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I recently graduated college and moved to Northern California. Now that I'm out on my own, I can start making weekend trips to theme parks. I took my first one of these trips yesterday with three fraternity brothers who also live in the area. We went to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Prologue I'd actually been to SFMM in January 2004, which was kind of a transformational trip for me; it was the first time I'd been on a roller coaster that went upside-down, so it cemented my status as a roller coaster enthusiast. Unfortunately, X2, Scream, and Superman were all closed for maintenance on that day, so I didn't have a chance to ride those. I also obviously wasn't able to ride any of the roller coasters built after that visit. Based on my riding experience, I'd basically experienced Six Flags circa 2001. We left my place at around 7am, and after making a couple of pit stops, we arrived at Magic Mountain just after 12pm. Given that this was a summer Saturday, the park was absolutely packed. We parked beyond Scream's corkscrews in the K section of the parking lot. No surprises there, knowing what day we visited and what time we arrived. We were all unsure whether it was worth it to have ponied up the $500 upfront for a four-person Platinum Flash Pass, but we knew we'd get our money's worth as soon as we saw the status of the parking lot. After going through the ticket gates, we picked up our Flash Pass. i only mention this because we were helped by an employee named Jeremiah, who was straight-up awesome and super helpful. He also gave us some advice on which order to hit the park in and where to sit on each ride, which was obviously much appreciated. We ended up telling his manager how happy we were with the experience when we returned the Pass at the end of the day. FuII Throttle The first coaster we rode was FuII Throttle. I'd seen the video so I knew about the surprise features of the ride, but my friends hadn't and were obviously quite surprised. Short layout, cool elements, not the best ride in the park but a nice way to start the riding portion of the day. Tatsu, part 1 Tatsu shut down for a bit due to some minor malfunction, so we cancelled the reservation and instead attacked Viper. Viper Viper will always have a fond place in my heart as the first roller coaster I'd ever been on with inversions. I'll never quite forget the feeling of going up the lift hill having no idea what it would be like, wondering if I would get super sick and hate the experience. I'll also never forget the overwhelming flood of satisfaction, relief, and bliss after exiting the first vertical loop for the first time, knowing that I could handle being upside-down. It also has a special spot in my heart as the first roller coaster POV video I'd ever watched, since it's the first roller coaster featured on the old America's Greatest Roller Coaster Thrills VHS from the late 90s. I remembered Viper being quite rough, and it lived up to its memory in that regard. I didn't actually remember just how forceful the second and third vertical loops were, but they're quite intense. A fine ride overall, but it's obviously an oldie. We ended up double-riding this one (thank you based Flash Pass Platinum), which I wasn't the happiest camper about, but my friends wanted to and I figured, what kind of a brother would I be if I bailed out on them? Tatsu, part 2 After this, Tatsu was back up and running, so we meandered over to it. This was the first flying coaster any of us had ridden, and we were all blown away by the intensity of the ride. The zero-G rolls were intense, the turns were powerful, and the pretzel loop was absolutely unbelievable: without a doubt the most intense element of any roller coaster I'd ridden before. I can't really put into words the crazy disorienting feeling of flipping down into a loop, then coming out of the loop head first on your back while pulling over 4 Gs. Just an insane element that none of us were ready (and that my three friends didn't even know existed). Watching a Tatsu POV just doesn't compare to how forceful this roller coaster was. We all absolutely loved it and rode it a second time. Apocalypse We all felt a bit woozy after hitting that bad boy twice in a row, so after a short breather, I made the decision to ride Apocalypse, which I figured would throw us around a bit but would be easy on the stomach. This was a ride I'd never seen a POV for (or really heard much about, to be honest), but it packed a nice punch all the way through. A pleasant surprise of the day. Riddler's Revenge Here was one that I really enjoyed back in 2004. The only other stand-up coaster I've been on is/was Mantis at Cedar Point, so I don't have a great basis for comparison, but I thought that this was a great ride, maybe not quite as forceful as Mantis was, but still a really powerful ride. And of course we double-rode it. Jet Stream Nikhil, one of our buds, wanted to cool down via a water ride, and the closest one was Jet Stream (Tidal Wave was closed). This was a pretty big waste of time since none of us got wet. I'm not sure it was the particular weight distribution of our flume, or if that's a general pattern of the ride. Ah well. Decent layout for a log flume, though (although it's obviously no Dudley Do-Right). Batman: The Ride I was really curious to get back on this one, because I thought that this was the best coaster in the park when I was 11. It's just that I couldn't for the life of me remember why I liked it so much. Well, I was reminded of that pretty quickly: the coaster traverses its elements quickly while remaining a very smooth ride, and it carries its intensity to the very end of the circuit (no mid-course brake run!). We all loved it and rode it a second time. I think the reason that I view this ride so highly is that a lot of other coasters had individual elements that were better than anything on Batman, but Batman was a high-quality ride from start-to-finish. I think I prefer Tatsu a little bit over Batman, but it was nice to know that I wasn't just being a dumb kid when I thought Batman was so good in 2004. Green Lantern I really didn't like this that much, mostly on account of the fact that my upper thighs took a pretty serious beating on the last drop. Nice ride, bit of a gimmick, some seriously intense moments, didn't want to touch it again for the rest of the day. Lex Luthor I actually thought that this was a huge disappointment, and I'm generally a huge drop tower fan (i.e. I actually like Dr. Doom's Fearfall). I don't know if we were pinned into our seats by the restraints, but none of us really felt any airtime. The pure height and uncertainty was much scarier than the drop itself. Not sure if anyone else feels that way about this ride. Scream After taking a twenty minute break, we went over to Scream for a nice double ride. Not much to say here: this ended up being a high-quality ride, although it wasn't super forceful. The zero-G roll was excellent, just like Medusa at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. I think I preferred Medusa a little bit, but it's hard to say. Twisted Colossus I knew that this was going to be awesome, I hyped it up to my friends, and it exceeded our expectations. This was my first Rocky Mountain Construction coaster, and it was just phenomenal. Super smooth with novel elements. Excellent ejector airtime all around, particularly on the first drop. The 90-degree banked turns and Top Gun loop are something else. I enjoyed the original Colossus, but this is obviously a great upgrade. We all preferred green to blue, but of course both sides were amazing, and it's nice that you get to ride both sides so you don't have to compromise. My only complaint was that SFMM wasn't racing/dueling the trains. No idea why that was; does anyone have any insight into the situation? Goliath We were finally at the section of the park where Goliath's entrance was! I didn't really remember much about this roller coaster from when I was a kid, so I was eager to give it another try. I really enjoyed this hypercoaster due to the floater airtime on the first drop and camelback, the tunnel handchopper, and (of course) the ridiculous helix. Given that we were sitting in the back car, I got to experience the unusual effect of a runny nose and a couple of tears despite being in 106-degree heat due to the sheer magnitude and duration of the G-forces on the big helix. We absolutely had to double-ride this one. I kind of wish that the brake runs didn't decelerate so quickly, as that part hurt a little bit, but hey, it's not a huge deal. I haven't been on a ton of traditional hypercoasters and gigacoasters (I think it's only Magnum XL-200, Millennium Force, Goliath, Sheikra, and Bizarro at SFNE back when it was Superman-themed), but I definitely can now extrapolate that Intamin's hypers and gigas are generally more forceful rides all-around (with the Goliath helix being an obvious exception) versus their competitors. I've heard this stated before on these forums, and now I have some first-hand comparative evidence of that. Superman At some point during the long, winding, uphill trek to get to Superman's entrance, the ride broke down, and they closed it for the day. 0/2 on Superman, 11 and a half years apart. Roaring Rapids It's an okay river rapids ride. We got wet. X2 We didn't pay the $15 to cut in line for X2, so we held off on riding this one until the end of our day (which at this point was around 7:15pm). The queue was only about 45 minutes by this point, which was totally reasonable and gave us a nice breather. This was another one of those "we had no idea what to expect" roller coasters, and all I'll say is that it was truly mind-blowing. The half-half raven turns are just so freaking disorienting: it's incredible. X2 definitely lands for me in the Tatsu camp of "the POV obviously doesn't do this ride justice." There are also a couple of really rough spots toward the end of the circuit, which threw me around to the point that I had a bit of a headache after riding. Revolution Since we had some time left before the park closed (and Superman was still shut down), we hopped on Revolution for a quick spin. A bit rougher than I had remembered, but it's always nice to ride a piece of roller coaster history. Tatsu, part 3 What would the day have been without one final ride on Tatsu? Epilogue After making the long trek back to our quickly emptying spot in the parking lot, we staggered into Buffalo Wild Wings and re-energized on ice water, beer, apps, and wings. We then made the long drive back to the Bay Area, arriving at 4am. This is obvious advice, but you absolutely need to bring an empty water bottle if you're going to visit SFMM around this time of the year. Between hydrating like crazy and pouring the occasional handful onto our heads and necks, we each probably went through a dozen fill-ups. Back when I was kid, I really enjoyed meticulously ranking things. I don't have that particular urge anymore, so I'm not going to go through and rank all of the coasters like I would have 11 years ago. I will just say that I found Batman, Tatsu, Twisted Colossos, Goliath, and X2 (despite its roughness) to be top-notch roller coasters. I also thoroughly enjoyed almost all of the other ones I went on. Ultimately, this was a great first trip of my adult life, and it makes me excited to go on more of them. My buds have some pictures, so I'll throw them up here as I acquire them in the next day or two.

This was so much better than I had expected. I highly recommend it to, well, everyone. Incredibly refreshing beer.

The only beer I would describe as "mouth-watering."

I've written about this before, but the leg-chopper on Kong at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom was probably the biggest "gotcha" moment I've ever had on a roller coaster.

Good riddance.

But of course. I've been to both states and had great times—just not at their (non-existent) theme parks. Great call on Silverwood. My roommate is from North Idaho, so I'm sure we'll travel up there at some point to spend time with his family, play a round at Coeur d'Alene, and hit up the park.

The Boomerang at Prater in Vienna. This was made more fun by getting drunk at the Schweizerhaus nearby, not to mention the use of lap bars as opposed to OTSRs.

Thanks Doug! Yes, I'll be in Mountain View. Rent is obviously much higher than what I'm used to, but I'm fortunate to have this opportunity in the first place. I enjoyed your recommendations. A Texas trip definitely seems worth doing over an extended weekend. Gilroy Gardens looks really nice and isn't too far. Even closer than that is Raging Waters, which I've been to before and thoroughly enjoyed. It seems like Oregon and Washington don't have much. Maybe I'll do an extended Vegas trip with some buds...

Thanks Robb. Thanks for the reminder on this one. I actually have been to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk and got to ride the Giant Dipper. (It was somewhat painful, come to think of it.) I haven't been to the one in San Diego, so that's definitely a possibility. I haven't been to SD before, so maybe I'll wrap that in with a round of golf at Torrey Pines.

Hey all, I will be moving to the California Bay Area in a few weeks. As I was born and raised in Florida, I'm not too familiar with the theme parks out west. I would appreciate any park recommendations that the forum may have, as I hope to take one trip per month. The only real criterion is that I can make the trip over a weekend; I would prefer not to take vacation days if I can avoid it. Other than that, accessibility should not be a problem; road trips and flights are both fine, and the park doesn't necessarily have to be in California. Additionally, I've already been to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, California's Great America, and Six Flags Magic Mountain, and I already am planning to visit Knott's Berry Farm. Furthermore, I am not currently interested in visiting Universal Studios Hollywood, Sea World San Diego, or either of the Disney parks. What gems aren't on this list? Thanks in advance!

What can I say? I have no idea how the general public thinks sometimes.

I recently went on a performance tour of Africa and Asia with my collegiate music group. On one of our off days in Qatar, a lot of us went to the Villaggio Mall just to walk around. The mall has an ice skating rink, a bowling alley, indoor gondolas, and — much to my enjoyment — an indoor theme park! There were a few rides including a ferris wheel, log flume, and roller coaster. Honestly, for something that traveled maybe 40 feet in the air, this wasn't horrible. If you look past the (completely predictable) roughness of this thing (we all threw up a couple of curse words during the ride), there's a helix with some nice G-forces, and hey, the second drop gives some decent ejector airtime. That's definitely the best moment of the ride, and after riding it, I almost felt sadistic enough to want to experience that moment again. Well, fortunately for us, the ride operator literally sent the train through the circuit a second time, without stopping it at the station and without asking us for input. Hey, I guess we got our money's worth (the ride ticket is $8)? To give a bit of context on the Gondolania Entertainment Center, the amusement park had a good number of people in there due to its arcade, go-karts, trampoline attraction, and children's playplace. However, we may have been the only people all day to ride the roller coaster. I guess the local Qataris know better than we do. Entering the park..."oh crap, there's a roller coaster in here." The hill of surprising ejector airtime. A handchopper tunnel. The cars are spinning cars that don't actually spin. Also, notice that the ride has over-the-shoulder restraints. That's when you know it's going to be rough... The indoor gondola. The decor of the Villaggio Mall is meant to make you feel like you're walking outside.

Yeah, I'd say that the park is a pretty solid day trip. There's also a good assortment of animals, although nothing like Busch Gardens, one of my home parks.

This may not be the most effective answer, but honestly, I see this as a "ripping the band-aid off" kind of issue. My first roller coaster with inversions was Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which has seven inversions. I was for sure freaking out on the way up (I was like ten years old), but once I was upside-down on that first vertical loop, I was already loving it. Your other problem is Universal and Islands don't really have any coasters with just one inversion. It's kind of an all-or-nothing deal. I say just hop on Hulk immediately. You'll thank me in a year.