ruadisneyfan2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 20, 2006
My friend has been to Discovery Cove a few times and loved it, although it's pricey. We've been to Sea World a few times there. We have also driven out to Kennedy Space Center from Orlando about an hour drive. If they want to stay by the pool though maybe better to stay in Orlando at a super great hotel with an awesome pool? I wonder if Orlando has a cool downtown area? I've never looked but maybe there may be some good restaurants in a downtown type setting? You could go to Disney Springs for some restaurants even though not staying at Disney unless totally avoiding all things Disney this trip.
Another vote here for KSC. We did the Up Close tour and I was really only doing it because my mom and dh wanted to go. My parents don't usually come with us so I felt rude to just lay by the pool. lol. Well, I enjoyed it a LOT more than I expected. Our kids were only 6 and 9 at the time and they had a good time. I think they would appreciate it more now that they're older and can understand how limited NASA's technology was back then.
As far as a "cool downtown Orlando" I would ask some locals. On a visit to Universal once we had a rental car and decided on a WDW day and got on I-4 in the wrong direction. We exited and then dh decided to look for a quick breakfast stop. We passed a prison then found a McDonald's. Going through the drive-thru the employee stated:
"How did you end up here? Lock your doors and windows and don't get out of your car for ANY reason and get right back on I-4. Don't even get out to eat your food."
This was a strange McD's that did not have indoor seating but just some picnic tables outside, which we would have sat on to eat but after she said that we figured it might be good advice to just get the heck out of there. Of course this doesn't mean all of Orlando city is dangerous but we didn't FEEL like we were in a bad neighborhood except for some bars on some windows but compared to parts of Philly where you KNOW it, this didn't seem so bad. She sounded as if the locals eat tourists at any opportunity. lol.
Anyway, I'm sure some locals could tell you of where to go and where not to go.