Can it really be three years since Manta -- Central Florida's first-ever flying coaster -- initially came on the scene at SeaWorld Orlando? Copyright SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. All rights reserved Yep. To be exact, this Bolliger & Mabillard-designed roller coaster officially opened to the public on May 22, 2009. And ever since then, millions of thrill seekers have made special trips to this zoological theme park just so they could then experience what it was like to dive, twist and...

This Saturday, it's Lucky No. 7 for the Wynn. Seven years ago on April 28, 2005, this $2.7 billion dollar mega-resort opened at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sands Avenue. And the town has never really been the same. Copyright Wynn Resort Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved Of course, there are some old timers who still miss the Desert Inn, that hotel & casino which previously occupied this spot along the Strip. But when you consider the state-of-the-art facility Steve Wynn built in...

Most men in their late 50s start to slow down a little bit. But -- then again -- most men aren't Penn Jillette. Best known as the taller, louder half of that eccentric pair of performers (who -- now through September -- will regularly be presenting their acclaimed magic act in the appropriately named Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas ), Jillette has been a very busy guy these past few months. How so? Well, just in the past year, this 57 year-old has: starred...

There's an old saying that you don't fix what ain't broke. And in the case of "The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man," this Islands of Adventure attraction had received consistently high marks with Universal Orlando Guests since it first opened back in May of 1999. With some folks calling this ambitious 3D / simulator hybrid the best theme park ride that had ever been built. Which should have made Thierry Coup, the Vice President of Development at Universal Creative, happy. After...

"Gentlemen, start your engines!" This weekend's Rolex 24 kicks off a full four weeks of high-speed fun over at the Daytona International Speedway. After the 50 th anniversary running of this international sportscar competition, this 480-acre complex then becomes home to such highly anticipated racing events as the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, the Budweiser Shootout, the Gatorade Duel, the NextEra Energy Resources 250, the Drive4CPOD 300 and - of course, the big daddy of them all - the...

Did you catch the Miss America Pageant on ABC this past Saturday night? 8 million viewers tuned in for this live telecast, which ended with 23 year-old Laura Kaeppeler of Wisconsin being awarded the tiara and that $50,000 scholarship. Teresa Scanlan, Miss America 2011, transfers her crown to Laura Kaeppler That was a fun two-hour-long block of television, don't you think? But had you been out in Las Vegas over the past 10 days or so, you would have seen that the Miss America pageant isn't...

So have you made any special plans for New Year's Eve yet? Oh, I suppose you could go the traditional route. Schlep on down to New York City and then crowd into Times Square. Be one of the half million people who go there every year, stand in the cold and watch the ball drop. Or - if you want to do something different this year - you can ditch the crowds & the cold and head for Las Vegas. Where Sin City officials are planning on ending 2011 with a bang. Literally. In the 8-minutes and 36...

Okay. We're T-minus country now when it comes to the holidays. And with just a handful of days between now and you-know-when, it always helps to have a list. So that you don't wind up forgetting anything when you next head out for the Mall. "And what's on your list, Leslie?," you ask. Oh, you know. The usual stuff. I need a couple of cans of Who Pudding. And it'd be nice I had a few tringlers & dafflers & fuzzles & wuzzles to place under the tree. And then -...

Here's a fun factoid for all of you Michael Jackson fans out there: Following the success of "Captain EO," Michael Jackson and the Imagineers actually spent about six months in the late 1980s developing a follow-up attraction. One that would have reimagined the King of Pop as a three-armed outer-space impresario called P.T. Quantum. The "crash-landed" version of the retooled exterior of Carousel of Progress theater-go- round show building. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc...

Twas the week before Thanksgiving and all through the house, Would-be Scrooges were starting to grouse. "What's with these ads that are on my TV Hyping Christmas crud that I'm s'posed to see? Am I really the only one here who remembers That this holiday isn't 'til the 25 th of December?" Are you someone who has difficulty when it comes to holiday transitions? Do you get genuinely upset when you see all of the stores pulling down their Halloween decorations on November...

Let's be honest here. Every night in Las Vegas is kind of like Halloween. Don't believe me? Then take a stroll up the Strip some evening. And I guarantee you that you'll encounter some interesting-looking characters who are then dressed in some pretty far-out-looking outfits. But if you're headed to Vegas over the next week or so, you'll undoubtedly be looking for a little Las Vegas Halloween fun. The only question then is ... Well, how ghoulish do you want to go? Anthony Crivello...

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary ... Copyright Universal Orlando Resort. All rights reserved If you experience this year's edition of Halloween Horror Nights at the Universal Orlando Resort, you'll definitely feel a bit weak and weary as you wander towards the exits around the stroke of midnight. Not because you'll have been pouring over some "... quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore." But rather because you'll have just spent an evening...

You wouldn't think that - given that Walt Disney World has been staging Halloween events at the Magic Kingdom for nearly 40 years now - that Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party would be still a work-in-progress. But given that Disney World's most popular theme park is right now in the middle of its biggest expansion in three decades (Look for Phase One of the Fantasyland Forest project to come online in the last Spring / early summer of 2012), the Mouse has taken this opportunity to...

When you think of it in fairytale terms, a trip to Las Vegas can really like something straight out of "A Thousand and One Arabian Nights." I mean, think about it: You do cross the burning sands (Especially if you're driving in from LA. Which means that you're taking I-15 straight across Death Valley.) And then - in the middle of the desert - you can find this fabled city which is filled with castles & turrets & magic. And when I say "magic," I'm not talking...

We're just two weeks out now from the frights that can be found at the 2011 edition of Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights . And while other sites may go on & on about all the scares that await you inside of those eight great new haunted houses that are being built as we speak for this year's event, I'd like to focus instead on the six scare zones that will be featured at HHN 21. To my way of thinking, those scare zones are the real reason that Universal Orlando's...

When you're in Las Vegas, access is always an issue. The Venetian Las Vegas Whether it's trying to decide which end of the Strip you should stay on (so that you can then have easy access to your favorite resorts & casinos) or what type of room you should book for your stay (Staying at the concierge level is admittedly a bit pricier. But on the other hand, it will then make it that much easier for you to score reservations & seats for some of Las Vegas' hottest restaurants and...

So what's your favorite aspect of summer? Me personally, I enjoy those extra hours of daylight that you usually get in June, July and August. Which then makes it that much easier to cram an extra hour or two of fun into a summer night. And speaking of fun summer nights, both SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay have recently rolled out special Summer Nights promotions. Which - through extended operating hours, brand-new shows & extra entertainment opportunities - now allow Guests...

For most people, a trip to Las Vegas is a chance to step away from their everyday lives for a little while. A chance to go someplace exciting. Where the lights are bright and the music's loud and there's lots & lots of people. Where you just feed off of all of that energy & excitement. But the downside of this scenario is - if you're spending an entire week in Vegas - by around Day 3, you start to get sensory overload. Which is why it sometimes makes sense to step away from the...

Here in the States, it's kind of a tradition that - whenever Father's Day rolls around - we invariably gift Dad with a tie. Which - as far as Father's Day presents go - is nice & safe & boring. This year, why don't you try giving Dad a different sort of tie? Not the fabric kind, mind you. But the sort of tie where things are just too close to call. Where it'll then be difficult for your Father to make his final choice. And if you're looking for a city which offers...

As the school year draws to a close, kids all over the country are looking forward to shutting those textbooks for a while and just having some fun. But just because these students are now on vacation doesn't mean that they can't actually continue their education. The key to successfully pulling this off without your children squawking too much is to liberally mix the educational material in with something truly fun. Like - say, for example - folding a visit to the Kennedy Space Center into...

For nearly 40 years now, it's been a key component of a Central Florida vacation . That - for one night - you take a break from the theme parks and then head indoors to enjoy a bit of dinner theater . Of course, the real pioneer of this Orlando entertainment tradition is the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. Which has been entertaining WDW Guests (appropriately enough) in Pioneer Hall at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground since the Summer of 1974. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights...

So what's the appropriate way to tell your Mom that you love her on Mother's Day? Flowers? Candy? Copyright 2005 - 2011 Wynn Resort Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved Well, if you're someone who believes in grand gestures, then why not treat your Mother to her dream vacation to Las Vegas ? Where you can then keep that dream theme by dropping by Wynn Las Vegas and catching a performance of this resort & casino's long-running show, "Le Rêve" ? "Le Rêve"...

In a town where volcanoes explode hourly from 7 to 11 p.m. at The Mirage, where a full-sized pirate ship sinks four times nightly right outside of the Treasure Island Las Vegas, it would be awfully easy to overlook the 100-year-old wooden show tent that was recently erected in the Roman Plaza at Caesars Palace. Sure, that half-scale version of the Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris Las Vegas may be taller & grander. And the Fountains of Bellagio are ... Well, splashier. But as your mother always...

Let me guess. You're slightly bummed that you didn't get to see the Easter Bunny (as well as the lovely Mrs. Bunny) when they made their short, seasonal visit to the Magic Kingdom this past weekend. Photo by Todd Anderson. Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved Not to worry, though. If you're visiting The Walt Disney World Resort over Easter Week (more importantly, if you're armed with a Magic Your Way Park Hopper ), you can find all kinds of rabbits this time of year...

There were plenty of stars to be found onstage at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace earlier this week, as Walt Disney Studios took over this venerable Las Vegas venue on Tuesday night to talk up their 2011 & 2012 slates. What kind of stars are we talking about? Well, Amy Adams from Disney's "Enchanted" and "How I Met Your Mother" 's Jason Segal ... Amy Adams and Jason Segal onstage at the Coliseum. Photo by Eric Charbonneau / WireImage. Copyright Disney Enterprises,...