In This Issue Welcome Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Universal Orlando News Book Review - Walt Disney World & Orlando For Dummies 2008 Spaceship Earth re-opens Changes at the Disney Vacation Clubs Free Monthly Desktop Wallpaper February events Weather forecast

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

Easter comes early this year which means Mardi Gras is also early on February 5 so the Mardi Gras celebrations will be starting in the first week in February, in fact some start in late January. For further details of Florida's Mardi Gras celebrations, click here.

The excitement surrounding the imminent opening of the new Aquatica at SeaWorld water park is mounting so it is a good time to remind you that Aquatica opens on March 1, 2008. It will be the largest Orlando water park with a capacity of 16,000 visitors per day.

The official opening in on April 4 but there will effectively be a month lead-up to the grand opening. Day tickets are not yet available but will cost $38.95 for adults and $32.95 for children ages 3 to 9. Multi-park tickets can be purchased now, for example an Aquatica plus SeaWorld combination costs $79.95.

For further details of Aquatica at SeaWorld, click here.

It's raining Iguanas

In one of the strangest stories in a long time, the recent cold snap caused iguanas to fall out of the trees at night. With the very cold nights, the tree dwelling green iguanas in Southern Florida effectively went into a state of hibernation and lost their grip on the branches.

The iguanas are not native to Florida, originating from Central and South America and bought as pets. Many have subsequently been released into the wild as they got too big (up to six feet in length) and they have become a bit of a nuisance.

They are used to temperatures in the 80s and 90s and prolonged cold spells will actually kill them off. If they are able to survive then, like all cold blooded reptiles, as the sun warms them up, they start to move about again.

New Florida State Song

For some years now, there has been disagreement about keeping "Swannee River" as the Florida State song. "Old Folks at Home (Swannee River)", was written by New Zealander, Stephen Foster in 1851 and has been the Florida state song since 1935, replacing "Florida, My Florida" which was made the State song in 1913.

The original lyrics of Swannee River talk of plantations and slavery and the newly elected Governor, Charlie Crist refused to have it played during his inaugural celebration in January.

A new bill has now been put forward to have the song replaced and a recent internet poll has voted for a new song, "Florida (Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky)", written by a music teacher from Pompano Beach, Jan Hinton. The lyrics talk of mocking birds, 'gators and rockets reflecting the Florida of today.

There are also suggestions that Florida might have both a state song and a state anthem.

Cypress Gardens New Owners

The new owners of Cypress Gardens have not announced any major changes as yet but will look to increasing the number of staff, improve training and putting more money into some of the budgets like the horticulture department who look after the plants and gardens.

Steve Baker, who spent 24 years with Disney is now managing the day to day running of Cypress Gardens Adventure Park. Since the park re-opened in 2004, attendance numbers have started to increase and were 1.1 million in 2006.

Florida books published in February

There are not as many books about Florida published in February, but they include:

• Miami Beach/La Habana : Ocean Drive/El Malecon
• Florida's Famous Animals: True Stories of Sunset Sam the Dolphin, Snooty the Manatee, Big Guy the Panther, and Others
• Good Night Florida Keys
• It Happened in the Florida Keys
• The Enduring Seminoles: From Alligator Wrestling to Casino Gaming
• Fodor's Orlando's 25 Best by Fodor's
• The Intracoastal Waterway Chartbook, Norfolk, Virginia, to Miami, Florida
• Cruising Guide to Western Florida
• 50 Great Walks in Florida (Wild Florida)
• The Business Traveler Guide to Orlando
• AAA Spiral Florida
• Manatee Blues (Vet Volunteer Series)
• Panama City, Florida (Images of America Series)

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

In a surprise move, Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede Dinner & Show shut suddenly when it was announced that the site had been sold to the Chelsea Property Group who own the nearby Orlando Premium Outlets so it is expected the land will be redeveloped into additional shopping outlets.

Orlando Premium Outlets currently has 110 stores and is already in the middle of an expansion phase which will be completed in November with the opening of a further 30 stores.

The Dixie Stampede Dinner Show opened in 2003 and was very profitable but the opportunity to sell the prime piece of real estate on Vineland Avenue off I-4 was obviously too great.

The Dixie Stampede is expected to relocate to another site in Florida though not necessarily in Orlando and no time-scales have been announced. Anyone who has pre-booked reservations to the show should contact the Dixie Stampede about refund options and alternative booking options.

Dolly Parton also operates Dixie Stampede dinner shows in Branson in Missouri, Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and Pigeon Forge in Tennessee.

The show is themed around North/South rivalry and features beautiful horses, trick riding, ostrich races, family entertainment, dancing and songs by Dolly Parton topped off with a four course country feast including whole rotisserie chicken and hickory-smoked barbecue pork.

Whilst Universal Orlando continue to work on the "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter", a new 20 acre theme park within a theme park which is not scheduled to open until December 2009, Universal have also made some smaller changes to their parks.

In 2007, the renowned Blue Man Group opened and in mid March of this year, the new "Simpsons" ride will open in the building that used to house the "Back to the Future: The Ride" attraction. Already the gift area has been re-opened as a "Kwik-E-Mart," which any fan of the Simpsons TV show will recognise. The ride will most likely feature characters from the Simpsons voiced by the original actors.

Now, the "Earthquake - The Big One" attraction which closed in November 2007 has been remodelled as "Disaster! - A Major Motion Picture Ride . . . Starring You!".

It is based on a movie set with a new pre-show but still includes some of the original features such as the flooding waters, pyrotechnics and of course, the subway ride and earthquake.

A new technology called Musion is used, which allows 2D images to appear in 3D and features Christopher Walken as the director of the latest action film, "Mutha Nature" by Disaster Studios starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in which you, the audience, take part.

The original "Earthquake - The Big One" ride was based on the 1974 file "Earthquake" and opened in 1990. For more information about Universal Orlando, click here.

Laura Lea Miller has written a number of books about Central Florida and in particular Walt Disney World including Walt Disney World & Orlando For Dummies 2008, Frommer's Walt Disney World & Orlando, Frommer's Walt Disney World & Orlando with Kids, Frommer's Florida from $70 a Day, Frommer's Florida 2007 as well as running a web site for families visiting Central Florida.

Like the original Dummies books, this book has a light hearted and down-to-earth style with the occasional cartoon scattered amongst the nearly 400 pages.

If you like the Dummies style and are looking for a book that covers all of Orlando's theme parks, then Walt Disney World & Orlando For Dummies is a good choice. About one quarter of the book is devoted to all things Disney and another quarter covers the other parks and attractions in the Orlando area.

This revised edition was published on November 19, 2007 and generally the book is re-published every year.

There are details on managing your money, cutting costs without cutting the fun and "Best of the Best" icons are used to highlight all the best attractions, rides, restaurants and hotels.

The rest of the book addresses familiar 'first time in Florida' topics such as history, the weather, seasons, monthly events calendar, best time to go, shopping, eating, money and what to do if you lose your wallet or credit cards.

There is also information on getting to Orlando by air, rail or driving plus getting around the Orlando area by all means of transport including rental car, using Disney's own transportation system, taxi, shuttle, trolley, motorcycle, bus and even on foot.

To read the complete review of Walt Disney World & Orlando For Dummies 2008, click here.

The renovations to Spaceship Earth presented by Siemens are ongoing but the ride itself has now re-opened with a "soft-opening phase" where you may be lucky enough to get to ride it whilst they iron out any last minute glitches. The attraction has improved lighting, new and enhanced ride scenes and a new musical score.

The scenes from the 1960s and 1970s have been updated with a family viewing the first moon landing of Apollo 11, a computer room compete with reel-to-reel tape decks and the "birth" of the personal computer with a homage to Apple Computers in the shape of the garage where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created some of the first home computers.

The acclaimed British actress, Dame Judi Dench delivers the new vehicle narration in English but guests can now also select to hear the sound track in either French, German, Japanese, Portuguese or Spanish instead.

There are touch screens in the cars and in the finale you are shown a cartoon based on your responses to various questions. Rumour has it that when the ride is finished, your own faces will appear on the cartoon (they take your picture during the ascent).

To read more about Disney's Epcot theme park, click here.

The Disney Vacation Club is expanding its portfolio of properties with announcements about new resorts in Disneyland California and Hawaii. Disney have also been working on villas at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge in Orlando.

Up until recently the latest villas on offer were at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort but now there are a number of villas available in the existing main building of the Animal Kingdom Lodge which is now known as Jambo House. Work has also started on a brand new building on the same site which will be called Kidani Village.

Construction will be finished in 2009 and by that time there will be 134 villas in Jambo House and an additional 324 villas in Kidani Village.

Units will go in size from Studios sleeping up to four people to one or two bedroom villas sleeping four to five in the one bedroom and up to nine people in the two bedroom units to Grand Villa Vacation Homes sleeping up to 12 people.

Another major ongoing development is at Disney's Contemporary Resort. In early 2007, the three story North Wing was demolished and work in now in progress on the construction of a new 15 story crescent shaped tower block which is also expected to open in 2009. The new tower will feature a restaurant on the top floor and will be a similar height to the iconic A-frame main tower.

Disney are not yet making any public statements about these new rooms but one possibility is that some could also end up as part of the Disney Vacation Club. There are unlikely to be any more details in the near future as Disney are still selling units at both Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge in Orlando and they will not want to detract from this promotion.

For more information about all the timeshares and vacation clubs in Florida, click here. here.

February and March 2008 desktop wallpaper calendars

The free Florida desktop wallpaper calendars are now available in widescreen format as well as standard format so if you have a widescreen monitor you can now download a new widescreen calendar.

Free desktop calendars for February 2008 (Muppet Vision 3D at Disney's Hollywood Studios) and March 2008 (Mission SPACE at Disney's Epcot) 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 February or March 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...

With Easter being early this year, the Mardi Gras celebrations will be in full swing in February.

NASA will make a further attempt to launch the Space Shuttle Atlantis, currently slated for February 7.

If you are a baseball fan, then February also heralds the start of Spring Training season for the baseball teams taking part in the Grapefruit League.

Don't forget that February 14 is Valentines Day and on February 18, it is Presidents Day, George Washington's birthday.

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

January saw some very cold weather but things should start to improve now though temperatures could still be below seasonal norms with slightly above average rainfall.

In the north around Pensacola and Jacksonville, there could be some more cold snaps with sunshine and clouds. Temperatures will be in the mid 50s/mid 70s during the day with night-time temperatures in the low 30s/high 50s. It will again be colder in the west.

Across the Central region, the weather outlook is noticeably warmer and dryer in the low 60s/high 70s during the day, dropping to low 40s/high 50s over night.

Down in Miami and the Keys, there will be fewer clouds and temperatures are much more consistent with daytime temperatures a little warmer with low 70s/low 80s during the day and high 50s/high 60s overnight.

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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