Huge demand for Scenic Safari crashes Toronto Zoo's website
You can add "drive-through zoos" to the long list of things people in Toronto will spend all day waiting in line (or in the case of Scenic Safari, refreshing a browser window) to pay money to see.
Tickets for the Toronto Zoo's highly-anticipated, socially-distanced, brand new safari experience went on sale Friday morning and, as anyone who lived through the Infinity Mirrors fiasco could have predicted, demand outweighed supply.
Big time.
Waiting in the queue to buy @TheTorontoZoo scenic safari tickets because LOOK how cool! pic.twitter.com/X9oG14xUi5
— Amélie Matte Zakaib (@AmmmieM) May 22, 2020
As of Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., 6,403 people are waiting in a virtual queue to buy tickets ranging in price from $32 - $59, depending on how many people are in each car and whether or not they're zoo members.
The fact that I can even see that number is fortunate: there have been points throughout the day where people complained of being unable to load the zoo's website at all.
@torontozoo I’ve been in line for hours to get tickets to the Scenic Safari. The system keeps on kicking me out. So frustrating!
— Kristen Petri (@kristen_petri) May 22, 2020
"We would like to apologize to everyone who has experienced difficulties trying to purchase Scenic Safari tickets today," announced the zoo on Twitter around 3 p.m.
"We are grateful for the overwhelming response to visit the Zoo. As a result, we experienced a high volume of traffic on the site and have been actively working to address the queue issues."
@TheTorontoZoo Bruh - now even Toronto Zoo doesn't know my place in line after 1 hour LMAO pic.twitter.com/KlcgwJrdcR
— HONK! (@honkofsense) May 22, 2020
"The queue volume was an unprecedented instance for our ticketing system and we are hopeful that this issue is now resolved," it continued. "Tickets are still available at this time and we plan to add additional dates and time slots to welcome as many guests to the Zoo as possible."
Available, perhaps, but incredibly difficult to purchase under such high demand.
I've been trying to get tickets to the Toronto Zoo's scenic safari driving tour since 9am this morning. 6.5 hours later and I am now #122 in the queue. I can only imagine what its going to be like to pre-order the PS5 and Xbox Series X. pic.twitter.com/VFuoguTTPQ
— Jon Scarr 🇨🇦🎮 (@4Scarrs_Gaming) May 22, 2020
"Who knew it would literally be harder to get into the Toronto zoo than to book a top tier fast pass for Disney," joked one patron. "Nice."
"Today I spent 4 hours in a queue for tickets to the Toronto Zoo drive thru," wrote another. "Finally got through to pick a day and everything was booked."
The wait to see the lion 🙂. A great initiative by @cityoftoronto. But with that spot in line- probably not before fall! #torontozoo pic.twitter.com/qn3TgHxGNf
— Aniket Bankar, MD, DM (@neuf_sang_23) May 22, 2020
The zoo maintains that tickets for the 45-minute-long experience are still available despite the long wait times, though it looks like some people might not get in to see the animals for quite some time.
Fortunately, tours begin on Saturday, May 23, meaning those who couldn't score tickets can at least start enjoying footage from the Scenic Safari on Instagram soon.
No word yet on whether or not Baby Long Legs will be part of the exhibit.
