Things To Do In SW Florida

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s state-run insurer paid homeowners’ claims less often than any other insurer in the state last year, with over half of claimants receiving nothing, according to an analysis by a Palm Beach Gardens-based ratings agency.

Nearly 17,000 claims, or 50.4%, filed with Citizens Property Insurance, were either denied for a variety of reasons or didn’t meet the policyholder’s deductible.

That’s more often than either State Farm or Allstate, whose Florida subsidiaries had the highest rate of closing claims without payment among private insurers last year at about 46%.

“For them to be at the very top of the range is unforgivable,” said Martin D. Weiss, the founder of Weiss Ratings, which pulled the data from Citizens’ annual reports.

Weiss, who has been critical of the insurance industry for decades, highlighted the high rate of claims closed without payment among private insurers earlier this year. Floridians had the worst chance in the nation of receiving a paycheck when filing a homeowners claim in 2022, the most recent statewide data available, with more than a third going unpaid, his company calculated. read more

Wicked: The Experience is up and running at Universal Studios theme park. It’s kind of a grand name for a tricked-out store, but the visual appeal is real and the space is browseable even for folks who don’t like musicals.

The “Wicked” film arrives in theaters Friday, and Wicked: The Experience certainly is a cross-promotional effort between Universal parks and Universal Pictures. There are dozens of references to the film’s Nov. 22 opening date amid the wide variety of film-related merchandise.

The space features “fanciful costumes and prop replicas created by the designers from the film,” according to the park’s news release.

Here’s what to know before you go to The Experience.

Which way is Wicked?

Wicked: The Experience is near the entrance of Universal Studios. The building is strikingly pink and green with jumbo images of film stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo on its facade. It’s across the street from the Today Cafe and the main souvenir store.

Oh, and there’s a yellow brick-ish road leading into the attraction. (In person, it reminded me of Homer’s tongue outside the park’s Simpsons Ride.) read more

Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises and Viking Ocean Cruises took the top spots among six categories in the 11th annual U.S. News & World Report Best Cruise Lines rankings.

The publication looks at 18 cruise lines and ranked them as the best for the money, best for families, for couples, best in the Caribbean, in the Mediterranean and best luxury lines.

Celebrity Cruises took the top spot for new category of best cruise line for the money, followed by Virgin Voyages and MSC Cruises.

Not surprisingly, Disney once again took the top spot for family, but also for best in the Caribbean.

Viking Ocean Cruises took the top spot for best line for couples, best line in the Mediterranean and best luxury line.

The publication continues to use what it calls “a comprehensive and transparent methodology that takes into account expert evaluations of ship quality, traveler ratings, health assessment results and other relevant factors,” according to a press release.

Here are the top 3 for each category, with full rankings available at travel.usnews.com/cruises read more

Orlando International Airport expects more than 1.9 million passengers this holiday season, a surge of people for a facility that weathered a higher rate of flight cancellations and delays than almost all other airports nationwide during last year’s winter travel season.

During the 2023 holiday season — from Nov. 17 to 28 and Dec. 14 to Jan 3 — Orlando’s major airport had the second-highest rate of canceled and delayed flights among the United States’ 50 busiest airports, according to the study by travel guide LocalsInsider.

The airport had 4,117 canceled flights and another 58 flights delayed, representing about 25% of total flights at the airport during the holidays. Last Thanksgiving Day alone, 1,340 flights were canceled or delayed.

Four of the top 10 airports with the highest rates of holiday flight cancellations and delays were in Florida.

Weather is a major factor in the cancellation or delays of flights leaving OIA and other Florida airports, said Angela Starke, spokeswoman for the Greater Orlando Airport Authority, which runs the facility. read more

By HALELUYA HADERO

Attorneys for Amazon and Elon Musk’s SpaceX argued in a federal appeals court Monday that the National Labor Relations Board’s structure is unconstitutional, advancing a legal fight that may last into the Trump administration where Musk is expected to oversee bureaucratic cost-cutting.

A panel of three judges at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard separate oral arguments in the SpaceX and Amazon lawsuits, which the two companies initiated after the labor agency filed complaints against them in disputes about workers’ rights and union organizing.

A ruling in favor of the companies could immensely diminish – or paralyze – the nearly century-old agency, which is tasked with enforcing labor laws and settling labor-related complaints workers lodge against their employers. The issue may eventually reach the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority and has issued rulings curbing the power of government agencies,

The three appellate judges who heard Monday’s arguments questioned the legal maneuvering by Amazon and SpaceX to get their cases to the 5th Circuit, where jurists nominated by Republican presidents dominate the appeals court. read more