Holiday round-up: Celebrating at Disney World, Discovery Cove

July 1, 2016, 6:58 PM · The Walt Disney World Resort is celebrating summer — and the opening of its Disney Springs shopping and dining district — with a "Grand Opening Summer Celebration." In addition to entertainment throughout the four Disney Springs "neighborhoods," several stores in the district will be offering opening summer specials, which are listed on the Disney Parks Blog.

One of the new stores in Disney Springs is the Coca-Cola Store Orlando, which opens Saturday. Inspired by a 1920s Coca-Cola bottling plant, the store will sell a variety of Coke-themed souvenirs, including some handmade products crafted from recycled materials. Visitors can sample various Coke products in a rooftop bar (including, yes, the infamous Italian Beverly). And in August, the Coca-Cola Polar Bear will begin making meet-and-greet appearances.

And here's some more good news for Walt Disney World visitors:

SeaWorld Orlando's Discovery Cove is celebrating its "Sweet 16" birthday with a big giveaway. The grand prize winner will get a trip for 16 to Discovery Cove, including round-trip airfare to Orlando, two nights' accommodation, and a VIP package to the park, including a swim with bottlenose dolphins as well as admission to SeaWorld and Aquatica. If you're at least 18, you can enter once a day between now and August 14 at DiscoveryCove.com/Sweet16.

Europa Park's Pegasus, on Coastiality

Finally, if you liked that 360-degree visit through Tokyo Disney Resort that we linked last night, download the "Coastiality" app from Germany's Europa Park. The app, which can be used with Google Cardboard, allows you to choose from four virtual reality trips on two of the park's roller coasters: Alpenexpress and Pegasus. You can choose to download or stream the rides and to use VR glasses or not. Europa Park promises to add more rides in the future and will start selling official "Coastiality" Cardboard VR glasses in the park, for €9.90, by the middle of this month. I download the app by searching for "Coastiality" on Apple's App Store.

Replies (1)

July 4, 2016 at 2:59 PM · A trip for 16? Geez, I'm having a hard enough time trying to get together a trip for 4 that I won.

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