Magenta Lizard

Gorgeous day at the park. Not too hot, low crowds. DB about 20 min, AE walk on.

I guess one way to tell how much is due to retheming and how much is due Banshee's proximity would be to see how much of an increase Invertigo has experienced this season.

Ads are generally written by the company paying for them to be run. So if by "their fault" you mean Kentucky Kingdom's fault, I agree. If you're suggesting it is the fault of media outlets that ran the ads, I don't agree.

Urine has a pretty distinctive smell too, and there was no discernible smell at all. I think someone just took a run on Congo Falls before the previous show. I did change my shorts after the show, anyway. All in all, being a row behind a guy who smelled of a mixture of cat urine and tires at yesterday's show was worse than my damp seat on the previous occasion.

What is this? I noticed this sign on a tree at the end of International Street awhile back, but I kept forgetting to get a pic and ask about it. Finally got one.

Three today. And not stacking, they were people-eating.

Today, Philip seems to be trying to change things up with the "Nico"-assisted flip he does off the box. The first show, he went rolling wildly out of the flip across the mat and almost looked injured (I think Julien wasn't sure he wasn't hurt at first, either, but if he was it didn't appear serious) and finished up face down playing dead for a bit before jumping up with a big grin. Second show, he rolled over a couple times then jumped up and continued running in that direction offstage for a moment. I'm eager to see what he has in store for the third show. Edited to add: one of the benefits of getting a front row seat is listening to Logan talk about backstage type info (apparently the pie-in-the-face was in honor of Logan's birthday). He also said that the show is contracted for next year, in some way, shape, or form. So we don't know what acts, or if any of this year's performers will be in the show, but I'm feeling pretty confident now (as confident as I could be without an official announcement) that there will be Cirque Imagine at KI in 2015! Yay!

According to one of the ushers outside the door of the theater today (Pat) the show is coming back next year! I know that's not officially official, but she said it with conviction. I sure hope so!

Feels a little like May here today. Around 11, I rode Diamondback five times in a row, only brief station waits in between. I think the crowds are going to build up now that the sun is out and it's almost noon, though. There was about a 20 min wait for Delirium just now.

Sam posted on the Cirque Imagine Facebook page earlier tonight, and it drew my attention back to their photos. I got to one from early June and thought, "wait a second who is that?" The guy on the left next to Trevor. Presumably he is the one who was doing trampoline when Jonathan Julian (current silver and black performer on the trampoline and in Hand2Hand) was playing Nico. Then I got looking closer at his face. Isn't it the most recent replacement clown, new long-haired clown? I can't decide for sure through the makeup, but I'm almost positive. It makes sense. Another couple images with him:

I finally rode Viking Fury yesterday. I got in a row because no one was in it yet. A woman and her two small children got in behind me. No big deal, room for us all, two medium-sized women's bottoms under one lap bar, and two small children under the other with the somewhat larger boy on the outside and girl on the inside. Just before they finally locked the bars, a ride op came by and asked if the girl could scoot over and put her legs under our bar. She did, but could only fit her legs under, uncomfortably, with her bottom still mostly to the other side. She asked her mother if she really had to do this, and I mentioned to her mother that it certainly seemed a lot less safe than the prior situation. But, the bars were locked now, and she couldn't quite wriggle out easily, and the ride op was now ignoring us. Her mother's bottom and mine were smooshed as closely together as we could to give her room (which wasn't much even though neither of us are overweight), while her older brother (about 7 years old) had an entire bar to himself. I still don't understand why this request was even made. With the huge crowd yesterday, Viking Fury was still a walk on, so it wasn't as if it was making extra room. The little girl wasn't more secure under a bar with full-size women's thighs determining its position than she was with her slightly larger brother's thighs doing the same.

I got a little misty at the end of bows for the 7:00 show tonight. I'm really going to miss this group of kids. I've decided I have to go next Sunday (in addition to my weekly weekday visit) so I can see the absolute last shows.

"His favorite roller coaster is Flight of Fear! That's the one that caught fire! But they rebuilt it! It's all new now!" Even though she was talking to someone a seat away from her in the theater waiting for Cirque, imagine that delivered in all caps, because that's how she was shouting it behind me. I actually laughed when she got to the "rebuilding" but I don't think she noticed.

Today, Sam is not in the show and Julien is. The newer long haired clown (Philip, apparently is his name) is back to doing the parts Sam traditionally has.

You're probably right. I'm sitting in the theater for the 1:30. What's the point of coming on a Saturday if I don't watch four Cirque shows rather than 3? I wanted to be part of a world record attempt, but considering we only made about half the number needed even after all their campaigning next to International Theater and promising free cupcakes (!!!) around noon on a Saturday, I'm not sure they're going to have more luck in a more obscured part of the park. I apparently should have reserved judgment on today's crowd until after noon. Banshee's queue is about half full, both Delirium and Drop Tower have full queues. The Bat was back to the candy machines.

If anyone wanted to be part of the Guiness World Record attempt for applying sunscreen but couldn't make it by noon, there weren't enough people so they rescheduled for 2:30 at Picnic Grove. I'm still trying to decide whether to do that or go to the 3:00 Cirque, myself. Crowds are a lot smaller than I expected on a Saturday. Larger than the week, but not terrible.

I don't understand the "more wooden" part. They're both made mostly of wood. I suppose because it's larger, Beast has more wood, but I wouldn't call it "more wooden."

It has its own: http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/29980-arcade-in-coney-mall/

Something that impressed me about the store: I only went to KI once last season. Walking past the store display window, I saw an OUTATIME California license plate, like the one on the time machine in Back to the Future. I eagerly entered, because it would have made the perfect gift for my husband. They didn't have any for sale, although the young man working did point me toward a t-shirt with the plate printed on the front. Last week, I went in the shop for awhile, and discovered they are now selling a version of the plates (flat plastic, not like a real plate, but still cool). It was a reasonable price, and I haven't seen them anywhere else for sale. I didn't buy one that day but intend to before the end of the season. When I was in there this year, another woman around my age was complaining loudly to the person she was with, "how can it be an 80s store and there not be Transformers?!" I think she left, but I soon after walked by an entire end cap full of Transformers merchandise. I thought it was pretty funny.

I would have loved to see that! He's a really likable guy, but he encourages an auditorium full of children to scream (and I'm often nursing a migraine by the time Cirque shows start), so I harbor some good-natured hostility toward him.

While watching Avatar, my primary thought was "I want to play in this world!" The plot was stupid, but the design of that world was something different. I was thinking more along the lines of a video game that would allow me to explore it. However, if done correctly (and Disney is one of very few companies I could imagine doing it correctly), the imagination and "set" design of the world of Avatar could make for an immersive and interactive setting so interesting, who cares about the actual movie(s) or licensing tie-in? In fact, I can see the park improving the Avatar brand more than I would ever have expected the other way around. I imagine kids saying "that Avatar world was amazing, let's go back!" And then being surprised to find out later there was a movie. That said, obviously the creative energy already employed by Disney could, and in my opinion should be allowed to, create things just as imaginative and unusual without a movie tie-in to "sell" it to their investors.

Six. They need six. Otherwise it is uneven

I'm waiting for the third show now. I had an excellent seat for the 5:00: front row, dead center. It's only the second time I've been anywhere in the front row, and I almost decided to skip the third show because how can I improve on that seat? Considering my current seat is damp (from what? Do I want to know?), I'm thinking maybe I should have skipped Second row, aisle, though, and I got here later than usual so I don't want to try to find another. Although I missed him on the trampoline, I still got to see Julien. The aisle seat of the front row was reserved and just before the start, Julien walked across the front (in a ballcap) to sit there. I'll admit I was distracted by wanting to see his reactions to the show, but I couldn't really see him. He stretched out his legs across the front aisle and only pulled them in just before Trevor got there on his bike. I guess he was getting even for all the "torment". Sam does seem to be taking it a little easy (skipping the trampoline) but is still very enthusiastic and I was happy to see him again.

I only know enough French to generally recognize that's what they're speaking. I catch a word or two here and there. Yet, I didn't recognize it was French until about the third time I saw the show. I want to know what the one says during the "Nico?" scary part that sounds like "Clack! Clack! Clack! Je pousseau". I tried looking up a translation but couldn't find any spelling for the last word that made sense. I assume it means something like "I'm scared".

Three from today, so far. In line for Racer, one teenage girl explaining to another what The Beast is like: "it's like this (Racer) but longer, higher, more fast, more wooden." In line for Diamondback, teenage guy behind me just after I saw a butterfly flutter lazily past: "that (expletive) butterfly nearly took my head off!" During Cirque Imagine when the clowns were getting particularly chatty in French: "they're speaking Sims!"