?Destination: Walt Disney World? Resort, Universal Orlando, and Central Florida
Sneakers? Check. Sunscreen? Check. Hat, backpack, theme-park multi-day pass? Check. Once you choose to vacation in Never Land, it's never too soon to begin strategizing. Because no one truly "escapes" to the magical world of Disney without fine-tuning a game plan. Armed with your map and provisions -- snacks, water bottles, sport drinks -- and you're ready to outmaneuver the pixie-dusted millions who visit Walt Disney World Resort each year.
Walt Disney World
Many people are surprised to learn that Walt Disney World is not a theme park. Instead, it's a huge complex of assorted diversions, including not one theme park but several, along with resort hotels, shopping and entertainment complexes, golf courses, and water parks --several of each genre.
The Magic Kingdom -- What most people imagine to be Walt Disney World -- the Magic Kingdom -- actually is a small, but standout, part of it. Similar to California's Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom is the wellspring of Mickeymania and the most popular individual theme park in the United States, welcoming millions of visitors every year. For so many of us who have grown up with Cinderella, Snow White, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Davy Crockett, and Pinocchio, it's one of those magical places "so full of echoes, allusions, and half-memories as to be almost metaphysical," according to renowned travel writer Jan Morris. It's the site of such world-famous attractions as
Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, and?
It's a Small World.Epcot: Discovery Central: Designed to promote enthusiasm for discovery and learning, Epcot is an entertaining mix of multimillion-dollar attractions, live performances, and diverse dining and shopping experiences. Adventures like Universe of Energy, complete with life-size dinosaurs, fire up the family's curiosity quotient and ignite every child's Jurassic spark. Rides like Test Track and Body Wars ratchet up the thrill factor. Epcot covers everything from our land to our seas to the cultures of various nations -- a sweeping combination of amusement park, world's fair, and class-act entertainment venue. The 40-acre World Showcase Lagoon separates its two main areas: -- anchored by the trademark 17-story silver geosphere known as -- where the focus of activities inside nine landmark pavilions is on discovery and the fascination of science. Don't miss the funny, often startling, 3-D film and special-effects attraction
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in the
Imagination! pavilion. In the second major area of Epcot,
World Showcase, you can tour a good part of the world, minus jet lag, via 11 architecturally realistic pavilions that represent cultures and tastes of nations around the world.
Universal Orlando
Universal Studios-Ride the Movies: Hard to believe, but Universal Studios has been open for 10 years now, so even its cutting-edge attractions are approaching their teens. The latest arrival is
Men In Black Alien Attack, which is a ride-through shooting gallery where you fire lasers at aliens hiding throughout the darkened streets. At the opposite end of the thrill spectrum,
Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster is a recently added roller-coaster ride that's sedate enough to suffice for the young'uns.
Islands of Adventure: It's hard to describe Islands of Adventure as a theme park, since there are so many themes running around. Regardless, the lowdown is that they've added an element of excitement to most rides. The screamfest begins at
the Incredible Hulk Coaster and continues at the double coaster known as
Dueling Dragons, and people are still shrieking like babies at the
Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man. There are plenty of opportunities to get wet, too: climaxes in a splashy 85-ft plunge;
Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls, the first flume ride with an underwater portion, soaks every rider to the skin, as does
Popeye Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. Little ones have a land all to themselves:
Seuss Island,where they can enter the world
of ?One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and
Cat in the Hat. SeaWorld Orlando
It's the animals who are the stars here. Sleek dolphins perform like Kerri Strug, and orca whales sail through the air like featherweight Nijinskys. The world's largest zoological park, SeaWorld is entirely devoted to mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles that live in the oceans and their tributaries. Every attraction is designed to teach visitors about the marine world and its vulnerability to human use. Yet the presentations are always enjoyable, and almost always memorable. The highlight is
Shamu Stadium, where you can see Shamu and his sidekicks propel their trainers into the air like Saturn-bound missile.
Busch Gardens
Wildlife at its chest-thumping best is the specialty here: Busch Gardens Tampa is one of America's leading legitimate zoos as well as a great theme park. Going eyeball-to-eyeball with a Western Lowland gorilla will please any budding Jane Goodall. Plus, there are spectacular roller coasters and other thrill rides: the twisting
Kumba; the inverted
Montu, whose cars are suspended from the track rather than placed on top of it; the
Tanganyika Tidal Wave,whose 55-ft drop is an outrageous way to test zero gravity; and the new
Gwazi, twin racing wooden coasters.
Cypress Gardens
A botanic garden, amusement park, and waterskiing circus rolled into one, Cypress Gardens is uniquely Floridian. Here flowers bloom in colors as kitschy as those of vintage tinted postcards. A 45-minute drive from Walt Disney World, the park encompasses 233 acres and contains more than 8,000 varieties of plants gathered from 75 countries. Amid all these sylvan glades are a bevy of hoop-skirted southern belles, a mammoth walk-through butterfly conservatory, and the
Water Ski Stadiums, home to those amazing aquatic revues. Even the cerise-and-cerulean sunsets look color-coordinated with the cypress-draped canals. For fans, this is Florida at its Technicolor best.
