faeriewench

heh...for Christmas I got all the movies with the original Star Trek cast (already got the Next Generation movies). Gonna treat myself to a Star Trek movie marathon when things die down after New Years and I'll have time off. Other than that....my Christmas present was going back to Cali to spend time with my friends, extended family and hanging out at Knott's, which was a new experience. One of my friends out there is a tattoo artist and we discussed one for myself when I am out there next (a drawing I did awhile back). A very belated Bday gift for me xp

The chairs fill up really, really fast most summer days. If early entry is still on the perks list....yes, take advantage. I echo all who said about bringing any personal items to the park (keys, wallets, and even cellphones) best bet is lockers and even better than lockers is your car, imo. Me personally....I'd just leave the stuff at home, I am someone who don't need the coasters in order to have a good time at the park so it usually just my camera I have and its usually around my shoulders/neck.

It opens to the general public at 11am. Pass holders (just gold/platinum if I am not mistaken) get early entry.

Yes Soak City does have its own entrance from the parking lot, and it is a large water park (though a lot of it is to due with the fact the attractions are spread out).

Easy: ET lit up at night 2013-06-24 22.35.31 by ki_faerie_wench, on Flickr Hard: A pic on White Water Canyon I'm assuming she meant "of" and not "on" whitewatercanyon by ki_faerie_wench, on Flickr Easy: Any of the park coasters at night Hard: A creeper at Haunt in action (sliding on the ground: and also if it goes unanswered can I respond? lol cause I have plenty action shots) Expert: the waterfall in the area formerly known as Paramount Story actually working

Yes, they do rake one another in the wild too as it is how they sort their hierarchies out. All animals that live in groups be it pods, prides and packs...do it in some form or another. Why animal rights extremist try to paint this picture that living in the wild is rainbows and unicorns is beyond me. Captivity is not, but neither is the wild. Wild bottlenose dolphins get extremely BRUTAL among each other in the wild even, I've personally seen that.

Orcas and bottlenose dolphins are like giant toddlers. Curious about anything and everything...and always must touch. Which is kind of a reason why you don't see SW put kelp and other things in the pools to simulate a natural ocean environment. Sand has back washed into the pools at San Diego before on accident, and they had a curious orca that ingested huge quantities of said sand which tore up his stomach. Since they don't have hands or paws to explore their environment with they gotta use their mouth. Other aquariums use kelp and have had issues with dolphins eating them, some have gotten pretty sick. San Diego used huge rocks too big for them to eat, but had to be removed for the new safety measures being implemented. Orcas have a habit of eating anything in sight, compared to bottlenose dolphins that is, even necropsies on dead orcas that washed ashore in the wild show they eat a lot of rocks. Very curious animals Meant to type this last night but it was so late when I got home from work couldn't stay up. XP

It is positive reinforcement in orcas (kissing and/or rubbing the tongues). As well as hugs and rub downs (orcas are very itchy animals so they love good rub downs).

One thing I noticed is the random places she'll just sit either to observe or sleep. Like for instance....parks herself tail first up against the gates. The other orcas in the pool with her at the time trying to get around her so they can get to the gate to see what the other pod mates elsewhere were up to was rather interesting as she wouldn't budge at all. I love how ever since her arrival Corky, the second oldest captive orca, has been vocalizing a lot more. Listening to her calls, now its easy to see where the orca vocals used in the Free Willy movies actually came from (they were not really Keiko's calls at all). Though that scene in the movie drives me nuts cause they make it sound like the noises come from their mouths when its actually the blowhole, oh well, that's Hollywood.

She do the regurgitating a lot in SFWoA? Just curious. I know cetaceans don't have a gag reflex so it really doesn't hurt them but it is unneeded habit and I'm glad SW got her to break it. The SW orcas, particularly at San Diego, do it too but it is with fish when they want to screw with the birds, but other than that she no longer does it just to do it. lol... SW has done some good for orcas that don't belong to them as well if anyone is curious. Kshamenk, the lone male orca at Mundo Marino in Argentina WAS a real agitated orca that eventually started getting rough with his trainers and trying to...uh..knock up his bottlenose dolphin companions (primarily Floppy...poor doll). SW taught his trainers how to better care for him and giving him more mental stimulation, presently he is a much more mellow orca and Floppy is a happier dolphin. (though I wish his living condition would improve as well) This info comes from someone that gets to observe Kshamenk often.

Yeah, she been there for a bit over a year. Her spunk probably impressed the matriarch (when other pod members tried to dominate her she nipped right back) because she is well liked by the entire pod. In shows, she flies! I do mean fly, it is funny to watch the other females try to jump higher than Shouka, you can almost see the competitiveness there. All the bad habits she displayed at Six Flags (example: regurgitating constantly) she no longer does. Though personality wise, she is rather unique if at times a bit puzzling.

SO they lied to me when they claimed their biggest whale was getting ready to splash me? I can also tell the difference between a male and female orca. They've done it before. It was more common in the AB days tho. What Terpy said, she is happily at San Diego. Much better orca now than she was when she lived with Six Flags. I got tons of pictures of her with her new friends

As far as I am aware Tillikum did not perform (I am assuming you are talking about Believe right?) in the show until well after the summer season had already ended following his attack on Dawn (actually it was more closer to a year later, around the time of the announcement that Believe was gonna be replaced). If you indeed saw him it wasn't intentional on SeaWorld's part because they did everything they could to shelter him in the back pools since the attack was still fresh in people's minds, Tillikum would have had to sneak to the show on his own. Sure you didn't mistaken one of the adult females for him? That time Katina was heavily pregnant so she was huuuge and her dorsal is flopped, Kalina was still alive, she was a large, chunky female with a flopped dorsal as well. I just remember being at the park during the time they were conditioning him for his return to the show when he be performing alongside his grandson. But you would be right...he has not missed a feeding...he defiantly always looked that way from about 2001 until summer 2010, now he looks pretty good (though he managed to put some pounds back on...). After working with bobcats and servals... (same can be said about domestics too though I am not convinced cats are truly domesticated at all) I have long since known anything that has teeth, sharp teeth at that, can and do bite. It is their nature. Even with horses you can not let your guard down, especially when you are transporting one and if it gets spooked....yeah pain can follow when they kick you. They also bite, often on accident if you are giving them a treat (though stallions tend to have bad manners so they'll bite anyway). And interesting thing, a girl I know that currently works with sea lions had her finger pretty much bitten off (they got it reattached successfully) and she still works with sea lions, I'm sure if Dawn survived she'd still love her whales. Just like I still love my large cats

Well said

Ok this is where I have a problem. I've never watched anything cetacean related on my Netflix but the first thing that pops up is BLACKFISH: "They're hunted, herded, and forced to dance. Meet a 15,000 pound slave -- on the edge of psychotic break." Just about every word in that statement is wrong. That right there is where I have a problem with Blackfish. The message Blackfish really leaves with people is unclear, people just walk away thinking "SeaWorld is bad" and/or "FREE THE WHALES!!!!111" And I don't think that's the kind of takeaway people should have if they really care about making things better for SW's killer whales. I hate the way Blackfish presented its argument, but I would have less of a problem with Blackfish if it had a clear message of "SeaWorld needs to make improvements" which I do agree that they do.

Ocean is filled with a ton of pollution thanks to us, that just exposing them to things that'll make them sick and probably kill them (example: Puget Sound where Lolita was captured from). Then there are the captive born orcas who have no real place to go as they are hybrids (parents never would have naturally met in the wild), they'd probably need human care for the rest of their lives in a sea pen. Keiko and Springer are not true successes. Keiko still required humans to care for him, Springer's reintroduction to her family/natal pod didn't go well as they chased her off. She hangs out with distant relatives instead since her grandma, and aunts didn't welcome her. Orcas in the wild don't typically welcome newcomers so easily, not like bottlenose dolphins where their pods are much more fluid.

The whales in captivity now are our responsibility to care for the remainder of their lives. Humans dragged them and their ancestors from the wild, humans gotta take care of them. The orcas of SeaWorld/Loro Parque, Marineland France, Port, and Kamogawa Sea World will likely never see the ocean. Same goes for the 3 lone orcas, Kshamenk, Lolita and Kiska. (in Kshamenk's and Lolita's case I use "lone" kind of loosely because while they are the lone orcas at their parks they are not truly alone at all). Of those 3 loners, Kiska at Marineland Canada is probably the one I actually worry about the most. Sure she has a real large, roomy tank...but I don't think she is honestly receiving enough attention as her trainers not only look after her but the parks 30+ belugas they have living crammed in the tank next to hers. Marineland Canada is probably the one park where I will say I do not like its upper management, at all. I would LOVE to see Kiska out of there and living among other females around her age but with the current management there her fate is pretty much sealed and she will be at that park till the day she dies. There is no need for any more captures, I am appalled the Russians captured a bunch and even more irked by the reactions towards their situation. Almost no attention on them and I am hearing some pretty bad stories about those orcas. They should be released.

For the most part, you hit the nail on the head. Though SeaWorld hasn't actually taken an orca that was directly from the wild in decades. (those they have taken in since the 80s had been someplace else like Marineland Canada or Sealand originally before actually going to SeaWorld) Morgan is the most recent example as Harderwijk and their folks did her rescue initially and she is now a SeaWorld orca at Loro Parque. Moragn was found in the wild starving and with a bad case of peanut head, which is a sign of malnourishment, and she was still bit of a youngin (kind of youngin that still needed her mom to survive). When she was first brought in I had little to no hope for her even that she would actually survive. So everyone knows I'm far from being someone that supports everything that SeaWorld does, I don't even like their bottlenose dolphin tanks to be honest cause of the sheer amount of them rascals they got. They breed very, very well...too well if you'd ask me. Hence why....I actually love the Mirage dolphin habitat. In all honesty...a lot of people refuse to admit but if it hadn't actually been for SeaWorld no one would give a flip about orcas. Before the first captive orcas, we as humans, were still hunting and killing them, either because they were nuisances to fisherman or for sport. And probably still be going after them present day more than likely.

Just an FYI there are also couple other threads already with Blackfish discussions. http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/27946-blackfish-the-movie/ http://www.KICentral.com/forums/index.php/topic/28198-busch-gardens-williamsburg-cuts/ Orcas have the most sensitive hearing between 15-20 kHz, so basically the music is nothing more than background noise or similar to what we used to hear on our TVs as kids with the static snow screen. I don't like the loud music mostly because it is at times too loud even for me, so I would often find myself with my ear buds in listening to my ipod as opposed to the music at the stadium. I think it is up to the mods. Poor conditions? Again go research the Asia parks where the latest captured orcas are goin and then compare them to SeaWorld and then we will talk. They don't perform for food, they are given their food throughout the day even when they are in crabby moods. They aren't forced to perform as pointed out before. At the end of the day when the trainers go home at night...they are treated to a feeding frenzy sort to speak, so with that they probably overeat. Starved? Right....then I guess we imagined Tillikum's fat rolls throughout the 2000s, he really looked like he was starving. After the 2010 incident they started exercising him more and he finally dropped the weight and he looks like a normal bull now. (well sort of).

Even worse than MSQ (park in that video to those who don't know)....go research what Russia has been doing. Those orcas are the only ones that can really benefit from the Blackfish craze since they are freshly caught and being sold to various Asian parks. For the most part they been ignored by those who supposedly love these animals.

Knott's Merry Farm 12/18/2013 This day I saw the remainder of the shows I hadn't caught yet and rode some coasters as well. My first show was A Christmas Carol, which is a tradition at the Merry Farm too. LOVED it. The acting was...superb? The gentleman who portrayed Scrooge fit the part very well with his facial expressions and his overall acting was the best of all of them. XD I spent a good portion of the afternoon taking pictures of the rides and around the park. Ghostrider is still one of my favorite woodies, good enough I tolerated it two rides back to back. I could have done more rides...but I felt like I was neglecting my other two must do coasters there being Silver Bullet and Jaguar. Yet again there was NO line for really anything (Xcelerator was a walk on all day). I ended my day with Snoopy's Merriest Tree Lighting in Calico Square. A very good show, the elves are really funny, and the 40 foot tree is gorgeous. It's a really cute show for the full family, and the kids loved it when Santa appeared. Me personally it was the first non Haunt show I ever watched on that stage...I'm not used to it being so colorful and happy looking...I liked it, lol. That's what I got for the 18th, today is my last day at the park as I got Christmas parties to go to with extended family and friends before heading back to Ohio. Kudos to Knott's for stepping up their game this year for the Merry Farm! It's pretty and the shows are fun. IMG_0258 by ki_faerie_wench, on Flickr

Knott's Merry Farm 12/17/2013 This is a real quick post cause I'm bout to go out to breakfast with my friend and then it is off to Knott's again for the day. Yesterday I put my focus on the shows (Gift of the Magi, It's Christmas Snoopy and even the kids show) From what I experienced so far the Merry Farm is quite good for what it is. One of the ice skaters in It's Christmas Snoopy I could almost swear was at Kings Island the last time they had a ice skating show...it was a brief moment of deja vu. Show itself I LOVED. The Charlie Brown Christmas special was incorporated into the show and they even had Linus' famous true meaning of Christmas speech in it. Certainly my favorite ice skating show I seen at Knott's in a long time. Gift of the Magi was also well done, singing and the acting, so I am looking forward to Christmas Carol today. The park itself is gorgeous at night with the Ghost Town buildings lit up (pictures will be up when I get home). Park was really dead yesterday (I anticipate the same thing today) so there wasn't much of a line to speak of for anything. I gotta admit the skyline looks different without WindSeeker, as it didn't take me long to get used to it being there :/ That's what I got so far, hope we are all good! IMG_0402 by ki_faerie_wench, on Flickr

Going through some of our old home videos part of me feels like CP's entertainment was better in the 90s than present day..that could be just me though. I honestly have never been a huge fan of KI's musical reviews, my absolute favorite shows at KI involved no singing. (Ed Alonzo and ice skating show) Knott's shows aren't too bad, I like that most of it is country western based considering Ghost Town there. I wouldn't say its Dollywood quality though, but I still enjoy it. Look forward to Fiesta Texas now way you keep talking about it!

It was great meeting you Lora

He also done shows at Knott's, Valleyfair and Great America in the past. Ed supposedly has acknowledged Valleyfair before KI wrapped up the 2013 season. Probably won't know for sure for a couple months if you check the schedule on his website, it doesn't list that far yet. But I won't be shocked if he is heading to another park.