 This past Friday we had the great opportunity to get some great backstage tours at Knott's Berry Farm for their 2016 additions including Ghost Town's 75th Anniversary, the Chicken Dinner Restaurant re-do and of course Ghostrider. Check out all the great pictures and video below. Pictures by Matthew Nelson Videos and Written by Gregg Condon UPDATE:: Ghostrider opening has been pushed back to June. We will update when we have a new opening date. Let's start off with a great tour of Ghostrider. Be sure to check out the video below.  We got to get up close and personal with the ride and take a look at all the great work they are doing on this amazing coaster.    The drop after the mid course brake run has been re-profiled and raised up a bit (you can see the old spot in the below picture)      Under the station     They've removed some of the steel supports they'd been putting up on the ride the last few years because due to re-profiling of the turns (to give them more banking) they simply don't need it.    In addition the Pan for Gold is looking great back in it's original location.  Ghostrider will re-open in June. We can't wait!! Opening on May 27th is Ghost Town Alive. Be sure to check out the video below to hear all the great stuff that's coming. It's going to be a lot of fun.     Is there a more awesome place to get theme park pictures than Ghost Town?     The Barn will feature horses and mules over the summer.   The bank will also be back and interactive!!  The theater is also getting a lengthy refurb.  Moving on, the Calico Saloon is getting a very awesome looking rehab. Again, be sure to check out the video to see and hear all the details on this awesome refurbishment.    A look at some of the things they are planning for the inside.  An all new bar, sound-system and additional seating.   Work is also continuing on the new stage.   Lastly, the Chicken Dinner Restaurant ... you can see how much work is going on below.  There's also a few other things going on at the park. Riptide has been completely removed.    The Flyers are closed for rehab  And we'll leave you with some great pics of Knott's, because we can. Enjoy!!       We hope you enjoyed this update of some fantastic tours the park was great enough to hold. We can't wait to experience all the great things the park has in store for this summer. But don't forget, the Boysenberry Festival begins in just a few weeks on March 19. We hope to see you there!!
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 Earlier this week we shared our Boysenberry Festival Update so today we're going to continue with Knott's and take a look around the park and a general park update. Lots of updates on Iron Reef as well as a lot of "offseason" refurbishments. Get your Fun Bun and Boysenberry Coffee ready.  Before we get started, the other day we joked with Knott's that we'd LOVE it if the FunBun theme song would be released as a Ring Tone. Well, never ones to disappoint, they put it up in a DropBox yesterday and tweeted it out. So be sure to download it if you want some FunBun love every time your phone rings. We'll start off with Iron Reef, which, as you'll see the old Beary Tales/KOD building is getting a huge facelift. These are supports for the roof which the awesome @ParkandCons tweeted pictures of out yesterday.  Some cool artwork   A peek inside, nothing really to see here.   Some cool chalk artwork is out in the boardwalk. They even tell you where to stand to get the best picture. But we don't play by the rules. =)   From the Sky Cabin  Elsewhere in the Boardwalk the water is drained as it's getting ready to be re-painted. It seems to have faded very quickly.   Xcelerator pieces. :( The FastLane queue is also open on the ride.  There's an awesome new mural in Virginia's but there were a LOT of people checking it out. We'll try to get some nice pictures on a less busy day.  Lastly, how about some ride photo's.  Got a nice pic of Xcelerator from the Sky Cabin.  Some in our group hadn't ridden the new Peanuts train, so I was able to get some Sierra Sidewinder pics.     How about some Zoooooom from the train as well.    That's going to wrap it up for this update. We should have another Knott's update in a week or two as some of our site contributors have yet to get down to the Boysenberry Festival. Have a great weekend everybody!!!  Over the weekend we were invited out to Knott's Berry Farm to partake in this years Boysenberry Festival. This year the event has gotten even bigger and if the first day of the event is any indication, much more popular, which is great to see. We also took some time to check out the Boysenberry Pie eating competition which was great fun. Pictures and Words by Gregg Condon Welcome to the Boysenberry Festival!!    Lots of great decorations all around Ghost Town and all of the locations that have Boysenberry Festival items are marked with a Boysenberry.   Kristi and Josh are sure enjoying the festival.    One of the biggest treats for me personally was the Beary Tales Pie Kitchen, although it did make me miss the ride even more. And seeing how fast the Beary Tales merchandise was flying off the shelves it makes you realize a lot of people have a fondness for the ride.       Really nice decorations   Moo   As you can see, the festival is VERY popular, which is absolutely great to see. Please support these kinds of things so they will come back!!! Even with the crowds, the lines for the food items were no more than 10 minutes or so. The employees were great all day.  Of course the Wine and Craft Brew Tasting was back in the Wilderness Dance Hall. We tried some great wines and my favorites were a nice Cabernet and the Boysenberry Wine. While most preferred the Boysenberry Cider to the Boysenberry Beer, I enjoyed the beer a bit more.  The Wine Tasting is such a great escape from the hustle and bustle of the park and we enjoyed catching up with some of our favorite theme park site friends from Theme Park Adventure and The Coaster Guy.  Oh yeah, there was food ... lots and lots of food. So much food that we really didn't even have enough room in our belly's to try it all and all really feel we need another visit to try everything else. The Fun Bun!!! We actually brought one of these home, and it was just as good the following morning. Basically, the Fun Bun is a Cinnamon Roll, fried in Funnel Cake Batter and topped with a Boysenberry topping. It's amazing.  Boysenberry Wings (sorry, we ate some before we took a picture) and Boysenberry Trifle.  Alligator Bites and Cheese Curds. One thing I would suggest on these, have a non-fries option. We got two of each for our group which meant we had a plethora of fries left over.  Finally this year you can take home your own bottle(s) of the Boysenberry BBQ sauce. At only $5.99 a bottle it's a great deal, and with a Season pass Discount it's even better. =)  The Beary Tales shirts were flying off the shelf. It was hard to find the black shirt below in my size by 1:00pm.   Other things included Boysenberry Cotton Candy, Boysenberry Honey, Coffee Mugs, Hats, Berry Festival Shirts, Magnets, Key Chains and much more.  Knott's also held their first Boysenberry Pie Eating Contest. The always entertaining Mayor and his lovely wife. We actually got some one-on-one time with them in the Wine Tasting and they invited us over for dinner and Boysenberry Wine. Well, we had to have our people's, people's, people call their people's, people's, people. Since we have no people, I guess we'll just have to be happy to see them around town. =)  While the MC from Major League Eating may have gone on a bit (a lot) too long given the 90 degree temperatures, it was still great fun.  Having some fun introducing the competitors  After about a 45 minute pre-show, it's time to get to eating.  It was honestly quite entertaining seeing the different strategies and how these people get so much food consumed in such a short time.   Joey Chestnut who held 35 world records prior to this competition  Now 36   And with that another day at the Knott's Boysenberry Festival comes to an end.  Thanks so much to Knott's for having us out and for the tremendous hospitality. We truly appreciate it. And as always it was really nice seeing such great friends as Jim from Westcoaster, Tim from Knott's Network, Kolby from Kolby Konnection, Rick and Johanna from TPA and Kurt and his lovely wife from The Coaster Guy. We'll have a general park update later this week. Thanks for reading. |
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