Opinions on adding Knotts Berry Farm to DL trip

Wow, I'm so suprised to hear it's not really geared towards little ones and so many people not in favor.... I thought it was more of a kiddie place! Thanks for all the feedback! I appreciated each and every response! :)
 
as many have already suggested, go to Knotts first before Disney. We went to Knotts on our first full day of our trip. There is a really cute Snoopy themed area with kids rides. the rides are cute and fun and preschoolers will love knotts. also there are cute "family" rides like a mini train, a full-sized train, and a stagecoach. only 1 day needed at knotts.
check for discounted tickets. they are always cheaper when purchase in advance. they are alot more expensive at the gates


We stayed a week at the Knotts hotel. i would recommend it. Clean room. friendly staff. The Knotts berry farm is walkable . we drove to our other destinations which were Disneyland resort, Universal and seaworld.
 
I would suggest you take a day in the middle of your stay and not go into the parks, but sleep in, go bowling, if the AMC Theaters are not closed, catch a movie, shop, have dinner at Goofy's Kitchen. Keep your children on their nap/rest schedules as best as you can. When you are not rushed, you will enjoy your vacation more.
 
I would suggest you take a day in the middle of your stay and not go into the parks, but sleep in, go bowling, if the AMC Theaters are not closed, catch a movie, shop, have dinner at Goofy's Kitchen. Keep your children on their nap/rest schedules as best as you can. When you are not rushed, you will enjoy your vacation more.
I absolutely agree with keeping my little ones rested! We always take it slow and easy and make sure they get their naps. It makes for a much more enjoyable trip, indeed! ;) thanks for all the great suggestions!
 


Every time I go to Disneyland I do a different activity in the middle of the trip like Knotts or Universal or Six Flags. One day is enough for these parks and it is a nice break up to the trip and it is never a let down. I have a teenager and getting to ride the bigger coasters is a fun thing to do one day in the trip. We are total Disney fans but like to explore other things too.
 
we did knotts in May 2017 (Saturday) on a day our APs were blocked from disney b/c DS (7) for some reason really wanted to go so we got tickets for one day!
he liked camp snoopy, we did jaguar, coaster ride and calico mine train once each -- other than that we mostly walked around and saw things!
for us adults we thought it was a total waste of time, DS says he wants to go back but we are avoiding that conversation at all costs!
lines were long, you never knew how long the wait was since I didn't see any wait times posted before going in, loading and lines were disorganized and soooo slow - basically a free for all when you get to the platform and no direction or organization!
we also noticed that as it turned to early-mid afternoon, it became a local pre-teen/teen/young adult hangout! given the annual passes are somewhat cheap, its obvious it becomes the local hangout on weekends which made it feel like our local city amusement park
so we are not going back to Knotts (one and done), we will try universal studios instead!
 


If you're looking for something different to do for your age kids you could check out the Long Beach Aquarium. It would be a more low-key day than a theme park and it's much closer than San Diego (where Legoland, SeaWorld and the San Diego zoos are).
 
We are going to Disney for four days and kids really into peanuts this year. Kids will be 6 and 8. Is it worth an extra day
 
Just came back from a day at Knott's. I liked it! It's been at least 20 years since I went last and that was for Knott's Scary Farm. So, 25 years since I went for Berry Farm.

What we did (two of us): We got up early and went to eat breakfast at Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant ($31). Parking in the marketplace is free for 3 hours with validation of $18. Then I traded in my voucher for two tickets (these are comp tickets, obtained last month for servicing the car at the dealer [Toyota is a sponsor of Knott's]) before heading back to the car to drop off the leftover breakfast and re-park into the all-day parking lot ($18).

Walked back, stopped shortly before security for the Star Spangled Banner. Got into the park at 9:30 a.m. (they open at 10 a.m.) and headed to Ghost Rider (the wooden roller coaster). It was maybe a 10 minute wait. I do agree that they don't load you into the cars or direct you where to go, but it was pretty easy.

Then staff stopped everyone from proceeding past the town square/circle into other lands (so basically only Ghost Rider could be ridden at that time) until 10 a.m. when the park officially opened. Walked over to ride Pony Express because Big River Rapids was closed (water was drained so I think it's closed for the season). Same thing happened at the log ride :(

After Pony Express, went to ride the bumper cars and Coast Rider (very similar ride to Goofy's Sky School at DCA). It was 11 a.m. by then, I think, so went to Coaster's QS restaurant to get the souvenir drink bottle for $15. It's good all day and refills are free for same day of purchase (sodas are $3-4 there) Afterwards, went to ride Voyage of the Iron Reef (3D ride, you shoot sea creatures, so similar to Buzz Lightyear or Toy Story MIdway Mania [p.s. you really don't need to wear your 3D glasses for it]). Then, we walked by the funnel cake shop, but it wasn't open so off to Calico Mine Ride we went. Afterwards, we went to watch a show at the Calico Saloon. Very cute. Then we went to get a funnel cake ($12 for the funnel cake, topping, and soft serve ice cream) - it's pretty large so the two of us could only eat half! We walked through Camp Snoopy - such long lines for the kids except for taking pictures with the peanuts characters (saw Snoopy, Linus & Sally) - didn't stop for pictures this time, but may when we go back again in February. Watched the Wild West Show at 2 p.m. too. Refilled the souvenir bottle at least 8 times, LOL. But 4 of those times was for the boysenberry punch that we were going to bring home for a friend (we thought ahead and brought empty bottles). Oh, and I had a nice chocolate covered strawberry for $3 too.

Tips: none of the restaurants/quick service restaurants were open at that time, it looked like they open at 11 a.m.).

We wanted to ride the Stagecoach ride, but decided against it. The railroad was down too :( I think the only other ride we might want to ride is Jaguar. The others are too yucky for me (don't like going upside down, having my legs swinging, or being shot up fast in the air to drop). There are some cute carnival and arcade games too.

There were a few other shows to watch, but by then, we were tired and headed home. But first, we picked up dinner at the Chicken to Go outside the park and drove home. It was pretty relaxing, I think you would enjoy it.

Just make sure to get your tickets online because they are 1/2 price if you get them online ($39-43, instead of $79 at the gate). The souvenir bottle wasn't available online yet (they usually are) so we paid $15 for the bottle ($13.99 + tax) instead of $10.99 + tax that they usually sell for online.

BTW, there is pin trading at Knott's too! I couldn't find pins that they had to sell (to trade for pins on the cast members' lanyards) but it looked interesting.

Also, Knott's has good tribute days too. See:
https://www.knotts.com/tickets-passes/promotions
 
We are going to Disney for four days and kids really into peanuts this year. Kids will be 6 and 8. Is it worth an extra day
No. See the comment above by dec...

We had a similar experience mid week in November. Disorganized. Boring. Bad food. (I Don’t eat chicken.) we were there half a day and saw everything we wanted.
 
Thank you, starry-solo for the trip report! sounds like you had a nice trip

Thank you. I think if you go into the trip expecting Disney experiences, you would be disappointed. But if you don't, it will be fine. I mean, sure they don't tell you where to load into for Ghost Rider, but it's easy to figure out where to go. They do tell you where to load for Calico Mine Ride, Voyage of the Iron Reef, and Coast Rider. Obviously, bumper cars they just let so many people into the loading area that match the number of cars (like the carousel ride at Fantasyland). That early in the morning, except for Ghost Rider, the other rides were just walk-ons.

And if you remember the Hillbillies from DLR, they are at Knott's now (show isn't til the evening though).

I also have fond memories of the Peanuts gang and I still enjoy the comics and animated shows that air for Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc.

Food is on par with most fast food restaurants - burgers, fries, chicken. Ooh, but they also have baby back ribs (pork), pulled pork sandwiches, etc. And their funnel cake is a lot bigger than Disney's!
 
Knott's is more for older kids--it does have Camp Snoopy (which offers rides for small children), but I think most of it's rides are for thrill seekers. Also, we stayed at the Knott's hotel... we went at a time went they were in the middle of refurbishing their rooms, so I can only speak of the room we got, which was not one of the new ones. It was awful. I would think the rooms there now are nicer-- since that was a couple of years ago. Adventure City is close, low cost, and perfect for wee ones.
 
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Thank you so much for all the input! We have decided to stay at Disneyland for another day. I would like to check Knotts out one of these days but it is actually more cost effective this time to just add a day to our hopper and just stick around Disney instead. We may add it to our trip next time :)
 
Thank you so much for all the input! We have decided to stay at Disneyland for another day. I would like to check Knotts out one of these days but it is actually more cost effective this time to just add a day to our hopper and just stick around Disney instead. We may add it to our trip next time :)
Remember you can always youtube Knott's.
I'm sure there's plenty to see.
 
I'm glad I found this thread. We were thinking of going to Knott's and this provided information I was looking for. We are Platinum Pass holders for Cedar Fair parks as we live close to Cedar Point so we can get in free. If we do this, after reading I may have this our first day as a relaxing sort of part as we will be flying in after 5 days at WDW
 
I'm glad I found this thread. We were thinking of going to Knott's and this provided information I was looking for. We are Platinum Pass holders for Cedar Fair parks as we live close to Cedar Point so we can get in free. If we do this, after reading I may have this our first day as a relaxing sort of part as we will be flying in after 5 days at WDW

Parking is $18, but I think with the platinum pass, it might be included. I enjoyed it. If your family are soda drinkers, it might be a good idea to buy the refillable cup for $13.99 + tax. Free refills for the entire first day
 
I went to Knott’s once. It was a Monday in June and we were there a little after park opening until park closing with a break for a couple hours. I personally felt like we did everything easily. The lines weren’t long except for Ghost Rider (do that first if you do Knotts) and only the front car of Xcelerator (you could ride the back with probably less than a 5 minute wait). It was fun, but Disneyland is way better. Since you can only get a 5 day ticket to Disney, it makes sense to me to go to Knotts but only 1 day.
 

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