Park Review
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Elysburg, Pennsylvania October 6, 2001 (Evening - Phoenix Phall Phunphest) Note: I use the Griswold rating scale of �3 to +5, with 0 being slightly favorable Six strangers...five amusement parks....three days. Sounds like a new reality television show, doesn't it? And in a way it was. There were arguments ("Josh, call your parents so they know we're coming into town"), disappointments (CP, SFWoA, no cheese on a stick), fallen companions (me Sunday morning), exciting times (raving on the coasters), frightening encounters (Beast Lips - "Have you ever ridden Raptor? When's lunch?"), but most importantly, lots and lots of fun. I'll try to keep the inside jokes to a minimum, but you'll just have to bare with me. ;-) The trip started Friday afternoon, when all of us finally got together at Josh's house in Wadsworth, Ohio (near Akron). Four of us had spent the night at Josh's, but "resting up for the trip" didn't happen after spending all night painting "Coaster Con" on some rather expensive ($17!) K-Mart escaped convict costumes. A few of us had met before, but most of us were either complete strangers or had only talked online. But there really wasn't much time to get to know each other, as we painted the last "Coaster Con" costume, packed the van full of all our stuff (and I mean full), and took off towards Cedar Point. The weather was a bit cool, and it was drizzling but nothing that should affect coaster riding. Little did we know nothing other than Iron Dragon, Power Tower, and a few flat rides would open all night. Thanks, Cedar Point. After spending almost three hours at Cedar Point and hardly riding a darned thing because of the "rain" (see my Cedar Point review), we packed back into the car, all of us soaking wet and pissed off. So we were off to Allentown, where we planned to grab a few hours of sleep at a hotel and make it to Dorney Park at 10am. Somehow George managed to drive the entire distance, but we all helped to keep him awake. Except for Corey, that is, who slept almost the entire way. :-) We stayed in a hotel near Dorney, woke up early, and arrived at Dorney right at park opening (see my Dorney Park review), to spend a few hours riding coasters before we had to make the drive to Knoebels for Phoenix Phalli Phunphest (PPP). Though it was drizzling early on, the weather soon cleared up and turned into a beautiful autumn afternoon. We left Dorney a little later than expected, but Brian's driving got us to Knoebels just before five. We spent the next 15 minutes or so searching for Camp RRC - the Knoebels campground (kampground? hehe) is a heck of a lot bigger than I expected, and finally we decided to just ask for directions (and with six guys in the car, it's a surprise we asked after only fifteen minutes). We found the general area of where we were to stay that night and parked the van in some random campsite (hey, there were other random cars parked there!). We noticed that other enthusiasts were heading towards the park entrance, in costume, so we decided to throw ours on and head for the park. Like an idiot, I forgot my camera in the van and so I never got any pictures from PPP or Knoebels. Ah, at least it gives me a good excuse to return next year.
THE PARK: General Impressions. Not rated I did really like parts of Knoebels. Though much of the park gave me the impression that I was only at a carnival, the staff was great, especially the guy on the High Speed Thrill Coaster. I like how the park has maintained its rides; Phoenix, the Haunted Mansion, the High Speed Thrill Coaster, and the flyers are wonderfully maintained classics, as are others that we didn't get a ride on (the carousel and the bumper cars). The location and setting of the park was just plain odd and completely unexpected. Maybe I'd get a different feel in the daytime, but it seemed to me that Knoebels was just a bunch of rides hidden in the woods. Much of the park is heavily wooded, and the paths are all (as far as I can remember) dirt. It has a real carnival feel to it, even much more so than parks like Indiana Beach. I wouldn't say that Knoebels was dirty, but there was no sense of cleanliness or newness (and yes, I know that's part of the experience!). There really is a lot to do at the park, another reason I'd like to come back during the daytime. I don't think I could name even half of the rides there from memory! Despite what Josh kept telling me, though, the park itself is not that large (no, it's not a mile from Phoenix to Twister!) but I think it gives that impression because of the layout. Take a look at the park map and then you'll understand why it's hard to find the fastest route from A to B (especially at night!). I guess I am very neutral towards Knoebels at this point, and while I definitely want to get back there, I wouldn't say it is a "bad" park or a "good" park. Not for now, anyway. There was no CHOST (Cheese on a Stick) to be found, which made it lose some points right away. ;-) Since ERT started at the Haunted House (and check-in was nearby), we started there. We ran into Chris K. just before getting in line but didn't get too much time to chat - luckily we had some good times later on. Sorry we didn't adopt you into our group earlier on, Chris - I never got to ride a coaster with ya', but we got to do all the important stuff (more on that later). :-) We also ran into Adam in line, but never got a ride in with him, either. Adam - somehow we manage to run into each other at inopportune times (very end of Stark Raven Mad, when you're completely busy meeting people at PPP) but I trust that one day we'll at least get to take a ride together! There's SRM 2002, PPP, and (of course) the RCTalk event, so I'm not too worried about it. After a 10-15 minute wait (which seemed much, much longer because of the women who kept groping at Brian - damn the queue lines!) we boarded the Haunted Mansion. I think that I am a closeted dark ride fan; I don't make any sort of big deal out of dark rides and I don't rave (not that kind of rave!) about certain dark rides, but I do thoroughly enjoy them when I do ride them. I love the Sally rides at Knott�s Camp Snoopy and Indiana Beach, and Kennywood's dark ride was lots of fun, too. But Knoebels� Haunted Mansion passed up every single classic dark ride I have ever ridden. There are so many fun gags, tricks, and surprises in here that I doubt riding ten times would be enough to catch it all. I will admit that I jumped at one part (but just once), and I believe it was when the snake jumped out of the clock. It's really too bad you can't find these anymore; heck, I'd be glad if parks without them would build dark rides. From what I hear, Vekoma has a good ride in their haunted swings, and I wish Six Flags would buy more of them! You really cannot beat the classic feel of the Knoebels ride, though (which is why I prefer it to the Haunted Mansions at the Disney parks). Next time I'll need to borrow Corey's headphones so I can get the full experience in the raver room! ;-) From the Haunted Mansion, we headed straight for the flyers to wait for ERT to begin. While waiting in line, I got my first look at the Vekoma split corkscrew, and I couldn't wait until ERT started on that thing - the only reason I had traveled half way across the country to Knoebels. Jeremy and I had to take some deep breaths to remain calm, as ERT on Whirlwind didn't start for another hour, and it was now time to concentrate on the growing flyers competition (yes, I�m being sarcastic!). Though there wasn't any sort of "official" thing going on, everyone in our group was out to snap their cables more times than anyone else. But let me state right up front that I am not the biggest flyers fan out there, and it's not just because I don't think I'm very good at maneuvering them. I think they're fun, but capacity is a big problem and the thrill aspect just isn't there for me. That said, though, I had lots of fun on Knoebels� ride. I heard they got a new motor this year, though I couldn't imagine it affected anything that much, as this thing flew and everyone was snapping cables left and right - even me (yes, Josh, I did!). ;-) After the flyers, we headed over to Twister. Twister is the coaster that I'd heard Josh talk about many, many times and I told him earlier that I would probably either really love it or really hate it. Of course, I was completely wrong and my opinion of the ride is very much in the middle (though I suppose that should wait for the review!).
TWISTER - 1999 wooden twister built in-house from blueprints from Mr.
Twister (Elitch Gardens, 1964-1994). PTC trains. +3 Perhaps all of this is a bit misleading, because I really did enjoy my rides on Twister, but it's just not re-ridable at all (not without bruises, anyway). I was also really disappointed by the lack of airtime. There are only two or three pops, and that's just not enough for me on a large wooden coaster. The one thing that I think would really benefit this coaster is if it had Gerstlauer trains (I'm kidding! - Just seeing if you were still awake). I am really, really glad this thing runs with PTCs, as I couldn't imagine this coaster with uncomfortable trains. So after a few rides on Twister, we took off towards the coaster that seems to have been designed just for me - the Phoenix. On the way to Phoenix, we passed by the Whirlwind which was finally running. Finally it was time for Jeremy and I to ride the coaster we had been waiting our whole lives for! ;-)
WHIRLWIND - 1983 Vekoma split corkscrew with Arrow trains (moved to
Knoebels in 1993). +4 After Whirlwind, we decided headed right over to Phoenix. The line stretched out of the station, but the wait wasn't more than five or ten minutes (what an awesome crew!). I went right for the back seat while some of the others decided to try seat 1.3. And soon enough, we were off on one of the best wooden roller coasters I have ever experienced.
PHOENIX - 1948 Herb Schmeck & PTC double out and back wooden coaster with
3-bench PTC trains (rebuilt at Knoebels in 1985). +5 After Phoenix, we decided to make use of our "free pizza" coupons and took a little dinner break. The pizza slices were huge, fresh, and delicious. Josh and I grabbed another ride on the Haunted Mansion (and he, again, jumped pretty high at the truck effect). Since we were also given ERT on the Laser Runner (laser tag), I was dragged into participating in a game (no, I really am not a huge fan of laser tag!). But I still had fun, even though my score was probably lower than anyone else's! Hey, it's not my fault if I always end up with a defective gun! ;-) Next, we decided to head over towards the High Speed Thrill Coaster (Overland kiddie coaster). The line was fairly long, but it only took a couple of cycles (with eight trips each!) before we got to ride. George and I had to wait an extra cycle, but we got to sit in the coveted back seat. The ride op really cranked the chain up on this thing, and everyone was having a great time (including him). He made the guys dressed as the Golden Girls dance before we got another four cycles, which was great fun. And while George and I rode this thing, the others hopped on the Wave Swinger. I'm not a fan of these, so I was fine with that. It was now time to run off in search of some CHOST, so we walked towards the Oktoberfest area. Unfortunately, all the stands were closed and we never did find any cheese on a stick. We did get to watch Downdraft cycle, the new flat for 2001. And while I thought it looked like wicked fun, nobody else agreed. We took a few more rides on Twister, then decided to take a ride on the "haunted train." This was a bit disappointing, as there was no Halloween theming or objects anywhere along the course, but it was still a nice relaxing ride. And we made it fun, yelling "AFLAC!" and doing the yeti call. I just know there had to be yeti somewhere in that woods! After the haunted train ride, our group split up; George, Brian, and I opted to finish the night on Phoenix, while Josh, Corey, and Jeremy marathoned on Twister. I was very happy with my choice, as Phoenix was running even better at the end of the night. And we got to grab a ride on the haunted Antique Cars, which was a lot of fun. They had a lot of black-lit props and such along the course, and people jumped out at you here and there. It wasn't gory at all; rather, much of it was quite humorous and made for really fun Halloween attraction. After finishing the night on the Antique Cars, we all met near the Phoenix for costume judging. While waiting, George, Brian, and I used our free games coupons on the kind of game where you have to roll balls (similar to skeeball) to move your horse to the end of the row before the other players do (like those games where you have to aim water guns at a target to finish the "race" first). To my surprise, I won(!) and got a pretty cool Phoenix coffee mug. Brian really wanted one, and so he played several more times until George finally won one for him. If you didn't catch it in George's post, we didn't win any awards for our costumes, but it was still a really great night. We went back to the bon fire, where we got free hot dogs, and then spent the next hour trying to figure out where to spend the night. Corey and Jeremy ended up in the van (where I believe Josh moved to at some point during the night), Brian slept in some random guy's car (anyone remember who?), George stayed in the camper, and Chris K. and I settled on a tent outside. The cold really would have bothered me, but fortunately I don't remember much of the night. Again, I apologize to both Josh and Chris for that - but at least we had a good time; we need to do that again (I'll behave myself next year, I promise). I paid for it the next morning, anyway. :-) I woke up outside of the sleeping bag, the temperature was about 30 degrees, and I thought I was dead - yes, it was that cold. So we quickly packed up the tent and climbed into the van. I opted not to shower because I heard the water was just barely colder than the temperature outside (it was probably coming out in ice cubes). Still, Knoebels was quite the experience and I can�t wait for next year! All together, it was a fantastic trip, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of guys to spend the time with. Beware....a reunion in 2002 is coming. ;-)
In closing, I must thank Knoebels for the hospitality and for
hosting this event - the park did a great job. -Nate
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