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Don't know if you caught that - I edited it in after I posted. I used to work for a company called CI|Solutions that did card printing for all sorts of venues. Special events, School IDs, Identification for hotels and other service companies. We used Zebra printers...I hated them. To be honest, it all comes down to the kind of printer you're using. If you're using something like a Zebra printer...you might run into trouble. A nicer printer like a Quantum or even a Pebble will produce amazing results.

Thanks guys - I used a shot of Kumba under a 'free commons license'. It's the double corkscrew section.

Danke schön! If you guys see any problems with the design (I think I left out a few information boxes) please don't hesitate to mention them. "My concern would be can they really be printed at that fidelity and come out clear. Also the designs keep getting busier and busier" Yeah, that's the breaks when you go with card printing. I used to work for a place that did batch card production and I found that what you see on the screen is not going to come out the same the first few times. Solid colors are a gamble too...the ribbons required to print and the print head itself don't always make a good seal and then you get what are called "ribbon streaks". Gah, I hated card-printing. The biggest problem I could see with my design is getting the black to come out sharp. The red, green and blue should be fine because of the texture layered in - but solid black can bring some problems.

I tried to stay as true to the site as possible - made very few changes to TPR's brand. Touched up the rough cuts of Gadzooks a bit and added just a tiny bit of gradient to help give the logo some depth. Kept the colors of the logo as true to the original as possible. For club, I found that the T naturally has a nice cradle to it - so I used a font called Carlisle to continue the playful motif and set the letters to rest inside the T's space. I had more trouble with the card than I did the logo. Working all three of the TPR colors in the design provided a unique challenge. But I think I have a pretty convincing card. I hope I've conveyed the spirit of this site in these designs.

I'll just offer a little bit of advice - don't overthink it. TPR: the style, the color, the spacing, and even the size is a brand. It's an image that Rob and Ellissa have used to create immediate recognition upon viewing it. If you change that, you're going to have to totally rebuild the brand recognition - might take years. That's why established companies rarely change their logo if they're doing alright. If their brand and the reputation under that brand are faltering, then they take the initiative to change their look. TPR is in no such trouble. Keep it simple.

Ctlupurb? Haha, I know what it's supposed to read...just be really careful with hierarchy of your text. Otherwise you can get some really bizarre reads.

I apologize. I do often use the incorrect words. Silver Bullet is forgettable. Silver Bullet is disproportionate. Silver Bullet is predictable. Silver Bullet is mediocre. Silver Bullet doesn't react to its surroundings...Silver Bullet crushes its surroundings. on the flipside Silver Bullet is reliable. Silver Bullet eats crowds. Silver Bullet produces mild thrills. Silver Bullet delivers a decent sense of satisfaction. I still liked it better as a lake.

A short-term marketing system would benefit from the seasonal addition plan. Thinking on a long-term scale, not concerned with immediate cash and profit grabbing, you can do a lot more with atmosphere than you can with coasters. Knotts might have cornered some of the teen demographic, but what family can go to Knotts with kids under 48 inches and get the full experience they are paying so generously for? This is supposed to be a family-oriented park. I saw a bunch of kids having to sit out while their older siblings went and rode...they didn't look happy. Why are supposed family additions coming with such a ridiculous height requirement? It just doesn't make sense to me. Almost all of the decisions CF has made for the park...I don't get it. I just don't get it.

Who said it HAD to be a B&M invert? Who said it HAD to be a Zamperla moto-bike coaster? Who said it HAD to be an Intamin rocket coaster? Well done coaster layouts don't have to sprawl across the entire park or pierce the sky. I would have been ok with losing the lake...I know it's a huge real estate chomper...but what they did was just annihilate the delicate scale of the park with a coaster they had to know could not fit. They could have completely rethought the back area of the park to include one or two more coaster designs - that area had already been crumbling (even with the Knott family in charge). They just had to be smarter in the way they reconfigured what was already there. Keeping the boomerang, adding Perilous Plunge and Xcellerator...bad BAD use of space. The walkways on the "Boardwalk" (where is the waterfront?) are enormous. That back area was the place for Cedar Fair to go wild with - it's completely scrappable land - and a hell of a lot of it. I could have seen a beautiful invert back there...easily - away from the historic section of the park. As for a rocket coaster...I honestly do not see the draw in a 28 second ride where you have to wait on the brake run for another 2 minutes (if you're lucky) to allow the other train to load. Just an ugly gimmicky ride. Top Thrill Dragster? Yeah, there's a draw to that one...Xcellerator? Mm...it's a miss for me. You're right, the attitude of the average parkgoer did change in the 90's - and the shift is still continuing today. But Cedar Fair didn't even bother trying to piece the puzzle together - keeping up with what is current, and what is already there.

Haha, they didn't HAVE to put Pony Express there. But that's a matter of opinion. KBF's theming was always below Disney's and you kind of expected it. You allowed for certain parts of the outside coming in or sloppy presentation in cases (like the end of bigfoot rapids). However, its obvious that there is no presentation anymore - or very light at best. I don't agree that a coaster kingdom was the only option to bring Knotts into the 21st century. Throughout the park's existence, the Knott family and their designers were able to incorporate the thrills of the decade without destroying the atmosphere of their beloved park. They didn't force the park to grow exponentially every season and they balanced attractions with shows (as cheesy as they may have been) and other rotational offerings. They knew the constraints of their small plot of land and they finessed it well. But what happened... What I believe was the case is that CF saw a cash cow in the center of world tourism and didn't bother to understand or care how Knotts had remained a Southern California staple even with such impossible competition a city over. Instead, they decided to tap into Six Flag's weakness, location, and exploited the situation with a collection of flashy additions over the course of a decade (with the guise of being a family park). Profit and the threat of intense competition drove their game-plan. It's completely evident that the park isn't being run by an artistic director...it's being run by profiteers. I cannot be certain how effective this strategy has been. After all, Disney has turned up the heat on international tourist dollars with the development of the DLR - something Knotts didn't have to compete with so heavily just 10 years ago. As much as I know though, Knotts always sat in a delicate balance between local influence and tapping into the tourism that Disneyland brought. It was something else for tourists to do. A real OLD theme park - not fake old.

It's different for a person who experienced the old Knotts and grew up with the park when it was owned by the Knott family. Someone in your position who only knows the park as a Cedar Fair acquisition will not be able to see the reasoning behind my loss of respect for the park. As it stands, Knotts still has some theme left - moreso than a Scandia or any other smaller amusement park. But realize that what you see in the park...the charm that is left of it all was thanks to the Knott family and their innate connection to the city and the population of the area. Cedar Fair has done what it knows how to do...add a ride in an empty spot for a season, advertise the hell out of it and repeat for the next season. That's fine and dandy for a park that has room to grow (like the parent park) but Knotts has/had limited real estate and doing seasonal additions instead of a long-term family-oriented marketing plan meant the destruction of what made Knotts what it was. Cedar Fair didn't understand the market and thought it was just a direct extension of the CF seasonal plan. Southern California doesn't snow. And the park doesn't shut down. What will they do now? I don't know...they don't have room unless something else from my childhood gets the ax. Maybe the bumper cars and the kingdom building will get ripped out to put in another unsatisfying gimmik thrill ride. They'll just keep tearing stuff down in order to keep up with a quota and to continue on with their incompatible business model. Before the addition of Silver Bullet, there was still hope for Knotts to be able to pull out of this vicious circle of growth. At this point though, unless Cedar Fair has a miraculous revelation, the park will continue to deteriorate and the old rides that we grew up with will be replaced by soul-less profit grabbers. Once the Calico Mine Ride starts to become too expensive because of a short-term fix-it-when-it-breaks maintenance program, it will disappear. There is just no love for these landmark attractions. The mine ride was looking pretty bad when I rode it...Not at all what I remember from the good-ole-days.

Xcellerator wasn't around when the Knott family controlled the park...so...yeah. Ceder Fair did indirectly create that issue. Jim - more power to you buddy. I went during the day before Haunt to check out the park and to get a few creds. I found a good special online though - you found the Haunt special, if you went on their normal site they had a special going on: 29.99 general admission if you pick up a coupon at Smart and Final. Technically it's for the weekend, but I was informed that they could apply it for the week as well. If you do decide to go again, just tell the person at the ticket booth that the site had conflicting information and they'll throw you a bone. Never EVER go to Knotts on full general admission. I had a remarkably similar experience that you did - I just felt like the park was dead. And not because people weren't there...but what once was an awesome little gem in the middle of Buena Park has turned into a pathetic experiment in global management and unrealistic competitive goals. Where to begin...well how about the front - what used to be Knott's weenie (the water tower with the dancing figures) was covered up by a cheap boardwalk basketball game stall. Sierra Sidewinder was a great addition, although it did remove some of the charm of Camp Snoopy. But as it is, it's a good ride with some amazing forces (for being billed as a family ride). Silver Bullet...silver bullet. I gotta tell you, I liked it better as a lake. When I'm on the ride I have a lot of fun just like any coaster...but this ride - it just doesn't have any lasting impression on me. The drop is terribly weak, the inversions are formulaic and it's destroyed the scale of the park. If this coaster was something as spectacular as Batman at SFMM, I don't think I'd hate it as much. But it's not and I do. Now onto a good ride - Ghostrider. I knew it was going to be rough, so I opted for the front seat. I cannot get enough of this coaster - even at its jerkiest, it's one of those terrifyingly fun experiences. The layout and the pacing of the ride is something I've always loved about it and it did not disappoint on this trip. It's lost a few points because of the seemingly non-existent maintenance budget...but compared to any other coaster at Knotts, Ghostrider trumps them all. Just the way I feel about it. And while the park did lose a few shops...Ghostrider fits - it isn't shoehorned and it doesn't destroy what is already there. If I remember correctly, this was an attraction approved by the Knott family before the purchase of the park was made by CF. Other areas of the park weren't open yet, so I decided to do the mine ride. No..wait...black widow caverns? Gag. I did not think Ceder Fair could do worse...but they did. The entire story of the ride seems to be shelved as you sit in darkness (I guess lights were too expensive to replace?) and silence (Maybe they couldn't afford ink to print out the script?) Add to that, no water was running and the so-called black widow caverns were nothing more than pipe-cleaners and glitter. Couldn't even afford ONE animatronic. I know the overlay is just for the season...but I'm starting to wonder if the ride is being scaled back overall. Next was Pony Express...sigh. I don't know what group of idiots approved this thing. It is my understanding that this is a "family ride". But isn't the height requirement something like 48 inches? The ride is definitely geared towards smaller kids, but too bad they can't ride it. This could have been a good ride - but they didn't plan for this thing at all. What they did was destroy the last piece of escapism in the park, Big Foot Rapids and the surrounding area. It looks extremely small and barren now. Just like Silver Bullet, I liked Pony Express better as an insect house and a haunted shack. Then off to Jaguar. I remember the season the coaster opened opposite "Indiana Jones" at Disneyland. The advertisements made it look SO awesome and Knotts did well that season with lines for the ride in the hour(s) region. After all it did have mist and fireball effects. Jaguar has definitely seen better days but for a small coaster, it does its fair share of packing a punch. Now that the trees have really grown in on the backstretch, the s-bends are quite thrilling. After that (and clubbing a kid with the big heavy exit gate...oops) I went to Montezooma's to get a fix of old Knotts. That ride still does it for me...moreso than Xcellerator ever could. Glad to see Knotts still takes care of their shuttle. After that I did a quick run to Supreme Scream (probably one of the best decisions CF made) and checked out dead Xcellerator, and watched Perilous Plunge creak into action. And by that time, I started to get a bit sick (wasn't keeping up on my water and the day was surprisingly muggy) so I went in search of a vending machine....found one...and... 4 FREAKING dollars for a bottle of water?! We have vending machines at school (Cal Poly Pomona)...and they don't require that you pay 4 dollars to get a drink that would normally cost you a buck. Way to show your colors Ceder Fair...there is absolutely no reason for such an outrageous upcharge. That is pure greed. So after being outraged by the vending machines, I went to look for an eatery to get a cup of water...none were open. Great. So I went to the Boardwalk Buffet...or whatever it's called and checked out the spread...$17 dollars for ribs....SEVENTEEN dollars. Good lord. $9 dollars for Tyson frozen chicken strips...I said...that's it - I'm done. I did end up giving into the vending machine to grab a flavor of life water I couldn't really see (decided to go on color) and briefly thought about doing another run on Ghostrider. Headed through Camp Snoopy, shocked that I could see through to the Crystal Gallery across Beach Blvd...They tore down the Playhouse and didn't bother to fill the hole they created. And there's another Ceder Fair scar in the best themed area of the park. What did they replace it with? An unthemed rockin-tug attraction. I guess continuity is just something Ceder Fair doesn't give a sh*t about. It's a shame really...you can easily point out everything that this out of touch company has done. At that point, I had done all that I wanted to do (or could do) and headed home. That was at 12:30pm (I got there at 10:30am). Maybe the younger generation doesn't care much because of the thrills they've added. But believe me...there was something special about a trip to Knotts when I was a kid. It was complete escapism...back to an older and simpler time, captured in a park that was about the adventure of the old west. You could just walk around and get lost and enjoy your time there without feeling like you have to get on every ride. It wasn't Disneyland...it wasn't fake. It was a nice little snapshot of the old west and of old Southern California. They still have the gun shows and the ghost town and the calico mine ride...but Knotts Berry Farm is so far gone - you can't escape anymore. It's nothing more than an amusement park built on the deteriorating bones of a great theme park.

Assuming the rumor is true...where the heck would they put it? I went to Knott's today for a quick fix of coaster...and I don't remember seeing any possible space for a ride this size. Even if it did take up the swing's spot, Pony Express is RIGHT there...along with the train track. The park cannot possibly fit anything else in there...it's beginning to look like Blackpool Pleasure Beach!

"At first, I thought the movie was going to be lame, but then i thought, the POTC movies are very successful. BUT that also has a negative effect on the ride" Well, you might have been swayed when Pirates fever hit the company after a major success with the trilogy. Not everything is a golden idea though...and they would have to really up the ante on creativity if they want to make a BTM movie. Maybe they should just hand the idea over to Pixar...in fact yeah...that's a better idea. Disney entertainment has proven that they are so out of touch with what people want and what garners critical acclaim. Of course they have their moments...but why rock the boat? They fund a group of incredibly talented people that can create a compelling story with a single image in their head. 10 hits out of 10 major releases cannot lie.

You see Knotts Berry Farm? It's not hard to build a great coaster without raping the area of its charm... This is a gorgeous design - so twisted and sexy!

Doesn't that picture sum it all up? Panda Express themed to Ghost Town...huh. Sure it's themed nicely, but so are the McMansions popping up all around here. They're just empty shells meant to resemble a style and time that's long past. If CF is trying to compete with Six Flags, they might as well just give up. Nothing at Knott's comes close to the coaster awesomeness that is SFMM. But you do have a valid point, KBF won't be gone anytime soon...as long as there are easy ways to tear out more of the heart of this park, CF will to make way for another lackluster coaster or half-assed flatride. But I think eventually the people will react...it just has to get worse in order to do so. I don't mean to sound so pessimistic...but when I look at pictures of KBF now, it's truly depressing. What a waste of a great park.

I do hope that HRP does get out of its slump in the next few years. It's quite a refreshing break from the standard formula of themes that a park "should" follow. I guess building a highly themed and original park to suit the teenager generation was a bad idea...we saw this play out elsewhere on the west coast...*cough DCA *cough. Teens don't really care about being "transported" to a different area through theme...they just care about the quickest and sickest rush when they go to a park. DCA's initial hunt for that demographic was a very bad decision and if not under the Disney name, that park could have never recovered. Unfortunately HRP doesn't have the same safety net. I have no idea what they can do to boost attendance...but I think installing a bunch of gimmiky coaster rides has not helped their cause. I mean, how late was MaxRPM to open - for an un-needed ferris wheel lift system? These kinds of ideas are cool...as ideas. When you bring them into reality, it just seems like more money could have been spent on a cooler ride than a cooler lift system. I don't know - maybe HRP suffers from indulgent design...maybe if they do some more tried-and-tested additions over the years, the people will come. But I think the teen-demo for this park is going to sink it. Look to the family if you want a consistent client-base. Isn't that what DCA has been re-branding itself into throughout its strife? The teens won't come back year after year if the park doesn't change fast enough. The family will. Exhibit B is KBF - I can't see the park lasting much longer under this system of management. It's lost all of its charm, lost all of its theme, it's running out of room for expansion and there are better parks on either side of it for the family and for the thrill junkies. KBF always was that 'great little park' just down the street that always seemed to be a world all it's own. Who knows if it could have lasted without the "Silver Bullets" and the "Xcellerators" or the highly wasteful and seasonal "Perilous Plunge" - all we know is that there's only a shell of that 'great little park' left. So I can't predict its future, but it doesn't look good...it's like a seaside pier that's run out of room...

Well I went to Six Flags this Monday and I had a really pleasant experience. And this is huge since my last day trip was a pretty dismal one. (I did get to go to the park at night for a special event one year...so that was cool) First Thoughts - Six Flags has upped the overall quality of the park in the way it's kept and through a lot of the staff. I did see the security guard balloon shapes...haha, lots and lots of unraveled swords. We first headed to the bathrooms...and this is one of the worst notes of the trip. 30 minute wait for my 'friend girls'...30 MINUTE WAIT! That's longer than most of the rides in the park. The facilities themselves are just outdated and disgusting. They might look pretty on the outside but they're at the point of "illegal" and "biohazard" on the inside. Six Flags could benefit in some new facilities. Maybe enough stalls to accommodate the population of the park in 2008 and not 1973. So anyway, while they waited in the line for the bathrooms, I stayed outside and watched Revolution and the mainstreet areas of the park. I couldn't help but notice how amazing Valencia falls looked with water pouring over and just how much kinetic energy that created. Big props to fixing them. And I also noticed how amazing the Revolution looked all around the area. So naturally we went on it first, kind of as a warmup coaster. It's painful and the trains are over-protective (I mean, ostrs AND a lapbar? come on) but it's a classic and it's historic. I shrugged the pain off and enjoyed as best as I could (although I do wish I could have ridden it when the trims weren't there) The poor thing is so overtrimmed too. C'est la vie... Next we went to Viper to get our 7 inversion Arrow fix in. The line was fine and we were on the ride fairly quickly. Ah, I don't know how anyone couldn't love this coaster. It's intense and it's scary and it's unrelenting and did I mention it's intense? From the seemingly-endless lift hill to those powerful vertical loops...this Arrow can't be beat. It's rough, sure...but it's not a seriously uncomfortable rough... It's more of a "holy s*** that hurt" while laughing kind of rough. Then we decided to tackle Tatsu and it was about a 90 minute wait. Sure the operations were slow, but they do have a machine that is so prone to breaking down, it's easy to see why it always moves so slow. The crew that I had were fine and I didn't notice anything seriously wrong. Anyway so we started back at where Jet Stream passes over the path and we got some DipNDots beforehand to pass the time. ($8.00 for a large DipNDots...ugh...) We finally made it to the mister tents and for some reason it was hotter inside than it was outside...how can that be? I'll tell you! Sun + Sunshade + Mist + Wind Flow = Cooldown Sun + Sunshade + Mist w/ NO WIND = FLORIDA The misters were essentially creating a humidity percentage of probably 40% compared to the 0% outside. I don't know if park operations knows this...but you have to have windflow in order to allow the liquid to evaporate off of your skin to get some sort of cooldown. Letting it just sit there underneath that hot sunshade made it a complete waste. And pissed people off more than helped them. Just a few boxfans would have done the trick...something to get the flow going... So anyway, 60 minutes in it breaks down. Ok, so we had the decision to wait or to leave and we decided to wait for it. I knew from past experience that a coaster will be down for about 10-20 minutes for small problems and only when they tell you to leave the line is when the problem is more serious. So we waited and got to talk to a cool Canadian father and son duo who seemed really excited about Californian culture. 15 minutes later, the ride starts a test train up the lift hill and about 5-10 minutes later, the ride was operational again. (Note that about 75% percent of the line had left) Eventually we made it and our ride began. Tatsu..tatsu...It's one of the greatest coaster experiences ever. From that assaulting lift hill that seems to stretch like the elevator in the Haunted Mansion, to the series of incredible elements that all lead up to the grand daddy of inversions. Tatsu is always a coaster I'd gladly wait 2 hours for any given day. It's unlike anything else and it always delivers a smooth-as-silk ride. Best decision Six Flags ever made. Throughout the rest of the day, we tackled Jet Stream, Ninja, Goldrusher, Riddler's, and Scream and then we decided to call it a day. I wanted to ride x2 but I wasn't in the mood to wait in another 2 hour line. Overall it was a pleasant day. I saw a few bad things in the park, but they're not things that are new...so management is still moving forward!

You all make this park out to be the Knotts of the far East! Good intentions, bad execution...

*Blood Boiling* We really do need a new law system - this one we have is like selling bullshit to the highest bidder. "He did nothing wrong' - 'It was an unfortunate accident' - 'He was at the wrong place at the wrong time'. BULL-SHIT He was at the wrong place at the wrong time because he was trying to cheat Six Flags out of a days admission to the park. How I was brought up, that's called stealing. It was an unfortunate accident for the people on the train witnessing the horrifyingly gruesome way Ferguson died. He did nothing wrong but trespass on private property through a dangerous, mechanical "NO PERSONNEL ZONE". Come on already...are we so far gone that we can't see right from wrong anymore? The family claimed that the park wasn't responsible...yet once the prospect of millions of dollars came up, suddenly it wasn't the kid's fault. Six Flags should have had better security measures? So what does it come down to - guard towers on the perimeter with tranquilizer guns to save people from their own stupidity? Everybody wrapped in bubble wrap to make sure that no one gets hurt if they trip and fall? Pregnancy test booths at the entrance of every aggressive roller coaster to make sure people aren't damaging their potential children? Cardiologists to make sure your blood pressure isn't too high to ride? Janitors to wipe your ass? Where does this 'blame somebody else' mentality end? Have we become so delusional that we can't see the consequences of our actions? Will we be happy replacing lives with 7 or 8 0s? Will we become so litigious that our vocabulary will only consist of words that do not offend any major races, religions, political parties, animal rights organizations, educational boards, environmental agencies, persons that perform beastiality and other abnormal sexual fetishes, cross dressers, home wreckers, NAMBLA members and so forth and so on...? We need a new law system that eliminates this bull shit. Sadly though, we won't get one - as long as there is greed in the world, there will be lawyers. I really hope the people involved enjoy their riches here - If they are who they say they are, they'll have some explaining to do - and there won't be a lawyer to bail them out this time. EDIT - LOVE the auto filters here...haha

As I read the eyewitness reports, I could vividly see the situation play out in real time in my head...it was.. ...unsettling. I find it really hard to empathize for the kid - although I know I should do so. Living through my teenage years I was constantly tempted to do stupid things. I always had the ability to say no though... And I would if the dare was too extreme - it didn't make me any less of person or any less of a friend, and most often that "no" equalized the situation and stopped the escalating list of dares. It's not hard when you have a clear head to know that a certain action is going to have a clearly bad consequence. Of course my list of "dares" in my invincible years never EVER came close to playing chicken with a gigantic steel machine. (playing chicken in a shopping cart, yes). All in all it was a horribly misguided error of judgment that resulted in a traumatizing tragedy for the people that witnessed it, and for the family that has to live with his poor decision. I have hope that this Christian family will not sue the park for wrongful death. If they do, we'll know where their heart lies. It's not really our business though - they'll eventually have to take it up with you-know-who. But I still have hope.

It's really cool that they're trying out all these new track styles for the park, but...I wonder if all these rides are just for the gimmiks? MaxRMP i thought was a spinner when I first saw it - realizing now that it's not makes this ride seem...quite stupid. It looks like a fixed car on a spinner's track with no real architectural integration or path interaction. So the only thing to really pull you in is the ferris wheel lift. I don't know - maybe it's different when you're there, but I don't get a feeling of excitement or energy from the park just purely on the ride choices and the ride positions. Slippery when wet looks like it's going to be replaced within 3 years from low capacity and high maintenance. The Eagles mine train doesn't have a great flow and no real ups or downs. In fact, the entire ride lacks the height to do anything really spectacular. The only thing it has going for it is a great fireball effect! Again, not sure if this changes while riding - but the videos seem to show a very slow moving coaster around a parking lot with grass added on. And the skater in the USA land - focusing on the most generic boardwalk theme I've ever seen. All of the rides seem to lack...a long-term draw. Which is really odd considering the theming and atmosphere of the park is quite inventive and inviting! Am I just getting the wrong vibe from the pics and the videos online? I know experiencing the park would be the best way to determine my argument..but..eh...Myrtle Beach is a long way away from Anaheim. Thanks for the PTR - maybe we can get some larger pics on the next go around?

Yeah, there lies the dilemma. I rode SB a few times with no expectations of the ride and it doesn't compare to a well built B&M scream-machine like Batman at SFMM. SB is slow starting (with that boring first drop turnaround), fairly predictable, and not integrated into the surroundings well. Having the giant cobra roll in the entryway is just bad. The one thing I'll give SB though is the overbank! That's a pretty cool feeling dropping into the cobra like it does. But overall? I prefer the lake and the church and the missions in the tunnel...I liked the fact that I couldn't see Ghost Town from Indian Trails or Fiesta Village. I liked the fact that there was a giant lake that you could watch Montezuma fly over. I liked the way Jaguar integrated with its surroundings - how it added to the atmosphere without becoming distracting. I liked when there were trees instead of giant station houses. I liked when I could stroll along a path of willows gently rocking in the breezes. I liked when I could find shade! I'm a huge roller coaster fan, but I'm more of the kind of coaster rider that likes coasters to integrate into their surroundings - ones that have a ride time of more than 30 seconds, ones that effectively use speed and height to create thrill. Knotts had a few opportunities to add some great coasters around the park without sacrificing the atmosphere. Ghostrider was definitely one of those - in fact, it was probably the best decision KBF made. Unfortunately it hasn't been kept up to a reasonable standard and a once-fantastic coaster has turned to a shaking pile of ... *insert derogatory comment of your liking* Taking out the boomerang and adding a coaster in the land where Perilous Plunge sits would have been a great area to utilize for a long-term investment coaster (coasters that interact with surroundings rather than dominate them). Retaining the Roaring 20's theme in the back would have kept a bit of KBF's identity instead of the generic Boardwalk theme. Maybe another coaster could have fit in the Soap Box Racer's corner (as much as I would have liked to see the original SBR stay) And lastly, the area behind Big Foot rapids could have supported the much-talked about mini hyper - Or an extension of the river rockwork to form a ground-hugging Vekoma mine train - that would add thematic depth behind BFR, add another great family ride to the lineup, and cut down on noise (if the mountain was designed correctly). See? 3 coasters added (one removed) with no shoehorning, no detraction of the skyline, no harsh removal of large chunks of landscaping, and fewer noise complaints. Later on, adding the Sierra Sidewinder coaster in the front of the park, but spreading the layout out more with some medium-sized rockwork to zoom around. Heavily landscape, and design the ride with few tree removals, Maybe even have the track interact around the edge of the lake. There's no excuse why a coaster can't be designed to fit it's current surroundings - it's just harder to do. With my fantasy plan here, the park would have 7 full sized coasters, integrated into the park with only a few peeking out of the skyline (I'd assume the 2 in the Roarin 20's section could go a little higher since the Calico Mine Ride and the Log Flume do well to hide the back section...but still well under SB's top height). It's not a question of can it be done - the park had plenty of space for great, unique coaster additions, it was just interested in turning out a quicker profit by dumbing down the theme to be all inclusive and adding in cliched rides.

After reading that article, it just makes me even more saddened to see the restaurant the way it is. The Knott family was a family that took hospitality very seriously, always making you feel "at home". Now all that's left are the last few 'old timers', casting their glow in the shell of the once-great building. I don't think Knott's ever had to compete with either park. Six Flags may have been a small threat, over 50 miles away, but nothing to constitute "competiton" with it. KBF is in the middle of a city with a footprint the size of a housing block. Disneyland and the resort pull in over 12 million people a year - locals, tourists...and has been pulling progressively higher numbers for decades. Knott's has always seen the flow of tourism go to Anaheim...it hasn't been an all of the sudden change. I much rather believe it was a quest for Ceder Fair to get a supplemental income on the west coast, doing what they only know how to do. Build up the park with a few staple attractions (an invert, a rocket coaster, a splash down ride, an S&S tower), add in a waterpark, overadvertise a lackluster summer calender, and watch the cash flow in. This works for a few years, maybe even a decade, but when all the potential space fills up, the park will see an overall decline until something is torn out and the next latest gimmik attraction is installed. We saw this happen more dramatically at Six Flags because the location of the park is much less convenient than KBF, meaning people won't go if there isn't a good reason to. But as Six Flags begins its experiment of long-term additions and long-term planning, KBF still maintains the destructive 'summer additions' plan. B&M stated it pretty well - Ceder Fair can run Ceder Point under this structure because the park is seasonal. Not only that, but CP has(had) a ton of room to build on, making the collection of summer additions less of an aesthetic impact on the rest of the park. If you snap a photo of one coaster, you might get another in the background, but it will seem far away. Whereas KBF's steel bowl has packed 4 coasters into close proximity, creating a feeling of claustrophobia at the main gate! Ceder Point has the resources to be a giant coaster capitol - KBF does not. Trying to clone the CP business model to KBF has raped the park of it's identity. It will be a long time and a new radical way of running the park before we can experience the KBF we all once knew.

Well, it's a good thing the hall got a coat of paint. It's a shame the staff has no interest in keeping the landmark in tip top shape though. I really can't blame any of you because I know how it is to work in a place you don't have much control over. You eventually just stop caring. The Ceder Fair business model is going to destroy this park - Knott's requires a much different approach in order to get the most potential out of it. And the globalization of daily processes and a stagnant labor structure is showing its ugly head. If each part of the park was run locally so that people working INSIDE a specific venue held all decision-making power about the venue, you'd find a much higher level of quality, of responsibility, of pride for the places they work. If each attraction and restaurant was sub-divided into a local staff hierarchy instead of a global manager, executive manager, sr. executive manager, that has no idea the dynamics of the ride or dining facility from day to day (if you don't work in it, you can't possibly know how it specifically works), the park would begin to turn around. If you give people power over the area they work, and not to a general manager that doesn't work in the same facility he/she runs, there would be higher efficiency, higher quality, a happier workforce, and a pride for the job. Look at it this way - if you're being micromanaged by a boss that has no idea what you do, and takes for granted how long it takes you to work (especially in a creative field), are you really going to produce your best work? Are you really going to give it your all? No way in hell! At least not to glorify the company or make your ignorant boss look good. Now if you have a boss that works in your field, knows the process and has experienced the work first-hand, you're going to produce a much higher standard of work. Why? Because the boss knows how to deal with job-specific situations and he/she knows how to manage their team to get through it. If you have a good boss, you're going to want to work hard to make him/her look good. You're going to want to come to work period. Looking at numbers, charts, graphs, statistics, codes, reports and bills doesn't make you a boss fit to run a restaurant - It takes first-hand experience in the field to really understand the dynamics of it and manage people accordingly. The evidence of a broken global corporate system is seen everywhere around Knotts and until the change can be made, the park will continue to falter.