Theme & Amusement Parks in Palm Bay

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.

BounceU transports kids to an inflatable, climate-controlled playground in which they can bounce from side to side in a safe, secure environment. During open-bounce sessions, kids can imagine they're Spiderman while climbing the new Spider Climb, or pretend they're synchronized leapers in Michael Flatley's Riverbounce as they carom around the inflatable stadium, expending energy with every leap. Cosmic Bounce sessions give jouncing juniors a much-deserved break from earthly leaping, allowing them to play under the violet glow of black lights and special-effect lights moving in coordination with fun music. Each cosmic bouncer receives a complimentary glow-in-the-dark accessory upon entrance, which can be used to light the way in a dark tunnel or light half the face to recreate Colonel Kurtz's monologue from Apocalypse Now. When a cause for celebration arises, parents snag party rooms and private bouncing rooms for their buoyant revelers. During summer camps, kids pair their bounce-based brand of performance arts with imaginative crafts.

The attentive BounceU staff monitor the rebounding facilities at all times, ensuring the inflatable playground is kept safe, clean, and free of spiky objects such as mohawks and sea urchins. Call ahead or check the calendar for available open-bounce times. Frolicking children must be supervised by a parent and must wear socks to play. Parents of children younger than 4 are welcome to join the vivacious youngsters in the playground.

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.

Gliding down a zipline, clambering through a four-story rope course, and scaling a 35-foot rock wall sounds like the components of a Survivor challenge, but these three activities are actually the components of AMPventure, Old Town’s newest entertainment complex. AMPventure expands the fun park to a total of 18 rides, which includes many theme-park staples. Patrons can zoom circuits around the go-kart track, enjoy peaceful views from the ferris wheel, or practice their ray-of-sunshine impressions during laser tag. While looking for rides reserved for youngsters only, such as the Frog Hopper, families wend their way through the park, stopping at stands vending treats from pizza and ice cream to Chinese fare. Four days a week, cruises entertain visitors who can watch dancers groove to live music while checking out classic cars almost as old school as the original car: a horse on roller skates.

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.