Knott's Berry Farm Update - April 4th 2015

We were at Knott’s Berry Farm for the phenomenal Boysenberry Festival, that you should definitely check out! There was, of course, a lot more to report on. In this post we’ll be looking at the Iron Reef construction, the Xcelerator progress being made, some general operations, the crazy crowds, and more!

At the Market Place the advertising for the new 2015 ride, Voyage to the Iron Reef, has started. For those of you who didn’t know, the ride is opening to the public May 15th.

Inside the park, look at Camp Snoopy’s new sign!

To give you an example of today’s lines. This is the Bigfoot Rapids line at noon, entirely filled, with all switchbacks in use. At 6PM, the line was still this long. It was quite a busy day at the Farm.

The Charleston Circle fountain is currently home to the Boysenberry Festival entertainment. Staying on the Boardwalk, I must say I really like what Knott’s does underneath Boomerang. Nice landscaping. Just like many other rides, Coast Rider was very popular with guests. I must say that when Knott’s added Coast Rider and the two flats to the Boardwalk, they made one of the best decisions ever. The Boardwalk is now colorful, lively, offers a lot more for families. (As before it was just RipTide, Xcelerator, Boomerang, Supreme Scream, and Perilous Plunge. Not a very family-friendly line-up). It looks, and suits the park, way better. What in this picture doesn’t want to make you enter the Boardwalk. It just looks fantastic. I figured I should just write about it at some point, as I keep telling myself how good it looks each time I’m there… 😀

Haha, let’s take a ride on… Never mind. Rip Tide remains closed. They should change the sign to ‘ RIPTIDE 720 Days Nonoperational’.

The Boardwalk pool is still drained, and it seems as if the park is peeling off the old paint that let loose, and will repaint it. Then of course fill it with water again. This 3D midway painting of the Iron Reef looks pretty cool!

So… let’s head over to Iron Reef. Construction! Work is finally getting external too! Must love the new wave-like roofing that will be coming to the station, which is upstairs for those of you who were confused. Work inside continues, and that’s the issue with a dark-ride’s construction. It’s quite hard to get a good sense of what’s going on!

Back to the Boardwalk. The trouble child of operations. Xcelerator. Super popular, super slow operations. (Nice picture huh? I know) 😀 Xcelerator’s Fast Lane has opened, and actually uses the first part of the old, regular, line! So now, on the left side, Knott’s created a new line, that will lead to the switchbacks. This is the new Fast Lane, which ends up at the ramp to the station. There an employee will hold the regular line, and the Fast Lane. This way the station and ramp remain less crowded, and the Fast Lane guests don’t end up waiting an hour after all. This does though, cause for a more frequent use of the switchbacks. Pretty ride! Let’s talk about the trains, several parts of the purple train have returned. Don’t expect the purple train to be running anytime soon though. The new grass looks really nice. And the line looks very long. Awfully long. This is the temporary fencing in the new ‘regular’ line. Which will be replaced with more ‘sturdy’ fencing in the near future, like the fences found elsewhere around the ride’s line;

The gift shop next to the Xcelerator entrance is doing it wrong… ‘Yolo’. Remember all the criticism Magic Mountain got in 2012-2013 for using YOLO? I’m surprised Knott’s took this road, 3 years later.

Ahh! I spy… Supreme Scream! All three towers were operating, keeping the Supreme Scream line to be one of the shortest lines at the park. And to celebrate these short lines at Supreme Scream, here’s an artsy Supreme Scream logo/ride shot.

Let’s move closer to the entrance. To the amazing Silver Bullet! This ride is definitely my favorite at Knott’s. Good ride length, nice transitions, great line-up of elements, etc. Silver Bullet was, of course, running two trains. Making the lines significantly shorter than Xcelerator’s. Didn’t come out the way I wanted to, but I realized I never took a shot from this angle from the second corkscrew. (Ar that I remember at least). So I took a quick one anyway. Yes, Silver Bullet is my favorite coaster at Knott’s Berry Farm. And yes, this Boysenberry Trifle with ice cream was my favorite food at the Boysenberry Festival.