And then, in 1971, the theme parks arrived, and the world's picture of Orlando changed overnight. It brought the crowds, the wonder, and a global fame few cities ever know — a chapter worth celebrating in its own right. But the older greater Orlando never went anywhere. It simply carried on beneath the fame: the swans still glide, the peacocks still roam Winter Park, and Tiffany's rescued light still glows on Park Avenue.
Our Orlando logo carries Florida's alligator over "Florida Territory · Est. 1845," the year Florida joined the Union — the shared emblem of every Merlin Classics Florida place. Printed black-and-white with the worn look of an old citrus-crate stamp, the gator reads as wild Florida in shorthand: tough, sun-baked, and unmistakably of the place. What makes this one Orlando is the country behind it — Lake Eola, the swans, the orange groves of the City Beautiful, and the whole rich metro that surrounds it, from Winter Park's Tiffany glass to the theme parks that made the name famous.
Why People Visit Greater Orlando
The world comes to Orlando for its attractions, but its enduring charm is everything around them: lakes, oaks, swans, and a citrus-country past in the city itself, and a Winter Park two miles north that holds the finest Tiffany glass on earth. Visitors who slow down find gardens, historic downtown streets, lakefront paths, and a rescued palace's worth of colored light — a whole greater Orlando that feels a world away from the crowds.
