Magenta Lizard

Hot Fudge Cake is and has always been the star of Frisch's lineup, for me.

Ok, so a little more info. There are still four red clowns. The one playing the role of "Nico" I'm fairly certain is Philip, one of the clowns from late last season, who went on to perform the Ring in Skeleton Crew at Haunt. He is doing a very similar performance of the Ring in CI15, in other words, an excellent one. One of the other clowns looks familiar, but I'm not certain if he is back from last year (I don't think it is either Carl or Julien). Two are definitely new to our Cirque, although one of them, Mickey (as called out by one of the others), I believe was part of Skeleton Crew last fall. The young woman who did the Hand2Hand act last year is now the white clown who gets together with "Nico". She is doing a gorgeous act with two giant scarves hanging from the ceiling rather than the rope. Her skill and grace are far above the white clown from last season, in my opinion. Trevor Bodogh, the Bycrobat is back, in as wonderful a performance as ever. It is functionally the /same/ more or less, but considering it was already perfection last year, I can hardly complain. The new act that I'm calling Twin Dragons (because although they are very different in size, they are wearing the same black/silver costume with the dragon-like makeup the non-clowns of the show wear): two young women go up high on a sort of rope ladder, and do amazing things... You just need to see it. There were also two young men in "dragon" costuming that did some acrobatics at the same time, but I couldn't keep my eyes off what was going on up high. They fortunately came back for the trampoline act which is almost exactly like last year's. One of them looks almost like he could be Trevor's brother, with a similar build and facial features. The other may be Sam from last season, but with the makeup difference I couldn't tell for sure. I did miss seeing Julien's skill on the trampoline. I could watch him all day. But, the new team did a very respectable job.

Three shows a day, one day off a week. Last year it was Wednesday off but I haven't seen this year's schedule yet to know if that will continue.

All I can say right now is "wow!" It started out like it was going to be the same show but with new Clowns, but it turned into so much more. There is a new act I'm dubbing "Twin Dragons" that defies explanation. I'm totally amazed. There are some old friends from last year's show and a lot of new ones. I'll go more into it later. Lorax has some pics she might come along and post. Mostly, if you're at the park after today Go See Cirque Imagine!

If you're here for the Cirque Imagine passholder preview, we're starting to check in and line up. Yep, I got here 50 minutes before the doors open (which is at 6:30) and there were about ten people already checked in. I hope Trevor Bodogh the Bycrobat comes out and does some tricks to entertain us while we wait

Yep, that's it. I didn't see it any of the times I rode last year, so I thought it was new. If it isn't (and was just down all of my first season back at the park in ~15 years), that makes a whole lot more sense. Never mind then

I was a little less than enthusiastic about how the final paragraph almost felt "in memorium". It's not dead, not even dying as far as I know/am concerned.

Can't take pics on the ride. I believe it's a video screen. It's a 3D rendering of a face that appears in a puff of "smoke" says something ominous and then disappears again. I'm a little hazy on it myself since it's near the beginning and the two times I've ridden it this year I was still wrestling with figuring out which of the guns to use, and its appearance surprised me. It's way more interesting than the 2D cutouts on the rest of the ride.

What's weird is they added that cool Boocifer to the beginning of the ride this year... while neglecting many of the problems. I'd think they were just milking the end of its life, but then why put in something new? I guess maybe it is something they can carry over to its replacement.

^^ the remaining theming from Top Gun (stars, flag) are still there as of this season.

I think they were referring to the second Coney Mall Arcade, the smaller one between Zephyr and WindSeeker. It was closed late last season to become Kill Mart, and apparently it was decided to keep it as yet another Haunt-only building. I'm happy they moved the set of Wizard of Oz coin-pushers from it to The Beast Arcade. It gives me a reason (other than AC and shortcut) to stop in there when I'm in that area of the park.

Probably when pictures aren't selling well enough on those rides to justify staffing the booth. Same reason the booths are sometimes closed.

I like to use this thread to share updates about other things when I'm currently at the park, too. Like the metal detectors yesterday. Pretty sure they won't be adding that to the app!

Apparently you can see at least some of how busy the park is from the webcams. My husband (who was at home) texted me about five minutes after the park closed to the public on Sunday night of Coasterstock "Looking kinda dead at the park"

Dinos After Dark is returning to the Island every Friday and Saturday in June

She's going to love it! Don't forget Cirque Imagine will be showing that day.

It went from being mostly useless to mostly unusable. I thought it was only loading the splash screen too, until I accidentally swiped it and the menu appeared at the left. Most menu selections just show me the splash screen. Park hours and directions worked, but once I got into it, I couldn't figure out how to get back out :-/ Going to try uninstalling and reinstalling now.

Nor, currently, Flight of Fear, Adventure Express, and Backlot Stunt Coaster, unless I'm sorely mistaken. On days when crowds are light, often some of the photo booths (especially Beast) aren't open for business.

Oh yeah. I actually knew that at some point, because I had considered trying to see if I could get that Bunsen and Beaker Muppet Mobile Lab (built on a Segway) to officiate our wedding. But it was in Japan at that time. Figures Disney would be the ones smart enough to realize the potential of picking up Henson's characters.

Watching Fraggle Rock tonight I started thinking just how cool it would be if somehow Cedar Fair could set up a licensing agreement for Jim Henson IP. It would be worth it alone to have a photo op with Sweetums. Does any park have Muppets?

When I was at the park today I started thinking about things I had never seen before I encountered them at KI. It's funny how ubiquitous both became. Temporary tattoos The first time I saw them was at little carts set up around the park not unlike the current face painting or henna stands. The tattoos were not marketed at all like what they have become since. Now, they're mostly considered cartoony decorations for little kids. Back then, they were more marketed towards teens who wanted to look older and/or tough. They were larger than the ones you see now, three or four inches or more, featuring very traditional tattoo subjects like panthers, anchors, hearts that said "mom", koi fish, etc. The method of display was very reminiscent of "flash" at a tattoo parlor. They would specially apply your choice of tattoo at the booth. I seem to remember they started at $5 for the smaller ones up to ten dollars for the larger. Which was probably why I never bought one there but, oh, how I wanted to. A few years later when I was in high school, I perfected the art of making a temp tattoo look real enough to convince more gullible people I actually got inked. Oddly enough, I grew out of my desire for a real tattoo and never got any when I was old enough. 3D Bart Simpson These were keychains from inside a crane game. They were large, five inches or so, and made of a substantial weighty hard rubber. The Simpsons were quite new, and while I owned a t-shirt and matching Joe Boxer-style shorts with Bart Simpson, the keychains were the first I had seen a three dimensional rendering of him, as well as being among the very first Simpsons merchandise I ever saw. I'm curious if, with the advent of the internet, it is still possible for an amusement park to stay ahead of the curve and introduce people to things they've never encountered before. What are some of your memories of things you never experienced before KI? It doesn't have to be merchandise. It could be music, shows, games, even rides.

Holy crap, petting zoo is open?! I thought it wasn't until tomorrow. I'm heading there after the explosive science show. Edit: closed to me. Guess I still have to wait till Friday.

Finally encountered my first line to speak of: about ten minutes for Beast. There are more people than earlier but the bulk of them are milling around rather than riding anything. I'll be heading to DB next, I'll update when I get there. Edited: looks to be 10-15 min too. Line comes back just behind where it goes under the track.

#MonsterWatch2015 The arms are off. This shot gives a good view of the current "bug lights" too

They must be expecting a rough crowd on this chilly day, the metal detectors are out. Ten minutes into ERT and Banshee is still testing :-/ Edited to add: It's noon and 48 degrees. Brrr. I had the forethought to wear long underwear today but I'm wishing I brought a hat and gloves too. The good news is it is keeping crowds low. I don't think I've had more than one train/cycle wait on anything I've ridden so far.