A Trip to Knot's Berry Farm

For Christmas we received season passes to Knot's Berry Farm. We were all very excited, but I must admit I was a bit uncertain as well. The last time we had been to an amusement park (DisneyLand) J was five, S was four, and L was one. We lasted less then four hours and S had multiple rages in that time. Thankfully, my sister, who purchased the tickets, was sick of DisneyLand anyway and had no problem going home early.

It was time for us to try the experience again. The nice aspect about season passes is there is no stress to do everything in one trip, and the novelty wears off after the first couple of trips. In our house novelty=meltdowns.

Food

I was very worried about eating at the park, or rather not having to eat at the park. We went to the park in the afternoon so we eat lunch before hand. The plan was that we would be home long before dinner. However, S can not handle the concept of not having food available at all times, and J is 13 and eats a ton. Bring snacks was a must!

I noticed some signs saying that you could not bring food into the park and I became concerned. I had packed carrots, dehydrated fruit, fruit strips, beef jerky, and water bottles in my backpack. In retrospect I think the signs were wording off coolers. When my bag was checked they did not even comment on the food.

It was a bit hard on my kids to see the mountains of ice cream and the hordes of funnel cake. However, they handled it with grace and even their cousins were happy with the bag of carrots.

We ended up staying until dinner time, and started to case the food joints. The wait for Johnny Rockets was over an hour long. There was another hamburger restaurant that I was happy to notice at least advertised a gluten free menu was available next to their typical menu. Thankfully all members of our party decided the price was ridicules - $17 for a combo meal and $6 for a hot dog! I ended up feeding all the kids the rest of the snacks and we ate eggs at home.

Next time I will pack some more food with us. We could have used more carrots and more lunch meat. Of course, we did end up feeding more then just the three kids as well.

Lines and Rides

When we first arrived in the park from one of the side entrances we decided to go straight to a ride. Partly I wanted to see how my kids did, but mostly it was to keep everyone with the group. An hour and a half later we ended up on the ride. By the end I was doing everything in my power to entertain L who was ready to give up to get out of the line. J was also not very thrilled. He hates being surrounded by that many people. So do I. No one in our family is very good at lines. But we made it and at the end was the water rapids ride. I am not sure how I would have helped all three kids into the ride by myself, however that thankfully wasn't an issue.

After the ride we made our way to the main entrance of the park. We had to get our official season passes. We also stopped off at the information center and picked up some passes. The system seems to work out pretty well. You get a blue card which allows four members to ride together - it makes it so I don't have to get a pass for each kid at least. You take the card to the exit section of the ride and they give you a time to come back to the ride. The best part is that they said they will give us the times for up to five rides when we first get the pass. This is perfect since I can't imagine we will ride much more then five rides in one visit.

We only ended up using the pass once - to get on the train. We got our time and then waited by the exit sign. The kids got to sit and chill and not have to worry about the large amount of bodies pressing in on them. Then we got to get on the ride away from the crowd as well.

We did not use the pass on the last ride as well. I was crazy to volunteer to go with the kids on the ride Wipeout. J opted out, however something my sister said convinced S to get on the ride. L did not need convincing, which is why I was going on the ride. There were also three other kids in our party that went. In the ride two benches face each other. Then the ride goes around in a circle while moving up and down and sideways. Just when you think it is going to get better it gets crazy in a different way.

L was sitting next to me. I had one hand wrapped around her so she would not freak out, or fall out. S was sitting across from me. During the ride L started screaming "I'm going to be nauseous" S just closed her eyes, put her head down and cried. I was trying to comfort both of them at the same time while dealing with the ride myself.

We only made it to three rides this trip.

Everything Else

Overall the park was crazy. We were there for seven hours and went on three rides and played at the arcade (overpriced!!!!). Everyone who had been their before said that this was an unusual amount of people, with the holidays I am not surprised. Even with the large amounts of people my kids made it seven hours at the amusement park! They are all happy to go back, and we plan to try and visit about once a month. By the end of the year we may have even done everything that we want to - no way is anyone in our family going on the rides that leave your feet dangling while you are upside down. Or the ride that drops you. Not when the Whiplash about did us in.