Things To Do In SW Florida

By TAIJING WU and SIMINA MISTREANU, Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan’s premier on Friday hailed a new trade deal with the United States as the “best tariff deal” enjoyed by countries with trade surpluses with Washington, as meanwhile a Chinese official in Beijing condemned the accord.

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The agreement cuts U.S. tariffs on Taiwanese goods to 15% in exchange for $250 billion in new investments in the U.S. tech industry. It is comparable to deals with the European Union and Japan worked out after President Donald Trump proposed sweeping tariffs for many U.S. trading partners. read more

The location of toy giant Mattel’s new indoor waterpark is no longer a mystery. It’s going to be 10 minutes from Disney on Vineland Road, just south of the Lake Buena Vista Factory Stores outlet mall.

The development team, which is composed of Mattel and Orlando-based Martin Aquatic, filed conceptual plans this week for the 11-acre site that will feature a 90,000-square-foot indoor water park with a retractable roof, an outdoor waterpark and event lawn, a “slide zone” and 11,400 square feet of retail space, according to a report in GrowthSpotter. The building could be up to 60 feet high, which is definitely tall enough to fit a life-sized Barbie Dream House.

The plan from Kimley-Horn shows parking for 752 vehicles, including 368 to be located in a parking garage.

The company behind such iconic brands as Barbie, Hot Wheels and Thomas the Tank Engine, announced the water park venture just before Thanksgiving. Creative and operational work is underway, led by Orlando-based Martin Aquatic. read more

The cruise industry continues to ramp up its offerings for the anticipated 21.7 million Americans expected to embark on ocean cruises in 2026. Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Line have one new ship each coming online this year, plus newsworthy developments for both companies’ private resorts.

The headliners of the brand-new ships coming to Florida in 2026 are the Prima Plus-class Norwegian Luna and Royal Caribbean’s third Icon-class ship, Legend of the Seas. In destination news, Royal Beach Club Paradise Island in Nassau is now open and Norwegian Cruise Line is unveiling upgrades to its private island, Great Stirrup Cay.

These changes support a growing audience of cruisers sailing from Florida, which is home to the world’s three busiest cruise ports, in order: Port Canaveral, PortMiami and Port Everglades.

Here’s a rundown of the latest cruise news to follow in Florida and beyond in 2026.

New Florida-bound vessels

Norwegian Luna: Norwegian Cruise Line’s new 156,300-gross-ton ship builds on the success of the Prima class, bringing modern design, infinity pools, the Aqua Slidecoaster and plenty of outdoor spaces for passengers sailing from PortMiami. The vessel begins sailing weeklong Caribbean voyages from South Florida in early April. read more

The forthcoming Disney Adventure, which is Disney Cruise Line‘s newest and largest ship, appeared at Port Canaveral Thursday morning before its long journey to Asia.

The 208,000-gross-ton vessel, the first in Disney’s Global class, is bound for its year-round home in Singapore, where it will begin sailing sail three- and four-night itineraries in the South China Sea on March 10.

“The ship will continue to sail through the Panama Canal, making a stop in Los Angeles before voyaging across the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo and concluding her journey to its homeport in Singapore,” reads a Facebook post from Disney Cruise Line.

With room for more than 6,000 passengers and 2,000 crew members, the ship has seven themed areas, including the Disney Imagination Garden, Disney Discovery Reef, Toy Story Place and Marvel Landing.

This Disney Adventure started as the partially-built Global Dream, a ship originally ordered by Genting Hong Kong, a now-bankrupt Chinese holding company that owned several cruise lines. Star Cruises was the original line that planned to sail this ship until Disney Cruise Line purchased the partially-built ship in 2022. read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk’s Grok keeps getting into trouble, and this time, more of the world’s governments are trying to intervene.

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First launched in 2023, Grok is Musk’s attempt to outdo rivals such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini in building an AI assistant powered by a large language model, which is trained on vast pools of data to help predict the most plausible next word in a sentence. It’s the main product of Musk’s AI startup, xAI, which has been merged with his social media platform, X. Much like ChatGPT and Gemini, Musk’s company has also folded AI image generation capabilities into the chatbot. read more