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Well worth the hour drive from Fort Myers!!! Absolutely stunned to see so many huge gators...every size in abundance including Goliath!! Super fun feeding the large gators up close
My kids and I had the best time! We hatched baby alligators in our hands, the kids caught, held and fed alligators of all sizes. They held, a snake and fed a tortoise. There's so much to do. The staff was amazing. Friendly & knowledgeable. Definitely recommend. We will be back!
Highly Recommend this Original Central Florida Roadside Attraction! Employed for a short time as a zoo keeper/Alligator handler. It was one of the most fulfilling and amazing experiences I've had! Management was nice and professional. Always willing to teach and learn. Ben was a great teacher and a natural with the animals. It's amazing to watch him. Learned a lot and had fun here every day!!!
Great experience! The staff are friendly, Gators are very well kept. It was fun feeding the gators and crocs. We really enjoyed it.
On our last free day in Ft. Myers, we were having trouble figuring out what to do because we had already done basically everything we wanted on our list EXCEPT something directly crocodile or alligator related. We had only seen a few tiny wild alligators on our whole trip, and those were all at the same place, so that was disappointing. We had gone to almost everywhere we could think of nearby to see alligators or crocodiles in the wild with mostly no luck. It was time to go directly to the source! I scoured the internet and multiple SW Florida visitor guides and magazines looking for places with alligators. I didn't want any airboat places because we were boated out from 3 other boat tours. After much comparison and research, I'm so glad we went with Gatorama. It was the best deal of all the other places for animal encounters. You pay for each type of encounter in addition to admission, which might seem pricey to some, but it's worth it to me to get a chance to do them. Even if you don't participate in the encounters, you can watch whoever does. They try to gather everyone in the park whenever each encounter or show session is about to start, so it's a very inclusive and interactive atmosphere. I only wish we had gotten there earlier, since we started and got there later in the afternoon. Make sure to get there as early as possible to spend as much time there as you can because there are different sessions throughout the day with different animals. I chose to sit on an alligator, which was done very safely with 2-3 staff members making sure each step was done properly. Their instructions were very clear. My boyfriend did the uncle waders encounter with the baby gators, which seemed to have the most time spent with the animals. Lots of good photo ops. The gators' mouths are all taped closed for these 2 encounters. Too bad nobody did the face to face challenge with the giant alligator! Towards the end of the day, I was waiting for the last keeper program based on the schedule in the shop, but nobody showed up, and all the staff looked like they were working on closing the place down. I got a peek at one of their clipboards, and the time listed was different and already passed. We asked the girl in the shop about it, and she gladly arranged for someone to meet us, which was a relief that they were willing to accommodate us towards closing time. The only concerns I had are that the place is pretty far out in the middle of nowhere and requires taking long one lane roads along with lots of slow trucks that may or may not let you pass. Also, I thought admission came with a petting zoo experience, but I never saw it starting. Maybe I came too late for it? Otherwise, this place is a must if you're in the area, want to see alligators and crocodiles in containment, and also want to interact with them.
I learned about Gatorama from watching the Food Truck Challenge on the Food Network - and decided I had to take my 14 year old son there when we visited Florida. This was an extremely cool experience! But there are some things you should know before you go to SAVE YOU MONEY. First, let me highlight the positives. This is essentially a mini zoo with a focus on alligators of all ages. Whether it be cute little foot long gators or monster 15 footers, they have them all. We truly enjoyed being able to feed them and see them in a variety of habitats. They also have a few other animals like tortoises, turtles, pigs, a mule, and a few big cats. It would be reasonable to plan about one hour to see all exhibits on the property. This place is a bit of a "cash grab" though. We purchased the Junior Package for $50 and the adult package for $100, which essentially gave you some more intimate experiences with the animals. While it was cool, their schedule unnecessarily added about 2.5 hours to our visit, leaving us kind of bored at times. I would highly recommend purchasing the general admission only (I think it was around $20) and adding only the 1 or 2 add-on items if desired. It's a waste of time and money to do them all in the packages. Even though we had fun doing everything in the package, we would have enjoyed the park just as much doing general admission only. Add on items: - Sitting on a gator for a photo: It felt abusive and we did not like it. 1/10 rating. - Holding an albino baby gator: 30 seconds of touch time. Pretty cool. 7/10 rating - Snake around your neck: 30 seconds of touch time. 7/10 rating - Feeding the tortoise: feed 1 celery stick. 1/10 rating. - Catching baby gators: 3-4 minutes. So much fun. 10/10 rating - Feeding adult gators: Should have been cool, but it took close to an hour to entice the gators to eat. 3/10 rating - Face to face with adult gator: Cool, but we were not aloud to use our own cameras. 5/10 rating. It's at least an hour from either coast, so there is virtually nothing nearby to eat. Something to keep in mind when you plan your visit.
GATORS AND CROCODILLIES! And turtles and big cats and snakes and birds and goats and pigs and KINKAJOUS and donkey, oh my! I read someone else's super helpful review before going here, so that's why I'm able to give it 5 stars! I'll recap: *it's in the middle of nowhere *it's expensive to do a la cart things they offer; but really not worth it (just buy general admission tickets) *check feeding times so you can be there for the "show" *an hour is plenty of time to allot to this Ok, so all that being said: Picture it.. Florida.. 1969.. dirt road runs from sugar cane to orange groves.. illegal trading route if I've ever seen one.. so this guy who's a poacher says "hey, what a great spot to hide all my illegal animals that I'm going to trade on the black market!!" and that's where this allllll began.. however, the family who owns it now isn't that guys family, they actually have a legit thing going. Am I a fan of animals in cages? No. But this is more like someone's personal farm that just happens to let the public in to see the massive collection of reptiles (and a few farm animals) .. and you can tell the people who work there like their job, so that's usually a good sign of proper animal care and ethics and morals and etc etc.. The walkway between the gators and tillies alone is worth going to see! We didn't buy any animal food (because everyone else did so we saved $5) but if you wanna hear them hiss at each other, it's the coolest thing and worth $5! There are lots of animals, some of them (peacocks) are like hall monitors and follow you around, and some stay hiding in the back of their cage.. still, cool none the less. All in all, 10/10 would recommend! It's worth the drive and the $20 per adult for a little adventure.
This place is awesome, family friendly, well maintained and overall great. They have a variety of animals, crocodile, alligator, goats, snakes, pet holding, shoes, etc. Highly recommend.
I was here last week with 3 of my four grands ages 4, 6 & 8. They loved it! We had a great time, they fed gators, the tortoise held and caught baby gators all but one held the python. My youngest granddaughter is in a peacock phase and you would think she saw a mythical creature when she saw one up close.
A really cool place to see pretty close up large gators. There were other animals but we were stopped by the barn by a man power washing (on a Sunday afternoon) and told we couldn't go down that way and we would have to "go out and go around". We could never find where that was therefore missed a lot of our animals we paid our $50 to see. It would have been great if they had given maps out so we could have figured out where to go and could have seen everything.
Where do I start.... everything from the entrance to the shows and demonstrations with the female zoo keeper was simply outstanding. The entrance price is good. We did basically everything on the extras menu. I want to say her name was Claire the female zookeeper she was amazing. Was very patient with my son. Let me touch and taught him a lot about the animals and gators. I love her personality. She took us into a private area to get up close with the 13 and 14 foot gators. Just really can't say enough. I highly recommend it. And we cannot wait to go back again someday. Claire is a great soul. Wish all zoos had ppl like her working there. The food from Melissa's food truck was good as well. The gator tail was delish.
This place is great! We found it randomly on a rainy, miserable day. So we decided to try something new, both of us being alligator fanatics, we were truly impressed! There are insane amounts of gators, crocodiles, panthers, raccoons, etc. I don't remember how much it cost, but it was well worth the price from what I remember, we definitely got our money's worth, and we bought the gator crunch (I think it was $2) to feed the gators. We were also able to hold a gator, too, which was included in the cost. They are very informative and friendly people. If you are in the area, I totally recommend it. It's insane how much I learned and saw here and the experience was absolutely amazing!
We took our animal loving daughter here on a whim to see "real life gators". I can't deny the hokey ambiance and cheesy advertising that starts to hit from a few miles down the road. We paid $15 a head, and under a certain eyeballed height, smaller children get in free. I thought the $45 for my family of 3 was rough to swallow, but so it is on frivolous family vacations. There is a dock like walkway admist the crocodiles and alligators in " Croc Island" before moving to a sidewalk with enclosed groups of smaller gators, parrots, a random panther and adorable little kinkajous (Our daughter loved these little guys). There were also about 4 peacocks roaming around at will. I will say, the further you walk the less interesting the views are, finally ending in a rather concrete jungle of gators. We loved watching the gators eat. The man, Jose I think, few them some dead rats. He really made a show out of feeding the giants and tried to get the gators to jump out of the water so the crowd could get a good view. He also gave some educational facts about the animals and answered questions from the group watching. After the feeding, one of the girls took us to hold a baby gator with it's mouth taped. We thought this was a much better and more cost effective option than paying additional to wade with baby gators and catch them since that was $8 a head and this was included in the ticket price. My 4 year old daughter sends her apologies for her minor event of dropping the baby gator in a small moment of panic. Also, our apologies to the girl Casey, who I believe was new! I hope our toddler's unsteady hands didn't get you in any trouble! All in all, a good roadside attraction and time filler. Don't come here hoping to be blown away by gator glory, unless that's just your sort of thing. It may have been a one hit wonder, but we enjoyed time together as a family filled our vacationing afternoon.
5 days ago
I had the opportunity to visit Gatorama back in April for my birthday and I still can't stop talking about it. I had the BEST time. From the very start to the end before we left, each and every employee we encountered throughout our visit was so kind. My friend and I did a few of the encounters and had Kyle as our guide - we had so much fun. This place is amazing for anyone to visit, especially if you're fond of gators and crocs. 10/10 recommend visiting AND at least doing the Face to Face Challenge and Fast Hands Challenge. Everything is reasonably priced and it's well-worth the drive. I can't wait til I get to visit again read more
Excellent experience from start to finish! The exhibits were amazing, and we even got to hold and learn about an albino alligator -- such a unique and unforgettable moment. The staff was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable, and parking was easy. Both single bathrooms were clean, which is always appreciated, and the souvenir shop had a great variety of fun items to take home. Feeding the alligators and then watching the feeding show was pure entertainment -- truly a lifelong core memory! Brian from Gatorama put on a show worth remembering -- funny, engaging, and full of energy. You can tell he loves what he does! Highly recommend for families, animal lovers, or anyone looking for a one-of-a-kind Florida adventure. read more
7 months ago
Had a great experience at Gatorama. We were able to see not only crocodiles and alligators but other animals too. General admission is $25/person. The additional experiences start at $15+each. We opted for the Waders experience where you could catch a gator in a shallow pool. The other experiences included: holding a gator, holding a snake, feeding a tortoise, etc. Kyle was the team member leading their experiences and he was super friendly. Worth the stop! read more
1 year ago
Well worth the hour drive from Fort Myers!!! Absolutely stunned to see so many huge gators...every size in abundance including Goliath!! Super fun feeding the large gators up close read more
7 months ago
1 year ago
1 year ago
3 years ago
My kids and I had the best time! We hatched baby alligators in our hands, the kids caught, held and fed alligators of all sizes. They held, a snake and fed a tortoise. There's so much to do. The staff was amazing. Friendly & knowledgeable. Definitely recommend. We will be back! read more
1 year ago
3 years ago
Highly Recommend this Original Central Florida Roadside Attraction! Employed for a short time as a zoo keeper/Alligator handler. It was one of the most fulfilling and amazing experiences I've had! Management was nice and professional. Always willing to teach and learn. Ben was a great teacher and a natural with the animals. It's amazing to watch him. Learned a lot and had fun here every day!!! read more
3 years ago
Great experience! The staff are friendly, Gators are very well kept. It was fun feeding the gators and crocs. We really enjoyed it. read more
6 years ago
On our last free day in Ft. Myers, we were having trouble figuring out what to do because we had already done basically everything we wanted on our list EXCEPT something directly crocodile or alligator related. We had only seen a few tiny wild alligators on our whole trip, and those were all at the same place, so that was disappointing. We had gone to almost everywhere we could think of nearby to see alligators or crocodiles in the wild with mostly no luck. It was time to go directly to the source! I scoured the internet and multiple SW Florida visitor guides and magazines looking for places with alligators. I didn't want any airboat places because we were boated out from 3 other boat tours. After much comparison and research, I'm so glad we went with Gatorama. It was the best deal of all the other places for animal encounters. You pay for each type of encounter in addition to admission, which might seem pricey to some, but it's worth it to me to get a chance to do them. Even if you don't participate in the encounters, you can watch whoever does. They try to gather everyone in the park whenever each encounter or show session is about to start, so it's a very inclusive and interactive atmosphere. I only wish we had gotten there earlier, since we started and got there later in the afternoon. Make sure to get there as early as possible to spend as much time there as you can because there are different sessions throughout the day with different animals. I chose to sit on an alligator, which was done very safely with 2-3 staff members making sure each step was done properly. Their instructions were very clear. My boyfriend did the uncle waders encounter with the baby gators, which seemed to have the most time spent with the animals. Lots of good photo ops. The gators' mouths are all taped closed for these 2 encounters. Too bad nobody did the face to face challenge with the giant alligator! Towards the end of the day, I was waiting for the last keeper program based on the schedule in the shop, but nobody showed up, and all the staff looked like they were working on closing the place down. I got a peek at one of their clipboards, and the time listed was different and already passed. We asked the girl in the shop about it, and she gladly arranged for someone to meet us, which was a relief that they were willing to accommodate us towards closing time. The only concerns I had are that the place is pretty far out in the middle of nowhere and requires taking long one lane roads along with lots of slow trucks that may or may not let you pass. Also, I thought admission came with a petting zoo experience, but I never saw it starting. Maybe I came too late for it? Otherwise, this place is a must if you're in the area, want to see alligators and crocodiles in containment, and also want to interact with them. read more
I learned about Gatorama from watching the Food Truck Challenge on the Food Network - and decided I had to take my 14 year old son there when we visited Florida. This was an extremely cool experience! But there are some things you should know before you go to SAVE YOU MONEY. First, let me highlight the positives. This is essentially a mini zoo with a focus on alligators of all ages. Whether it be cute little foot long gators or monster 15 footers, they have them all. We truly enjoyed being able to feed them and see them in a variety of habitats. They also have a few other animals like tortoises, turtles, pigs, a mule, and a few big cats. It would be reasonable to plan about one hour to see all exhibits on the property. This place is a bit of a "cash grab" though. We purchased the Junior Package for $50 and the adult package for $100, which essentially gave you some more intimate experiences with the animals. While it was cool, their schedule unnecessarily added about 2.5 hours to our visit, leaving us kind of bored at times. I would highly recommend purchasing the general admission only (I think it was around $20) and adding only the 1 or 2 add-on items if desired. It's a waste of time and money to do them all in the packages. Even though we had fun doing everything in the package, we would have enjoyed the park just as much doing general admission only. Add on items: - Sitting on a gator for a photo: It felt abusive and we did not like it. 1/10 rating. - Holding an albino baby gator: 30 seconds of touch time. Pretty cool. 7/10 rating - Snake around your neck: 30 seconds of touch time. 7/10 rating - Feeding the tortoise: feed 1 celery stick. 1/10 rating. - Catching baby gators: 3-4 minutes. So much fun. 10/10 rating - Feeding adult gators: Should have been cool, but it took close to an hour to entice the gators to eat. 3/10 rating - Face to face with adult gator: Cool, but we were not aloud to use our own cameras. 5/10 rating. It's at least an hour from either coast, so there is virtually nothing nearby to eat. Something to keep in mind when you plan your visit. read more
GATORS AND CROCODILLIES! And turtles and big cats and snakes and birds and goats and pigs and KINKAJOUS and donkey, oh my! I read someone else's super helpful review before going here, so that's why I'm able to give it 5 stars! I'll recap: *it's in the middle of nowhere *it's expensive to do a la cart things they offer; but really not worth it (just buy general admission tickets) *check feeding times so you can be there for the "show" *an hour is plenty of time to allot to this Ok, so all that being said: Picture it.. Florida.. 1969.. dirt road runs from sugar cane to orange groves.. illegal trading route if I've ever seen one.. so this guy who's a poacher says "hey, what a great spot to hide all my illegal animals that I'm going to trade on the black market!!" and that's where this allllll began.. however, the family who owns it now isn't that guys family, they actually have a legit thing going. Am I a fan of animals in cages? No. But this is more like someone's personal farm that just happens to let the public in to see the massive collection of reptiles (and a few farm animals) .. and you can tell the people who work there like their job, so that's usually a good sign of proper animal care and ethics and morals and etc etc.. The walkway between the gators and tillies alone is worth going to see! We didn't buy any animal food (because everyone else did so we saved $5) but if you wanna hear them hiss at each other, it's the coolest thing and worth $5! There are lots of animals, some of them (peacocks) are like hall monitors and follow you around, and some stay hiding in the back of their cage.. still, cool none the less. All in all, 10/10 would recommend! It's worth the drive and the $20 per adult for a little adventure. read more
5 years ago
This place is awesome, family friendly, well maintained and overall great. They have a variety of animals, crocodile, alligator, goats, snakes, pet holding, shoes, etc. Highly recommend. read more
6 years ago
I was here last week with 3 of my four grands ages 4, 6 & 8. They loved it! We had a great time, they fed gators, the tortoise held and caught baby gators all but one held the python. My youngest granddaughter is in a peacock phase and you would think she saw a mythical creature when she saw one up close. read more
4 years ago
A really cool place to see pretty close up large gators. There were other animals but we were stopped by the barn by a man power washing (on a Sunday afternoon) and told we couldn't go down that way and we would have to "go out and go around". We could never find where that was therefore missed a lot of our animals we paid our $50 to see. It would have been great if they had given maps out so we could have figured out where to go and could have seen everything. read more
7 years ago
Where do I start.... everything from the entrance to the shows and demonstrations with the female zoo keeper was simply outstanding. The entrance price is good. We did basically everything on the extras menu. I want to say her name was Claire the female zookeeper she was amazing. Was very patient with my son. Let me touch and taught him a lot about the animals and gators. I love her personality. She took us into a private area to get up close with the 13 and 14 foot gators. Just really can't say enough. I highly recommend it. And we cannot wait to go back again someday. Claire is a great soul. Wish all zoos had ppl like her working there. The food from Melissa's food truck was good as well. The gator tail was delish. read more
This place is great! We found it randomly on a rainy, miserable day. So we decided to try something new, both of us being alligator fanatics, we were truly impressed! There are insane amounts of gators, crocodiles, panthers, raccoons, etc. I don't remember how much it cost, but it was well worth the price from what I remember, we definitely got our money's worth, and we bought the gator crunch (I think it was $2) to feed the gators. We were also able to hold a gator, too, which was included in the cost. They are very informative and friendly people. If you are in the area, I totally recommend it. It's insane how much I learned and saw here and the experience was absolutely amazing! read more
11 years ago
We took our animal loving daughter here on a whim to see "real life gators". I can't deny the hokey ambiance and cheesy advertising that starts to hit from a few miles down the road. We paid $15 a head, and under a certain eyeballed height, smaller children get in free. I thought the $45 for my family of 3 was rough to swallow, but so it is on frivolous family vacations. There is a dock like walkway admist the crocodiles and alligators in " Croc Island" before moving to a sidewalk with enclosed groups of smaller gators, parrots, a random panther and adorable little kinkajous (Our daughter loved these little guys). There were also about 4 peacocks roaming around at will. I will say, the further you walk the less interesting the views are, finally ending in a rather concrete jungle of gators. We loved watching the gators eat. The man, Jose I think, few them some dead rats. He really made a show out of feeding the giants and tried to get the gators to jump out of the water so the crowd could get a good view. He also gave some educational facts about the animals and answered questions from the group watching. After the feeding, one of the girls took us to hold a baby gator with it's mouth taped. We thought this was a much better and more cost effective option than paying additional to wade with baby gators and catch them since that was $8 a head and this was included in the ticket price. My 4 year old daughter sends her apologies for her minor event of dropping the baby gator in a small moment of panic. Also, our apologies to the girl Casey, who I believe was new! I hope our toddler's unsteady hands didn't get you in any trouble! All in all, a good roadside attraction and time filler. Don't come here hoping to be blown away by gator glory, unless that's just your sort of thing. It may have been a one hit wonder, but we enjoyed time together as a family filled our vacationing afternoon. read more
4 years ago
8 years ago
This place was awesome!! Tons of action from the gators - Jimmy, Crazy, Jade, and Vampire to name a few. Staff was great, prices super reasonable. Tons of things to do besides watching the gators in the beginning. We packed a "picnic" lunch and spent a few hours here. The kids were super happy and entertained. Glad we got to add this in to our itinerary for our Florida vacation. :) read more
5 years ago
7 years ago
4 years ago
its false advertising!!!! you can't do half the things they advertise and it is very unsafe there. it said that you could hold pythons, guess what! no pythons!!! ride/wrestle aligator, guess what!!!!! you cant!!!!! it was so frusterating because we drove over 2 hours and we couldnt do what we came thre for!!!!!!! read more
7 years ago
14 years ago
8 years ago
8 years ago
10 years ago
We had an amazing time at gatorama. We needed a day out of the sun and this was exactly what we hoped for. We started out by feeding the gators, then our girls held gator and ended by watching them feed the gators. It was a great time. The staff was very friendly and we felt very safe at all times. read more
6 years ago
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9 years ago
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9 years ago
This is one of the best roadside attractions! If you or your children want to alligators and crocodiles up close then this is the place to see them. They had other animals also including Florida panthers, raccoons, peacocks and others. I took my 21 and 16 year olds here when they were 7 and 2. Now we come back with our 2 youngsters age 9 and 10. Lots of fun for them. They have picnic tables and a great gift shop. We enjoy it over and over. read more
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More info about Gatorama
10665 N US Hwy 27
Palmdale, FL 33944
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(863) 675-0623
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http://www.gatorama.com/
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3 reviews that are not currently recommended
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