The Knott's Boysenberry Festival Experience Recap + Guide

THE KNOTT'S BERRY FARM BOYSENBERRY FESTIVAL IS RUNNING FROM APRIL 1 - 23, 2017!

My friends and I had the pleasure of attending the Knott's Berry Farm Boysenberry Festival as media guests! And, we had such a blast!

Check out my previous guide highlighting all the yummy food y'all should try! When I went with my friends on opening day (April 1, 2017), I didn't get to try every boysenberry themed item they had but we still managed to over-feed our tummies! This EXPERIENCE GUIDE is a photo diary of all the fun we had and also includes some helpful tips and pricing! Hope you'll find it helpful in planning your Boysenberry Adventure!

We picked up our media press passes and also our tasting cards! I absolutely recommend anyone wanting  the full experience to definitely buy the tasting card and wine tasting card! It is very worth it for $25 + tax and really good bang for your buck!

Remember you will need to buy admission tickets to the actual park in order to get access to the Boysenberry Festival.

Tip: Buy your Knott's Berry Farm Admission tickets online rather than in person because you'll save over $30!

General Admission Ticket Prices:
Online: $41
At the gate: $75

Buy online here.

For only $25 plus tax, the tasting card includes generous portions of six unique treats:

• Boysenberry Pizza at Wagon Wheel Pizza
• Boysenberry Ravioli at Spurs Chophouse
• Boysenberry Buffalo Wings at the Gold Trails Hotel
• Boysenberry BBQ Meatballs at the Bank of Calico
• Boysenberry Fry Bread at the Gourmet Churro Factory
• Boysenberry Panna Cotta at the Ghost Town Bakery

Got our media passes! Now just waiting in the super long line to enter the amusement park!

Tip 1: Come early or you will be waiting in a 30 minute + line... like us... *cries*.
Tip 2: Try to pick the shortest line which is the one nearest to the middle (away from the bottle neck). Seriously, that line went by super quickly I regret not going in that one. Why was it so fast? Because it was super crowded and everybody was just in confusing multiple lines that the one nearest the middle had only one line but actually had two bag-checkers which was why it went so fast.

Note to Knott's: Please have more signs or workers to clearly designate the way! Everything was strange and confusing!

We also got some cute pins!

THIS IS A MUST! Remember to grab the BOYSENBERRY FESTIVAL EVENT MAP. This is necessary to find where the food on the tasting card is. The map is only showing Ghost Town, where the event is located. 

The map isn't as good as I would like it to be. Here is why we all had issues with it:

• Knott's advertises over 80 boysenberry themed treats. Where are these treats?! Where can we find them? And... what are these treats?
• We have no idea what they offer aside from the tasting card. 
• We would have to walk around and look at every store to see what boysenberry themed food they actually offer which is difficult because there are people everywhere blocking signs and such
• If we knew what treat a location had, we would be able to decide if it's worth going there depending on whether or not the food is what we want. 
• Why you do this, Knott's!?!? 
• This basically means that people with season passes have an advantage since they can go anytime and can check out other stores anytime (however you wouldn't know what each store offers because no map or no directory tells you!)

Isn't this boysenberry eating creature cute?? hehe

Here is my friend Sara posing with the oh so delicious Aligator Meat + Fries with Boysenberry aioli dip. We all agreed that this was one of the best things to get! Unfortunately, it is not included in the tasting card.

Where to get it: It's near the boysenberry buffalo wings booth which is at Gold Trails Hotel inside Ghost Town

Alligator Meat Price: $9.99 (get it! the sauce is to die for)

So glad there is something to sit on to rest. It was such a hot day !

Boysenberry Buffalo Wings were yummy. If the chicken skin was a bit crispier... it would be perfection. Anyway, this is included in the tasting card and I totally recommend it! It's sorta sweet - kind of like bbq chicken wings I guess?

The Buffalo Wings booth is also where you get the steamed corn.


WHY IS THE CORN NOT GRILLED??

Alright, so I have another complaint and I am sure y'all will agree with me on this: Buying the corn was probably one of the most inefficient processes ever.

When I saw photos of the corn on the Knott's Facebook, I was immediately sold! The corn was deliciously grilled and looked really good smothered with whipped boysenberry butter. I mean, just look at the pic below! Doesn't this make you drool and make you willing to somehow dish out your $$ for an amusement park priced corn?! HECK YES I would have happily spent $4 on this. 

Photo Credit | Knott's Berry Farm

BUT NOPE. In actuality, the corn is not grilled. I even asked if they could grill it at all and they said no. Bummer. 

IT'S LITERALLY JUST STEAMED CORN...

How to buy the corn:

• corn is given at the same booth as the buffalo wings
• however, in order to buy the corn, you have to wait in another line at the store next to it
• This store, has no sign whatsoever about the corn so no one would even know!
• After you buy the corn from there, you have to go back to the buffalo wings booth and wait in line again. 
• Kevin was waiting by the side at the buffalo wings booth and the workers were confused. He was directed to wait in line again... EVEN THOUGH he already waited in the first place for the wings. Lines were long too....
• There is no sign anywhere that they even sell corn. We just happened to notice the boysenberry whipped butter and asked if that was for the wings. They said it was for the corn. Oh, so where can get the corn? ... 
• Why are there no signs!?

This was on the 1st day of the festival. Hopefully the process has improved and there is less confusion. If not then, Knott's Berry Farm, if you are reading this blog right now, please consider some changes for the next year! 

Literally, the steamed corn is $4 each + tax.  That whipped boysenberry butter is really good though.

THE FRY BREAD IMPROVED!

When I went to the media preview, the fry bread was whatevvvvs. 

I am so glad they made changes for the better because the fry bread for the actual festival was so much better tasting! Woo Woo! The fry bread sorta looks like a beignet? Stuffed with boysenberry jam and nutella! 

Where to get it: Gourmet Churro Factory

Also here: churro sundae with boysenberry ice cream

The PANNA COTTA was so yummy too! It makes for the perfect dessert and I love how boysenberry it is! I especially liked every crunch from the boysenberry seed! However, if you don't like seeds (Kevin and Nancy didn't at all, more for me!) then you might not like this. But I mean... boysenberries have seeds! Like raspberries and etc.

Totally recommend the panna cotta!

Where to get it:  Ghost Town Bakery
Also here: Boysenberry Trifle

The Boysenberry Pizza was sorta a love/hate item. I liked some bites and thought some bites were strange. My other friends agreed too and Kevin didn't even want it.

Basically, the boysenberry flavor is replacing where the tomato sauce should be but the boysenberry flavor had a... cream cheese texture. It was like... eating dough with boysenberry cream cheese on top with goat cheese and arugula. I think if this was a bagel, it would be so delicious! But it had some strange bites from the arugula and "random" bbq sauce here and there.

According to Sara, the pizza tasted like a bbq pizza but... not as good..  xD. But still good.

Where to get it: Wagon Wheel Pizza

Daaaaaang, look at Sara double fisting two alcoholic drinks! We also got to try some boysenberry flavored beer and wine with the wine tasting card! Definitely recommend it if you are adventurous with your alcohol! 

You can choose 6 different wine / beer and also the card comes with a cheese and crackers platter!  Super cute! All for $25 + tax!

I heard that the Starbucks inside the amusement park sells a boysenberry latte! The Starbucks outside the park sells a boysenberry frappuccino (way better).

I totally wanted to try it and was on a mission to find this hidden Starbucks! It's actually called the Gourmet Coffee Hut which sells Starbucks drinks.

We got the boysenberry iced tea and boysenberry latte. The tea is much better and more refresshing. The boysenberry latte was a disappointment. Why did I go for the largest size??!! Ugh. It's literally just boysenberry syrup. I don't know what I was expecting. I wanted a pretty purple color LOL.

The boysenberry frappuccino, sold at the Starbucks outside, is actually purple and is sold all year round.

The boysenberry meatballs! Made with beef! These were pretty good actually but we were so full that I was barely able to finish both balls...

Where to get it:  Bank of Calico

During our adventure at Knott's Berry Farm, we also ran into our other food blogger friends, Derrick (@beerfacem) and Diane (@theepisodiceater / TheEpisodicEater.com).

All of us (Nancy, Sara, Kevin, and I) bumped into them along the way and we all waited in line for Boomerang! Knott's is closing down this ride forever so we had to ride it! The last chance to ride Boomerang is on April 23, the last day of the Boysenberry Festival.

Damn. The boysenberry ravioli is a must. The media preview totally brought my hopes down, but the official festival changed my mind 180!

The boysenberry ravioli had a cheesy sauce (like alfredo sauce?) and tomatoes! This made it taste so good! The inside is sorta pasty but overall it paired well with the sauce. I had extra sauce leftover and... cleaned my plate!

Where to get it: Spurs Chophouse
Also here:

• Boysenberry Nutella Crepe (so good!)
• chocolate dipped boysenberry cheesecake on a stick
• boysenberry short ribs on rice

THE PRICES!

Here are the prices of the menu that I took from each place that had a tasting card. *Alligator bites are not included in the tasting card.

Just looking at the prices, it is totally worth it just to buy the $25 tasting card. The portions are great and generous, and totally shareable in a group! I would recommend one card for every couple. 

SUPER FUN DAY AT KNOTT'S OVERALL

My adventure at Knott's was super fun with all my friends being there. Although I think the festival itself could use some improvements, I overall had a great time and I hope they did too!


Here are some suggestions (Knott's, please read!)

• Have a list of all the Boysenberry treats somewhere and where it's located so guests could properly plan what to eat and where to go!
• It would be nice if I knew what I would want to eat!
• More signs or workers designating lines! 
• The lines were quite confusing and people were all over the place. At one point, I was standing entirely in the wrong line for something.
• Better trained workers for the festival
• The map was a bit confusing since all of us haven't been to Knott's in a long time. The festival map shows where things are in relation to others. What? I wouldn't even know where something is in the first place. 
• We also liked to ask the staff where the next closest boysenberry treat on the tasting card was, and some weren't sure. 
• Also, the corn! The store that sells the corn didn't really know about the corn.... T_T

Helpful Tips:

• Parking is $18
• If you do have a season pass, remember you do not need to use the card all in one day. Only finished half? Use it again another day to finish the rest!
• I recommend getting the tasting card! It's a great deal and the portions are very generous!
• 1 card is enough portion for 2 or 3 people!
• Get there early!
• Lines are long! After trying all the food, we were able to go on 4 or 5 rides

Interesting Gift Shop Treats!

• Boysenberry Salsa 
• totally bought this! It's a creep-up spicy and good. 
• I wonder if they changed the recipe though? Because I think the 2016 version tasted better... and much spicier. This year's version is more "berry".
• Boysenberry popcorn
• Boysenberry beef jerky
• actually really good!
• Boysenberry honey
• Boysenberry creamed soda
• Boysenberry candles
• Boysenberry pie hats
• ....and so much more!

Official Website:

https://www.knotts.com/

Check out my previous guide here:
Try Alligator Meat & More - Here's Your Guide To The Knott's Boysenberry Festival

For all those attending, I hope y'all have boysenberry fun!