I went to Knott's a few weeks back and as usual, had to go on Kingdom of the Dinosaurs- man, what happened to that ride? There used to be individual cars, like the dark rides at DL, but now they have several cars connected together like a train. Does anyone know why they did that? That sure knocked down the ride capacity. I had to wait forever to get on, because they only had two trains running and you had to wait for them to cycle through the ride- which isn't that short, also factor in the snail speed the ride moves at. I know the ride is a bit lame, lol, but I always liked getting off my feet for a bit. Don't know if it's worth it with this new system. And it wasn't even that busy at Knott's the day I went.

The change in how the ride runs was done for safety and security... too many riders were getting off the ride in the middle of it, and messing with the Dinosaurs. Notice that a Knott's employee rides in the back, and has a e-stop device if anyone tries to get off in the middle of the attraction....

:eek:

From Knott's Beary Tales to Kingdom of the Dinosaurs. sigh. :(

That many people were actually getting off the ride to mess with stuff? That's too bad, because this new system sucks up a lot of time. Now that you mentioned it, I do remember seeing an employee jump into the back seat and I wondered why they were going with.

Hey, I'm with you cstephens- Knott's Beary Tales was much better than K of the D. I used to go home with that song that played through the ride going over and over in my head. Sort of like the Small World theme- annoying, but catchy. :D

I miss Rolly Crump's wonderful dark ride... :(

berry tales was rad I remember the boysen berry smell, I never really dug kingdom it was always kinda slow

Nothing will ever match the charm of Knott's Beary Tales.:crying:


But KOD was a much better ride when FIRST opened. It had an interesting story which in the final section dealt with the demise of the dinosaurs...

But it made kids cry to see them dying and the big funeral bell and music dirge didn't help with the beasts wasting away to skeletons, so the ending was lopped off and changed.

The PUNK act of getting off the dark rides and doing damage is very common in the Carnivals. That's why the carnival dark rides have not really gotten more than low tech...what's the point when disrespectful PUNKS constantly ruin the goods. :mad:

But it made kids cry to see them dying and the big funeral bell and music dirge didn't help with the beasts wasting away to skeletons, so the ending was lopped off and changed.

Are you serious? That was the original ending of the ride? I must've come along a lot later, I don't remember that. That's funny- a funeral bell and dirge, lol. I wish I had seen that.

I was always very frightened when I went on it as a kid--but only because I really wanted to pet the dinosaurs, except there were signs everywhere saying that they would "BITE". I didn't want to mess with that.

I had a Knott's pass from the time I was born until about age 15. And since I haven't been on KOTD since then, what have they done with that old "bones/funeral dirge" part? What does the ride end after? What's been changed? Wow...next time I go, I'd love to see what they've done with it.

All I remember about the cars being connected is the fact that a bunch of my junior high friends got really ****ed when they changed it. It couldn't be "Kingdom of the Couples" anymore after they connected the cars and made employees ride along. Mwahaha.

Love and Laughter!

P.S. You know what? The only thing that really did scare me in that right was that tar--I thought it was real.

The only thing I find missing from the original KoTD between when it opened and now is the hill where you go up then down and end up back at the correct dinosaur time. All the fake greenery was much more lush, I mean MUCH more! I guess years of punks pulling at them have scaled them back to merely a few (you can see the walls now, never could before). Also, it was darker before and there were black strings hanging from the ceiling that would scare the poop out of you when they skimmed by your face! I guess it was supposed to feel like spiders were on you or something. The first time I rode, the string scared me so much I held onto it and it popped right out of the ceiling - and I had a new souvenir, lol. I guess that's what happened to all of them eventually.
Thankfully I have one of the orig. jumping frogs from Bear-Y Tales to remind me of better times in this show building.