UPDATE October 9 – It feels like it has been an endless road to get to the reopening of Xcelerator which closed back in March 2022 and just when we were expecting the reopening to happen and day there is now news of a major set back.
According to Screamscape, during testing which has been taking place now for a number of weeks, an issue arose with one of the coaster’s brake units. Initially this was thought to be a fairly simple issue to fix but it now turns out that although work continues on site to fix it, that the whole process including further necessary testing could take up to three months to complete.
This is a major set back for Knott’s Berry Farm and Xcelerator fans who had expected to see it back in action for the very popular Knott’s Scary Farm event which is currently taking place at Knott’s Berry Farm until October 31, 2023. The question now on our minds is, will Xcelerator reopen before the end of the year? We definitely hope so but with the current issue with the brake unit possibly taking up to three months to fix this is now uncertain.
We will continue to keep you posted on updates of when we are likely going to see Xcelerator reopening at Knott’s Berry Farm as soon as they are announced.
Image: Cedar FairAugust 13 – We have all been eagerly awaiting news of the reopening of Xcelerator at Knott’s Berry Farm which closed in March 2022 having had a repaint in October 2021 to the colors, red, gray, orange and yellow.
Knott’s Berry Farm has now confirmed in a video on their official social media pages that Xcelerator is almost ready to open, “Fire up your engines, Xcelerator is revvin’ up on the Boardwalk, Races begin soon!” We will keep you posted on the official reopening date as soon as it is announced.
Fire up your engines! Experience the thrill of Xcelerator and all of Knott’s Berry Farm with a 2024 Season Pass. Grab yours now! – pic.twitter.com/vhGcQ7hU1Q
— Knott’s Berry Farm (@knotts) August 11, 2023
We now know that Xcelerator began testing yesterday morning (August 12), thanks to a video posted to YouTube by America’s Coaster Network which is embedded below.
According to an article posted to the OCRegister on August 9, commissioning tests was expected to begin on Xcelerator in mid to late August and a Knott’s official has said that the park hopes to reopen the roller coaster in mid to late September. However, with the latest video posted by the park and testing video seen above we have hope that we may see this long shuttered roller coaster opening sooner than that.
We saw, thanks to photos posted to Twitter by RyanTheme Park posted at the end of July, that work is taking place on Xcelerator to install the broken part which is believed to be a cable spool and drum. This is excellent news and gives us hope for a reopening soon.
There is life at Xcelerator! pic.twitter.com/m6vA8lvzSp
— RyanTheme Park (@Ryanthemepark) July 27, 2023
We knew that once the part is successfully installed, Xcelerator would need a lot of testing before it is given the green light to operate again. This testing is now confirmed to be starting very soon and we will await an official reopening date for this hydraulic launch coaster. At least we now know that Xcelerator will definitely be reopening at Knott’s Berry Farm and it looks like we don’t have many weeks left to wait…
