Drusillas Park to Reopen

Drusillas Park, the popular Sussex Zoo, has unveiled when it would resume operations, finally after 97 days of closure.

The management of the popular spot in Alfriston has said it’s a huge sigh of relief after today’s news announced that zoos can reopen.

As a natural consequence of the lockdown measures caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the zoo has been closed without income since March 20.

“We are glad to have seen the green light given to the zoos. But we also want to know when we’ll be able to open our outdoor play areas because this is an essential component of the Drusillas family day out activities,” says Laurence Smith, Managing Director.

“The other significant factor is that we wouldn’t want to rush our relaunching and the training of employees, which we expect to take 4 or 5 days to effectively communicate to all as health and wellbeing is extremely important.”

He added that this was the hardest time he ‘d had in his 22 years working in the zoo.

“We are eagerly awaiting the government’s news and clarity on all of this.”

Reopening Plans

The audience will be able to visit Drusillas Park in Alfriston starting on 26 June.

Deputy managing director Cassie Poland stated, “We now have received the official guidelines, and then we will reopen only the Zoo initially”

“We ‘re very happy to be reopening and finally having a date to welcome tourists back to Drusillas.”

During the first week of official reopening, only the zoo will be available to the public while the rides, play areas, and other attractions remain closed.

Oasis Cafe will serve takeaway meals and drinks, but still, only one store will be opened, with a limit on the number of customers permitted to enter at a certain particular time.

Ms. Poland said, “In the first week, based on recommended guidelines set by the government, unfortunately, we will not operate any of our VIP experiences, including and the Keeper of the Day and also the animal encounters.

“For now, our excursion through the enclosures of Lemurland, Lory Landing, and the sloth and bat tour will also remain closed.”

But she also said, “Following July 4, we expect to have the attractions, the theme parks and most of our other rides open to the public! We ‘re also planning on opening our remaining shops, tours of the enclosures, and resume our VIP experiences.

“Our primary goal is to keep our employees and the public protected and we have worked incredibly hard to guarantee this through comprehensive risk assessments, a ton of preparation, and improved cleaning procedures.”

“We trust that everybody can understand the reason for this gradual reopening and that we’ll all look forward to seeing the complete opening of Drusillas Park.”

“We ‘re very happy to be restarting, and we absolutely can not wait to welcome everybody again. 97 days is just such a long period to be shut, so we’re just looking forward to returning to the new normal.”

New Safety Guidelines

Drusillas Park is beginning to be reopened, but situations are going to be different from before.

The park’s management says that staff has worked so hard for weeks on risk management and assessments including the control measures so that their guests can spend a family day out in a healthy and safe environment.

Several of the important steps that Drusillas has put in place to ensure the safety of the public include: restarting with limited capacity, greatly improved cleaning strategies and skilled personnel at contact points, just one-way zoo pathway, sanitary screens at counters, proper queue management, floor markings to indicate social distancing and encouragement of card payments instead.

Drusillas also encourages guests to buy tickets online before visiting the park. Any person who does not book tickets in advance online will not be guaranteed access.

A complete list of Drusilla’s health and safety programs is also listed on its website: www.drusillas.co.uk/corona-virus-visitor-information