(Dade City FL) We had the fortunate opportunity to be invited to media preview day at Snowcat Ridge (Florida's only alpine park), just hours before the officially opened their doors to the public.
Immediately adjacent to their sister parks -- TreeHoppers and the Halloween adventure park Scream-A-Geddon: Florida's Premier Horror Park -- this trip took just about over 90 minutes to reach from downtown Orlando. Driving there with my wife and cutting through some of the winding backroads, it legitimately felt like we were making a trip through a city up north, on our way to our remote destination ski lodge, barring the fact that was in the mid-80's on this 'cool' day in central Florida. We had packed gloves, scarves, and even some puffy jackets in eager anticipation of the winter playground that awaited us.
Upon pulling into the parking lot, you'll see the featured 60-foot high, 400-foot long 'Snowy Slopes', outdoor inner-tube hill, just behind the main facade of the park. Your park admission gets you a 2-hour window of playtime on said hill, so you may want to check ahead of time as to what time the sun will be setting on the day of your visit as your experience will either be in the bright blinding Florida sun, or you'll be sliding down the hill to synchronized lighting effects set to music should your experience fall at nighttime. We didn't get to witness the night display in person, but some previews on social media make the experience similar to roller-skating when they cut the lights at the roller rink and everything seems like a different era / different place from the reality you're actually in.
Immediately adjacent to their sister parks -- TreeHoppers and the Halloween adventure park Scream-A-Geddon: Florida's Premier Horror Park -- this trip took just about over 90 minutes to reach from downtown Orlando. Driving there with my wife and cutting through some of the winding backroads, it legitimately felt like we were making a trip through a city up north, on our way to our remote destination ski lodge, barring the fact that was in the mid-80's on this 'cool' day in central Florida. We had packed gloves, scarves, and even some puffy jackets in eager anticipation of the winter playground that awaited us.
Upon pulling into the parking lot, you'll see the featured 60-foot high, 400-foot long 'Snowy Slopes', outdoor inner-tube hill, just behind the main facade of the park. Your park admission gets you a 2-hour window of playtime on said hill, so you may want to check ahead of time as to what time the sun will be setting on the day of your visit as your experience will either be in the bright blinding Florida sun, or you'll be sliding down the hill to synchronized lighting effects set to music should your experience fall at nighttime. We didn't get to witness the night display in person, but some previews on social media make the experience similar to roller-skating when they cut the lights at the roller rink and everything seems like a different era / different place from the reality you're actually in.
My wife and I descended the hill twice: once in tandem (with our two inner-tubes tied together) and one solo-sledder... if you are prone to motion-sickness like the author here, you will want to find a friend and go tandem. So we were forewarned that the tubes can hit speeds of up to 25 mph, which is slow in your car, but will make your mind immediately start questioning all laws of safety physics when you are flying down a hill on ice in between 2 walls. Oh, and the reason I'm proposing the 'tandem': once you hit one of these walls, you will begin to spin... and this will likely cause your trajectory toward another wall (thereby increasing your spinning), and suddenly there's the other wall... and 400 feet suddenly feels longer than the drive it took you to get to the park. With the tandem ride, it is impossible to spin, and you will only face forward ALL THE WAY DOWN, and I really liked that one alot more! But whatever, some people enjoy spinning. To each, their own!
In order to reach the other major attraction of the park (Arctic Igloo), you will take a stroll through Alpine Village, which has winter apparel, beer, some food vendors, and picnic table seating areas. Everything was closed here for the media visit, but I could imagine this would be a pretty neat area at nighttime (especially if you're fortunate to come on a 'chilly' night and sit by the fire-pit).
Inside of Arctic Igloo, patrons will be inside of the large white dome where they can play on top of snow (yes, real snow), and there's a small kiddie version of inner tubes down a very short 'drop' (but when we sampled this slide, for those few seconds you slide, you do move pretty quick!)
So, now for the million dollar question: is it worth it? The admission, the parking fee, the drive... will you get your money's worth?
Yes.
We've been to many other 'snow' experiences in Orlando: they were either soap bubbles being pumped out of machines, or we were inside of ice rooms which were so cold that our phones and cameras died within seconds of entering.
But, it's been a long time since I've inner-tubed down an icy hill, and that sure in heck's wasn't in Florida. And this experience that we had at Snowcat was literally that: an EXPERIENCE. Tourists visiting from the North will likely not find their way to this attraction, but similarly, most central Floridians wanting to experience snow / sledding probably won't be making any trips outside of Florida anytime soon for the experience. But the time I spent with my wife at Snowcat: dragging our inner-tubes from the pickup area, then riding up the people-mover escalator thing, then peering out over the landscape together once we reached the top... it was a very memorable experience we won't soon forget.
Now, I will caution you that we never did break out the winter gear from our van. No gloves, no scarves. Snowy Slopes will be the temperature of whatever it is outside: the ice on Snowy Slopes did NOTHING to cool down the environment. Now, potentially you might spend time inside of Arctic Igloo (although your admission is capped to 2 hours on Snowy Slopes, you have unlimited time inside Igloo and the Village... you can pay a little more for the unlimited Snowy Slopes option), but realistically, leave the gear in the van and at worst bring a light jacket with you for Arctic Igloo only.
Would my wife and I go back? Yes, with our 2 girls, we would. We will likely never escort our out-of-town friends here, but I would be excited to replicate the family photos against some of the surreal backdrops here. I think we'd also be looking to pair this experience to a day at Treehoppers, and feel better about justifying the drive. But if you're with family and friends, this trip and this park would definitely be worth the visit!!
--Bailey Guinigundo
Inside of Arctic Igloo, patrons will be inside of the large white dome where they can play on top of snow (yes, real snow), and there's a small kiddie version of inner tubes down a very short 'drop' (but when we sampled this slide, for those few seconds you slide, you do move pretty quick!)
So, now for the million dollar question: is it worth it? The admission, the parking fee, the drive... will you get your money's worth?
Yes.
We've been to many other 'snow' experiences in Orlando: they were either soap bubbles being pumped out of machines, or we were inside of ice rooms which were so cold that our phones and cameras died within seconds of entering.
But, it's been a long time since I've inner-tubed down an icy hill, and that sure in heck's wasn't in Florida. And this experience that we had at Snowcat was literally that: an EXPERIENCE. Tourists visiting from the North will likely not find their way to this attraction, but similarly, most central Floridians wanting to experience snow / sledding probably won't be making any trips outside of Florida anytime soon for the experience. But the time I spent with my wife at Snowcat: dragging our inner-tubes from the pickup area, then riding up the people-mover escalator thing, then peering out over the landscape together once we reached the top... it was a very memorable experience we won't soon forget.
Now, I will caution you that we never did break out the winter gear from our van. No gloves, no scarves. Snowy Slopes will be the temperature of whatever it is outside: the ice on Snowy Slopes did NOTHING to cool down the environment. Now, potentially you might spend time inside of Arctic Igloo (although your admission is capped to 2 hours on Snowy Slopes, you have unlimited time inside Igloo and the Village... you can pay a little more for the unlimited Snowy Slopes option), but realistically, leave the gear in the van and at worst bring a light jacket with you for Arctic Igloo only.
Would my wife and I go back? Yes, with our 2 girls, we would. We will likely never escort our out-of-town friends here, but I would be excited to replicate the family photos against some of the surreal backdrops here. I think we'd also be looking to pair this experience to a day at Treehoppers, and feel better about justifying the drive. But if you're with family and friends, this trip and this park would definitely be worth the visit!!
--Bailey Guinigundo
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