The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • 42

Central Florida Business May 22-28, 1989 1 1 TOURISM The Chrysalis Foundation proudly presents: An Evening with Lou Holtz Head Football Coach University of Notre Dame oing WN UND WISH TO ATT Friday, May 26, 1989 6:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m. $100.00 per person Grand Cypress Hotel Lake Buena Vista Orlando, Florida Busch Gardens plans to add 'cute and cuddly' koala pair By Vicki Vaughan OF THE SENTINEL STAFF The ride culminates in a 55-foot plunge into a lake, creating a giant wave that douses riders and observers on a deck overlooking the ride's end. The Tanganyika Tidal Wave should be ready to go by June 15, Gilmore said. The ride is being built in the park's old African Queen Boat ride area and will use most of the existing track.

And around Aug. 1, Busch Gardens also will open a permanent Clydesdale stable near its monorail plaza, where a mare and a foal Clydesdale will be on display. The horses won't be hitched to a wagon, but The Chrysalis Foundation is a not-for-profit, tax exempt organization dedicated to helping families growing through change. For reservations or info call Alice Bond, 407-767-6045 or 322-9468 usch Gardens in Tampa turned to a honored way of boosting attendance last week when it announced new attractions Gtl Cram Boft, "people will be able to get a close-up view of The Nation's Mm Low Price Leader LOWEST PRICE GUARANTEED! FOR YEARS CRAZY BOB'S HAS HAD THE LOWEST PRICES Knowledgeable, Helpful, Friendly Trained Sales People Hands on Product Display Clearly Marked Prices In-House or On Site Technical Support and PC Service 2 Check Bob's Specials On 286 386 Based Systems Crazy Bob's Stocks A Complete Line Of: 10, 12, 16 20 MHz 286 Systems 20 25 MHz 386 Systems (Including Towers) at the park. Hoping to score another coup by displaying rare mammals just as it did when it got two pandas on loan from China in 1987-88 Busch plans to add two Australian koalas to the park on June 28.

Koalasi which are tree-dwelling marsupials that resemble bears, will be housed in the park's Bird Gardens area. Also on display will be two Dama wallabies, another type of marsupial that park spokeswoman Glenda Gilmore said "looks like miniature kangaroos." Marsupials are mammals whose young are not fully developed when born. After birth, the young crawl into a pouch on the mother's abdomen and nurse for several months until their development is more advanced. A koala typically weighs about a fifteenth of a gram when it's born, Gilmore said. Opossums and kangaroos also are marsupials.

Grown koalas are 2 to 3 feet high and weigh 10 to 30 pounds. The little animals are picky eaters, feasting only on eucalyptus leaves. Busch Gardens is prepared, though. It has a eucalyptus-leaf supplier in Boynton Beach, according to John David Conrad, Busch spokesman. Busch's koalas will be a breeding pair, Gilmore said, that the park has on loan from the San Diego Zoo at no charge.

While Gilmore wouldn't speculate on whether the koalas will be as successful as the panda exhibit, she said that "they have that same kind of appeal. They look cute and cuddly." Tourists went crazy for the cute and cuddly look of the pandas when the two mammals were at the park from November 1987 to October 1988. During that time, the park set an all-time attendance record of 3.4 million, making it Florida's third most popular attraction, after Walt Disney World and Sea World. Another attraction to be added by Busch Gardens is the Tanganyika Tidal Wave. Guests will travel in 20-seat boats on a ride that takes them past junglelike growth and animal exhibits.

them, Gilmore said. KEY HOTELS. Metropolitan Orlando hotels posted an average occupancy of 83.7 percent in the first quarter of 1989, but the Florida Keys did even better, with its inns 86.9 percent full. Hotels in Palm Beach County came in third, with an average occupancy of 83.2 percent. A survey of 233 Florida hotels by the Miami office of Pannell Kerr Forster, an accounting and consulting firm, showed an average occupancy of 79.6 percent for hotels in 12 major market areas of the state.

Occupancy of 65 percent is considered a breakeven point for hotels. The hotels surveyed accounted for a total of 59,385 rooms. The area with the lowest average occupancy was in the Florida Panhandle, where hotels from Tallahassee to Pensacola were 54.6 percent full. "It's almost always slow in the Panhandle at the first of the year," said Patrick D'Sa, a consultant at Pannell Kerr's Miami office. The Panhandle's peak season begins on Memorial Day and lasts through the summer.

The second worst market was Gainesville, with 64.4 percent; the third worst was Jacksonville, 65.6 percent. D'Sa said that occupancy in the Keys was particularly good considering its relatively high average room rate of $91.87 during the quarter. But hotels in four other areas fetched higher rates: Naples ranked first, with an average rate of $168.72, because the area's posh resort hotels had a good winter season, D'Sa said. "Those rates tend to be astronomical in the first quarter," he added. Palm Beach County hotels came in second, with an average room rate of $121.88.

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TUESDAY 1180 19995 192 CPS, 9 Pin, Multi-font Craiy Bob' t. AJtsmonta Drive AGS Management Systems through Saturday, Hilton at Walt Disney World, 220 delegates American Safe Deposit Association, through Sunday, Buena Vista Palace, 400 delegates 90 DAYS THE SAME AS CASH WITH APPROVED CREDIT Prices Good Thru 52789. Prices and Availability May Change.