What do you see on an Orlando celebrity helicopter tour? — featuring Pilot Circle (International Heli Tours)

0:00 Welcome back to the channel everybody. Today you're going to fly with me on the Celebrity Tour around Orlando and you're going to get a bird's eye view what it's like to ride with me. I'm going to kind of spitball what the tour is like in real time. We're going to go review it together. It's about a 20 to 25 minute

0:16 flight. one of the longer tours that we offer out of international heli tours in Orlando, but you get to see majority of all of the theme parks that we have in the area, plus the Butler chain of lakes where a lot of the celebrity homes are in the area, as well as some super well-known golf courses. So, come along

0:34 with me. We're going to sit in the front seat. I'm going to show you what it's like to ride along on the Orlando Celebrity Tour. >> [music] [music] [music]

1:05 >> Today's video is going to take off from IHT, International Heli Tours. We're going to go northbound. This is the Orlando Celebrity Tour. Northbound around Universal Studios, Volcano Bay, out to Bird Island, around the house of Versailles, the Butler Channel Lakes, out to the big mouse trap, and on our

1:21 way back to IHT. All right, I'm going to press play on the video here. And we're taking off out of International Heli Tours in Orlando, Florida. I'm pointed to the west. And as soon as I lift, I'm going to be turning to the north, which is headed towards SeaWorld. And I'm trying to get my climb started

1:39 immediately because there are some power lines to climb over that I'm very aware of because I've done this tour many times. But you'll see the the power lines when I make this right turn. So the RPMs are starting to come up. I've checked on my passengers in the back seat. This particular tour I only have

1:52 two people on board. Um husband and wife in the back seat celebrating their anniversary. So it's a really fun activity to do if you're celebrating any special occasion. Come see us. Birthdays, anniversaries, or just some sightseeing if you want to see the area. It's a great way to see the theme parks.

2:08 So, I'm starting to lift here, getting our altitude. I'm going to be climbing for about 900 to 1,000 ft. Making the right turn over International Drive now. You can see the camera is pointing toward me and down toward the direction of flight. There's the power lines I'd mentioned up and over the power line

2:24 safely. And now we're headed northbound towards SeaWorld. That's the first tour I like to point out in the distance. Um, when we're low level climbing, you can see the flag pole. It's kind of the center of the theme park. So, if they can see this flag pole, then they can see the park and kind. I like to give

2:37 people a general idea of where we're headed because it helps them just be more comfortable and what to look for [music] on the tour. Kind of a gray overcast day on this particular flight. Out in the distance, you can see downtown Orlando. It's about a 20 to 30 minute drive from our

2:59 location. By flight time, take you about 10 15 minutes. Point to import Important to note as well. You're going to see things on here that are pretty limited view because the camera is just pointed forward. In the R66 helicopter, you can see really well out all angles of the helicopter. No matter what side of the

3:16 aircraft you're sitting, you can see left and to the right. And if you're in the front seat, you can see kind of under your feet as well. So, you get a really cool experience flying in the helicopter versus just watching it here on the video. This is kind of limited of what [clears throat] you can see, but

3:32 nonetheless, you can still get the idea of what the tour is going to be like. This one in particular takes you to all of the theme parks. Epic Universe is here coming up shortly. Um, that I didn't get to go around on this particular flight because you can see me looking out to the right pretty

3:50 frequently. There's an aircraft over here to the right, another helicopter a little bit higher than I am, and they are flying the same direction, but they're not talking on the radio. So, I wasn't able to go around Epic Universe because of this other helicopter was in my way and error on the side of safety.

4:06 So, I wanted them to go ahead and go in front of me and I wasn't able to to go around Epic, but I was able to point it out to the guest. We just flew over Aquatica, which is SeaWorld's theme park. And now, these funny looking buildings straight ahead on the right, they're kind of bluish L-shaped. Just

4:22 above that on the right is where Epic Universe is. And you can see me talking to the other helicopter and I'm unable to get over to that direction because I didn't want to fly that close to the other aircraft. And I'm right now I'm over the top of the Orlando Convention Center where we

4:38 do a lot of trade shows for businesses that happen year round. And again there there's kind of that gold dome over on the right. That's the new park just built. Epic Universe opened up uh just a few months ago in 2025. And now we're flying along the power lines which is called a kind of the

4:56 power line route that takes you right up to the north where Universal Studios is where we make our left turn around the first I guess now second third theme park to my left out to the west we're passing Epic um no excuse me Icon Park which is uh where the ferris wheel is the big Orlando Eye.

5:17 You can see that really well on this tour when you're actually in the helicopter. And straight ahead on off to the right hand side is the fun spot. Kind of a miniature theme park. They've got some go-karts and some slingshots and some other rides over there. And that's adjacent to CityWalk. I tell

5:37 people look for the big parking lot cuz it's easiest to spot from the air. It's hard to see, hard to get your perspective if you've never done this before because you don't know if you're supposed to look out into the horizon or if you're supposed to look straight down or out to the left or so you got to

5:48 describe things really well to the passengers in the back seat. So, I point out parking lots because they're easy to spot and then once you have your eyes on the parking lot, you can kind of navigate what I'm talking about from there. So, just where the inset screen is on myself, you can see the big

6:05 parking lot. That's CityWalk. Citywalk is between the parks. Uh it's between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. And I tell people CityWalk is a really cool area. Um great restaurants and shops. And it's one of the few places that's free to park. So you take advantage of that. Really good people

6:24 watching. And uh if you want to grab a bite to eat or catch some live entertainment, they got a Hard Rock Hotel or Hard Rock um if you want to catch a musician or a band or something like that. It's a it's a really good area. This [clears throat] is the Portoino Hotel. The orange

6:40 buildings next to the uh next to the lake. Really pretty area. About to make a lefthand turn. And now I'm cruising about 1,000 ft. Keeping my head on a swivel looking for other aircraft in the area because lots of helicopter tours fly this exact same route. We're making a left turn. This is a great view of the

6:58 Butler chain. We're about to turn to the right and head out to Lake Butler. They call it the Butler Chain. If I pause it right there, you can see that spear in the distance. Um that is a church. Uh it's in a neighborhood called Windeir and within Windemir is the town the neighborhood of Isleworth is where all

7:16 the fancy homes are. Keep the clip going. Making the left turn. We're going around Universal Studios now. It's down to the left and approaching Volcano Bay. And this is a lot. There's the other helicopter right there in front of me. You can finally see it. Came into frame by now. They're they're talking to me. a

7:35 a safe distance away from them and their movements are predictable. I ask them where they're going. They're making position reports as they're supposed to do and that keeps us all safe. So, they're going to continue straight. I'm making the left turn now. We're over the top of of Hollywood. And I'm correction.

7:49 We're over the top of Planet. What planet am I on right now? Uh, Volcano Bay right here. Um, drawing a blank on this, but hang on. Let me pause it for a second. That lake right there just over the highway. That used to be Wet and Wild theme park um back in the day. Anyway, Islands of Adventure, that's what I was

8:09 trying to get. So, Islands of Adventure is right underneath me, right next to Volcano Bay. Volcano Bay is uh Universal Studios own water park. So, they each business kind of has their own water park setup. We're making the right turn around Volcano Bay. This is Interstate 4 called I4.

8:28 Um moving pretty good at the moment. And now we're going to work our way toward the Lake Butler chain, the chain of lakes called the Butler Chain. And our turning point is over Bird Island. So there's an island out there, one of the only islands on the lakes that um is a bird sanctuary. So it's called Bird Island,

8:50 and you want to stay away from that spot because there's there's lots of birds. So we fly nice and high and uh be on the lookout for any birds in the area. Beautiful golf course. We're working our way toward Bay Hill, which is one of the famous golf courses we have in Orlando. They have a professional event there

9:07 once or twice a year. And the lakes in the distance um is the Butler chain. And way out in the distance, right on the edge of the framing, that's Lake Apka. That's a quite a distance away. And toward Claremont, if you're familiar with the Orlando area. So, cruising along right here, our air

9:24 speed. Everyone likes to ask how high we are, how fast we're going. I like to let them guess, especially if it's a kid. Um, some of the answers you get are absolutely hilarious. And um, even some of the adults, I don't know, 30,000 ft. Like, no, we're not that high. Uh, we're at 1,000 feet here and we're probably

9:38 going about, um, 100 knots, which is about 105, 110 mph. We are crossing over Isisle Worth. This is where the fancy homes are. This is where Tiger Woods used to live. This is where Shaq uh, had a house. Shaquille O'Neal recently sold that. on the right hand side of this shoreline. I like to

9:56 point out these houses because they are absolutely massive. There's seven of them here. One, two, three, four, yeah, about seven or eight houses, one empty lot. Uh you'll see some of the driveways have basketball logo imprinted into the concrete. So obviously some basketball players and it turns over. You know, you

10:13 never know who lives there now, but in the area we've got um Viz Carter, Kil O'Neal, Mark Omera, this is Worth Country Club we're flying over right now. Anywhere along the lakes, along the shoreline, you can find these beautiful homes. This is where the real estate values really skyrocket. If you're in

10:30 the Orlando area, if you look up the town of Windemir, that's where the fancy homes are. Really, really big budgets. And I tell people to follow the shoreline. Um, that's where the where the nice houses are on the lakes. So, now we're headed toward Bird Island. That's going to be my turning point.

10:47 This is Lake Butler that we are approaching. And once we make the left turn, we're going to go down the shoreline where Shaquille O'Neal used to have a house. Uh, as I said, he just recently sold that at the time of this recording, early 2026. He sold it last year, a couple months back. They had to outfit

11:07 the house, change everything back to a normal person's size cuz he built that custom when he moved to Orlando and everything was huge built for him. And so, uh, he had a hard time selling it. So, he he had that house for quite a long time before could get it get it out from underneath them. House of

11:22 Versailles. I'm going to pause it right there. Right there in the middle of the screen. That white house. We're going to make a left turn over that. It is the largest house in Florida, if not America, at 90,000 square ft. Um, and it's over $und00 million or something. So, it you'll it's been under

11:40 construction for about 5 years. And, uh, they're still working on still not done. So out here to just the left of the frame, we we pass Shaq's house. Huge blue roof. It's very rectangular on the shoreline of the water. Um that's just another reason. I'm going to pause it again. Another reason you need to get do

11:58 this tour for yourself with uh International Heli Tours or Orlando Heli Tours. It's the same company and you can fly this celebrity tour over the lakes and see these houses firsthand. A lot of these people have um high security around their homes. So, the only way to see it is from the air or like I tell

12:15 people, you can jump in a boat and you can rent a boat um launch a boat publicly and then you can see the homes from the backyard which is a really fun day to see some of the real estate headed toward this is still considered Isle Worth with these red roofs. And we're making a left turn right now over

12:34 the House of Versailles. It's on the left side and uh that's a great photo op cuz we turned right on top of this house and you can see really how big it is. You can see right into the pool and really spectacular view and great photo op. Now we're pointed starting to point our way back to the east. And once we level

12:54 out the aircraft here, you'll see the Orlando eye in the distance. I like to point that out so people can kind of see get their bearings and see how far away we are from when I pointed out the first time. So, I'll pause it here. I'll throw an arrow up and you can see the the Orlando Eye, which is designed to

13:11 replicate the London Eye. And now we're flying eastbound. And so, you can see me, I'm pointing out the pointing out the Ferris wheel. Turn to the right. And we're going to head toward the shoreline straight ahead. The owner of the Ferris wheel is on that shoreline. He's got a spectacular house that is one of the

13:31 few, if not the only, that's surrounded that's on a true peninsula. So, he's got water on all three sides of it. Absolutely spectacular layout. That's one of my favorites. I always point that one out. We're going to turn right here. The sooner I can turn and level the aircraft, the sooner they'll have a view

13:47 out the left side. So, I try to get this turn out of the way kind of quick. Uh, and it's kind of steep so that I can, you know, level off and then they get a good view. Pausing it real quick. Right there on this peninsula here on the left. That's the owner of the ferris wheel, the Orlando Eye.

14:06 [clears throat] Coming up the shoreline now. We are flying southbound and headed toward um, Springs, the Big Mouse, Disney Springs in the distance. uh coming over the water a little bit more. I've got plenty of altitude where I can still make it to shore if I had to. Um but I I get away from the shore a

14:29 little bit so the customer can see the shoreline. If if we're right over the top of it, they're looking down and it's it's just not a great view. So try and give them a good perspective. If I can fly away from the shoreline a little bit, but do so safely so you can always make it to shore if you had to. Here's

14:44 another great piece of real estate here that is between the two lakes. So, these homes have houses on both sides. These are spectacular to see in person. And we're flying over to the corner here. I believe this one's called Lake Pocket in the in the pocket of the of the lakes. And this is where Tracy McGrady used to

15:04 live. He was an NBA All-Star basketball player, very well known in the area. He had a house over here on this small lake. Uh, also Joey Fetone. He was a Backstreet Boy maybe. Check fact check me on that. Could be in sync. I don't know. Don't follow him, but everybody knows his name in the area. Uh he's seen

15:21 out and about quite a bit in uh around the Orlando restaurants and bars, things like that. Everybody knows him. So now we are flying southbound. Still at 1,000 ft doing about 105 110 mph. And you can see the real estate changes quite significantly after this lake. It turns back into

15:47 some trailer parks and some marsh marshy area. I'll pause it again real quick. The up here you can see this dead tree zone. This is the edge of the airspace that we're not allowed to fly into because of uh Disney the big mouse. He's out there and they have so many people there all

16:05 the time, 24/7, seven days a week, all year round that they don't want any aircraft, general aviation, flying over the top of it. So, they created a temporary airspace. Um, it's called a a TFR, temporary flight restriction. However, it's permanent. So, it's a TFR that's permanent. Kind of weird, but

16:23 it's a Disney thing. And we're not allowed to fly over their airspace unless you're high enough. So, you can fly over it if you're above 3,000 ft. And at that point, you really can't see anything. So, it's um we like to fly low and slow because you can see more and um but and stay out on that perimeter of

16:40 the airspace. So, this kind of I'm riding the line of it right here. So, coming up on some of the fancy hotels straight ahead. Uh we'll pass over Disney Springs. You can see it from here. The white tent with the spears on top. Throw an arrow up. You can see it. That is the Cir Dle Theater, which is

16:58 live entertainment. That is absolutely spectacular. there and recommend anybody to see it. It's a really great date night. It's kind of expensive, but it's worth it. It's super cool. I've seen it a couple times. And um Cir Dusle, it means circus of the sun. Fun fact. Uh left side there of the springs is a

17:15 balloon. It's the largest helium balloon in the world. Not um not to be confused with a hot air balloon. That's different. This is helium. And it's tethered to the ground. It goes up to about 400 ft. So half the distance we are flying. Really great. Great way to see the area and the and the horizon. On

17:33 the left, just under the TVs, the camera shooting myself. I'll pause it real quick. On the left, that's Typhoon Lagoon. This is one the only wave pool we have in Orlando. And that is Disney's water park, one of their water parks. They do have two. Now, we're headed toward um kind of west again, and I'll

17:52 pause it real quick. On the right, we've got the Epcot Center. This is kind of the the mouse part of Orlando, the big mouse trap. They own lots of property out here and several theme parks. So, we're going to pass by Epcot Center here on the right. I point out the Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotel. It's green and

18:10 orange. It's kind of a funny shape. That's their luxury resort. If you want to spend um a lot of money, more than you already have, going to the theme parks and now you're on a helicopter ride and now you want to stay in their luxury resort. Very, very expensive. But people do it.

18:25 They do it all day long. So that's here on the right. This is that orange and green building. Across the street from them, just under my camera is the Hollywood Studios and that's home of the Tower of Terror, which is an elevator drop. A lot of people know that ride. It's been around for a long time.

18:42 They've got a huge parking lot over there, so that's easy to spot. And we're still riding riding the edge of the TFR over here around some of the the mouse properties. and and a yellow that yellow hotel right there, that is where the NBA played when Coronairus was happening. Fun fact, um

19:03 the entire league was right there in that hotel so they could play their games uh during during COVID uh where they're all quarantined. They were playing right there in this uh yellow building. Uh straight ahead, if we if we kept going straight, we'd be at Animal Kingdom and we turn before that just to

19:20 not scare the animals. But I do point it out where it is so people can kind of get their bearings. You can see the there's a big glowing green tree, kind of the fake tree. It's called the tree of life. And uh that is right there. So we're going to make the left turn before Animal Kingdom. Now we're going around

19:37 Blizzard Beach. This one's easy to see because it's snow themed. And so there's some fake snow caps on it. It's all white. Really cool idea for flidians. See what I did there? Good pun. Um, yeah, cool theme park idea. I've never been to that one, but it looks really fun. And we're continuing the left turn

19:55 over the top of Blizzard Beach. And you can see this is called Disney Allstars. This is their uh music themed resort. You'll see some swimming pools in the shape of guitars and things like that. So, it's kind of the theme of that area. And we're working our way now back to the east. On the right, this is ESPN

20:17 Wide World of Sports. You can see all the fields over there. There's about 30 fields and they have an indoor gymnasium. We get a lot of baseball spring training comes down here. Uh because the in the cold winter months, it gives them a place to go. And one fun fact, again, this a lot of people don't

20:33 know is Disney owns ESPN. So, this is another one of their many properties uh uh ESPN Wide World of Sports. Coming up on the left will be the Art of Animation and Century of Pop. This is a cartoon themed resort. Another place to stay where a lot of kids like this area because of the cartoons and they have

20:56 toys that are the size of the buildings. You can see the big Rubik's Cube right there. Um those are it's really popular area with families. They like to come to that spot for obvious reasons. And they have a gondola that's free to ride and you can kind of stay contained within the Disney area and ride the gondola um

21:14 from park to park. And I do believe that one's free. I've never done that one myself, but that's what they tell us. On the right, we're getting ready to we're getting ready to start descending now, coming back toward international heli tours. On the right, that's the Gaylord Palms. Another big hotel. They've got

21:27 their own convention center inside the building. They have a really fun thing they do in the winter time with with some ice. They bring in a little ice rink and things you can do with the family. And now we're making the left turn. We're on top of I4 just below us to the left. Working our way toward

21:44 the Marriott. The Marriott is the Marriott World Center. Largest Marriott property in the world. Not by rooms, but by real estate. So this is a huge, huge property for the Marriott brand. They have a beautiful golf course that goes around it all the way out here to this intersection on the right and then way

22:04 over here to the left. that's out of frame. Um, is the all Marriott property. They've got condos right there. They have their miniature little water park on property. They've got a convention center as well right there. Easy to use. And when you drive down that highway and you pass the front of the Marriott World

22:22 Center, it is absolutely massive. You can see how big it is firsthand. And it's again from the from the area looking down, everything looks small. So, it's hard to really get that perspective. Coming over Lake Brian. This is one of my final visual checkpoints where I know I'm I'm back

22:37 home. Um I'm eyeballing that sand out there in the distance. I think it has something to do with irrigation. Everybody asks what it is. I don't know. Um but it's easy to spot from the air cuz they're kind of these big gigantic sand traps I call them. Uh but we're coming over Lake Brian. Sometimes you'll

22:51 see some alligators over here. If it's nice sunny day and the wind's really calm, you can see some gators swimming around through there. And you can rent jet skiis down there. So, um, they they stay out of your way, but you can't see them and you you don't want to don't want to interact with them if you can

23:05 help it. I'm starting to get slower here and lower. I've been descending ever since the Marriott that's behind us now. And we have one more left turn to make before we're back on the ground. So, I'm kind of wrapping it up with the customers as I am with you. Um, get telling them what to expect once we get

23:21 on the ground. We don't like people to touch the doors in the Robinson aircraft because they're very, very fragile and nor do we want them to accidentally open them. And so here we start in this left turn and then we're going to be back to our spot. So I'll let them know, stay in

23:37 your seat. The ground crew is going to come open the doors for you. Don't forget your photographs inside the building because they take amazing pictures here with a professional camera and you can purchase those inside the building. You can preview them for free, see what they look like and see if you

23:50 want to grab those or not. and you get all of the photos they take. It's just not just a few. You'll get the entire thing. They can drop it right to your phone. They'll airdrop it immediately. Um or they can email it to you or both. So, you just got to specify that with the ground crew. So, coming into land.

24:04 We took off on that back pad, but I'm going to land on this front pad. Uh reason being I topped off fuel before we did this longer flight. Starting to descend here. Aiming for my spot. Looks like the parking lot's pretty empty. We might have one more customer getting ready to go behind these guys. and then

24:20 uh I'm off to the races and we'll do it again. And so it's over and over and over again. I really enjoy flying here. It's a lot of fun. It's always different. You get to see all kinds of um amazing things from the air and the theme parks are incredible to see and see with your own eyes. So if you guys

24:34 are interested, let us know. I'm going to leave a link in the description below. Come see us and uh look forward to flying with you soon. Hope you enjoyed it.