Things To Do In SW Florida

SpaceX has lined up the sixth test flight of its powerful Starship and Super Heavy rocket from its Texas facility Starbase on Tuesday aiming for another catch of the booster back on land and a first-time refiring of one of the upper stage’s engines while in space.

Liftoff is targeted for a 30-minute window that opens at 5 p.m. EST from the company’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas, and would mark the fourth test flight for Starship this year.

Powered by 33 Raptor engines on the Super Heavy booster, it launches from the pad with more than 16 million pounds of thrust, which makes it the most powerful rocket to have made it into space.

SpaceX makes ‘absolutely insane’ catch of Starship’s massive Super Heavy booster

The last test flight occurred just five weeks ago, and marked the first time the Super Heavy booster attempted a recovery landing back at the launch site, returning to the launch tower nicknamed “Mechazilla,” and making a pinpoint thrust-in-place maneuver so a pair of support arms called “chopsticks” were able to safely capture it. read more

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s state-run insurer paid homeowners’ claims less often than any other insurer in the state last year, with over half of claimants receiving nothing, according to an analysis by a Palm Beach Gardens-based ratings agency.

Nearly 17,000 claims, or 50.4%, filed with Citizens Property Insurance, were either denied for a variety of reasons or didn’t meet the policyholder’s deductible.

That’s more often than either State Farm or Allstate, whose Florida subsidiaries had the highest rate of closing claims without payment among private insurers last year at about 46%.

“For them to be at the very top of the range is unforgivable,” said Martin D. Weiss, the founder of Weiss Ratings, which pulled the data from Citizens’ annual reports.

Weiss, who has been critical of the insurance industry for decades, highlighted the high rate of claims closed without payment among private insurers earlier this year. Floridians had the worst chance in the nation of receiving a paycheck when filing a homeowners claim in 2022, the most recent statewide data available, with more than a third going unpaid, his company calculated. read more

Wicked: The Experience is up and running at Universal Studios theme park. It’s kind of a grand name for a tricked-out store, but the visual appeal is real and the space is browseable even for folks who don’t like musicals.

The “Wicked” film arrives in theaters Friday, and Wicked: The Experience certainly is a cross-promotional effort between Universal parks and Universal Pictures. There are dozens of references to the film’s Nov. 22 opening date amid the wide variety of film-related merchandise.

The space features “fanciful costumes and prop replicas created by the designers from the film,” according to the park’s news release.

Here’s what to know before you go to The Experience.

Which way is Wicked?

Wicked: The Experience is near the entrance of Universal Studios. The building is strikingly pink and green with jumbo images of film stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo on its facade. It’s across the street from the Today Cafe and the main souvenir store.

Oh, and there’s a yellow brick-ish road leading into the attraction. (In person, it reminded me of Homer’s tongue outside the park’s Simpsons Ride.) read more

Disney Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises and Viking Ocean Cruises took the top spots among six categories in the 11th annual U.S. News & World Report Best Cruise Lines rankings.

The publication looks at 18 cruise lines and ranked them as the best for the money, best for families, for couples, best in the Caribbean, in the Mediterranean and best luxury lines.

Celebrity Cruises took the top spot for new category of best cruise line for the money, followed by Virgin Voyages and MSC Cruises.

Not surprisingly, Disney once again took the top spot for family, but also for best in the Caribbean.

Viking Ocean Cruises took the top spot for best line for couples, best line in the Mediterranean and best luxury line.

The publication continues to use what it calls “a comprehensive and transparent methodology that takes into account expert evaluations of ship quality, traveler ratings, health assessment results and other relevant factors,” according to a press release.

Here are the top 3 for each category, with full rankings available at travel.usnews.com/cruises read more

Orlando International Airport expects more than 1.9 million passengers this holiday season, a surge of people for a facility that weathered a higher rate of flight cancellations and delays than almost all other airports nationwide during last year’s winter travel season.

During the 2023 holiday season — from Nov. 17 to 28 and Dec. 14 to Jan 3 — Orlando’s major airport had the second-highest rate of canceled and delayed flights among the United States’ 50 busiest airports, according to the study by travel guide LocalsInsider.

The airport had 4,117 canceled flights and another 58 flights delayed, representing about 25% of total flights at the airport during the holidays. Last Thanksgiving Day alone, 1,340 flights were canceled or delayed.

Four of the top 10 airports with the highest rates of holiday flight cancellations and delays were in Florida.

Weather is a major factor in the cancellation or delays of flights leaving OIA and other Florida airports, said Angela Starke, spokeswoman for the Greater Orlando Airport Authority, which runs the facility. read more