Knott's Berry Farm

Visited: November 22, 2019

Attending: Just Brian

My new employer sent me to a conference in San Diego the week before Thanksgiving, and since the conference ended on Thursday, I decided to take Friday off, rent a car, and drive up to Los Angeles to hit a couple of parks there, because at this point I had 2020 passes to both Cedar Fair and Six Flags. Knott’s was a personal goal of mine, because I had planned to go there in 2013, but I was prevented by an injury that didn’t allow me to fly (and certainly wouldn’t have let me ride coasters). I’ve heard many good things about Knott’s, and I was quite looking forward to it.

I had hoped to get there at rope-drop, but that turned out to be too ambitious, with LA traffic and the rental office schedule. Getting there at 10:30 wasn’t bad, though, and I snagged quite a good parking spot. That was the first indication that this trip would be a bit different than my August trips. Even just walking through the park, I realized that it was unusually empty, compared to what I’ve experienced elsewhere. Knott’s is a relatively small park, and chunks of it are devoted to things other than rides. It put me in mind of Dollywood in that regard. Knott’s is small because it’s in the middle of an urban area; it’s completely landlocked, as the expression goes. Most of the time, you can’t tell that, though. You can only see the surrounding houses from the tops of the taller coasters.

The staff was remarkably friendly, very willing to chat with guests. I’m sure part of that was because they weren’t busy most of the day, but they seemed genuinely happy to talk. I also noted a lot of staff members coming on- or off-shift, and they often chatted with other staff members and seemed very pleased to see their co-workers. It was the first day of Knott’s Merry Farm, their holiday celebration, so there were Christmas decorations everywhere, and holiday music playing throughout. The music had appropriate twists -- music from the Charlie Brown Christmas special near Camp Snoopy, western versions of traditional carols in Ghost Town, and surfer-tinged versions in the 50s area. I asked one staff member if he was sick of the Christmas music, but he said it was only day one, so nobody minds yet. For me, holiday decorations in Southern California on a warm sunny day will never seem normal, and that was the case here as well. The weather was gorgeous, sunny but not hot, and I was fine in a t-shirt and jeans.

HangTime

HangTime was my first goal, as it’s the newest coaster in the park, and pretty popular, as far as I know. I needn’t have worried, because the park was so empty that everything until the very end of the day was either a station wait or a straight walk-on. I had my pick of seats, so I rode the back and then the front. The vertical lift hill provides the familiar slipping sensation, but it’s not too tall, so it’s not a big deal. The hold at the top was interesting, compared to a B&M dive coaster. I admit the only one I’ve ridden is Valravn, but that had more of a drop tower sense of “waiting to fall,” whereas this had more of a “stop and look around” sensation, because it stops on a slope, rather than at the very edge. It doesn’t drop, but rather slowly creeps forward, and then hits the beyond-vertical section rather abruptly. There’s a definite sense of getting whipped over from the back row, but for the most part the trains are short enough that there’s not a huge difference from front to back.

The rest of the ride is what you’d expect from Gerstlauer, a twisted tangle of track with lots of inversions and changes of direction. The first element is a “negative-G stall loop,” which is a fancy name for a non-inverting loop, I guess. It definitely fakes you out, by pulling out of the inversion at the last moment and flipping you over the top instead of underneath, which surprised me every time, even though I knew it was there. The straight inversion that follows has some hang-time, and I would have been impressed by it if I hadn’t just ridden Copperhead Strike, which has substantially more. The cobra roll is unexpected, coming in the middle of the structure, but it’s not unusual other than that. The length is on the short side, but there are so many elements that when it stops (rather abruptly), I was disappointed, not because I felt short-changed, but because I was having a good time. Instead of feeling like “there should be more here,” you just wish there were more, because it’s a lot of fun. It makes you want to get right back on, which I was easily able to do, today, but I imagine that’s not possible at other times. I limited myself to two rides in the morning, though, because I had other credits to get.

Xcelerator

I have mixed opinions about Intamin launch coasters. They’re exciting, visually striking, and well-known. On the other hand, they mostly just do one thing. A forceful launch is fun, but being plastered into my seat isn’t really a sensation I’m actively looking for. Xcelerator didn’t change any of those opinions. It’s surprisingly pink, so I’ll give it credit for that. The launch happens directly from the station, which is pretty unusual (some LIM launches do that, but no other hydraulic or pneumatic ones). There’s a “christmas tree” of launch lights in the station, so you know exactly when you’re going to launch, which I appreciate. The hill goes straight up, but it’s really short compared to Dragster or Ka, so it was hard to get excited about that. The view from the top has no airtime, but I didn’t expect any. There’s a decent view, but mostly of squares of tiny California houses, so...shrug. Unlike Ka and Dragster, Xcelerator “does something” after the top hat, but that “something” is zip around in a circle, and that’s about it. The turn behind the big hill is overbanked and comes fairly close to the support structure, so both of those things are kind of cool, but neither is hugely exciting. Storm Runner does a better job with its speed. It’s all over almost before you know it, which is expected on this type of ride. It’s intense, it’s short, and it’s done. I rode it back and front, just to see the difference (there wasn’t a lot) and moved on.

Silver Bullet

It took quite a bit of wandering around before I was able to find the entrance to Silver Bullet, but that was a walk-on as well. B&M inverts were a favorite of mine back in the 90s, but I’ve ridden a lot of them now, so a bit of the shine has come off, and they feel a little same-y. I didn’t have great expectations for Silver Bullet, but I’ll give it credit for being different. It has a cobra roll, which not many inverts have, although I don’t think that’s a great design choice for an invert. It’s got nice overbanks and a zero-G roll, which I do think are excellent choices for an invert, and a couple of genuine corkscrews, which is really unusual on an invert, so I was glad to see them. The helix at the end was what really surprised me. It’s really tight and intense, and while it’s not as long as Raptor’s, I can see where the inspiration came from. I rode the front row first, as I like to do on inverts, and then re-rode from the back for the intensity. Unfortunately, I let my guard down on the last corkscrew and got a nasty headbang for my trouble, so I decided to let it go at two.

GhostRider

Making my way back to the front of the park (which didn’t take long), I headed for Ghost Rider, the last of my main priorities for Knott’s. I’ve heard really good things about this coaster, but the stats are kind of average, so I lowered my expectations, but my recent experience with Phoenix taught me not to do that, so I honestly had no idea what to think going in. It’s also not very visible from inside the park...it is from the parking lot, but I didn’t feel like spending a lot of time in the parking lot appreciating the layout. So my initial impressions were that it was definitely fast and intense, didn’t have a whole lot of airtime, but it maintained its speed really well, and had a ton of very strong laterals. So much so that I was falling all over the empty seat next to me, and glad I wasn’t sharing with anyone. It was also unexpectedly long, which is a rare thing to say about a Knott’s coaster. The last helix just seemed to go on forever. I rode back and front, and swapped sides, to have the various experiences. I didn’t see a lot of difference, but I imagine if I rode it a lot, I would definitely have a preference. On the whole, I was impressed, but I’m not sure how much I enjoyed it, because I was looking for more air.

Ghost Rider was intense enough that I didn’t want to marathon it, and after two rides, I went for lunch. The grill was very satisfying, for sit-down park food. I had a burger, but I considered the fish tacos, because California. The server was excellent, brought me another iced tea before I even thought about asking, and asked whether I had a platinum pass, which I appreciated, because I always forget about that. The prices were what I’d expect for a Friday’s, which is higher than I normally pay for lunch, but less than park food often costs, so it balanced out nicely (especially with the discount). I felt like I should have tried the boysenberry pie, but I didn’t want to overload myself. Then I started on my second clockwise loop around the park.

Pony Express

...was closed. I know these year-round parks have to do maintenance sometime, and it was hardly my highest priority, but I was a little bummed because I’ve never ridden one of those Zamperla motorcycle-style seats.

Voyage to the Iron Reef

Hang on, that’s not a coaster. I normally don’t bother with dark rides much, but I know that Iron Reef is going away at the end of the season, so I figured I should ride it. I thought it was pretty good for a shooting dark ride. There wasn’t any line at all, so I missed the parts of the story that are presented in the queue, but I don’t think that was any big deal. I think I did better than usual at hitting the targets, but I don’t know if that was me or the ride.

Coast Rider

This is a wild-mouse-ish ride across from HangTime, and it certainly looks pretty, especially in the setting California sun. I don’t have any particular fondness for wild mice, but I’ll ride one for the credit. This looked like a stretched-out model, similar to Apple Zapple at Kings Dominion, so I thought it might be similarly interesting. Unfortunately, it has odd restraints for a wild mouse, with a padded bar where my shins should be. I don’t mean “restrains my shins unnecessarily,” I mean “attempting to occupy the same physical space as my shins.” So I was basically uncomfortable for the entire ride, and didn’t enjoy it at all. The switchback section was standard, but had an unusual number of block brakes that killed the momentum. It didn’t even have any sudden drops that wild mouse coasters often have. This was the only ride at the park that I actively disliked and will avoid in the future.

Jaguar!

This ride comes very close to being a kiddie coaster, and I don’t bother with those. (I’m not that much of a credit-monger, and I don’t have a kid who’d want to ride them.) But this is the one coaster I know Alex and Carole rode when they were here in 2013, and it just looks cool. The amount of theming in the queue is absurd -- the queue actually is a ziggurat. There’s not really much to the coaster, though. It just kind of ambles around, which is at least a change, because most coasters at Knott’s are compact. So that was fun.

Montezooma’s Revenge

Montezooma was one I wanted to ride because it’s a ride that was here when Carole came to Knott’s as a kid...except she never rode it, because she doesn’t like coasters that reverse direction. And it’s got a funny name. For me, although I had the opportunity to ride shuttle loops as a kid, I never did, because I was afraid of them back then. So this was kind of a personal goal, and I admit, I felt slightly nervous as I sat down, although there was really no reason to. The restraints are up to spec, the loop isn’t all that big; it was just residual fear, I guess. The launch was nicely forceful, not too much like an Intamin. The loop happens before you know it, and then you’re up the spike. There’s no holding brake like an Impulse or a Boomerang, so you just lose momentum and go back. Going backward through the loop was slow enough to be kind of freaky; it was an odd sensation. The back spike is no big deal because you’re facing forward. On the whole, the ride is over before you really know what happened. I’m glad I rode it, and I’d ride it again, but I wouldn’t make it a priority. It’s also nearly impossible to photograph because it’s so skinny and there’s so many other things around it.

Sierra Sidewinder

This is a Mack spinning coaster. I’ve ridden a Gerstlauer spinner, but not a Mack, and I think it makes a big difference facing away from the center-line of the car. It definitely adds to the feeling of instability. I actually had trouble putting my hands up on this ride because I didn’t know what direction the forces were coming from. Unfortunately, just as I was starting to get into it, it ended. This seems like it’s a kiddie-ish coaster because it’s in Camp Snoopy, but the spinning makes it seem more intense than that, but then it’s so short that maybe it’s just a brief burst of intensity for small ones and that’s it. I feel a little confused by this one. I only rode it the once because it’s so short it didn’t seem worth riding again, but now I kind of wish I had.

At this point, I’d gotten all the credits in the park, all of them with very little waiting. I hadn’t rushed, and I’d re-ridden some, so it was still just mid-afternoon. I could have left at that point and been satisfied, but I’d been advised to wait until after sundown, to see the lights, so I thought I’d hang out and get some night rides, and I’m glad I did. I took another loop around the park without doing anything, just to satisfy the exercise requirement on my watch. (That’s how small this park is -- normally I have no trouble hitting my goals just by walking around a park, but the distances between rides are so small at Knott’s that my watch didn’t register it as exercise, so I had to deliberately walk the perimeter without stopping.) Then I did another loop taking photos and video, during which I discovered that Xcelerator was down, so I have no videos of it in action. Then I went back out to the car and swapped my glasses, because it was getting dark.

HangTime

I had a suspicion that the first night of Knott’s Merry Farm would increase crowds, so I headed straight to HangTime. There were more people in the park, but they seemed to be youth groups, or there for some other holiday-related purpose. So while the volume of people was greater, the lines for the coasters mostly weren’t longer. HangTime has an excellent light package, and it was lit up quite nicely when I arrived. I hopped right on, trying row three just for fun. The pause at the top is more dramatic at night, because you can see the lights of the city beyond the borders of the park, which wouldn’t happen at most parks. The ride seemed to be running faster at night, and the whole experience was a little more intense. After that I sat and watched the lights for a bit, and I was treated to a show when the soundtrack played “The Wizard in Winter” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and the light package went completely nuts. After that, I wanted another ride so I could ride with the lights going crazy. I got another ride (back row) but I didn’t get lucky with the lights. I decided I’d spent enough time staring and moved on.

Xcelerator

Xcelerator had reopened sometime in the last couple of hours, but the line was still short. I got a next-to-last row seat fairly quickly. The launch was the same, but the view from the top was better, much as with HangTime. The rest of the ride seemed much more intense this time around, rather than just being a thing to do after the launch, so that was satisfying.

Silver Bullet

I headed over to Silver Bullet, where I actually had to wait near the top of the stairs, but it was still fairly brief. I waited a few cycles to get a front row seat, but this one wasn’t all that much different at night. Maybe a little faster, but the area is fairly well-lit, so it didn’t make a ton of difference.

Ghost Rider

The front of the park was getting crowded, and I slipped into Ghost Rider’s entrance just ahead of a gaggle of youth group. Here I encountered my first genuine line of the night. It was still a station wait, but Ghost Rider has a lot of queue in the station. I probably waited about 10 minutes total, which felt strange after the day I had. I opted for the next-to-last car, to avoid part of that line, and didn’t really know what to expect. What I got was a sharp difference from my earlier rides. There was a bit more airtime, not a lot, but enough to notice. The biggest difference, though, was the speed, or at least my perception of the speed. We slammed through the turns and over the little hills. Even the long second turnaround, which felt pokey in the afternoon, seemed fast and intense in the dark. The second half of the ride seemed totally out of control, and the helix felt like it was going to fly apart.

I thought about going back around again, but I didn’t want to stay too late, as I needed to drive up to Valencia to my hotel. So I pronounced myself satisfied, but left a little bit “wanting more.” On the whole, I was really happy with the entire experience. I know a lot of that was circumstance with short lines and excellent weather, but I’ll take it, no matter what the reason.