Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/821088
DREAMSCAPES SPRING/SUMMER 2017 28 see the landmarks—Epcot's golf-ball-like Spaceship Earth, the spires of Cinderella Castle—but you're gloriously alone (unless you're flying tandem with a friend) and the only noise is the breeze in your ears. BEYOND DISNEY Unless you've recently won the lottery, you likely won't be spending every day of your weeklong vacation at Disney's parks. Nor would I recommend it, as there is so much more to see and do in the Orlando area. Stephanie and I really enjoyed the Aquatica water park at SeaWorld. For a truly relaxing day, spring for a private cabana, where you can sip on cold water from your personal fridge and store your gear in a bamboo-style locker. You can also sign up for unlimited all-day dining at the Banana Beach cafeteria. It's not exactly bluezoo, but the endless supply of pizza, hot dogs, salad, fruit and cookies will keep the kids from tug- ging on your sleeve every five minutes seeking sustenance. Again, they'll need their energy, because the water park is packed with fun activities, including two wave pools, two lazy rivers and eight waterslides. The place has an Aussie/Kiwi theme, with announcers on loudspeakers urging guests to "Have a g'day, mate" and "kia ora." If your kids like thrills, it may be a better deal than Disney, as it's cheaper and the lines are shorter. Another fairly affordable destination for families is I-Drive 360, a shopping and entertainment complex that opened in 2015. We came mainly to ride the Orlando Eye, a huge Ferris wheel, but it was closed due to a thunderstorm. Unde- terred, we decided to check out two other attractions on-site: Madame Tussaud's wax museum and the Sea Life aquarium. Both were more fun than we'd expected. We ran around the wax museum like over-sugared toddlers, taking each other 's pictures with quite believable replicas of Taylor Swift and Barack Obama. At the small but engaging aquarium, we stood mesmerized inside walk-through tanks filled with gliding sharks, schools of angelfish and scores of other marine critters. POSH SUBURBIA If you really want to escape the Orlando bustle, take a day trip to the suburb of Winter Park. This is mainly a grown-up des- tination, so if you smile nicely, perhaps your partner will hang with the kids for a day while you explore. As the name implies, Winter Park began as a cold-weather retreat for rich north- erners, who came here by train and stayed in custom-built vacation homes. A com- muter train is all that stops here these days, but the money remains: many of the older houses have been torn down to make way for even more opulent year-round proper- ties. Scenic Boat Tours offers enjoyable trips on pontoon boats through the area's man- sion-fringed lakes and canals. Winter Park's main drag, Park Avenue, is lined with sleek shops, as well as bistros filled with ladies who lunch. I can highly recommend Boca, where the dishes high- light local ingredients. Across the street, the intriguing Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art is a private institution ded- icated to the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany and his contemporaries. In Orlando, you'll find hotels, motels and campgrounds for all budgets, as well as just about any type of fast-food establishment known to humankind. And you don't have to spend every minute hurtling down a roller coaster or waterslide; Florida's balmy weather means that many days are perfect for just settling down poolside with a cool drink and a good book. T R A V E L P L A N N E R For more details on Orlando, go to visitorlando.com. BELOW: Park Avenue in Winter Park is lined with sleek shops and bistros. CENTRE: Disney's Hollywood Studios spans 55 hectares and is dedicated to the facets of show business. BOTTOM: Steph poses with Michael Jackson at Madame Tussaud's. Laura Byrne Paquet DS