Traveling to Winter Park, FL July 30th
 

I know this should probably go in some other forum, but I wanted to get some input soon.

I am flying into Orlando July 30th to visit Full Sail, and other than touring that school I have no other plans. I am not 25 yet, so I do not have the ability to rent a car, and was probably going to plan on simply renting a bike for transport within the town of Winter Park.

What things are there to do? Anything... From art museums, to parks, bars, anything... I am attempting to save as much money as possible for the trip, and don't want to lay out a lot of money, but it is also a vacation of sorts for me, and I don't mind enjoying myself even if it means returning home broke.

Any information would be appreciated!

I live in Winter Park! Full Sail is a great school, you'll love it. It is walking distance of apartments, and stores, and restaruants. And about 6 miles from some museums, and more upscale shopping, what is termed Old Winter Park. Orlando, really is not much for culture, and museums and such(which is very depressing for me), but the people here are mostly fun, and you willl like the kids in school. The thing about where you are goign to be, all the fun stuff is too far for you to simply bike. All the bigger museums and theme parks and the good bars, are a considerable distance from where you be...i thought you could rent a car at 21? just pay a little more...

My grandparents used to live in Orlando and work in Winter Park at the candleshop they owned. Unfortunately I was younger then and I don't remember much of the city..

Yeah, if you are only going to have a bike then there won't be much to see. Park Ave. in Winter Park is nice. Mainly just shopping though. Like veruca said, unless you are able to get your hands on a car there really isn't much to recommend.

Full Sail is a great school. I went there in 1999-2000 for recording. I take it you are going to one of their open houses? I don't know what they are like now, but the open house could put a bad taste in your mouth for the school. I say that because it's just such a sales pitch. It can be very flashy and you might start to wonder if it really is a good school or not. Does that make any sense? :) Anyway, it is a great school. If you have any questions let me know.

winter park is cool, lots to do there. there's a really nice theater there and a big shoppign complex with nice stores and great restaurants. If you like chinese food, I recommend P.F. Chang's if you don't mind spending a little bit... it's fucking great food. You REALLY want to look into getting a rental though, it's a bit spread out to bike to everything, I think.... good luck!

If you really want to know the inside story of Full Sail, just go to all the area restaurants....they're staffed by disillusioned Full Sail graduates.

/They were a client of mine for awhile, and I know several instructors. FWIW

//If you're looking to get into Animation, look into "The Dave School" at Universal Studios.

true, there are a lot of disillusioned people, but they expected to get jobs in orlando, and that isn't going to happen. there are no jobs here, and if there is, they are very hard to get..so don't plan on staying here.

Yay close to me! :D

Yeah, I'm about as unattached/free as can be. I don't plan to remain in the area where I go to school, unless I fall in love with it, and the opportunity to remain is there, but plan afterwards to move wherever need/intrique takes me, and go from there.

All I know at this point, I'm either going to become a nomad of the Rockies, take an IT job and disappear to a foreign country, or pursue a career with Film Production in one shape or another.

But, tired of waiting to see where life takes me...

Thanks for letting me know about the town and school, if anyone feels like hanging out at a restaurant, or anything let me know. I'll be wandering around probably either getting myself in trouble, or finding a nice scenic park to people watch from (when I'm not pestering the Full Sail reps with a barrage of questions).

remind me when it gets closer to the time you r coming, and maybe we can do something

Lived in Orlando previously; I can reiterate that it's definitely a car city. I very rarely saw anyone biking around. Lake Eola Park is pretty nice, near downtown, however if the water level is low it tends to smell like a fetid swamp, and there are a lot of homeless guys hanging around. There's a small amphitheater in the park where you can probably find a Shakespeare show or something similar during the summer. Winter Park Village is the shopping center the other posters are talking about, where you can also find other Hip Chain suspects like the Cheesecake Factory and Johnny Rockets. Just watch out for jailbait as it's the high school hangout of choice. I can’t offer too much useful advice about Winter Park because I didn’t go there very often. I went on a tour of Full Sail once as well, and I can say that it looked like a pretty nice place to be if you're really into the various subjects they teach, though I couldn't comment on the career opportunities after school.

Down in the southwest, 15-30 minutes from downtown depending on the time, is where I lived, and there you have primarily Universal, Disney, and the touristy stuff on International Drive. About halfway between downtown and I-drive is...the Holy Land Experience...a religious theme park, and I specifically recommend NOT going unless you are heavily into the history of the Jews and Christ in the Holy Land. There's also a new, somewhat upscale, mall a half mile from the Holy Land called the Mall at Millennia, where you will find, yes, another PF Chang's, Cheesecake Factory, and the other usual Hip Chain suspects! You'll find lots of random restaurants and tourist attractions on I-Drive, also the location of the ever-expanding Convention Center, and at Universal Citywalk (pay to park, like $7) and Downtown Disney (free parking). Bahama Breeze is a good restaurant on I-Drive. My personal favorite for Mexican food is Tijuana Flats, which is similar to a Baja Fresh out west, except TJ owns Baja because the food is much better and it's cheaper. I actually only went to the one in Gainesville but they're also in WP and Orlando.

For clubs, downtown was once the place to be, but Citywalk, Downtown Disney, and the Orlando city government killed it off, though you will still find some clubs there such as Icon, Cairo, and Tabu, and I couldn't specifically recommend one. The Groove at Citywalk is popular. The main rock venues are, from largest to smallest, Hard Rock Live at Citywalk, House of Blues at Downtown Disney, and the Social downtown. TD Waterhouse Center is where the Magic and pop bands play. For theatre and classical music hit up the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center also near WP. As you can see, most everything to do is concentrated in the Southwest in the tourist areas, and the downtown/WP area.

General demographic information, most of the city is pretty nice as there aren't really any areas of urban blight, but the poorest area is immediately west of downtown around the Citrus Bowl and TD Waterhouse Center, and the richest is the housing development Isleworth, actually in the city of Windermere, west-southwest of Orlando. This is where I believe Shaq still has a huge mansion though Magic fans are still bitter. However it's heavily guarded so you can't just go driving around Isleworth if you don't know anyone who lives there. Do not speed in the city of Windermere because you will get a ticket. There apparently isn't any other crime there so the cops spend all of their time writing speeding tickets.