Exhaustion. If I can think of a word to describe how my husband and I felt on the first day of arriving to Knott’s is exhaustion. The family Christmas party was great but ohhh maaannnn the exhaustion everyone felt ( except for my 2 yr old) when we arrived almost felt we should just cancel and stay in our room.
First Day At Knotts’s Berry Farm
The first day my son just was burned out from the few days with my FIL. The toys, the people, holiday things, just burned him out. When we arrived to the park he didn’t really want to ride anything. For the most part he sticks to low impact rides like the trains, and the kiddie rides. He wanted to just stick to his favorite feature of the park which is the Camp Snoopy Water Fountain. At that point I already knew that day will require my husband, and I to help manage his behavior more than usual.
Baby Hulk’s favorite ride was the Pig Pen Buggie. It’s like a carousel of cars that seats 4 kids or 2 adults that goes up, and down. We went on it, and he started screaming in fear. After the ride, he said he doesn’t like that ride anymore. I felt sad when he said that. I was hoping his opinion will change later. It’s one of the few rides me and him use to go on all the time before the pandemic.
The only ride he seemed to like which were the small train, and the tow trucker ride. That’s ok. Little Princess is now at that age where she can ride more rides. She loved all the rides, and didn’t want to leave. Some rides she threw a tantrum because the ride finished.
This day was spent walking around looking at decor. Baby Hulk willingly stepped in to the stores more. In the past, a melt down would ensure even if he was in his stroller.
2nd Day At Knott’s Berry Farm
My naive self thought this would be the day to get the boarding pass*. I didn’t yesterday because Baby Hulk didn’t really want to ride anything. Nope, I forgot how long the lines can get when they first opened. The guest information line was so long I estimate it would take an hour to get the pass. We decided not to get the boarding pass, and stand in line.
*Boarding Pass is a paper that the ride attendants sign to let us know what time to come back instead of waiting in line. It’s a paper version of the DAS pass at Disney Parks.
Baby Hulk was a trooper in line. Less melt downs this time. He did voiced that he didn’t like lines but after explaining to him that “everyone in line gets a turn, and so we have to too.” He eventually calmed down. The lines were not that long for the rides we rode. I think we waited 20 minutes at most and that was for the rides not in Camp Snoopy. Camp Snoopy Rides generally don’t have long wait times so the boarding pass was not needed.
I’m glad he rode more rides this day. He still didn’t want to ride the Buggie ride, but Little Princess loves that ride.
We also met up with my husband’s brother & his family for lunch. Their kids are older than hours so we different priorities in theme parks. We enjoyed eating inside Ghost Town Grill. Baby Hulk actually likes eating inside. He doesn’t like waiting in line to get in, but the long wait is worth it for him. I also brought the imagine ink coloring set for both kids. It made the waiting in line more bearable for both of them.
Third & Last Day At Knott’s Berry Farm
Since this is the day we drive home we couldn’t stay past noon in the park. We told Baby Hulk repeatedly that it is our last day. We also tell him we will be back in the future. He was very sad, and glumly repeated “Today is our last day at Knott’s.”
This day he seemed more into the rides. He actually asked to ride the Pig Pen Buggie rides. Unfortunately the line was too long for us to wait in, so we skipped it. We rode the train, Beary Tales, & Calico Mine Train. Then we did a little more souvenir shopping. Come past noon, we start to walk to our car. Surprisingly, both our children didn’t throw or a tantrum, or a melt down. Baby Hulk did some voice stimming by humming sadly on the way back. That’s a much better way to control his behavior.
In the past, he would just cry & cry. It was hard to hear him do that for over an hour. To not hear him cry, and to hear him do voice stimming was much better. This was a such a big change for him, and we are happy he chose to do that instead of cry.
Best Thing We Brought Was The Special Tomato Stroller
My husband, and I discussed about the Special Tomato Stroller. This was probably the 2nd time we used it at a theme park. It made such a difference in our trip. For one thing, Baby Hulk loved sitting in it. He was already exhausted from this trip. For him to have his own designated space must felt calming. Sometimes he wanted us to pull back the backside so he can relax. It’s also roomy, and sturdy enough for him.
It was also a much faster way to transport both our children in it. Of course it’s not a two seater stroller. We basically put the foot rest up, and then told Baby Hulk to hug Little Princess. We got plenty of looks because for one thing, you don’t see many kids age like Baby Hulk in a stroller, & two kids in a stroller like that made people do a double take because most strollers do not hold that much in body weight between my two children. It does actually. It was one of the reasons why I bought it, for the higher weight limit.
What I Would Do For Our Next Trip At Knott’s Berry Farm
For our next trip I’m thinking of bringing things to making our trip better. I’m thinking of purchasing a plug in cooler for our hotel room. We priced the rooms, and its much cheaper to get a standard room instead of oversize. Even though we love staying in an oversize room, it’s mostly for the fridge. Recently, Knott’s Berry Farm Hotel went up in price. We originally thought it was because of inflation/pandemic/etc. It’s actually because they upgraded their rooms. I’m not saying it’s not worth it for the price, but to save money, staying in a standard room would be over $50 a day cheaper.
I would also bring a stroller organizer as well. I left my stroller organizers at home. It would have been nice to have the kids items more organized instead of a baby bag.
I would bring a tea kettle too. You’re going to think I’m being funny, but I don’t trust hotel coffee maker to make hot water. Plus sometimes I need more than a personal size pot of hot water sometimes. It’s mostly to heat up little princess some milk, & make instant ramen in our room.
We still had so much fun at Knott’s. We are hoping to visit soon since we purchased the All Season pass for the three of us ( Little Princess is still free to go in).
