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In
this issue: Clark Robinson takes the helm of a troubled IAAPA; Monterey Bay Aquarium proffers its live web cam images to MRI patients; Schlitterbahn counters a flood's effects with a flood of web information; Spider-Man, the movie, boosts interest in everything Spider at Islands of Adventure; Fellow FEC proprietors pay homage to the late Terry Weerts; Riders In The Sky take note of the Tweetsie Railroad; We welcome back a reinvigorated dark ride at Rye Playland and a roller coaster at Six Flags Marine World; We welcome, anew, Geyser Falls Water Theme Park, a Matterhorn at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, an ice show at Cedar Point, a resort hotel at Universal Studios Florida, and a gallery of simulation at the Museu de les Ciences Principe Felipe; And, we take stock in our domain. For
back issues of THE LOOP, For
a printable version of this column, For
more information on the facilities and organizations featured in
this newsletter, visit our Connections Page.
Return
of a champion Robinson,
who spent 27 years on the IAAPA Board of Directors, serving a term
as president and two terms as treasurer, took the new job June 27.
He reenters the association amid rancorous dissension among the
IAAPA membership on many levels, including a contentious executive
board, a condition which some insiders say hastened Lovejoy’s
departure (according to an IAAPA press statement, Lovejoy intends
to be available until the end of the year to help with the transition).
Part of the dissension inside IAAPA is driven by outside pressures
on the industry, most notably efforts among government officials
to regulate and restrict ride performances. The
reason for those government efforts are largely baseless, but their
instigators, especially U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, have managed to tap
into a hyper-venting media fixated on doomsday journalism. IAAPA
has taken the first key steps in combating those assertions and
impressions by collecting data from parks on the number of ride
incidents in 2001. How to publicize that data while protecting parks’
from liability claims and public backlash is at the heart of discussions
among IAAPA board members. Meanwhile, small independent parks are
feeling increasingly ostracized by an association dominated in the
higher ranks by large chains. “From
my perspective, one of the things I could do best is bring the family
of parks together to work as a consolidated group of individual
enterprises with common interests,” Robinson said. “We
need to make that happen, make sure all the institutions are involved
and are acknowledged and on the same team.” Already
the board is taking the extraordinary step of calling a midsummer
board meeting July 23. “These guys are busy right now,"
Robinson said. "But it’s critical to jump on this early
and work on the education process.” He means education for
both the members and the public. Robinson is hoping that RSM McGladrey,
Inc. will have completed gathering the data from the parks on incident
reports, information which will be presented only in bulk form to
maintain the confidentiality of individual parks. “It’s
important for the viability of the data to have a significant number
of returns,” Robinson said, aiming for 80 percent. “We’re
close to that.” Robinson
has not had a chance to formulate an agenda to address any other
issues, including the economic struggles of many manufacturers,
but he does intend to have IAAPA put on a strong trade show in November.
The number of registered exhibitors is down “slightly”
compared to this time a year ago, he said, but “We anticipate
that will correct itself as we go down the road. The convention
and trade show is the staple of the industry, that’s what we’re
about. I don’t think there are any issues there, fortunately.” That, right now, is what IAAPA needs most. “I hope members of the association and the board members take a look at all this and say, ‘I’m not here to represent just me and my group of parks, I’m here to represent the whole industry and to create an environment that not only will be beneficial to the industry but beneficial to my individual park and operation,’” he said. “I wish there were more of that kind of thought and feeling, because I think each of us has a responsibility to any park, regardless of their size, to help them in anyway we can. Sometimes we get too caught up in our own individual situation, and that’s understandable, but it’s more of an attitude than anything else.” Click the above button to go directly to the Kelp Cam, courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Web site. Kelp
calm Before
entering the MRI chamber, patients are fitted with padded virtual
reality goggles hooked to a computer which downloads the five streaming
web cams from the aquarium. Patients can choose to watch the otter
or penguins exhibits, the tuna and sharks gliding through a million-gallon
tank, the aquarium’s famous kelp forest or Monterey Bay itself.
The purpose is to relax patients during a stressful procedure, a
need MRI technicians have long looked for. “It
was one of those synchronistic moments,” Jeffrey Hammett, marketing
representative for Los Gatos Comprehensive Imaging, said of the
company choosing Monterey Bay Aquarium’s web cams as the medium
for alleviating stress. “Our manager and a technologist were
talking about how stressed out they were at a particular moment,
and the manager went onto (the aquarium’s) web site and was
relaxed watching the web cams. She shared that experience with the
technologist, and they said, ‘Would that be relaxing for our
patients who are anxious or claustrophobic?’” The
center tested the idea for two months, offering it to about 60 patients.
In the test phase, the patients did not get a choice of cams. “We
had an overwhelming positive response,” Hammett said: in fact,
100 percent of the patients said in surveys the web casts helped
alleviate stress. In rolling out the program this month at the Los
Gatos center and as part of the grand opening of the company’s
new Santa Cruz center, Comprehensive Imaging is allowing patients
a choice of streaming cams and also providing music through earphones
(the music is independent of the aquarium’s web cams). If the
program continues successfully for a trial period, Comprehensive
Imaging will offer it at its San Francisco, Fremont, Vallejo and
three Sacramento centers, Hammett said. “There
are no real capacity issues with our streaming cams,” said
Ken Peterson, the aquarium’s public relations manager. “We
have unlimited capacity for simultaneous viewing, so we could put
this in other MRI centers.” However, it was an application
the aquarium’s marketing department never considered when it
began offering the five live scenes through its web site. “We
didn’t seek it out,” Peterson said. “I was surprised
it was possible, but our web team embraced it right away.” So, it seems, have people enduring one of medical science’s most psychologically stressful procedures. “Just laying there and watching beds of kelp slowly swaying back and forth and fish slowly swimming in and out of view,” Hammett said, “helped calm them down." Flood
of information “The
thing that hadn’t hit me before this was the ability of the
Web to put instantaneous news in front of all the people who want
to know about Schlitterbahn,” said Sherrie Brammall, the park’s
public relations director. “We hadn’t used it that way
before. We will from now on.” Schlitterbahn
remained open through the first onslaught of rains early last week,
which caused flooding throughout San Antonio and closed both SeaWorld
and Six Flags Fiesta Texas for two days. On July 3 Brammall and
her team sent out faxes and e-mails assuring the media and hospitality
industry that despite the prevalent television reports of what was
happening to the south in San Antonio, their park had remained open
and would be operating as normal over the holiday. The
morning of the Fourth, however, came word that Canyon Lake would
rise over its banks and surely flood the Guadeloupe—and, subsequently,
back up the Comal River which flows past Schlitterbahn. That night,
park staff moved anything movable to high ground and evacuated the
resort rooms. The delayed opening the next day evolved into a shut-down
that lasted through the rest of the weekend, a first for the waterpark. On
Monday, Schlitterbahn, which is laid out in three distinct sections,
only opened the Blastenhoff area and charged a reduced admission
rate. The place, Brammall said, was “packed.” “We
spent time walking around the park on Monday trying to find out
where the guests were from and how they knew we were open that day,”
she said. “The overwhelming response was our Web site. People
had been watching the Web site, keeping an eye on it to see how
we were doing. People appreciated the fact we were putting out updates,
and most of the people were from out of town.” Brammall
did have other means at her disposal of disseminating the message:
those e-mails and faxes, plus TV news helicopters flying over the
park Sunday evening with live shots while Brammall was being interviewed.
“They said then Schlitterbahn would be opened.” Still,
it was the web site that people used most. “It was a time when
our phone lines were clogged with people calling in. To have the
message board on our Web site was invaluable.” Key to that
success was Webmistress Pat Quiroz. “She stayed near her computer
the entire weekend to make sure any updates were posted immediately.”
Schlitterbahn opened its Surfenburg area on Wednesday, and the entire park resumed normal operations yesterday. That highlighted another usefulness of the Web’s power to disseminate news. “The other group we had to communicate with through all this was our staff members,” Brammall said. “We told everyone to keep logging on to the Web site. There’s no way we could make personal phone calls to everybody.” Spider-Man's kiss was on the list for many female visitors to Islands of Adventure. Photo courtesy of Universal Studios Florida. A
web of profits Much
of North America has been caught up in the spinning yarn of a certain
movie superhero since May, coughing up more than $400 million at
the box office as of this writing. Amusement park aficionados know
that before there was a record-setting Spider-Man movie, there was
a groundbreaking Spider-Man ride at Universal Studios’ Islands
of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. While
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man has always been among
the 3-year-old park’s most popular attractions, this year that
popularity has spiked, said Susan Lomax, Universal Studios Florida’s
senior director of public relations and publicity. She cites several
indicators. “Universal Express tickets are snatched up faster
(for Spider-Man) than any attraction in both Universal parks,
and you can now witness a large and distinct flow of guests en masse
from the park entrance to the ride entrance each morning,”
she said. Other
measures: Spider-Man merchandise has become the park’s top
selling character item, with Spider-Man bobbleheads, Spider-Man
tie-dye T-shirts and Spider-Man toys the most popular. Sales in
Spider-Man suits have “dramatically increased” in both
adult and child sizes, Lomax said. The park also has seen more guests
requesting Spider-Man face painting. Speaking
of suits, Spider-Man is one of the costumed characters strolling
the park’s Marvel Super Hero Island themed area, and because
of the demand for Spider-Man, Islands of Adventure has scheduled
meet-and-greet photo ops for the character at the store adjoining
the ride. Universal Studios also took advantage of the web crawler’s
cinematic popularity by referencing him in a television commercial
aimed at Florida residents, featuring a family suffering the indignities
of Dad crawling across the ceiling with suction cups on his hands
and feet. “The point, of course, is why have the pretend experience
at home when you can have the real experience at Islands of Adventure,”
Lomax said. Those of you who have seen the movie know that merely meeting Spider-Man is not sufficient for smitten young ladies. “The week following the movie’s opening, Spider-Man was literally bombarded with requests from female guests for a kiss,” Lomax said, referring to the rain drenched, upside-down, sensuous lip-lock of the movie. To answer that demand—and wrest a media stunt out of it—the park set aside May 16 to honor one lucky female’s request. As several hundred women of all ages gathered outside the ride, Spider-Man swooped in, crawled down the wall and picked one woman out of the crowd to kiss while he hung upside down. This being a family theme park, the kiss was nothing more than a peck on the cheek, and the park would just as soon not have the rain, thank you very much. Terry
Weerts, 1953-2002 “Terry
helped me take six or seven points we were trying to accomplish
and boil it down to four points that truly encompassed everything,”
Jones said. “That was one of his strong suits. He was huge
on setting goals and objectives, and he had the ability to clearly
outline objectives for his team and set goals for the group and
for himself.” A man
of balance and quick accomplishment who readily shared his experience
with colleagues and competitors described Weerts, who died June
22 after a heart attack at his home in Indianapolis, Indiana. He
was 49. Weerts
started fast in his career, opening a Noble Roman's pizza parlor
as partner-owner shortly after graduating from Purdue University.
Before long he had opened 13 Noble Romans. Merrillville, Indiana,
based Whiteco took notice and tapped Weerts to serve as operations
manager for the company’s first FEC, a Celebration Station
in Merrillville Weerts eventually built a 15-store chain, and in
January 2000 was promoted to Director of Development for Whiteco
Industries to develop hotels. During
his 11-year tenure heading up the Celebration Station operations,
Weerts established a lasting legacy for the FEC industry. “Terry
ran what was arguably one of the best multi-chain FECs in the country
and helped the industry refine operating goals and objectives: what
was a good mix, how much square footage was best, how many holes
of miniature golf to put in,” Jones said. “Without someone
out there building a dozen in a few years, we would have learned,
but the learning curve would have been much steeper for all of us.” The
learning curve was not so steep only because of Weerts’ willingness
to share. “He met tons of people throughout the industry, and
he wasn’t afraid to share information with you or tell you
his feelings to help grow this industry,” said Dusty Day, director
of operations for Celebration Station who considered Weerts his
mentor. “He promoted the idea that families who play together
stay together, and he believed that wholeheartedly” The
philosophies Weerts expressed in his professional life he practiced
in his family life with wife Mary, and their two children, ages
14 and 12. He often took his children along on business trips, and
he used them as testers in his Celebration Stations. “He gave
all of himself to work when he was working, but when work was over
he gave all of himself to family and friends,” Jones said. “I remember when I was a young general manager she said, ‘Use your brain and do what’s right,’” Day said. “That was his big thing: ‘Do what’s right.’”
The famous folk band got on track for an album devoted to Tweetsie. A real
soul train The
antique train and the theme park named for it could be heading for
the Billboard charts thanks to a decision the park's executive vice
president and general manager, Chris Robbins, made when he planned
out a visiting concert series at the park. He knew one of the musical
acts had to be Riders In The Sky . The western swing and country
folk band’s demographics—let alone its name—were
a natural fit for the mountainside family theme park centered on
a Wild West train ride. Robbins secured the band for his first concert
series in 1997, and the Riders have returned every year since. “Typically,
one of our biggest weekends is when Riders In The Sky are here,”
Robbins said. “They have a devoted following: not quite as
much as the Grateful Dead, but close to that. I know people in Pennsylvania
who plan their summer vacations around seeing the Riders here.” Robbins
didn’t know just how much the band reciprocated those feelings
for the theme park until last year when he was driving them to the
park’s concert venue. “They asked me, ‘would Tweetsie
be interested in having a Tweetsie Rider In The Sky album,’”
Robbins said. “I didn’t think twice. I said, ‘Absolutely.’
I was flattered.” “This
is an idea that the guys and I have been kicking around for years,”
said bass player Too Slim. On the subsequent album’s cover
art, shot at Tweetsie, the band members touts their affection for
the park, saying it is one of the few gigs for which they bring
along their children and significant others. Released
this week and for sale on the band’s Web site and at their
concerts, as well as on Tweetsie’s Web site and in the park’s
souvenir stores, Ridin’ the Tweetsie Railroad features
three new compositions about the park: “Tweetsie Railroad Line,”
“Ghost Train” and “Tweetsie Junction.” With
its focus on railroad songs, both legendary and new, the album also
has “Wabash Cannonball,” “Orange Blossom Special”
and “Casey Jones,” songs that, though popular staples
of Riders concerts, the band had never before recorded. This is Riders’ second collaboration with a theme park. The band won a Grammy Award last year for Woody’s Roundup Featuring Riders In The Sky, the soundtrack of a live Disneyland show (THE LOOP, February 23, 2001). Will the popular band bring similar fame to Tweetsie? Robbins—who, for the record, loves the album: “My favorite is ‘Tweetsie Railroad Line’ for obvious reasons, but also its a catchy song that you can’t get out of your head”—dens’t aim for such grandeur. “I told the members of the band, ‘Nobody outside the Southeast is going to know what Tweetsie Railroad is.’ They said, ‘That may or may not be true, but it doesn't’ matter to our fan base; they get the latest album no matter what it’s called.’"
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