Things To Do In SW Florida

It’s sensory overload during Mardi Gras festivities at Universal Studios theme park. A couple of Universal Orlando executives talked to us about things to see, sniff, taste and hear during the event, which runs nightly through April 7.

• “There’s more glitter on this parade than we’ve ever done before,” said Lora Sauls, assistant director of creative development and show direction at Universal. What’s more, it’s applied to the floats by Universal’s decor team manually.

“They do sprinkle, and they do it by hand. Some of them blow a little bit, but it’s just like placed, and they get it all over,” Sauls said.

• The decor team is also responsible for a monkey figure spotted on the float representing Earth. That’s been going on for more than a decade, Sauls said.

“They usually hide him. This year, he’s not hidden. He’s riding the shark. He’s got scuba gear on,” she said.

• The parade process begins about a year in advance with a trip to Kern Studios in New Orleans. Props are picked and then transported via semi to Orlando. Kern paints the newly themed floats in about a week, Sauls said, and then the lighting team gets to stringing. Decor is the icing, and it can get spooky inventive. read more

Purple is a regal color. And that’s fitting for Divina Orbase because the founder of Beng Bread is Orlando’s ube queen.

It’s not the first crown I’d place on her head, though.

Orbase, 41, served the community in profound ways long before she began feeding it, working for many years as an oncology nurse before trading in her scrubs for an apron. She worked her final year in hospice.

“Oncology and hospice link up so much,” she explains, “but I think I transitioned too quickly.”

Empathetic by nature, Orbase felt the lines between patient and caregiver begin to blur. Burnout ensued.

“I knew I had to switch gears.”

These days, that care is baked into flawless, fluffy loaves of ube milk bread. Crinkle cookies, dense and delicious. Muffins with molten centers of cheese, ube jam, coconutty macapuno.

There’s also my newest addiction: furikake rice krispie treats ($3.50 apiece).

“This is like … the best thing I ever ate…” I Swyped in a nighttime text to Kaya co-owner Jamilyn Salonga Bailey. She introduced me to Orbase at a recent community market on the restaurant’s property. “And no, I’m not high.” read more

Following a record-breaking year, Osceola County’s tourism development tax funds have slowed in recent months, a trend that is expected to continue.

TDT funds were 5% below the previous year in November, at $6.1 million, and down 4% year-over-year in December, to $7.1 million.

Despite the dip in funds, collections are still on the second-highest pace in the county’s history as it closes its first quarter, according to Experience Kissimmee, the county’s tourism authority. The county’s current fiscal year began in October.

“We anticipate that for the rest of the year there… will be a slight softening compared to the collections of last year but we have to remember that was a record high,” said Frida Bahja, Director of Research for Experience Kissimmee.

Bahja said the dip in tourist tax revenues is also being seen in neighboring Orange County.

The TDT decrease is indicative of a softening of the tourist economy but Bahja said she can’t pinpoint the reason.

“We see the slowing economy overall for the U.S…. so it’s just a reflection of the economy overall,” Bahja said. read more

About 100 drivers for Uber, Lyft and other app-based gig services are going on strike Wednesday in Orlando, joining numerous others in cities across the country protesting what they call “poverty wages,” fears of being unfairly deactivated from the app and unsafe working conditions.

The nationwide Valentine’s Day work stoppages could hamper travel for some – though representatives of Uber and Lyft say previous strikes have had minimal impacts on wait times and ride prices. Many drivers in Orlando and elsewhere are expected to continue working despite the Wednesday job action.

Adalberto Perez, a full-time driver using both major platforms who plans not to work on Wednesday, is hoping the strike leads to improvements in pay. He said drivers currently receive about 30% of the total fare a rider pays, which means they get about $35 for a drive from Orlando International Airport to the Tampa area, and about $15 from the airport to Walt Disney World.

“We’ve tried to let them know that we need at least 70% for the drivers and 30% for Uber,” he said. “We don’t have benefits. We pay for the car, for the gas, for the maintenance…so now we need to do something all together.” read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — It turns out there are lots of sharp elbows in the plush toy business. Build-A-Bear and the makers of Squishmallows are facing off in federal court.

Kelly Toys and its Berkshire Hathaway -controlled parent company Jazwares have sued Build-A-Bear, saying its new “Skoosherz” toys copy the look and feel of their mega-popular Squishmallows products.

The Skoosherz line, which Build-A-Bear began selling last month, has the “same distinctive trade dress” of Squishmallows, the complaint filed Monday says, pointing to similarities in shape, face style, coloring and fabric.

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, comparing the Squishmallows original products to Build-a-Bear’s copycats speaks volumes,” Moez Kaba, an attorney representing Kelly Toys and Jazwares, said in a statement. The companies will “vigorously defend” their intellectual property rights, he added.

Jazwares is seeking unspecified damages and for Build-A-Bear to stop selling Skoosherz products. read more