Orlando International Airport (MCO): Approximate driving time is 20 minutes and distance is 11 miles.

As alternatives to a rental car, located just outside the baggage-claim area are a taxi stand and a van service named Mears Transportation. Either will take visitors directly to their hotel. The van service is less expensive and will also pick up guests at their hotel for the return trip to the airport.

B-Line Diner - 1950s-style diner with booths and 95 feet of counter space. Breakfast menu features sweet-potato pancakes and fruit-stuffed French toast. Lunch menu offers ostrich burger, pastas, salads, and sandwiches. Dinner menu features crisp red snapper and smoked-and-roasted chicken. Late-night menu includes egg dishes and burgers. Lush desserts and housemade ice cream. Take-out window. Open 24 hours.

Mallards - Bar and lounge in five-story lobby atrium containing fountain, waterfall, tall plants, and flowers in giant pots. Player piano music. Cocktails and appetizers.

Pool Bar - Drinks and light lunches.

Room service is available 24 hours.

Capricco - Black-and-white marble floor, green-marble tables and bar. Wood-fired-oven pizza, pastas, and Italian favorites such as grilled tuna with orange sauce and veal scallops with Venetian-style rice and peas. Dinner and Sunday champagne brunch.

Amenity highlights: An expansive, two-level, fifth-floor pool deck provides guests ample space and lounge chairs for enjoying the Florida sun. Graced by lush gardens, palm trees, and raised flower gardens, the deck includes a 180-foot-long lap pool, an enormous children's pool, and a 14-person spa.

Insider tip: Promptly at 11 AM and 5 PM, a group of mallard ducks escorted by a crimson-and-gold-liveried Duck Master arrive by private elevator from their fifth-floor, $100,000, marble-pool, latticed Duck Palace. Marching to John Philip Sousa's "King Cotton March," they amble across a red carpet to the lobby atrium's marble, orchid-crowned fountain. There, the VIPs (Very Important Poultry) splash in a ritual that began as a prank in 1935 at The Peabody Memphis. The prank endures as a renowned tradition at both The Peabody Memphis and The Peabody Orlando.

Available right outside the hotel is the I-Ride Trolley, a low-cost transport running between 7 AM and midnight for approximately 6 miles through the International Drive corridor and stopping at its many shopping, dining, and entertainment attractions. The trolley also links to a public bus that connects directly to Disney World's transportation center, from which visitors can travel on Disney buses to all the 42-square-mile resort's myriad attractions. Children under 12 ride the trolley free.