I’m a bit surprised by the number of positive reviews here. My experience might have been tarnished by the crowds present when we went, but there are things that could have been done by this company to make it so much better.
Purchasing our passes here from Trip Advisor several weeks in advance, I mistakenly thought we’d be able to walk in, scan our passes, and jump on an airboat. Instead, when we got there, we discovered a line snaking out of the building and enmeshing itself in a line for the alligator show. Confusion was everywhere. I’m really not sure why they don’t assign you a time window for arrival so that everyone doesn’t come at the same time (which is what might have happened in my case).
Furthermore, when after about an hour we finally did get to the ticket window, we discovered a huge part of the slowdown was the pen and paper signatures for liability etc. Why wasn’t this an option online when we made our purchases weeks prior? This would have saved so much time and frustration. I felt like I probably hadn’t even needed to buy my tickets in advance.
Lastly, we brought our own water bottles, but discovered there was no place to refill them. This area is hot, and when I asked a staff member if there was a drinking fountain, he said there wasn’t and that the sink water in the bathrooms wasn’t safe to drink. So we were stuck paying $3 per small bottle of water at the little store (where prices are not marked on anything and there is only one overworked employee handling everyone’s purchases).
On a positive note, my kids enjoyed seeing some alligators on the airboat tour when it finally happened, but by then they were soured enough on the experience that it just didn’t seem very worth it.