traveldk.com

Lights, camera, action! Movies, TV shows and stomach-churning thrill rides come together in a theme park that sometimes also serves as a working studio.

A park that combines front-of-house fun with behind-the-scenes explanation.

This interactive, indoor theme park is divided into four zones and entertains adults as much as it does kids. Highlights of the Explore Zone include Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold, and Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride. The former puts you on the deck of a two-master schooner to play cat-and-mouse with foul-playing pirates and foul-smelling sea monsters. Aladdin’s Magic Carpet involves wearing a virtual reality helmet and taking a ride through the 3-D Cave of Wonders in search of the genie. In the Score Zone, it’s all about testing your game-playing skills. Don’t miss the Extraterrestrial Alien Encounter where you get to fly a space ship and blast gigantic robots, or the Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam, a life-size, sure-fire hit for pinball fans. The Create Zone unleashes the designer within: build your own roller coaster (and then ride it in a simulator), or take a short course in cartooning at the Animation Academy. The Replay Zone is filled with games where for an extra charge, you can win tickets that can be redeemed for prizes you can live without. Crowds are worse after lunch.

Disney’s newest resort resembles a South African game lodge in a semi-circular kraal (compound). Rooms have an African theme and some have views of a wildlife-filled savanna.

Visitors are brought face to face with the wild world of animals, but this kingdom’s spacious environmental design doesn’t always offer a front-row seat. (see Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Park).

Disney’s fourth Orlando park is a place where elusive animals roam. (see Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Park).

This re-created 1940s seaside village is Disney’s smallest deluxe hotel. The rooms are delightfully quaint; if you want more space, villas are available too. It is ideally located for all the facilities and buzz of the BoardWalk.

Almost an accidental attraction, this is a re-creation of a 1940s seaside resort, complete with street performers, carnival games, great restaurants and bars. The ESPN Club is the perfect spot to draw on a beer and catch a major-league game on big-screen TVs.

By night, this “seaside” boardwalk is thronged with guests enjoying the buzzing vibe and some great restaurants and clubs.

Pete Dye’s Disney design challenges even the best golfers, with dish-shaped fairways, large sand traps, and pine straw rather than grass in the roughs. Sixteen of the 18 holes have water hazards, due in part to the natural wetlands which line this course. (Max yds: 6,772 [6,192 m]. USGA rating: 72.3.)