Flood waters weren’t the only things that rose over the weekend. Ticket prices at the Ark Encounter in Grant County rose to $50. Ten dollars more than the usual $40 standard day pass.
The park’s website is also offering a new 40-day pass they are calling the ultimate Noah experience. For $3,000 thrill seeking home-schoolers can spend the same time spent in the ark as the Bible says Noah and his family did. “It’ll be like our apocalypse drills we practice at home,” says 13 yr old Elijah Macabee.
The 40-day pass includes “Cruise Ship Quality” meals. “Experience the flood the way God intended. With Style!” The ad goes on to say.
“Expect plenty of seafood,” says park founder Ken Ham, as he tosses another shrimp on a barbecue grill. We are in a corner of the Ark that houses animals specific to Ham’s native Australia. Pens are filled with Kangaroos, Koalas and the worlds most poisonous snakes. “Foster’s?” Ham offers a can of the Aussie beer to us as he slices the lid off of his own with the blade of an oversize bowie knife.
He tells us that much of the food will be catered in from Florence’s Outback Steakhouse. “The Applebees of Oceania.”
Many are appalled by the park’s price gouging while an actual flood is overtaking parts of the state it chose to call home. What is the reasoning behind the rising ticket prices?
“Blokes come in. Blokes go out. What can ya do?” is Ham’s response after swallowing a frothy gulp of Fosters. “Just grab another prawn off the sizzler.” Ham motions towards the shrimp on the grill.
“We’ll also have plenty of games for kids.” He explains that ‘Throw another shrimp on the barbie’ is not a reference to grilling. “It’s a game we have in Australia. Children get a bucket full of shrimp they toss at a wall of barbie dolls. Whoever knocks down the most barbies takes home the shrimp. We can charge about $15 a bucket. Unseasoned. $20 if you want them grilled and blackened.”
If you can’t afford the ticket price during the flooding or a life jacket Mr. Ham suggests grabbing the neck of a giraffe.