Knott's Scary Farm 2021

[wutisgood]

Bonus info: You're going on Friday which means they're open 'till 2. If you're willing to buy a shot of espresso and stay up, lines start to die off around 1. By then you can do repeat trips through the houses with little to no wait or jump in a smaller line for a ride. If you really wan to do Ghostrider at night, the most ideal time would be 1:50. Otherwise, don't bother with Ghostrider. That ride gets slammed the entire night.

I don't understand that ride.It is a nice coaster but operations seemed really bad and it was a 120 or more minute wait when we went and we did not ride it the past summer. It is not worth that wait. Yea deff gonna stay up. Probably going to do sea world on the pass I have over spending 140 for a disney day.

 

[kingcooger]

Thanks for the info. I went to Knotts in july (bad experience due to lack of line enforcement and no response from the park) and have a platinum pass this year. But my experience from universal orlando express is it is not worth it to buy express when you do early entry because the walking is too much for one night. I think I can pin the buffet on work if I only do that meal for the day since i will be on site friday. Is it a true hour over main gate guests getting entry? I looks like those houses by ghost rider are the ones most guests might head to first anyways in which case the value is good.

Also I booked a hotel in walking distance so no problem staying until the end of the event.

Last I knew, pre-scare is 30 minutes ahead of gate. If you do pre-scare, go to Paranormal Inc first, then Wax Works, then The Depths, and then Dark Entities.

Be at rope drop NO MATTER WHAT. Head to Origins first, then Mesmer, and then Dark Ride.

Around midnight, The Depths, Dark Entities, and Pumpkin Eater are often walk on with Wax Works usually holding a 20 minute line.

If you don't do pre-scare or Fright Lane, go to Paranormal Inc first, then Origins, Mesmer, and then Dark Ride as the rest will be walk on or close to later on.

 

[Water Bottle]

Thanks for the info. I went to Knotts in july (bad experience due to lack of line enforcement and no response from the park) and have a platinum pass this year. But my experience from universal orlando express is it is not worth it to buy express when you do early entry because the walking is too much for one night. I think I can pin the buffet on work if I only do that meal for the day since i will be on site friday. Is it a true hour over main gate guests getting entry? I looks like those houses by ghost rider are the ones most guests might head to first anyways in which case the value is good.

Also I booked a hotel in walking distance so no problem staying until the end of the event.

the prescare early entry to backstage mazes is 6:30, not 6:00. I've done it 3 times. Good value, try to book earliest available time slot

 

[Water Bottle]

I wish knotts could still do the "spinning fast lane wheel" for coasters during the year, and scary farm for the fall. Only seen it out sometimes, i want it back!!

 

[Water Bottle]

thanks if I can book it to the other houses to knock out a least one and do rides/shows middle of the night I think this is doable.

also, dont worry about doing dark entities. Likely you will only have time for 3 before 7. But DE rarely has a line so its good to skip it so you can get to opening (did 3 mazes, litteratly ran to make opening lol)

 

[deadbydawn]

thanks if I can book it to the other houses to knock out a least one and do rides/shows middle of the night I think this is doable.

Bonus info: You're going on Friday which means they're open 'till 2. If you're willing to buy a shot of espresso and stay up, lines start to die off around 1. By then you can do repeat trips through the houses with little to no wait or jump in a smaller line for a ride. If you really wan to do Ghostrider at night, the most ideal time would be 1:50. Otherwise, don't bother with Ghostrider. That ride gets slammed the entire night.

I've been going to Knott's Scary Farm about as long and I would say Freak's advice is pretty much spot on. It comes down to how much you want to experience the rides. Personally, I'd rather go with the Fast Lane over the pre scare because it eases up the stress and pace of the evening and it's unlimited - so you can go through the mazes and rides as many times as you want.

Super important to keep in mind like Freak said above around 12:30/1 AM the place starts to really empty out. If you don't think the additional cost is worth it for the Fast Lane, hang in there until the end of the night and you can probably get to do anything else you didn't get to do earlier or wanted to do again.

I don't understand that ride.It is a nice coaster but operations seemed really bad and it was a 120 or more minute wait when we went and we did not ride it the past summer. It is not worth that wait. Yea deff gonna stay up. Probably going to do sea world on the pass I have over spending 140 for a disney day.

Unfortunately a lot of it has to do with the aforementioned operational issues. It's a great coaster, especially after the track replacement a few years ago and at night it's terrifying.

 

[Spookies n' Stuff]

In the past they have been on your case about no photography at all, but this year, ive been doing photos and there's been no problem. Most people don't care even though on the website it does say you can't do any photos or videos in the mazes no matter what, I've been able to get away with it this year, but do so at your own risk.

I mean in the age of smartphones there's really no way for them to enforce it for sure without calling out people for just having their phones in their hand in general, unless there's flash of course.
So far this year I haven't seen a single person get called out for filming or taking pictures, so long as theres no flash and you don't hold up the line.

 

[Freak]

12:45 mark

Apparently there's a secret room in Mesmer you can go through. All you have to do is push the red door. Although it's nothing to write home about, I still think that is wild.

 

[Skipper Justin]

Going for the first time on Sunday. I decided to add the Boo-fet. Has anyone done this before? How is it?

 

[DTH]

It's a shame, there is absolutely so much detail and story to that maze, but you'd be only able to take in maybe half of it since the lighting at KSF is way too dark and the rooms all feel claustrophic, so there's no way to really take in the environment.

 

[viking_wizard_eyes]

It's a shame, there is absolutely so much detail and story to that maze, but you'd be only able to take in maybe half of it since the lighting at KSF is way too dark and the rooms all feel claustrophic, so there's no way to really take in the environment.

Honestly, all the houses seem even more lazily lit this year than they were before, and it was already pretty bad. Between that and the lack of actors inside, a lot of the houses feel like the times when you get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom but you don't turn on any lights so you just kinda weave around your place based on memory haha. That's exactly what it felt like for me, at least.

 

[MikePat]

I returned back to Scary Farm this year for the first time in five years this past Sunday. I really loved the event and that might be because 90% of the event was new to me.

Wax Works I think overall was the best maze. It was really creepy and felt like it had the most complete lineup of actors roaming within the walls of the spooky wax museum.

Origins and Dark Ride for my first time walking through them definitely was missing some actors in curtain places. With that said, I still was able to really love those mazes.

It was really great to finally ride the Halloween Hootenanny too.

Going for the first time on Sunday. I decided to add the Boo-fet. Has anyone done this before? How is it?

I did Boo-fet for the first time and it was enjoyable. The monsters are not trying to scare you but they are really great to talk to and ask questions about the event. The best part is how you can do four mazes early and still see the opening ceremony, which I highly recommend checking out.

 

[wutisgood]

Went through the houses by 8. Best Halloween event for sure.

 

[Freak]

the event doesn’t even start in five hours and tonight’s event has already sold out. This is insane! This might be the earliest I’ve seen KSF sold out ever. I guess this bodes well for next year!

 

[zto8411]

Going to go either this Sunday or next Sunday. Anyone have a good attack plan to try and get everything done? Haven’t been since we would go for school trips in middle school. Last year I went was 2009.
Parking tips? Time I should get there?

 

[Freak]

Going to go either this Sunday or next Sunday. Anyone have a good attack plan to try and get everything done? Haven’t been since we would go for school trips in middle school. Last year I went was 2009.
Parking tips? Time I should get there?

Same gameplay that I mentioned a page or two ago: Get there really early for ropedrop (like no later than 5:45), do Paranormal, Wax Works, Depths, then Dark Entities (Basically all of the backstage houses in that order), go to Origins, Mesmer, then Dark Ride and Pumpkin Eater. Even on a sold out night you should be done with all the mazes by 8:30 or 9.

 

[DTH]

I did that exact game plan but was done around 12, but also I had a snack and dinner, so I probably would've been done at 10:30-11ish if I didn't. Origins was a bit more than a half hour wait and Mesmer was an hour. Also, don't forget Calico Candy Mountain and Log Ride Halloween Hootenanny!

Here is my maze times from my review:

PARANORMAL INC
Advertised Wait: 15 minutes
Time in Line: 7:04pm
In The Maze: 7:15pm

WAX WORKS
Advertised Wait: 30 minutes
Time in Line: 7:22pm
In The Maze: 7:44pm

THE DEPTHS
Advertised Wait: 15 minutes
Time in Line: 7:50pm
In The Maze: 7:53pm

DARK ENTITIES
Advertised Wait: 5 minutes
Time in Line: 7:58pm
In The Maze: 8:03pm

[Took a 20 minute snack and bathroom break here for my group.]

ORIGINS
Advertised Wait: 90 minutes
Time in Line: 8:30pm
In The Maze: 9:09pm

[Hour lunch break.]

MESMER
Advertised Wait: 120 minutes
Time in Line: 10:20pm
In The Maze: 11:17pm

[At this point, we were in no rush since we knew we'd see everything, so maze times were a bit more spread out.]

DARK RIDE
Advertised Wait: 90 minutes
Time in Line: 11:31pm
In The Maze: 11:57pm

PUMPKIN EATER
Advertised Wait: 45 minutes
Time in Line: 12:12am
In The Maze: 12:17am

 

[kingcooger]

Going to go either this Sunday or next Sunday. Anyone have a good attack plan to try and get everything done? Haven’t been since we would go for school trips in middle school. Last year I went was 2009.
Parking tips? Time I should get there?

Same gameplay that I mentioned a page or two ago: Get there really early for ropedrop (like no later than 5:45), do Paranormal, Wax Works, Depths, then Dark Entities (Basically all of the backstage houses in that order), go to Origins, Mesmer, then Dark Ride and Pumpkin Eater. Even on a sold out night you should be done with all the mazes by 8:30 or 9.

Honestly, if you plan on staying later, I wouldn’t prioritize Dark Entities or The Depths early on as The Depths you can usually walk into past 11:30 and Dark Entities is a walk on almost all night.

I would save those two for the end so that you can catch some shows/zones.

Sunday crowds are often lighter anyways

Beyond that tweak (which is obviously based on personal preference/how late you plan on staying), @Freak has the right idea

I personally have gotten in the habit of doing Paranormal Inc, Origins, Dark Ride, and then Mesmer, before taking a long break to zone and show sit. Then I clean up the other four houses past 11pm

To put in perspective how much less crowded Sunday often is, a few weekends ago Origins was at 75 minutes at 11:30pm on a Saturday, while the very next day (Sunday) I waited 10 minutes for it at 11:15pm

I find Boardwalk BBQ to be the quickest food service unless the Cantina has every window open in which case they are both relatively speedy

Puppet Up is an essential show and I highly recommend you be in Gore-ing 20’s at either 8pm, 9:30pm, 11pm, or 12:15am

 

[wutisgood]

The boo-fet was just ok but the extra half hour was essential. The shows were really nice as well. It made for a good night even without being able to ride much. With that plan it was my favorite Halloween event.

That being said it's an embarrassment how poor the operations and line management for the rides are. Long dispatches, empty seats, rampant line cutting. When they do such a poor job this way on too of overselling fast lane the regular ride lines mostly stop moving.

Seriously why can't they add some more beer carts and use that money to pay for people to manage capacity properly. I don't know if I ever ever been to a park that makes it so hard to give them money for overpriced drinks.

 

[zto8411]

My trip was amazing! They have really stepped up their game from what I last remember over a decade ago.
The good:
So for this I’ll be comparing mostly to HHN since this is a Universal forum.
Maze lines weren’t long and never felt as long as posted.
I really enjoy the lack of trigger scares. It’s really nice not having scares spoiled when you have a party or two in front of you. The detail in each (well almost each maze) was incredible.
Atmosphere is great, lotta fog, good amount of decor and theming in most areas. Always feels like Halloween.
the FX’s in Mesmer andThe Depths are outstanding. Two of my favorite mazes I’ve been through this year. Would be refreshing getting some of these at HHN.
The bad:
You guys weren’t joking about the operations. We got out of a long food line that we were just in for drinks because it was taking so long. It never moved….Opted to get drinks from a cart outside the line of Pumpkin Eater instead, which was quick and painless. Ride operations were really bad too. Boarding and offloading seemed to take 5-8 minutes? No where near as organized and fast as HHN rides operate. Definitely made us shy away from the rides because of that. They were almost all 2 hours.

final verdict:
This is a amazing event for the price (paid $54 for Sunday). Lot of variety in mazes, good atmosphere, shows, etc. however, I could see how bringing back the same mazes year after year could get old and see why people call it a “every other year” event. I know HHN Hollywood has a different philosophy on scares and how they operate their haunt, but they could learn a lot from Knotts and benefit from adding different type of scares and FXs to their event. And Knott’s can learn a lot from Universal when it comes to staffing.
maze ranks:
The Depths 5/5
Mesmer 5/5
Wax works 5/5
Paranormal Inc 4/5
Dark ride 3/5
Pumpkin Eater 2/5
Dark Entities 2/5