Yearly Archives: 2006

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A hole other view

Posted March 23, 2006

Jack from Anderson came on last weekend’s Voyage construction tour, too.

A group of us laughed about how last summer a lot of Guests would peek at The Future Home of The Voyage through the knotholes in the fence just past Raging Rapids. I couldn’t find a single hole that was large enough to frame a photo.

But Jack found one

Knot bad!
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More memories of feathered friends

Posted March 21, 2006

It’s amazing the Santa Claus Land memories that are stirred whenever we talk about the Educated Animals.

Here’s an email from last week:

I really appreciated the picture of the educated animals. I tried to tell my wife about them but could not do it justice. One of my greatest memories is of my mother putting money in the chicken who played baseball stand. Mom hates birds (don’t ask me) she is scared to death of them. The bird immediately went out to second base, did his/her daily constitutional and went right back to its change. The look on my mom’s face was priceless. Thanks for the memories. See ya this summer.

Keith B.
Vienna, Illinois

Sure enough, here’s a photo of the Educated Animals display of a baseball-playing chicken:

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On the road again

Posted March 17, 2006

He’s on the road again, our Holidog.

You may remember he arrived in the mail just prior to Christmas and then whisked off to Florida for the colder months.

Now he’s heading west.

And apparently, he’s driving.

A dog’s got to eat, right? So our little tourist made a point of chowing down at the very first KFC.

He wanted me to be sure to let everyone know he buried the bones out back.

With a full belly and his blue suede hat, the hound dog was on the road again.

He’s off to Graceland!

Holidog isn’t the only staff member who gets to travel during the off-season.

A number of us have business travel, too.

Will just got back from D.C., several directors have been to Florida.

I went to Chicago and Allentown, Pennsylvania, to speak at coaster enthusiast conferences. (Note to self: Try to convince the enthusiasts to meet in warm-weather states next February.)

But no one travels as much as Holidog.

Last fall, he spent time exploring Seattle and sniffing out the best coffee shops.

Next, the little sew-and-sew visited the famous Space Needle.

Silly pup always keeps us in stitches.
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Did the rain make the turnaround grow?

Posted March 17, 2006

Could be …

Let’s step back into the double-wide tunnel for another look at Voyage’s turnaround.

This turnaround, of course, is where we will find the first two 90-degree banked curves.

Chris, who’s our Director of Security & Entertainment (he knows, he knows!), couldn’t resist getting a closer look.

And at this point, the camera is placed directly on the track for a pure point-of-view photo:

Many thanks to our hardworking crews.

Have a lovely weekend and the rest of Saint Patrick’s Day (my husband said the florist greeted him with, “Thank goodness you came in! You’re the only one in town to give flowers on Saint Patrick’s Day and I’ve already made up your bouquet.” Not too many of Irish descent around here …)

We’ll spring some more photos on you next week.
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Signs of spring

Posted March 9, 2006

Good grief, we had quite the “in like a lion” spring storm this afternoon. The “signs of spring” are impossible to miss this year.

A local radio station was counting down the end of a Tornado Warning with, “Two more minutes until the tornado gets here.”

Is that really necessary?

Happily, a bit of wind and a lot of rain were all we received.

When the rain was pounding on the rooftops, across the park’s two-way radios came Craig’s voice, “Would someone let us know when it’s about to start raining so we can come inside and not get wet?”

And I always thought Goofy worked for some other park …

Meanwhile, Rick is creating literally hundreds of new signs.

This Voyage sign is particularly pretty:

It was like Christmas in my office today — the “proof galleys” for our pictorial history book arrived.

Any “old timers” out there remember the Educated Animals from our Santa Claus Land days?

When you see Will in the park this summer, ask him about them. Just don’t ask him to bring them back …
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Two months to go

Posted March 5, 2006

Ha! I got to be the first one to say it! Construction is well underway as we move toward opening day in just two months.

Of course, I cheated by saying it a day early, but I guess that’s my prerogative.

First, we see the Pepsi Oasis building in our new Thanksgiving section.

And this smaller building next to the coaster station is the Voyage Photos & Gifts shop.

You can see the lift hill of The Voyage off in the distance

The footprint for Gobbler Getaway is huge!

We’ll watch for some vertical growth very soon.

Work on The Voyage‘s station continues.

Thursday morning, the following notice came from Will via email:

” … the last bent for the Voyage was set within the past hour.

At this point, all bents have been erected.”

We’d do a company-wide dance of joy if we weren’t all so busy getting ready for the season.

Two months, after all.

And, lest we forget …

Construction continues in Splashin’ Safari, too, with our new Bahari River:

The water in Bahari River won’t be any deeper than at the Congo River. That means we’ll be in a deep canyon for this part of the ride.
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“M” is for Mud

Posted February 24, 2006

Chad from The Gravity Group was here on Tuesday to check up on Voyage construction

But who knew?

After tromping about the construction site, catching up on the progress made over the past several weeks, Chad was so muddy he just headed back to Cincinnati.

“The mud was up to my knees, so I didn’t even come up to the office.”

Happily, Chad didn’t get any mud on his camera.

Here’s a look at the station on the left and the lift hill on the right. You may notice a bit of fish-eye distortion; some of the photos Chad took were in a panoramic setting.

And here’s another view of the station, also looking to the north.

Next, Chad heads to the far northern end of The Voyage, gathering mud all the way.

The turnaround is growing rapidly.

Here’s a closer look:

Voyage construction continues, no matter what the weather. We can’t wait to ride it!
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A dusting of snow

Posted February 21, 2006

Here’s The Voyage‘s station on Saturday, with the lift hill off in the distance and a dusting of snow on the ground.

You can see the second hill and a bit of the third.

At the bottom of the third hill, down we go …

… underground. Amid the snow.

We’re making good use of the tunnels; we’ll fly through several of them on the way out and the way back.

Let’s zoom out and take a wider look:

Here’s another double-wide tunnel, heading in and out of the turnaround.

And now let’s go back to the other side of the station.

Remember, the trains will make a wild swoop back around the station at the end of the ride.

The temperatures are rising and the snow is melting.

March is just a week away.

Wanted: 1,500 smiling faces

Posted February 18, 2006

This time of the year, I must admit I find myself murmuring, “I’m so glad I’m not in Operations” on a daily basis.

Not loudly, though. It would get on the Operations Staff’s last nerve.

For the 2006 season, we plan to hire 1,500 Hosts & Hostesses.

That’s a lot.

Especially considering that the first “hiring” news release I wrote (back in 1992) called for 450 seasonal employees.

Operation’s “head hunters” hit the schools the week prior to the start of Job Fairs.

Jennifer is manager at Splashin’ Safari. What are the chances she recruiting a lifeguard?

Continuing on the then-and-now theme, it’s hard to believe that just a decade ago, we could hold Orientation for our employees with all of them here at the same time.

In 1995, we had everyone gather ’round that new coaster of ours (notice the queue area hadn’t been built yet) for a group photo.

This year, we’ll take two weekends to orient everyone.

Funny, the park tour takes longer and longer each year, too.
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Will’s favorite ride

Posted February 15, 2006

When you saw the subject line of this post, you probably assumed the top was going to be coasters.

Right?

That’s a reasonable assumption, but truth be told there’s another ride from Will’s childhood that is right there at the top.

Pump cars.

See them there, in the middle of the photo?

This is the Pleasureland ride section of Santa Claus Land.

When asked by reporters over the years, Will and his four siblings are unanimous in their delirious memories of the pump cars.

They. Were. The. Best.

The reason why they were the best, though, explains why they’re no longer here.

“You could pump really hard, build up some speed, and then crash off the track when you came to a curve. It was great!”

I won’t credit that quote to a particular Koch. I believe I’ve heard all three of the male siblings say it.

When preparing the above photo for this post, I emailed a piece of it to Will. My question was regarding whether the pump cars were individual cars, or connected, as it looks here:

Will’s reply: Yes, they are the pump cars. They are individual units. However, if the person in front is going too slow…
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