A blog by Cameron and Shannon

So we’ve come to the #1 Florida Attraction that never should have closed. I’m going to try to make it through this one without crying. Seriously. Here we go.

Theme Parks #1 - Marineland, Marineland, Florida

Opened: 1937-38. Closed: Still open…well sort of.

If within my lifespan we discover time travel is possible, I want to make one trip: Marineland of Florida. If possible, I would make a couple of stops on the way: Marineland 1940, 1960 and 1980, to make the experience complete.

Before there was Sea World, before there were aquariums in every major city, there was Marineland (originally called Marine Studios). Apparently it was “quite fashionable” in the early days, pioneering the field of marine animals in captivity and attracting the likes of Hemmingway, John Dos Passos and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. In the 50’s, they filmed a couple of movies there, including Creature From the Black Lagoon.

And I lived 20 minutes from this place in college, yet never made it inside the park (though I did drive past it).

Of course my ideal trip would be to visit Marineland in any of the aforementioned years (please look at how fun this looks), but I did have reasons for wanting to visit it in present day.

Marineland, while a pioneer in marine animal captivity, definitely did not pioneer the gigantic tanks you see at aquariums of today. Marineland kept their marine animals in tanks that were more like, say, an above ground pool.

This, combined with the almost certainty you’d be in a crowd of 50 or less (in stands that were designed for a couple hundred) and on the ocean were really appealing to me in an odd way. Think about it. Dolphins in an above ground swimming pool. Seriously!

When I was searching for pictures to link to for this entry, I also found this. I’m under the impression people sat on benches in a concrete pavillion and watched electric eel shows in that teeny little aquarium compartment you see at the front. Kinda creepy. Yet awesome.

The whole thing just seemed very deserted and unchanged and it sends simultaneous chills of excitement and horror down my back to think about actually getting to go there when things were still the way they used to be.

I’ll relate a very personal and sad story about why I never went to Marineland, even though it was located practically next door to where I lived for three years. When I was in college, there was a boy I liked who was also my friend. At the time, I did not really know how things like that can go horribly wrong in all sorts of ways, especially this particular one. This boy promised to take me to Marineland. I naively thought it would be a good idea to schedule an ambiguous fake date to a place I actually wanted to go. A lot of waiting and several other fake dates happened, but, sadly, we never went to Marineland. Heartbreak ensued when I discovered Marineland had closed for renovations and would not be reopening until I graduated and moved away.

That’s right, they “renovated.” They renovated the place right into a dolphin enocounter type place instead of the old aquarium. I thought to myself, “You know, that might not be that bad. Actually, this may be even better. Not only would I get to see dolphins in the above ground swimming pools, I would actually get to swim in the above ground pools with them!!!!!!!!

Sorry, no. “Renovate” may imply that they freshened up the paint, repaired some things, maybe put in a larger eel tank… but in reality, they demolished everything and built new tanks. End of story.

Oh, sure, it’s still on the ocean. It’s still called Marineland.

But you won’t be seeing this.

Or this.

It’s all gone.

Which, as I wrote in my xanga several years ago, “goes to show you…you should seize the day and do what you want to do, because you never know when Marineland will up and close on you.”