Thrival Kits To Bring Your Home Joy

Kids Entertainer Thrival Kit

Kids EXPLORER Thrival Kit

Kids FUN Thrival Kit

Although food is an essential piece of surviving, keeping mental sanity through the playful side within is also a need for individuals and families. Any parent at home with their children can attest to challenge of coming up with home activities. We’re here for you, and want to provide options to purchase or upgrade your meal to include some at home fun for you and yours! These items are available for curbside pick-up only. We hope these unique kits bring joy to you and yours! ​​​​​​​

We have 5 Thrival Kits available for purchase and pick-up. We are offering the Kids ENTERTAINER Thrival Kit: ($29.99) where you can become the entertainer of your tribe and wow them with mystical magic and juggling! Including: A Deck of DeSoto Caverns Cards, A Set of professional Juggling Balls, A Twister Pop. Also the Kids EXPLORER Thrival Kit: ($14.99) where you can let your inner-genius come alive with these hands-on science experiments! Including: Half Dyed Geode, Mystical Tree Experiment, Kinetic Sand, Rock Candy. We also are offering another kid-friendly kit named the Kids FUN Thrival Kit: ($19.99) where you can let out your inner child and play games that the whole family can enjoy! Including: -Travel-Sized Table Family Game, a Finger Puppet, a Jelly Belly Bag. We have the beautiful CHOSEN Thrival Kit: ($29.99) which is ideal for thriving and pampering, a perfect combination! Including: a Crystal Pendant, a DeSoto Caverns Coffee Mug, and your choice of Cinnamon Glazed Nuts or a slice of our Homemade Fudge! Last, but not least we have the HERO Thrival Kit: ($19.99) which enables you to fight off your hunger with this delicious Snack Pack! This pack Includes a Hunter's Reserve Wild Game Jerky Stick, a Fairhope Favorite's Moonshine Hot Sauce, and Deep Fried Peanuts!

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HERO Thrival Kit

CHOSEN Thrival Kit

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DeSoto Caverns Supports Local Schools with a WiFi Safe Access Location

As schools have needed to empty their classrooms, it is especially difficult on students that either do not have access to the internet or do not live in an area that has reliable internet. We are proud to be partnering with local schools that are deploying school busses supplied with WiFi hotspots to rural areas. The school campuses have WiFi access in their own parking lots but wanted to create more mobile spots in order to improve accessibility for students. Talladega schools will be using the DeSoto Caverns parking lot for a WiFi hotspot Mondays and Thursdays. Families are encouraged to drive their students to our parking lot where they can work on their school work from the safety of their car. ​​​​​​​

We will also be opening our Cave Cafe Curbside Pick-Up Thursdays through Mondays from 11am - 2pm! We know this has been a difficult time for families, so we’ve scheduled to have FREE entertainment during curbside pick-ups so that families can enjoy entertainment from the safety of their cars while waiting on their food. Our local family business has been seeking ways to make your essential experiences safe and less stressful by bringing you joy. We hope to put a smile on your faces and provide an opportunity where your families can thrive, not just survive. 

You can access the information about the school WiFi partnership here.

FREE Education Materials for your classroom

It's already challenging to create interactive intentional lesson plans for classes. And now, with a global crisis, it's harder than ever to create unique lesson plans online and keep students engaged. Parents are doing their best, but with many working from home they cannot provide the same nurturing educational environment as amazing dedicated educators are able to do. We know that you have worked hard long hours and we would like to offer you a FREE source that is already mapped to the state curriculum and approved by the Alabama Board of Education! ​​​​​​​

We have FREE online curriculum for both Science and Social Studies for each grade, K - 12. So, if you are looking for a unique new source to share with your students, send them to our site and have them read, watch a video, and take a quiz! Yes, all of that information is already on our robust educational platform. Each section for every grade includes an exact quote from the state curriculum that the section is covering, then explains the content in easy to understand terms, then has a video and quiz! Early grades even have PDF downloads within their grade that include coloring book pictures and other activities they can use as they are learning more about science and/or social studies. If you are wondering how you can prove they have completed the work, you can ask them to share the answer to question number two on the online quiz, for example. If they get it right, you know that they must have read the content, watched the video, and taken the quiz! There are plenty of ways to ensure that they have finished the work, but this is an example you can use for your classroom.

This is a hard time for everyone and we can all make it a little easier by helping one another out. We hope we’ve done that for you today. From our small business’ heart to yours, we hope that we’ve made this difficult time better for you and created a few days of outside sources your classroom can enjoy. We look forward to brighter days ahead and certainly miss hosting you and your classroom at America’s Most Historic Caverns.

Education Materials

DeSoto Caverns is a proud historic Passport location.

The PERFECT Birthday Celebratory Lunch

This time is difficult for all of us, but it's especially difficult for children who are celebrating birthdays and yet cannot enjoy special experiences, see their friends, or have any party or get-together. We are all making sacrifices at this time and we believe these sacrifices are saving lives, but that doesn't make the truth any easier to share with a child on his or her birthday. So, our team brainstormed and created a special way to celebrate the birthdays of your loved ones safely! Our Cave Cafe Curbside has FREE LIVE entertainment! This means that when you come get your lunch from the safety of your car in our park, we will have an entertainer present to make your time special! So, if you are looking for something special for your child's birthday, we have just the thing to bring safe joy to their day. If you are celebrating a birthday, be sure to let us know and we'll add a free celebratory pin to your take-away bag! Although you'll enjoy this experience from the safety of your car, you can invite others within other cars to share the experience. Let your family THRIVE, not just Survive!​​​​​​​

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Let Your Family Thrive, Not Just Survive

We understand that this has been a stressful, difficult season for all of us. As a local family business, we feel the stresses of small businesses as well as those of everyday life, as we all cautiously shop for groceries and supplies, worry about our aged relatives and those with health risks, and care for our children. Because even the necessities of the day are met with new stresses and are so significantly different than before, the team members of DeSoto Caverns wondered, "Can we create a safe CDC compliant experience for our guests where they are served the essentials and receive joy and hope too?" The answer was YES!​​​​​​​

Here’s our plan to serve you safely and allow you to guide your family into an experience where they not only survive but thrive! First, we have limited areas of contact between you and any team members for both ordering and receiving your items. You can order ahead of time online or from your car using our FREE WiFi. Then when you drive to our Cave Cafe Curbside Pick-up, you’ll share your order information at our first stop, and then pull forward to a table where you will pick up your order. Secondly, we’re also offering “Thrival Kits” to add to your food purchase so that your children can enjoy fun activities at home and you can also treat yourself! Finally, we wanted to create a joyful experience with FREE live entertainment during your curbside pick-up. So while you wait for your meal, one of our talented Show Performers will be entertaining you as you watch from the safety of your car. You will encounter on your visit either a juggler, a giant bubble creator, or a craft artisan such as a blacksmith. Receive words of encouragement from the signs we have posted along your drive-through path.

When you drive up to our Cave Cafe Curbside Pick-Up, you are able to do ALL of your ordering ahead of time online or while in our park using our FREE public WiFi to order online! This allows you to safely order and complete a transaction without having to get close enough to someone that you have to hand your credit card to anyone! You can drive up to our first Cafe spot and share your order information then pull forward to the pick-up location which has a table where the team member will place your order and you can pick it up without having to grab it from their hands. Secondly, we’ve added experiences for you and yours to thrive in your home called “Thrival Packs.” These packs are designed so that your children or you can have something to enjoy during your time at home. Lastly, we wanted your experience to be exciting and positive. We understand that the changes in service everywhere are a constant reminder of this difficult time, so we wanted to create special experiences to create joy during your safe curbside pick-up. So, while you wait for your meal, enjoy LIVE entertainment. We have a crew of talented storytellers, jugglers, and craft artisans and will be creating new experiences for you to enjoy from the safety of your car during your visit to our park. We have also put up encouraging words on signs as you drive through to offer encouragement for you and yours during this time.

Our internal team plan is just as important as our service plan because, without it, we cannot ensure a safe experience for our guests. Our team members do not come to work if they do not feel well or if any of their immediate contacts are unwell. Every morning our team signs in using a system that does not require them to touch any surfaces, they are given gloves, and they are taught the proper use of gloves (no cross-contamination, when you finish a task or touch a new surface, you remove your gloves and put on fresh gloves.) They are also taught that wearing gloves does not replace washing hands, but handwashing for a minimum of twenty-seconds is still a necessity throughout the day. Safe distancing is a part of each step of our process from team members’ food preparation to serving each of our guests. This is one of the reasons we have streamlined our menu and we hope you enjoy our offerings. The more we create an internal safe atmosphere, the more you get to rest easy knowing that the team serving you truly cares about providing safety for our family and yours.

We invite you to safely enjoy a lunch on the go with the surprise of something extra to brighten your day. We hope to bring joy to you and yours.

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We Care About Your Safety: Coronavirus Park Measures

Updated March 22nd, 2020: We are temporarily closed in the passionate preservation of the health of our guests and team members. This is, of course, is a very difficult decision as a small family business, but we believe this is the best choice in order to flatten the curve. We look forward to hosting you in the time to come. We will open when it is safe to do and are closely following recommendations of leaders and experts in order to ensure the best environment for the people we serve. We believe that in order to have fun, people need to first know that they are in a safe environment. Amidst all of the concern that is happening worldwide, it is our commitment to caring and serving our guests and team members to do all that we can to provide the safest environment possible. So, in accordance with our values for safety and education, we would like to share with you the precautions we are taking to serve our guests and team members.​​​​​​​

It is essential to us that our guests enter into a preventative action park that is putting their safety first and taking significant measures to ensure a safe environment. DeSoto Caverns is currently following the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and also is receiving and following all updates given by the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, which has been sharing daily updates on the preventative and best practices of parks worldwide since early January when parks within China, were taking responsive action. Thankfully both of these resources have caring medical and park leaders who are doing everything in their power to prevent further illness and serve the public through preventative and even closure methods. As an active member of the Alabama Tourism Department, DeSoto Caverns is also learning the procedures and processes our state is taking in preventative action. Lastly, our core leadership is enrolling in any educational opportunities and is getting regular updates from the WHO (World Health Organization) and following all updates from the Alabama Department of Health. These excellent resources have created our plan of preventative action which includes the following points along with additional responsibilities of inspection. We are adding additional cleaning duties throughout the day in all areas of contact to prevent the spread of germs by wiping down door nobs, benches, bathrooms, attractions, railing, and other retail and attraction surfaces guests come into contact with during their visit. We have moved the seating within our cafe area to ensure that all cafe seating is 6 feet apart. We have updated limiting our tour sizes to ten guests to comply with the latest update to the CDC as of March 17. We are also wiping down handrails, benches and all areas of contact within the caverns with solutions that are CDC compliant yet also are in the best interest of preserving the Caverns environment as well. Our team is already required and instructed to regularly wash their hands and we have educated them on the CDC guidelines of washing their hands. Our employees have been instructed not to come to work if they exhibit any symptoms of sickness. We are also implementing sickness procedure measures so that our team is utilizing social distancing so that even though no one sick is coming to work, any possible contamination does not spread. We have also implemented the thermal scanning of team members in order to ensure that no team members have a fever. We are taking multiple measures to ensure both our team and our guests are entering a safe zone to have fun and enjoy themselves.

What do all of these sources mean for your visit? DeSoto Caverns is committed to providing you with a safe environment. You can expect a clean environment, healthy team members serving you who truly care about your adventure being fun and safe. Our team is committed to internal education on best practices and swift external responsive action for your benefit. We hope you enjoy your upcoming adventure with us knowing that your safety is important to us.

Behind the Scenes for Tomb of the Risen Dead

It’s incredible getting to work at DeSoto Caverns and prepare for an event that has received national attention! We thought we’d share with you a few of the stages we go through in the process of pulling together an event here. The team is very close and the department directors often work 15 hour days to create an event that our guests will remember! It takes a lot of heart and time, but we love being a part of something that creates special memories for our guests! Right now is a crazy time of year, but here’s a look into the planning of this incredible event!

Nearly one month prior to the event finishing the lighting on one of our show tents!

Our CVO and Event Director Jared working from 7am until past midnight one night creating over 1,000 light cues for our light show!

• Stories and Scripts : We begin organizing our event with our CVO, Jared Sorensen, spending time “dreaming of what our guests want that they have never seen.” Months are spent hypothesizing on how to create a guest experience that stands out. Our goals are always focused on individual experiences, meaning that when you come to the park, what you experience is unlike what another guest minutes later will experience. We want you to know that your choices affect your experience and that within our park, you are not just another number, but an individual with power and choices.

• Entertainment Organization : Months before the event takes place, our Event Director books our entertainment and shares with them the theming, style and beats that will make their partnership with this amazing event blend seamlessly! Over the years of TORD and Christmas at the Cave, we have brought in talent from all over the country to wow our guests.

• Casting : When it comes to casting, we have so much fun both looking into new talent and seeing old faithful faces! We have cast members who have been coming for five years!

• Lighting : It takes seven days and a team of four people to prepare and light the park for Tomb of the Risen Dead.

• Operations Preparations : These details begin in the months prior to the event! Starting with general information about the event but condensing down to the smallest details, such as line placement, scripts, costuming, special offers and more!

• Script Run-throughs : This is when the rubber meets the road! Our cast receives their script and we go through the event theme and story relationships inside DeSoto Caverns! We have character development workshops with our award winning producer and professional director including a portfolio of productions in LA and NYC featuring off-broadway experience. This workshop includes, table reads, character development, blocking, show-run throughs and then…

• Dress Rehearsal : This is the BIG moment! This is when we do make up, hair, photo-shoots by our President who has a photography background, and run through the shows in their locations! We work on the last touches for the production and ensure that all is prepared for our guests!