Six Flags Wild Safari Drive-Thru Adventure

Six Flags Wild Safari Drive-Thru Adventure, formerly known as the Six Flags Wild Safari, is a drive-through safari park adjacent to Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. The park originally opened on July 4, 1974 and closed on September 30, 2012, to become its own standalone ride experience called the Safari Off Road Adventure.

Six Flags Wild Safari Drive-Thru Adventure
40°8′5″N 74°25′40″W
Date openedJuly 4, 1974 (1974-07-04)
LocationJackson Township, New Jersey, USA
Land area350 acres (1.4 km2)
No. of animals1,200
WebsiteOfficial website

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the attraction has returned to being a drive-through experience for private vehicles, with tickets that can be bought separately from the main park.

History
An African bush elephant on safari in May 2014.

When Warner LeRoy was proposing the Great Adventure park, his original proposal was to include a drive-thru safari. The planned drive-thru was to have 10 miles of road and feature tigers, cheetahs, pumas, brown bears, black bears, polar bears, giraffes, zebras, antelope, baboons, elephants, rhinos, camels, ostriches, kudu, hartebeest, wildebeest, deer, kangaroo, wild goat, flamingoes, vultures, hornbills, buffalo, moose, elk and other animals. Though it was never realized, some of the park's animals from the proposal appeared in the park in a slightly different form.[1]

Six Flags Wild Safari was opened to the public on July 4, 1974, along with its theme park neighbor, Great Adventure.[2]

On August 20, 2012, Six Flags announced that the park would be closed to private vehicles from September 30, 2012, and that the animals would remain in the preserve.[3] On August 30, 2012, Six Flags announced that they would open the Safari Off Road Adventure in 2013.[4] Following Wild Safari's closure on September 30, 2012, construction began to renovate it to become the Safari Off Road Adventure.[5] Safari Off Road Adventure opened May 25, 2013. The attraction uses open air safari vehicles that were remodeled from former Army trucks. [4]

In March 2020, Six Flags suspended all operations across all their properties due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[6] During the continuation of the pandemic in May, Six Flags Great Adventure announced that they plan on reopening the Safari Off Road Adventure while keeping the rest of the park closed.[7] This comes after the Governor of New Jersey signed an executive order to allow drive-thru venues to resume operations on May 13.[8] Safari Off Road Adventure reopened on May 30, with the attraction going back to its historic routes and becoming once again a drive-through safari.[9] A month later, Six Flags Great Adventure announced their new opening date for the season on July 3, 2020.[10][11] Plans were in place for Safari Off Road Adventure to return with the theme park operations, but park officials stated that the safari will continue its own operations, due to the popularity and the ability for guest to continue social distancing while in their own vehicles.[12]

As of the 2022 season, the Safari-Off-Road Adventure was repurposed into the Giraffe Encounter Tour, an up-charge VIP experience which retains the ride station, vehicles, and queue.[13][14]

Overview

The Wild Safari Drive-Thru Adventure Park covers 350 acres (1.4 km2) with the main road being 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long. It contains 11 themed sections and is a home to 1,200 animals from six different continents. When the safari attraction was joined with Great Adventure to form one park in 2013, it made Six Flags Great Adventure the second-largest theme park in the world at 475 acres (1.92 km2), after Disney's Animal Kingdom.[15][16][17][18]

In the Giraffe Encounter Tour, passengers are able to disembark from the vehicles at Camp Aventura, a section of the park that contains much of Great Adventure's bird and reptile collection, while also offering guests an opportunity to feed giraffes.

Animals

The Americas

Afrikka

Wilde Plains

Serengeti Grasslands

Kingsland

Black Bear Ridge

Wilde Plains Lowlands

Terra Ursus

Conservation Area

Didgeridoo Pass

Tigris Asiana

Baboon Village

See also

References
  1. "Great Adventure Safari Original Concept Proposal & Artwork". greatadventurehistory.com.
  2. Dw. Dunphy (May 5, 2012). "Relive Your Youth At Great Adventure - Bridgewater, NJ Patch". Bridgewater Patch. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
  3. Brown, Jennifer (August 21, 2012). "Six Flags Wild Safari will stop allowing cars at end of season". The Star-Ledger. NJ.com. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
  4. "Safari Off Road Adventure". Six Flags. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
  5. Perry, Wayne (August 31, 2012). "Hold on tight! Tourists to zipline over wild animals". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
  6. "Coronavirus delays Six Flags Great Adventure 2020 opening. What if you have season passes, tickets?". March 30, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  7. "Six Flags Great Adventure in NJ reopening drive-thru safari". May 15, 2020. Archived from the original on May 20, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  8. "Six Flags Great Adventure to reopen drive-thru safari in NJ". May 15, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  9. "Six Flags Great Adventure Safari to reopen May 30". May 20, 2020. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
  10. Goldman, Jeff (June 24, 2020). "Six Flags Great Adventure announces reopening plan for July 4th weekend". NJ.com. NJ Advanced Media. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  11. Diamond, Michael L.; Davis, Mike (June 24, 2020). "Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson to open July 3 with masks and half-filled rides". New Jersey Herald. Retrieved June 26, 2020.
  12. Wall, Karen (July 1, 2020). "Six Flags Great Adventure Set To Reopen, With Changes, Limits". Retrieved June 24, 2020.
  13. Knudson, Annalise (March 2, 2022). "Here's what to expect at Six Flags in 2022: Return of Medusa coaster, new giraffe encounter and more". Patch. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  14. "Giraffe Encounter Tour". www.sixflags.com. Retrieved August 13, 2023.
  15. Maxine N. Lurie, Michael Siegel, M.D., Marc Mappen (2004). Encyclopedia of New Jersey. ISBN 9780813533254. Retrieved March 23, 2019.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. Kurt Snibbe (June 11, 2016). "A close-up look at Shanghai Disneyland: the newest Disney Park". Orange County Register. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  17. Kowalczik, Christopher; Kowalczik, Carol (2008). Simply Disney: Vacation Planning Made Easy 2008. Lulu Publishing. p. 107. ISBN 9781435710054. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  18. Stilton, Phil (October 1, 2012). "An End of an Era: A Final Look at the Six Flags Wild Safari as a Self Driven Attraction". Tom River News. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
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