Orlando, Florida — Activities
Orlando Culture
There is a small but thriving arts center in Orlando, the majority of which is centerd on the downtown area. The Orlando Ballet (tel: (407) 426 1733; website: www.orlandoballet.org) is Central Florida’s only professional resident ballet company and one of the few ballet companies of its size performing the full-length classical ballets, mostly at the downtown Bob Carr Performing Arts Center (but in 2009 many arts organizations will move to the new Orlando Centroplex).
Orlando Shakespeare Theater (tel: (407) 447 1700; website: www.orlandoshakes.org) offers classical productions year round at the John & Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center on Princeton Street in the Loch Haven Cultural Park. The latter also houses the Mennello Museum of American Art (tel: (407) 246 4278; website: www.mennellomuseum.com) and family-friendly Orlando Science Center (tel: (407) 514 2000; website: www.osc.org).
The Bob Carr Performing Art Center, 401 West Livingston Street (tel: (407) 849 2001; website: www.orlandovenues.net) is the premier venue for theater, ballet and opera, while Orlando Repertory Theater, 1001 East Princeton Street (tel: (407) 896 7365; website: www.orlandorep.com), is a professional company that works in partnership with University of Central Florida to stage family-appropriate classics and riffs on kids’ literature. There’s the regular main stage season, an ‘American Classics’ series that honors US playwrights, and a youth academy for aspiring young actors.
Winter Park, just to the north, is home to two fine museums - The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, 445 North Park Avenue (tel: (407) 645 5311; website: www.morsemuseum.org), which features the world’s finest collection of work by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Cornell Fine Art Museum, 1000 Holt Avenue (tel: (407) 646 2526; website: www.rollins.edu/cfam).
For cinemas, Downtown Disney (AMC 24, Downtown Disney, tel: (407) 298 4488), Universal’s CityWalk (Universal Cineplex, CityWalk, Universal Orlando Resort, tel: (407) 354 5998), Pointe Orlando (Muvico Pointe 21, Pointe Orlando, tel: (407) 926 6850) and Festival Bay (Cinemark 20 at Festival Bay, tel: (407) 352 1042) all boast multiscreen cineplexes, while the non-profit alternative cinema Enzian Theater, 1300 South Orlando Avenue (tel: (407) 629 1088; website: www.enzian.org), in the suburb of Maitland, is home to the Florida Film Festival each April.
Orlando Tours
Orlando Tours and Attractions (tel: 1 800 303 5107: website: www.orlando-tours.com) offers a wide range of tours, from nature-based excursions such as swimming with the manatees to trips to Kennedy Space Center and Gatorland. It offers airboat rides in Kissimmee as well as dolphin swims in the Florida Keys.
Florida Dolphin Tours (tel: (407) 352 5151; website: www.swimdolphins.com) signature excursion is its swim-with-dolphins trip to the Florida Keys, either as a one-day visit or with an overnight stop. It also visits both coasts on various beach excursions and has its own limousine service.
