Knotts TR

Last Friday I found myself at Knott's Berry Farm. It was the main stop on our California vacation this summer. Having been there once before, and comparing it to my latest trip, I am beginning to understand why some TPR members don't like the park so much.

Our Knott's day started out with breakfast at PoFolks Restaurant (just north of Knott's). We were going to be meeting up with some friends there and then heading over to KBF after breakfast. The main reason we ate there was because they had a breakfast special for $4.99 that was definitely ACEr sized. I pride myself on being able to clean off my plate. But at PoFolks I was starting to get full even before I was close to having my plate clean. With our stomachs full we made our way over to KBF.

We were a little late getting to the park because our friends were running a bit late getting to the restaurant. We walked into the park around an hour after opening. Once we were inside we made our way toward Ghostrider. Only a few of us went on it though. Many of the kids with us weren't tall enough/didn't want to ride Ghostrider. The line was by far the longest of the day. But it was well worth the wait. I had ridden this ride on my last trip, but it surprised me. I had forgotten how much airtime there is. Which is a good thing cause I am a big fan of airtime. But out of all of us that went on it this time around, I was the only one who seemed to enjoy it. Everyone else was complaining about how rough it was and how much it hurt. I have no idea what they were talking about because I didn't feel anything.

After Ghostrider he made our way over to Camp Snoopy so the little kids could have something to do. We checked to see if the kids were tall enough to ride Sierra Sidewinder, and they were. But my little brother and my sister chickened out, they're not coaster fans. So they rest of us went on it and had a blast. Sierra Sidewinder is really fun. The spinning motions were something I had never experienced on a coaster before so this was completely new to me. I rode it twice that day and found that you get the most spinning in the back of the train. The front spins a little but not as much. But the ride overall was very fun.

Once we got off the ride we saw the thrill picture booth. But instead of selling pictures they were selling video DVDs for $20. There are cameras that are built into the cars on Sierra Sidewinder that video tape you while you are on the ride. I thought it was a rather creative idea, so I bought a DVD. But It wasn't until I got home and watched it that I was really disappointed. The DVD has 2 videos you can watch. The first is your ride, and the second is like a promo video for the park. On the ride portion of the DVD you don't get to watch your entire ride all the way through from beginning to end. The video of you on the ride is intercut with promo footage of the ride going around the track. The quality of the on-ride video isn't that great either. I'd say it looks like it was recorded on a cell phone camera. And when that is cut in with clear professionally shot park promo footage, it just looks horrible. What they should do is have the complete on-ride video uninterrupted by park promo footage. Because that's what I thought I was buying. But it turns out I was wrong, and $20 poorer.

We hit up a few of the other rides in Camp Snoopy to keep the kids happy. While the kids were busy, me and my sister made our way over to Montezuma's Revenge. We were both surprised to see that there was practically no one in the station. The ride op told us that the ride was broken down and they didn't know how long it would take to fix it. But we were welcome to stay and wait in line. We decided to wait a few minutes and if it didn't get fixed we'd go back and meet up with everyone else. And that's what we ended up doing. They test ran the train 3 times while we were there and something still wasn't right. So we left to meet up with everyone in Fiesta Village. My mom told me that they had tried to go on Jaguar but it was broken down too. The kids were riding the Hat Dance ride so we were waiting for them so we could make our way to the Boardwalk area. It was while we were waiting that I noticed the over-population of trashcans. You guys weren't kidding! There are tons of them!

We passed on Supreme Scream and Xcelerator because we had done those last time and no one really wanted to go on them. But the kids wanted to go on the Sky Cabin, so we did. After that I rode Boomerang with my sister. Which probably wasn't the best idea. She thought Ghostrider was rough, and we were about to go on a Vekoma ride. It was a bad idea all around. Her neck which had been hurting since Ghostrider was hurting even more. Thanks Vekoma!!!

At this point everyone was getting tired feet. So we grabbed some seats at the Charles M. Schulz theater to watch Snoopy's Big Bow Wow On Ice. It was actually a decent show. I'm not usually one for shows but this one was pretty cool. It was amazing that they were able to do all those ice skating moves in such a small space, cause the stage wasn't very big.

So after that we made our way around the backside of the park and did the Scrambler and Bigfoot Rapids. The sun was starting to get low in the sky and we were starting to get hungry. So we walked over into Ghost town where the Auntie Pasta's Pizza restaurant was. We had eaten there on the previous trip and liked it. The food was good, not too expensive, and service was good. This time around was much worse. We arrived at the restaurant and had to wait 10 minutes for a table. Which made no sense to us at all cause when they walked us to our table there were tons of tables to sit at. Our waiter gave us some menus, and we didn't see him for another 15 minutes. When he did come out there were a few tables yelling at him for a check. The service was horrible. The food was still good and inexpensive but it took forever to get the food.

My mom sent our friend with the kids over to ride the merry-go-round while me, my mom, and my sister went to ride Silver Bullet. I don't care that Silver Bullet isn't very forceful. It's still a pretty fun ride. But as usual my sister didn't like it because it hurt her neck again. You just can't please some people. We met back up with the others at the merry go round and decided to ride Sierra Sidewinder again. After that we hit up the shops before the park closed. And then we said goodbye to our friends and drove back to our hotel exhausted.

While it wasn't the best park going experience, it wasn't the worst. We managed to have fun anyway, which is what the parks are there for anyway. So anyways... that's my TR.

I tired attaching the video this thread, but for whatever reason it didn't work. So if you want to see the vid click

Cool video and trip report. Haha, "it's the ocean."

Great TR!

Finally someone who thinks GhostRider is good, yea its a little rough but it doesn't hurt.

$20 on-ride video + crappy pizza restaruant cost = enough for one ticket to Disneyland to do a quick lap of the e-tickets.

Just playin. Anyway, nice video. I really enjoyed it. To bad the YouTube quality sucks pretty hard. Look forward to a forum-uploaded video!

-Jahan

Here is the video. I'll try to get some pics up later.

Cali Vacation Vid.zip

Download Video

Cool TR and video. I find that usually when I get on Ghostrider I'm also the only one who really enjoys it. The group of friends who get on it with me is shrinking smaller and smaller.

Oh that sucks that you didn't get to go inside of Disneyland. I think I would have rather done that then go to Knott's -- but I wouldn't have to choose though as Knott's is free with my Maxx Pass (don't hate).

I would have rather gone to Disney too. But the fact is we almost didn't even go on the trip because the money we had saved up went toward fixing the AC in the car. Disney is just way too pricey. Knott's is much cheaper, especially when you buy your tickets at Ralphs grocery store.

Maybe I'll be able to get out to Disney next time... that is if they don't raise ticket prices again!

(edit)

Ok below are the pictures. I was shocked to find out that no one took any pictures at KBF. We only have video. But anyways, here are some pics from the rest of the trip.

My new friend is not fat!!! He's just big boned.

Creepy Lego guy who wears socks with his sandals.

Hi Wes.

Always 2 there are. A master and an apprentice. But then there is also the guy who stands next to the apprentice and tries to look cool.

My little brother should have auditioned for Spider-man 3.

This pic is totally beachin'!

The nice, clean, refreshing air of California welcomes us.