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Xcelerator, Cedar Point

UPDATE November 8 - The news we have all been waiting for finally came at 5PM yesterday (November 7) when Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm reopened to fans!

Knott's Berry Farm posted a video of Xcelerator on their official Instagram page saying "Christmas came early, Xcelerator has reopened".

It has certainly been a very long road for Xcelerator since it closed back in March 2022. The recent  issue discovered with the roller coaster's brake unit further put back its reopening. We were expecting a Thanksgiving weekend reopening but Knott's Berry Farm has been true to their word and has reopened Xcelerator as soon as they possibly could.

The reopening of Xcelerator at 5PM last night (November 7) was captured by a fan and has been posted to YouTube which can be seen embedded below. These are certainly exciting scenes at Knott's Berry Farm and they should thrill Xcelerator fans especially as many I am sure may have thought after the roller coaster closed in March 2022 and little progress was then made for months that the sight of Xcelerator's iconic hydraulic launch and the train cruising around the track would be something that would never be seen again.

Some are labeling this as a soft opening so prepare for there to be possible downtime in the next few days but we really hope that with the new part for the launch in place and brake unit now fixed that Xcelerator will run as smoothly as possible over the coming weeks and months giving fans the chance to ride and enjoy it once again. 

November 5 - According to the Twitter post embedded below which was added on November 2, Xcelerator has been seen testing again at Knott's Berry Farm. This has given fans hope for a rumored Thanksgiving weekend reopening. As of yet, an official reopening date has not been confirmed and we will keep you updated over the coming days and weeks regarding this.

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. 

Xcelerator, Knott's Berry Farm
Image: Cedar Fair

August 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.

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.

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...

 
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