Welcome to the October Newsletter
Hi Subscriber, welcome to the October 2011 newsletter of the Florida Review & Travel Guide.
Like last month there are still more stories concerning the dangers from both the weather and the native wild life but as before, the main thing is to be sensible, aware of potential dangers and avoid unnecessary risks.
Exciting news this month (see below) regarding a major new attraction coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom which has taken a bit of a back seat in recent years. Also there are rumours of a Transformers ride at Universal Orlando.
Don't forget that the long awaiting re-opening of the former Cypress Gardens as the new Legoland Florida is slated for October 15 and all the main Halloween events are in full swing this month.
Transformers Ride
Universal Studios are currently building a "Transformers: The Ride – 3D" at both Universal Studios Hollywood in California and Universal Studios Singapore. This is a motion based thrill ride using photo-realistic 3D high definition and will open in Spring 2012 in California and at the end of 2012 in Singapore.
In a recent interview, the film director Steven Spielberg implied that the ride might also be coming to Orlando. There is no official news from Universal themselves so at this time it is unclear as to what if anything will happen in Orlando.
There is also talk of expansion of the highly successful Wizarding World of Harry Potter which has been an enormous boost to Universal's fortunes in Florida.
More Safety News
Following last months news about several guests and employees being injured when a lightening strike hit SeaWorld's Discovery Cove in Orlando, during September a lifeguard at the Adventure Island water park next to Busch Gardens in Tampa was tragically killed when he was hit by lightning.
The employee was working at the six story Key West Rapids 700 foot slide when the storm struck and was standing in the water at the time.
Adventure Island has a monitoring system to watch the progress of threatening weather conditions and it is believed he had been helping get guests off the ride when he was hit.
In wild animal related news, there have been several shark bite incidents in the last few weeks, luckily none fatal. In two separate attacks, a surfer was bitten at New Smyrna Beach and another at Crescent Beach near St. Augustine. Both incidents involved sharks about 4 to 6 feet in length but the species is unknown.
At Copeland near Ft. Myers in South west Florida a 90 year old woman was attacked by an 8 foot alligator whilst she was walking beside a canal in her front yard. She lost part of her leg in the attack but thankfully survived. The alligator was subsequently captured and killed.
Magic Kingdom Parking Lot
To make it easier to find your car at the end of the day, the parking lot for the Magic Kingdom is being split up into two main sections, "Heroes" and "Villains".
Within the heroes section, it will be further sub-divided into sections named Woody, Aladdin, Peter Pan, Simba, Mulan and Rapunzel. Within villains it will be Zurg, Jafar, Hook, Scar, Cruella and Ursula.
Each section will also be given a different colour to help you remember where you parked.
A useful tip is to take a photo of the row or parking lot sign on your mobile (cell) phone or digital camera before boarding the tram.
Four Seasons at Disney World
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts have announced the go-ahead to build a luxury 444 room hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort including up to 40 Four Seasons time-share units and 90 Four Seasons private residences.
The $360 million project will commence construction this December and is due to open in 2014. The land was bought from Disney back in 2008 but the global recession has put the project on hold until now.
The new hotel will feature a rooftop restaurant with views of the Magic Kingdom, a spa and a lazy river. The nearby Osprey Ridge golf course will be incorporated into the resort.
Flashing Headlights
Thousands of motorists in Florida have been fined by the Florida Highway Patrol for flashing their headlights to warn oncoming traffic, particularly of parked police cruisers or speed traps up ahead.
The law states that "Flashing lights are prohibited on vehicles except as a means of indicating a right or left turn, to change lanes, or to indicate that the vehicle is lawfully stopped or disabled upon the highway".
Judges have thrown out a number of cases and now one angry motorist is starting a class action to get all of these fines overturned.
The defendant's argument is that this law is to prevent the use of strobe lights or blue "police" style lights and not as a means of communication.
The Highway Patrol has suspended issuing any more fines until the case is settled but to be on the safe side, think twice before warning other motorists by flashing your headlights when you see police speed traps.
Read more about driving in Florida.
Latest Hotel Deals
Amongst the travel deals in October, the up to 20% discount at the Walt Disney World Resort Dolphin and Swan hotels is still running plus $699 for a 7 Day Mexico Disney cruise, 3 star hotels in Jacksonville from $34 and 4 star hotels n Tampa for $89. Other deals include:
There are many more good deals this month as tour operators continue to offer discounts, so if you are planning a vacation to Florida during 2011, then let the Florida Review & Travel Guide help you on your way.
This is just a small sample. To see the rest of the great deals and more, check out our late Florida deals page.
Gasoline Prices
Global oil prices remain volatile. The average pump prices in Florida continue to fall, down to $3.43 from $3.58 for a gallon for regular, a drop of 15 cents.
Like last month, only Hawaii has prices over $4 a gallon.
You can always find the latest pump prices at GasPriceWatch.com.
Florida Halloween Events
There are basically two kinds of Halloween events in the Florida theme parks, family events geared towards young children and outright "fright" events aimed at those who like to be scared witless, like the special Halloween nights organised by Universal Studios or Busch Gardens.
From September through to early November, all the major theme parks put on special Halloween events. A couple of them, like Disney's Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom and the Shamu's Halloween Spooktacular at SeaWorld are designed with young children in mind. The SeaWorld event takes place during the day and early evening and in fact is included in the standard day admission ticket.
Disney's Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is an evening event and does require a separate ticket admission. At all the family events, you are encouraged to dress up in costumes and go ‘trick-or-treating'.
At the other end of the scale are Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios and Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens. There are clues in the names of these events and they are very much geared up to adults and are definitely not suitable for young children. Like Disney, you need to buy a separate admission ticket but you are not allowed to dress up, that is strictly for cast members only.
Both Busch Gardens and Universal Studios show special media on their respective websites that will give you some idea of whether these events are suitable for you and your family/group of friends.
Read about all the main theme park Halloween events in 2011.
Avatar at Animal Kingdom
The big news this month is the announcement by Walt Disney World to bring Avatar inspired attractions to Disney's theme parks in partnership with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment and Fox Filmed Entertainment. Avatar is the highest grossing film in history taking a staggering $2.7bn at the box office.
The first project will see an Avatar themed land (dubbed Avatar Land) starting construction in 2013 at Disney's Animal Kingdom allowing guests to become immersed in the magical world of Pandora and the Na'vi people and culture. The project could take up to 5 years to complete and is believed to be costing around $500m.
Though the project is still in the planning stage, this is not just a single Avatar inspired ride but will consist of multiple attractions, entertainment, restaurants and of course the obligatory merchandise locations. There will almost certainly be one flight inspired ride.
Disney's Animal Kingdom has needed an update for some time now, the last major attraction to open was Expedition Everest in 2006 and many people feel that as a park it is very much in the shadows of Magic Kingdom and Epcot. With its lush natural vegetation and landscaping it is the obvious candidate for this kind of makeover.
The complete themed mini-park environment that Universal opened with "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" boosted Universal's attendance figures and hence its fortunes tremendously. Avatar Land could do the same thing for Disney's Animal Kingdom.
At this stage it is not clear if the Avatar themed land will replace existing attractions or be "bolted" onto the Animal Kingdom park as a totally new area. Walt Disney World is not short of space.
Two follow up Avatar movies are in the pipeline for release around Christmas 2014 and Christmas 2015 which could influence some of the attractions and rides.
Disney has exclusive rights to the Avatar brand and there is the potential to roll out the Avatar themed land to other Disney parks.
This is not the first time Disney have looked elsewhere for character attractions, Indiana Jones and Star Tours at Disney's Hollywood Studios immediately come to mind.
Mini Mickey: The Pocket-Sized Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World
The Mini Mickey: The Pocket-Sized Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World is effectively a condensed version of its bigger brother, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.
Mini Mickey is edited by Bob Sehlinger and Richey Halphen and the 9th edition is published on October 11, 2011.
It is slightly bigger than a true pocket-sized guide book at nearly one inch thick and 312 pages long but it is a lot smaller than the massive 880 page Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.
In the introduction it specially states that it is designed to help the short stay or last minute visitor decide how to spend their limited amount of time so less emphasis is placed on planning and more on what to do once you are there.
It follows the same approach as the big guide but by its very nature, it has been cut down so whilst nearly all the same topics are covered, there is a lot less detail in some chapters which are probably of less importance to the target audience.
Importantly, the level of detail of the four main theme parks has been maintained with full details of each ride, attraction and show with descriptions, wait times, ratings, scare factors, height restrictions and FastPass details.
An important part of the Unofficial Guides are the touring plans and Mini Mickey includes eleven different touring plans spread across the four parks with both one day and two day touring plans for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. As a purchaser of the book, you also have access to over 100 custom touring plans on their website.
Read our complete review of Mini Mickey: The Pocket-Sized Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.
SeaWorld Ticket Prices
During September, SeaWorld announced price rises to their baseline ticket and a special child ticket offer. This is the second price rise in the last 12 months.
The gate price for a one day adult admission has risen by $2 to $81.99 plus tax. This is comparable with the $84.99 gate prices at Universal Studios and Walt Disney World.
Other ticket option prices have also risen but there are deals to be had if you purchase your tickets in advance online or over the phone. At the present time, you can also get a second day free which is a big bonus.
In time for SeaWorld's Halloween Spooktacular, you can get one half price child ticket for each adult ticket purchased if you purchase over the phone or online.
This means a child (aged 3 to 9) ticket will cost $36.99. Additional child tickets cost an extra $10. These tickets are also included in the second day free offer and the half price child ticket offer runs until the end of October.
Do not forget that you can often save money on 2 or 3 park multi-park tickets including SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens or on the Orlando Flexticket which also includes Universal Studios.
Check all the latest SeaWorld ticket prices.
Rabies in Florida
Around 2,000 people are treated in Florida each year for possible rabies bites. Unlike the United Kingdom where cases of rabies are very rare, it is endemic throughout most counties of Florida. There are several animal groups that are considered high risk and known to potentially carry the rabies virus in Florida; namely skunks, raccoons, ferrets, bats, otters, bobcats, coyotes, foxes and stray cats and dogs.
Statistically raccoons are the most likely animal to carry the disease followed by bats and foxes. Other animals such as rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, opossums, rats, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, guinea pigs, armadillos and hedgehogs plus fish, reptiles, amphibians and birds rarely catch rabies.
Rabies is usually transmitted by a bite but it can also be caught if saliva from the infected animal gets into an open cut or wound. Any mammal including humans can catch rabies if they are bitten and then potentially pass it on.
Symptoms typically last for 1 to 2 weeks and can include a change in temperament (affection or withdrawal), irritability, aggressiveness, nervousness or loss of fear, sensitivity to light, drooling, convulsions and ultimately paralysis and then finally death from respiratory failure.
However, there is no sure-fire way of knowing if a wild animal has rabies so the best advice is not to get too close, or attempt to feed it, stroke it or pick it up. The same applies to stray cats and dogs.
Read more about the risks of Rabies in Florida and how to avoid it.
Free Monthly Desktop Wallpaper
October and November 2011 desktop wallpaper calendars
The free Florida desktop wallpaper calendars are now available in new widescreen and netbook format as well as standard format so if you have a widescreen monitor or a netbook you can now download a new widescreen calendar. From July we have introduced some additional sizes for widescreens. 
Free desktop calendars for October 2011 (Disney's Animal Kingdom Parade) and November 2011 (Orange Groves at Bok Tower Gardens) are ready to download now.
Note that some of the larger files can be up to 1mb in size so if you are on a modem dialup line it will take a few minutes to download.
Click to view and then download the Florida free desktop wallpaper for October or November now.
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 Florida brochures where you will find information on many activities including golfing vacations, eco-tours, scuba diving and Caribbean cruises.
October Events
There is one public holiday in October, namely Columbus Day and of course there is also Halloween with all the main theme parks offering their own take on Halloween entertainment.
October also sees the start of a number of County fairs throughout Florida plus the annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival and Eat to the Beat concerts are in full swing.
Noticeable artists on tour in Florida this month include Adele, Dolly Parton, Duran Duran, Eric Burdon & The Animals, Enrique Iglesias, Guns N' Roses, Josh Groban and Peter Frampton.
Looking further ahead, Disney's Beauty And The Beast and Taylor Swift are also performing in Florida.
Click here for full coverage of the latest events throughout the State of Florida or for a comprehensive list of upcoming Florida concerts.
Weather Forecast
By the end of September there had been 16 named storms and three hurricanes. In an average year there are 11 named storms. Most scientists predicted around 17 to 18 storms but as many as 10 hurricanes for the 2011 season.
Unlike the last couple of months, temperatures this month will be below seasonal averages across the whole state and rainfall about average. Temperatures will be well down on last month with daytime temperatures in the mid 80s throughout the state for some of the month.
In the North around Pensacola and Jacksonville, the month will start out with prolonged periods of sunshine but then showers will develop. Daytime temperatures will again be in high 70s to mid 80s. Overnight temperatures will be in the mid 50s to high 60s.
Across the Central region, the weather outlook is very similar but with more chance of rain. Temperatures will be in the low 80s to low 90s during the day with high 50s to mid 60s overnight.
Down in Miami and the Keys, the weather will be similar again. Temperatures will be in the low 80s to low 90s during the day and low to mid 70s overnight.
Click here 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.
October Books
A good selection of books again this month including the annual Fodor's South Florida, two more 2012 editions from the Unofficial Guide series and the latest edition of Florida Off the Beaten Path for those who have tired of Florida's theme parks.
October Book List
- The Pollination Biology of North American Orchids: Volume 1: North of Florida and Mexico by Charles L. Argue
- Fodor's South Florida 2012
- Florida Off the Beaten Path, 11th: A Guide to Unique Places by Diana Gleasner, Bill Gleasner
- The Architecture of Alfred Browning Parker: Miami's Maverick Modernist by Randolph C. Henning
- Wish You Were Here: Classic Florida Motel and Restaurant Advertising by Tim Hollis
- Michelin Must Sees Florida Featuring Orlando
- Wilton Manors, Florida: From Farming Community to Urban Village by Benjamin B. Little, Wilton Manors Historical Society
- Gator Greats: Profiles of Champions by Chris Doering & Scott Lynch
- Remembering University of Florida Football by McCarthy, Kevin
- Florida Almanac: 2012 by Bernie McGovern
- Hidden Seminoles: Julian Dimock's Historic Florida Photographs by Jerald T. Milanich, Nina J. Root
- Mini Mickey: The Pocket-Sized Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger, Halphen
- The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids 2012 by Bob Sehlinger, Liliane Opsomer
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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