NORRISTOWN, Pa. (WLVT) - The gates are back open at Elmwood Park Zoo as Montgomery County goes green.
Angelica DiWilliams and her daughter Lily were first in line on reopening day when the Norristown attraction welcomed a sold-out crowd.
“She loves animals, she loves a zoo,” DiWilliams said. “We're yearly members, so we would come every single day last year and when it closed, we obviously were very sad. She's been asking for weeks when it's going to open. So, once we found out it opened, we got reservations for tickets.”
Tickets are now virtual so visitors, like Greg Smith and his kids Mack and Hattie, must reserve online.
“We're members of the zoo every year and this is the first chance we've had to get out and see all our animal friends,” Smith said.
After being closed since March 14, new safety measures have been put into place to keep everyone safe amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“What we're doing is one direction throughout the whole zoo,” Eric Donovan, Director of Operations said. “So, our guests will be directed through the main gates, and they'll go throughout the entire park in one continuous loop. The idea there is to keep everybody moving in the same direction. So, they're not coming on top of each other, and allowing them to have enough space to get through the zoo. It also helps us in terms of timing so that we can allow to have more guests come in throughout the day, so that as they're moving through the zoo and getting to the exit, we can bring in new guests and have a continuous motion.”
In addition to some of the added safety measures, like wearing a mask, some of the exhibits are still closed to keep people safe. A phased reopening will happen over the course of the next few weeks.
“So, in this initial stage of our zoo opening, there isn't anything open in terms of interactivity, or attractions, rides, things like that playground as well,” Donovan said. “We wanted to make sure that the experience again was linear one way so that people could get through an experience the new version of the zoo that we have, we're going to phase all those different things in as we continue to move forward.”
Despite some areas being closed off, both kids and adults seemed to be breathing a sigh of relief as they venture out of the house and into the zoo.
"Definitely some cabin fever,” said visitor Stephen Linton. “The kids love just being outside, so any opportunity to get outside and do something, is great and it's easy to social distance around here. You know, everybody's nicely spread out.”
Even the animals seemed to be welcoming visitors back.
“We are so excited to finally be reopened,” Donovan said. “We have an amazing staff here that I can't say enough about. They've done a tremendous job of making sure that the animals are protected and also the guests that are coming in are protected. So, we're just excited to welcome people back and we hope to see everybody here soon.”
The Elmwood Park Zoo is now operating on regular hours. The Lehigh Valley Zoo is set to reopen on July 1, 2020.