CitySurfing Orlando

If you like a good slice of pie, you’ll want to be in Celebration this weekend for the annural Great American Pie Festival.

It’s such a popular event that over 30,000 people are expected to showup. Oh, sure you can see the highlights later in some Food Network special, but why watch it on TV when you can bbe there in person, enjoying all this pie first hand.

This year will be the 11th edition of the fest and it will take place April 28 and 29 in downtown Celebration.

There will be a pie eating and baking contests, dmonstrations, vendor exhibits, and more, but let’s be honest. You go to a festival like this for the actual eating, which here includes a Never Ending Pie Buffet.

Admission to the buffet is $10 for adults and $5 for children and seniors. Hours are 11am to 7pm on Saturday and noon to 5pm on Sunday.

For more information, visit piecouncil.org.

Wondering what to do with your family that won’t cost a lot of money this upcoming weekend?

Florida Mall has just the thing, with the next installment of their Movie Under the Stars program.

It takes place this Friday, April 20, as soon as it gets dark, over by the H&M. Just drive around until you see the big 35 foot jumbotron in the parking lot.

This month’s movie is We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon. In it he plays a father who moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo.

So bring some chairs to sit on and enjoy a free night out with your family courtesy of the Florida Mall.

There seems to be a lot of businesses flocking to International Drive lately, and one of the latest is WhirlyDome, which will take over the old Sports Dominator building.

Inside will be two courts for playing WhirlyBall, a team-based hybrid of bumper cars, jai alai and basketball. There will be one on each floor. Also inside will be laser tag, arcade games, pool tables and a Formula One racing simulator by Evotek Engineering.

Those that work up an appetite on playing can slake their hunger and thirst at the Bloodhound Brew Pub & Eatery.

There are already venues operating in Chicago, Detroit, and Atlanta, but the company says this will be their first in such a tourist-heavy location. Sounds like fun for the whole family.

The WhirlyDome is located at 6464 International Drive, near Wet & Wild, and will be opening sometime this spring.

The venue will be holding a hiring event on April 2, 2012, from 11am to 6pm at the Ramada Plaza at 6500 International Drive. Positions available are bartenders, servers, hosts and hostesses, bussers, line cooks and dishwashers. For applications and more info, visit whirlydome.com.

Their tagline is “it’s huge!” and local amusement park The Fun Spot is about to live up to that with plans to expand their original location at the north end of International Drive.

Among the additions planned are adding on to the already popular go-kart section, as well as installing several rollercoasters. The park says they will also be installing a SkyCoaster ride, which has proven to be very popular at the company’s second location in Kissimmee, next to Old Town.

An all-day pass currently costs around $35. Once the expansion is finished, reps for the Fun Spot say that price will go up, but It will still be cheaper than spending a day at one of the big three theme parks. The SkyCoaster will probably be priced as a separate ticket, just as it is at the Kissimmee location.

Have you ever spent the day at one of The Fun Spots? Do you feel it’s a good value for the price paid? Let us know in the comments.

If your family has any budding paleontologists, you’ll want to mark your calendar for March 17, 2012. This is when Fossil Fest returns to the Orlando Science Center for its sixth year.

There will be presentations from fossil experts, bones on display and more. Peter L. Larson, founder and president of Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, Inc. located in South Dakota, will appear via Skype as he conducts a seminar on extinction theories for the K-T extinction – the one that killed the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

The event takes place from 11am to 4pm, and is included with general admission to the Orlando Science Center. Admission is priced at $17 for adults and $12 for kids (ages 3-11). For more information, please call 407.514.2000 or visit www.osc.org.

[Photo courtesy Orlando Science Center]