Things To Do In SW Florida

With three months out before the first visitors will be welcomed to Disney’s new Bahamas destination, Disney Cruise Line showed off some photos of construction updates.

Opening in June, Disney Lookout Cay at Lighthouse Point at the southern end of Eleuthera is the cruise line’s second private port of call in the Bahamas adding to Castaway Cay.

On an update to the Disney Parks Blog, the line showed off three images including an aerial shot of the colorful line of the Mabrika Cove Cabanas that would be one of the first things approaching visitors would see as cruise ships approach the dock.

“Mabrika” the Taino word for “welcome.” Disney said Taino was spoken by native Lucayans.

Also shared were images of the shell-themed architecture that acts as shade covering over pavilions designed to look like seashells scattered along the coastline offering up seating for the free on-shore True-True Too BBQ dining option for visitors.

The pavilions will feature art inspired by coral, seashells, fish and flowers of Eleuthera. read more

The Airbus BelugaST, one of the world’s largest transport aircraft, returns to Orlando Sanford International Airport, Monday, March 11, 2024, carrying a Eutelsat E36D satellite that is headed to Kennedy Space Center. The BelugaST first flew to Central Florida in 2022. The communications satellite cargo onboard the Beluga is slated to be launched by SpaceX later this year. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

The Airbus BelugaST, one of the world’s largest transport aircraft, dwarfs a fleet of Piper student planes as it comes in for a landing on its return to Orlando Sanford International Airport, Monday, March 11, 2024, carrying a Eutelsat E36D satellite that is headed to Kennedy Space Center. The BelugaST first flew to Central Florida in 2022. The communications satellite cargo onboard the Beluga is slated to be launched by SpaceX later this year. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

The Airbus BelugaST, one of the world’s largest transport aircraft, touches down for a landing as it returns to Orlando Sanford International Airport, Monday, March 11, 2024, carrying a Eutelsat E36D satellite that is headed to Kennedy Space Center. The BelugaST first flew to Central Florida in 2022. The communications satellite cargo onboard the Beluga is slated to be launched by SpaceX later this year. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) read more

After more than a year of construction, the Packing District food hall will open this spring with 11 vendors, a central bar, craft brewery and event space.

“We don’t have a hard date because, like any construction project, there are things that change and move,” said Ken Robinson, Dr. Phillips Charities president and CEO. The organization is targeting May for the opening and are planning a three-day event to welcome the community.

The 22,400-square-foot food hall is being built in a warehouse from 1930 where the Dr. Phillips company made wooden crates to pack its fruit, according to a report in GrowthSpotter. One of the only historic buildings in the Packing District to be saved and repurposed, it’s billed as the crown jewel of the 202-acre mixed-use district just west of Orlando’s College Park neighborhood.

Chef Akhtar Nawab and his group, Hospitality HQ will operate the 13,140-square-foot Great Southern Box Food Hall at 2105 N. Orange Blossom Trail and will be announcing vendors over the next two months. read more

Florida home insurance consumers got a mixed bag from the Florida Legislature this year.

Lawmakers approved a $200 million extension of the My Safe Florida Home program and created a separate program to help condo owners.

But a bill allowing surplus lines carriers to take out second-home policies from state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp. was approved, which critics say could subject snowbirds to failures by insurers whose policies are not guaranteed by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association.

The Legislature also failed to approve bills that would allow the Office of Insurance Regulation to increase limits on insurable values eligible for Citizens coverage and prevent cancellation or nonrenewal of policies covering flood-damaged homes.

The Legislature finished its work for the year on Friday and, barring Gov. Ron DeSantis calling a special session, left insurance customers to continue to wait for reforms enacted in 2022 and 2023 to begin stabilizing rates.

Whether that will happen is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, a few bills were sent to DeSantis that could bring some relief: read more

NASA’s reduced budget for fiscal year 2024 was only approved by Congress last week, and its limitations play into the Biden Administration’s ask for the next fiscal year, which was announced Monday.

While NASA had originally asked for $27.2 billion for this year, that total was shaved to just $24.9 billion by the congressional deal struck and passed more than five months into the 12-month budget cycle. The deal limits discretionary spending across the federal budget, including NASA, for both fiscal 2024 and 2025.

“It’s no secret that NASA obviously gets great and strong support from both Republicans and Democrats,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson during his annual State of NASA speech from Washington. “We are as I say, not only bipartisan, we are nonpartisan. But what happened last year was this small group in the House of Representatives held up the passage (of a bill to avoid defaulting on national debt) in order to get their way to have lower spending.”

The 2024 funds ended up being about 2% less than what NASA was allocated in 2023, and the first time since 2013 that Congress didn’t increase NASA’s funding from the previous year. read more