Ever dream of taking a break from work and bringing the whole crew to spend a day enjoying ice cream cones and running from one roller coaster to the next? While amusement parks might not typically come to mind as meeting and event locations, as it turns out, many of the hundreds of these thrill-filled locales in the U.S. cater to meeting planners and have multiple venues.
Beyond multiple spaces to choose from, many parks also offer award-winning dining experiences. This year, Satu’li Canteen and Yak & Yeti at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida; Zambia Smokehouse at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida; and Aunt Granny’s at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, all made USA Today’s 10Best list of “Best Theme Park Restaurants,” and just last year, Victoria & Albert’s at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa at Walt Disney World became the first theme park restaurant to earn a Michelin star.
And, perhaps most importantly, amusement parks offer attendees the opportunity to bond while overcoming fears together and enjoying a few laughs (and screams). “You know, the nice thing with these gatherings is it gives people the opportunity to be together as a group, meet their coworkers, do some awards, but then they have the whole rest of the day to go play in the park, right?” says Marc Gran, sales director at Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It really is a carefree day where we do all the work, and they have all the fun.”
When it comes to sheer venue options, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay in Tampa, Florida, offers 16 different choices, from indoor banquet facilities to outdoor picnic bandshells and exclusive rentals of sections of the park. Its newly renovated Gwazi Pavilion fits up to 400 reception-style, is climate-controlled, and offers full audiovisual capabilities. For those who want a theater setup, the park has you covered with three theater options—its largest, Stanleyville Theater, can seat up to 1,200 people. In 2022, the park’s Iron Gwazi roller coaster—the steel-track hybrid coaster that drops riders 206 feet and reaches speeds of up to 76 mph—won Amusement Today’s Golden Ticket Award for “Best New Roller Coaster.”
Carowinds, primarily located in Charlotte, North Carolina (although portions of the park cross into South Carolina), also provides planners the works in terms of gathering spaces. Its main picnic area is the highlight and one of the premier areas of the park, says Gran; the space contains five covered areas and can accommodate up to 2,000 attendees. The park’s food court, Harmony Hall, is also available for groups to rent and holds 300-400 people. “We fill up a lot of our weekends with companies that are really looking to reengage with their employees and reward their employees, and this in turn helps recruit new employees by bringing all the families together,” says Gran, adding that perhaps the most exciting option at Carowinds is for companies to rent out the entire park or sections of it for staff appreciation days. He says the team at Carowinds is always ready to help. “We have some clients who say they don’t even need to come to the event because they know we have a handle on it.”
All-Inclusive
If you are seeking more than just a day trip for your group, many parks offer high-end hotels with their own facilities beyond what can be found at the parks themselves. For example, Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, provides an atmosphere full of music and mountain-inspired beauty, with two resort hotels containing plenty of gathering space. Founded by country musician Dolly Parton in 1986, the park expands across 165 acres through the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains and has thrilling and entertaining rides both new and classic, such as its Blazing Fury roller coaster that takes riders through an imaginary 1880s town minutes away from being engulfed in “flame.”
Dollywood’s original DreamMore Resort and Spa and its newer HeartSong Lodge & Resort provide two distinct atmospheres for planners to choose from—the former is reminiscent of an elegant Southern estate, and the latter provides cabin-like decor and an outdoorsy theme, intended to embody the spirit of the singer’s childhood mountain home. Cordelia Morrell, director of sales for Dollywood, explains how she helps planners choose which resort is right for them. “To me, it’s working with a group to really find out the culture of the company and what they’re wanting to accomplish while they’re here,” she says. DreamMore’s Meadow Event Lawn is located at the base of its meeting spaces, accessible via grand staircase from the veranda, and is a picturesque garden space for cocktail hours and the like. Conference areas at Dollywood’s HeartSong Lodge & Resort feature 26,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor space.
Of course, a discussion of amusement park venues in the Southeast would not be complete without discussion of Walt Disney World and its five convention resorts in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando. The largest is the ultramodern Disney’s Contemporary Resort. It contains a 115,000-square-foot convention center with four ballrooms, 33 breakout rooms, and six dining venues all within walking distance of the Magic Kingdom Park. Other dedicated convention resort hotels include Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, Disney’s Yacht & Beach Club Resort, Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. There is an abundance of creative and immersive technology and expertise available for planners to take advantage of at Walt Disney World, perhaps one of its most intriguing amenities. Disney gives planners access to thousands of props, multiple Disney-themed decor packages, professional set designers, videographers, and a wide array of talent for entertainment—think jugglers, magicians, balloon artists, and storytellers, to name a few.
buschgardens.com
carowinds.com
disneyworld.disney.go.com
dollywood.com
