Things To Do In SW Florida

The queen is alive and well after getting a bit of work done and set to spend an extended holiday in Miami, bringing with her some award-winning entertainment.

Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth cruise ship arrived to PortMiami last week and will for the first time be calling Florida home for a long-term winter Caribbean sailing season.

The 2,081-passenger ship that debuted in 2010 has as its godmother the late Queen Elizabeth II. While she passed in 2022, her visage remains omnipresent on board among plaques, murals and paintings. Her namesake ship earlier this year underwent a three-week revamp bringing some updated spaces as well as a general polish to vessel.

For its Miami stay, the line has also brought on board a production of “Come From Away,” performed at sea for the first time. This winner of Tony and Olivier awards debuted in 2015 and is inspired by the true story of the town of Gander, Newfoundland and its role after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The town, which had a population of about 11,000, became the temporary home to nearly 6,600 air passengers and crew who came from 38 commercial flights that were grounded when airspace was closed over the U.S. and Canada. read more

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — With the U.S. experiencing a significant hiring slowdown, it’s a daunting time to be looking for a job. Many workers are staying put instead of changing jobs to secure better pay. Artificial intelligence tools increasingly screen the resumes of applicants. Now may seem like an inappropriate time to request a raise.

But sticking around doesn’t mean wages and salaries have to stagnate. Career experts say it’s not wrong, even in a shaky economy, to ask to be paid what you’re worth. Raises aren’t even necessarily off the table at organizations that are downsizing, according to some experts.

“A lot of people think if their company has done layoffs, the likelihood of getting a raise is pretty low,” said Jamie Kohn, a senior director in the human resources practice at business research and advisory firm Gartner. “And that might be true, but the the other way to think about it is that this company has already decided to reinvest in you by keeping you on.” read more

The founders of Magic Development promised to bring high design, sexy architecture and a world-famous luxury brand to Kissimmee’s W192 corridor. But in the end, it was a magic show, based on illusion and sleight of hand.

This is the story of developers who collected $87 million in deposits from hundreds of investors, but six years later have closed on just 18 units.

Riding a wave of success from the sell-outs of their first two Magic Village vacation home resorts, founders Rodrigo Cunha and Luis Sinelli unveiled their latest venture at a splashy poolside cocktail party in 2016 to introduce their architecture team from Pininfarina, the renowned Italian design firm behind luxury sports cars like Ferrari and Maserati. Cunha, the smooth-talking CEO from Brazil, had spent six months courting Paulo Pininfarina before he agreed to lend his name and talents to the project, dubbed Magic Place by Pininfarina.

To call the project ambitious would be an understatement. The initial $1.7 billion plan for Magic Place by Pininfarina envisioned 1,850 condo resort units spread among five residential buildings, each with a pair of soaring towers. Plans also included a luxury hotel and 250,000 square feet of retail, restaurants and offices. Osceola County had never seen anything like this before. read more

Scenes from the Magic Village by Pininfarina vacation townhomes project in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Developers have collected more than $87 million in deposits for townhomes but –six years later– have only completed 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

Fiber optic conduit lays across Torino Road at Monza Court in the Magic Village development in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later, it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Signage at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee advertises a clubhouse to come, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Signage at an empty lot at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee advertises development to come, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Fiber optic conduit lays across Torino Road at Monza Court in the Magic Village development in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later, it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Rusting shipping containers sit at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Fiber optic conduit lays across Torino Road at Monza Court in the Magic Village development in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later, it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) A street sign on “Life Is Beautiful Blvd.” points to a dead end at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee , Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Stacked steel beams sit along Torino Road at Monza Court, background, in the Magic Village development in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later, it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Fiber optic conduit lays across Torino Road at Monza Court in the Magic Village development in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later, it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Signage at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee advertises a clubhouse to come, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Building materials sit at the intersection of Torino Road and Monza Court in the Magic Village development in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later, it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Completed townhomes on Torino Road at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Signage at an empty lot at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee advertises development to come, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Fiber optic conduit lays across Torino Road at Monza Court in the Magic Village development in Kissimmee, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later, it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) A no trespassing sign welcomes visitors at “Life Is Beautiful Blvd.” at the Magic Village construction site in Kissimmee , Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. Magic Companies have collected more than $87 million in deposits for vacation townhomes in Magic Village by Pininfarina, but six years later it has only finished 76 units. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)

By Hannah Elliott, Bloomberg News

There’s something fundamentally American about the freedom to get in your car and drive.

Driving is self-determination. The liberty to set your own course. The power to move under your own willpower, whether for duty or sheer pleasure. Despite some decline among Gen Zers, plenty of teens still eagerly anticipate getting their driver’s license. In many American towns, where public transportation and walkability are scarce, driving is what empowers you to explore.

Some motoring enthusiasts worry self-driving vehicles threaten that ideal. These robot autos, run by Google and China and Elon Musk, use AI and radars to navigate without human input; they could replace our car-centric culture with faceless communal bots controlled by opaque entities. Even worse, self-driving vehicles present safety concerns and other vulnerabilities, such as being hacked or spoofed by malicious agents at home or abroad.

I’ve covered the car industry for 20 years, and I would hate to see our sports coupes and road trips disappear. The risks associated with relinquishing control over my mobility also give me pause. Or they did. I took a Waymo for the first time recently in Los Angeles and … I haven’t stopped using it since. Rather than replace our cool cars, self-driving vehicles will, I predict, become a welcome complement to modern life, first as part of ride-sharing platforms and then as privately owned transport. Why? Because they offer an excellent solution for something nobody likes: commuting. read more