50 free Orlando trivia questions with answers. Seventy-five million people a year visit Orlando and almost none of them could tell you it used to be called Jernigan. This quiz fixes that. Fifty questions cover the city from Fort Gatlin and the Second Seminole War through the citrus Golden Era and the Great Freeze, the arrival of Martin Marietta and McCoy Air Force Base, and the day Walt Disney chose an inland swamp over Miami. Then it heads down International Drive: Universal, SeaWorld, Epic Universe, EPCOT's original meaning, and why the Magic Kingdom's tunnels are above ground. There are also questions on the Orlando Magic's name, Kaká and Orlando City, the Pride's first title, UCF's Knightro, Gatorland, Church Street Station, the films shot in town, Lake Eola's sinkhole and the neighbouring towns of Eatonville and Kissimmee. Easy questions for tourists, hard ones for locals. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia articles on the city and its landmarks, and each question shows its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Orlando is the county seat of which Florida county?
Orange
It is the state's most populous inland city and part of a four-county metro area that also takes in Seminole, Osceola and Lake.
Q 02Before it was Orlando, the settlement went by what name, after the cattlemen who first settled it?
Jernigan
Aaron and Isaac Jernigan came from Georgia in 1843; a post office opened at Jernigan in 1850 and moved to 'Orlando' in 1857.
Q 03Which Second Seminole War outpost, built in 1838, is the origin of the Orlando area?
Fort Gatlin
It was named for an army physician killed in the Dade battle of 1835 and sat within 250 yards of a Council Oak where Native Americans traditionally met.
Q 04What do historians say about Orlando Reeves, the man Orlando is legendarily named after?
No such soldier likely ever existed
Reviews of military records in the 1970s and 80s found no trace of him; rival theories credit sugar planter Orlando Savage Rees or Shakespeare's As You Like It.
Q 05Which Shakespeare play, whose hero is named Orlando, is one of the leading theories for the city's name?
As You Like It
Judge James Speer, who pushed the name through, reportedly loved the play; downtown's Rosalind Avenue shares its heroine's name.
Q 06Orlando was incorporated as a town on 31 July 1875 with how many residents?
85
Only 22 of them were voters; the town briefly revoked its charter in 1879 and became a city in 1885.
Q 07Orlando's 'Golden Era' as hub of Florida's citrus industry ended with what event?
The Great Freeze of 1894-95
Ruined growers sold out to a few 'citrus barons' who moved operations south to Polk County.
Q 08Which aerospace and defence company opened a plant in Orlando in 1956, seeding its high-tech economy?
Martin Marietta
Now Lockheed Martin, it still runs a large missile and aeronautics facility in the city.
Q 09Orlando International Airport's code is MCO. Where does it come from?
The former McCoy Air Force Base
The base was renamed in 1958 for Colonel Michael McCoy, killed in a B-47 crash; U-2s flew from it during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Q 10In what year did Walt Disney World open, transforming Orlando's economy?
1971
Walt had announced the plan in 1965 but died in 1966; the Magic Kingdom opened on 1 October 1971 to a deliberately modest crowd of about 10,000.
Q 11One major reason Walt Disney chose Orlando over Miami and Tampa was what?
Its inland location meant less hurricane risk
Disney also liked the coming Interstate 4 and Florida's Turnpike, and the airfield at McCoy.
Q 12Disney bought its Florida land through dummy corporations with joking names, including one called what?
Ayefour Corporation
The pun on I-4 sat alongside the Latin-American Development and Management Corporation and the Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation; some 27,443 acres were assembled from 1964.
Q 13Walt Disney World is not in Orlando. In which municipality does it actually sit?
Bay Lake
Q 21Lake Eola's famous fountain, replaced in 1957, was renamed in 1966 after whom?
Linton E. Allen
The 1957 replacement cost $350,000, up from the $10,000 original of 1912; the park itself dates to 1892 and once had a zoo and a race track.
Q 22Which 11-mile tourist strip in southwest Orlando is often compared to the Las Vegas Strip?
International Drive
I-Drive runs from Universal at its north end past the convention centre, SeaWorld and ICON Park's giant wheel.
Q 23The county's I-Drive convention center is the second-largest in the US, behind which venue?
McCormick Place, Chicago
Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista are the two Disney-controlled cities inside the former Reedy Creek Improvement District.
Q 14Which is the only major theme-park resort located inside the city limits proper?
Universal
Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990; Islands of Adventure followed in 1999 and Epic Universe in May 2025.
Q 15The third theme park at the resort at I-Drive's north end, Epic Universe, opened on what date?
19 May 2025
It sits at the northern end of International Drive near the outlet mall.
Q 16Islands of Adventure opened in May 1999 with how many themed 'islands'?
Six
Port of Entry, Seuss Landing, The Lost Continent, Jurassic Park, Toon Lagoon and Marvel Super Hero Island; the Wizarding World of Harry Potter came later.
Q 17SeaWorld Orlando opened in December 1973 as which park in the SeaWorld chain?
Third
It arrived two years after the Magic Kingdom, making Central Florida a multi-park destination; the nation's first water coaster, Journey to Atlantis, followed in 1998.
Q 18What did EPCOT originally stand for?
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
Walt imagined a real futuristic city; after his death the company built a 'permanent world's fair' instead, opening 1 October 1982.
Q 19Because of Florida's high water table, Magic Kingdom's service tunnels, the utilidors, were built how?
At ground level, with the park on top
Dirt dug from the Seven Seas Lagoon was piled around them, giving the park an elevation of 108 feet.
Q 20Lake Eola, the centrepiece of downtown Orlando, is actually what?
A sinkhole
It is about 80 feet deep near the fountain; the lake was named by Judge Robert Summerlin after his fiancée, who died weeks before their wedding.
It opened in 1983 and now offers over two million square feet of exhibition space.
Q 24Which name was NOT a finalist in the 1986 newspaper contest that named Orlando's NBA team?
Suns
'Magic' was submitted by 11 people and chosen after Pat Williams's seven-year-old daughter visited and called Orlando magic; 'Heat' went to Miami.
Q 25The Orlando Magic reached the NBA Finals in 1995 and 2009, losing to which two teams?
Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers
The 1995 team had Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway; the 2009 side was built around Dwight Howard.
Q 26Which former Brazil star became Orlando City SC's first MLS signing and Designated Player in 2014?
Kaká
The club had begun as a USL side founded by Stoke City board member Phil Rawlins in 2010 and debuted in MLS in 2015.
Q 27Which team became the first from the city to win a major championship, taking the 2024 NWSL title?
Orlando Pride
They also won the NWSL Shield that season, and share Inter&Co Stadium with Orlando City.
Q 28Under what plain name did the WPA-built venue that hosts the Citrus Bowl open in 1936?
Orlando Stadium
A WPA project, it later carried the Tangerine Bowl and Citrus Bowl names, hosted 1994 World Cup matches and five Pro Bowls.
Q 29UCF opened its first classes in 1968 under what name?
Florida Technological University
It was created to supply engineers for the space programme at Cape Canaveral; today its 70,000-plus students make it one of the largest campuses in the country.
Q 30What is the mascot of the UCF Knights?
Knightro
Pegasus is on the university seal, and the Citronaut, a citrus-headed astronaut, was an early mascot; the teams now play in the Big 12.