Take children to theme parks of Florida. and other Florida, FL Things to Do Tips

Theme Parks of Walt Disney World, Sea World and Busch Gardens, and the two Universal studios, Splendid China and Cypress Island are an excellent places to take your children to on their vacations. We recommend taking children during their winter breaks (in south asia and Middle East winter and spring breaks are either in December or January, in Canada the spring breaks are in 1st week of March), because we feel it can be very exhausting in the summers.

Also we suggest not taking extremely young children and toddlers to the amusement park, because they do not enjoy the activities for an extended duration of time. Best age would be 5 and older.

The picture is of a Rhino that we saw through Kilimanjaro Safari at WDW Animal Kingdom. The park was on priority list of my husband and son.

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Directions: Spread over Orlando - Kissimmee and Tempa.

National Geographic, in its issue of March 2007, has reported that this attraction declared bankruptcy in 2004. We were shocked at reading this.

Splendid China was less known, but certainly a very interesting theme park. It featured 60 detailed, miniaturized reproductions of historic Chinese landmarks. The best carved was The Great Wall of China replica, which was 1/2 mile (0.8 kms) long. The park also offered live entertainment by Chinese acrobats, jugglers, dancers and storytellers that was liked by our children. Its was non-stop session and did not let us get bored.

Chinese merchandise (slighly expensive) and food was available. We bought a piece of plush carpet that was admired by people back home. Chinese herbal tea was a must sip.

We would have recommended one whole day for the experience. Admission tickets were economically priced at US$ 18 per head (adult).

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Phone: (407) 397-7111
Address: 3000 Splendid China Blvd, Kissimmee, FL 34747
Directions: The park was located at about marker 6 on US 192 near Clarion Hotel Maingate West.
Other Contact: Fax: (407) 397-8845

This WDW Park opens up earliest compared with other parks and closes earliest too.

When we visited Animal Kingdom, it was chilly in the morning, but soon turned to a hot and a sweaty day. We had to then carry our wintery jackets in our hands.

The best activity here was the Kilimanjaro Safari Express (please see pictures). The truck was exactly like the safari trucks of the East African national parks. The animals were mostly out, which let us take many pictures of them.

Another must do - watch the demonstration 'Flight of Wonder' at Animal Kingdom (please see the pictures).

An amazing group of birds display their wonderful natural behaviors in this live show of 'edutainment'. Don't miss it, as it is a scheduled program.

Also popular with us was a hike through various ecological zones and seeing animal and plant life making it home (please see the travelogue). We also took a train to the farm animals (petting zoo) section where our children were amazed to see how the domesticated animals actually looked.

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Address: WDW's Animal Kingdom.

Visit WDW Magic Kingdom for a whole day. We took ferry ride from the parking lot to the park.

This WD Park is a child's dream come true. Here, you can have the following activities:

1. You can get your photograph with beautifully dressed and a very cordial Ariel.

2. See the parade of all WD cartoon characters - Aladin, Jasmin, Micky and Minnie, and others. However, try to get to the Hollywood Avenue a little before the parade starts to get the highest point (see picture).

3. You can visit Minni's little home (see picture in Minnie's Kitchen):

4. Take a river or a jungle cruise (see the picture)

5. Attend a show at Cinderella's Palace by all WDW characters (see the picture)

Other must do activities: Pirates of the Carribeans, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, ExtraTerristrial Alien Encounter (which turned out to be too horrific for little Rayyan), Fantasia, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

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Epcot: Must do activities - Ellen's Energy Adventure and Dazzling Fireworks - 'IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth' at World Showcase Lagoon.

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Which is better, mgm or universal? I would say its a matter of lifestyle and personal taste. MGM is what my husband calls edutainment, i.e. a combination of education and entertainment. From home videos and marketing videos about universal, we concluded it was much more fun than education and fast paced for slow-goerz like us.
I also thought that for first time vizitors to orlando and for kids of all ages, Disney would always remain prime attraction. Non-Disney attractions will appeal to return visitors to the area. And return visitors to this tourism capital of the world will be many.
For us and our kids, the Disney-MGM studios backlot tour, the magic of disney animation and epic stunt specatacular of Indiana Jones were all education and entertainment. At MGM, one would also find a show that is impossible to find any where else - Walt Disney, the man who was willing to bet everything to realize his dreams. One can then walk through a hall devoted to Walt Disney's memoirs, where amongst other things, we were amazed to see the affection between Walt Disney and his elder brother Ron that should be exemplary for this age of sibling rivalries.

Must do activities: Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Walt Disney: One Man's Dream and Fantasmic Live show of all Disney characters.

Unfortunately, Suhail forgot to take his camera. We were left with Ifrah taking few pictures with her toy camera. The roll stuck and we were finally left with only 3 shots - one of them is posted here.

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Address: WDW Resorts

The 30,000 square foot conservatory claims itself as the "world's largest permanent exhibit of rare and exotic orchids in flower year-round". It has waterfalls, tropical trees and flowers, koi ponds, some exotic birds and frogs.

After a walk through the park that can become a bit tough under hmid conditions of Florida even in Jnauary, one can head for indoor nursery and buy dome exotic indoor plants and even reptiles.

When we visited the park in January 2002 to ease our otherwise busy schedule at the Walt Disney parks, the entrance was free.

A word of caution: The controlled environment made photography very difficult and we had to resort to flash, which bounced off our faces when we tried to capture the backgrounds.

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Directions: For the World of Orchids, take the properly marked road going South between marker # 10 and 11 on US 192 near the Clarion Hotel, Maingate West.