Trip Report How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Knott's (Knott's Berry Farm/Disneyland Trip Report)

Knott's Berry Farm has been an enigma in my life for a long time now. It started out as that little park across the road from Disneyland that I would have loved to visit except for the fact that when I was a kid going to Disneyland was absolutely sacred so the one time a year I did make it up to SoCal no days were wasted on a non-Disney park. That all changed when the structure of my SoCal trips changed as an adult. Most of the time I'd be staying with friends instead of at an on site hotel, so the idea of doing stuff besides Disney slowly crept into my roster. Two years ago I did a marathon Disneyland/Knott's/Universal/Hamilton trip, for example. In all that time though, when I finally did make it to Knott's I instantly fell in love.

Knott's Berry Farm has an atmosphere and vibe unlike any other park I've experienced. What it lacks in big E Ticket thrills it makes up for in charm, charm, and more charm! Not to mention a fascinating history that's nearly twice as long as Disneyland's. Knott's set the stage for stuff like themed log flumes and highly immersive dark rides that pre date some of the iconic Disneyland attraction. The Ghost Town area there is rich with history with every building being pulled from a real life ghost town and cobbled together into a themed land. The three big attractions there are Timber Mountain...perhaps the greatest log flume ever created and the inspiration for Splash Mountain...Calico Mine RIde, a dark ride with Pirates levels of immersive set pieces, and Mystery Lodge, an incredibly unique theatrical experience about the storytelling heritage of Native American tribes who were local to Orange County.

Point being, I love Knott's almost as much, if not more, than Disneyland itself. Which is why my grandma and I have decided for the first time to take a SoCal trip not focused on Disney, but on Knott's itself. This trip will encompass three days at Knott's Berry Farm with a side day at Disneyland...the opposite of how we usually do it. I intend to use this thread to showcase all the wonders and Imagineering creativity that the park has on offer and to just have fun chronicling my first Knott's centric trip. Leaving for the airport in 30 minutes, so I'll be sure to keep this updated throughout the day and the rest of the trip!

 

[spacemt354]

Have a great trip!

More wdwmagic meet-ups woo!

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

I’m in the park and at the GhostRider entrance. Gonna ride that and then find you I suppose.

We're at the exit just past the photo building. I'm wearing a tan button up shirt and gray Disneyland jacket.

 

[D Hulk]

We're at the exit just past the photo building. I'm wearing a tan button up shirt and gray Disneyland jacket.

Go do accelerator. I’ll see you at the exit.

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

Go do accelerator. I’ll see you at the exit.

Any update? I've done XCellerator two times already because the line is empty haha

 

[D Hulk]

Any update? I've done XCellerator two times already because the line is empty haha

Just exiting GR. On my way.

 

[spacemt354]

How'd the meet-up go?

 

[D Hulk]

How'd the meet-up go?

Short but sweet.

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

Meet up was great for how little time we had. Only attraction we managed to get on was Calico Mine Ride, but the conversation and walking around Ghost Town was worth it. I even showed D Hindley a pepper's ghost effect in one of the Ghost Town windows he never knew about.

Also on the way out of the park there was a guy wearing a fully detailed Predator mask waiting at the guest pick up point on a motorcycle...so yea, that was interesting.

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

Yesterday in general was the relaxing day of the trip. Started off rope dropping GhostRider before getting two laps in on XCellerator and meeting up with @D Hindley. After the meet up my grandma and I traveled up to with Monkey to see @MANEATINGWREATH in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

The show was very good and it was awesome finally being able to see MEW perform. Some of the sections of the show dragged but that was less due to the production and more a combination of not getting a lot of sleep the night before and the fact that the show in general has a very old fashion pace to it.

Returning to Knott's in the evening, the park was insanely crowded with lines over an hour for pretty much all the coasters including Jaguar. Mystery Lodge was packed and the rush into the theater literally felt like a Disney rope drop with people yelling "RUN, RUN!!!" at the top of their lungs.

Highlight of the night was definitely Krazy Kurt aka Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. This was a long running show in the Golden Horseshoe that's even better at Knott's because of the more loose and relaxed nature of the park. Seeing Billy perform is what I imagine it was like to see Sally Boag in his prime. Keep in mind the band only performs on Saturdays and Sundays, so plan accordingly.

Waiting for Disneyland rope drop right now. The plan is to tackle Indy, Pirates, and Big Thunder in the first hour.

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

 

[FlaggNL]

Following along! Never been to Knotts! Thanks for sharing!

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

Going to go ahead and crack out the last two days of the trip report from home so I'll have access to a keyboard and inserting reference photos will be infinitely easier. Also plan om writing up full attraction spotlights for Calico, Timber Mountain, and Mystery Lodge. Expect all that up over the next couple days.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Here is the final day of Tiki's trip in vlog form! That channel is my personal channel where I've been vlogging as of late.

 

[Pi on my Cake]

Here is the final day of Tiki's trip in vlog form! That channel is my personal channel where I've been vlogging as of late.

Looks like a lot of fun!

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

Finally getting back to this slowly but surely. I've been jet-lagged for the past couple days.

Day three started out wonderfully at Disneyland. After briefly popping into the Main Street Cinema on my way to rope drop and seeing that they finally installed benches in there, I started my day at Indy before marathoning the west side of the park and getting Pirates, Mansion, and Splash all done in the first hour the park was open. Everything on that side was totally walk-on. I imagine the big rope drop attractions in the park currently are Peter Pan which I didn't want to fight the crowds navigating around the under-construction castle to get to and Space Mountain which has now been gifted with single rider.

Popping into Fantasyland, I got in line for Casey Jr. before seeing this guy and needed to get out of line to snap a picture. He was just walking around without a character attendant!

After doing single rider on Space (a god-send. Gets you on in literal minutes!) I took the railroad over to Main Street to catch the Dapper Dans and meet up with my grandma. Oddly the Primeval World was entirely under construction tarps. @Pi on my Cake was it like this when you were down there? Meeting up with my grandma we took in the Tiki Room and briefly explored Tropical Hideaway before getting lunch at Red Rocket's/Pizza Planet and meeting up with Monkey.

With Monkey we basically repeated all the stuff I had done this morning as that was what he wanted to do haha...so Pirates, Mansion, Splash etc. We also did Jungle Cruise with a rather spirited and improv-heavy skipper...always a treat when that happens, and Fastpassed Big Thunder. After that we did Pinocchio and Snow White before hitting Matterhorn single rider...BIG MISTAKE! This thing killed my back the rest of the day. I went to Golden Horseshoe after this to sit down and vividly remember the rough chairs just making my back worse.

My grandma and I took the Monorail to the Disneyland hotel to go to Trader Sam's and met a guy by the name of Trader Don who's apparently a famous Tiki bar enthusiast. He was telling me about his idea for a themed Natilus bar that would have been perfect as a SYWTBAI project. Dude seemed super genuine and bought everyone at the table a round of drinks (we had let him and his group sit at our table of five that that we felt guilty taking up with two people, haha)

After drinks, we rushed over to Tortilla Jo's for more drinks! Oh yea, and dinner too. At this point I was so intoxicated that I got a case of the hiccups and had a hard time finishing my tacos, but I can tell you that the jalapeno margarita here is KILLER.

Going back to the park, we hit up Small World, Storybook Land (where we encountered a LOUSY group of foreign tourists who were constantly taking flash selfies and talking over the guide...) and ended our night with Indy fastpasses and Mix Magic which I was actually rather impressed with. I've never seen such elaborate Matterhorn projections before.

More pics will come later today and I'm still going to finish up with the last Knott's day and some attraction highlights. Gotta run for work at the moment!

 

[Pi on my Cake]

After doing single rider on Space (a god-send. Gets you on in literal minutes!) I took the railroad over to Main Street to catch the Dapper Dans and meet up with my grandma. Oddly the Primeval World was entirely under construction tarps. @Pi on my Cake was it like this when you were down there? Meeting up with my grandma we took in the Tiki Room and briefly explored Tropical Hideaway before getting lunch at Red Rocket's/Pizza Planet and meeting up with Monkey.

No, that construction is new lol. They must've noticed the dinosaur I stole

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Knotts I enjoy the Log Ride, Indian Lodge, Rapids, and Calico Mine Ride, the rest I find just standard 6 Flags fare. Nothing wrong with that I suppose but the theme is completely ruined when there are giant bright colored coasters everywhere. Glad you had a great time though!

I have a soft spot for Knott's, having grown up visiting the park at least once a year. I cannot agree more with the excess of coasters being all too reminiscent of a Six Flags or even a fairplex. That being said, the Ghost Town, three major dark rides, and Mystery Lodge make up for it with a sense of nostalgic charm. Heck, even Camp Snoopy is worthwhile. Bigfoot Rapids is currently receiving a renovation to include animatronics and set pieces, so I'm hoping that adds to the park's charm. There were quite a few Bigfoot wood-carvings found throughout the park, so I'm curious as to whether or not Knott's will be getting its own "Matterhorn" with the rapids renovation.

As much as I hate the sight of coasters everywhere, I do love Knott's for its history, preserved atmosphere, and attractions that maintain its charm.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

I do definitely enjoy the themed attractions as you mentioned, I have also been going since I was young. My favorite ride was the Dinosaurs ride which was sadly destroyed. My family stopped going to Knotts in the early 2000s when the area and visiting crowd got really sketchy. The last few times I went I was disappointed with the state the park was in (2017), especially after hearing glowing reviews from Micechat.

I found the park to be incredibly dirty and it was all highschool aged visitors. Waiting for coasters was frustrating because they take the six flags approach and let people go to whatever row they want with no cast member guiding them.

Maybe I visited on an off day but I was not impressed, nor was my wife who was a first time visitor. I hear a lot of people mention Knotts as some sort of Disneyland equivalent cause they are priced out, but I fail to see that in any way. Hope they continue to improve their cleanliness and go with more themed attractions.

I'd disagree with the audience that says Knott's is a Disneyland equivalent, because it certainly is not haha. However, the best time to go is on a Monday or Tuesday in the off-season. We literally had a ghost town on our hands. The lack of crowd control and direction in ride seating, however, is a huge negative to the park. @TheOriginalTiki, Monkey and I had a huge issue with Ghostrider's wait time when there should have been no wait at all. Knott's has the nasty habit of running one coaster train at a time, which really makes the wait for most rides unnecessary. Timber Mountain has a great people-eater aspect, whereas things like Ghostrider and Calico Mine Train might have a poor wait because of their limited capacity.

Fortunately, Buena Park and Beach Boulevard have both cleaned up quite a bit in recent years. They're nowhere near perfect or 100% safe, but neither are Ball Road and Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim. It's a shame the SoCal theme park scene has such poor conditions outside the berm.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Glad to have someone else agree that Knotts is not a DL equivalent. That seems to be the big thing now is each price increase article people post "This is ridiculous, my family switched to Knotts which is amazing" etc. To me those parks are not even competitors.The park is ran a bit better than it was in the mid 2000s but I wasn't seeing all the "huge improvements" everyone mentioned.


I will take your word for it and go on a Monday and Tuesday if I come back. I visited on a Friday and it was packed. Awesome to hear it was a ghost town!

Ghostrider was the first ride we went on (at opening) and it also took an incredibly long time due to the lack of crowd control as you mentioned. We also waited about 20 minutes for "Pony Express" but this broke down and the operators did not alert the line. Timber Mountain is a classic. Ghost Rider was incredibly bumpy when we rode it, was that the same case for you? (and not standard wooden coaster bumpy).

Glad to hear the area around Knotts is a bit more cleaned up than before. I wish the themeparks in so cal weren't in sketchy areas or trafficky areas. Anyone who has driven to get gas from Disneyland knows how bad things are just a few minutes from the park.

Ghostrider had a huge refurbishment last year that helped smooth it up. It's still super fast and a little rickety, but it's a whole lot smoother than it was just a few years ago. Of course, Timber Mountain and the Calico Mine Ride have both undergone massive refurbishments that have easily improved the overall experience of both rides. I look forward to seeing what originality is brought to the Bigfoot Rapids refurbishment.

The charm of the park is still there, it's just a matter of going at the right time of year and hitting all the right spots.

I couldn't agree more about SoCal theme parks and their surrounding cities. Both Beach and Harbor Boulevard have generally cleaned up, but it isn't hard to meander a few feet north or south and stumble into a sketchy neighborhood. For years, drive-by shootings and gang violence plagued the immediate areas outside Knott's.

 

[TheOriginalTiki]

I'd disagree with the audience that says Knott's is a Disneyland equivalent, because it certainly is not haha. However, the best time to go is on a Monday or Tuesday in the off-season. We literally had a ghost town on our hands. The lack of crowd control and direction in ride seating, however, is a huge negative to the park. @TheOriginalTiki, Monkey and I had a huge issue with Ghostrider's wait time when there should have been no wait at all. Knott's has the nasty habit of running one coaster train at a time, which really makes the wait for most rides unnecessary. Timber Mountain has a great people-eater aspect, whereas things like Ghostrider and Calico Mine Train might have a poor wait because of their limited capacity.

Fortunately, Buena Park and Beach Boulevard have both cleaned up quite a bit in recent years. They're nowhere near perfect or 100% safe, but neither are Ball Road and Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim. It's a shame the SoCal theme park scene has such poor conditions outside the berm.

God yes, the coaster ops at Knott's could really use some work and are probably THE biggest black mark against the park. That GhostRider situation especially was ridiculous and frustrating. They were still running both trains but just not loading anyone on the second train...this went on for HOURS, to the point where at the end of the day when the ride should be close to walk on it was like five switchbacks deep. I never like to wait in one train op lines especially when the ride in question is a three minute beast like GhostRider. I also found GR's fastlane situation to be very problematic...you basically present your pass at the bottom of the stairs then go up the stairs in a separate line and through a turnstile that leads directly to the rows. This is problematic because the first time it happened I literally thought people were sneaking up an exit pathway and line jumping. Even more worrisome considering there's NO cast member there to assign rows (BIG mark against GhostRider's operations. I've literally never seen one assigning rows even though it's consistently the most popular ride in the park.)

Ironically I found XCellerator's operations to be pretty dang good considering how notorious it is for break downs. I got two laps in while waiting for @D Hindley but could have easily gotten four in the time it took him to get through the GhostRider queue at rope drop once. Even when the station was near empty they still had a person assigning rows, and they were working hard making sure dispatches were as close together as possible.

Controversial opinion, but I think I actually prefer Beach Boulevard to Harbor Blvd. Harbor has always had an air of sketchiness to it that will never fully wash out unless Disney buys the entire street outright. There's constantly trash on the street, homeless people, insidious salespeople trying to shill cheap light up toys and stuff like that. It's generally a pretty gross atmosphere, with that stupid pirate buffet right in the middle of it. Beach on the other hand doesn't have as many cheesy hotels but it does have Medieval Times and the Pirates dining show...neither of which I've done but both make the area feel more like a Downtown Disney. It's also got The Cauldron which is basically the unofficial Knott's Trader Sam's. Plus I like how inviting the Knott's Marketplace is and you can just walk up to it as opposed to Downtown Disney which is blockaded by a whole squad of security people every time you want to go in and out.