Photo TR: Knott's Berry Farm

[KBrylczyk]

I love this tiny park! I had heard such great things about this place and have always wanted to go. I knew I would have a good time, but I didn't know I would have this much fun. I also didn't know that it would be so small. Of course, I knew it wasn't huge by any means, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be this tiny, haha. This just goes to show you, though, that size doesn't matter (ladies?). They pack so many things into the footprint of this park that I'm still trying to figure out what parallel dimension some of the rides exist in.

 

We got to this park a good half hour before opening and were lucky to get into the parking lot adjacent to Ghost Rider, rather than having to walk through the underpass from Soak City. The walk to the front gate afforded us a chance to see all of the Knott's shops along the road that I had no idea about. It really set the mood for the day; a quaint, family-oriented park that doesn't strive to be anything more than it is.

 

Thanks again to Club TPR, we had our discounted tickets printed and ready to go, so we jumped in line and were among the first to step foot into the park. I made the executive decision to head to Silver Bullet first, namely because it is right by the entrance, haha.

 

Silver Bullet -

 

This is one sleek, sexy inverted coaster. Some may say that it is over-engineered, but I loved the floaty-ness of the ride. The first drop is a very shallow angle and gives a nice flying feel. The vertical loop is, well, a vertical loop, but it is followed by one of the coolest elements I have ever experienced.

 

This inverted turn into the cobra roll really took me by surprise. I imagine it is very much like the crazy turn going into the helix on Holland's Goliath. I was flipped to the side, weightless, and upside-down all at once. Great visuals, too.

 

The cobra roll was nice, and it was followed by a true zero-g roll. So many B&Ms I have ridden with a "zero-g" roll where, I feel, they are poorly designed. They seem to rise, plateau, flip, then drop. This one, however, had a perfect spiral motion that never interrupted the curve of the hill and it just worked. The corkscrews were fun, and the final helix managed to pull some good Gs.

 

Overall, I wouldn't call this a thrill ride, but a very fun ride. All along the course it had great visuals and the elements just flowed into each other with no problems. This ride is just great. Everything just falls into place perfectly. Also, I have felt more like I was flying on this coaster than on any flying coaster I have ever been on, including Tatsu.

 

After this, we spotted a spinning coaster. I've only been on one before (Pandemonium at SFNE) and I know how much fun they can be, so we jumped in line.

 

Sierra Sidewinder -

 

Fun. Simple as that. There wasn't a whole lot of spinning, but it was there in small doses. I find that, on these rides, you can't help but laugh like an idiot the entire time. The experience is just goofy.

 

About now it was time to get serious, so off to Xcelerator we went! Wait, what's that? This part of the park doesn't open until 11am? Well, OK. It's 10:50, we'll wait here with you. I can't remember the name of the attendant, but the guy holding the chain between Camp Snoopy and Montezooma's Revenge was a good dude. He was joking with us and giving us tips, and once a few other groups showed up to wait he made sure everyone was laughing. Unfortunately I overheard him telling one of the "regulars" (he introduced us to a guy as "one of the regulars," haha) that he put in his two-week notice and was moving to North Carolina, so its a shame he won't be around anymore to be awesome at KBF. If you're reading this, though, you rock!

 

Once the chain dropped, we made our way towards Xcelerator only to be met with a delayed opening sign. Oh, well, I guess we can go do Supreme Scream while we wait!

 

Supreme Scream -

 

Yep, just another S&S drop tower. I still had a good time on it. This one was freakin' tall, too! We got lucky and had the seats facing the rest of the park. With the park below us and the gorgeous SoCal landscape all around us, this is probably the prettiest drop tower I've ever been on.

 

Once that was done we saw an Xcelerator train run the course and decided to hang around the games waiting for it to open. After a few more dry runs, I saw operators sitting in the first and last rows and told my travelmate to get up cause we're going to the gate. We were no more than 5 steps from the entrance when the attendant got the call to open up.

 

Xcelerator -

 

First ones on the ride? Yup. First ones in the front row? YUP!

 

Let me preface this by saying that I have been on Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka, so I've had experience with this launch system. Now let me say that Xcelerator is better than both of those launches. I'm not sure if its because it launches straight out of the station or if the launch is actually faster, but it sure felt a lot more intense than the bigger brothers.

 

So here we go...we get in the train, buckle up, pull down those gorgeous, gorgeous Intamin lap bars that aren't ridiculously oversized (SFNE, I'm looking at you...), and we're all set to go. I'm watching the strip lights count down, I see the brake strips lower, lights are about to turn green so here we g-

 

Wait a minute, the light is green but we're still here. What the heEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

FRIGGIN' WOW! Sure, I know it's not as tall or as fast as Kingda Ka or TTD, but it sure is more fun! The launch scared the piss out of me, there was no deceleration towards the end of the launch track, the main hill was floaty-air good times, and the turns were big and fast. Excellent ride.

 

After that jolt of adrenaline, it was time to take a gander at some of the smaller rides. First, though, we needed a refreshment break, which, for me, ended up being a cup of Boysenberry Punch. I'd never had it before and it was very good. Kind of like a fruit punch, but not as sweet, and better, haha.

 

Anyway, I'm only three sips into my punch and we're heading onto the Timber Mountain Log Ride. The attendant to me I can bring the drink with me. WHA?! COOL!

 

Timber Mountain Log Ride -

 

This was a surprisingly long flume for the size of the mountain! Where do they fit all of the trough? There was a lot of charming animatronics, the flume moved pretty darn fast at times, the indoor drop caught us by surprise, and the picture on the final drop was hilarious thanks to me holding my drink in front of me like a boss, wearing sunglasses, and grinning like Joe Cool. The best part? You don't get very wet. Just enough water for a refresher, which was just what was needed since it was only around 75 degrees.

 

Looks like it's time for another classic ride!

 

Calico Mine Ride -

This was very old school and cute. A nice and long meandering ride through the Calico Mine. By the way, just like Timber Mountain, where did they put 90% of this ride? I tried to find it walking around outside, but there's no way that building was big enough.

 

From here we made our way around to the Screamin' Swing and just missed the early bird (2 for 1) special by two minutes. We decided to skip it and headed to the bumper cars.

 

Wheeler Dealer Bumper Caps -

 

After you've ridden the Knoebel's bumper cars, everything else pales in comparison. These were fun enough with a large arena and the ride op let everyone stay on for multiple cycles due to the lack of a line. We did four cycles in a row and always had a good time. It was time to move on, though, to Pony Express.

 

Pony Express -

 

This is my first time experiencing these trains, and I'm still not sure how I feel about them. The concept is pretty cool, but I'm thinking the design needs to be tinkered with a little more before it can truly take off.

 

Short and sweet would be the best way to describe Pony Express. The launch, while only 38mph, surprised me with its force. Of course it was nothing compared to Xcelerator, but watching it in line it seemed to be extremely mild. Sitting on the train, though, it gives you a good pull right off the bat. After the launch its simply a turn, hill, turn in a tunnel, hill, brakes. Very short, but still a fun way to waste 30 seconds. If they can fine-tune the train design and someone invest in a full size version, this could be a very good ride concept.

 

We ended up grabbing lunch at the Ghost Town Grill. My uncle had told us before the trip that the food at Knott's was incredible and he did not lie. I got the vegetarian sandwich with mashed potatoes on the side. This thing was like five salads on a gigantic loaf of bread, with a small corner of Idaho on the side. Did I mention it was delicious? We split an order of chili-cheese fries and those did not disappoint, either. I saved half of the sandwich for dinner back at the hotel.

 

Speaking of which, we took this opportunity to walk back to the car to drop off the doggy bags, and for my travelmate's stomach to settle. They don't do well with coasters right after eating, haha.

 

Once back in the park, it was time to tackle Ghost Rider.

 

Ghost Rider -

 

I have heard so many great things about this ride, but in the recent history I have been hearing things saying that it is but a shadow of it's former self, too rough, overbrakes, etc. I am happy to say that the recent reviews were wrong. This ride packs a punch and definitely ranks among my favorite woodies.

 

From the first drop to the mid-course brakes, this ride never lets up. It is fast, rough (in a good way), and unpredictable. Sure, the dead stop on the mid course is a bit of a bummer, but it picks right back up with "the drop" out of the brakes. My main complaint about this ride is that the finale helix just seems like a waste of track. There aren't any forces, the train just goes around in a circle with nothing special happening.

 

Anyways, in the front seat, this ride is a lot of fun with some good pops of airtime. In the back? Holy hell! The airtime was insane, the train attempted numberous times to shake me out of it, and I was loving every second of it! Yes, this ride is rough. Very rough at times, but its a good rough. Its the kind of rough that lets you know who is in charge rather than the kind of rough that leaves you with scoliosis. Excellent wooden coaster.

 

As a side note, "the drop" will still eject you from the seat so long as you're in the back of the train.

 

At this point it was around 2:15pm. We had done the majority of the rides in the park, some twice, Ghost Rider five times, and we still had about four hours until the park closed. Soooooo, we took the opportunity to do another loop around the park. We took the same path, essentially, but instead of going by Timber Mountain and Calico Mine, we went by Perilous Plunge (closed due to painting).

 

We took this time to hit Montezooma and Jaguar, as well.

 

Montezooma's Revenge -

 

I love shuttle loops. I know they're short, but dammit, they're great! The g's pulled in the loop are strong and the spikes still scare the crap out of me because no matter how many times I ride, I still feel like we're going to fly off the end. Always ride in the back!

 

Jaguar -

 

This ride surprised me! I know its a kiddy coaster, but it was reallllllly long and interacted with the park very well. Whole bunch of fun!

 

We also got a chance to ride Xcelerator in the back row. While it was still amazing and the airtime over the hill was terrifying, I do prefer the front row for these launches and views.

 

We ended up hitting all of the major rides again (Silver Bullet, Pony Express, etc) and closed out the day with a 7-ride Ghost Rider marathon.

 

I really enjoyed this park and cannot wait to come back. I'm thinking of heading back later this year for Knott's Scary Farm, but I'm torn between this and HHN at Universal Orlando. On with the pictures!!!

Yay!

The roll of cobra.

"Art" shot.

Through the trees!

Floaty inverted turn goodness!

4 coasters, 0 trains. I have the worst timing.

I'm sure a million other people have this exact photo.

Same goes for this photo...but do they have the train centered up top?

Did I mention the disassembled Silver Bullet train?

Supreme Scream is the new Leaning Tower.

Through the tre-SUPPORTS!

Wheeeeeee!

Awwww, darn. Closed.

Mmmmm, Ghost Rider...

I miss it already.

[MrSum1_55]

A Silver Bullet train was taken apart? Did this mean Knott's was running one train on SB, since I can see another one in the transfer shed?

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

I think I can explain why Xcelerator's launch seems more intense. TTD and Kingda Ka accelerate to 120/128 in about four seconds, whereas Xcelerator reaches 82 in just over 2 seconds. Simple math gives us an acceleration of ~30 mph/s vs ~41 mph/s. Xcelerator reaches its top speed at a faster rate than the stratacoasters.

[WFChris]

Looks like a great day at the park! At least with Perilous Plunge, you have something to look forward to next time.

[KBrylczyk]

A Silver Bullet train was taken apart? Did this mean Knott's was running one train on SB, since I can see another one in the transfer shed?

 

Yes, and extremely efficiently. I never saw the line go further than half of the staircase.