Amusement Park

Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park Corporate Office

Michael Browning imagined a place where kids could play safely indoors while parents had space to work or relax. Urban Air Adventure Park was founded in 2011 in Grapevine, Texas.

From a single location, the company now has over 65 locations that feature climbing walls, warrior obstacle courses, tube playgrounds, ropes courses, trapezes, spinning-and-flipping bumper cars, and trampolines.

The company had $166 million in revenue in 2018 and CEO Browning says he expects to clear $2.5 million in profit. Entrepreneur Magazine’s 2018 list of the “Franchise 500” placed Urban Air at No. 97 based on growth, financial strength and stability out of more than 1,000 entries in this year’s competition.

Urban Air books 700-1,000 birthday parties every day. In early November 2019, one 10-year-old attending a birthday party fell from a zip line ride, breaking several bones.

The company has headquarters in Milltown, New Jersey.

Blue Bayou Water Park/Dixie Landin Corporate Office

In 1960, Sam Haynes Sr. opened a small amusement park named Fun Fair Park in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Best known for the rollercoaster The Wild Mouse and a mascot chimp named Candi, the park lost its small-town charm and closed in 1999.

However, Sam Haynes, Jr. moved a great deal of the park, including Candi, to a new location and started fresh with an amusement park named Dixie Landin’. Attached to Dixie Landin is the Blue Bayou Water Park.

Blue Bayou Water Park and Dixie Landin are open May thru September. The parks have 25 full-time employees that work year-round, but that number swells to 700 during the summer months, with most of the seasonal employees being local teens. Blue Bayou has 20 attractions and Dixie Landin 26, including 3 rollercoasters.

In 2011, both parks were fined more than $25,000 by the Department of Labor, mostly for violations involving the hiring of minors.

A woman was killed in 2010 after falling off the rollercoaster “Xtreme”, which has since been demolished.

Candi the chimp was on display in a cage most days at Dixie Landin’, smoking cigarettes and drinking sodas that park-goers would toss to her. The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in 2015 saying that Candi was being treated inhumanely and that the 50-year-old chimp should live out her days in a sanctuary. The Haynes family said they had tried to have Candi join a group of chimps at a local zoo, but she continually escaped and taught the other chimps how to escape as well.

Candi was well-known for her numerous escapes and apparently died suddenly in April 2017.

Hurricane Gustav caused some damage to both parks in 2008, but the park has just closed for the season and all repairs were done in time for the parks to reopen in 2009.

Blue Bayou Water Park and Dixie Landin are still owned and operated by the Haynes family. Headquarters remain in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Egg Harbor Fun Park Corporate Office

Egg Harbor Fun Park was founded in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, in 2003. The company operates an amusement park in Door Country, Wisconsin.

The business operates an old fashioned amusement type park with low tech games that people of all ages still find fun. The park features a zip line, gas engine go carts, an arcade, batting cages, “gem” mining, bouncing cages, and an 18 hole miniature golf course with a nautical theme. The park offers prizes for the arcade games and features an indoor fast food type cafeteria, which offers old time favorites such as giant pretzels and candy apples.

Egg Harbor Fun Park offers private party groups with advanced notice. The company has a 4.5 star rating on review site Yelp. Company headquarters are located in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin.

Carowinds Corporate Office

Carowinds was founded in 1973 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The 398-acre park was originally designed to be a resort, with a hotel, shopping, a golf course, and an NFL football stadium. The energy crisis that same year forced the park to change direction. Today, Carowinds is a highly popular amusement and water park.

The park currently offers 64 rides, including 13 roller coasters and 7 water rides. One area of the park is designed strictly for small children, named Planet Snoopy. The park generally operates late March through October but has tried to remain open during weekends or holidays through December. Low attendance during winter months has led to closures December – early March.

The amusement park is up for 3 awards in 2019 from USA Today, including best waterpark.

An employee who was inspecting a ride lost his hand in an accident that was being investigated by OSHA in March 2019.

Carowinds operates as a subsidiary of Cedar Fair Entertainment, who purchased the company in June of 2006. Company headquarters remain in Charlotte, North Carolina. Cedar Fair invested $50 million into renovating the park, as well as adding 4 new rides in 2016.

Kalahari Resort Corporate Office

Kalahari Resorts and Convention Center, more commonly called Kalahari, was founded in 2000 by owner and former CEO Todd Nelson, in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. The company operates a chain of indoor amusement parks, water parks, hotels, and convention meeting rooms.

The resort is named after the Kalahari desert in Africa, which explains why Africa is the theme of the hotel rooms and convention rooms, as well as mascots. There are three resorts, the first being in Wisconsin Dell, Wisconsin, the second in Sandusky, Ohio, and the third in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. The Sandusky location is billed as the largest indoor theme park in the USA. Hotels range in size from 750 rooms to 996 rooms, as well as multiple convention or meeting rooms for business travelers.

Kalahari Resorts also have full-service restaurants, and playgrounds for children, and include free tickets to the Timbavati Wildlife Park for customers who book rooms.

In January 2023, Kalahari Resorts announced that they were expanding their Texas location by several thousand square feet to accommodate its busy schedule.

Kalahari Resorts maintains a corporate office in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.