Gatorland uses its

in-house creative team to form its newest attraction, Stompin' Gator Off-road Adventure, inspired by monster trucks and swamp buggies.

Gatorland’s new outdoor was an inside job.

The Stompin’ Gator Off-road Adventure was created by Gatorland’s in-house creative team, from the ride design and its humor-driven script to the downhome graphics and unorthodox approach to décor, including leftover wire from the attraction’s zip line.

For CEO Mark McHugh, the do-it-yourself approach yields benefits in control and cash. In the fall of 2015, he added three people to the staff with the skills attraction to produce and maintain projects at the South Orange Blossom Trail attraction, which opened in 1949.

“Attractions our size don’t do this internally,” McHugh said. “It was a risk to spend the money and develop this team inside our own park.”

Stompin’ Gator, which opened in December, is a monster truckinspired experience that takes Gatorland visitors through swampy areas formerly behind the scenes, including a stretch through authentic alligator burial grounds. But it’s funny. “We wanted a real theme-park ride, with a storyline,” McHugh said. “It’s entertainment. People are laughing the whole time.”

He hired Dan Carro as creative director, who quickly came upon challenges. It would be a bumpy ride, literally and figuratively. His idea of using animatronics was nixed by lack of electricity on the ride site.

“We had to figure out how do we get that rhythm that people expect from a big theme-park ride?” Carro said. “How do we get the plot points in — rising action, falling action, all of that — while really being off the beaten path on muddy roads in the back?”

Ingenuity, technology and flexibility played parts.

A script was developed for the swamp-buggy drivers. Carro wrote the base, then there was riffing among the team and revisions.

“They wanted it to be something where it operated on a lot of different levels: Little kids would go in and just have a great time going over the bumps, but there were still jokes,” Carro said.

The plot revolves around a corporation taking over a little, locally owned alligator attraction. That idea comes from close