Orlando's Oddities: Visiting Offbeat Attractions

With so many attractions competing for every vacationer's limited money and time, some of Orlando's attractions have endeavored to become ones that you will visit by offering an experience that is truly out of the ordinary.

Gatorland may be one of the oldest and most unique attractions in Orlando. The park began as an alligator farm in 1949 and has grown ever since. The Godwin family has owned the park and they have continued to expand the park to what it is today. Gatorland is a conservation center and education tool, while at the same time it entertains and amazes visitors with views of alligators and reptiles in their natural everglade habitat.

The park recently added a water park to its 110 acres and recently raised admission to $23 for adults and $15 for children. This price also includes all day entrance into the water park. This still keeps it as one of the least expensive amusement parks/attractions in Orlando. At the end of 2006, Gatorland suffered a major setback when a fire broke out from a faulty heating devise. The gift shop was completely lost, as was the famous front entrance to the park, the enormous alligator's open mouth that visitors walk into to enter the park. Within 3 weeks, the park reopened and they are currently open while at the same time repairing and rebuilding. The new buildings are set for a completion date of June 2008.

Another different sight to see is next door to Orlando, in Kissimmee. It is called the Monument to the States. This is a 50-foot tower that plays tribute to every state in the union. Each stone that the tower has been built from was cut and brought from each state and represents characteristics and fossils from that area. Viewing the monument is free, as it is publicly displayed in Historic Downtown Kissimmee. The monument is made up of over 1500 stones and was put together in 1943. Since then 22 countries from around the world have also contributed stones.

Orlando is the home to one of the largest museum for oddities; Ripley's Believe It or Not! This museum is full of items from Robert Ripley's trips around the globe searching for the world's wonders and oddities. The building itself is odd. The massive museum looks as though one end of it is slowly sinking into the earth. The museum is set up as a self-guided tour that allows you to study the unusual items at your leisure.

Two other more unusual attractions in Orlando have religious themes. The Jesus Film Project is a 2-hour movie of the life of Christ that has been seen by over 5 billion viewers since it debuted in 1979. The other attraction is the Holy Land Experience. This attraction allows the visitor to walk through an ancient Jerusalem as authentically costumed actors portray people from the Bible re-enacting various Bible stories.

Consider another attraction that is a re-creation of another event. Titanic: The Experience allows you to become one of the guests on that fateful trip as crew members act as guides showing you many of the areas of the ship and explaining what happened.

WonderWorks is another odd sight to see. The building itself looks as though it fell from the sky and landed upside down. An exhibit includes a mock up of the space shuttle and allows you to try your hand at attempting to land the space/aircraft. In the same way, you can enter flight simulators of other aircraft to see how you would fare “up in the wild blue yonder”. In one exhibit you can get inside an actual astronaut's space suit and in another, you can step in front of blue screens and see yourself as famous sports figures scoring the winning basket, touchdown or goal. They also have an earthquake simulator and a room that allows you to create bubbles of all sizes. It even has a simulator that lets you create and then ride on your own roller coaster.

As you can see, a trip to Orlando does not have to revolve around the major three parks of Disney, Universal and Sea World. If you are looking to experience something a bit more out of the ordinary, consider any of these choices.