Volume 2, No. 12. June 28, 2002
A feel
for direction
A primary desire among people with visual impairments is independence, the ability
to experience life without the constant assistance of another person. Dorney
Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania, has made a significant step forward for the
blind community in this regard with what may be the industry’s first portable
tactile park map.
“This
is one way we try to be proactive adding to our guest services,” said Chris
Ozimek, the park’s public relations manager. Other attractions have tactile
maps on large display boards, and at least one has a book similar to Dorney’s
available for review at guest relations. Dorney has three such maps—a spiral-binder
of nine 8-by-10 pages representing the eight different sections of the park
and one explanation page—that blind guests may carry with them throughout
Dorney.
Available
at guest relations, the maps require no deposit. “If they don’t bring
it back, we can get more,” Ozimek said. “That’s part of working
with the Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.” Dorney approached
the association’s Lehigh County chapter with a request to do the maps,
and the Association put its creative talents and technology to work.
The tactile map is based on Dorney’s fun guide maps. Elements of the park are raised on the page and differentiated by varying textures, such as checkerboards, herring bone and solid blocks. The key is in Braille. Association staff built the tactile map on computer, then photocopied the images on a touch paper that is run through a ZY-Fuse standard heater, creating the raised images. The braille is typed out on a Juliet Embosser.
With
the maps now programmed in the Association’s computers, they easily can
be duplicated or altered. Dorney is paying for the creation of the maps; the
Coplay Lions and Lioness clubs helped the Association purchase the ZY-Fuse standard
heater.
Next
week Dorney Park will roll out another new customer service initiative, a low-tech
child locator system called Kid Track. Parents and their children are fitted
with a wristband that lists a cell phone or pager number, a security code and
a personal verification number. When children lose their parents, the park’s
security personnel will be better able to track down the separated parties and
match them up with the information on the wristbands.
Bottoms'
up
You
would have thought President George W. Bush had entered the Golden Bear Amphitheater
at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, California. The cheers for the man
stepping into the spotlight June 16 were loud and long. And if you had thought
the president had graced the stage that Sunday evening, you would not have been
entirely wrong; Timothy Bottoms’ most recent role was playing the U.S.
president on the Comedy Central series That’s My Bush!
The
sustained ovation for Bottoms, however, came from an audience of coaster enthusiasts
cheering the actor who played the extortionist in the film Rollercoaster.
That 1977 thriller helped spawn the American Coaster Enthusiasts when, as a
publicity stunt, the film’s producers organized a coaster-riding marathon
at Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia, one of the film’s settings. Three
of the marathoners —Richard Munch, Roy Brashears and Paul Greenwald—decided
to start the club, which now has a membership of 8,000.
Kicking
off an 18-month celebration of ACE’s 25th anniversary, the club launched
its 25th annual coaster convention with a panel discussion featuring some of
the talent that produced Rollercoaster. Seated on the amphitheater stage
just yards down the midway from the Revolution where the movie’s
climactic scenes took place were scriptwriter William Link, cinematographer
David M. Walsh, designer Henry Bumstead, the wife of producer Jennings Lang,
Monica Lewis Lang, who had a small role in the movie as a tourist at Magic Mountain,
and Bottoms, along with Munch and moderator Alan Jay Glueckman. Afterward, the
audience moved to the Magic Moments Theater for a screening of Rollercoaster
in Sensurround.
For the occasion ACE auctioned off a ride with Bottoms on Revolution, his first time on the coaster since he was filmed riding it 25 years ago. “I rode it a lot 25 years ago,” said the actor who then and now harbors a fear of coasters. But with bon vivant he took the front seat with Richard Hatem, a scriptwriter from Pasadena whose credits include The Mothman Prophecies. Hatem bid $675 for the right to the ride, fulfilling what he said was a dream. “I’m completely obsessed with Rollercoaster because that’s what inspired me to go into scriptwriting,” Hatem said. “I learned a lot about structure and character from that movie.”
On this night Bottoms learned that he has an ardent fan base among coaster lovers. “It fed my ego,” he said of the reception he received in the amphitheater. “On Bush I got fed pretty good, but this is really cool."
Scoping
out a future
The new Destination Cosmos show at Planète Futuroscope in Jaunay-Clan,
France, exits next to a gift shop, a typical strategy at theme parks today.
At this shop, however, guests can purchase a telescope, among other interplanetary-themed
wares, and that exemplifies as much as anything what sets this 300-hectare (741-acre)
park near Poitiers apart from any other.
Differentiating
from France’s other amusement parks has helped Planète Futuroscope
total 27 million visitors in its 25-year history. But it needs to do better
to sustain its high-tech environment, so new Director Generale Philippe Laflandre
this year is embarking on a strategy to grow attendance and encourage repeat
visits while looking at ways to cut operational costs, including cutting back
from a year-round schedule.
Opened in 1987, Futuroscope offers 20 attractions, including 15 stunning geometric structures each housing a different type of cinema, from surround-screens to 3D movies. “We are the only place in the world where you can have the six different Imax processes in one place,” Laflandre said. The park saw double-digit attendance growth its first six years, and by 1996 management was so encouraged at the success it expanded the park’s calendar from nine months to year-round.
“That
grew a lot of expenses,” said Laflandre, who came to Futuroscope 14 months
ago after serving 10 years at Euro Disney where he was vice president of theme
parks. Meanwhile, attendance has been decreasing since 1999, dropping from 2.3
million in 2000 to about 2 million last year.
The
park changed its name in February from Parc du Futuroscope to Planète
Futuroscope as part of a European-wide get-re-acquainted marketing campaign.
For the venue itself Laflandre decided on a course of “optimization of
what is already built” rather than overhauling the physical plant. In other
words, he plans to replace five of his films and shows every year. “Let’s
say I have this thing that is not giving the highest satisfaction in the park,
so I refurbish it and put something new in its place,” he said. “Therefore
I avoid spending my scarce money on digging and building walls.
This year the park introduced Plongeurs sans Limite (Ocean Men) about dueling breath holding divers, Les ailes du courage (The Wings of Courage), the true story of a pilot who survived a crash in the Andes, Sur les traces du Panda (The Panda Adventure) portraying a woman’s quest to site a giant panda in China, and Destination Cosmos. Planète Futuroscope also opened a new multi-media nighttime extravanganze, Le Miroir d’Uranie (see the New Arrival on this show in THE LOOP, February 8, 2002).
All
of its films have an educational element to them, securing a core school group
business which comprises about 20 percent of attendance, Laflandre said. Another
20 percent of his gate comes from group sales. The rest are individuals and
families, and the park already has a return rate of 45 percent. To increase
both those last two sectors Planète Futuroscope will be hosting new entertainment
programs to prompt local patrons in particular to return often during the course
of the year.
In
conjunction with its space theme for this year, the park staged an E.T. festival
that ran from February to April 4, when the reissued Steven Spielberg movie
opened in France. “The rationale of our marketing thrust was that ET gave
as a rendezvous to his extraterrestrial friends the only place it could happen,
which is Futuroscope,” Leflandre said. The park is planning a Brazilian
folk festival for the summer and something for Halloween and Christmas. This,
though, could be the only Christmas festival the park stages; beginning in 2003
Leflandre is planning to close the park from Halloween to February.
“Our
plan is to grow attendance in ’02,” he said. “Even maintaining
2 million would be a good number for me, but there are chances we could do better.”
Bicycle built for
zoo
Zoos are close cousins of the city park, even those that are not part of, or
grew out of, city parks. Today’s zoos share many qualities with parks:
spacious byways, plentiful flora, greenspace, shady places, large lakes and,
of course, wildlife. Now the Phoenix Zoo in Phoenix, Arizona, shares an attribute
common to many city parks: bikes and paddleboats.
Last year Wheel
Fun Rentals set up a concession as part of the Phoenix Zoo’s annual summer
promotion, which included extended evening hours. “They were so successful
that we looked to have them come in full time,” said Aimee Barwegen, the
zoo’s director of media and public relations. Four months ago the rental
company moved in permanently and began offering four-seat and two-seat bikes,
in addition to standard one-seaters.
Guests can take self-guided paddleboat tours on the lake, where they can see lemurs, spider monkeys and scarlet macaws. Cyclists can use the zoo’s main walkways to cover the zoo’s 125 acres (51 hectares). “We ask them to watch their speed, and most do,” Barwegen said. “You have the challenges with crazy teen-agers flying down the hills, but the results have been more positive than negatives."
Tale
gating
In the Texas Panhandle sometimes the only sign of human life you’ll see
is a truck hauling grain or milk down a two-lane blacktop criss-crossing the
arid plains. And on that truck, you might see a billboard advertising Wonderland
Amusement Park in Amarillo, Texas.
“It’s
sort of like bus benches or taxi cabs, but it’s on trucks, because that’s
who goes through the area,” said Paul Borchardt, president of Wonderland
Park. By “area” he means “region,” a geographic reach of
27,000 square miles. “You have to be careful whose trucks you put it on.
You want only those who will keep their trucks clean.”
His
choice is a local trucker with a fleet of about 20 rigs who hauls grain to the
elevators and railroad yards. The advertisements are placed on a large sheet
of mylar which is stuck on an aluminum board hung on the back of the truck.
“They wanted to put it on the sides, but I wanted it on back,” Borchardt
said. After all, on the area’s two-lane highways, many drivers spend a
long time looking at the back of a truck. As Borchardt noted, “Frequency
of signboards is a good thing.”
Borchardt
has secured another medium to get his message out throughout the region: the
weather. On top of the Texas Tornado roller coaster sits a weather station
and video camera with the capability to zoom and rotate 360 degrees. The local
CBS Television affiliate's weather reports include broadcasts views from the
Wonderland Cam. The park also sponsors weather reports on local radio stations,
who get their meteorological data from the Wonderland weather station, data
which also appears on the park’s web site. So, whereas in most cities the
typical tag line for weather reports is “the temperature at the airport
is. . .” around Amarillo deejays and forecasters say “The temperature
at Wonderland is. . .”
“Everywhere you go, everybody says what the weather is at Wonderland,” Borchardt said. “If they think of weather, they think of Wonderland."
A good sport
What started as a training and camaraderie tool for its lifeguards has turned
into an annual event for triathletes at Wild Rivers Waterpark in Irvine, California.
The Wild Rivers Waterpark Challenge, run in conjunction with an annual 5K race
at the park and its adjacent property, requires competitors to run through Wild
Rivers taking on every slide and ride.
The
program was championed by Jon Colletti, Wild Rivers’ controller, who ran
track and cross country in college. “I like running,” he said, and
as a former lifeguard he enjoyed the park’s olympics. With his knowledge
of organizing such races he teamed with the park's operations staff to turn
the waterpark into a fun-filled steeple chase. Competitors start in groups of
three every 15 seconds from the Hurricane Harbor bodyboard wave pool. Swimming
and then running out through the waves they wind through the whole park, swimming
through the Monsoon Lagoon wave pool, climbing towers and sliding down racing
slides, body flumes, tube slides and chute rides.
“When we started talking about opening it to the public three years ago, I couldn’t believe we were going to do it,” said Kevin Kopeny, director of operations. But competitors came aplenty. Last Saturday’s third annual running drew 500 contestants, twice the number that took on the two-mile course last year. “Everybody is already talking about next year,” Kopeny said Saturday afternoon just hours after competitors ranging in age from 7 to 69 tackled the two-mile course.
Michael
Collins, 36, won the $500 first prize for men with a time of 12:10, 35 seconds
off the record run & slide last year, and 29-year-old Julie Swail bested
all women with a time of 13.55. More impressive was the man who took the $250
second place prize in the Waterpark Challenge, Brad Kahlefeldt, a 22-year-old
from Australia, who earlier had won the 5K race.
That
is one of the unexpected benefits the park has realized in opening its in-house
Lifeguard Olympics competition to the public. Triathletes from near and far
are descending on Wild Rivers to compete, and the local media is noticing. “It’s
good for the waterpark, and for the waterpark industry, because it positions
us as a physical activity, and not just a fun place for families,” Kopeny
said.
New Arrivals
It’s
a roller coaster!
Knott’s
Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, announces the arrival of Xcelerator,
June 22, 2002. Measurements: 205 feet high (62 meters), 2,202 feet long (667
meters), 82 mph (131 km/h), 20-passenger trains. Delivered by Intamin.
Here's a ride themed to embrace the rebel attitude of those hot-rodding,
flame-encrusted halcyon days of youths burning rubber on the strip in their
’57 Chevies. Yet this ride's opening epitomized proceed-with-care deliberation
and launched to the strains of the most patriotic of phrases.
At
the last minute Xcelerator's
debut ride—promised to high bidders in a charity auction for the Boys and
Girls Club of Buena Park and the Speech and Language Center of Buena Park—was
pushed back two days from the announced date of June 20 to Saturday.
“The real delay was some additional testing we wanted to do prior to the
state inspectors coming in, primarily with the hydraulic system” said Vice
President and General Manager Jack Falfas of the prototype launch mechanism.
“In fairness, with the scrutiny that’s out there, everybody wanted
to make sure we did everything right, ourselves and the state.”
The California inspectors descended on Friday, and waved the green flag at 3:01
p.m. (15,01) on Saturday—just one minute after Falfas and the state’s
chief inspector launched out of the station for the half-minute ride. Immediately
after, the 38 auction winners—who raised $10,500 with a top bid of $2,200—loaded
up for their rides. The debut ceremony, played out before local government officials,
construction contractors, print media and representatives of the two charity
organizations, cut to the chase.
“Jack wanted to center the first ride around the auction winners,”
said Susan Tierney, Knott’s director of public relations. “He didn’t
want to hold up the launch with a bunch of ceremonial stuff.” That ceremony
comprised only the U.S. National Anthem, traditionally played every day at the
opening of all Cedar Fair parks, but for the first time marking the opening
of a Cedar Fair ride. “We thought it would be neat to do it when an attraction
opened,” Tierney said. “The train launched right at the end of the
National Anthem; it was perfect.”
Confetti and streamers rained on the attendees, who then lined up for their
own rides. The public finally got on just after 6 p.m. (18,00), including a
handful of American Coaster Enthusiasts left over from the annual ACE Coaster
Convention earlier in the week at Knotts. The enthusiasts had agonizingly watched
the ride being tested and Knott’s employees getting previews, all the while
watching their own chance at exclusive ride time on the coaster slipping away.
For most riders Xcelerator was worth the wait. The hydraulic launch sends
the trains smoothly down the track reaching 82 mph in 2.3 seconds. They rise
up a 90-degree tophat hill, twisting on a 90-degree axis en route to the peak.
En route back down the train turns again, threading the needle of supports on
its way toward a pair of high-speed, over-banked U-turns. The ride lasts half
a minute; the pounding heartbeat and breathless laughter lasts significantly
longer.
“My first time?” said Falfas. “Usually there are so many concerns:
is it going to be accepted, is it a good ride, a great ride? My first time out
I thought, ‘Boy is this launch long.’ It seemed like you were on that
launch for a long time, and my eye was really focused on the tower, at where
we would head straight up. And then when it went up, I was so elated, looking
out at the city. And then it just dove down and I didn’t think about much
until I rode it again.”
At a cost of $13 million, Xcellerator gives Knott’s another world-class
coaster to go with the woodie fave Ghostrider. For Falfas, this one has
particularly special meaning, aside from its hot-rod theming that hearkens to
his youth and the thrilling sensations that heartened his spirit. “I finally
have a midway and steel ride,” said the longtime Cedar Fair veteran. “I
finally have something like Cedar Point.” Truly, he has something unlike
anything anywhere.
It’s
an animal health center!
The Los Angeles Zoo in Los Angeles, California, announces the arrival of the
Animal Health and Conservation Center, June 27, 2002. Measurements: 29,000 square
feet total (8,788 square meters) including a 5,500-square-foot (1,667-square-meter)
holding area, 5,750-square-foot (1,742-square-meter) hospital, 5,500 square-foot
(1,667-square-meter) quarantine area and 4,728-square-foot (1,433-square-foot)
commissary. Delivered by architects NBBJ.
To say the rest of the zoo staff is jealous is an understatement. Dr. Bob Cooper
and his team of three full-time and two part-time veterinarians yesterday officially
moved into their new digs, a dramatic modern building wedged into the side of
a hill at the back of the Los Angeles Zoo. The $13.4 million center features
a radiology suite with table and wall-mounted X-ray equipment and even dental
X-rays, intensive care units with moveable walls, and general purpose rooms
that can handle everything from aquatic animals in pools to monkeys needing
climbing structures.
City Councilman Tom LaBonge appropriately brought a loaf of bread as a housewarming gift for the new hospital. After the official dedication before a crowd of donors, city officials, Friends of the Zoo and envious zoo staff on a beautifully breezy summer day, the entourage moved indoors to tour the building. Though some animals are already using the quarantine area, the hospital received its finishing touches—mostly decorative matter—in the hours leading up to the dedication.
It’s
elephant and lemur exhibits!
The Indianapolis Zoo in Indianapolis, Indiana, announces the arrival of the
African Elephant Preserve and a Ring Tailed Lemur building, June 22, 2002. Measurements:
African Elephant Preserve, 2 1/2 acres (one hectare), a 15,000-square-foot (4,545-square-meter)
holding building, two yards of 64,000 and 17,000 square feet (19,394 and 5,152
square meters), two exercise yards of 4,400 and 5,800 square feet (1,333 and
1,758 square meters), a 6,200-square-foot training yard, a 400,000-gallon pool
(1.5 million liters) with a 15-foot (5-meter) waterfall, and two mudholes courtesy
of the elephants; ring tailed lemur building, 1,030 square feet (312 square
meters) with three lemur holding pens and one flamingo room.
The
zoo that won awards with its African
elephant breeding program—successfully birthing two calves from artificial
insemination—now has a long-awaited home for the celebrity residents. Capable
of holding up to 11 adults (the zoo currently has five adults and the two babies),
the $7.8 million preserve gives the elephants a sloping savannah on which to
roam and a crystal clear pool of water, thanks to a full-scale filtration system.
That
pool of water could lead to another major contribution by Indianapolis to other
zoos. The water drains to a cistern and goes through a prefilter to skim large
elements like straw, then through two large sand filters. The water is chlorinated
and treated with muratic acid then pumped back to the pool via the waterfall.
“A lot of this is new to us,” Keith Schnell, the zoo’s director
of facilities said of the water system. “We’re learning as we go.”
The elephants have resided in their new home since the beginning of the month,
but the water is refreshingly clear, and the elephants have already formed mudholes
on the pool banks.
While
the elephants moved in to their new home early this month, the zoo waited until
Saturday to celebrate the Preserve’s opening to coincide with the public
debut of the renovated lemur exhibits flanking the zoo’s central cafe.
On the island where gibbons once resided, the zoo moved in two species of lemurs
new to Indianapolis, the blue-eyed black lemurs and red-ruffed lemurs. On the
opposite side of cafe’s outdoor dining area, the collared and ring-tailed
lemurs moved into their new year-round home that they share with pink flamingos.
A wood flamingo holding shed had been torn down and a new cliff-facade holding
house built in its place with three rooms for the lemurs and one for the flamingos.
This will allow the zoo to keep the lemurs on exhibit year round, rather than
removing them to off-exhibit holding pens for the on-again-off-again winters
of central Indiana.
The
zoo took a low-key approach to the official unveilings, foregoing formal ceremonies
for a packed schedule of meet-the-keepers programs at both exhibits. Public
Broadcasting television’s costumed star Zoboomafoo was on hand to honor
his fellow lemurs and thrill his young fans. “When we first put lemurs
out in the zoo, no child in the world knew what those things were,” said
Karen Burns, vice president for external relations. “When were were opening
the exhibit Saturday, the kids were going, ‘Lemurs! Lemurs!’ They
knew what it was, and I think the Zoboomafoo creature had a lot to do with it.”
The two new exhibits certainly struck a chord with the community. Burns said more than 6,000 people visited the zoo Saturday. “Given the fact it was a 90-degree day, it was a very good turnout.”
It's
a roller coaster!
Warner Bros. Movie World in Gold Coast, Australia, announces the arrival of
Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster, June 17, 2002. Measurements: 17 meters high
(56 feet), 530 meters long (1,749). Delivered by Mack.
When a blockbuster-to-be movie is filmed right next door, who wouldn't grab some of the glory, not to mention some of the props? Desiring to build an indoor coaster and looking for something to replace its Gremlins ride, which opened with the park in 1991, WB Movie World grabbed the opportunity of the filming of Scooby-Doo in the studios adjoining the theme park to make the changes it long desired.
In doing so, the park accomplished a marriage of many forms. The Mack Mouse starts off with a long run through several scenes typical of a haunted house or dark ride, with swinging axes and monsters jumping out at the cars. A quarter of the way into the ride, the car's ascend a vertical lift and roll down the first drop backwards. The continue up onto a turntable, where they rotate and continue the rest of the hairpin course in traditional manner, albeit all indoors.
"We were able to use the same people involved with the movie to assist with the theming of the ride, and used a number of the actual artifacts from the movie on the ride," said Steve Peet, CEO of Warner Village Theme Parks. Several of the park's rides carry out movie themes, but not to the degree Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster does, which nearly replicates a coaster Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne rides in the movie. "It was very, very easy to convert the imagery of that scene straight into the ride itself," Peet said.
When WB Movie World was deemed the ideal place to give the movie its Australian premier, the occasion also served as the perfect moment to premier the ride. The gala night attracted key tourism and entertainment officials, Linda Cardellini who plays Velma in the movie, and the big star himself, Neil Fanning, the voice of Scooby and a performer in the park's Police Academy Stunt Show.
"Unbeknownst to us, he did the voice of Scooby-Doo," Peet said. Fanning first was hired to help the movie with coordinating locations, including the Warner Village's Wet 'n' Wild waterpark, which served as a setting for the mythical Spooky Island Theme park, but his talents became obvious to the producers who cast him as the lead vocal role.
It’s
a 3D movie!
Santa’s Village in Jefferson, New Hampshire, announces the arrival of Christmas
Chaos, June 16, 2002. Measurements: 8:38 time of movie, 300 seats. Delivered
by PowderKeg, Inc.
Christian
Gainer, as vice president of operations at Santa’s Village, had often visited
Orlando, Florida, and often seen the stunning 3D movies produced for the Universal
and Disney theme parks. As he pondered what new production to put in his park’s
theater, he theorized that many of the guests who visit the rural New England
amusement park have not seen 3D movies. He was right.
“When
that list comes out and starts tapping people on the head, there’s an immediate
reaction,” Gainer said. The list is Santa’s delivery manifest which,
in the movie’s climax, is accidently sprinkled with flying reindeer dust
and begins flying through the air. Santa shouts to the theater audience to help
him get his list back, “and the children start swatting at it,” Gainer
said.
Aimed
at children, the movie has a moral. Santa’s new head elf, L. Fastidious
Tinkerdoodle, convinces his boss to modernize operations, improving efficiency
through computer technology. When things get hectic instead and that all-import
list goes missing, Tinkerdoodle has learned his lesson: that one shouldn’t
try to change the magic of Christmas.
If
there is any irony in this message being delivered in the form of one of entertainment’s
newest technologies, it is lost on the children who fill that steep-graded theater
swatting at an illusion.
It’s
an interactive play structure!
Wild Waves and Enchanted Village in Seattle, Washington, announces the arrival
of Hook’s Lagoon, June 15, 2002. Measurements: 4,000 square feet
(1,212 meters), 40 feet high (12 meters), 11 slides and a 295-gallon bucket
(1,121 liters). Delivered by Whitewater West.
In
keeping with the pirate theming of Wild Waves’ new play structure, the
amusement park celebrated the public debut of Hook’s Lagoon with
some buried treasure. The park partnered with a local television and radio station
to stage the “Grand in the Sand” contest, burying 30 Pepsi bottles
in the newly landscaped area’s imported white sand. Every bottle contained
a prize, including one with $1,000. The 30 contestants were chosen through an
in-park sweepstakes, each lining up to dig up the buried treasure one at a time,
opting for single-file searching over a mass dash of digging. “Safety is
a priority,” said the park’s Director of Marketing David Dorman.
Hook’s Lagoon is one of 10 new attractions going into the newly-acquired Six Flags, Inc. park, which also introduced two new themed areas, The Great Northwest and the Old West Territory. Two rides are yet to open, the Lumberjack Falls shoot-the-chute and an Octopus, both of which Dorman said should open later this summer.
It’s
a shark exhibit!
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, announces the arrival
of Shark Lagoon, June 14, 2002. Measurements: 10,000 square feet (3,030 square
feet), three pools totaling 90,000 gallons (342,000 liters), 140 sharks, 13
species, one interactive play area, one cafe, one gift shop and one theater.
Many
aquariums and zoos navigate a dual course when it comes to exhibiting sharks.
The hyper-mythical fierceness of sharks makes for a sure-fire marketing tool
that entices crowds to view what pop culture has positioned as man’s evilest
enemy in the wild. The mission of zoos and aquariums, however, is to promote
understanding and conservation of these endangered sea creatures.
The
Aquarium of the Pacific has taken a novel approach to this dilemma with the
world’s first full-scale shark touch exhibit, the largest capital improvement
in the aquarium’s four-year history. Guests can get a feel of epaulette,
bamboo and young nurse and zebra sharks in shallow tanks, then move around to
a larger tank to watch adult zebras and nurse sharks, sand tigers, sandbars
and whitetip reef sharks, plus a couple of rays, circling through the water.
“It’s
a touch pool, not a petting zoo,” said Aquarist Michael Howard. Docents
are on hand to coach guests on how to feel the sharks, with two fingers in a
light stroke down the back: no grabbing, pinching or pushing. “We monitor
everybody to make sure they don’t stroke them continuously,” Howard
said.
Choosing
species of shark for a touch pool necessitated a few additional criteria for
the aquarium staff. The sharks needed to be small enough to live comfortably
in the shallow pools but hardy enough to endure manhandling—or, more to
the point, childhandling. They also needed to exhibit a peaceful demeanor; the
bamboos and epaulette generally stay inactive during the days, and except when
they are mating the sharks don’t tend to be aggressive with submerged fingers
and hands, Howard said.
Shark
Lagoon now enables the aquarium to answer an oft-asked question among patrons:
where are the big sharks? Large crowds turned out for the Friday public opening
that came two days after aquarium management and local officials dedicated the
new exhibit with due decorum under sunny skies. Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill
officially dedicated the touch pools by introducing the last resident bamboo
shark into the water. Then, four keepers carried the last sand tiger shark to
the large tank.
In
addition to the three shark tanks, the exhibit includes an oversize squid trying
to avoid attack from a shark. Both serve as climbing structures for kids, who
get a hands-on experience on how the squid can defend itself. “Squids squirt
ink, but for obvious reasons we use water,” said Marilyn Padilla, the aquarium’s
public relations coordinator, pointing to the stream of water keeping the children
on the shark at bay. Taking advantage of the new crowds gravitating to what
was an outdoor verandah of the aquarium, a just-opened sgift shop sells shark-themed
merchandise, a theater stages shows about sharks, and a cafe provides for human
feeding frenzies. “If seeing the sharks eating makes you hungry you can
go there for a snack,” Padilla said.
Despite
its novel approach to exhibiting sharks, the Aquarium of the Pacific does not
regard its new exhibit as a novelty act, Howard said. He has noticed many guests
reading the accompanying educational signs, and he feels the closer-than-ever
contact with sharks does help create better understanding of these creatures.
“At the very least people are learning what sharks feel like,” he
said. “I think it’s a great opportunity. I still get a little nervous
because people can get rough, but the benefits far outweigh those issues.”
It’s
a whale demonstration!
Six Flags Worlds of Adventure announces the arrival of Shouka, May 28, 2002.
Measurements: 15 feet, 8 inches (5.2 meters) long, 5,000 pounds (2,250 kilograms).
The 9-year-old female orca from France arrived at the former SeaWorld Cleveland’s Shamu Stadium—now simply called Whale Stadium—in mid-May, bringing the popular animal back to northern Ohio for the first time since Six Flags bought the park in January 2001. The media met her in a satellite tour May 28, and shortly after she began doing training presentations on a regular daily schedule. Park officials have not determined when they will start staging full-fledged orca shows, and do not know yet when Shouka’s companion, the 10-year-old male Kshamenk, will arrive from Argentina, said park spokeswoman Kim Stover.
It’s
an animatronic dinner theater!
The Black Bear Jamboree announces its arrival in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, May
22, 2002. Measurements: 730 seats, nine menu items, 125 service employees, 20
cast members, six musicians, and six animatronic bears. Delivered by Sally Corporation.
David
Fee had a tall order to fill. On March 1 he took possession of the Glasgow Theater
in Pigeon Forge, a venue that had laid dark in bankruptcy for two years, and
planned to have a dinner theater running by Memorial Day at the end of May.
“I had in my mind what we wanted to do, so we hit the ground running,”
he said.
His
biggest challenges: hiring good employees, “ones that will stay, ones that
know what they’re doing,” and signing up six bears who could act.
“We knew we wanted to do the bears, but we didn’t know who the supplier
would be. We didn’t come upon Sally’s name until March, but it became
obvious that Sally was the best in the industry. Our biggest thing was time.
‘We need this thing in three months, can you do this job?’”
Sally
said yes and custom built six animatronic bears ranging from four to nine feet
tall (one to three meters), three “good bears” and three “bad
bears” who live in the Smoky Mountains and interact with the live singing
and dancing performers. The bad bears do nothing more sinister than steal baseball
caps and campers’ coolers but they do so with a convincing growl, while
the good bears merely enjoy their natural environs and try to learn singing
from the rest of the cast. “We wanted bears that are believable,”
Fee said. “Not realistic; we didn’t want taxidermy bears, but we didn’t
want Chuckee Cheese, either.”
The bears have yet to enjoy a red carpet opening night. Upon opening his doors for his first show four days before Memorial Day weekend, Black Bear Jamboree was sold out, Fee said. “We had 1,400 people a day right off the bat,” he said of the twice-a-day shows, which will expand to three shows daily in July. Fee, a veteran of the Pigeon Forge entertainment scene, anticipates the load will lighten in August, allowing him time to do a proper premier. “Come the third week of August we will have a grand opening,” he said. “I’m not much for tuxedos anyway.”
Eric's Turn
Love,
reign over us
Like
any fledgling business or publication, we are big at celebrating, however briefly,
each milestone THE LOOP surpasses. Many of those first achievements and benchmark
moments we have shamelessly bragged about in this space over the course of our
first 35 issues and 17 months (514 days, 12,342 hours, 740,520 minutes) of publishing.
So tolerate me this once more as I mark yet another important milestone—not
just for THE LOOP, but for my life—and in the course of doing so pay tribute
to a key member of our team. That would be Sarah Smith, above savoring a bowl
of the world’s best potato salad at Del Grosso’s Amusement Park in
Tipton, Pennsylvania. Sarah not only is a principal in the company, she is,
as of today, my wife of 10 years.
I would be remiss in not publicly acknowledging her contributions to the success
of THE LOOP. She maintains our email database, assists in the biweekly production
of the newsletter and provides keen insights into improving the efficiency of
our operation. Her work here is tireless, which is all the more remarkable in
that she has another important full-time job that takes up more than 12 hours
of most of her days.
Most important of all, she has been a continuous source of inspiration and encouragement
through all of our years together and most especially the past 17 months as
I struggled to keep THE LOOP publishing through economic hardships and technical
hiccups. ]
Because
our anniversary has come on a night we are publishing THE LOOP, we’re not
doing much formal celebrating of this significant 10th. But, then, we try to
celebrate every day we spend together as significant. And producing yet another
LOOP is in itself something of a celebration of our teamwork and companionship.
Regarding both, THE LOOP and our marriage, in the intensity of this moment,
I can proudly boast of two of my finest achievements ever: publishing this our
35th issue, and hearing Sarah Smith reply “yes” almost 12 years ago,
and say "I do" 10 years ago this day.
Sarah keeps building our database with subscriptions, and if you wish to add
yourself or a colleague to our subscription list and receive our free email
notifications, email her at sarah@gettheloop.com.
If you are interested in advertising in THE LOOP, especially with trade show
season coming and the parks and zoos enjoying record-breaking attendance, contact
our advertising manager Lynne Mosman by emailing to lynne@gettheloop.com.
If you wish to list your facility or association on our Connections page or
comment on THE LOOP, contact me at eric@gettheloop.com.
212.265.0043
lvhnyc@msn.com
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LLC
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