Knott's Winter Coaster Solace Weekend (Extra Long)
Associated parks:
None
Well we got up at roughly 4:30 in the morning to head to Cali (From Phoenix) for the Coaster Solace. We left at 5:30 and had a nice 6:00 drive to California Adventure. After a couple of traffic related delays we got into the park at roughly 12:30. And headed to California Screamin’ for my first ride ever!
California Screamin’ The set up of the line reminded me of Millennium Force. You were assigned seats unless you suggested the front. On Millennium Force, however you could choose the back also. It was a slow day so they only had 2 trains running, which kept the wait at about ten minutes for the very front. But that really isn’t to bad.
We hopped into the front seat for our first ride, and pulled down the restraints and were ready and were ready to go. They dispatched the train and we headed into the launch, getting a nice view and then they stopped us for the initial launch. Unfortunately since this was Disney they decided to keep the fear factor down. They would launch you with a countdown, which means no launching on five. The launch, is well ok nothing spectacular, it was fun but not very intense. You come up into the second hill losing very little speed and get some great air over the first hill. You drop down into a nice turn which sets you up for the wonderfully forceful S turn before the big hill.
You climb up the big hill, which is reasonably steep, and sets you up for a nice curved drop into in my opinion the worse part of the ride. You climb into a rather slow flat turn that sets you up for the dip into the loop. I was disappointed by the dip, it supplied minimal air and the loop was shockingly intense. But the best part comes up! You hop up into yet another brake run, dropping down a steep hill into a low lying turn, which in the back gives you some strong air. The turnaround is extremely fun, and I liked the kiddie ized carousel turn into the other brake run.
My only complaint about the next section is the bunny hops are just to small. They supply very strong airtime, but since they are limited in height by the stuff under the coaster you get 4 strong POPS of airtime, instead of like 2 moments of sustained airtime.
The finale helix is fun, and supplies some good forces and has you roaring into the brake run.
Overall California Screamin’ Is a great coaster, it is rather mild but that can be expected from a Disney coaster, in this park. The forces are strong in some areas (Loop and bunny hills) but lacking in others (Big Hill, and the second turnaround.) I liked the coaster and it resulted in several repeat rides but it just isn’t the caliber of other coasters.
9/10
After our ride on CS, we hopped on Mohulland Madness, which was a shocking okay Wild Mouse.
I was amazed by the speed of this lift, and the overall capacity of the ride. The turns are fun and not overall brutal, and the first big drop supplied some shockingly good air. I consider this to be my favorite Wild Mouse ride to date, with the exception of the spinning Reverchon. Bravo on keeping it fun without having to brake it overly.
7.5/10
After our ride on this we went on Grizzly River Rapids, in my opinion the best River Rapids Ride out there.
Luckily it was kinda a chilly day, so the line was non-existent. We hopped into the wonderfully themed boats, and got ready to go. After meandering around for a few minutes we go hoisted up the lift, the really tall lift. We spun around a couple times and encountered several little rapids splashing us marginally. Then we came to the first drop, which is shorter the second but unfortunately it is steeper and there is some hellacious rapids at the bottom, making a nice big, drenching splash. Of course I didn’t expect this so it was a tad shocking at first.
Then you go through a tunnel and some more rapids only to go down the finale drop which is less shocking and ultimately less drenching but the fact that they stop the spinning at the top only to spin violently on the way down was completely awesome..
You get wet enough to cool you off but not wet enough to completely drench you. So that makes this rapids ride the best of it’s kind that I have been on. Bravo!
9/10
After getting reasonably wet we went to Soarin’ Over California, to say the least I didn’t know what to expect.
We got in line and unfortunately were assigned to the right side and it was only running about 3/7 of the hang gliders. So the wait was a grand total of about 30 minutes, which still isn’t to bad. We waited and got no cell phone service in the building making my Java games physically impossible to play. Then we got into the boarding process and were herded into the lines and then the TV’s blinked on. It is really sad that when Robert Wohl pops on the screen the entire line chuckles. And this is not a one time thing, it happened both time’s I waited in line.
We got done with the short video and were loaded into the ultra comfortable gliders. And then we took off. I wasn’t sure what to suspect but getting lifted up only to be sitting in the middle of the bowl screen was amazing before the video started. Then it started, the flying through the clouds was cheesy and it was easy to make out each separate tile of the screen but once you were gliding over Golden Gate Bridge your mouth drops open in awe.
After this you glide through the orange fields, a river, LA at night and of course the Disneyland at night Finale. Amazing! We were both completely blown away by this ride and became without a shadow of a doubt my favorite non roller coaster ride. The attention to details is simply amazing, the wind and the smell. Two thumbs way up!
10/10
After a couple of repeat rides on California Screamin’, which included the greatly disappointing back seat we headed out of the park a mere six hours later. We conquered the park easily and it is a great park, but the only real reason I would ever go back would be to ride Soarin Over California.
3-5-04
We left our hotel to go to Knott’s about 15 minutes early so we could get our season passes processed. After that we, as well as most of the group, headed to GhostRider. Mostly because a sign up front said that Xcelerator was closed.
Unfortunately we discovered that GhostRider was a single train operation, while the line was minimal what would be a 5-minute wait for the back turned into about a 15 minute wait. Oh Well! GhostRider is worth it.
We buckled into the back seat and headed off. On the way up the lift I was hoping that it hadn’t gotten rough in the last year, which it proved to me that it hadn’t. The first drop is still a little jarring and it has the occasional rough spots but this coaster is still so amazing that I look past it.
Since it was only about 10:10 in the morning and we were on an early train the airtime wasn’t very strong, but GhostRider on a slow day can kick 90% of woodies on good days ass!
Then we decided to hit the back and get the living crap beating out of us on Boomerang. And then Xcelerator started testing! Yay!!!!!
It finally opened and I almost had to physically drag my mother on it. She wimps out but if I drag her on she ends up loving every minute of it. Of course the first day rides on Xcelerator are the exact same as the nights except that it isn’t dark. Who cares the launch and the airtime in the back are simply amazing.
We rode Xcelerator a couple more times, and then we hit Montezooma and Jaguar a couple times, and the log flume. We went back to Xcelerator for several more rides. Then back to GhostRider for more and back to Xcelerator for more.
The Park was empty and we were having a great time. At about 2 they added the Copper Train to GhostRider, and then about 3 they actually started to use it. But @ 5;30 we left and went to the hotel to check in. We checked in and discovered that we had a FULL NIGHT OF EVENTS.
We were to leave for Knott’s @ 6:15 and Ride Xcelerator till 8! And we did so and it was awesome. The ERT was relatively mild and we got another about 8-10 rides on Xcelerator in the back car and once in the very front.
Then at 8 we went for dinner and raffle at GhostRider midway, and had the best Boysenberry punch ever. The dinner was great but the B&M presenter was interesting for most of the time then got really dull after about 20 minutes. But still Silver Bullet looks fabulous.
Then the ERT on Ghostrider started! OMG she was running so out of control it wasn’t even funny! The airtime was amazing, especially on the drop and the laterals were so unbelievably intense! I have ridden GhostRider a lot and there were times it was flying so fast that you didn’t know what the hell was going on. And since we got the Radisson deal, we got some free photos, which was awesome. Riding GhostRider on this night made me think that “Man Raven and Cornball have some competition, cause this is amazing”
After another about 10 rides we retired. It was 12:30 and we had to get up at 6:30
3-6-04
WCS!
We got up, extremely tired and went to Knott’s. We got a few rides on Jaguar and Montezooma before ERT on Xcelerator started. I was sad to see this day come, but relieved a little.
I was extremely cranky during the ERT on Xcelerator, and people started pissing me off. This happened several times to my mother and me on the trip. I would step across a train to put my stuff in the cubby, and by the time I would get back (Maybe 10 seconds later) someone would be hopping into my seat or attempting to. By the third time or so it started getting really irritating. I understand wanting to reride so badly, but just wait 20 seconds more while everyone gets settle down so you don’t do this. Otherwise it is just impatience.
Xcelerator ran only one train the entire time, but this didn’t bother me because having one train isn’t a whole lot slower than two considering that the second train is roaring into the brakes when the first one just stopped In the station.
Lunch was held at the ballroom and it didn’t have the capacity needed so it was really crowded and congested. After lunch we went to the hotel for about a 2 hour nap and returned at about 5:30 for some dinner.
It was really crowded some three hours later. It was still fun, but Xcelerator now had about a 20 minute wait instead of ten. But that isn’t that big a deal so oh well. We rode on it a couple of times, and rode some flats to fill some time. I think the riding of the flats will be essential every Saturday night of the Solace.
And on that note I would like to add how much La Revolucion kicks butt if you are in the right seat, but you can’t seem to pick the right seat. I had about 3 GREAT rides and 3 good rides. It can be insanely fun at times.
At 9:45 we headed over to GhostRider and found that wonderful Knott’s decided to close the line early and were letting only us in! YAY! We hopped in line for the back seat. The line was still about 25 minutes long. And yet again GhostRider was flying at night. Absolutely insane, the airtime and the forces were nothing short of amazing. The line fizzled out as the night went on. And we got about 5 more back car rides on this wonder woodie! At 11:45 we called it quits, because exhaustion was setting in again.
Total Rides For Weekend:
GhostRider 25-40 (All back car except 2 front car rides)
Xcelerator 25-40 (All back car except 1 front seat ride)
MonteZooma 10-15 (All back 2 cars)
Jaguar 4 (everywhere and anywhere)
Boomerang 1 (don’t ask why)
Cali Scream 6 (4 front car and 2 rear car)
Muholland 2
This was such a great weekend, but any weekend at Knott’s is great since GhostRider is my 3rd favorite woodie, and Xcelerator is my number 2 so I simply can’t go wrong going there. Thank you to all who went that made the weekend fun, and I would especially like to thank Knott’s!
You were assigned seats unless you suggested the front. On Millennium Force, however you could choose the back also.
Seats are assigned only to make loading more efficient, however you can ask for any row you want on Cali Screaming.
Bravo on keeping it fun without having to brake it overly.
Braking depends on how many trains are running the circuit. The next day cars came to a near-stop after the first drop.
It is really sad that when Robert Wohl pops on the screen the entire line chuckles. And this is not a one time thing, it happened both time’s I waited in line.
First, that's not Robert Wohl, it's Patrick Warburton. Second, its supposed to be funny...why else would they ask the man best known for Seinfeld's Puddy to play the flight attendent?
Lunch was held at the ballroom and it didn’t have the capacity needed so it was really crowded and congested.
The ballroom was picked based on the number of preregistered attendees. The problem was the unusually high number of walk-ups and that other venues were already booked, preventing the park from moving the lunch elsewhere.
Glad you and your Mom had a great time!
mOOSH
I had basically figured out that the Ballroom issue was from an unexpected growth. I heard that last year attendence was between 250 and 300 (or so) and this year was over 400. Which makes me think that in a few short years, as many people will going to WCS as the Coaster Cons!
With the mistakes in the TR in general was laziness considering the fact that it took me like an hour and a half to write and became EXTREMELY tedious. Don't ask why it just did.
And in closing, I'm finally out of depression from such a kick a$$ weekend. To bad it is only once a year. Hey Knott's how about adding a Summer Coaster Solace.
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