2010 March 14 Sunday
After breakfast, we went to Super-Target to get a few groceries, buy another book for each of us, and do our Starbucks thing. I now have enough points on my Starbucks card to get free refills and also two hours of free WIFI. That’s good, because the resort only has WIFI in the lobby and pool areas, not in the rooms. But the one in Target doesn’t have it, so I’ll have to go to the one in Celebration to use it. After lunch here, it was so nice we decided to go to Disney’s Boardwalk again. The temperature was perfect, but it was windy again. We walked around, sat on a bench and watched people, went to ‘Beaches and Cream’ (cute name) and got root bear floats, and ate them at a table watching kids in the pool at the Beach Resort. At Boardwalk, there is a small lake that you can walk around, with lots of shops and restaurants. Also, (besides the Boardwalk resort) there are two other large resorts. As you might expect, the Beach Resort has a nice little beach on the lake, and a terrific swimming area. There are lots of ducks on the lake, and we saw one swimming in the pool. Then we saw two baby ducks! Very cute. Then we went on a 45-minute boat ride. It’s a shuttle that goes on the lake and on two ’river’ branches off the lake. We walked along one of the branches that goes to Disney’s Epcot park, boarded there, rode along with stops at Boardwalk Resort, Yacht Club and Beach Resorts, Swan and Dolphin hotels, and Disney’s Movie Studio park. People get on and off, but we stayed on until we got back to Boardwalk. Home for supper, early to bed.

WEATHER: High 73, low 54. Nearly perfect, except still windy - 20 to 25 mph wind. The week still looks good, with only a 20% chance of rain on Wednesday.

FL NEWS: (1) “DISNEY EMPLOYEE STRUCK, INJURED”
A Walt Disney World employee broke his leg Sunday afternoon after he was struck by a guest driving a car at the Tomorrowland Speedway in the Magic Kingdom, authorities said. The unidentified employee was airlifted to Orlando Regional Medical Center in stable condition. The accident occurred just before 1 p.m.. Disney temporarily closed the attraction but re-opened it less than three hours later. The gas-powered ride vehicles used in the Tomorrowland Speedway have top speeds of 7 mph.
(2) “RACE-TRACK OPERATOR AT DISNEY MAY RAISE AGE LIMITS”
The Richard Petty Driving Experience, which operates a race track at Walt Disney World, says raising age limits to exclude children from driving or riding in its stock cars is “a definite possibility” if Florida lawmakers don’t re-instate parental waivers this spring. The Experience has become a flashpoint in a year-long lobbying battle between Florida’s tourism industry and the state’s trial lawyers about whether to overturn a December 2008 state Supreme Court ruling that found parents do not have the authority to sign away their children’s civil-lawsuit rights before they participate in potentially dangerous commercial activities.
That’s because Richard Petty last year lowered the age limit, from 16 to 14, for its ride-along experience at Disney World where guests get to ride in stock cars at speeds of up to 165 mph — a high-profile contradiction to claims that the court ruling would lead many businesses to exclude kids from activities. The move provided fodder for lawyers who charge the tourism industry with exaggerating the potential consequences of the court decision in order to build support for reinstating parental waivers. In the fourteen months since the ruling, a handful of businesses around the state say they have been forced to make changes. But other prominent tourism businesses that have been lobbying to overturn the decision, including Disney World and SeaWorld Orlando, haven’t made any adjustments to activities that require waivers.
Richard Petty spokesman and Chief Marketing Officer Mark Bartelli said their decision to lower the age limit was already in the works when the company found out that Florida’s highest court had invalidated parental waivers. “This was a business decision made independent of the ruling,” he said. “When we became aware of the ruling, we decided to monitor the legislative response and revisit the decision once that played out.”