This is Wild Florida.
And there are so many things to do here from airboat ride, Gator Park,
as well as a full drive through Safari
and if you're thinking about heading to Wild Florida,
I'll go through all of the details to help you decide
if it would be worth it for you and your family.
So let's get into it.
Wild Florida is a family run Animal Park
that is located in Kenansville, Florida, which is just under an hour
south of the major theme parks in Orlando.
We visited on a beautiful Saturday morning
and purchased our tickets online and got reservations
for the very first airboat ride of the day, which is at 9 a.m..
When we arrived, we checked in at the front desk and made our way over
to the airboat waiting area, which is in the back near the lake.
And once it was time they started calling us all back to the pier
where we met our airboat Captain Dennis,
who gave us some safety instructions before we headed off into the hundred
thousand acres of protected swamp marshes and rivers
that make up the headwaters of the Florida Everglades.
We were able to get a front row seat to see wildlife
in their natural habitat and saw everything on our airboat ride
from baby alligators to this momma alligator who was protecting her babies
and this great blue heron enjoying its fresh caught fish.
If you are thinking about adding the airboat ride to your day
they do say that the 9am time slot is the best one to do during
the summer months and noon is the best slot in the winter
if you want to see the most animals during your trip.
In the summer months, the wildlife gets harder
to see, the hotter in the day that it gets.
And in Florida, we tend to get thunderstorms in the summer around
2 p.m..
So if you don't want to chance your tour getting canceled, I
highly suggest booking your tour earlier in the day,
especially if you're visiting during the summer.
On the tours they do provide life jackets and some hearing protection,
and if you don't want to get
pelted with water in your eyes, I highly recommend wearing sunglasses
or some kind of eye protection if you are sitting in the front row.
After the airboat tour, we made our way over to the entrance
to the Gator and Wildlife Park, and this is where you'll get to see
a number of exotic animal species and the ones that are native to Florida.
There are also three shows here,
The Exotic Animal Show, which is a 15 minute show
where you'll get to meet a few of Wild Florida's residents.
While we were here, we got to meet Red, who is a boa constrictor,
and the trainer will walk Red around the stage
to let you see her up close and even get a chance to pet her.
We also got to meet Blue, the blue tongued skink
and Fluffy, the baby alligator.
If you want to see more alligators while you're here.
I highly recommend checking out the
Crusher Show.
Crusher is the biggest alligator in Wild Florida, and reaches over
14 feet long and 1,000 lbs.
I was truly impressed with The Crusher show
and the amount of care they put into training him.
I don't think I've ever seen a gator anywhere else that is this well trained
and I can't imagine the amount of time and care that it took to trust him
to do things like this, where you're turning your back against him.
If you ever get a chance to see the show I highly recommend it.
Once the Crusher show is over, we made our way over to the Gator
Feeding Show where you can watch alligators and crocodiles alike
make these incredible jumps for an afternoon snack.
And these gators will shock you with how high
they can jump out of the water, even the big ones.
And they're all really impressive.
They even encouraged one to come out of the water
to get a little bit closer to the crowd.
I'll while telling you the method on how they train these
amazing animals without having to bind them.
If you didn't get enough alligators while watching the shows
then you'll have to make your way around to all the different enclosures
that house quite a few of your favorite types of alligators and crocodiles.
You will find the majority of the gators in the Gator Pond
and these guys are huge!
And we were able to find most of them clustered under the pier like this.
If you prefer the smaller gators, you can make your way over to the gator
fishing pond where you can find the juvenile gators.
And there are also feeding experiences that you can purchase
at an additional cost
where you can purchase pellets to feed the gators if you do want to do that.
But while you're here, don't miss your chance to see the albino gators.
And there's even a couple of different types of crocodiles,
including the slender snouted crocodile and the Cuban crocodile.
But if feeding gators is a little bit too intimidating for you,
you can also choose to feed other animals in the area.
There is a walk in aviary that is across the walkway
where you can purchase a stick and allow the kids to run around
and feed the cute little birds inside the enclosure.
But there's also a ton of other animals in this area as well,
like macaws and turtles, which just so happen
to be trying to escape while I was there.
A few raccoons and a Florida panther.
They even have a petting zoo located on the far end of the park
where you can pay to pick up an ice cream cone filled with treats
to feed the many different goats that were eager to come up to you.
And they were all just so cute.
I loved getting a chance to feed them while I was here, and my favorite
out of all of them, hands down, was probably this adorable baby pig.
That was mixed in the crowd.
And while you're here in the back of the park
also make sure to walk through the Hawk Swamp Trail.
This long was pretty dry when we came, but it's a beautiful trail
that goes through some amazing cypress trees.
When you make your way back towards the front of the park,
you'll come across some exotic animals, like snakes,
the African crested porcupine, wallabies, lemurs and so many more.
They even have quite a few sloth enclosures.
And speaking of sloths there are a ton
of add on experiences that you can do while you're here.
And if you ever wanted to get close and personal with an adorable sloth,
there's a couple of different encounters,
like the sloth encounter where you can step up and pet a sloth.
And there's also a VIP sloth encounter where you can even hold one.
They list all of their different encounters on their website,
but some of them include a giraffe painting experience, dine with Crusher
where it looks like you could dine with Crusher inside of his enclosure,
which might be a little too close for comfort for me.
There's also close encounters with lemurs, capybaras, and others.
If you do plan on staying in the park for a while,
they do have the Chomp House where you can pick up a quick hot meal,
some drinks and even a frozen treat while you're here.
Once we wrapped it up at the Gator Park, we made our way over to the drive
through safari where you can see more than 150 native and exotic animals
that roam freely throughout the park, all from the comfort of your car.
You do have to pay for the drive through safari separately.
And one thing that I do want to note is that if you are planning to head
to the safari, you do need a top to your vehicle.
So convertibles
with the top down and motorcycles are not allowed through the drive thru.
It took us about an hour to drive through the entire safari
and it was really fun to be able to see everything from these adorable
baby cows to these amazing longhorns.
But there was also zebras, camels, buffalos and bison, deer, antelope,
and this incredibly energetic
emu that wanted to say hi to every family that came through,
and apparently it was not a very big fan of tires
since he could be found pecking at all of the car tires
that passed him by, which was not very nice.
While we were there, we were able to experience the newly
expanded area, making this entire safari, reaching over
170 acres worth of landscape to explore.
If you are planning on doing the drive
thru safari, definitely make sure to use the bathrooms
before you head into the park,
especially since the safari can take over an hour long or more
and there is nowhere within the safari to stop if you need to.
Also, if you are planning on heading here
during the summer months, make sure to keep in mind
that it may be more difficult to see animals, especially during
the hottest hours of the day, since they most likely
will be hiding in the shady areas to stay cool.
One of the biggest highlights of the tour is getting to see the giraffes
at the end, and they are always just so beautiful to see.
If you're able to find parking, you can get out and feed the giraffes.
The parking lot is pretty small and we did end up having
to drive around a few times to try to snag a spot.
But if you love giraffes, it would be worth it for you.
It does cost $5 for three pieces of lettuce.
And the giraffes are so cute that you'll want to make sure
that you have your phones
and cameras out and ready before you step up to the platform.
If you didn't get enough alligators and animals during this video,
then you'll want to check out
my other video on Gatorland that just popped up on the screen.
Gatorland is another family owned Gator Park
that has over 2000 live gators.
And I'll walk you around the entire thing.
Until next time, everyone!
I hope you have an amazing day and go out and enjoy some Florida sunshine.