Wild Florida
November 26, 2020
Wild Florida is known for their AIRBOAT tours in the Everglades. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go on a tour because of the weather but the park was a great surprise! You are able to learn about ALLIGATORS, see exotic animals, and wildlife found in Florida at this park. There are some entertaining shows where nuisance gators interact with their trainers, known as the Croc squad. I thought that was a pretty clever name for their trainers. The shows are close to each other and you can watch all of them back to back. The park has over 200 animals and there are encounters to allow you to get up, close, and personal with them.
A Behind the Scenes Tour at Wild Florida
The Behind the Scenes tour sounded like a great opportunity not to pass up but I was even more surprised after learning all the things that came with the tour. My friend Brittany and I were the only ones with one of the trainers on our tour. This is such a great deal and I highly recommend doing this if you ever come to Wild Florida to visit. Here is a list of what came with this tour:
1. PERSONAL TOUR- We got a behind the scenes tour to learn about where meals are prepped and prepared, where sick animals are taken to be cared for, and a tour of the whole park. It was really a treat to see how much the trainers love the animals and how much the animals reciprocated that love and recognize their trainer as we were walking the park.
2. ENCOUNTER- Before we went on the tour we meet up for an encounter with the group that purchased just an encounter. We didn’t have to pay extra (it came with the BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR). The encounter we chose to do was the Sloth Encounter. We were able to go inside the enclosure, feel the sloth (wet sloth at the time), and take a selfie and group picture with the him. We also learned that the trainers never force their animals to do anything in these encounters it is all dependent upon how the animal feels.
3. FEED- There are three different places you can get feed to have more encounters with the animals. The first place was near the alligators. You are given feed which look like big pellets to toss into the alligator pond and watch them eat and sometimes hear them hiss at one another to get it. The second place was at the petting zoo. It was very wet on the day we went but we were able to feed the animals from the fence and they were so hungry. Can you believe there are baby emu’s you can feed! The third place was in the aviary. When you have a stick with bird feed they all flock to you and you become like birds of a feather. We were told that if we didn’t want to do all three different feeding encounters then we could possibly trade to get feed at one we did like instead of the feed at the place we didn’t want to do. This may not be the way it always is but don’t be afraid to ask. The workers there are very nice and accommodating.
4. PICTURES WITH AN ALLIGATOR- There is an opportunity where you are able to hold one of their smaller gators and get your picture taken. You will be able to get that picture and use it on any social media you wish or just have it as a keep sake to remember your time at WILD FLORIDA. They give you a paper with a bar code that allows you to download the picture. This opportunity is also a treat to feel what alligators skin actually feels like. You may be surprised!
This all came with the purchase to do a BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR. If you are interested here is a link: WILD FLORIDA BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR
INSIDER TIPS ON WHAT I AM GLAD I BROUGHT:
1) Bug Spray 2) Rain Jacket 3) Battery Pack 4) Camel Back Pack
Tip: I am also glad that we came here early and were able to see the show before having to report and meet up for our encounter. If you arrive early enough and decide to go on a AIRBOAT tour as well as the BEHIND THE SCENES tour you can do it all if you arrive at the park early. We would’ve gone to the AIRBOAT tour first, then explored the park seen the shows, and then did the tour. There really is enough to do here for the majority of the day if you wanted to make the most of your trip.
I hope these insights help you and that you have an opportunity to go to WILD FLORIDA your self. If you do I would love to hear about it and learn of some insights you might have from your experience. Below is a video from my experience and also a place to leave your comments.