Dinosaurs roar, volcano erupts at Cape Coral's new Dinosaur Falls Mini Golf
Don’t look now, but there’s a volcano erupting on Pine Island Road — rumbling and smoking and blasting fireballs into the Cape Coral sky.
It’s hard to miss. And that’s the whole point, says Chris Scuderi, owner of Gator Mike’s Family Fun Park.
The two-story-tall volcano is the fiery centerpiece of the park’s brand-new Dinosaur Falls Mini Golf. The golf course opened Dec. 29 and it’s already a huge hit, Scuderi says.
People played about 250 rounds of golf that first night, Scuderi says. And for the first time since Scuderi bought the former Greenwell's Bat-a-Ball and Family Fun Park three years ago, mini golf was busier than the park’s ever-popular go-karts.
“That’s our No. 1 attraction, but yesterday mini-golf blew it away,” Scuderi said Dec. 30. “We had to stay open later last night. After dark, people poured in.”
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And they kept pouring in Dec. 30, too. Dozens of fun-seekers packed the golf course early that afternoon to play its 19 holes of golf and putt-putt past its roaring animatronic dinosaurs.
Adelynn Van Eerden of Michigan visited the new attraction with her family Friday while vacationing in Southwest Florida. And she gave the place a glowing review.
“I like the dinosaurs and the volcano,” the 9-year-old said after finishing a round of golf. “It looks real and it shoots fire out!”
Tina O’Donnell of Cape Coral loved the place, too. She brought along her dinosaur-obsessed son.
“He just turned 5, and he LOVES dinosaurs,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve been waiting for this place to open.
“His favorite things are mini golf and dinosaurs. So I feel like we’ll be here a lot.”
That’s good news for Scuderi, who predicts Dinosaur Falls could eventually bring as many as 15,000-20,000 people each month.
“I think this will just keep growing,” he says. “We’re gonna trend this up.
“I think in a couple of weeks, we’ll be at 800 or 1,000 on a Saturday. That’s just crazy.”
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Dinosaur Falls is only the latest addition at Gator Mike’s. Scuderi has been steadily renovating and upgrading the place since he bought it in 2019, including zip lines, an aerial park and a rock-climbing wall.
Next up: A Mellow Mushroom restaurant that could break ground by March. Scuderi had hoped to open the pizza restaurant by summer 2023, but he's run into delays. Now he’s looking at December 2023 or later, he says.
The restaurant will take about eight months to build. But Scuderi says he’s still committed to bringing Mellow Mushroom to Cape Coral.
“It’s going to happen,” he says.
He already has site approval from the City of Cape Coral, he says, and building approval is likely a couple of weeks away. He just needs to decide where, exactly, the restaurant will go on his 15-acre property.
“So I have some decisions to make,” he says.
Meanwhile, Dinosaur Falls will keep people busy, he predicts. The approximately $1.5 million attraction is already doing better than Scuderi had hoped.
“It’s exceeded my expectations,” he says. “It’s been fantastic.”
Dinosaurs roaming Gator Mike’s
Dinosaur Falls features nine moving, animatronic dinosaurs spread out across the mini-golf course.
A 16-foot-tall Spinosaurus looms at the entrance, thrashing its long tail and opening and closing an enormous jaw full of pointy teeth. There’s also a T. rex, a Triceratops, a Velociraptor and more — all roaring and moving and glaring at passing golfers.
The dinos were a big hit during opening night, along with that volcano.
“You had to see all the people yesterday with their phones taking photos,” Scuderi says. “Oh my gosh, it was crazy. … I’m just watching people, and they’re taking pictures everywhere.”
Then there’s the two-story-tall volcano, belching fire into the sky as cars drive by on Pine Island Road. It erupts every 20 minutes or so, says Neal Smith of the company Orlando Special Effects, which built the volcano.
The volcano resembles the ones at Rainforest Café restaurant locations in Orlando and Galveston, Texas. Both were designed and built by Orlando Special Effects, which also handles the City of Cape Coral’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display.
Smith says he loves how everything works together to make one cool experience at Dinosaur Falls: Mini golf, dinosaurs and his volcano.
“I like the way this all came together as a whole package,” Smith says. “It really looks nice together.”
Scuderi bought the animatronic dinosaurs from a Chinese company. And the golf course, itself, was made by Pennsylvania company Harris Miniature Golf, which builds miniature golf courses across the world.
Dinosaur Falls is one of the top 5 most intricate mini-golf courses that company has built, Scuderi says. And that’s just the way he wanted it.
He wanted to make something that people can’t see anywhere else.
“I wasn’t interested in just building their base course and hoping people come for mini golf,” Scuderi says. “I did these dinosaurs to bring all the kids. I did the volcano.
“Where do you see that? I don’t know where else.”
The volcano does more than just blast fire into the sky, too. Three waterfalls cascade down its sides. And when it starts erupting, the volcano rumbles, a light show starts, recorded tropical birds squawk and smoke billows from the top of the volcano.
Then, of course, there’s the fire — pillar of orange flame bursting into the sky with a loud whoosh. The fireball can shoot 15 to 25 feet into the air, Scuderi says. That’s up to 50 feet taller than the top of Gator Mike’s zipline tower.
That's why Dinosaur Falls is so much more than just a mini-golf course, Scuderi says. It's an experience.
“We call it a show," he says.
Each round of golf costs $15 (or $13 for military, seniors and first responders). It’s free for ages 3 and younger.
There are also other packages — such as $22 for mini golf and go-karts — and even Groupon deals.
Learn more at gatormikes.com.
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Email him at crunnells@gannett.com or connect on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) and Instagram (@crunnells1). You can also call at 239-335-0368.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Gator Mike's: Dinosaur Falls Mini Golf opens in Cape Coral
