Knott’s Berry Farm

Visited: February 10, 2023

Attending: Brian, Tony Tran, Jeanelle Horcasitas, Buzzed Bars

This trip was a little bit on the strange side. Back in December, I had originally hoped to go to Knott’s or Magic Mountain with some of my co-workers, but that plan fell through. When Buzzed Bars planned a trip to the same area in February, I was psyched, and I let my co-workers know in case they wanted to join. Things didn’t go exactly as planned, with Tony and Jeanelle joining me for a few hours at Knotts, without really meeting anybody else in the club. We arrived much later than I’d hoped, thanks to LA traffic, but it was still a reasonably fun day. Of course, right after I got back from the trip, we all got laid off, so that kind of puts a damper on the whole thing, but I’ll try to set that aside.

Silver Bullet

It was around 5:00 when we got into the park, with the sun starting to go down. I wasn’t too concerned about lines, as the club had reported no problems so far. Jeanelle suggested we start with Silver Bullet, as it was right there. A quick mental inventory told me that Silver Bullet is middle-of-the-road for Knott’s coasters, so I figured that would be a pretty good place to start. I don’t think I realized how much my attitude toward coasters has changed since becoming a serious enthusiast, because both of my colleagues expressed trepidation before riding something that I don’t consider to be a big deal. In an attempt to minimize discomfort, I selected row 4, and the others went along, taking the inside seats, which likely blocked most of their view, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. With a better idea of what to expect this time, I remembered that the initial drop is shallow, but still builds up speed. I was ready for the forceful cobra roll (thank you, Alpengeist, for teaching me that), and I knew the final helix would be intense. I didn’t give much thought to the zero-g rolls, because I love those, but Jeanelle distinctly did not. On the brake run, I expressed my appreciation, but both Tony and Jeanelle said they were dizzy.

Under the circumstances, following up with Sierra Sidewinder seemed like a really bad choice. But since we were going that way anyhow, I figured Jaguar! would fit the bill as a fairly mild option. Unfortunately, once we got over there, I discovered that Jaguar was closed, along with the entire plaza, because of the renovations to Montezooma. I was really thrown off, because there was a sign for Jaguar and everything, but no actual entrance. We already knew Xcelerator was closed (although we stopped and looked at the new paint), but it seemed we’d walked around the north end of the park for no reason at all. And then I made things worse by refusing to consider Coast Rider. I told the others I’d wait while they rode it if they wanted, but once again they chose to go with my opinion. So now we were standing by HangTime.

Hang Time

Personally, I consider HangTime to be more intense than Silver Bullet, so I was worried that Jeanelle and Tony wouldn’t want to ride, but Jeanelle was firm in her belief that it was the corkscrews that had been a problem, and HangTime doesn’t have any, so. I did make them watch a cycle so they could see the hang and the dive, as well as the vertical lift, but they said they were all OK with that, and it was a station wait, so away we went. I went for a middle row again, for safety, and took the inside edge for myself. The outside seat was occupied by a girl, maybe eight years old, who had her hands up the entire time, much to Tony’s chagrin. I’m still not overly fond of a vertical lift, so I’ll admit I hung on for that part. I made sure to get a good look around from the top, because I usually forget to do that on dive coasters. It was a nice clear day, around sunset, so it was all quite pretty. The drop was roughly what I expected. I still enjoy the non-inverting loop, and there’s an airtime hill about halfway through that was fun. “Fun” is about the right word for this one, although I find it a bit short. Jeanelle and Tony both said they liked it a lot, which improved my mood.

Pony Express

Pony Express was the only coaster that had been down when I was at Knotts in 2019, so that allowed me to explain the concept of the “+1 trip” to Tony and Jeanelle, who were amused by the whole thing. They were also pretty amused by my description of Pony Express as a family coaster, and by the cars and the restraints. Which I have to admit are very unusual. This is the first time I’ve ridden one of these “motorbike-style” trains, and having a pad come up and rest on the small of my back was very odd. I also made the same mistake I always make with launches, where I assume if it’s not one of the super-forceful ones, then it’s no big deal, especially after watching a couple of cycles, but they’re always a bit stronger than I think they’re going to be. Other than that, Pony Express isn’t anything to write home about. A couple of curves, a little bit of air, and it’s done. Not even much of a view, because it’s not tall enough, but it was a gorgeous sunset.

GhostRider

We’d now come back around to the front of the park and GhostRider, which both Tony and Jeanelle remembered from prior visits, but hadn’t ridden in a while, so probably before the GCI retracking. Although GhostRider has notoriously long lines, this was a station wait, so we were lucky. It was also well past sunset and into twilight at this point, so fairly close to a night ride. GhostRider was the coaster that made me believe in night rides, back in 2019, and it didn’t disappoint. That thing is just nuts, especially at night, and it was certainly hauling on this day. The drops, the laterals, and the general out-of-control feeling are all top-shelf in my book. Tony seemed really fired up after that one, and Jeanelle seemed to enjoy it too, although it may have been a bit much.

Since we were back at the entrance at this point, Tony and Jeanelle decided to take their leave, as they had a long ride home. I took the opportunity to zip out to the parking lot to swap my shades for my regular glasses before heading back in again.

GhostRider again

Fortunately, it didn’t take me long to find the Buzzed Bars, as they were clustered by the entrance to GhostRider. After spending a while greeting one another, we headed inside. The line had gotten rather longer in the interval, somehow, but we didn’t really mind, as we had time for catching up. There were enough of us that we accomplished a full-train takeover; I sat in row 2, marking the first time I’d ever ridden GhostRider with someone else in the same row. With a train full of adults, some of us sizeable, the train seemed to be going even faster than the previous run. Being in the front didn’t diminish any of the forces, and the second half of the ride still seemed crazy and out-of-control. Riding with friends is always better than riding alone, and riding with a full train of enthusiast friends is even better.

Hang Time again

After GhostRider, we reached that odd dynamic that happens sometimes when too many people are standing around and talking about what they want to ride next, and so nobody does anything. I thought I’d convinced a small group to go ride Hang Time, but I lost a bunch of them in transit, so I ended up going over there with just Scott from Upstop Media and Anthony from, well, the Cleveland Browns. I hadn’t met Anthony before, but he was very polite, if a bit quiet. Hang Time still didn’t have much of a wait, so we grabbed the back row easily. It turns out that even professional coaster documenters and NFL players aren’t overly fond of the sensations caused by a vertical lift, so that’s nice to know. The light package was in full effect, but it’s a little hard to notice that while you’re on it. It does seem unusually bright for a nighttime coaster ride. As before, it’s a lot of fun, but a bit on the short side.

At this point, folks were gravitating back to the front of the park, either to head out for the breweries or up to Valencia. I looked for anyone who wanted a ride north, but didn’t get any takers, so I headed that way my own self.