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The Knott's Berry Farm (KBF) Discussion Thread

P. 651: Montezooma's Revenge project terminated?

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Montezooma's Revenge was operating yesterday during haunt, Sol Spin however is down again.

 

Xcelerator

Now - TBD

 

Sky Cabin

Now - TBD

 

Sol Spin

Now - TBD

 

GhostRider

11/01 - 11/09

11/13 - 11/17

 

Timberline Twister

11/06 - 11/22

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Darn it. Of course Sol Spin closes down when I'm about to visit soon. Hopefully it's operational by next weekend (with or without an upgraded cycle). I freakin' love that ride.

 

As for Monte and Xcelerator, neither of them is going anywhere, anytime soon... especially Xcelerator. Knott's treasures Monte so much, I could see them going with an upgraded launch/brake system with new Gerstlauer trains (like the one at Walibi Belgium) long before they decide to remove it.

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As for Monte and Xcelerator, neither of them is going anywhere, anytime soon... especially Xcelerator. Knott's treasures Monte so much, I could see them going with an upgraded launch/brake system with new Gerstlauer trains (like the one at Walibi Belgium) long before they decide to remove it.

 

Agreed, Knott's really values their history and their roller coaster firsts. With Xcelerator being the first Intamin accelerator and Monte being one of the first Schwarzkopf shuttle loops, I can't imagine the park replacing them unless they had no other choice. That said, the Xcelerator downtime has been extremely frustrating and is going on 4 months now. I can't imagine that it would take Intamin this long to fabricate whatever replacement parts are needed. I really thought they would have it back open for Haunt, but that sure didn't happen.

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Xcelerator

Now - TBD

 

Sky Cabin

Now - TBD

 

Sol Spin

Now - TBD

 

GhostRider

11/01 - 11/09

11/13 - 11/17

 

Timberline Twister

11/06 - 11/22

 

GhostRider has two periods of downtime coming up. It's so unreliable now and needs an unbelievable amount of maintenance. I can't wait until they remove it. And don't even get me started on that disappointing waste of space Timberline Twister. /sarcasm

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I'm glad RMC didn't convert Ghostrider. Don't get me wrong RMC makes the best coasters for sure but I love wood coasters...Ghostrider is actually the only ride I will wait in a long line for, otherwise no ride is worth waiting an hour+ for...i even think Mean Streak should have been left as a woodie, with some (alot) of reprofiling...a coaster doesn't need to go upside down to be good, in fact I think inversions are overrated. Probably because SFMM is my home park and they have an excess of inversions...

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End of the line for Montazooma's Revenge and/or Xcelerator?

 

I'm going with "no" and "no".

 

Didn't Montazooma just get a brand new paint job less than a year ago? If it is down the closure isn't even listed on the website so it's unlikely to be a long closure. As for Xcelerator, if prolonged breakdowns caused parks to get rid of their rocket coasters they would all be gone by now.

 

All of these recent breakdowns have occured since the paint job. It's clear CF and Knott's want to keep Monty as long as possible. If I'm not mistaken it just went through a major rehab of the launch system prior to said paint job.

 

That said, all coasters do have an eventual expiration date. The stresses on the steel alone mean that track must eventually be replaced. It is inevitable that we will one day have to say good bye to Montazoomas Revenge. I just wonder if that will wind coming sooner rather later.

 

As for Xcelerator and TTD, depending on what the problem is it may not be cost effective to fix them. I genuinely wonder if they are being honest with us about waiting for parts. From the pictures we saw of TTD it appears there was a catastrophic breakage of the actual launch mechanismn itself. We don't know what's wrong with Xcelerator, but I doubt it's just a cable snap. It shouldn't take four months to get a new cable, especially when they had one break in 2013 and had it back up and running within a few weeks. Personally I think they should install LSMs on Xcelerator and TTD and be done with it, but the cost is probably not worth it. Xcelerator is 15 years old and while it is popular (it's my favorite ride) it has been acting up more and more. I agree it's unlikely to get the axe. I just wonder that's all.

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Personally I think they should install LSMs on Xcelerator and TTD and be done with it, but the cost is probably not worth it. Xcelerator is 15 years old and while it is popular (it's my favorite ride) it has been acting up more and more. I agree it's unlikely to get the axe. I just wonder that's all.

 

Not only is it inefficient for cost, but I'm not even sure LSMs could provide an acceleration rate good enough to match that of the hydraulic launch system. I believe the only launch system that can match or exceed the hydraulic's acceleration rate is pneumatic, and there is no way that is happening.

 

And who's to say that replacing the launch system, which won't happen, wouldn't just give the park a whole new plethora of problems to deal with. It's not like LSMs have always been the most reliable launch system, either.

 

My hope is that the park takes advantage of this extended period of downtime to repaint the ride, but that's just coming from an enthusiast's perspective. I'm sure there is so much more behind the scenes involved with a paint job that I'm overlooking.

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I'm glad RMC didn't convert Ghostrider. Don't get me wrong RMC makes the best coasters for sure but I love wood coasters...Ghostrider is actually the only ride I will wait in a long line for, otherwise no ride is worth waiting an hour+ for...i even think Mean Streak should have been left as a woodie, with some (alot) of reprofiling...a coaster doesn't need to go upside down to be good, in fact I think inversions are overrated. Probably because SFMM is my home park and they have an excess of inversions...

I have to agree. I rode Ghostrider for the first time last year, right after the renovatons, and it's a Top 10 woodie for me. I love it just as it is, and I hope the next time I get to L.A. (probably once Disney finishes Star Wars Land) it's still that good.

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Oh, don't get me wrong. GR is one of my favorite woodies and I'm glad they kept it wooden. I was just saying that I was surprised, that's all. And yes it does run so much better now. Though in my opinion they supremely humped the bunk with regards to GR dispatching however. That final station approach has so many brakes it's ridiculous. I could be wrong but I don't remember it being that way before the refurb. After my first ride I went again and counted the brakes and timed it.

 

There were TEN (10) hard complete brake stops during the station approach, including the initial brake and the final station stop. And from that first brake to the very last brake was one minute and sixteen seconds! 1:16! The entire ride from station depart to the first brake was only 2:21, and if you only count from the top of the lift hill to the first brake then it is 1:25!

 

Seriously, 1:16 of approach braking is really truly unnecessary. Am I alone in thinking that is just bonkers? And is it still that way or have they figured out their error and fixed it?

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From the pictures we saw of TTD it appears there was a catastrophic breakage of the actual launch mechanismn itself.

el oh el...

 

A dozen mangled brake fins =/= catastrophic breakage of launch mechanism. First, the fins are for the launch sled and not the train. And 2nd, the sled stops in such a short distance that even cutting and welding new steel to the track would cost a teeny-tiny fraction of replacing the entire launch motor and launch track.

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Went to Haunt on Friday the 13th and had a blast! I was expecting it to be very crowded but no one in my group wanted to pay extra for fright lane, so we decided to show up about an hour early.

 

Waited until rope drop and then went straight to Trick or Treat because I'd heard the line for that gets insane. We walked right up to the entrance and I thought it was really cool that they had us ring the door bell of the house! The flash lights were a nice change and I really enjoyed this maze.

 

Next we did Paranormal Inc. It's the same as it's been since its first year and I think it's time to retire this one or at least change it up. The zip line trick in the preshow was really cool and unexpected in its first year, but it's lost its sting.

 

Voodoo has my favorite sets but there were barely any monsters when we went through.

 

The Tooth Fairy was one maze I've been reading that most people hate, but I loved it this year! Mainly because most of the scares I got were in this maze. The talent in it was on fire when we went through!

 

After that we hit Red Barn and then had finished 5 mazes before 8:00.

 

We enjoyed some beer and snacks before heading into Shadowlands. I was really impressed with this maze last year and loved it again this year. Some of the best scares come out of monsters on bungee cords.

 

Dark Ride was the first maze we had to wait in line for and it was about 30 minutes. I really liked the theme and the monsters in it were pretty active too. Great watching them scare so many people in there, despite the fact that I didn't fall victim.

 

After that we went over to our last maze of the night which was Pumpkin Eater. The app said the line was 35 minutes but we waited about an hour. I thought the concept was cool but I didn't see a lot of monsters in the maze.

 

The scare zones were LIT, though! From Ghost Town to Carnevil, to Hollow and even Fiesta Village we saw monsters EVERY WHERE and they were so full of energy the whole night. It was very entertaining sitting down for breaks and watching them do their thing.

 

After the mazes we waited 90 minutes for the Log Ride just to see the Halloween overlay. It was a really nice overlay and I hope they keep doing it, even if they don't put monsters in the ride!

 

At this point we were all pretty exhausted and every thing in the park (mazes and coasters) had 90+ minute waits, so we decided to call it a night and leave around midnight. We skipped Special Ops because we did it last year and, despite how unique the concept is, it's just not my cup of tea.

 

Overall we had a great time and proved again it's totally possible to get through all the mazes if you plan right and show up early enough, even on a busy Friday night. I saw a lot of GP complaints on their Facebook page and they blamed their bad experience on the park, but I don't think that's fair to do.

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From the pictures we saw of TTD it appears there was a catastrophic breakage of the actual launch mechanismn itself.

el oh el...

 

A dozen mangled brake fins =/= catastrophic breakage of launch mechanism. First, the fins are for the launch sled and not the train. And 2nd, the sled stops in such a short distance that even cutting and welding new steel to the track would cost a teeny-tiny fraction of replacing the entire launch motor and launch track.

 

I could be wrong but that doesn't look like brake fins.

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1753671946_TTD2.jpg.5d967c67a4662275c8734c9441d56517.jpg

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I'm not going to say too much on the matter, because I don't want to "out" people who received information that may be considered "privileged", but I will just add here that this situation with CF, Intamin, and the accelerator coasters may actually be a lot more on the "dire" end of the spectrum, than most of you, or any enthusiasts realize. After a conversation I had last weekend with friend, who is in regular contact with - we'll just call them "people who would know", to avoid publicly outing my friend - at CP regarding the situation with TTD, it's become more of a political matter with Intamin. In other words, the coaster could actually run again, but Intamin isn't signing off on it, as they want CP to buy their newest model of catch car (which is quite pricey). I don't know if there is a similar situation going on with Xcellerator, but I'm beginning to think that the rumored "bad blood" between Intamin and CP isn't just a rumor after all, because it definitely seems like Intamin is trying to hold a gun to their head, and force them to spend a ton on money on these coasters they don't want to spend, to "fix" them, and get them operating again. Kind of a "Oh, you won't buy our coasters anymore? Well, we'll find other ways to force you to spend money with us!"

 

Again, I don't know much beyond this, and it's second-hand information, from second-hand information. But I DO trust the person who told me explicitly, and he is somebody that I know has had established relations at CP for over a decade now. So this isn't just "dippin' dots guy" hearsay... Bottom line? We could see TTD open again by the end of the year, if CP gets their way. But if they are not permitted to by Intamin for some reason (I don't understand how these things work I guess... Can a manufacturer actually prevent a park from opening a coaster that otherwise can run???), according to my friend, this mess could stretch out into next season and beyond even. And I can't help but wonder if this applies to Xcellerator as well...

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I'm glad RMC didn't convert Ghostrider. Don't get me wrong RMC makes the best coasters for sure but I love wood coasters...Ghostrider is actually the only ride I will wait in a long line for, otherwise no ride is worth waiting an hour+ for...i even think Mean Streak should have been left as a woodie, with some (alot) of reprofiling...a coaster doesn't need to go upside down to be good, in fact I think inversions are overrated. Probably because SFMM is my home park and they have an excess of inversions...

I have to agree. I rode Ghostrider for the first time last year, right after the renovatons, and it's a Top 10 woodie for me. I love it just as it is, and I hope the next time I get to L.A. (probably once Disney finishes Star Wars Land) it's still that good.

I know this is from a page back at this point, but I have to agree with both above. My first trip to Knott's last year, I was visiting during the reprofile so didn't get a chance to give Ghostrider a try. Just visited again this past Friday night during the Scary Farm hours and got a pair of rides in... amazing. I'd put it in my top 5 woodies without a doubt. It's not an airtime machine like most of my other favorite woodies, but that layout just flows so well and doesn't let up at all! Did it used to have trims? Because this thing was whipping through the second half of the course like nuts. Glad I finally got on it... now I'm planning next year's trip back to the West Coast so I can get a few more rides in when the Fast Line wait isn't up to a half hour!

 

Also, I gotta say, I'm not really a "haunt" type of guy, but since I bought the Fast Lane pass and the haunts were included in it, I figured I'd check some of them out. Ended up doing seven out of nine (plus the redressed log flume), and I was really impressed all around with all the decorations, scare actors, makeup, and locations. While some of them suffered from just pushing people through like cattle (well, it was a REALLY busy Friday the 13th), overall, it was a pretty good experience. I definitely enjoyed Paranormal Inc (the haunted asylum), Trick or Treat (the lights-out haunted house with a malfunctioning flashlight), and Dark Ride (abandoned carnival dark ride turned into a murder scene). The Tooth Fairy was just... disturbing. Red Barn and Voodoo were a bit less successful overall due to the crowds. And Special Ops: Infected was its own thing, not really scary, more like a FPS come to life. Overall though, I'd definitely come back for these again, they clearly take a lot of pride in their work.

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