Living with the Orlando Florida lizards and wildlife

January 24, 2009 by

Hi everyone, it’s time for another post about some common wildlife you might see on your Orlando Florida vacation. Actually of all the things you might see, the little lizards we have will be the most common. Many people call them many different names. Gecko, lizards, chameleons and so on. There actually are around a dozen different lizards in Florida.

But the most common one your going to find on your Orlando Vacation is the green Anole and brown Anole. They both are small, around 8 inches long. The green Anole is more common, and often called a chameleon because it changes its color to match the color of whatever it’s standing on. So it can be different shades of green, brown, gray and white.

They are very common, often crawling around every shrub, tree and fence around your hotel, theme parks and houses. Often as you walk on the sidewalk you can notice a quick movement in the shrubs and grass close to where you are; those are the lizards hiding from you. They are harmless and do not bite, they have no teeth. [Read more…]

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Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum in Orlando Florida

January 22, 2009 by

Sometimes when you take an Orlando Florida vacation, too many only think of the big theme parks. There are actually a lot more attractions in the Orlando area, a lot! One of them is our own Ripley’s Believe it or not! museum in Orlando, Florida. It was built to look like it was sinking into the ground, it’s kind of cool when you go in.

Ripley’s Believe it or not! has 27 different museums around the country, all of them around 90% unique in what you see inside. You can see many weird, bizarre and just plain crazy exhibits, as well as some amazing and funny. The Orlando Florida Ripley’s Believe it or not! is open from 9:30 AM to midnight.
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The Simpson’s ride at Universal Studios Orlando Florida

January 19, 2009 by

I’m having a long day, but I wanted to quickly give you all a short youtube video of the new Simpson’s ride at Universal Studios Orlando Florida. I went to Universal with a friend of mine of Friday, which will most likely be the coldest day of this year! I was really cold most of the day with the wind blowing.

The crowds as I have been saying were very light. Most rides were only 10 to 20 minutes long, short by normal standards, which is 40 to 2 hours long! They had a lot of problems with some of the rides, not sure if it was because of the cold or not. Right now they have the water rides under maintenance.

They do that now because it’s a bit too cold for people to be going on water rides. So this is when they do the annual over haul of them. Anyway I went on the Simpson’s ride. It’s the new ride that replaced the back to the future ride. It’s very good, much better than the other ride that was there. Enjoy this quick video of the outside!

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Alligator facts in Orlando Florida

January 17, 2009 by

Sometimes you hear so much on the news about alligators, snakes and bugs in Florida that it sounds like your going to a jungle on your Orlando Vacation! Well I can tell you to relax, as like all things the critter stories are mostly overblown. Yes, Florida is home to lots of exotic looking wildlife,,,, out in the woods and swamps.

But just like your not going to see a bear in NY city even though New York state does have bears, your not likely to see any alligators or snakes. For the sake of this post, let me talk about the Florida alligators. Now there are plenty of alligators in Florida, most of them small around 2 to 4 feet long. However they can grow up to 18 feet or more in the swamps.

Just about any place that has water will have an alligator. In fact it’s surprising how common they are in small ponds and streams. I jog along a lake each night, and I often see about 6 or so cruising the edges. Alligators main diet is fish, frogs, ducks and any type of small animal that gets too close. Yes that also means cats and dogs. [Read more…]

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Driving in Orlando Florida tips, tricks & the law

January 4, 2009 by

Okay so your not going to get to drive that type of car in the picture! If you go on a Florida vacation, chances are your going to need to rent a car or van. Actually if you plan it right and just do the major theme parks you don’t need to rent a car at all. But if you want to really see the different things in Florida, and I recommend that you do, then you need a car.

Orlando Florida is a very vast, spread out area with everything located miles away from each other. Surprisingly you can get to where you want to go very fast because everything is connected by highways and toll roads. Almost all roads have two to three lanes each way. I’m not going to get into every detail of Orlando driving here, just the basic laws you want to know.

But first, just how do people drive in Orlando? Well, it depends on if your in a tourist area or a local area! Driving around Disney and the other parks you will be surrounded by other tourist who don’t know where the hell they are going! People do strange things when they are frustrated and lost. I’ve seen cars stopped dead in the middle of a highway reading a map! [Read more…]

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Orlando Disney holiday season still light this year

December 26, 2008 by

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas day! I myself roasted a whole chicken and watched some movies on my computer, fun fun! I also took a drive out to Disney, but I did not actually go into the parks. In hindsight I think I should have, because it was very light crowds, at least for the holiday season.

I took a look at the parking spots and a few other ways I know of to peek into the parks without actually going in. (sorry, can’t tell you how) 😉 It is DEAD around Disney for a holiday season! I see that last month the hotels had only a 53% occupancy according to the local results that keep track of those things.

That pretty much mirrored what I’ve been saying and seeing. So that means the other parks like Universal Studios and Sea World also had light Christmas day crowds. The ones that are here are really having a good time with no crowds and low prices. I have to wonder if they know how lucky they are to be here this year. [Read more…]

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