Summer Starts in Atlanta with Half-Price Fun
ATLANTA (May 21, 2007) – The Atlanta CityPass® ticket booklet debuted in Atlanta last fall, the tenth of ten North American CityPass big-city programs, with an unprecedented line-up of the destination’s most visited attractions at half-price savings. Its first summer is jam-packed with cool cultural experiences and lush outdoor locations.
Designed to be the definitive collection of must-sees in Atlanta to save time and money, CityPass primes its tickets with insider tips, a map, transportation information, special values and the chance to avoid most ticket lines. Adult tickets, available online at www.atlanta.net/citypass or at any participating attraction, are $64 ($113.45 value); youths age 3-12, $45 (an $82.50 value.) Tickets are valid for nine days from first use.
Four core attraction tickets anchor the program, and this summer, there’s no better place to find what’s making news:
New World of Coca-Cola opens May 24, marking a leap bridging past and future for this iconic brand. Located at Pemberton Place, named for the inventor of Coca-Cola, in the heart of downtown Atlanta, the new attraction is twice as large as its previous incarnation, displaying more than 1,200 never-before-seen artifacts related to Coca-Cola. The bottling line producing 8-ounce commemorative Cokes is a highlight.
The High Museum of Art, the South’s premier art museum, scored a cultural coup in which Louvre masterpieces are exhibited outside its Paris galleries for the first time. Louvre Atlanta features paintings collected by kings; a second exhibit showcases furniture, tapestries, silver and other items used in royal households. Also on display are the remarkable 500-year old Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise, on loan from Florence, another first-time journey. In addition to its far-reaching permanent collection, the museum’s Southern Folk Art exhibit is both charming and definitive.
The Georgia Aquarium, also at Pemberton Place, boasts big numbers – eight million gallons of water, 120,000 different animals, 500 species – but the real show-stopper is being an inch of glass away from a sharp-toothed creature, or when descending a passageway below the ocean’s green waters.
Inside CNN Atlanta Studio Tour takes a visitor on a 55-minute behind-the-scenes guided tour for exclusive views of studios, newsgathering and broadcasting from the network that reinvented the way we view and dissect fast-breaking events.
Two option tickets invite visitors to customize their time with sightseeing they find most compelling in the time available, with indoor and outdoor aspects:
Select either the Fernbank Museum of Natural History or the Atlanta Botanical Garden. The Fernbank Museum is a jaw-dropping stop, from the permanent collection’s Gigantosaurus – with it’s knife-size slashing teeth, to this summer’s special exhibitions, Lizards and Snakes: Alive!, an intimate introduction to live slithery types such as boa constrictors, geckos, and chameleons, and Nature’s Jewels: Butterflies and Other Insects, a photographic study of spectacular close-up photographs.
The Atlanta Botanical Garden offers traditional garden beauty and Southern style, then tilts the imagination to a summer-long exhibition cheekily dubbed, Big Bugs & Killer Plants. The “Big Bugs” are huge sculptures rising out of the landscape, here a looming praying mantis, and over there a spider and web. “Killer Plants” are plants that eat bugs, drawing upon the world’s largest collection of carnivorous plants. Noteworthy for small fry and dreamy-eyed parents are classic children’s stories scheduled in the amphitheater. Nothing says summer morning like stumbling across Three Billy Goats Gruff.
The second option ticket is a choice of either Zoo Atlanta or the Atlanta History Center. There’s been a media spotlight on Zoo Atlanta since the birth of Mei Lan, the world’s newest panda bear. Viewing times are generally in the morning, though there’s no guarantee Ms. Mei will show, anticipation fires up the audience; 15-minute time slots are available upon admission. There are lots of other animals waiting to be discovered, especially the famous gorillas.
The Atlanta History Center is a magnet for thoughtful investigation – via its historic buildings, farms and grounds – of the events and people who created and shaped Georgia. The variety of its signature exhibitions offers insight into Georgians’ complexity and fascinating interests: Turning Point – The American Civil War; Metropolitan Frontiers, four eras of Atlanta history; and Centennial Olympic Games Museum, where visitors can test themselves against Olympian standards. Coming July 4: Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, a once in a lifetime opportunity to see artifacts that have never traveled outside Philadelphia, such as Franklin’s printing press, 1790 anti-slavery petition and his draft copy of the Declaration of Independence.
About Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau: Established in 1913, ACVB is a private, nonprofit organization created exclusively to market metro Atlanta and Georgia as a premier convention, meeting and leisure destination in the regional, national and international marketplace and to favorably impact the Atlanta economy through conventions and tourism. www.atlanta.net
About CityPass: CityPass is available in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Southern California, combining Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Diego theme parks, and Toronto, Canada. Atlanta CityPass is the tenth Pass in 10 years. For more information, visit www.citypass.com or call toll free 888-330-5008.
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For more information, please contact ACVB Public Relations:
Lauren Jarrell Jessica Lumsden Suzanne Forte Tara Burnham
Director Specialist Specialist Assistant
404.521.6649 404.521.6645 404.521.6632 404.521.6398
ljarrell@atlanta.net jlumsden@atlanta.net sforte@atlanta.net tburnham@atlanta.net
