Florida Central

Of course, families visiting Kissimmee and Orlando will visit the Theme Parks in Florida. One word of warning, before you visit a Theme Park in Florida or one of the many Florida attractions, it may be best to pop around the local Dollar Store and purchase a waterproof poncho, especially if you are visiting in high season, as for around one hour per day, you are likely to have torrential rain (nature's air conditioning).

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DISNEY WORLD

The best known of all the theme parks in Florida and Florida attractions has to be Walt Disney World, a park which is the size of Manchester city. The theme park consists of Magic Kingdom, here you will meet Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and all the other favourite Disney Characters. EPCOT (experimental prototype community of tomorrow), MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Water Parks are a popular Florida attraction and Disney water parks include Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

For a peaceful day or an exciting night, Downtown Disney, a popular Florida attraction,is well worth a visit. Planet Hollywood, Virgin Megastore, unique shops, theatres, shows, restaurants and the largest Disney Character Store anywhere in the world all make up Downtown Disney. The complex comes comes alive at night when Pleasure Island, a party animals paradise opens it's doors. Parking and entry are free into Downtown Disney.

UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

Universal Studios is my favourite of all the theme parks in Florida. Universal, to my mind, offers such a variety of entertainment that every person in your party will be enthralled, no matter what their age. Every time I visit I come across a street show which I have never noticed before. Universal Studios has extended it's park and now includes Islands of Adventure and City Walk. A word of advice, once you park your car it is a long!! walk to the entrance of the parks in sweltering heat, however, Universal deals with it quite well, as all the way, you are treated to music blasting out from Blues Brothers (a show not to be missed) Beetlejuice Review (again, excellent entertainment), and many others. Disabled visitors might like to note that it may be best to hire a wheelchair. In March, and again, in April of 2000, I took my, as then, 85 year old mother to Florida. I had hired a wheelchair for our arrival at the villa, which she was furious about (very independent woman) but we did need it for Universal. Universal, unlike Disney, has no transport laid on from the car park into the entrance of the park.

On entering the park, pick up a guide book, this gives you starting times of the various shows. After missing Blues Brothers a few years running due to inclement weather, I found out that the show is held in Pat O'Briens pub, just opposite 'The Orphanage' if it should happen to rain

SEA WORLD

Sea World offers a lovely, tranquil setting, that is, so long as you don't sit in the first 15 rows of the Shamu, Killer Whale Show. I made the mistake of doing this once as I thought, ' oh well, I'll get wet, I'll soon dry off in this heat ' Believe me, nothing prepares you for the sudden soaking of gallons of ice cold water aimed from a single flick of a Killer Whale's tail. Spend the day in Sea World getting up close to manta rays and dolphins. Watch hilarious, family shows such as the Clyde and Seamore Show or try out the rollercoasters,Journey to Atlantis and Kraken.

Sea World, as does Universal offer a ticket upgrade on leaving the park. Simply take your one day pass, costing approx $50 per adult to the booths adjacent to the exit and you can upgrade to next day entry for approx $15.

THEME PARK PASSES

We would recommend Theme Parks R Us Wesite for purchase of theme park tickets. GreatOrlandoDiscounts is owned and operated by Billy Boy's Tickets, a contracted and authorised ticket broker for Walt Disney World Tickets. Billy Boy's is situated on Highway 192 and tickets can be ordered by clicking on the links at the top and bottom of the page. A reputable company with tickets at discounted prices. A currency converter can be found on our Golf Courses page, if required.

On our first visit to Florida, in 1990, we purchased a 5 day family pass  for the theme parks in Florida but found, for us, that it was money wasted as we are a non swimming family and the tickets included entry to the Water Parks. As we were only in Florida for 14 days and had so much to see and do we never did manage to use up all the days on the theme park ticket. For a family who enjoys Water Parks though, the 5 day pass will probably be good value, but best to arrange them prior to travel through a reputable agency like Ticket Momma or Billy Boy's. You will also notice booths in the Kissimmee / Orlando areas advertising 'Free Disney Passes or 2 tickets for Disney $20' These passes are genuine but you will have to be prepared to sit through a 'presentation' which may last for a few hours, extolling the virtues of Timeshare Ownership in Central Florida, not really a good idea if you have kids who actually want to go visit the park 'RIGHT NOW!!!'