Opening Date for Knott's Berry Farm's Voyage to the Iron Reef Announced!

Knott's Berry Farm has announced that their all new 4-D Dark Ride, Voyage to the Iron Reef will be opening on May 15th, 2015. The ride, taking the long unused space that once housed Kingdom of the Dinosaurs and Knott's Bear-y Tales, was announced back in November and is similar to Wonder Mountain's Guardian at Canada's Wonderland.

As we talked about during the announcement, riders will descend into a steampunk filled world of madness that's inhabited by all manner of strange and bizarre sea creatures that have become what they eat. And, these guys? They're hungry for steel.

It's a completely bonkers concept, but really love it and some of the earlier concept art shows just what's happening below the surface. 

That's not all though, we've got a little bit of a video teaser from the folks at Knott's as well that shows off just what kind of steampunk insanity is lurking in the depths.


Definitely cool to see another Triotech ride coming to the Cedar Fair parks and hopefully this one is just as fun as the one in Canada. It'll be a while before we get a chance to visit Knott's again, but anyone that does, we'll be looking forward to hearing what you think of the new ride this May!

Stay tuned for more info out of Knott's Berry Farm, and Voyage to the Iron Reef, right here and follow us on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and Facebook for all the latest!

Knott's Berry Farm Announces All New 4-D Interactive Ride for 2015 - Voyage to the Iron Reef

Last week Knott's Berry Farm announced an all new dark ride will be coming to the park for the 2015 season. Voyage to the Iron Reef will be a 4-D interactive experience that pits you up against some truly bizarre and dangerous underwater foes.

For those curious, this ride is similar in design to Wonder Mountain's Guardian at Canada's Wonderland and there's good reason for that, it's being built by the same company, Triotech.

Gotta say, that I'm definitely loving the addition of more dark rides lately and Wonder Mountain's Guardian was a lot of fun, so definitely a great addition for Knott's here as well.

So, what can you expect as part of the experience? Well, for starters this is a 3-D experience and will feature other elements as you travel over 600ft of track and try to survive 11 scenes of mayhem.

This one definitely sounds fun and the concept is a bit reminiscent of the video game Bioshoc, which is never a bad thing to try and emulate.

You can't have a ride like this without a story and thanks to the folks at Knott's Berry Farm, we've got that for you in it's entirety:

Rumor Alert- New Darkride at Knott's Berry Farm?

Rumor Alert- New Darkride at Knott's Berry Farm?

 Interesting new rumor coming from Knott's Berry Farm this week, could they be planning to add a new darkride in the park for 2015/2016?

 Well, According to Screamscape that's exactly what the rumor mill is saying. With the work nearly complete on Calico Mine Ride and the restoration of the Log Ride last season, they seem to be focusing on building the parks flat rides and dark rides back up. Not a bad thing considering many parks are missing the classic 'dark ride' style attractions in recent years.

  Rumor has it that workers have been seen in the area of the old "Kingdom of the Dinosaurs" building doing clean-up. During our recent visit to Knott's we didn't notice anything going on as they where still highly focused on Calico Mine Ride at the time, so this rumor must be very recent.

 However, it's still just a rumor until some more confirmation comes around!

Park Review - Knott's Berry Farm

Well, I don't normally do the park reviews, just take the pictures and all, but +Carrie H.C. is down and out with pneumonia at the moment and asked if I would step in and get this one out there for you all. Apologies in the delay getting this out and I hope that you enjoy the ride!

Day: Monday
Date: March 10th, 2014
Weather: Perfect
Overall Rating: Excellent
Coaster Rating: Excellent
Overall Opinion: Lived up to the hype!
Wesbite: Knotts.com
Review Team: +Carrie H.C., +Alexandra F, +Kitsune Hazard

Yet another park that we visited during our huge Southern California Tour a couple of weeks ago, Knott's Berry Farm has been one of those "holy grail" type of things for us. We've always heard so many good things about the park, but being on the East Coast, it was never something that was easy for us to get to. So, with us staying only a mile away, it was a no brainer that we had to visit. We weren't disappointed at all either, from friendly staff that went well out of their way to be helpful to some amazing rides and theming, Knott's has it all.

History:

From the humble beginnings of a working berry farm, then growing into a thriving roadside business and later a restaurant, Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant, surrounded by shops and attractions, Walter Knott started the real work on this Southern California icon in 1940. This latest project would turn into the foundation of what we know of Knott's Berry Farm today, the "living ghost town" and included free entertainment into the mix. It was from this that more and more attractions and rides were added turning Knott's Berry Farm into the theme park we know today.

Since 1997, the park has been run as part of the Cedar Fair chain and thankfully, they've kept the park and it's history alive and well, along with adding new rides, attractions and other features. 2014 marks the 30th anniversary of Camp Snoopy as well. While many may think the iconic kid themed area is a Cedar Fair entity, the original was opened up at Knott's Berry Farm back in 1983!

So, what did we think of what Walter Knott's creation has turned into? Keep reading for our review!

Travel Notice- Out of Town Next Week!

!!TRAVEL NOTICE!!

The InSanity lurks Inside Team will be out of town beginning on Friday March 7th.

Image from Clever Magizine

 Hey Folks! 

 Spring break is upon the ISI team and we've got something special in the works! On Friday, March 7th the entire team is heading to sunny Southern California! 

 We'll be exploring a bunch of the California theme parks, and hauling you great folks with us along the way! However, it's rather hard to write up blog posts from a cellphone. So, we're asking everyone who's interested in following along or advising us to catch us on our various social media networks! We'll have full trip and park reports up following out visit, so it's going to be a very busy two weeks to the team here. We hope you'll follow us along in our crazy adventure to the west coast! 

What's on our Agenda? As much as we can stuff in, naturally! The following list is what we plan to visit, although anything could pop up randomly.

Disneyland Park and Disney's California Adventure

Seaworld SanDiego

Knott's Berry Farm

Six Flags Magic Mountain

Medieval Times

InSanity lurks Inside Team

Follow the entire team online!

InSanity lurks Inside Facebook Page
InSanity lurks Inside Tumblr Page

 Other Social Media Info!

 Carrie- 

Head Creator and Lunatic behind "InSanity lurks Inside".

Twitter: @ISIParksBlog

Google+:  Carrie HC

 Kitsune Hazard-

Lunatic who married Carrie. In charge of expensive goodies like cameras, rental cars and anything Carrie and Alex aren't allowed to play with (it's a long list).

Twitter: @KitsuneHazard

Google+: Kitsune Hazard

 Alex

Head #1 Minion and Best Friend. Generally found plotting and/or getting into trouble with Carrie while Kitsune just sighs.

Twitter: @PiercedHeart114

Google+: Alex F

Knott's Berry Farm- Windseeker Removal

Image from Randomman295 on TPR

 Well, it's a pretty well known fact that Knott's Berry Farm is removing their Windseeker attraction from the park.  We've talked about this topic before on a previous post if you need to catch up real quick check out:  Cedar Fair Moves a Windseeker- The Media goes Stupid.

 It seems that parts of the Knott's Windseeker are finally coming down. The rider carriage is off and the top sections are slowly being removed from the tower.

 This ride is being shipped out to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri and being re-named in the process. This ride will no longer carry the well known 'Windseeker' name and will now be known as "SteelHawk". 

Knott's Berry Farm- Major 2014 Announcements

Big News today from Knott's Berry Farm.

The 2014 plans have been announced and some of them are pretty impressive.

 While no new coaster is the works, Knott's has announced that the classic dark ride attraction "Calico Mine Ride" will undergo a complete refurbishment.  Opened in 1960's and designed by the legendary Bud Hurlbut  it's one of the most immersive and impressive dark ride attractions It carries riders through an impressive series of dark 'mine tunnels' of an active gold mine.

 Knott's stated the following about the refurbishment- "It is our company's top priority to preserve and enhance the original story of a working gold mine deep in the heart of the Old West," said Garner Holt, GHP's founder and president. "The Calico Mine Ride will be filled with lifelike sounds and motion, while maintaining the uniquely authentic feel of the attraction as designed by Knott's and industry legend Bud Hurlbut." The renovation of the iconic attraction includes the addition of over 50 new state-of-the-art animatronic figures, all new audio and theme lighting system, and special effects that will capture the imagination of would-be miners as they journey deep into the winding caverns of the attraction. 

  Also on the list for 2014 is the 30th anniversary of Camp Snoopy, Home to the famous beagle and his gang of friends since 1983.

 To celebrate this event Knott's is giving the entire land a new polish including adding in new attractions plus updating and restoring the entire area.  They also state the entire theme of the area will be enhanced and brought out to shine.

Knott's Berry Farms says "Thank You" to Veterans

 As part of "Military Tribute Days" Knott's Berry Farm is offering a special 'Thank You' to Veterans this year.

  Between November 4th, 2013 and January 5th, 2014- Both Active Duty and Retired Military can receive a free ticket for themselves and one guest.  Additional tickets (up to 6) may be purchased for $22 each for November 4th-27th and $27 each for November 28th-January 5th.

For more information- Please visit their "Promotions" page on the website. Direct Link: Knott's Berry Farms

Cedar Fair moves a Windseeker- The Media Goes Stupid

At this point in time, I'm pretty sure that most everyone knows what a "Windseeker" is. I'm also fairly sure most people can look at this unique ride and easily identify it. Everyone, except for the national news media, who are obviously not very bright.

 Those of us in the theme park/amusement park world knew that when World's of Fun in Kansas City, Missouri announced 'Steelhawk' that it was the 'Windseeker' ride from Knott's Berry Farms. It's move just hadn't been confirmed yet.  We also knew it was one of the three original prototypes of this now iconic Cedar Fair ride made by Mondial.

 However, the news media isn't bright enough to put this simple puzzle together.

 Within the last few days they JUST realized what we knew at the end of August. Maybe they need to listen to people who know what their talking about more? Wait, knowing how they operate, they'd just mess that up too! They've been stiring up the shit-pot announcing such fun headlines as "Shuttered Calif Ride to Move to Missouri Park" and "Knott's Berry Farm To Move Troubled Ride".

Windseeker at Cedar Point 2012

 Yes, Windseekers have had their problems. I dare you to show me a prototype or original design ride out there that hasn't had issues someplace along the way. The 'Windseeker' line has never killed anyone, they've gotten stuck which is annoying as hell but not exactly deadly to your average Joe Q. Public rider.

 I've been stuck on rides before, sometimes for minutes and others for over an hour. It's highly aggravating and can get vastly boring but I wasn't injured, just inconvenienced. Now if you have anything that could be a medical or mental issue due to a ride stop, this could be a real problem but otherwise it's no worse then waiting in rush hour traffic without air conditioning.

Evac Platform at Kings Dominion from Theme Park Review

 Since then Cedar Fair has installed 'Evacuation platforms' which will evacuate guests in case of an emergency stop in the ride. That is what the news means when they say "voluntarily shut down"it wasn't because the rides are unsafe, it was to instal those exact same 'evacuation platforms'.

Due to California and their endless coddling of the paranoid and panicky, the Knott's Berry's Windseeker never got a chance to re-open and prove itself safe. The other Windseeker clones have operated just fine with their platforms in place but like any ride with major height involved, they are subject to weather conditions like wind and rain. To hear the news talk, this just extrudes a lack of safety. Trust me when I say you wouldn't want to be spinning around 300 feet in the air while doing 30 miles an hour in the rain! Rain + Speed = OUCH

 Now I'm not a huge fan of Windseekers myself. Yes, I've ridden several of them and they are fun, you can get some really amazing views from the top. But folks, it's just a really tall swing ride.

 What does annoy the hell out of me is when the news media purposely tries to scare people by hinting that something isn't safe when it's history shows otherwise.