Just the ticket

The perfect way to discover the thrills and spills of Orlando is with the 5-Park Orlando FlexTicket™, discovers travel writer Mark Hodson

Describing Orlando as big is rather like saying Bill Gates is quite well off. Florida's unofficial tourist capital is a vast sprawling city of 500 hotels and 5,000 restaurants, pulling in 50 million visitors a year. To do every attraction in every theme park - starting every day at 9am and finishing at 5pm - would take almost 10 weeks.

When I arrived in July with my wife and five-year-old son, I admit I was daunted by the place. How would we cope with the heat, the sensory overload, the decisions about where to go and what to do?

I needn't have worried. In spite of its size, Orlando is a remarkably easy, friendly and safe destination, where everything is tailored to the needs of families, everywhere is clearly signposted and no restaurant is too fancy to lay out a children's menu and a box of crayons.

The way to approach Orlando is to arm yourself with a multi-park ticket. The best for value, convenience and flexibility is the Orlando FlexTicket™, which gives you unlimited access to the best theme parks over a 14 consecutive day period.

A 5-Park Orlando FlexTicket™ gets you into Universal Studios®, Universal's Islands of Adventure®, SeaWorld® Orlando, Wet 'n Wild® Orlando and Busch Gardens® Tampa Bay (including free transfers to the park). It's the best way to enjoy the best of Orlando: five must-do parks in one must-have ticket.

Packed with benefits, your Orlando FlexTicket™ also gives you complimentary entrance into the venues at Universal CityWalk®, home to fabulous live entertainment, nightclubs, and an incredible variety of restaurants and shopping, plus a 20-screen movie theatre. Your ticket also includes unlimited FREE bus transportation to Busch Gardens® Tampa Bay on the Busch Gardens® Shuttle Express and unbeatable value parking. Visit more than one park in a day and you only have to pay for parking once.

And you don't need to be an adrenalin junkie to get a kick out of the parks. Although they're best known for their thrill rides, they also have plenty of junior rides and imaginative play areas for young children.

Universal Studios®

Universal Studios® combines convincing street scenes with real sound stages and a superb collection of themed attractions where you can ride the movies. Woody Woodpecker's KidZone is packed with fun for young kids including a tiny coaster, a 200ft water slide and a singalong stage show.

Best rides: Our favourite was Men in Black™ Alien Attack™ in which riders zap monsters. Revenge of the MummySM is a psychological thrill ride that mixes up high-speed rollercoaster technology with live pyrotechnics and advanced robotics.

Best attractions: Terminator 2: 3-D™, which takes3-D movies to a new level, with live stunts and special effects. And Shrek 4-D™, a motion simulator that brings everybody's favourite screen ogre - and his donkey - to life.

Don't miss: As well as old favourites such as ET® and Jaws®, the park boasts some hi-tech humdingers including Terminator 2: 3-D™ and Shrek 4-D™.

Universal's Islands of Adventure®

The most technologically advanced of all the parks in Orlando, Universal's Islands of Adventure® has the pick of the thrill rides for teenagers and adults. The park is themed throughout - even down to the building design and ambient music and there's plenty to please young children too.

Best rides: The Incredible Hulk Coaster® is a must, as are the Dueling Dragons® coasters, and the Jurassic Park River Adventure®. The Cat in the Hat™ ride was a big hit with my son.

Best attractions: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man® is a dazzling combination of thrill ride and 3-D effects. Your spider senses will be tingling. It's so good you'll want to ride it again and again.

Don't miss: Toon Lagoon®, a hilarious island where the world's best-loved cartoon and comic strip characters come to life. Try out two great water rides, Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls®, a wild and wet flume ride with one of the steepest water drops ever created and help Popeye® save Olive Oyl™ on Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges®.

SeaWorld® Orlando

It's the world's most popular marine life adventure park. SeaWorld® Orlando has some outstanding thrill rides, and puts visitors within splashing distance of whales, dolphins and polar bears. With attractive landscaping, plus a well-disguised educational benefit, we found this to be one of the most satisfying family days out in Orlando.

Best rides: Kraken® is Orlando's only floorless rollercoaster. You'll move at speeds of 65mph and travel as high as a 15-storey building - no wonder it's the most exciting experience in town. Wild Arctic® is a simulated helicopter ride that whizzes you to the North Pole, where you emerge face to face with polar bears, walruses and beluga whales.

Best attractions: Shamu®, SeaWorld® Orlando's iconic killer whale, stars in a breathtaking new multimedia show, Believe, that features an original musical score and a set as high as a three-storey building. Blue Horizons is a theatrical extravaganza featuring acrobatic dolphins and soaring birds.

Don't miss: Journey To Atlantis®, a heart-in-mouth water coaster. Yes, you will get wet.

Wet 'N Wild® Orlando

Spending a day at a water park is a great way to unwind and enjoy the warm Florida sunshine. The one to head for is Wet 'n Wild, consistently voted the best water park in America. With spectacular rides and slides aimed at adults and teenagers, and for younger children, try out the kids park. It's a splashing day out for the whole family.

Best rides: The multi-person flumes are most fun, particularly the 1970s-themed Disco H20™ complete with lights and music, and The Surge, a four-passenger tube ride that twists and dips down a five-storey drop. For single riders, Der Stuka®, a 250ft-high speed slide kicks off with a near vertical drop.

Best attractions: Take things easy in the Lazy River or just relax with a cold drink from the bar.

Don't miss: Getting soaked to the bone down a ruptured pipeline on The Blast.

Busch Gardens® Tampa Bay

An hour from Orlando, Busch Gardens® Tampa Bay has matured into one of the world's best theme parks, combining thrilling roller coasters and water rides with more than 2,000 animals and great live shows.

Best rides: SheiKra®, America's tallest and only dive coaster, sends riders 200ft up then hurls them face down at 70mph. It's awesome - as are the other headline rollercoasters: Montu®, Kumba® and Gwazi®.

Best attractions: Edge of Africa® - with an array of lions, giraffes, hyenas and hippos, it is as close as you'll get to a real safari outside Africa. For a change of pace, take a seat for KaTonga®, a high-kicking stage show incorporating African dance and puppetry.

Don't miss: Pirates 4-D, a new swashbuckling adventure for all the family featuring 4-D special effects and multi-sensory theatre effects. Or the animal nursery, where the park's new arrivals are kept - we saw tiger cubs and two-day-old flamingos.

Mark Hodson