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[C.Ann]

Thanks!

 

[Princess89]

Go to their website silversprings.com

BTW..the boat ride will not get you sea sick at all. Unless you are EXTREMELY sensitive.

 

[safetymom]

I thought it was great at Silver Springs. The place isn't real big but plenty to see and do. I liked the boat rides the best. That is where they filmed many episodes of Sea Hunt with Mike Nelson if you remember that show.

I liked seeing the props left underwater from various movies. Be sure to take all the boat roads. One takes you through some beautiful country, Old Florida style.

 

[Golf4food]

Silver Springs is a nice place to visit just to see the "old Florida" and some of the "real Florida". Most of Florida isn't sunny beaches and palm trees - it is swamps and springs and pine trees and bugs and snakes and wild animals, etc. It took modern machinery to clear the trees and bring in tons of fill dirt to make Miami and West Palm Beach and other such South Florida coastal towns even possible, because before we engineered our way into cities down there you could only build on a strip of land about a mile or two wide between the ocean and the swamps that come out of the Everglades (or used to come out of them before we drained them and destroyed them in the name of housing and commerce... )

Silver Springs harkens back to those bygone days (yes, I just used the words harken and bygone, haha ) before Disney, before the huge cities sprung up and took over everything. The glass bottom boats do not go fast and they do not rock and sway - you're in a small river, not an ocean, so unless you get seasick in your bathtub you are not likely to have problems. They've changed a lot of the other attractions since I've been last, so I won't comment on the other stuff. There are animals and such and tours of them, etc. Don't expect an amusement park, though - that isn't what Silver Springs is about. It's more like Cypress Gardens used to be than Animal Kingdom.

On a side note, the glass bottom boats at SS always freaked me out when I was younger because I have a fear of swimming where I can't see the bottom, or where I can see the bottom and it is covered in grass so that things can hide, or where I can see the bottom and there is a giant gaping hole (the spring - yes, the water flows OUT of the spring, but I was always scared that it would suck me in and I'd drown...). And I'm scared of swimming in the open ocean if there is no land in sight (Nebraska would also freak me out - I don't like wide open spaces if I'm not in a car or boat). And yet I love sailing and being on boats and they don't bother me at all. As long as I'm not in the water, it's all good. Go figure...

 

[wendy46001]

honestly we found the place a little shady but had fun....its not disney so don’t expect clean new stuff...but the people where a laugh...our favorite part was the wild monkeys.... of course they are not the animals on the tour but it was fun to try and spot them in the woods....

 

[Philagoofy]

We always make a side trip to Silver Springs when we go to Florida and we always enjoy it. It's nice, quiet & relaxing. As the other posters said, the boat rides are very tame, slow & calm. There are at least two, the glass bottom & the jungle cruise type. They're different from each other so both are worth going on.

Last time we went 2 years ago, everything was included in the price. If you have AAA, they may give you a discount at the ticket window.

As far as what we liked the best, the place isn't so big that you can't see it all pretty leisurely in a day. But definitely take the glass bottom boat ride.

If you're on the west coast there's Sunken Gardens, Weechi Wachee & Homosassa Springs. I haven't been to the last 2 in a long time but if they are still open & haven't changed much, they also are very enjoyable.

Hope you all have a great time.

 

[C.Ann]

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