LEFT: Safari Off Road Adventure at Six Flags Great Adventure
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ANIMAL ATTR Amusement rides in the wild!
Dolphin Plunge at Aquatica Orlando
Rides at zoos, safari parks and marine parks are nothing new, but traditionally they were offered as separate attractions to the core animal experiences. In recent years, however, a new generation of attractions have opened, featuring animals as an integral part of the ride experience – both at zoos and theme parks. Owen Ralph reports
O
ver the past few years, attractions as varied as a waterslide through a dolphin pool, a rollercoaster past a penguin enclosure, a
Segway encounter with “dinosaurs”, a cable car flight over a lion habitat, plus numerous off-road safari tours, have opened at theme parks, waterparks and zoos from North America to South Korea.
“Zoos are focusing more on entertainment and fun to get the guests through the gate,” observes John Gannon, senior vice-president of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio and a regular speaker at various events hosted by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). ”If rides are done properly, they can increase length of stay and per capita spending. Rides are family experiences and can also enhance the animal viewing experience, which will provide for more profound memories.”
Segway tours at Bristol Zoo, England
Chance’s CP Huntingdon Train at Houston Downtown Aquarium
At Columbus Zoo, a CP Huntingdon train ride by Chance, a 1914 Mangels/Illions carousel and an OD Hopkins boat ride have been part of the zoo offering for at least the last 15 years. In 2007 they were joined by a collection of 13 new and used rides forming Jungle Jack’s Landing, named in honour of the zoo’s director emeritus, Jack Hanna. A year later the zoo opened a waterpark, Zoombezi Bay. “Those 13 rides are not in animal areas,” explains Gannon, “although we added a Stingray touch tank in the middle of the attractions last year [2012]. The train and boat ride do meander through animal exhibits, however. Most zoos that have entered the ride attraction business, are sticking with the zoo mainstays of carousels and trains.”
“Zoos and aquariums are competing for the limited family entertainment dollar and that competition is vast,” observes Larry Breitenstein, sales director for trams and entertainment at Chance Rides. “Facilities are adding these elements as a way to not only entice guests to come but in the hope they will stay for the whole day.”
Night safaris Or, in the case of Singapore Zoo, in the hope that guests return after dark. Singapore Night Safari was the world’s first safari park for nocturnal animals when it opened in 1994. For many visitors, the highlight is the 35-minute tram ride through seven themed
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geographic regions. “Through live commentary on the tram, the park hopes to educate its guests about the importance of wildlife conservation,” notes Lee Meng Tat, CEO of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which operates four animal attractions in the city, including the Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park and the new River Safari, featuring a slow boat ride by Intamin (see page 42).
The Swiss supplier has also delivered tow-boat rides to various German zoos. At Dierenpark Emmen in The Netherlands, a slow boat ride will form an integral part of the zoo’s transformation currently being overseen by Jora Vision, together with some off-road safari vehicles by Severn-Lamb.
Indeed safari tours have become a popular attraction at many theme parks in recent years, as they attempt to provide guests with an animal experience that is also a ride. Providing the blueprint to many such experiences is the 18-minute long Kilimanjaro Safari that takes guests on an off-road tour of Animal Kingdom’s Harambe Wildlife Reserve at Walt Disney World, Florida. Others, such as the fast-paced Rhino Rally at Busch Gardens Tampa (closed until summer 2014), feature the kind of corny but entertaining commentary provided on Disney’s Jungle Cruise. Venues such as the Chessington World of Adventures Resort in England and Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey have also found safari tours to an effective way of combining their amusement park and safari park/zoo areas (see page 44).
Cheetahs, penguins and rollercoasters Busch Gardens operator SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment has considerable pedigree when it comes to integrating animals with amusement rides. At the Tampa park alone there is Cheetah Run, an Intamin launch coaster with real cheetahs close by, Jungala combining a tower ride and zip line experience with Bengal Tigers and Orangutans, plus the Serengeti Railway that travels past various animal exhibits as it makes its circuit of the park. Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin, which opened to much fanfare earlier in 2013 at SeaWorld Orlando, features a motion simulator dark ride experience that acts almost as an expensive pre-show to the real stars the attraction: the penguins. The accompanying one- of-a-kind ride system was provided by Oceaneering. The appeal of those lovable black and white birds has not been lost on Merlin Entertainments either, which integrated penguin enclosures into new rides this season and last at Legoland Billund in Denmark and Sea Life Abenteuer Park in Oberhausen, Germany. At the latter park, an ABC flume ride was chosen as
JANUARY 2014
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