Posts Tagged ‘Yourself’

Treat Yourself to a Night Out at an NBA Theme Restaurant

If you are in the Orlando area and are a basketball enthusiast, or have kids who love the game, then you should visit NBA City for one of your evening meals. NBA City is a basketball theme restaurant that has won heaps of praise from visitors and the news media alike.

It was set up in 1999 and has been a hit with sports lovers ever since. What’s the secret of its appeal? It’s the sports atmosphere that permeates every corner of the place.

You will be dining in an environment filled with all kinds of sports memorabilia and while you are enjoying your dinner you can watch large flat-panel TV screens showing live sports or highlights of past NBA exploits.

In the highlight videos the basketball greats from all the eras are shown. Old timers will thrill to see Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain again and your kids will enjoy watching Kobe Bryant rack up the points.

There’s more to do than just eat at this theme restaurant. It has an interactive section where you or your kids can test your basketball skills. It is not just video games; you really will get a chance to shoot some baskets.

What about the food? It is contains the favorites of typical American cuisine. That includes hamburgers, pasta, pizza, salads, sandwiches and grilled steaks. The desserts are “home made” and the prices are quite reasonable. The average price for a meal is under $15.

The menu sounds quite plain but the food items are well prepared and that’s why this restaurant has won a lot of good comments not only from ordinary diners but from food critics as well. In particular, Fodor’s Review said that “the food is actually the real draw here.”

It’s a huge place. The restaurant exceeds 15,000 square feet and can seat more than 350 people on its two levels. It also has space for private parties ranging from small intimate rooms to areas that can hold cocktail receptions for several hundred people.

Serious sports fans may want to try out their SkyBox Lounge. This is the luxury area of the restaurant and it not only has a good view of Universal’s CityWalk area, but gives you the possibility to watch non-stop sports on 20 different TV screens.

Before you leave the restaurant you may want to pick up some NBA souvenirs, jerseys and memorabilia. They have a well-stocked shop and you can pick out something with the emblem of your favorite team.

If you are “sold” on this restaurant and want to visit it here is the basic information that you need to know: It is conveniently located in Universal’s CityWalk area. CityWalk is a special entertainment, dining and shopping area of the Universal theme park. Beside NBA City, it is also home to many theme restaurants, night clubs and other restaurants.

The restaurant is open daily from 11:00 AM and the closing hours are not fixed; they vary according to the amount of customers.

That’s about it. If you are a sports enthusiast and want to have a tasty, yet inexpensive, dinner in a basketball environment then be sure to visit NBA City in Orlando.

Treat Yourself To Orlandos Number One Attraction: Discovery Cove

If you had to guess what is the number one attraction in Orlando you would probably say Disney World or Universal Studios, but you would be wrong. According to a respected source of travel information, the attraction with the most appeal is Discovery Cove, an ocean theme park that will let you get up close to dolphins, tropical birds and other exotic creatures.

Discovery Cove offers a variety of activities including snorkeling on a coral reef and getting safely up close to sharks and barracudas, but the standout attraction at this park is the chance that it offers you to wade or swim with bottleneck dolphins.

The park, which is located right next to the more famous Sea World, features 30 bottleneck dolphins and you dont just look at them through a plexi-glass wall, you can hug, kiss and swim with them one-to-one in a special dolphin swim.

Here is how it works. First you watch a video which explains what you need to know about dolphins and how to communicate with them through hand signals. You learn how to give them positive reinforcement and you get acquainted with safety procedures too.

After the orientation video, you get a chance to get wet and meet the dolphins in person. Groups of 6-8 people wade into a lagoon where they play with a dolphin for thirty minutes. You can pet them, stroke them and get to know them, but the highlight of the encounter is when you go on a one-on-one swim with a dolphin through the lagoon.

The second biggest attraction at Discovery Cove is the snorkeling experience. Instead of watching a film or movie about tropical fish, you can put on a snorkel and fins and swim over a tropical reef, past shipwrecks and grottos and view all sorts of tropical fish as well as sharks and barracudas. You dont have to worry about the sharks and the barracudas, they are kept safely away from you in a glass enclosed area of the lagoon.

You swim with a dolphin and then snorkel up close to sharks. Is there anything else that can top this? Well, at Discovery Cove you can also go for a trip up a tropical river and experience what it is like to visit a tropical rainforest. The rainforest at Discovery Cove has waterfalls, a freshwater lagoon and underground caves, and 250 tropical birds. The birds are quite tame and will even eat out of your hand.

If all that is not enough, you can get your snorkel and fins on again and go into the ray lagoon and get up close to the very gentle cow nose rays.

Visitors to the popular website Trip Advisor voted Discovery Cove as the most popular attraction in Orlando, and as can be expected it is not so easy to visit the park. You definitely have to reserve in advance and be prepared to pay a rather substantial price. An admission with a dolphin experience costs $289 and admission without a close-up with the dolphins costs $189. But, if you want the ocean adventure of a lifetime, then dont let these obstacles get in your way and go find out why this is the most popular attraction in the Orlando area.