ELYSBURG, Pa. – A family-owned Pennsylvania amusement park with free admission beat out Disney as the nation’s best amusement park by Tripadvisor\u2019s Travelers\u2019 Choice Best of the Best Awards.<\/p>\n
As the country celebrates its 250th birthday, Knoebels Amusement Resort turns 100 on July 4th.<\/p>\n
Carved in the hills of Columbia County, Knoebels family resort isn’t about seeking a thrill, but finding a feeling.<\/p>\n
“Do you remember the first time you ever came?” 69 News reporter Bo Koltnow asked Ed and Mary Loomis.<\/p>\n
“I was probably too little, tiny. Yeah, over 60. Our parents brought us here,” the couple said.<\/p>\n
Ed and Mary Loomis met at Knoebels, returning more than 50 times a season since. First with their kids, like Jess, and now with their teenage grandkids.<\/p>\n
“What keeps bringing you back?\u201d Bo asked Jess.<\/p>\n
“We just love the atmosphere and sharing things that I did when I was a kid,” she said with her two teenagers.<\/p>\n
Human and canine admission and parking are still free, ticket prices.<\/p>\n
Are based on individual rides, from 50 cents to 5 bucks for rides like wooden coaster the Phoenix, voted the world’s best.<\/p>\n
“How much do you look forward to this week every year?” Bo asked.<\/p>\n
“Everyday,” visitor Carrie Holl responded.<\/p>\n
New Hampshire’s Carrie Holl has come twice every year since 2010. We caught up with her on her 1,855th documented carousel ride. She marks each ride in a booklet with the horse number.<\/p>\n
“There’s just nothing like it. It’s just so much fun, and you don’t see the brass rings anymore on carousels, and Knoebels is like no amusement park in the world,” she said.<\/p>\n
What started as a Christmas tree farm, opened as a swimming pool July 4th, 1926. The park which has had its up and down’s, including major flood’s, some taller than this news reporter, remains family owned.<\/p>\n
“What is the best part about owning an amusement park?” Bo asked.<\/p>\n
“Official food taster that is the best,” said Brian Knoebel.<\/p>\n
He’s a 4th generation owner.<\/p>\n
“This could have become a very different park. What has your family fought so hard to protect?\u201d Bo asked Brian.<\/p>\n
“We are that throwback traditional park that realizes that grandma and grandpa get more satisfaction out of watching their grandkids ride the rides than they do themselves. They’re on a limited, they’re fixed income, and we don’t charge to park, we don’t charge them to get in,” he said.<\/p>\n
“One of the family members one time commented to me. ‘Well, we’re not Disney World, and my response to him was like, \u2018Yeah, but by the same token, Disney World is not Knoebels,\u2019” said Tim Baldwin.<\/p>\n
Texas-based Tim Baldwin, Director for American Coaster Enthusiasts, travels the world visiting theme parks, and returns to Knoebels every year.<\/p>\n
“Knoebels is kind of sets the example as a role model of what a park can be when you are focused on family values,” he said.<\/p>\n
A century old spot where yesterday meets today, time after time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ELYSBURG, Pa. – A family-owned Pennsylvania amusement park with free admission beat out Disney as the nation’s best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[93801,35270,41301,58430,80595,28,30,29,55240,93802],"class_list":["post-214075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-carousel","tag-centennial","tag-family-owned","tag-free-admission","tag-knoebels-amusement-resort","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-phoenix","tag-wooden-coaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}