Gators and Friends — Attraction in Louisiana

Our group of 5 reserved zip lines well in advance and paid the required deposit. When we checked in the first of the two ladies working inside had no idea how to split our payment. The second lady overcharged me almost $50 and kept telling me there was nothing else she could do. The manager walked in and started taking care of it but he had no clue there's a discounted price on the zip lines for groups of 5 or more on their website. He was able to get it straightened out and we went on our way. We watched the alligator feeding but couldn't hear hardly anything the guy said. We were able to hold the baby alligator and feed the animals, all before our time to go zip lining. That's when we found out we had 2 more groups for a total of 5 more people going with us. I was really upset that after paying over $300 we had to share this experience with a crying child and other people we didn't know. I feel our group was large enough and we spent plenty of money to go alone. We paid for an experience, not to have to get close and personal to other sweaty and smelly strangers. At our final landing the manager came up and told our guide he was taking too much time getting everyone unhooked and the line for the next person, a matter of seconds. I understand seconds add up and I understand they're there to make money... But, again, I paid a lot of money for this experience for my 2 kids who are both graduating high school and shipping off to the Army next week. I did not pay for the experience of the manager coming on the platform and scolding and embarrassing our guide and making us feel uncomfortable. That should be done in private. Once we were unharnessed and free to go back into the park we went back to the animals because we were sure we hadn't seen, fed, and petted them all... But we had... If you're going just for the animals the ticket price is way too high, in my opinion. If you're going for the zip line be prepared to have an amazing time, but also be aware that you may be spending a small fortune to have to share your experience and be really close to...

This place is HORRIBLE! Last year (April 2012) I took my visiting family to see what it was all about. There's hardly grass anywhere in the animals' cages. The animals necks were missing hair and everything from rubbing against the fences as they eat the food from guests. They all act soooo hungry--like they're almost starving. We didn't see food anywhere except maybe one pen that had a little hay. We hoped it would be different this year bit it was only worse. Then we walk around to where the kangaroos are and one of them was dead!! And they had no freaking idea. I went to get an employee and he just went to it, kicked it, and then came back out to tell us he was going to go get his manager. He comes back saying his manager is gone and we started asking questions. He said they're ONLY fed hay at night and the food from guests. He also said that they have had some fatalities with goats this summer too! We asked if it was because of the heat, but honestly it's probably a combo of the heat, inadequate shelter, and not enough food or water. Or my mom (she works with animals) said it might be some kind of disease? But that employee lied to us aboit his manager because we saw one not even 5 minutes later.I think he was just trying to avoid getting called out so he sent his little employee instead.Anyways, my mom is going to call and report them and make sure someone goes out there to see how bad it is! My little cousins were really upset seeing the dead kangaroo (which, by the way, the employee just moved to the back of the cage, didn't cover it or anything), not to mention my mom and I who are also huge animal lovers. I stopped these ladies who were going to go in and told them what happened and they left in a hurry. Definitely not worth it. Close that place down and give those animals a GOOD home! Attached is a photo of the dead kangaroo..I got proof of it for my mom since she is...

We stopped here while on a road trip. Our family didn’t really enjoy it at all to be honest. During the gator feeding, we were expecting them to be informing us about the gators both in general and the ones there specifically but they just asked if we had questions. I was also really looking forward to the baby gator interaction but they never mentioned it when they finished feeding the big gators so my family took off to the petting zoo part after standing around for a few minutes after they did the feeding. Petting zoo in Texas often means you go in the pin with the animals and get to interact with them directly while feeding or just petting them. Here, you don’t go in the pin, you feed them through a gate that is kind of challenging to feed many of the animals through. The deer and goats have big gaps in the fencing that they can stick their heads through but other animals are harder to get to feed. When we finished in the petting zoo, I still didn’t see anything about the baby gator interaction so I asked as we started to leave and the people at the front desk said they do it after the gator feeding and the next one wouldn’t be for another 45 minutes at the time we asked. So we missed that because we needed to get back on the road. The zip line and go karts would have been cool to do but the website does let you know that those are down right now. I have two stars because I was able to pet a kangaroo and that was cool to me but all in all, my family doesn’t think this place is worth the stop. I hate to leave a bad review, I really do, but I just want to be honest for anyone else looking for something to do while...