General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I admit it, I'm dumb about alligators. [View all]csziggy
(34,189 posts)Absolutely I never will.
I remember driving up I-4 in 1965 and seeing the sign posted in the middle of a palmetto scrub cow pasture - "Future Site of Walt Disney World!" I thought someone was making a joke.
My sister, brother in law and most of their kids worked at Disney over the years. I could have gotten free passes to go at any time and never accepted them. Too many people, to much plastic, WAY too fake. I went to a seminar at a Disney Hotel in Lake Buena Vista (not the one where the kid was taken, the smaller, older one. I stayed down the road at a Day's Inn rather than give Disney any more money than I had to. That's as close to Disney as I will be!
I'd prefer hiking through that old palmetto scrub pasture and look for scrub jays and other wildlife but much of that habitat has been destroyed. Lake Kissimmee State Park preserves some of it and of the history of the area - https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Lake-Kissimmee
Here is a picture from their gallery of what the land Disney World used to look like:
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Rather than go to Orlando I spent a week at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge - and enjoyed the time more than I ever could a theme park. My husband I plan trips and vacations by locating birding sites. For instance, one sight seeing location I will go to is Bok Tower in Lake Wales. Not only was the original natural location a birding site, since the tower was built the gardens have been developed to attract birds.
Florida has a lot to offer that does not involve the tourist traps. People ought to check it out!