SoCalJasonland

I believe they are expanding Knott's Soak City with a new slide tower. Probably nothing new inside Knott's BF until 2018.

Actually I should not call it an Intamin seat belt connection. I went to Knott's on Thursday and all of their Intamin raft boats have velcro seat belts. I could have sworn that they had buckles. Maybe they switched.

The weekdays of August 22nd to 26th should be pretty empty. Pretty much all local schools are back by then. You will just have the lovely valley heat to deal with

But where were the signs! They should have to warn you about stuff like rain and lighting. People are stupid now.

I still like SFMM Ninja suspended coaster but it would probably be more interesting if the car around me was missing and I could see the ground and trees flying bye below me while I floated in a seat. I like the open leg concept and there is nothing wrong with just making more tame inverted coasters as the car design is less weight and wouldn't require a thicker more expensive track and costly shocks on the ride to maintain. Adding the cab creates wind resistance so you can offer less track length for the same lift rise. The added weight of the cab that far away from the center-line of the track creates strong lateral forces requiring the costly shocks and prevent inversions. Inverts seam to offer a better view and require less in terms of cost or maintenance.

When your raft flips and you are upside down, head underwater; you will be happy you are able to release the restraint yourself and not wait for a ride operator with a key to find you. Exactly. I'm talking about the seat belts themselves that click in and squeeze out. Not restraints that you need a ride operators help or a key to get out of. They are just as easy to release as any seatbelt in a car, and they won't come undone during the ride. Intamin type latching belts might work but the current Intamin round rapids raft seat belts are loose lap belts that aren't used on drops over 20 feet. The water park would need to design a latching OTSR that is easily size adjustable to protect against the negative G's. I was also responding to previous poster that had mentioned that since Velcro was able to be opened by the rider that he might have let himself out because he was afraid so they shouldn't use it. I was just saying locking people in will not help if the raft flips. People need to be trusted that the belt is there for their protection and they should not remove it during the ride. Water slides are like roller coasters and will have their flaws until they work them out. At one point, lapbars alone were good enough for steel coasters until someone was ejected and further restraint designs were developed. Hopefully, they get things worked out and this is their last accident.

When your raft flips and you are upside down, head underwater; you will be happy you are able to release the restraint yourself and not wait for a ride operator with a key to find you. Intamin rafts or chute boats, themselves have flipped at least twice with people in them. Luckily no one has drowned as far as I know. Velcro just wears easily and probably needs to be inspected and replaced often.

I am sorry and I agree with you that parents don't watch their children well enough. A rent trip to the zoo with a child falling over a fence proved that and we see it every day. I guess I spend too much of my slow summer work season posting in yahoo and msn where people argue incessantly between calling each other Repuliturds or Libtards. I will watch the arguing. Anyway, I will enjoy my Brawndo while I read that Donald picked his cabinet today. Donald's cabinet

Would you not go on the ride because only 155,520 people had ridden it safely without dying? So maybe millions haven't ridden it but most people assume something at a big amusement or water park is safe until someone dies. The rides are supposed to look scary but not actually harm you. Perhaps his brother was too scared to ride with him or they split up after leaving the parents. I just probably wouldn't blame the parents but I was one of those kids that was allowed to ride my bike around the neighborhood during the 1970s and 1980s before you were required to be watched 24-7. I would just say I would be back by dinner and rode off into the sunset. Or down the block. Whatever was closer.

My guess is that it was not in any of the original plans and was the only added after rafts flew out of the trough. I guess they figured that keeping the raft from landing on someone else or causing additional injuries from the fall to the riders was their best option to minimize loss. I am also guessing he hit one of those u-shaped support posts holding the net and not the net itself to injury his neck like that. Either way, it did end up being a bad design. I thought we learned in Roller Coaster Tycoon that negative air should not be anywhere near a raft vehicle that wasn't locked down to the track.

There are a lot of things that don't appear to bode well for the park.... 1. The fact it's a smaller family owned company. - Liability insurance is for this type of loss. 2. The fact it was designed in-house (no manufacturer/engineer to name as co-defendants) - Liability insurance again should cover this. 3. The marketing statements (wasn't there also video of it ejected rafts?) - That was before the slope changes and other ride modifications. 4. The whole son of a state representative thing. - This is Kansas. I am not sure the Koch Republicans are in any type of hurry to regulate or punish business. The ride may not fair so well but aren't people riding Texas Giant again? How long did it take SF over Texas take to recover? This is sad that it happened. Fortunately, water and amusement parks are relatively fatality free when compared with the cars that most people use to drive to the parks so future deaths should continue to be minimal. Roller coasters and commercial airplanes are still some of the most statistically safest ways to travel. I am not sure where water slides fit in but you rarely hear of more than one or two deaths a year so they can't be much worse. I would be more afraid of drowning in the wave pool than the slides.

AAA appears to have discounts up to 30% off on tickets purchased online but I don't have an auto club membership to check on actual prices or expiration dates. AAA.com/SixFlags

Per Knott's app, Ghost Rider's line was approx 90 minutes all day on Monday and most of the other coasters averaged around 45 to 90 minutes.

Has Ghost Rider been open at all Monday or Tuesday? I was thinking of stopping in on Wednesday if there was any chance of riding it.

I thought they were going with Justice League: Battle for Metropolis for 2017 rumor for the old Batman stunt show theater area?

Unfortunately Knott's is the same way now. I went on weekday last week and all the roller coaster lines were close to a hour wait with mostly one train operations and super slow dispatch times. it should not take two to three minutes to get a train out of the stations.

Best - Helix: inversion roll directly to the station or anything with good bunny hop airtime hills. Worst - SFMM Green Lantern: vehicle flipping to sudden stop in the brake run. It killed me. I got better though.

That statement just seems ridiculous to me on so many levels. The part about it being 9th or being 6th? Nah man. It's cool though. Yo...I still don't get it. Can someone help me out? I think Batman is so good that they built one at almost every park. I have never felt sick or beat up on it unlike suspended Vekoma coasters. There is no boring half or even portion of the ride. This is actually one of the better older coasters in the park and solid in every respect making great use of a compact layout. I guess the ride length it is a little short but since they have built Superman the Escape and YOLO; it doesn't seam that bad by comparison. I guess if you are bothered by constant intensity; then your complaint is valid for you though. You just will not find many people that think B&M Inverts are their weaker product. The largest complaint about Batman is there are too many of them and coaster fans don't drive or fly around the country to ride the exact same coaster.

Ghostrider delay was in the OC register. No updates since from the park on an actual opening date. www.ocregister.com/articles/coaster-708549-roller-knott.html

I used to run their Scrambler and Tilt a Whirl back in summer of 1985. Cool photos, thanks.

I was there about a week ago and it was open at that time. It looks like something broke and this is not a scheduled maintenance. Since it beats me up; I didn't ask when it would re-open

I visited the park from 11 - 1 on Thursday. The longest lines appeared to be approx 15 to 20 minutes for Silver Bullet, log ride and Xcelerator. I would guess that there is top rail on 50 - 75% of Ghostrider's track now. Not much new on Ghostrider Marketplace parking lot side Some wood behind the fence No top rail on this section of track yet Boomerang is still broken and they have a hoist above a car Swings are back

Awesome trip report. Its cool that it didn't look to busy. Haunted River was the partial water trough near Volcano and it was removed to build the coaster.

Is Gold Striker at Great America still smooth? I watched the Theme Park Review video and it appears to have the exact same track structure and trains. I think we are just getting a magnetic brake upgrade.