Taking really good care of your customers!
Posted by Jackie T Ewing on September 29, 2009
People always say that us folks in the hospitality industry here in Orlando have WAY too much fun with our jobs. Sometimes I’m inclined to agree with them! This time we, the folks promoting tourism in Orlando, were at the receiving end of the customer service provided by the staff at Worlds of Discovery. They treat us to a fantastic event so that we can inspire our people to promote the event in question to our own customers and visitors to the area. These guys really know how to take good care of their customers – us!
Michelle & Jackie
On Friday, September 25th, our friends at Worlds of Discovery (SeaWorld, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, Busch Gardens, Islands of Adventure) hosted a fantastic VIP Event for opening night at Howl-o-scream in Busch Gardens. Very happy to report that I was included in this VIP list and RSVP’d that I would most certainly attend. Despite the constant warnings of blood and gore involved, I opted in!
Three busloads of Orlando hospitality industry folk headed off to Tampa in the Friday afternoon I4 traffic. Drinks and snacks provided while we networked, chatted or watched the movie Scream – I had quite forgotten how long it takes the kids in these movies to actually die!
Upon arrival at Busch Gardens, we were welcomed by red carpet and excellent hosts into the Welcome Reception.
And what a reception it was! Fantastic food, lots of InBev beverages, fabulous desserts (no less than three chocolate fountains..) – with a backdrop of Vampires strutting their stuff on the catwalk. Many folks took advantage of the opportunity to have their very own vampire fangs created and installed. Lady Vayne held court for her visitors and posed for photos with the peasants! There were a couple of coffins laying around that some of us peasants made use of and had some scary photos taken. Mine is at the bottom of this post. And, yes, that really is me in there…. at least those are my hands and my face!
At 7pm we were herded out into the park to start our Howl-o-scream experience in the haunted houses or scare zones. Kudos to our guides for trying valiantly to keep us unruly groups together going into the haunted houses and finding us again afterward! We had a lot of fun throughout the evening. Everything was really well done – the attention to detail is fantastic and the “players” really put themselves into character to scare the living daylights out of us!
There is a particular section where the pathway is covered with a swirling mist; you can hear werewolves howling in the dark and feel scary creatures come out of the dark and attach themselves to your group. You don’t really notice them until they say something and spook you! The make-up on these guys was fantastic and the whole atmosphere was electrically charged.
All in all, the event was a screaming success – as witnessed by the absolute ton of teenagers screaming their way through the event! We will most certainly be promoting this excellent event for the Halloween season and highly recommend that you get your tickets now before it’s too late.
Click here for details on dates and tickets for Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens, Tampa, Florida.
Jackie in her coffin
