Looking for a fun way to get out of the house and experience something unique during these tough times of the Coronavirus Pandemic? The Six Flags Great Adventure Wild Safari Drive-Thru is the perfect place to go. You can safely observe 1,200 animals eating, resting, or sometimes even – crossing the road! The exhibit was created in 1974 and now is home to almost 50 different species of animals. The safari on average takes about two hours.
In order to buy tickets, visit the Six Flags Great Adventure Safari website. This website is easily navigated and allows you to purchase and reserve your tickets quickly and effortlessly. Instead of giving a choice to purchase a ticket online or at the park, Six Flags requires patrons to reserve a ticket ahead of time. This helps prevent overcrowding and human contact. Time slots are available any time from 12 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. The general admission ticket costs about $20.
Six Flags takes safety precautions very seriously. The bottom of the website’s home page contains a list of rules that are also printed on signs throughout the safari as well as a list of questions and answers that will provide all the information needed. There were no specific rules regarding COVID-19 since guests remain in their vehicles throughout the entire event.
Upon entering the safari, guests are greeted by many employees stationed at four booths where they will scan the tickets and give drivers a brief description of how to navigate through the safari. Navigation is very simple, with two lanes and places where you can pull over and take pictures.
The website provides an audio that guests can listen to while observing the animals. It’s very easy to use, stopping and starting at certain checkpoints that are clearly visible and marked along the way. Throughout the path, an employee stands at each checkpoint to wave and make sure things are running smoothly. For guests who choose not to use the audio, a guidebook can be found on the website with thorough descriptions of the animals visible along the way.
Guests can watch many different animals from all over the world live in their own habitats in only a five-mile radius. The animals are split into 11 different “lands” based on their domestic areas. This makes it easier to identify the animals and also keeps them around other species and vegetation they’d see in the wild. I saw a variety of different animals such as ostriches crossing the road in front of me and giraffes running to be fed. The animals were given plenty of land to roam free and interact with each other and seemed quite happy and well cared for.
Altogether, I loved the experience and I recommend all to go. Being so close to the animals in their natural habitat was truly amazing. Although, I did find a few things that I disliked. It’s quite a long drive – about 50 minutes for me – which may be hard to do, especially if you have to convince your parents to take you. The next issue I ran into during the experience was that there were too many cars. I would often come to a standstill for multiple minutes at a time. This caused my experience to last about 2 and a half hours which was a little longer than expected. This was likely because I came at a peak time, 12 pm on a Saturday. All in all, I hope that others get to enjoy this special experience.
You can visit the safari on 1 Six Flags Blvd, Jackson Township, NJ.