On September 21-23 Sally and I went to Orlando to see Sea World, the Orlando Malls, IKEA and the Arabian Nights dinner theatre. We went this time of the year because the Orlando parks are uncrowded and inexpensive this time of year.
We used kayak.com and hotels.com to book our hotel and found a great deal- The Hilton Garden Inn. It and the Renaissance Hotel are the 2 closest hotels to Sea World, and we got it for $47 per night- a great deal. It was a 10-minute walking distance to Sea World.
Sea World opens at 9 a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. We were able to see every attraction in the park (except the roller coasters and Atlantis Bayside Stadium- which was out of service) during that time frame with no slack time to spare. The 2 roller coaster rides looked too intense for Sally or me. I did, however, go on the log flume ride, called Journey to Atlantis, which was moderately intense. Sea World is an enjoyable day and should not be missed if you haven’t done it in at least a few years. You will see trained dolphins, whales, sea lions and otters perform. Sometimes it seems hard to believe you are watching real marine life and not audio animatronics. There were additional shows where you see trained dogs and cats and human acrobats and dancers. You also see some untrained animals, such as polar bears, penguins, walruses, sharks, manatees and stingrays. There is also a sky tower where you get an aerial view of the park and surrounding area. It was a bit warm, but it is hard to predict the weather when you plan your trip in advance as we did.
We also saw the 2 largest malls in Orlando: The Mall of the Millennia and the Florida Mall. The Florida Mall is the older of the 2 and is the largest mall in Central Florida – it is larger than Regency in Jax and is located at the corner of Sand Lake Rd and Orange Blossom Trail. The Mall of the Millennia is the newest and classiest/most upscale of the two. It is located at the intersection of I-4 and Conroy Rd. Both have stores Jax doesn’t have such as Macys, Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. Both are located south of downtown Orlando and north of Disney World and Sea World. The two are actually located fairly close to each other. We also visited the Pointe Orlando shopping center, which is located on International Drive. It is an uncovered shopping center like the St. Johns Towncenter. It has a multistory parking garage and an IMAX theatre and 15 restaurants.
We also visited Arabian Nights- a dinner theatre in Kissimmee. You sit in a big oval stadium that seats about 1,000. They serve you a steak dinner with salad, mashed potatoes, succotash and ice cream. It was ok, but not great. Beverages (including beer) are unlimited. You see horses do amazing things like walk backwards, sideways, on their hind legs only and twirl around their central axis point. The people in the show stand on the horses, both on their feet and their hands and even do flips in the air, landing back on the moving horse. All in all it’s a very entertaining show. The cost was about $60 per person.
IKEA is unlike any store in Jacksonville. It is a huge, 2-story Swedish home goods store- probably about 4 times the size of an average Wal-Mart Super Center. It is right next door to the Florida Mall.
Posted by Roger Kuder 
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