fpsphil

Ghostrider front row @9:59

I wonder what else the TPR pen can do Fix rides? Make lines disappear?, epic report lol

This happens to me too, I know most of the ride operators for Xcelerator pretty well as well as several of the Supreme Scream operators. You just make friends at the park if you have too, thats what I have done because I have no roller coaster enthusiast friends that are willing to go to Knott's as much as I do

I do this quite alot as well. When Xcelerator is running, I usually go up to Knott's Berry Farm on Friday afternoons for 2 or 3 hours before they close by myself. I enjoy going by myself because I don't feel like I have to entertain anybody while I'm there. There are a lot of people who think I'm weird to just go to Knott's by myself, but I enjoy it and I usually meet other people in line and strike up a conversation. And if worse comes to worse, I always have my iPhone handy and will just browse the internet while I'm waiting in line. I prefer going to the park with someone else though when it is crowded and Disney parks are just boring without a friend or group of friends to entertain you.

I've seen worse than some of these people in Disneyland before.

If worse comes to worse you could always use earplugs to blocked out the soundtrack, I dont know how rough Bizarro is but i would assume its not all that bad so i dont think pain would be much of a problem. Just come prepared with what you think you might need and you'll be fine.

Let me start by thanking the entire Theme Park Review and Rideworld team again for putting together such an amazing event and day. Everything at Knotts was simply amazing and it truly was the best time I've ever had at Knott's. The day was great and I really wish I could have attended Six Flags with you guys on Saturday but thats what next year is for. Lunch was great being catered by the Chicken Dinner Restaurant, and being a all-you-can-eat buffet I almost ate to much LOL. I'm just going to upload the highlight photos, there are more in the video that is at the bottom of this Trip Report. Leaving to drive up to Knott's, 6:15 AM Arrived to a fogged in ghostrider, really pretty actually After picking up my packet, got to wonder around the park for about a half and hour and take some pretty cool pictures of the empty park in the fog First tour: Roundhouse They were steaming up one of the engines Was pretty cool to be that close to the engine while it was being fired up for the day Next Up: Calico Mine Ride Tour Robb at the Glory Hole Sign Inside the Glory Hole Chain Lift Hill of Calico Mine Ride Boomerang was open special for us ERT = Presentation was very interesting Some nice shots of Xcelerator Silver Bullet as I left the park Heres the video I threw together of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OheqvnD1-8M All in all, simply an amazing day, wish there was a WCB every weekend at Knott's

ya thats pretty cool that they opened it just for us, i guess thats why they were testing it for so long before ERT

I saw Boomerang running up till closing

Thanks guys for an amazing Sunday at Knott's, i had so much fun i regret not signing up for Magic Mountain now, but next year i will definitely try to attend both days. I dont know why people are complaining, maybe after having such a busy day at Six Flags, the shorter day at Knott's didnt seem as "grand" and entertaining. Sure there are somethings that would have made the day taht much better, but im 100% grateful for what we got. 1. While short, the Calico Mine Ride tour was actually quite interesting, wish they would have walked us around some more or showed us more of the workings of the ride but hey like robb said, we were the first group ever allowed to wander around in there which is pretty cool in itself. 2. Would have preferred 2 hours of night ERT especially with Silver Bullet and Ghostrider, but once again im not dissapointed because 1 hour is better than 0 hours. 3. The presentations were very good and interesting, hearing from the S&S guy was very interesting and the Q&A with Knott's management was hilarious Suggestion for next year: schedule some mid-day event, Knotts doesnt have that many rides, and a guided tour or more presentations would help to better fill out the day Anyways, great event, absolutely loved it, I think im not going to be a lurker on the forums as much anymore and going to start posting more after yesterdays awesome day. Thanks guys Phil Group Photo 11:00 by Sierra Sidewinder

i have a feeling testing might start tommarow

ya i was in the park today, didnt see any work going on, the ride looks the same as it did a few days ago in G-force's photo update

As long as u hit it during the week on a weekday, let's say a Monday or tuesday you should be fine, Fridays are usually more crowded but sometimes it is empty, it's really hit and miss most of the time

Sigh who really cares, cables will snap even if they are checked by maitance every 5 min, a simple overload or a weird force on the cable cam cause it to snap, without maitance being able to do anything about it. Alot of things effect the performance of a cable such as weather and amount of launches/lifts. But with only 1 hurt in the recent snapathon (guy in the back of xcel doesn't count) the chances are so low of being hurt or even being on the ride while the cable snaps. Look at xcelerator. That ride has probably launched millions of times in 8 years, and one in a million of those launches experienced a problem, ur odds of being hurt are miniscule x100. And remeber, no cable system is 100% failproof, unless they use cable with 10 times the load capicity but even then there can be problems. The media just needs to start reporting the truth (but they won't) about how rare these incidents are and that u are probably more likely to get hit by a meterorite from space then be on a intamim coaster when it's cable snaps.

ocresort.freedomblogging.com/2009/10/05/knotts-ride-may-be-closed-for-months/20523/

The train cars are made of steel, I really don't think they could have been thy heavily damaged. Remeber the train itself weighs a couple tons I believe, it is not light weight by any means. The main undercar damage that I see having happen is the brake fins that are on the train wing bent severly out of shape and thus explaining the bent fins closer to the station. Also almost every fin when I saw it had either a scratch mark or a small bend in the front corner which I would assume to be from a brake fin on the underside of the car being out of alignment. And itamin can always build another lapbar train, remeber xcelerator is their test bed for the rocket coaster. They may have another lapbar train or car laying around somewhere from testing the concept of hydraulic launch, and I think stealth at thorpe has lapbar if I'm not mistaken edit: stealth does have ostr

i think they will simply rebuild the front car, its made of pretty strong steel. The main damage that the front car endured appeared to be from the cable going through the fiberglass which is a easy replacement

Xcelerator uses 2 pull cables and one return cable like king da ka and ttd

At the front of each train under the fiberglass train there is a a large crossbar, I bet u that was what utlimately stopped the cable from going any further into the car

I actually picked up a piece of the train 2 weeks ago on Friday when I was there, now I know exactly where it came from, I though it might have been off the side or something

ya that one fin is bent but I've heard it has been removed since I took the pics, and yes the catch car was at the end of the launch but apparently isn't there now edit: the week before the snap, I was talking to the ride ops an they said that they were trying to get the ride stable enough to run through haunt without breaking down, so I could see them trying to get the ride open as soon as possible

The catch car was still there as of a week ago, the brakes that are removed are the fins that got bent, u can see one of the bent ones near the station in the shots looking straight up the launch track

sorry they are full size, I'm posting this from my iPhone because I'm in Vegas for the weekend and can't copy the thumbnail link for somereaso I will fix it as soon as I get on a computer these images were taken last Friday [/img]

The guys name is Richard pruite (not positive onthe last name) he had the day record of 170 times in a day until a few weeks ago, I'm kinda a xcelerator reride freak like him, but I'm no where close to his record I also got pics of the post cable snap stateof the ride if u guys want the pics