The Knott's Berry Farm (KBF) Discussion Thread

[cfc]

The only thing that interests me about Iron Reef is the storyline. I mean, I'm not trying to be overly negative, but Guardian didn't get exactly rave reviews, and Iron Reef is not even going to have what is considered one of the highlights of Guardian: the drop track. Hoping this ride will blow away all expectations, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen.

 

Another person taking a myopic view. Even if the ride is not for you it balances out the park and will be a crowd pleaser for many. People waiting for and riding Iron Reef will be the people that will not be waiting for the same roller coasters as you at the same time.

 

Yep--I'm just happy to see a new dark ride coming to Knott's.

[singforfood]

Boysenberry Food review, pt 1.

 

Boysenberry Beer / Cider - The cider is rather sweet and slightly tart, and the beer is light without a lot of boysenberry taste. Mixing them is the best bet I think, and they don't mind doing it. It's expensive, but so is all beer at theme parks. Served at the Calico Saloon

 

Chicken & Sausage Sandwich w/ Boysenberry BBQ Sauce - Pretty great actually. The sauce compliments the meat and peppers well, it's a slightly sweet BBQ sauce that actually don't have a ton of boysenberry presence. A bit expensive (8 or 9 bucks), but pretty well filling. Served at a stand next to the Calico Square RR crossing. BBQ sauce is being sold in the General Store.

 

Boysenberry Stuffed Churro - Amazing. It's a year round item, but it's definitely worth having. Since the park was fairly busy, they were constantly replenishing the supply, so it was totally fresh. Served at the Churro Factory in Calico Square, next to the Saloon.

 

Boysenberry Frappucino - Skip it. It's milk, boysenberry syrup, sweetener, and ice. It's more colorful than flavorful, like a lightly flavored (but still sweet) milkshake. I might try the latte.

 

Boysenberry Dessert Flautas - Pretty darn good. Crispy outside, gooey and sweet inside, and the powdered sugar compliments it perfectly. Served at Ghost Town Grub, which is across from the old display locomotive and next to the Spinner's Porch.

[Jew]

I expect the reaction to it will be similar to Midway Mania. It wont be mind blowingly epic, but it should be fun and add a bit of variety to the Farm's list of attractions

 

Midway Mania has the advantage of the Toy Story characters and the unique pullstring guns. I'm very curious to see how people will react to this without any IP attached to it and possibly sub-par animation.

[DoubleDown]

I rode Ghostrider last week and I have to say, for a veteran rider who knows what a bad woodie can feel like (Mean Streak, Psyclone), it wasn't too bad! I sat in the very last row, IMO the very best seat for Ghostrider, and the first half really brought me back. However, I was not a fan of the halt at the brake run over the station. It brought the train to a stall, which kinda killed the pacing through the remainder of the rides circuit. It just felt like it was chugging along way too slow.

 

I'll never forget riding back in the day, especially for the last ride of the night, and that train did not slow down at the brake run AT ALL. Even as much as I rode coasters, that drop at full speed scared the crap out of me every time. It was probably one of my favorite hills on any coaster ever. I would brace for it, because that drop and the next couple hundred feet of track literally kicked yer ass! The rest of ride ride was pure wood coaster insanity. Rough shuffling left and right, quick direction changes through lumber, great pops of air, and that violent rumble through the final helix.

 

No doubt these kinds of ride experiences I endured really beat the crap out of the track and the ride. It's just a shame the ride layout and proper maintenance couldn't continue these types of experiences for people these days.

 

I think if RMC redid the entire track without changing any of the layout or elements, it just wouldn't feel like the same wooden coaster.

[gisco]

^I don't think it would be possible to maintain the exact same layout with RMC track in place. The speed of the train would require reprofiling or more brakes.

[Gmaster562]

Its such a shame to see Ghost Rider left unkept or cared for. It's easily my favorite layout of any wooden coaster, but would be killer to see it running smoothly, and at the pace it was intended for.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

OK, Ghost Rider is rough, but its not left unkept. The park does tone of maintenance on the ride all year long, Its just they type of ride it is. That being said, I hope something substantial is done in the near future to bring the ride back to its original awesomeness.

[Jew]

CCI rides have definitely not held up well unless the parks that own them have invested heavily in rehabs...GhostRider is just so massive and forceful I imagine that upkeep is nearly impossible.

[chickenbowl]

CCI rides have definitely not held up well unless the parks that own them have invested heavily in rehabs...GhostRider is just so massive and forceful I imagine that upkeep is nearly impossible.

 

I agree, out of all of the great CCI coasters, Boulder Dash, the Tremors, and Raven, and Shivering Timbers are the only CCIs that might even be close the quality that they opened with! New Mexico Rattler and a few others may also be running well, but I don't hear much about those much.

[Jew]

^Didn't Boulderbash practically get rebuilt a few years ago in order to get back to its opening day form?

[bf9]

CCI rides have definitely not held up well unless the parks that own them have invested heavily in rehabs...GhostRider is just so massive and forceful I imagine that upkeep is nearly impossible.

 

Which is why RMC must come in and topper track the thing, and give it some new trains. The sooner the better.

[Woodie Warrior]

CCI rides have definitely not held up well unless the parks that own them have invested heavily in rehabs...GhostRider is just so massive and forceful I imagine that upkeep is nearly impossible.

The Boss at SFSTL is the same way. I know for a fact they put in lots of effort during the off season and replace giant sections of track, but its speed and forces just tear up the tracks within weeks anyways. Big wooden coasters are a lot harder to keep smooth.

[Comeagain?]

And that, my friends, is why Topper Track was created in the first place. Replacing high stress areas that require extensive maintenance.

[Kingspointwinds]

Hello. I came across some Knott's Berry Farm park brochures and am having a tough time identifying what years they are from. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[singforfood]

The rumor mill is saying that Iron Reef is behind schedule, but Knott's is holding TrioTech's butts to the fire for May 15th.

[dippindotsguy8]

^I really don't know how to take that. How can a warehouse full of nothing but screens get behind schedule? I'm hoping this means there's a bit more to the ride than that. We'll find out soon enough, I suppose.

[KBrylczyk]

^ A metric buttload of electrical systems? There's way more to a ride like this than just a few projectors and screens.

[Jew]

Given the nature of the ride, I'm not surprised. Getting what is essentially a video game to play nice with a ride system can't be easy.

[cfc]

^I remember all the initial problems BGW had with DarKastle, and that wasn't even a shooting dark ride with 3D video. These dark-ride/simulator hybrids are very complicated.

[Jew]

^Indeed.

 

The ride system has to always be talking to the show controller, which in turn is talking to a video server, projector, lighting controller, audio cues, physical FX controllers...and it has to do so repeatedly over and over.

[linearinduction]

The rumor mill is saying that Iron Reef is behind schedule, but Knott's is holding TrioTech's butts to the fire for May 15th.

It could be an issue on ART Engineering GmbH's Part. At least with Wonder Mountain's Guardian, they had BomBora to base the System on, but this time they don't have anything to base it on.

[VegasBaby]

I was at Knott's two weeks ago for Spring Break and it looked like there was a ton of work left to be done (from what we could see on the outside). All of the Knott's advertising has featured the 5/15/15 date and they also have a season passholder preview scheduled for 5/13/15. It's going to look really bad if they don't get the ride finished on time.

 

On another note, we were there for the Boysenberry Festival and it was a lot of fun. For $25, you could buy a tasting card that featured a bunch of the special food offerings. We bought two of the tasting cards so we could sample everything. Our favorites were the Boysenberry BBQ wings, fried alligator with boysenberry aioli, and the boysenberry dessert flautas. We also tried the legendary Fun Bun (deep fried cinnamon roll with boysenberry cream cheese frosting), it was pretty good but I was glad we just got one for four of us to share. The park was fairly busy, but most of the ride lines moved pretty well with the exception of Xcelerator. It was only running 1 train and the ride ops consistently left open seats because they never asked for riders to fill in the open seats. It was a consistent 45-60 min wait until later at night. On the other hand, the Silver Bullet ride ops were fantastic, even in the middle of the day it was never more than a 15 min wait and they tried to fill empty seats whenever they could. Montezooma also had good ops and was running great for a ride that's almost 40 years old. My 8 yr old son loves that ride and we were able to get 8-10 rides every morning before there was any line.

 

Tasting Card, worth the money!

[coasternut]

I was at Knotts yesterday and found this out the hard way. Xcelerator is closed from April 14 - 24 for maintenance. It's my favorite ride there, so I was disappointed. This is posted on their website, but I didn't look. I hope they paint the track while it's down...

[singforfood]

I was at Knotts yesterday and found this out the hard way. Xcelerator is closed from April 14 - 24 for maintenance. It's my favorite ride there, so I was disappointed. This is posted on their website, but I didn't look. I hope they paint the track while it's down...

 

Oh wow, I didn't realize it was for so long. I thought it was gonna be a quick couple days. I felt bad at work on Wednesday when I had to tell the cool tourists from Australia that it was down.

[DJeXeL]

I was at Knotts yesterday and found this out the hard way. Xcelerator is closed from April 14 - 24 for maintenance. It's my favorite ride there, so I was disappointed. This is posted on their website, but I didn't look. I hope they paint the track while it's down...

 

Weird. XC normally gets its rehab in February. Also, Don't count on the track getting painted.