Theme & Amusement Parks in Fairview Shores

Twice a month at Orlando Kart Center, drivers experience a personal rendition of the movie Speed: they zoom around the outdoor course for a full two hours, competing in an endurance competition. Each lap around the sinuous road covers .8 miles, forcing drivers to encounter bumps and stay within curbing as they accelerate up to 45 miles per hour. This event is just one of many breakneck offerings at the center, whose karts and expert staff immerse guests in an authentic racing environment.

Owner Andre Martins oversees the raceway with impressive credentials at his back. As the manager of the Tony Kart US racing team, he led drivers to multiple national championships. He has also raced alongside champions himself, traveling to countries such as Belgium, Canada, and Brazil to showcase his steering finesse and seatbelt-buckling capabilities. Today, he welcomes drivers of all experience levels to tackle Orlando Kart Center's course—including pro racecar drivers, who utilize the track for training. Drop-in customers contend against each other in 10-minute heats, companies rent out the road for forced team-building events, and kart owners can reserve hours for private practice. Online scoreboards log the fastest times by day, week, and month, compiling track records for patrons to challenge.

During a round of golf in this region, it’s not uncommon for players to see the occasional alligator sunning itself on the banks of a fairway pond. The same, however, cannot be said for miniature-golf courses, unless you’re playing at Congo River Golf, where the civilized sinking of putts coexists with the visceral carnage of live-alligator feedings. More than 25 alligators wait for patrons to feed them morsels of gator food in an exhibit beside the course. Though the course offers no chance for an encounter with the ancient, scaly species, it enchants players with waterfalls, safari-themed artifacts, and towering rock faces. In addition, Congo River Golf encompasses an indoor arcade and a gemstone-mining station, where guests dig through dirt for fossils, arrowheads, and Neanderthal’s kindergarten time capsules.

Magical Midway’s neon-lit towers jut into the night sky as visitors scream with excitement from the amusement park’s go-kart tracks, thrill rides, and fully stocked arcade. The Space Blast Tower shoots passengers 180 feet in the air at a g-force greater than 3. Drivers cruise go-karts along two elevated tracks or whip around corkscrew turns on the Audubon-inspired fast track, as nearby bumper cars collide as harmlessly as two marshmallows doing a chest bump. Pucks float across the air-hockey table in the arcade, which also houses racing simulations and dancing games. Hungry thrill seekers refuel with sundry meals and snacks, such as hand-tossed New York–style pizza and ice cream.

SWAT team officers stormed the occupied warehouse, firing into the dark. They ducked for cover behind beams, barrels, and crates as the enemy returned fire. The enemy held the upper ground, and it quickly dawned on these officers that they were fighting a losing battle. Amid the sounds of combat, the squad leader called over a senior manager and asked him to tone down the difficulty—because the female laser-tag referees kept beating his squad.

Though Hard Knocks' skilled referees sometimes train local SWAT teams using laser tag, they also regulate matches between players of all ages in three indoor arenas spread across 30,000 square feet. As players fire, they duck behind cubicles, filing cabinets, and desks in a replicated office; dart through dining rooms, panic rooms, and kitchens in a replica suburban home; and battle inside a functional warehouse.

Players exchange infrared beams from a roster of replica guns, each designed to emulate real military weaponry in size, weight, and operation. Each gun blasts targets in limited rounds using eye-safe infrared light, a technology adapted from military combat simulations. Players test their marksmanship in 75 realistic laser-tag missions, some of which require them to practice espionage, defuse bombs, protect and rescue hostages, or chase squirrels out of their front yards. When not exchanging beams of light, players can engage in virtual melee or team skirmishes in a room filled with combat simulators or play pool and console video games in a 4,500-square-foot gaming lounge.

At Happy Days Family Fun, a cautious driver is the biggest maniac on the road. Seated behind the wheels of sparkly bumper cars—rather than the vintage pedal fire trucks used for everyday commutes—motorists crash into each other in a huge indoor space bordered with tinsel curtains shimmering under an overhead disco ball. Players also collide with cushioned pillars during laser-tag matches in a galactic-themed arena, housed behind a 3-D spaceship hovering over the entryway. Fender benders are discouraged, however, at the go-kart track, where patrons speed to the finish line under the influence of cotton-candy sugar highs. In the arcade, skee-balls land in target rings, triggering streams of tickets exchangeable for a variety of toys at the prize counter.

Trickling waters and shrieking giggles fill the air at CoCo Key Water Park’s tropical-themed playground, a Rube Goldbergian array of twisting slides, jungle gyms, and waterfalls. The 54,000-square-foot superstructure includes attractions for all ages, such as Coral Reef Cove, a pool hangout designed for teens, and Minnow's Lagoon, a Lilliputian playarea with a shallow pool, water cannons, and four slides tailored for kiddos. A trinity of signature slides awaits more daring visitors, including Over the Falls, an aquatic roller coaster that ends with a high-speed corkscrew, and Boomerango, a two-person tube ride with a near-vertical descent that will convert even the most ardent of gravity-deniers. As youngsters enjoy an adrenaline-filled respite from the Florida sun, adults can unwind at a poolside bar.