Let me guess if I say Orlando the first thing that comes to mind is theme parks right? I mean you can’t exactly ignore Mickey and the gang, but there’s actually more to Central Florida than Disney and the other theme parks. Yes Orlando fun is possible without the theme parks. We just drove down from Jacksonville, and we had a great time all while skipping the huge lines, and crazy high prices from the parks.
Orlando is a default vacation spot for us. Why? Orlando is fun. There’s a ton of hotels and compared to many other cities they’re pretty reasonably priced. It’s not hard to snag a room for under a hundred bucks. So that in itself is a good deal. Not to mention if you check you can find many hotels with water slides, or heck water parks. Hotels can actually be the main attraction in Orlando. This past trip we stayed at the Delta Hotel in Celebration. It’s actually a Marriott property, but it’s not as nice as some of Marriott’s other properties, but it has a waterslide!
So, here’s our itinerary for the three days we were in Orlando. Remember this trip was intentionally sans the mouse! Day 1:
Day one was Museum of Illusions Orlando. This place was pretty cool. I was there and still have no idea how some of these illusions happened. Using light and mirrors they’re able to trick the brain into seeing something that’s not quite real. I have a teenage daughter so it was Instagram worthy. My favorite picture is one where it looks like she’s floating in the air. Actually now that I think about it there were two like that. Everyone that saw our pictures said the same thing, “wait how did you do that.” The museum is in a great location. There’s a ton of restaurants so you’re able to grab lunch and there are other things to keep your attention as well. For example there’s a huge Ferris wheel, an aquarium, and a wax museum. You could spend several hours there. They have combo tickets if you’d like to engage in several of the attractions. Tickets for the Museum of Illusions are $24.99.
Day 2:
Day 2 we drove about an hour west when we went to the zoo in Tampa. Now Jacksonville, where we live has a zoo, and there’s a zoo in Orlando, but Tampa’s Zoo looked pretty cool so we decided to check it out. I’m so glad we did. One thing that helped Zoo Tampa stand out was the fact that it had rides. How cool is that. They had a cute baby roller coaster(which was enough for me), and this really cool splash ride, which is exactly what we needed considering it felt like it was over 100 degrees at the zoo. We also enjoyed going on their mini safari. Being Floridians we loved their wild Florida exhibit. That’s where they have animals native to the sunshine state. There were other animals there too, many of which were rarer. Right now, my daughter has a thing for manatees, so we both loved the manatee exhibit. It’s in area that’s air conditioned. It was pretty cool because again it was unbearably hot, so being able to cool off and watch these gentle giants up-close was a treat. Tickets are 44.95. https://zootampa.org/tickets/
Day 3:
Being in Orlando as much as we are we’d seen advertisements for Medieval Times, but I never thought to visit until a friend recommended it. I figured we’d like it, but, my daughter really loved it! Come on where else are you going to witness knights jousting! I wasn’t really sure what to expect. We had a three course meal. No silverware, but there was Pepsi, wet naps and garlic bread.
Our first course was a tomato bisque. The iron bowl had a handle so we could I guess drink it. After that we had our main course which was chicken, sausage, and half a potato. Dessert was an éclair. The food was ok. It was enough to get full, but of course the main attraction wasn’t the food, it was what was happening in front of us! Initially the knights all on horse back were engaged in different games for which we cheered for our kingdom. Then it got a bit more aggressive. And for some reason there was a falcon. Again it was fun, and it was definitely memorable. https://www.medievaltimes.com/orlando
So as you can see we spent three days in Orlando, and didn’t even remotely miss being at the theme parks. All three of our activities were around the price of one theme park ticket by the way. Oh, on a previous trip we visited Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures. It was awesome. Not only did we see gators, but we found ourselves mining for rocks. So, keep them in mind also for your next trip to Orlando, if the theme parks aren’t on your list.