The Cameron Park Zoo and Hawaiian Falls water park, two of Waco’s largest outdoor attractions, will reopen Friday with precautions taken to slow the spread of COVID-19.
For the zoo, closed since March 13, visitors will find not everything is open. Indoor spaces such as the herpetarium, the Brazos River Country aquariums, the gift shop and cafe will be closed, although merchandise and food items will be sold under tents outside the gift shop. Grammy Nell’s Playground, the otter slide and zoo splash pad will be closed, as will the Asian Forest, jaguar and bobcat habitats. Restrooms, however, will be open.
“It’ll be nice to see people enjoying the zoo again,” noted director Chris Vanskike.
At Hawaiian Falls, customers will see social distancing measures at admissions, eating and seating areas; more frequent sanitation of restrooms and shared spaces; and masks for admissions and food service employees.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday included water parks in the latest list of businesses allowed to reopen with COVID-19 precautions, effective Friday. His directive permitted waterparks to reopen at 25% capacity with social distancing and sanitation protocols.
The announced openings come as the McLennan County Public Health District reported five new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases reported to 112, with 15 active cases, 37 currently monitored and no hospitalizations. Four people have died from COVID-19 since mid-March and 93 have recovered.
In neighboring Bell County, new cases reported continue to rise. Public health officials there reported 13 new cases on Tuesday, with a total of 309 cases reported, an increase of 61 cases since May 19.
The McLennan County COVID-19 case update came with a cautionary note from health district officials: “There is person-to-person spread in McLennan County. This means that contracting COVID-19 is possible when you are anywhere in public. Please stay at home and only go out if needed. To stop the spread, we must avoid large groups.”
Officials at both the zoo and the waterpark said the acreage of their sites would allow sufficient spacing to accommodate several hundred at Hawaiian Falls and about 2,000 at the zoo. Both attractions encourage visitors to buy tickets online in advance to avoid standing in line at their ticket windows, but if crowds proved too large, they would shift admission times to regulate traffic flow.
Terri Cox, director of the Cameron Park Zoological and Botanical Society, said some of the zoo’s coronavirus measures were taken to protect certain animals susceptible to the virus as well as humans. The Asian Forest, which features the zoo’s tigers and orangutans, will be off-limits, along with the bobcat and mountain lion exhibits. Protective barriers will be set up at the spider monkeys and meerkats exhibit, while tortoise encounters and public viewing of giraffe feedings would be stopped temporarily.
Those measures were taken “in an abundance of caution,” Cox said. “We are playing this day by day.”
The tiger exhibit might have been closed regardless of COVID-19 measures, she added: A large tree recently fell over the tiger deck and damaged the guardrail.
Hand sanitation stations will be available throughout the zoo and many employees will be masked, particularly those working with the public. Visitors may wear masks, but won’t be required to. Signage also will remind zoo goers of social distancing, hand washing and other recommended behavior.
Hawaiian Falls spokesman David Alvey said waterpark staff are counting the days until Friday’s opening. Normally, Memorial Day weekend kicks off Hawaiian Falls’ summer.
“We’ve been ready for awhile,” he said. “We were ready to open last weekend, but needed to wait on the governor’s approval.”
The park will open with a new family play area, Kona Bay, with a media walk-through with park director Justin Litton scheduled for late Wednesday morning.
In addition to the state guidelines announced Tuesday, the water park has drawn on best practices from other water parks around the world. Many of the changes visitors will see after reopening involve social distancing, masks and gloves worn by front gate and food service workers and more frequent sanitation, Alvey said.
Masks will not be required for any aquatic activity due to safety issues, he said, and the water chemistry in the park’s swimming and floating areas will continue to be checked hourly.
—WACOTRIB