In This Issue Welcome Ticket Price Rises Revised Hurricane Predictions Book Review - The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World Walt Disney World Resort Rates Free Monthly Desktop Wallpaper September events Weather forecast

Hi subscriber, welcome to the September newsletter of the Florida Review & Travel Guide.

Apologies if you are not a Walt Disney fan, but there seems to be an excess of Disney news this month, everything from admission ticket price increases and new resort room rates for 2008 to new park names and an extension to the Year of a Million Dreams.

Year of a Million Dreams

What started out as a 15 month Year of a Million Dreams promotion looks like continuing for even longer.

Disney have announced that the Year of a Million Dreams promotion will continue until the end of 2008 so there will even more opportunity to win prizes when you visit Walt Disney World in Florida over the next year and a bit.

Disney Park Name Change

Disney-MGM Studios is to be renamed as Disney's Hollywood Studios in January 2008. A new name had been on the cards for some time but people had expected Disney might make play of either the ABC brand or Pixar who have produced some of the most successful Disney cartoons of late including Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Cars.

Apparently, the reasoning behind calling them the Hollywood Studios is to reflect the music, television, movies and theatre that is synonymous with Hollywood.

Shuttle Missions in Jeopardy

Following the foam damage on lift off of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, NASA thought about delaying the remaining launches scheduled for 2007 whilst they modify some of the brackets on the external fuel tank but in the end it looks as if the upcoming launches will go ahead as planned.

There were fears that the gouge in the tile on the underside of Endeavour might require repair whilst in space but in the end NASA were convinced it was not serious and Endeavour landed without incident at the end of its mission.

Titanic - The Experience Looking for a New Home

The owners of the Mercado development on International Drive have given the Titanic Experience notice to quit as they continue their plans to redevelopment the rather run down Mercado area. As yet, there is no news of where the Titanic Experience will move to when it shuts on Labor Day, September 3.

Florida books published in September

The number of new Florida books continues to grow as all the major publishers start releasing their 2008 editions. This month's new editions includes the annual Frommer guide, two Unofficial Walt Disney World guides and a new book from Passporter:

• Florida Butterflies & Moths : An Introduction to Familiar Species
• Hiking Florida, 3rd edition : A Guide to Florida's Greatest Hiking Adventures
• The Disney Mountains : Imagineering At Its Peak
• Walt Disney's Legends of Imagineering and the Genesis of the Disney Theme Park
• Frommer's 2008 Florida
• A Walking Tour of Lincoln Road, South Beach
• Michelin The Green Guide Florida
• Mini Mickey : The Pocket-sized Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World
• The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World for Grown-ups
• Passporter's Open Mouse for Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line : Easy Access Vacations for Travelers With Extra Challenges

All these books can be found in our new Florida book directories for US and UK visitors.

On August 5th, Disney increased most of their admission ticket prices. A one day single park ticket has gone up by $4 from $67 to $71 and the multi-day tickets have risen by up to $10 with the four-day ticket seeing the biggest increase.

Similarly the no-expire option has increased by $5 except for the 10-day ticket where it has gone up by $35. Add-on Park Hopper and Water Park options remain unchanged.

Annual passes, DisneyQuest and Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex have all seen similar 3 to 6 percent rises but the prices at the two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon and at Disney's Pleasure Island have been held for now.

This follows a similar rise last August and as expected Universal Studios announced similar increases a few days later with a $4 increase on their 1 day 1 park ticket and increases to some of their other ticket packages including the Express Plus tickets.

Busch Gardens and Seaworld are not expected to follow suit immediately as they didn't do so last year when Disney and Universal increased their prices.

Read more...

The team at Colorado State University lead by professor William Gray have slightly lowered their predictions for this season from 17 named storms down to 15 named storms.

Originally they had estimated nine hurricanes, five of them intense but now they are forecasting eight hurricanes, four of them intense.

Similarly, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have reduced their forecasts down to between 13 and 16 named storms and seven to nine hurricanes.

However, NOAA have not downgraded the number of major storms and that remains at three to five.

Both sets of predictions are still above the current average of 10 to 11 named storms of which six typically become hurricanes.

No sooner had these revised predictions been announced, when the first hurricane of the season, Hurricane Dean, formed east of the Caribbean islands and rapidly strengthened to the most serious hurricane status, a category 5.

For all the latest news on hurricanes, including some new graphics of all the latest predictions, click here.

The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World is written by husband and wife team, Julie and Mike Neal and the first edition was published in April 2007.

Over a period of five years the Neals (who live in Celebration) have visited Walt Disney World hundreds of time to produce this beautiful guide book.

Though this is not an official guide book, like the Birnbaum series, they have clearly been given access to many areas of Disney. Julie has researched and written the text whilst Mike has taken the sumptuous colour photographs used to illustrate the book.

You would not think you needed another Walt Disney World book but the new Complete Guide to Walt Disney World is well worth a look.

The whole book has a glossy magazine feel with lots of double page spreads, lavishly illustrated throughout with over 400 photographs.

Dotted throughout the book are hundreds of Fun Finds and Fun Facts, including things like snippets of dialogue used by the cast members and animatronic characters. There is also details of the storylines behind each of the rides, park puzzles, useful tips and details of where to find over 300 Hidden Mickeys.

Read more...

As well as announcing an increase in theme park admission ticket prices, Disney have also made announcements regarding their resort Dining Plan (more details next month) and have published their 2008 room rates for all the Walt Disney World Resort hotels.

As expected, room rates have risen across the board with the exception of the Value Resorts where the basic room rates remain the same at $82 per night in the low season rising to $129 per night in the holiday (Christmas) season.

The increase at the Moderate Resorts is around $4 to $6 per night but for the Deluxe Resorts it is around $10 to $20 per night for the standard rooms and more for the suites.

However, what they have also done is increase the prices for some weekend stays and some public holiday periods so you could end up paying extra $10 to $20 per night if you stay on certain nights.

Remember these prices are the standard rack room rates for 2 adults sharing a room with a couple of children, depending on the resort and the type of room.

To see the 2007 and 2008 room rates and read reviews of all the Walt Disney World Resorts, click here.

September and October 2007 desktop wallpaper calendars

Free desktop calendars for September 2007 (Manatee statue at SeaWorld) and October 2007 (Cypress Gardens from the Island in the Sky) are ready to download now.

Note that some of the larger files can be 200-300k in size so if you are on a modem dialup line it will take a few minutes to download.

To view and then download the Florida free desktop wallpaper for September or October now, click here.

Also don't forget if you are looking for inspiration on what to do on your Florida vacation, why not take advantage of our collection of free brochures where you will find information on many activities including golfing vacations, eco-tours, scuba diving and Caribbean cruises.

Read more...

Monday, September 3 is Labor Day so you can expect heavy crowds at all the parks and at the beaches as people take advantage of the long weekend break.

Most students will now be back at school after their summer break, so you can expect to see crowds at the theme parks start to tail off a little, once Labor Day weekend is over.

Towards the end of September, the parks then start to kick off their Halloween celebrations.

Another big event is the start of the annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival which runs from September 28 to November 11. Admission is included in with the regular Epcot park ticket and every evening there is a concert starting off with Al Stewart (Year of the Cat) followed by Otis Day and the Knights.

For a small fee you can sample cuisine from around the world, including South Africa, Italy, Australia, Russia, Spain and Ireland.

For full coverage of September events throughout the State of Florida, click here.

The Atlantic hurricane season is now well under way with two storms during August, Tropical Storm Erin which hit the Texan coastline and the first hurricane of the season, Hurricane Dean.

Hurricane Dean turned into a major category 5 hurricane and around 30 people lost their lives as it tracked west across the Caribbean, the Yucatan Peninsula and ultimately the Mexican Gulf coast.

Rainfall is expected to be above average for September across the State with average temperatures in the northern half and above average temperatures in the southern half.

In the north around Pensacola and Jacksonville, the start of the month will see thunderstorms followed by sunshine and clouds. Temperatures will be in the high 80s/low 90s during the day with night-time temperatures in the low 70s. It will be a little cooler in the east.

Across the Central region, temperatures will be much the same but with more humidity and a higher chance of rain as the month progresses.

It is much the same story for Miami but once you get down to the Keys, then the night-time temperatures remain in the high 70s with high humidity.

To check out the rest of the weather for all of Florida including a live weather map, monthly temperature and rainfall charts across the State and the latest hurricane news, click here.

We plan to bring you a newsletter on the first day of each month with details of upcoming events and news from across Florida.

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