Knott's Berry Farm

Ah, Knott's Berry Farm.

What can I say?

Okay, if you are going to to the L.A theme park thing, and you have never done it before, PLEASE do Knott's, Universal Studios et al first.

Do Disneyland last.

Please.

Or do Disney and that's it.

I'm sad to say that Disney spoiled us for every other theme park we did.

The attention to detail at Disney led us to expect similar standards elsewhere.

We stayed in Buena Park, opposite Knott's, and we could see the tall rides from our room.

Each night it was lit up like a Christmas tree and we looked forward to riding the rides.

But, the entrance to Knott's kind of tipped us off that what we were expecting after Disneyland would not be what we would experience.

It was confusing as we walked in off the footpath with the gate for the carpark being the first thing we saw.

The entrance to the park was sort of tucked away off the side we felt. 

Knott's was rather expensive to get into, even with a discount coupon we found in a tourist booklet.

We got there shortly after opening time and we felt like they were still about to open; some rides and attractions were deserted or not even operating.

The first port of call - Snoopy.  Or Camp Snoopy to be precise.

But we didn't really see Snoopy or any of the Peanuts characters until much later in the evening when we were walking through to leave.

Linus is one of my favourites and I didn't see him at all.

We rode the train through Camp Snoopy.

It was kind of a let down seeing all of the 'background' stuff behind the rides, like rusting metal, broken down carriages, general maintenance equipment; it was all stuff you rode past and there was no attempt to disguise it.

All of that was well hidden at Disney so it was a bit of a let down.

Camp Snoopy is designed for the smaller child so there wasn't much to see or do there so we went looking for the fun, scary stuff.

The Accelerator was so fast!

The take-off takes you by surprise and jolts you into awareness.

It was heart-stopping when it rockets straight up then plummets you straight down - vertically.  

We rode it a few times.

At one stage I had a bit of a brain freeze and was momentarily terrified that The Princess had fallen out - luckily it was just the tip of my scarf that had brushed my face on the way down!

We wanted to see the Snoopy on ice show - but the ice had melted and the shows were cancelled.

There was no public announcement made and it was only when you went to line up that someone told you that there was no show and they didn't know when there would be another one.

So the kids rode the dodgem cars instead.  

Lunch was a disappointing meal of burgers.

I would have loved some more salad on my burger or at least a tasty beef patty that I didn't have to drown in salt for some flavour.

It was also rather expensive for what you got.

This place for lunch was our second choice after Johnny Rocket's which was full and had a wait time of over half an hour for a table.

Lunch done with, it was back to the rides.

I don't think we'd do Knott's again if we go back to L.A. 

It was full of local teenagers on the day we went and even though the rides were great, it was a bit of let down.

It was a completely different demographic to Disney and it just didn't feel 'as fun'.

Many of the stalls and shops were completely unrelated to the park and just felt 'added on' to make money.

Maybe if we were younger and the kids were older we would have liked it better.

Oh, and sorry for the massive length of time between this and the last post.

I have just finished getting all but one memory card downloaded on to my computer and sorting them into albums.  

I'm very lazy I think!

And it took me over 1/2 an hour just to download these photos to Picassa - the joys of slow internet speeds.

There are still more from Knott's to add but I might do a post of just random pictures another time.

Next post will be on the Disney Wonder - one of the highlights of our trip and our main reason for going to America.