Fun, Fascinating Orlando Boasts Many Claims to Fame
Almost everyone knows that Orlando is famous for its thrilling theme parks, but this popular vacation destination has many more claims to fame than you might realize. Whether it's the first, the fastest, the best or the brightest, Orlando is full of fun, fascinating facts. For instance, did you know...
Orlando Fun Facts
With nearly 48 million visitors annually, Orlando attracts more visitors than any other amusement-park destination in the United States - and probably the world.
With more than 95 attractions in O-town, it would take you about 67 eight-hour days to visit every awesome spot.
Many movies have been filmed in Orlando and Central Florida, including the HBO Original Series From the Earth to the Moon starring Tom Hanks; Lethal Weapon III starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover; Parenthood starring Steve Martin; and portions of the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Super-Cool Attractions
WonderWorks is Orlando's only upside down attraction!
Fun Spot Action Park's multi-level go-kart tracks are the most unique go-kart tracks in the world. Fun Spot has three U.S. patents on track design, with a fourth patent pending.
Skyventure Orlando, where you can learn to skydive indoors, is one of only three of its kind in the world. The other two are located in California and Malaysia.
Walt Disney World Resort
It took more than 650 Walt Disney Imagineers more than 350,000 hours (the equivalent of 40 years) to develop Epcot's Mission: SPACE. The Imagineers' efforts took place over a five-year period.
Walt Disney World Resort is quite literally its own city. With a property that covers 47 square miles, you could fit the island of Manhattan in it twice.
More than 20,000 couples have tied the knot at Walt Disney World Resort since September 1991.
In commemoration of the 50th anniversary of theme park magic this year, Disney conducted a nationwide survey of more than 8,000 American consumers from all 50 states. Nearly half (46 percent) of Americans polled said they have once worn Mickey Mouse Club ears and nearly three out of four Americans (72 percent) can sing a chorus of "It's a Small World."
Universal Orlando Resort
With a combined 10 years in research and development, Universal Studios Florida's Revenge of The Mummy - The Ride is the first indoor ride in history to combine state-of-the-art roller coaster technology with highly themed dark ride environments and Hollywood special effects.
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man is the first ride to have ever combined 3-D film, special effects and motion-simulator ride technology.
Islands of Adventure boasts the world's first dueling inverted roller coaster, Dueling Dragons.
SeaWorld Orlando
Inside SeaWorld Orlando's Penguin Encounter, 6,000 pounds of snow falls daily. The air is a chilly 30 degrees Fahrenheit and the water an icy 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
The largest killer whale in the SeaWorld Orlando family is a 22-foot-long male that weighs 11,000 pounds and consumes more than 140,000 calories each day. He eats 230 pounds of fish each day - that's nearly eight 30-pound buckets.
"Kraken," a massive, mythological underwater beast shatters all records as the highest, fastest, longest - and only floorless - roller coaster in Orlando. Kraken is the first of its kind in the Southeast. Riders' feet dangle and the seats are open-sided, riding on a pedestal above the track at speeds of 65 mph.
Not Your Everyday Hotels...
Nickelodeon Family Suites by Holiday Inn is the only place in the world where you can have breakfast with Nicktoon characters like SpongeBob SquarePants.
The Rosen Plaza Hotel boasts one of the area's best kept secrets. Jack's Place, a fine dining restaurant, features the world's largest collection of autographed caricatures of stars and dignitaries.
The Lagoon Pool at the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando, A Loews Hotel, is the largest lagoon style pool in Orlando. It's filled with more than 320,000 gallons of water - 15 times the size of the average backyard pool. It's vast enough to have its own island and its own ocean liner.
The Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center> is the most technologically sophisticated convention hotel in the world. The network to support the voice and data needs of the resort consists of 397 miles of copper and fiber cable. That's enough wire to run from the hotel to Atlanta.
There are more than 30,000 hotel rooms on Disney property and more than 113,000 in the Orlando area.
Amazing Golf
Lake Jovita Golf & Country Club in Dade City, Florida (shown right) boasts the highest elevation drop of any area course. The drop from box to green on the 11th hole is 94 feet! Bring your cameras - you can see for five miles from the fifth hole.
Hunter's Creek Golf Course is the longest course in Central Florida with 7,432 yards from the Gold tee.
The Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes, designed by world-renowned Tom Fazio, is the first semi-private golf course in the world to be certified as an Audubon International Signature Certified Sanctuary.
Eagle Creek Golf Club is the first course in Florida to offer Mini Verde, the fifth type of ultra-dwarf Bermuda grass in existence, providing extremely durable and fast-rolling putting surfaces. Eagle Creek is also the first among Central Florida courses to use the Club Car's high-end Precedent, a completely redesigned golf car, providing a ride and drive similar to that of an automobile.
Shopping Like Nowhere Else in the World
Orlando Harley-Davidson is the world's largest retailer of Harley merchandise.
The Mall at Millenia is the only shopping center in the Orlando area with the exclusive rights to air cutting-edge, current fashion footage provided by Videofashion Network (VFN) of New York, NY, on its LED audio/visual system. VFN, the world's largest producer of fashion, beauty and lifestyle programs, provides newly shot footage straight from the fashion runways of New York, London, Milan and Paris as well as segments from its vast fashion library.
Festival Bay Mall at International Drive is Orlando 's first lifestyle retail, dining and entertainment center, combining unique retail shops and entertainment venues without the typical department store anchors. The mall's anchor tenants are all unique to the Orlando market, and nowhere else in the United States can shoppers find this unusual mix of stores, including Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, offering acres of premium outdoor products; Vans Skatepark, an indoor skateboarding park; Steve and Barry's University Sportswear, offering affordable collegiate sportswear and self-branded casual clothing for the whole family; Sheplers Western Wear, retailer of western apparel and accessories; Ron Jon Surf Shop, offering beach wear and surf equipment; and more.
Immersed in Culture
With more than 1,000 pieces, the House of Blues Orlando houses one of the largest publicly displayed folk art collections in North America.
The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida, houses the world's most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany, including Tiffany jewelry, pottery, paintings, art glass, leaded-glass windows, lamps, and the breathtaking chapel interior he designed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Many of the Tiffany pieces at the Morse were rescued by the museum's founder, Jeannette Genius McKean, and her husband Hugh F. McKean, from a 1950's fire that destroyed Tiffany's beloved Laurelton Hall mansion on Long Island.
There are more than 6,800 different languages spoken in the world and Orlando's WordSpring Discovery Center has information on every one of them. Here, guests can print their name in 12 different languages.
Historically Significant
The Orange County Regional History Center was originally built in 1927 as the county courthouse and is reputed to be haunted. During the 1999 renovation, construction workers saw the ghost of a woman descending the grand staircase and ghost sightings have been a regular occurrence ever since.
In the History Center's Courtroom B, the defendant's table has the name Ted Bundy scratched in it. Bundy, a convicted serial killer, was tried in the courthouse but historians cannot confirm the authenticity of the signature. Also, the first successful case using DNA in the United States was tried in Courtroom B.
Orlando International Airport's code is MCO because it was originally an Air Force base, named for Colonel Michael McCoy, who died during a training flight in 1957. Orlando pledged to retain the name McCoy when the city acquired the base in 1974.
The city of Eatonville, just north of downtown Orlando, is the oldest African-American municipality in the United States. The historic city is also the birthplace of writer and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, and is home to the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities and the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts.
The Wells' Built Museum of African-American History & Culture in downtown Orlando was once the Wells'Built Hotel, built by casino owner and physician Dr. William Monroe Wells, to accommodate his African-American guests in segregated 1929 Orlando. Many of the day's top entertainers stayed at the hotel, inlcuding Ray Charles, Benny Carter, B.B. King and Duke Ellington.
Orlando's Famous Faces
The 2004 Miss America, Ericka Dunlap, is an Orlando native and graduate of the University of Central Florida.
Before asking America to be his neighbor, the late Mr. Rogers' neighborhood was in Orlando. He graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park before going on to don those famous sweaters.
NBA player, Shaquille O'Neal has a home in Orlando. O'Neal started his career with the Orlando Magic in 1992.
Wayne Brady, the Emmy award-winning comic who stars in the American version of "Whose Line is it Anyway?," honed his impromptu comedy skills on the stage of SAK Comedy Lab, a popular comedy club in downtown Orlando.
Tiger Woods, professional golfer and career victory leader among active PGA Tour players, owns a home in Orlando. Woods has won more than 59 tournaments worldwide.