Safari Park - how to tour?

[starshine514]

So, we were gifted some Safari Park tickets by a fellow DISer (thanks again!) and will be going next week (probably either Monday or Wednesday). We'll have a wheelchair and an ECV in our group of 6 (along with a 6 and 9 year old). It sounds like there are a lot of activities - does anyone have a touring suggestion for us? This will be our first trip to the Safari Park!

Is the African Tram something that stops at various places in the park, or does it just make a round trip? The links to learn more about it on the website appear to be broken (at least, they won't open for me). Are the trams ECV accessible? I'd like to minimize our overall walking (and pushing of the wheelchair), if possible.

We did the SD Zoo a few years ago, without a plan, during Spring Break, with a wheelchair, stroller and ECV with a problematic battery and had a lot of trouble with the ups and down of all the trails. I think we could have enjoyed it a lot more (it's a really neat zoo - I'd like to go again with just me and my girls) if we had understood a better way to tour (like maybe utilizing the trams) with the wheelchair and such.

Thanks!

 

[alex881]

I've only been once but I'll try and give some answers. It is less hilly than the zoo so that'll help. You'll want to do the free "safari" as soon as it starts so you can avoid lines. We did the first one and had no wait.

That Safari is a round trip. It take 20-30 min if I remember correctly. I don't know if it is ecv accessible but I assume it would be.

Other than that, we just walked around and were able to see everything we wanted. We didn't pay for any other safaris though and I think we left around 4:00.

 

[sonnyjane]

The tram is just a roundtrip - no getting on or off. You can take a wheelchair on though. I am not familiar with how the park does things. At the zoo, we have a shuttle, so if someone in a wheelchair or ECV would like to get from one place to another, they can ask an employee to call the shuttle for them and in 10-20 minutes it should arrive. Perhaps the Safari Park has something similar? Ask an employee when there. Other than that, the park is very much like the zoo in that it's a lot of hills and walking. If you don't want to push a wheelchair you might consider renting an ECV.

 

[starshine514]

Thanks for the replies! I think we'll do the Africa Safari tram first and then see how it goes from there. I did find that they have a disabled shuttle to take you to different parts of the park. So, we'll look into that when we arrive (I'll make a special point to do so). My mom will not use an ECV, but my DH does, so we are one of those groups with only 6 people, but two on wheels.

I'm hoping it goes well. I tried to talk my dad into the zoo again, but he absolutely refuses.

 

[starshine514]

So, we ended up at the Safari Park on Friday (Wednesday DD9 had tummy issues and it rained all day Thursday). DH forgot the key to his ECV, so we were super careful about the amount of walking he did. We hunted up the disability shuttle right away and waited 30+ minutes to get a ride to the other side of the park. When we caught the ride, we realized why - they only had one shuttle operator working at that time and he was really nice - stopping here and there and telling us about the animals along the route. The map I had seen online had shown 4 shuttle stops, but there really seemed to be only 2 stops (close to the front of the park and one near the Africa tram). We had no trouble getting on the Africa tram, but did end up walking to the tethered ballon (which DD6 chickened out of at the last minute, even though she'd said she wanted to ride it) and ended up going up a steep area in search of restrooms (which were under construction, so they had port-a-potties out instead). That wasn't the best idea, but we wound up near the elevator and visited the lemurs/lorikeets and petting kraal (my girls love petting animals) area. The lorikeets were especially fun (lemurs were sleeping). We also got to see 2-week-old lion cubs in the nursery area!

We didn't end up seeing everything, but did use the shuttle (which came very quickly this time) to head back over for the cheetah run. The shuttle came so quickly that we did the Africa tram again before watching it. DH made it well through our 'minimum walking' day and my dad left happy as well (he's willing to return!). So, I was pretty satisfied with the experience overall.