Things To Do In SW Florida

Mardi Gras season has returned to Universal Orlando, and the event continues to highlight a festive New Orleans-inspired atmosphere with its bead-bearing parade, concerts and international foods.

Fresh additions to the event — its formal full name is Universal Mardi Gras: International Flavors of Carnaval — are playing into that vibe, including new menu items, floats and the introduction of reptile royalty.

Prince Gator, a gold and green, big-bead-wearing, crowned character, is now available for visitor interactions. He is stationed near the park’s Pantages Theater (home of the Horror Make-Up Show), beneath a curved structure that Universal refers to as the Hollywood Wave.

“A couple of years ago, he was designed and brought in as a popcorn bucket. Then he was made into a plush, and then we said, Why not add to our animated family?” said Kelly Malik, show director, entertainment development. “We got to bring another party animal to a mix for Mardi Gras.”

Like Earl the Squirrel, Universal Orlando’s home-grown holiday character, Prince, poses for photos and signs autographs, Malik said. And he has some backstory. read more

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation shut down one Central Florida restaurant for health code violations during the week from Feb. 1-7.

Orange

A-Aki Sushi at 3680 Avalon Park E Blvd. #100 in Orlando shut down on Feb. 2, 2026. Inspectors found 28 violations, five of which were high priorities. Those violations included dented cans, roach activity and raw food not separated from ready-to-eat food. A second inspection occurred on Feb. 3. Inspectors found 26 violations, four of which were high priorities. Those violations included a time extension on the previous high-priority violations and new sightings of roach activity. On Feb. 4, officials conducted a third, and final, inspection. There were 21 violations, but none was a high priority. The restaurant met inspection standards.

Total Inspections

Among all inspections across Central Florida, there were 3,231 violations total, including basic, intermediate and high violations.

Orange County had the most with 1,515, followed by Volusia with 649, Brevard with 447, Seminole with 358, Osceola with 351 and Lake with 316. read more

Despite an unflattering audit that had exposed questionable spending, Visit Orlando won a renewed contract Tuesday from Orange County that likely ensures the tourism-promotion agency will continue receiving big piles of public money to spend on luring visitors.

The board voted 5-2 to accept a document that underwent extensive late changes and finally was sent by email at 11:13 p.m. Monday, after being signed earlier in the evening.

Commissioners Mayra Uribe and Kelly Martinez Semrad, the two “no” votes, grumbled about the late-hour delivery of the final draft, arguing they hadn’t had sufficient time to fully study terms imposing new restrictions on an agency that received more than $100 million in tourist-tax dollars in each of the last two years. The contract was first signed in 2019.

Frustrated, both said they had repeatedly sought earlier details of the changes.

But Comptroller Phil Diamond told the board the amended agreement addressed the findings of his auditing team, whose critical review of some Visit Orlando accounting and spending practices sparked the board’s discussion. read more

Developers of a proposed $66.9 million boutique hotel in Montverde secured an incentive grant from Lake County that could potentially save the development up to $824,269 annually in property taxes.

Spencer Schar, president of The Club at Bella Collina, applied for the grant in 2025 for his “Mansion at Bella Collina” project, and Lake County Commissioners unanimously approved it at Tuesday’s commission meeting. It is the first of five grants planned by the county to attract new hotels to the area.

Planned on approximately four acres along County Road 455, near the luxury lakefront Bella Collina gated community and next to the Siena at Bella Collina vacation condos, the proposed boutique hotel is set to contain 100 rooms and a conference center.

Of those rooms, 70 will be standard guest rooms and the other 30 will be suites. The suites will be broken down into 22 luxury suites, four executive suites and four presidential suites.

According to Schar, the hotel will be managed by The Club at Bella Collina, but will not have memberships and will be open to the public. read more

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Paramount is again sweetening its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, while again extending the deadline for its tender offer as it scrambles for more shareholder support.

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On Tuesday, the Skydance-owned company said it would pay Warner shareholders an added “ticking fee” if its deal doesn’t go through by the end of the year — amounting to 25 cents per share, or a total of $650 million, for every quarter after Dec. 31. Paramount also pledged to fund Warner’s proposed $2.8 billion breakup payout to Netflix under its studio and streaming merger agreement. read more