PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
I think you should give Knott's another shot. Keep in mind that your visit to Knott's was the first in a long time for you, and it was in the middle of the day on Saturday, and you tried to do the water and theme park in the same day, which you acknowledged was too much.Perhaps the more interesting thing to come from not renewing our Magic Keys is the fact that we have no desire to go other parks we have annual passes for - USH and Knotts. You’d think we’d want to fill the DL void with the other parks but there is just no desire. Our last trips to Knotts and USH were so meh that they’ re just not worth the hassle. Not for our family anyway. USH worked better as a stop gap between DL visits where I would just take my son. Doesn’t work for the whole family with a three year old. My son boo’d me the other day when I half heartedly suggested going to Knotts (with encouragement from his mom).
Truthfully, I’m kind of regretting not renewing our Magic Keys. Aside from my daughter asking to go everyday, Disneyland is just a hard thing to replace. I can’t do more than an hour at the local park. You go the movie theatres that’s two hours. You go out to eat it’s one hour and half. Disneyland was a full day. It’s hard to replace two full days of entertainment a month that appealed to the whole family. Also, it broke up the weekend nicely. You appreciated Sunday at home when you walked 15 miles on Saturday.
Now, you could pop into Disneyland on a midday and be fine, because you know the DLR parks well, but I imagine that if anyone tried to do visit a new park (or a park you hadn't been to in some time) in the middle of the day on a Saturday anywhere, they wouldn't have the best time. So while I understand your reaction towards Knott's, imagine someone arrived at DLR on a Saturday in the afternoon and tried to do both parks in the same day. Their experience and reactions would probably be similar to what your family experienced at Knott's.
My thought? Maybe do a solo visit to the park by yourself before bringing the family back. Try and go during a less crowded time (if you're off on a weekday, that's most optimal, as the park is dead this time of year during the week. But even on the weekends, more people will come for Scary Farm than for the regular operating day. Going a Sunday vs. Saturday probably helps too if you can only go on the weekend). Scope out the offerings, get familiar with where things are, check out the things you didn't get a chance to experience (log flume that they totally ripped off for Splash Mountain in its Halloween overlay, Independence Hall, the Stagecoach ride, the train, look at the Mission dioramas, ride Jaguar-technically a roller coaster, but not much faster than the monorail with budget Indy-esque theming in the queue, the Halloween overlay for the Mine Ride, etc). If you're going on a Thursday-Sunday, check out the Spooky Farm offerings and see if there's anything there your kids might enjoy. You can then go back with the rest of the family and guide them towards things that they'll like without it the stress of being a brand new park (or almost new) for everyone.
And of course there's Scary Farm. Unfortunately NOT included with your pass (although if your pass has parking, parking WILL work for Scary Farm), but it's a PHENOMENAL event if you enjoy Scary Halloween at all, and I've heard nothing but good things about this, it's 50th anniversary year.
So while I get not wanting to go back to Knott's based on the experience you had, I still think there are still things there that you might enjoy or come to like. Already you'll be more informed than you were last time as to what you're getting into, and that alone will help. It took me a few visits to 'get' Knott's, and I suspect I'm not alone. Disney it's not, but there's still a lot that they do well and have to offer.