From: nemo@chameleon.cis.ufl.edu (Richard Newman-Wolfe)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: Orlando without Mickey
Date: 12 Jan 93 20:52:23 GMT
Organization: Univ. of Florida CIS Dept.

In article <C0Dxty.EJw.1@cs.cmu.edu> jcm+@CS.CMU.EDU (Chris McGlone) writes:
>The family unit and I will be heading to Orlando in April for a conference.
>....  Is there life in Orlando outside of Disney? The NY Times had a 
>short article which mentioned an art museum--how is it? What's the best
>beach within a reasonable drive?  

Orlando is Florida's attempt to create California driving conditions ;-)
There are some excellent things to do there, including:
	Theme Parks -
		SeaWorld (fun for the whole family - animal acts and displays)
		Cypress Gardens (great water-ski shows, variety of gardens) 
		Universal Studios \ / these have "movie rides" like a monorail
		MGM Studios       / \ on which you are grabbed by King Kong.
					I have been to neither.....
		Wet and Wild - fun in the water
		Epcot Center - mock-ups of international locales, not as 
			hokey as DisneyWorld, get reservations for dinners.
			Also many technical displays in a theme park format,
			such as 21st century agriculture, communications, etc.
	Music, etc.
		Lake Buena Vista - part of the Disney thing - has many top
			notch jazz, blues acts.
		Church Street Station - a street set up like turn of the
			century New Orleans, lots of variety in music, 
			food, shopping.
		Pleasure Island - part of WallyWorld Complex, I believe there
			is one cover charge and half a dozen nightclubs with
			a wide variety of music.  My brother-in-law loves
			this place.
	Food - Orlando has some excellent restaurants.  A favorite
		Indian resaurant is the Darbar (go west on Sand Lake
		road about a mile past I-4, turn right on Dr. Phillips Rd.
		and take an immediate left into the Marketplace (?) shopping	
		center.  Head for the clock tower, and the Darbar is next
		to it.  Somewhat pricey for Indian, but .85 probability of
		excellent food and .6 probability of good service).  The
		Indian faculty here have a high opinion of the place.
	Water - There are several large springs near Orlando, including
		Wekiva State Park (a little north), Homassasa Springs, and
		Weeki Watchi (both private and to the west), Silver Springs
		(private, 1.5 hours to the north).  These have various ways
		of "enhancing" the natural beauty of the springs and 
		activities you can do (ride a jeep through wild animal park,
		ride a glass-bottom boat over the springs, see reptile 
		shows, mermaid shows, etc.).  The springs themselves are
		incredible, and the water is around 70 degrees F year round.
	Beach - Due east is the Atlantic, which is still pretty cold this
		time of year (in the 50's or 60's, I expect).  There are a
		string of beaches along the Atlantic shore between Cocoa and
		Melbourne.  Many are public and have good access.  Just take
		the Beeline Expressway for the 30-40 mile shot to the shore.
	KSC - The Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral is a fun place,
		check to see if there are any shots going on while you are
		in the area.
	Birding - If you are into birds, just north of the Cape is the Merit
		Island National Wildlife Refuge/Canaveral National Seashore.
		There are large numbers of waterfowl in the area.  Bring
		binocs and a guide book.  The shore parts are closed for
		a month before any launches, but the inland waterway parts
		remain open.  Besides, near the south entrance to the park
		is the Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant, reason enough
		to go there!
		Within Orlando, there is the well-hidden Audubon House,
		a home for injured raptors.  It is in the north part of 
		town (Winter Park or Maitland, I think) and is home to
		many owls, eagles, hawks, etc.  They are really set up
		more for rehabilitation than for tourists, which I find
		desirable after the packaged world of Disney.
-- 
Richard E. Newman-Wolfe                   (904) 392-1488/392-1220 fax
CSE-301, CIS Department, University of Florida       nemo@cis.ufl.edu