“Now celebrating its 81st year, Knotts Berry Farm is Southern California's newest multi-day vacation destination, America's first theme park and the country's 13th most visited. Home to the Radisson Resort, Soak City USA (Knott's separately gated 13-acre water adventure park) and the three stunning rides Supreme Scream, GhostRider and Perilous Plunge that have all opened between 1997 and 2000. Knotts is a special place that has been attracting visitors since 1920. From world-class thrill rides to an action-packed Old West Ghost Town, to the magic of Camp Snoopy, Knott's isn't just any theme park. It's The Theme Park Californians Call Home.” So what did I think, read on and see!

Knott’s has more than 165 rides, shows attractions, restaurants and shops, which I can believe, but out of that 165, your mainly talking about restaurants and shops. Most of the rides are standard rides you might find a fair and of the 3 Major rides, GhostRider, Supreme Scream and Perilous Plunge only 2 were operating.

The Old West Ghost Town area was nicely themed, but full of shops and restaurants. It would be very difficult to spend a whole day in the park, since there seem to be so few rides. GhostRider is a 4,533-foot wooden coaster with an initial 108-foot swooping drop, 13 additional hills, banked turns and speeds of over 60mph, oh and it’s painful! To be fare most wooden coasters are, and GhostRider had some brilliant moments of Airtime, and is a decent coaster.

Fiesta Village looks dilapidated, but it is very clean. Home to many spin and spew off the shelf rides and a family coaster, which the younger children will enjoy called Jaguar.

The Boardwalk is home to the neck breaking Boomerang, which is awfully painful. It also is home to the amazing Perilous Plunge the world's tallest, steepest and wettest water ride. The ride sends guests up a 121-foot-tall lift before plummeting them down a world-record 115-foot water chute at a revolutionary 75-degree angle, that's just 15 degrees from a vertical drop-off! As already mentioned it was closed, in the middle of summer on a busy day, it looks great, I’m sure I would be singing it’s praises but I’m not.

Kids will have fun in Camp Snoopy, which has a lot of rides for them to enjoy, but for older members you might have trouble finding rides to enjoy which don’t hurt you. Supreme Scream is one you will find, a great drop tower which has a faster loading pattern, and is just a great ride.

I may sound unfair in my review, and I am sorry if I do but I didn’t enjoy my time at Knotts for one main reason, the staff. I hate to say it but the staff that were operating the rides, were the slowest, most un-helpful, un-friendly staff which I had encountered. They were always chatting to each other, and not looking out for guests to greet them. They were rude to guests and did seemed to go out of their way to cause you problems. However there were a few staff members who were a saving grace, mainly those on the attractions such as Gold Panning and displays of things like the Blacksmith. These areas and staff were very unique and good fun to watch and see.

Knotts is an old-fashioned park, it’s made to look like it with Ghost Town, unfortunately it also has old-fashioned rides and old-fashioned staff who have yet to learn customer service. They have some good rides, such as GhostRider and I was thoroughly looking forward to Perilous Plunge, but it wasn’t open. I am going to give the park 3 Ticks out of 5, and that is being nice. I don’t feel it’s worth $40 for rides alone, but it has a large number of shows and lots of kids rides. Compared to Disneyland, Knotts doesn’t even come close. However I'd like to try Knotts again someday, maybe it was an off day for the park, maybe my views were unjustified...stay tuned!

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