Hello!
I just visited Knott’s for the first time. I could not find much about how to plan for it or how any of the add-ons worked. I decided to copy my Knott’s Thoughts and the section of my Trip Report that covers Knott’s…
KNOTT’S BERRY FARM
TL;DR – It’s the most well-themed / decorated “amusement” park you’ll ever visit. It’s all “big” coasters and “off-the-shelf” carnival rides. The food is great, and you should 100% buy the deluxe meal plan! If you like place like Six Flags, Kings Island, Dollywood then you should definitely visit!!
LET’S START WITH THE BASICS!
I looked all over Touring Plans, YouTube, and the Internet in general for help planning my Knott’s visit. I was surprised at how little there trip planning help there is.
I found a couple dedicated Knott’s vloggers, but no one has a “Plan your first visit to Knott’s” video. I see dozens of these for Disney and Universal. The Knott’s website has most of the information you want to know, but it’s buried, or you are instructed to “visit Guest Services.”
So… I’ve decided to take on that task! I bought every add-on / perk for a day at Knott’s and will tell you how to use them!
- You’ll have a couple ticket options, but they’re all pretty straightforward. You can do a hotel package or season pass. I did the math, if you are planning on visiting Knott’s twice in a year then a season pass is your way to go. This is true when visiting most Cedar Fair / Six Flags parks.
Knott’s is going to try multiple times to get you to an all-day drink or meal plan as you go through the transaction. They will do this even if you’ve already added it to your cart / ticket. It can be confusing, but not too bad.
- Also, Knott’s Berry Farm is a CASHLESS park. You will need to either bring your debit/credit card OR use a “convert cash to card” kiosk.
As a former Six Flags Corporate TM I can tell you they do this to prevent theft by employees. Many of the TMs are teenagers that are employed seasonally. They have no impulse control and will take $100s in cash when that temptation is put in front of them. It’s a daily occurrence.
- There are lockers at the front of the park to store large bags. If you take a bag with you on rides you are expected to leave it unattended at the station while you ride. I didn’t experience any issues leaving my bag while I was riding. Nevertheless, I kept my cell / wallet in my pocket the whole day.
What can you add to your ticket?
- Fast Lane – Unlimited Fast Pass on every attraction. No limits / restrictions.
- Dining Plan – Basic / Deluxe + Unlimited Soda Refill Cup
- Ms. Knott’s Chicken Dinner
- Photo Package
FAST LANE – There are a couple of options, as of May 2025.
For $99 per person, you get a wristband that lets you ride everything as much as you want with little / no waits.
For $30 in addition to a base ticket you can buy a “Thrill Seeker” bundle. This allows gives you a wristband for 3 Fast Lane accesses
A la carte at most major attractions – Most major attractions have a kiosk offering you the chance to buy single a Fast Lane for that ride.
Is Fast Lane worth it?
I choose the Thrill Seeker bundle. However, this is a new option. No one knew how to give me a wristband / pass / update App for this new program. I was given the $99 Fast Pass wristband!
I can say first hand that Fast Lane is 100% “worth it” – especially if you are only there for a single day or limited hours.
This is another example of a park making the Fast Lane price so absurb versus the base ticket price that most guests don’t buy it. My admission ticket was $85 for that day. Fast Lane would’ve been more than the entire ticket!
I NEVER waited for anything for longer than a walk-on for any ride except one very popular coaster. (Xcelerator) Even at the longest line it was 10 – 12 minutes. At one point I did my favorite coaster four times in a row while there was a 30 minute standby wait. As I walked by the standby queue for the third time a kid in that queue said, “Are you going AGAIN??!!?”. It did feel cool to walk past everyone all day. Also, Knott’s TM’s had no issue giving me my own ride vehicle or front/back row while using FL!
Now, if you are bringing a family and can’t invest $300 - $500 more for Fast Lane I will recommend the Thrill Seeker bundle. There will be two – three rides that get crazy waits even on slower days. I really think this is a good value that most people haven’t discovered yet.
At the very least plan on buying a single FL for “Ghost Rider” the park’s most popular attraction. It only operates ONE train on a very long wooden track. The wait can be hours without it and still 30 minutes or so with it.
You will need to ASK for your Fast Lane wristband as you scan your park ticket into the park. This is annoying. As a first time visitor how are you supposed to know this? I even told the Team Member at the gate this was my first visit and did I need to do anything “special.” They just scanned me in and didn’t provide me with anything.
DINING PLANS
There are three…
Single Dining Plan = $20 - You get a single meal with drink. This is offered as a way to prepay for food for a cashless park. It’s good for school field trips.
All Day Dining = $34 – You get unlimited ENTREES only at all Knott’s eateries every 90 minutes. NO DRINK
Premium All Day Dining = $46 - You get unlimited ENTREES & SNACKS at all Knott’s eateries every 90 minutes. SODA/SLUHSES/DRINKS every 15 minutes. You get a new paper cup for each drink
Unlimited Soda Refill Cup = $19 - SODA/SLUHSES/DRINKS every 15 minutes. You get a choice of either a plastic tumbler to keep all year or a new paper cup each visit. If you bring it back on a separate date you can “recharge” it for $7. (However, Season Pass Holders can get a year round refillable drink cup for $36 total. I don’t know why a Passholder would buy anything else )
YOU MUST GET THE PREMIUM DINING PLAN! It’s amazing!
To make it “pay for itself” you only need to eat 2 meals, one snack and one drink throughout the day.
The difference in price for the “basic” plan and the Premium plan is $14. The refillable soda add-on makes this a value by itself. However, you’ll now be able to get “Snacks” as well as entrees every 90 minutes. These include churros, pie, popcorn, ice cream, pickles, pretzels etc.…
There are almost no limits on where you can eat. The limits are that you may only have access to about 85% - 90% of the menu at each place. There might be one or two “special” items at each place that aren’t included.
However, I went during the middle of “Boysenberry Festival” and many of the special event food offerings were available to dining plan guests. I never really felt limited or denied anything. The ONLY food offering that you can not get with any dining plan is Funnel Cakes. Knott’s offers multiple places to get these. IMHO, if funnel cakes were on the meal plan these places wouldn’t be able to handle the volume of guests and maintain quality.
Imagine you could go to EPCOT during a food festival and eat FULL portions of food and drink every 90 minutes for $50!!
I made good use of those snacks too! I had pie, ice cream cookie sandwich, cookie, and a churro
One more “catch” is the soda is on a separate timer than the food. So, if you stop for a drink and then five minutes later get lunch you may not have a drink when you start. (However, I did this a couple times, and the TMs just shrugged and gave me a drink anyway!)
The food at Knott’s is pretty good. Some items were better than others and I found a couple items that were AMAZING. The food is on par with Disney & Universal QS items and often BETTER. Almost all the food is made fresh and on site. It really makes a difference.
The BBQ sandwich made me go buy a bottle of the sauce to take home. Plus, the mac & cheese was the best theme park M&C I’ve had. (Better than all restaurants!)
MS. KNOTT’S CHICKEN DINNER – Sadly, this is the one regret I have about this visit. I couldn’t justify paying for a separate meal when I was getting so much good food every 90 minutes.
I every “honest” vlogger I watch, multiple Uber drivers and even a couple of TMs I asked all said it was “just OK.”
I did a “churro comparison” for this trip. Maybe someone should do the chicken meals of DLR / Knotts / USH / Local (Roscoe’s?)
Does anyone want to sponsor a trip? 
PHOTO PACKAGE
This is a $30 add-on. Was it worth it? Not really. I’m happy I did it because I was solo and I like the novelty of ride photos.
However, there was only one photographer in the entire park. This is at park entry. They have a lovely set-up / display to pose in front of. After that you are going to be handing your cell phone to a TM. This was the case at all character meetings and other “photo spots.”
Furthermore, this is something you have to stop and set up at the start of the day. You’ll need to go to the photo pass building / booth at the front gates. There you’ll have to give them your e-mail and set up an account. You will have to access your photos after your trip visit a third party website. Once this is done you get a lanyard with a QRC to scan at each ride photo. It’s very easy to use once set-up. There was never anyone getting the photo and I’d frequently have to get the attention of the daydreaming attendant. ( 
)
If you do get the photos you are advised to come back to the photo center at the end of the day. If you do they will “enhance” your photos. They’ll add the borders you see, crop out other guests and add the magic shot stuff. I’m glad I did this at the end of the night. (They were also surprised someone came back at closing!!)
KNOTT’S SHOWS!
Wait?? Shows? Not starting with rides??
Absolutely! When I started I said this was the best themed amusement park. The fact that they still offer live entertainment is a big part of this!
(I went back to my former “home” Six Flags park last year and there zero live entertainment in that park anymore! 
)
There are more shows than I had time to see! Most of it is theme around “Old West” or “Patriotic America”
You can hear live music, see theater shows, Native American ritual dancing, Saloon / Vaudeville acts, children’s games / shows and big outdoor stage productions.
You could plan a lot of your day around these shows. They may be a bit “corny” / cliché, but every performer I saw was giving it their all.
KNOTT’S THEMEING!
Knott’s has two themes – Old West and Boardwalk.
The Boardwalk is almost like DCA. Full of amusement style rides. Lots of white paint.
The Old West is what Knott’s is famous for!! They have constructed a true Old West Town. Some of these buildings are older than Disneyland! It’s full of vendors selling arts & crafts – a lot of Boysenberry. You can see glass blowing, candle making, see a school house, ride an actual horse drawn stage coach, visit a mission, graveyard and more! There’s a saloon with a full bar and performers / dueling piano players on stage behind the bar. Visit the jail and meet Sad Eyed Joe Knott’s oldest resident! (It’s a statue with a microphone being monitored by a performer back stage)
KNOTT’S RIDES!
Knott’s has a lot of “Traditional” / BIG coasters. It’s not all the offer, but it’s their brand.
They have a Big 3 – Ghost Rider, Xcelerator & Hang Time.
- Ghost Rider was being refurbished, but that track looked MASSIVE and IMPRESSIVE!
- Xcelerator goes over 80mph in 2 seconds! WOW!
- Hang Time is fun with the drop and is really smooth for such a wild ride.
If you don’t like coasters there are still many things for you. However, a lot of them are you being spun / flung around by carnival rides.
There are a handful of very mediocre coasters as well – Pony Express, Jaguar, Sierra Sidewinder
There are three exceptions = The old west attractions! (Timber Mt. Log Ride / Calico Mine Ride / Calico Railroad)
I would consider all of these “must-do” attractions! They are theme park history and FULL of animatronics! They’re old and dated, but I adore them. The sets inside the mountains are stunning! It’s crazy how much detail these old rides have! You can see how Tony Baxter was inspired to create BTMRR! The railroad is a full size train with actual rail cars, plus it gets robbed by bandits each trip!
KNOTT’S THOUGHTS & GRIPES!
I had A LOT of fun & you should go! Furthermore, EVERY TM went above and beyond! At the end of the night there was a particular souvenir my kid wanted. I had to go to four shops to find it. However, every TM was so kind and got on the radio or went back stage! The Photo Pass TMs at the rides knew me so well by the end of the day! Many of the ride and food TMs would recognize me and ask how my first visit was going! (I wasn’t wearing a special jacket or 1st visit pin – They just took time to remember me.)
The wait times on the App were ALWAYS correct, but not the signage at the ride. You might see 15 minutes posted at the ride, but the app says 40 minutes. Trust the App! Furthermore, the app doesn’t like to display a posted wait under 15 minutes. I saw it a couple times, but if you see 15 minutes posted then the queue is no more than that, but maybe even a walk-on.
But here’s what annoyed me….
- The App is pretty easy to use. The app really can’t multi-task. If you are using the app to navigate to a ride and want to look at wait times you can. The issue is that it will completely back you out of the navigation and you start over. If you are looking at ride wait times and click on a ride you want more info about you can’t back out of the details page back to the ride waits. It starts all over…
- I didn’t need it, but there is no Mobile Order option available. If you want something, even with the dining plan you are gonna wait if it’s popular. This happened to me a couple times.
- Also, the park map is too “Cartoon-ish.” It might look vintage and fun, but it’s a pain to navigate areas with small alleys or paths that go under bridges
- There’s NO SHADE!! Bring your sunblock! The queues are all boring switch backs with no theme and full sun.
- Security is a JOKE! You can sneak in anything. Teens / college students do the screening. You empty out your bag into a plastic bin. NOTHING you put in that bin is searched with anything more than a cursory glance. You put whatever contraband you want to bring into the parks in that bin. They take your bag and wave it through the metal detector / screening machine. If it doesn’t beep you are then allowed walk through. If nothing beeps then you are given back your bag and allowed to collect everything from the bin - including your contraband that no one touched or looked at.
I never felt unsafe in the parks, but I never saw much of a security presence inside the parks. Being able to smuggle in a knife, if I wanted to, so easily though does concern me. It would be no trouble at all to bring in cannabis edibles or a vape pen… 
- The bathrooms were absolutely disgusting! They should be embarrassed by how gross these are allowed to be. I’m not hyperbolic. They stank, had litter everywhere and WET surfaces. It was awful. The “best” bathrooms were just “dirty.” I had to have a bowel movement midday. I found a single unit “Family” restroom that was covered in paper towels and TP. It was “mostly” clean, and I was grateful!
- The park opened at 10am, but the majority of food, games, and amenities don’t open until 11am. You could ride everything in that first hour. However, if you want to use your soda refill, food or generally anything you were out of luck that first hour. They don’t staff anything until then.
- In planning for my Dining Plan “marathon” every 90 minutes I wanted to know what Knott’s offered. There is really no way to know other than “type of food” served. Knott’s, like Disneyland, caters to locals and changes it food offerings routinely. Sure, you can tell that “Boardwalk BBQ” is going to sell BBQ, but what in particular you won’t know. The same for “Calico Tots.” There will be a couple standard loaded tot options, but a few unique offerings. It’s great you get so many options, but frustrating that I couldn’t plan meals better. It’s crazy how many options are included in that meal plan! Even Panda Express!