Things To Do In SW Florida

Walt Disney World is sharing its first peek at Bakso, a baby Sumatran tiger born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park recently.

“Tigers are in steep decline in the wild, so it is very special to welcome a new baby here at Disney, the first in seven years,” Dr. Natalie Mylniczenko, one of Disney’s veterinarians, said in a post on the official Disney Parks Blog. “Tiger births are rare in managed care and take a lot of planning and coordinating by our animal care team and the Species Survival Plan.”

There are fewer than 600 Sumatran tigers worldwide in the wild and in managed care, Disney says.

Bakso, a male, is the offspring of second-time mom Sohni and dad Conrad, who both live at Animal Kingdom. His birth was meticulously planned in cooperation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. They used hormone experts, frequent blood tests, weekly ultrasounds and other techniques to help bring about a successful birth.

Sohni’s pregnancy was announced last month via the Instagram account of Dr. Mark Penning, vice president for Disney’s Animals, Science & Environment. read more

NASA has officially given SpaceX the next two missions to the International Space Station under its Commercial Crew Program with Boeing’s Starliner still potentially available for a late visit in 2025 if it achieves certification.

NASA announced updated crew rotation plans Tuesday including a crew assignment for Crew-10, the program’s next flight up to the station targeting February.

Crew-10 will be commanded by NASA astronaut Anne McClain making her second trip to space. She’ll be joined by rookie pilot Nichole Ayers, the first of the 2021 astronaut class to get a space assignment. Also flying with be Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi making his second trip to space and rookie Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov.

It went ahead and pulled the trigger to give Elon Musk’s company the second planned mission of 2025 with Crew-11 targeting no earlier than July, with its crew to be announced at a later date.

That summer target launch for Crew-11 still opens the door for Boeing’s beleaguered spacecraft to slot in at the end of the year, but NASA has to find a path forward to certify Starliner for regular missions working with what ended up being an incomplete Crew Flight Test mission this summer. read more

A natural disaster didn’t derail the supernatural offerings of Gatorland’s Halloween event, but it did make it a challenge to pull off.

The attraction’s Gators, Ghosts and Goblins event debuted last weekend, a few days after Hurricane Milton came ashore on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Most of its Halloween decor was already in place as the storm approached.

“We had to tear it all down for the hurricane, except for the haunt. It’s all got plywood around it, so it was fine,” said Mark McHugh, president and CEO of Gatorland.

After the storm — which prompted a three-day shutdown of the attraction —– went out to sea, Gatorland employees concentrated on cleaning up and reconstructing the Halloween feel in time for Saturday’s opening.

“We have a lot of displays. It’s all over the park, going back towards the train station… you got the cryptid area there, billboards all over the place,” McHugh said. “All the pumpkins … we didn’t get them all down, and they were scattered around all this half of the park. We had to go find pumpkins on Thursday.” read more

The fanfare was dialed back because of Hurricane Milton, but Princess Cruises began sailing its newest ship Sun Princess out of Port Everglades over the weekend.

The biggest ship in the Princess fleet debuted out of Europe earlier this year, but has now begun its winter Caribbean sailing season from the line’s primary Florida homeport in Fort Lauderdale.

The 177,882-gross-ton ship has a 4,314-passenger capacity based on double occupancy. It’s the first of the line’s new Sphere class of ships, the first to run on liquefied natural gas, part of parent company Carnival Corp.’s efforts to reduce emissions.

It’s also the first LNG ship to home port out Port Everglades following the debuts of LNG-powered ships at Port Canaveral and PortMiami.

This is the third iteration of the name Sun Princess. The first two versions sailed for the line from 1974-1988 and 1995-2020. The pilot episode of “The Love Boat” TV series was shot on board the original Sun Princess in 1977.

It’s a big jump in size from the line’s recent Royal-class ships including 2022’s Discovery Princess, 2020’s Enchanted Princess and 2019’s Sky Princess, which come in at around 145,000 gross tons with about 3,660-passenger capacities. read more

By TOM MURPHY, AP Health Writer

Walgreens is planning to close around 1,200 locations, as the drugstore chain and its rivals struggle to define their role for U.S. shoppers who no longer look to them first for convenience.

Drugstores that once snapped up prime retail space in towns and cities across the country are in retreat. They’ve been battered by shrinking prescription reimbursement, persistent theft, rising costs and consumers who have strayed to online retailers or competitors with better prices.

The boost they received from taking the lead on vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic has long since faded.

Walgreens’ announcement Tuesday morning comes as rival CVS Health wraps up a three-year plan to close 900 stores and Rite Aid emerges from bankruptcy, whittled down to about 1,300 locations.

As the companies retract, they raise concerns in many communities about access to health care and prescriptions.

Drugstore leaders and analysts who follow the industry say smaller versions of these chains have a future in U.S. retail, but they’re still trying to understand how that will play out. read more