The IAAPA Convention Returns
to Orlando:
What to Do When You’ve Nearly
Done it All.

By Kevin Moffett

Orlando wasn’t founded in 1971, the year Walt Disney World opened, though it might sometimes feel that way. Look beyond the amusement parks and past International Drive and you’ll find a vibrant, albeit sometimes overmatched, city with long-established museums, restaurants, and natural attractions. With the IAAPA convention in town for the next few years, some IAAPA members may be looking for a chance to spend an afternoon exploring downtown or meandering around central Florida; see the site where the city hall building stood that Mel Gibson and Danny Glover leapt from moments before the explosion in Lethal Weapon II; have your fortune read in a city full of psychics; or see crocodiles wrestle lightweights.

At the Parks and Beyond

Body Flight Skyventure is new to me. For $35 you can “fly” on a column of pumped air, creating the feeling of parachuting a few feet above the ground. For another $16 the Skyventure people will film you in the act. Look for the strangely shaped building (like the rocket-end of the Space Shuttle) across the street from Wet ‘N Wild just off International Drive. For more information call 407/903-1150.

Step through a giant alligator mouth into Gatorland, an old-school Florida attraction that has been around since the 1950s. I saw the “Gator Jumparoo” show when I was a kid, and the sight of those big, lazy reptiles jumping out of the water to snap up hunks of chicken is still burned into my brain. There are also “Gator Wrestling” and “Snakes of Florida,” a primer in how to identify poisonous snakes (“red on black: get back, Jack”). Gatorland also sells alligator meat. For more information call 800/393-JAWS.

I don’t know why I like Splendid China, but I do. Its exhibits include a miniaturized version of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and displays on Chinese architecture and history. There are also shows, a gift shop, and a good restaurant (which serves Chinese food, oddly enough). It’s a bit too expensive at $27, but worth a trip. For more information, call 800/244-6226.

I think Universal Islands of Adventure is about the greatest amusement park in the world. Actually, the park feels more like five separate parks rolled into one. Jurassic Park, Lost Continent; Seuss Landing; and Marvel Super Hero Land are the best. Be sure not to leave the park without going on The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, a ride an English professor friend of mine declared was better than Hamlet.

You know about Disney, you know about Busch Gardens, but do you know about Old Town? Of course you don’t. Old Town is neither old, nor a town, just a bunch of fun specialty stores (International Sock Exchange, Union Jack British Goods) and low-fi rides. It’s in Kissimmee, south on International Drive, just across the I-4 highway from Disney World.

After you’re done there, drive west on Highway 192 to Disney’s uber-community Celebration. World-renowned architects Phillip Johnson and Cesar Pelli designed some of the “town’s” buildings, but the place still has a sterile, preplanned vibe—Georgian and Colonial houses, eerily similar to one another, all close to the road, and styled with white window dressings, as per Disney code. Some of the area’s best restaurants are nearby, though, including Café d’Antonio (Italian) and the Columbia Restaurant (Spanish).

The Great Outdoors

When Walt Disney bought his San Francisco-sized patch of swampland for $200 an acre in the late 1960s, Bok Tower Gardens had been open for more than 40 years. A fair haul from Orlando, it remains one of Florida’s most beautiful places, a lush 128-acre botanical garden that gives visitors an idea of what Florida was like before clear-cutting, dredging, paving, golf-coursing, etc. The park is covered in magnolias, ferns, palms, live oaks, and an actual hill, the highest peak in Florida. “A more striking example of the power of beauty could hardly be found, and better proof that beauty exists could not be asked for,” said well-known landscape architect William Lyman Phillips in 1956.
There’s also the Singing Tower, a 200-foot-tall marble and coquina bell carrillon that chimes every half-hour above the lily pond, as well as a 20-room mansion on park grounds that’s available for tours. Bok Tower Gardens is south of Orlando on Highway 17-A. For more detailed directions and other information, call 863/676-1408.

On that classic 1980s tele-drama “Miami Vice,” when Crockett and Tubbs needed to go deep into the swamp to chase down cocaine smugglers or alligator poachers, they’d take an airboat, a chance for protracted shots of Don Johnson in sunglasses, hair a-blowing. Airboats these days are quieter and possibly more eco-friendly. Orlando is surrounded by a cypress swamp, and the best way to see all the alligators, turtles, herons, roseate spoonbills, and other Dr. Seuss-looking birds is aboard an airboat. Rentals are less expensive than you’d think, about $20 an hour for a six-person boat. Two companies that rent them are Boggy Creek Airboat Rentals and Guide Marker 15. For more information, call 407/847-3672.

Florida, most of which sits on an enormous aquifer, is also home to thousands of natural springs with year-round 72-degree water and varying activities. Some have underwater caverns for scuba diving; some rent inner tubes for lazy drifting; and some feature that posterchild of gentle cumbersomeness, the manatee, AKA the sea cow. Near(ish) Orlando are Blue Spring State Park, Wekiva Springs, and Rock Springs. For more information, call 904/736-5309.

Museums, Psychicvilles, and Other Oddities

It’s no secret that few people come to Orlando strictly for its cultural offerings, but Loch Haven Park, three miles north of downtown, has some interesting museums. The Orlando Museum of Art, 407/896-4231, and the Orlando Science Center, 407/514-2000, are both nearby. The museum has a permanent collection of pre-Columbian artwork and Meso-American painting, and the Science Center is a great place to bring children. It’s a $44 million building with tons of interactive exhibits and a CineDome theater/planetarium with the world’s largest Iwerks domed screen.

A few miles away in Winter Park is the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, named after one of the founders of Orlando. Exhibits include an assortment of Tiffany lamps from area homes, far less boring than it sounds. You can also hunt for jewelry and upscale clothes and gifts on Park Avenue, where there are also plenty of good restaurants and cafés, including Brazilian Pavillion, Sage, and The Briarpatch, all situated in areas prime for people-watching.

North of Winter Park, in Maitland, are four museums worth checking out. The Maitland Art Center showcases an array of artists’ work spaces collected around a garden courtyard with artwork for sale. Nearby there’s also the Maitland Historical Museum and the Telephone Museum. The latter displays a collection of vintage telephones dating back to 1910. The Florida Audubon Society’s Center for Birds of Prey is an operating rehabilitation facility with an education center and cheap tours. For more information, call 407/644-0190.

Feeling adrift spiritually? No need to drown your sorrows in another pitcher of frozen margaritas and Ms. Pac Man when you can go to a town of experts specializing in matters otherworldly. Cassadaga, population of about 100, was established in 1875 by northern clairvoyants, and now it’s a normal-enough-looking hamlet that just happens to be inhabited by psychics. An hour session runs about $100, with varying degrees of palm-touching and tea-leaf-gazing. Drive east on I-4 about 30 miles from downtown Orlando and follow the signs. The Universal Center claims to have the best psychics around. For more information, call 904/228-3190.


Where to Eat on International Drive and Beyond

If you get annoyed by an over attentive waitstaff, or by themed restaurants, or those eateries that require you or someone you know to sing before you’re allowed to eat, no need to go hungry. Here are a few alternatives for stress-free dining.

Near downtown Orlando, there’s Le Coq au Vin, which offers reasonably priced French fare, low-key service and a killer dish of chicken and mushrooms in burgundy wine; call 407/851-6980. As you’re rubbing your eyes before the show, grab a delicious breakfast at the cheap, fast, and efficient J.P.’s Everyday Gourmet, where you can feast on the signature creation, crepeggs—a light crepe filled with fluffy eggs and your choice of toppings; call 407/841-5544. Also in the neighborhood is the Wall Street Cantina, which offers a mix of cuisines—Italian, Mexican, American and Southwestern. Try the burgers, and check out the live music at night; call 407/420-1515.

Around the International Drive area, there’s Ran-Getsu of Tokyo, a great Japanese restuarant located just a few blocks from the Orange County Convention Center. Out front is a coy pond lit by hanging paper lanterns and inside is the “longest sushi bar in central Florida”; call 407/345-0044. Also look for Bahama Breeze (great seafood, over-eager service, 407/248-2499); and Cricketers Arms (British food and beer, soccer on large-screen TVs, 407/354-0686) for casual eats and drinks. both on International Drive. Worth the drive to Dr. Phillips Boulevard is Christini’s Ristorante Italiano, with great service, better food, and prices to match. The menu features decadent dishes such as gnocci in gorgonzola sauce and old-fashioned treats such as broiled veal chop with sage and Calvados applesauce; call 407/345-8770.

Also worth looking into around International Drive: Café Tu Tu Tango (eclectic, 407/248-2222), Timpano (Italian, 407/248-0429), Ming Court (Chinese, 407/351-9988), and Damon’s (barbecue, 407/352-5984).

All right, just this once: California Grill at Disney’s Contemporary Resort is really good. There’s more than 100 wines available—by the glass—and a well-assorted menu; call 407/939-3463).