| Thoughts

It would take all the crack in California, and that San Andreas has a lot, to enjoy Knott's Berry Farm

Even though my visits were during the off peak season the park was still relatively busy and yet there was an insistence on single train operation on the coasters, single register operation in the catering and retail outlets, single boat operation on the rapids, single log operation on timber mountain (the last two may have been exaggerated slightly for affect) together with lethargic staffing just made for a lot of unnecessary queuing in a setting that is hardly inspiring

The park layout is a massive grid system which makes rookie navigation a confusing ordeal, the themeing which is largely western, doesn't sparkle and shine perhaps as much as it should though lets try to be positive and have some fun

"Pink Stealth" also known as Xcelerator is a beaut, this tiger sure purrs chiefly thanks to the *cue heavenly fanfare* lap bars, leaving your upper body unrestricted to enjoy the 200 feet of top hat action injecting just a trickle of airtime enough to tickle the heart strings of even the seasoned coaster geek and wonderful swoopy curve bit at the end

Knott's has a strange collection of coasters I'm not sure if it's strange in a good way they're just very odd, take jaguar the giant zierer family coaster, millions of people here in the UK get to ride this every night as a POV is used as one of the idents for our Channel4 network

GhostRider was a headache so moving onwards and upwards there's not one but two shuttle loopers with their crazy forward and backward shenanigans, the boom blast off intensity of Montezooma's Revenge or the kinky for all the wrong reasons Dutch sadism of Boomerang enough said

Silver Bullet probably should be good but it was strangely indifferent, definitely admirable for the unique layout for me it seemed like it had been too forced onto its footings and didn't really sit comfortably in the park

Perilous Plunge is crazy wet and steep but the Californian climate makes it alright and Timber Mountain Log Ride was a fantastic log flume with great scenery, I'd be interested to try the infamous Halloween overlay

Yeehaw for a taste of the old west there's a mine ride, stage coach and railroad tours the latter of which features actors which made for a unique experience, on the more generic side there's a giant shot down tower Supreme Scream and floorless top spin with water jets Rip Tide are both rides of note

Knotts Berry Farm has a lot of kind of good rides but there's just something underlying that stops them from gelling together well to make something truly special