Things To Do In SW Florida

Fiona Eastwood has been named CEO of Merlin Entertainments Group, the operator of dozens of attractions worldwide, including Legoland Florida theme park, Madame Tussauds Orlando, Sea Life Aquarium Orlando and the Orlando Eye observation wheel on International Drive.

Eastwood served as chief operating officer of the company until November, when she began a term of interim chief executive officer after the resignation of Scott O’Neil.  She was been with Merlin since 2015 when she became global marketing director for gateway attractions.

“Over the past decade, I have seen first-hand what the business is capable of. My task, as CEO, is to lead Merlin to new heights, with a focus on performance, creativity, operational excellence and guest experience,” Eastwood said in a news release.

Eastwood previously worked as managing director of consumer products at BBC Studios.

Disney: Virtual queue going away for Tiana, Cosmic Rewind rides

“Fiona has a deep understanding of the business, the strategies required for sustainable growth, and the vision to spearhead our ongoing transformation,” Roland Hernandez, chairman of Merlin Entertainments, said in a news release. read more

Walt Disney World is removing the virtual queues from two rides, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, a roller coaster at Epcot.

Both attractions will use standard “standby” lines where visitors queue up for the experiences and Lightning Lane options, where riders pay for faster access. The changes kick in Feb. 25, the company confirmed Tuesday.  This will leave Disney World without any virtual queue attractions for the time being.

Bugging out: Disney sets last day for Animal Kingdom show

In the virtual queue system, theme park guests would use the My Disney Experience app to secure a spot in line at 7 a.m. without being in the park yet.  A second round of virtual signups could also be available at 1 p.m.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the refurbished Splash Mountain attraction, opened to the public Frontierland last summer.  Cosmic Rewind has operated with virtual queues since its opening in May 2022.  The system also formerly was used for Magic Kingdom’s Tron Lightcycle / Run, a coaster that opened in 2023. read more

When Morgan Voke bought a run-down house with a leaky roof and the vacant lot next door at tax deed sales, he figured he’d renovate the properties, improving a small pocket of the historic Black neighborhood of East Altamonte.

But Voke was later stunned to learn the properties — now combined into one lot — carried tens of thousands of dollars in code-enforcement liens after years of neglect by the previous owners. That bill was now his. This came after Voke and his business partner paid $120,602 to buy the shabby properties.

“There’s got to be a better way,” he said. “It discourages anyone to buy any of these dilapidated houses — dilapidated properties — and fix them up because they come with liens.”

In the end, Seminole commissioners unanimously agreed Tuesday to waive the remaining $24,781 in liens after an appeal from Voke.

Still, county leaders acknowledged a longtime problem nearly every local government struggles with: What to do with vacant or ramshackle properties that become a continual drag on nearby home values or the quality of a neighborhood. read more

Orlando resident Tyriq Green bought an electric vehicle to bypass the gas pump and likes that he’s on transportation’s cutting edge.

“I think everybody should start getting electric cars because, 20 to 25 years from now, there might not be as many gas cars,” said Green, who drives a Tesla Model 3 Performance. “You can’t beat the future. You’ve just got to ride with it.”

In Central Florida, the number of electric vehicle registrations rose more than 15% from November 2023 to November 2024, according to  S&P Global Mobility, an automotive data and analytics company.

More than 17,000 electric vehicles, often called EVs, were newly registered in Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties during that period, the company said.

Despite that growth, electric vehicles represent just a sliver of what is on the road. There were 4,086,502 vehicles of all fuel types in operation as of October 1, 2024 in the region, S&P said, with about 63,270 of them electric vehicles —or 1.5%. read more

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

Sometimes, even budgeting experts say it’s OK to splurge.

For Jen Smith, co-host of the “Frugal Friends Podcast” and co-author of “Buy What You Love Without Going Broke,” responsible splurging meant buying costly hurricane-proof windows for her home in St. Petersburg, Florida, an area with a history of bad storms.

“It’s for the safety of our home, and we saved for it,” she says.

Deciding when to splurge on an expensive purchase can be tricky, and even Smith admits she initially felt guilty about it.

Her podcast co-host and book co-author, Jill Sirianni, explains that part of the challenge of splurging is that “we’ve been sold a binary that you’re either a saver or a spender, but in reality, we all spend and we should all be saving.”

The trick, Sirianni says, is knowing when to embrace each tendency.

If you’re trying to decide when to save or splurge, here are some questions to ask yourself first to help you make an optimal decision:

Does the purchase fit in your budget?

“Starting with a budget will increase our awareness around spending money,” says Gerald Grant, Jr., a financial advisor with Equitable Advisors in South Florida. read more