Hello all!
Just got back from Knoebels yesterday. Unfortunately, my cell phone was dead, so no pictures. But here is an update to some new improvements to the park:
The old Galleon has been removed and in its place is a newer smaller Zamperla Galleon. The ride is in place, but they're working on the loading platform. The sign says "next month" for it to open, so guess we'll have to find out.
The Haunted Mansion has some updates. In the first room you'll see three images of a man moving further away from view before seeing an actual head in the wall. Really cool scare for that area. The former "skull room" is a crazy place that is an upside down room resembling a lounge complete with skeletons. Look for a surprise at the end! The "Optical Illusion/ Tunnel room" has more illusions and a now dark tunnel. Now if only they can update the Jungle room as I consider it kind of anticlimactic after the rest of the ride.
Laser Command- Oh wow I'm impressed! Basically they tore down the Laser Runner arena and replaced it with a whole new experience. The exterior wasn't done yet, but when it is expect to see a neat futuristic theme. There's a foyer area where you can actually register your name and get a card to track your rank progress as well as a monitor displaying the arenas and scores of the players. Did I mention Arenas? Because yes, there are now two arenas! Basically you walk into a room with the suits, watch a video of how to play, then hit the arena. The suits have sensors on the front, back and shoulders. Your gun displays your Shield, which does recharge after a while. Four hits and your gun disables, but there are Recharg Stations in the arena allowing you to get back to full strength. The guns also have a Phaser mode (long range/ narrow beam) or a Blaster (wide beam, narrow blast) and there are monitors you shoot to give you either Rapid Fire to allow your gun to shoot faster or Max Shield which allows you to take an extra hit before having to recharge your shield. You can either do Free for All or now Teams! In all it is a marked improvement from the old Laser Runner.