Great Adventure Safari & Theme Park To Merge [AUDIO]

Don't worry, the animals of Six Flags Great Adventure's Wild Safari don't have to hit the unemployment line anytime soon.

The Jackson-based theme park is announcing that starting next spring, the safari will be included in the regular park admission,

The plan is to merge the 160 acre amusement park with the 350 acre Wild Safari in what Six Flags CEO Jim Reid Anderson calls "expanding the footprint of the park to create one big mega-park, which will be the biggest in the world. "

The announcement came on Thursday when the park's corporate management announced major additions to locations throughout North America.

Great Adventure will be changing the structure of the Wild Safari ride, as well. Instead of going through a predetermined course in your private vehicle the experience will put you in a park operated open air safari vehicle which will go through different terrain to get up close to the animals.

The park previously did VIP tours of the wild safari that were operated by special park staff, and Great Adventure Spokesperson Kristen Siebeneicher says the experience was highly touted by guests, but was considered rather pricey (150 dollars).

"The drive through safari, though it has been popular for thirty eight years, it just doesn't achieve quite the level of satisfaction that our VIP tour did, so what we wanted to do was try to find a way to take that VIP tour and make it an experience that is achievable for all."

Siebeneicher notes the new Wild Safari tour will replicate a very similar experience to the VIP tour but be accessible to everyone.

"Guests will enter the amazing, fictional world of the Wilds Family, who have traveled the globe to bring the most interesting and exotic creatures to their home in Jackson, New Jersey. Once through the rustic loading station filled with artifacts from the Wilds' global journeys, guests will load a rugged, open-air, Safari vehicle to begin their unique adventure," explained the park through an issued release.

"This is going to be a one of a kind VIP style animal experience that will take guests off road in rugged open air safari vehicles."

This will also be the last chance for guests to go through the Wild Safari in their own vehicles because when the park re-opens next spring the safari's entrance will be located inside park and patrons will notice a lot of renovation to reflect the new direction the safari is taking.

"We're going to be redesigning the safari, we're going to be moving a lot of the fences that people see so now you'll have a beautiful open vista. We're going to be building motes to keep in our predators as opposed to fencing."

Anderson says the company doesn't disclose figures on it's construction, he does say "we're creating a whole new experience here so we'll be spending several million dollars to make this happen."

Siebeneicher says even with the addition of the Wild Safari there will be no increase to the price of admission.