Southern California Round 2? SFMM and Knotts?

Got tentative vacation plans to head to southern California from Sept 20th to Sept 28th. Thinking of going to a few wine tour places and the big forest thingy for the first few days. Then planning on heading to SFMM on the thursday, knotts berry farm on the friday (With the halloween scary farm thingy.. However for the entire day for 2 of us it's over $200 with parking! That seems pretty insane..) Then possibly back to SFMM for the saturday. The thursday hours are fairly limited (10am-6pm) hence why I was considering 2 days. We went to southern California a few years ago and did disneyland/California adventures, seaworld, the zoo, and universal.

It's a bit of a shorter trip, so we can't really get out to do much else. Would 2 days at SFMM be to much? Should we just visit the saturday and get the flash pass?

Should I buy the Club TPR membership (We probably won't go to any theme parks next year, so we'd really only be able to use it for this trip, would the membership for 2 of us be worth it? (Can't see the discounts for the parks any longer)

Thanks!

Got tentative vacation plans to head to southern California from Sept 20th to Sept 28th. Thinking of going to a few wine tour places and the big forest thingy for the first few days. Then planning on heading to SFMM on the thursday, knotts berry farm on the friday (With the halloween scary farm thingy.. However for the entire day for 2 of us it's over $200 with parking! That seems pretty insane..) Then possibly back to SFMM for the saturday. The thursday hours are fairly limited (10am-6pm) hence why I was considering 2 days. We went to southern California a few years ago and did disneyland/California adventures, seaworld, the zoo, and universal.

 

It's a bit of a shorter trip, so we can't really get out to do much else. Would 2 days at SFMM be to much? Should we just visit the saturday and get the flash pass?

 

Should I buy the Club TPR membership (We probably won't go to any theme parks next year, so we'd really only be able to use it for this trip, would the membership for 2 of us be worth it? (Can't see the discounts for the parks any longer)

 

Thanks!

Do Knott's on Thursday and SFMM on Friday. Less people at Knott's and use Platinum Flash Pass at SFMM.

Magic Mountain isn't open that Friday. I don't figure I'd need a flash pass for Thursday since it shouldn't be all that busy.

Not really sure about Saturday. If we can get a ride on X2 and Full Throttle on Thursday we should be okay to skip out on the platinum pass. That being said, I wouldn't really mind spending the extra cash as it's not like I get a chance to be in California often, and what's an extra couple hundred bucks to be able to walk on stuff all day long.

^^No, don't do that. SFMM is NOT open on Friday, September 26th.

It's a bit of a shorter trip, so we can't really get out to do much else. Would 2 days at SFMM be to much? Should we just visit the saturday and get the flash pass?

If you are willing to purchase the Flash Pass, two days at SFMM are not necessary. With a Flash Pass, Saturday crowds are not an issue, so if you've got the budget for it and don't mind losing sleep due to Haunt the night before, just go on Saturday and buy a Gold Flash Pass (do not buy Platinum...not worth the cost and you will anger a lot of people in line with it). Be sure to ride Full Throttle first thing in the morning (even before picking up your Flash Pass) and do X2 mid-afternoon if you do not buy a reservation for it.

If you are not getting a Flash Pass, go on Thursday and see how much you can get done. I recommend starting at Full Throttle and going counter-clockwise around the park, as most people go straight to X2 and Tatsu so those rides (especially X2) clear up mid-afternoon. I don't know what the crowds will be like that day, as the park usually isn't open on weekdays outside of summer and holiday periods. It is possible that you'll be able to do everything in one day without a Flash Pass even with limited hours. If the park is crowded, either buy a Flash Pass that day or go back for a partial day on Saturday.

Then SFMM on Saturday then.

Scary Farm should be completely dead on a Thursday night, you should be able to do all the mazes, shows, and even rides in that same night.

Got tentative vacation plans to head to southern California from Sept 20th to Sept 28th. Thinking of going to a few wine tour places and the big forest thingy for the first few days. Then planning on heading to SFMM on the thursday, knotts berry farm on the friday (With the halloween scary farm thingy.. However for the entire day for 2 of us it's over $200 with parking! That seems pretty insane..) Then possibly back to SFMM for the saturday. The thursday hours are fairly limited (10am-6pm) hence why I was considering 2 days. We went to southern California a few years ago and did disneyland/California adventures, seaworld, the zoo, and universal.

Your plan seems pretty sound. You might not actually NEED the second day at SFMM unless you really want to get on EVERYTHING multiple times. But it's good to have it there as a contingency. The Knotts day might be expensive, but honestly, it's worth it. Especially if you are going to do the Fast Lane passes with the Skeleton Key rooms at haunt. IMO, if you're only gonna do it one night, go all out!

Should I buy the Club TPR membership (We probably won't go to any theme parks next year, so we'd really only be able to use it for this trip, would the membership for 2 of us be worth it? (Can't see the discounts for the parks any longer)

We do have discounts to Knott's and SFMM that might help, but really, you should buy the Club TPR Membership to help support the site in general. Servers are very expensive especially for the amount of traffic this site gets!

Sorry we don't list the discounts anymore on public pages, but we did have people abuse that, so we had to remove them.

On another note...

^^No, don't do that. SFMM is NOT open on Friday, September 26th.

This is the "Ask Alvey" forum, not "Ask random people on the forum to give them bad or wrong advice", so if you don't actually know what you are talking about (I'm looking at you Rollercoaster Rider), do not respond to topics in this forum.

Thank you!

--Robb

I found them, thanks! This is great work, and will save me a lot of effort.