Yearly Archives: 2006

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Sweet, sweet photos

Posted February 14, 2006

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” sang out the joyous voice through my phone line.

“I took some more pictures — I’ll drop by your office later.”

These sweets from Craig may actually have the opposite effect of the usual Valentine’s Day fare.

Surely we’ll burn a few calories when viewing these photos.

Can’t you just feel your heart rate accelerating?

Above is a POV shot (point of view) of The Voyage‘s first drop.

Sixty-six degrees.

Looks straight down, doesn’t it?

After we arrive at the bottom of the first drop, let’s turn around and see from whence we came.

Yikes!

You can count the layers of the wooden track.

As long as we’re up on the structure, let’s take a glimpse over at the Gobbler Getaway building.

It’s going up quickly.

And it’s huge!

And now a look at our happy photographer.

Craig, our camera-carrying Cupid:

Craig on Voyage track during construction

It looks like he’s sitting on the 90-degree banked track. If it’s not that third 90, it’s mighty close.

Okay, Craig … enough lounging around.

We want a closer look at that perpendicular track.

Enough eye candy — back to work!
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What the birds see

Posted February 10, 2006

Want to take a look at what the birds see?

Not sure I caught all the details about how we got this aerial shot …

But it goes something like this:

One of our directors went to visit his doctor recently.

Someone who worked in the doctor’s office saw that he worked at Holiday World.

She showed him a photo her daughter had taken. (Her daughter is taking an aviation class.)

And the daughter was kind enough to give us a copy.

That new Voyage roller coaster changes the look of the place from every angle, doesn’t it?
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Brown Dog’s Day

Posted February 10, 2006

Excuse me – Brown Dog’s Day?

This just in from our traveling friend, Holidog:

French Creek Freddie, Shubenacadie Sam, Claude the Crawfish, and, of course, Punxsutawney Phil.

All famous prognosticators.

And now, after receiving my training through a Sally Struthers online course, I’m one too.

In fact, I’m the world’s first dog-nosticator.

I replaced Gator-nosed Gus, the previous prognostigator for Fort Myers Beach, Florida. Apparently, he started snapping at the onlookers during last year’s festivities.

In the Sunshine State, the celebration determines how much longer before the Snowbirds begin their migration back north.

On February 2, 2006, at precisely 6:30 am, I embraced my role, celebrating Brown Dog’s Day.

Here is my official prognostication poem:

The sun will shine
And starting in May
A Thanksgiving summer
Is coming our way
It won’t be long
Until Pepsi will flow
I have no shadow
So go, Snowbirds, go!

I’ll send more photos from Florida soon. And then I’m off for even more adventurous travels before heading home to Santa Claus in time for the opening of The Voyage!

We truly don’t know who is helping Holidog send us these photographic updates. Perhaps he’s relying on the kindness of strangers …

We thought we had it all figured out a few months ago, but discovered we were barking up the wrong tree.

When the pup returns from his travels, we’ll see if we can get his tongue to wag.
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Could it really be?

Posted February 9, 2006

A while back, we gasped at the thought of so many future stars having appeared at Santa Claus Land many, many years ago.

By golly, it’s happened again.

We’re working with a publishing company in producing a pictorial history book of Santa Claus Land and Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari for this, our 60th season.

(Can you believe it? Our 60th Season!)

Our offices are awash in sentimentality.

And look at what we discovered in our archival photo files just this morning:

Mr. Sixty at Santa Claus Land

Could it be?

Is it really…?

Could that just-retired dancing guy from the-commercials-we-have-all-seen really have gotten his start here at our park?

Honestly, the photo is of the late Gene Smith, our tap-dancing magician.

His slogan was too good: “Feats of Hand and Feats of Feet.”

But in honor of our upcoming anniversary …

… let’s just call him Mr. Sixty.
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Waxing poetic

Posted February 8, 2006

“Come on in — I’m stripping!”

Samantha, what a shock!

This may be the “off” season…

… but you’re still on the clock!

Our cleaning manager laughs out loud

… and continues with her chores.

“Carlene and Sally are stripping, too —

It’s time to wax the floors!”

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Back in the woods

Posted February 2, 2006

Thanks to The Gravity Group, we have a few more photos from out in the Voyage woods from this week.

Let’s start with a look at the turnaround. To get there, we must traverse yet another underground tunnel.

Korey got artistic with this one. The structure will be very close to the ground here.

And here’s another view of the turnaround. It looks rather gloomy right now, but when the trees leaf up in the spring, just imagine how lovely it will be.

I guess, though, all we’ll see is a massive blur of green.

And that’s if you ride with your eyes open

The third hill is nearly done.

Nearly.

Heading back toward the station, there will be lots of speed and a few surprises left to the ride.

The roof on the station is coming right along.

Did you notice the track? Look in the lower left-hand corner.

That is track, isn’t it?

After flying past the station, we’ll swing around back and into the final tunnel.

…and out again.

I spoke with Tom at PTC the other day. He promises to send photos of our three Voyage trains soon.

And John is getting ready to order the flags that will fly up above the top of the lift hill. Feel free to discuss among yourselves which three colors we might have chosen.

A post-script to yesterday’s story

Posted February 1, 2006

Here’s a P.S. to tag yesterday’s post about Will’s top fan:

Last night was Concerto Night at our high school. The annual Solo and Ensemble contest is coming up on Saturday, so it’s nice for the musicians to have the opportunity to perform in front of a friendly audience.

James and I were sneaking in late, as middle-son John was kind enough to let us know exactly what time the Winter Percussion Ensemble, of which he’s a member, would perform.

In the hallway, another later-arrival was right behind us.

“Hi!”

James’s head snapped around. He recognized that voice.

“Will!”

The look of adoration on my littlest son’s face was enough to make Will laugh.

We walked into the auditorium just before his daughter Leah performed with a percussion group.

Will wisely sat across the aisle from us. And one row back.

I glanced over at James, who chose the aisle seat.

He wasn’t watching the stage. His eyes were locked on Will’s face. You could count every baby tooth in his six-year-old grin.

Remember Eddie the dog from TV’s Frasier? That’s all I could think of; I could see Will shaking with laughter.

“James,” I whispered. “Would you like to go sit with Will?”

I didn’t have to ask twice.

My son dashed across the aisle and plopped down next to his hero.

It was a relief that when Leah’s group performed their number, James sat up and paid attention to the musicians. But as soon as it was over, he was deep in conversation with Will again; their discussion was punctuated regularly with bursts of giggles.

Both of them.
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The Gravity Group guys take a walk-about

Posted February 1, 2006

Larry and Korey, two of the four Gravity Group engineers, took a nice long walk yesterday.

How kind of them to snap off a few photos for your viewing pleasure.

Let’s get started:

This is the view you’ll see as you walk down the pathway into the new Thanksgiving section.

The crane is lifting numerous trusses into place for the roof of Voyage’s station.

Next, we see the grand finale of The Voyage. The station is somewhere there in the middle of all that curving track. And that’s the lift hill off in the distance.

And yes, you see it correctly: one last underground tunnel at the very end of the ride.

The next photo from The Gravity Group shows another view of the insane finish to the ride and the station’s vertical growth.

In the background, to the left, you can see our employee parking lot is the holding area for all sorts of building materials.

Now let’s take a look from up around Raging Rapids:

And finally, our energetic engineers climbed the stairs of ZOOMbabwe in Splashin’ Safari for another view:

Eegads, that first drop is steep.
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When your 6-year-old emails your boss

Posted January 31, 2006

My son James absolutely loves to email.

He’s only six. He’s in Kindergarten.

You may recall he is one of those “Coaster Crazies.” He can’t get enough.

Remember Ralphie from A Christmas Story? And how when he’s describing the Red Ryder BB gun he wants for Christmas, it’s all one word?

James is the same way when he talks about The Voyage. To anyone who will listen, he announces:

DidyouknowTheVoyagewasgoingtohavetwo90-degreebankedcurvesthatgolikethis… (he demonstrates dramatically with his little hand) …butthenWilldecidedtoaddanothersonowtherewillbethree?

Most adults just nod, their eyes growing wider.

The latest thing in Kindergarten is “stretching.” The children are taught that sounding out words and spelling them phonetically is the way to go.

They’ll worry about spelling some other year.

I was skeptical at first. (Actually, the word horrified is far more appropriate.)

But I’m beginning to see the light

According to the experts, too much emphasis on spelling tends to block the tots’ creativity glands. They get so worried about i-before-e that they just don’t bother.

So we stretch.

And James emails.

The lad is quite independent. He wants to do it all by himself.

So after a bit of tutoring, he now opens the computer program, double-clicks on the appropriate name, taps out a message, and clicks “Send.”

My folks in Connecticut hear from him almost daily. Other recipients are scattered throughout nearly a dozen states.

I’d forgotten Will, my boss, was in my email address book at home. James discovered it over the weekend.

“Mom, I wrote an email to Will”

You didn’t send it yet, did you?

“Oops.”

I held my breath as I clicked on the “Sent” folder. Stretching, after all, can lead to words that don’t always mean what you intended.

Here’s what James wrote to my boss, word for stretched word:

dear Will,
hey how much
do you like
rollercoster?
cood it be u thousins
is that how much you like
rollercosters?
james the littol
giy
that
cam owt of
paulas
beley
so
by
Will
james
werne

What a relief he was able to help Will avoid any confusion by describing which James Werne he is!

I wasn’t really all that worried, as Will has three children of his own, and is genuinely a nice guy.

So nice, in fact, that he replied the very next day:

James, I really like roller coasters. I love to ride them, but I really
love to work with designers/engineers to create new ones. Like a lot of
people, I can’t wait to ride The Voyage!

– Will

Speaking of stretching, here’s a look at James stretching out on a hillside with The Voyage rising up behind him.

Going to work with Mom on the weekend has its perks, after all.

Plus it gives him something to write about.
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Separated at birth?

Posted January 23, 2006

Progress on our new dark ride – Gobbler Getaway – continues.

After taking a look at the photo Sally Corporation sent us recently, showing the progress on the ride’s animatronic granny’s head, we received an email.

A fellow by the name of Jon contacted us to point out how our storyteller for Gobbler Getaway …

(her name is Abigail, by the way)

… bears a striking resemblance to the Arthur Carlson character from the wildly popular television show from the late 1970s, WKRP.

Good heavens, he’s right!

The “Big Guy’s” granny, perhaps?

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll remember the famous turkey-drop fiasco episode from 1978.

In it, WKRP’s station manager, Mr. Carlson, cries out: “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”

Further research reveals the frightening fact that a “turkey drop” may actually have occurred back in 1946.

Sixty years ago.

The very year our park opened.
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