gma and gpa adventures went to the gaylord opryland hotel in nashville tennessee. and while
we were there, we took a ride on a delta riverboat on their indoor river to see some of opryland's
christmas decorations. okay we're walking now into the delta atrium. so this is how big the boat is.
hi stan. how big is the boat? um it holds one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
ten, maybe twelve. and then there's probably another eight or ten on the other side.
decorations up there at the top are pretty. we're still on the boat docks.
welcome to the gaylord opryland resort and convention center and the delta riverboat.
my name is clyde and i'll be your tour guide for the next few minutes. we're
going to take a little trip around the delta river inside opryland.
this is our own river. it's a quarter mile long. it has 450 000 gallons of water in it.
when we originally filled our river back in 1996 we went about it in a rather unique way.
we sent out 3,000 empty jack daniels bottles all over the world and we asked people to fill
them up with water from their local waterways and send it back to us. and we ended up getting back
bottles from all 50 states and 30 different countries.
so we blended all of that water in with our water and created truly an international waterway.
to the right there's plaques along the sidewalk that show all of the waterways
throughout the world from where we got our samples of water. so you may want to
walk by and see if there's one near your hometown. there probably is.
we have several types of fish in our river. as we come up under this bridge here you'll
you like if you look in the water you're likely to see some of our big catfish.
they feed them breakfast over here every morning so they're
always swimming around trying to find something to eat. anybody see one.
they may be hiding tonight.
these trees that are sticking out over the water here on your left hand side
these are table top black olive trees. and they're native of florida. normally you wouldn't find that
in tennessee but in our atrium here we keep the temperature between 68 and 72 degrees year-round
so we're able to grow plants and trees that you normally would not find in tennessee.
now we're coming up on our spectacular 48 foot tall christmas tree.
this is a favorite photo spot in our resort.
i'd encourage everybody to get a picture in front of the christmas tree before you leave.
we're getting ready for our country christmas celebration that'll last all through the holidays.
as we come by if you look behind the christmas tree you may get a glimpse
of our largest chandelier in the resort.
that chandelier back there is 3 000 pounds and has 158 light bulbs on it.
upstairs to our right is our delta ballroom. it's our largest convention center ballroom and it
holds up to 7 000 people. we get conventions from all over the world that come here. in
fact over 80 percent of our business comes from conventions and we get a lot of really big ones.
to the left you'll see that big white brick wall. that was the original exterior
of the magnolia which was built in 1977 which was the original hotel.
it had 600 guest rooms and one big ballroom and there was concern that they over built.
well since then we've expanded several times in 1983, 1988,
and in 1996 is when we added the delta area which includes the delta river. and in that time
we've gone from 600 guest rooms. anybody know how many we have in the hotel now. very close. 2888.
and several times a year we are completely booked. unbelievable.
we also have over 700,000 square feet of conference space.
that makes us the largest indoor hotel in north america that does not have a casino.
tennessee won't let you have a casino. gotta go to kentucky.
coming up on the right hand side you'll see some of our citrus trees.
and these are trees that you certainly wouldn't normally find in tennessee. the first two are
papaya trees. if you look at the top there you can see some of the fruit growing in.
next we have a pineapple guava tree. we also have a florida orange tree over here.
a couple of grapefruit trees. a lemon tree. and most of these do produce fruit seasonally.
see our pretty christmas decorations on the river here to our left.
and the left side here is our delta island. there's five bridges that can take you over
to the island. and it has a kind of a new orleans theme to it. there's shopping.
there's restaurants there. be sure and check that out before you leave.
we just hung our stockings. anybody have a stocking that big at their house.
no. i wish i'd like santa to fill one of those up for me.
as we come out from under this bridge if everybody would look straight up
you'll see the tallest point in the resort.
that's 15 stories high up there. 15 stories. that's 6,200
glass panels. those glass panels are hurricane resistant, golf ball size hail resistant.
so no matter how messy it gets outside it's always beautiful in here. to give you an idea if you took
all of that glass and laid it down side by side it will cover more than seven football fields.
coming up on the left-hand side you'll see our delta fountain. these fountains have there's
106 fountains with a big geyser in the middle. and it shoots water up 80, 85 foot in the air.
every evening between six and nine o'clock on the hour we have a spectacular light show
synchronized with music with the fountains. and it's uh really something to see.
if you're looking for something to do tonight be sure and check one of those out.
it's on the hour every hour from six until nine and the best part about it is it is free.
now just above us if you look though above the bridge that we're heading towards
you'll see old hickory steak house. this is our signature restaurant at all of our gaylord
properties and it is just fantastic. if you want a nice romantic dinner you can't beat it.
and the food is excellent. they've received many awards.
it makes for some very good areas to take pictures. so if you want to
take some pretty pictures get your cameras ready. the waterfalls are not only pretty
to look at they serve as our river's main filtration system. they turn all of the water
over which is 450,000 gallons. they turn all of that water over every three hours.
and this also provides plenty of oxygen to help keep our fish happy. and healthy.
these trees here with the big beads on them on both sides
those are asian banana trees. so we've had some bananas bloom in there or coming in.
this tree that is hanging out over the river here
this is called the banyan tree. this is from india and many cultures believe that if you make a wish
under the banyan tree that your wish will come true. anybody want to make a wish.
i may make one too.
good luck with your wishes.
anybody see an alligator.
look on your right up there you might see stoney the alligator.
he's sitting over there watching us ride by. he don't ever move he always watches us.
i'm starting to think he might not be real.
if you look straight above stony you'll see a feed mahogany tree.
that tree was brought in by helicopter in 1996 and planted before we put the roof on.
so they built the roof after that tree was already planted and already fully grown.
now many of you probably know that in 2010 nashville covered uh suffered a historic flood.
the flood shut our resort down.
the flood had our resort down for six months.
during the time that we rebuilt after the flood. unfortunately we had to drain all of the water
from our river which meant we lost all of our international water. so what do you think we did.
we sent the jack daniels bottles out again and again we got them back from all over the world.
and in may of 2011 on the one year anniversary of the flood we held a re-blending ceremony
and put all of that water back into our river and made it an international waterway again.
see these lights that were going under the water was all the way up to those lights.
that's how bad it was flooded in here. it was terrible. you see all the pretty flowers on each
side of the river and all through the resort. we have a horticultural team of 15 gardeners
that work every day to keep everything beautiful in here. on the left-hand side
you'll see our boathouse where we keep our fleet of five mark twain style riverboats.
these boats run on 16 car sized batterys. they run
on a track out here but we can't steer the boats when they're in the boathouse.
we just put our poinsettias out for christmas.
to the left you'll see two trees up against the brick wall. here those are cocoa trees.
those were given to us as a gift from jamaica after the flood.
i see we're coming back up on the dock so our trip around the delta river is winding down.
i hope you all have enjoyed it and i hope you've learned
a few little nuggets of information about the gaylord opryland.
as we approach the dock if you would please keep your hands and arms inside the boat.
once we're stopped i'll ask the front section of the boat to exit first. those in
the back remain with me just for a moment and then we'll get you out.
on behalf of gaylord opryland resort and convention center
and the delta boats my name is clyde and i
thank you for riding with me today and i hope you have a wonderful stay here at the gaylord.