Knotts "Line Jumping" Farm
Associated parks:
None
I made it to KBF by 11AM, 1 hour after opening, on
Saturday January 18th, 2003, only to find it mobbed.
I wasn't gonna let that get me down though. First thing was walking a mile just to get to the entrance, which i had a hard time finding. Then we headed over to Xcelerator, probably took the long way around, since the park doesn't have any arrows or signs. We spent quite a while wandering aimlessly around this confusing park.
Got in line for Xcelerator, waited for the back, about 20-25 minute wait. Strapped myself in, let the ride-ops push down the lapbar, or shall i say, staple me. Then we were off. This launch was the BEST launch i've ever experienced. The forces were great and it was extremely intense, to say the least. Airtime on the tophat was great, and the feeling of being whipped up and over the tophat was amazing. The overbanked turns were good, not great, not bad. All in all, I was completely blown away by this ride. I couldn't wait to run back around and ride it again, however the line had gotten way too long, so we decided to head somewhere else. We walked over to boomerang, waited 10-15 minutes, due to a slow and scarce ride crew. There was only 1 person checking restraints. This caused a great amount of back up in the queue. This was a typical boomerang, nothing special here. I love the new paint job though. This wasn't as rough as everyone made it out to seem. It's just like every other boomerang. We decided that it wasn't worth a reride and headed to Perilous
Plunge.
It was about a 10-20 minute wait. Only 1 train operating (i'm not sure if it's ever more than 1 train). The crew was pretty decent on getting the restraints on and sending the train up the lift. The restraints are very confusing. I was pulling on the red tabs and the green tabs and the black straps, and I couldn't loosen or tighten them. Anyway, the drop was amazing and we got soaked. The initial splash
doesn't get you as wet as the back splash afterwards does. It was a decent ride, I'd definitely ride it again, as long as it's a short wait. Then we headed over to Ghostrider. Having no idea what a full queue looked like, we jumped in line. Unfortunately, a slow ride crew made it about a 40-50 minute wait for the front. This is where the "line jumping" comes into play. That little walkway at the top of the stairs blocked by a chain is just asking for people to jump in line. And believe me, it got what it asked for. People were jumping in line left and right, everywhere. It was disgusting to see so many people go under the handrails and under chains and pushing people, etc... This increased our wait by a few minutes. Now, on to the coaster. I don't know what to say about this coaster. It totally blew me away. Great speed, intensity, headchoopers, laterals, airtime, etc... the list could go on forever. Speaking of forever, this coaster is really long. It never let up either. Great ride in the front, though a little rough, but they're supposed to be rough.
Next we got some grub. Not sure what the name of the
place was that we ate at, but it was expensive, and the food was okay. Then we jumped on over to Montezooma's Revenge. There was only one person checking lapbars, grrr, and he was slow. We waited about 15 minutes for the front. This launch is pretty decent, the loop delivers some very powerful forces, and there was even a little hop of
air on the ascent up the back spike. Great coaster. I'd ride it all day. Schwarzkopf does it again. Then we made our way over to Jaguar. Queue was long, theming was pretty decent. We waited about 20-25 minutes for the front. The crew was pretty fast, compared to boomerang, ghostrider, and monte. Part two of "line jumpers" started up here. There was a group of 5-6 girls who thought that they were "all that" and they decided that they were better than everyone who was waiting in line, so they just pushed
past everyone and ducked under hand rails. They went from having a 30 minute wait to having a 2 minute
wait. I'd about had it now, so I informed one of the
ride-ops. However without him seeing it, he couldn't do anything, but at least he yelled at them. Jaguar was a decent ride, nice and long and smooth. If it was a walk on, i'd consider riding it again. Next, we decided to ride Supreme Scream. It was looking to be about a 20 minute wait, but a ride op was asking for a group of two people, so we were able to shorten our wait by about 18 minutes. I wasn't
expecting this to be anything special, but once we were climbing, i realized how tall this thing was. The view was great and the drop was amazing. Unfortunately, on the way up after the first drop, there wasn't any airtime, at all. I prefer shot instead of drop anyway, but this wasn't bad. I'd ride it again if it were a short wait.
We then decided to hit a flat ride, Hammerhead. It was going to be a 10 minute wait, but someone lost a necklace on during the ride, and they had to close it so that a ride op could go down to the fountain area under the ride and retrieve it. That took about 10 minutes. It was a pretty decent ride, not as good as a Huss topspin, but still decent. I especially liked the little flip at the end that takes riders by surprise.
At this time (5:00), we had to meet with some family
for dinner, outside of Knott's. We arrived back at the park at 8:00 and ran for Xcelerator, unfortunately, the line was at least a 60-90 minute wait. But I hadn't flown 3000 miles to
ride Xcelerator just once, so we stood in line and waited about 80 minutes for the front. The front was just as amazing as the back. The view is great especially on the drop. The airtime in the front is just as good as the back, which is surprising. Fortunately for me, I was able to hop back on the ride in an empty seat.
It was now about 9:40, and we knew that we had to hit
Ghostrider one more time. What can i say about Ghostrider at night. It left me speechless. It was amazing, phenomenal, the best ride ever. And to make it even better, the whole park had suddenly been engulfed by a thick fog, so we rode Ghostrider not only in the pitch black, but with a thick fog to hinder our sight even more. Unfortunately, it was
about a 40 minute wait, and to make things worse, we're faced by more rowdy line jumping teens. KBF employees didn't care at all. People were jumping over chains, pushing past people, and ducking under the hand rails. It was ridiculous, and I was disgusted. But the ride on Ghostrider made up for it. And to make things even better, we got to jump back on Ghostie for a last ride, also the last train of the night, on an almost empty train.
This ended our day at KBF. Overall, it was a great trip. Aside from the slow, and lacking ride crews, and the line jumpers, it was awesome. I experienced the greatest (now my #1) woodie ever, and the greatest launch.
Time spent at the park: 8.5 hours
My ratings of the coasters/rides:
Boomerang: 6/10 - nothing special here
Montezooma's Revenge: 8/10 - great ride, plenty of fun
Supreme Scream: 8/10 - great drop, but lack of airtime
Hammerhead: 7/10 - nice flat ride with great theming
Perilous Plunge: 7/10 - great drop, slow loading time
Jaguar: 7/10 - nice family ride, not a bad coaster
Xcelerator: 9.5/10 - great launch, great ride, too short
Ghostrider: 10/10 - perfect! nothing wrong about this ride
Number of Rides:
Boomerang: 1
Montezooma's Revenge: 2
Jaguar: 1
Xcelerator: 3
Ghostrider: 3
Supreme Scream: 1
Hammerhead: 1
Perilous Plunge: 1
I was a little dissappointed with the fact that KBF has signs up all over the queue lines about line jumpers being thrown from the park, yet there aren't any workers in the lines watching for line jumpers. However, KBF is a great park and it was well worth flying 3000 miles to visit it. I give KBF a 9/10. I can't wait to visit it sometime in the near future.
SFMM TR coming soon!!!
*** This post was edited by SFGAdv lover on 1/28/2003. ***
Knotts can be a little confusing...that's why they have maps! Still, you obivously has a good time, so I'm happy for that. I'm not surprised the park was crowded, it was a holiday weekend. Remember...here in So Cal we don't have much of an "off season." Weekends and holidays can still be crowded.
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Welcome to the New & Improved Coasterbuzz...now with 25% more tomfoolery!
Full service? Does that still exist? lol.
Well, it sounds like you had a good time, despite the problems you mentioned. I hate linejumping.... :(
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Xcelerator- Put the Pedal to the Metal!
was about a 10-20 minute wait. Only 1 train operating (i'm not sure if it's ever more than 1 train). The crew was pretty decent on getting the restraints on and sending the train up the lift.
When the ride re-opened June 2002 It was running with 2 boats, but I'm wondering if they have cut down to one simply because it is a lot easier like this, basiclly when 2 boats were operating, one boat would be waiting for absolutly ages to get back into the station(I know I waited nearly 5 extra mins to get back in the station) so prehap to cut down on people unneccessary waiting just to unload, they will just run 1 boat now??? Also maybe they found that the capasity either way is pretty much the same, I mean with 1 boat operating, at least you can unload straight away, and everything else is moving at a fairly good pace whereas with a 2 boat operation, Capasity does not go up if boats are kept waiting.
I was a little dissappointed with the fact that KBF has signs up all over the queue lines about line jumpers being thrown from the park, yet there aren't any workers in the lines watching for line jumpers. However, KBF is a great park and it was well worth flying 3000 miles to visit it. I give KBF a 9/10. I can't wait to visit it sometime in the near future.
I complety agree with you actually, all parks seem to have these signs, but nothing every seems to be done about it, and even if you do report it to a member of staff, they always come out with that famous saying " Oh I'm sorry but I cant do nothing because I have to see them do it" How pathetic
*** This post was edited by PaulD on 1/29/2003. ***
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