Associated parks:
None
Well after Magic Mountain we drove down to Santa Monica and stayed there for 2 days. The day after Sfmm though, we stayed on the beach in Santa Monica for awhile. During that time, I managed to get a ride on WestCoaster at Pacific Park.
Westcoaster: 6/10
This was a hell of a lot better than I expected. This ride is just like a big kiddy coaster and it was actually a decent ride. It looks so slow when you see it go through but when you're on it in the back, well it still is slow, but it's a little faster then you'd think, lol. The 2 spots of air are awesome and pretty suprising too. Not bad for such a tame ride and worth the $4 it took to ride.
After that ride, it was pretty much time for Knotts. The only way that we were able to get to this park, was for half a day because my family was beaten up from Sfmm. We got to this park at around 3:30 which was a little to late to go to the Chicken Diner since I was ancy as hell to ride Xcelerator. So we got the To Go Chicken and was a little dissapointed. This chicken was not as good as I expected. I like KFC better than it. I was going into it thinking it would be like Barberton Chicken (NE Ohioans know, Barberton Chicken Rocks@!) But it just didnt seem as good as I thought it would be. I didnt care though, I just wanted to get in the park.
Alright, well when we got in, it was about 4:15 or so and we headed towards a Montezuma for a quick ride. About a 10 minute wait for it.
Montezuma's Revenge: 7/10
Whoever made the name of this ride is awesome. Never been on a shuttle loop and I wasn't dissapointed. Awesome ride! Don't know what else to say about it.
We then headed towards Ghostrider because we had to meet my dad, who parked the car, in ghost town.
Ghostrider: 9/10
This rider was simply amazing. Both rides were in the back, but after riding it in the back at night....I had definite thoughts of a top 5 coaster for me. I have the On-Ride Photo from night too. During the night ride though, I can honestly say my jaw was dropped the whole time. I could not believe I was riding the same thing I rode earlier on. No ride has ever suprised me this much. The layout reminded me a tad of The Villain, but this ride was a hell of a lot better. I can honestly say that this was the best ride that sports both laterals and airtime. The mix of them is just right. Great ride, definately my favorite woody. Move over Beast, Ghostie just kicked your sorry old ass.
After Ghostie we decided it was time for Xcelerator. When we got there, we noticed that the ride was closed, but the ops were all still in the station. So we headed over to Supreme Scream.
Supreme Scream: 7.5/10
Only 2 down towers were going when I was there. It was a good ride and I got a nice view of a dormant Xcelerator with a train stacked outside of the station and one inside. This ride was fun, but not as good as Power Tower or Big Shot. Better than Dominator at Dorney though, I'll give it that.
Well Xcelerator wasn't looking like it was going to run and I was getting a little depressed. So to get a little more excited about this park, we decided to go on Perilous Plunge.
Perilous Plunge: 8.5/10
For being a water ride, I don't think anything comes anywhere near this thing. Awesome ride, the harness system is horrible though. The line took around 30 to 45 minutes because of them. The staff was really nice about it but it's just horrible how they had to have these things installed. Great ride though, got drenched even though I didnt wanna get wet. I just went on it for the drop....Hell Yeah!
Right when we got off, I heard a blast and I looked to the extreme left of me to see a test, cresting the hill on Xcelerator. I could've pissed my pants right then and no one could tell cause I just got off the Plunge. Right away, we ran to the entrance and grabbed a spot close to the front of the line. About 7 more tests went through at an average of about a train per every 4-5 minutes. The employees at the front though, didnt know anything and said it might not even open. Well we waited, and waited, and waited. We went through about 5 phone calls to the employees, and none of them were to open it up. It started getting dark out by this time. The lights started coming on, and I started realizing that the whole reason the Knotts trip was planned, was starting to become a dissapointing part of the trip. Well about 10 minutes letter (note that by this time we were at the front of the line since most people gave up and left) they got the call, but not the call I wanted. The call to shut it down for the night.
Well it turned out that the ride was open from 9am-3pm. We got in the park a little after 4pm. By this time, I was heartbroken and dissapointed. We went to the guest relations and tried to get our money back. We told them we came all the way from Ohio to ride Xcelerator (and that we just waited there all day, lol)
Well while my one sister and mom were trying to get the money back, my other sister, dad, bro, and I decided for that one last ride on Ghostie to get the blood pumping and call it for the night. Wow, the hell with how depressed I was. This ride, in the back, at night, made up for my whole experience with Xcelerator. As I stated before, my jaw was dropped during the whole night ride. When you start thinking it's slowing down, it just gets even crazier. Awesome way to end the day. Plus we got a boysenberry topped funnel cake.....MmMmmMmmmmmmm....
Just a quick note: I'm not a track record ho, so i didnt ride Jaguar or Boomerang.
Well we got 4 of the 6 ticket's money back. Knotts was very nice about this and so basically, I got free rides on my now favorite wooden coaster, and water ride for that matter.
I don't know if any of you have thought about this, but if I had to pick any park in the whole world to be my home park, it would definately be this park. It just had the perfect home feeling. I know a lot of people hated this remark out of me, but I liked this park a lot better than Dorney if I had to compare it to this park.
Knott's moved into my #4 slot for my top 5 parks. Behind 3 really good parks too. Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Cedar Point. Although Xcelerator dissapointed me, this park definately did not.
X was not a lucky letter for my SoCal trip (X, Xcelerator)
G on the otherhand, was, lol. (Goliath, Ghostie)
Well this is the last part of my trip report. I've enjoyed writing these, but it was very time consuming considering im a slow typer, lol. Thanks for listening. I'd love to hear your feedback.
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Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Apollo's Chariot 1) Millennium Force
Check Out My Site: www.geocities.com/coastingohio
*** This post was edited by coastingohio on 7/29/2002. ***
I think I just like the position of Power Tower. I like looking out at the lake. It's just the same with Big Shot, the ride isn't all that thrilling compared to Power Tower or Supreme Scream, it's just the view that makes up for everything there.
I loved Knotts and I definately will try to go back there if I can atleast one or more times in my lifetime. We were going to ride that horse carraige thing, but I wanted to get to Xcelrator(at that time I didn't know it was closed.) Plus, I didn't come all the way from Ohio for a mine ride or log ride. I came for the coasters.
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Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Apollo's Chariot 1) Millennium Force
Check Out My Site: www.geocities.com/coastingohio
*** This post was edited by coastingohio on 7/30/2002. ***
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Top 5:
5)Raptor 4) Goliath 3) Ghostrider 2) Sros @Sfdl 1) Millennium Force
Check Out My Site: www.geocities.com/coastingohio
Sorry you missed Xcelerator, you probably don't need me to tell you how fun it is.
Other than that, I'm glad you had a good time, and yes, Ghostrider in the back at night is the best coaster experience in California! :)
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Xcelerator-
0-82 in 2.3 seconds! =Wow!
Good TR. Hopefully Xcelerator will be running for my visit. If its not it still seems like I will have fun since it wasn't open for you and you had a good time.
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Steel: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum
Wood: 1)Villain, 2)Beast, 3)Roar(SFMW)
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