Knoebels Opening Day 4/26/08

We got to the park at about 1215, and noticed the parking lot much more full then in the past few years. Once in the park we had to wait for about 25 minutes to get our ride bands.

Since we were hungry we had lunch at Cesari's. I love that pizza, and at $15 for a whole pie that makes it much more cheaper then any other park I regularly visit.

First ride of the day was the haunted mansion. What a classic. My daughter rode it for the first time. She was really scared, and had her head in my lap. We got off and she said, "Dad I didn't see anything cause I had my eyes shut the whole time." :)

Phoenix was running great, and I took 5 laps total for the day. What a great ride, and continues to be one of my favorites. I could ride that coaster over and over all day if I didn't have my daughter wanting to ride all the kiddie rides. :) She's tall enough, but just not brave enough to ride the Phoenix yet.

We then headed over to the Twister, and took a lap. They were only running one train, and I had to wait about 15 minutes to ride. Later on in the day we went back and line was down to the bottom of the ramp. We only took 1 lap for the day.

We spent most of the day riding with the kids. We rode a bunch of rides. The Tilt and Whirl, Super Round up, Whipper, The Grand Carousel, High Speed Thrill Coaster, Rockin Tug, Roto Jets, Cosmotron, Italian Trapeze, The Pioneer Train, The Teacups, The Antique Cars, XD Theater, and the Motor Boats.

We also rode all the thrill rides for us during the course of the day. I love the Looper. That is one of my favorite flats ever. There are so many good rides you can't go wrong. We ended the day riding the Grand Carousel an catching the rings.

At the end of the day we stopped at the Alamo, and had good meal before heading home. You can't go wrong eating dinner there. It's reasonable, and very good food. There were 5 adults, and 3 children in our party, and our bill for dinner was $75. I have spent that at the other parks for the just the four of us to eat. It's easy to see how they win best amusement park food.

Another great opening day at Knoebels!

Sounds like a decent opening day. You didn't tell us how Twister was though, especially since it supposedly had a ton of trackwork.

I was there as well arriving 4, maybe 4 1/2 minutes before you. That was some line for the wristbands, but $23 w/coasters and BOGO is a great deal. Not that I took advantage of it. Just a ride on the Phoenix and once on the bump cars (I can't even ride these anywhere else now) with a lot of soaking up the atmosphere.

I did notice the ACE members with name tags on, especially when they were up on Flying Turns getting a tour a different spots on the track (trough).

I came home and looked up the event on their site and noticed part of the event was to celebrate The Haunted Mansions 35th year. They were even getting a rare walk-through after the park closed.

Had I known of this, they would have had my membership monies along with the $20 fee for this event!

I was there for the DAFE/ACE event. We had 1 hour ERT on Phoenix and Twister before the park opened (11AM - Noon).

I got there just before 11 and got to the ticket building just as they opened the windows so I only waited five minutes for my wristband. Phoenix was running great as usual. I got brave and got into the back seat of Twister (I usually prefer the front on wood coasters) and was very surprised by how good the ride was. For lunch I had 3 of those potato tricake thingies, 3 pirogies (sp?) and a large soda for $6.

The walk through of The Haunted Mansion was very cool. They showed us all the hidden doors where the ride operators can sneak through the ride and scare people. After the walk through they turned everything back on and let us ride it one more time. Also, Dick Knoebel told us at dinner that they are in the process of buying a Wipeout ride and should have it finalized in the next few days.

Overall a great day at a park that becomes more entrenched as my favorite park the more I go there.

Is flying turns running yet?

Flying Turns is not running. The last anyone heard, unless some of the club guys got more recent info Saturday, is that they're still trying to get the train to behave better.

Did they say where the Wipeout was going? The only big open space I can think of is the spot between Fandango and the campground road, which is still storing lumber for the Flying Turns although they could probably consolidate it into a much smaller area now that the major construction is done. (The storage track isn't done by the way, in fact only half the supports are up for it. I guess they spent the winter adding guides to parts of the trough to get the train down from the walls for the lifts and brakes. I hope this doesn't ruin the whole effect of having a trough instead of track. They could've built a wooden wild mouse if they wanted the path to be constrained.)

The good news is, Twister does seem a lot smoother in the helix. I had given up on riding anywhere but the front, but yesterday I rode the very last seat several times. (There's no extra airtime to be had, but it's fun watching people go under the numerous handchoppers sometimes.)

Sunday the parking lot was only about half full all day. It was less than that when I got there about 12:30, but with the BOGO it was still almost 1 til I got my wristband. On the other hand, the restaurants seemed to have very few patrons anytime I was there, so they were getting orders up very quickly.

None of the rides had very long lines. Phoenix was the worst because they were only running one train, but if you didn't want the front seat it was only a few trains. Twister went from being a walk-on for all seats to about a two-train wait for all seats.

There was some good flying going on, for anyone wondering about that. I hit my personal best, in fact I had to back off before I hurt my back. Nobody said anything. (I blame the crosswind...) I noticed that there's heavier padding around the front rim of the tub than around the back rim, I don't know if it's new or not but what the heck is up with that? When does anyone hit the front rim?

There were a lot of bumper cars down, and some that smelled hot and steered poorly. Still everyone had a good time, except for some small kids who didn't know how to get out of jam-ups. One of them had to be taken off of the ride, the rest just needed a little help.

I was there all weekend (including the event) and got some great flying in. On my first flyers ride of the day, I accomplished the holy grail of snapping...yes, I hooked the cables! It was an awesome way to start the season.

Twister was running great, dare I say, like it was new again. I've never thought it was all that rough anyway, but anyone whining about it last year is in for a real treat.

Word on the midway is that the Wipeout IS going in next to Fandango.

My bumper car seemed to have a bad front wheel, the car shook as I drove. Shame too, since it seemed I had a little extra room for my knees and didn't risk limping off the ride. But it is a risk I'm willing to take.

^Yep, there were one or two cars that seemed to have something seriously bent in the works. (Sometimes I'm amazed that any of them run at all, after seeing some of the hits.)

^^This is at least the third time I've heard of someone hooking the cables, but I've never seen it in person and I have no idea how you'd do that -- not that I'd want to.

On The Board That Cannot Be Named, someone said that there's only one stationary Wipeout and maybe only one travelling Wipeout still operating. Anybody know if this is true? If so, score another classic save for Knoebels!

Huh? I've seen wipeouts at parks all over the country. To name a couple: Kennywood and Worlds of Fun have them (not Trabants). I wouldn't call it a "classic" ride (haven't they only been around less than 20 years?), but it's certainly a great spinner for any park.

And there is no "method" for hooking the flyer cables. It's just something that happens. I've had more intense rides than that one that didn't result in a cable hook. It's just a random occurrence, but it's a cool experience. :)

The bumper cars always smell, and run hot the first weekend or two. I guess from the combination of new motor parts and sitting all winter. I hate the dreaded cars that shake all over the place, we call them shopping carts. I was a bit worried about the new floor but everything seemed to be ok, just a bit of surface rust instead of the usual black graphite. My lower back is still a little sore from Saturday! :)

I too was there with ACE on Saturady. The weather as great and the rides were all open but Skloosh. Dick Knoebel said it broke down that morning, and would be back open soon. He did not mention were Wipeout would be placed, but did mention it would be operational by Memorial Day weekend. Phoenix ran great and didn't let down like usual. The line for Twister was long (30 minutes at mid-day) due to only one train running. The best part of the day was the walk through of the Haunted Mansion. Dick Knoebel and other family members walked us through in groups after the park closed. What a trill- Knoebels still rocks.

FYI- Dick Knoebels wife is very ill and he asked the group to pray for her.

You're right on Jim S., Flying Turns just needs the carts to cooperate now. The track is complete, and we noticed lots of gouges in the track that looked like some wrecks had happened. We got to walk the track, so we were able to see the damage from the failed test runs. Dick Knoebel mentioned that the family all rode the coaster in January, but it had many problems and was far to dangerous to open to the public. I would not expect to see it running very soon.