Sally Dark Rides Tour: Tips from Our Homeschool Field Trip

Whether you’re new to homeschooling or a homeschooling veteran, you likely know that going on field trips is a great way to get the kids out of the house for some awesome educational experiences! While visiting a nature trail or an art museum are both obvious field trip options, every once in a while a super unique field trip opportunity comes around…one of our most recent field trip experiences was just that.

For as long as I can remember, my 14 year old son has been enthralled with the world of animatronics. He’s built his own out of household materials like cardboard and invisible tape (SO much invisible tape), he’s watched endless documentaries, and is even considering a career in the entertainment industry because of this interest. When a friend of mine told me about an upcoming homeschool field trip on a Sally Dark Rides tour, I knew we had to join in!

Sally Dark Rides is a Jacksonville, Florida-based company that primarily designs & builds story-driven dark rides & animatronics for theme parks, museums, attractions, and more. You know the animatronics that used to be in the Chuck-E-Cheese locations? Sally Dark Rides has built a number of them. The beloved animatronics that used to be featured in Ocean City, NJ’s Gillian’s Wonderland Pier? Yep, Sally Dark Rides helped with them.

So cool, right?!

In this article, I’ll be sharing our experience with the Sally Dark Rides tour, tips for visiting Sally Dark Rides, what your kids can learn, and more!

Why Tour Sally Dark Rides?

If your kids love indoor rides with glowing scenes and catchy music, they have probably seen the kind of work Sally Dark Rides does. A “dark ride” is an indoor ride where you sit in a vehicle, move through scenes, and watch a story unfold with lights, sound, and special effects.

Do your kids love going to amusement parks? Do they enjoy a good story? Are they artistic? Could they be considering a career in engineering, robotics, sound design…the entertainment industry?

Making the decision to plan a field trip to Sally Dark Rides means getting the opportunity to step into a place where science, technology, and creativity meet in real time. It’s where the magic happens before the public gets to enjoy it!

Our Sally Dark Rides Tour Experience

When my husband and I made the decision to move to Florida, we did so partly because we had a feeling our son would end up in working in the entertainment industry. Whether he actually does or not, time will tell, but at least we know we’ve moved to one of the best places in the United States for such a career.

As far as Sally Dark Rides being in Florida? Well, I really had no idea about that! Despite my son having talked about Sally Dark Rides for literal YEARS before our actual move, not once did he mention the actual location of the warehouse. When I realized they were only 2 hours away, and when I saw the Facebook Event for the scheduled field trip, I knew we had to attend!

You guys! I was SO excited for this experience. My boys were excited, too, but there’s just something special about getting to see your child in their element…in what truly interests them.

The Tour

Our tour was scheduled for 11am on a Thursday morning. Being that we live about 2 hours away, it meant we had to wake up early to leave with some extra “wiggle room” time for traffic. We are not really morning people, so I don’t usually schedule events early in the morning…we obviously made an exception for Sally Dark Rides, though!

After we found the warehouse and pulled into a parking space, we had about 20 minutes to spare until our official tour start time. We were all so excited! My oldest was so nervous – this field trip was a dream coming true for him!

We found the rest of our tour group, exchanged “hellos” and “nice to meet you” greetings with many of the homeschooling kids and parents (remember, we just moved here a few months ago!), and, before long, we were greeted by our tour guide, Robin.

Robin welcomed us into the building, showed us where to go and waited patiently while many of our group made a pit stop at the nearby bathrooms. Y’know…long car ride.

Once the entire group was settled, Robin shared a brief history of the Sally Dark Rides company, a number of its accomplishments, and answered questions before letting the kids each have a turn playing the Scooby Doo Blaster-Style game that was in the room.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elizabeth Dukart (@thathomeschoolfamily)

After everyone had a turn, we got to see “where the magic happens.” We walked through hallways decorated with advertising and photos of projects the Sally Dark Rides team had previously completed even got to view small-scale displays of dark ride projects (including a way cool Ghostbusters dark ride that ended up never being made!). We walked past the offices of some super creative people before going into a room where a variety of molds were made. Super cool!

One of the highlights of the tour was getting to experience the animatronics up close! We listened to a chorus of animatronic birds singing, had a T-Rex roar at us, and got a peek at some of the work stations.

After opening the floor for questions (no one had any?! I was amazed!), our long-awaited tour was over.

After the Tour

Was the Sally Dark Rides tour everything we had hoped it would be and more?

Yes…and no.

We definitely enjoyed the tour, and learned a lot about the company. Don’t get me wrong – we are SO glad we got to go on the tour. After all, my son’s been talking about Sally Dark Rides for years – this visit was a dream come true for him! For some reason, we really thought we’d get to see more about of the actual design process of creating a dark ride. Maybe see a few more animatronics? Or sketches for upcoming rides?

I think we were so excited to be visiting such an awesome company, that we forgot something huge – we were visiting a company! An actual company, with people doing their best to achieve all the things on their daily “to-do” list in an effort to meet big deadlines.

If they were busy with us nosey tour-taking people all day long…well, they wouldn’t have the time to make the awesome attractions we know and love.

That being said, if you find the world of amusement park ride creation & development to be fascinating…or if your child does…you should totally take advantage of the Sally Dark Rides tour. Even if you’re just a “so-so” fan, if a trip to Jacksonville is doable for you and your family, you should still plan a tour.

We got to experience the behind-the-scenes world of a fabulous company and that was pretty darn cool.

Planning Your Sally Dark Rides Homeschool Tour

To get started planning your Sally Dark Rides Homeschool field trip, first go ahead and fill out the Sally Dark Rides tour request form. Once on that page, you’ll see the following information:

• Group Tours offered Tuesday and Thursday hourly from 9am-1pm
  • definitely consider travel time before and after to make sure you’ll arrive in time and will leave in time for any plans afterwards
• Free of Charge
  • so generous!
• Maximum of 30 people per tour
  • this includes visitors ages 7 and above. This could be a great opportunity to plan a trip with your homeschool co-op or with homeschool friends! Just be sure to include ALL visitors in this count – adults & children.
• No tours June – August
  • even though I did not plan our visit to Sally Dark Rides, I have heard that it can take a few months to get a spot. Be sure to plan ahead with plenty of time!

Tips for Your Sally Dark Rides Tour

I like to plan ahead and know as much information as possible. It helps ease any anxieties my kids and I may have, especially when visiting a city like Jacksonville! Here are some tips that may help in planning your visit:

• Parking: There are 4 visitor parking spots available at Sally Dark Rides. There are a number of paid parking garages available within walking distance as well.
• Video & Photos: To protect the projects in progress at Sally Dark Rides, videos and photos are not allowed outside of the initial meeting room. We were allowed to bring our phones with us, but they were not allowed to be in our hands.
• Safety Goggles: We were each provided a pair of plastic safety goggles to be worn in the warehouse. Afterwards, they were returned to be cleaned for future use. My son wears glasses and they fit over his glasses with no problem.
• Stairs: To enter the tour, we first had to walk up a set of stairs – maybe 10 steps?

Have a Great Tour!

Getting the opportunity to visit Sally Dark Rides was a pretty cool experience. They’ve created so many awesome attractions for families to enjoy both near and far – I can only imagine what awesomeness they’ll come out with next!

Go ahead and get planning your Sally Dark Rides tour right now. It’s an experience that brings together fun, STEM, art, and real careers together all in one visit…which is both rare and refreshing when you’re on the search for homeschool field trip opportunities. Fill out the form, send the email, call them directly – talk with your homeschool friends & get a group together to experience a super unique field trip together.

Not only is a visit to Sally Dark Rides super cool (I may have mentioned that a few times, huh?), but it also helps keep learning fresh and shows your kids that their hobbies and interests can grow in to real, meaningful careers in the future. Love!

Until next time, stay safe, and enjoy quality time with your family,