Things To Do In SW Florida

Fun Spot America will stage a drone show at its Orlando location for one night only this Saturday.

The production will use 300 drones to form patriotic images including a bald eagle, shooting stars, rockets and a roller coaster with brightly colored tracks and more. The images will be visible from anywhere inside the attraction, which is near International Drive.

“Our guests love experiencing our parks at night,” CEO John Arie Jr. said in a news release. “All of Fun Spot’s rides and attractions have vibrant light displays, and the Fun Spot America drone show will truly light the night up even further for visiting guests.”

Arie said the park, which has been open since 1997, plans to introduce new events, promotions and attractions. It may add live entertainment, he said.

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It will be Fun Spot’s first drone show, and one of the first drone productions in Central Florida since a show at Orlando’s Lake Eola Park in December, when a drone fell and injured a 7-year-old boy, resulting in emergency heart surgery. read more

DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: I’m trying to get a refund from Norwegian Airlines. I recently booked two round-trip tickets from Stockholm to Oslo, Norway. The return flight was scheduled to arrive in Stockholm at 8 p.m. I subsequently learned of an appointment that I had in Stockholm at about 7:30 p.m., so I changed our return flight to an earlier time. Because this was a more expensive flight, I paid an additional $79 for this change.

Just before our flight, I received an email from Norwegian that required us to change to a later flight. The airline would not offer any compensation for the amount we paid for the earlier flight.

Interestingly, we arrived in Oslo with enough time to catch the earlier flight. Although there were seats available, we were not allowed to board. I discussed this with the gate agent at the time and even showed her my original flight itinerary but was still denied boarding.

I missed my appointment in Stockholm and still had to pay $79. In essence, I paid for something that was not provided to me. Can you help me get a refund? read more

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press Business Wrtier

Starbucks plans to lay off 1,100 corporate employees globally as new Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol streamlines operations.

In a letter to employees released Monday, Niccol said the company will inform employees who are being laid off by mid-day Tuesday. Niccol said Starbucks is also eliminating several hundred open and unfilled positions.

“Our intent is to operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration,” Niccol wrote in the letter.

Starbucks has 16,000 corporate support employees worldwide, but that includes some employees who aren’t impacted, like roasting and warehouse staff. Baristas in the company’s stores are not included in the layoffs.

Niccol said in January that corporate layoffs would be announced by early March. He said all work must be overseen by someone who can make decisions while the the Seattle coffee giant reduces the complexity of its structure and eliminates silos within the company that slow communication. read more

Southeast Steel is ready to make a move for just the second time since the company was founded 85 years ago. But instead of relocating to the suburbs, the downtown appliance retailer wants to stay at its Amelia Street location in the heart of Orlando’s Central Business District, where it will move into a new building.

“I think just from the growth in Central Florida was just one of those things,” VP Spencer Kimball said. “We’ve outgrown the size of the building for our needs, and it was an opportunity that we’ve been exploring for quite some time. And now it’s gotten to the point of all right, let’s see if we can make it go right.”

Kimball’s grandfather founded Southeast Steel in 1940, and it’s been in the family ever since. They currently occupy a former produce packing warehouse that was built in 1918. “We were previously at the location where the bus station is now,” he said. “We moved here in 1978.”

Kimball, the third generation of the family to run the business, told GrowthSpotter they wanted a modern building — a “shiny new toy” — that paid homage to the company’s origin in the steel business. read more