Knott's Berry Farm will close log flume for five months to overhaul

I read somewhere that Garner Holt will be doing the animatronics. That's the guy/company behind a lot of the new animatronics for Radiator Springs Racers. Could be a really nice upgrade.

It's nice to see a Cedar Fair flume being saved instead of removed. I wonder if this would have happened if Dick was still around.

I was thinking the same thing, Jason. It seems like we have lost a lot of traditional log rides over the last few years. I am very happy to hear this.

This ride is great. Glad they're doing this. Wonder If the mine ride will be next?

I've heard people say that Ouimet has a soft spot for Knott's. Mind you, that might just be office gossip, but it makes sense since the park is essentially near his old neighborhood of Disneyland.

Not sure if he was blowing smoke up my arse at the time, but when I visited KBF a few years back, the (somewhat) old-timer ride op assured me that when Cedar Fair purchased the park they agreed to preserve Timber Mountain, and that in fact this provision was built into the sale contract. Have no idea if there's even the remotest iota of truth to it, but there ya go.

That jives with the impression I got Ensign. There has always been an interesting relationship between Cedar Fair and the Knott's Family. There seems to be a certain amount of respect towards their vision of what Knott's should be, but that could be because they are major unit holders :-) .

Fun said:

There seems to be a certain amount of respect towards their vision of what Knott's should be

Like not being able to wear glasses with straps on launching coasters. :-p

This thread has already gone on far too long without this comment:

"SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN!"

Knotts may have to be treated slightly differently, as it is really the only Cedar Fair Park with significant competition right next door. Cedar Point? Nearest major non-CF park is either Kennywood in Pittsburgh (~3 hours away) or Great America (~5 hours away). Kings Island? 2-3 hours to Holiday World... Not sure how far to other parks. Kings Dominion? 2 hours to Six Flags America... Michigan Adventure? 3 - 4 hours to Six Flags Great America. Worlds of Fun? 3 hours to Six Flags in St. Louis. 2 - 3 hours to Branson...

Knotts Berry Farms. < 1 hour to Disneyland... < 1 hour to Magic Mountain. < 1 hour to Universal (though not the theme park of Florida...) ~1 hour to Legoland... 2 hours to Sea World...

The only other obvious park with this level of competition might be Dorney Park, as it is quite near to Hershey Park, Great Adventure, Morey's Piers, Six Flags America, etc.

Yet Dorney keeps getting the left over rides. Go figure. I know, I know, the public doesn't really know that. :-)

Knott's is a nice park if your're in the area but with some TLC like this and some of the other work happening since Ouimet took over it could become a GREAT park worthy of traveling to.

Kings Dominion is very near Busch Williamsburg, BTW...

Jason Hammond said:

Yet Dorney keeps getting the left over rides. Go figure. I know, I know, the public doesn't really know that. :-)

It seems like whatever Dorney adds never really brings crowds to the park unless it's for the waterpark. On Sunday of opening weekend this past year, Stinger had at most a 10 minute wait. I'm not a fan of the ride at all (it had a lot of downtime this past season), but I feel like if Hershey or Great Adventure had opened the same ride in 2012, it would have gotten a 90+ minute line at either park on opening day. It was the same thing with Voodoo/Possessed. A few days after it opened and it was a walk on. No one seems interested in the park on days the waterpark is closed or if it's not a Haunt day (and even then the crowds are nothing compared to Fright Fest at Great Adventure). On a Sunday in September, 10 minutes after closing I counted 23 cars in the lot.

As much as I would like to see a non relocated ride added to the park like the long rumored GCI that was for 2008, I'm not expecting anything for a while.

Yeah, Dorney's last three additions have confused me. Possessed, Demon Drop, and Stinger...have they really done much for the park?

In traveling through PA, I've stopped at Dorney twice over the last few years because I have a Platinum Pass, and it was very convenient. Both visits were in mid to late August, and everyone appeared to be in the water park, leaving an empty dry park. Possessed, Demon Drop, and Stinger were so dead at times that the ride crew outnumbered the riders.

Thinking of my 2012 Dorney visit (Thursday), I was at Six Flags GA the day before, and every area of that park was packed. It was the same story at Hershey 2 days before (excluding walk-on Wildcat and Lightning Racer).

While Dorney doesn't have as much to offer as Hershey or GA, it's still a decent park, and you'd think more people would shift there for the low crowds. I mean, especially as a kid, I know I would have chosen to walk on and re-ride tons of decent rides at Dorney rather than wait in 2-hour lines at GA.

Dorney seems to have plenty of potential customers nearby, so why aren't they filling up the dry side? Has the park become too ride-focused? Instead of adding recycled rides, do you think more live entertainment and family attractions would have brought people to the park?

I think it's a combination of things.

Whenever Dorney adds a ride, it seems like whatever the other parks nearby are adding are better. Dorney got Stinger, Hershey got Skyrush and Great Adventutre got Green Lantern the year before. Before that it was Fahrenheit when they got Voodoo. Even when Hydra was added, it was right after Storm Runner was added and the same year Kingda Ka opened.

Another reason is possibly the restrictions have gotten very strict and families could be getting annoyed with it. Someone under 48" and under 8 years old can only ride Woodstock's Express after Little Laser and Dragon Coaster were removed and since Wild Mouse has a new rule that anyone under 8 can't ride even if they meet the height requirement. Compared to Great Adventure where someone 44" can ride 6 coasters and at Hershey they can ride Comet, SDL and Trailblazer. It's ridiculous a 48" 5 - 7 year old can ride Steel Force but not Wild Mouse. Someone wants to ride the Scrambler and no one else in their family does? It's not allowed at Dorney.

Even the Planet Snoopy addition wasn't much of an addition since although they added some new kiddie rides, they removed all of the rides from Tot Spot and lost the other 2 kiddie coasters.

I know Demon Drop has some nostalgic value especially anyone who visits the park and has memories of Freefall at Great Adventure or rode Demon Drop when it was at Cedar Point but otherwise, it seems ignored while people go to Dominator and they took out bumper cars for it which usually had some kind of wait compared to most of the other rides (although that was probably because of the low capacity). They should have sent it to a park like Michigan's Adventure where a freefall ride would be more popular.

The only recent addition that seems to always have a line is Aqua Racer in the waterpark and I'm surprised that they haven't added anything else since then and have only added dry rides.

kpjb said:

Kings Dominion is very near Busch Williamsburg, BTW...

Yup, I can remember waving to (then) PKD as I drove by it all summer on my way to BGW from DC (it was actually a good half way point.) I knew plenty of people (not park enthusiasts) who did the same. In fact, PKD lost my business not only to BGW but also Hersheypark (2.5 hours north) because I would rather ride Lightning Racer, Great Bear and Storm Runner (not to mention get free chocolate) over PKD's collection.

rollergator said:
This thread has already gone on far too long without this comment:

"SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN!"

Wow! How did I ever forget about this until now? Thanks for jarring that memory.

Another thing that makes Knott's situation unique, is the local Disney-esc watchdog fans. They have nostalgic love of the parks tradition and loath change or deteriation of quality. Just reading some of the So-Cal fan sites, you get a sense that these are the type of people that prefer the park remain a sort of museum of it's past. Or at the very least, keep Knotts the next best thing to Disneyland. There's a big differance compared to the "tear it down" attitude of the young thrill seeking Cedar Point fans.

I suppose that's a good thing. Knott's Berry Farm still has a lot of tucked away surprises (aka charm) around it's Ghost Town area, yet manages to mix in the thrills too. Hopefully the mine train gets some love passed over it's way.

You spelled "taer" incorrectly, gator.