PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (March 15, 2007) – Family fun is in the swim in Panama City Beach, Fla., offering a vast selection of attractions and entertainment -- all new for 2007.

Powerful Exhibit
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition makes a stop in Panama City, May 25 – Sept. 3, at the Visual Arts Center of Northwest Florida.

Designed to be the crowning achievement of the Gilded Era, the Titanic struck an iceberg on a quiet April night in 1912. On board were 2,228 passengers, as the “ship of dreams” sank slowly into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. In Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, a suitcase, a felt hat, a ship whistle, a porthole, glassware bearing the logo of the elite White Star Line and more offer powerful emotional connections to lives that ended or changed forever that night.

These objects were recovered from the cruise ship’s final resting place 12,500 feet beneath the ocean’s surface. Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition is presented by RMS Titanic, Inc., the sole owner of the rights to the wreck. The company has conducted nine expeditions to the wreck site, recovering approximately 5,500 artifacts. More than 200 of these items are part of The Artifact Exhibition. During the past ten years, more than 15 million people have seen this compelling exhibit in major museums and exhibition halls worldwide.

Above and Beyond
Gulf World Marine Park delivers high-flying thrills with its new X-Treme High Dive Show. Professional World-Class Divers perform flips and twirls from dizzying heights with exact precision, culminating in an 80-foot high-dive grand finale. The Olympic-style diving performance runs from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Also premiering at Gulf World is the new Reptile Show, starring snakes, lizards and other creepy crawly creatures. Get up close and personal with a six-foot ball python during this hands-on, educational program.

Gulf World's Dolphin Encounter invites visitors to learn about preservation before getting into the water for a dolphin swim. In the six-hour Trainer for a Day program, guests study dolphin behavior then step onto the stage to perform alongside trainers during the Dolphin Show in the state-of-the-art Dolphin Stadium. Offering new exhibits, extended hours and more than 25 shows, Gulf World also features sea lions, exotic birds, penguins and more.

Believe It!
Designed to look like a 1950s luxury cruise liner run aground on the beach, the new Ripley’s entertainment complex is home to Ripley’s Moving Theater and Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium.

Pulse-pounding turns, wind in your ears, tumbling boulders and shooting stars – these are the experiences that await on your journey into the fourth dimension of big screen entertainment at Ripley’s Moving Theater. Here, Ripley’s presents its new lineup of 4-D movies, mixing motion and special effects with action-packed screen images. Guests take the driver’s seat to feel the rumbles and tumbles as if they are part of the on-screen adventures. Feel the wind, snow and rain from your seat, with the aid of cutting-edge motion simulator technology and six-channel digital surround sound.

Showcasing fascinating finds from around the globe, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium elicits reactions from eeeuuuwww to awe with exhibits, including: an authentic shrunken head from Ecuador, a mummy discovered off the Florida coast and an 11-foot Eiffel Tower made entirely of matchsticks. Another dazzler, the 23-foot-long Lincoln Town Car, is adorned with 23,000 gold-plated British coins valued at $1.3 million.

Creature Features
Get up-close-and-personal with friends, both feathery and leathery, at ZooWorld Zoological & Botanical Park. Author, educator, and professional bird trainer Linda Morrow joins ZooWorld as director of avian education. In Morrow’s new Parrots of the World show, colorful macaws and perky parrots take center stage to perform various tasks in tandem – a behavior rarely seen. Designed to educate and amaze, the show promotes the preservation of these brainy and beautiful birds.

ZooWorld is home to more than 250 animals, including 18 rare and endangered species, in a lush tropical landscape featuring more than 250 species of plants and trees. Lions, tigers, and bears . . . along with monkeys, alligators, camels, giraffes, reptiles, exotic birds, orangutans and jaguars are all part of the educational entertainment. The Bengal Tiger Show features both Bengal and White Tigers in a new 200-seat arena. The Tilghman Infant Care Facility offers close-up views of the baby animals born at ZooWorld. Eight different endangered or threatened species have come into the world here in recent years, including five African lions; one Summatran Tiger, and three Mandrills, a type of baboon. Children get close to the animals again in ZooWorld’s Gentle Jungle Petting Zoo.

Making a Splash
No need to endure long lines. At one of Florida’s largest theme water parks -- Shipwreck Island Waterpark -- a new online ticketing service gives visitors more time on the slides by purchasing and printing out their tickets at home.

Once here, little ones favor the specially designed Tadpole Hole, offering slides, towers, tubes and swings. The 500,000-gallon Ocean Motion Wave Pool and 2,000-foot Lazy River provide cool relaxation, while water-based thrill rides are designed to get the adrenaline pumping. Older children prefer the White Knuckle River, a 600-foot family tube ride; the 65-foot Tree Top Drop; Great Ship Wreck, and Zoom Flume.

Different Strokes
Coconut Creek Family Fun Park offers two unique attractions to provide twice the fun. Golfers swing their way through two 18-hole miniature golf courses that resemble a tropical island jungle. On the journey, they encounter exotic plants and animals, including life-size statues. Watch out for water-spraying elephants as you make your way around the courses.

Then travel to Coconut Creek’s Gran Maze, one of America’s most challenging human mazes. Larger than a football field, the Gran Maze takes its design inspiration from the South Pacific Islands. Like Capt. James Cook who discovered this tropical paradise centuries ago, young explorers must use their best navigation skills. They pass through Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa and Bali before completing their “a-mazing” journey.

High Seas Adventures
In addition to enjoying new attractions and shows, voyagers can step back in time to the days when pirates roamed the Florida coastline aboard the Sea Dragon Pirate Cruise. Cruise the Gulf waters in this authentic 85-foot pirate ship with cannons blasting, swords swinging and pirates hanging from the rigging.

More adventures await aboard the Sea Screamer. See why the destination is known as “The Beach Lover’s Beach” as you cruise through the emerald-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico on this open-air powerboat. Playful dolphins and other marine life vie for attention much to the delight of passengers.

About Panama City Beach
Panama City Beach boasts 27 miles of silky, white-sand beaches bordering the clear, emerald-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico and St. Andrews Bay. The Northwest Florida destination ranked as a 2005 USA Today Top 10 beach for family vacations. Panama City Beach also enjoys recognition as a top U.S. beach from Condé Nast Traveler, The Travel Channel, Southern Living, Dr. Beach and the Clean Beaches Council. Family attractions, championship golf courses, sporting events, award-winning dining, predictably sunny weather and a vast number of recreational activities draw visitors to this seaside destination annually. For more information, call 1-800-PCBEACH (850-233-5070) or visit www.thebeachloversbeach.com.