Dan's been pretty excited about adding cabanas this season. Folks have been asking for them for years, and we finally made it happen.
Opening day at Splashin' Safari, long before the waves were turned on, I heard Dan's voice over the 2-way, calling to IT to add a song to the water-park's music rotation: Barry Manilow's Copacabana.
I had a feeling I knew where he was at the time.
Sure enough, a few hours later when the music kicked on, the first song had a driving disco beat.
Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl ...
The first family to rent one of our Bahari River Cabanas is pictured below. Mike, Debra, and Stephen T. from Marion, Illinois, were kind enough to let us snap a photo of them.
Peek inside the cabana and you'll see how large the lockable cabinet is. There's a mini-fridge in the other corner.
Click here for more cabana information, including how to make a reservation.
They were young and they had each other Who could ask for more?
I don't remember the last time we reached 90 degrees on Opening Day (and this is not a reference to Voyage's three sections of 90-degree track!).
Actually it was 92 degrees ..
Speaking of Voyage, this young lady was thrilled to have grown enough over the winter months to take on Raven, Liberty Launch, Legend, and ...
I caught young Kimberly, from Ferdinand, in mid-hop in this photo (or, technically, mid-hop-prep-crouch), but rest assured she hit the 48-inch mark with a tiny bit to spare.
Kimberly was one happy six year old and couldn't wait to ride again.
Here's another tweet from today:
Been in Thanksgiving for just 10 minutes and already heard "Goober Peas" and "Peanut Butter" songs. #HWSS
We enjoyed another day with our Travel Channel crew (the show will air sometime in July - we'll let you know). This tickled me enough to tweet yet again:
Kevin, our @TravelChannel director, said "shot-gun mic" just as our security officers walked by. Yes, they did a double-take. #HWSS
And the dummies are heading up Mammoth's lifthill.
These "dummies" get to ride a bunch of laps before the rest of us do.
Please note: The rather unusual "restraints" are there because the dummies can't hold themselves on - we humans will hold on tight, plus our center of gravity - ahem! our rumps - will keep us safely in place.
Thanks to all the great families (some of which included friends, too) for all the great videos and photos. We enjoyed reviewing them all.
So who won?
Only the Travel Channel knows for sure.
They'll let us know very soon and we'll, of course, pass along the announcement.
We can tell you who our Super-Fan Family finalists are - we have five families who are on pins and needles, hoping to be chosen for the top prize.
Meanwhile, the four families who are finalists, but don't get chosen by Travel Channel producers still get to come ride Mammoth on May 12 and serve as extras for the Travel Channel shoot!
Below are the videos from our five finalists. Which one do you think Travel Channel should choose as Mammoth's featured family? (Cast your "fan favorite" vote below.)
This family is from Louisville, Kentucky:
This family is from Rockville, Indiana:
This family is from Lawrenceville, Illinois:
This family is from Paducah, Kentucky:
And this family is from Evansville, Indiana:
Let's take a poll and we'll give our Fan Favorite a little something extra on May 12, too!
But somehow, it seems fair to expect the news media to get it right.
My absolute favorite Santa Claus Land headline was back in 1992, when the park had been Holiday World for nearly a decade. It was my first season with the park and we'd had great fun with the bungee show and rides we offered. Bungee was located where the high-dive show used to be (and still exists). If you look around behind the high-dive seating, you can still see the footers that were put in for the bungee tower.
The plan was always to offer bungee jumping for a single season. Then we'd go back to the high-dive show.
But when, toward the season's end, a newspaper article ran about our bungee show, the big hook was that we were not going to continue it in 1993.
Never planned to. Told them so.
But it was more exciting to write about the "big decision," apparently.
The wire service picked up the story and it ran all over the place. My budget nearly exploded as the clipping service mailed us boxes and boxes of clips. Although the article was the same, the headlines varied wildly -- as they are written by someone on each paper's staff.
The one I'll never forget, for its absurdity, was: Santa Claus Land Rids Self of Bungee Nightmare
I seem to remember learning that phrase from my Grandma Cassidy, an adorable leprechaun of a woman. But I'm not sure I've heard it in the last 20 years or so.
Until yesterday, when I said it to Rich Davis and he used it in this article about the upcoming Golden Ticket Awards.
Perhaps some will now expect a Holidog appearance.
Or maybe we'll have it covered when the winners take a bow.
Testing on Mammoth continues - we should have video to show you next week. The test dummies are pleased to hear temps are predicted to get close to 90 by mid-week.
This guy seems rather pleased, too ... not to mention eager.
