Things To Do In SW Florida

Walt Disney World will again offer hotel deals that include two Disney Dining Plan options on select dates in 2025.

The offer will be available from Jan. 2-Feb. 10. It will be valid for “most arrivals” between May 27 and June 26 and then again from July 7-Aug. 6.

Visitors can get free dining plans with the purchase of a nondiscounted three-night, three-day (or longer) Walt Disney Travel Co. package that includes a room at select Disney resort hotels and a ticket with the park hopper option.

Options include a plan with two quick-service meals per day or a plan with one quick-service meal plus one table-service meal per day. The plans work at more than 200 locations on property, including at theme parks and in hotels, Disney says. The plans also include mugs that can be refilled with drinks at Disney World.

Pricing varies with dates and accommodations. For more details, go to DisneyWorld.com/dineoffer on Jan. 2.

dbevil@orlandosentinel.com

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I recently tried to use my Chase points to book an airline ticket on Aeromexico. After seeing and confirming the availability of an award flight on its partner airline, Virgin Atlantic, I made two transfers of 37,000 Chase points to Virgin Atlantic to book the flight. When I went to click “purchase,” I received an error message and could not complete the booking.

I called Virgin, which said that Aeromexico had not released the flight to them, and there was no button they could push to book the flight, despite it being advertised in multiple locations, including their website.

I tried to get the points refunded, but Chase now says it can’t return the points to my account. Can you help me?

— Carlye Siegel, Chicago

ANSWER: Chase is right — and wrong. Yes, the points only go one way, but there are times when rules like this shouldn’t apply.

For the uninitiated, here’s how these transfers work: You earn points by making purchases on your credit card. Then you transfer those points to the airline loyalty program. And as I’ve already mentioned a few times, once you push the button on those transfers, there’s no going back. read more

By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG, Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials said Monday they will conduct safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines, as they struggle to determine what caused a plane crash that killed 179 people a day earlier.

Sunday’s crash, the country’s worst aviation disaster in decades, triggered an outpouring of national sympathy. Many people worry how effectively the South Korean government will handle the disaster as it grapples with a leadership vacuum following the recent successive impeachments of President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s top two officials, amid political tumult caused by Yoon’s brief imposition of martial law earlier this month.

New acting President Choi Sang-mok on Monday presided over a task force meeting on the crash and instructed authorities to conduct an emergency review of the country’s aircraft operation systems.

“The essence of a responsible response would be renovating the aviation safety systems on the whole to prevent recurrences of similar incidents and building a safer Republic of South Korea,” said Choi, who is also deputy prime minister and finance minister. read more

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Social Security Fairness Act, a bill intended to give relief to individuals who earned a pension from work outside Social Security and who also had also done other work where they paid FICA taxes and therefore earned benefits from Social Security.

In late December, the Senate followed the lead of the U.S. House of Representatives and passed the bill, and President Joe Biden is expected to sign it into law.

This means that, starting retroactively to January 2024, individuals who receive a pension from work outside Social Security and who also have at least 10 years of wages from work covered by Social Security will receive a significant increase in Social Security benefits.

The bill repeals two regulations which reduces benefits for many Social Security beneficiaries. The two provisions are the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO).

As I indicated in my previous column, when an individual receives a pension from work outside Social Security, the Social Security Administration uses WEP to reduce their Social Security benefit. Now those individuals will receive a higher Social Security benefit. read more

Winter Park restaurant 310 Park South will be closing down after its New Year’s Eve service, according to a note posted to its social media on Saturday.

Joanne McMahon posted the note for her restaurant that opened 26 years ago adjacent her Partridge Tree Gift Shop that she had opened on Park Avenue after moving to Winter Park in the mid-1990s.

“This was the most welcoming community, which made it an easy fit,” she said. “After several years of being next to a empty restaurant I asked my landlord if I could put a family restaurant there.”

She said it was something needed at the time.

“Now, 26 years later, our incredible journey will end. This was my life. I love what I do. So when you know what needs to be done but really can’t do it, someone else will,” she wrote.

The letter said the restaurant, which serves “new American cuisine,” needed to be rejuvenated and rebranded into a new concept.

“I am so happy an amazing group is going to do that. This is going to be great for our community and I am very excited,” she said. read more