When we booked our cruise, we were tempted by their debarkation tours offering air boat rides in the Everglades. However, the cruise excursions were set up for people flying home and ended at the airport. Since we drove to Miami, this didn't work for us, so I did some research to find a similar activity on our own.
I'm not really sure what convinced me to choose Gator Park from the dozens of options that my search pulled up, but I'm glad I did. The price ($23.00/adult) was really quite reasonable, and included both the air boat ride and their brief wild life show. Our boat ride began slowly, working our way up the canal from the park towards the Everglades proper. Along the way, our boat operator/tour guide (a very personable character named Dan) discussed the ecology of the Everglades and pointed out the different types of plants and birds around us, and demonstrated a thorough familiarity with the alligators that live in the vicinity. We saw dozens of different birds, and dozens of newly hatched alligators, along with several of the larger mothers. None of the males made an appearance the day we were there, but the ones we saw were impressive enough.
After we exited the canal, Dan asked us if we prefered ""Safe and Sane"" or ""Fast and Wild"". We voted for ""Fast and Wild"" and he proceeded to give us an exciting high speed ride across the wet lands. After a few minutes of this exciting ride, he stopped us out in the middle of the grass, and talked some more about the Everglades and its geography, before bringing us back to the dock.
After the brief wild life show, which was very entertaining, I was able to talk to some of the others that had joined us for our ride. One gentleman lived locally, and was impressed with the quality of the experience. He seemed to feel that this was an exception that provided a quality product, rather than a tourist rip-off just looking to fleece visitors.
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