SoCalJasonland

I went to the park today for a few hours. Everything except for Coast Rider and possibly Jaguar was one train operations. I asked a couple of ride operators if anyone had ridden Hangtime yet and a couple of them told me that they had ridden it during testing yesterday. No one could tell me if they planned to soft open or test with guests. The contractors were working on landscaping so no Hangtime testing during my visit. I was ready to put my life on the line though if they needed me. I am a giver when it comes to coaster testing. Crazy mid-week Xcelerator crowds Can you find the cat in this photo? Hint: he is on the rock to the left of the tree in the middle of the photo. Closer view of kitty BBQ meal # 11 of the year! Pulled pork and cider.

Does anyone know if platinum pass holders get a discount on the boysenberry tasting card? I was thinking of going on Saturday for the food.

That's nice that they bring rides indoors for the weather-challenged people It reminds me of an indoor carnival I visited at the Skylon Tower in Niagra as a child.

That's great. I am glad you enjoyed the food. I think I would use the whole card on sausage, wings and short ribs.

My two-word review for the park today is "painfully busy". Ghostrider had two-trains running, the top and bottom queue rooms were full, and the line went back to the Ghostrider rock entrance. The app said two-hour wait, but I am guessing longer. Since I got there at 10:00 am, I was able to run to the back and get a couple of rides on Xcelerator before the line got too long. The only things I didn't have to wait for were the Boardwalk BBQ, another stop for an Elysian IPA, and the Sky Cabin. Somewhere around 10 minutes into my SOL Spin wait, I decided "I have been queuing for SOL Spin for ages" and cut the day short. I guess six rides, BBQ, cider and beer in approx 3 1/2 hours isn't horrible, but you pull better numbers on traditional school days. Looks like they have some shaded queue in the middle I'm back baby Food porn! BBQ meal 10 for the year. Yes the Ghostrider line came to the rock entrance on a weekday No stair to the top of Hangtime, but they do have an elevator LED light panel on bottom rail of Hangtime

i also like superman for what it is, but rarely ever ride it because the line is often too long. anywhere near the entrance of the building is long for me. i need to just ride on a ghost town day. I still dislike Superman for being one of the first single-element roller coasters to still be considered a roller coaster. People complain about Fireball's being a roller coaster for just having a loop, but Superman is half a hill at best.

My guess is that "Xcelerator The Ride" is what they were able to trademark because "Xcelerator", by itself was deemed too general. If Xcelerator had been used before in any other products or companies; the name would not be available for trademark. But Knott's probably prefers to shorten the name on signage and park maps as there is a self-explanatory ride next to it.

Yes, and busy too. I guess I am going to wait to ride until a weekday this coming week.

Sections of the document: "A grand jury in Wyandotte County on Friday returned an indictment against Schlitterbahn, charging the company and a former operations director with involuntary manslaughter, aggravated battery and reckless endangerment of a child in the 2016 death of 10-year-old Caleb Schwab on the Verruckt water slide. ... The company manager indicted Friday was Tyler Austin Miles, the local director of operations for Schlitterbahn Vacation Village in Kansas City, Kan. He surrendered to authorities Friday morning and was later released on bond. ... "The involuntary manslaughter charge filed Friday against Miles and the company is a felony count, which carry a sentence of 31 months to 136 months in prison and up to $300,000 in fines."

If you made that like 50% bigger and put a kitten in it; you'd have like 10 million views by now. Everyone would love Koaster Kitten.

Knott's is starting to get some spring break crowds. The line for Ghostrider extended to the Pan for Gold attraction. There were five maintenance people threading the new launch cable for Xcelerator. Nobody would give me a re-opening date but they said it was very soon. Hangtime is getting queue paths. Hangtime Hangtime New paint on Xcelerator on ride photo booth Installing cable Sky Cabin and BBQ They use a rope to fish the cable through the track.

After watching two trains run on Hangtime, I just came up with a rough maximum capacity of 640 people per hour. Station dispatch, lift to drop is approx 40 seconds. The rest of the ride is approx 30 seconds. Then it appears to take approx 20 seconds of brake run travel before next train can dispatch. If they can keep up with a 90-second dispatch cycle, we have: 60 min x 60 sec. = 3600 seconds per hour / 90 seconds per dispatch = 40 dispatches per hour @ 16 people per train = 640 people per hour. If the dispatch time falls to 2 minutes, the capacity falls to 30 dispatches per hour @ 16 people = 480 people per hour.

Knott's has not announced why Xcelerator was down, but I know that a couple of us have heard from ride attendants and maybe a Dippin Dots person that the catch car/launch sled had broken and needed to be custom manufactured, shipped here and replaced. The work in the station appears to reinforce that theory. I was told they were hoping for March re-opening date, but I don't know when in the month.

The best part is you get those people + the jungle gyms/swings/fitness areas on the beach! The opportunities for entertainment are endless! And then you add the stoners/buntouts to the mix and you one up endless entertainment hahaha. My favorite bike ride is renting a beach cruiser at the south end of Venice Beach and then riding along the beachfront bike trail up to the Santa Monica Pier for lunch and then back in the afternoon. I guess you can also do the opposite if you are staying in Santa Monica. You get to see everything along the beach in both cities.

A membership requires you to take the effort to cancel it. An annual pass requires that you take the effort to renew it. Six Flags, like a gym, knows that people don't like taking extra effort, so they will likely increase their retention rate as people will be too lazy to quit. I think they will need to continue to offer both memberships and annual passes for the time being. I don't see people at some of the northern parks being happy about paying over 12 months for something that can only be used for 6 of the months. My local Six Flags park, Magic Mountain is open 365 days so there is no issue with paying all year and memberships will likely go over better at that park.

I agree In-N-Out has good burgers, but horrible fries. I personally think The Hat or The Habit are better choices. I also have a Portillo's approx 5 miles from me, and they have good food You probably know that though. Los Angeles is a bit strange. Orange County and inland empire have a lot of people that like to get out to the desert with their toys, sand rails, motorbikes, and such. In Los Angeles, they think its cool to pretend like they have never heard of a California City located east of the coast. They just look at you like you are poor, and sorry you have to travel inland.

I am surprised you got on so many rides at Disney in such a short time. That sounds pretty cool. Racer 5 is pretty good too and I pick up a 6 pack of that from Trader Joes on a regular basis.

Boardwalk BBQ with Boysenberry beer or cider is always a good choice. Unfortunately, Knott's does have a few really short coasters in their collection and they did mess up Coast Rider; but there's still a lot of fun to be had.

My understanding is that the broken part is the catch-car / launch sled, it costs $800,000 to replace, the replacement should be here by the end of February, and hopefully; Xcelerator will re-open sometime in March after the part is installed and testing is completed.

Couple of Knott's photos this week. New Sky Cabin Entrance between Boardwalk BBQ and Wack A Mole. Don't stand up on a log ride. They also have an audible warning message in case you can't read. I see you hidden crane. You can't steal Scrambler from behind fence.

When the cable snapped on Xcelerator several years ago, the shipping part of sending the replacement cable by land/sea from Europe took almost three months. It could easily take another three to four months to build the catch-car because you probably don't just have idle machines or workers waiting for an order, or perhaps they had to subcontract parts and wait on parts for final car assembly. It's a major bummer that it is taking this long to get such a great attraction working again and hopefully we can ride again soon.

You're welcome and luckily I got my Hangtime queue house info from a different employee than the Xcelerator info, so I hope Xcelerator opening soon is still correct. I don't mind being wrong about a queue house, but I need Xcel back.

I went to the park today and got an update on Xcelerator. It was the catch-car that broke and they ordered a new one that is being custom manufactured for the ride, so it takes awhile. I was told the catch-car is expected to arrive at Knott's by the end of February and they hope to re-open the ride in March if everything goes well. Even though SOL Spin was running, I saw it break down and maintenance come out at least three times while I got stuck once on it. Someone told me that lately, it has been breaking down about every half-hour. I wonder how long Knott's will put up with it. Ghostrider had the longest line in the park at approx 15 minutes. Since I had Boardwalk BBQ for the 6th time this year, I decided not to post any more photos of it. I was told the wood structure is a queue house. Queue house Station

I went the day after you, and there was about one hundred billion people in the park. Ghostrider was a 1-2 hour wait. Thankfully the shortest line was Silver Bullet at about 20-30min. It's been a long time since I've been to KBF. What a beautiful park! It's so dense. I am glad you enjoyed your visit. Unfortunately, Knott's is always busy on the weekends or any other time So Cal schools are out.

I went to the park on Friday to have more Boardwalk BBQ, boysenberry cider, and a few rides. I tried to stay late enough to get first night ride on Ghostrider, but it broke down around 5:30 pm, so I went home. There is a cool fire pit between Mrs. Knott's Chicken Restaurant and Ghostrider that I didn't know about because I never stay that late. Friday was a nice day to visit. They had both trains running on Ghostrider and most other coasters. My longest wait was 20 minutes for Ghostrider. Every other coaster or ride was a one-train or cycle wait at maximum. Silver Bullet, Supreme Scream and Coast Rider were dispatching with empty seats/rows through out the day. Working on Hangtime station roof Closer view of Hangtime station Closer view of Hangtime station Fire pit outside park near Ghostrider Fire pit outside park near Ghostrider