knott's halloween haunt 2012

[jayman]

knott's Halloween haunt is a legend, and for good reason. this year was Knott's berry farm's 40th anniversary of this event. alot of people will recognize that "camp snoopy" was probabaly the ultimate score to cedar fair when they bought knott's, but haunt had to have been just as lucrative, and for good reason.
these days haunt has a lot of competition, BUT every one of those competitors owes knott's haunt a debt of gratitude because knotts' haunt started it all. i figured the 40th anniversary of the very first haunt would be something special and i wasn't dissapointed.
the weather was INCREDIBLE and the crowd, in my opinion , was perfect sized. they were letting people inside the gate a few minutes before 7 , which is something i see as a good move by the park they counted down and everyone cheered when they opened it up .classy

[jayman]

>>>NOW<<< ......---.........
a special report !!!!!!!!
first thing oscar and i did was hit ghostrider . theres lots of talk and pictures of new trackwork , and support wood. it wasnt "walk on " ,but we waited no more than 15 minutes. oscar mentioned the fact that were were going to wind up in the notoriously rough silver train. we did, but i was pleasantly suprised !!!!!!!
for the first time since my first ride the first half just blew me completely away, i couldnt believe how nice it was going ! surely, even if just for haunt, they'd turn off those brakes like they were meant to be ? no such luck .. it's like having to switch discs just before Luke skywalker goes in to blow up the death star... BUT it still went OFF in the second half , since we were in back of a 7! car ptc train we still got OUR air, and in spite of the dreaded stop (or maybe, sadly because of it ) the helix and it's lead up were just wonderful ! . truly almost back to being an awesome ride. right now it's two pretty good short ones lacking the transition that made them into an AWESOME ride .
,

[jayman]

back to our normally scheduled program ..
the mazes this year are incredible , i suppose they always are , but they seem to impress me a little more this time than they did the last couple times i went (2002/2006). the quality of the sets is superb. there was some serious work put into that. items ranging from cheap thrift store bric a brac to elaborate animatronics were brilliantly placed.
the talent was awesome , that has got to be hard work, when you think about it, and thats probably even harder for the vets, because of all the stupid cedar fair rules they have to follow.

[jayman]

>>>news flash>>>
silver bullet opened as we were walking by , it was fun. i got a WICKED jolt of "lose your tummy" air on the overbank and a nice float through the zero g roll..

[jayman]

back to our normally scheduled program ,
the mine train, for some reason, didnt get any talent this year, but they did go out of their way to "haunt it" this was kind of dissapointing because the mine train and the log ride are traditionally known as the absolute CORE of haunt. to be fair though , the operator told the story really well, and by the time we almost got blown up ,at least i knew the story .
the log ride was themed as evil dead.. i know, right , "HOLY poop THAT"S GONNA BE THE MOST AWESOMEST THING EVER IN THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!" it wasnt, sorry, it was cool, and they even had some talent in there, but it wasnt, you know , cool, (pluse.. wtf is up with that area after the first drop, seriously, that area used to be so mysterious and dark, now you can tell it's part of machinery ) great ride, though, and replacing the logger's cabin with one similar to the movie was cool .

[jayman]

>>>>this just in<<<<
montezooma's revenge is still fun , and a really well maintained specimen of it's type ..

[jayman]

back to the trip report.
one thing that i truly miss about the original haunt is the atmosphere in the whole park, there were parts of ghost town that were dark , like they should be , and sometimes the fog actually got thick for a second or two , oscar and i even got dissoriented, lol , but where were the spooks and monsters? when i was growing up , 2 miles north of knotts, the fog would ooze down the road all the way to our house, i couldnt see the familiar yellow K, when i was finally old enough to go ( there used to be an age limit ) it was the scariest thing i can remember. these days the fog is sparse, the lights are on ,and the talent seems timid.
that doesnt mean they arent talented though i think these folks were putting everything into what they were doing , even the blackouts, and simply held back by new times. ...
haunt is only going on for a couple more days this year, but if you can make it , i highly recommend it. theres a great little museum that probablly wont be there next year and the mazes are really good, all of them , and the 3d glasses are only 1 dollar..

Sounds like you guys had a good time! Good to know Ghostrider is doing better now... I always liked that ride (from my computer).

[jayman]

yes, from here on out until they fix them brakes i think i will refer to it as "ghost" and "rider"

I keep hearing complaints on how Cali is lacking in a roller coaster with air time, but this Ghost rider seems to have sufficient air time to me