OrlandoMike
<font color=red>all I can say is beer hurts when i
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2005
- Messages
- 8,721
A friend called yesterday and said she had free tickets to the circus, and asked us if we wanted to go.
I asked Shrek and he replied..."I don't know, I've never been to a circus."
What?
So off we go!
We got there about 30 minutes before the show started. (Note to the city of Orlando, if you want people to go downtown, you might want to rethink the $10 fee to park in the city owned garages!)
The first thing I noticed outside was the PETA people. I thought to myself "Should we be going in?" But we went in and I was shocked at the amount of merchandise the circus had to sell! My friends husband works for the Arena, and he told us they brought in about 50 specialty stands where they sell the souvenirs, popcorn, cotton candy, and other various circus stuff. The arena is allowed to sell dogs, soda, chips etc. I asked about prices....a box of popcorn $7 and a bag of cotton candy $10! They had all the kids down on the floor getting dressed up like clowns for photos, they brought out an elephant who painted some "art" and lots of other activities before the show started. I thought this was pretty cool.
Right before the show started they asked everyone to stand. They played the Star Spangled Banner as an elephant with a woman on top with a large American Flag walked around the arena. Very nice I thought!
So the show starts. It's not the circus I remembered as a kid. It, like just about everything these days, had to have a theme! (When did the circus theme go out of style???) There was a good girl, her name had something to do with flying, and the bad guy, Mr. Gravity. There were a lot of small magic acts, cutting clowns in half etc. The usual animal acts, my favorite was the dog show. Do you know there is one woman who does nothing but put cute little evening gowns on poodles?
That was fun to watch.
I started thinking about the animals, and as I watched them they just didn't seem to be very happy. I don't know, can you tell if an elephant is happy? Not sure, but their eyes just looked so sad...
Overall it was a fun evening, it was a childhood memory for me, and a first time for Shrek! It was fun watching him laugh at some of the acts. But I don't think I will ever go back. I just don't think some animal needs to live in a cage so I can drop some cash to watch it jump through a hoop. And I miss the circus theme....Thunder and Blazes, the big parade as they came out for the first time...all the old fun stuff. Oh well, times change....
I asked Shrek and he replied..."I don't know, I've never been to a circus."
What?

So off we go!
We got there about 30 minutes before the show started. (Note to the city of Orlando, if you want people to go downtown, you might want to rethink the $10 fee to park in the city owned garages!)
The first thing I noticed outside was the PETA people. I thought to myself "Should we be going in?" But we went in and I was shocked at the amount of merchandise the circus had to sell! My friends husband works for the Arena, and he told us they brought in about 50 specialty stands where they sell the souvenirs, popcorn, cotton candy, and other various circus stuff. The arena is allowed to sell dogs, soda, chips etc. I asked about prices....a box of popcorn $7 and a bag of cotton candy $10! They had all the kids down on the floor getting dressed up like clowns for photos, they brought out an elephant who painted some "art" and lots of other activities before the show started. I thought this was pretty cool.
Right before the show started they asked everyone to stand. They played the Star Spangled Banner as an elephant with a woman on top with a large American Flag walked around the arena. Very nice I thought!

So the show starts. It's not the circus I remembered as a kid. It, like just about everything these days, had to have a theme! (When did the circus theme go out of style???) There was a good girl, her name had something to do with flying, and the bad guy, Mr. Gravity. There were a lot of small magic acts, cutting clowns in half etc. The usual animal acts, my favorite was the dog show. Do you know there is one woman who does nothing but put cute little evening gowns on poodles?

I started thinking about the animals, and as I watched them they just didn't seem to be very happy. I don't know, can you tell if an elephant is happy? Not sure, but their eyes just looked so sad...
Overall it was a fun evening, it was a childhood memory for me, and a first time for Shrek! It was fun watching him laugh at some of the acts. But I don't think I will ever go back. I just don't think some animal needs to live in a cage so I can drop some cash to watch it jump through a hoop. And I miss the circus theme....Thunder and Blazes, the big parade as they came out for the first time...all the old fun stuff. Oh well, times change....