The Knott's Berry Farm (KBF) Discussion Thread

[Superbatboy]

Bring back Hammerhead!

 

*This was the first ride (including coasters) I rode that went upside down. I rode this in like 2000 I think

My favorite flat of all time, what I wouldnt give to have the restraints crush my thighs once more

[Shut It Down]

Bring back Hammerhead!

 

*This was the first ride (including coasters) I rode that went upside down. I rode this in like 2000 I think

My favorite flat of all time, what I wouldnt give to have the restraints crush my thighs once more

 

Hammerhead had great theming as well. Miss that ride

[Wingwright]

I will always defend Hammerhead as a great flat ride. Not sure if it's just nostalgia but I don't care. I loved it and really miss it.

[CaptainUnknown]

I miss the rotoshake that was at the Mall of America and the removal of the axe end was the worst thing that Nickelodeon did to the park. I wonder how many park models are left?

[paulm12]

Sorry to interrupt the ongoing discussion but does anyone know what's up with Xcelerator? It is still listed as closed. We are heading down in late August and would have loved to enjoy that ride. Any kind of updates are appreciated...

 

I am wondering the same thing. I want to go early next week and am hoping it will be open then. I'm guessing they are waiting on a part of something; the ride has had notorious downtime throughout its history. It wouldn't be very smart for them to close it down purposely during one of the busiest times in the season. LA school district starts up again on August 25th-ish iirc, so if they were doing anything planned I would assume they would have waited until at least then. I'm doubting they have it closed to being construction equipment in or anything; they haven't even announced what they are putting in.

[Superbatboy]

I will always defend Hammerhead as a great flat ride. Not sure if it's just nostalgia but I don't care. I loved it and really miss it.

It was such an integral part of my childhood

[CedarFlags]

Speaking of flat rides: La Revolucion was open again today.

 

And speaking of Fiesta: Can we talk about the horrific capacity of Sol Spin? I timed it twice, and it took 6 minutes to do a full cycle (launch, unload, reload, launch again). That works out to 10 cycles per hour, at 36 riders each... 360 riders per hour with every seat full. Why does Knott's keep building rides that can't handle any kind of reasonable volume? It's seriously driving me crazy.

[redmenace8]

No surprise at a surfing theme for the Boardwalk. I get that Hangtime sounds like it fits, and probably will end up the name. But, that other trademarked name, The Ledge would work as well. "Breaking the ledge" is an actual surfing term, a reference to part of a wave. It's probably a bit esoteric for the general public, but, we shall see.

[firebird81]

And Ledge sounds like a word play on Wedge.....OC's infamous surf spot that gets 20 foot shore break waves that jump up at you and send you flying.

[edgeboy]

And speaking of Fiesta: Can we talk about the horrific capacity of Sol Spin? I timed it twice, and it took 6 minutes to do a full cycle (launch, unload, reload, launch again). That works out to 10 cycles per hour, at 36 riders each... 360 riders per hour with every seat full. Why does Knott's keep building rides that can't handle any kind of reasonable volume? It's seriously driving me crazy.

 

When that ride first opened, everyone was complaining how short the ride cycle is. Now that it increased, people are starting to complain how long it is? There really is no satisfying people.

 

Personally, I don't mind the longer cycle. I'm willing to wait longer for a longer ride. When I was there recently, the line wasn't even 25% full. And the usual space roller only usually seats 30, so they did something to improve it.

 

I just returned from a trip to Canada's Wonderland, and if you ask me, the operational ride nightmare is their new Soaring Timbers. Those seats are so close together, and the restraints come so far down, most people can't put on or undo their own seat belt. Which means that for every load, employees have to manually do all 38 seat belts--and also at the unload, which takes forever. Talk about horrific capacity. And to me, the ride experience wasn't worth all that. I can't possibly imagine Cedar Fair investing in any more of those.

[Rill'o'beily]

And speaking of Fiesta: Can we talk about the horrific capacity of Sol Spin? I timed it twice, and it took 6 minutes to do a full cycle (launch, unload, reload, launch again). That works out to 10 cycles per hour, at 36 riders each... 360 riders per hour with every seat full. Why does Knott's keep building rides that can't handle any kind of reasonable volume? It's seriously driving me crazy.

 

When that ride first opened, everyone was complaining how short the ride cycle is. Now that it increased, people are starting to complain how long it is? There really is no satisfying people.

 

Im sure it's not just that the ridecycle itself is long, the issue clearly is that there's absolutely no way a flat this easily manageable should take 6 minutes to do a full cycle including unloading and loading.

 

What are the ops doing for like 3 minutes during loading?

[k_peek_2000]

What are the ops doing for like 3 minutes during loading?

 

Restraint checks. I've watched them through half a dozen cycles in one day and most of the time was spent doing that. On a slower day they'd have 1 employee (maybe 2) operating the entire ride.

[SoCalJasonland]

Speaking of flat rides: La Revolucion was open again today.

 

And speaking of Fiesta: Can we talk about the horrific capacity of Sol Spin? I timed it twice, and it took 6 minutes to do a full cycle (launch, unload, reload, launch again). That works out to 10 cycles per hour, at 36 riders each... 360 riders per hour with every seat full. Why does Knott's keep building rides that can't handle any kind of reasonable volume? It's seriously driving me crazy.

 

That is not a bad capacity for a flat ride but 360 riders per hour for one of their most popular coasters is kind of rough. With two train operation, Ghost Rider appears to average with no loading issues approx.. 4 minutes and 10 seconds per dispatch. That is 250 seconds per dispatch average time (4 x 60 + 10). 3600 seconds per hour divided by 250 seconds per dispatch equals 14.4 dispatches per hour with 24 person maximum per train capacity equals 345.6 capacity per hour.

 

Compared with Silver Bullet that appears to average 120 seconds per dispatch with two trains operations equals 3600 / 120 = 30 dispatches per hour with 32 per train capacity equals 960 capacity per hour.

[Rill'o'beily]

What are the ops doing for like 3 minutes during loading?

 

Restraint checks. I've watched them through half a dozen cycles in one day and most of the time was spent doing that. On a slower day they'd have 1 employee (maybe 2) operating the entire ride.

 

3 minutes of restraint checks? Must be very unenthusiastic workers but 1 employee would explain a lot

[thrillseeker4552]

If the line for Sol Spin was consistently spilling out of the entrance and the employees had no motivation at all, I could see the argument made for poor capacity. But even on busy days, I've never waited more than 2-3 cycles for that ride. My goodness, people will literally complain about anything and everything. First the ride cycle is way too short and weak. Now the cycle is a little longer and more intense, and capacity sucks.

 

The ride is still brand new and is very sensitive, so I'm glad to just see it operate smoothly. The park is taking it slowly with this ride in terms of operation, and if that keeps it operating reliably, I'm in.

 

If we're gonna talk about poor capacity and slow moving lines in the park, let's discuss GhostRider and Xcelerator, especially the former. After riding Mystic Timbers this week and seeing how fast they pump out those trains, it puts GhostRider to shame. That ride could probably have twice the capacity if operations were faster and people didn't take so much time to put their stuff in the bins.

[chickenbowl]

Could one of these be for Knott's?

 

 

Source from the bottom of this page

 

This list is also from Oct-16, so it's already out-dated (missing Energylandia's Mega for example), but here's some cross-checked with rcdb:

 

3 Family launched coasters: SWSA, Le Pal (Yukon), and Ankapark

 

Reverse Free Fall: Turbo Track at Ferrari World

 

Surf Rider: Shanghai Disney (Toy Story)

 

Moscow's was changed to 10-inversion

 

10-inversion - Ankapark or Movie Animation

 

Double Impulse - Wanda

 

LSM - Chengdu Wanda

 

Unknowns:

 

2 other LSM, Vertical LSM, and dueling LSM - ????

 

Suspended Family - ?

 

Zacspin/Multi Dimension - ??

Edited August 5, 2017 by chickenbowl

[Manic Monte]

^ Hey, there is a Surf Rider there. mystery solved! All the other good stuff is already taken.

 

Knotts is getting an Intamin Surf Rider and new super store!

Edited August 5, 2017 by Manic Monte

[CedarFlags]

If the line for Sol Spin was consistently spilling out of the entrance and the employees had no motivation at all, I could see the argument made for poor capacity. But even on busy days, I've never waited more than 2-3 cycles for that ride. My goodness, people will literally complain about anything and everything. First the ride cycle is way too short and weak. Now the cycle is a little longer and more intense, and capacity sucks.

 

The ride is still brand new and is very sensitive, so I'm glad to just see it operate smoothly. The park is taking it slowly with this ride in terms of operation, and if that keeps it operating reliably, I'm in.

 

If we're gonna talk about poor capacity and slow moving lines in the park, let's discuss GhostRider and Xcelerator, especially the former. After riding Mystic Timbers this week and seeing how fast they pump out those trains, it puts GhostRider to shame. That ride could probably have twice the capacity if operations were faster and people didn't take so much time to put their stuff in the bins.

 

I'm very much in favor of the extended cycle time, but they added like 2 extra rotations, which is maximum 20 seconds. The actual ride time is about 2:20, which means that there was 3:40 of load/unload, which is insane.

 

GhostRider's capacity is also a nightmare. They need to add that block brake above the station back in and get a third train. Part of the slowness is that the ride ops are waiting to dispatch from the station until the other train finishes the course.

 

Xcelerator is what it is... that's why Intamin stopped designing them to launch out of the station. Not much can realistically be done about it except for mandatory l0ckerz, which is very un-Knott's.

[WeLoveSFMM]

Speaking about GhostRider, and of course this info.can change without notice,

but the Scheduled Ride Closure for it on the park's site, is...

 

GhostRider

9/5 - 9/21

 

Which happens to fall during what could be this year's West Coast Bash schedule, Sept.9-10.

(The weekend after Labor Day weekend, yes? No?)

 

Just noting this, for those thinking of going to WCB this year.

 

P.S. Last year, they closed GR up for maintenance, the day after WCB Day at Knott's. And I missed

my chance at getting a cool GR cap, only sold at the little GR souvenirs stand by it's exit. Also closed.

 

Have you seen any mention of a WCB for 2017?

[Canobie Coaster]

GhostRider's capacity is also a nightmare. They need to add that block brake above the station back in and get a third train. Part of the slowness is that the ride ops are waiting to dispatch from the station until the other train finishes the course.

 

Xcelerator is what it is... that's why Intamin stopped designing them to launch out of the station. Not much can realistically be done about it except for mandatory l0ckerz, which is very un-Knott's.

 

This. On my visit last year I had basically less than 20 minute waits on everything except GhostRider which was 1.5-2 hours. I don't even think the block brakes need to slow the train but just being there to allow the 3rd train would be a major help. That layout is too long for just 2 trains.

[kenban]

Zacspin/Multi Dimension - ??

 

Totally different types of coasters. Multi Dimension means the coaster has a drop track. Intamin refers to Darkmare and Th13teen as Multidimensional coasters.

[firebird81]

No block brake! Ghostrider is slow because of all the people who they routinely add in every single ride from the exit side. Every train has to unload, then wait for everyone to clear out before they allow the people on the exit side to choose their seats. Then and ONLY then do the people waiting in line actually get to board the train. I'm not sure what the story is with all the exit side riders, but they aren't the fastpass people, those guys come thru the same side as everyone else. I think most of them are people who went to the bathroom instead of waiting in line. Ghostrider never had this problem before the block brakes were installed in the past. But these days there are times where you will think the ride has broken down because its so long before a train leaves the station.

[thrillseeker4552]

No block brake! Ghostrider is slow because of all the people who they routinely add in every single ride from the exit side. Every train has to unload, then wait for everyone to clear out before they allow the people on the exit side to choose their seats. Then and ONLY then do the people waiting in line actually get to board the train. I'm not sure what the story is with all the exit side riders, but they aren't the fastpass people, those guys come thru the same side as everyone else. I think most of them are people who went to the bathroom instead of waiting in line. Ghostrider never had this problem before the block brakes were installed in the past. But these days there are times where you will think the ride has broken down because its so long before a train leaves the station.

 

THIS!

 

I have never seen more "disability" passes on any other ride. I don't know why GhostRider always has so many, but it's so incredibly annoying. I understand the use of a disability pass, and when one person who is truly disabled brings along a friend or something and they really can't stand in line, of course I understand, and that is perfectly acceptable and they have every right to do so. I hate it when one barely-disabled person brings 15 other people with them and fill up half the train almost every cycle. I swear, I don't know what it is about GhostRider, but it BY FAR has the most "exit" people.

 

I don't think the lack of a block brake is the issue. The ride's capacity would be fine (not great, but fine) if there were fewer people at the exit, people were faster at putting stuff in the bins, employees had more motivation, and if there was a single rider line.

 

There is so much more that goes into a ride's capacity and throughput than how many trains they run.

[ABW]

Not to preach to the choir, but I also agree that a block brake would do nothing to the extent that we want changed here, which is significantly improved dispatch times. Speaking from my own experience, Ghostrider already stacks with two trains, and logically, adding another train would just not help that. So please, let's not give anyone any ideas. Ghostrider's problems are clearly a policy issue, not a ride issue.

 

Speaking about GhostRider, and of course this info.can change without notice,

but the Scheduled Ride Closure for it on the park's site, is...

 

GhostRider

9/5 - 9/21

 

Which happens to fall during what could be this year's West Coast Bash schedule, Sept.9-10.

(The weekend after Labor Day weekend, yes? No?)

 

Just noting this, for those thinking of going to WCB this year.

 

P.S. Last year, they closed GR up for maintenance, the day after WCB Day at Knott's. And I missed

my chance at getting a cool GR cap, only sold at the little GR souvenirs stand by it's exit. Also closed.

 

Have you seen any mention of a WCB for 2017?

 

EDIT: Not this year

Edited August 7, 2017 by ABW

[Manic Monte]

How about a Nor-Cal Bash next spring instead?