From the Happiest Place on Earth to America's 1st Theme Park

Knotts Scary Farm

Paradise pier (Note: Stock photo from July 20th)

Most tourists usually use Disneyland as a hub and center of their vacation in SoCal as they travel to other SoCal destinations from there (unless they have a hotel in Los Angeles). As a local however, I did things a lot different this past October 4th. Since 2009, I've made the trip to Knotts for their Halloween Haunt event and usually has me going there close to 5pm for my pre scare dinner. This year, I did something that I wanted to do: Go to Knotts FROM Disneyland.

http://www.rideart.org

Anaheim has a transportation line for its "Resort area" called the Anaheim Resort Transportation (known as ART) and it serves as a connection to the local destinations around Anaheim and some of the neighboring cities in the county. 2 years ago, they extended a line to Buena Park which connects Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm (Line 18). Because of the nature of the line's route, it doesn't operate too long only operating for 12 hours (9am-9pm with a 4 hour break). Using it to my advantage, my parents dropped me off in the morning at Disneyland before they opened at 8am and it was really different compared to the days that I only be there till 6:30. I had to cram everything that I wanted to do at Disney before I had to go catch the shuttle to Knotts. Once I did everything I wanted to do, I went to the Disneyland Transportation plaza, got my ART ticket and boarded the shuttle to Knotts which went on the Freeway after making its stop around Anaheim. Arrived at Knotts 25 minutes after I boarded the shuttle.

I can easily see the difference in both theme park destinations. Knotts is more tailored to the locals of SoCal with its cheap prices and short hours compared to Disneyland which caters to both locals and tourists. But Knotts has historical roots in its community having started out as a simple berry stand then turned Chicken Dinner restaurant then turned theme park after Walter Knott gated his property and charged admission in the late 60s.

Knotts Scary Farm was the first halloween event in a theme park and remains the largest one in the world. A lot of other halloween events can trace their origins to Halloween Haunt.

This year, I did every maze plus the new Special Ops: Infected Zombie Game which was my main objective of the night and enjoyed "The Hanging" which lampoons a lot of random movies and world events. It was a fun day at both Theme Park Destinations.



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