New signs and sick days

Great news for all those traveling south on I-65 to our Kentucky location! The I-65 brown interstate sign is back up! We're easy to find. If you didn't turn when you exited at Cave City, then you'd run right into a big orange T-Rex. But, with tough signage laws in Kentucky it's hard to give advance notice prior to the exit if you don't know where you're going. Our sign was approved years ago and had been doing great, but was damaged in a wreck in January. It's now back up! This is the good new for the day.

For our Texas friends dealing with school closings due to illness, as long as your well, come visit while you're out of school!

Hot Dogs at Dinosaur World

You know you've made it big when the Oscar Mayer hot dog mobile comes to your attractions! Picture below is the big, mobile hot dog leaving the parking lot. They gave out some goodies. But I thought is would be even better if they had a portable hot dog stand in the car! I have always loved hot dogs. Our prehistoric carnivores loved the dogs, but alas, no veggie dogs for my herbivores!

dino face lifts

Our dinosaurs are getting face lifts! Picture below is master artist Joakim Svensson overseeing the process with a new Dromiceiomimus at our Kentucky location. Some of our dinosaurs are over 10 years old and were requesting new looks. Just like everything else in life, techniques improve with practice, so we're bringing these improvements to our guests.

Wednesday, April 22

Yesterday I lead an area familiarization tour at our Kentucky location. We took a bus (donated by the Mammoth Cave Hotel) of approx. 40 area tourism employees to as many top attractions as we could pack in one day. The goal is to education front line tourism employee on all there is to offer visitors in the area. The best way to answer the "what is there to do here" question is to have done it yourself. Then you'll know exactly what you're recommending. Tourism works best when we all work together to keep visitors in the area as long as possible.

See everything the area has to offer!
In Kentucky = www.mammothcave.com
In Florida = www.visittampbay.com
in Texas = www.glenrosetexas.net

April 17

I haven't written all week. I've been in several meetings discussing tourism trends. It seems like attractions are doing well, but hotels, restaurants and meetings are down. In tough economic times this is the trend. We work too hard to not take a break, but we're forced to scale back a bit.

Just remember, it's important to create memories with your children. You don't have to go on fancy trips to exotic locations. Kids just want your time. Dinosaur World offers educational family fun at affordable prices ($12.75 adults and $9.75 for ages 3-12) and you can every bring your dog for free!

Get out and enjoy your family. If your looking for more to do, check out www.mammothcave.com in Kentucky - www.visittampabay.com in Florida - www.glenrosetexas.net in Texas and make it a weekend trip!

spring break weekend

This is the last weekend of big spring breaks - so what are you waiting for? Get out here and enjoy the dinosaurs!

I swear a 2 year old came up to me and asked if I had a Pachycephalosaurs. I looked at his mom in amazement. Then I said, "I bet you don't know what that is." He ran over to a display and brought me one. - for those of you that don't know a Pachycephalosaurus, it's a very distinct dinosaur wtih a head that looks like he's wearning a helmet. The 2 year old said it was his favorite. Kids love this place!

Here's a link for more on Pachycephalosaurus. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/dinos/Pachy.shtml
This is a great website for basic information on dinosaurs.

boneyard

Here's a great video that shows one of our interactive exhibits...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eirmdMUURoE
The Boneyard is an exhibit at the Florida and Kentucky locations where visitors can unearth a life size dinosaur skeleton in a unique setting. It is coming soon to Texas. We have lots of interactive exhibits in addition to our over 100 life size dinosaurs. Check out our website for more information = www.dinoworld.net

Thanks to all the spring breakers who are coming into the parks! We're having lots of fun with you!

interstate signage

If you're driving down I-65 between Nashville and Louisville (exit 53) or on I-4 in Florida between Tampa and Orlando (exit 17), you can't miss our big orange dinosaur on the side of the interstate.
Texas is of the main road a bit on Park Road 59, just in front of Dinosaur Valley State Park. We're hard to miss on the interestate. However, if you're coming southbound on I-65 from Louisville, our state brown sign was damaged on a car accident. so, you won't see the dinosaur until you've passed the exit. I wanted eveyone to know so you wouldn't have to turn around!

USA Today - must see

USA Today named Dinosaur World as a must see while in Tampa!
http://destinations.usatoday.com/tampastpetersburg/attractions/
I'm very excited about this. I know we're great and it's nice to be confirmed by such a high profile newspaper. But don't take our word for it - check it out yourself! All our locations are very similar.

This is twice for a mention in USA Today in a short time. They named us as one of 51 new recommended attractions in their May 23rd issue last year. The paper picked one new attraction for each state. Our new Texas park was thier Texas choice - and that's a big state!

April 6

It's spring break in a lot of places. What better place to spend it than with over 150 life size dinosaurs? So bring the kids on down and create some memories at Dinosaur World.

I do the marketing for all 3 locations, but my home base is Kentucky. This weekend it was a beautiful 75 degrees. Now, it is 37 and it snowed this morning. It will be rough again tomorrow but then back to the nice 60 degree spring weather. Don't let that keep you away from our Kentucky location. We're open all the time. Our mammoths look great in the cold. Check this out! See! We're great in any weather! Now, you obviously won't see this in Florida or Texas. So don't worry about that.

my first blog

I'm entering into a new venture wtih this blog, so please be patient with me as I learn. I'll post as often as I can. As I get used to it, the blog will get better and more frequent.

Check out our April newsletter to learn what's going on this month... http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/265803/940864523b/TEST/TEST/

The biggest news is April homeschool month. All homeschoolers and their immediate families will receive the group rate admission - $5 in Kentucky and $8 in Florida. (we're waiting to add special events to our Texas location untill we've been open one year there). We have lots of homeschoolers visit Dinosaur World and we hope this helps meet their needs. I've learned homeschoolers travel in smaller groups than our public schools. So, I hope this helps. If you're a homeschooler, let me know the best way to reach you and what would help you the most. (dinosaurworld@scrtc.com )You guys are harder to reach becuase I've had to search a lot of different groups. But I'm trying!