Who owns mt olympus wisconsin dells

The merged entities create a single destination property spanning acres and stretching a continuous length equal to more than 15 football fields along the Wisconsin Dells Parkway.

For comparison, the same stretch of land on the opposite side of the road accommodates 14 businesses including five hotels, five attractions, a campground, gas station, restaurant and one retail outlet. Currently, about 90 acres of the Mt. Olympus land are developed and feature 29 waterslides, two floating rivers, a wave pool, three shallow water play areas, nine multi-level go-kart tracks, five roller coasters, seven kiddie rides, bumper boats, mini-golf, batting cages and arcades.

The new mega park also includes the 55, square-foot Bay of Dreams indoor waterpark and two lodging facilities offering rooms. The new mega park will continue the classic Greek mythology theme started by the Laskaris family with their go-kart and roller coaster park. Architectural features and signage will include Greek column facades along the parkway frontage, with similar motifs throughout the park.

Development plans include the opening of four new amusement attractions at Mt. Olympus mega park in May The Playday Motel will be torn down to make way for two new outdoor water rides visible from the parkway. A new go-kart track is also in the planning stages. A new extreme wooden roller coaster called Hades is already under construction. Hades will climb feet, then drop feet into the world's longest underground tunnel for a roller coaster ride.

Boasting a degree slope, Hades will feature the steepest drop for any hybrid wooden roller coaster in the country. It will carry passengers up at 65 miles per hour and plunge below the earth twice through tunnels traveling under the Mt.

Olympus parking lot. His parents, the late Jim and Fotoula Laskaris, had moved to Wisconsin Dells from the Chicago area in to open a hot dog and hamburger stand. But their Big Chief restaurant had such sparse sales that the couple were soon running out of cash. They decided to return to Illinois. More than 40 years later, Nick, and his wife, Eva, own Mt. Laskaris was just 4 years old when his parents moved to the Dells. He and Eva operate businesses that stretch over a mile along Wisconsin Dells Parkway, the 5-mile strip of hotels, restaurants, waterparks and attractions in the state's largest tourism destination.

The Laskaris family's businesses, which have about 1, employees during the peak season, provide a more affordable choice for vacationers than the large waterpark resorts that are popular in the Dells.

But at other Laskaris-owned hotels, daily rates on the Mt. Hotel guests get free daily passes to Mt. But while they draw more money to the Dells, the big resorts make it harder for older hotels without waterparks to compete, said Tom Diehl, president of Tommy Bartlett Inc.

Meanwhile, guests who stay at the large waterpark resorts, which include gaming centers, spas, golf courses and other features, are less likely to visit other Dells attractions, such as Mt. Olympus or the Tommy Bartlett Show. Those trends led the Laskaris family in to merge what was then called Big Chief's Mt. That merger created Mt.

Olympus Water and Theme Park. The Laskaris family added new attractions, including a roller coaster that has a stretch that runs underground, and shops and restaurants overseen by Eva Laskaris. In , Nick and Eva Laskaris bought out the Mattei family's operations.

The Laskarises made a bigger move into the hotel business over this past fall and winter. They bought six hotels and a campground, most of them near Mt. Olympus, and remodeled and renamed them in keeping with the Greek theme. Laskaris says that's second only to the Wilderness Resort and its affiliated properties, which have more than 1, rooms. Along with a new revenue stream, the additional hotel rooms draw customers to Mt. Olympus by offering up to four free passes for each room, Laskaris said.

Those free passes generate cash as customers spend money at Mt. Olympus shops and restaurants. By remodeling the hotels, Laskaris is improving older sections of Wisconsin Dells Parkway, which is showing its age.