September 2009 Newsletter

Hi Subscriber, welcome to the September 2009 newsletter of the Florida Review & Travel Guide.

Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit

The new roller coaster at Universal Studios, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, has now officially opened to good reviews.

You can choose any one of 30 songs to listen to during the short ride. It now appears that there are also hidden bonus songs, a bit like Hidden Mickeys!

To access the hidden tracks, hold your finger on the Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit logo at the top of the screen for around five to 10 seconds and then release it. When a keypad appears, punch in a 3 digit number between 001 and 999 and hit Enter. You may get a hidden song but not all numbers are used in which case you will get the default track, Busy Child by The Crystal Method.

Gatorland Florida Residents Offers

Just a reminder that Gatorland have extended their Florida residents summer offer until Labor Day. Between now and September 7, adult tickets cost $14.99 (plus tax) and child tickets $9.99 (plus tax).

Latest Hotel Deals

We are now subscribing to BookingWiz to give you the latest Florida deals each month.


TOP TRAVEL DEALS ( Showing top Florida deals ) ... Click to VIEW ALL DEALS

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Plan your escape - Get away from it all in Pensacola. .... Visit Pensacola
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Hotel - Daytona, FL: Up to 20% Fall Savings! Perfect for Families to Stay & Play - From $63 .... Wyndham Ocean Walk
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Hotel - Ft Lauderdale: AAA 10% Savings at Hyatt Place Near Air & Cruise Ports .... Hyatt Place Fort Lauderdale
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Hotel - Save 15% on Fla. Gulf Coast: Family Fall Fling - Weekly Bookings! .... Sandcastle Escapes
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Gasoline Prices

Average pump prices in Orlando have risen again by about 10 cents in the last month to around $2.60 a gallon for regular.

You can always find the latest pump prices at GasPriceWatch.com.

TravelZoo Weekly Newsletter

Have you heard of the TravelZoo weekly top 20 deals newsletter? By signing up to their free newsletter, you receive their top 20 holiday deals each and every week with cheap flights, cruises and ferries, rail tickets, car hire, hotels and villas, tours and packages and last minute deals.

Each week, TravelZoo sift through 1000s of internet offers to bring you the best deals, no matter where you live.

$299 -- Weeklong Stay at Orlando Resort Near Disney-- As seen on Travelzoo's Top 20

Traditionally August is the month when the main Orlando theme parks raise their prices and 2009 is no exception.

Within days of each other, both Disney and then Universal Studios announced ticket price rises. SeaWorld and Busch Gardens often wait a while before raising their prices and as yet there is no news from them.

For 2009/2010 Disney have added another $5 to the one day one park ticket and multi-day tickets have increased by as much as $8. They have also increased prices for the Park Hopper, No Expiration and Water Park Fun & More options.

At Walt Disney World an adult single day single park ticket now costs $79 plus tax and a child ticket, $68 plus tax. At Universal Studios, the base prices are exactly the same.

Prices at SeaWorld are currently $74.95 plus tax for an adult ticket and $64.95 for a child.

Bear in mind that you can often get cheaper prices if you purchase in advance online when compared to the gate price and multi-day multi-park tickets can work out significantly cheaper on a day-by-day basis.

For more information on the current single day ticket prices at all of Florida's major theme parks, click here.

Late September heralds the start of the Halloween celebrations at the main theme parks and each year, the parks put on new shows and attractions.

Universal Studios and Busch Gardens present intense scary events with thousands of extra cast members whose sole aim is to scare you out of your wits!!

If you want to attend a Halloween party with small children then Walt Disney World and SeaWorld offer entertainment more suited to that age group.

Halloween events tend to take place in the evenings (when it is dark) at weekends, they are not on every day. They generally run from late September to the end of October or into the first few days of November.

Some parks like SeaWorld include the price in their normal ticket admission but at Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Busch Gardens it is a separately ticketed event.

For more information on Halloween events in 2009, click here.

Kim Wright Wiley is a veteran writer about Walt Disney World and this is the 20th edition of Fodor's Walt Disney World with Kids, the first edition being published way back in 1989. In that time, she has visited the parks over 50 times as both a journalist and as a parent so she knows her way around.

Fodor's Walt Disney World with Kids is designed for a family vacation with information for all age groups.

As well as Walt Disney World, there are also details on Universal Orlando and SeaWorld plus Disney Cruise Lines so it covers all the major parks if you are planning a trip to the Orlando area.

The book is packed with tips to help you save both money and time plus opinions and reviews from over 500 other families who have visited Disney giving you a wealth of information including the times and places to meet characters, the best locations for the parades, best rides and best places to eat.

The "don't miss lists" and favourite attractions by children's age groups (young kids, pre-teens and teens) help you plan your visit according to the age and make up of your party.

To read the complete review of the Fodor's Walt Disney World with Kids, 2010, click here.

August has seen the final arrival of the first of this year's Atlantic storms with three Tropical Storms and one Hurricane so far.

Already there has been Tropical Storm Ana, Hurricane Bill, Tropical Storm Claudette and Tropical Storm Danny.

The only one to make any real impact on Florida was Tropical Storm Claudette which hit the Florida Panhandle in the Fort Walton Beach area. Luckily it had already started to weaken but in the space of a mere 12 hours it had formed in the Gulf of Mexico and struck Florida.

The other three storms all formed in the Atlantic and veered northwards before reaching the Florida area. Even so, there were several deaths due to the heavy seas off the Atlantic coastline caused by the storms as they headed north.

Hurricane Bill is not only the first hurricane of the season, it is also the first major hurricane as at its peak, it strengthened to a category 4 hurricane with wind speeds of around 135 mph.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have recently revised their forecast down to between seven to eleven named storms, with three to six hurricanes and one to two major hurricanes with winds above 110 mph.

For more information on Florida's weather, click here.

September and October 2009 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 September 2009 (Cypress Gardens Wedding Pavilion) and October 2009 (Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney's Animal Kingdom) are ready to download now.

Note that some of the larger files can be up to 600k 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...

This year, Labor Day is on Monday, September 7 so you can expect increased visitors at the theme parks around this time as families make the most of the long weekend.

By now, most students will have returned to school after their summer break so some of the theme park crowds should tail off a little, once Labor Day weekend is over.

One of the biggest theme park events in September is the start of the annual Epcot International Food and Wine Festival which runs until early November.

Some theme parks such as Disney's Magic Kingdom also kick off their Halloween celebrations this month.

At the Kennedy Space Center there are the possibilities of two launches in September though as usual, they are all subject to change.

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

Temperatures in September look like being above normal with above average rainfall, particularly in the Central and Southern regions. Across the State you can expect daytime temperatures in the high 80s/low 90s.

In the north around Pensacola and Jacksonville, the month will continue to be a mixture of sunshine and showers with the occasional thunderstorm and high humidity. Temperatures will be in the mid to high 80s during the day with night-time temperatures in the high 60s/low 70s. Again, it will be slightly warmer in the west during the night time.

Across the Central region, the weather outlook is similar but with slightly higher temperatures and more chance of rain. Temperatures will be in the high 80s/low 90s during the day, dropping to high 60s/low 70s over night.

Down in Miami and the Keys, again there will also be thunderstorms and showers. Temperatures will be in the high 80s/low 90s during the day and high 70s/low 80s 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.

September sees the annual publication of the complete set of Birnbaum official Walt Disney World guides plus the 2010 edition of Fodor's Florida and further books from Bob Sehlinger; i.e. The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids and Mini Mickey: The Pocket-Sized Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.

Also this month are another batch of Florida 2010 calendars including tide calendars.

Florida September Book list

• Best Easy Day Hikes Tampa Bay by Johnny Molloy
• Time Traveler's Guide to Florida by Jack Powell
• Florida Atlantic Tide 2010 Wall Calendar
• Florida Mid Gulf Tide 2010 Wall Calendar
• Florida Gulf Tide 2010 Wall Calendar
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Walt Disney World, 2010 Edition by Doug Ingersoll
• Paddler's Guide to Everglades National Park by Johnny Molloy
• Frommer's Florida 2010 by Lesley Abravanel
• Holiday Map: Florida
• Sustainable Gardening for Florida by Ginny Stibolt
• Seasons of Real Florida by Jeff Klinkenberg
• Hitler's Soldiers in the Sunshine State: German POWs in Florida by Robert D. Billinger Jr.
• Death in the Everglades: The Murder of Guy Bradley, America's First Martyr to Environmentalism by Stuart B. McIver
• The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids by Bob Sehlinger, Liliane Opsomer and Len Testa
• Rand McNally FM East Pasco County
• American Map Corporation City Streets Map Orlando
• American Map Corporation City Streets Map Miami
• Mini Mickey: The Pocket-Sized Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World by Bob Sehlinger
• Florida's American Heritage River: Images from the St. Johns Region by Mallory M. O'Connor and Gary Monroe
• New Dawn for the Kissimmee River: Orlando to Okeechobee by Kayak Doug Alderson
• Citrus Growing in Florida by Frederick S. Davies and Larry K. Jackson
• Fodor's Florida 2010
• Birnbaum's Disney Cruise Line 2010
• Birnbaum's Walt Disney World For Kids 2010
• Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Dining Guide 2010
• Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Pocket Parks Guide 2010
• Birnbaum's Walt Disney World Without Kids 2010
• Open Road's Best of Walt Disney World & Orlando by Lisa Addison

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

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 © 2009, 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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