Ghost Town Alive has returned to Knott’s Berry Farm again this year with a brand new storyline and a footprint that expands to the great frontier. This interactive experience is one of the most unique theatrical attractions at any theme park, and I’m excited to share it with you today!
This is the first time I’ve been able to visit Ghost Town Alive, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, I was very confused as to how it worked at first. But that’s part of the fun, exploring, asking questions, becoming acquainted with the characters and what’s going on in town.
The best way I can explain it is that Ghost Town Alive operates very much like a role-playing (RPG) game. If you’re familiar with the particular game, it’s honestly almost like playing a real-life Red Dead Redemption.
The basic structure is this:
- The main storyline that unfolds throughout the day, including scheduled events.
- Various side storylines from the perspective of different characters in town which often trigger special quests and events.
Main Storyline: Founder’s Day
Still centered around the annual Calico Founder’s Day, the main storyline seems to kick off with the arrival of a unit of the US Military Cavalry to Calico. I arrived right in the middle of Friday’s Alive so I had to consult the newspaper to catch up on what was happening.
Just after arriving, I stumbled onto the main story unfolding, some sort of dispute between the Cavalry and the Mayor at City Hall about the safety of Calico. That’s really how you find things here. Other than some pre-set activities, everything happens in real-time and at random (at least from the perspective of the guests).
I found that throughout various times of the day, I had absolutely no idea when one of these events was going to happen. In some cases, it would be written somewhere like with Scruff’s trial.
At other times of the day, something big would happen right next to me and I’d have to figure out what’s happening. I actually had to cut short what I was doing at the Assay Office to figure out what was going on when I noticed the cavalry bringing out a wagon with a big box in it.
You never know what you might stumble onto with Ghost Town Alive, you might even make the front page!
Side Storylines
When it comes to the side storylines, there’s an incredible amount of depth and variation. The improvisation in play and how well each character knows their stories, as well as the stories happening around them, is quite impressive. Potts and Colter, the new Calico River Rapids-based explorers, are new this year and are central to some of the larger “quests” for you to do.
Since Potts and Colter’s trading post is out on the river, it can be difficult to figure out where you might find them. I tended to spot Potts near Ghost Town Grille and Colter near Town Hall, but you can always ask the other citizens of Calico if they’ve seen them. Their guide to the legendary creatures of Calico is an important tool to get early on.
It has descriptions of both creatures and the various trail markings you’ll find around the town. The creatures are rather clever and you’ll find evidence of their whereabouts, like their different footprints, scattered about.
The trail markings denote different dangers. Those dangers can present themselves physically too, I heard bears and snakes near signs that read “hibernating critters nearby.”
As I’ve stated before, the Calico Gazette near the end of Main Street is a good place to start if you’re trying to catch up on what’s going on. Bixby Knolls tends to be up to date on the happenings around Calico and each edition of his newspapers are vital information, including the map and times sheet on the back.
Here’s a little anecdote of a simple interaction I had to explain how dynamic this experience is:
After receiving the current edition of the Calico Gazette, Bixby asked if I would bring Mayor Parnell a copy. He also mentioned that he was having a critter problem and if I saw Potts or Colter to ask if they knew how to get rid of it. After having a brief conversation with the mayor and handing him his newspaper, I found Colter with some sort of puzzle in City Hall. This is how I learned of the guide, he pulled one out to look up the creature I was describing. Unfortunately, he somehow ghosted me after telling me he was going to go talk to Bixby about how to get rid of the critter, but you get the idea.
Walking around, I observed different characters interacting with guests in a variety of different ways. Deputy Travis McCance was playing a card game.
Judge Roy Bean was…judging people as they walked in. He even got up to add some commentary about the cavalry to a conversation between a guest and the mayor’s wife, Pearl.
The Assayer, Zeke Connely, was showing some guests a few rare geodes and then…dropped them.
The more you keep coming back, the more storylines you may uncover.
Hoedown
At the end of the day, the story is wrapped up at the 5:30pm hoedown. All citizens are invited to attend and vote on a very important issue.
There’s live music and the citizens teach you how to do a couple dances.
It’s tough not to wonder how the upcoming roleplay elements of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge are going to stack up to the incredible detail of Ghost Town: Alive. This whole experience relies heavily on improvisation and interacting with real people, and I think that’s a charm that will be hard for other parks to replicate. We’ll be covering Galaxy’s Edge this week starting on Wednesday evening, I’ll be sure to let you all know how the Play Disney Parks Datapad compares to Ghost Town Alive.
This and That
If you’re looking to show off your love of Ghost Town Alive, the General Store has some shirts, cups, hats, coasters, pins, and…a tape measure.
Don’t forget that starting next week, Knott’s will be hosting Summer Nights, a nighttime summer party that follows Ghost Town Alive, so you can roleplay during the day and then dance the night away. They’ll have plenty of food and drinks to try as well, so much that they’re offering a tasting card. We’ll be there when it starts on June 7th.
Have you made plans to visit the new Calico River Rapids at Knott’s Berry Farm? Check it out:
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That’s it from the Farm for this week. Have you been out to Ghost Town Alive? Did you find it as charming and engrossing as I did?
