Even though October is in the books and many of us are thinking about turkeys and football, Sub Sea Systems has one more nod to Halloween and all things orange.
With a focus on tricking out their locations, Sea TREK Operators were challenged with a Halloween decorating contest, with the only stipulation being that they could not add anything permanent to their Sea TREK locations or equipment. Otherwise, they were free to be as creative as they wished!
Operators donned costumes, submerged scary creatures, and decorated to the max for Halloween, hoping to grab the top prize. We are delighted to share some cool images from the contest, and also want to recognize the winner, OdySea Aquarium, for their dynamic displays and fun frights!
We checked in with OdySea’s Sea TREK Manager, Shannon Aldridge, and asked her to share with us their approach to the contest:
What was the inspiration for your displays?
The inspiration for our SeaTREK during A-scare-ium weekend at OdySea Aquarium was monsters! We brainstormed to come up with a theme that would work well for decorating our deck as well as the helmets. We printed a photo of all the Monsters University characters to get some helmet ideas! Underwater, we went with more classic Halloween items that work well for sinking – pumpkins, skulls and bones, tombstones, etc. Our sign for the weekend read “Monster Mash”.
Who helped put the displays together?
Putting everything together was a team effort! Many of us enjoy crafting/decorating/holidays, so everyone jumped on the project once I was given the green light to deck out SeaTREK. One team, one dream!
How long did it take to put the displays together?
We worked on getting all the decorations made (we made almost everything from scratch), starting Thursday night and running throughout Friday. A-scare-ium officially started at 4pm on Friday, October 26th, so we had many of the exhibit items sunk and ready to go. Then, Friday night into Saturday morning we finished decorating the SeaTREK deck and all 8 of our guest helmets.
What was the most difficult part of putting the displays together?
The most challenging part of our display was decorating the helmets! We had to come up with materials that wouldn’t damage the helmets or cause any harm to our animals, so electrical tape ended up being our best option. I now have a wide variety of colored tape available for the next event! It was also challenging to come up with designs that were not too alike, did not interfere with safety and did not take away from guests’ sight. We made it work and came up with some very fun designs!
What was the reaction when guests saw the displays?
We received a lot of positive feedback from guests! Our Guest Relations Manager came up to the deck at one point because he had heard some SeaTREK guests talking about how cool our theming was and he didn’t realize we had gone all out decorating helmets and all; he was blown away when he got up here. All other team members were very impressed with what we were able to accomplish as well.
How did sea life react to the displays?
Our animals were hardly phased by the decorations on the helmets, but the items we sunk in the exhibit were extremely fun for them. They mostly enjoyed the pumpkins, as they provided both enrichment and a fun new menu item!
What other events does OdySea have coming up?
Our big event coming up at OdySea Aquarium right now is National Geographic’s Monster Fish traveling exhibit! We are currently installing everything this week and we will have all the displays from November 10th, 2018 through May 5th, 2019. The displays and interactives are very impressive!
Our Night Life theme for November 2018 will be “Fish & Sips”, where some of our team members will be leading a painting session during the event, like Painting With A Twist!
We will also see the return of SeaTREK Santa in December for the holiday season with some fun changes compared to the last two years of appearances! I am also hoping to deck out SeaTREK for the holidays, like what we did for Halloween!
Congratulations, OdySea, for winning the top prize!
We would also like to recognize other fantastic contest entries! The best photo was taken by Coral World Ocean Park in St. Thomas. Their photo of a sea turtle munching on pumpkin “brains” was selected as our favorite pic. And, De Palm Island wowed us with a spooky video of their underwater “graveyard”.
Special thanks to all operators who participated!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment!