In Depth Gatorland Review - Long [Nov 2007]

[disnut8]

This is taken from a much longer trip report. Feel free to ask any other questions you may have.

Details:

Two adults - me 45 and husband 47
We went the day after Thanksgiving, 2007

The review/report:

I got ready for the day and Rich followed. As we did yesterday, we both wore shorts and T shirts. The day was wishy-washy. Cloudy and sunny skies alternated throughout the day. I directed Rich to Gatorland which is just north of Osceola Parkway on Orange Blossom Trail. We had to pay $1.50 in tolls but I ended up having to pay much more than that along the way. I knew there was a Wal Mart on 535. I knew that. And I had hid that fact from Rich for a long time. Until today when we went past it. Damn it, he was already making his plans to stop there on the way back. We found Gatorland easily and pulled into the parking lot. It’s not a big lot but one smaller side was already full. At least on this day, Gatorland did not hurt for business.

When we got to the entrance, we didn’t need to stand in the line to get tickets so we went straight through to give our tickets to the person on the other side. Except there was no other person. We could have just walked on and kept the tickets for another time but honor ran strong and we went back and handed our tickets to the booth. I had been warned that the admission price does not include a lot of the little stuff that kids will want to do. Getting hot dogs to feed the alligators, getting pictures with the animals or the fake alligator, the train ride, etc. We passed on the extras. Hint – if you go to Gatorland, have your kids stand out of earshot when you are buying or handing over your tickets. Then you can safely decline all the extras without the little ears hearing. You probably won’t be able to avoid the train ride, though.

Warning – you will be educated in my description of Gatorland. All facts are from the signs throughout the park.

Gatorland is laid out pretty much in a big circle so we started to the left. Our first encounter was with a large snake coiled up in a doghouse. This was Cuddles. And Cuddles was easily accessible so I’m assuming he/she was non-venomous. Next was Judy the brown bear who loves to sleep as she was doing now. Judy was illegally trapped by a private citizen in 1986. The authorities took ownership of Judy in 1988 and brought her to Gatorland to live out the rest of her life. She was too tame to go back to the wild. Judy is about 22 years old and brown bears live to be about 25 years old in captivity. They live about seven years in the wild. Judy sure has the good life! She was alone in the area but brown bears are solitary so she wasn’t lonely. And she loves to have her food hidden in trash so she can find it.

The next exhibit was of turkeys and deer. We both told the turkeys that they were lucky to be here and weren’t one of the 42 million eaten the day before. And while we love all things animal, turkeys are quite ugly. Very glad Ben Franklin lost out in his quest to make the turkey the national bird. No offense to the turkeys but that beard is just plain unbecoming.

A show was starting a few exhibits over so we went in. Our “rule” is that if a show is about to start, we’ll go in. Otherwise, it’s not that important to wait for it (we have a few exceptions like Off Kilter and Flights of Wonder). The show was the Up Close Encounters Show and it was quite cute. The two guys (the same two people will do all three shows of the day) first asked for those people who were afraid of creepy crawly things to raise their hands. Then they took two boxes out to people who did NOT raise their hands. They said if those two people weren’t afraid then they could take the animals out of the boxes. I thought that was a clever way to get a different perspective on things. Of course, the two people did turn out not to want to touch whatever was in the box!

The first creature was a tarantula. Rich and I both know this but a tarantula bite is not that venomous. It’s actually no more harmful than a bee sting. The real danger from a tarantula is in the back end and its stinger. So, movie productions will use real tarantulas on the sets because they are not that harmful to the actors. But what we didn’t know is that if you take the insides of a tarantula and fry them up they taste like – no, not chicken – but scrambled eggs. Yummy!

The second box held a pygmy rattlesnake which is common to Florida. Yes, this is a rattlesnake. Yes, it is small. And yes, it is deadly. It does everything a full size rattlesnake will do but you will never hear it. The rattle sounds like a bee buzz. And because the snake is so small (about 18 inches long), it will strike you at your ankles and feet. And what do you wear on your feet in Florida? Sandals and flip-flops. After this little show, any time I saw someone with flip-flops, I called them PRB – Pygmy Rattlesnake Bait.

Then a water moccasin/cottonmouth snake was introduced and he’s venomous too. He’s got a very white mouth that you will see when he right before he strikes you. Gives new meaning to the phrase “you got a purty mouth”. The last snake was the Albino Burmese Python. Very long guy but not harmful as there were four “volunteers” from the audience brought down to hold him.

One note on this show – all the “volunteers” had to be over the age of 18. So your kids shouldn’t get too excited about being able to pet a tarantula or hold a python.

Educational note – there is a difference between venom and poison. Venom is injected into you (like a snake biting you). Poison needs to be ingested. So the proper way to distinguish snakes is either venomous or non venomous. Not poisonous and non poisonous.

This show was really good and we passed on the other shows of the day. One was about wrestling alligators and we thought that was slightly cruel and the other was how alligators could jump – to catch a chicken. It’s the Circle of Life and we know that but we don’t need to see it in action first hand. We can watch Meerkat Manor for that, thank you very much.

After the show, kids could come up and have their picture taken with the python. For $5 which would go towards the care and feeding of the Gatorland animals. Great cause but another hidden cost that many parents paid instead of having their kids thinking Mom and Dad were scum of the earth.

After we exited, there was a guide further up with a pygmy snake of some sort wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet. I was reaching for my camera to take a picture and only a picture of the snake but the guide said if I wanted to do that, I had to pet the thing. Seeing as kids were petting it and surviving, I did too. Smooth snake and I never did get my picture.

Next up for us was probably the highlight of the trip for us. The Breeding Marsh. Here you could see the natural breeding grounds of the alligators. And there were a LOT of alligators here. Along with herons and other birds. The alligators are pretty much left on their own devices. There are 20 males and 60 females in the marsh and the nest are built under trees. Once those nests are made, the trees are marked with a red ribbon so as to not disturb the nests. Mom and Dad usually “get together” in the spring. The birds will make their nests above the alligator nests to protect their young from predators. However, if a baby bird drops to the ground, it’s alligator food. This is where you can feed the alligators hot dogs if you bought them earlier (or you can go back out to the path and buy them there – you don’t have to get them right away). An alligator will only eat when he’s hungry so you could throw a hot dog in there and not have anything happen. Also, the birds will eat the hot dogs but only when it’s far enough away from a supposedly snoozing alligator. Who knows just when that alligator is going to be hungry? We enjoyed a long time with the alligators and birds in their safe but uneasy environment.

Education – how do you tell the difference between a male and a female alligator? No, you don’t lift up their tail. All the reproductive organs are internal so the only way is by their length. A female alligator will stop growing at about 10 feet in length. A male alligator will continue to grow throughout his entire life.

BTW – you are warned not to carry children on your shoulders during the marsh visit. Could you imagine a squiggly child falling off a set of shoulders and into the march? Shudder!

We walked around the front of the marsh and then headed to the back and the crocodiles. You can tell the difference between a croc and a gator by the shape of its snout. Alligators are square and crocs are pointed. Although if you were in a situation where you really needed to know the difference, I highly doubt you would care. Both should be avoided at all costs.

First up were the Nile Crocodiles and I didn’t get a picture of the sign but I believe there were five crocs in the area. And I’m going to wing it and assume these are from Egypt or somewhere around the Nile River. Safe assumption, I believe.

Next were the saltwater crocodiles and their names were Morton (like the salt) and Sheila because they are from Australia. Obviously, these two are in their own separate water area. The last crocodile area was the Cuban crocs. These are the most endangered crocodiles in the world and are only found in two remote locations in Cuba. They are also the smallest of the “big crocs” since they only grow to about 10 feet in length. But they are pretty fierce so don’t think they don’t have attitude.

The crocodile area is at the back of the Breeding Marsh so it’s easy to do a complete walk around the entire marsh.

After the crocodiles, we walked by the train station. This is why you really can’t hide the train ride from the kids. You will see and hear the train all day. The current train is the second one. The first one debuted in 1961 and officially was the first amusement park ride in Central Florida. She was retired in 2000. The original engine is on display at the train station for photos.

Next was the water splash area but don’t pass it up just because you don’t want to get wet. The water area is only a small part of the area. Here, we saw iguanas, lizards, turtles, Sandhill Cranes, porcupine, birds, snakes, baby alligators, and baby crocodiles. The education for this area is from the snapping turtles. They will lay on a log and wiggle their tongue so the fish think it’s a worm. Dinner is served!

By this time, we had seen everything on the map except the Swamp Walk which was all the way at the other end of the park. It’s a kind of a spur off the main circle walk so we completely missed it. Before we left, we checked it out. It is a typical Florida swamp with Cyprus trees and bogs. There’s a wooden walkway that meanders through it. Most people were walking pretty fast, I guess hoping there was something exciting but there’s not too many exciting things in a swamp. Education for this area is that Cyprus trees are the only conifers (needle like leaves) that lose their leaves, typically in the fall and winter.

There are two snack areas, both at the front of the park, one near the Swamp Walk and one near the water splash area. We enjoyed a beer at the one at the water splash area and I took a picture of the menu. We thought the selection and prices were pretty good for a small park. Sausage sandwiches, hot dogs (not for the gators, for humans), pork sandwich, chili, nachos, taco salad, pretzels, pizza, chicken sandwich, popcorn, chips, soft drinks, beer.

We had arrived around 10:30 and left around 2:00 so a half day park for us. We did almost everything except two of the three shows. We only paid our admission and did not shell out any for the extras. The gift shop was OK, nothing to write home about. I did buy a little sitting gator to put on a shelf with his little legs hanging down.

There were only two incidents that sort of interfered with a perfect day and both involved children who didn’t respect the animals and wanted to “play”. One was a small kid (maybe about four or five) who was running his finger up and down one of the snake glass tank and the snake would follow the finger. But then it stopped so the kid started pounding on the glass to try and get the snake started again. His parents had already walked on so we told the kid to stop it. It really caught us off guard that the kid did that. The second one really ticked us off. We were saying goodbye to Judy the bear and she was still asleep but she had her foot up on the cage. As we were standing there, a mom and her son walked up and the mom told the son to tickle the bear’s foot to wake her up!! The kid waited until the mom was gone and then did just as she asked!! We had to hold ourselves back from throwing the kid and the mom in with the bear but just loudly told the kid to stop it. Mom never looked back. UGH! People can be so stupid. And I’m not talking about the kids because they don’t know any better. It’s the adults that are stupid.

I recommend Gatorland but with some clarification. This is best for adults and younger kids. Teenagers will be bored. Pre teens will like it but only if they realize before they get there that they won’t be able to pet the gators and handle the animals. Gatorland is best when taken slowly and nature is enjoyed. It’s not a park with thrills and chills. It’s a pleasant way to spend a half day. I guess I can compare it to a fine wine. Savor it slowly.

 

[herbiesmomma]

It sounds like you guys had a great time! I can't wait to go back myself. Next time, you should think about doing the trainer for a day program. I did it last year, and it was so much fun!

 

[Big V]

Great report on Gatorland! I've been there once and enjoyed it. I'd really like to read the rest of your trip report, if I could find it!