Wekiva Island
Today we had a chance to check out nearby Wekiva Island in Longwood for the first time and thought we would share our experience. From the description and reviews online, it sounded a lot like an outdoor theme park. Pay to park, no outside food/drink or beer, pay to rent a canoe/kayak/paddleboard, even pay to launch your OWN canoe/kayak/paddleboard, pay for everything! It turned out not to be as bad as we thought. We were told to arrive early as the parking was extremely limited and there was no outside parking, so if you got there too late, oh well too bad! Since we were meeting our daughter’s volleyball team there for an end of season outing, we thought that would be a huge bummer, so we made sure to get there by 10 am.
The place was beautiful, and ton of wildlife could be seen. Within a few minutes of being there we saw 2 turtles and a little alligator sunning themselves.
Their coach had rented a cabana for all of us which ended up being $250 total (split by 10 families, it wasn’t that bad). It had a ton of seating, picnic benches, its own cooler, and its own grill. Most importantly, it had shade where non-cabanas did not. If you look in the picture above, you can see the spots where everyone starts claiming a chair and none of them had any shade whatsoever.
We decided to rent a stand-up paddleboard since we had such fun with them in New Smyrna Beach, and a canoe that could hold 3, so we could all ride around together. The prices were $30 for an all day canoe rental, and $40 for 4 hours with the SUP. It would have been $60 for the entire day with the SUP and that seemed a bit much. As soon as we got the SUP our oldest took off down the river on it. The water here was much calmer than in NSB, but the river was very crowded with all the canoes, kayaks, and even little boats making their way up and back.
The volleyball team played on the nice sand court they had for a while. Their coach had reserved the court for an hour, though when their time came they approached the guys already playing, who said they were told there were no reservations allowed. So that was a bit confusing. It even said on their website groups could reserve the court… but they were nice and let the girls play for a while before they got too hot and tired and were ready to jump in the cool 72 degree (year round) water.
By this time it had been awhile since we saw our oldest and were starting to worry about her. We jumped in a canoe and paddled down the river searching for her. We found her way down the river and sure enough, she was a bit lost. She thought since it was called “Wekiva Island” that the water just wrapped around and if she kept going, she would end up back where she started. This was not the case. Nonetheless we found her and all paddled back to the cabana.
The non-cabana side of Island was getting pretty crowded by this time. We decided to go check out the bar and were pleasantly surprised to find the amount of craft beer on tap.
We took our obligatory @drunkatdisney selfie and enjoyed the nice cool water on the warm day. They also had corn hole games (which is harder than it looks!) and another area where you can play various games. One thing I noticed is that the non-cabana side was a bit less family-friendly. I felt a bit out of place without my body covered in tattoos and a thong on. My oldest and I played a game of cornhole and heard the F word quite a few times. So I would recommend that if you’re going to bring your family, try to get a cabana. The smaller ones were a bit less than the large one we had. Oh and they were not only dog-friendly, but there were dogs everywhere! I love dogs so I was fine but just something to be aware of if you’re a bit skittish around larger dogs. I think all in all we would go back as it’s a short drive from our house (shorter than going to the beach) and overall it was a pretty fun, relaxing day.
