Knoebels Amusement Resort

Reviews 3

PH

Phil G

Knoebels is probably the best value in amusement parks on the East Coast. This legendary park has held true to their original concept since their beginning. Unlike nearly all "major" amusement and theme parks, Knoebels does not charge an entrance for, nor do they charge for parking. This is probably unheard of by folks who have brought their family to a park and had to spend a few hundred dollars just to park and get inside the gates. At Knoebels, you are directed onto their large parking lot by helpful staff and volunteers, and you simply stroll in. Once inside, you have a selection of fun rides and games for every age and thrill-seeking level. Each ride costs a certain amount. If you only plan on going on a few rides that day, buy as many tickets to cover your desires and save lots of money. For families or groups that have members who dont enjoy or cant go on rides, the potential savings compared to the typical "all inclusive" entrance fees are substantial. For the ride addicts, there is a wristband option that gets you into an unlimited number of rides. What else do people look forward to aside from rides and games at an amusement park? The FOOD. Knoebels has been rated at or near the top among all amusement parks for having the best and most varied food available. Spread throughout the park are stands, pavilions and restaurants serving great food for every taste. You can play it safe with a hamburger and fries, or enjoy Polish, Italian, American, Mexican and more. Food costs are surprisingly reasonable, and everything available is delicious. You wont go hungry at Knoebels, there is something for every taste and dietary need, from snacks on the go to a sit-down meal. When mentioning food, one cant overlook the picnic groves and pavilions. A large portion of the park is dedicated to this. You can bring your own food into the park with you (try that at some other parks and see how far you get with it!) and have your own picnic. You can reserve and rent entire pavilions for large events like family reunions, workplace gatherings, birthday parties, even wedding receptions and graduations. A party of ten or a party of one hundred. You can bring your own food, have it brought in by an outside caterer, or Knoebels can cater the event for you. The park has seating for hundreds, even more, across their many pavilions. These pavilions are equipped to handle food cooking and serving on site as well. If there is one thing Knoebels knows, its FOOD. So, it sounds like paradise, doesnt it? Whats the downside? Well, Knoebels doesnt have the biggest, tallest, fastest or most modern rides. Many of these rides have come from other parks that have retired them to make room for the latest and greatest excitement and technology. That does not mean the rides are boring or old, in fact, some, like the Impulse steel coaster, are top-tier rides rated highly by coaster enthusiasts. Others, like the Flying Turns, a "trackless" coaster similar to a bobsled ride, are one-of-a-kind. There is a ride (several, in fact) to fit every thrill-seeking level. Also not to be overlooked is Knoebels wonderful and expansive campgrounds. They have sites for every camping style, from the smallest tent to the most luxurious, large RV with full hookups. Set up your site, then stroll into the park for a day of food and fun. When you are done, or need an afternoon nap, its an easy walk back to your site, or you can use the free shuttle bus that runs at regular intervals. The park can accommodate wheelchairs and disabled folk at the shops, restaurants, arcades and pavilions. Cabins are available for those who want to camp out but dont have the equipment. In fact, the campgrounds are so good on their own that many people come for the camping and the park is secondary. Its that good. If you long for the days when a day at the amusement park was in inexpensive outing, where you made the day exactly what you want, and didnt want to spend a huge amount of money before even getting in the door, Knoebels is the place, bar none.

SH

sheri baby

I was disappointed in the place. It could be a good place if they took the time to clean it up. The bathrooms were messy and dirty. You had to hold the faucet to wash your hands. Hard to rinse the soap off when you have to keep your hand turning it. One plus is they had a lot of sitting benches but most had trash cans near and it was like sitting next to the dump. Trash cans were filthy. It wasnt just one seemed no matter where I sat it smelled like the dump. Food was typical fast food junk. If you are into that you should be fine. The prices arent too bad. Maybe a little higher than buying outside the park. The surrounding area was very nice. Was always a tree to get out of the sun for a bit. They also need a better solution for getting wristbands and riding handicap chairs. When the park opens everyone rushes to the only 2 places to buy the wristbands. There were booths all over with nobody at them that sold tickets but you could only buy tickets not wristbands. Why? They are sitting there doing nothing. Stood in line 45 minutes then another 20 minutes renting a motor chair. Used the chair for 5 minutes and it was so hard to steer had to take it back so lost another 30 minutes. Had talked to another person with the same problem he took it back and they must have gave it to me. By the way the chair sucked. There was sticky stuff all over the controls. The chair was wobbling all over. Never had a bad time renting at other establishments. They did have a nice assortment of rides. Was a lot of people and was hard maneuvering the chair in some areas and lot of the places was sloped making it harder to steer the chair. Also having never been there before we had no idea where the chair renting was and had to walk all over looking for it till we finally asked someone. Also we had no idea we couldnt buy wristbands at the ticket booth so wasted time waiting in line to be told you had to go elsewhere and they were not very nice about it. I think the next time we go to a park we will go to Hershey park a lot nicer and cleaner.

AD

Adam Scheibeler

I had a wonderful afternoon there last weekend. My friend and I each bought $20 worth of tickets and spent the entire day there. We had a blast on the rides. The Cosmotron was excellent. Im not sure if they take music requests, but I would highly recommend asking the attendant if they can play Beautiful Day by U2- what a fantastic experience. The food was delicious, but wasnt cheap. The cheese fries were fantastic. I would recommend packing your own drinks and maybe some snacks if you plan on spending a long time there though to save a little money :) My only real gripe was my interaction with a young male attendant on the carousel. Apparently I made the mistake of dismounting from my horse too early. I guess I should have waited until the ride came to a full and complete stop. However, its difficult to hear the MCs instructions over their speaker system so I was unaware I was at fault. This young man approached me and informed me that I should not have gotten off the horse. I was embarrassed, so I responded by asking "Should I get back on?" to which he responded, "Yeah." I proceeded to remount, but I immediately began to question the logic of his insistence on me getting back on my horse. If it was too dangerous to dismount while the ride was in motion, would it not follow that it would be similarly dangerous to remount while the ride was in motion? Such a policy conveys the message that "two wrongs make a right." Im not sure if this is an official policy of the park or if the attendant took matters into his own hands, but I didnt think it was the appropriate response to my inadvertent misconduct. For this reason, I couldnt give Knoebels the 5 star review.

Other organizations