On a hot day at Walt Disney World, there's truly nothing better than taking a break from the crowds and excitement to find a seat in the shade and enjoy a Dole Whip. The delightful and delicious frozen treat has been a Disney Parks staple for nearly 40 years, but its roots go back to 1976, when Dole became the sponsor of Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland Park in California. Dole Pineapple Whip, as it was known back then, debuted at the Florida resort's Magic Kingdom Park in 1984 as a sweet treat sold at Aloha Isle.

Dole Whip arrived at Disneyland two years later and has since spread globally to the company's resorts, including to Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disney Resort and Aulani in Hawaii. In 2017, Dole Whip even hit the open seas, sailing aboard Disney Cruise Line.

Disney World is known for its four theme parks, but the Central Florida property also offers two water parks — Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

At Typhoon Lagoon, Disney World's tropical-themed water park, there are 11 water attractions ranging from waterslides to a wave pool. Typhoon Lagoon closes at 8 p.m. most days, but on select nights, it holds H2O Glow Nights, a special after-hours ticketed event that runs from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.

My first visits to Disney World were long ago — before I moved from Maryland to Florida — and always with my family in tow.

When my husband, kids, and I relocated to Central Florida seven years ago, it was a no-brainer that we'd purchase annual passes. For years, we made memories in the theme parks, but, as my kids turned into teenagers, they weren't as interested in visiting anymore.

I decided to keep my own annual pass because I love visiting Disney alone. Even when my husband and kids held passes, I still loved nothing more than escaping alone for the day to visit a Disney park or shop at Disney Springs.

The holiday season at Walt Disney World Resort may be among the most magical times of year at the destination, but it’s also the busiest. Not only is the Christmas season at Walt Disney World a time for major crowds, but there is also a flurry of additional activities to enhance your family’s holiday celebration. These added holiday activities at Disney give families an incredible bang for their buck, but can also make it hard to decide which Christmas activities at Disney are worth it, and which aren’t.

Visiting a Walt Disney World theme park is no longer as simple as purchasing a park ticket and showing up at the gate of whichever park at the Orlando complex you feel like visiting that day. Since Disney World fully reopened after closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the resort has had a reservation system in place that's made visiting require even more forethought than ever. And, although there have been slight tweaks to the system of Disney World reservations since they were implemented in 2020, the resort shows no indication that it will stop requiring them any time soon.

There’s just one time of year where “snow” fills the streets of Walt Disney World (WDW), Mickey Mouse parades through Magic Kingdom with a troop of toy soldiers, and singers fill EPCOT with holiday carols recited by candlelight. The holidays and Christmas at WDW are truly among the merriest times to visit, but there’s a lot of extra festive details for parents to know about.

Whatever way your family celebrates during the holiday season, visiting Walt Disney World for some holiday cheer is a special perk of Orlando.

Read on for everything you need to know about visiting Walt Disney World during the holidays and Christmas.

While their reputations are dwarfed by theme parks like Magic Kingdom and Epcot, the Disney World water parks are among the best places in Orlando to splash and cool off. Typhoon Lagoon, a tropical paradise-themed water park on the resort's sprawling property, is definitely worth visiting on a long Disney World vacation. Along with its attractions and wave pool, Typhoon Lagoon is home to solid food and beverage options and a fun late-night dance party. Plus, Mount Mayday and its teetering ship is one of the coolest park icons Disney has ever created.

The first time I visited Walt Disney World (WDW) with my kids, they were just 3 and 5, eager to meet their favorite characters and get some Mickey-shaped ice cream bars. A decade later, I visit with teenagers who will still oblige me with a character photo, but care more about which restaurant has the best cheeseburger and how many thrill rides we can pack into one theme park day. Still, through many trips to WDW and Disneyland, I’ve perfected my checklist of items to pack in my bag for a day at a Disney park — many of which haven’t changed as my kids have gotten older.

I really love a good escape room. From solving puzzles as a team to taking in the elaborate theming, visiting an Orlando escape room on a date night always feels like the perfect way to spend time with my husband. But escape rooms also make me more than a little anxious. The solution? Universal Orlando escape room – but with a twist!

Orlando is known for its theme parks, which makes the city a popular destination for kids who are critically ill and their families. But when kids with life-limiting diagnoses visit Walt Disney World or Universal Orlando, where do they stay?

Enter Give Kids the World Village (GKTW), an 89-acre non-profit resort in Kissimmee that provides wish vacations for critically ill kids and their families. When a sick child wishes for a Central Florida vacation, GKTW springs into action, hosting the family free of charge for one week while they visit destinations like Disney, SeaWorld, and more.

Most people know that taking a trip to Disneyland requires a bit of planning ahead. There are dining reservations to make, parade and show times to research and character meet-and-greets to map out — not to mention the decision of whether or not to opt for Disney Genie Plus to ostensibly remove some of that planning fatigue (at a cost, of course). But one of the decisions Disneyland guests are faced with from the moment they decide to buy passes is whether or not Disneyland Park Hopper tickets are worth it.

I'm the kind of girl who finds an outfit I love and buys it in every color — bonus when that outfit falls into the athleisure category. So when I noticed multiple women wearing the same style of flowy shorts on a recent trip to Universal Orlando Resort, I immediately started searching Amazon for summer shorts in the tennis skirt-style I was observing, and I hit gold.

I spend a lot of time at the theme parks throughout Central Florida. I've sweated it out in 100-degree temperatures to ride popular roller coasters and battled crowds to see the return of beloved parades and shows after the coronavirus pandemic caused them to be canceled. The theme park life is fun, but stressful at times. But there's a place where my family has never experienced a stressful day — Volcano Bay, the South Seas-themed water park located at Universal Orlando Resort.

As a journalist who writes about theme parks, I spend a lot of time at Universal Orlando Resort. As other Orlando theme parks have continued to raise prices without much benefit to guests, Universal has become a favorite hangout for my family of four. But on my birthday this year, I asked my clan to experience something completely new together: A private VIP tour of Universal Studios Florida and Universal's Islands of Adventure.

I had no idea what to expect when I packed my bag for a day at Silver Dollar City (SDC), a theme park located in the Ozark Mountain Region of Branson, Mo. Before walking through the park gates, I knew only a few things: the park is set in the 1880s, it's known for its food — like barbecue and cinnamon bread — and a friend who had previously visited described the overall experience as a "fever dream" ... in the best possible way.