When Knott's opened the Airfield section of the Roaring 20's area in 1976, the Sky Cabin's tower was not only the tallest attraction at Knott's, but it was also the tallest structure in all of Orange County.
Of course the Sky Jump/Parachute part of the tower was removed some time ago. Fortunately, Cedar Fair changed it's original plans to tear down the rest of the tower and replace it with the new Windseeker attraction. Windseeker ended up being built elsewhere in the park and the tower was spared.
Work had been going on for some time on the Sky Cabin. I did a post back in September showing some test runs of the attraction with all of it's windows missing. Well as the months passed, I had started to wonder if it ever would reopen. But then I heard from fellow blogger Outsidetheberm, who told me he had heard that the attraction had a soft opening around Christmas, so I decided to head over to the park to see if it was finally up and running.
When I got to the entrance of the Sky Cabin, I saw that the metal chain that had hung across it for years was gone. But where was everyone? Nobody was entering the queue and nobody was exiting it either...and there were no employees to be found in the area. You can see in the photo below that the new windows are tinted (actually it's a plexiglass panel placed over the glass on the interior that has the dark tint), so I couldn't see if anyone was inside the cabin. Just as I approached, it started to rise up the tower.
I went ahead and entered the queue, but as I walked up the stairs I realized there was nobody at the loading area.
It was kind of creepy.
This old rusty sign did say to wait for the operator, but the area just seemed so abandoned, I was kind of waiting for someone to come and tell me that I wasn't supposed to be in there and that they were still just testing it.
Finally, the Cabin started to come back down.......
When it reached the bottom, the doors opened and surprise.....it was full of guests!
At this point, a few people had started to line-up behind me. Now we just had to wait for the employee to do a walk-around of the cabin before letting us board.
And now we're ready to ride....well, once they close the doors!
The control panel looks kind of new. Whatever you do, don't pull that plug on the lower left! Actually, I don't remember what that went to. It might have been one of the air conditioning units.
Here we go! We are passing above Boomerang. Gee, why didn't they just leave the historic Corkscrew Roller Coaster where it was?
Now we're looking down on the entrance to Xcelerator and the neighboring souvenir shop and bathrooms. This is the former location of the old Cycle Chase/Wacky Soap Box Racers attraction.
This is Coasters Drive-In which replaced the old Airfield Eatery/Captain Kelly's restaurant.
And this is Wipeout which is similar to the Fiesta Wheel that used to be located in Fiesta Village.
Now we are a little bit higher above Xcelerator.
Sorry....I'm going to leave you "hanging" here for right now, but please check back in a couple days for more aerial views of Knott's (and Buena Park) in Part 2!
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7 comments:
Whoa, it's about time! I'm glad you got to ride it. I love how the cast member told you that it was never going to open; thanks for the help, Einstein.
Do you think that they have done anything to help prevent the windows from being scratched by the inevitable idiots who will want to permanently deface them?
Great pix; hopefully now you can do the "before and after" views we have been talking about!
Major, I was planning on doing this post right after my January 7th "Knott's Update" post, but as you know....something came up.
Yeah, the "cast member" was just so adamant about it. She knew everything and she wasn't going to budge.....so annoying! I wish I was able to remember her name!
The tinted plexiglass was on the inside and bolted over the windows, so it would prevent any "street urchins" from permanently ruining the glass itself. They could however damage the plexiglass and who knows how long Knott's would leave that before replacing it. I've actually been back to ride it one more time and I still didn't see any permanent damage, but there were plenty of sticky smudges all over it from people's fingers and I don't know if they wipe those off at the end of the day or not. My guess is that they don't. I also noticed a layer of dust forming already between the glass window and the plexiglass, and I don't know how often they will be unbolting the plexiglass to wash it and the windows. My guess is rarely, if ever.
Part 2 of this post will include those "before and after" views....finally!!!
You also mentioned the Cycle
Chase/Wacky Soap Box Racers. I have such fond memories of those rides. On summer evenings, my friends and I would get in line to ride over and over because such a great breeze would hit your face as you rode. Ahhhh, those were the days.
Congrats on your Sky Cabin ride. I can't wait to see your part 2 pics.
That cast member sounds as if she'd fit in well at some government job. If you don't like the answer you get, just ask someone else.
Clean windows! Hope they last. Thanks for the fresh look.
Glad everything worked out, Chris.
Hugs, I LOVED the Cycle Chase. I would rather ride them or the Wacky Soap Box Racers over Xcelerator any day! Thanks for commenting....oh and Part 2 is up now!
SWS, Yes I believe the "cast member" was very well trained. I'm thinking they might be told just to "get rid" of the caller as fast as they can. I have a friend that had a phone job and that was what they were supposed to do. They were even penalized if they were on the phone too long with a customer. Can you imagine? So this is what it's come to...we're the consumers and yet we're the enemy....sheesh!
OTB, Well....they were somewhat clean. No permanent damage yet, but like I mentioned in my comment above, there were plenty of sticky smudges. I had to find a clean spot to look through!
Oh my gosh, this was soooo exciting!!! I've been waiting until I had a Saturday morning all to myself to just sit and go through your posts!!! Oh the photos!!! Wonderful!
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