Safari Off Road Adventure

Safari Off Road Adventure is a safari attraction currently operating at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. It replaced the former Six Flags Wild Safari drive-through safari park, which closed on September 30, 2012 in order for it to become its own standalone ride experience.

Safari Off Road Adventure
Six Flags Great Adventure
AreaFrontier Adventures
Coordinates40°8′14.34″N 74°25′58.87″W
StatusOperating
Opening dateMay 25, 2013 (2013-05-25)[1]
ReplacedSix Flags Wild Safari
Six Flags Wild Safari
Opening dateJuly 4, 1974 (1974-07-04)
Closing dateSeptember 30, 2012 (2012-09-30)
Replaced bySafari Off Road Adventure
General statistics
Attraction typeSafari
Length23,760 ft (7,240 m)
Site area15,246,000 sq ft (1,416,400 m2)
Vehicle typeFormer Army trucks, remodeled into open air safari vehicles
Vehicles20
Riders per vehicle31
Number of animals1,200 (80 species)[2]

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.

Wild Safari was opened to the public on July 4, 1974, along with its theme park neighbor, Great Adventure.[3]

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.[4] On August 30, 2012, Six Flags announced that they would open the Safari Off Road Adventure in 2013.[1] 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.[1]

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 first Six Flags attraction, 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]

Overview

The former Wild Safari park covered 350 acres (1.4 km2) with the main road being 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long. It contained 11 themed sections, and was a home to 1200 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.[13][14][15][16] The park also added an up-charge zip line attraction.[1]

Since its renovation, Safari Off Road Adventure retains the themed areas from Wild Safari. Additionally, midway through the tour passengers are able to disembark from the vehicles at an area called Camp Aventura. This section of the park contains much of Great Adventure's bird and reptile collection, while also offering guests an opportunity to feed giraffes.

See also

References
  1. "Safari Off Road Adventure". Six Flags. Retrieved August 30, 2012.
  2. "On safari! New wildlife adventures launched". Park World Magazine: 8. May 2013.
  3. Dw. Dunphy (May 5, 2012). "Relive Your Youth At Great Adventure - Bridgewater, NJ Patch". Bridgewater Patch. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
  4. Brown, Jennifer. "Six Flags Wild Safari will stop allowing cars at end of season". The Star-Ledger. NJ.com. Retrieved August 31, 2012.
  5. Perry, Wayne (August 31, 2012). "Hold on tight! Tourists to zipline over wild animals". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on August 31, 2012. 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. 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. Maxine N. Lurie, Michael Siegel, M.D., Marc Mappen (2004). Encyclopedia of New Jersey. ISBN 9780813533254. Retrieved March 23, 2019.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. Kurt Snibbe (June 11, 2016). "A close-up look at Shanghai Disneyland: the newest Disney Park". Orange County Register. Retrieved March 31, 2017.
  15. Kowalczik, Christopher; Kowalczik, Carol (2008). Simply Disney: Vacation Planning Made Easy 2008. Lulu Publishing. p. 107. ISBN 9781435710054. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  16. 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. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
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