BlakeCoaster

One big reason i don't think this is a sky screamer is the big colorfull supports, with the bolt attachments on the ends. If those were indeed for a tower ride, those bolt supports that jet out would get in the way of the gondola going up and down the tower.

Uhhhhhh...

Diddo. Wish I could go. Did Disaster Transport have theming inside? Or was it a bobsled coaster in complete darkness? Not that familiar with DT. I'm not sure you would exactly call what Diasaster Transport had in it "theming" per se. It was more like a weak attempt to make it seem like you weren't just riding around in complete darkness. I recall a line during the ride, something along the lines of "We're losing control!" but realistically while riding you'd be like "uhhh...we're barely moving." Basically me and my brothers reaction at the end of the ride was like "Uhhhh...oh-kaaay?" It is always sad to see older rides go. But considering it's pretty much already known the park is getting an awesome B&M Wingrider, I wouldn't be too down in the dumps about losing this one.

I also rode Colossus on Tuesday, left side, in the very back seat, and to me it rode the way it has for the past year or so. Nice air on the first drop, nice air on the drop after both turnarounds, and a little pop after the MCBR. IMO you should always sit in the back seat on Colossus. That first drop is basically designed to pull you out of the seat as the front of the train goez down the drop. I would also say my ride on Colossus was about as smooth as Apocalypse. Very fun, so much in fact I rode it twice because there was no wait.

Yeah, I don't know what it is about a majority of Magic Mountain employees, but they're not exactly the brightest most observant people in the world. Ask an employee a question and the response you get a majority of the time is "I don't know." I asked someone at the Goliath lockeers how long it would hold my stuff for, and they said "I don't know." Where is the nearest restroom? "I'm not sure." They're no more informed than any guest walking around, except they're wearing a uniform supplied to them by the park. Unless you are talking straight to a mechanic or a higher up like Tim Burkhart, I wouldn't believe anything the ride ops/shift leaders tell you about a ride. They're paid to push "green button go" and are as clueless/oblivious as the employee at the Freshers stand. However they know their power position in respect to the guests, and people ask them questions all the time. They know they can mess with them, and they do, even if they don't have any clue what they're talking about.

Went to the park this morning but missed the ride preview, although from the sounds of it I didn't miss much if it didn't open till 10. That's kinda lousy of the park IMO. Anyway, I went straight to Lex at 10:45 on the dot. Also as an FYI for anyone trying to use the single rider line, once I got to the ride they told me the single rider line didn't open until Noon. So to waste some time I rounded the park one time and went on a few coasters. Lines for Colossus, Scream, Batman, Riddler, Superman, Goliath, Viper and Terminator we all practically walk-on before I left at 1:30. Operations were fine, and the park looked clean. X2 and Tatsu had long lines. Also, enforcement of loose articles and using lockeers was non-existent, which is fine with me. People were putting bags and souvenir cups on the side of the stations just like back in the good 'ol days. Finally made it to Lex around Noon and got 3 rides waiting 5 mins max each time via the single rider line. The drop is great, and the trip up the tower is fun too, it seems like it never stops! On my first ride I got lucky and had a Superman car go up the tower just as we were getting to the top, and the tower shook pretty good. I think my favorite part of the ride is slowing down at the bottom of the drop. The forces are very strong, almost Goliath-helix-like and kinda make you realize how fast you were going and how quickly they bring you to a stop. It is a VERY long drop. Definitely re-rideable, definitely fun, and definitely thrilling. Funny side note, twice I heard guests mention the height of Lex. They were commenting how the ride didn't actually take you all the way to the top of the tower like they thought it would. Tried some strawberry Dole Whip over by the former Log Jammer, and I think I found the best deal in the park. You get a huge cup of Dole Whip (with pineapple, mango, or strawberry flavors) for $3.49, or $3.80 after tax. It was very good, and I was surprised how big it was, but I couldn't even finish it all! Overall I had a great visit to the park, but as a warning for anyone who may be visiting anytime soon, it was 98 degrees, so wear light clothes and drink lots of water!

Oh man did you hit the nail on the head. I've been on quite a few Intamin drop towers, but I would say even the 1st generation Intamin towers, due to their unrestricted freefall drop, have given me more airtime and butterflies than any S&S tower. And it really doesn't matter how tall they are. I always felt like Freefall @ MM gave more airtime in 100 feet than Supreme Scream did at 250 feet. The feeling of "uncontrolled" freefall is unmatched. After riding Lex Luther today, I truly feel like they replaced my beloved Freefall Satellite Tower with a drop ride that one-ups it. I am so glad this happened, and I can't wait to be there again on Tuesday to have some ERT in the morning!

Oh REALLY? That's funny... The Lex Luther drops 30+ feet below the top of the tower, bringing the drop to something in the park of 385 feet. Still a VERY high drop! Can't wait to ride while the tower is shaking! Sounds like too much fun!

What season did they remove the ocean? I'd say the same season Premier Parks bought the company

Recently the worst and longest was Radiator Springs Racers at California Adventure. Didn't get Fastpasses but was determined to ride a couple days after opening, and a 150 minute wait turned into 180 because the ride broke down halfway through the line. Some people had seemed pretty impressed with the queue buildings in reviews (the garage, the bottle house, etc.), but after sitting in them for an hour or two, I quickly stopped enjoying them. I think what got me with the line is that you're herded like cattle for a majority of it in 3 pretty much identical queue rooms. After you go past the trestle bridge, it's basically one big concrete field of people going up the Fastpass line, single rider line, and waiting in standby. It all seemed so cramped and almost claustrophobic. With all the things they installed for Cars Land and all the room they built it on, it would have been nice to just walk in a single path towards the station of the ride like Splash Mountain or Indianna Jones. Have the queue go around the rocks and near the track or the waterfall. But instead with a lot of switchbacks, the line kinda seemed like an afterthought. Needless to say I'll never wait in that line again unless it's less than 60 minutes.

^Loved that show just for the intro. And Christine Lakin will always hold a special place in my heart What a fox! Butter smooth may be a bit far, but honestly the last couple times I took a ride Colossus surprised me! It was a pleasant old wooden coaster experience. The only rough spot I've felt in a while was before the second turnaround on the double-up. It seemed like the structure that holds on to the track had a little bit of a soft spot, and as the train ran over it would kind of force the track to flex and the train would sharply jerk back and forth (I call it the Psyclone "back-breaker" syndrome). The drops are still pretty thrilling if you sit in the back seat, and the bottom of the hills don't slam at all. Like you said, surprisingly smooth, and it just slides over the track with no slamming and minimal vibrations to jerk the car. I kind of like the old style turnaround, gives you some time to fear the 2nd drop (which I actually like better than the 1st).

I don't mind inversions on coasters at all, but it would be nice to have a full circuit launch coaster with some good Intamin air time!

My analysis is not based off concept art, but off their 400 foot tall drop announcement, that I think we all (and fairly so) believed they would come through with. And the only way that would be possible, is if the Lex Luther ride was at the top of the tower. I'll explain why. The Superman tower is 415 feet from the base of the tower, to the top of the tower. It is NOT 415 feet from the flat straight track run, to the top of the tower. Compare to Tower of Terror, which is on the ground level, and is approx. 375 feet tall. You can see how they designed Superman so that its dimensions are practically identical to Tower of Terror, except Superman was built off a hill. This added 40 feet to the height of the ride, so when you ride and go up the vertical spike, you actually gain 40 feet of being in the air, over Tower of Terror. The Lex Luther drops 30+ feet below the top of the tower, bringing the drop to something in the park of 385 feet. Still a VERY high drop! But on the books, not fast enough to take the speed record, however on the books, it seems they are going to stick with the 400 foot drop height, even though that doesn't look to be accurate. (Consider how long the park stuck to the 100mph Superman ride when for years so many knew it actually went somewhere around 88).

Not sure I quite understand what you're saying, or how it changes what I said. The park claims the tower is 415 feet tall. Based on that stat alone, the riders on Lex Luther will not reach a height of 400 feet in the air. Which is a shame considering they very easily could have broken the record, if all they had done is brought the ride to the top of the tower like they said they would. Right now, the ride falls for 3.64 seconds before slowing, and if it fell for 3.86 seconds instead (a mere 1/5 of a second longer), it would have hit 85 mph. (22mph^2 is the acceleration of gravity every second, divided by 80mph is 3.64 seconds, divided by 85mph is 3.86 seconds). Giant Drop, the fastest drop ride in the world, hits 84mph and falls for 3.82 seconds.

2 things: 1. There is no way the drop is actually 400 feet unless the tower really isn't 415 feet tall. To say that the cars are dropping slower than they initially planned supports that. I personally don't care, but its kinda dishonest for them to continue the repeating false statistics. 2. If that video is an indication of a typical operational cycle, it looks like there's going to be a Maximum Capacity of 16 guests every 2 minutes. At 60 min, that leaves us with 480 guests per hour. Ouch. Glad they're providing a single rider line, that's where I'll be waiting!

Not really the same thing. Maybe years back in the planning stages Cars Land was "supposed" to open before June 15th, but that was a target goal, and a majority of the public didn't know about it, and they for sure didn't have an actual date. And a month before its re-Grand opening when Disney announced June 15th, they stuck to it. They didn't invite Passholders to preview days, then wait till June 8th and pop a surprise that Buena Vista actually wouldn't be done, and that Cars Land wouldn't be ready. And of course it is not wise to revolve plans around the opening of a ride, and I think a lot of us know at. The bigger point is being overlooked. After this long the park should have a better estimate of how much time its going to take to install a ride, allowing room for errors and delay, and should atleast give themselves some sort of cushion to work out the kinks instead of rushing everything to the last minute. If they would have announced July 20th on the same day they announced June 30th, it would have made no difference to anyone, and would have allowed them more than enough time to make sure the operators are trained to dispatch consistently, and to assure the ride runs properly. It's the whole "knowingly cutting it short and waiting till the last minute to admit it" that this park is known for, and I think a lot of us know that. And we also know they should give themselves more time, and it would signifigantly cut down on headaches for both the park, and its guests who want to visit because of new attractions.

HAHAHA! No surprise here. This is the way Magic Mountain has been running their park for decades. Opening day promises and customer satisfaction? Forget that! Of course they COULD have just told everyone a month ago that it was going to take longer than they expected, and it all would have been fine. People understand, things happen. They COULD have allowed enough time to test it properly and made sure it was ready to go (like any practical park would). But no, they'd much rather procrastinate, not tell anyone anything, and wait till days before to screw up peoples plans at the last minute. They'd much rather cut it close and not make the deadline. They'd rather be known as a company who can't get their crap together on time to provide customer satisfaction. And really, it's sad they haven't gotten the hang of opening new attractions on schedule after this long. They're lucky. If this company were in any other field trying to meet deadlines, communicating delays, and satisfy paying customers, they would have been out of business long time ago.