Knoebels Amusement Resort — Attraction in Cleveland Township

Beware your 42” tall children I came on Mothers Day this past Sunday with my family. It was my friends sons birthday so we decided to bring him to the park for the day with her two other children and my daughter(age 4). We purchased wristbands and were informed at the main ticket booth my daughter was slightly over 42” tall and was able to ride the wooden roller coasters had she chosen too. My family and her family attended as well and we spent majority of the midafternoon in kiddy land and found our two children riding the same rides over and over as most children do when they fall in love with a ride. After riding the ribbit ride at least 8 times each time being sat different places rarely placed by eachother (noting this for the future) we decided to take a break and go get them something to eat. After getting them to eat and ride a few more rides my daughter of course wanted to go back to the ribbit ride at this point my grandmother offered to take her so she could ride a few more times and get it out of her system while we went on some bigger thrill rides. I received a phone call while in line for the flying turns from my gram that my daughter had been denied entry to the ribbit ride due to her “not being 42” tall”, after getting done with my ride I went over to kiddy land located my daughter and we walked over to the ribbit ride and I measured her with the measuring station you’re park provides for each ride and saw she was over the frogs thumb and met the requirements so I placed her in the line and told the ride attendant I’m not sure why she was denied but she was more than tall enough and had already been on this ride. The younger attendant apologized and said she was just doing her job and she’d measure her again but before we could have it resolved that easy the older attendant chimed in and said that she already told this kid she couldn’t be on this ride. And that a supervisor was there when she said no the last time but I wasn’t so I wanted to have it truly resolved but she didn’t even want to allow her on. This made me feel a little enraged because she could remember telling my child no but couldn’t remember the handful of times she had allowed my child on the ride hours prior to this. She hadn’t shrunk or snuck on or even gotten on because she was with a taller child. She was genuinely tall enough to be on the ride. The younger attendant measured my daughter being she was the first in the line for the ride and the younger attendant said she met the height requirement but the other attendant said it was wrong.This turned into the biggest fiasco the older attendant yelled to the other attendant to make my child wait until a supervisor came and allow other kids on the ride so, my child was physically moved by the younger worker to allow other children in front of her onto the ride because the older attendant wouldn’t come over to measure her without a manager present. Every person beside the older attendant found my daughter to be above the requirement and this older attendant continued to make it an issue and point at me in my group to other people while operating the ride while we were trying to get things resolved. Our names were taken but I want to verify something is going to be done about this. I’ve gone to knoebels every year of my 26 years of life and I’ve never been so disgusted and disappointed in this place. I expect so much more from a family run place. I have a photo and video of my child on said ride at 1:14pm. I also took a picture when the situation happened to measure her against the board in the photo with her against the board and you can see physically on her face the sadness she was made to feel because of this experience which is the opposite of why you bring your child to a...

This place is a true classic, taking you back to a simpler time when kids just got to have fun. With paper tickets and original rides like the two insane wooden roller coasters, it has everything you need for a weekend getaway.

This is a place I went to as a kid, and it hasn’t changed—which is what makes it so perfect.

If you haven’t been to north-central PA, give it a weekend to explore. The mountains are beautiful, and it’s nearly impossible to walk away from Knoebels without having an amazing time.

Four quick things to consider, though:

It’s free to enter and free to park, but you’ll be in a bumpy grass lot (that’s not a bad thing; it’s part of the experience and adds to it, just be prepared if you have a low car). The walk is easy (100-150 yards), and there is a tram car if you need it. There aren’t hotels nearby. There’s a campground if you’re that adventurous, but that experience is excluded from my review. However, Bloomsburg is nearby and has a few hotels due to the college. I’d recommend the Marriott right off I-80—it’s newer and lives up to the Marriott brand well. Food inside isn’t overly expensive, but it’s still an amusement park. However, the portions at most spots are REALLY big. For example, a small ice cream here is the size of an XL at most places, so you’ll get your money’s worth. Also, don’t be afraid to go picnic-style, especially if you have food sensitivities or allergies since many items appear co-cooked/prepped. The wristband deal is good if you really love to go on multiple rides or hate doing math, but buy it the day before. You can’t buy same-day tickets online, and the wait for a wristband on-site is crazy long. We opted to buy a book of $200 in tickets (1 ticket = $1), which came at a 15% discount. I have four kids (3 over 42 inches, 1 under—see my note on heights below) and we left with exactly 50 cents in our pocket. The kids did everything they wanted and more. Wristbands didn’t make sense for us because they are strapped to one kid, whereas tickets can be shared. For me and my four kids, it would have cost more than the book of tickets. We personally got more value this way, but doing math with paper tickets when each ride costs $4.50, $2, or $1.50 can get annoying. Personally, I loved the paper tickets as they add to the old-school vibe of the place, but by the end, I was tired of piecing them together. Check the height requirements and take them seriously. When I say this place is a throwback (I’m in my 30s), I mean it. It feels like stepping back into the ’80s/‘90s, where safety wasn’t as strict. That makes it an incredibly fun place—you don’t find places like this anymore where kids can experience a little fear. However, letting my 5-year-old on the wooden roller coaster was maybe not a great idea. He flew straight up in his seat, and I had to push him back down. He was “just tall enough,” so the staff didn’t do anything wrong, but these aren’t the teacups at Disney—this is a beast of a ride, and it’s rough on the rider. He was safe but it made me reconsider the next time I let him go on it. The moral of the story: err on the side of caution. But don’t worry—if your kids aren’t over 42 inches, there are still plenty of things to do, including the planes and cars, which are two of my kids’ absolute favorites.

If you haven’t been, make sure to visit and support a true American treasure—and support a great...

Overall this was a great experience and Knoebels has done a great job differentiating themselves from the typical amusement park. My family of three went here for the first time on a Saturday. We bought a $50 book of tickets. We arrived at about 2pm and left at about 8pm. First, no charge for parking or admission to the park were big benefits. It took some pressure off you to not have to go-go-go and ride as many rides as possible to get your parking/admission fees worth of fun. With the pay-as-you-go ticket system you could relax and just focus on doing the things you actually want to do. Second, you can bring in any food you want and they had a ton of picnic tables under multiple roof structures for shade. Some people had grills and were bbq'ing and having little parties. This not only gives you more options for fun stuff but also allows you to eat what you like. It will also save you money which brings me to my third point. Third, even though you can bring your own food and drink they had a lot of food options there. The prices were very reasonable for an amusement park and the food was decent. I didn't feel like I was being ripped off. We only bought chicken tenders ($6 for 3, see pics), potato pancakes ($5 for 3, see pics), a slice of pizza ($4) and a fountain drink ($4). We also splurged and got a funnel cake later ($8, see pics). All the food we had was decent. As we walked around and saw the other food options I took note of the different food prices and they generally seemed reasonable for an amusement park (see pics). Fourth, there seemed to be seats and benches everywhere. I've been to Disney World and there always seemed to be a shortage of seats and/or shade, which is weird in Florida. But at Knoebels it seemed everywhere you looked an empty bench was never too far away and many times there was shade too. That's easily overlooked until you consider older guests or little children who may need frequent breaks, or parents with multiple kids and tons of "gear" who need frequent stops to organize themselves throughout the day. Fifth, they had a very respectable variety of rides and the ticket pricing of each was good. For the 6 hours we were at the park we barely spent our $50 book of tickets. I say "barely" because when we were ready to leave we still had a few dollars of tickets so we found some rides to use them all up just so we wouldnt have any remaining. When you consider most amusement parks charge $50-$75 per person for admission, we spent only $50 on rides across the three of us and we didn't feel like we missed out on anything. Given the food costs and free parking this place was very affordable. Finally, the only improvement I would recommend is to make it easier to navigate the park. There are paper maps you can get to carry around with you and there are billboards of the park map around the park but it's very hard to get your bearings and figure out how to get to a specific destination. Their website has a park map but it's hard to read on a cell phone. They could improve this by rolling out a simple app that could use your phone's GPS to show you where you are on the park map (Six Flags' app does that), and/or they could break up the park into 3 or 4 different sections and name them each something specific then color code the park map by each section (like Disney). Overall it was a great place and I'd recommend...