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… and can you say that five times fast?
We’re so excited to host our park alum, American Idol finalist Rayvon Owen tomorrow.
Guess who's coming to visit us on Friday! #MeetAndGreet @RayvonOwen @AmericanIdol #ParkAlum pic.twitter.com/lpufsshDzE
— Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) June 4, 2015
Rayvon’s meet and greet is Friday at 2pm CDT. We’ll be hanging out at the Hoosier Celebration Theater – please join us!
What a lovely surprise to pop out at me when I checked our TripAdvisor page today:
Thanks to all for the feedback!
It’s time to climb into our way-back machine.
Ready?
It’s August 6, 1995.
Twenty years ago.
Two decades.
A score.
Hot as blazes here in Santa Claus.
The Raven is new and it’s a hit.
And it’s a Sunday afternoon. Will passes along a call from two very excited local teachers.
They’ve got tickets to Letterman.
And they want “stuff” to take with them to New York.
Not being a late-night person, it took me a while to interpret their rather odd request.
I knew one of the teachers (best first-grade teacher ever!) and would come to know the other (best high-school English teacher ever!). Betsy and Elaine were Letterman fans of the highest order. And they had a plane to catch.
Dave himself is from Indiana, so it was time to step up and provide gifts for the King of the Late Show. And we had about 20 minutes to make it happen.
Betsy and Elaine (and Will) were convinced that proof that their hometown was Santa Claus, Indiana, would capture the attention of the gap-toothed star.
And so, I rather begrudgingly parted with my two-and-only Santa hats. I liked those hats. I used those hats. Why couldn’t Dave buy his own Santa hats?
“Bring them back safely!” I called, as the teachers dashed off to catch their plane. I meant my Santa hats, of course.
Betsy and Elaine’s ultimate goal, it seems, was threefold.
It had to do with a canned ham.
And a deli named Hello.
And getting Dave to notice them.
I believe they accomplished just that:
Amazing, right?
Betsy and Elaine were literally picked out of the line as they were waiting to get in to see the Late Show.
Elaine, Rupert Jee from Hello Deli, Betsy, and the coveted canned ham
And so, as Dave retires this week, we have just one final question for the Hoosier-born host:
What did you do with those Santa hats? I still want them back!
If you don’t live within about a three-hour radius of Santa Claus, Indiana, chances are you’ve never seen our television commercials.
So here is our newest, fresh out of the edit suite and airing beginning today:
Thanks to all of our extras who rode Thunderbird over and over … wait – maybe they should be thanking us! It was a fun couple of days – we hope you enjoy the spot.
Thanks to all who entered our Thunderbird Sweepstakes! Here are our winners of two one-day tickets:
———
Is Memorial Day Weekend really just a week away? This month is flying by!
And speaking of “flying by,” so is Thunderbird – have you watched the videos? Thunderbird launches from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 3.5 seconds – and it’s as smooth as Santa’s sleigh ride!
Ready to enter our Thunderbird Sweepstakes? We’ll have three winners!
First, the Rules:
Two of our winners will be chosen at random and the third will be chosen by our staff from the comments added to this blog post – simply tell us what you think Santa and Claire said to each other. Come on, make us “Ho Ho Ho!”
All three winners will each receive two one-day tickets to Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari plus two Quick Access Passes for a ride on Thunderbird (or The Voyage, Wildebeest – your choice!).
Ready to enter? Of course you are: Simply enter our sweepstakes here from a mobile device; or if you’re using an immobile device, enter by using the widget, below. And not just today – enter daily through Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 10am CDT.
Good luck to everyone!
Well, that’s embarrassing.
As someone who types every last letter of every single word – even when texting, a slip of the index finger can lead to a stunning repercussion.
As Sophia from The Golden Girls would say, “Picture it: White House, Tennessee; 2015 …”
Our Entertainment staff is off-site this weekend, deep into rehearsals for our new shows for this season.
Leah texted me excitedly about the cast of characters. We have “powerhouse vocalists,” plus circus-themed specialty acts, including break dancers, a silk dancer, and a juggling unicyclist.
Cool, huh?
So I texted her back.
Here’s what I meant to say: Glad you’re so excited about the show. Start blogging!
But since I have this shortcut programmed into my texting: sp = Season Pass … and typoed “sp” instead of “so,” my text turned into:
“Glad you’re Season Pass excited about the show.”
Of course, I didn’t catch it until Leah’s reply: I AM season pass excited!
Huh? What?
Oh. No.
Her next text: I hope you know this is a thing now.
Yes, of course it is.
Because our entire Entertainment cast for 2015 was just clued in, right?
And so:
A typo in a shortcut via text created a new phrase I’ll never live down. #SeasonPassExcited #ThemeParkProblemz pic.twitter.com/UXkJKOgpvx
— Holiday World (@HolidayWorld) May 8, 2015
This is as teasing a bunch as I’ve ever met.
Leah comes by it honestly, from her parents.
And she is season-pass excited about that. And about getting a chance to try her hand – er, legs – at unicycling.
We hope you’re season-pass excited about riding Thunderbird this weekend. Yes, we know there’s a 50-percent chance of an afternoon storm – but that means there’s also a 50-percent chance of no storms. And there’s a 100-percent chance you’ll save a bunch with this great deal on e-tickets this weekend.
It wasn’t just those beautiful Thunderbird trains flying around the skies of Thanksgiving this week.
That’s right. One of those new-fangled drones was hovering, equipped with a camera (plus two licensed/certified flyers).
Because it’s commercial-shooting time around here!
Thunderbird was in fine form and Mother Nature cooperated most of the time.
And the riders had a blast.
The drone camera wasn’t the only video-collecting contraption on site. Back in Thunderbird’s station, it looked a little bit like a Hollywood sound stage.
Our new TV commercial (or “spot” if you want to sound like you’re in the biz) will be on the air in just a few weeks.
In the meantime, here’s our current “Meet Thunderbird” spot:
Want to ride Thunderbird this weekend? Click here for e-tickets at a special discounted rate of just $28.99 each. Don’t be late for launch!
David DeLong has waited – impatiently – for Thunderbird’s first launch since last July.
We first met David almost exactly nine months ago. He was the “new guy” at WFIE-TV and was excited to cover our big “what’s new for 2015” announcement.
Over the months, David checked up on Thunderbird construction nearly every week. Together we trudged through the construction-site mud time after time, doomed to endure the taunts of our peers when they noticed our “hard-hat hair.”
And so it was great to see David arrive bright and early last Thursday morning, ready for his first flight on Thunderbird:
I do believe David’s gleeful shouts are still echoing in the woods and through Thunderbird’s fly-through barn.
It’s going to be a noisy summer!
If you follow us on social media (especially Twitter!) you know that each Wednesday night, we’re cheering for park alum Rayvon Owen on American Idol.
For the past three weeks, Rayvon has received the “Twitter Save” from fans and continued on to another week in the high-stakes competition.
That first time, my iPhone nearly exploded. Between Matt, Eric and countless others, there was a plea for an immediate Twitter lesson.
But the clock was ticking and I had four accounts to push to #SaveRayvon. “Take it to Facebook!” I hurriedly typed. “You know how that works and I bet lots of your followers are on Twitter. Hurry!”
The next week, Rayvon was again in need of saving. I texted Matt, “Should this go on our Facebook page?”
“Yes,” he texted back. “He’s one of our own.”
And so, as another Wednesday approaches, I asked Matt to jot down his thoughts about our alum who keeps smiling and singing with complete sincerity week after week.
As we get ready to open our biggest season ever, it’s always a bright point to see the shining smiles of our Host and Hostesses as they start their “careers” with Holiday World & Splashin’ Safari. We take pride in the fact that we touch the hearts of so many Guests – but we also touch each other’s lives in this fun “roller coaster” of an industry that we love.
A perfect example of this is our very own Rayvon Owen. Rayvon joined us in 2011 as an Entertainer in our “Rejoice” show, a Christian celebration that is unique to our Park. Rayvon was a ray of sunshine all season. His presence alone would light up the stage and our Guests felt his sincerity. That sunshine is still shining for Rayvon as he has now made his way into the hearts of millions, making it now into the Top 6 on American Idol.
Throughout this process, Rayvon and I have communicated back and forth and I am still in awe of this young man. He is truly astounded with how well he is being received by his fans. He repeatedly offers thanks. The grace and humility that he has shown, and the true goodness that is in his heart, shines through with every performance. He takes nothing for granted, appreciates all of life’s experiences, and has never once forgotten the path he has taken to get him to where he is today.
We are so blessed to have been a part of that path, and will continue to root for him – as well as all of our Hosts and Hostesses – on their journeys to success.
Thunderbird fever? Seriously.
A few of our invited guests for Thursday’s Thunderbird Media Preview have mentioned calling work this week, sick with the Thunderbird Flu.
My version of this mysterious illness? Sleeplessness (note the time of this post) and an inability to type the word Thursday at the first try.
Somehow, it always comes out spelled Thunderbird the first time.
As we close in on opening our season on Saturday, we find our senses are heightened and grins are uncontrollable.
We finally did it.
A big steel coaster.
And a B&M coaster, at that.
Wow.
This was a nice cherry on the sundae yesterday:
The “launched wing” coaster: You’re suspended to the side of the track AND launched 0-to-60 http://t.co/Claexq04Bf pic.twitter.com/4sxz2ZBGH6
— Mashable (@mashable) April 20, 2015
Thanks to all for the endless cheers of encouragement this past year. We’re just days away now and can hardly contain our excitement.
And we think it’s contagious.