Knott's Berry Farm and the New Silver Bullet
Knott's Berry Farm: Knott's newest coaster, a cool inverted, well- themed addition to Ghost Town (and a few other thoughts, too).
From Rhys Evans
Posted December 23, 2004 at 10:56 PM
I had the pleasure of a one-day trip to Knott's, with Silver Bullet being the main objective, but crowds were light enough to hit all the big ones. Silver Bullet has been open about two weeks now, and it's a commendable addition to Ghost Town (I scored it a solid 8). By the way, Silver Bullet refers to zombie-killing projectiles from pistols, not watery, flavorless low-cal beer from Colorado. There were apparently some evil creatures attacking Ghost Town, and only bullets originating from the Calico Mine were able to dispatch said zombies --good thing Knott's Berry Farm had a functioning mine nearby! (Umm, wasn't Calico a GOLD mine? Oh, well).
So, lines were quite short, two Silver Bullet rides first off and one later (and yet one more even later for a few in my group, but I'd just had dinner). The coaster climbs over what remains of Reflection Lake, but not much time for sightseeing! A great loop (105 feet tall, I think the cast member said), a cobra roll immediately adjacent to the front gate-a nice welcome to the park for coaster freaks like me, a few more spins and my favorite part, an ascending flat spin over the lake (pulling a few g's, I don't know how many). There's also a nice "swoop" or two over the water, just before the brakes.
I wonder how the new coaster passing right by the Wild West Stunt Show will affect the latter; but since they haven't changed the stunt show significantly in more than 25 years ("Don't hit me, I just ate a taco" by a audience-planted dude in a loud Hawaiian shirt -- groan groan groan), it may be a good thing.
Two back-to-back rides on Xcelerator, Boomerang then Riptide and my tummy was ready for a break! A nicely themed, seasonal version of the log ride (Elf Mountain Christmas, I think they called it) -- good job, Knott's, though of course the log ride is a classic. And then the cool Calico Mine ride. I love this one; yeah, it's a calm, leisurely tour-like thing, not a thrill ride, but it's fun. Though you can't understand 70% of the audio, it continues to drive me nuts that they say "Stalagtites" in the cavern portion, but I'm a former National Park Service cave tour guide, so I'm perhaps a bit oversensitive (I can't help it, here's a three sentence geology interlude: Stalactites have a c, which you can remember because the c stands for "ceiling." Stalagmites have a g, which stands for "ground." Both stalactites and stalagmites are formed by slightly acidic water dissolving limestone in the rock above the cave; the limestone (calcite) is then re-deposited very slowly on the formations inside the cave). Anyway, I can't tell you how many cast members I've mentioned this to, and I've filled out at least three visitor comment cards on this subject.
My stomach was ready to rumble again, so we went over to Ghostrider, definitely high on my all time Top-5 Woody list. It is getting a bit rough as it approaches it's teen years, but still an absolutely awesome ride. By this point, lines were rather notable, 45 minutes for GR, so we didn't re-ride (until after dark, and it's almost an entirely different ride after dark!).
With apologies to readers in, oh, Wisconsin et al, it was a cool December day, high 50's and low 60's, so it was just too cold for Bigfoot Rapids and definitely too cold for Perilous Plunge, which they were running with nearly empty boats -- a few young-uns foolish enough to hang out on the bridge.
We went over to Montezooma, Jaguar was temporarily down, but we caught it later. Over to Mystery Lodge, which I've always loved -- saw it first as "Spirit Lodge" at EXPO 86 in Vancouver, BC. Yeah, the story fits better in the northwest, but it's good that this utterly cool attraction found a home; it's a shame that so many visitors to Knott's seem to skip it.
Wrapping up, Jaguar was running, Ghostrider after dark, I even rode the sky cabin and the stagecoach for the first time in about 15 years. In summary, a darned nice day, Knott's is a class establishment... Needless to say, the place was clean, staff was friendly, I had a nice piece of chicken and of course, boysenberry pie!
From Rhys Evans
Posted December 24, 2004 at 4:03 PM
And a detail I left out: Maybe just a rumor at this point, but the much-hated "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs" (#5 on TPI's "worst" list) was closed, I couldn't see any signs and it wasn't on the map, so it may be closed for good!
the dinosuar ride is closed for good that's what i heard and another ride is going in next year.
From The Beast
Posted April 22, 2005 at 8:44 AM
it is true... kingdom of the dinosaurs is no longer with *poors liqour on ride* but I highly doubt that a new ride will be in there by next year
Give them about two years.
This discussion has been archived, and is not accepting additional responses.
