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The Knott's Berry Farm (KBF) Discussion Thread

P. 651: Montezooma's Revenge project terminated?

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Knott's held a hard hat tour to show off the new Boardwalk expansion and the updated Timber Mountain Log Ride, and TPR was there with David and Spears! Check out our full report below...

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Knott's is going all out this year with a massive Boardwalk expansion as well as a full renovation of the Timber Mountain Log Ride. They invited TPR to attend a presentation and hard hat tour of both projects, so read on to get the scoop on both of these new additions!

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In typical Knott's fashion, they pulled out all the stops. We were greeted with an awesome breakfast before the tours.

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Knott's never disappoints!

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Jennifer Blazey welcomed everyone and then introduced Raffi Kaprelyan, the General Manager of Knott's.

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Raffi was the first of four presenters who gave us a ton of information on the new additions. I have deemed them the Fantastic Four!

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First up, info on the Boardwalk expansion. Knott's is adding 3 new rides to the Boardwalk this year! They're adding a family roller coaster and two flat rides in the space once occupied by Perilous Plunge.

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The family roller coaster is a Mack Wild Mouse coaster named "Coast Rider." They showed us the logo, images of the ride vehicles, and a drawing of the entrance marquee.

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The coaster is 52 feet high with 1,339 feet of track. The ride lasts 2.5 minutes. This is a sample of what it will look like once it's finished and running!

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The second ride Knott's is adding is a Larson Flying Scooters ride named "Surfside Gliders." It's 28 feet high and will make 10 revolutions per minute.

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The third and final ride Knott's is adding to the Boardwalk is "Pacific Scrambler." This Eli Bridge Scrambler has run in various locations at Knott's in the past, but has been in storage since Pony Express was built. They're bringing it back out and sprucing it up to round out the new Boardwalk additions.

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They're going to be installing Windseeker-esque lights onto the flat rides, which should add a nice glow to the area, and will look great in photographs. They said they want the area to look great in both the daytime and the nighttime.

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Moving on from the Boardwalk Expansion, here are details on the Timber Mountain Log Ride renovation.

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This is Bud Hurlbut's original Log Ride sketch from 1969. Knott's is in the process of a multi-million dollar upgrade to the attraction. They're working to bring it into the 21st century while maintaining the aspects of the ride that have made it a classic. I'm a huge fan of this ride, and I'm happy to report that it appears the changes Knott's is making to it will not disappoint!

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Here is a drawing of a scene from the updated attraction. The new scenes will involve animation, warmth, humor, and new characters while maintaining the ride's original charm.

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Knott's is working with Garner Holt on the project, one of the most reputable names in the business. They're building all new human and animal figures, nearly all of which will have subtle motion to bring life to each scene. The animals will now be made of man-made materials, with synthetic eyes, teeth, and fur.

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Existing face sculptures will be replaced with silicone masks, but the same art style will be preserved. Many of the masks are molded from the existing figures.

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A sampling of the many molds Garner Hold is making.

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A photo of an employee working on the animals. It's surprising how life-like they're able to make the artificial creatures look.

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An employee working on making hands for the characters in the ride.

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The new props and scenery pieces are being detailed by the guy who painted the props and scenery for the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland.

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Knott's set up a display of objects from the ride to show off the quality and attention to detail going into each piece.

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The new figures are amazingly life-like!

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It's hard to believe that wasn't a real owl!

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I'm glad he's not real - far less stinky!

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I wanted to walk up and pet the dog, it was that realistic!

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Oh no, I've been axed!

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Even worse, he's going after Spears!

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There were a few boards set up with more images from the attraction.

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A closer look...

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I'm excited to see all this stuff in real life.

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Another drawing of a scene from the ride.

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"En route to a sensational inspirational celebrational HOOTENANNY"

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But enough talk, lets see some of this stuff in person! Everyone was given a hard hat to protect our fragile heads.

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Whoa! Look who was hiding in Spears' hard hat! It's Gertrude!!!

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Gertrude is totally excited for the new rides.

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We walked down the train tracks to get to the construction site.

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Here we are!

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The platform in front is for Pacific Scrambler, the second platform back is for Surfside Gliders, and in the back is Coast Rider.

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Spears is demonstrating how Pacific Scrambler will work.

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Gertrude wanted to experience what Surfside Gliders might feel like, so she hopped in a wheelbarrow and instructed a construction worker to push her around.

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I think he's testing a new nighttime water spectacular!

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The world is a Carousel of Color!

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Coast Rider's track is now complete, so testing should begin soon! Or in Gertrude's case, testing begins now.

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This is the operator's booth for Pacific Scrambler.

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Look what Gertrude started!

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Random bit of info: the old light blue paint showed every speck of dirt, so they'll be painting the pool a darker color. It's nice to see them considering all these little details.

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Random bit of info #2: Coast rider's height limit will be 44" with an adult, or 54" without an adult.

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Look who showed up! Snoopy in a construction hat!

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He totally struck a manly pose!

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Snoopy is quite the ladies' man.

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Thanks to Mike, Snoopy, and Jeff for showing us everything, answering all our questions, and posing for photos!

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Bye, bye Snoopy! Nice seeing you!

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As we leave, here's one last look at the Pacific Scrambler platform.

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And here's one last look at the Surfside Gliders platform.

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It's still very much a construction site, but not for much longer! The new Boardwalk rides are currently on schedule to open Memorial Day Weekend.

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A couple shots of Coast Rider on our way to the Timber Mountain Log Ride.

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Track is complete, but they're still doing lots of work on and around the ride.

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Here's Spears under the first drop.

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The lift hill is on the left in this photo and the drop is on the right.

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And here's the ride behind the construction walls.

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The Sky Cabin looked pretty this morning with the sun shining around it.

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One more Sky Cabin photo.

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Over to the Timber Mountain Log Ride, there is still lots of construction going on.

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Gertrude was disappointed to see that there weren't any logs.

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Spears is getting ready to go into the mountain!

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Here's a photo of the log ride layout.

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Scene #6 is where we're headed.

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The ride is still under construction so there wasn't much to see in the way of characters or theming. It's scheduled to open May 30th, so things will likely start getting put back together pretty quickly.

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There were lots of ladders, wires, and exposed materials.

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A few bits of information we found out: The lighting and audio for the ride are both being completely re-done...

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The logs will be the same as before, and are currently in the process of being refurbished...

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There aren't plans to theme the ride for Haunt or Christmas anymore...

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The support poles in the room are normally themed as trees, which is why you've probably never noticed them before!

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Oh no! Gertrude put the "logs" back in the log ride.

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Ew! Maybe Gertrude needs to wear a diaper from now on.

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Well there you have it! Hopefully you enjoyed this behind the scenes look at the awesome projects currently under construction at Knott's. The Boardwalk Expansion will create more of a family atmosphere and a finished look in the back of the park, and the Timber Mountain Log Ride renovation seems like it will strike the perfect balance between new and old - bringing the ride into the 21st century while maintaining its classic story and charm.

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Thanks Knott's for inviting us to attend this event! We had a great time, and can't wait to ride these new additions this summer!

Edited by ILoveRides
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I'm glad that they're doing great things with the log ride (still my favorite log ride, anywhere). The Boardwalk is going to look a lot better when they're finished.

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Sounds like Knotts has found a good blend of updating and keeping the original charm of the log ride. And the boardwalk looks like it is coming along nicely and will add a bit more charm to that part of the park. Thanks for the greatcoverage David and Spears.

Edited by SuperShawn
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AWESOME update! The picture of the construction worker riding in the wheel barrow caught me off guard! I for sure chuckled at that.

 

I can't wait for the Log Ride to be done! The renovations look like it'll make the awesome ride even more awesome. Also, when the new Boardwalk was announced, I was definitely far from excited for the Perilous Plunge replacement. But after looking at the construction and the new area, it looks so fantastic. Possibly, even better than before! I can't wait to visit the park over the summer!

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The log ride is looking amazing. With the renovation and the addition of Coast Rider and the two flats, Knott's is turning into a very well-rounded park.

 

What really intrigued me about the concept art was how the logs in the images had different seating patterns. I know it's just concept art, but I wonder if they really are going to make the log's seating patterns similar to MK's Splash Mountain? I mean, is the flume even large enough to accommodate such boats?

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I posted this at the windseeker status thread and I'll post it here.

 

I talked with a ride operator who's ride was not running and he had some time to kill. We got into a long conversation. I got some great information about windseeker from him. First off this is a ride operator...not a mechanic. But he does have mechanic friends and seems to know tons of information. So take this at face value and know it Is not a 100% reliable source.

 

The new evacuation system was parked under windseeker at Knott's yesterday. DOSH did inspect it I believe Wednesday. They signed off on it...More about that in a moment. But they didn't like the ladder inside the windseeker and told them to fix it. It has no railing for a harness or any safety around it. This is the one inside the ride, not outside. I'm not sure why they didn't bring this up the first time but they brought it up now.

 

Now the news on the new evacuation system at Knott's. The DOSH told them this is not plan a or b or even c to evacuate. It's like plan f. They want them to only use this one at Knott's if all others plans will not work. Seems it's in two pieces and It's behind a wall where Montezuma is. The only way to get it to windseeker is with a crane. Once the crane is at Montezuma it will take about an hour and a half to get it moved and install. Now for the bad part. The only way to get the crane to Montezuma and to windseeker is to CLOSE THE MIDWAY! So they are looking at many hours to do this.

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Log Jammer is exceeding my expectations. Great too see some quality theme work being done on the ride. Calico could also use that bit of extra TLC to it for next year. The "boardwalk" however, is coming in pretty low on the execution scale so far. I am hoping there is some infrastructure that actually invokes the theme of a boardwalk on it's way.

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Log Jammer is exceeding my expectations.

Log Jammer is the flume ripped out of Magic Mountain. Timber Mountain Log Ride is the one at Knott's...

 

Funny how on one side of LA, there is a park that removed their old log flume for a "new hotness" type of attraction, and on the other side of LA, there is a park doing everything they can to restore and update their timeless log flume ride.

 

Interesting to see how the demographics of the two parks have changed so much over the past decade....

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^That is an interesting point. Remember when Knott's was trying to become more of a "thrill park" to compete with SFMM? I'm glad that they're getting back to "tradition" again (at least a bit) by updating Timber Mountain (still the best log ride around, I think).

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I am so thrilled about TMLR finally getting some love, Garner Holt did a fantastic job! Boardwalk will look really cool at night with the upgraded lighting packages reflecting off the water. I can't believe Mondial manufactured a tower with NO safety mechanisms for the ladders inside; I bet CF is sick they chose them.

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Why Perilous Plunge‘s Footers still exist?

 

I'm assuming that you are talking about the footers for Perilous Plunge's bridge since the footers for the actual ride were taken out months ago. The bridge footers will become a new bridge that is going to be the entrance for Pacific Scrambler & Surfside Gliders as shown in the concept art.

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