Theme & Amusement Parks in Opa-locka

Sock-footed children scamper around 7,000 square feet of indoor space that, like most office buildings, has specified zones for different age groups ranging from infants through preschoolers. In the back area, older kids strengthen eye-hand coordination with video games such as Madden NFL, while bounce houses help youngsters expend their boundless energy. In the playset area, kids can play house in a pretend kitchen, play train engineer on kid-sized railroads, or play Godzilla by sticking their hands in dollhouse windows. Infants and toddlers wander around a simpler play area near the parents' lounge, where guardians can keep one eye on their kids and the other on a TV or computer screen. At the end of the day, all surfaces are purified by a professional cleaning service with hospital-grade disinfectant.

With hands gripped to the wheels of karts capable of cresting 45 miles per hour, up to 12 racers hum around the hairpin turns and straightaways of K1 Speed's indoor track during adrenaline-spiking sprints toward the podium. This brand of excitement can be found at all 15 locations, where racers eschew the fumes and inflammatory skywriting of gas kart exhaust for European, eco-friendly electric karts designed to instantly accelerate out of curves, which are bordered by safety barriers that absorb impacts. To keep everyone in the chase, dialed-down junior karts (available at select locations) safely carry tiny drivers between the height of 48" and 58".

Gymboree offers a bevy of baby-engaging classes in which parents and wee ones work together to build tots' creativity and encourage development through play. Offered in monthly sessions, weekly classes are available for every age from the freshly born sapling to the 5-year-young wise wanderer. This deal includes rhythm-building music classes, imagination-expanding art classes, and Gymboree's most popular class, Play & Learn. The one-month membership (a $75 value, plus $60 membership fee) allows you to take one class per week, with makeups available during enrollment if you miss a class. This deal also includes unlimited attendance at Gymboree's open-gym sessions (contact location for schedule). One Groupon must be purchased for each child, and each child must be accompanied by at least one adult (but more than one adult is welcome).

As they observe the vibrant exhibits of aquatic life inside the Miami Seaquarium, many guests don't realize that they are walking through a movie set and a hospital. In the onsite lagoon, bottlenose dolphins swim through waters once traversed by Flipper, who filmed several television episodes and films at the venue. The Seaquarium is also recognized as a manatee critical care facility. Its staff has accomplished several historic treatments, including monitoring the conception and arrival of the first manatee born under human care and conducting the first manatee neurological surgery.

These facets of the Seaquarium—along with its many conservation efforts, educational programs, and shows—underscore a united commitment to wildlife consciousness. The animal attractions enable visitors to witness the allure and fragility of oceanic fauna up close, whether they are petting the back of a stingray or washing a dress shirt on the rough back of an 8-foot nile crocodile. Special encounters decrease the distance even further, sending patrons on underwater Sea Treks through the reef display or helping them to lead marine-mammal training routines.

It's hard to pinpoint the biggest personality inside the Seaquarium tanks, but Lolita the killer whale—who performs daily alongside pacific white-sided dolphins—claims the title of heaviest, period. On the other end of the scale, macaws and cockatiels perch around the Tropical Wings section of the park, and endangered sea turtles lounge at Discovery Bay. Elsewhere, a watery playground and three-story ropes course keep legs from growing too wobbly after a trip to Shark Channel or a smooch from a sea lion.

In the 1950s, Bayside Marketplace’s Pier 5 was a hub of activity, bustling with fishermen, cooks, and gossiping locals. Nowadays, though, the pier is a hub for a more modern demographic: jet skiers. As the home base of Miami Jet Ski Rental, the pier hosts a fleet of 2009 Yamaha VX Deluxe jet skis and a team of CPR- and First Aid-certified staffers. Aboard their rental vessels, adventurers can zoom through Biscayne Bay or take to the Atlantic Ocean, catching glimpses of wildlife such as dolphins, manatees, and librarians.

Water features lace throughout Boomers! miniature-golf courses, gurgling cheerfully as putters attempt to elude windmill blades and wacky hazards. These carefully designed courses populate numerous national locations, running parallel to go-kart tracks or lawless bumper-boat lagoons abandoned by the Coast Guard. Inside old-fashioned arcade rooms, video games chirp in response to players' shouts of victory or defeat.

The parks' parent company—Palace Entertainment—maintains 8 theme parks, 11 water parks, and 21 family-entertainment centers tucked into various corners of the nation, making it an expert on providing family-style fun and laundering towels.