 DISCOVER ORLANDO
The city of Orlando is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. A 2005 U.S. Census Estimates population count gave the city population was 213,233 (metropolitan area over 1.8 million). It is the sixth-largest city in Florida, and its largest inland city. It is also at the head of the Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida, Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA is Florida's third-largest metropolitan area, behind Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. Additionally, Orlando is home to the second largest university in Florida, the University of Central Florida.
The city is well known for the tourist attractions in the area, particularly the nearby Walt Disney World Resort, which is in the Reedy Creek Improvement District . Other area attractions include SeaWorld and Universal Orlando Resort. Despite being far from the main tourist attractions, downtown Orlando has recently seen much redevelopment, with many more projects currently under construction or planned. One of the oldest attractions in this area is Gatorland. Orlando sees an estimated 52 million tourists a year. Orlando is the 2nd largest city in the country for number of hotel rooms. It is a leader in medical care and research, especially at Orlando Regional Medical Center, the only statutory teaching hospital in Central Florida.
The city's nickname is "The City Beautiful", though plans are underway to change this title through a local contest. Its symbol is the fountain of Lake Eola.
AREA ATTRACTIONS OF ORLANDO
The Orlando area is home to a wide variety of tourist attractions, including the Walt Disney World resort, Universal Orlando Resort, and SeaWorld Orlando. The Walt Disney World resort is the area's largest attraction with its many facets such as the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Studios, Disney's Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, and Downtown Disney. SeaWorld Orlando is a large adventure park that features numerous zoological displays and marine animals alongside an amusement park with roller coasters and water park. Universal Orlando, like Walt Disney World, is a multi-faceted resort comprised of Universal Studios, CityWalk, and the Islands of Adventure theme park.
Other attractions in the Orlando area include:
• Arboretum of the University of Central Florida
• Blue Spring State Park, which is the winter home of large numbers of Florida manatees that come upstream from the St. Johns River to bask in the warm 72 °F (22 °C) waters of the springs. Canoeing, swimming and fishing are popular activities at Blue Springs.
• Central Florida Zoological Park, located in Sanford on Lake Monroe. This 100 acre (400,000 m²) zoo is home to a butterfly garden, herpetarium, and numerous tropical animals. The zoo originally started as a collection in the Sanford Fire Department, but grew into a regional zoo in 1975. It is currently in the planning stages of expansion and renaming the facility to "Zoo Orlando at Sanford".
• Church Street Station, a multi-level shopping mall and entertainment center that once featured an abundance of specialty shops, restaurants, nightclubs, and bars. Purchased in the late 1990s by TransContinental Talent owner Lou Pearlman, it is now virtually defunct, as the area suffered in post-9/11 tourist-industry slump. The area is being redeveloped with residential condominiums.
• Cirque du Soleil: La Nouba, in Downtown Disney West Side, features its renowned blend of acrobatics and special effects with more than 70 artists from around the globe performing in a custom-designed, 1,671-seat theater.
• Cornell Fine Arts Museum, situated on the campus of Rollins College, features significant loans, recent acquisitions, and items from the Cornell's renowned permanent collection. Admission is free.
• Cypress Gardens Adventure Park, an amusement park opened in 1936. This park features beautiful botanical gardens, 40 rides, 5 roller coasters and a water park. But it is most famous for it lovely southern belles and world-reknown Ski Shows.
• Discovery Cove, a resort that is part of the SeaWorld Adventure Park complex. Some attraction features are tropical fish in a coral reef, snorkeling with stingrays, and interacting with birds in an aviary, as well as swimming and playing with dolphins during a half-hour session.
• Gatorland houses thousands of alligators and crocodiles. A few of Gatorland's residents have made wrangling appearances in movies, television shows and commercial spots. The 54 year old park combines a petting zoo, bird sanctuary, mini-water park, eco-tour and outdoor entertainment, including daily alligator wrestling.
• Hard Rock Café is the Orlando location of the famed restaurant chain with the typical HRC music memorabilia. There is also Hard Rock Live, a 3,000-capacity live music venue, and the Hard Rock Hotel, a resort hotel with a California-style restaurant called "The Kitchen". It is one of eight worldwide, and one of three in Florida. (Miami and Tampa are the other two.)
• International Trolley and Train Museum features 14 model railroad trains with sound and lighting traveling through an indoor garden with 12 foot (4 m) high mountains, waterfalls, and more than 30 trestles and tunnels. Also on display are toy trains from the 1920s to the present. Visitors can catch a ride in a California Victorian-style half open/half closed trolley or the 5/8 replica of an 1880 locomotive (a Mason Bogey) with its passenger cars.
• Kennedy Space Center is 45 minutes from Orlando and south of Daytona Beach. Visitors can tour launch areas, see giant rockets, "train" in spaceflight simulators, and much more. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is open every day except Christmas Day and certain launch days. Apart from the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Space Center bus tours run every 15 minutes with stops at an observation gantry and the Apollo / Saturn V Center. Other guided tours include NASA Up Close, Cape Canaveral: Then and Now, and Lunch With An Astronaut. Combo tickets offer maximum access admission, plus one guided tour.
• The Kerouac House, in the College Park neighborhood or Orlando, is where writer Jack Kerouac lived during the time his novel On the Road was published and released, making him a national sensation and Beat Generation icon. He lived in the house with his mother Gabrielle from July 1957 to the spring of 1958, and wrote his three-act play, The Beat Generation, a 51-chorus poem called Orlanda Blues, and the novel The Dharma Bums during his time there. In 1997, the Kerouac Project of Orlando formed, and restored the Kerouac house. It is now a haven for aspiring writers who can live in the house as they create their own work.
• Harry P. Leu Gardens, which is an inner city oasis covering 50 acres (20,000 m²) and features colorful annuals, palms, an orchid house, a floral clock and a butterfly garden.
• The World's Largest McDonald's PlayPlace, located on the corner of Sand Lake Road and International Drive, looks like a fry box from the exterior. The interior features an arcade with 60+ games with prize redemption, a 1950s room, a waterfall and a gift shop. The Bistro Gourmet at McDonald's features chef-prepared food, such as panini and deli sandwiches, pasta, soup, desserts, and hand-dipped ice cream, plus the standard McDonald's menu.
• Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, in Kissimmee. Six brave knights on horseback compete in tournament games, jousting, and sword fighting while guests dine on a medieval-style banquet.
• The Morse Museum of American Art, located at Rollins College, houses a permanent Tiffany & Co. exhibit featuring the world's "most comprehensive" collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany. It includes Tiffany art glass, jewelry, pottery, and the chapel interior designed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. There is also an exhibit on the Tiffany home, and American paintings from the 19th century. The museum was founded in 1942.
• Old Town, in Kissimmee, features eight restaurants, fifteen amusement park rides and 75 shops along its brick-lined streets. Classic car shows every Friday and Saturday feature hundreds of vintage automobiles. Admission and parking are free.
• The Orange County Regional History Center Features exhibits and artifacts from the earliest days of the region to the modern day. Includes information on everything from the time of the Seminole Indians to the founding of the city to the Civil Rights era to the Disney period to today.
• The Orlando Museum of Art, which has ongoing exhibitions of American portraits and landscapes, American impressionist works, and art of the ancient Americas.
• The Orlando Science Center, is a 207,000 square foot (19,000 m²) hands-on learning center with hundreds of interactive exhibits for visitors of all ages. Images surround visitors on the giant screen of the Dr. Phillips CineDome. Other attractions include the Body Zone, teaching health and fitness, as well as an observatory. The center has the largest refracting telescope in Florida.
• The Ripley's Believe It or Not! Orlando Odditorium is located in a building artfully constructed to appear as if it were collapsing to one side, which may be a sly reference to central Florida's infamous sinkholes. Visitors can explore bizarre artifacts, strange collections, weird art/hobbies and interactive exhibits in sixteen odd galleries. It is one of 27 Ripley museums in ten countries.
• Wonder Works A funhouse located on International Drive. Can be easilly indentified as an upside down white building.
• Wekiwa Springs State Park, which comprises around 700 acres (2.8 km²) of wild Florida. The springs pump out 42 million gallons of crystal clear water a day. Popular activities at the park include canoeing, swimming, picnicking and fishing.
• World of Orchids, featuring thousands of blooms in an enclosed tropical rainforest. World of Orchids is a working greenhouse shipping orchids and other plants nationwide. A greenhouse covers nearly an acre (4,000 m²), and in this controlled climate of warm, humid air some 1,000 orchids are displayed in a natural jungle setting, with streams, waterfalls, and squawking parrots. World of Orchids also has a 1,000 foot (300 m) long boardwalk meandering off into nearby wetlands. Admission is free.
• Wet n' Wild A large waterpark located just minutes from Universal Studios on International Drive
CLIMATE OF ORLANDO
Orlando has a warm and humid subtropical climate, and there are two major seasons each year. One of those seasons is hot and rainy, lasting from April until October (roughly coinciding with the Atlantic hurricane season). The other is a cooler season (November through March) that brings more moderate temperatures and less frequent rainfall. The area's warm and humid climate is caused primarily by its low elevation and its position relatively close to the Tropic of Cancer, and much of its weather is affected by the movement of the Gulf Stream.
SPORTS IN ORLANDO
Orlando is home to the Orlando Magic, an NBA pro basketball franchise that plays at the TD Waterhouse Centre in downtown Orlando. The team made it to the NBA Finals in 1995. The TD Waterhouse Centre, originally known as the O-Rena, has become a topic of local political debate. Opened in 1989, the TD Waterhouse Centre is one of the oldest arenas in the NBA, and many politicians, including Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, want to either renovate the arena or construct a completely new sports facility. The ultimate decision on the fate of the TD Waterhouse Centre is yet to be determined.
The Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League also play at the TD Waterhouse Centre. Since joining the league in 1991, they have become one of the legendary franchises in the young league, having an infamous rivalry with the Tampa Bay Storm, two ArenaBowl titles (1998 and 2000), and several historic moments including the league's only shutout to date and a procession called the Miracle Minute where they scored two touchdowns with two-point conversions and forced a safety to come from behind in the final minute of a game to win.
The Citrus Bowl is the home of the Capital One Bowl (formerly the Florida Citrus Bowl) and the Champs Sports Bowl (formerly the Tangerine Bowl). It also hosts regular-season football games for the University of Central Florida (NCAA Division I-A) and Jones High School, as well as the annual Florida Classic played between the NCAA Division I-AA Football teams from Florida A&M University and Bethune-Cookman College. It hosted soccer games for the FIFA World Cup '94 and the 1996 Summer Olympics when each were hosted by the United States.
The Orlando Renegades were a USFL team playing at the Citrus Bowl in 1985. They folded with the league in 1986. The Orlando Thunder were a charter team in the World League of American Football in 1991 and 1992. They lost the World Bowl to the Sacramento Surge in 1992. Like all other American teams, it was dropped in the World League reorganization of 1995. The Orlando Rage were a member of the XFL that played at the Citrus Bowl, and only played in 2001. That team has since been revived in the minor-league Southern States Football League (SSFL).
The Citrus Bowl was also the home of the fictional NFL team, the Orlando Breakers, which was featured in the last two seasons of the television sitcom Coach. The team was a plot device to reflect the 1995 addition of the Jacksonville Jaguars to the real-life NFL.
Orlando will gain an expansion franchise in the Major Indoor Soccer League for the 2007 - 2008 season. Orlando also will receive an expansion franchise in the American Basketball Association for the 2007 season. The team has been named the Orange Men. The Orlando Lions were a member of the third incarnation of the American Soccer League in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The Orlando Sundogs were a minor-league soccer team in the A-League that played in the Citrus Bowl. They were disbanded in 1997 after only playing one year. Presently, two lower-division association football(soccer) teams call Orlando home: the Premier Development League's (PDL) Central Florida Kraze, and Ajax Orlando. The Kraze won the PDL Championship in 2004, while Ajax (pronounced EYE-acks) is the only Amercian subsidiary of global soccer power Ajax Amsterdam of the Dutch Eredivisie (professional soccer league).
Tinker Field, named for baseball hall-of-famer Joe Tinker, is a historic baseball stadium next to the Citrus Bowl, currently out of use. It was formerly the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins (and the Washington Nationals/Senators before them) and AA Southern League affiliates of the Twins, Chicago Cubs and Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Cracker Jack Stadium, situated in the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex, is the baseball stadium that is currently used in Orlando. The spring training home of the Atlanta Braves, it played host to the games of the Pool D teams in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
Serious talk has been made on bringing Major League Baseball to Orlando. Current mayor Buddy Dyer said he would like to see it in the future. Orlando was a finalist city in the expansion for the 1993 season. Ironically, they were mentioned as a possible destination for one of the 1993 expansion teams, the Florida Marlins, during that team's investigation of new locations should Miami fail to build them a new baseball stadium.
Meanwhile, on September 7, 2006, it was announced that a local investment group had bought the Class-AA West Tenn Diamond Jaxx. They intend to bring the team to Orlando after the last two years of the team's current lease in Jackson, Tennessee, elapse, but further details will not be broached until the sale is finalized.
From Wikipedia.org, the Free Encyclopedia
 ORLANDO HOTELS & ACCOMMODATION
ORLANDO TOURS, TRAVEL AND ACTIVITIES
HOME •
USA •
DISCOVER •
FLORIDA •
Orlando •
Discover Orlando
|
Looking for something specific?
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT IN ORLANDO:
Orlando has been the home of several notable acts since the mid 1990s, including Britney Spears, NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, as well as Creed, Trivium, From First to Last, matchbox twenty, Seven Mary Three, DJ Icey, DJ Baby Anne and DJ Jimmy Joslin. Sister Hazel and Less Than Jake are from near by Gainesville, as is superstar Tom Petty.
The hip hop music scene, metal scene, rock music scene, Latino scene, are all active within the city and is largely home to the Florida Breakbeat movement.
Comedian Wayne Brady is also from Orlando, as is actor Wesley Snipes.
Orlando has also been called Hollywood East because of numerous cinematic enterprises in the area
|
An Alligator on the Wekiwa Springs Run in Wekiwa State Park
Entrance to Gatorland, Florida. Photo taken by Bobak Ha'Eri. February 23, 2006
|
DISCOVER THE U.S.A.
U.S.A. TOURS & TRAVEL
