Knott Starving
Recently Marzz and I, along with her younger brother, Javi, visited Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park, CA. We were celebrating her brothers birthday and he wanted to go to Knott's. During the holiday season, it is cheerfully known as Knott's Merry Farm and they, like the surrounding theme parks, put on their best Christmas overlay and added holiday shows to celebrate the season.
We purchased single-day park tickets through ticketsatwork.com, which we get access through our work. The discount is decent, and we paid $39.99/person. In addition to the park ticket, we each purchased an All-you-can-eat pass for $31.99/person and Marzz and Javi purchased a All-you-can-drink refillable cup for $9.99/person. So for a full day and food it was about $75/person, which compared to the neighboring theme parks, is not a bad deal at all.
I would like to highlight the All-you-can-eat pass because I found it to be a pretty good value and we enjoyed the food throughout the day.
The park opened at 10:00AM, and we arrived close to 11:00AM as we had some errands to do in Burbank in the morning. So once we entered the park we headed to the nearest food station that accepted our eating pass so that we could receive our physical wristband for the day which is how you pay per transaction. The gist of the program is you are allowed one entree, and one side per transaction and you may do this once every 90 minutes.
Now obviously the idea here is so you don't but one pass for your entire group and then bounce around from food location in order to feed everyone for free. You could do this, but the 90 minute rule will cause members of your party to become very hungry. But on the bright side, if you're using it as you should, for yourself, and with the park being open for 13 hours, you in theory could eat 8 times!....Good luck with that!
We arrived at a pizza place called Sutter's Grill to begin our day and the girl working the counter was very friendly and helpful. She reminded us the rules of the program and showed us on a map all of the locations that accepted the meal plan, which are the majority of them, minus the small food vendor carts. She even asked if we wanted to wear the wristband or just carry it around. At first I thought that was a weird question, but later on in the day, Marzz noticed people who wrapped it around their reusable cups or other items. We all opted to have it on our wrist; we felt if was safe and secure this way. The girl did let us know that if we do lose it, to keep the receipt for it, which she gave each of us and they could replace it. She proceeded to help Marzz and Javi with their reusable cups, which had a bar code on the side of them and those did not have a 90 minute limit on them, so you could refill them as quickly as you could drink them!
We ended up ordering a slice of pizza for our first meal and it came with a side salad with choice of Ranch or Caesar dressing. Had we paid out of pocket, the pizza and salad would have cost us $7.29.
Our second meal, which was about 4 hours later was from a place called Fireman's Brigade BBQ. We all ordered the 1/4 chicken and ribs combo which came with choice of a baked potato or corn on the cob. Had we paid out of pocket, that would have cost us $16.99 each.
About 2 hours later we ate at Grizzly Creek Lodge, they served your run of mill fare of burgers and chicken strips. I had chicken strips, Marzz had mac and cheese and Javi had a burger. All of the items came with fries. Mine and Javi's each cost $12.99 and Marzz's mac and cheese would have cost $9.79.
About 10:30PM we were making our way out, slowly looking in the shops and wandering around and Javi had a good idea that we should order food again and try to take it home. Javi ended up getting something from Panda Express, a 1 item bowl, which would have cost $10.29 and Marzz got pizza again which would have been $6.99 and I got a buffalo chicken sandwich that would have cost $12.99.
Just a quick note, yes this is fairly sneaky, but c'mon, you thought the same thing. And we definitely were not alone. While waiting for my chicken sandwich, there were two people off to the side who were transferring their food items into to-go containers, which were provided by the restaurant. I think if Knott's had an issue with people doing this, they they would just get rid of the to-go containers and that would curb of a lot of people from doing it.
We all ended up eating those last food items either the next day or the day after for lunch. Overall we all had a great experience with the food plan and all of us came out on top, even without that last meal.
Here is a breakdown of our food and what we would have paid in total for food:
Nate - $50.26, savings of $18.27
Marzz - $40.76, savings of $8.77
Javi - $47.56, savings of $15.57
The food items that we had all tasted pretty good. I think my favorites were the BBQ and the buffalo chicken sandwich. I would purchase this meal plan again if I was going to stay all day at Knott's. Now one caveat for us is that we weren't running to ride as many rides as others, so were had more flexibility on ordering food. I set a 90 minute timer each time we ordered to keep track and had we been stuck in a line some where waiting to ride something, I can see how that would prevent you from eating as much. Plus, if you're riding the larger roller coasters, you may not want to eat a lot in fear of throwing it up. We enjoyed this experience and would do it again. I recommend looking into it if you are visiting Knott's anytime soon. By the way, the refillable drink for $9.99 each, works with all fountain drinks including the Boysenberry punch that Knott's is famous for!
