Hi ~

We are going to be in California this April. Going to Disney for a few days but want to see other things in California also.

Is Knottsberry Farm a good park for a 6 and 8 year old? I heard that it was a nice place but then I have also been hearing that it is turning into a regular amusement park and losing its western charm.

Also - is there two parks for Knotts - regular and water? If so, can you use a hopper pass like Disney and DCA?

Any info shared would be appreciated. We are trying to plan our trip and figure out if Knottsberry Farm is worth it or if we should pass and do something else with the kids like Sea World, San Diego Zoo in addition to Disney. Thanks......:)

I think there are a lot of fun things for kids of that age.

That might even be the time of their Easter EggMazement
and Spring Crafts Festival {April 12 - 27, 2003}.

http://www.soakcityusa.com/

Here is their link.

Yes, Soak City is separate from Knott's Berry Farm. I don't think, but I am not sure, that they have a 'hopper pass'. This might change by then or might just be available at the ticket office.

But, you would want to keep your eyes open for discounted tickets or coupons.

Check out the site, see the rides yourself. Yes, there are a lot of rides that are too much for the kids but there are still a lot of things to do.

My son loves the carnival and arcade games {can add up, though}. There are a lot of shows and attractions to see. My son also loves the Pan For Gold.

I think there are Indian crafts, but, I've never actually done them.
There are museums and interesting stores, too. The Indians have shows as well as Western shows.

I'll stop. If you do decide to go, you might want to start a new thread asking what 'must sees' there are for the park.

I'm going to admit my bias right off: I don't like Knotts. I just don't. First of all, the rides for kids are totally off the shelf. I don't know where you're coming geographically from but I've seen the exact same rides at the Santa Cruz boardwalk, so I'm guessing they're pretty standard.

I'm not crazy about the crowd Knott's attracts: not the way they dress, not the way they talk, not the way behave.

A 6- and 8-year-old may enjoy it more than shorter and younger children and I'm sure other padders will be more helpful, but I had to give my opinion. :)

Adrienne K

I have to agree with adriennek on this one. My husband and I went to Knott's in June and did not really enjoy it. There were many people cutting lines and talking in a way that I was glad my kids weren't with me. The whole atmosphere was not very child oriented. Also, the park was dirty. A couple of times we got into lines that went inside a building and the smell was just awful. When you get up toward the front of the lines it's every man for himself. Everybody just chooses which seats they want and shoves themselves in that chute. You have to do a little adjusting to keep your party together. Overall, I just did not feel as comfortable and safe as I did at Disneyland.
Sorry for the rant-I just thought I'd share my honest opinion.:)
-Julie

Here's my $.02: Went to Knott's lots as a kid(former southern CA resident)-really enjoyed it. Took our boys for vacation a couple of years ago and couldn't stand it. Not the same park I remember. Very, very dirty; "rough"(as compared to Disney) crowd; felt we could have been at any theme park-lots of just "regular" rides. Teenager was very happy with the amount of "scarier" rides-younger brother and parents were NOT impressed. Mrs. Knott's Restaurant(which still serves great chicken)was the highlight of the day, and you don't need theme park admission for that. Felt the day could have been better spent at the beach.

Thanks for the feedback! I just checked the website and it looks like Knottsberry Farm and Soak City are two separate parks. I didn't see anything about a hopper pass unless I just missed it.

Knotts is $148 for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 children). Soak City is $78. My kids had seen the water park part and that was what had interested them.

Has anyone ever gone to Soak City? Do you have the same opinion as Knotts? And.....does Disneyland have a water section? (This will be our first time to Disneyland).

Thanks again for your feedback! It is such a great thing and helps us out with our planning! :)

The only water section at Disneyland are the pools. I thought somewhere it said the Paradise Pier pool is closed right now. Don't know about your during your visit.

The Neverland pool is supposed to be a lot of fun. Not a water park but a fun little area.

Well, I am someone who has only been to the two Soak Cities {one in San Diego} and to the water park in Irvine. That one was pretty cool.

So, with that in mind, we found Soak City to be fun. Me, personally, I wouldn't hang out all day, but, I don't do that anywhere.

If it is a weekend, it might be crowded. I do like the river part and I like the arcade, myself. {Love air hockey} On the site it should show you all of the rides. Or maybe it just lists them. I am not sure.

But, as far as the pricing goes, you have to be able to find better than full price. Check their site under 'Hot Deals', if they have any it will be there. You may want to call them directly and ask if there is a discounted 'twicket'. I can vaguely remember seeing one on their ticket booth. Vaguely.

Either way, have fun and the kids will love whatever you do, water play is fun.

Thanks again! I just went to Soak City website again and they are running a special until the end of February. Buy one adult ticket and get a child's ticket for $1.00. I guess I would have to read up on what they would have to offer as it gets closer to April.

They also have a special $48 (for a family of 4) after 3:00.

It would be the water park part that we would be interested in - not the regular park.

This is so funny writing about a water park after we just had a huge blizzard last night. It is still snowing and is supposed to stop tonight. This is the biggest blizzard since 1996. We live out on Long Island.
We spent our day playing in the snow and shoveling 24 inches of snow outside our door and LONG driveway. I think tomorrow we are going to go buy a snow blower!

So, thinking of sunshine and water parks and warm weather sounds really good right now........

We went to Soak City across from KBF two summers ago and enjoyed it. We had all ages with us...infants to kids to parents to grandparents. We all had fun. We did make a day of it and stayed busy the whole time. My kids were too small for the big slides but your children sound about the right age. The park had a small children's area that was fun, quite a few bigger slides to go down with tubes or mats, a wave tank, a water fight area that was pretty neat, and a 'river' thing that let you could float around the park. If you've been to WDW, don't expect the themeing those water parks offer. However, we have water parks in Northern CA and I much prefered the look and feel of Soak City than the parks offered up here. I do remember the ground being very, very, very hot so make sure to bring swim shoes.

The blizzard that is going on back east just looks huge. I've been watching the reports on CNN and wow! We got a half inch of rainfall over the weekend and our weather forecaster was just thrilled to be talking about something other than fog.

Another "didn't like it" opinion here...'back in the day' we had been and I had great fond memories of the place .... so last time we took the entire family down to Disneyland we took a day to go over to KBF, we lasted all of 3 hours... before the 4 kids were begging to leave. Ghost rider broke every single time they got to the load point, so that by the 4th time they decided that it was karma and they didn't want to ride anymore, they went on a few of the other rides but were not impressed. Of course the one day we go on the train the train robbers don't show for some reason. But more because of the crowds/dirty park than anything else for the adults, we went on a Sunday, early morning at gate opening there were no crowds there were also very few of the "big" rides up yet....we went on the log ride and the mine train ride while waiting for the "real" rides to open up by noon the crowds showed up in force and it was worse than the crowds we see at the local Six Flags on a Friday or Saturday evening after 7.....we gave up, went back to Disneyland, the kids were instantly happier .....so there you have our experience with KBF.

Thanks for all of the great feedback and advice!:)