Advice on a quick 4 day trip.

Options A or B should be fun. You could also do the west coast, from Tampa up to around crystal river. A little more of old Florida, plenty of nature, check out the manatees.
Nice thing about Fl is you can hit a lot of things in a short time.

 

That would be a nice drive. I love the west coast, spend most of my vacations that way. And the beaches around Clearwater are awesome. Hit Busch gardens while over there if you need a break from Disney.

 

Yes...lol. If it's got water for more than a week, it's most likely got a gator in it. Some places have lots more than others, or in high population areas, they stay primarily nocturnal. But you can find them anywhere in the state.

 

Gators are mostly found in Gainesville, although there are alumni everywhere.

 

I'd take a break from all the theme parks and go to the beach for a day. Definitely recommend Canaveral National Seashore. 30 miles or so of empty beach...south entrance is right next to the two former shuttle launch complexes (LC39A and B). A mile walk south of the parking lot gets you close to the north pad...you can have a mile of beach all to yourself.

Having lived in Tampa for 3+ years, the city doesn't have much for families other than some prosports teams and Busch Gardens. Clearwater beach is pretty far away (time-wise as traffic sucks) and it's a busy area.

Also being a UF graduate, Gainesville was my home for a number of years...it's just a college town. Not much in the form of tourism there so I don't know what you would do on a quick visit. I wouldn't consider it a high-yield trip for a vacation given the travel just to get there.

I'd stick to central Florida (Tampa, Orlando, Titusville/Cocoa). There are air boat ride places off the 520 that connects Orlando to Cocoa area. You don't need to go down to the Everglades to see swamp and marshes on airboats.

Edit: And there are some springs close to Orlando. Wakiwa and Blue Springs (both offer canoeing). Here are some pics of Blue Springs last December (December 30th, 2011 to the date!). Hundreds of manatees that day per the rangers' counts. They go there in the winter for the warmer spring water. You can't go in the water. Pretty easy to swim with manatees in Mosquito Lagoon, which is part of Canaveral National Seashore pretty much (north entrance accessible).

Pics of Canaveral National Seashore. Empty beach with just me and some friends. $3/person entrance fee lets the place be like this. No buildings on the coastline so nice and untouched...except for the launch pads. You can see a shuttle (orange tank) on the pad in the background. This is an old pic of course.

The last pic of the manatee was when we were fishing in Mosquito Lagoon. They come up to the shrimp buckets a lot. Friendly and no issues. One of them took me by surprise as I was sitting on a sandbar and it ran into me from behind. They have a lot of momentum even though they don't move fast! This was in August a few years back...not sure what it's like in Dec/Jan. And yes, that's a propeller scar on it.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Canaveral seashore is very nice. Close to the cruise terminals, and probably the least busy beach on the easy coast. Water may still be chilly, but the scenery is nice.
The lagoon is my absolute favorite place to fish.

 

Alligators arent really out right now. But you can see them at the florida aquarium, gatorland, sea world, etc.

 

Driving the interetate, about three hours. Another hour and a half prob to amelia. Taking the coast roads would add a bit of time, but it's a more interesting drive. Lots of airboat tours around the St Johns river. The marshes up around the head waters would be the most like the glades.
And I like St Augustine a lot. It's a cool place, kids might even have fun

 

Maybe a couple hour+ drive? I don't think St. Augustine would be a bad place to take the kids. Fountain of Youth, Ponce de Leon, and all that stuff along the First Coast. Try to visit the Space Coast and take the kids to the Kennedy Space Center. They have some important history, too, but obviously more technology-based. Anything south of there (Treasure Coast and Gold Coast/Miami) is too far away and not really as family-friendly or outdoor stuff.

The Everglades doesn't really offer much unless you're dead-set on covering as many square miles on your roadtrip as possible. Or if you're looking for Skunk ape, which is the equivalent of sasquatch.

A quick Google search on central Fl airboat tours shows these to pick from: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=central+florida+airboat+tours&oq=central+florida+air&gs_l=hp.3.0.0l4.8909.11291.2.12183.21.11.1.8.9.1.171.1472.1j10.11.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.2AQeJNdYn04&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.dmQ&fp=edf8435073bcf94&bpcl=40096503&biw=1366&bih=677

I've personally never been on an airboat tour, but these are the two I've driven by going to the beach:

Off of hwy 520 (fastest toll-free road to Cocoa area from Orlando) is found here: http://www.twisterairboatrides.com/

One on hwy 50 (fastest toll-free way to Cape Canaveral from Orlando) I drove by is this one after doing a quick satellite map search: http://www.airboatridesatmidway.com/

I have no affiliations with either nor any personal experience so I'd advise doing research on them before heading out there specifically for that. If you're already going to the beach and pick hwy 50 or hwy 520 to get there, it will be on your way so nothing really lost on going there.

Also, you're probably renting a car unless you have family in Orlando letting you borrow one. They will obviously try to sell you the SunPass/E-Pass pre-paid toll stuff for a high markup. Every major toll plaza in Orlando has an attendant with cash lanes. The tricky part is when you decide to exit off the toll road and that exit might have a toll required to get out. Those do not have attendants and require coins to pay for tolls. If you don't want the hassle of carrying quarters, I guess you can get the E-pass thing.

The only reason I mention any of this is I recently rented a car from Orlando Airport and saw reviews of people complaining about buying the toll pass thing. Also complaints of gas stations ($6/gallon) for the two 1 mile north of the airport. There is cheaper gas the more north you drive on Semoran blvd (the main road that leads to the north entrance of the airport).