robbalvey

Photos are located here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/kbf040905/kbf1.htm Hey everyone! So yesterday we were at Knott's with Bethany and Dallas. Before I get into my trip report, here is a little disclaimer: Over the past 3 years I've been talking about how the overall service of Knott's has been on a rapid decline. Every time I would post something I would get flamed for how "wrong" I was about how the park is being run. So, in an effort to not sound like I am 'whining', I've realized that I have to lower my expectations of the park. So, in years past what I would expect and get from Knott's would be the following: - Fast, efficient park operations. - Friendly, caring staff. - Rides opening with the park with limited downtime. - Well behaved, mannerful crowds - A good selection of rides that everyone in our family could ride. - A nice, "hassle free" family oriented "theme" park. Today, going into the park, I have lowered those expectations to the following: - Slower, less efficient park operations. - The occasional friendly, caring staff member. - Rides not opening on time and several rides broken for whatever reason. - Unruly crowds. - Thrill ride after thrill ride with many older rides either closed or with taller height restrictions creating a "Teenage Amusement Park" feel and less of a "Family Theme Park" feel. So going in with that in mind, our day was actually pretty good. I got exactly what I expected, nothing more, and nothing less. We got to the park about 10 minutes after opening and went straight over to XLR8R to see if Dallas would be tall enough. He still has at least another inch to go, but he didn't mind too much if the rest of us rode, so we took turns hanging out with Dallas. XLR8R, IMO is still a top caliber ride. The launch is better than TTD and Storm Runner, and the drop out of the top had reminds me a LOT of Expedition GeForce. Overall, Storm Runner holds my vote as the best Intamin rocket coaster, but this ride gets top nods also! We wandered around the Roaring 20's area (or whatever they are calling it these days) to see Riptide broken down, Kingdom of the Dinosaurs now permanently closed, and Supreme Scream running only one tower. We decided we'd check the line for Revolution since it was still early and the crowds didn't seem to make it back to that area yet. It was welcoming to see that the wait only a two cycle wait...but we forgot that this wasn't the 'old days' of Knott's and it wouldn't be until 25 minutes later that we would get off the ride. Why....WHY does it take them 10 minutes to load and unload?!?! Next up was Montezuma’s...again, only a two train wait, but it took 20 minutes because the ride ops would stand around and talk, disappear into the break room, wait until the very last minute to check lap bars and do it as though they were in Matrix Bullet Time. We decided we would walk over and check out the Screamin' Swing since that only had a 48" height restriction and it was one of the few rides in the park that Dallas could actually ride. We paid our $20 so we could all ride and the kids LOVED it! I mean, it IS a good ride, it's just not worth paying for it each time. IMO it's a PERFECT "county fair" type of ride, but not a ride that belongs in a *cough* world class *cough* amusement park. I guess this is why parks like Thorpe Park are getting the high capacity, non-upcharge version. We checked the line for GhostRider had posted a wait time of 90 minutes, Silver Bullet was about 45 minutes and since Dallas couldn't ride that, and none of us feel it's worthy of waiting, we decided we would head out of the park for lunch. By this point, we had only been in the park about two hours, and because of the poor, or I should say "typical" operations, we only managed to get on 4 rides, each of which didn't really have that big of a line. Off to Claim Jumper we go! Elissa actually tried new food there....AND LIKED IT!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: We needed to kill a couple of hours so we opted to head down to "Lucky Strike Bowling" over at The Block in Orange County since we'd heard so much about this place. Overall, it was a nice bowling alley, but we had one experience that made us never want to return again. Our lane was next to this kid and his dad. When we first showed up, the dad was there and sat a pizza and a drink down on the table. We didn't think anything of it, but we had realized about 20 minutes into playing that the dad had completely disappeared!!! And on top of it, the kid was completely unruly as he was sitting on the ball machine, sliding around all over the place, and kept taking Dallas' ball! WTF?!?! We finally went to the front desk and said there was this unruly kid, completely unattended by an adult. We were told "Oh, that's the manager's son....the manager can see him from the office and will come out if he's doing anything wrong." We told him what the kid was up to and we were then told "Well...um...yeah...if it gets worse...let us know." I wish I would have known that "Babysitting" was part of the $47 we paid to bowl. Had I known, we would have taken our money elsewhere, which is indeed what we will be doing next time. Be sure to check out the photos of the kid on the update! Anyway, we wandered around The Block a bit since none of us had ever been there before. It's a really nice place just down the road from Downtown Disney. There's a Dave & Busters there, the bowling alley of bad management, a skate park, and lots of shops and things to do. Highly recommended if you're looking to kill a couple hours away from a busy So Cal amusement park! We headed back to Knott's to find it even busier than when we left. But we did manage to get on Jaguar (why, oh, WHY do they have that stupid sweater rule?!?!?) and then the kids wanted to ride the Swing one more time. We finally left and overall had an 'ok' time at Knott's. The park does have a good selection of rides in their current offering, but it's depressing to see them taking away or modifying so many height restrictions making it less of a "family" ride. At one point, a child of 42" could go on almost ALL of the "full sized" rides they had to offer (Soap Box Racers, Parachutes, Jaguar, Wipeout, Big Foot Rapids, etc, etc.) Today, there are very few 42" rides outside of Camp Snoopy, and they keep removing the 'family' rides. Haunted Shack, Kingdom of the Dinosaurs, etc, etc... It's really kind of a shame, but this is the direction the park has chosen to go in. Oh, well. OH!!! I forgot to mention!!!! There is construction going on of Knott's latest attraction! I would post more about it here, but all of you will have to check out page two of our photos to see it for yourself. I'm sure you'll be surprised to see what Knott's is building next! Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the photos and the TR! --Robb

Saturday's bring the 'worst' crowds into parks. In my experience, I usually tend not to judge a park on Saturday crowds since that is the one day of the week that you seem to get the a lot of unruly kids. Sundays seem to be a really good day to see the park's 'true' patrons. --Robb

Time to un-stick this topic. If you haven't already caught our Vegas/Zion update, now is a good time to do it! http://www.themeparkreview.com/vegas05/vegas1.htm --Robb

I picked one up (for obvious reasons). It's an ok machine so far. I've played Lumines a lot, but after a couple of days I haven't had the urge to play much more. The coolest thing about the system, IMO is the fact that it had no problems connecting to my wireless router or the Wi-Fi network at our local Panera Bread. So when that browser comes out (the Wipeout hack is pretty iffy) it will be cool to go online with it remotely. I've already started ripping some of my coaster videos down to the PSP and they look GREAT. There really are some very neat things about this system, but it's too bad there aren't more games out for it. =( At the moment, I think I'm more looking forward to Animal Crossing on the Nintendo DS more than anything on the PSP. --Robb

We are heading to mainland Europe this year (there's a thread on the coaster board about it somwhere) and we're planning on heading back to the UK next year. --Robb

^ And you just got banned for linking to that crap on our site!!!! --Robb "Just kidding!" Alvey

LOL!

This is a GREAT game! http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/228520 My high score so far is 1,720! --Robb

Agreed. I'm not a big fan of PKI either, but there are certainly other parks I dislike more. --Robb "The minute you feel the need to correct someone for having an opinion is when you belong on CoasterBuzz!" Alvey

I would probably have to go with Heide Park's Colossos. I mean, you can't get much better than a 196 foot, 61 degree drop on a wood coaster that's as smooth as Millennium Force! --Robb "Of course....that is until Balder in a few weeks with a 70 degree drop!" Alvey

This is such a great story! http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/08/technology/google_salary/index.htm?cnn=yes --Robb

What have they done with the inside of the Land Pavillion? Is the marketplace with all the little restaurant booths still there? Did they change they way people get down to that section at all? --Robb

Awesome. Now I just need to find a version of the mod that is 'bug free!' --Robb

^ Yeah, they don't appear in the actual topic. I'm more concerned about why people aren't seeing them when they are posting a topic. --Robb

OMFG Andi got HUGE!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock: --Robb "Poor Carousel horse..." Alvey

I think I have figured it out...well, or at least have a work around for it. For whatever reason, it seems that if you don't have, or have never had a signature, you do not see that sub-title option. You'll need to go into your profile settings and create a signature: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/profile.php?mode=profil&sub=signature&u=2 If you don’t want your signature to show up every time you post, set that option here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/profile.php?mode=profil&sub=profile_prefer&mod=1&msub=3&u=2 Please give it a try and see if that works for you! --Robb “What do you expect from a hack, right?” Alvey

I have a question for everyone who has posted new topics. When you click on "New Topic" you should be seeing two input lines:' "Subject" and "Description of your topic" (this becomes the subtitle in the forum) It seems that some people only get the "Subject" line, and I'm trying to figure out who is getting that bug. If this is happening to you, please let me know! Thanks. --Robb "Just trying to make the boards even better for all of you!" Alvey

^ Yeah, Knight Flight is still my favorite of the Floorless coasters. Or at least it was. I haven't been on it since 2003, so I haven no idea if it runs the same as it did in it's Six Flags days. --Robb

^ Yeah, what did they do with that train??? When I rode it last year with that newer older train that coaster wasn't anywhere NEAR as good as I remembered it with the train that head the headlight. --Robb

"Edward HedgeClippers??!!?" :shock: Never was into that movie. I like: Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Mars Attacks, Sleepy Hollow. Don't like: Ed Wood, Edward Hedgeclippers. Didn't see: Big Fish --Robb "I guess I don't like Tim Burton movies about someone named Ed." Alvey

^ LOL! So you did! Weird...I even went back and looked at my ranking where I totally skipped it over, and added it again!!! --Robb "It was a long day at work!" Alvey :?

^ IMO, Scream! rattles more and it's got a parking lot! I give Medusa East a bonus point for atmosphere. --Robb "You also forgot Medusa West." Alvey

Here are my grades: Stand-up Iron Wolf: D Vortex (PGA): C- Vortex (PC): C- Mantis: C Chang: C+ Riddler's Revenge: B- Georgia Scorcher: B Inverted Batman/Batman/etc.: A Top Gun: B+ Nemesis: A+ Raptor/Orochi: B+ Montu: B+ Alpengeist: C Pyrenees: A- Great Bear: B- Top Gun: The Jet Coaster: B+ Dueling Dragons (Fire): A+ Dueling Dragons (Ice): A+ Talon: C- Silver Bullet: C Sit-down Kumba: A+ Incredible Hulk: B+ Wildfire: B Diving Machines Oblivion: B- Mega Coasters Apollo's Chariot: C Raging Bull: A- Nitro: B Silver Star: C- Floorless Coasters Medusa East: B Scream!: C+ Medusa West: C- Superman: Krypton Coaster: B+ Medusa (SFMW) Kraken: A- Batman: The Dark Knight: B- Batman: Knight Flight/Dominator: A- Flying Coasters Air: C Superman: Ultimate Flight: B- --Robb

^ They seem to be working just fine for me. --Robb "I'm getting sick of your smart ass comments, dude." Alvey