California 2010: Knott’s Berry Farm

The next stop on our trip was Knott’s Berry Farm, a once-family-owned theme park that is now operated under the parent company of Cedar Fair. Overall, it was a fantastic park – very clean and well-kept with a diverse ride selection. All of the coasters are great fun to ride (particularly Pony Express, but I’ll get to that later), but unfortunately the majority of them are too short, and by the time you really start getting into the ride it’s already over. And, on top of that, one of the park’s truly full-length rides, GhostRider, was closed for the day. Regardless, Knott’s was a fantastic park that certainly deserves better than the reputation it gets from the coaster community. Now on to the pictures!

Good morning, California Sun. (Note: I cheated here. California’s a cloudy mess all morning, so I grabbed this one in the afternoon. Shneaky, shneaky.)

First ride of the day: Xcelerator! Quite a good coaster, even if it is over much too soon. But many claps for Intamin for the hydraulic launch – it’s the best one out there!

Oooh. The artsiest you’ll ever see a picture from me might just be right here. Also, I cheated again. Xcelerator is way faded, so these pictures are totally edited to make the ride look plenty better.

They were repainting the lower supports when I was there, though, so that’s a good sign! Also, this picture makes me feel like I’m looking between some lady’s legs. Children, shield your eyes. Or grab your cameras.

Anyways, Xcelerator was a great start to the morning – 70+ miles per hour is a good wake-up call!

And now, something much less enjoyable. Boomerang!

This Boomerang had to be the slowest I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe how long it took to get up the lift each time, and how slow the line moved as a result. Ridiculous.

But it was a credit, nonetheless, and so I suppose it was worth the wait! Psych.

Supreme Scream. I couldn’t get myself to ride this one alone, as my mom hates drop towers with a passion, and it’s a shame since I just got myself on Drop Zone at Kings Dominion last week and loved it. So be it.

Perilous Plunge was down for most of the day. I saw, at most, five boats cycle all day, and probably only three of them had people in them. Shame.

It’s crazy how much water this thing just dumps out down the drop, really. Little children in Africa are crying and drinking their tears, and Perilous Plunge is just dropping water left and right. Niiice.

Now on to the sleeper hit of the day: Pony Express! This ride was fantastically fun, so much so that it was the ride we rode most all day!

It’s unbelievably sad how short this thing is, though. By the time it’s really started up, it’s already coming to an end. But for what it is, it’s a great, fun, family-friendly thrill!

My mother spent her rides screaming, “I’m a cowgirl!” There’s a picture to prove it sitting next to me, too. I guess I’ll have to scan that in. Be excited.

This is the part where the ride gets fun, twisting left, then right through this nice little tunnel that makes everyone scream. But after this, it’s over.

Lame rapids. Nothing like the Cedar Point ones, or the Paramount Parks’, or what I hear of Dorney’s. Not sure why, but these ones just don’t do anything.

One last shot of Pony Express. My favorite part is when a train pulls back into the station and the back-pad lifts off each rider. There’s this mass simultaneous sigh of relief, and it makes me laugh every time!

Sidetrack: This log flume (named Log Ride – oh, the creativity) was ridiculous. I cut myself on the boat because of the turn after the indoor drop, and, quite frankly, I’m not sure how the old couple before us didn’t have a heart attack!

Now over to the Mexican area of the park, where I think every single SoCal Hispanic might have spent their entire day. I think this area counted as a culture credit, really.

Jaguar was an enjoyable ride – and a pretty long one, at that. Plus, I’m a sucker for these rides with the crazy-long trains, they’re just so funny to watch! And the back seat’s always a fun ride.

This area of the park was certainly disappointing as far as aesthetics go, however. I’m not sure who decided that four of the park’s seven big coasters needed to be crammed into this little spot, but they did.

Regardless, it at least had plenty to do! Montezooma’s Revenge (which, for the record, I don’t think that’s how you spell Montezuma…) was my first Schwarzkopf shuttle loop, and it was a lot of fun!

Of course, it would have been more fun had I been able to wear my damn glasses. But so is the life of the blind.

Launching! The flywheel launch was pretty good – better than I expected, I think! And Schwarzkopf sure did know how to design a loop…

My favorite part might have been how close the train seemed to get to the top of the forward spike. Obviously, it does the same on the back one, but it was great to see the end of the track getting closer and closer!

Almost done with our circle of the park, it’s time for Sierra Sidewinder!

I had never been on a spinning coaster, minus the spinning mice (like Primeval Whirl), and this was a nice little introduction to the genre!

This was another of Knott’s unfortunately-short-but-quite-fun rides. But the height, length, and concept was perfect for the family-friendly area that the ride’s situated in. Definitely good for all ages!

It’s like the Xcelerator-overbank picture all over again! This park likes overbanks, so it seems.

Clicked for this one a second too late, but it’s not too bad. All in all, Sierra Sidewinder is a great ride. I wish it was longer, but just like Pony Express, it’s a lot of fun for what it is. Definitely a theme of Knott’s.

Now for the last ride of the day: Silver Bullet! I don’t know why people hate on this ride so much, it was a pretty decent invert!

Quick note: I hate getting stopped by trains. Buuut now I can finally say that I have a two-trains-in-one picture, so I suppose it was worth it!

Anyways, Silver Bullet was pretty good! Sure, the first drop was crazy-drawn-out, but I can see why it was necessary with the rides underneath it. And so be it! The layout was fantastic!

The corkscrew-turn-corkscrew sequence has actually been in my head for a really long time. So I’d like to believe that I’m up there with Walter and Claude and Mr. Stengel. In my head, at least.

And I digress. Here’s a little look back at the mid-section of the park, with Pony Express and the pay-per-ride, super-short Screamin’ Swing. Yet another short ride at Knott’s!

Here’s a nice shot of the sky, plus some track. I genuinely wish that B&M would do more overbanks like this one. It might have been my favorite part of the ride, it’s just a unique, floaty feeling that’s pretty cool!

An open ride and a closed ride. Which sucks, since I’ve now been on 149 coasters. Thanks, GhostRider, for killing that milestone.

But anyways, some more Silver Bullet. It’s quite the photogenic ride, and I enjoyed it a lot! Go Knott’s for having a not-too-short ride in their collection!

Also, I love the multi-colored trains. Why don’t more rides do this? These train colors cancel out the ugly, all-red-for-no-purpose lift hill of the ride they run on. I’d like to see them elsewhere!