I have the biggest love/hate relationship with Knott's. If Ghost Rider wasn't significantly delayed I would be going during my CA vacation this year for sure.
Heh I ended up going anyways to avoid traffic when going home. (and there was a killer online deal I couldn't avoid)
Knott's and I continue to duke it out, and as much as I'd love to have gone during the Boysenberry fest or on a slow, easy day this was not the case at all. When I arrived there about a half-hour before open I passed the main entrance which was dead quiet, so I was sure this would be fantastic. What I did not notice was the charter buses parking in multiple rows on the other side, spooling out hundreds of kids, ranging from elementary school to (mostly) high school.
It was Music Festival Day at Knott's Berry Farm. Dozens of schools from across the state poured into the park to perform, but mostly to make my life miserable for about ten hours. The first couple hours were fine as the elementary school kids were gathered to have education sessions in Ghost Town by all the performers (which is pretty cute I'll admit) and others gathered in rehearsal halls, so crowds were far lighter then. But soon enough the kids were let loose and the hour long wait for Silver Bullet was quite possibly one of the many levels of hell. Imagine that you're the only adult in line aside from the employee angrily trying to stop dumb high school kids from climbing all over the queue and nearly vandalising the switchbacks. All these kids have toy guns that they incessantly keep popping, and the conversations between them are way too inane to try to tune out. Any other adults that join the line clearly have less patience than I do because they just bail. Finally, upon climbing the stairs you turn around to have a bunch of kids point out that a horse is urinating down below. You turn and watch a horse vomit. It's nearly 90 degrees, you're getting sunburnt and you wonder what bad things you've done in your life to deserve this. I'm not sure, but like hell I wasn't riding this damn coaster.
At that point you get to the station to realize that today they're running a single train operation and look over to find the other train dismantled in the work bay. But I
rode it. Backseat. Felt like a victory.
That unpleasantness aside, I still had a very rocky day. The lines I did not dare were cumbersome and too long to bother, and I keep forgetting how poorly laid out Knott's is sometimes. It's an old park, it's a quaint park, but it's also a frustrating park to visit as a vacationer. It's here were you really take notice of the difference between Universal and Disney and the regional park operations of Cedar Fair. Everything is catered to the local market, and is almost downright cruel to a single day visitor. Knott's pushes souvenir cups heavily on consumers, and it quickly bites you in the ass with the shockingly small array of water fountains and long lines for any non-refill order windows. Calico Mine Ride was down this week due to an unforseen technical issue but wasn't labeled outside, which irritated me since that was literally one of the very reasons I visited. But the main audience, locals, probably don't give a crap. And of course why bother with proper maintanance, and simple issues like logging into Windows 8 on the computer linked to the monitors in a queue line for the entire day because it's Music Festival Day and high schoolers don't care.
Everything with Ghost Town, despite the delay in GCI's Ghost Rider redo is still absolutely charming. The kids were much more infrequent in these areas so I spent most of my time there. (also in case anybody thinks I sound too "get off my lawn!", as a theme park buff obviously I'm used to it but I swear all the chaperones left in the afternoon possibly to congregate in a room to watch what happens to me as some sort of social experiment) The Timber Mountain Log Ride is still a joy, it's one of my favorite non-Disney, non-Universal rides ever made since the Garner Holt redo. I actually like it better than Splash Mountain. I love going into the exhibits and speaking with the performers and talking with Sad Eye Joe. Finding the Catawampus, eating some overpriced food and washing it down with berry juice. Eating boysenberry chocolate. Going to see Mystery Lodge (although I still snicker at that massive, always-empty switchback queue) and riding the train to get held up by witty bank robbers.
Heck, even wandering through Camp Snoopy and peering into its streamlined redo (although somebody should've replanted some trees... a heavy part of it lacks shade), which is nostalgic as I remember going there as a kid. So this is what I mean when I say I have a love/hate relationship with Knott's. On one hand it knows how to annoy me a great deal with things that are sometimes not its fault, but I also think that there's a side to it that is wonderful and worth the trouble.
Anyways, it's time to wrap up this trip report by talking about Iron Reef. I've been a staunch critic against this attraction from the second the videos hit online. I thought it looked cheap, bland, incompetent, nonsensical and an embarrassing effort after the two excellent Garner Holt attraction remakes in the years prior. But a lot of people said it was cheesy fun. And now that I've ridden it three times I have to agree: it's cheesy fun. In no way is it the runaway hit Knott's seems to badly want it to be (the ride despite its low capacity held a 20 minute wait all day while the coasters reguarly clocked at 75 min) and many aspects about the ride are seeing immense wear-and-tear. Like I said earlier, half the queue videos were stuck on a Windows 8 log-on screen all day, the barely-used indoor queue was scratched and thrashed, many guns had the mesh on their cords coming undone and the vehicle seats were badly scratched. And this is less than a YEAR old! The 4D effects were non-existent and the mist screen in the ocean entrance did not work all day. So the Disney-ish elements and upkeep were completely absent. Yet when this ride is a getaway from the Six Flags aspects of Knott's, it comes across as a lot more charming, cute and surprising. It's no surprise that my last two rides had timing issues where I watched many screens awkwardly shut off and reset. Yet it was actually kind of nice in that moment to be faced with a screen in multiple ways. I noticed that the way the screens were placed and how engaged you got that the screens could not be noticed until that instance. And hell, after a roller coaster or two it's a nice change of pace to be indoors on a dark ride.
Iron Reef is not a great ride, and it's falling to the same issues that many of these rides due in regional parks (Ouimet clearly needs to get back to Buena Park, too much time riding Valravyn), but at the same time it's just nice that they are getting them in the first place. If it provides a change of pace, then so be it. And hell, I think it's better than Toy Story Midway Mania. So there.
So that was Knott's. If they want, I'll do my planning a bit more in advance if they could at least have Calico open next time I go. That'd be nice.
