Knotts 5-9-10

What an absolutely amazing day at Knotts today! :)

I was shocked when the parking attendant scanned my CP Platinum pass and it worked. No such luck when I got to the park-had to go to guest relations and get a ticket. No biggie.

Crowd was very very light (except of course for the line into the Chicken Restaurant) I didn't get to ride Xcelerator in December because it was still down. Definitely got to ride it today, 6x in fact. I know it will probably make some people mad but I truly actually liked the ride way better than TTD. Sure the launch seemed slow but it packed a punch with the substance after. I think TTD would be totally great if it had something after the drop off the hill....but, thats just me. The X crew was absolutely awesome too. Seems that 3 of them were huge CP fans and are planning on attending CM next month so they were really excited. I had a blast talking to them.

Made the dire mistake of letting Austin talk me into riding Ghostrider in the last car. I assumed he had ridden it there before till we pulled out of the station and he said he hadnt. We were beaten BADLY!! My girls and my sides hurt SO bad by the time we were done. Far cry from my rides in December which btw were all in the front car. We rode it again on the way out...middle...much less painful! :)

I was disappointed to see only train op on Silver Bullet. Loading and unloading was slow but we still managed 5 rides. Still makes me so mad they make me take off my glasses...I cant see a damn thing without them!! I have never even come close to losing my glasses on any other B&M inverts I've been on and SB is smooth as glass. Oh well...that would be my only complaint. SB packs a punch and I just LOVE it!! :)

We both just loved Sidewinder Sierra! Why is that coaster in Camp Snoopy? We ride that 2x...officially now my fav spin coaster :)
Boomerang made me sad (so reminded me of Head Spin at GL) except that is was remarkably (un Arrow-like) smooth and got us both pretty dizzy. I really, really liked it.

Was talked into Pony Express since it was only a 10 minute wait. Lame? Yes...very, at least I thought so. Watching the back rest come up from the horse's butts was hilarious to me. Austin did like the ride.

We took on the rest of the park at our leisure and decided to leave around 4. We were going to get some chicken to bring home but forget that...the line for the "to go" was even a mile too long. I was pretty disappointed in the selection of Knotts tshirts so actually didn't buy one.

In true CF form the park was spotless, the employees were very pleasant and all in all a very awesome day we had a great time! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

I like Xcelerator over TTD too. LOVE Silver Bullet.

I ride Bullet with my (strapped) glasses. Not so for Xcel and Pony Express - those launches are SO much more intense than Monty's *rolls eyes*.

The park was really quiet when I went on the Tuesday post-SpringCon. I learned to like Sidewinder much more after figuring out good seating arrangements for spinning....but it's still no Opa!, Steel Dragon, or Tony Hawk in my book. Please tell me you did the flume and the mine ride...true classics!

rollergator said:
I ride Bullet with my (strapped) glasses
Please tell me you did the flume and the mine ride...true classics!

Tried with strap, wouldnt let me wear them...still dont get that honestly.

Yes to the mine ride -- awesome...no to the flume-didnt want to get wet.

I may be heading back to Knotts again some time this week (with my contacts on) just cause its free for me and so fun! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

I was at KBF in January and they wouldn't let you ride with basically anything. No glasses with or without strap. Good to hear that Xcelerator is back up. I missed it during my visit :(

As I recall, Jo, You don't get wet on the log flume. I wasn't going to ride because I had a vid and digi cam on me, among other things, and was talked into it being told I wouldn't get wet, and we didn't. Plus it's a really FUN Flume.

I remember talking with Jill about the flume - the only ones with THAT quality of dark-ride/flume combos are at Disney parks and USF....and those are all "cartoon-y".

I've never been asked to remove strapped glasses on Monte or Bullet - but never been allowed to ride Xcel or Pony Express (or even Riptide) with them - except when Eric G. distracted me on Xcel the one time and I *did* ride with them. Somehow the ops were also distracted - and I got a great view. They did catch me on the re-ride lap though, LOL.

Glad to see you had a great time :D

As for the policies, they are what they are. No glasses (period) on Pony or Xcel. Technically, no glasses on Zoom either, but that's one is a little more leniant.

And yep, you just had to come when one of the Bullet trains were in rehab :P It really sucks to operate with one train.

I know, I'm being very random here, and I apologize, but it's nice to see a good TR for Knott's. Cause, if you haven't figured out yet, I'm a ride op there :D Yep.

Rollerman87 said:
Glad to see you had a great time :D

As for the policies, they are what they are. No glasses (period) on Pony or Xcel. Technically, no glasses on Zoom either, but that's one is a little more leniant.

And yep, you just had to come when one of the Bullet trains were in rehab :P It really sucks to operate with one train.

I know, I'm being very random here, and I apologize, but it's nice to see a good TR for Knott's. Cause, if you haven't figured out yet, I'm a ride op there :D Yep.

I wonder about the glasses policy...was there a rash of lost glasses on certain rides? I've worn sunglasses on Raptor and once I ditched my contacts, just regular glasses with no issues. Granted you needed straps for MF and TTD, you could still wear them, and there are no rides compariable in intenseness to those at Knotts.
Please don't take this as me whining, I just hate not being able to truly enjoy the ride cause of not being able to see! KI, and Dorney are the only other 2 CF parks I've been to, and no no glasses policies there.

The 1 train op on SB no biggie, we still rode several times. Looks like Pony Express had some rehab going on too. I am planning a trip back to Knotts before my Cali vacation over. I love the park and sounds like I need to ride the flume!

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

Definitely ride the flume! Knotts is the one West Coast park I want to get back to the most. Loved it there.

Granted you needed straps for MF and TTD, you could still wear them, and there are no rides compariable in intenseness to those at Knotts.

For the record, Xcel actually has a more intense launch than TTD. It's the third (gonna be fourth soon) most intense launch of a coaster on the planet :P Just saying. But I think the no glasses thing is because of it being a prototype, so they were testing that policy in the beginning. And it was just never removed.

Rollerman87 said:

For the record, Xcel actually has a more intense launch than TTD. It's the third (gonna be fourth soon) most intense launch of a coaster on the planet :P Just saying.

Here I go sounding like a coaster tool...are you sure about that??? To me, TTDs launch is more intense then X's...intense that it seems ALOT stronger and alot longer.
But...maybe that's just me?

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

I agree with Jo. I was unimpressed with X's launch. Seemed wimpy compared to TTD.

0-82 in 2 seconds v. 0-120 in 4. I tend to prefer XCelerator's. It just seems more instant.

To me the shorter launches are more intense than the longer ones.

More like getting kicked in the chest by a horse than sat on by an elephant.

I thought we weren't going to talk about that incident any more, Gonch...

Raven-Phile said:
0-82 in 2 seconds v. 0-120 in 4. I tend to prefer XCelerator's. It just seems more instant.

I really liked how you were launched from the station too-rather cool, that sort of reminded me of FOF.
I prefer X over TTD for many reasons! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2175 :)

Lord Gonchar said:
To me the shorter launches are more intense than the longer ones.

More like getting kicked in the chest by a horse than sat on by an elephant.

Trust me, you don't want to get kicked in the chest by a horse, been there, done that :(

As for sat on by an elephant, TTD IS like that...except the elephants sits slowly until you're like "ok get off of me now I cant breathe" :)
I never thought of it like that but that is a perfect description!

btw-is Kinda Kaka running?

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2185 :)

^Haha. That's random :P But yeah, Xcel has a launch of about 40miles pers second persecond, whereas TTD only has a launch of about 3o miles per second per second :P And I've been on both and could feel the difference. And yep, TTD may be faster, but Xcel has that little extra kick

LuvRaptor said:

I really liked how you were launched from the station too-rather cool, that sort of reminded me of FOF.

I also prefer that XCelerator's launch is dead silent, save for the whining of the cable on the drum, and doesn't have the revving engine/screeching tire noises.

Overall, it's just the superior ride, IMO.