Day 6 of our California Vacation: Knotts Berry Farm

Day 6: Knotts Berry Farm

Well i'm back with another report from our trip. This will be the 2nd to last report so its coming close to being done. Anyways for the 6th day of our trip we attended Knotts Berry Farm. This was a theme park that nether me or my wife had been to in a long time. The only thing I remember from the last time I went was the Parachute drop and the Soap Box racers. I knew the park had undergone a big change though since then. Like I did with Universal Studios I bought a discount ticket off Ebay and only payed 28 bucks a ticket for Knotts. I also didn't take near the amount of pictures at Knotts that I took at the Disney Resort.

Anyways we actually made it to the this park before it opened so we had about 10 minutes of waiting tell they finally let us in the gates. It seemed like there was alot of people waiting outside but when we got inside its like they all disapered. We started making our way to Silver Bullet first only to find that it wasn't open yet. So we went to find a restroom instead and found ourselves in the mexican area of the park. We were right next to the rollercoaster called Montizumas Revenge so we decided that would be the first ride of the day. Montizumas Revenge is your typical shuttle coaster. It launches you down a track thru a loop then up a tower where gravity catches up to you and you go back thru the track backwards. We were the first ones of the day to ride it so it was fun having it to ourselves. Next we went to the Rollercoaster called Jaguar. This coaster is like a glorified kiddy coaster lol. The que was well themed and it looked nice but it was pretty dumb. The only thing I liked about it was how long it was.

We next made our way to the Boardwalk area of the park. I had one thing in my sights and that was the Xcelerator Rollercoaster. This thing was amazing. Really short but Amazing. Its a launched coaster that shoots you strait up a huge tower (i'm not sure what the exact height is) and the strait down the other side and thru some banked turns. I can't even explain the kind of feeling you get on this thing. Its a rush. And sinse we were in the area we then went to the Rollercoaster called Boomerang. This coaster is along the same lines as Montizumas Revenge where you go thru it forwards and then again backwards. But this one has a twist in it. instead of launching you thru the course it pulls you up a hill backwards then lets gravity do its thing. you go thru a cobra roll then thru a loop and then up a second tower where your once again pulled to the top and dropped where you go thru it backwards. It was fun but it seemed so much ruffer then the other coasters we had done. We also did the Supreme Scream drop tower. Its the exact same thing as the Rocket at Lagoon except Supreme Scream only drops you and is taller then the Rocket.

After Boomerang we decided to go back and see if Silver Bullet was open yet and sure enough it was. This was our longest wait of the day where we waited around 25 minutes to ride it but it was worth the wait. This coaster is awesome and easily the best inverted coaster i've ever been on. To add to it the coaster itself is a pretty long ride for rollercoaster standards.

The next area we went to was Camp Snoopy. Camp Snoopy is the kid area of the park. But I liked how it seemed to be one of the most decorated for Christmas. There was only one ride in this area that we were interested in riding and that was the Sierra Sidewinder Rollercoaster. The Spider at Lagoon is my favorite ride there and the Sierra Sidewinder is similar except for the spinning cars are connected to each other in a train. The ride was fun but not as fun as the spider. Its just not near as fast and you don't spin near as much. But as I said it was still fun. We also ran into Snoopy when we got off so we had to get a picture.

After Camp Snoopy we made our way back thru the Boardwalk area and went to the parks log ride. I really enjoyed this. Almost as much as Splash Mountain at Disneyland. They also do a christmas overlay to make it look like your going thru santas workshop and see the elves working. I wish we could have done this ride again but we only did it the one time.

Right across from the log ride is there Mine Train dark ride. I guess this is one of the classic attractions of the park. I thought it was pretty well done. The only thing is they need to replace the speakers way bad. You couldn't even understand what the tour guide was telling you as you passed the displays. Here also a picture of the Calico Square across from the Mine Train ride.

Next we made our way thru the Roarin' 20's area of the park. There isn't a whole lot there other then the main theater, some bumper cars, and some nice looking buildings. But we then rounded around into the famous Ghost Town area of the park. The first part we came to being the parks newest attraction the Pony Express. This ride is pretty unique. It doesn't have any huge drops or anything. infact its doesn't really have any hills. Its a launched coaster that just goes fast pretty much. However the unique thing is how your strapped into the coaster. You sit on what looks like horses so it kinda simulates like your riding a horse. The restrant that holds you in comes up from behind and presses against your back and holds you against the horse. I really enjoyed the ride cause of how different the ride experiance is just by changing how your seated.

After Pony Express we had some lunch and then decided to do there rapids ride. So once again on went our ponchos so we wouldn't get soaked. The couple that were placed in the same raft as us were making fun of us for wearing ponchos but they quickly were jealous of us because they were soaked when they got off. The rapids weren't as exciting as I thought they would be. But oh well. We next made our way thru the Ghost Town which they had done up as a Christmas Village. It was cool to see the Christmas stuff everywhere and all the stuff for sale.

We made our way to the last Coaster we had left. That being the huge wooden one called Ghostrider. I have extremly mixed feelings about this ride. It was big and long and exciting. But it was so so so ruff. I have never rode on anything this ruff before. Me and Kiera both got off the ride with killer headaches that we had he rest of the day. I'm not really sure when the best time to ride this would be but i'm sure I would ride it again. Its just not a more then once ride.

We had some time to kill still before the show we wanted to see started so we made our way back to the boardwalk and went up in the observation tower to get a birds eye view of the park. unfortunatly the ride is so old that you can barely see thru the plexy glass. Because of this I thought it was a waist of time. We also decided to hit Xcelerater again too since we were in the area. Which was just as awesome as the first time we went on it.

After Xcelerater we headed back to the main theater for the Snoopys Cool Christmas Show on Ice. I was very impressed with this show. The fact that the stage is a giant ice rink with figure skaters and dancers performing the show is amazing. Also the show is based around Charlie Brown's Christmas which I love. But to my biggest surprise. Was the moral of the story. The show talked about how some of the peanut kids thinking the christmas is all about getting. But at the end the suprise came with one of the peanut kids saying that Christmas is about Christ and his birth and the gift he would give to us of eternal life. I was shocked about this. But thats not a bad thing. I was so happy about it. It seems like more and more each year people remove Christ out of Christmas as they get caught up in shopping and getting. I have a huge respect now or those who run Knotts Berry Farm for not being afraid to hide there beliefs.

Once again we had more time to kill so we decided to go ride the Silver Bullet again. So we made our way thru the Ghost Town again to get to Silver Bullet. On our way we passed a Nativity Scene where once agian my respect grew more for the people who run Knotts. Silver Bullet was great once again. I could ride that thing all day long.

After Silver Bullet we went and walked around the Ghost Town some more and also checked out the Christmas tree before the Parade started.

The Peanuts Christmas parade was alright. I mean its not as extravagent as Disney's but it works. It was short but its something.

After the Parade we decided to go see there Wild West Stunt Show. We passed by Camp Snoopy and saw the lights turned on so I snapped a picture. The Wild West Show was alright. I thought it had its funny moments but it also had its dumb ones. I would see it again though and thought they did a good job on it.

We then went back to the Calico Square to watch the Tree Lighting show. Once again the show was based on Charlie Brown's Christmas and was almost exactly like the Ice Show. But it was still good and portraid that same good Moral of Christ being the meaning of Christmas. After the Tree lighting we didn't have much time left tell the park closed so we walked around looking at the Christmas Lights and then exited the park. We were going to get dinner at Mrs. Knotts Fried Chicken cause I heard the food there is really good. However the wait was a mile long so we decided to go to Olive Garden instead.

Since the night was still young after dinner we decided to head over to Downtown Disney for a little while. Downtown Disney is a pretty cool shopping area. They had many shops that we checked out. One of them being the Big Lego Store. I thought many of the things there pretty cool that they made out of legos. However thats one of the only places I took pictures for the rest of the night. But it was fun. We also caught Disneylands Fireworks again that we could see from Downtown Disney. After checking out the Disney store again and cutting thru the Disneyland Hotel we headed back to our Hotel and ended our day.

Overall we had alot of fun at Knotts. However its diffenitly not what I remembered. All the coasters they have are great and worth going on. But it seems like its in an idenity crisus. You have all these new huge rollercoasters. and then on the flip side you have a horse drawn carage ride and an authentic steam engine train. Its like Knotts can't decide if it wants to continue to move forward with current technology or stay in the past for what there known for. And because of this the place doesn't look too great. It seemed like you could see or hear the coasters no matter what area of the park you were in. The other thing too is Knotts has no room to expand outwards. So instead they keep building on top of everything. The train and carage rides both go under the coasters (in which those are intertwinned). Knotts needs to figure itself out before it adds any more big rides. I would diffenitly go again though as theres many attractions that I we still had left to do but no time. You can always find good deals on tickets like I did. I don't know if I could pay the full price for tickets but I would diffenitly hit up discount tickets again.