kbf 2011 the good, the bad and the ugly

[jayman]

oscar and i met up at knott's today to check out the new windseeker and see how other things were going in the park.
the good part, it was free!! because i'm a vet, and i get one guest free as well. and it wasnt crowded at all.
the bad IT STARTED RAINING LIKE CRAZY, just when there'd been a break in the rain long enough to crank up xcellerator
the ugly HORRID MUSIC BEING PLAYED THROUGH SPEAKERS THROUGH ouT THE PARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i swear to god .. it's supposed to be an old wes ghost town, i highly doubt that ol' joe the miner went back to his shack after a hard day at work in the mine with a bowl from panda express and cranked up b52's "love shack " serious tacky poop here .
anyhow here's the more detailed report, when we got to the park it didnt seem like it was raining much , it was "drizzling" a little, off and on, but it got worse,
Ghostrider, the thing about the mcbr being cranked up .. thats true, but to be fully fair , in the back .. it isnt as much of a bummer as i thought it'd be .. overal ghostrider was in pretty good form especially considering what i was expecting, it didnt seem as rough as it had been a couple years back. and suprisingly the second half of the ride wasnt killed as much as one might think. one plus here is that since it was raining all day i got my two rides during breaks in the rain ..
windseeker is a pretty neat idea..
it's HUGE, and the seats do move outward from centrifugal force so it actually is moving kind of fast. heres the thing about it being at knott's. the veiw is terrible. i mean , it's nice to get an aerial view of the coasters, but surrounding area , and the area directly below is just not appealing to the eye,neat ride though, the spinning swing on the huge tower is freaky.
we rode the pony express because alot of the other rides were getting closed by rain, cool little ride.
now, to me the most important rides in this park are calico mine train and the log ride , and we rode those next,
the mine train is looking a little shabby on the outside, a few of the waterfalls were turned off, and it kind of ruined the effect, the ride seemed to be pretty well maintained, and on a day like today , i think they were doing lots of things to save money, because the log ride was running well, but ponds had been drained and they had that god awful christmas theme with the elves going on in there , still, glad to see that they are still there and working pretty well.
xcellerator never opened. we were talking to the maintenance guy and he was replacing sensors on the track between the holding area for the train before it goes into the station , he said he would have it open after 2 test runs..after the first , the next didnt happen and it started to "sort of " rain again, i think around this time we made it over to silver bullet during a break in the rain ,
silver bullet was running very well,over all fun ride.
it started raining like CRAZY when decided we would ride "supreme scream" literally, the moment they strapped us in it started POURING !, it kept up the rest of the day , while oscar and i kind of tried to find ways to keep out of the rain,
we probabally split there about 445 pm, but before we did we stopped at the information center and wrote letters of complaint about the horrid music coming out of the speakers everywhere we went . it took me nearly 2 hours to get home because the storm was headed south
it was a very wet day, but we had fun .. and there's photos to prove it .








and as you can see .. a very wet day

[coolbeans326]

yea, what were they smoking when they decided the new music was a good idea.

Good report dude. Shame about the weather, but although you complain, it's like that 363 days a year here! Slight exaggeration i know.
That's the thing thats putting me off a Cali trip. Dont want to spend ?????????3,000 coming over for a couple of weeks hitting some parks for it to rain or for you to have a huricane or some shiz.
Feel like i should though, been on this site 7 years now on and off so might just have to get up and do it!

[jayman]

rain is rare. but it isnt the first time i ever had to go to knott's in the rain
...

Ive seen a picture of you on that train before somewhere...

I just want them to open up something above the arcade, maybe having to do with dinosaurs or berry tales

[jayman]

they've got bigger problems.. much much bigger problems.. the day ended with me and oscar writing long letteres of complaint about a certain cedar fair employee.. the CEO. these letters were endorsed by several employees.

I think Meta and I's trip turned out more exciting than your trip....

Something tells me that things will be changing in January when Kinzel leaves. How much is still a mystery but I think we will see major changes throughout the chain. Music though, that is something all parks need to work on. Not only the type they play and where, but the sound speakers themselves.

[jayman]

here is the letter i wrote them today
to whom it may concern (and ESPECIALLY TO THOSE IT DOESN'T SEEM TO )
i visited your park yesterday , and in spite of the rain i had a very nice time, espescially because i am a vet and didn't have to pay , in fact i spent a grand total of ONE DOLLAR, and that was on the "prize cube game"
knott's employees are incredibly friendly and helpful, even in miserable weather, and most of the park was in good repair, with the exception of the two most important rides there, the log ride and the calico mine train, which to be fair, were hopefully going through some sort of seasonal overhaul.
my complaint is directed at cedar fair. as a result of the rain i was able to spend a lot of time talking to employees , of all tenures and ages. you have shat upon their home, many of them have worked there for decades. i'm suprised they could be as freindly as they were considering that they think you suck . i wish i could be more cordial but i have been visiting knotts since the early 70's, and apparently cedar fair is confused as to the meaning of " theme park"
from what i could gather yesterday cedar fair's board of directors is made up of people either no older than 14 or with no concept of good taste, or both( i was a 14 year old with better tastes and LOVED the ghost town as it was) . i highly doubt that after a hard day of work in the mine ol' joe the miner stopped and got a chicken bowl at panda express and went home to crank "love shack" by the b52's . who's idiotic idea was that? oh wait.. i already know, the new ceo .. was this the same idiot who thought that dumping demon drop in the middle of knott's was a good idea? i guess not, because that was a couple years ago and this guy seems even stupider. no.. apparently the cedar fair ceo thought that the ambiance of a ghost town was "stupid" and like "walking onto the set of a clint eastwood movie" WHAT PART OF THE WORD "THEME" do you not understand? the music that you had coming from those speakers might be appropriate for a seedy traveling carnival, but seedy carnval isnt the goddamn theme, in case you need to be reminded the theme of ghost town is.. uhhhmmmm OH YEAH .. "ghost town" ..many of the employees i expressed this concern to heartily recommended that i write this letter. they know knott's (some of them knew THE knotts') and it's target demographic much better than you do , but you have ignored them .and dont give me this "we rebuilt the peek -ins what else do you want? "crap. you have some people working there that could really make knott's shine again, but you ignore them.
once again, i thak you for the opportunity to get into your park for free in november , because i wont be visiting any other time of year until cedar fair pulls it's head from the hole in it's posterior, which i imagine is highly unlikelely. i also want to express my thanks to the employees who really really did a great job yesterday, from the maintenance man on xcellerator who was busting his ass to get it running in a break in the rain to the custodians who made sure we didnt spend the day walking through giant puddles. if it weren't for them that horrid crap coming from those speakers would have completely ruined my day
yours truly
j. margart . .

God damn I hate Cedar Fair.....

Dear Kinsel:

I thourouly enjoyed the massive headache I got from riding Shivering Timbers the appropriate number of times. It was so great that it earned the #1 spot on my list of most rough coasters. Thanks for doing this to such a great ride.

with sarcasm,
Jonny Richey.

Jay, I think you have the makings of a letter that just about everyone in the coaster community would love to sign, seriously, if you get an e-petition going, I would sign it in a heartbeat. On a side note, I had a feeling Knott's was starting a slow downward spiral the day the closed the Soap Box Racers to make room for the greatest coaster folly ever.

Jay, I would like to point out some concerns I have with that letter.

First, music is not decided on the corporate level. That is the park choosing what they want to play where and when. I can tell you from experience that Dorney for one changes its in-park music soundtrack about one time every 5 to 6 weeks.

Second, the new CEO (now President) is not yet in office. He will go in the CEO spot sometime in late January. He has already made many changes to the parks and it seems that many of these will be for the better. Nothing will change overnight but I believe that you will see themed attractions and events ramped up in the coming years.

Hopefully your opinion of the park and chain overall will change as the new CEO gets settled in.

[jayman]

not at all.. we were told by park operations that the ceo himself ordered the music changed hinmself, despite the park management reccomending against it. dorney is a straight up amusement park, knotts is supposed to be a "theme " park .
i dont have any problem with the chain as a whole because i havent been to any of the other parks, but i CAN tell you that they are meant to be full on amusement parks, knott's is different .

Do you really think parks care about addressing concerns from a person who writes a letter with that terrible diction and grammar? In my opinion, had you written something with a bit more class, you might actually get a decent reply; or even someone interested enough to try and improve some of the things you mentioned. As is, I expect the letter will go into the same junk pile as those from spoiled coaster enthusiast kids, whether or not your concerns are actually valid. I'm sure you're a smart guy, but if you want to get heard, consider using that intelligence and applying a little tact to your message and I'm sure you will get a lot farther.

[jayman]

they don't deserve tact and that is the point

You already told them you only go during free days, you only spent $1, and you don't care enough to write without being so offensive with your diction and grammar. They will completely disregard your comments, that is my point. Waste of time considering the fact that your letter will most likely go straight to the trash before they finish reading the first few lines.

I've been to KBF twice already and I have yet to ride Silver Bullet! I was there about a month ago during the Halloween Haunt and it was a blast! Finally got to ride Ghostrider (really fun!) and Windseeker was a very nice ride. I really like that park.