Theme & Amusement Parks in Seminole

Tampa Bay Grand Prix puts you behind the wheel of a true European-style electric OTL Pro-Kart. These easy-to-handle, durable, and reliable karts were designed specifically for rental and can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour—packing enough excitement to make the family sedan feel like a golf cart tethered to a mountain by a chain made out of iron recovered from a shipwreck. The OTL Pro-Kart's unique steel-tube frame provides security from red koopa shells and banana peels, while the track's state-of-the-art barrier ensures extra safety.

During a round of golf in this region, it’s not uncommon for players to see the occasional alligator sunning itself on the banks of a fairway pond. The same, however, cannot be said for miniature-golf courses, unless you’re playing at Congo River Golf, where the civilized sinking of putts coexists with the visceral carnage of live-alligator feedings. More than 25 alligators wait for patrons to feed them morsels of gator food in an exhibit beside the course. Though the course offers no chance for an encounter with the ancient, scaly species, it enchants players with waterfalls, safari-themed artifacts, and towering rock faces. In addition, Congo River Golf encompasses an indoor arcade and a gemstone-mining station, where guests dig through dirt for fossils, arrowheads, and Neanderthal’s kindergarten time capsules.

After 40 years of enchanting families and youngsters at its original location, Treasure Island Fun Center relocated its abundant arcade games and tasty treats to a recently renovated 16,000-square-foot facility in 2007. Kiddie rides and games occupy toddlers, and older kids and adults compete in billiards and air-hockey bouts or zip through virtual tracks in racing games. Rekindle flames with classic arcade fixtures such as pinball, Centipede, and Ms. Pac-Man, or vie for tickets by playing skeeball or haggling virtual-reality scalpers. Once accumulated, those tickets can be traded for one of the arcade’s many prizes such as toys, lava lamps, and digital cameras.

With pizza by the slice, chicken nuggets, and ice cream, the full-service snack bar known as Pegleg’s Pizza refuels guests between games. Through its charity, the Bob and Jean Noell Charitable Foundation, Treasure Island Fun Center also reenergizes the community, having donated more than $125,000 to schools and youth organizations thus far.

It’s not uncommon to stumble upon fake alligators as you make your way around a mini-golf course. But at Smuggler's Cove's locations, live American alligators snap their jaws in exhibits nestled amid the miniature fairways—including a self-contained enclosure at Sarasota for Pearl, one of an estimated 40 albino alligators in the world. With an old-fashioned bamboo pole or a meat-scented golf club, players can dangle a piece of fried meat above 20–50 alligators, which leap from the water to snatch their treat. Between feeding frenzies, games take place across on Smuggler’s Cove’s 18-hole outdoor courses, where balls roll past rushing waterfalls, into caves, over mountainous terrain, and into a hole atop a pirate ship.

Jump!Zone’s indoor playgrounds envelop kids aged 2–12 in an inflatable world filled with challenging obstacle courses, fun slides, and cardio-boosting bounce houses. While navigating the plush courses under the watchful eyes of air-filled dinosaurs and superheroes, kids burn off extra energy and participate in activities that may help develop motor skills. Jump!Zone’s energetic staff supervises all play as kids climb on pirate ships and trampoline inside princess castles. Specific inflatables may vary by location but often include towering bounce houses shaped like fire trucks or octopi as well as party rooms, games, pizza, soda, and other festive fare. The bouncy center also hosts birthday parties, fundraisers, and special events.

Children press their faces against the glass of a trio of two-story cylindrical tanks to catch a glimpse of fish, crabs, and other sea life from faraway oceans. Native tidal-zone fish swim inside the first tank; in the second, fish from Africa mingle with those from South America; and in the third, tropical fish from throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans create a colorful tapestry. At the waterfront Pier Aquarium, these three tanks stand among 14 aquariums, an interactive exhibit with ocean sounds broadcast by hydrophone from underneath the pier, and wall murals that showcase aquatic life from each of the world’s oceans. Visitors explore fish and plant life using lighted microscopes, magnified viewing boxes, and plastic replicas of sea stars and horseshoe crabs—and they can touch and hold biofacts such as shells and spines.

Educational staffers divulge facts and embarrassing secrets about creatures living in four main tanks on the second floor. They show visitors how to handle crabs, sea urchins, and flounder at the Tampa Bay touch tank, and point out exotic clownfish, anemones, lionfish, and eels in the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Coral, and Pacific Ocean tanks. They also help visitors identify spineless animals in the Invertebrates aquarium or enlist their help in feeding and caring for sharks and lobsters, just as car mechanics enlist the help of customers when feeding air fresheners to their cars.

Visitors further explore facts about marine life in the museum shop, where staffers display shelves of aquatic toys, puzzles, games, books, and apparel. They can also stroll down the pier, where a Water Walk display offers information about local Tampa Bay waters, and down to the beach, where researchers and marine scientists show visitors how to study aquatic denizens in a hands-on outdoor marine lab.