Jungala area of the theme park, in spring of 2025, the attraction has announced.

Wild Oasis elements will include an interactive water-play area, a climbing canopy, animal encounters and a reimagined drop tower with digital and sound effects.

“It’s been five years since guests last stepped foot in the tucked away realm of Treetop Trails in the Jungala area of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, and we are thrilled to breathe new life into this corner of the park with the development of this realm,” Stewart Clark, president of Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, said in a news release.

The theme park’s most recent addition is Phoenix Rising, an inverted roller coaster that debuted in the Pantopia land in July.  Its Skyride gondola ride reopened earlier this year.  Busch Gardens closed its long-running Scorpion coaster, also in Pantopia, and has not yet announced a replacement.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is owned by Orlando-based United Parks & Resorts, which also operates SeaWorld Orlando, Discovery Cove and Aquatica water park. read more

By CORA LEWIS

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve has cut its benchmark interest rate from its 23-year high, with consequences for debt, savings, auto loans, mortgages and other forms of borrowing by consumers and businesses.

On Wednesday, the Fed announced that it reduced its key rate by an unusually large half-percentage point, to between 4.75 and 5 percent, the first rate cut in more than four years.