"Like a river been robbed of it's bend A braid you just don't want end": Gilroy Gardens Trip Review! 🧄🎠✨🎢🌳🌲🎡

 

Again, because Blogger does NOT SUPPORT EMBEDS, you can always look at more photos on my Flickr! I also made a goofy-ass TikTok video (WHICH, AGAIN, BLOGGER DOES NOT SUPPORT THE EMBEDS FOR).

On Saturday, a few friends and I went to Gilroy Gardens for the first time! Verdict=it was super fun! We are definitely going to go again! :)

I had sprained my back on Tuesday, but I was still determined to go. 1. because there were no refunds or exchanges, and 2. because the person whose credit card it was had to be the person to present the tickets (or something to that effect). I didn't over-exert myself, and there was plenty to do that was relaxing and gentle.

It was nice to see my friends and also to meet my friend's girl friend, who is absolutely lovely! We are planning more day-ventures in the future.

Here are some photos:

This was one of the rides I wanted to go on so badly. We lied to some kids  and said that this was Splash Mountain (and that the reason why the boats kept coming and we never saw anyone leave was because they fell out. We also go in trouble for getting out of the boat before we should have. Oops!

This monorail was too rickety for my tastes, but the views were breath-taking.

Let me just make myself perfectly clear-- I am an absolute sucker for a good  fake waterfall or fake body of water. The views at Gilroy Gardens were so breathtaking.

Getting to walk under the waterfall was definitely a highlight for me. The waterfalls and fake rivers and ponds were so soothing and really fulfilled a lot of emotional needs (hahaha).

One of the other highlights for me was the duck boats. I realized that I have never actually done duck boats other than the ones we rode on on Saturday. It was a bit more work than I anticipated (if I can be honest), but it was an awful lot of fun.

Chris and Vanesa got stuck in a duck traffic jam, hahahaha

Some other misc. closing thoughts:

• None of us had ever been to Gilroy Gardens before, and none of us could figure out why. It's very remote, which could be part of it. The other aspect of it is that we were all under the impression that the previous owners gave it some Evangelical religious undertones, but we can't find any evidence of that. Which is weird because we ALL believe this to be true, and was used as a reason not to take us! Weird!!
• It wasn't too hot and it was hardly crowded at all. The longest we waited for anything was about 15-ish minutes for the duck boats. Most attractions were walk on. We did see signs for a Fast Pass-type option, which was hilarious to us, honestly.
• The gardens were absolutely gorgeous.
• It wasn't that cheap, but it wasn't too expensive, either. It's about the same price as Great America, with much less to do.
• Most of the rides were longer than expected and had a little bit more of an edge to them than I had anticipated. The experiences were way longer than a lot of the ones at Disneyland. I actually got motion sick (which never happens, lol).
• It was nice to go to a park that wasn't hellbent on shoving existing IPs down your throat. 👀😌😶 At the same time, it was nice to be reminded of WHY Disney is so special.