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When most people think of Orlando, they think of theme
parks---specifically Walt Disney World, SeaWorld, and Universal Orlando. But
this fast-growing city of 165,000 is interesting in its own right, with its
Spanish-moss draped parks, lovely gardens, sophisticated museums, wealth of
cultural opportunities, and charming neighborhoods such as Winter Park,
where tasteful houses rise along small lakes and waterways, and Spanish moss
festoons the trees. Suburban sprawl is endemic, however---and with it
immense malls. In the visitor areas, there's outlet shopping to beat the
band.
Downtown Orlando has its own entertainment center in Church Street
Station, which was created in the 1970s by ex-Navy pilot Bob Snow, who
transformed run-down buildings downtown into a complex of old-fashioned
saloons, dance halls, dining rooms, and shopping arcades. Though not nearly
as successful now as it was when Snow was at the helm, it played an
important role in sprucing up the somewhat shabby downtown area in Orlando.
Because Walt Disney World visitors who arrive by air touch down at the
huge, modern Orlando airport, the celebrated vacation kingdom is forever
associated with Orlando. But Walt Disney World isn't in Orlando; actually,
it is closer to the town of Kissimmee to the west. (See separate town
listing for Walt Disney World.) Shady, four-lane, sidewalk-edged
International Drive in Orlando is the site of the huge Orlando Convention
Center and most tourist hotels, and parts are as much as half an hour's
drive from the Disney exits off I--4, the main north--south thoroughfare
between Orlando and Walt Disney World. That half hour can as much as double
when there's traffic---as there often is nowadays, given the swelling
population of both visitors and residents.
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