Discovery Cove, part of the SeaWorld Adventure Park complex. This attraction features tropical fish in a coral reef, snorkeling with stingrays, and interacting with birds in an aviary, as well as swimming and playing with dolphins during a half-hour dolphin encounter.
Walt Disney also envisioned this project as incorporating a working community where his ideas about urban planning could be tested. He called this concept the "Experimental Prototype Community (or City) of Tomorrow," or EPCOT. The theme park that eventually opened under the Epcot name bore little resemblance to this vision, though the neighboring planned community of Celebration, which was founded by the Walt Disney Company, incorporates a few of the ideas.
Jungleland, featuring 300 animals, including a pair of Himalayan bears born in 2002, plus leopards, tigers, lions, gator wrestling and a petting zoo. The seven acre (28,000 mē) zoo also has a nearly mile-long path winding around a natural lagoon with black swans and white ibis.
The city of Orlando is the county seat of Orange County, Florida.
Orlando was a stronghold of minor-league ice hockey throughout the 1990's, being home of the Orlando Solar Bears of the now-defunct International Hockey League. Historically successful, they won the Turner Cup championship in 2001 to end the IHL's final season.
The city is best known for the tourist attractions in the area, particularly the nearby Walt Disney World Resort, which is in the Reedy Creek Improvement District. Other area attractions include SeaWorld and the Universal Orlando Resort, the latter of which is in Orlando proper. Downtown Orlando has recently seen much redevelopment, despite being far from the main tourist attractions.
During the Second Seminole War, the U.S. Army established an outpost at Fort Gatlin, a few miles south of the modern downtown, in 1838. But, it was quickly abandoned when the war came to an end.
The Orlando Breakers were a fictional NFL football team depicted in the U.S. TV sitcom Coach. The plot device was created in part to reflect the NFL expansion of 1995, when Jacksonville, Florida got a team. They played their games in the Citrus Bowl, and the stadium and other Orlando locations were used profusely in the final two seasons of the series.
Orlando is served primarily by Orlando International Airport, though nearby Orlando Sanford International Airport also serves the area. Orlando Executive Airport is used for charter flights.