Click on any photo to see a larger version of it.
We are going to take a break from the story of how Walter and
Cordella turned their berry stand into a theme park for a couple of
pages because I do need to get into Ghostrider a little bit. Don't
worry though with as much history that is at Knott's Berry Farm we are
going to get back into the amazing story of this park throughout this
Trip Report.
The Knott family for years wanted a large wooden coaster as a
cornerstone for the Ghost Town section of the park. If you have
never been to Knott's the park is seriously landlocked as the once rural
town of Buena Park, California now has over 82,000 people.
With the parks hotel, Ghost Town, Mrs. Knott's Chicken Diner, the
parking lot and a small shopping area there was really very little room
within the park proper for a wooden coaster.
As a result Knott's had to build half the coaster on the other side of
Grand Avenue. This resulted in four thousand five hundred and
thirty-three feet of track being squeezed into a small L shaped plot of
land. Ghostrider was designed by Custom Coasters International and
opened six months ahead of schedule in December on 1998.
After seventeen years of almost daily operation Ghostrider was closed
down for a massive renovation. As Custom Coasters was long gone by
this point Knott's brought in Great Coasters International to take a
look at Ghostrider in order to keep this coaster running year round into
the future. GCI completely retracked the ride, tweaked it where
they saw issues, removed the mid course brake and replaced the old
Philadelphia Toboggan Company trains with their own Millennium Flyers.
As a result of the changes what was my impression about the new and
improved Ghostrider? Wow! Ghostrider was flying around the
course and its legendary "The Drop" out of what was the mid course is
even better.
The only thing I have to say bad about Ghostrider is I really didn't get
enough rides on it.
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Copyright 1999 - 2025
Paul B.
Drabek