Orlando, Florida

I lived here for four years, and I loved it here!

I especially enjoyed visiting the theme parks with my late sister, and the rare times he came down, my younger brother, and the one time she came down (for her 55th birthday), my mother.

There are seven theme parks in Orlando: Walt Disney World (which includes the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios Florida and Islands of Adventure, and Sea World.

You can make it from Downtown Orlando and the other six largest metropolitan areas (Orlando is #4) in the Southeast USA to Walt Disney World in a day's drive (well, obviously Orlando and Tampa, that goes without saying since they are in such close proximity!), although outside the Southeast USA (and perhaps even outside Florida if you have the money for multiple people or are only one person as flying is often cheaper than driving for one person) I highly recommend you fly.

Theme park tickets are not cheap!  Resort hotel rooms are even more expensive!  I would know because I am planning a trip for my mother, my younger brother, my sister-in-law, my ex-sister-in-law, and my two nephews for my mother's 72nd and my older nephew's 13th birthdays, and I fully expect to pay $25,000 for their trip....if not more!  Expect to shell out multiple Benjamin Franklins for your vacation as well!  If you're not affluent and / or have saved up, you could find yourself shell-shocked!

If flying, I recommend the following airlines highest:  Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Air.  Southwest flies into the main airport "McCoy" (MCO), Allegiant flies (or used to fly) into Sanford (SFB).  Both are international airports, although Sanford is VERY small (although not as small as Chattanooga), although I prefer small airports due to faster security checkpoints, they usually were 15 minutes long when I flew, as opposed to one hour at MCO!  I used Allegiant Air all the time when I lived in Orlando and would visit my mother, late sister, and younger brother in Chattanooga, as they flew directly into Chattanooga.  Southwest is more expensive initially but your bags fly free and they serve free refreshments.  Allegiant is cheaper initially (when I flew the cheapest I booked was $17 and the most expensive was $99 but that was 5 days before Christmas as in December 20, usually my mother or I paid $29 - $49 each way, and when they first start serving an airport, they offer introductory offers from $9, yes, you read that right, NINE dollars, you can hardly even buy a meal at a fast food restaurant for that after COVID-19, much less at a casual dining restaurant you can actually sit down and enjoy your meal at) but you pay for bags and for refreshments, but when I flew they were fairly reasonable, they weren't quite as obscene as some airlines.  I usually would bring just a carry-on (the largest they'd allow) on my trips and keep some changes of clothes at my mother's house when I lived in Florida and buy maybe one drink in flight.