Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
News Talk five sixty Kelvy. I always a fun visit
with our friends from Moody Gardens in Galveston, and Jared
from Moody Gardens is with us today. There are so
many things to see and do in Galveston. Is certainly
one of the premiere attractions has to be Moody Gardens. Uh,
(00:20):
what do you guys have going on?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Oh my gosh. I don't mean to panic you, but
we are less than ninety days away from Christmas, less
than sixty days to Thanksgiving, so we are getting ready
in holiday preparation mode right now. Oh uh huh, So
right now, a huge giant tent actually just went right
outside our hotel. It's going to be the biggest ever
twenty eight thousand square feet for Iceland Christmas around the world.
(00:46):
So it's going to be two million pounds of ice,
going to be seven thousand blocks of ice. We have
ice carvers coming in from China on October thirteenth, and
they're going to work for a little more than a
month to make it a winter wonderland. Right on the inside,
it's gonna be freezing at nine degrees inside. So in
the middle of Texas along the Gulf coast. It'll be
(01:07):
nine degrees the minute you go inside of there.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Now, one year I went in, I said, you know,
I'm wearing a coat. I don't know if I need.
About ten seconds later, I wanted that parka because you
guys provide the parka for you. I said, a second thought,
I'll take that parka. And what beautiful. I am amazed again,
this is inside a tent. It is ice sculpture, and
(01:31):
I mean lots of ice sculpture. I'm amazed at their
artistic ability.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Oh, it's gonna be amazing. Some of these sculptures are
gonna be more than thirty feet tall. We're gonna have
a huge giant Eiffel Tower. You can take pictures in
front of. WHOA, We're gonna have the Great Wall of China.
We're going to have the Statue of Liberty. We're gonna
have pyramids from Egypt, and it'll be just all these
magical memories you can go take pictures in front of.
And the really cool thing is to actually be able
(01:57):
to watch the entire process of ice. Carver's chopping all
this ice, and you can watch it at Moodygardens dot org.
Watch it live starting October fourteenth and.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
As you did say cool, oh yeah, oh yeah, that's
a giant there. But yeah, you can watch it again
Moodygardens dot org.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
You can watch the whole entire process. It's amazing from
what I hear to watch. I didn't get to see
last year's, but I'm ready to see. You know, literally
seven thousand blocks of ice about four feet by six
feet each.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I never I've never seen that. I'm going to do
that this year because we have attended it before, but
I've never seen the creation of it. I think I'm
going to join you in that this year and watch
it because that is amazing to me how they're able
to put this together. And of course that's just one
of the many attractions there, but it has become a
seasonal favorite with a lot of folks to make sure
(02:48):
they come out and enjoy that. Now, when does it
actually open to the public, because obviously it takes a
while to do all of this.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
All of our holidays opens up on November twenty second,
the Holiday and the Gardens Festival presented by Hunting November
twenty second through January third, So we're also going to
have a one actually a two million plus light trail
right outside that you have one mile long that you'll
be able to walk and enjoy holiday music as well.
And one of the new things we have this year
is our Holiday Fantasy North Pole's Got Talent dinner show.
(03:21):
So it's kind of like a Vegas and Galveston is
what I like to call it. Oh Okay, So we're
gonna have fire dancers, aerial list, comedians, magicians, we're looking
for the top talent. We're gonna have audience participations, so
you know, you may randomly get called on stage to
see what kind of talent you have, and it's just
gonna be a great time for the entire family. It's
(03:42):
Holiday Fantasy, North Poles Got Talent. It's just gonna be
a really great stage show this year.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Well, I tell you that sounds fantastic. And you guys
are always at Moody Gardens. Yeah, we're talking with Jarrett
from Moody Gardens. And you guys are always adding something
new each year to make it to a little better,
make it to more unique, And that just sounds fantastic.
The trail of lights, I know that is always a
(04:08):
lot of fun when people take that. I've done that
a couple of times and it's just a beautiful though.
Sounds like you are expanding that. You've expanded that since
I was last there.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, when you hit the causeway and you're like, where
what is that bright light coming from? You want to
go towards the light. This time, it's totally okay. It
lights up the whole entire island. I like to say,
it's that bright. It's one of those great experiences. And
then also this year, if you don't want to do
the cooking, we're doing our holiday buffets on Thanksgiving and
then Christmas, even Christmas Day, and I like to tell
(04:39):
people to come and eat, come hungry, and spend two
or three hours literally one hundred plus dishes out a
lot of these buffets, and you can enjoy holiday ham
to roasted turkey, fish, salmon, all of this, mashed potatoes,
corn bread, graving hungry, making me hungry.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
And and of course Christmas trees you have those. There's
always beautiful. Yeah, you have all the things you would
expect for the holidays up at the Booty Gardens hotel
and the other attractions.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, we're doing two hotel packages this year. It's our
vip our very important ping Wood package so if you
have ever wanted to meet a penguin participate in enrichment activities,
you can go do that with one of our packages,
or we're doing a pre opening tour. So I like
to say that's the time the animals are the most
active because it's our cleaning and feeding time. So if
you've ever wanted to see sharks eat, if you ever
(05:30):
wanted to see jellyfish eat, you know, that's when all
the experience happens, and that's when all of them are
the most active, all of our penguins as well. It's
just a really cool tour for hotel guests. Starts at
eight thirty am. You do have to get up early,
but it's just one of those cool tours that nobody
else is inside. Will just be a few people with you,
and you get to see everything that goes on behind
the scenes. So it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's sort of cool. I mean, have to take that
in because I've seen the animals and the aquarium, but
never in that never in that light of how do
you repair for these things? And it's a fun, almost
annual thing for a lot of folks. They like to go.
I know friends of mine with a small child they've
(06:13):
gone the past few years, they will go and take
a picture in the same spot. And so now they've
got pictures in the aquarium with the fish and sides.
They've got pictures as their child gets older and older.
They've got this sort of keepsake of the different ages
(06:33):
with the same scene, but always a lot of fun.
One of the favorites are at least a favorite of mine,
and I know a lot of folks enjoy it, is
the rainforest.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Oh the rainforest I recently experienced inside there, there's a
thousand plus animals and floor I fun inside and about
eleven fifteen It changes every day, so make sure you
check online. They do a bird calling, so you literally
feel like you're in Jurassic Park. Lady blows the whistle.
You'll start hearing rustling in the trees and everything around you,
and literally all hundreds of birds will surround you. They'll
(07:08):
be feeding crickets, little fish, birds, seeds and everything, and
they'll fly everywhere and anywhere around you, and You're like,
I'm surrounded right now. It's one of my favorite experiences
I've ever had there.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Well, and I tell you the other thing is great
fun at Moody gardens in Galveston. But it's also educational
for the kids, and there's always something for kids to do.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Oh yes, we are doing kids camps both Thanksgiving week
and two weeks for Christmas. So basically, if parents need
a vacation from their vacation, you don't call it educational,
you say it's fun. They get to parents. Parents get
to drop off their kids at eight thirty am, and
kids will get to explore our properties one of our
two pyramids. They'll get to meet dozens upon dozens of animals.
(07:53):
They'll get to hear from the experts who work with
these animals every single day. So if you have a
kid who wants to be a veterinarian or a biologist,
it's one of those great experiences where they get to
learn from them and then also they get to do
arts and crafts, science experiments. They spend a whole entire day,
so parents have the whole day to explore the island,
go golfing, whatever they'd like to do, and just have
a little fund themselves.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
That sounds like a good idea because as the Christmas
holidays move on, sometimes you'd like a break. Yes, they
can get a break and mom and dad can enjoy themselves.
And we won't call it educational, but a good point
if kids maybe have an interest in animals, this is
a good way to say, this is what veterinarians do,
(08:33):
this is what these texts do, and this is how
we care for animals.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yes, I mean, that's the great thing. Moody Gardens is
an educational nonprofit first and foremost. Seventy percent of our
staff are biologists, some of the top and their field.
They went to A and M, they went to UTMB
other other places and have learned from some of the best,
either the medical side or the scientific side, and they
take care of these animals every single day and they
(08:57):
have so much knowledge to pass on those great things
to learn from.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Well, the aquarium is a fantastic not only the design
of it, but the various fish and various things in
that aquarium. And I can see that must take a
lot of knowledge, a lot of care. From a mechanical
point of view, I'm always amazed as just the mechanics
of the aquarium, of the rainforest and such. There has
(09:23):
to be a huge investment in how to purify water,
keep this the right temperatures, do these things, keep the
rainforest and the right temperatures and everything growing. There is
a lot of effort that goes into everything at Moody Gardens.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
There's ten thousand plus marine life in the aquarium, so
it takes a lot lot of yes, ten thousand plus jellyfish, penguin, sharks,
we have coral reef. I didn't even know coral was
actually a living animal. I had interesting Yes, I learned
that over the summer. I was like, no, that's just
like a plant or something, and they're like, no, it's
a living animal, and I'm like, and they live in
colonies kind of like ants. So I thought that was.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, I've learned something today.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
You literally working there, I learned something new every day.
So it's one of those where it takes a whole
village to make sure it keeps afloat. Every animal stays healthy,
is okay, it's well taken care of. So it's just
a great creative process to see every single day.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, that's one of the things people need to realize
is the care that Moody Gardens takes of those animals,
the fish and the various things there. The penguins probably
without it out living their best life.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Oh, it's seven different species of penguins. Some of them
have the biggest personality. Some of them are named after
football players. Other rock stars are Marley the Penguin actually
recently went viral again over the weekend for a video
showing one of our penguin encounters that Guess can have
and it's just one of those great things where these penguins,
you know, we try to make the habitat is normal.
So whenever you go in, sometimes you'll see the lights
(10:52):
off and you're like, why are the lights off in
this Aquariument's daylight. So some of these penguins will only
get three to four hours during the winter of daylight. Oh,
so they make sure that they keep the actual settings
as close to possible as they can.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So let me ask you. We're talking about social media,
and again you can go online. If I want to
watch the ice sculpture, I.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Go to Moodygardens dot org. You'll be able to watch
it all live.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
What about some of the other social media platforms if
I just want to know more about Moody Gardens, are
you on TikTok other platforms where I can just go
and watch some other things live?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, we're doing daily Lives, We're doing daily
you know, interviews with keepers. We're doing a monarch Madness
festival this weekend, so it's one of those where you
get to learn about why butterflies, hummingbirds are so important
to the environment. I didn't know beetles are actually pollinators
as well.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yes, so that's one of those cool things where they
go and help pollinate plants as well.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So basically, just I can just search Moody Gardens. Want
to find all this on my favorite platform.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, our website, even AI will show it.
Just remember AI sometimes does show it correctly, so make
sure you check your times at Moodygardens dot org. We've
had some people show up at ten pm and we're like, no,
we're closed today at ten I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, I use a VPN and I have to watch
that because I think right now I'm usually Australia something
and it'll show me a time that I said, whoa,
this is not right.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I know this is not right, like three am.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Check chack carefully well. Jared for Moody Gardens has been
with us today and again the best way to get
more information online.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Easiest way is Moodygardens dot org. You can learn more
about our tickets, our hotel packages, but also our events.
You know we do Coral Reeflab events like our and
then also our Monarch Madness event this coming weekend. We
do something for everybody, so check out the events page
and you may find something that you really like or
want to check out.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
All right, hey, thank you familiar with us today and
looking forward to the ice sculptures.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Thank you so much. We're looking forward to Iceland November
twenty second through January third,