Knott's Berry Farm Update: Fiesta 'Furbishments

Knott’s Berry Farm, Buena Park, CA

What’s this? ANOTHER non-Halloween and original content update?? It must be a miracle! But it’s true, today, we’re stopping by more familiar stomping grounds to see what’s been happening at Knott’s Berry Farm the past few months. We visited the park over the weekend for the Peanuts Celebration, which we’ll be posting later this week, but we had to swing by Fiesta Village to see what was happening in this section of the park. As you may recall, last summer, Knott’s Berry Farm announced that Fiesta Village would be undergoing a significant makeover, with the headline being the transformation of Montezooma’s Revenge into a new generation, thematically immersive, randomized launch sequence called MonteZOOMa: The Forbidden Fortress.

There has been no official opening day announcement of these exciting changes, but over the past several months, Fiesta Village has been undergoing construction to implement the reimagined look through its general area and revitalized shuttle loop roller coaster. We actually snapped some construction photos last September that we never posted, then toured the area again this past Saturday. Fiesta Village remains partially open, but there is definitely plenty of work going on! Lets check it all out!

Fiesta Village Construction (Last September)

Work walls were already going up before the end of the summer season last year, and partial demolition at the existing stores and dining locations had begun before Knott’s Scary Farm even opened. Though a lot of Fiesta Village was still open, over half of the shops and restaurants were closed down for the phased construction work. In addition, after Montezooma’s Revenge’s closure earlier in the year, over the summer, its iconic loop was removed as part of the retracking work and roller coaster improvements. For roller coaster history buffs, it was a sad moment, since this marked the official passing of the last operating Anton Schwarzkopf shuttle loop roller coaster still in its original location. But over time, age and lack of replacement parts had caught up with the iconic ride.

Welcome to Fiesta Village… last year.

We took a spin through the area on Labor Day—the last day of the Knott’s summer season—and work walls had already been set up.

Access through the Arcade was already closed off.

The walls extended around the Fiesta Village Stage side too.

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The east half of Fiesta Village was still open.

But establishments like La Papa Loca were closed.

Work taking down the old facades had already started.

You can see the plaster and wall sheathing already removed from some walls, taking them down to studs.

This wasn’t the entire facade.

The overhang here was still in one piece, but construction would proceed in segments.

Montezooma’s Revenge had already been closed for several months at this point.

And much of its track had already been removed.

Look over there. Notice anything?

Or rather, the absence of anything? Yes, the loop was gone.

Nothing for Jaguar to thread the needle through anymore!

Fiesta Village Construction (Now)

Our return to the park this past weekend saw the corridors around Fiesta Village grow even narrower. Only Sol Spin and Jaguar and the Merry Go Round are operational, as well as the Cantina for guests in the area looking for some food to eat. The walking path to the Boardwalk is currently closed, meaning guests passing through Fiesta Village can only access Camp Snoopy and the Silver Bullet area of Ghost Town.

Not a lot of obvious development at Montezooma has transpired since September, though that will pick up soon. But elsewhere throughout the land, there is plenty of earthwork happening, with new pavement already installed around the northern section of Fiesta Village and new pavement and grading occuring through the rest of the land. Building reconstruction continues around the Arcade shops and Papa Loca locations. All of the photos of the construction site were taken from publicly accessible areas, looking through little portholes in the construction walls through which gateway chains were wrapped to keep the construction zone closed off. Little by little, Fiesta Village is coming into place.

Flash forward to this past weekend, and Fiesta Village was still well under construction.

The work walls had moved out.

They enclosed the fountain at this point.

A narrow corridor under the shade structure of the Fiesta Village Stage was kept in place, leading to Camp Snoopy.

Peaking through the hand-sized openings at select spots along the construction walls, we could see that the arcade games and pavement between the Fiesta Village Stage and Jaguar had been completely removed.

Jaguar remains open. We did not ride it to get a closer look at construction, but there are no loose articles allowed on the ride, so it’s not like we could have taken photos anyway.

The former location of La Papa Loca has gotten alot of work since we last saw it, with new lumber and framing changing the footprint of the building. The overhang has also been removed.

The existing pavement has also been removed. To the right, the new paint on existing buildings that were not remodeled looks vibrant and fantastic!

Peeking back through the Jaguar side again…

There’s a lot of work left here, with new planters, lush vegetation, outdoor stands, and water features to be installed in this area.

Over at La Revolución, the new colorful bands of concrete swirls have been installed. The dustiness of the construction site has muted their color.

The supports of La Revolución have not been painted yet, but that should come.

At Montezooma, the ground’s been torn up, and the queue has been opened up as work starts to ramp up on creating the new temple structure and environment for the ride!

Other Park Updates

We didn’t explicitly hunt through the rest of the park to search new developments, but we did notice something missing in Ghost Town and also finally checked out the Prop Shop Pizzeria quick serve over at the end of Memory Lane, where the Boardwalk meets the Calico River Rapids part of Ghost Town!

The old locomotive has gone missing in Ghost Town! Now, if we were certainly other sites, we might put up a sensationalist headline like “CLASSIC, BELOVED COMPONENT OF HISTORIC GHOST TOWN DISAPPEARS WITHOUT WARNING!” But it’s probably just getting refurbished.

Also, its absence reveals how we actually own the machinery company in the building behind it.

The new Prop Shop Pizzeria turned out pretty nicely, by the way! It’s a bit confusing to navigate for first-timers, but the pasta there is good. The beer garden component of the establishment did end up getting cut, though.

A Stroll Around Knott’s

And we’ll close out today’s update with just a few photos from around the park during golden hour. Just a little Knott’s eye candy for anyone interested!

Nearing sunset around Fiesta Village but looking up at Silver Bullet.

There’s a loop for Silver Bullet, but none for Montezooma.

HangTime has been back running after last year’s extended downtime.

It’s still a very fun ride.

Much better than its predecessor!

Heck, technically, predecessors, since it replaced two rides.

Coast Rider at sunset.

The lines at Knott’s have generally died down from last year’s spring madness, but they can still be pretty lengthy on peak days like weekends, and operations like dispatch frequencies at the park seem to have slipped a bit on some rides.

Xcelerator remains closed indefinitely, but not permanently. Supreme Scream is still running strong, though.

If you want to go to a park with a log ride that’s still open and not considered offensive, come here! Unless you’re offended by being loudly told to sit down.

Finally… MOO!!

That’s it for this update—shorter than our usual affairs. We’ve got a report from the Peanuts Celebration coming later this week, as mentioned at the top of the post, plus our first Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre show review of the year! Stay tuned!