If someone tells you they don’t like dinosaurs they are lying or they’re wrong. Just saying.
One of the great things about having kids is you can go places and do things you otherwise would look weird doing. Going down slides, swinging, looking too long in toy stores, you get the picture. My kids have grown past that point, but fortunately I am aunt to a few wee ones, whom I can borrow for such shenanigans. The opportunity came up the other day for me to join said wee ones on a trip to Dinosaur World, so of course I took it. Actually, I heard they were going and knew there was an extra seat in the truck so I invited myself. Same same. I think that the point here is that I got to go and I did not have to stow away.
To get to Dinosaur World proper you first have to navigate through the gift shop. It’s here you get your tickets and are tempted by everything from gemstones to t-shirts to dinosaur heads on a stick. I’m not much of a shopper but this store is fun.
Most of Dinosaur World is walking along shaded forest paths and spotting dinosaurs along the way. You are pretty much guaranteed to run into your favorite dino somewhere in park. Mine are pterodactyls, brontosauruses and triceratops, and I saw them all. They allow you to bring your well behaved dogs, who they supply water bowls for randomly throughout the park. Just a random fact.
In addition to all that there are several areas and activities to keep your littles ones occupied if they want a break from walking around. There’s a playground and basically a huge sandbox where they (you) can use brushes to uncover giant dinosaur bones. The kid’s admission comes with a Fossil Dig (unless they are young enough to get in for free). Each kid is given a fine sieve and they can use it to find fossils in the sand. They get to pick their favorite three to take home. There were some pretty cool finds. If you don’t mind paying an extra few dollars they can also do a gem excavation. You’re given a bag of dirt (not too small, either) and you run it through a sieve in a panning sluice to find gems. You keep whatever you’d like from your finds. The kids had a great time with this one. Me too, actually.
If you’re looking for other fun, accidentally educational things to do as a family check out The Florida Aquarium in Tampa!
One more thing I wanted to share – they have a small museum where you can see fossils and learn a bit about what you see. There are even some animatronic dinosaurs that the kids really loved. After they were done being scared for a few minutes anyway. I got to show off to my nephew how very brave I can be. That alone was worth the price of admission.
Here’s what you need to know to play tourist:
5145 Harvey Tew Road
Plant City, FL 33565
(813) 717-9865
https://dinosaurworld.com/florida/