Forget Disney World! The next time you are in FLA, go see the Weeki Wachee mermaids!

357magster

357magster

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I LOVE this place. So retro, so "old Florida", so very cool ...

The world's first underwater theater, started by navy frogman Newton Perry in 1947 ... and still going strong.

Most folks I mention Weeki Wachee to have never heard of it, so I enjoy spreading the word.

Some photos from a recent visit:

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Drinking a bottle of soda underwater:

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Further proof of Weeki Wachee's "coolness" ... even The King, Elvis himself, went here!

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So check it out if you can. You won't regret it! (How the heck can one regret seeing mermaids?? :D)

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JUST A FEW MILES AWAY.

If by RETRO you mean old, tired, run down & hanging on by a thread for 50 years YES. It is a cool little gem of a place for the area, with history. It has a GREAT spring fed swimming area (with Manatee sometimes) that stays at a very constant temp (cold for us/ warm for Northerners), & a river/nature short boat trip I enjoy more. As much as I don't care for the SKY HIGH price & over commercialization of Disney, (couldn't pay me to go there) WW isn't a pimple on the backside of Disney in terms of the amount of things to see and do. If you've never been absolutely go. For locals that have been there multiple times, if they lowered the price for locals/returnees to say a movie theater price level, I know I would go again & again.
 
Then come to Silver Springs and see where a lot of Tarzan and James Bond scenes were filmed.......Not as fancy, family-oriented and nowhere near as crowded......
Go rent a cabin at Cape San Blas during scalloping season and go catch your own. (You can also buy and shuck a bushel of oysters from Lynn's in Eastpoint)

Point being, there are a LOT of things to do in the "Real Florida" (current state advertising theme), that do not involve Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens. Been in FL going on 17 years and have yet to go to ANY of "The Attractions" (meaning those big places filled with sweaty tourists and loud children)
 
Retro....

nachogrande said:
If by RETRO you mean old, tired, run down & hanging on by a thread for 50 years YES. It is a cool little gem of a place for the area, with history. It has a GREAT spring fed swimming area (with Manatee sometimes) that stays at a very constant temp (cold for us/ warm for Northerners), & a river/nature short boat trip I enjoy more. As much as I don't care for the SKY HIGH price & over commercialization of Disney, (couldn't pay me to go there) WW isn't a pimple on the backside of Disney in terms of the amount of things to see and do. If you've never been absolutely go. For locals that have been there multiple times, if they lowered the price for locals/returnees to say a movie theater price level, I know I would go again & again.
Click to expand...

Marineland was a marvel in its day. We found out it was still in operation some 30 years ago when we were down there, and we decided to have a look. It was very small compared to present day parks. There was a good bit of rust on the steel tanks. But it was enjoyable, if you aren't looking for 'Sea World'. A guy we met there said that he liked it because it reminded him of 'old Florida'. Yeah, I got that feeling, too. I never spent much time in Florida but I remember when real Floridians lived there, and snow birds came to visit instead of staying. Miami was a premier city. Small cinder block houses with flat roofs and jalousie windows. Running races on Daytona beach.
 
Marineland was a marvel in its day. We found out it was still in operation some 30 years ago
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It has been refurbished and is still in operation
 
Yes stay away from the Mouse House ugg lol. I rember a few years back they where talking about doing away with it glad its still there
 
GLAD IT'S STILL THERE TOO.

However it needs help. Small infusions of $ & little facelifts every so often are just a bandaid. Make it a state/federal historical site, Lease it out for weddings/corporate events, Incorporate it as a part of the much rumored "big water park" That is "coming soon" for the last 15 years or so??? For those close by, when were you there last? It's probly been +/- 10 years for me & I haven't heard of any new reason to go. A true shame.
 
My parents and I went there and Gatorland back when I was a kid and we lived outside Orlando. Every time relatives came in town we went again.

Good memories.
 
Went to the race at Sebring when I was a kid with my dad.
He stopped somewhere ?? that had a giant coiled Cobra Snake as
there highway calling card...Think they were milking the snakes there. It was cool......
 
I guess I am glad WW is still there too. I missed it the last time I was in Florida in 1964 and it is not enough to bring me back. Neither is Disney. If I ever did go, I would give Weeky Wachee a look, but not the others.

The only Florida that appeals to me is populated by Travis McGee, Hoke Moseley and the characters from Pete Dexter's The Paperboy.
 
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Nice memories, went there as a kid and again when the wife and I were dating.
Haven't been on that stretch of 19/98 in too long.
Wonder if they still have the injected hot wax mold souvenir machines?
 
Was there when I was a kid in the 60's ;)
Didn't know they still existed?:cool:
 
Never been to Weeki Wachi, but there was a similar place in TX called Aquarena Springs. They had the underwater theater. They had the mermaids. They had a skyride. They had glass bottom boats. They even had Ralph the swimming pig and his famous "swine dive." Aquarena Springs

Sadly, it is no longer there. The land was donated to a university which dismantled most of the buildings and turned it into a research center. They still have the glass bottom boat rides, though. Glass-Bottom Boats : The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment
: Texas State University
 
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When my daughter lived in Spring Hill and I would go down to visit,I stayed at the Best Western directly across from Weeki Wachee,never been to it though.
 
soFlaNative said:
Nice memories, went there as a kid and again when the wife and I were dating.
Haven't been on that stretch of 19/98 in too long.
Wonder if they still have the injected hot wax mold souvenir machines?
Click to expand...

Weeki Wachee still has injected mold souvenir machines ... not sure if hot wax or plastic ... I made this there myself. :D

(Tried to bring a real mermaid home as a souvenir, but the wife wouldn't let me. :( )

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