Florida is home to many of U.S.'s top attractions

ORLANDO, Fla. — Don't let high gas prices and rising airfare put a damper on your summer travel plans. If you're heading to the theme park capital of the world, there's plenty new to see and do.

Last year, despite a year-to-year decrease in Florida tourism for the first time since 2001, the state's giant theme parks still saw more tourists. And for the first time in recent memory, each of them has a new major attraction to keep the turnstiles churning as tourism rebounds this year.

So take a water slide ride with dolphins at the new Aquatica park adjacent to SeaWorld. Come face-to-face with orangutans and Bengal tigers at Busch Gardens' new Jungala. Zap Toy Story targets in 3-D at Disney, or spin though Springfield on Universal's new Simpsons ride. It's all here waiting in sunny central Florida.

A look at what you'll find:

AQUATICA BY SEAWORLD, www.aquaticabyseaworld.com. The Orlando area already had three major water parks, but at none could you plunge down a 250-foot tube while watching dolphins ride the waves around you. Enter SeaWorld's Aquatica, a water park with a heaping helping of "zoo."

Macaws and African cichlids (a fish) join the giant anteater, laughing kookaburra (a bird), sulcata tortoise and roseate spoonbill (a bird that resembles a flamingo) in a grand menagerie themed after the tropics.

Adjacent to SeaWorld, the park has 36 water slides and six rivers and lagoons. The lazy river Loggerhead Lane carries visitors through waterfalls, exotic bird habitat and a pool teeming with colorful fish. The more adventurous Roa's Rapids speeds through waters rumbling with geysers.

There are also eight-lane racing slides and a raft ride boasting three drops — Hooroo Run, which sends visitors down six stories on a 7-foot-wide flume.

In addition, Aquatica is home to "the world's only side-by-side wave pools capable of operating both together and independently," SeaWorld says. That means 860,000 gallons of water crashing and churning — or gently rolling.

For the kids, there are 15,000 square feet of play areas in Walkabout Waters, including slides and water cannons.

If you want a taste of the beach in landlocked Orlando, Aquatica offers 80,000 square feet of that. Private cabanas can be rented if you'd like a break from the sun.