I try not to be overly promotional of the ventures I am associated with when posting on OKC Talk, but wanted to share the news about a new operation our company took on recently. Not sure if this is better suited for Arts & Entertainment or for Transportation, but we just opened a boat ride at the Oklahoma City Zoo branded as Safari Voyage.

These are pretty cool, custom built/designed 50 passenger vessels that are fully electric and ultimately will serve docks between Lakeside/Aquaticus and the new Elephant Pavilion. This will turn a roughly 25 minute walk into a leisurely 12-15 minute ride.

The tour is (hopefully) entertaining and informative, and includes quite a bit of information on the history of the zoo itself.

Anyway, hope some OKC Talk folks come visit us, enjoy a ride (or two, or three - it's an all-day pass). Please feel free to leave comments or feedback in this thread, or to PM me with questions or feedback you would like to give offline.

Here's a link (http://www.okczoo.com/news/m.blog/56/new-safari-voyage-cruising-on-okc-zoo-lake) to a media release the zoo put out today, and here's a link (http://www.facebook.com/okczoobg) to the Zoo's Facebook profile, which includes a nice large photo of one of the boats.

Awesome. I love how our zoo keeps getting better every year. Well done.

Thanks for the heads up. The grandbabies will be in before long. I'm thinking they might get a real kick out of this.

Neat, thanks.

One of the boats just got a new wrap this week:

https://p.twimg.com/AtDyWvQCAAElPq0.jpg

Hopefully it'll be like the Safari at Disney World that is actually kind of scary. You just sit in a truck and they drive you around pretty close to Crocodiles, African buffalo, Giraffe's, and a lot of other exotic animals. The scary part is how bumpy the ride is I seriously thought I was gonna fall out on one bump.

By the way, a great way to check out the zoo is on Way Back Wednesdays. Every Wednesday in July and August zoo admission is only one dollar. Most of the rides are heavily discounted on those days, including Safari Voyage which is only a one dollar one-way trip on those days. We've had well over a thousand riders the past two Wednesdays, and it has been a lot of fun to carry so many.

The OKC Zoo is really a gem! Great exciting things are happening and will continue under its forward leadership. It puts our Dallas zoo to shame. Even Fort Worth has a far superior zoo than Dallas. If I remember correctly, the OKC is in the top 10 zoological parks in the country?

The OKC Zoo has actually ranked in the top three zoos in the U.S. in recent years. This year, it was ranked the number three zoo in America at 10best.com (http://www.10best.com/TravelAwards/Vote/best-zoos/), and a couple of years ago Child magazine rated it the number three zoo in America for children and families. It's all of course entirely subjective, but the fact that it is in the same conversation as parks like Columbus, Cincinnati, San Diego and others makes it pretty clear that the OKC zoo is easily one of the best in the country.