ORLANDO GETAWAY GUIDE

Walt Disney World visitors to get in free on their birthdays

Next year everyone will be able to come to a Walt Disney World's theme parks on their birthdays and get in free.

Theme Park Ranger: Party with Shamu after dark

SeaWorld Orlando's summer push is on the horizon with a new ski show and a returning favorite in the works.

Theme Park Rangers: Finding a quiet retreat at Disney's Animal Kingdom

When I need a break from the sun or the teeming masses at Disney's Animal Kingdom, I have a hideaway in the shadow of the park's Tree of Life. It's a ledge bench that faces the tranquil Discovery River and for a moment, everyone and everything else — including the Expedition Everest coaster — seems far, far away.

SeaWorld AfterDark

SeaWorld Orlando has this extended summertime hours thing figured out. Naturally, theme-park guests will linger longer and later when given good reason, so the SeaWorld AfterDark promotion offers fresh reasons — entertainment not available during the day.

attractions theme park ranger

Dewayne Bevil: Proof there were tourists before there were theme parks

If you can't visualize Central Florida before water parks, roller coasters or a certain castle, you should see the latest permanent exhibit at the Orange County Regional History Center.

Universal Studios Florida

It's always been the place where you can "ride the movies," but Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida is also much, much more. In addition to the exciting rides, you can learn the secrets of movie-making when you go behind-the-scenes at a number of informative attractions.

Disney World travel guide

Disney cruises are pure magic, even when your day isn't

We tried to have a bad time on our latest Disney Magic cruise. Really, we did.

How to keep track of kids in a theme park

Let's consider the Five Ways to Avoid Losing Your Kid at a Theme Park.

Walt Disney World for adults

Walt Disney World is, after all, a small world. Which means strollers. Baby strollers, toddler strollers, singles, doubles, triples. Some with balloons. (Here's a game: See how many crying urchins you can photograph in an hour. anything less than 20 and you aren't trying.

New Simpsons Ride gives Universal Studios patrons a taste of Springfield

We stand before the two-story-high clown head. Krusty beckons us to enter the mouth, which doubles as the entrance to Krustyland, the fictional theme park that's the centerpiece of the Simpsons Ride, the just-opened $30 million attraction at Universal Studios.

Disney for grownups

OK, boys and girls, including all you chiffon-wearing princesses -- it's time to go to your rooms and close your eyes and dream of whatever it is little darlings dream about these days.

Orlando's best themed hotels

Everyone knows Orlando's theme parks are a world unto themselves. Where else can you pose for pictures with a talking mouse or rocket upside-down at speeds that would draw the ire of police officers on any normal road? But beyond the allure of the parks, another world of themed fun awaits. Orlando's hotels have grown into more than just places to sleep or have breakfast between roller coaster rides. Many of the area's resorts have become vacation destinations in their own right.

Drive north a bit for authentic sunshine

North Central Florida is a region ripe for discovery, especially if you're eager to experience a Florida as authentic as prickly pear jelly. Imagine a day bracketed by pancakes bubbling on a griddle and barbecue that hits its mark better than a Hank Williams tune. In between are trails through diverse landscapes, a riot of kitsch and a river crossing like no other.

Boat tours offer taste of gators, good life in Orlando area

There are alligators and waterfowl aplenty in the Dora Canal today, but it is a water moccasin that steals the show. There it is, folded like trail switchbacks into a groove in a cypress log, its brown-red color blending with the wood.

Orlando's miniature golf scene: The putts stop here

Folks call it Goofy Golf, Pee-Wee Golf, Putt-Putt, Miniature Golf, Mini Golf and probably other things in different regions of the country.

Winter Park: Park Avenue shopping sans New York traffic

What about a little summer shopping in Winter Park? This is the time when many of the shops on Park Avenue lure customers with sales. Like the 50 percent off section at Lucky Brand.

Top Florida marine park destinations

Looking to beat the record heat? Cool off at one of Florida's marine parks, from swimming with dolphins at Key Largo to diving with sharks in Tampa Bay.

Lake Helen: New innkeepers, same fine inn

There's been an important name change to note on the Florida Bed & Breakfast trail. Clauser's Inn in Lake Helen, north of Orlando, is now known as the Ann Stevens House Bed & Breakfast. Ed and Helene Gracy have replaced two of the most active innkeepers in the state -- Marge and Tom Clauser.

Nickelodeon hotel features favorite characters and lots of green slime

I consider myself something of a hardened, jaded reporter. I was gassed during the raid to seize Elian Gonzalez. I spent weeks watching officials look for hanging chads during the 2000 presidential recount. I've seen more gruesome autopsy photos than the combined CSI casts.

THE TOP 10 SPRINGS

Spring time in the summer

While the summertime heat in Florida keeps our body temperatures on the rise, nature also provides us with a soothing way to cool down.

Historic Cypress Gardens reopens as a less-expensive alternative to theme parks

Think of any get-away to Central Florida and mega theme parks come to mind -- particularly if you're planning to take the kids.

11 ways to enjoy Winter Park

Hugging the shores of interconnecting lakes, Winter Park is a quaint enclave of 24,000 residents, an artists' haven, college town and vacation retreat all rolled into one. Located about five miles north of downtown Orlando and best-known for its Tiffany treasures, the town has a peaceful ambiance, with winding brick streets shaded by vine-draped oaks, subtropical trees and flowering plants including azaleas, bougainvilleas and fragrant jasmine.

5 tips for having the most fun at Disney World

"We've got a bear in a floppy hat at 1 o'clock!" I cry, scrambling the calm of our Frontierland stroll.

B&B complex has history and charm

Standing in the leafy garden of the Courtyard at Lake Lucerne, with its tropical foliage and the sound of water trickling from fountains, I find it hard to believe the spot was once a parking lot.

Camping out with Mickey Mouse

Here in the land of make-believe, where theme-park creators can launch you into space, take you on safari and spin you through a fantasyland of flying elephants, there's another novel experience to be had.

Mount Dora: Heaven for antique hunters

A mecca for collectors, this quaint town has more antique stores per square foot than most places in Florida. Located 25 miles northwest of Orlando, via U.S. 441, it is a lovingly preserved, frozen-in-time town (pop. 8,000) with a dozen turn-of-the-century buildings clustered around its downtown shuffleboard courts, including the eerily exuberant Steamboat Gothic Donnelly House straight out of a Charles Addams cartoon.

Ten best dinner attractions to extend your Orlando fantasy

It's been a long day at Central Florida's theme parks and you are tired and hungry, though still ready for another dose of fantasy. Head for one of the many themed diners in Kissimmee and the surrounding area. They are fun and family-friendly, so parents and grandparents can bring the kids without a second thought.

Winter Park provides travel outing off the trendy trail

For my first visit to Florida, I had only one requirement. I didn't want the experience to be one big theme park. No problem, as it turned out; I was sent there to work, at a trade show in Orlando. With my colleague Dwayne, a landscaper and avocational botanist, I flew in a couple of days early to seek out remnants of a low-tech, untrendy, offbeat Florida.

Old Florida survives in Arcadia

It's becoming increasingly difficult in this state to find lil' ol' hideaways, places that really fit the overused phrase, "Florida the way it used to be."

Bok Tower and Gardens is spot for a serene Central Florida getaway

Bok Tower and Gardens in Central Florida is a quietly beautiful, serene sanctuary for birds and people. Visitors enjoy just wandering around the paths, looking at the flowers and foliage and feeling tension drain away. It's a great stress-buster.

Road rules for Disney with kids

In much of the United States, most kids wouldn't their childhood slip by without trying to persuade their parents to take them to Walt Disney World in Orlando.

The lord of the flies

The prime parking spot in front of the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame still is reserved. The bronze sculpture depicting the late Boston Red Sox slugger sitting in uniform on a bench remains undisturbed, save for two small American flags that have been placed in its grasp. Since Williams' death on July 5, the museum has attracted thousands of fans looking to pay their respects.

An oasis in downtown Orlando

There are not many inns in the state, or the country, sitting smack dab in the center of a major metropolitan area, but downtown Orlando has one, or rather four of them, called collectively the Courtyard at Lake Lucerne.

Tiffany chapel worth the special trip to Winter Park

The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, just north of Orlando, has the world's most comprehensive collection of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany. I'd make a special trip to see just one of the treasures there: An entire chapel that Tiffany designed for the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago has been reassembled and restored to all its glory.

Lasting charm of Winter Park hotel makes it well worth the drive

The Florida innkeeping industry is not plagued by the here-today-gone-tomorrow problems of restaurants. There are many inns, in large towns and little settlements, that have been pleasing an escape-hungry clientele for years and years.

Chalet Suzanne a real high spot in Lake Wales

Chalet Suzanne in Lake Wales is my choice for Florida Inn of the Century. Greeting guests for 70 years of that century, it's listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places and has been owned and operated by the Hinshaw family ever since the Depression, when the indomitable Bertha Hinshaw turned her home into an inn and hammered her simple, hand-made "Chalet Suzanne -- Lake Wales" signs on trees and fence posts around the country.

Lake Helen: Clauser's captures spirit of settlers in peaceful setting

Florida's country inns escaped the ravages of summer's flames and floods, but several came close to total disaster, including a Victorian charmer tucked into a forested yesteryear in Lake Helen, a few minutes from the spiritualists in Cassadaga and only seven miles from DeLand.

Holyland theme park

Now that the furor has died down about some covert plan to convert Jews, it's possible to look at Holy Land Experience as its owners wanted people to: As another theme park in Orlando. How does it stack up?

Ex-astronauts help launch Epcot ride, give it thumbs up

The last time astronaut Charles Bolden Jr. vaulted from the Earth was in February 1994 when he was commander of the space shuttle Discovery.