Things To Do In SW Florida

Island H2O Water Park is running a sale on its passes that allow entry for the remainder of the 2024 season and all of its 2025 season.

The benefits of the Kissimmee attraction’s season passes include one friend ticket to be used this year and another one next year. There’s also a souvenir cup in the 2025 season and free parking. The price for its Labor Day flash sale, which ends Sept. 2, is $54.99.

Current season passholders can renew for 2025 for $49.99. The posted regular price for a season pass is $109.99. Monthly payment plans are available.

Daily admission tickets start at $49.99.

The water park’s 2024 season wraps up Oct. 27.  The attraction’s 2025 season begins in March.

Busch Gardens closing down Scorpion roller coaster

Island H2O Water Park is located near Highway 192. It operates near Sunset Walk and Margaritaville Resort Orlando and is accessed via Inspiration Drive.

The attraction, which opened in 2019, includes water slides, raft slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, water splash areas and other elements.  It also hosts additional activities such as weekend foam parties (through Sept. 2) and tailgate weekends featuring football shown on the wave pool Jumbotron Sept. 7 through Oct. 27. read more

Holly D. Johnson | Bankrate.com (TNS)

There are all kinds of strategies you can use to earn airline points/miles, and that’s true whether you’re a frequent flier or not. You can earn airline rewards by using an airline credit card or a flexible travel credit card for all of your spending, by shopping through airline rewards portals or by joining an airline’s dining club.

You can also buy airline points or miles outright if you want to rack up a stash quickly or you just need to top off your account. But just because you can buy airline rewards doesn’t mean you should. There are only a few situations where buying airline rewards makes any sense at all, meaning you’ll be better off earning rewards in other ways the vast majority of the time.

When you should buy airline points or miles

So, when does it make sense to purchase airline points or miles? Here’s a rundown of the main situations where you might want to consider it, as well as the steps you should take to find out if it makes sense in your situation.

1. When you can use miles for a flight with a high cash price right away read more

By Ryan Brady | NerdWallet

Life is full of life-changing moments. Moving to a different city, starting a new job, becoming a first-time parent (or grandparent). But it’s also full of uncertainty — and how long we have left to enjoy life’s many milestones is one of those uncertainties.

That’s where life insurance comes in. The payout from a policy can help ease the financial burden on loved ones when the inevitable happens. And contrary to popular belief, life insurance is probably not as expensive as you think, especially if you’re young and healthy. For a 40-year-old in the market for a 20-year, $500,000 term life policy, the average cost of life insurance is just $26 a month, according to Covr Financial Technologies, a life insurance brokerage.

While having life insurance is important when anyone depends on you financially, that need becomes magnified during pivotal moments in life. If you experience any of these milestones, it may be time to evaluate your life insurance needs. read more

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have a rare point of agreement in their otherwise bitter and divisive contest: It’s up to the government to cut high U.S. drug prices.

Harris cast the tie-breaking Senate vote in 2022 for legislation that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for its more than 60 million beneficiaries. Before that, she was an aggressive regulator of the drug industry as California attorney general.

As president, Trump would likely retain Medicare price negotiations unless the pharmaceutical industry can come up with something more compelling that they’d put on the table, people close to him say. In his first term, he proposed various policies aimed at reducing prescription costs but had limited success with their implementation.

The drug industry could benefit, though, if Trump remains unable to advance such proposals.

“His efforts were largely fragmented and faced resistance from both the industry and lawmakers,” said Sergio Jose Gutierrez, a political strategist who has primarily worked with Democrats in the U.S. “The lack of a cohesive strategy and the limited ability to implement significant changes made his approach less effective compared to what a Harris-Walz administration could offer.” read more

Karen Bennett | (TNS) Bankrate.com

Accessing the money from your checking or savings account keeps getting more expensive, if you’re using an out-of-network ATM. In fact, average total ATM fees continue their climb to $4.77 this year, according to Bankrate’s 2024 checking account and ATM fee study. This reflects an increase from $4.73 last year and the highest annual amount since Bankrate began tracking ATM fees in 1998.

“If you make an out-of-network ATM withdrawal, expect to pay, and pay more than ever before,” says Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate chief financial analyst. “Fees have increased again and you’ll typically pay two fees — one to the ATM owner and another to your own bank. Confine cash withdrawals to in-network ATMs or get cash back when using a debit card. See if your bank participates in a nationwide ATM network that can be used free of charge,” McBride adds.

Other bank fees on the rise include overdraft fees, Bankrate found, with the average having climbed this year to $27.08, up from $26.61 in 2023. This increase comes after two straight years of declines, after the average overdraft fee had peaked at $33.58 in 2021. Overdraft fees are still charged by 94% of accounts, Bankrate surveyed, and they can run as high as $38. read more