Live E Trip 15-17AUG14

Copied from another website for my CP trip report this past weekend.

Well, make this brief for now I want sleep soon, more potentially tomorrow night with some sweet pics/vids

Got into the park Fri afternoon about 2000 or so. Got a few rides in, got to pop pedals again even with a little hot headed purple tagging ride op. Watched Lumi and again stunned by how great of a performance it was. Finished the night with a bit more rides, food, and walking around & enjoying the park.

Sat: The day of Live Entertainment.

CP is THE BEST for Live E in the whole chain this year..hands down. Y'all can love Cirque at KI all you want, it's a fantastic show and probably the best KI has ever had, at least the best in recent years at a minimum. However, just..the packages that CP put into the park just wow. Lets go over all of those as my whole day was basically spent doing this or a few must do rides.

Luminosity. Great GREAT set, lighting, effects, performers and SINGERS. The larger male singer has an amazing vocal tone, absolutely astonishing. The female singer during Katy Perry-Roar..just..goosebumps. For performers my favorite is either the main drummer, because he is a badass and has been for years. Up next as a very close second is the female rhythm drummer/tenors is AMAZING. More on her later. However again back to Lumi, just, perfect performance to start the night life for a midnight close, or on a regular close, to leave the park to. Or if you want, stay and DJ Hurrikane has amazing music tracks to dance to. His music Friday was alright, Saturday though he went from the acid house style music Friday to big beats, hard style, and just..awesome. CF knocked this out of the ballpark, just an absolutely fantastic venue.

Lusty Lil: Glad to see this show this weekend. AMAZING VOCALS HANDS DOWN. It's def. not the best kid show, it is tame for the younger ones, but def. some adult humor. If your kids have watched Shrek or similar movies before, same deal. The vocals though. CP Lumi was my favorite for the individual talents, however seeing Barbershop Trio/Quartets, improvised vocals, and great harmony vocals, WOW. Neat show this season. Oh and the piano guy is a badass.

All Wheels Extreme: For those unfamiliar, it's Cirque stunts at KI without the show. It's basically a group of performers to some neat music being badasses. That is all it is, just badasses doing badassery. The show has improved over the years, the new acts and little things added are really sweet.

Frontier Folks: Quick little dry humor shows. It's neat to see these shows that used to be on the Frontier Trail/in the park back. They perform three different shows, three times each (9 events total). It was neat to see the scenarios the sherrif/bandit/girlfriend were involved in. Good guest involvement too!

Bluegrass Jamboree: Upright Bass, Fiddle, Guitar, Banjo, Dobros, etc. Perfect group of talented musicians. Finishes the show with Sweet Child O Mine..awesome little concert to watch. Clapped almost the whole time and had a foot tap the whole time. Great group of performers.

Beach Band: Brass & bass instruments, kind of like the KI Five. Neat group and nice roving show

Bum Drums (not sure on name): Group of drummers (including the badass female drummer from Lumi) drumming on a 55 gallon trash can, 5 gallon buckets, and a metal Dolly. Perfect improvised drum show, really neat to watch them do their magic.

Lady Sticks: The badass drummer mentioned above has her own show. Has a metal bench with pots & pans that she drums on. She also brings out the audience to dance & drum with her/drum battle. I got to participate, it was pretty hard actually, but alot of fun. Really sweet show.

Glass Blowing: The show is in the title, I can't believe people don't know this exists in the park, nor spend the time watching these guys make art in Mordor right in front of you.

So all in all, the Live E rocks this year. It's improved so much since my year of CF employment, and I only see it going higher. But wow, fantastic entertainment. For only riding a few rides here and there between shows & all, the day was still amazing because of what the Live E offers in the park. I really REALLY don't understand how KI three hours south can't put a good show on unless they buy it from a company who knows how to put on a good show. I'm really tired of karaoke style backing tracks, poor harmonies, and repetitive musical reviews. KI has one show that utilizes musical talent and it's ok, that's it. I'm not stunned watching it, it's ok. I know CP is momma park, but seriously, if KI hired half of the best of the best talent CP utilizes the shows would be a hell of an improvement. Get rid of the cruddy musical reviews all over the park, hire some actual musicians to play the songs instead of something that came out of my early 2001 flip phone MIDI library, and get people who can actually sing and perform with it. KI has great choreography for the most part, but seriously, they fail everywhere else for the show. /endrant

Going forward for CP live E, got some neat info. Midnight Syndicate (Ohio Halloween music group) will be in the park in a few weeks to perform for a Halloweekends show in the Goodtime Theater (where the Ice Skating shows are on the ID midway). Skeleton Crew returns to the Lumi stage this season with Haut Vol involved in the show again. So for y'all who enjoyed Cirque, head up north, you may see some familiar faces. Next year more Frontier Trail Live E is possibly expanding and adding a ton more actors than what it has this year..and make a personal drum roll for yourself.....Potential for train robberies to return to CP..keyword..potential. The talks have been there, but nothing confirmed or set in stone for the rumor I hear, but oh boy I'd love to see that back in the park again, what I would do to see them pull that off.

Up next on the discussion:

Skyhawk cables reinstalled, still running Def Leppard mode for now, crew still busting ass to get capacity to the best of it's ability, spot on crew. Corkscrew moving really good aside from a ride op purple tagging it a bit and just being a snob, SOP at the ride kind of sucks still, but crew has great cohesion. Sky Ride crew Sunday with full cabins worked so well, love how that crew consistently every year just works. TTD crew was good, but so unenthusiastic, kinda draining.

Midway Market food was great, sucks it was lost for both dining plans. You can buy the daily meal deal for 13.XX. The day long meal plan and season long do not work. So you either pay 16.XX for a meal at the door, or buy the 13.XX ahead of time for the same thing. Best perk is Coke Freestyle is avail and refills included for no fee. The food is healthy-ish, and offers great choices. Oh, the buns weren't rock hard and chicken moist and tasty. Oh and the brownies weren't bitter (Hey KI head chef, Nathan "People Gatta Eat" Gushulak take freaking note). Some simple food such as the pasta was GFS provided, which was unfortunate. However the pulled pork/chicken/etc. all cooked there. KI could learn a thing or two I believe..especially hearing about similar distraught stories regarding KI's chef's food from the recent Beastbuzz that resembled my CC meal. I'd recommend going here for food if you have a chance. I was happy eating dinner rolls, salad, and chicken instead of funnel cake/hot dogs/loaded fries/etc. all day.

Pinks: Had their Bacon Chili Cheesebuger..WOAH way tasty, will def. get again, and on the all day meal plan with a side of Onion Rings..score. Oh and had Corn Dogs for you Jonathan ;P

That's enough for now and a good bit of info needed, more awesome stuff tomorrow post sleep, and more details when I can type em