Volume 1, No. 23. December 14, 2001
Holiday Special
One hot
waterpark
Hank the camel whiled away his time in a manger, twinkle-size Christmas lights
criss-crossed the landscape, people skated under the winter sky while others
rollicked on a horse-drawn wagon through woods full of animated, light silhouettes,
and almost everybody imbibed in the hot chocolate or specialty coffees. It's
like many holiday-themed venues you've seen.
But it's not like any waterpark you've seen in December. The Beach in Mason,
Ohio, however, is now in its third year operating "Holiday Fest at The
Beach." This year The Beach's winter transformation not only has matured
as an annual event, it's accomplishing the park's intent of extending its profitable
calendar.
"Our goal is to create a fourth month out of the year," said Pamela Strickfaden,
The Beach's vice president and general manager. Added Todd Nahrup, assistant
general manager of operations, "If we want to have the kind of rides I want
to have in the summer, we need more than three months of operating." With Paramount's
Kings Island across the highway mounting a successful Halloween festival, The
Beach looked beyond the shoulder season all the way to the heart of winter,
an incongruous time frame for a waterpark, to be sure.
Yet, one that makes perfect sense when you consider that most people do not
have waterparks on their mind during the winter, but that is the time The Beach
is pushing its season tickets. "We never had any interest in season passes this
time of year," said Nahrup, despite concerted season-passes-as-gifts campaigns
and partnerships with area malls. "Now we do. People are talking about The Beach,
coming out to The Beach, and once they're here, we can sell them a season pass
for next summer." To further the connection, The Beach sells its season passes
half-price during the Holiday Fest.
The December operation is no mere marketing stunt. What started as a Christmas
scene in the parking lot in 1998 is now a wholesale makeover of a portion of
the park, using a staff of about 30 seasonal workers plus the dozen full-time
staff. The slides and their towers are outlined in lights; a sequence of lights
on The Cliff represent two elves riding a toboggan down the speed slide.
A 5,000-square-foot (1,515-square-meter) ice rink sits atop the wave pool deck,
and a portion of the wave pool itself holds the Festhaus Pavilion, a tent with
food service, karaoke and face painting. The sand volleyball court has a toy-train
display, the tube rental maze has been transformed into the Candy Cane Maze
for kids and the carriage rides, with wagons pulled by Percheron horses, rambles
through the woods on the park's perimeter, passing under slides and over tube
runs. The gift shops sell Beach-brand sweaters and Christmas decorations, the
fishnets strung along the walls holding snowmen and holly instead of swimsuits
and shells.
For a park known in the region for its thrill slides, the only ride-related
thrill at Holiday Fest is when the big horses break into a trot on stretches
of the carriage rides. Nahrup said he plans to design this upcoming summer's
new ride so that it could double as a faux toboggan run next winter; he would
not reveal the ride, however.
Holiday Fest at The Beach has captured the community's fancy to the point that
two sponsors, Bunnell Hill and Henkle Schueler and Associates, are covering
the cost of the gate, allowing free admission to the grounds (The Beach earns
per caps on parking, food, retail and activities). The Beach extensively broadened
the event's scope last year, but extreme cold temperatures depressed attendance.
Undaunted, the park went full-bore again this year, and aided by typical waterpark-like
weather, attendance was up 300 percent over the first two weekends, and 200
percent ahead of projections, Strickfaden said.
"The way we're feeling right now in our fourth year, it's given us the enthusiasm
to push this thing further," she said.