Devil's Ear Spring- inside Ginnie Springs — Attraction in Alachua

I would love to rate this place a 5 Star as the adventure, of diving into the caves are unforgettable. However, I noticed a few things that are just not acceptable.

NO LIFEGUARD ON SITE!!

This is a family oriented place, for which you pay an entrance and you also pay for your child to come in. Camping is not the main attraction. The water is. And the fact that adults can swim at their risk is understandable. But accidents happen and a child may slip with a single wrong movement. And there's no one other than good Samaritans to rely on. It makes me think that it's almost like buying a death ticket for your child.

However, I also understand we all must take ownership and responsibilities for our Actions and rent or bring your life vest and properly secure your little ones. But I can't understand how parents are allowed to take their newborns into the water. What for? They can't swim and if they fall from the floats is instant death. There are many other factors that could be controlled as people can drink alcohol and the springs can get very crowded at times.

CLEAN AND LIMITED AMENITIES

When you go out camping is a known that you will have to share the restroom with hundreds of people. And although they have around 5 - 8 different restroom buildings around the property, there are only 2 toilettes in each building. You have lines of people waiting to be able to use the toilets and the restrooms don't have AC or proper ventilation. This weekend we had a severe heatwave in the upper 90 degrees and being in the restrooms was like being in a sauna. Think about that while doing your necessities; is not a pleasant experience.

There was an AC unit 10ft up on the roof beams, but it was unplugged. The showers are not clean often enough to take a shower and leave without catching some sort of infection.

They do have enough urinals. About 8 of them on each building. But there are lines of people waiting for the toilette and no one waiting for urinals.

SUGGESTION: I think that expanding the restrooms and adding 2 toilets per unit will be enough to overturn that bad experience for many people. please also keeps in mind that parents take their children there and sanitation is among the most important commodity for parents.

Adding a family restroom would avoid having parents struggle to clean their children and have to clean them were drunk people tend to go about their business and not care for the next person to deal with their mess.

ADD LIFEGUARDS Life's are invaluable and making a profit should not be the only thing for recreational businesses. Sometimes, as a business, you might be sending the wrong message.

Enforce Age limits or height to get in the water the same way you ask for ages at the parking entrance and charge for. Accidents happen, and if they do, we have no one to seek help from.

EVERYTHING ELSE FROM THIS...

OH MY GOSH!!! THIS WAS MY 1ST VISIT EVER AND I'M TOTALLY IN LOVE💖 WITH THIS PLACE!!! MY 1ST VISIT AND NOW I'M ADDICTED!!!!! If you love the outdoors then this is the place to be!!!!! Although I did not know the first person there it still felt like I was at a HUMONGOUS "MADEA FAMILY REUNION" hanging out with a lot of the MOST down to earth, MOST FRIENDLIEST COUNTRY REDNECK distant cousins that I have never met yet!..LOL.. I absolutely loved the friendly family environment that I felt all around me!! I've been to several places before that there was 100's people there and it felt so crowded and overwhelming!!! But that was not the case here!!! I know there had to be 100's of people there but IT DIDN'T FEEL THAT WAY!!! There was PLENTY of WOODS, TRAILS, CAMPING SITES & RV PARKING along with water and electric, GRILLING AREAS with GRILLS PROVIDED with SHELTERS and PICNIC TABLES , BATHROOMS/SHOWERS,PLAYGROUNDS/VOLLEYBALL , CRYSTAL CLEAR SPRINGS to SWIM, DIVING DOWN IN CAVES, CANOEING, kayaking and MY FAVORITE was RELAXING on an INNER TUBE FLOATING DOWN the RIVER for approximately an Hour and 45 MINUTES !!!!!! I was amazed at all the different types,styles and sizes of ALL the floats out on the river!!! There were alot of floats that were like an island float big enough to hold like 10 people with some ladies laying out in the sun while the men and children were hanging out under the part that had an overhead shade and it also had a built in cooler!!! There was some who were even playing music, blowing air horns,ect..It was like a PARTY ON THE RIVER yet it was still just so RELAXING while floating down the river with such an AMAZING & BEAUTIFUL SCENERY!!!!! The one thing that BLEW MY MIND was how they were able to keep this ENORMOUS place so CLEAN with that MANY PEOPLE!!! You would think with that many people scattered out everywhere on 100's of acres of land that it would be trashed but it was not!!! They have a store to purchase any camping item you may have forgotten and a Deli to grab a bite to eat!!! I REALLY REALLY want to make this a new FAMILY TRADITION and start having all my grown children,their spouses and my grandchildren to start planning on going and camping out for several days during the week of July 4th EVERY YEAR now!!!! I can't say enough good things about this place!!! Its just to bad that I live 3 hrs away because if i didn't, that's where you would have to go and find me...somewhere relaxing and floating down...

The Florida Springs Institute held their annual 'Give Springs A Break' outing and everyone camped for two nights. We had the turkey roost camp ground all to ourselves but it didn't stop drunk people from walking into our areas. I am an active springs advocate and this was my first time here. Devil's Ear was beautiful when I actually got to see it early in the morning and night swimming was magical. During the day I tried to snorkel but couldn't due to all the tubes and obnoxiously large floats. Some even had actual Inflatable pools!! There was no where to swim at all. This place is privately owned and seems like a family friendly atmosphere when you arrive to check in but then when you drive back to the campgrounds it's a 24-hour party! People hollering, drinking, smoking pot, and listening to loud vulgar music. I got up at 2am walk my friend to the restroom and their were still people floating down the Santa Fe River in tubes and floats at 2 am! We also passed some area where a band was playing Marilyn Manson covers and people were thrashing around like it was a 1995 mosh pit. All in all I was so disappointed at the way this place is run and the slack rules. People were way too rowdy. Camping is usually peaceful but here all you heard was whooping and rap music. I would like to visit again in winter via kayak so I can get an actual look at the...