Welcome back, if the other parts didn’t  bore you. Here’s my report for Knotts Berry Farm. But first, here’s a photo of the Hollywood sign.

Seeing this in the flesh was just exciting. 

Out of the California parks I visited, Knotts has got to be the most divisive one I’ve done so far. A somewhat underwhelming park in the day, plagued by disappointing operations, some rundown areas and other bits. That said, the beef meal at the BBQ place was superb.

 

Owned by Cedar Fair since the late 90’s (or should that now be Six Flags), you can see a mixture of styles with in the park, from it’s western setting towards the front and turn of the century look towards the back. Like many parks, it’s practically landlocked so expansion isn’t really possible. 

 

Coasters: 

There are 9 coasters at the park, I managed to ride seven of them. 

Accelerator is perhaps the most known coaster, which is like a mixture between Rita & Stealth. I found it ok, not amazing just ok. I think it just misses that oomph that stealth has and it probably didn’t help that it was in one train. 

 

Silver Bullet on the other hand was better than expected, hearing mixed thoughts about this ride. I really liked it, glass smooth yet forceful and some nice interaction with the western area. Probably somewhere in the middle for B&M inverts maybe. 

Hangtime is a very decent Gerstlauer coaster, especially given its remarkably small footprint (formerly a boomerang) with an interesting drop and ideal mix of elements including inversions. Better than Smiler, country miles from Saw. 

Ghost Rider is the park’s iconic woodie and makes for a spectacular night ride, which was of course done. The ride was forceful and intense yet remained smooth throughout. Definitely one of my favourite wooden coasters which is worth the insane wait times at night. 

 

Out of the park’s other coasters, Pony Express was ok but interacts nicely with the nearby rides. Coast Rider, the park’s wild mouse strongly reminded me of the Jungle Coaster at Legoland. It was pleasant if a little mediocre. Jaguar was probably my favourite non thrill coaster. I like how it wildly meanders around the area and keeps a decent length too. I still remember it from those channel 4 openings from the 2000s. 

 

Other Rides: 

The park boasts two water rides and two dark rides (though one of the former is both).

The Timber Mountain log ride is perhaps one of the oldest and iconic rides in the whole park. Opening in 1969, the ride predates both of the Disney flumes, in their original splash mountain forms. The ride boasts several drops (one inside) as well as a mixture of indoor and outdoor sections. There are numerous dark ride scenes featuring animatronics throughout the ride, which are easily the best I’ve seen on any water ride. A ride that can’t be missed on visiting this park!

The other water ride was the Calico river rapids, which felt a mixture between the intense spinning ones and one of the more scenic ones too. A moderate level of wetness and some impressive theming and animatronics around the ride too. 

Now for the two dark rides, it was all a mixed bag really. Calico Mine Ride was an interesting one, where you board a train which goes around lots of mining scenes (mostly inside the building). It reminded me of Nutty Jake’s at Oakwood and maybe the Goldmine at Blackpool, based from POVS. The wait was arduous but the ride was pleasant. 

 

Knotts Berry Tales wasn’t the best if I’m honest, but that was largely not helped by experiencing a breakdown and my blaster not working at all during my ride. As screen-based shooters go, I think there are better. 

 

Due to a late arrival and other bits, there was no time to experience the other park attractions.

 

Knotts Scary Farm 

Knotts Scary Farm is the park’s annual scare event, and it has been a staple and popular occurrence since its launch, back in the early seventies. 

 

The park is decorated immensely with spooky decorations, from its entrance to many of its themed areas. The place is littered with scare-zones all over the park, which for a place a little bigger than Chessington is quite remarkable. The atmosphere is just surreal. 

There were ten scare mazes at this event, all with a vast array of themes and settings, from witch trials, Spiders and experiments gone wrong, as such. Whilst I did have my favourites, the astounding thing about this event was that none of the mazes felt weak or noticeably different in quality. All were very much of decent lengths, intricate set design and good scares, which managed to get me on some locations. 

Origins might be my initial favourite, due to it’s excellent backstory, but I also really liked the presence of the ‘out of the box’ circus setting in Mesmer, as well as the gangster setting in the maze Room 13. Cinema Slasher gave me strong trailer vibes, but one of it on steroids. 

It’s a big event and immensely popular too, with hours from 7 until 1-2 in the morning, making even frightful nights feel like an early bedtime. It was busy, it was intense, but definitely worth it. Not just for its mazes but its vast atmosphere and awesome park ride lighting too. I consider this the best Halloween park event I’ve ever done, surpassing both Halloween horror nights and Tulleys. My only criticism is, that if you want to get a lot done on peak days, express is unavoidable because the lines get ridiculously long, especially on the mazes and ghost rider. 

Conclusion:

Knotts may have actually been the park on this trip I was the most disappointed with strangely and it has nothing to do with the rides, but more the operational side of it at least in the day. However it’s Halloween event absolutely kicks ass and throughout delivery both quantity and quality absolutely delivers, to the point I may never find another event to surpass this. Just as well this is the first time I haven’t done fright nights since 2012.