The Wandering Disciple

Tampa, Florida: Bird Gardens is the oldest portion of Busch Gardens Tampa. Opened in 1959 with the opening of Busch Gardens, Bird Gardens is home to many species of exotic birds and is also site of the Anheuser Busch Hospitality House. The brewery located here closed in 1995 but the Hospitality House remained. Here guests can sample Anheuser Busch products along with attending Beer School, a program that takes a behind the scenes look at the production of Budweiser products. Bird Gardens is also where guests can ride one of the parks major roller coasters, Gwazi. Opened in 1999, Gwazi is a wooden dueling coaster featuring speeds of up to 50 miles an hour while dropping guests 90 feet on over 7000 feet of track. Gwazi is based on a mythical African creature that features a head of a lion and a body of a tiger. The only other ride in Bird Gardens is the Gwazi Gliders, a hang glider ride for children. Much of Bird Gardens is devoted to tropical landscaping and bird attractions. The follo...

Winter Haven, Florida: Nestled away, off the beaten track in central Florida is the oldest theme park in Florida, Cypress Gardens. The park was known for its southern hospitality, gardens and eventually as the Water Ski Capital of the World. In 1936, Dick and Julie Pope opened Cypress Gardens as a botanical garden, it quickly became one of the largest attractions in the state. People came from far away to see the lush tropical gardens and mingle with the Southern Belles that entertained the guests. By the early 1940’s the popularity of the park grew with the addition of water skiing. The park quickly became known as the Water Ski Capitol of the World. Over fifty water ski records were broken on the lake at Cypress Gardens. The park changed hands several times in the later years, first to their son Dick Pope Jr. and eventually Anheuser-Busch in 1989. Anheuser-Busch operated the park until 1995 when a group headed by a park manager purchased the park. The group kept the park op...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: As you enter through the wrought iron gates and pull up to the sounds of jazz fills the air as you approach the main building. No you are not in the heart of New Orleans, but rather the Port Orleans: French Quarter resort at Walt Disney World. It doesn’t take long to feel like your not in Florida anymore. Opened in May 1991, Port Orleans was designed to reflect the architecture of the French Quarter of New Orleans. The three story buildings feature the ironwork that is known to the French Quarter, giving the look and feel of the Big Easy. The resort featured just over 400 room when it first opened. Since then it has expanded to seven three story buildings featuring 1,008 rooms total. The resort is a moderate resort, meaning its room are slightly larger at 314 square feet each and feature side by side vanities and a sitting area. Another perk to being a moderate hotel is the amenities. The swimming pool features a serpent water slide as well. There i...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Since the Walt Disney Company was built on the silver screen, its only fitting that the third park at Walt Disney World Resort would be built around the movies. Disney-MGM Studios is not only a theme park but also a working production studio. Opening in 1989, the 135 acre theme park was built to resemble the golden era of Hollywood. The themed lands of the park were like soundstages from Hollywood dropped right in the middle of Central Florida. Unlike the other Disney parks, the park is not laid out with the typical wagon wheel layout, it is situated much like a city with intersecting streets leading to the different lands of the park. There are six lands to the park: Hollywood Boulevard, Sunset Boulevard, Animation Courtyard, Pixar Place, Streets of America and Echo Lake. The rides and attractions of the park pay tribute to the many great films from Hollywood. The Great Movie Ride features live actors that recreate scenes from some of the best known m...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: The newest and largest theme park in the Walt Disney World complex in central Florida, Animal Kingdom is an entire theme park dedicated to animal conservation. With almost 10 million guests a year, it is the fifth most visited theme park in the country. Opened in April 1998, Animal Kingdom is dedicated solely to animal conservation. All rides and attractions focus on specie conservation and education. Since its opening, the park has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquarium for meeting and exceeding the standards of education, conservation and research. The park is layout like many of the other Disney theme parks with a wagon wheel layout. At the center of the wheel is the fourteen story Tree of Life, the icon of the park. The Tree of Life is found on Discovery Island and outward from there are the lands of The Oasis, Camp Minnie-Mickey, Africa, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Asia and Dino Land USA. The park encompasses over 500 acres making it t...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Larger then life musical instruments adorn this resort on the Walt Disney World Resort. Like the other value resorts in the Disney chain, the All-Star Music Resort features brightly colored buildings and large icons that represent many genres of musical history. Opened in 1994, the resort is part of the Disney’s value class of resorts. It has the smallest rooms in the chain at 260 square feet. They maintain 1,604 rooms on the property and are very basic in décor. Most rooms have two double beds, table and chairs, TV and single bathroom. Recently several of the rooms have been renovated into family suites in which they are able to accommodate six people with a kitchenette and sitting area. The rooms are arranged into ten buildings themed Broadway Show Tunes, Calypso, Country, Jazz and Rock N Roll. The amenities of the resorts are basic but sufficient. The main building is Melody Hall which contains the check-in, Intermission Food Court, arcade and Ma...

Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Part of Walt Disney World resort in Central Florida, Epcot is one of the four main Disney theme parks. The park is unlike any of the other theme parks as its main function is to educate its visitors through rides and attractions. Here you can travel around the world without ever leaving the sunshine state or explore the depths of the oceans without getting wet thanks to the many pavilions that comprise the park. The park was inspired by Walt Disney’s vision of the future, his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow or Epcot for short. He vision a community that was unlike no other but the dream never came to life and the ideas were packaged into the creation of the theme park. Construction began on the 300 acre theme park that would come to be know the Epcot Center. It took three years and $1.4 billion dollars to bring the park to life. The park opened to the public on October 1, 1982. Epcot was designed to be like a permanent World’s Fair. Laid ...