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The park that started Disney’s Florida empire combines fantasy, adventure, and the future in a package of rides and shows that focuses on Disney movies and TV programs. (see The Magic Kingdom® Park).

Inquiring minds love this Disney park, which features technology in Future World and the culture, architecture and enticing food of 11 nations in World Showcase. (see Epcot®).

With five roller coasters, this park is a close second to Islands of Adventure on the thrill front. Roller coaster addicts rate the park’s Kumba ride very highly. Busch Gardens is also a step ahead of Disney’s Animal Kingdom (see Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Park) when it comes to spotting nature’s finest creatures, which are very visible here on the Serengeti Plain, Serengeti Safari Tour, and Rhino Rally ride. During summer don’t miss cool rides like Congo River Rapids and Tanganyika Tidal Wave.

This park, which recently turned 50, is chock-full of around 800 lurking alligators, honking for mates, and sometimes performing tricks. The gators don’t sit up and beg, but they do jump for food – raw chicken, to be exact, dangled over their ponds by a brave employee. Two hundred or so crocodiles are here to add diversity, as are snakes and other reptiles. The gator-wrestling show is an impressive must-see.

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).

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.

What Disney can do, Universal can equal. The movie and TV themes here can make people’s wildest dreams come true or worst nightmares a (special effects) reality. From Jaws to Terminator, the silver screen comes to life.

Universal’s top-of-the-pile theme park is a magnet for thrill jockeys, with some of the fastest, highest, and best rides in town. Be warned that 9 of its 13 rides have height or health restrictions, so it’s not for the young, weak of stomach, or squeamish.

You might be in land-locked Orlando, but you can still fulfil those tropical island fantasies of swimming with dolphins and snorkeling over coral reefs if you check in to Discovery Cove. The dolphin swim is the biggest draw (each session lasts about one hour), but the white-sand beaches, snorkeling opportunities in fresh and salt-water lagoons, and soothing beach-resort vibe elicits just as much praise. Admission is not cheap (largely because there are never more than 1,000 visitors daily), but you get almost everything you need for the day thrown in, including sun block, lunch, and snorkel gear, as well as a seven-day pass to SeaWorld. This secluded oasis is not for everyone – kids might miss the lack of thrill rides – but for a unique beach escape that doesn’t require leaving Orlando, this is the place.

Its laid-back pace, educational angle, and animal actors make this a popular stop for those wanting a break from the lines and stifling crowds at other parks. (see SeaWorld Orlando).

You may have to wait in line a while before pedaling your bicycle past fantastic scenery and characters.

The appeal of man in space has turned America’s No. 1 space center into a stellar attraction complete with live shuttle and rocket launches.

Head here for authentic Greek and Lebanese food, especially Zorba’s platter, the chicken and beef kebabs, couscous and falafel

Smoked meat is the name of the game at this family joint. The sauces to put on range from mild to killer hot.

Melt-in-your-mouth steaks are the focus of this award-winning, family eatery, but ribs and fried chicken are also popular. There’s a great breakfast buffet, too.

Suitable for families, the endless buffet isn’t fancy, but offers value for money and there’s bound to be something for everyone.

Tasty seared steaks are the headliners here; choose from rib-eyes, strips, fillets, and porterhouses. The Outback also serves good smoked ribs, shrimp and chicken over fettucine, rib-and-chicken combos, pork chops, and hamburgers.

Charley’s uses an Indian cooking method, yielding steaks that are charred outside, juicy inside.

This jungle-themed restaurant provides noisy fun and a California-style menu. The mixed grill includes barbecued ribs, soy-ginger steak skewers, chicken breast, and peppered shrimp. Kids get their own special menu, the cartoon-like decor is good fun, and a “volcano” erupts every now and then.

Land a whopper on fishing trips into the Gulf of Mexico. Commonly caught species include grouper, amberjack, and red snapper. Alternatively, there are sightseeing excursions that offer encounters with dolphins, sea birds, and, on occasion, manatees.

Choose from themed tours, including gator-watching, lake ecology, and Native American constellation tales, aboard this six-passenger pontoon boat.

Horses steal this show. Several breeds such as chiseled Arabians and muscular Belgians thunder through a performance including Wild West trick riding, chariot races, a little slapstick comedy, and bareback daredevilry. Horse fans can pet the four-legged stars after the show.

Like a backdrop in an old horror movie, this funhouse takes the form of a spooky castle atop a giant skull. It’s even better lit up at night.

It all began in the 1930s when a couple of inebriated sportsmen returning from a weekend hunting trip thought it would be funny to put live ducks in the Peabody Hotel’s lobby fountain. The joke stuck and now the original ducks’ descendants are local celebrities. They march down from their penthouse at 11am, via the elevator, and return at 5pm.

This exhibit’s 200 artifacts include a real life jacket and an old deck chair, which were both recovered from the wreckage of the fateful liner, as well as the Titanic’s second-class passenger list. The attraction also has full-scale re-creations of some of the ship’s rooms, including its grand staircase, as well as memorabilia from three major Titanic movies – including one of the costumes worn by Leonardo DiCaprio. Actors in period garb play out events that occured on the fateful journey, telling the story of the White Star Line’s supposedly unsinkable ship. Most of the artifacts came out of private collections from both the United Kingdom and the USA.

Settle into the 1930s and visit Al Capone’s notorious speakeasy, a place where pseudo-mobsters and their molls entertain guests with a lot of song and dance. The all-you-can-eat buffet offers pasta, sausage with peppers and onions, baked chicken and ham, vegetables, potatoes, and whatever beer, wine, coffee, iced tea and sodas you care to drink.

Operating out of historic Sanford, this 1946-built triple-decked boat offers daily “eco-dining” cruises along the scenic St. John’s River. It’s a truly civilized way to catch a glimpse of the Florida that tourists rarely see.

A third of a mile south of Outlet World is this 200,000-sq-ft (18,580-sq-m) strip mall offering nearly 50 decidedly upscale retailers. Fashion-conscious shoppers (both locals and tourists) flock here to cruise the well-stocked outlets of Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor, Kenneth Cole, Saks Fifth Avenue, Fossil Watches, Donna Karan, Coach, Nine West, Movado, and many others.

Orlando’s newest outlet mall is this terrific 110-store complex located just across I-4 from the east entrance of Disney World. It boasts high-end designer outlets by Versace, DKNY, and Barney’s New York, as well as a mix of popular brands including Nike, Timberland, and Banana Republic.

This branch of Belz is not only the largest and oldest factory outlet mall in Orlando, it’s also one of the largest in the U.S.A. Located at the north end of I-Drive, the complex features more than 170 outlets in two fully enclosed malls and four annexes. The best stores focus on mid-line brands such as Nike, The Gap, Oshkosh B’Gosh, Puma, Dockers, Reebok, and Calvin Klein.