In This Issue Welcome Visa Waiver Program Manta Ride Book Review - Fodor's Florida books Great Orlando Wheel Free Monthly Desktop Wallpaper July events Weather forecast

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

This month some important news about changes to the Visa Waiver Program, more details of the new Manta roller coaster ride at SeaWorld and a new attraction for Orlando scheduled to open in 2010. See below for more details.

Chronicles of Narnia

To coincide with the film release of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian", a new attraction is opening at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Situated between Walt Disney: One Man's Dream and the newly opened Toy Story Mania!, Soundstage 4 is now the home to Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian. More details next month.

More Airline Baggage Surcharges

Following American Airlines lead, United Airlines and US Airways have announced they will also start charging $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second on domestic flights.

From July 1, Southwest Airlines will be the only US domestic carrier that does not charge for two checked bags. At this time, international flights are exempt from these surcharges.

Feeding Pelicans Ban

As of July 1, it will be an offence to feed pelicans at Florida's docks which will be classed as a low-level misdemeanour and subject to a $500 fine or 60 days in jail.

The ban is aimed primarily at commercial fishing boats throwing scraps overboard when cleaning fish and tour boats trying to encourage wildlife alongside.

As with most wildlife, you should not feed them as it encourages them to associated humans with food and whilst it can be a minor inconvenience with small animals and birds, it is potentially dangerous with larger animals like alligators and bears. Only last month, an 18 year old found out to their cost when they went swimming in a canal and lost an arm to an 11 1/2 foot alligator.

Future Space Shuttle missions

NASA successfully completed their next mission to the International Space Station with the Space Shuttle Discovery but when Discovery blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center, the exhaust gases from the rocket engines severely damaged the flame trench area of launch pad Launch Pad 39A.

NASA are confident that the flame trench can be repaired in time for the launch of the next shuttle which is the Hubble Space Telescope repair mission. Any further delays in the schedule could jeopardise the completion of all missions to the International Space Station before the shuttles are retired in 2010.

To read more about NASA launches, click here.

Florida books published in July

Another relatively quiet month when it comes to Florida books but over the next couple of months, the annual publishing of the major guide books like Fodor's, Frommers, Birnbaum and the Unofficial Guides will start. Still this month we have:

• Backyard Birds of Florida by Bill Fennimore
• Do You Know the Florida Gators?: A hard-hitting quiz for tailgaters, referee-haters, armchair quarterbacks, and anyone who'd kill for their team
• Florida (This Land Called America) by Teresa Wimmer
• Florida Insight Travel Map
• Fun and Simple Southeastern State Crafts: West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida by June Ponte
• Haunted Florida by Cynthia Thuma and Catherine Lower
• Raising Cane in the 'Glades: The Global Sugar Trade and the Transformation of Florida by Gail M. Hollander

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

In June 2008, the US Department of Homeland Security announced some upcoming changes to the current visa waiver program; a pre-travel authorisation process for visitors from visa waiver program countries, known as the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).

This is another part of the continual tightening of law enforcement and security measures for visitors to the USA.

From August 2008 visitors to the USA from visa waiver countries who do not hold a valid visa will be able to register online before making their trip to the USA. This registration will effectively replace the green I-94W form that visa waiver visitors have to fill in on the plane or boat before landing in the US.

When the scheme is introduced it will be voluntary but is expected to become mandatory from January 12, 2009.

To read more about changes to the Visa Waiver Program including how you can register online, click here.

Following a teaser announcement during the official opening of Aquatica in April 2008, SeaWorld gave further details in late May 2008 of a new themed attraction and roller coaster planned for SeaWorld Orlando.

To be called "Manta, Ride the Flying Ray", the new attraction will open in the Summer of 2009 and will be SeaWorld's second real roller coaster to complement Kraken and the part coaster/part water ride Journey to Atlantis.

The new Manta attraction is in two parts, a themed village environment housing a large number of tropical fish and rays and a state of the art roller coaster ride.

SeaWorld have coined the phrase "from seeing to being" to emphasise how you can view the beauty of how rays swim in the water and then experience the same type of flight yourselves on the roller coaster.

To read more about the new Manta roller coaster ride at SeaWorld, click here.

Fodor's publish over 300 guide books to destinations throughout the world including Florida, Walt Disney World and Caribbean cruising: Unlike the Unofficial Guides, the Fodor's Guides are richly illustrated with colour photographs.

If you are looking for an "official" guide book (for Walt Disney World) then you should consider the Birnbaum books, alternatively, there is also various books from Frommer (Frommer's Complete), the Unofficial Guides and Passporter.

To read more about the various Fodor's guide books to Florida, Walt Disney World and Caribbean cruising, click here.

The Great Wheel Corporation of Singapore have announced plans to build a giant observation wheel on International Drive close to SeaWorld and the Orange County Convention Center to be called the Great Orlando Wheel.

The ride will last about 30 minutes and will give visitors a 25 mile panoramic view of Orlando including all the nearby theme parks including SeaWorld, Universal Studios and Walt Disney World.

It will also provide a great platform to watch the evening firework displays and even launches from the Kennedy Space Center. The Great Orlando Wheel will be some 400 feet tall and is scheduled to open in 2010.

The wheel will have 24 air-conditioned, glass capsules approximately 38 by 16 feet in size. Each capsule will hold around 40 people, similar to the famous London Eye on the banks of the River Thames.

July and August 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 July 2008 (Clearwater Beach) and August 2008 (Bok Tower) 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 July or August 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...

The big event in July is of course Independence Day on July 4th. For details of many of the Independence Day celebrations throughout Florida including all the main theme parks, click here.

Other notable events in July include racing at the Daytona International Speedway including the Brumos Porsche 250 for the Rolex Sports Car Series, Winn Dixie 250 Powered by Coca-Cola and the 50th Annual Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola race.

The Sounds Like Summer Concert Series continues in the open-air America Gardens Theatre at Epcot with a number of tribute bands including tributes to ABBA, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Elton John and The Supremes.

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

July will be hot throughout the state with temperatures a little above normal in the North West and plenty of thunderstorms, sunshine and clouds.

In the north around Pensacola and Jacksonville, on the west coast daytime temperatures will be in the high 80s/low 90s and the nights will be in the low/mid 70s. On the east coast daytime temperatures will be slightly higher in the high 80s/mid 90s but at night it will slightly cooler in the high 60s/mid 70s.

Across the Central region, it will similar with high 80s/low 90s during the day dropping to low/mid 70s over night.

Down in Miami and the Keys, daytime temperatures are similar with high 80s/low 90s during the day and low 70s/low 80s over night. It will also be very humid

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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