The summer season has arrived at Knott’s Berry Farm and they have packed in a lot of new goodness down on the farm this year. There’s something for everyone – Thrills, comedy, theater, immersive experiences . . . It’s mostly good news for you today . . . almost. Let’s start off with one of our new favorites:
Beach Blanket Beagle
Looks like the beautiful beach on the stage is about to become a parking lot. It’s up to the cast of the show to save paradise.
The beachgoers need $10,000 to pay off the developer. They run off to get Snoopy to help raise the money by winning the Surfing Contest.
And of course Snoopy wins the contest…
…but the winnings for the contest was 10,000 cans of Turtle Wax.
So they try instead to win the Dancing Contest.
Yes, that’s a real pool of water ON THE STAGE!!!
And Snoopy Wins again, but the prize this time is 10,000 clams.
As night falls. Snoopy goes off to find the cursed treasure of Dead Man’s Cove.
We are then entertained by a Firedancer. He’s pretty good too!
Right after the Firedancer, Snoopy returns dressed as King Kamehameha to reveil the location of the treasure.
Snoopy Saves the Beach and it was the best day ever!
This show is amazing, it will be the highlight for many park goers. A great story, music, and a chance to maybe get wet (if you are in the first three rows). Don’t just take my word for it, check it out below:
Ghost Town Alive
Another favorite, returning for the third year: Ghost Town Alive. This show won Knott’s a prestigious Themed Entertainment Association THEA award. If you’ve seen Ghost Town Alive in previous years, it’s all new this time around.
If you’re new to Ghost Town Alive, I’ll let a Knott’s experts tell you in her own words as the show is a little hard to explain:
“I believe that Ghost Town Alive can best be described as an eight hour interactive, structured improv. Upon walking into Calico, Guests enter into a story that will unfold before them and that they could be a part of. They could aid Sheriff Wheeler and his deputies in keeping an eye on the Mayfield Gang, hellbent on taking over the town, or they could become bandits and take part in making plans and even assist in a jailbreak! And in between each scene, many more citizens were there to intact with, and guests can create their own wonderful and unique relationships with them.” – Janey Ellis, atomicredhead.com
A fight broke out in front of the Saloon and the Sheriff apprehended the people who broke the law. We followed them to Town Hall where they held a public trial.
You’ll have to follow this storyline yourself to find out what happens to the criminals. It all depends on how the audience votes.
Read the papers to get caught up on what is going on in the town.
There are mini-games where you have to follow clues to solve a mystery:
The first game Debbie and I played, we had to follow the clues nailed up around the town. We started late and didn’t get to finish, but we’re excited to go back and try again!
Why is this MB stamped everywhere? You have to play the game to find out.
Why are they voting? There is a whole story to explain.
Ghost Town Alive is very immersive. You can find yourself caught up in many different storylines that you can follow all summer long. The more you come to the park, the better time you’ll have, in fact.
At Disney, you can meet your favorite Princess. At Ghost Town Alive, you can meet an outlaw, follow him to his camp, and be taught how to be an outlaw.
This is No-Name, he told us the story of the town.
The day ends with the Founder’s Day Hoedown, which includes the winner of the election and the announcement of who stole the gold from the bank.
Ghost Town is so amazing, don’t just walk through the land, take a moment to interact. there’s definitely an amazing history to the area that you can feel as you explore this wonderful interactive play.
Calico’s Mountain Jamboree
Calico’s Mountain Jamboree is a stunt show featuring trampolines, aerialists, and more. The story of the show follows the Calico Miners as they come together to celebrate Jamboree day with the Timber Moutain Loggers. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations… The Loggers were all drunk, the Miners were thieves, and to distract the audience they brought out girls in corsets.
The beyond drunk logger dancing on a high wire.
Quick distract the audience, send out the girls.
In this town girls are not allowed to do stunts, but one of them sneaks onto a high rope and “blows the crowd away”
They end the show in dynamite style.
This new show definitely tries but is ultimately less than spectacular. It mixes a storyline that has potential but contains too much bad dialog, odd music selection, stereotypes, and an ending that has a predictable explosion that had a firework shell fly out into the audience. Now, I did notice that there are two rolling logs on stage that weren’t used on the night we were there. I don’t think an additional stunt would have saved the show, though. The acrobatic stunts are great, but they fall flat under the wait of a lackluster story. The show in preview years, Circus of Wonders, stood on its own as it had a wonderful storyline and great acrobatics. You can check out my review of that show HERE. You can also view our video of Calico’s Mountain Jamboree below:
If you missed our previous update from Knott’s, click HERE.
Thank you to Dsny Debbie, DisneybySteph, Calvin Barrie, and Janey Ellis for their contributions to this article.
You must be logged in to post a comment.