Coaster reviews

Launch Too short

Pony Express is weird. It's clearly a family ride, but its launch is too punchy to lend itself amazingly well to that. The leg restraints are odd, and the ride doesn't stand out in Knott's lineup. It's a great intro to launched coasters type ride, but it's also Knott's worst launched coaster.

Location Duration Dead spots

This ride does some great laterals. Beautiful setting. Even a smidge of airtime. It does have a few prolonged sections of straight track that aren’t super interesting, but overall a fun ride. It’s probably not worth going out of your way to do this ride if there are any other noteworthy Southern California coasters that you haven’t ridden, since this ride is far from major population centers. But it is a good ride if you do end up making the trek.

Location

Smaller coaster in a beautiful setting. You get extremely close to the trees. A little whip towards the back

Location

It’s a solid mine train. Some fun laterals. This park is gorgeous and it takes advantage of its setting very well.

Smoothness Dead spots

It's a very smooth ride that doesn't really do much of anything. Didn't get much spinning either.

It's a family coaster. Two laps per cycle. I noticed it had a tendency to undershoot the station, so the back row would have to be pseudo-evaced.

Theming Fun Duration Airtimes

It’s a fun family coaster. Some fun launches. A few fun pops to the side. Not a very forceful ride, but it feels long, has fun theming, and is overall a good addition to this park.

Location Capacity

It’s a Maurer spinner. Nothing too special about the ride itself. But it’s on an elevated platform that lets you get a great view of the ocean.

Airtimes Nice surprise!

After riding its sister coaster in San Diego, I wasn’t expecting a whole lot out of this one. I was blown away. Lots of ejector airtime. Not the smoothest ride ever but it holds up astonishingly well for a nearly-century old coaster

Theming

The ride is set really nicely but at the end of the day it’s just another kiddy coaster

Launch Capacity Discomfort

This is probably my favorite Sky Rocket II, between the lighting effects and lack of comfort collars. Fun launches, fun layout. Just wish it had a three car train and that Premier trains didn’t just suck in general.

Disappointing!

This is a spinning wild mouse that inexplicably doesn’t spin. Once the spinning unlocked, the car just faced the same direction through the switchbacks. Once it got towards the ground it finally gave one spin, but it somehow failed at the most basic task of a spinning coaster - to spin.

It’s an older Zamperla Family Gravity Coaster, which means it has some jank newer ones don’t. I like the janky old ones more. End of the day though, it’s a kiddy credit.

Layout Rattle Headbanging Tear it down!

SLC's have a really fun layout. It's a shame that Kong is so rough. It was awful the first time I rode, and it’s awful now. This ride instilled a fear of inverted coasters as a whole in me for several years as a child. Kong is one of the worst coasters ever built.

Inversions Ejectors

This is a little different than your typical RMC, but it was way better than I expected.. This is more inversion focused, and those inversions are all spectacular. The airtime moments are all super powerful too. Easily the best coaster in the park and among the best I’ve ridden.

Nice surprise! Launch Hangtime Capacity

This ride was much better than expected. It gives some wild hangtime on the tilted spike. Launches are powerful. It does have a slight jitter but it was really fun.

Fun Dead spots

This ride doesn’t really do anything well. It’s just kinda there. It’s a little too big to be a kiddy coaster but it’s not really thrilling. Regardless, it was still an enjoyable ride. Glad to have ridden it.

Rattle Headbanging Discomfort

Boomerang is not good. It has poor capacity, uncomfortable trains, and a nasty rattle that leads to some headbanging.

Fun

This was my first 4D Free Spin. It wasn’t really a special ride, but it’s fun. Smooth ride, a few flips. I like it.

Discomfort

Weaker of the 2 kiddy coasters, but it’s a kiddy. coaster so can’t get too mad

RailBlazer has wicked pacing. Feels unreal m

Fun Capacity

This ride has the slowest loading I I’ve ever seen at a wild mouse! Fun ride though.

Location Too short Layout

Patriot feels like half of a low-end B&M standup. Fun loop. Mild rattle. Really wish this ride went on longer though.

Airtimes Discomfort

It’s a kiddy coaster, but Miler kiddy coasters always have some airtime anyways and this is no exception

Rattle Tear it down! Dead spots

The only reason this doesn’t get 1 star is because it doesn’t fail badly enough in any category to be special. Grizzly may be the most underwhelming coaster I’ve ever ridden. It’s slow and boring, with a decent rattle, though there are certainly worse. Grizzly isn’t the unenjoyable wreck it gets made out to be, but it’s bad at everything that makes a good coaster.

Airtimes Pace Rattle

This is my favorite GCI layout. Lots of airtime pops, full of the twists GCI is known for. Even some light theming in the form of audio. Super comfy seating too.

Intensity Too short Dead spots

This lays on the positive G’s almost nonstop. A lot of inverts are intense, but Flight Deck has a special consistency to its intensity. It is kinda short though and has one notable dead spot before the second corkscrew.

Inversions Rattle Headbanging

Demon’s a pretty generic Arrow looper with some light theming to make it a little nicer. It’s very rattly through most of the course though, save for the corkscrews.

Location Rattle

Giant Dipper is a classic wooden coaster, and it's just okay. A little on the rough side.

Theming Pace Intensity Rattle Discomfort

This ride is substantially rougher in 2023 than it was in 2020 when I first rode it. This ride still has excellent pacing/intensity. This is a good ride. Unfortunately, the re-track has not held up well and it can be quite uncomfortable as a result.