On July 29, 2009, before
our final game of the trip we visited the Lion Country Safari attraction because it was right next to the KOA we were staying at and tickets for it were included with our campground stay. It turned out to be a pretty fun thing to do, although I never would have done it if they tickets had not come with our stay at the KOA. It is not as good as an actual African safari, which both Dad and I have done before, but was a cool thing for Mik who has never been to Africa and only done the much inferior safari at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The main reason it is better than Disney is that it actually feels like it is large enough to be a natural habitat, although the rather frequent fences make it not the same as the animals in the wild of Africa.
We started with the walk-through safari part, which is sort of a little amusement park/zoo. There are a few animals to see area the walk through park, but it more like seeing them in a zoo than the more in the wild feel of the safari. They have a few rides, but we only went on the carousel. Dad and I also played about half the mini golf course before the humidity got to us. Even Mik could have tried a few holes if he had wanted because they had four wheelchair accessible holes. We did not spend much time at the walk through part because of the Florida humidity. There really was not much of interest either unless you actually wanted to feed the animals.
The drive through safari was the highlight of Lion Country Safari. It is not as good as a real African Safari, but it is still fun. They even have a CD that you can pop in to the car radio and listen to as you enter the different habitat areas, so you can learn about the different animals you are seeing as you go. The first time through I forgot to get my zoom lense out of the bag in the back of the car, but I did have my video camera and below is a video I put together of some of the okay to good footage I got on the Lion Country Safari.
Mik did not want to go around a second time and I really wanted to go around with my zoom lense. Since the campground was right there outside the park we dropped Mik off back at the Kabin. Dad and I then drove the safari loop again. It was worth doing again not just to use my zoom lense to get some better photos, but also because some of the animals, especially the monkeys were more active this time around.
Overall the Lion Country Safari was enjoyable, but I honestly never would have done it and still would not do it for the actual cost of admission because the walk through part was not worth it and the $18 per person is not worth it just for the drive through part. I am glad, though, that we did use our tickets that came with our campground reservation, as it was still fun to do.
