Wild Adventures
Valdosta, Georgia
Noland's Wild Adventures Review
Wild Adventures had some interesting and unique animals, but left a lot to be desired as well. The animal attractions were definitely the highlight of the park so just know that going in. Having the rides and water-park is a plus, but they are not of the best quality. The service is also quite terrible so don’t go in expecting the same service as a Disney park.
Highlights
Tigers of India Show
This show was fantastic. By far this was the most appealing thing to do in the entire park. If you happen to go to Wild Adventures you do not want to miss this show. There are usually 3 or 4 shows offered each day. I bet you could probably tell from the name that the show features tigers. Several different types of tigers are featured in the show. In addition to your standard fascinating orange Bengal tiger with black stripes, they have the white Bengal Tigers white black stripes. No it doesn’t stop there they also have three snow white Bengal Tigers featured in the show. There are only about 40 snow white Bengal Tigers in the entire world so this is a rare treat to see these massive animals up close. There is also one golden colored tiger that the show host said was also rare. Apparently there are about 70 of these animals in the world. My fiancé and I absolutely loved this show and we went both days. Definitely be sure to make this show part of your stop at Wild Adventures.
Swamp Thing Ride
The swamp thing roller coaster was pretty neat and was our favorite ride attraction for the park. The ride was actually well made, and seemed to be of a higher quality than a fair ride, which can’t be said about all the rides in the park. Anyways, it is a 2 minute ride over the alligator exhibit. This is really cool because you get a much better view of the huge alligator from the ride than you do from the viewing area next to the exhibit. Pretty well designed ride with a cool theme to it.
Safari Train Ride
This train ride was pretty neat. It is only about 10 minutes long, but it is a similar design to the safari ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The best picture I can give you is telling you that this is a C rate version of that ride. Still very cool, but not quite as cool. The water buffalo and wildebeest were my favorite animals during this ride. They had a baby giraffe, but you could barely see it from the train. It is always neat to see animals up close though and free to move so this ride is something you should check out if you visit the park.
Water Monitor
I just think water monitors are awesome and this seemed to be the only animal with its own exhibit that had an exhibit that was an adequate size. These animals are so cool and look like dinosaurs to me. We looked at this guy for a while. Very Neat!
Disappointments
Size of Exhibits
All of the exhibits seemed too small with the exception of the water monitor exhibit, the red tailed hawk exhibit, and the animals along the safari train exhibits. The exhibit with the rhinos was especially frustrating. The rhinoceroses were in small red cages that weren’t bigger than my room. They seemed to be incredibly boxed in and unable to even move. Rhinos are my favorite animals and I was quite excited to see them, but you couldn’t even see their fronts because they have their backsides facing toward you in the only viewing area. I would like to see more than the rear end of my favorite animal and I would like them to be treated better. This is probably the main reason we won’t go back to Wild Adventures unless we hear of serious changes.
No Shows/Animals no longer on Exhibit
The wallaby is no longer on exhibit or it is just too difficult to find the exhibit. Believe me we tried to find where they might have even had wallabies before and couldn’t figure it out. After asking some staff they said they didn’t know which animals were or were not in the park. This was quite disturbing. Asking at least 10 animals about an animal that is advertised on the park’s website should at least yield a productive answer. Very frustrating.
The bush baby was a different story because we found the exhibit where the bush babies were supposed to be. None of them seemed to be on the exhibit and the staff didn’t seem to know if they were still in the park. We were also looking forward to these guys a great deal
Snake/Small Reptile House
It was kind of small and not well marked. It was also very stuffy. Doesn’t seem like a lot of people knew about or cared about this exhibit. Not the worst part, but far from impressive.
Overall Review
The park was quite different from any park I have seen in the past. It is a three and one park so it is a good value if they fix a few things. The rhinoceros exhibit was the biggest drawback of the park. Other than that exhibit it is a pretty nice park with some cool exhibits and fascinating animals. Unfortunately far too many of the exhibits were a very small size. Definitely not a first rate zoo, amusement park, or Water Park, but not the worst I’ve seen either. Wild Adventures needs more quality and less quantity in my opinion.
-Noland
-Noland
3 out of 5 Elephant Review
