Ok, I will tell you what grinds MY gears.
The whole idea that Disney World is supposed to be a wonderful, magical place that every kid dreams of going to.
HORSE [censored]!!
If you like waiting in long lines, in weather that is as hot as the hottest of summers up north (during early spring), with constant noise, and where it's easy to get lost, then good for you. I went there when I was 9 and hated it. I don't care if the laws of the universe dictate that a 9-year-old is supposed to love places like that. I didn't. And some people even think that I must be some spoiled ingrate just because "Oh, I would have done ANYTHING to go there when I was that age, but my parents couldn't afford it" and yada yada. Those people need to shut the [censored] up.
<3 <3 <3 What grinds my gears is that people think Disney World or other theme park attractions are the only places in Florida worth seeing.
I went to DIsney World once a a teen, it's pointless. Epcot was fun, though, at the time it was the newest addition. I wouldn't go now.
My kids have never been taken, and we live in Florida. I don't buy into Disney's particular brand of saccharine happiness, either. As for local economies, lots of low to mid wage service/tourist industry jobs for the Orlando area. The urban sprawl is so bad in Orlando you can see it from space. The ecological ramifications include loss of wildlife habitat, reduced and polluted water table from draining low lying, aquifer recharging areas, and light and noise pollution.
If you ever do come to Florida, and want to have fun, check out our beaches. North and West Florida have lovely beaches. We have hundreds of parks, nature trails, places where you can go offshore fishing, diving, sailboarding, waterskiing, airboating, surfing svcks but, you can kayak or canoe in creeks and streams. In protected areas, you can see land and marine wildlife. We have campgrounds, places to hunt, zoos, aquariums, caves for underwater diving, and even a cave of our own open to tourists in Mariana. We have historical places to visit, museums, the oldest European settlement still in exisitence ,(St Augustine) where you can tour the city's fort (Castillo de San Marco) and watch the cannons fire. The city itself is one big tourist fest. There are many other forts, trails, war memorials dating back from the conquest of the new world by battling europeans, to the Civil War.
We have culinary and art, festivals boat and airshows, Cape Canaveral gives visitors a look the space industry, we have oddities and eccentricites like ghost tours, fantasticly weird houses and gardens, and eco-experimental communities.
Florida is so much more than Disney World, Epcot, Universal Studios, Seaworld, and Busch Gardens.