Royal Palm Bay Villas, Orlando, Kissimee, Florida , USA.

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The Orlando area is the world capital of amusement parks. Everyone thinks that this is down to Disney, and the advent of Walt Disney World in 1971, as distinct from the original Disneyland in Anaheim , California , certainly gave added impetus to their proliferation. Epcot opened in 1982 when the original park was renamed the Magic Kingdom , both within the overall umbrella of Walt Disney World. This later expanded with the addition of the Disney-MGM Studios in 1989 and Disney Animal Kingdom. Downtown Disney with its Pleasure Island nightclub area, Disney Boardwalk's street entertainers and Big River micro-brewery, the Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon water parks, and the Disney hotels make up the rest of the Walt Disney World Resort. Celebration is a town designed and built by Disney initially for its employees but which turned out to be so select that few of them can afford to live there. Despite the Stepford Wives feel of a place where it snows on one street in December before Christmas, it is a pleasant place to visit in the evening with its cinema and classy restaurants.

But Disney was far from the first amusement park in central Florida . This accolade goes to Cypress Gardens which was opened in 1936.It featured a botanical garden, acrobatic water skiers and hoop-skirted Southern Belle hostesses. However, it grew old and tired, and was eclipsed by its more modern successors. So in April 2003 it closed and was to be redeveloped. However, so many individuals and organisations petitioned the State of Florida to keep it open that the Trust for Public Land was asked to help. As a result of this it has been conserved and updated and was reopened in 2005. It is now a modern and fascinating amalgam of amusement park and nature conservation area.

Busch Gardens , just outside Tampa , began life as a brewery for Anheuser-Busch, famous for the world's most popular American Budweiser beer. It subsequently became a zoo and theme park. In 1973 the same owners opened Sea World in Orlando in a challenge to the monopoly of Disney and an attempt to entertain people while protecting wild sea animals. At both of these attractions free samples of the owner's products are available in moderation. Their latest development is Discovery Cove which offers the opportunity to snorkel with sea creatures in man-made lagoons and the ultimate experience of a thirty-minute swim with one of the thirty-two bottlenose dolphins who live and work there.

Universal Studios, which opened in 1990, doubles as a theme park and a film and TV production centre. The newer Islands of Adventure offer a range of roller coasters to rival Disney's. For night time entertainment Universal's Citywalk restaurants, cinema, clubs and bars rival Disney's Pleasure Island .