When I found out that our family vacation had been changed from Tennessee to Florida, I immediately knew I wanted to take my family back to Gatorland, Orlando.  It was a no brainer.  I visited the attraction on a blogging trip in 2010, and I just knew that my kiddos would love this place.

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GATORLAND
14501 S. Orange Blossom Trail
Orlando, Fl 32837

When we first arrived, the we hadn’t even made it into the park when the kids were excited about taking their pic in the huge gator teeth!

After we made our way in, we spent quite a bit of time right at the front of the park where the kids couldn’t believe how many little gators there were!  This was so cool to them!

As you can see, below, they also had quite a bit of fun with the photo op gator!!  I thought this was a cute picture of my nephew, Samuel and my son Hawk. He was trying to save him from the gator!

This guy was just hanging out, waiting to be fed.

The last time I was there, we must have rushed through the park, because I had no idea that, to the left, there was a whole other section to the park with a splash pad, playground, and area with snakes, giant tortoises, and a lion!  We spent quite a bit of time watching the tortoises and lion.  When you go, don’t forget to hang a left and find out how they acquired some of the large snakes!  It’s a pretty cool, and gross, story!

We had a hard time getting a good photo of this beauty, but I’m glad we went back there!!

In the pic to the right, below, Hawk wanted to know if he could take off his shoes and shirt and head behind him to the splash pad!  We weren’t prepared for water fun! (And.. his blue mouth is a product of the blue slushies they had there!)

We headed over and catch a show before we walked around the back trails of the park!  Christian had some pretty neat creatures, and he walked right up to us with this tarantula!  The boys thought it was awesome!

After the show, we decided to take a walk around the park and take a look at all the different animals they had!  Here, we stopped and fed the emus.  Kylie was so scared to put her hand out there, and my 4 year old niece walked right up to them and fed them.  Jett fed them, too!

As we were headed back toward the main area of the park, we ran across a peacock holding up traffic.  It was really pretty!

Then, Kylie and Emery narrowly escaped being eaten by a gator!

We were in Orlando for a week, and just so happen, the day that we decided to go to Gatorland happened to bring one of the worst rainstorms of our trip!  We couldn’t think of a better way to ride out a storm for over an hour and sitting with the white gators!

This one was so funny.  They’d throw him a little food, and he’d play like he was sleeping.  Next thing we know, he’d just roll his head over, grab a piece of food, and go right back to playing like he was sleeping.

The kids loved sitting and watching the white gators while we waited out the rain!

Even Mimi and Papa enjoyed sitting there and having a little family time while we were getting a much needed break from the heat!  Everyone needed the break, so we all enjoyed sitting undercover!

Hawk said, “My favorite part about Gatorland was the white gators.  I like how they stare at you and look cool and they eat everything you give them!”

Well, everyone except the teenager!  She wanted to go zip-lining.  She wasn’t too happy at this moment!

After the rain made its way through, we made it back to the front of the park just in time for the Gator Jumparoo Show!  The kiddos (even the teen) LOVED this show.  We got to see gators jump out of the water trying to get some chicken, and the staff preforming the show was awesome. They were so funny, and we had the perfect ending to the day at Gatorland. As we were walking out, we were all smiles, because we had a great time.

I’m so glad that my family was able to go and experience my favorite place in Orlando, Florida!

When you’re planning your trips this summer (or anytime of the year) and you head to Orlando, make sure that you put Gatorland on your itinerary!  It’s a lot of fun for the whole family (even pouty teens!!)!

Sadly, we missed the Gator Wrestlin’, but I wanted to snap a pic of Kylie in front of the sign!

Oh, and I didn’t get to see Donny this time!  I’m not sure if he’s no longer there, or just wasn’t working at the time, but it was cool to see that he was in the brochures.  He was such a fun guy!

Thank you, Gatorland, for a great afternoon!

Disclaimer:  I was given media passes and discounts for my family to attend Gatorland in exchange for my honest review. All opinions were my own, and I was not compensated for this post.