Wednesday, October 24, 2012

6th Annual Knott's Scary Farm Trip

It's October again and you know what that means. Another trip to Knott's Scary farm and Disneyland. So enjoy the pictures!

Flight prices were a bit high this year. We were able to score return flights for around $49, but departing flights at their lowest were $100. In the past years they have gone down as low as $69 and there weren't any early flights out. The earliest we could get was 11:50 am. 

Some of the guys were hungry and wanted a quick bite to eat before we depart. I saved my appetite for Roscoe's Chicken's and Waffles.


Who's on the cover of SkyMall this month? MyLife Bead Bracelet.

So this year we had a few newbies. Lynn, Parker, Amanda, and Jack. We were missing a few people. Most notable is John, Robyn, and Phillip. It's always nice having new people join us in this tradition.

We landed around 1:30 pm. Gathered up the group and we headed off!

We grabbed our cars from Enterprise and headed straight to Roscoe's.



My usual drink from Roscoe's the Eclipse. Punch, OJ, and Lemonade.

Our friends that met up with us were Son, Brandon and Alvin. Here's son starting off his first meal with a beer.

Fried chicken smothered in gravy.

Fried chicken gizzards.

Fried chicken liver.

Dark meat fried chicken smothered in gravy with hot sauce and some buttery waffles soaked in hot syrup.

After lunch we headed to the Knott's Berry Hotel in Buena Park. We always stay here because inside Knott's Scary Farm they have a bar and we could just walk to and from the park. The bar inside the park only serves beer. I forget if they serve wine or not. In the past it used to be a full bar, but I think people were getting too wasted so they cut back. This is their second year cutting back on the alcohol.

Booked a few rooms under the Bare Bones package. Knott's Berry Farm Resort usually have a Knott's Scary Farm room and ticket package. It will usually save you about 5-10 dollars a ticket. In the past we were able to book the Bare Bones package with two tickets per room and add additional tickets at check in, but this year they switched over to a new computer program and can no longer do that. So I had to end up grabbing additional tickets at the ticket booth. The front did provide me with a coupon though so that helped reduce the price. It would have been $60 at the gate, but ended up score them for $40 with the coupon.

By the time we finally settled in, it was 5pm. So it was time to hit up Amber Waves Haunted Lounge. I was really excited. It was KSF 40th Anniversary. I was expecting them to go all out.

But before I can get a few cocktails in I had to grab the tickets just in case they sell out for the night.

This years decorations at the hotel and bar were lacking. The check in desk didn't have decorations at all. I asked them why it wasn't decorated. They told me in the past they would sell KSF t-shirt at the front deck but it was causing a back up for other guest that were checking in so they moved it, but even looking at the lobby it was also lacking. Anyways I headed to the bar.

And to my dismay the bar was also lacking ample decorations from previous years. They were missing the fog machine, the webbing, black lights, and Halloween music. I was super bummed. It's the 40th Anniversary. I was expecting so much more.

Picture of the lack luster bar. I was thinking maybe it might get better when the sun goes down.

They did have their Halloween Specialty cocktails and food. Same menu as last year.

I was glad to see our old bartender from past visits. Nasim. The reason we remember her was from our trip in 2010. My brother was asking for a coke chaser/back for his shot of Hennessy. We gave him a hard time about it, so she ended up giving him a baby sippy cup filled with chocolate milk. So every year when we return we look for her. She knew it was us once we started ordering the Ultimat Vodka shots.

Shots, Shots, Shots. The first set of people at the bar were Son, Alvin, and myself. Everyone else was still up in the room getting some rest.

I asked Nasim why the decorations were lacking this year and she said that management or whomever tells them to decorate told them to take it down a few notches this year. I asked what about the Halloween music. She told me they switched from their usual CD player to satellite radio. So the music they were playing was like top 40's or something.

This guy reminds me of the dude in Harry Potter.

Eventually some more of the group started to show up and the drinks started flowing.

Parker ended getting the small version of the Nuclear Meltdown.

Whenever you purchase a Halloween specialty shot you get a souvenir shot glass. So I got the toothless witch. Which is a shot of 151 dropped inside 151, cranberry, and watermelon pucker. It was awesome.

I ordered the Diablo platter cause I wanted to try everything. It came with Inferno Wings (buffalo wings), The Grave Digger (tater tots with cheese, sour cream, and bacon), Scream'n Peppers (jalapeno poppers),  Slaughterhouse Sliders (pulled pork sliders), and Mummy Fingers (fried mozzarella sticks).

The tots and cheese were my favorite. You have to order it if you get a chance.

Next I ordered Lycan's Blood. I love the small touches they give these drinks. A sword speared through a gummy bear, cherry, and vampire teeth. They also threw in some sour brite crawlers.

It was nearing 7 pm so I headed back upstairs to get the rest of the group and to put my souvenir shot glass away. Pierce just woke up. LOL

Some of the late arrivals had to play catch up.

We caught snoopy on our way towards the park.

This is how the bar is supposed to look. I think this is either the pre-scare booffet (buffet) or a private room dining or something. You can slightly see the eerie webbing with black lights. This is what the bar was lacking.

Knott's Halloween Haunt's 40th year Anniversary. We meet again.



This guy wouldn't turn around to take a picture with Brandon. Taking a picture anyways.

This is just to give you an idea of how dark it is there. Here is a picture with flash.

Without Flash.

with flash

Without flash.

With Flash

Without. That Wolf guy was pretty damn awesome. He was sitting perfectly still. You didn't really notice him or thought he was a statue. He got a few good scares from people.

It was so dark that we had a hard time keeping the group together. So they bought me a light wand to lead the way.

Our first maze we hit was Trick-or-Treat. This is without flash.

With flash.

Amanda and Don

The facade for this maze was really well done.

This year we choose to avoid Columbus day weekend, because last year we went on that holiday and the park was packed. This year it wasn't ask busy as last year and I was hoping they weren't going to shove a massive line of people through the maze, but they continued to do so. It kills the potential setup for a good scare.

After the maze it was time for our reservation for the VIP maze Trapped.

This year for the 40th anniversary they decided to do a premium VIP maze that you would have to pay extra for. It's by reservations only. It cost $60 per reservation and each reservation only allowed up to 6 people.

They required each person to sign a waiver. Amanda was already stressing over this. She was deathly afraid.

I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, but this was the best maze I have ever been through. That's all I can say.


After trapped we didn't go to any other maze. I mean literally no other maze in Knott's can top Trapped. It was that good.

We played a few carni games. The loser had to buy the first round of drinks.




There was only one bar in the park this year. Last year there were two.

They had this near little contraption where it would fill you beer from the bottom of the cup. Check out the video.



First round of drinks was on Son.

After drinks it was about time for The Hanging Show.




The show was okay this year. I have seen better. I was surprised at who they hanged and I didn't think it was a good choice this year.

After the show we went on the log ride.

After the log ride it was time for Panda Express. This sort or became a small tradition for us. We usually have Panda Express for dinner in the park.

After the log ride Son, Brandon, Phat, and Lynn headed back to the room. We happened to spot a coaster while on the log ride and we had to get on it.

Peter and Pierce lined up for the front cart. Some of us finished before them so the rest of us decided to play some games while we waited for them.

Jack shot some hoops.



After that we decided to test our strength on the Sledge Hammer game. 0-99 gets you a small prize, 100-149 a large prize, 150 gets you the ultimate prize. It was $3 for two swings. Jack went first and got a 33, Parker got a 47

Parker then paid $6 dollars more for 4 more hits.

I scored a 150!! Oh yeah and won a big ass bear.

We'll actually when it was my turn the girl accidentally hit the kids option instead of the adult. So she required me to use the smaller sledge hammer and I smashed it!!!

She had to ask her supervisor to approve her to give me the bear. I guess no one is suppose to win it. So We still had 3 more hits and I wanted to know what I would score, but she wouldn't allow me to play that game anymore because I won. I said I just want to know my score, but she said no and gave us our money back.


Check out the Big'O Bear.

People were actually offering to buy the bear off of us.

After winning the bear we rode one more coaster and then it was time to leave. We headed back to the room and knocked out.

Trapped was an amazing maze and was worth every penny, but besides that I was really disappointed in Knott's 40th Anniversary. I couldn't believe that they were still push so many people through the maze. I would have rather stood in line for 2 hrs and be let into the maze in small groups versus just a big line going through it. The scares are just weak when there is a bunch of people in front of you and behind you.

This is our 6th year there and because of this experience it looks like we are looking for a different option next year. We'll be back in SoCal in October, but it looks like we are going to skip out on Knott's Halloween Haunt.

Tomorrow we head to Disneyland and lunch at Club 33

3 comments:

  1. I love your trip report. However you missed out on two amazing other mazes that night. Pinnochio Unstrung is new this year and one of the BEST mazes around. The same goes for Dominion of the Dead. I had some amazing scares in there as well as just the detail inside the maze almost beats out Universal. Plus both night's we've gone to Haunt we hardly had any conga lines thru the mazes which made it that much more memorable for me this year compared to previous years it maybe because weve gone on a Sunday night and opening weekend.

    Trapped is awesome but we found something in Los Angeles that even beats Trapped is much longer and just was mind blowing.

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    Replies
    1. What's the maze called? Yeah Unstrung was one of the mazes that I really wanted to see, but missed. The Conga line totally kills all mazes.

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  2. I agree with your assesment of KSF this year. I have been to many Scary Farm events dating back to the early '70's and we have religiously attended the last 4 years. However, I found this years event to be the least entertaining of all. I expected so much more for the 40th anniversary, but was let down by it being less impressive then the past 3 years. Knott's did impress me with Trick or Treat and Unstrung mazes. Glad to see they are trying to keep competitive. But overall I feel it was a disappointment. Maybe all the hype over the 40th raised expectations too high (although I really don't think that is the case).

    I too am questioning whether to return next year or not.

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