Sawgrass Recreation Park Everglades Airboat Eco Adventures — Attraction in Weston

We had a tour with Captain Disco. Staff is 5/5. Everyone is super friendly and kind. Our captain gave a lot of background information and was very patient. He explained his tactics and reason for riding the ways he rode. Overall he did a really good job. What's odd is that you can, of course, hear when phrases are repeated over and over again. It's obvious alligators are wildlife. But some things don't add up here:

1. alligators are grouping themselves and have territories. so the first info was we're going to such a territory.
2. when arrived and no alligator in sight for 20min we got the info that recently most of them left their territories. What? Why did we then ride there? Okay, nevermind...
3. we then learned that the gators are afraid of the boats. Makes a ton of sense given they're loud, fast and constantly run over their heads. So the whole point of using those boats to see gators is nonsense. Learned that fact about 30 minutes into the tour and had to laugh hard. Makes sense. Our captain just kind of comedically admitted that.
4. finally a gator showed up. We managed to get it to show up for twenty seconds to get some fresh air since the female small gator (according to our captain) was chilling underneath the grass and we managed to scare it with the boat. Yeah it might have even been breading in the shallow waters. So it went out of oxygen as the heart rate went up. So basically the boats are for spooking the gators out of their natural hiding spots by causing them stress and anxiety. What a bummer.
5. if you want to ride an airboat and have a good time (you can bring beer along the ride) with great staff it's your place to be. If you want to see gators, go to shark valley, Tamiani Trail or to a zoo. This place isn't about respecting the animals. It's about making a profit of them. That becomes even more obvious as you visit the exhibit.

So would I recommend this place? Staff is 5/5. The whole idea of seeing gators from airboats by scaring them in their natural habitat 0/5 The exhibit is cute however the two gators on display have sad background stories and are known for previously aggressive behavior (named Cannibal and Crystal). It's a 2/5 though the guides are really doing their outmost to overcome the obvious non ideal circumstances the animals are being...

Updated review with more detail (now that we are back home and I have replaced my pickpocketed phone :): Fun - 5 stars: my family really enjoyed this. The boat ride was super fun. My kids wanted to skip everything else we had planned and just do boat rides and look for wildlife all day. Boat guide - 5 stars : really, he deserves more than that. He was informative all on his own, but really showed he knows his stuff by answering all of my family's questions, which were many. My husband was NOT a fan of Ft Lauderdale, in general, but said he would fly back just to do the night tour. Seeing wildlife - 5 stars: of course, the tour company has absolutely no control over the animals. What I liked was that alligators were not the only focus. Every animal we saw was noted as well as its characteristics. Also, the guide was able to tell us about their role in the ecosystem. Store personnel were very nice. The bathrooms were clean. Boats and store/location were clean and seemed to be in good repair. All curbs and steps clearly painted with yellow. There were good non- slip mats at every ramp. (Yes that's important! It shows that the owners and operators care about the safety of their visitors as well as complying with laws that govern such establishments. It isn't a 'fly by night' operation, but a place that is truly cared about.)

I had previously mentioned the exhibit smelling badly and the man giving the exhibit tour speaking really fast. While it is true because of the swampy water (thanks for the reply, Sawgrass!), it doesn't affect the joy we had in the tour overall. Honestly, the elephants and giraffes at big city zoos smell bad, too. My kids, even my 16 year old, did love the opportunity to see the baby alligator close up.

We would definitely go again. I have more questions I didn't...

We had the best time! Me and my partner wanted to experience the Everglades and though this would be a great way to kill time before we did something else but it was so much more than that! Captain Andrew was fantastic. He explained that it might be hard to see gators since it was so cold out today but he managed to find two large ones and was very knowledgeable about the gators and the Everglades while also being very funny! Even if we didn’t see anything the boat ride itself was beautiful I’ve never seen a landscape like it! After the boat ride we passed by the photo shack (they took our picture before the boat ride) and had many different options for how we wanted our picture printed and settled on getting a magnet to remember our day by. We then went down to the animal exhibits where Will did a presentation with gators, one of which was 13ft and named cannibal! Will talked for about 30 mins just telling us facts about gators such as their feeding habits, physical traits, and the history of the rescues gators at the park. After the presentation we were able to pet a baby gator with Shane who was also friendly and answered any questions people had. We then made our way over to the food truck and tried gator tail which was so delicious and I’d definitely recommend everyone to try (but if it’s not for you they have a large menu where everything is made to order and fresh!). Once we were done with everything we decided to head back up to the gift shop where we originally got our tickets from and were met with a wide variety of items from kids toys and books to clothes to candles and soap! Everyone in the gift shop was very friendly and helpful. The grounds and restrooms were very clean and stocked up! All in all it was a fantastic trip and I will definitely be making my way back over as soon as I...