has not abandoned them altogether.<\/a> Nonetheless, the Mission Bay theme park has been exploring alternative after-dark attractions, given \u201cchanging tastes and technologies, as well as recognizing the impacts fireworks may have on birds and water quality in the surrounding area,\u201d the commission staff report points out.<\/p>\nAerial drone shows, while they have become increasingly popular around the world, have yet to be commonplace at theme parks. Still, Intel\u2019s drones have been used for nighttime light shows as part of the \u201cThe Wizarding World of Harry Potter\u201d attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood and a few years ago were featured in a holiday attraction at Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort.<\/p>\n
Last year, some 1,218 Intel Shooting Star drones were part of the Winter Olympic\u2019s opening ceremony in Pyeongchang, South Korea.<\/p>\n
\u201cDrones are the emerging major form of theme park entertainment,\u201d said Dennis Speigel, president of Ohio-based International Theme Park Services. \u201cDisney has major plans for them, Universal has major plans for them, and they already have patents on a lot of different drone approaches but are keeping them under wraps.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to see them used throughout the entire entertainment industry, at football games, basketball games, stadiums, everywhere. In the industry, we\u2019re excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
From an environmental perspective, SeaWorld is smart to find a replacement for fireworks, which have been criticized for contributing to air and water pollution, said Todd Regan, who operates the theme park fan site, MiceChat.<\/p>\n
Advertising <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it would be a brilliant move on their part because they\u2019re an environmental park at their core and drone shows don\u2019t damage the environment in the way fireworks do,\u201d Regan said. \u201cAnd that would make the Coastal Commission happy. It potentially allows them to do a show nightly so they could lure guests into staying longer. Fireworks are very expensive and they would never be allowed to do that all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n
As part of the approved coastal permit, SeaWorld is not allowed to have any fireworks during the February trial run, from Feb. 4-18.<\/p>\n
SeaWorld already has secured approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which generally allows drones up to 400 feet above the ground.<\/p>\n
Intel says its \u201cquadcopter\u201d drones were designed with safety in mind, constructed with a soft frame made of flexible plastics and foam, and the propellers are encased. Each one has built-in LED lights that Intel says can create more than four billion color combinations, and designs and animation can be customized using its software.<\/p>\n
It says it is responsible for more than 600 drone light shows in over 20 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a first for SeaWorld, the San Diego park plans to launch in February a limited-run light show using up to 500 drones, which could be a prelude to a regular nighttime summer attraction.<\/p>\n
As the park looks to move away from fireworks, which are considered more damaging to the environment, it has proposed staging as a test run a drone show in February over a 15-night period. The California Coastal Commission on Thursday granted approval, as long as it limits the show to no more than five minutes and conducts a strict monitoring plan that examines potential impacts, including any possible harmful effect on birds.<\/p>\n
Because the February time frame is outside the normal bird breeding and migratory seasons, it is unlikely there will be substantial impacts, says the Coastal Commission.<\/p>\n
SeaWorld was unable to share details on what the show would look like, saying that it\u2019s still in the early stages of being developed. A staff report prepared by the commission notes that the February test run..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}