As luck would have it. I'm giving a talk at UCLA tomorrow. As luck would further have it, the best DTW-LAX flights I could get were middle of the afternoon today. No problem, thinks I, a few hours to head to KBF for a mini-preview of a Major New Thrill Ride!
Sadly, Xcelerator is down today, so I bought a ticket to Knott's Scary Farm for tomorrow night. Hopefully, the post-talk dinner won't go long, and Xcelerator will be back up so that I can ride before I completely fall asleep. If so, I'll post my impressions. I'll try to ignore everything about the ride between the tophat and breaks. ;)
Xcelerator was still in test runs when I got there—the Haunt opened at 7PM. I got a quick ride on supreme scream (a 3-legged S&S turbo drop) and while in the queue for that (about 15 minutes) Xcelerator started loading.
One word—Wow. The launch is insanely quick. The drag-racing start lights are a nice touch, since they allow you to anticipate the launch. Despite that, the launch still takes you by surprise. It feels like you are going full speed the instant you start moving. The only sense that you are still accelerating is that, at the end of the pull run, you can tell that you switch from acceleration to free-roll. I definitely hope the launch for #16 is midway-side, since watching it is very impressive. The twist on the up side gives some nice laterals, and the air (and staring into darkness) at the top hat is sweet and feels long. It feels like you pull out of the drop more quickly than I would have thought. #16’s extra height will really help here, as your lower brain will have more time to realize that it is going to die :-). The "back-side" overbank is a yawner, but the one through the top hat has a nice head-chopper effect. You hit the brakes somewhat hard—not as smooth as MF.
One other note: we were told “do not lower your yellow safety bar, an operator will do it for you.” And they did. I wasn’t stapled, but I was securely in my seat. It will be interesting to see if #16 has the same policy. Assume for now that #16 will be L-TH-B. Frankly, while a few extra elements would be nice, plain old overbanked turns just give a little extra time at good speed, but no real thrill. After riding Xcelerator, I think the extra height of #16 will make up for any lack of additional elements.
The other coaster of note at KBF is Ghostrider. This is an amazing CCI woodie. It was dark when I rode, so I didn’t really get a sense of the layout, but it was full of surprises. Excellent lateral movement throughout the ride, and some nice (if not towering) drops with good air. Many of the drops are in covered space, making you think twice about raising your hands. My lapbar was not particularly tight. At the beginning of the ride, my belt was moderately tight. By the end, it was so loose that it might as well have not been there—I was getting serious lift off of the seat! Blue Streak is fine, and Mean Streak looks good, but riding Ghostrider makes it clear that for all the things that CP has to offer, excellent wood is not one of them. Also, given the discussion on sub-200 foot rides in other threads, Ghostrider is evidence that a short woodie can be great fun.
Crowds at the park were what I would call moderate. I had a 20-25 minute wait for Xcelerator, a 10-15 wait for supreme scream, 15 minutes for Motezooma’s, but almost an hour for Ghostrider. (I got lucky with Xcelerator, hitting it shortly before they opened up the back queue lanes.)
KBF draws well given the haunt is night-only. It closed at 1AM on Thursday, but with a body clock on Eastern time, I gave up around 11:30.
KBF takes Haunt much more seriously than CP takes Halloweekends. About 10 different mazes (all of which I skipped—I was on a time budget) and 5 different scare zones. The scare zones are not as densely fogged nor are the screamsters as aggressive as at CP, but unlike the Frontier Trail they are just about unavoidable, so this seems like a reasonable balance. The Haunt is definitely not for kids. Camp Spooky was closed, and several of the shows that I peeked in on were not something my kids will be seeing anytime soon. On the other hand, some were really fun. The big show in Calico Square was a 20 minute odyssey poking fun at a variety of pop culture icons, including Freddy Krueger, Anna Nicole Smith, the “crocodile guy”, Austin Powers, Spiderman, etc. Again, not for the kids—lots of innuendo, choreographed fight sequences with fake blood, etc.
The park is open in “normal mode” from 10-5:30 during Haunt days, closes, and then opens for a separately ticketed Haunt from 7-1 or 2, depending on the night. I am not pass endowed (have my 2003 CP passes on order), but I surmised that season passes are not valid for Haunt, since you have to buy a dated ticket, and popular nights are sold out in advance. No re-entry during haunt.
There were hand-held metal detectors at the entry turnstiles, though that could be just for the Haunt, I don’t know.
In general, it seemed that KBF was a bit more hands-on in checking restraints. Each coaster I rode included an operator pushing down lightly and then pulling up on my lapbar to make sure it was secure. Every restraint on every coaster was physically checked every time. As with Xcelerator, I was never stapled, but it seems to me that CP ops usually only lift up, not down. I have also seen parts of some trains, especially on the load side, only visually inspected at CP before dispatch, though they are pretty good at spotting loose restraints. My Supreme Scream restraint was checked a total of three times by two different people.
Coaster spiels at KBF do not change. At all. They are the same every time. I now appreciate the creative spielmeisters at CP even more.
Fortunately, KBF is a Coke park. Unfortunately, bottles are $2.75.
KBF’s burgers are not as good as CP’s, and that’s a strong statement.
All in all, thanks to the good folks at UCLA’s computer science department for giving me the excuse to take the trip. Based on my experience with Xcelerator, #16 is going to be one heck of a ride.
*** This post was edited by Brian Noble 10/19/2002 11:31:15 AM ***
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