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city guides
Orlando-Daytona
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Happening Now
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October 11 and 12:
Fossil Fair
How about you and your budding paleontologist dig for fossils and other artifacts during this two-day event? There’s a special Dig Pit for children, ages 4 to 18, and members of the Florida Fossil Hunters Club will be there to answer any questions you and your grandchildren might have. At Central Florida Fairgrounds. (website) Hide details
Spooktacular Sleepover
Sea World’s Halloween Spooktacular, which begins October 4 at the park, features a Spooky Spectacular Sleepover on consecutive weekends. Family members and their trick-or-treaters (children in grades K through five) can end their night snuggling up near sharks and polar bears. At Sea World. (website) Hide details
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
All guests can dress in costumes, trick-or-treat throughout the Magic Kingdom, and view a special fireworks display. At Walt Disney World. (website) Hide details
13th Annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival.
Lots of entertainment and plenty of theme-park thrills at these tasting events. Families can enjoy sampling delicious bites ($2 to $4) from among the 25 international marketplaces in the Park's World Showcase Promenade. Dishes like Bobotie with Mango Chutney from Cape Town, South Africa and cheddar cheese soup from Montreal, may inspire the grandchildren to try something new. For adults, there are complimentary wine and beer seminars, and for everyone, there's a chance to meet, celebrity chefs and cookbook authors or watch a culinary demonstration. At Epcot. (website) Hide details
Beakman's World on Tour
This is the hands-on, traveling exhibit of the innovative children's TV show, Beakman’s World. Visitors participate in challenges, demonstrations, and experiments to explore questions and answers about four fantastic worlds: rain forests, the universe, dinosaurs, and how we look at ourselves. At Orlando Science Center. (website) Hide details |
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Help With This Page
In the City Guides section, you'll find the best things to do with your grandchildren. To get started, choose a city below or select from among movies, home activities or things to do in the car. Whatever you do, have loads of fun with your grandchildren.
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| | In addition to the obvious attractions like Disney World, Sea World and Universal, we've found plenty of magic to keep grandchildren busy and entertained inside and outside of the kingdom. —Compiled by Jennie Hess | |
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Aunt Harriet isn’t happy that you aren’t eating your meat loaf, and she’s not afraid to say so. Maybe that’s because you can’t take your eyes off the “I Love Lucy” episode spooling on the black and white TV by your table. Better be careful, or Aunt Harriet (yes, she’s your server) won’t bring dessert. One of Disney’s best themed restaurants, the Prime Time Café serves food just like Grandmom’s, including a tasty meat loaf, scrumptious chicken pot pie, and a peanut butter and jelly milkshake to die for. So play along with your bossy aunt, and maybe you’ll get that plate of s’mores you’ve been eyeing for dessert.
Hours: daily 11am-8pm, 9pm or 10pm, varies by season
Age: Toddler, Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Kid Friendly Eats
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You don’t have to be an artist to have fun making your own pottery at All Fired Up. Choose a piggy bank or cereal bowl for your grandchild and they can design a picture frame or a mug for you. Draw freehand or stencil in designs on your raw piece, then choose paints from a rainbow of color samples. Let Picasso or Monet be your muse, and create an original. Be daring with colors and challenge your grandchild to do the same. We all have a bit of the artist in us, so take pride in your masterpiece. Pick up the fired pottery one week from your studio session.
Info: Admission: ages 13 and older $8, students and 12 and younger $6; Pottery: $2-$60
Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 11am-11pm, Friday-Saturday 11am-12am, Sunday 12pm-6pm
Age: Toddler, Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Classes & Workshops
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On your way to a Saturday picnic at one of Orlando’s awesome parks or beaches? Stop by the Apopka Farmer’s Market and pick up some al-fresco staples like fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables, just-squeezed juices, and assorted artisanal breads and cheeses. Sure, it’s more fun to spoil grandchildren with ice cream floats and burgers, but instilling some foodie-sensibility in them can be just as rewarding.
Info: Admission: free
Hours: Saturday 8am-1pm
Age: Toddler, Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Outdoor Fun
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Arabian Nights
3081 Arabian Nights Boulevard
Kissimmee, FL 34747
(407) 239-9223
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Based on Walter Farley’s best-selling Black Stallion book series, Arabian Nights is far more show than dinner, though you and your grandchildren will have your choice of steak, chicken breast, vegetable lasagna, or chicken tenders. Garlic mashed taters, veggies, and drinks are included as you enjoy the action and drama unfolding in the arena. This elegant spectacle showcases the beauty, glittery costumes, and talents of riders and their dazzling Arabian, Andalusian, Belgian, Percheron, and Quarter horses. There’s a wedding theme to the story, with drama, black magic and some slapstick comedy mixed in, and you get a slice of the wedding cake for dessert.
Info: Admission: ages 12 and older $44, 3-11 $21
Hours: show times vary
Age: Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Live Performances
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Injured and orphaned raptors get a new lease on life at this well-run wildlife rehabilitation center that handles the largest volume of eagles, owls, falcons, hawks, and kites east of the Mississippi River. Since opening in 1979, the center has treated more than 12,000 birds of prey and released more than 40 percent back into the wild. Together, you and your grandchildren can stroll along Hawk Walk and other paths where enclosures house 21 species. You’ll learn how to rescue an injured or baby raptor and how birds are rehabilitated and taught to fly before release to their original habitats. Later, you and the grandchildren can go to the web site and become conservationists by adopting a bird to help the center.
Info: Admission: ages 13 and older $5, 3-12 $4
Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10am-4pm
Age: Toddler, Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Local Unique
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Bahama Breeze
8849 International Drive
Orlando, FL 32819
(407) 248-2499
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Start off by treating your grandchild to a tropical fruit cooler like the Raspberry Surfer or Apple Breeze rather than the standard juice or soft drink. This will get everyone in “zee island mood, mon,” and before you know it, you’re all digging into appetizers of West Indies beef patties in a crispy pastry or sweet-savory coconut shrimp. Who needs the kids’ menu with the usual suspects? Share the grilled or almond-crusted fresh fish or the Bahamian steak kabobs and savor the fantasy of your island escape.
Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11am-1am, Friday-Saturday 11am-1:30am
Age: Toddler, Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Kid Friendly Eats
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Blue Man Group
6000 Universal Boulevard
Orlando, FL 32819
(888) 340-5476
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Art, music, comedy and multimedia theatrics merge when Blue Man Group takes to the stage with a brand of entertainment that’s making waves across the globe. The newest production at Universal Orlando is custom-designed to include elements of the group’s other shows mixed with material exclusive to Orlando. These cobalt blue paint drummers spread plenty of joy on a comedic canvas speckled with social commentary. The music rocks too, which grandchildren will surely appreciate.
Info: Admission: ages 10 and older $59-$69, 9 and younger $49-$59
Hours: daily, show times vary
Age: Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Live Performances
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Depending on the time of year, you and your grandchildren can see a Broadway show on tour, float along with the exquisite dancers of the Orlando Ballet, or let the Festival of Orchestras carry you along on a new instrumental journey. When the holiday season rolls around, be sure to book tickets early for a perennial favorite, the Orlando Ballet’s version of the The Nutcracker. Sweet dreams, grandchildren!
Info: Admission: varies
Hours: Performance times vary
Age: Toddler, Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Live Performances
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The sun peeps above the eastern horizon as you watch a balloon crew pump 120,000 cubic feet of hot air into an enormous bright red balloon. Once you climb into the balloon's basket, you and the grandkids are soaring with FAA licensed pilots on a tranquil journey across the Central Florida landscape. The peacefulness of your journey is palpable. Occasionally you'll hear a bird twitter or see a deer when you dip close to the rooftops. Then, you're 1,000 feet above the Earth where noise pollution muted and you can enjoy sweeping views of Disney and Orlando marshes, orange groves, and other habitats populated by wild turkey, hogs, and the like. The entire adventure, which includes an exciting, somewhat bumpy, landing and a champagne brunch (juice for the kids), lasts about three hours, and the flight itself is about one hour.
Info: Admission: $175; under 90 pounds $90 persons
Hours: daily daybreak flights, weather permitting; some winter flights in late afternoon
Age: Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Outdoor Fun
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Folks often zone in on South Florida when they think of the Florida Everglades, but the headwaters of the Glades are located right here in Central Florida. An airboat ride across 23,000-acre Lake Tohopekaliga (Toho for short) offers a great wind-in-your-face tour of these legendary rivers of grass. Grandchildren’s eyes will be wide at the sight of an eight or nine-foot alligator swimming near your boat, and they’ll enjoy sighting osprey, wood storks, turtles, blue herons, and egrets. Go early or late in the day when you’ll see the most wildlife. Ear protection is provided — the airboats get very loud when they get up to their top sped of 38 mph.
Info: Admission: ages 13 and older $22, 3-12 $16 for half-hour boat tour
Hours: daily 9am-5:30pm
Age: Toddler, Child, Pre-teen, Teen
Outdoor Fun
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