Magenta Lizard

I can't say for sure but it looks like it will at least go very close alongside the reservoir. Until/unless they start pouring concrete it's speculation but there were clearing/excavation markers leading right up to the water's edge, and everything between the reservoir and the train tracks had been cleared. They did a good job of clearing out the "circle" delineated by the new WWC queue (the videos from earlier) but something I actually found more interesting was this: That's a fairly large tree that has been felled on the other side of the queue from the rest of the clearing. It's roughly halfway between the WWC exit and the train bridge. First work I've noticed in that direction that wasn't part of the new queue work.

The tree falling from another angle: https://twitter.com/maglizrd/status/747494885696147456

More action visible from WWC path actually.

Ok, so there's this

Argh. You guys had to "nag" for more hints, so I'm forced to ride the train again. So far, looks like it did when I rode Friday. There was a guy in a pith helmet driving a golf cart in the woods but I don't think it's related. Most interesting thing near the tracks this week is they finally cleared out the big brush pile they collected by the fort (see KI's Instagram).

They opened DB one morning I was there earlier in June, but only because Beast was down for some reason. Other than that they haven't added anything on ERT that I've seen. If they are adding on days when there are more people, I think it's an excellent idea tho. I need to look to see what July's lineup is. Be here before we know it.

From everything I've seen going on when I've been at the park lately, Don has plenty on his 2016 plate at the moment. There are big public events like Spirit Song, and smaller private ones as well. Now is also the time to heavily market their awesome new slides to the general public, because recent weather makes even me start thinking the water park might be a good idea. Even if he wants to, he probably doesn't have much time or energy to spend playing with us right now. Things will probably pick up as far as 2017 teasers when the super-busy summer starts to wind back down.

Changed acts. The pair doing hand2hand have been replaced by a wonderful solo ring act (hula-hoop, not like Nico), and the pair at the end that did the trapeze have been replaced by a different couple doing an act whose name I don't know. Both new acts are very good and worth seeing.

I looked around some more, and they don't have that blanket in the gift shops, but there is a sweatshirt-fleece throw available in a few different colors, which just has "Kings Island" printed on it. They have moved the prize blankets over to the Coney Arcade, for 4000 tickets. Thanks to my Wizard of Oz coin-pusher addiction, I am now the proud owner of two of them, and will probably get more as I finish more character card sets. They're even nicer than I thought they would be. Super-soft, and pretty big.

I'm so proud of this one little creeper on the new floral tunnel. It's made it way up to where the arch begins!

Getting exercise is one of my primary goals at the park. So, I would advise getting some sort of step tracker (I've had a Fitbit Zip the last couple years, and like it). Spend time at the park "collecting" steps. Break your record for steps in an hour. See how many steps it is from Beast to the front gate. In addition to playing the Wizard of Oz coin-pushers and occasionally some of the other games, I have come up with a number of personal games that keep me entertained even when the lines are longer than I feel like waiting in. I'm always on the lookout for coins on the ground, and have found other interesting things on occasion as well (found and turned in four people's season passes so far this year). I sometimes set my own private scavenger hunt - trying to find little details that many people probably miss. Ever notice the little Woodstock figures that are at the tops of some signs in Planet Snoopy? I might try to figure out how many times Woodstock appears in the park. Really, just looking around at the park can be very entertaining. I've been to the park open until close 23 times so far this year, and I'm still able to find stuff I haven't noticed before. I recently went into a shop that I visit every time I go to the park, and looked up to realize there is some really cool themed decoration near the ceiling I'd never noticed before.

Back to semi-on-topic "decoding." So, as we all know, KI tweeted this pic last week: When compared to the original sign there's something missing. Notably, "FOR" and "G" (also "Caution"). Hmm. So, maybe the new project is going to improve cell reception at the park?

Shows are a half hour, but try to get there at least 10 minutes before the show officially starts.... Doors open a half hour before the show starts. Saturday, shows are at 1:30, 3:30, 5, and 7. All other days are 3, 5, 7. Except Tuesday, they get that day off.

I'm not a big fan of the music revue shows, ordinarily, but Hollywood Nights in the Festhaus is really good.

I was just told at the train that Soak City is closed, it closed at 12:30.

I imagine the people working the tolls are wondering right now if the weather is keeping everyone away. Nope, just nobody has bothered to come open the parking lot gates yet :-/ (They were supposed to open ten minutes ago) Annnnnnd now it's finally raining. Edit: Ugh, gotta love changing policies mid-season. The sign on the gate that used to say the parking lot opens 90 minutes before opening now says 60 minutes. So I guess they aren't late. I'm just unexpectedly early. I actually took a pic of the sign last month so I know I'm not imagining things.

I haven't found it in any of the gift shops yet, but I want one of those blankets too. I'll continue to keep my eyes open for them.

The train spielers are allowed to come up with their own material. I know which spieler people are talking about because I heard him say it too. He's joking. I hope he doesn't get in trouble for it, because he's a nice kid. KI does need to start putting a bit more input into the spieling tho.

Whatever happened with Cedar Point saying they were going to rename one of their rides after Lebron James?

The corner of my wrist that I ground off only shows a bit of a scar, after a couple months of healing. I've become concerned for my head in the helix when I sit on the left side of the train now. Definitely don't put my arms up in there anymore. Not that I did it very often before I got bit by The Beast.

There's some more behind-the-scenes clips of Origins on KI's snapchat from yesterday. Pretty cool.

I found a Kings Dominion games card on the ground (which, when I checked it at the kiosk later, showed someone had loaded a dollar onto it and spent it, both at Kings Island), so at the very least they seem to have implemented it. I have mixed feelings about the cards still. It is nice not feeling obligated to carry large numbers of tokens with me. On the other hand, the reason I carried tokens rather than cash was because the change machines gave bonus tokens when you bought more at once. There are no bonuses for putting more onto a card, so I usually keep less on it than I used to carry in tokens.

Yes, the same music is used for the new ring act as was previously used for Hand2Hand.

It's funny to me that one of the surviving recorded spiels at KI, after the ride on BLSC, is turned down so low, I can only half-hear it if I happen to be sitting in the seat that stops closest to the speaker. Meanwhile every other source of sound* is turned so loud it is hard to carry on conversations with someone as you walk through the park... *oh, except the recording played on the second lift of AE, which may be even quieter. I know some kids who are really good on the mike. Some, I think, really look forward to the chance of having their voices amplified, until it comes down to it and they realize that neither repeating the same things every minute or so nor trying to come up with new things on the fly are as easy as they thought they would be. I think it puts too much pressure on them, physically and mentally. A friend and I got a solo last ride of the night on the train earlier this season, and sat up front next to the spieler. Rather than get on the mic, he just chatted with us. His voice was fairly shot from doing the spieling all day, and he was relieved not needing to do it once more. I like the idea of spieling on the train (much less so on other rides) but in practice, I think it would be better for the park to put a little more input into it, rather than the kids being responsible for coming up with their own material. For one, they borrow heavily from each other, so something that may have been clever once becomes tired very quickly, and also, as Terp mentioned, sometimes they don't realize how badly their jokes reflect on the park.

Other than the ones I posted (Valse des Marionettes and Ask a Muppet), I can't nail anything down, unfortunately. The results Shazam gave me for some were wrong, and others I couldn't get it to ID at all. I had thought maybe the live drummer was what threw it off, so I tried the day he wasn't there. Still no luck, unfortunately. The parts of the ring act that amazed me the most were also the most subtle. She can wing them around extremely fast, but what is really impressive to me is when she makes one appear to freeze in place, but it is still actually moving. It's so cool visually, and must take exceptional control. Especially when she is keeping one or more others spinning furiously with other parts of her body.