Volume 3, No. 4. February 28, 2003
Ensuring
insurance
A
surefire way to get mild-mannered park operators cursing is to utter one word:
“insurance.” An article in the upcoming March issue of Amusement
Today delves into the current state of the insurance industry, which has
plagued many small park operators with the fact of rising rates and the specter
of shrinking suppliers.
Ironically, the smallest of amusement operators are relatively incubated from
such woes, thanks in part to the group insurance program run by the International
Association for the Leisure and Entertainment Industry (IALEI). Of IALEI’s
510 facility operator members, 337 participate in the program, which provides
liability, property and umbrella coverage through broker Sterling & Sterling,
Inc.
“I don’t think there’s any insurance group out there that hasn’t
been affected by the sweeping changes across the insurance marketplace,”
said Ed Pearson, general manager of Castle Park in Riverside, California, who
serves as IALEI treasurer and co-chair of the Insurance Committee. “Have
we fared better than most? I think we have in that prior to the (rate) increases
we were sitting in pretty good shape for the way our rates were being assessed.”
The program has seen a rate increase in the 35 percent range, said Ray Sjolander,
IALEI director of finance, which is considerably lower than the 50 percent increases
reported elsewhere. Furthermore, because IALEI’s is a group insurance program,
member operators are seeing lower premiums compared to what they would see if
they bought insurance as individual operators.
The biggest boon for those members, however, is that they have access to insurance,
period. The number of members purchasing IALEI’s insurance has grown 56
percent the past two years. “We attribute that not only to the merits of
the program but the state of the industry and operators not being able to find
coverage on their own,” Pearson said.
IALEI launched its insurance program in 1997. It has now matured to the point
that Sterling & Sterling have enough representative actuarial data to try
to keep its coverage terms and prices competitive. “It appears to me the
program is very successful,” said Wayne Pierce, an adventure industry lawyer
in Baltimore, Maryland, and co-chair of the IALEI Insurance Committee. “The
ultimate proof is that there is a viable carrier to play ball. A lot of folks
can’t get insurance, and those that do have bone-jarring rate increases.”
When IALEI, formerly the International Association of Family Entertainment Centers,
formed, one of the organization’s major emphasis was to create group-buying
programs for its members. “We thought the insurance program was the logical
way to go,” Pearson said. Other associations have tried similar programs,
and the World Waterpark Association originally formed explicitly for the purpose
of group insurance. Last year, the Australian Amusement Leisure and Recreation
Association formed a group insurance program predicated on its members earning
a certification through prescribed training (THE
LOOP, June 14, 2002).
Except for AALARA’s fledgling program and IALEI’s mature one, the
rest have faltered. One reason IALEI’s has lasted is its standards for
participation. “A couple of elements we as the administrator wanted to
shy away from because of experience ratings,” Pearson said. “The two
major ones were hard ride parks and water attractions.” The former is defined
as any park with a roller coaster (other than kiddie coasters), the latter refers
to water slides and pools. These standards negate IALEI’s chief benefit
to a segment of the industry the association is trying to recruit, namely amusement
parks with annual attendance of up to 400,000. Many of those have coasters.
But many also are studying IALEI’s potential and, in particular, its insurance
program, Sjolander said. “The roller coaster will prevent them from participating
in the insurance program,” he said. “At least for now.”
Illusive
goals
An aspiration to
support wildlife conservation efforts—something that came about totally
by happenstance—is becoming an integral part of the entertainment offerings
of Wonderland Sydney in Australia. Last Saturday the park incorporated a tiger
into its award-winning illusion show, and by the end of the year Wonderland
officials hope to begin displaying non-native animals in its Wildlife park.
The roots of this effort go back 12 years when Wonderland Sydney, then six years
old, opened its Australian Wildlife Park, an 11-hectare (27 acre) area with
some 700 native animals. Then, at the end of 2001, the Sydney area suffered
a series of brush fires, keeping people in their homes during the Christmas
season, a time when Wonderland should have been enjoying its heftiest gates.
“Because we had no one in the park we sat down as a company and thought,
‘What can we do to help?’” said Renee Ferenc, the park’s
publicity officer. Because the property was surrounded by the fires, Wonderland
offered itself as a rescue center for wildlife caught up in the flames, and
the park became a triage center for veterinarians treating burned animals. That
effort instigated “huge media attention,” Ferenc said and a resulting
flood of donations. “We had people throwing money at us for the animal
rescues, and we didn’t have a foundation set up to accept their money.”
The park therefore formed the Wonderland Conservation Foundation last May. For
its first campaign the foundation raised $20,000 (US$12,000) for one of the
country’s own endangered animals, the cassowary, a large, flightless bird
that’s universally regarded as the ugliest fowl on earth.
The new campaign is looking outside the continent by raising funds for tiger
conservation efforts, and for that effort the drive has two key allies. One,
Jonathan Minor, Director of Life Science and the Australian Wildlife Park, is
an American who has established a reputation for bringing exotic animals to
Australian theme parks, including Tiger Island at Dreamworld in Gold Coast.
He joined Wonderland four years ago and started working on plans to introduce
non native animals to the park.
The other ally—rather allies—are Tony and Juleen, who perform the
park’s “Spellbinding Sorcery Illusion Show” and last fall were
named the International Illusionists of The Year (THE
LOOP, November 8, 2002). The two are great admirers of Siegfried and Roy
and had always wanted to include a tiger in their own act. With the expertise
of Minor on hand they have done just that. The new act—in which Juleen
enters a cage and transforms into the tiger—was introduced to the public
February 22, and with it the fund-raising campaign encouraging guests to drop
$1 coins in specially designated boxes.
The act has proved popular in the first week, as has the campaign, Ferenc said.
Juleen especially enjoys the act because in another part of the show she turns
into a snake, and she clearly prefers being a tiger (she was never transformed
into a cassowary, proving that even illusionists can’t make the truly impossible
possible).
Meanwhile, Minor hopes to begin transforming the Wildlife Park’s collection
by the end of the year, Ferenc said. “Now the direction of the Wildlife
Park is to extend it into an exotic display with animals all over the world
that we’re trying to save or promote through conservation,” she said.
“That’s the vision.”
Trash talk
Whenever Jane Hartline,
the marketing manager of the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon, visits zoo or county
government offices, she strikes fear in the hearts of the office occupants.
“They go, ‘Ohmygosh! Jane’s here, we’ve got to get paper
off the table,'” Hartline said.
Hartline is a member of the Green Team, comprising staff members charged with
developing environmentally friendly initiatives at the zoo. One of their most
ambitious campaigns is to create an entirely paperless operation, an initiative
that Hartline has expanded to the zoo’s governing authority, the tri-county
Metro Regional Government.
“We think the animals need the trees more than we do. That’s basically
where it comes from” Hartline said. “We think because we think that
and we’re in a position to influence a lot of people, we have to set an
example.”
Boy, what an example. The Oregon Zoo is not merely looking at improving recycling
programs and reusing scrap paper; it is looking at ridding itself of as much
as 90 percent of all paper used in its bureaucracy. “We’ve done a
matrix of what it would take to be paperless,” Hartline said. For instance,
“We spend a lot of paper, all of us do, on forms. So, how do you turn those
into paperless processes?” Many forms now move from department to department
electronically, RFPs and contracts are being converted to e-mail forms using
electronic signatures (and then being stored digitally), and even the entire
payroll system, from time sheets to pay stubs, is converting to digital.
Meetings are now paperless, as the zoo installed wireless connections in the
conference rooms so people can use projectors and their laptop computers to
share documents. Newsletters and staff notices are posted on an internal web
site, as is the employee manual, safety procedures, internal phone directory
and other personnel matter. File cabinet contents are being transferred to CD-ROM's.
Printed resources, such as the Yellow Pages, are being replaced by on-line sources.
Suppliers must agree to contracts calling for reduced packing material, and
staff members are prompted to make their work stations paperless.
“We want to pick off the low-hanging fruit first,” she said, noting
that the first step was training staff to think of alternatives to paper and
getting them to change habits. “For god’s sake, people, stop printing
your e-mail. If it’s generated on a computer, it should stay on a computer.
Sometimes you take notes and want to think on paper, so we got some plastic
clipboards and you take your stock of scrap paper and put it face down on that
clipboard. There’s no reason to use legal pads anymore.”
Going paperless would, in the long run, save money, too, Hartline said, pointing
to the Metro generating about 30,000 pieces of paper a month and spending about
$82,000 a year to do so. The initiative also should improve efficiency, she
said, as long as the data is properly organized. “You can’t have a
million icons all over your desktop,” she said, but she likewise noted
that the traditional file cabinet has always been at the mercy of the filer’s
peculiar sense of organization. Similarly, arguments that electronic files are
more prone to being lost than paper files falter in the face of floods and fire;
besides, electronic files are easier to back up and store off-site (a web site
is, effectively, off site) than are paper files.
Hartline said all organizations have a few “Luddites” who resist such
transitions, but for the most part the staff at Oregon Zoo and the local governing
agency are embracing the paperless ideal. “It’s kind of like in the
old days, you could put a piece of paper in the trash can and you didn’t
feel guilty,” she said. “Today you feel like a schmuck if you don’t
recycle. So how do you get to feel that way about printing your e-mails? We
used to pride ourselves on how many tons of stuff we recycled. That’s not
a good statistic anymore.”
Snow jobs
Even
in the off-season, parks are worrying about the weather.
That’s because this off-season in the United States, the weather has been
extraordinarily snowy, icy and cold. As winter storm after winter storm roars
across the continent at a pace of twice a week, many schools that have had to
close for “snow days” are looking to extend their classroom calendars
into the summer months to make up the time.
That has amusement parks in the Midwest and Mid-South considering contingency
plans for staffing their operations. “If they extend a week, it will affect
us marginally,” said Vic Nolting, President of Coney Island in Cincinnati,
Ohio. “If it gives way into June, that will be difficult for us.”
For his park, which employs about 1,000 for the season, the problem is the number
of school districts and their prevailing indecision. Coney Island hires from
10 school districts and four colleges, and each district decides individually
how it intends to make up its snow days. Options range from adding minutes to
school days, filling in teacher work days, using part of spring break or adding
days onto the end of the year.
“If a third do nothing, and a third extend one week, and a third extend
two weeks, we’ll be fine,” Nolting said. If all extend one to two
weeks, he figures half of his employees would be impacted. For now, though,
Nolting cannot even gauge any scenarios because the school districts are still
debating their courses of action. Parents are even pushing for decisions, preferring
options that will not extend the school year, Nolting said.
School districts typically build snow days into their academic calendars. However,
schools in Kentucky, for instance, used up those excess days before the end
of January, and some of that state’s districts are 12 days in the hole.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in Charlotte, North Carolina, decided
to use the President’s Day Holiday as a make-up day, but an ice storm canceled
school that day, too. “For us Southerners, we’ve had a pretty hard
winter,” said Jodie Roberts-Smith, public relations manager at Paramount’s
Carowinds in Charlotte.
She said Carowinds' staff have begun discussing contingencies in case school
years extend, but the situation there is further complicated by the fact that
Carowinds straddles the North Carolina/South Carolina state line; the park not
only draws its employees from multiple school districts, it draws from two different
states with markedly different school calendars. “It would touch us more
if North Carolina has to go later because they already end closer to our full-time
operating season,” Roberts-Smith said. That full-time season begins with
Memorial Day.
Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana, begins its daily operations May 14, before
the schools end their years. Traditionally, those May days challenge staffing
needs, said Will Koch, president of Holiday World & Splashin Safari, which
hires 1,050 seasonal employees. “We always have a hard time staffing those
days in May, and if we’ve got five more of those hard days (because of
school extensions) I’m confident we’ll get through it, but it does
put stress on the staff,” he said.
The schools in Holiday World’s recruiting area were, as of Thursday, only
a couple days in debt. “It’s a small concern for us at this point,”
Koch said. But he also pointed out that yet another storm, the second this week,
was forecast for last evening. “The bad thing is the storms keep coming
through every four days, and we’re not out of February yet.”
Heavy duty
Like most city fire
department and rescue crews, the Los Angeles City Fire Department practices
for all the eventualities its trainers can dream up. “We train for a lot,”
said Carl Butler, a battalion chief for the department, “whether it’s
for terrorist activity or hazardous material or brush fires or ship fires or
aircraft accidents. But it’s pretty hard to train for an elephant down.
That’s a toughie.”
Butler’s crew got such a call from the Los Angeles Zoo one Saturday morning
three weeks ago when 8,000-pound African elephant Tara was found lying down
in a pond in her enclosure. The resulting three-hour rescue earned the fire
rescue team a city proclamation February 14 with a certificate of commendation
signed by Mayor James Hahn and the City Council.
The wild-born Tara, estimated to be about 43 years old, came to the Los Angeles
Zoo in 1966. She’s a “very temperamental elephant,” said Lora
LaMarca, the zoo’s marketing and public relations director. “She is
managed under protective contact.” She also has arthritis in her front
legs, and keepers believe she slipped while walking through her pool. She was
found at 7 a.m. February 8, and “all medical indications showed she had
not been down for long,” LaMarca said.
Keepers drained the pool, but Tara still couldn’t get enough leverage to
pull herself up. The zoo then called for help, the fire department’s heavy
rescue team. “We’ve had equine rescues in the Griffith Park area (the
Zoo’s location) with equine falling into ravines,” Butler said. “As
far as pachyderms, though, this was a first.”
Rescue crews, by training, work methodically, even in life-threatening situations,
as was this one: Tara was susceptible to internal injuries from the sheer weight
of organs compressing against each other. Because the pool did not allow enough
space to manipulate equipment, the rescuers placed heavy straps on Tara and
pulled her out onto the yard. Once there, the crews used a forklift to lift
her head and try to prod her to her feet, but she still couldn’t get up.
So, the rescue team lifted her with a crane. Three hours after she was found
down, Tara was on her feet.
The rescue crew liaisoned with the zoo’s veterinarians throughout the operation
as well as with the keepers to make sure neither the zoo staff nor rescue workers
were put in danger. Butler described the rescue as “quite a production”
but nothing his crew couldn’t handle, even if they had never trained to
lift pachyderms. “Our people are technically proficient,” he said.
“You had a very experienced and proficient crew come in. They know where
to place the pulleys, they know where to place the straps. Experience and training
were the key to that, not from zoo operations but from other emergency operations
we’re exposed to being in a big city.”
But when you pull a tractor-trailer back from a bridge precipice, the truck
doesn’t have an inclination to attack its rescuers. Tara at least remained
docile throughout the operation. Then, with the yard cleared of everybody else,
head keeper Jeff Briscoe used a long pole to remove the last strap from Tara’s
body. “Jeff finally gets it off, it falls to the ground, she lets out this
big bellow and races around the yard. Jeff just took off,” LaMarca said.
Butler described the scene as a bull chasing a matador over the fence in a bullfight
ring. “Then she started to eat and everybody said, ‘She’s definitely
back on her feet,’” he said.
Hug and song
Two summers ago
on a visit to Idlewild Amusement Park in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, I sent my two
sons, then ages 14 and 12, out to play in the park while I produced that week’s
issue of THE LOOP. I made one demand of Ian, my youngest: he must ride Mr.
Rogers’ Neighborhood. Ian was even then saying he wanted to be a ride
designer when he grew up, and I thought he should therefore experience the perfect
amusement park ride.
How is it perfect? Sure, it’s a corny tale told by stilted animatronics
to passengers on a plodding trolley. Yet, every trolley concludes its route
with every passenger—pairs of parents and children—loudly reciting
“Come along, come along, to the Hug and Sing-along,” the ride's repeated
refrain. For its targeted audience, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood always delivers,
and every passenger disembarks with an experience indelibly imprinted in their
reminiscence. Furthermore, that experience is inevitably shared with a loved
one, be it a child, grandchild, or spouse. When Ian returned to the park office
I looked at him and said, “Well?” This too-cool-for-school teen shook
his head and merely said, “Come along, come along, to the hug and sing-along.”
Fred Rogers, who died Thursday at the age of 74, played an active role in the
design of the only amusement park ride in the world gleaned off his show, “Mister
Rogers’ Neighborhood,” that has run on American television for 40
years. A native of nearby Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Mr. Rogers expressed fond memories
of the amusement grove he visited as a child. He chose to put his ride there
not only out of loyalty but because he felt the quiet, family-oriented Idlewild
was the best match for "Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood," a children’s
show that stood out among the rest for its slow pace, comforting tone and persistent
message of brotherhood.
Rogers died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania after a brief battle with stomach cancer,
according to news reports. His last public appearance was January 1 when he
served as a Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.
In that parade the car in which he rode with Bill Cosby and Art Linkletter traveled
behind the Give Kids The World float.
Our industry has lost a friend, a partner, an inspirer.
No-brainer
redux
IAAPA President
J. Clark Robinson called the Six Flags-sponsored brain injury studies “definitive”
when they were released (THE
LOOP, January 24, 2003). That pronouncement was a bit premature because
the results of a study by the Brain Injury Association of America, a study sponsored
by chief-amusement park foe U.S. Representative Ed Markey, had yet to be released.
The results of that study finally aired Tuesday, and this time Robinson is right
when he says the evidence is definitive. After all, the findings counter everything
Markey wanted his hand-picked researchers to determine. The BIAA declared roller
coasters and amusement thrill rides safe. The study's executive summary even
emphatically commended the industry for its safety record. Plus, it went a significant
step further with the following “finding:”
“The amusement park industry is rigorously self-monitored and individual
roller coaster rides are designed with multiple ‘fail-safe’ features
to control risk. Whether their motivations are selfish or responsible, the industries’
commercial health is best served by preventing injury. Whether a federal agency
could match this is unlikely.” That last sentence shoots down Markey’s
whole campaign for federal oversight of the industry.
“I thought that was the most telling comment in the entire executive summary,”
said Robinson, who was surprised by the statement’s inclusion. However,
he said he was not surprised by the study’s findings, though he was relieved,
considering the panel’s formation at Markey’s request. “My feeling
was you’ve got a very distinguished panel of physicians and scientific
people, and you just anticipated the results would be similar to the Pennsylvania
study and the studies done by (the American Association of Neurological Surgeons)
and Exponent (Failure Analysis Associates).” The latter two were sponsored
by Six Flags. The first was research by the University of Pennsylvania published
in an October 2002 Journal of Neurotrauma that used mathematical models to determine
coasters do not produce enough "head rotational acceleration" to cause
either bleeding or swelling of the brain. “Fundamentally, it’s all
consistent across the board with the four studies.”
Nevertheless, Markey is not placated. Before the BIAA’s press conference
Tuesday reporting on the study, Markey released a statement slamming the panel
he asked the association to “convene and oversee.” He also reportedly
intends to introduce again in March his bill setting up the kind of federal
oversight the panel said is needless. In the current Congress, Markey is effectively
tilting at windmills. But, at least Don Quixote didn’t diss his Sancho
Panza.
Markey’s criticism of the panel was that it refused to publish its “work
product.” This criticism no one on the panel understands, said Harold Hudson,
president of AAPRA Associates, LLC, amusement industry consultant and a member
of the panel. The panel’s work was published (you can read the report at
www.biausa.org), and Hudson
and the rest of the researchers, comprising neurologists, a bioengineer, a mechanical
engineer and a trauma epidemiologist, did exactly what they were tasked: to
study Markey’s own compilation of 57 cases of possible brain injuries associated
with amusement rides in the past 38 years. The casual layman could see that
Markey’s trumpeted “57 cases” were mostly spurious, in one case
duplicated, and primarily involved rides other than roller coasters, coasters
no longer in operation, and overseas rides.
“The panel threw up their hands and said, ‘This is a non-issue,’”
Hudson said. Nevertheless, the panelists pressed on by taking the approach that
just one valid case should merit evaluation. They studied the merits of the
reported cases and then 50 years’ worth of research on g force impact on
the brain. As with the three previous studies, the BIAA panel concluded coasters
do not sustain near enough g’s to affect the brain. “It’s amazing
to me the AANS report is very close to this,” Hudson said. “So, when
you look at it you’d think this would be the end, because every study that
came out said about the same thing.”
The suggestion to avoid federal oversight came from one of the neurologists,
Hudson said. “He’s had some experience in hospital regulators, and
being impressed with the safety record of the amusement industry he just made
that statement. There’s no way a federal agency, a bureaucratic division
of government, could have the same compassion and the same interest in safety
as the parks themselves. That was a comment thrown out, and everybody pretty
much endorsed it.”
One other topic the panelists broached was the relative incidents of subdural
hematoma and bleeding aneurysms in the general public on a day-to-day basis
and while riding thrill rides. Accepted medical opinion contends that such medical
incidents occur under any circumstances. In the United States, an average of
25,000 bleeding aneurysms are reported every year. By Hudson’s calculations
comparing that figure with the 320 million annual attendance at amusement parks,
parks should be reporting about 30 bleeding aneurysms each year. “I don’t
think we have 30 a year or we would hear about it,” he said.
“What the world has to remember is that life is not risk free,” he
said. “Things happen to people spontaneously, they happen in everyday life.
Somebody’s lost sight of that. When you ride a roller coaster, it has to
be perfect. Why is that? No other walks of life are perfect.” In fact,
statistically, roller coasters are pretty close to perfect. “Closer than
anybody else,” Hudson said. “Closer than real life.”
New Arrivals
It’s
an aquarium!
Landry’s Restaurants Inc. announces the arrival of the Downtown Aquarium
in Houston, Texas, February 17, 2003. Measurements: 6 1/2 acres (2 1/2 hectares);
a 30,000 square-foot (2,787-square-meter) aquarium with 40 tanks totaling 500,000
gallons (1.9 million liters) in seven themed areas; two restaurants, 400 seat
and 120 seats; one lounge; one 6,000-square-foot (557.5-square-meter) banquet
facility with a 600-person capacity; one set of dancing fountains, one observation
tower, one arcade with six midway games, one 100-foot-high (30.5-meter) Ferris
wheel, one carousel, and one train with a 10 minute ride passing through a 200,000-gallon
(760,000-liter) shark tank. Delivered by Broquard Art Studios, Chance Rides,
David L. Manwarren Corp., Interior Designs Unlimited, International Concept
Management, Kirksey KSA Architecture, Kudela and Weinheimer, and ThemeScapes.
The new aquarium was getting so much advance publicity, Landry’s officials
decided to open it to the public on Monday, February 17, two days after the
gala preview. A Monday opening, they assumed, would allow the staff to ease
into the operations, providing a veritable soft-opening week before a weekend
slam. “Then we found out Monday was President’s Day Holiday and we
got overrun anyway,” said Jens Baake, the Downtown Aquarium’s property
manager. “But since everything was in place, all we had to do was manage
the crowds, and we did that very, very well.”
In part because while queues to enter the public aquarium and restaurants reached
three hours during the day—and the line for the train ride was even longer—people
seemed more than willing to wait. “They were surprisingly patient, I must
say,” Baake said. “One of the reasons was that they were so excited.”
They aren’t the only ones excited to see the world’s newest aquarium
open. This bold, $38 million private venture incorporating an aquarium into
a single-entity entertainment venue has an entire industry watching. Though
the Houston project is officially a super-sized version of the company’s
Aquarium Restaurant on the Kemah Boardwalk in Kemah, Texas, it sets many new
precedents of its own.
What the Kemah restaurant does not have is a public aquarium attached to it;
and this is no small, token fish-tank but a complex of seven highly-themed galleries.
What no other public aquarium has is an accompanying hard ride park, with custom-themed
Ferris wheel, carousel and midway. The shark tank, featuring a young 8-foot
sawfish along with sand tiger, zebra, coral, nurse and pajama sharks plus various
rays, is the first aquarium facility to incorporate a hard ride into its exhibits.
The C.P. Huntington train is custom built with a acrylic ceiling to allow unlimited
viewing as it traverses through the heart of the shark tank. Just one week into
its operation Landry officials already are considering adding a second train
to meet demand.
Located in the theater district—the complex in part is a transformation
of the city’s Fire Station Number 1 and the Central Water Works Plant along
Buffalo Bayou—the Downtown Aquarium gives Houston a must-do venue on the
nation’s cultural map. As such, and as the new showcase for the Houston-based
Landry’s Restaurants, its opening required a gala of Academy Award proportions.
Among the 1,500 invited guests in attendance were models Rachel Hunter and Fredrique
van der Wal, Joe Millionaire host Alex McLeod, musician Clint Black and
actress Lisa Hartman Black, and the late Jacques Cousteau’s grandson, Fabien
Cousteau. “He was important to us because he represented that we go beyond
just entertainment, that we have an education and environmental message,”
Baake said. As an example of that, the aquarium will open to school groups every
day before the facility opens to the public.
For the event titled “Black Tie with a Twist of Blue,” in keeping
with the blue-glow of the aquarium itself, limousine-delivered dignitaries and
celebrities traipsed down a blue carpet through a phalanx of media and “screaming
fans” brought in for the purpose, Baake said. Scuba-suited and mermaid-costumed
models offered gifts of glowing beaded necklaces and a blue drink, the contents
of which Baake never learned. “It was so secret they never told us what
it was.” Inside, chefs representing all 20 of Landry’s restaurant
concepts had set up buffet stations featuring their specialties, including a
new concept called Vic & Anthony’s to be introduced this spring. The
aquarium staff’s contribution was a banquet table and accompanying cocktail
tables made of acrylic filled with swimming fish.
“We had two purposes; one to give exposure to Landry’s products, and
also to manage such a large VIP party,” Baake said. “There’s
nothing more boring than looking at the same table all the time.” As stunning
as the buffet stations may have been, the evening’s highlight was the fireworks
shot from the aquarium’s roof, the first such display in downtown Houston
in several years.
That moment passed, the Downtown Aquarium and all its trappings remain, continuing
to impress its visitors. “We hope we have a long honeymoon because of what
we created,” Baake said.
It’s
an aquarium!
Parques Reunidos Group announces the arrival of L’Oceanogràfic in
Valencia, Spain, February 15, 2003. Measurements: 110,000 square meters (1.2
million square feet), a total of 42 million liters (11.1 million gallons) of
tanks, seven themed galleries, 21 exhibits, 45,000 living organisms, 500 species,
a dolphinarium, an auditorium, retail center, five eateries and a 22,000-square-meter
(236,800-square-feet) car park. Delivered by Ciudad de las Artes y Las Ciencias.
Houston takes train riders under a fish tank; Europe’s largest aquarium
places diners inside the tank.
As impressive as its size, its architecture, its exhibitry and its collection
of animals ranging from sunfish, sharks and turtles to seals, belugas and penguins,
the biggest hit of L’Oceanogràfic in its first week of public operation
has been the Submarine Restaurant. The 350-seat dining room serves up top quality
cuisine while some 10,000 fish glide through the water on the other side of
the clear walls.
A corporation owned by the Valencia municipal government, Ciudad de Las Artes
y Las Ciencias, has been re-creating a former river bank (the river that used
to run through the city center has been diverted around Valencia) into an architecturally
stunning cultural district that already had three major attractions: l’Hemisfèric
(Imax Theater), the L’Umbracle botanical garden and the Principe Felipe
Science Museum (THE LOOP July
12, 2002). Still to come is an opera house.
But the attention now is on L’Oceanogràfic, a gathering of buildings
that architecturally recall ocean waves, starfish, stingray and jumping dolphins
in their undulating forms. The aquarium officially opened to the public February
15 with 4,000 admission tickets sold in advance. The remaining 1,500 were snapped
up that day for a sold-out debut. Despite days of pouring rain beginning with
its opening day, L’Oceanogràfic has welcomed near capacity numbers,
a mix of both locals and tourists.
L’Oceanogràfic made a private debut in December by hosting a party
for national authorities and celebrities. In the two months since, the aquarium,
operated by the Madrid-based Parques Reunidos Group, has worked through a soft
opening by hosting small, private groups. The night before the aquarium’s
official public opening, the whole city celebrated. “They wanted to involve
all of the city so they had celebrations around town to show off the aquarium
to everybody,” said Lamberto Fresnillo of the Parques Reunidos Group. At
each celebration site, a film showing the building of the aquarium was projected
onto large screens. At the peak of the party, fireworks lit up the city. “In
Valencia they’re crazy about fireworks,” Fresnillo said.
Looks like they're crazy about their new aquarium, too.
It’s
a water slide!
Aquaparc in Le Bouveret, Switzerland, announces the arrival of Tortuga's
Hurricane, February 14, 2003. Measurements: 16.9-meter-high (55 1/2-foot)
tower, 14.9 meter (49-foot) fall, 6.9-meter-diameter (22 1/2-foot) bowl, 45
to 60 second ride. Delivered by Whitewater West Industries.
The three-year-old indoor waterpark on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva scheduled
the ribbon-cutting ceremony for its latest addition on a Friday and informed
its annual pass holders that the body slide, Aquaparc’s first bowl slide,
a Whitewater West Superbowl, would be available for riding that day. More than
500 showed up, a significant number for a February Friday in Switzerland.
Keeping to a tradition that began with Aquaparc’s November 1999 opening,
the gala debut for Tortuga’s Hurricane featured two model citizens:
Miss Suisse Romande 2002, Emilie Boiron, and Mr. Switzerland 2002, Christophe
Engel. Miss Suisse actually took the first plunge, drumming up enough courage
to race down the enclosed flume from an indoor tower into the open-air bowl
and plopping into the splashdown pool where she recovered her wits quickly enough
to pose for press photographers. Such daring-do is simply part of the job description
of being selected a Miss anything.
Two other distinguished guests at the opening ceremony represented Aquaparc
at a major crossroads in its history: Olivier de Bosredon, chairman and CEO
of Grévin & Cie, which purchased the park January 21, and Blaise
Carroz, Aquaparc’s co-founder. Today is Carroz's last day at the park he
built and operated for three successful years. Tortuga’s Hurricane
is Carroz’s last stamp on his brainchild, and as he turned his developer’s
eye to new projects, he gladly placed his first-born in the hands of Grévin
& Cie, the Parc Asterix-foundation company that, with Aquaparc, now owns
11 attractions in western Europe.
Eric's Turn
Feeling
50
Yesterday, out of the clear blue, came a strange phone call. It was a web hosting
company looking to entice me away from my current host, Lexiconn. However, early
in our conversation, the company rep’s expectations were dashed. He had
stumbled upon this web site, then checked out my new site, www.ericminton.com,
and determined that I must be a web site designer by profession. His company
is geared toward designers needing to host sites in bulk, and he wondered how
many other sites I herded. To his disappointment, I only have the two sites
and, furthermore, they are the only two sites I’ve ever designed (my previous
design experience is strictly in the publication sector, doing magazine pages,
brochures, guidebooks and manuals).
My ego won’t let me question whether he was being honest in praising my
design capabilities; for sure, he thought that was my chief forte, and that
alone merits the moment being listed as a milestone in THE LOOP’s two-plus-year
odyssey. When we started I didn’t even know what a web host was; now I’m
regarded by one as a bona fide site designer.
This particular issue of THE LOOP represents a more significant milestone: this
is our 50th issue. On February 9, 2001, we posted the first LOOP from Anaheim,
California, where I was covering the opening of Disney’s California Adventure.
Think about it: that park is 50 LOOPs old. How time flies, doesn’t it?
Each issue is something of a milestone, of course. In today’s amusement
industry, surviving is accomplishment. But, truly, we have much to be proud
of. That first LOOP attracted 1,161 visitors to our site. Our January 24, 2002
LOOP—the last issue we have figures for—attracted 7,410 visitors to
our site. The LOOP has generated a strong following in every sector of the industry,
and every week this year it seems we’re fielding inquiries from developers
wanting insider information pertaining to the industry.
Gazing back over our first 50-issue arc, I can’t help beaming with pride.
Yeah, the web design is good enough, the content is strong and, as a writer
who is harder on himself than anybody ever could be, I think I’ve turned
a few good phrases and written some nifty headlines. However, my greatest source
of pride is in the effort, the talent, and the dedication of the team that makes
THE LOOP happen issue after issue. I would like to express my appreciation and
kudos to:
Our newest team member, Ian Minton, who is proving to be a tremendous find for
his quick learning curve, his creativity and his professionalism;
My ally, Gary Slade, and the Amusement Today team of Sammy Piccola, Tommy
Le, Bill Rea, Scott Rutherford, Paul McDonald, Tim Baldwin, Kristina Bosquez
and Bubba Flint, for the mutual support and dedicated teamwork;
Our ad manager, Lynne Mosman, who has been on board since the beginning building
our subscription database and then taking over our marketing and advertising
program, and whose innate wisdom has proven to be one of our most valuable assets;
and,
My partner and wife, Sarah Smith, who happily takes up the task of webmistress
and has maintained an unwavering level of support and encouragement.
My thanks, too, to the readers, and the advertisers—the latter featured
on our Connections page—who
keep us going. THE LOOP launched right as the amusement industry started its
current slump. We’ve made it to number 50, folks, and that should infuse
everybody in this industry with at least a sense of hope, if not confidence,
that we all can prosper together and in time.
See you at the next milestone.
THE LOOP is written and produced by Eric Minton, Minton Enterprises, LLC. To see more examples of Eric Minton's work and Minton Enterprises services, visit www.ericminton.com.
©2003, Minton Enterprises
LLC
All rights reserved