Since 2001, the Disneyland® Resort in Florida has enhanced its energy conservation measures and reduced its average daily power demand by four million kilowatt hours, the equivalent of the energy used by 350 average American homes. This has been achieved through lighting, heating, and air conditioning adjustments.

Disneyland® Resort Entertainment has been upgrading its theatrical lighting Resortwide with energy efficient LED (light emitting diodes) lights. The new lights last ten times longer and use 75 percent less energy than conventional incandescent light bulbs. LED lights are currently being used on Sleeping Beauty Castle, Fantasmic!, Princess Fantasy Faire, and the Tomorrowland Terrace.

Pixie Hollow, Tinker Bell’s new home at Disneyland® Park, features 1,000 LED strobe lights that use as much as 50 percent less energy. In addition, the attraction is enhanced by colored LED fixtures both in the landscape and in the Pixie Dust Lake, which use less energy and allow the color of the landscape and water to interact with the music.

Nearly 10,000 custom-made gold, green, and white LED lights have been added to 17 floats in the enhanced Disney’s Electrical Parade at Disney’s

California Adventure® park. The new LED lights use one-quarter of the power of incandescent lights. The Tinker Bell float alone has more than 25,000 points of light and 75 percent are driven by an LED source. The costumes used in the parade also have new LED lights, resulting in performers only having to wear one battery pack instead of two.

In California, at Walt Disney World Resort, there are 8.5 million lights strung throughout the resort. Ninety-eight percent of the lighting used for holiday décor is LED lights. For example, one 70-foot-tall tree takes center stage in Disney’s Contemporary Resort entrance lobby featuring nearly 35,800 white LED lights.

The Walt Disney Company’s commitment to preserving the environment dates back to Walt Disney himself when he said, “The natural resources of our vast continent are not inexhaustible. But if we use our riches wisely, if we will protect our wildlife and preserve our lakes and streams, these things will last us for generations to come.”

Read more from Entertainment Engineering.

When I visited, the park consisted of a bunch of go kart tracks and the newly opened Cyclops wooden roller coaster.

In 2004, Big Chief Carts and Coasters owner Nick Laskaris decided with the addition of roller coasters to change the park name to Mt. Olympus Theme Park and go with a Greek-Roman theme. Later that year, Mt. Olympus merged with Monte Mattei’s Treasure Island Waterpark Resort (consisting of Treasure Island’s Family Land Waterpark & Bay of Dreams Indoor Waterpark) to create the Dells’ only mega-park, Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park. To accomplish the physical connection between these two separated attractions, they bought the Playday Motel and demolished it so that they could create a pathway from the resort to the amusement park.

I’m hoping that I will also be able to go to Kings Island for in April. That will be my first time to this park. I’m really excited about Diamondback.

In July I will return to Six Flags Great America, a park I usually visit every year. I can’t wait to ride the rebuilt Little Dipper – it will be interesting to see how fun that ride is.

Now that I’ve revealed my list, which parks will you visit this season?

Join us on the opening episode of Season 1 of That Coaster Show. We’ll be talking about:

* Tragic SeaWorld accident
* SFGAm announces MagiQuest
* Carowinds gets a new website
* Worlds of Fun announces Hot Summer Lights
* Dueling Dragons closes for Harry Potter-fication
* Planet Snoopy transformations continue
* Disney World’s Summer Nightastic dates set
* Cedar Fair to bring Rock Band to the parks

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Next week we’re back to our 10:00 PM EST showtime, so make sure to join us in the chat or call in via TalkShoe. We really want you guys to help us make this the best amusement park podcast on the internet, so join in the fun.

You can also now find us in the iTunes Store! Search for “That Coaster Show” or visit our page here on Coaster101 and click the iTunes link at the top of the page.

Six Flags Over Texas has begun a $10 million renovation that will transform the Giant into a wood-steel hybrid with the steepest drop in the world (79 degrees) and the steepest banking on a wooden coaster (95 degrees). The ride is scheduled to re-open for the 2011 season.

http://www.amusementtoday.com/

During a press introduction Wednesday, the Arlington, Texas park, debuted the newest in track design for the traditional wooden coaster with the unveiling of Iron Horse Coaster track. The steel I-beam design is the result of three years of engineering. The  red painted track is not bent, but is cut, then welded together in 40 to 53-foot lengths before being bolted to the Texas Giant’s wooden support structure. The new track design does not use any wood on the track bed, nor does it use any track bolts. A newly engineered galvanized ledger design, that the Iron Horse Coaster track bolts to, acts as the spine/backbone for the steel railed track.

Six Flags Over Texas

-I built everything with the original K’nex Roller Coaster set, way before the Screamin’ Serpent models came out.

-This is my parent’s basement before they remodeled. Why they would ever want to get rid of that carpet and furniture is beyond me.

-Sorry the quality of the pictures isn’t better. This was before I had a digital camera. I really wish I had been able to get video of these running too. Maybe I’ll have to rebuild them someday.

Now on to the models!

Intamin Giant Drop Tower: Wind the crank and pull the car to the top of the tower. When it reaches a certain point the hooks automatically disengage and the car plummets to the ground. The car is slowed by two brake fins protruding out of each side of the tower which use rubber bands to slow the car, and actually give it a little bounce back up for a nice pop of air.

Intamin Free Fall: Inspired by the former Demon Drop at Cedar Point, this is a fully functional Intamin Free Fall ride. The car has 6 wheels in a triangular configuration. Wind the crank and the elevator hoists the car to the top with chains. The car moves forward on its own but you have to manually disengage the mechanism that lets the car drop down the track and into the brake run.

Inverted Coaster: My attempt at an inverted coaster. Didn’t get very far with this model but I did prove it is possible to do.

Intamin Style Track: I attempted to make a roller coaster without using the supplied tube track, more in the Intamin style. It worked well for straight-aways but I never did figure out how to put a curve in.

Hypersonic Hill: Recreated Hypersonic’s first hill, just because. Non-working model.

Vekoma Tilt Coaster: This is the tilt coaster recreation. The car arrives at the top via your typical chain system but is then stopped at the apex of the hill. The track is tilted 90 degrees and a mechanism is switched. The car flies straight down then completes the rest of the circuit.

4D Coaster: My best creation was probably the S&S Arrow 4D coaster. This was built before X opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain. All I had to go by was a short video of a car being run through the test track at Arrow’s facility.  The Lego people riders do a backflip over the camel back hill. I only had enough track to make the one hill. The car used a ton of wheels and was pretty heavy, similar to the real ride.

That’s all! I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

“Kentucky officials are suing bankrupt theme park operator Six Flags Inc. over ownership of rides and equipment at a shuttered amusement park in Louisville.

State officials contend that the rides are considered fixtures to the land on which Kentucky Kingdom sits, much of which is owned by the Kentucky State Fair Board.

In a Delaware bankruptcy court filing, Kentucky officials are seeking a declaration that the state owns the rides, and an order preventing Six Flags from removing them.

The state filed the lawsuit late last week after learning that Six Flags had positioned trucks to begin removing equipment. It preceded the lawsuit with a letter to Six Flags instructing the company not to remove the rides.

Six Flags has filed a countersuit, claiming that it owns the rides and that the lawsuit by Kentucky is prohibited by the bankruptcy code. Six Flags is seeking court permission to remove the rides and a permanent restraining order prohibiting the state from trying to take possession.

A pretrial conference in the dispute is scheduled for April 14.

Kentucky officials have said at least four companies have expressed interest in taking over Kentucky Kingdom, and that a new operator could be in place by summer.”

Six Flags doesn’t need another lawsuit!

Join us on the pilot episode of The Coaster Show, a new podcast created by the producers of the FairCast for Coaster101.com!

In today’s episode, we talk about:
* What we want to do with That Coaster Show
* The big Cedar Fair sale to Apollo Management
* Who owns the rides at Kentucky Kingdom?
* Quassy gets final approval for their wooden coaster
* Captain EO re-opens
* Disney’s Summer Night-tastic event at WDW
* Club TPR
* Fire at Adventureland knocks out Main Street area
* News briefs from the Coaster101 homepage
* Big Butter Jesus and Hallelujah Chorus? Really?

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We’re starting Season One next week, so visit our page here on Coaster101.com (look at that top bar, it’s up there) on how you can join in on the fun and hang out with us live on the show. We look forward to having you!