Tarpon Springs, Florida: Spongeorama

Our family visited Spongeorama because we love to see odd and strange things. We were not disappointed! The attraction was definitely "off the beaten path" and we were about the only folks in there. The movie was hilarious because it tried to be serious -- the theme song "need it, need it" was a classic in cheesy filmwork! My favorites were the Greek wood cutouts around the attraction for photos, and the walk-thru museum featuring "Sponge University," where you learned about them! The pungent smell of dead fish was the topper for my family - they left before me as they could not take it and the 85 degree temp inside the theater, whiched was cooled by a fan (no A/C).

We went this weekend and found that Spongeorama is not only still standing, but they actually replaced a few lightbulbs and cleaned a few of the display windows in the Museum of Sponges dioramas. You might not think this is much news, but I live locally and have been going to the place for the past 15 years (every time someone comes in from out of town, we take them to see the film "...Men and the sea...") and I have NEVER seen a lightbulb replaced or an exhibit cleaned before.

Luckily, most of the other dioramas remain untouched, including the piles of sawdust made by the termites eating the mannequins, the clothing rotting off of the dummies, the strange lizard-like growth emanating from the crotch of the suited dead sponger and so forth.

Sadly, I fear this may be torn down soon because they are trying to make Tarpon Springs more "upscale."

We just visited Spongeorama and it seems to be doing all right. The dioramas are in a delightful state of decay (I especially liked the small headless fisherman whose noggin had fallen overboard in one of the displays). I saw no news of the museum's imminent demise and hope they can stave off "progress."

We visited this staple of west coast Florida tourismo last March. My twins were 6 at the time and were very disappointed that SpongeBob Squarepants was not there. However, my husband and I enjoyed the "men and the sea" sponge film which was like being time warped back to science class back in the days of real film projectors. Unfortunately, they use a VCR. Oh well. Also, we were disappointed that the song about sponges ("want it want it, need it need it") as mentioned by the Roadside America crew was not part of the film. The museum tour was disturbing so of course we liked it.

The free movie at the Spongeorama Museum seems to not be working, and you now have the luxury of a "free lecture" which is just a longer version of the usual introduction that used to come before the "movie."

The dioramas have bugs, termites I think and much of the faces and clothing of the mannequins has been eaten away. This makes "the nightmare" look tame in comparison to the little shop of horrors scenes disintegrating before your eyes. The windows are still dingy, but unfortunately not dingy enough to avoid these scenes.