The Other Orlando

Walt Disney World is not the focus of this blog, but you might be interested to know that MouseFest, the biggest gathering of Disney nuts in the world, has thrown in the towel for 2009, seemingly a victim of it’s own success. Details here.

The Peabody Hotel, which I covered in depth in SeaWorld, Discovery Cove & Aquatica, is making progress on its new tower addition. Now the project is finally under construction and well under way, and this time — in the middle of the worst recession in decades — hotel officials say the timing is actually right. [...]

The Zellwood Sweet Corn Festival is throwing in the cob after 35 years. Big Bertha — a 6-ton, 350-gallon water-boiling behemoth that can cook 1,650 or so ears of double-sweet corn in just nine minutes — will be steamless and unemployed this year, for the same reason so many humans are getting pink slips. “It’s [...]

SeaWorld is now announcing Manta for Memorial Day. Actually, a few days early on May 22. The video above (aptly described by SeaWorld as a “teaser”) is long on fish and short on coaster, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless. If I’m reading the iconography of the video correctly, the ride will have an effect similar [...]