Knott's Winter Coaster Solace X

Ever since my last visit to Knott's Berry Farm in 2006 I have wanted to make a return visit. Over the last couple years I have wanted to go to their Coaster Solace event for coaster enthusiasts. Mainly, I have wanted to go so that I can get an early start to my seasonal riding. If you live in Kansas and want to ride coasters December-March you choices boil down to going to California, Florida, or Texas. Unfortunately, flying to Southern California is expensive where I live. It doesn't seem to matter whether I try to fly in to Long Beach, John Wayne, or LAX. Most of the time round trip tickets usually run about $300 a person. However, this year we have this great thing called a recession/depression and Valerie and I were able to fly out to John Wayne for less than $400 round trip. We also already had Cedar Fair Platinum passes so our tickets to the event were only $25 a person.

Morning Exclusive Ride Time (or ERT) started at 7am the day of the event, March 21st. Valerie and I had both already decided that there was no way we were going to try to get there that early so we decided we would shoot for 8am. We left the hotel with enough time to get to the park close to 8am. I had my GPS search for the location of Knott's Berry Farm, and clicked on the first result that showed up. I thought the address seemed weird at first but I disregarded it. When we got to our destination it ended up being the the corporate office for the food division. I re-searched for "Knott's Berry Farm" under the amusement park heading and remembered that the correct address was on Beach Blvd, not Boysenberry Lane. After selecting the correct address we got to the park around 8:30 and checked in for the event.

The coasters scheduled for morning ERT were Boomerang, Jaguar!, Montezuma's Revenge, Timberline Twister, and Xcelerator. Of those I hadn't ridden Montezuma, Boomerang (this particular one at least), or Timberline Twister, so morning ERT was going to be a nice way to get these credits without having to wait in long lines. The first coaster we hit was Montezuma's Revenge. This was coaster number 80 for me. Montezuma is a launched shuttle coaster that has one loop that you first go forwards through, then backwards. It is similar to a Boomerang without a cobra roll. It's a short coaster, but it was fun nonetheless. I could foresee riding this again. I usually can't say the same for Boomerangs.

Next we headed over to Jaguar! since it was closest. Valerie and I had ridden this before and it was like we remembered it. It is a slow and relaxing ride with a top speed of 35mph. However, even though the coaster itself isn't all that exciting the layout is interesting. You go through the loop on Montezuma, and you crossover
Silver Bullet's track as well. For those reasons it is worth taking the time to go on a ride.

Valerie and I decided that if we were going to ride Boomerang we might as well do it at this point while we were both fresh. Boomerangs are one of the few coasters that will make me sick so I have to ride first thing in the morning or not at all. This particular one was almost as smooth as the one at Elitch Gardens. It also had the newer padded restraints and this helped keep me in place a little better. Unfortunately, Valerie wasn't as lucky and got her ears boxed a little bit, and she may have also suffered a brownout based on the symptoms she experienced.