City Commissioners agreed at it’s Tuesday meeting that the move to keep people safe was prudent when asked for direction from city staff.

“It’s hard to see where we’ll be in (about six weeks), but even in Phase 3 there will be restrictions on gatherings and some social distancing,” City Manager Mike Steigerwald said. “There’s no gates or fences into the area so there’s no way to regulate the number of people who can come in.”

The cities of Orlando and Altamonte Springs had already decided to cancel their very popular July 4th celebrations.

Short discussion of still having the fireworks without an event ended when officials reasoned that people would still gather if they knew there’d be fireworks ahead of time.

Commissioner Felix Ortiz manages Three Sisters Speakeasy on Broadway in downtown, and his business would benefit from trying to have some sort of event, but agreed with the consensus.

“It’s the right thing to do. It’s too close (to the recent stay-at-home ordinance),” he said. “This is the smartest and healthiest thing to do.”

The post No rockets red glare this year over Lake Toho: Kissimmee cancels July 4th celebration appeared first on Positively Osceola.

Travel for the holiday is expected to rise 4.1% over last year, with an additional 1.9 million people planning road trips and other vacations to celebrate America’s birthday. The 2019 Independence Day holiday period is defined as the five-day period of Wednesday, July 3 to Sunday, July 7, which is actually one day shorter than last year.

Lower gas prices than last summer, a strong economy, sustained low unemployment, powerful consumer spending, and increasing disposable incomes are all motivating consumers to allocate some of their hard-earned money into travel this summer.

Fun-in-the-sun locales like Orlando and Honolulu lead the top 5 list of popular destinations for American travelers this Independence Day, based on advance AAA Travel bookings:

Orlando, Florida
Honolulu, Hawaii
Seattle, Washington
Las Vegas, Nevada
Anaheim, California

“As Independence Day approaches, it’s time for the much loved family road trip and this year will be one for the record books, with more Americans than ever planning vacations,” said Paula Twidale, vice president, AAA Travel. “This holiday builds on the strong travel demand seen for Memorial Day, and with schools now out of session across the country, families coast to coast are eager to travel.”

For the 41.4 million Americans traveling by automobile this Independence Day, INRIX, in collaboration with AAA, predicts drivers will experience the largest amount of congestion on Wednesday, July 3 as commuters mix with holiday travelers.

Automobiles: The vast majority of travelers – 41.4 million – will hit the road, the most on record for the holiday and 4.3% more than last year.

Planes: 3.96 million people will fly to their destinations, the highest number on record and 5.3% more than last year.

Trains, Buses and Cruise Ships: This travel sector will increase by 0.6% to 3.55 million passengers.

According to Trevor Reed, transportation analyst at INRIX, a global mobility analytics company, “Although travel times are expected to nominally increase throughout the week, hands down, Wednesday afternoon will be the worst time to be on the road.”

With today’s national average of $2.66, gas prices are 19 cents less year-over-year and expected to drop even lower into the summer. This is motivating record numbers of travelers to take road trips for the holiday weekend.

• The 2019 Independence Day holiday travel volume of 48.9 million will be the highest on record, since AAA began tracking holiday travel 19 years ago.
• 2019 will be the sixth consecutive year of travel growth during the Independence Day holiday period.
• Automobile travel will increase for the sixth straight year to 41.4 million motorists, the most on record.
• Air travel volume will rise for the 10th straight year and will be the highest travel volume on record for this mode of transportation, reaching 3.96 million this year.
• 3.55 million people will use other modes of travel (including bus, rail and cruise ship), an increase of 0.6% and the highest volume via these modes since 2007.
• The 2019 Independence Day holiday period is defined as the five-day period of Wednesday, July 3 to Sunday, July 7.

The post 2.6 Million Floridians are Planning to Travel for the Independence Day Holiday, AAA Says appeared first on Positively Osceola.

One thing is certain, if you should choose to witness the rocket’s red glare at one of our local theme parks you should prepare to deal with crowds. Here a list of July 4th firework shows at Walt Disney World and SeaWorld.

Disney always does everything big and they even have the soundtrack to match. At the Magic Kingdom this is one of two times a year that you can see Celebrate America -Fantasy in the Sky (a special fireworks show that has 360 fireworks around Bay lake) that takes place for the Fourth of July and for New Year’s Eve. Disney’s fireworks begins on July4th at 9:15pm. Magic Kingdom will be open until 1am on July 4^th, making for a full day of world class entertainment, but make sure to head out early as Magic Kingdom can reach capacity early on July 4^th and will use a system to giving guests staying on property and annual Passholders priority as space becomes available. For the past few years Magic Kingdom has been known to reach capacity for July 4th as early as 10am, so be sure to arrive to the park early and be prepared to create memories that will last a lifetime.

There are other parks at Walt Disney World that are also great places to spend your 4^th of July. EPCOT also has a special tag at the end of illuminations: Reflections of Earth as they give a firework solute to America on July 4^that 9:00pm. Fireworks will go off behind the America pavilion after Illuminations along with a patriotic soundtrack.  Epcot will be opened until 9:00pm. If you want to celebrate at Disney, but avoid the larger crowds, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will have two Fantasmic shows at 9:00pm and 10:30pm and their Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular firework show will go off at 10:00p before the park closes at 10:30pm.

SeaWorld is another great choice to spend the Fourth of July, and if you choose where you sit in a splash zone you might just get  splashed and enjoy a quick cool down! Check out the new night time shows – Touch the Sky, Sea Lions Tonight, and the always exciting Light Up the Night at Shamu stadium for a uniquely contemporary show before heading over to Bayside Stadium for the ultimate Dance party at Club Sea Glow. You’ll meet larger than life surprises while working on you best dance moves to techno beats.

The night culminates with “Ignite” at 9:30pm, a spectacular show of water effects, lasers and fireworks. In years past there has even been a patriotic tag in the show with an additional fireworks display. As SeaWorld closes at 9:30pm you’ll walk away having learned a few new cool dance moves while having just helped to protect the well-being of animals in the park and around the world.

If the theme park scene is not your thing for this year then don’t forget that there are many local events happening throughout Osceola County on July Fourth.  Regardless of what your plans are, all of us at Positively Osceola wish you a happy and fun filled Fourth of July!

The post Enjoy 4th of July Fireworks at Our World Class Theme Parks appeared first on Positively Osceola.