In the museum, there are enough crowd-pleasing oddities, including a vampire killing kit from 1850, an awe-inspiring collection of bedpans, and a chunk of the Berlin Wall, to make it worth a visit. The Odditorium’s ongoing ability to fascinate with the same type of exhibits that folks marveled at nearly a hundred years ago earns it a three flamingo rating.
Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Orlando Odditorium is located at 8201 International Drive, Orlando (Phone: 407–363–4418; www.ripleysorlando.com).
Shell World Orange World
Looking for a seashell night-light? Need a plastic lobster or a mermaid snow globe? Then Shell World is your place to shop.
Shell World boasts that over one million seashells from around the world are for sale in its 12,000-square-foot emporium. Although it’s probably too time-consuming to count, shoppers will undoubtedly agree to take Shell World at its word as they cruise aisle after aisle, marveling at all the new, unusual, and at times questionable uses for seashells. Earrings, tissue boxes, jewelry boxes, wind chimes, wedding favors, Christmas tree ornaments…if it can be made out of seashells or decorated with seashells, chances are good that Shell World stocks it. An amazing variety of seashells in their natural state are also sold, from sand dollars to starfish to conch shells.
The Shell World experience includes a seashell museum, housed in a 600-foot tiki hut that looks like it was stolen from the set of Gilligan’s Island, and a 1,000-square-foot pier, on which Florida’s largest selection of seashell creations is on display. Parked outside are a Volkswagen Bug and a golf cart, both covered completely with—you guessed it—seashells.
Just down the street is Orange World, which has the distinction of being shaped like a huge orange—or at least the top half of one. Outside are bins of freshly picked citrus fruits so perfect they look as if they’re made of wax. The merchandise inside covers the gamut of souvenirs, from T-shirts to postcards to baseball caps. Much more interesting are the shelves crammed with local specialties, like Anastasia’s Coconut Patties in mango, piña colada, and key-lime flavor, chocolate alligators, guava jelly, and coconut toast spread.
Shell World is located at 4727 W. Irlo Bronson Highway (Hwy 192), Kissimmee (Phone: 407–396–9000; www.shellworld.com). Orange World is at 5395 W. Irlo Bronson Highway, Kissimmee (Phone: 407–239–6031; www.orangeworld192.com).
Titanic: The Experience
As just about anyone who lives on planet earth knows, on April 14, 1912, shortly before midnight, the supposedly unsinkable ship, the Titanic, collided with an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Great Britain to New York. It sank off Newfoundland, with only seven hundred passengers surviving and the other fifteen hundred drowning in the deep, icy waters of the Atlantic.
Titanic: The Experience, purportedly the world’s first permanent Titanic attraction, recaptures both the glamour of the luxurious ship and the unimaginable horror of that historic night. Exhibits include a full-scale recreation of the Titanic’s Grand Staircase, immortalized in the 1997 film Titanic, along with more than two hundred artifacts related to the famous ship.
Visitors actually experience some of the horror firsthand as they hear the rumble of the tremendous engines, touch an actual iceberg, and shiver on a dark, frigid deck that re-creates the conditions of the infamous night. The displays also include movie memorabilia from such films as A Night to Remember and one of the costumes Leonardo DiCaprio wore in the movie Titanic.
Upon entering, each visitor is assigned the name of an actual Titanic passenger and at the end can check the Memorial Wall to see whether or not that person survived. Titanic: The Experience is located at the Mercado at 8445 International Drive in Orlando (Phone: 407–248–1166; www.titanicshipofdreams.com).*1
Dinosaur World
The creatures that inhabit Dinosaur World don’t move. They don’t make unearthly sounds. They don’t even have a particularly menacing look in their eyes.
Yet even though the park doesn’t provide an over-the-top Jurassic Park–style experience, visitors who make the one-hour drive from Orlando to Plant City can nevertheless have a pleasant outing. There’s plenty to enjoy here—particularly for those who are looking for the old Florida. First, the grounds are spectacular. Strolling among the lush plantings along meandering pathways and across wooden bridges would be delightful even without a prehistoric creature rearing up at every turn.
Second, while these dinos may not make the ground tremble, they are all spectacularly detailed models of some of the most fascinating animals that ever stomped across the planet. And there are certainly plenty of them—more than 150. A film shown in a Fred Flintstone–esque building features paleontologists who dig for dinosaur fossils, and a small museum manages to instruct visitors about millions of years of prehistoric times in a surprisingly simple and straightforward way. All in all, Dinosaur World is an unusual yet serene spot that goes a long way in helping us understand these intriguing beasts.
Dinosaur World is located at 5145 Harvey Tew Road, Plant City, off Exit 17 on I-4 (Phone: 813–717–9865; www.dinoworld.net).
Pirate’s Dinner Adventure
Shiver me timbers! The pirates are coming!
The real pirates who terrorized the seas in the late 1600s were basically street gangs who knew how to tie knots. Yet there’s no need to fear any of the muscular marauders at the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure, one of the many theme dinners that continue to thrive in and around Orlando. These pirates are too busy singing, dancing, performing stunts, and swashbuckling to do much pillaging, much less any plundering. They put on a spectacular show that demands audience participation, at times even more than audience members might prefer. There’s a plot hidden in there somewhere, something about evil Captain Sebastian the Black kidnapping the fair-haired, white wedding dress–wearing Princess Anita. But with a spectacular, life-size pirate ship that floats in real water, nonstop action, and all those hunky pirates, who needs a story?
Other theme dinners in the Orlando area transport tourists to a multitude of other times and places: Chicago during the Roaring Twenties at Capone’s Dinner and Show, a castle during the Middle Ages at the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament, and Hawaii during tourist season at the Makahiki Luau Polynesian Feast and Celebration. There’s also a Sleuths Mystery Dinner Show, Arabian Nights, Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede Dinner and Show…in short, an evening that caters to every imaginable fantasy a kid—or, let’s face it, an adult—ever had.
The Pirate’s Dinner Adventure provides a wholesome evening of adventure, fun, music, and stunts that would have been as at home in the 1950s as they are today.
Pirate’s Dinner Adventure is located at 6400 Carrier Drive, Orlando (Phone: 407–248–0590; http://www.piratesdinneradventure.com).
Cypress Gardens Adventure Park
Seventy years ago, Cypress Gardens was nothing more than a swamp. But visionary Dick Pope, Sr., saw the thirty-five acres of marshland for what they could be: a lakeside park famous for both its well-tended gardens and its world-renowned waterskiing show.
During the forties and fifties, Cypress Gardens featured gorgeous flowers, photo ops with young women in antebellum gowns, and a sprawling banyan tree that Pope planted himself. But the highlight of every visit was the spectacular waterskiing show that included daredevil stunts, like human pyramids on water skis; the lovely Aquamaids, who danced on water; and the antics of water-borne clowns.
Today, Cypress Gardens Adventure Park has two separate identities: Kids will enjoy Adventure Grove, which has rides with names like the Okeechobee Rampage, Storm Surge, and Swampthing, as well as Splash Water Park; but the other half of the Park retains all the charm of its original incarnation. Plantation Gardens features manicured gardens and paved walkways with lovely views of Lake Eloise and Wings of Wonder, a butterfly house. The Topiary Trail weaves among huge animals sculpted from bushes, including a scarlet cardinal, a seal balancing a ball on his nose, and a colorful peacock. In the manicured Botanical Gardens, curving pathways wind past tall, grac
eful trees, fragrant rose gardens, and even a swamp that somehow manages to look as pretty as the rest of the place.
Cypress Gardens has been forced to update by adding shops in the unfortunately named Jubilee Junction, roller coasters, carousels, and train rides. Yet this one-of-a-kind attraction remains true to its original mission, offering breathtakingly beautiful botanical gardens and a waterskiing show that is as thrilling as it is original.
Cypress Gardens Adventure Park is located at 6000 Cypress Gardens Boulevard, Winter Haven (Phone: 863–324–2111; http://www.cypressgardens.com).
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Liz Langley for her hospitality when I visited Orlando in order to see it through Mallory Marlowe’s eyes. I would also like to thank Carolyn Jeffries and the members of the Whodunit Mystery Book Club at the Winter Park Public Library for both welcoming me and encouraging me. Their enthusiasm about Orlando is contagious.
And special thanks to Susan Breslow, my editor at Honeymoons.about.com, for sending me off on travel writing adventures of my own, as well as to Lyn Dobrin for suggesting it in the first place.
I would also like to acknowledge the enjoyable book Weird Florida: Your Travel Guide to Florida’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets by Charlie Carlson, which clued me in to the fact that there really is a dark side to the sunshine state—albeit an entertaining one.
About the Author
CYNTHIA BAXTER is a native of Long Island, New York. She currently resides on the North Shore, where she is at work on the next mystery in the Murder Packs a Suitcase series, Too Rich and Too Dead, which Bantam will publish in April 2009. She is also the author of the Reigning Cats & Dogs series—look for a new mystery on sale in Summer 2009. Visit Cynthia’s website at www.cynthiabaxter.com.
Don’t miss Mallory Marlowe’s next mystery!
The intrepid travel-writer-turned-sleuth takes on glamour—and murder—on the ski slopes of Aspen in
Too Rich and Too Dead
A Murder Packs a Suitcase Mystery
by
Cynthia Baxter
On sale in April 2009
Also by Cynthia Baxter
The Reigning Cats & Dogs Mystery Series
DEAD CANARIES DON’T SING
PUTTING ON THE DOG
LEAD A HORSE TO MURDER
HARE TODAY, DEAD TOMORROW
RIGHT FROM THE GECKO
WHO’S KITTEN WHO?
MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DIE
*1Since my visit, Titanic: The Experience has moved, and is now temporarily located at the Orlando Science Center at 777 East Princeton Street (Phone: 407–895–2610).
Return to text.
MURDER PACKS A SUITCASE
A Bantam Book / November 2008
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2008 by Cynthia Baxter
* * *
Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
* * *
www.bantamdell.com
eISBN: 978-0-553-90571-7
v3.0
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