My grandmother is 94 and living in Thomasville, Georgia, so we try to go down and see her as much as possible, since we know she doesn't have much time left. Thus, we found ourselves in South Georgia for Thanksgiving, so we thought what a better time to go to Wild Adventures than the day after Thanksgiving to give the kids something fun for the kids to do before we headed back home on Saturday. Wild Adventures is in Valdosta, Ga, about an hour away from Thomasville and about 20 to 30 minutes from the Florida line. When you go to Orlando, you pass right through Valdosta on I-75.
To start off, the weather on Thanksgiving was perfect, it was 77 degrees and cloudy, we thought we were set, surely the cold weather wouldn't touch Valdosta. We were so wrong. We started the day with going to Walmart to buy jackets and coats for 3 of the people in our party. Not only was it cold, it happened to be raining as well, but we decided to make the best of the situation and go anyway, after all, the rain would stop around 2 to 3. Despite the cold and rain, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, despite the picture of the Pikachu complaining.
Wild Adventures is an amusement park, water park, as well as an animal sanctuary. They have giraffes, rhinos, zebras, ostrich's, a bird house, and a petting zoo. For obvious reasons, we didn't get a chance to experience the water park section but have been there in the past and it is great for children, especially with how hot it gets in South Georgia during the summer. For our trip, we concentrated on seeing the animals, walking around seeing the decorations, and freezing on the rides. Once the sun set, the lights came on and lit up the park. It was magical.
Despite the fact that we were leaving to go home on Saturday, we decided we had enough time to go by the park again and do Breakfast with Santa and Mrs. Claus. It was an all you can eat buffet with eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, ham, cereal, and potatoes. They also had coffee and hot chocolate for both adults and kids. Depending on what order you come to the Breakfast event, is the order you go to visit with Santa. They call you up by table to sit and take pictures with Santa. Depending on how many people are in your party is how many pictures you receive from the photographer. This was a much more low key event that was well organized.
During the summer months, they have a concert series where they bring some big names in to perform that's included in the ticket price, awesome bang for your buck. If you are on a road trip to Orlando, take an extra day and stop off at Wild Adventures.
3766 Old Clyattville Road
Valdosta, GA 31601
* My family received admission and Breakfast with Santa tickets free of charge to facilitate the review, however the opinions are my own.
