Six Flags Magic Mountain 12/17/2012

[Edwardo]

I left Knott's Berry Farm at 12:30. I should have stopped and gotten something to eat, but not knowing how L.A. traffic would be midday on a Monday, and not knowing exactly how long the ride would be, I waited till I got to Six Flags, which was a mistake I'll get into in a bit. Overall, it to me about an hour and six minutes to make the drive from Knott's to Six Flags. Not bad, from what I can tell, in moderate traffic. Who says driving in L.A. is hard?

It went from beautiful to partly cloudy, to pretty dreary by the time I got to Magic Mountain. Why is it always dreary when I go to Magic Mountain? I was, however, happy when I arrived and saw things that made me happy. First, X2 was running. Second, there was only 1 lane open in to the park, which I hoped meant that it was about as busy as Knott's. Third, Getting into the parking lot, seeing a couple hundred cars, and parking right behind the handicapped spaces. Fourth, only one gate into the park open, followed by empty midways. There were more employees at Magic Mountain than guests.

Already, I was in a better mood than my first miserable experience, but then I was just heading in. Would the park be clean? Would the rides be opened? I figured without pressing my luck too much, I would head to my favorite coaster in California thus far...

X2-Because of the weather, the only 'enhancement' that was working that wasn't present from my last visit was the on board audio. I basically walked on to the front seat. I like the video that plays in the station, but I think it would get annoying with X2's notorious wait times. Going up the lift backwards is kind of weird. Now that I've done the Vekoma Flyers, it reminds me of that. And the trains bounce a bit. But that's okay, because what happens next is amazing. People can say what they want about X2, but I still love the ride. Love the forward facing fall down the first drop. Love flipping around and flying over the raven turn. Love the halftwist with half rotation (or whatever. I love the whole ride and wish there were more of these close. I don't care what the haters say, I love the ride. Especially when there isn't a line.

I really needed to eat by this point, as it was around 2pm and I'd only had water and a Red Bull all day. So I ate at Panda Express. It was good and fresh for theme park food. Unfortunately, it was probably the worst thing I could have eaten just before riding a bunch of rides with positive G forces. And since I had Chinese food, what better way to make myself sick than to go ride Tatsu.

Tatsu-First off, the bad. Eating just before riding was a terrible mistake. I was queasy for the entire rest of the day. The feeling never quite left until the last 30 minutes I was at the park, which meant that while I could have been riding and re-riding everything at Magic Mountain with it's ERT like conditions, I was instead sick. Now to the good. Tatsu is by far the best flying coaster. I didn't get a front seat ride, but that's okay. The first drop is fun around the sky tower, but after that, going way up in the air on the mountain, and then swooping down into the wooded areas, then flying back up, with amazing views of the park, this, THIS is what a flying coaster should be like. And that pretzel loop is still amazing.

So I got off queasy. I figured I'd head up the mountain and down the other side at this point. Unfortunately, Superman was blocked off. I have the credit, but it absolutely sucked the last time I was here, so I wanted to try it out now with the improvements. I wasn't extremely disappointed since I have ridden it, but I would have liked a shot. Oh well. I assume it was blocked off for construction of the new ride since a large area around it was blocked off. Lex kept testing but it was also closed. Part of me wanted it to open so I could ride, heck, it was part of the reason I came out west. The other part of me hoped it wouldn't open so I didn't have to ride. Yes, I'm very afraid of heights. So next up, I decided to ride something with no inversions, and hit up Goliath. I loved it the last time, but wasn't as impressed with Titan in Texas.

Goliath-To me, this one is better than Titan. The airtime hill after the turn around has airtime, where as my one Titan ride had none. I don't mind the forces you get in the helix. Didn't even come close to greying out. The first drop is still great, the turn around is kind of fun. The airtime hill delivered, and then you just kind of meander. I still like the coaster a lot. It has been surpassed in my rankings because I've ridden better stuff, but I still think it doesn't get the credit it deserves.

This trip had the ability to add 10 new credits to my count. I count both sides of a racing or two tracked coaster, so I could have gotten the other side of Superman had it been open, and the other side of Colossus I didn't get from my last visit. Unfortunately, Colossus was just as I'd left it, only running one side and one train. Sadly, it was the same side. Good for me, though, is that this time the line wasn't 90 minutes long, with the train getting filled up half way by Flash Passers as it was in 2005.

Colossus-Not that they needed to be running both sides or more than one train, mind you, but I would have liked to get the other credit. As far as Colossus goes, it's still very Meh. It has a few good hills, some air, and has a lot of potential. It wasn't nearly as painful this time, but still shuffles an aweful lot. It's just not that fun. I'd like to see Rocky Mountain Coasters come in and put topper track on the entire thing (which isn't much different than the I Beams on it now), restore the double down, and give it new trains. It would be a fun coaster then, I think.

I got off and took a seat near the entrance of Scream. Didn't feel like riding, but there was no line. I noticed that I actually had LTE on my phone, so I made a facetime call as I rested. After I had sat for a bit, I realized Lex Luthor was cycling with riders. I headed over, but decided to do a few things, including some pictures from the Sky Tower, before riding. I headed to Green Lantern, but it was down for a couple minutes, so I went up the mountain. Whew! What a hike. Once up there, I headed to the top of the Tower and took some photos. Wasn't up there long, and didn't want to wait 6 minutes for the next elevator, so I went down after taking my pictures. I headed to another credit that I missed last time due to the 90 minute wait on Colossus.

Ninja-I'm not a huge fan of suspended Arrow coasters. Big Bad Wolf was a lot of fun, but none of the rest do anything for me. Ninja, though, was very good. I liked it. It has a nice setting, and really made use of the terrain, which adds to the swinging and near missing. I'm actually very glad I finally got to ride this. The first drop was fun, the turns near the log flume, and the swinging thru the trees were all what this type of coaster was meant to do. Unfortunately, Flight Deck & Iron Dragon don't do enough of that.

The sun was starting to set. I headed over to the park's newest wooden coaster. The last time I rode a wooden coaster on that spot it was easily one of the worst 5 coasters I've been on. But you can't go wrong with a GCI.

Apocalypse The Ride-Solid coaster. It's no Thunder Head or American Thunder (I'm noticing a theme here), but it was very solid. Almost an empty train, and I should have went for another couple of spins. I liked the first drop. DIdn't really notice the station fly-thru. The tunnel was nice and had some nice pops of air. And anything is better with a flame thrower. I'd say Apocalypse is very middle of the road, but that's good. And it's way better than what used to be there (but at least I got the Psyclone credit).

I don't know if the kiddy coasters that adults can ride were even opened. I decided not to bother with them. It was getting dark and I still had a couple of new things to ride, and a few re-rides I needed to make. I headed over to another super hero next.

Green Lantern: First Flight-I sat facing the front. Very short line, and they were only loading one side of the car, so there were 2 girls siting behind me, and no one else on the ride (seriously, there was barely anyone at the park, and there were more employees running the ride than people in line). This was an interesting experience. Would it be like X2? Once at the top I start rolling backwards. And then just drop. That was scary but fun. During the first half there was some rocking motion, but no really spinning. The second half was a bit less tame, and the last pop up before the brakes was nice as the care did almost a full spin. I'd love to ride this with some uneaven cars. I liked it. It could give a much better ride, but it's definitely got potential.

After Green Lantern, I needed a villian fix, so I headed over to Lex. It was a walk on.

Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom-First, the restrains were very comfy. I like these much better. I'm very afraid of heights, but on Intamin drop rides, the worst part is the slow ascent and then feeling like you're a the top forever. You go up this one pretty quickly. And you're not at the top very long. The drop goes on for quite a while. To me, this is the world's best non-Tower of Terror drop ride. I almost got back in line, but it was getting late. I'm glad I rode, and will definitely give it another shot on my next visit.

I snuck around for another Goliath ride, and then headed to a classic over on the mountain, snapping pix the entire way.

Revolution-Have the restraints been changed on this? Seemed different than the last time. More comfy, but still not the way Antons were meant to be. But I digress. Anyways, Revolution is one of those coasters that I would like to have ridden early on, but after all of the foliage grew in. I got a decent ride on it in the front. I feel as thought it has so much potential. It gave a good ride, but you just don't get very many coasters that have airtime and inversions. I'm not one to complain much about trims and OTSRs, but they make a difference on this ride. I still like it, but I don't love it the way I want to.

It was dark out now and the park was closing soon so I ran over for another ride on X2. They put me in the second seat, which was fine. The ride is still a ton of fun. Afterwards I stopped for a potty break (funny story about the bathroom nearest to the carousel. It caused a heated conversation the last time I was there about unisex restrooms. I headed out of the park to get gas and drive back to Vegas. This was so much better than the last visit. Even if I were sick and it was gloomy, the half day was a billion times better. There were no lines, there were no crowds, rides were opened. They even opened Lex pretty late. The park was even clean! I do wish they'd paint some of the larger rides, and it could use some more (newer) flats, but it was infinitely better than last time. I'm glad they've invested some money in theming and sprucing the park up. I just wish it wasn't so hit or miss.

[Robert T Ackerman]

Last time I was at THE MOUNTAIN, they were still building The Tatsu. Again, I really need to re-visit the area, looking at June.

[WadeJ]

Awesome trip report. I'm curious if you have also been on Manta in FL?

[Edwardo]

Not yet but I hear its fun.

[Steve]

Manta is a pretty good flyer. I still consider Tatsu on being the best.

[AV Matt]

I prefer Tatsu over all other flyers/inverts because it does something no other does.. fly HIGH above the park.

[Robert T Ackerman]

Have you ridden Manta yet Matt? I'm sure you'd still like Tatsu more, but I'm just curious

[AV Matt]

No Manta yet.  I really liked Air though.   

[Edwardo]

Here are the Pix from Magic Mountain.  Again, I can't believe how great my day here was this time compared to the last time.


Six Flags Magic Mountain 2012 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

X2 is still, to me, a great ride and great experience.  Loved it.  Wish I felt better and could have ridden more.


100_0249 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

Where are all the cars?!?


100_0250 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

The park was so dead, they only had one lane open.


100_0253 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

I was able to park right behind the handicapped spots.


100_0255 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

Can't wait to get in and ride this.


100_0257 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

This just keeps getting better, and I'm not even in the park yet.


100_0258 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

You just walk right in and some older guy comes up and scans your pass.  Nobody there at all.


100_0260 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

The park has a weird front plaza.  It needs to be rejiggered, but when you get to this, it's quite nice.


100_0266 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

There's the best flying coaster I've been on.


100_0277 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

It kept testing but didn't open till the park was almost closed.


100_0278 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

They've done an excellent job with this area re-theming it.  It could use a couple newer flats though.


100_0279 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

I still like this better than Titan.


100_0283 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

If they'd do this to the whole park, and add about 5 newer flat rides, and paint the coasters, it would be so much better.


100_0285 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

Interesting.  I really liked it.


100_0289 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

So many coasters, so little time...but even less people so no lines at all.  Yay!


100_0290 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

One of the best decisions this park has made in a long time.


100_0291 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

I didn't even bother.  No lines, but I just didn't feel like riding.


100_0293 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

This was a credit for me as it was closed most of the day I was there last time.  I was actually quite surprised.  Loved it.


100_0294 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

A solid ride, and much better than what used to be there.


Six Flags Magic Mountain 2012 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

Arrowland.


Six Flags Magic Mountain 2012 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

The only coaster that was down.  I really wanted to ride, but I do have the credit.  At least I got to ride Lex Luthor, and it was really great.


Six Flags Magic Mountain 2012 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

This area was nice, and reminded me of the midway at Great Adventure.


Six Flags Magic Mountain 2012 by Edward Beavers, on Flickr

They kept advertising their 'End of the World Party' for 12/21/12, the following weekend.

So I had a great day at a park that is notorious for terrible customer service and poor capacity.  I just wish I hadn't ate Chinese food just before Tatsu, or I would have rode so much more.

More pictures are Here.