MORE PHOTOS FROM FT. MYERS BEACH



 Flowers and vegetation at the sand edge near the walkway to the beach.

Looking south toward Bonita Beach.

Sanderling.  They are fun to watch, running in and out as the waves come in.

Ruddy turnstones, looking for something to eat.

Great white egret, tri-color heron, and sandpiper in the lagoon near the resort.

Note the pelican in the lagoon.  He just gulped down a fish.

2011 Wed. Jan. 26
Lunch here, then we went to Celebration to Starbucks for coffee and an old-fashioned donut - my favorite. We sat in the sun, watched some guys fishing (but not catching!), and walked around lake 1. Next was a stop at Wal-Mart for Linda to do some shopping while I sat and read my book. When we left, there was a fire truck just in front of the store. Then we saw a pickup truck had run up onto the hood of a parked car. I wonder if someone was pulling into the facing parking spot and somehow hit the accelerator instead of the brake. There was no ambulance, so I hope no one got hurt. Home for supper.
FL WEATHER: High 70, low 42, breezy, mostly sunny.
FL NEWS: Disney aims to wring more revenue from new ship:Arguably the most innovative new feature on the Walt Disney Co.'s Disney Dream cruise ship is the "magical porthole." Installed in all of the 4,000-passenger ship's windowless interior cabins, the round, high-definition video screens offer real-time views of the sea — and occasional surprise visits from Peach, the starfish from Finding Nemo, or Mickey Mouse as "Steamboat Willie." That addition has allowed Disney to command significantly higher rates for its interior cabins, which are typically the cheapest rooms on a ship. Interior rooms on the Disney Dream are selling for 60 percent more than similar cabins on Royal Caribbean International's Freedom of the Seas and 78 percent more than Carnival Cruise Lines' Carnival Dream — both of which, like the Disney Dream, are based at Port Canaveral. The Dream's pricier Verandah rooms, by contrast, are selling for a 25 percent premium over Royal Caribbean's and a 66 percent premium over Carnival's. Boosting such spending will be vital if Disney is to recoup its more than $1.8 billion investment in the Dream, which departs on its maiden voyage Wednesday, and the Disney Fantasy, which will set sail early next year. The Disney Dream is not only larger than the Magic and Wonder (Disney’s older ships), it is also laid out more lucratively. For example, 1,100 of the Dream's 1,250 staterooms — or 88 percent — are outside cabins offering occupants views of the ocean. That's up from a little more than 70 percent of the rooms aboard the Magic and Wonder, each of which has a total of 877 cabins. More significantly, 72 percent of the Dream's rooms have verandas, compared with just 41 percent on Disney's first two ships. Rooms with private balconies are the most coveted on a cruise ship; they typically garner rates 50 percent to 60 percent higher than interior rooms. Thanks in large part to the improved cabin mix, the Dream is commanding an average nightly rate of $233, according to Goldman Sachs' research. That's 24 percent more than the $187-a-night average on the Magic.