magicmouse2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 15, 2003
- Messages
- 3,997
We had an excellent time there yesterday. It was a 1 hr 30 min drive from our villa in Clermont. We got to drive past the Citrus Tower in Clermont and saw some lovely looking residential Estates as we drove through. The park was everything I wanted, a look at natural Florida. The boat ride to the entrance was very relaxing and along the way we saw Herons, a water snake, Golden Orb spiders, egrets and turtles. We entered the park and went right to the reptile area where the girls and I were overjoyed to see Alligators, snakes and tortoises up close. We loved Lu the Hippo who was taken in and given honurary Florida citizenship! he loved the attention and it was brilliant watching him open his mouthg up for some melon during the animal encounter display. It was funny watching him do his splatter thing and almost land one on an unexpeting guest!
We saw some cute foxes, Manatees who refused to come out for the animal encounter and stayed in their pen, deer, bobcat, panther and many birds including bird of prey. The bears were adorable but we didnt see them close as they were sleeping at the back of their pen. The river otters were gorgeous and had lovely cute little noses. Along the paths we encountered numerous Grasshoppers, a squirrel who ran up my leg trying to steal my nachos and in the museum part there was the cutest little Opossum asleep. I really wanted to take him home with me. The girls were given a student workbook -ha ! homework on vacation I like it.
One of the funniest things was the Turkey who kept stalking my son from in his cage. He took a reall dislike to DS and kept chasing him along the path from in the cage. DS was freaked out by this as he disliked birds but it became a matter of honor and he had to outwit this Turkey (the bird that is 
). Ge Ge the two headed turtle who was in a tank near the entrance was unbelieavable and quite old too. We spent 4-5 hrs in this park and it was well worth the admission which came to around $37 for 5 of us. I really liked the idea that most of these animals were rescued, and were not bought for the sole purpose of entertainment. I would highly recommend a trip to this park.
We saw some cute foxes, Manatees who refused to come out for the animal encounter and stayed in their pen, deer, bobcat, panther and many birds including bird of prey. The bears were adorable but we didnt see them close as they were sleeping at the back of their pen. The river otters were gorgeous and had lovely cute little noses. Along the paths we encountered numerous Grasshoppers, a squirrel who ran up my leg trying to steal my nachos and in the museum part there was the cutest little Opossum asleep. I really wanted to take him home with me. The girls were given a student workbook -ha ! homework on vacation I like it. One of the funniest things was the Turkey who kept stalking my son from in his cage. He took a reall dislike to DS and kept chasing him along the path from in the cage. DS was freaked out by this as he disliked birds but it became a matter of honor and he had to outwit this Turkey (the bird that is ). Ge Ge the two headed turtle who was in a tank near the entrance was unbelieavable and quite old too. We spent 4-5 hrs in this park and it was well worth the admission which came to around $37 for 5 of us. I really liked the idea that most of these animals were rescued, and were not bought for the sole purpose of entertainment. I would highly recommend a trip to this park.
