Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — Disney World is known worldwide as home to Mickey and Minnie, Goofy and Pluto, Cinderella and Jiminy Cricket.

During most of March, Disney is also home to Chipper and Bobby, Smoltzy and Frenchy, Teixeira and Glavine. This is the 11th year the Atlanta Braves have played Grapefruit League home games at Champion Stadium at Disney's Wide World of Sports.

Clint Williams / AJC (ENLARGE)

Champion Stadium at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Walt Disney World is the place to be during a Braves-Astros game this week. Justin Coalley, Matt Wills and Carter Tucker enjoy a hillside view of the game.

Clint Williams / AJC (ENLARGE)

A 4 1/2 pound bass caught and released by writer Clint Williams is no big deal in Bay Lake at Walt Disney World. There are a pair of 12-pounders swimming off shore of the Contemporary Hotel (seen in the background.)

RELATED LINKS: • Photos: See more of this guy vacation • Map: If you go to spring training • Richard Petty Driving Experience | Photos • Bass fishing • Get more travel ideas • Get more Braves coverage

The Braves are scheduled to play a dozen more spring training games before they head north for the regular season. Watching the players up close is reason enough to make the trip here. But the game takes just three hours out of the day.

Happily, at a place built for kids — or the kid in all of us — an array of activities are here for guys. Guys' guys. Manly men.

So much to do

Space Mountain and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster are just the start of it. There is bass fishing and, of course, golf; surfing and water skiing and driving a stock car at 120 mph.

At the heart of it though, is baseball. At spring training games, it's easier to get autographs and you can get closer to the action for less money than at Turner Field.

Baseball brought Carter Tucker of Lilburn and his buddies at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga., to Disney for spring break, instead of heading to some beach town where the girls have gone wild.

"I love my Atlanta Braves, man," Tucker said Sunday, lolling on a sun-soaked lawn about 400 feet from home plate.

Saturday night at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tucker and friend Matt Wills of Marietta rode the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster the same time as Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur rode it.

Sunday morning at the stadium, Wills had his photograph taken with Francoeur and he scored an autograph.

"Francoeur even remembered us from the ride the night before," said Wills, 20. "He is a cool guy."

The 1:05 p.m. start time of most games fits in well with a day at Disney, said Paul Wynn of Cumming.

Wynn and his 16-year-old son, Seth, went to Disney's Animal Kingdom early in the morning last Friday and then to the Braves-Dodgers game.

"When we get done with the game," Wynn said, "we're going to hit the roller coasters."

A lot of guys — including a few of the Braves — hit the links after (or before) a game.

Four championship courses and a nine-hole course grace the Disney complex. And there are plenty of nearby choices beyond the Magic Kingdom.

Pitcher Tom Glavine, back with the Braves after a stint with the New York Mets, plays golf most weekdays. He suggested three places to tee it up: Ginn Reunion Resort, Falcon's Fire Golf Club and ChampionsGate Golf Resort. (Reunion has three courses, Glavine noted. "They're fairly new and immature, so they're kind of firm," Glavine said.)

Guys who think golf is too slow and roller coasters are for wimps can head to the Magic Kingdom and bear left. Next to Fantasyland and Mickey's Toontown Fair is Walt Disney World Speedway, site of the Richard Petty Driving Experience. Photos of movie stars and sports celebrities who have driven a 600-horsepower stock car around the one-mile track cram the office walls. That grouping includes a picture of catcher Javy Lopez, another fan favorite who is back with the Braves.

Zipping around on the banked track "is an experience you can't find anywhere else," Lopez said. "It's an adrenaline experience."

But where should I eat?

At the end of the day, a guy has got to eat and the best guy-place for that might be Shula's Steak House, located off the lobby of the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel.

The restaurant, one in a group owned by former Miami Dolphins football coach Don Shula, is all about dark wood, red meat, single malt scotch and Sinatra. Anyone stout enough to finish the 48-ounce porterhouse gets his or her name engraved on a brass plaque displayed in the restaurant. As well they should. That's three pounds of beef — a dozen McDonald's Quarter Pounders.

So, props to you, Andy Durant of Forest Park, Michael Nicholson of Atlanta and Steve Rochlin of Roswell.

That's no Mickey Mouse feat.

Need more food options?

Juan Laboy is an event coordinator at Walt Disney World, but when the Atlanta Braves are here for spring training he serves as a clubhouse concierge making dinner reservations and other arrangements for players.

Here are three spots Laboy says are the most popular among the Braves:

California Grill

This AAA three-diamond dining room in Disney's Contemporary Resort offers views of the Magic Kingdom as well as sushi, sashimi and California inspired dishes that change frequently. disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdwi/en_GB/dining/diningDetail?id=CaliforniaGrillDiningPage

Cape May Cafe

The Braves who go here go hungry. Think of this as a New England clam bake in Central Florida with all-you-can-eat clams, mussels, chicken, ribs and carved beef. The restaurant is at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club Resorts. Related web site.

Bongos Cuban Cafe

You'll find something approximating Miami's South Beach with Cuban food and live Latin music on Friday and Saturday nights. Pop music superstars Gloria and Emilio Estefan created the eatery at Downtown Disney West Side. www.bongoscubancafe.com/orlando/index_orlando.html.