VegasBaby

Website isnt updated to show closure, so it's probably not a planned or long term closure; will just have to wait and see. assuming it's running today, what's the best way to beat the crowd? I don't want to stand in 2 hour queue if I can help it... If you have a Gold Pass, there is an early entry gate on the far right, so just head to X2 as soon as they let you in (usually 15 min early). Discover Card holders also get in early and there is a separate Discover entrance on the far left. If you don't have a Gold Pass or a Discover card, I would get to the park at 9:30 and you should be in the very front of the regular entrance line.

This is a good strategy as well, the only issue is that sometimes Superman doesn't open with the park. But the ride is so loud that you should be able to tell if it's open or not before heading up the hill. And make sure you take the Helpful Honda Express up the hill, it's the fastest way to get to Superman.

I went to the Coke ERT last year during 4th of July weekend and only Kong and Medusa were open, but they were complete walk-ons during that first hour. The ERT is even better this year since it includes Joker and Superman, which typically have the longest lines in the park. I would go Sunday with the ERT as you should be able to get multiple rides on each of those during that hour.

I would definitely get a Flash Pass for this Friday since it is the start of the July 4th weekend. I think Gold is your best bet unless you really want to spend the money on Platinum. Twisted Colossus and FT are both on the gold pass now (one time reservation, same as Platinum), so the only rides you miss out on are New Revolution and Superman. You can buy a single reservation for X2 on Gold or Platinum, I think it's like a $15 additional fee. My advice would be to head straight to New Revolution at opening and then get the Gold pass with the X2 reservation. The Superman line really dies out at night, so just do that ride last and you won't have to wait too long. With Gold, you should be able to ride all the rides available on the Flash Pass plus get a few re-rides. With Platinum, you should be able to ride everything twice or more, except for the single reservation rides.

The log flume (Coal Cracker) is a lot of fun and is usually a short wait. It has a bump at the bottom, so you get a nice pop of airtime. Other flats we really enjoyed were Frontier Flyers (Larson Scooters), The Claw (swinging pendulum), The Howler (like spinning tea cups in the air), and the Flying Falcon (Huss Condor). I would expect the lines to be pretty minimal, this is a great time of year to visit the park. The longest lines will probably be Laff Track, Fahrenheit, and the water slides (if it's a hot day).

How early is it and do they have it on Mondays The early entry is 9:30am every morning through September. Typically only Sierra Sidewinder and Silver Bullet are open, so I'd ride each of those and head over to Ghostrider. The Knotts hotel is pretty decent, it's not a luxury hotel by any means, but I've stayed there many times and always been happy with it. You can also get packages that include parking and a breakfast buffet. Plus, it's right next to the park, so you're only a 5 min walk to the entrance.

Double post

On Monday night, you should be able to get multiple rides on all the big coasters. When we went last June, the park really died out after 8pm and everything was pretty much a walk on. For Monday night, I'd hit up Skyrush 2-3 times and then make your way back to Fahrenheit and Storm Runner. I did the preview night last year and got 2-3 rides on each of the 3 Intamins in the last two hours. If you have time before the 10pm close, you might want to ride Laff Track as well since that gets one of the longest lines in the park. If not, I'd head to Laff Track at opening and knock that one out. Then you can hit Lightning Racer several times as it should be a walk on in the morning. LR gets overlooked due to the Intamins, but its a great coaster and one of my top woodies. This is a great time of year to visit the park and your lines should be minimal on Tuesday. We spent 3 days at the park last June and loved every minute of it!

I think it's pretty safe to assume one of the towers will have some drop capsule/trap door slides. Looking at the recent slide towers that CF has installed at other parks, I'd even say it's a certainty. Valleyfair Tower - 6 total slides, 4 trap door and 2 straight down body slides, installed in 2015 Kings Island Tower - 6 total slides, 3 trap door and 3 tube slides, installed in 2016 Kings Dominion Tower - 6 total slides, 3 trap door and 3 tube slides, installed in 2015 Carowinds Tower - 6 total slides, 3 trap door and 3 tube slides, installed in 2016

Ghostrider was a Top 10 woodie for the first 7-8 years of its existence, so if the rebuild is as good as the original ride, then I'd say it's world class. Ghostrider has always had a great layout, so there wasn't a need for extensive reprofiling. Nobody is expecting it to be as smooth as a RMC, but the rebuild should put it back among the top traditional woodies.

About time they paid attention to the water park, I think the last addition was the Proslide Tornado back in 2006. I'd love to see one of those trap door slide towers that CF has been adding to other parks. I wonder if the dry park will also be getting something in 2017? There's rumors of Boomerang closing down, but I can't imagine they'd take out a coaster without something to replace it.

Silver Bullet isn't going anywhere. It's one of the most popular rides at the park and it's a capacity monster. In all my years of going to Knott's, I've never heard one person complain about Silver Bullet's location or aesthetics. Personally, I love how it towers over the entrance.

FT and TC are not add-ons, a single reservation on each is included with the Gold & Platinum. The Platinum also includes single reservations on Superman and New Revolution. X2 is an add-on for the Gold & Platinum, and I believe each reservation is an additional $15 per person. You can add on the X2 reservations when you pick up your flash passes, you don't do it online. I would recommend buying the flash pass online though as then you are guaranteed that it won't sell out. There is also a separate line to pick up your flash pass if you bought it online.

X2 is an extra fee on both Gold and Platinum flash passes. My advice is to buy the flash pass online, go straight to X2 at opening, and then go grab your flash pass. There is a separate line for people that purchase the flash pass online and it's usually much shorter than the walk up line. You get a single ride on TC and FT on the Gold & Platinum flash passes now, but single rides on Superman & New Revolution are only available on the Platinum. One bonus of the Platinum pass is being able to ride twice without having to get back in line. If you do the Platinum, you should be able to ride everything with multiple re-rides. With the Gold, you should still be able to ride everything, but only a few re-rides. I think my personal best with the Platinum is around 46 total rides in one day.

Green Lantern is honestly the worst coaster I've ever ridden. It's even worse than that POS Flashback that SFMM had back in the 90s. It's just painful and really not any fun. I've ridden it 8-10 times trying to see if I could get a good ride and they were all terrible. The last time I rode, it was so bad that I said never again. The S&S Free Spins look like fun though and I'd be willing to give them a chance. There's a reason SF is installing those now and they never built another Zac Spin.

Thanks for sharing your trip report, I really need to get out to HW. I'm hoping to visit in the next year or two as part of a KI, KK, and HW trip. KI is rumored to be getting a new coaster next year, so I might finally go if that happens. I like that they have cabanas available at the waterpark, it would be nice to have a homebase and to get food delivered. Can you rent the cabanas ahead of time or just the day of your visit?

You should be fine going mid-week and I don't think you'll see any hour+ waits, especially if you go Tuesday-Thursday. If you stay at the Knott's hotel, you can get into the park 30 min early with the season pass holders. If you do the early entry, my advice would be to hit Sierra Sidewinder, then Silver Bullet, then get over to Ghostrider. If you don't do early entry, I would go straight to Ghostrider and then head to Xcelerator in the back of the park. Xcelerator typically has one of the longest lines in the park due to its popularity and low capacity, but it can be dead in the morning. Silver Bullet has great capacity and has just returned to two trains ops, so you can save that for later in the day. The log ride also has great capacity, so what looks like a long line is usually only 30-45 min. The park is open to 10pm that whole week and the families tend to leave around 7-8pm, so you should see the lines decrease in the late evening. I've been able to get 4-5 rides on Xcelerator in the summer between 9-10pm. They close the ride entrances down at 10pm, but as long as you are in line before 10pm, you will be able to get on the ride.

Six Flags typically has their new rides open Memorial Day weekend, so you should be fine coming in July.

I really hope they don't close Viper, I would much rather see it get new trains like Ninja at SFOG. Viper is still one of my favorite Arrow loopers and is one of the park's iconic rides. Now, I might change my tune if we got a giga in Viper's spot. But unless that happens, I'd like to see it get some TLC and new trains in the near future.

Looks like Cowabunga Bay is adding a water launch propulsion system to its racing slide to help people get over the uphill portion. I think this is a great idea as so many people get stuck on the uphill portion and have to either wiggle over the top or slide back down. This creates major delays as you have to wait for all the lanes to clear before another set of riders can go down. I personally don't have any trouble getting over the hump, but it's pretty much impossible if you weigh less than 100 pounds, so kids are always getting stuck. I can't wait to see this new water launch system in action! In other news, the big blue wave slide is still down and the employees weren't sure when it was going to open back up. It was in operation all last season, so I'm not sure what is going on with it. Maybe Shane can shed a little light on the issue?

Sidewinder at Hershey park is probably the best Boomerang coaster I've been on. It was pretty smooth and it had those new vest restraints, so there was no head-banging at all.

PS: I enjoy Pony Express. I can't justify it, it's not something I'd proudly admit in public very often but I liked it a lot. So suck on that. It's a family coaster and a pretty enjoyable and unique one. What's the problem? I actually really like PE too, but the problem is that it's just way too short. Plus, the park already has two other short launched coasters that are better. My kids love PE and we usually ride it 1-2 times per visit, but I'm always wishing it was longer. The concept is great and the launch is fun, it's just too bad that they couldn't make it a longer ride.

This really sums up my feelings as well. Don't get me wrong, Fahrenheit is a great coaster and I love the vertical lift, but it's not one I'm going to ride over and over. At a lesser park, it might be the highlight coaster, but Hershey has so many great coasters that I prefer.

Totally agree, as much as I like the Sky Rocket II coasters, the park doesn't need another low capacity launched coaster. Plus Xcelerator is right next to the site and it's a superior ride. I'd love to see a big B&M (hyper, dive, winged, take your pick), but I'd take an airtime filled Megalite, Chance GT-X, or Mack anyday.

Throughout their history, Knott's has always balanced thrills with family friendly attractions. Knott's had the first inverting steel coaster (Corkscrew) and one of the first Schwarzkopf shuttle loops (Montezooma). Both of those coasters were pretty revolutionary when they were built. Ghostrider is the longest, fastest woodie on the West Coast, Xcelerator was the first Intamin accelerator coaster, and Surpreme Scream was the tallest drop tower when it opened. So to say that a Hyper coaster or a dive machine doesn't fit at Knott's really isn't true. I think the current leadership has done a great job over the last few with rehabbing classics (TMLR, Mine Ride, GhostRider), adding family friendly attractions (Coast Rider, Iron Reef), and revamping Camp Snoopy. But it's time they added a new thrill coaster like a B&M Hyper or a dive machine. This is especially true if they get rid of Boomerang. I know a lot of enthusiasts hate on Boomerang, but the ride is still very popular and is a nice step up coaster as kids get older.