Another exciting reopening. After a slew of successful food festivals since summer of last year, Knott’s Berry Farm is now ramping up to their grand reopening on May 21st with a Season Passholder preview! And it’s quite the preview with all attractions open! But this is only a lead-up to the beginning of the 100th Anniversary celebration later this month. Brian Pinsky and I took a trip (or two…or more) around the park to check it all out for you.
Season Passholder Preview
Familiar, Yet a Bit Different
Knott’s is in a unique situation. The park has been mostly open in one way or another since last summer, hosting multiple food and merchandise events. They just wrapped the successful Taste of Boysenberry Festival; it was so good that I went three times! Because Knott’s has had guests in the park for a while, they’ve been able to tweak their approach to state mandates for a (mostly) smooth transition from the festival back to the theme park.
As a result, Knott’s didn’t have quite as much work to prepare for reopening as some other parks. Knott’s has been show ready for months. The experience isn’t much different than what we’ve had for some time, now it just means we can ride some rollercoasters. Oh, and also experience the brand new Knott’s Bear-y Tales, the awesome family dark ride nestled into the back of the park. But I’ll have more on that in a moment.
Even after the season passholder preview ends (May 20), reservations will still be required to enter the park (you can make one as far out as September currently). They give you both a date and a time to visit. Times are set every thirty minutes so not everyone shows up at once. Although, we did see people bunching up a bit waiting until their reservation time began. We had no trouble getting in, otherwise.
Three things all theme parks are asked to enforce are masks, physical distancing, and sanitization. Knott’s has done a great job with all three during their previous food festivals, so we expected that to continue… but unfortunately, that’s not what we can report for our first trip back.
While there were just as many sanitization stations around the park as before, we found masks and physical distancing to be a bit more inconsistent than our previous visits. In most cases, we don’t believe this a lack of Knott’s trying— there are a significant amount of distance markers around the park and plenty of reminders posted to wear masks. This is likely a guest-driven situation, the park will have to try harder to maintain its requirements.
At the start of the day, most people were diligently wearing their masks. Unfortunately, as time went on, we became aware of an increasing number of other guests around us taking their masks off outside of designated areas and/or walking around the park with it pulled entirely below their chin. Right now, masks are still required by state theme park guidance and by Knott’s policy. This was less of a problem during the Taste of Boysenberry Festival, perhaps because people were naturally in and out of designated dining areas. It seems Knott’s will have to increase staff enforcement.
When it comes to social distancing, what we’ve noticed just about everywhere continues to stay true: when six-foot markers are not used, guests won’t naturally stay physically distanced. One particularly poor example was guest services; it maintained long lines all the way to park closing. And for what? We aren’t quite sure, but it was likely related to season passes/pass benefits. We saw multiple employees laying down more markers throughout the park, so we know that Knott’s was paying attention.
Overall, things were fine. During busier parts of the day, some areas did become uncomfortably crowded, but we’d just head to a less-crowded area of the park. Just as they tweaked and adjusted the first food festival, we anticipate things will be smoothed out by the official public re-opening on May 21st.
Attractions
Speaking of minor issues, we found that many attractions were going up and down all day. Technically, all attractions are operating, at least according to Knott’s calendar. Even still, a few things weren’t quite ready yet and/or were having technical difficulties.
We had intended to ride Log Ride and get photos of the few small changes Knott’s had made last year prior to the (original) start of the 100th Anniversary (some new figures and a new song by Krazy Kirk and the Hillbillies).
Unfortunately, the ride was down for most of the day and only came back up for a short time. By the time we returned to ride, it was down again.
We never saw the train operate, either, although it seemed like it had meant to. The bandits were still out interacting with guests all day.
Hat Dance also wasn’t quite back together yet, though it has been freshly painted. The actual hats on top of the ride vehicles weren’t there when we arrived in the morning, but they were actually all on but one before we left; Knott’s is moving fast.
Huff and Puff was also closed, with most signs still covered. But they have enhanced the queue with plexiglass panels between rows.
Despite technical issues and seemingly long lines, we were able to ride the new Bear-y Tales attraction twice with minimal waits. We rode the Calico Mine Train twice with similarly short wait times. Just keep in mind that your mileage (and wait time) may vary.
While attraction reliability appears to be fluctuating, it might take a while for them to all get back to their pre-closure efficiency. Average waits for the big rides seemed to be around 20-40 minutes for much of the day, not outrageously long. Wait times are not being posted right now, so it’s hard to tell.
The problem with judging lines is that they all ‘look’ long due to 6′ distancing between parties.
Knott’s Bear-y Tales
Along with this passholder preview, Knott’s Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair is now open. While the official opening day is the 21st, anyone currently visiting the park can ride this charming new family dark ride. New is a relative term, as the theme of the attraction is a Knott’s classic in an updated, modern package. That said, I think it’s a slam-dunk for Knott’s; this attraction is not to be missed.
Impressively, Bear-y Tales seemed to consistently hold an acceptable queue length every time we walked by (likely an hour max, but 40 minutes on average). In fact, Bear-y Tales may be one of the most efficient rides in the park just because they can seat every row (since there’s only one per car), and it loads/unloads quickly. That’s particularly nice for a new attraction since it means you can potentially ride it a few times during your park visit.
If you want to learn more about the new Bear-y Tales, I previewed the attraction last week and detailed my thoughts in the article below. Included are also two videos, a ride preview and another I put together after chatting with the Knott’s team and Chris Crump, who worked on the original Bear-y Tales (with his father, Disney legend Rolly Crump). Also, I can’t get the theme song to get out of my head, which is a good thing.
Knott’s Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair is Jam-Packed with Family Fun!
While you’re here, you can pick up the new Bumble Bear-y’s Boysenberry Pie at the Coffee Hut. It’s a small boysenberry pie to tie into the Bear-y Tales attraction. It’s so delicious you probably won’t want to share it.
Knott’s 100th Anniversary: A Knott’s Family Reunion
Postponed from last year, Knott’s will be holding their 100th Anniversary this year. The theme is “A Knott’s Family Reunion,” which will include many throwbacks for longtime Knott’s fans. The anchor, of course, will be the new Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair. We’re told there will be photo ops and other goodies to see for nostalgic fans.
Also returning this year will be an anniversary version of Knott’s Summer Nights, the bonanza of live music and food festival. It will culminate in a synchronized lighting show that centers around the Sky Cabin’s “K” icon.
Knott’s 100th Anniversary will begin on May 21st, when the park re-opens to regular guests and will run through September 6th (when we hope Scary Farm will have a chance to return).
For now, entertainment mostly consists of the Ghost Town and Peanuts characters.
Some signs of the 100th Anniversary have already started popping up. The 100th Anniversary is all about nostalgic attractions, and Knott’s is particularly using Bear-y Tales, Sky Jump, and Soap Box Racers. All three now have their own midway games throughout the park. If you liked the Bear-y Tales ride, you’ll want to play the midway game since it’s (eventually) getting its own nostalgia-themed prizes.
It looks like Knott Radio is sticking around for the anniversary as well, leftover from the Taste of Boysenberry Festival. If you haven’t seen (or heard it), two DJs take over the Boardwalk area and do a live radio show. It’s cute and full of corny jokes.
Knott’s Food and Treats
As we sat down to eat lunch, we were pleasantly surprised to see the Boardwalk BBQ had significantly changed their menu. We expected a limited menu, but in this case, it has been expanded. That likely has to do with the growing popularity of the all-season dining plan. Prices seem to have increased as well, although portion sizes have also increased.
While Boardwalk BBQ’s menu has expanded, its hours are more limited. Hopefully, this is a temporary change since it’s my go-to spot for food while at Knott’s. This was particularly true since Fireman’s Brigade BBQ had a line that was estimated around an hour for the majority of the day.
As we made our way through the park, we realized that just about every restaurant had new menu items. Here are a couple of menus with new items, starting with the inconsistent Coasters, which has a printed and a digital board that doesn’t match right now. The printed board has a $56 item listed called “Xcelerator, The Burger,” which has us intrigued. We wonder if anyone actually ordered it, or if it’s just some sort of stunt.
Another interesting point, everything that’s new is missing the calorie count. Either it isn’t there, as with the Wilderness Broiler, or it’ll say “XXX Cal.”
Even the Calico Saloon had a few new items, which again have “XXX Cal.”
I’ve been craving a Calico Soda for about a year, so I couldn’t resist getting one.
One of the only restaurants not open was Johnny Rockets, which promises to be open on May 21st.
Video Walk-through of Knott’s Berry Farm
And to close out our trip from Knott’s Berry Farm, Brian and I did a live walkthrough around the park. Join us as we go into more detail about the reopening, tour through Camp Snoopy, plus take a look at the adorable Bear-y Tales merchandise in the video below:
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Let’s Hear From You
That’s it from Knott’s Berry Farm for now, but we’ll be back soon to check out the 100th Anniversary at the end of the month. Have you attended a Knott’s passholder preview day or looking forward to visiting when the park opens to all guests? We look forward to hearing from you.
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