Disney is in full marketing mode for their new "Give A Day Get A Disney Day" program for 2010.
Part of that marketing is a great new website that allows users lots of interactive features, like the video above. Also be sure to check out this page, which let's you customize the experience, and has the Muppets addressing you by name!
Fun stuff and all for a good cause.
Welcome to sunny Texas, home of this week's Aerial Antics park - Sea World San Antonio.
The chain of Sea World parks have always meshed wonderful animal exhibits with rides and attractions, and Sea World San Antonio has long been a pioneer of that. Here we see the park's Lost Lagoon water park, which features many slides such as the recently added Sidewinders in the upper left corner.
The park is also home to a few wild rides as well. Here is the Morgan designed Steel Eel, a 15 story hypercoaster that winds its way along the edge of the park. It also features a signature first drop down directly at the park's center lake.
Boo! What a boring looking plot of land. Trees and dirt is all. Well, Sea World must have felt similarly because they transformed it into...
Journey to Atlantis! The 100 ft. tall splash down ride features two turn tables at the top that allow boats to navigate the first section backwards. 
Those hot Texas summers probably made the decision for the park to add more water rides an easy one. Here is the Texas Splashdown, a traditional log flume.
White water rafting in Texas? Sounds like a good time to me! I love the tree lined course of Rio Loco, a 1,800 ft. long river rapids ride. 
Finally, we have the park's B&M Batman clone, Great White. I've always loved this ride's paint job - something about the blue and purple just works for me. If you look closely you can see the ride's train in the middle of the second vertical loop!
To see the Bing aerials for Sea World San Antonio, click here.
Seems the Knott family is Knott very happy about the sale of Cedar Fair to Apollo Management. When Cedar Fair purchased the park the family received about 2 million units of Cedar Fair. The buyout would formally cut all ties the Knott family has the park and they're not sure whether to vote for or against the sale.
Aqua Loops are certainly looking to be one of the hottest water park attractions of 2010. Another set is being installed at Wet'n'Wild Australia. This article claims that their version will have 4 loops - I'm guessing a big clover leaf shaped complex for added capacity. Awesome!
Legoland California had a fantastic 2009, coming off a very strong 2008 season. And the expansion continues, talk of a hotel is brewing and they're getting ready to announce the world's first Lego themed water park soon.
Heading over the pond we find that Alton Towers appears to be retheming their Spinball Whizzer coaster into a Sonic themed attraction. New paint is already on the ride, which can be seen here. The park hasn't fully disclosed the new name, but it's said that 2010 brochures are out and are calling it Sonic Spinball.
Speak French and looking for an update for the Monster, the Raptor clone being moved from Japan to Walygator Parc? Well, I think it may be a bit outdated at this point, but check out this video on YouTube nonetheless.
Coaster101 is holding the Attraction Awards for the recently ended decade - and you can nominate your favorites now. Just click on over to their site and get thinking. I've got a lot of possibilities for the "Epic Fail" category!
I still feel like I may be the only one interested in the 2010 Expo in China, but in case anyone else here I found an interesting article detailing the efforts that went into raising the cash to build the American pavilion. You can check that out here.
It's been silent over at the former location of Geauga Lake for some time now, but once again the Big Dipper coaster is up for sale. A site called Midway Marketplace has the ride listed for $150,000.
I didn't see it on any other of the big used ride sites, so perhaps the owner is taking a different approach in unloading the classic John Miller wooden coaster. I actually haven't followed who ever owns the ride at this time, as that story got quite twisted as well.
It's great to see the ride openly for sale once again, though I fear there won't really be any bidders. Certainly the next chapter in this already long story, though.
Edit: The owner of the site that has the listing for the ride is also reporting that the owners of the land are again open to selling a smaller portion of the area that includes the Big Dipper for possible redevelopment. This reopens the door for a smaller amusement area or mixed use entertainment complex to include the Dipper in their plans.
In December we asked our readers what their favorite part of visiting a park Holiday event was, and not surprisingly the overwhelming winner (51%) was being able to go to rides during the winter months!
I admit that this was a bit of a silly poll, but twas the season for such antics. The second place vote (40%) went to the beautiful light displays that parks put up. With millions of twinkling lights to help set the mood, the parks are as beautiful as ever.
Snow hills, sweet treats, and even poor old St. Nick himself didn't do so well in the poll - but I still love you, Santa!
Watch for the new poll soon!
First a brief Custom Coasters International history lesson. The company was founded in 1991 by Denise Dinn-Larrick & her husband Randy Larrick. CCI filed for bankruptcy in 2002, while in the middle of building the New Mexico Rattler and before all the issues were worked out on The Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain.
The Larrick's marriage ended with the demise of the company and for a short time Denise remained in the industry. The heart and soul of CCI's success, the designers, went on to form a very succesful design firm known as The Gravity Group. In it's 10 years of existence CCI built 30+ wooden roller coasters, many of those were and still are highly rated among park visitors. Such creations the Raven, Cornball Express, Shivering Timbers & Boulder Dash
Few have been lost, such as the Villain, Mega Zeph and Hurricane Category 5. And, Twisted Twins is likely to join that group in the future.
And, then we have a collection of proposed concept art, preliminary designs and artist's renderings from parks such as the defunct Opryland, as well as many designs that don't name any park.
Hope 2010 in great year for you all,
