SoCal Trip: KBF

My partner J and I were in southern California for a friend's wedding on Saturday, and figured it would be a great excuse to visit some parks while we were there. To start, we headed out to Knott's. Even though it was Sunday, I didn't think there'd be too much to worry about with the crowds. I was right, mostly - not too much of a wait on the biggest rides. I will be rating the rides according to our 8 part ride rating scale - long story on that, but basically it's my biggest emgee trait.

So, after arriving in the park, we opted to go ahead and wait for GhostRider. In retrospect, we should have let it warm up a little before riding, but we were able to get several rides throughout the day. Each ride got better as the day wore on - culminating in crazy back seat ride in the dark to finish the night. Having ridden this before, I enjoyed being there to enjoy J's reaction to the ride. Still as great as I remember, 8/10.

Next we headed over to Xcellerator for a little launch fun. After about a 30 min wait for the front seat we were off. I like this launch better than TTD for some reason. I think my perception of speed tops out around 90-95 mph, so all the extra speed is lost on me. Great ride, and we enjoyed less than 20 minute waits all day long. 8.2/10

Then we headed over to Boomerang. Typical Boomerang, but this may be the best maintained of all those that I have ridden. 5.8/10

Next up was Supreme Scream. Great drop ride, though I still don't understand why all three sides aren't opened. Even worse, at 8pm, they were down to 1 side only and a 45 minute wait. Because of that, we only got 1 ride in for the day.

Perilous Plunge was closed at this point, so we headed over to Riptide. HUGE line for this ride, plus I'm not usually crazy about these types of rides so we decided to skip it. It was very entertaining to watch, though, with the ride even splashing the spectators nearby.

We went and ate lunch at Mrs. Knott's. I just love this place. Great food, good service, and that boysenberry pie! YUM. Just like my last trip, We had lots o leftovers, and took them out to the car. Next we decided to take it easy and went over to check out the Snoopy Ice show. It was pretty good, though I prefer the show at CP since it involves more of the Peanuts characters, and the songs of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. The Mission Impossible and Matrix sequences were especially entertaining.

After that we decided to go check out Jaguar. We waited for an eternity in the slightly claustrophobic queue. When we got to the station, we saw why. Group after group after group of people were coming up the exit and riding one person per row. Maybe there were a lot of disabilities that don't have any visual clues, but most of the people appeared to be perfectly capable of standing and waiting. It took us about an hour from the time we got in the station house to get on the ride. It also didn't help that the crew was taking it's sweet time in dispatching each train. When our train returned to the station, the crowd in the station revolted. It seems there was an entire train of people waiting in the exit ramp and the folks in line were none too happy about it. As we left the station, we heard the ride op shouting "Calm Down!" over the station mike. Being in customer service myself, I know that one of the biggest mistakes that can be made is telling an upset customer to calm down. Ah well. Luckily, this is still a good family coaster, and we gave it 4.9/10 mostly because of the whole operation snafu.

Then we hit Montezooma's Revenge - fun launch and I LOVE the airtime in the back seat. There is just nothing out there like a Schwartzkopf loop. *Sigh* 6.6/10.

We took it easy for a while after that riding Calico Mine Ride, Timber Mountain Log ride, Mystery Lodge, and Bigfoot Rapids. Myster Lodge was really cool. Very neat effects throughout. My only suggestion would be to find a better actor for the Storyteller, and get rid of the stupid glass wall.

Back over to Perilous Plunge before it got dark and too cool to get too wet. We waited for 1 boat, and went through the lecture on how to secure the restraint. I certainly felt that I wasn't going anywhere without that boat around me. Fun drop, though about half way down, the water spraying up kept me from seeing anything for the rest of the drop.

Then we spent the rest of the evening reriding Xcellerator and Ghostrider - enjoying the multiple train operation and fast crews.

After 2 visits, I love this park even more. J and I discussed that it seems like the perfect home park: lots to do, but not too bad on the crowds. After running it through the 12 factor park rating scale - there's that emgee peeking out again - Knott's turns out to be our second favorite park overall, only behind IOA.