VegasBaby

Maybe we will get lucky, and it will have the dual loading stations. That would help with capacity. Tempesto at BGW got a 3 car train that increased the capacity 50% (18 vs 12) over Superman at SFDK. I would love to see SWSD get both the dual loading station and 3 car trains, but I hope they get at least one. SWSD had over 3.5 million visitors in 2015, so it does draw a pretty good crowd. Without the larger cars or dual loading station, you can probably count on at least 45-60 minute waits during busy days.

This is true, you just have to constantly be getting fastpasses throughout the day. The key is that you can get a 2nd fastpass as soon as your fastpass window opens. So if you have a FP for Space Mountain for 11am-12pm, as soon as 11am hits, you can get a fastpass for another ride. Also, your entire party doesn't need to be present to get the fastpasses. You can just send your tickets with one person and they can get the fastpasses for your entire group. Note that fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers tend to run out by noon or 1pm, so either hit that ride first thing or get your fastpasses early. If you stay at one of the three Disney hotels, you get into one of the parks an hour early every morning of your stay. Depending on your budget, this might be something you want to do. Also, if you purchase a ticket for 3 days or more, you get into the park an hour early once during your stay. The park that opens early switches every day, so one day DL is the early entry park and the next day CA is the early entry park.

Hopefully it will get the 3 car train like Tempesto did. I've ridden Superman at SFDK and it's tons of fun. I think this was a good choice for SWSD given their budget and size restrictions.

Totally agree, I like the current FP system at the CA parks and I hope it stays that way. I also like how you can get a 2nd FP once your window opens on your current FP. If you do it right, you should be able to FP all the big rides in a single day.

Thursday should be dead, walkons for everything and maybe 10-15 min wait for GR. Friday should be equally dead in the morning, but it may get busier in the afternoon and evening.

Riptide was completely removed from the park. It always seemed to be down and I'm sure it was a maintenance nightmare, so they just went ahead and removed it.

Good to hear that Wipeout isn't leaving, I'd hate to lose yet another flat ride.

The announcement also says that they are extending the Boysenberry Festival to 23 days and adding a new BBQ restaurant next to Xcelerator. I have been really happy with the additions to the park over the last few years and 2017 is looking great as well.

Wow, that was a completely unexpected announcement! Sol Spin looks like a Mondial Top Scan, which is a really fun ride. I've only ever ridden one Top Scan at Lagoon in Utah and it was pretty crazy. I think the Top Scan at Lagoon is the only one in the U.S., so it's great to see another one installed. Knott's has been down a couple of flats since they removed Windseeker, Screaming Swing, and Riptide. I'm guessing that this will go in the old Windseeker spot since the announcement says it will be located in Fiesta Village. Here's some detail and video of the Top Scan: http://mondialrides.com/rides/transportable/top-scan

Took the family to Knott's Thursday and Friday last week during the day and it was a great time to be at the park. Lines were pretty much non-existent except for Ghostrider, and even that was only a 10-15 wait. There were running two trains both days, but on Thursday they were only loading one of the two trains. Friday was slightly busier and they were loading both trains that day. It was our first time on it since the rebuild and everyone absolutely loved it. Definitely the smoothest woodie I've ever ridden and it's just so fast and relentless throughout the course. GhostRider certainly isn't an airtime machine (although there's some decent floater air on the 2nd hill after the drop and after where the MCBR was), but we still enjoyed it immensely. I really hope it holds up well in the coming years because Knott's really nailed it with the rebuild. As much as I like RMCs, I think Knott's made the right choice in keeping GhostRider as a classic woodie. Everything else in the park was a walk-on and most of the time we got re-rides without getting off. Bigfoot Rapids was running great and we rode it 5-6 times without getting off both days. After the accident in Australia, I was paying close attention to the lift and conveyor belt system used by the ride. Based on the Intamin design, I just don't see how that same accident could happen here. Xcelerator and SB were great as usual and we were able to ride 3-4 times in a row by switching seats. Despite the low crowd levels, the ops were doing a great job cycling the rides. I appreciated that they let us do re-rides as some parks won't do that even if it's dead. If you haven't been to Knott's on an off-peak day, I would highly recommend it. Even though the park was only open to 5:30pm both days, we rode everything with multiple re-rides. We saw the new Western stunt show as well, and I have to say that I prefer the previous show. But it was still a fun show and the kids enjoyed it. We re-upped our passes for 2017 and got a Free Bring A Friend ticket for each pass, which we used on Friday. This deal is only good through today, so you need to act fast if you want to take advantage of this deal. I believe the Bring A Friend tickets are good any day through 12/16/16.

Great trip report, Hershey is probably my favorite overall park (or at least tied with BGW for #1). We went for three days last year and the kids keep asking me to go back! Hershey really does have a great and varied coaster lineup, plus some fun flats and of course, Coal Cracker! We went Tue-Thurs in mid-June and the lines were not bad at all. Other than Laff Track and Fahrenheit, nothing was ever more than a 15 min wait. We stayed at the Hershey Lodge to take advantage of the 1 hour early entry in the morning. Only the Hollow is open during early entry, but it's basically an hour of ERT on Comet, SDL, and Skyrush. And speaking of Skyrush, that is one amazing coaster! It's just so crazy from start to finish and the airtime is ridiculous. It's one of the few coasters that still scares me a little bit every time I ride it.

I wonder why the conveyor belt kept going even though there was a stopped raft? I would think that there would be some kind of safety stop built in that would halt the belt in a case like this. I feel so bad for those affected by this tragedy. Hopefully the park can implement some design changes that will prevent something like this from ever happening again.

There are no rides currently listed as closed on the Knott's website right now and they are usually very good about listing ride closures. I am headed to the park this weekend, so I will check it out and see if it's closed. Bigfoot Rapids was made by Intamin, who did not make the rapids ride that had the accident in Australia, so I don't see any reason why it would be closed (other than annual maintenance).

I would endorse this strategy as well. Buy the Gold and spend the $10 for the X2 reservation if you want, then hit Revolution and Superman as soon as the park opens. The only major benefit to the Platinum pass is the ability to do re-rides without getting off. However, you can't do re-rides on X2, Revolution, Superman, TC, FT, etc. I have found that if I reserve the ride again as soon as they clear my Gold pass, that it's usually available to ride again by the time I'm done with the ride.

I've always been a back row edge guy on Skyrush (see below), so I'll have to give the front row another chance on my next visit. But the ejector airtime on this coaster is unmatched on anything I've ever ridden. It's the only coaster (besides X2) where I felt that I could fly off of it at any moment. Hershey has such a ridiculously great lineup, I just wish I didn't live on the other side of the country!

I just can't believe they are still having so many issues with this coaster. I really hope they can figure it out in the offseason and get it running on a regular basis. None of the other RMCs have had this kind of downtime. I would like to make a trip out to DW next year, but I'm not going to if LR is still having major issues.

Exactly, if Knott's gets a big new coaster, it needs to be something high capacity like a B&M hyper. The park already has too many low capacity coasters (Monte, Pony, Sierra, Xcelerator, Boomerang, etc). I will agree that Jaguar is a very lackluster coaster but it's still pretty popular among families. I just wish it had a 42" height requirement instead of being 48", that never made any sense to me at all. At the very least, they should make it 42" with an adult like they did for Sierra Sidewinder.

Sidewinder has the new vest restraints, so there's no head-banging at all. It's probably the best boomerang coaster I've ridden. (And yes, I've ridden a lot of them as my kids love boomerangs.) The mouse is also one of the better mouse coasters and it's usually a walk-on.

To be fair though, Screamscape also reported that Knoebels is "teasing" a Skywheel "for 2017" and a few weeks ago they said that Kings Dominion was going to replace Shenandoah Lumber Company with a launched flying coaster and it's now obvious that they're (not surprisingly) Iron Horsing Hurler. Personally I'd love for them to remove Monezooma because Dorney needs a new coaster and I'd love to have it so close to home. I'm all for the park keeping Boomerang, it seems to have good ridership and it helps alleviate the line for Xcelerator. I'd hate to see Monte go, but at some point it may just be too expensive to maintain. Monte was my first coaster with a loop and it was also my kids' first looping coaster, so it definitely has a lot of nostalgia value for me. But if Knott's replaces Monte with a B&M hyper, I won't be mad at them!

Totally agree John, I love the placement of Silver Bullet. The cobra roll looks great looming over the entrance to the park and I love coasters that travel over water. SB is one of my favorite B&M inverts and it probably has the highest ridership in the park.

The Reese's ride is absolutely terrible, so don't waste your time on it. The Claw and the Howler are fun, but they aren't must-dos. I would recommend just sticking to the coasters and Coal Cracker.

I don't think the CF Platinum passes work at Gilroy Gardens. CF does not own Gilroy Gardens, they only have a operating agreement with the park.

With the 2017 additions focused on the waterpark (which really needed updating), I would bet that the 2018 addition will be some kind of ride. If the construction is starting in 2017, then there's a big possibility that it's a coaster. A simple flat ride addition wouldn't need a year of construction to install. The last major thrill coaster at Knott's was Silver Bullet back in 2004, so 2018 would be 14 years between major coasters. I know that they've added PE, SS, and Coast Rider since 2004, but I wouldn't call any of them major coasters. It would be amazing to finally have a B&M hyper on the West Coast and it would really round out the coaster collection at the park. Knott's has the highest attendance of any CF park, so it's time they got a major coaster addition. If you renew your season pass before 10/31/16, it's only $81 for the standard pass and $96.75 for the Gold pass (which includes Soak City). Plus, they break up the payment into 9 installments and you get a free Bring a Friend ticket. If you are going to renew your pass, now is the time to do it. The price for new season passes is $90 for the standard and $105.75 for Gold (both payable in 9 installments), which is still really a good deal.

The Boysenberry Festival is usually in late March/early April and takes place during Spring Break. The festival typically goes for two weeks and the park is more crowded than usual due to both the festival and kids being out of school. That said, it is a great time to visit because of all the wonderful food & beverage options. Plus the weather is usually pretty good (75 degrees and sunny) during that time as well. But if you want the park to be dead so you can marathon the rides, then I would go on a weekday in February.

Spring Creek Smokehouse is very good and it has large portions, but it is on the pricey side. If you want to leave the park, Chocolate World right outside the front gate has a large foodcourt and we found the prices to be very reasonable. On our last trip, we ate at least one meal a day at the Chocolate World foodcourt.