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While planning this trip I was not aware that it was going to take place during Spring Break. However I am glad it did because it allowed me to experience how different parks handle large crowds and the usual difficulties associated with Spring Break operations, like staffing and operations.
With as many people living in California, the usual notions of seasonal operations are not in effect. Daily operation is an expectation for each of these parks and I was expecting that each park would cope quite well with the task before them.
Day 1 - Knott's Berry Farm
I got to the park way earlier then I was expecting due to the crazy nice roads they have in LA. I ended up heading over to the IHOP across the street to eat breakfast and watched as maintenance ran their safety check on all of the rides.
I noticed quite quickly that the dispatch interval was off on a few of them and that this would likely be a result of one train operation.
After leaving IHOP and slapping down fifteen bucks to park I ventured on foot up the road and underneath Ghostrider. At that point maintenance was up on safety brake looking at the brakes, and shortly there after an operated announced over the ride PA that the ride had been energized and motion will begin in 5 minutes.
Shortly after I hear a gong going off. Now I have heard and seen many types of warning sounds being used on large rides like Ghostrider, but never before I seen a gong being used.
The lift starts and the first train runs out of station down and around the bend and slams onto the lift. The first thing I noticed was how clean these PTC trains were. For the first time in a long time it almost brought tears to my eyes to see that they weren't covered in grease, failing apart, running with faded paint, and missing trim pieces. From the looks of em they were somebodies pride and joy.
And then the silver train came out of the station, a little quieter but with a noticeable increase in momentum. It hit the lift with such speed that the tension system snapped back as it was dragging the chain up with it.
This train was in even better shape then the last. It was hard to tell if it was new, or if they just took their time in rehabbing it with all brand new parts. The wheels still shiny silver like they just came out of the box. I am still at a loss for words, Who ever was responsible for this combination of moving mechanical art should be proud.
I watched maintenance complete their morning ritual by handing the ride over to operations.
Shortly there after I met up with Oscar near the Season Pass Processing center and once through the gate we found our selves corralled behind the ropes. Figures. After the national anthem, which was a nice touch, we made our way to the first ride of the day. Silver Bullet.
Even tho we were one of the first 200 people in line we still had to wait 20 minutes to ride. Silver Bullet was one of the major attractions operation with a single unit. The second unit was sitting in the shed with the dust covers off.
Silver Bullet sort of left me disappointed at first, it felt like it was a force less watered down B & M whose elements were created by slightly adjusting the alignments and size and slapping it together in auto-cad.
When I rode it later that night my mind changed completely, I was happy that it wasn't another B&M catalog coaster like the Batman clones. It was something unique and not something you will find anywhere else.
After getting the whole Knotts experience it was something that was a right fit for a park that wanted a mix of family rides and thrills. There is also not a whole lot of room to build a coaster of such magnitude so it was also good use of the land that was available.
Next up came Ghost Rider, we waited about 40 minutes in line and with out any intervention landed in the silver train in the middle of the train due to Oscars back issues. At first he didn't want to ride, but when he saw the light of fresh trains he decided to ride.
Ghostrider was just plain and simple awesome. It had all of the elements you would expect of a classic wooden coaster and a modern wooden coaster constructed in a compact earthquake resistant structure. After the safety brake the layout reminded me a lot of the grand finale of Texas Giant, and the somewhat flat helix towards the end reminded me of the rattler.
I could not find a single problem with this ride other then a few sections of track in which the trains where jack hammering and causing a yellow flag for unnecessary roughness. The ride was even better at night as the only running lights on it come from segments of LED rope light stapled underneath the hand rails. The extra inboard outside knee padding was neat and came in handy.
A lot of credit needs to be given to the operations crew who was running Ghost Rider that day. I did not see a single instance of stacking the entire day. Even when they were tired towards the end of the night as many of the crew worked a double shift to ensure that it stayed open for us to enjoy, they still did not slow down or fade.
Next up was Xcelerator. I have worked around these coasters before but really never had the chance to ride one. The last one I worked with was Kingda Ka shortly after it was built. I didn't ride it because it was still broken at the time and the engineers where still figuring out who was responsible for the undocumented high probability of roll back feature.
The paint was fading, the queue line theming was just meh, the ride layout itself is kind of a one trick wonder. I am usually not a fan of rides that take longer to load then to cycle.
The best description of the ride cycle is like being seated in a seat belt equipped washing machine that gets hit from behind by a cannon ball at 82 MPH. Some where there after it goes skyward where you almost ejected from it then after a brief circle your velocity monster gets handed over to some really aggressive MAG brakes managed by a PLC that was never trained to understand the concept of single unit skip block braking techniques. (Where if more then one block of end brakes is available you let it run out across multiple blocks to avoid slamming)
The launch and stop where equally violent, much more violent than the premiere launchers I have worked on. We rode it twice throughout the day and after the second time I was starting to get a head ache. This was another ride that only hand single train operation. The second unit was in several thousand pieces next to a shipping container near the maintenance track.
La Revolucion - Not really a coaster, but worth a mention.
Thought it was a fun tamed down floorless suspended version of a Huss Frisbee. The ride operator was very nice and I gave my usual advice to not let any one off until somebody barfs.
Jaguar! - This was a very long family roller coaster which offered a good tour of the park and a couple moments of fun followed by moments of pain. We rode it three times, the first two were walk ons the third was a 45 minute wait. Also had one train operation and I thought it was funny how the after noon crew would spiel into the queue line that the wait time was over 1 hour in order to keep their lines down.
Montezuma's Revenge - This ride brought back so many memories of my time at Six Flags Astoworld and working with Greased Lightnin'. This is the last operating Schwarzkopf fly wheel launch coaster in the United States.
I was like seeing an old friend, it performance, characteristics, operation exactly the same. It is such a simple ride and fun ride, slow ride, strong vertical loop, spike do it all again backwards.
The second time we went to ride this that night we arrived to find that it was down. There was an operator at the entrance to the ride who would only tell people the standard "We are closed due to technical difficulties." I decided now would be a good time to make him talk.
The conversation went something along the lines of this:
Operator: Im sorry folks, the ride is currently closed due to technical difficulties.
Me: I understand that you cannot elaborate on the nature of the difficulties with your ride, do you mind if I ask you a set of technical questions so that I may make an informed decision about waiting for it to re-open?
Operator: Sure go ahead.
Me: Is the cable still attached to the sled?
Operator: Yes
Me: What is the location of the sled?
Operator: Behind the train.
Me: Did you get a trouble light?
Operator: No Trouble Light
Based on that brief conversation, noting the train was in the home position and that no one had summoned first aid or the fire brigade it was probably going to open real soon.
About sixty seconds after this conversation ended an area supervisor said "We are open." and we walked up and rode it. Turns out there was no technical problem, just one of the operators heard an abnormal noise and wanted to have it checked out. I watched one of the grey haired mechanics explain to the operator what the noise she was hearing was.
They did the right thing and I rather have an operator be informed about the mechanical or electrical aspects of their ride then an operator with a hand on a bible explaining to a judge why the killed someone at the push of a button.
I have to laugh at this because every noise on a ride that old is abnormal.
Calico Mine Ride - Not really a roller coaster, but this thing was cool. I don't think we will ever seen anything built like it again due to the expense involved in building the building and elaborate theming through out the entire ride.
Timber Mountain Log Ride - For the same reason as Calico Mine Ride I think this is one of the best log flumes in the country, it was very well themed and it lasted longer the the average log flume. I liked the way that they incorporated additional photo eyes along the ride linked to a camera system so that they can spot people standing up in the boats. I also liked the way that they incorporated the dump line from the upper level reservoir into a lighted water fall inside the dark room. Awesome special effect.
The theming is this ride is what the original log flume at Six Flags over Texas should've been.
Sierra Sidewinder - This spinner ride was neat, but it was not worth the 75 minute wait for the ride. The load time was way to high, it really didn't spin right unless you had unbalanced the cars by a couple hundred pounds. The crew of the ride seemed to have a hard time figuring out how to load the train and the complex task of dispatching it in a timely manner. Clearly a flashing green shielded push button that says dispatch is far too complex for todays youth.
This was the only ride we were only able to ride once, even at close it had a 45 minute wait.
Hat Dance - Oscar and I tested this ground based spinner ride out after dinner, unfortunately I was unable to make Oscar puke by spinning the thing so fast the speed regulator kicked in. We were also unsuccessful in causing a trouble light, an e-stop, or causing some one watching the ride to puke.
In closing this was one of the best days of the trip. We got to meet the social media team at Knotts and they gave us a very cool gift. I loved this park and would love to go again on a day less crowed and when max units are available.
FYI - Windseeker and Pony Express were closed, and we did not ride Boomerang for the reason that it is a catalog coaster.
More days to follow, I have over 100 pages worth of notes.
