November 2007 Newsletter

Hi subscriber, welcome to the November newsletter of the Florida Review & Travel Guide and happy Thanksgiving celebrations to you and your family.

Space Shuttle Discovery

Despite concerns about tile integrity, the Space Shuttle Discovery (STS-120) launched on schedule on October 23 on the 23rd mission to the International Space Station. It was originally expected to return to earth on November 6 at 4:47 in the morning but NASA have rescheduled for the following day to allow extra time because of some problems with the deployment of the solar panels. It may even be further delayed.

On December 6, the last shuttle mission of 2007 is scheduled with the launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-122 on the 24th mission to the International Space Station.

Ron Jon Water Park

Plans to build a Ron Jon water park resort on a 26 acre site at the southwest end of Port Canaveral on the Banana River appear to have been dropped after two years of planning, after Port commissioners stopped negotiations.

The $200 million "Ron Jon World" project included a 400 room hotel with an 18 story atrium, a two floor 50,000 square foot Ron Jon Surf shop replacing the existing store in Cocoa Beach, a 20,000 square foot retail and restaurant center plus a water/surf park with water slides and a wave pool, a skateboarding park and The Stoke, a 40,000 square foot "multimedia experience" based around the culture of surfing.

It is likely that Ron Jon and their development partner, The Cordish Company will now look for an alternative location.

Disney in Hawaii

Disney have announced plans to build a new 800 room oceanfront resort (but not theme park) in the Ko Olina area on the western side of Oahu in Hawaii which will be a combination of Disney Vacation Club timeshares and normal hotel accommodation.

The as yet unnamed resort will open in 2011 and it begs the question as to whether it will be marketed in conjunction with Disney cruises from the West Coast.

Florida books published in November

There is a whole raft of books published in November including the first guide exclusively on Universal Studios and some that were either delayed from earlier months or simply slipped through the net:

• Florida Santa: Is He Real? How Do We Know It?
• Florida Travel Pack
• Miami Contemporary Artists
• Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World
• The Boys from Old Florida: Inside Gator Nation
• Key West: A Tropical Lifestyle
• Voices of the Apalachicola
• Frommer's Cruises & Ports of Call 2008
• Berlitz 2008 Complete Guide to Cruising & Cruise Ships
• Florida's Rivers
• Manatee County
• Rand Mcnally 2008 Street Guide Broward County
• Rand Mcnally 2008 Street Guide Miami-dade County
• Rand Mcnally 2008 Street Guide Miami-Dade/Broward/Palm Beach Counties
• Rand Mcnally 2008 Street Guide Palm Beach County
• The Buildings of Frank Lloyd Wright at Florida Southern College
• Seashells of Southern Florida: Living Marine Mollusks of the Florida Keys and Adjacent Regions: Bivalves
• Fishing Florida's Flats: A Guide to Bonefish, Tarpon, Permit, and Much More
• Florida on Horseback II: A Trail Rider's Guide to the North and Panhandle Regions
• A Kiowa's Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion
• Bicycling in Florida
• Brit's Guide to Orlando 2008
• Everything Family Guide to Coastal Florida : St. Augustine, Miami, the Keys, Panama City--and All the Hot Spots in Between!
• Everything Family Guide to the Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Studios, and Greater Orlando : A Complete Guide to the Best Hotels,l Restaurants, Parks, and Must-see Attractions
• Florida History
• Florida Plants and Animals
• People of Florida
• Spain, Britain and the American Revolution in Florida 1763-1783
• Dolphins (Nature Watch)
• Down to the Waterline: Boundaries, Nature, and the Law in Florida Epidemics and Enslavement: Biological Catastrophe in the Native Southeast, 1492-1715
• Globetrotter Travel Pack Florida
• Insiders' Guide to the Florida Keys and Key West
• Perspectives on Design: Design Philosophies Expressed by Florida's Leading Professionals
• Fodor's Miami & Miami Beach
• Miami: Mediterranean Splendor and Deco Dreams
• Aqua: Miami Modern by the Sea
• Adventure Guide Tampa Bay & Florida's West Coast
• Zagatsurvey 2008 Miami Beach Restaurants
• Zagatsurvey 2008 Miami-so. Florida Restaurants
• Zagatsurvey 2008 Palm Beach Restaurants
• The Hassle-Free Walt Disney World Vacation 2008
• Universal Orlando 2008: The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Theme Park Adventure
• Zagat.com Pack Miami
• PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2008 Deluxe: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake!
• PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2008: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake!
• Walt Disney World & Orlando for Dummies 2008

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

Even with modern technology, access to the internet and the advances in PDAs, mp3 players like iPods and mobile (cell) phones, you cannot beat a real guide book when researching a vacation or to take with you when visiting the attractions and the sights.

Because of the enormous number of tourists to Florida, there are literally hundreds of guide books on every conceivable subject, everything from state wide guides to regional guides, theme parks, nature, wildlife and the weird and wacky.

All the major publishers produce a range of titles and most are published on an annual basis, usually in the autumn (fall) in time for the start of the next year, so right now you will start to see the 2008 editions hitting the bookshelves.

If your interest is in Walt Disney, look out for the official Disney publications by Birnbaum plus independent guides from publishers like Frommers who produce guides under their own name and the popular Unofficial series, plus Fodor and Passporter.

All the major publishers like Fodor, Frommer, Dorling Kindersley, Michelin also produce Florida state and regional guides and for maps and atlases, you need look no further than Rand Mcnally.

For reviews of all the best Florida guide books, click here.

If you or members of your party have trouble walking, then when you visit the main Florida theme parks, do not underestimate the distance you might cover during the course of a day.

To give you an idea of size, Disney's Epcot which is one of the largest parks, covers over 300 acres (1.2 km sq). The parking lot itself covers a further 141 acres and has space for over 11,000 vehicles.

Disney's Animal Kingdom is larger at 500 acres (2 km sq) but a lot of this space is taken up by the animal enclosures, the actual area that you walk around is smaller.

Whilst all the larger theme parks offer either trams or moving walkways to get you from the parking lot to the main entrance, once inside you are pretty much on your own!

If you have children or adults with mobility problems in your party, then it is worth considering getting some 'wheels' for them, either in the form of a stroller (also known as a buggy or pushchair), a wheelchair or a motorised scooter (sometimes called a mobility cart or ECV; Electric Convenience Vehicle).

For more information on the costs of wheelchair and ECV rental plus how to cope in the theme parks, click here.

Disney Editions is the official Disney guide book publisher and they publish a series of Birnbaum Travel Guides on Walt Disney World, the Disneyland Resort in California and the Disney Cruise Line.

The books are revised and updated each year and a new edition for the following year is published around September time. The 2008 editions were all published on September 18, 2007.

If you are not bothered about having the very latest edition, you can often pick up a bargain by buying the previous year's edition.

All the Birnbaum guide books are fully illustrated throughout with colour photographs and maps and there are four books on the Walt Disney World Resort itself.

The main Birnbaum's Walt Disney World guide covers just about everything and then there is an edition especially for kids, Birnbaum's Walt Disney World For Kids which is aimed at the 8 to 14 year age group.

If you are specifically visiting without kids then you might want to consider Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Without Kids which focuses on attractions and activities more suitable to adults.

Finally if you like your food and especially if you intend to purchase the Disney Dining Plan, then you should consider Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Dining Guide.

To read reviews of all the 2008 Birnbaum Walt Disney World guides, click here.

If you are vacationing in Florida during the winter months from October to April you will almost certainly see a very common migratory bird, otherwise known as a "snowbird".

Every year, some 800,000+ Canadians and Americans from the Northern and Midwest states migrate to the warmer climes of Florida to escape from the harsh northern winters.

Most snowbirds today are over 55s or retirees who often have a second home in Florida or bring their own homes with them in the form of RV campers or even boats by following the east coast intracoastal waterway.

There is nothing new in this lifestyle, many of the early American entrepreneurs and tycoons would set up winter homes in Florida and people like the railway magnates Henry Flagler and Henry Plant opened up the east coast and Gulf coast resorts respectively with the arrival of their railroads and luxury hotels.

The circus king, John Ringling made Sarasota his travelling circuses winter home, whilst Edward Bok, the publisher made his home at what was to become the Historic Bok Sanctuary and the architect Addison Mizner helped shape Palm Beach and Boca Raton with a number of Mediterranean style luxury residences built for people like the Vanderbilts and the Kennedys.

Other notable snowbirds included John D. Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and Henry Ford.

To read more about Florida's snowbirds, click here.

November and December 2007 desktop wallpaper calendars

Free desktop calendars for November 2007 (Iconic Entrance to Gatorland) and December 2007 (Kali River Rapids at Disney's Animal Kingdom) 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 November or December 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 Halloween out of the way, all of Florida switches from scary mode to festive mode with Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon. This month there are two public holidays; on November 11, it is Veterans Day and then on Thursday, November 22 it is Thanksgiving.

This means that all the major theme parks are going to be very busy Thanksgiving week, especially as the parks start to unveil their festive season celebrations.

However, once the Thanksgiving weekend is over, the parks then become very quiet until the Christmas/New Year Holiday season, which makes it a great time to visit as the weather is still quite good and all the Christmas decorations are up and the theme parks are in full swing with their Holiday season activities.

As with last month, there are a number of local county fairs throughout the state celebrating the fall.

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

The Atlantic hurricane season was fairly quiet in October and now only has one more month to run and all being well, the number of hurricanes will be below the revised predictions.

Overall in November temperatures are expected to be about normal but rainfall should be below normal. However, all of Florida is forecast to experience a bit of a cold snap around the 10th/11th when overnight temperatures will drop and temperatures will be well below October's.

In the north around Pensacola and Jacksonville, the month will start out with a mixture of sunshine and clouds. Temperatures will be in the low 60s/low 80s during the day with night-time temperatures in the low 40s/mid 60s.

Across the Central region, the weather outlook is similar but with the odd shower and a little warmer in the low 70s/mid 80s during the day, dropping to high 40s/low 70s over night.

Down in Miami and the Keys, there is the chance of the odd thunderstorm and daytime temperatures are a little warmer with mid 70s/low 80s during the day and high 50s/mid 70s 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.

Copyright © 2007, Stephen Downs, Florida Review & Travel Guide. All rights reserved. Please do NOT reprint or host on your website without explicit permission from http://www.floridareview.co.uk.

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