Volume 2, No. 2. January 25, 2002
Towering questions
Cedar Point maintenance staff were
leaving work around 3:30 p.m. (15,30) on January 14 when they noticed something
missing: one of the three 265-foot towers (80 meters) that comprise the VertiGo
thrill ride. The discovery of the collapsed tower, which had broken off 65 feet
up (20 meters), sent a disbelieving shudder through the industry.
The Sandusky, Ohio, amusement park has an impeccable safety record and has never
had a structure failure of this magnitude in memory. "Employees who have been
here 30-plus years are saying there's never been anything of this nature," said
Cedar Point Public Relations Manager Janice Witherow. Furthermore, the ride's
manufacturer, S&S Power, has a stellar safety and operational record for its
products.
As of this posting the cause of the collapse has not been determined. Two S&S
engineers arrived the day after the incident to assist with the initial evaluation.
Cedar Point also notified the Amusement Ride Safety Division of the Ohio Department
of Agriculture, which serves as the regulatory agency for amusement rides in
the state and specializes in ride inspections. Additionally,
the park has hired an outside firm to conduct non-destructive testing on the
other two towers. "That's something we do at Cedar Point anyway in the spring
as part of our preventative maintenance program," Witherow said.
While Witherow professes a feeling of good fortune that the accident occurred
in the off season—"We're incredibly thankful that we are closed and there
were no injuries," she said—and described the mood around the park as "unsettled
but determined to come up with a conclusion," she also believes such an accident
could only have happened in the off-season. "We're confident that had the park
been open, because of our intensive daily inspection program with internal experts
climbing the tower looking for things like this, it would have been discovered
ahead of time. We're also confident that during the springtime, when we're doing
ultrasound and X-rays on steel structures to test the integrity of the steel,
this is something that would have been caught."
As such, she said, the park is planning no changes to its maintenance and safety
programs, at least until the collapse's cause is determined. Nevertheless, the
incident reiterated the need for such thorough measures as both Cedar Point
and S&S themselves implement. It also drove home the need for a crisis response,
even in the off-season. Cedar Point immediately notified its sister park, Knott's
Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, as well as Six Flags Magic Mountain in
Valencia, California—both of which are year-round operations—who shut
their versions of the ride until their towers could be inspected.
Flame out
Peter Herschend had quite a week
this month. In a seven-day span the vice chairman and co-owner of Silver Dollar
City, Inc., in Branson, Missouri, watched a friend carry the Olympic torch,
carried the torch himself and met the president of the United States.
With only 11,000 people chosen out of more than 100,000 nominated to help relay
the Olympic flame from Atlanta to Salt Lake City, Herschend was doubly honored
as nominator and nominated. A long-time fund-raiser for the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society, Herschend had nominated Robin Creemer to carry the flame.
Herschend and his wife, JoDee, were on hand on Tuesday, January 8, in St. Louis,
Missouri, when Creemer, who has MS, carried the torch two tenths of a mile (320
meters). "MS is such that you don't run," Herschend said. "She was having a
good enough MS day she was able to walk reasonably well. I don't think I have
ever seen anybody so excited."
It helped build his own level of excitement for the next day across the state
in Kansas City where Herschend himself would run the flame .2 miles down Main
Street. The "crowning moment" came when, standing at the corner of 30th Street
with torch in hand and both JoDee and Creemer in attendance, Herschend saw Kansas
City torchbearer number 106 approaching up Main Street. An Olympic flame attendant
turned on the butane gas in Herschend's torch, the two torchbearers touched
torches, and "my torch fired off," Herschend said. "I started walking and they
said, 'would you like to jog?' They were running behind." He jogged, flame held
high, to 32nd Street where he lit bearer number 108's torch.
"The excitement of that lasted a long, long time. I was pumped," said the 67-year-old
Herschend, who keeps his torch in his office. "I don't categorize events in
my life, saying this is better than that. If you made up a list and named some
memorable times in my life, personal and professional, this would be in the
top 10."
For the popular head of the Silver Dollar City chain of amusement venues, the
torch relay was very much a professional achievement. "I didn't feel that kind
of excitement where your heart is pounding out of control. (Instead) I felt
a sense of tremendous pride, pride for the men and women of our company at Silver
Dollar City. At the end of the day they were the ones responsible for my being
there. On the bottom of the torch, is inscribed the words 'Light the fire within.'
I thought to myself, 'That's really what our people do, whether they are in
Missouri, Tennessee or Georgia, they are in fact lighting a fire of memories
in their relationships with other men and women they work with and with our
guests."
It was also the successful businessman who got the call just two days after
his torch run to be one of the official southwest Missouri greeters of George
W. Bush when the president visited Aurora the following Monday. "We're shaking
hands, and he's a very, very warm guy, a look-you-in-the-eye-and-firm-handshake
sort of fella," said Herschend, who also hosted the first President Bush at
Silver Dollar City in 1992. Herschend, however, has no delusions about his relationship
with the current and former first family. "I promise you (George W.) doesn't
remember me," after their brief meeting, he said.
So how does someone finish out a week of such momentous life events? "After
meeting the president I went over to my daughter's house to fix her garbage
disposal," he said. "That is what dads do. They're fixers of things."
Friendly
environment
While most theme parks focus on creating
a certain environment for guests within the park, Europa-Park has concentrated
on maintaining the environment outside its gates, as well. For its ecological
efforts, the Rust, Germany, theme park has received an annual award from the
state of Baden-Württemberg recognizing firms that practice environmentally
friendly operations.
"It's quite outstanding that a big leisure park gets this kind of prize," said
Europa-Park Public Relations Associate Martina Evers. "Other companies are more
likely to get these kinds of prizes, but we have tried for several years to
achieve certain standards in environmental protection."
That effort has included hiring a technician, since 1995, devoted full-time
to environmental issues within the park. "He checks every process to see if
there is a more ecological way to do it," Evers said. Europa-Park has its own
water and power plants, including the largest solar energy plant of any leisure
facility in Europe, Evers said, delivering 250,000 KW annually. Ten percent
of all the park's power is also regenerated from original usage. For example,
cooling systems require large amounts of energy to operate, energy which produces
excess heat outside the cooling unit. Europa-Park is capturing that excess heat
and using it to power other operations.
"The full-time job was created because, since the early '90s, we put in some
new technologies, and this helped to reduce costs," Evers said. "So, management
was interested to find even more effective ways to reduce costs using modern
technologies and saving energy. In every process there's one way or another
to save energy."
Europa-Park also has instituted several management initiatives. Suppliers, especially
in the food-service department, are instructed to reduce their packaging or
retrieve the packaging after deliveries. The park's technicians building rides
and craftsmen building facades must calculate their material needs beforehand
to limit waste and, where possible, use any material left over in other applications.
Employees currently engage in a recycling program, dividing their waste by paper,
plastic and glass, a program which may expand to patrons in the future, Evers
said. Environmental issues, like safety and customer service, are integrated
in employee training programs, and employees can also make suggestions to reduce
waste or improve the park's environmental performance and receive monetary rewards
for implemented ideas.
For the park, earning the Baden-Württemberg Minister of Environment and
Transport prize, which will be bestowed in a July 4 ceremony, is more than a
long-sought honor; it is a major marketing coup. "In Europe, it is getting more
and more important for your image to be environmentally friendly, especially
in Germany," Evers said. Putting in so much effort into environmental issues,
she said, "can only be an advantage."
Mystery tours
Some of their animals may hibernate,
but the zoos themselves don't. Still, U.S. zoos north of the Mason-Dixon Line
have a hard time convincing the public they remain open during the winter months.
Holiday lights and Valentines Day promotions can generate public awareness for
December and February, respectively, but January is a bear of a month to push.
For that reason, the Philadelphia Zoo in Pennsylvania decided to test a behind-the-scenes
tour program this month as part of a marketing campaign to stir off-season interest
in the zoo. The initial success of these "Back Stage" tours also reflects a
trend for animal-oriented attractions around the country: a move toward giving
customers an insider's view of operations.
"It's a way to let people know what we do back stage here," said Leigh Rendé,
public relations associate for the Philadelphia Zoo. "You truly get behind-the-scenes
exposure because you're talking to staff without the hubbub of the crowds."
The tours were scheduled for 9-11 a.m. (09,00 to 11,00) on Saturdays and Sundays
before the zoo opened to the general public. "It's almost like being in a private
zoo," Rendé said.
Seven two-hour tours ran simultaneously. "Is the Doctor In?" took guests to
the Zoo's Animal Health Center. "Mealtime at the Zoo" offered a lesson in animal
diets by the nutrition staff followed by a visit to the commissary. "Eat or
Be Eaten" took patrons behind the scenes in the Carnivora House and the Amphibian
and Reptile House, while "Gentle Giants" went back stage with elephants and
gorillas. "Animal Survivors" highlighted zoo conservation projects, "Home Sweet
Habitat" offered insights into the habitat landscaping at the zoo, and "History
Buffs" focused on the historical structures of this, America's first zoo. Tour
tickets cost $15 for zoo members and $20 for non-members, compared to $5.95
winter admission to the zoo.
Though the zoo has long offered interaction talks with keepers in the course
of the day, the behind-the-scenes tours offered more involving interaction,
like seeing the tools keepers use to groom the elephants. Meanwhile, tours to
the Health Center and commissary were the first time anybody other than staff
and high-level donors were able to see such facilities.
Through last weekend the tours attracted 1,067 people and, according to surveys,
were a hit. "Mealtime" proved the most popular, averaging more than 50 takers
per tour. "Working at the zoo we take a lot of what we do for granted. Looking
at the public's reaction, going back to the commissary, they're so thrilled,"
Rendé said. They weren't the only ones thrilled with the tours. "The
enthusiasm of the people working at the commissary was great. It was nice to
see them have that chance to let people know what they do. They're such hams,
too. I'm going to have to use them for interviews, they're so good."
See World
One measure of a trend is the ongoing
participation level of the original trendsetter. If Philadelphia Zoo's Back
Stage tours are indicative of a growing trend toward letting the public peer
behind an operation's facade, SeaWorld's expansion of its interactive programs
lends further validity to the trend.
SeaWorld San Diego introduced the Dolphin Interaction Program in 1996, and its
sister parks soon followed with "DIPs" of their own, plus similar programs focused
on sea lions, belugas and sharks. SeaWorld Orlando took the hands-on opportunity
a step further in 1999 with its Trainer for a Day program, allowing customers,
for a $389 fee, to walk in the wet suit shoes of SeaWorld trainers, participating
in everything from working with dolphins and whales to preparing fish to feed
the mammals and scrubbing buckets. The public response to these programs led
in large part to establishment of a whole new theme park in Orlando, Discovery
Cove, centered on interactive sessions with dolphins.
This month, SeaWorld Orlando added a False Killer Whale Interaction Program
and Animal Care Experience. The latter is another all-day program for up to
four guests, who work alongside animal care staff working with animals in exhibits.
Along the way, the guests may meet a walrus or bottle-feed an orphaned manatee.
Starting at 6:30 a.m. (06,30) and also costing $389 per person, Animal Care
Experience will undoubtedly, like Trainer for a Day, be a hit.
"Not only do people like it, but the animals thoroughly enjoy it, working with
different people," said Chuck Tompkins, vice president of animal training at
SeaWorld Orlando. "Put those two factors together and obviously we've come up
with a home run."
SeaWorld's programs strike two nerves in the public: a chance to have hands-on
experience with the animals and a chance to go behind the scenes. "I get so
many comments on the surveys where people are so thrilled to learn the ins and
outs of what we do here," Tompkins said. "People want to know the trainers,
their personalities, how they take care of the animals, and the animals' personalities.
When you do these interactive programs, they get all that insider information."
Information SeaWorld is more than willing to share. One of the things that differentiates
SeaWorld from its Orlando competition is that the animals here are not animatronic
or illusions; they are real, and one of the park's strengths is how well it
takes care of these animals. Furthermore, guests get first-hand exposure to
the trainers' and keepers' commitment; public relations at its most sincere.
"We know our people love talking about what they do," Tompkins said, "and we're
giving them an opportunity to talk about what they do."
All the while, guests get a sense of privilege. "The public is absolutely telling
us, 'we've watched you have fun all these years, now it's great that we're getting
in the water and having fun with you,'" Tompkins said. And not just the splashing
about with dolphins kind of fun but also the scrubbing floors, cleaning buckets
and sticking vitamin pills in the gills of dead fish kind of fun, and paying
almost $400 to do so.
"It's absolutely amazing to me what we ask these people to do (in Trainer for
a Day)," Tompkins said "But when we get surveys back, people say 'Thank you
so much, I now know what it's like to be a trainer.' I've not gotten one survey
back that said, 'I didn't like cleaning buckets.'"
Weathering a non-storm
As his big week began, Andy Gallardo, manager of public relations for Six Flags
Magic Mountain in Valencia, California, perused Yahoo's weather site on the
Internet. The park's new, history-making roller coaster X was to make
its media debut that Thursday (THE
LOOP, January 11, 2002) and Gallardo was, naturally, hoping for good
weather.
"We looked at the five-day forecast, and it said, 'Sunny; Sunny; Sunny; Snow;
Sunny,'" Gallardo said. "There was a bright sun on every other day, and clouds
with snow on Thursday. We thought someone was playing a really cruel joke on
us." Not accepting Yahoo's forecast, Gallardo surfed over to the Weather Channel's
web site and saw the same forecast. "We checked some other sites, and all said
the same thing. My feeling was that there was no way it was going to snow."
But, he admitted, that was more wishful thinking than intuition. "We have a
history of having beautiful weather up to a media day, and then lousy weather
the day of the event." Rain dampened the openings of Batman The Ride
and The Riddler's Revenge, and a daylong downpour marked the Goliath
media event. But snow? "It's been about two or three years since we've seen
any on the ground here," Gallardo said.
Sure enough, that Wednesday the temperature started dropping, and by nightfall
clouds had rolled in and the wind had picked up. However, Thursday morning dawned
clear and warm, and when Gallardo checked the Internet weather sites, the icon
for the day was a bright sun. That proved the accurate forecast as the temperature
reached the mid 70s, not a single cloud crossed the sky, and nary a snowflake
appeared.
New Arrivals
It's
a wolf exhibit!
The Toledo Zoo in Ohio announces the arrival of the Arctic Encounter Wolf
Exhibit, January 11, 2002. Measurements: 35,000 square feet (10,600 square meters),
four wolves, one log cabin. Delivered by West Carroll Bergmann Associates.
Closing out an important chapter in its evolution, the Toledo Zoo introduced
a sisterhood of gray wolves to its Arctic Encounter area, which debuted with
polar bears and seals two years ago. True to the exhibit's theme, the wolf exhibit
gives zoo patrons a chance to make close observations of these mysterious animals,
thanks to a log cabin themed as a northern hunting lodge filled with interpretive
displays and featuring large windows in the back cabin wall looking out on the
wolves' habitat.
The wolves—sisters Dakota, Crow, Cheyenne and Pawnee—arrived at the
zoo in September but remained behind black tarp awaiting their $900,000 exhibit's
opening the second week in January, a tradition for the zoo's arctic displays.
For the occasion under dreary but dry skies, Bill Dennler, the zoo's executive
director, introduced Lucas County Commission President Sandy Isenburg as the
"alpha commissioner" to cut the red ribbon.
First to experience the exhibit were school children from Birmingham Elementary,
who were as interested in the log cabin's appointments, such as the raging fireplace
and mounted elk head, as they were the wolf pack on the other side of the glass.
For their part, the wolves had settled in nicely to their new domain, choosing
to dig holes for their beds rather than nesting in a cozy straw-filled den made
available to them off-view.
"I think it's great because the wolves are close to people but in a naturalistic
enough setting to meet their needs," said Randi Meyerson, who has been the zoo's
mammal curator for one year but has studied wolves since 1984. Although these
wolves were hand-reared, the new exhibit allows Meyerson and her colleagues
to observe the wolves' behavior in their natural habitat.
With the opening of the Wolf Exhibit the Toledo Zoo finished its Arctic Encounter
area, culminating a $12.5 million capital improvement project. Now the zoo turns
its focus on sunnier climes and the largest capital improvement project in its
history, a $20-plus million African exhibit scheduled to break ground this spring.
Lynne Mosman contributed to this report
Rebirths
It's
a bowling center!
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk announces the rebirth of the Boardwalk Bowl, January
15, 2002. Measurements: 25,200 square feet (7,600 square meters), 26 lanes with
34-inch scoring monitors (86.5-cm monitors), 442-square-foot pro shop (134 square
meters), 500-square-foot party room (152 square meters), bar and restaurant.
Delivered by the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk Tech Services.
Even before the 50-year-old Boardwalk Bowl officially re-opened with a VIP-only
party last week, the $3.5 million remodeling project had yielded results. Since
quietly opening to the public back in October, the center has hosted 230 birthday
parties, said Boardwalk Bowl Director Willie King, and another hundred are on
the books.
"A lot of the elements we put into the new building are targeted specifically
at parties, like the birthday party room," he said. In fact, the grand opening
gala for some 150 local dignitaries and Beach Boardwalk friends was intended
"to highlight what we do here," King said. "We throw a lot of parties, and this
was our party. I think we knocked their socks off."
Especially those who had seen the Bowl before the makeover. "The facility we
had before was pretty tired," King said of the bowling center which the Santa
Cruz Beach Boardwalk purchased in 1994. "Though people said we had a nice center,
it still needed significant upgrades. We gutted the entire building. Everything
is new. A nacho chip warmer is all that's left from before."
Using its own technicians, the Beach Boardwalk installed new dance club-style
lighting, a new sound system, a new bar with karaoke equipment and a computerized
keg system. The lanes have new pinsetters, new ball returns and new scoring
monitors. The entire building was refurnished, and a patio overlooking the Pacific
Ocean should be completed in the spring, King said. The new decor alone made
an instant impact on the local market. Despite the restaurant and bar not opening
until last week, the Boardwalk Bowl saw higher receipts in both November and
December than it did in those months a year earlier. "We were making more money
with only one-third of the operation going," King said.
King expects the center's popularity to continue rising, too. Less than 20 percent
of Boardwalk Bowl's business is league play. "That is unheard of anywhere in
this country," King said of the 80 percent open play the center did before remodeling.
The Boardwalk's strategy in growing the business was to build the open bowling
market. Now, with the new restaurant and bar, the Boardwalk Bowl has positioned
itself as an ongoing party hang-out for the community. "Most people don't care
what their average is, they just want to come and have fun. That's what we give
them," King said.
Ah, but bowling is still a sport, and some people take it seriously. At last
week's big gala, Santa Cruz's mayor, vice mayor and supervisor were invited
to roll the official first balls. In a simultaneous roll, the vice mayor, Emily
Reilly, threw a strike. "She was looking forward to the opportunity," King said,
noting that while the other two officials seemed to approach the moment with
official decorum, Reilly was eager to score big. "She was going through mental
rehearsals beforehand."
Eric’s Turn
Numbers
crunched
In the tradition of magazines who publish their circulation figures, we want
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