Voyage To The Iron Reef Dark Ride For Knott's Berry Farm

[Oscar]

SNJ wrote:

Really excited for this. Wondering if it will be where the Kingdom of the Dinosaur ride was. Glad to see a dark ride is coming back to Knott's. Hopefully there are more interesting rides coming there in the near future too.

That is the exact location that it is being built in.

This ride will be awesome and the name is kind of weird name!

[TTD03]

^ Yes... indeed.

[Oscar]

We'll be attending media day for Voyage to the Iron Reef in May!

cant wait to see the pics/videos on and 2 days after my bday!

Seems really cheesy, but at the same time looks like it might have some potential. Can't wait for media day!

[TTD03]

Looks great!

[Dirk_Ermen]

The video is a nice teaser. I am wondering what kind of ride this is going to be. When reading the name I'd first had an idea this could be something similar to "10.000 leagues under the sea". But after reading all the interactive 4d stuff it sounds like this is going to be a Mack shooter with some 3d screens or hopefully something like "Huntik". (Which is basically Spiderman @ IOA but than with guns)

My hopes are really going towards a good darkride with the interactive element. Although I've seen some Senyo 4d darkrides which were horrible, so let's hope Knotts isn't buying one of those because they're cheap.

[Paradox]

POV is out and I think WMG is far better than this due to the small coaster portion and the drop track at the end. The projectors are also visible which is horrible.

Not really a fan of shooting dark rides, even the Disney quality ones. This one looks fun, but not really for me. No matter though, because families visiting Knotts are going to eat this up.

[Oscar]

We were there for media day today, we posted reviews throughout the day on twitter. I'll be posting one tomorrow here, its like midnight now and need some zzZZzzZZz

^ Have a good rest.

[Oscar]

Voyage To The Iron Reef Opens At Knott's Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm on May 13, 2015 open Voyage To The Iron Reef to members of the media and season pass holders. A lot has been expected out of this attraction since it was long due for Knott's to get a proper dark ride.

This is where the queue begins for Voyage To The Iron Reef

The queue was kept minimal but still themed to the ride.

This is one of the interior walls where the queue circles around inside.

This is another wall that sits in the middle of the queue.

You are handed 3d glasses before getting on the ride. We thought these would be like all others that get you a bit dizzy but these were good actually. You didn't get any vertigo sensation wearing them.

The cars that you ride in are very comfortable. There's no seatbelt or any type of restraint on it. It just slides open and close with plenty of room to move around inside. In front of you there's the ray gun, 4 per car and you use those to shoot down the evil metal fishes and to defeat the Kraken at the end.

We weren't able to take pictures or video during the ride so I'll give you a rundown of it. When you go in, you're in a submarine and dive under the sea to begin the fight. You move past the first screen onto another one and start right off shooting at the menacing steampunk fishes that are trying to take over the boardwalk. The laser guys are quite accurate and easy to handle. You move from screen to screen to build up to the octopus fight where you shoot at its laser touting tentacles and destroy them. You can also shoot at the rest of its body and parts start to come off from it. There are really cool air jets throughout the ride to give you that 4D sensation. They are just right in terms of pressure to feel them but not be bothersome.

When you get off the ride, you can check out onride pictures along with top scores.

They air jets are well synched with the action going on the screen so when the octopus jets off, you feel the wind caused from the propulsion it makes. When fighting the Kraken, you also get some really good synched air jets there. Particularly when you give chase to it, it does give you the sensation as if your car is going after it.

Here's a shot of the queue building before boarding the ride

The story is real easy to get into and you can really into the story of it shooting at all the things that come at you. There's several easter eggs hidden throughout the ride, be sure to check them out when you ride Voyage To The Iron Reef.

Summary
The first 2 times we rode it, there were some issues but Knott's and Triotech were on hand to fix them right away. On our 3rd ride, everything was perfect and way better than our first 2 times. Had we only ridden it once or twice, we would have been disappointed. It is a new ride so kinks are to be expected. I give this ride 2 thumbs up and recommend you ride it when you visit Knott's. The ride is cool, the graphics are great, the overall experience is amazing. Knott's did an excellent job with this attraction and can't wait to see what other dark rides pop up in the other Cedar Fair theme parks.

[Dirk_Ermen]

I like how it's settled in an underwater themepark. Gives a cool atmosphere.

[TTD03]

Nice trip report Oscar!

[coolbeans326]

for some reason, I thought the cars had simulated movement like on Transformers. Is this not the case?

[JAMMY]

Love the concept, but just wish they'd had the budget to make it a bit more spectacular, hiding the projectors would be a huge improvement if they can afford to improve it upon future closed seasons. I'm sure a lot of the GP will love it though, most people love an interactive ride.

[Oscar]

coolbeans326 wrote:

for some reason, I thought the cars had simulated movement like on Transformers. Is this not the case?

This is not the case. I was expecting them to have that

Well, as for the shooting score I would stink at it, lol, sorry!

Pretty different from what I was hoping. I thought that would be like Crush's Coaster at Disneyland Paris. The ride has a great potential, though.

[TTD03]

Well overall, I am very excited to ride this in November!