mickey916
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2009
- Messages
- 4,407
4/6 Picking Up Our Sons and Heading to Gatorland
We got up early and checked out of our VRBO rental to pick up our sons at the Springhill Suites Airport. On the way, we stopped at The Salty Donut in Audubon Park for a ½ dozen donuts.
I intended to order six different donuts but lost track of them halfway through so I ended up with two butterbeer donuts (and missed getting the guava and cheese). Starting in the top left and going clockwise we ordered: Butterbeer, Peanut Butter Brownie, Butterbeer (#2), Chocolate Sheetcake, Key Lime Pie, and Coquito.
We shared all six of these. They were all very fresh and flavorful. We all liked the Peanut Butter Brownie the best but they were all very good.
After sharing our donuts in their hotel room, our sons checked out and we headed to Gatorland. My DS-27 has wanted to go there for a long time.
We arrived just before they opened and it was an absolute mob scene. This was the Saturday after Easter and I think everyone had decided to go there after their week in Disney. I couldn’t believe how crowded it was just to get in. There were two separate lines, one for those who already purchased tickets and one for those who needed to buy them. Since I assumed the pre-bought ticket line would move faster, I went on my phone and purchased the Greater Gator package for the four of us. My assumption was incorrect however, as they weren’t letting the pre-purchased ticket holders in a continuous line. We were held at the turnstile and only a handful of people would be let through and then we’d have to wait. The park opened at 10, we arrived at 9:45 and we didn’t get into the park until 11:00. Craziness.
Also, our purchase of the Greater Gator package was a mistake. In addition to admission, this package came with an alligator meet & greet, unlimited train rides and gator chow to feed the gators. Unfortunately, the line for alligator meet & greet was extremely long and all you got to do was pose behind an alligator while they took your picture, for which you would have to pay an additional $12 to purchase, so we skipped that. The lines for the train were incredibly long so we never even rode it once. It certainly wasn’t worth a 30-45 minute wait to ride. So, all we really got for our $41.99 per person, was admission and a $4.50 bag of gator chow each. If we had purchased just the ticket and the chow, it would have cost $39.49, not a huge difference fortunately.
With all that being said, we actually enjoyed the park. There was a lot more to it than we thought. We saw so many gators and we really enjoyed feeding them the gator chow.
We also saw tortoises
and flamingos.
It was incredible to watch two zookeepers cuddling the panthers. It was like they were playing with a big kitty.
We enjoyed the Jumparoo show but we expected to see them jump further out of the water. This was the highest jump we saw (check out those crowds in the background).
There were also lots of birds hanging with the gators. We learned that gators don’t usually eat birds because there’s not enough meat for them.
Speaking of eating, my DS-27 just had to get an order of deep fried gator bites. This line too was incredibly long. I think he waited 30 minutes in line for these.
They were okay. They mostly tasted like fried breading and were a little chewy. The dipping sauce was good though.
Overall, we enjoyed our day here and I think it’s a good filler activity for a travel day. Despite the crowds we were able to see everything we wanted to see and left the park at 2:30. From when we finally got in the park it was 3.5 hours to do everything. We probably won’t be in any rush to go again but it’s a good “once in a while” attraction.
Up next…checking into our hotel and heading to Disney Springs.