Volume 2, No. 2. January 25, 2002
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.'"