Favourite Things To Do In Central Florida

By James | Last updated August 18, 2023

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It is very difficult to draw up a single list of favourite things and memories from Central Florida but here are our top 25 personal favourites (in no particular order):

  • Sitting on a lanai by your own private villa, on a beautiful warm still morning, eating breakfast with a glass of cold orange juice in your hand, gazing out over the pool to a lovely lake beyond
  • Taking an airboat ride on the lakes and swamps around Lake Tohopekaliga, rushing between tall grasses, jumping over banks and then the driver doing a high speed 360 degree handbrake turn when you least expect it
  • Visiting Walt Disney World. In particular, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, when the sun is shining, songs from the movies are playing on the tannoy system throughout the park and singing along to them
  • Going to a Red Lobster restaurant for dinner and gorging yourself on the cheesy biscuits
  • Watching a shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral from the NASA causeway, and then hearing it arrive back a few days later with a double sonic boom
  • Watching the fireworks display at Disney’s Epcot at the end of a super day
  • Walking through the herb garden at Cypress Gardens [NOW CLOSED] on a baking hot day and smelling the gorgeous scent of rosemary oozing from the hedges
  • Doing the Star Tours simulation ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – one of the best rides in Orlando!
  • Shopping at Walmart and feeling you have got some of the best bargains ever!
  • Riding the Jungle Cruise at Disney Magic Kingdom – the atmosphere and the patter from the drivers is great entertainment
  • Coming home from an exhausting hot day at the parks and sitting on the edge of the swimming pool, feet dangling into the cool water, and drinking a cold black cherry wine cooler
  • Kissing a dolphin called Diego at Discovery Cove
  • Visiting Homosassa Springs State Park and finally getting to see Rosie the Manatee (whom we adopted many years ago) for the first time
  • Shopping for Christmas decorations at specialist Christmas shops at Easter time when the temperatures are in the 90’s
  • Eating Frozen Yoghurt cones at the shopping village at Downtown Disney
  • Sitting on Daytona beach at Spring Break watching the students cruising along the beach in their cars and pickups – boy do they fancy themselves or what?
  • Going to the Muppets 3D show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – it is the best!
  • Watching the Shamu shows at Seaworld; especially the evening one
  • Having lunch at Cinderella’s Castle in Disney World Magic Kingdom – the waiters are so entertaining and the butter even comes in Mickey shaped pats
  • Riding with the driver in the front of the Monorail train [NO LONGER POSSIBLE] and going right through the middle of the Contemporary Resort hotel
  • Watching the “Honey I Shrunk the Audience” show at Disney’s Epcot and reacting to the effects
  • Visiting Ron Jons Surf shop at Cocoa Beach, and wondering if it’s really busy at 3 o’clock in the morning (it’s open 24 hours a day)
  • Watching the Indiana Jones Show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – it is still fantastic, no matter how many times you see it
  • Having lunch in the Colonial Restaurant in Busch Gardens, with the waiters all in their whites and looking over an African landscape
  • Eating at Fast Eddies in Dunedin on the Gulf Coast (now called Eddies Bar and Grill)

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