Gatorland will add an off-road buggy ride as part of the biggest expansion in park history.
The biggest expansion in Gatorland history will incorporate oversized off-road buggies taking riders through mud puddles, ponds, swampland and an alligator graveyard. The longtime attraction plans to open its Stompin’ Gator Off-Road Adventure in September.
Gatorland visitors will board custom-built, 12-foot-high openair vehicles and be driven through undeveloped acreage on the east side of the property. It’s going to be a bumpy ride through piney woods, palmettos and other natural habitats.
“This isn’t some converted school bus going through a cow pasture,” Mark McHugh, president and CEO of Gatorland, said Wednesday after the official ground-breaking for Stompin’ Gator. It won’t have guard rails or straddle a rail like tamer themepark rides, he said.
“There are no barriers with this,” he said.
The trip, expected to last between 15 and 20 minutes, will include a mid-pond stop to feed gators over the side of the buggy and a pass through the area where Gatorland has buried hundreds of alligators through the years. The South Orange Blossom Trail attraction opened in 1949.
Now it’s spending $2 million on the off-road project, including $80,000 each for three buggies that will hold 12 passengers and a driver.
“It’s going to utilize our entire property,” McHugh said. “People don’t realize we’re that big.”
In the past decade, Gatorland has added a a zip-line course that flies over alligators and crocodiles, a splash-play area, a train ride and croc exhibits. This expansion also will include a 3,900-square-foot structure called Gator Joe’s Adventure Outpost, which will serve as a hub for some of those activities. It is named for longtime employee Ernest “Gator Joe” Brown.
The off-road portion will feature a scripted story line with a nature guide/driver who goes rogue and takes his passengers off course for a while. The buggies are being tricked out, monster-truck style, and they are named after some of the park’s iconic animals: Cannibal Jack, Bonecrusher and Swamp Ghost, a nod to Gatorland’s rare white alligators.
The new experience will be an extra charge beyond regular admission. McHugh estimated it would be between $10 and $15.
“We usually add an upcharge to our adventure activities because not everybody wants to do it,” he said. “So instead of adding it into our gate price and making our gate price so high, we want to be a reasonable experience for everyone to come into Gatorland.”