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Watch the opening day of Grand Carnivale!

I’m with you on the cards. I’ve bought a card every year for every event that they’ve had like this. I guess this year I won’t be participating in the tasting, and from the looks of it, others feel the same way. What’s scary is the park was PACKED. Presumably there were large groups. They’re big spenders, stereotypically speaking. The food at the tents being $8.95-ish should have given the veneer of a better value, but few seemed to have seen it that way. Also, I saw some people lined up for the parade around 6:50, which was incompetently miscommunicated/not communicated to the media last week. I hope the people who were waiting got the info before giving up. Of course, when I asked on their Facebook… well, they didn’t bother to reply, but when a former KI PR (not Don) responded saying that info would be nice, they said “check the app” in a very, “it’s not my job to deal with people like you” attitude. So much talent.. so much effort.. so much hard work… the people actually putting on this event deserve so much better.

You’d think that a REALLY REALLY good blog would but the approximate times that the parade hits the various show stops. Maybe Don can do some sort of social post about that so they can copy/paste it.

First off let me say that I have no interest in Mr. Showalter one way or another….what he does or doesn’t do doesn’t effect my love for the park, with that said, I do agree with you, I am also shocked that this thread is still around…and the fact that it is seems kind of telling to me. If what the whistleblower is saying isn’t true I would expect one of two things to have happened by now….the obvious one is that Chad would have replied to the accusations and denied them…wouldn’t you have done that if it were you? After all it is not making either him or the park look good…why remain silent instead of setting the record straight….unless the record is already straight. Along those same lines, if the whole story is false I certainly think it falls into slander…so why hasn’t Chad threatened a lawsuit if this thread is not deleted? On a separate note, you seem to imply by the above quote that you know exactly who the whistleblower is….why not simply post your theory instead of being vague?

Experienced the event yesterday evening. The decorations looked good. The parade was awesome. The few people I found that purchased food said it was really good. I will say the food looked wonderful. The key word there is looked. I will likely not purchase individual food. It seems that is the consensus among a lot of the guests at the park. At any given time there were 0 to 3 people in line at a food stand. With the tasting cards in previous years there were 5 to 10 minute waits to order at every food stand. If I was a KI gold tag, I would be on the phone with Charlotte and telling corporate to send me tasting cards ASAP. Otherwise it will be very likely for the first time ever this event at KI will loose a lot of money. A look at a few of the food items. I would recommend giving them a try if your are ok purchasing a tasting for 3/4 the price of a full meal. .

If only they knew since at least November of last year that they were going to face this at some point this year...

It's fine. Someone else who does not get paid by the park to communicate with the public did the park's work for them and posted the times in that post. Glad they didn't bother to respond to me, and replied to the next poster, but didn't bother to directly answer their question. I know they're very busy updating their web site, updating the app with show times, getting the media out to the park, etc. Oh wait.

You shouldn’t need to “check the Ap” when I believe she was posting in response to them bragging they published a GUIDE that you had to click 2-3 things to get to, only to realize it 1) had a blank space for a map and 2) told you nothing in a guiding way like times or prices. The incompetence is becoming staggering. You have to wonder does Senior leadership like Koontz not see it, is he powerless to do anything to change it, or does he just choose to not?

No International Chicken Tenders?

Overall Grand Carnivale feels a bit stronger and more cohesive this year with the rearranged scheduled. Having a couple of the daytime shows (Trailblazers X-treme and Country Crossroads) available after 7PM was nice for us since we generally visit later in the evening. The decor looks great, especially at night. The little alcove between French Corner and Sweet Spot is particularly nice. The new lighting on the floats adds a lot to the energy of the parade. The synchronized building lighting on International Street really ramps up the energy during the show stops too. While it feels a bit strange to not have the big finale dance number with the full cast it was a lot of fun having so many of the performers mingling and taking pictures as the dance party continued at the Bandstand. It was nice having two of the floats out at the dance party after the parade. We noticed the lights on the floats were synced with Under the Stars, which was a nice touch. The tasting cards would have been nice and we still miss having performances in each country but at a time when so much is getting cut we're still happy to have an event of this scale so close to home.

Reports are now coming out saying that the $1.30 surcharge is being dropped from all parks.

Wrong. It’s where they store the green Intamin track. Trust me, I know what I know.

I hope it never runs again and gets torn to the ground, that ride is awful!