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Cypress
Gardens, wow, what a disappointment!
Let me first start by
saying that I had high hopes for this newly
renovated under new management park.
The history for this park is long and the
park itself is beloved by many and cherished in
their memories but I'm sad to say that this
park is being advertised and operated rather
poorly. Our visit was on 4/15/2006 (the day
before Easter 2006).
We started our visit with a very long
walk because the "tram" system is a trailer
being towed by a truck (see picture below):
We figured walking would be much faster
than trying to break down our stroller and
wait for this "tram" to make 4 or 5 trips
being there was already a decent amount
other park goers waiting, no biggie we said,
the walk isn't that far. The walk was
fine, took only about 7 minutes but once we
approached the entry I saw these signs:
 My
first thought was, well, I have water
bottles on top of my stroller but they can't
say
about that
and I have some cans of soda we brought
under the stroller but what sort of theme
park would actually stop someone for
bringing in hydration? I went through the
security check point rather easily and the
elderly gentlemen running security for my lane was
rather polite and greeted me as if I was an
old friend and said have a nice day. I
walked about 5 more steps and was stopped by
an extremely abrasive younger (I'm guessing
in her 40's) blonde woman who explained
promptly you can not take those into the
park pointing to the soda and water bottles.
I asked "so you are going to make me walk
all the way back to my car do unpack them?"
to which she responded "I'm not telling you
anything but that you can not take those
into the park". Nothing leading
into the park said anything about not being
able to take in our own hydration, not the
brochure, not the tickets I bought before
hand, not even the
flyer they give you when you pay your $7
parking fee. I had gone through the line
alone because my wife and kids needed to use
the bathroom before they came in the park so
while I waited there with steam rolling out
of my ears I explained to the rather rude
woman that this was not the last she would
hear from me and that I was there to review
their park and that it wasn't going very
good after only 10 minutes. My wife caught
up with me to which I explained "We are
leaving, I'm not giving these people anymore
more of my money" but she calmly explained
that our kids were already excited, we had
already paid for parking and where already
there, lets just do as they ask, so we did.
We returned to the car, unloaded the soda
but I refused to give up my water bottles
because I believe state law says that they
can not refuse you entry for bringing in
water (I could be wrong but none the less).
So we returned to the check point went
through the same line... I was ready to put
up a fight but the rude woman was gone... I
asked the same person that checked me in
both times where was the rude woman that
stopped me before to which he
responded "who, what lady, I don't know who
you are talking about?". I wanted a name or
a picture of this woman for this article but we could not
find her. Okay, so we are going to continue
our day and move on through ticketing which
all went quickly, smoothly and friendly. The
woman taking tickets even explained that we
should head over now and get our second day
free tickets so we don't forget and we as
guests, appreciated the information and the
warm welcome.
The second day free offer. So as I was
saying... the ticket person suggested that we
get our second day free tickets now so I we
head over to where she directed us and just
as we arrived the lady in the booth
explained "come back in 5 minutes, no 10
minutes... well, I hope 10
 minutes"
and closes the screen on us. Okay, not a big
deal, we'll go and do some other stuff. We
went through the animal section of the park
and caught the "Tricks
of the Trade" animal show. There was
some nice animal exhibits and nice view of
the lake where I was able to grab a picture
of the park's
"ferry boat" which is just like their tram
system (click for a picture to understand).
After the show we returned to get our second
day free tickets which we did receive but
they have a way of making you feel like you
are pulling some sort of scam. We were
required to sign the back of our tickets and
the whole process felt as if we were being
interrogated.
So the day is so far not terribly
exciting and we are getting increasingly
frustrated with the quality of service but
we push forward thinking
that the rest of the park will get better so
with high hopes we continue on to the
"thrill rides" and
park train. We enter the line for the
train and soon realize that what Cypress
Gardens markets as roller coasters are for
the most part rather small. I wouldn't go
into to much detail about the coasters
because they are simply not what you might
think they are from the marketing...
all but one coaster is really nothing more
that Goofy's Barn Storm in
The Magic Kingdom (which is a children's
coaster in Toon Town Fair). The park does
offer several non roller coaster thrill rides
that look exciting but they are all of the
spinning variety you would find at a
carnival like the "Inverter"
and the "Thunderbolt".
I will say that the park is making an effort
to offer some thrill but before I visited
Cypress Gardens, all of the advertising I had seen talked
about these amazing new coasters but come to
find out that they are
just little versions of coasters that
could be thrilling.
 The
park does off some fun stuff for smaller
kids. There are several miniature versions
of their large carnival rides that I must
admit were a lot of fun for my 2 year old
like the "Junior
Rampsters" roller coaster (yes, this
is one
of the coasters they count in their
advertising!) and the
junior version of the "YoYo". I really
enjoyed our time in this section of the
park, my 2 year old had a lot of fun but
then of course, spoiler time! My 7 year old
was really looking forward to riding the
bumper cars for which we waited
in line, in the sun (no awning!) for 15
minutes only to be turned around by the
operator because my daughter missed the height
requirement which to me looked like she met
while kids shorter than her were
boarding the cars. This was a major let down
and really disappointed my daughter and it was even
harder for me to explain why the little girl
behind us (who was shorter) was on the ride
but not us. Just as a side note: The
young lady running the Junior Rampsters ride repeatedly
shouted to her friend standing below the
entrance "go get me some freaking Dippin'
Dots!"... I personally heard her say it 3
times and also watched parents walk away in
anger as I did! This is poor
training and poor quality control, this young
lady should be warned or written up but the
manager should be fired.
 Off
to the water park! We entered the
water park area carefully wondering if they
would stop us and ask for another admission
ticket but
to our chagrin the water park is actually
included in the ticket price! So we begin
to wonder what are the hours but as you can
see from this the picture on the right, no hours are
posted and no, that picture is not edited to
remove the hours. I just had to take a
picture of this because it illustrates how
poorly this place is operated. The water
park itself is pretty fun with a
Lazy River and really awesome
water attraction (for lack of better
terms) that was really fun for the entire
family. There is a wave pool and a few other
water slides in this water park but be
careful on the extras like renting an inner
tube and a locker which are both $4... if you
stand around long enough someone will give
you a tube and I found a locker with a key
already in it.
Now all of this is only my opinion but to
summarize I would say that Cypress Gardens
is not worth the ticket cost, and not worth
your valuable vacation time because:
1) the employees are for the most part,
rude!
2) the "roller coasters" are at best, mildly
thrilling and really more at home in a small
town fair
3) this a B park in a land A attractions
like
Universal Studios,
Sea World and
Disney World
You might enjoy this park if:
1) you have small children and you are
not expecting to much
2) enjoy the history of Cypress Gardens
3) are attending one of the concerts on the
same day
The concert schedule is pretty full with
big names and might just make your trip
Cypress Gardens worth it but for us, our money
and time is better spent else where but if
you are still thinking about going then do
yourself a favor and at least buy your
tickets for
Cypress Gardens at a discount!
Again, maybe we just caught everyone
working here on a bad day or maybe we expect
to much for our money but this place left me
with a desire to never return and to make
sure no one else wastes their hard earn time
and money to be treated so poorly.
My suggestion to the owners
whom also own Wild Adventures in Georgia:
Send in a few family's like mine and have
them make a list of problems and complaints
but most of all, ask them to interact with
the employees and report back which
employees shouldn't be fired! My experience
was that 90% were rude and didn't want to be
bothered but the other 10% were very nice
and probably worked for Disney at some
point! --Michael Suhrbier
(Owner and operator of
ExploreTheMagic.com and
MyDiscountOrlando.com) |
