CoastersOnly

So, just went ahead and got 2016 passes, but have a few questions... 1) Will the 2015 Bring-A-Friend Days work for 2016 passes? Doesn't seem like I can access the online account until I actually process the passes in person, so I'm not sure what benefits I have just yet...if you know of a way to access the account before processing the passes, that would be helpful. Extremely important actually because we want to bring friends the first time we go. 2) Can you Bring-A-Friend free to a park that isn't your home one? Definitely confusion surrounding this one...we had Magic Mountain passes last time even though we lived near Vallejo (wanted to be able to get into the water park down South), but the Six Flags site never makes it clear. I've assumed that your "home" area which is where you get the e-mails is where perks like those would only apply...but who knows? Also, didn't this site have a Water World thread? Curious about using 2016 passes their for 2015 Bring-A-Friend days since they just clip the damn cards anyway (you get two corners to clip per pass).

Thanks so much for all that information! The parking stuff in particular is key as there's isn't really any other choices within eyesight of the boardwalk and the stuff I know of nearby is metered, so that will lead to some nice savings. We can get there from our house in just over an hour most of the time, but having to plonk for parking is the biggest hindrance. I think it's $15 or whatever and we're anything but broke, but it kind of leads to one of those "we have to drive and pay for gas and then parking and then..." kind of things. We won't mind the extra walk, so again, that information is GREATLY appreciated.

Truly the funniest ending to any South Park episode. I fell on the floor crying for about five minutes.

Size does matter when it comes to what animals are in enclosures. Whales and Dolphins are used to swimming around the world and are instead kept in containers that they can swim back-and-forth across in under ten seconds. Elephants are used to running around vast swaths of land. There's no real argument for most animal captivity, but ones such as these need a lot more room and they can never really get that outside of the wild. Using dogs as a counterargument is pretty terrible given that they evolved specifically to benefit from human interaction, but I get your point. People who don't have a large backyard (at the very least) probably shouldn't have a dog. They aren't meant to be kept in the house all day while their owner is away, something considered "normal" in a lot of metropolitan areas, but I digress. As for the economic effect, public protest against Sea World has already hurt their bottom line and certain firms have divested because of this. So those dolphins at Discovery Kingdom could very well become an economic hindrance for the park rather than an asset. There's really only two sides to the issue involving orcas, dolphins, etc. You're either siding with the actual evidence that supports the fact that they don't live as long in captivity, suffer emotional stress, etc. or you're siding with corporations that were built merely to capitalize on these animals for entertainment purpose. If Sea World's own greeters are going to tell you bullshit about their orcas (such as saying they live much shorter lives than they actually do because they die quicker in captivity or that it's "normal" for male orcas to have their main fin fall to one side, something that virtually only happens in captivity) then I think we already know which side is willfully spreading misinformation. I mean, christ, Sea World's former top trainers and the guy who basically mainstreamed the captivity of dolphins are now against their current treatment. Who would know better than the people that spent their lives around these animals? Sea World really doesn't employ actual scientists or conduct much research about these animals. They buy them, they train them, they sell them. That's it. Keep in mind that Orcas and Dolphins are both pack animals. They aren't meant at all to be isolated or kept with only one or two other individuals as is usually the case in these parks. But whatever, I guess their screaming for their young ones when they've been poached and shipped off to these parks means nothing and they're just being playful.

Well, I've certainly heard great things about X2's loading lately and how the line seems faster. Any ride you go on in the morning has no actual line as long as the ride is working, so I'd rather just get X2 out of the way...I don't mind waiting a bit for Tatsu later. I'm probably going to tempted to start with Full Throttle though and work our way back as that can knock out Goliath and Green Lantern relatively early - three of the worst offenders in terms of line. Thanks for the heads up on Green Lantern. My dad would have likely avoided that thing regardless since it flips so much. I'll have to mentally prepare myself for the

I disagree. The park started as Marine World and has been taking care of marine animals for over forty years, decades before any coasters were built. I know that. I went to Marine World Africa USA as a kid along with The New Marine World Theme Park...but carrying on a tradition of awfulness is just plain wrong. Dolphins do not want to be captive animals and certainly shouldn't be. These are the next most intelligent creatures on the planet and forcing them to learn tricks while confining them to a small box instead of the entirety of the world's oceans is cruel.

They certainly put effort into it, but there's not enough there there. The ride has too many stretches of nothingness and hardly anything popping out to scare you. The only joy myself, my friend and girlfriend got from it was the random Raptor near the end.

Yeah, the actual cost of those attractions is insanely high, so they're really only saving money when it comes to the development. The construction is still an enormous undertaking. I'll concede to the point that there's differences in some of the attractions on each coast when it comes to Disney. The Florida Pirates pales in comparison, for example. I agree that they have been branching out quite a bit over in Orlando and the Avatar Land will add yet another truly unique area/set of attractions. Personally, I'll admit to not being a big fan of Disney in general. I attended virtually every show and rode every ride while I worked there (yet only went to each park about three times) and most of the time I was bored out of my skull. Epcot has Test Track and a few things that are great once like Spaceship Earth, the rollercoaster simulator and the movies about various countries. Magic Kingdom has the mountains and Pirates/Mansion. Animal Kingdom has the safari ride, Everest and Dinosaur. Hollywood Studios has the coaster, the tower and the star wars-er. Everything else was pretty much a waste of time and I almost regret not getting in that 15th ride on the Aerosmith roller coaster instead of sitting in the sun through that awful stunt car show. But I'm certainly not part of Disney's key audience and would rather vacation in a national park or sit at home watching foreign films, listening to indie music, etc.

Yes, it's that terrible and instead of scaring people it just makes them go WTF?...just like the last four seasons of Dexter.

Heh. I know some people are going to rip into me, especially because there's at least a ton of construction going on at USH at the moment. But I don't consider extra theming that's meant to keep people in the park longer and buy more food/gifts an actual plus (so, to me, all of this Springfield/Potter construction is only going to lead to one new A-ticket ride...the rest is just scenery). That stuff makes for a cool experience, but I'd pretty much walk through all of the Orlando Springfield in twenty minutes and grab a Duff...thus making any return trips for passholders pointless as they'll be underwhelmed by it all after the first visit. If they want to give people more value for their money and, especially, shorten the wait times for rides then they actually need to build more top-tier rides. It's not rocket science. One wonders just how many awesome attractions/rides could have been built instead of spending billions making a replica of Hogwarts...as someone who sat through all eight of those boring movies (ok, the Cuaron one was awesome) and read most of the first unimaginative novel, I could really care less and would simply ride the Harry Potter ride and then leave. Content is key and the rest is window dressing.

No, it was some corporate-paid for event (at least that's what they told us). It was the last weekend in September. I imagine those sort of events can only have so many people, so it must have been a dream for the lucky visitors as wait times were probably nothing over the course of those few hours...I remember working a night at Disney Hollywood Studios for a fun-run event and all of the rides were walk-ons for those people (and the charge for the run was considerably less than the normal ticket price). Of course, not all of the shows were open, but if you were like me and my family growing up, we only went on the rides anyway... X2 is a little overrated. It's a very unique coaster and one of the best thrills you can possibly have, but it's harmed a bit by the constant flipping. You spend so much of the ride wondering just what the hell is going on that I'd give it about an 8. Of course, I've only been on it once at park opening years back and there was no music on my ride (probably a malfunction). Hearing that it's smoother now and knowing that there's supposed to be stuff playing while you're on it makes me think my experience will be much better the next time I'm lucky enough to ride it. Green Lantern looks awesome. Irks me that I still haven't had the opportunity to ride it. Luckily, we're planning for 1 1/2 days at MM because the water park isn't open, I'm assuming. Drive up real early in the morning and go to the park with my dad and his wife (kind of a special thing because they're back in the States for a month), then check into the hotel after and end up at opening the next day as well. Between actually getting there on time and being the first in the gate and attending the park on two week days after the spring break/before the summer rush, there should be plenty of time to get our fill. Second day would be shorter as we would just skip the stuff we don't feel the need of riding on consecutive days (Lex Luthor - since my GF won't ride it anyway, Colossus, Ninja, Gold Rusher, Revolution & Scream). Possible we go back down in the fall as well, but I won't be that annoyed if we don't. If I were to schedule another trip there, it would probably be earlier in September as the amusement parks (particularly Disney) always drop off immediately once the kids start going to back to school at the end of August. Hurricane Harbor likely wouldn't be as crowded as it was for its final weekend, either. But hell, if we simply switched the order on the same weekend as last year we could do pretty well for ourselves (MM on Sunday, HH on final Saturday).

Having been to US Orlando a few years back on two off-days with two free park-hopper tickets, it's kind of a buzzkill to be back here in California with the inferior park and having to pay to get in. The value of the park-hopper ticket on an off-day in Orlando was literally insane back in 2010 and probably still is (although the attendance is likely consistently higher year-round thanks to Potter). You get the best dark ride in the world at the time (Spiderman), the best log flume ride in the world (Dudley Do Right), the wettest rapids ride imaginable (Popeye), killer rollercoasters including relatively unique ones like Dueling Dragons and Rip Ride Rock-It, the best indoor rollercoaster in the world (the Mummy) and other insanely great stuff like the Terminator show, Men In Black Ride, Simpsons, etc. Having worked at Disney in the short time that I lived in Orlando, I can say there's no doubt in my mind that Universal Studios offered twice the content as those four Disney parks for anyone who isn't one of Mickey's brainwashed legion. Honestly, I could count about six great rides at Disney (along with Pirates/Mansion which are good once in awhile) whereas each Universal park alone offers as many good attractions. It was disturbing to hear Disney aficionados say they had never been to Universal because it was "inferior" or that it "wasn't clean"...so, so much more fun and arguably the best overall theme parks in the world. But then we come to the Hollywood version which is kind of the redheaded step child. The tram ride is a unique experience and the crown jewel of the Universal parks, but offers absolutely no re-ridability in the short term. Other than that, you're left with merely a handful of other attractions and in the case of the Mummy they aren't nearly as good as their Florida counterparts. Jurassic Park, for example, is worse at Hollywood because there's fewer big rides than what Universal offers at Islands of Adventure, thus increasing the amount of people wanting to go on it, and therefore, its wait time. It's also worse because the theming is smaller (Jurassic Park at Florida has its own land) and it's out of the way thanks to the lengthy escalator ride. Plus, there's nothing like getting soaked back-to-back-to-back on Popeye/Dudley Do Right/Jurassic Park...it's truly the best run of water rides there is and you get so wet that it eliminates the need to actually go to a real water park. And to charge what they do for the Hollywood park when the park hopper pass at Florida wasn't that much more is insane (keeping in mind that the park-hopper is only useful out of peak season) is just kind of ludicrous. We're going down to the Los Angeles/So Cal area for a week long trip that includes Magic Mountain and camping and I'd spring in a heartbeat for passes if the quality of the Hollywood park was on par with what's in Florida, but it currently isn't. To pay that much to go on a lot of attractions I just went on a few years ago, some of them of inferior quality and without any outdoor rollercoasters (Orlando has four) is just crazy. It doesn't help matters that their big plan is to just copy content that has made a lot of money over in Florida. So we'll get a smaller Springfield due to less space and a Potter world that's also smaller and likely doesn't carry-over the re-themed content (Dueling Dragons coaster, family coaster, etc.). If anything, Universal should be trying to differentiate the parks on either coast. Utilize different properties and create unique experiences. People are going to go to USH regardless, so why not make the content different enough so that people want to go to BOTH destinations? While Disney World is pretty much a rip-off since the bulk of its attractions are spread out over four parks yet can be accessed in just two in California, they at least have had the sense to retire attractions at only one of the Magic Kingdom/Disneyland properties. So one park loses Country Bear Jamboree and the other loses Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. This way eventually, they start to have a lot of different rides/shows. And going off on the Disney thing, it's definitely true. Literally every key ride/show you can think of in Florida is accessible at the California locations. And then there's rides like Dinosaur that are the same layout as Indiana Jones or Everest which is the same theme as Matterhorn, etc. It's strange how many families are swindled into booking an extensive vacation to Disney World when they can attend Tower of Terror, the Muppets Show, Innoventions, Star Tours, the more expensive version of Test Track known as The Cars Ride, etc. all in California with only two ticket charges instead of four. Universal's headed down the same path of pointlessness by just replicating the same things over-and-over.

So is the consensus that Undertow is better than Hurricane? I actually liked Hurricane quite a bit. It was exciting from beginning to end and had some nice little Gs given its size. I would honestly rather ride Hurricane than most of the coasters in Northern California. It's better than Boomerang, and maybe Roar/Kong at DK and better than a couple of them at Great America as well. I was sad to see it leave and would rather they had three big coasters instead of, still, two. Any information on when the park isn't that busy? I think I went during a Sunday in September back in 2010 and I imagine that's about as good as it gets aside from offseason. No real extensive wait times for anything and maybe 15 minutes at most for the dipper. We rode anything we wanted to and played the mini golf and laser tag, both of which are very high quality...hell, the mini golf is a heck of a value, has a cool theme and is also fairly easy to get a hole-in-one on and receive a free game. Also, is there any information on the night time deals this year and when they are? It's usually like an unlimited rides pass for $15 with the right Pepsi can or whathaveyou. I remember going with a friend in college for that promotion and we went on a ton of rides and also took on the two attractions upgrade for a few extra bucks. We ended up playing three games of mini golf since we each won a third one on our second game. Pro-tip: It might be worth checking out if there's different hours for some of the side attractions so that you can possibly do them after the rides close. Gives you more ride time which is a bonus if you're there at night for just a handful of hours...in the day I guess it really doesn't matter as there's more than enough time to ride all that stuff twice. One more question. Parking. Anybody know of great places to park nearby that are free? Parking's kind of expensive at BB and I'd rather walk a half-mile or whatever if I can stealthily park at a Safeway or whathaveyou. One More Pro-Tip: If you've never been on it, seriously, don't go into the Haunted House. I think the relatively recent revamp only made it worse. The line is usually the longest in the entire park and the ride itself is an absolute bore. Not worth your tickets or even your time if you have the pass. Better, go on the other haunted house ride on the other side of the park which is also a shoot 'em up game. Way fun.

1) Someone posted earlier about offseason crowds and whether the park is getting a lot of visitors...it's very, very hard to say. It seems to me that a lot of people going are already pass holders, but we also would arrive late in the afternoon and just ride coasters for two hours or less and head home, so perhaps there are some at the gate ticket sales...the parking lot is usually full (or at least the main side of it) and the crowd at DK, at least during offseason, is mostly families with younger children. Practically every time we see all the cars and start dreading long wait times yet we always walk on everything or at worst have to wait like fifteen minutes for Kong and ten for Medusa while the other four are walk-ons...of course, we've now entered the peak season and we have no plans of going again until it dies down in the fall. A Sunday during peak to encounter a lot of lines and rambunctious teenagers isn't really my idea of fun...better to wait a few months and go a couple more times before our pass expires. 2) Anybody else annoyed with the "lock her" situation for Superman? Just a way to make a few bucks off of people, moreso during the summer when that ride will sometimes have two hour waits. I'd say there was someone manning the "lock hers" about 3 out of the 4 times we've gone, and if the ride attendant noticed my girlfriend's fanny pack with our car keys and a few other things when we were about to board the ride, they would usually get annoyed which is kind of funny because the person manning the "lock hers" at the entrance never say anything about the fanny pack. The first time we rode it, a female attendant kind of snapped at my girlfriend yet they didn't make us get off the ride or get rid of the pack. The second day we went, we would just ditch the bag under the fence since there was nobody behind us to see it. The other two times my GF would just place the fanny pack under her sweatshirt and they wouldn't notice. It's just really weird that they enforce this and do nothing about carrying things onto the other coasters, even having free cubbies on some of the other ones. I mean, are people really more likely to drop things on Superman with one real inversion instead of Medusa which I think has 73?

Totally on the money for my girlfriend and I. I slightly prefer Medusa and she prefers Superman. We get more rides on Superman though because it's literally a walk-on all four times we've gone and it's next to V2 which is our third favorite and also always a walk-on. Medusa can sometimes get as bad as 20 minutes waits (we only go on offseason Sundays) and the only thing next to it to consider are Kong and Skyscreamer, both of which we only ride on about half our visits since we aren't in love with either and they can tend to be about 15 minute waits. I'd say Kong, at least on offseason, tends to have the longest wait of any of the coasters. Running a single car and it only seats two per row. She probably prefers Roar to Kong and I'm on the opposite side of the fence. I get more out of Kong even though I know that there's an inversion that's always a bitch (the rest of the ride is fine, in my opinion). As far as Roar is concerned, the ride is SO much better if you're up front. It's like night and day, really. It's a little boring otherwise to me...not sure why, but I think Apocalypse at Magic Mountain just does everything better. That ride is one of the best to point at in terms of wooden roller coasters that are all killer, no filler...Roar, on the other hand, is a pretty good woodie, but not a great one in anybody's mind. Boomerang's easily the most painful coaster in the park and maybe in California. Rusted out paint, inversions that are too close together giving you a near blackout in the middle and very uncomfortable harnesses and seats with poor leg room. We've only ridden it twice since getting the annual pass simply because I had forgot how bad it was some six months prior (my girlfriend, on the other hand, had kept her painful memories and was begging me to not make her ride it). I think their selection of flats for the family is much better than what's offered over at Magic Mountain. I can't really do them without feeling sick though as spinning around is not my thing. Tasmanian Devil has nearly made me throw up twice and that unfortunate result happened to my sister a few years back. Hammerhead is a pretty good take on the most extreme ride they have at county fairs...Thrilla Gorilla is surprisingly fun, same for Voodoo. We've only ridden each of these once with the pass though since we're both into coasters. I also want them to get rid of the animals. With three recent (award-winning) documentaries on captive orcas, dolphins and elephants, it's clear that none of those creatures belong in captivity. Donate the Elephants to Oakland Zoo or a sanctuary and get rid of the dolphin show (which doesn't even run during most of the year since it's off-season). They already got rid of their Orca and California is planning on passing a bill to soon ban their captivity in the state (at least for shows of the Sea World, ilk). Plus, I'm sick of having to go past protesters on my way into the park, even though I agree with them. They can easily turn the Elephant area into a few other enclosures for smaller animals and still draw in just as many people while the dolphin stadium can simply be converted into a show for animal tricks (trained birds, etc,) or something else. It really won't affect attendance much and possibly improve things as there won't be negative publicity from having a dolphin show.

Skyscreamer is one of those things that isn't worth the wait if you have to spend more than ten minutes in line, yet is totally awesome if you don't. It honestly scares the hell out of me, moreso than any of the coasters in the park. Ridden it twice now and both times my hands were literally clammy and I was holding on for dear life. I can get why a lot of people would find it relatively pointless and not all that scary, but I guess I'm more afraid of heights than inversion, speed or going backwards. The lift on Deja Vu at Magic Mountain was probably the most nerve inducing thing ever for me, for example, and I'd now say the scariest attraction I've been on is Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom (especially when it sways thanks to that other ride). Been to this park four times now since it's literally down the street. All Sundays from last October to as recent as this February. Dead days all four times in terms of lines (although one day had a cheerleader competition, yet almost none of them hit the rides). I think the park tends to attract more families so they're filling up a lot of the flats and whatever else and we don't see nearly as many teenagers as there are at Magic Mountain. So, outside of the summer, you can get on Medusa in under ten minutes and walk-on to things like Superman and V2 with ease. And it's nice, although we always leave after like two hours (the more popular trip tends to be to hit up Superman/V2 twice and Medusa at least once...Roar is a distant 4th and not always necessary and Kong isn't far behind, the former is underwhelming for its type and the latter is slightly painful. Boomerang is just absolutely terrible. Seriously, don't.)

Smart move is to enter the lines about ten minutes before closing, then there's next to no chance they'll be able to stop you from getting in line. Most people tend to hit a longer lined attraction at the end of the day since it doesn't really take away from your in-park time (if you get in line before 6 PM closing for a two hour wait, you'll just be spending two hours in the park that you otherwise wouldn't have). Goliath is one of the most popular rides in the park (if not THE most popular given the percentage of park goers that ride it), so it doesn't shock me that they would want to prevent a last minute surge of like one hundred people getting into line. I'm an annual pass holder and grabbed a 2014 pass with my girlfriend last fall. We went to Magic Mountain on the final weekend that Hurricane Harbor was open (end of September). On that Saturday, we took forever getting breakfast and entered the park just as they were letting people in and I then wasted two minutes trying to go the wrong way to Full Throttle since X2 was closed (I assumed Full Throttle was near the back since it replaced Deja Vu). That's a pretty big mistake in the morning since it can add up to potentially an extra 10 minutes wait. We ended up spending about 40 for Full Throttle...rest of the day was surprisingly crowded for that point in the season, but no extreme waits. However, I wanted to whine about two things... 1) Tatsu broke down and pretty much ruined the end of our day. It broke down while we entered the presumably 60 minute line for about 15 minutes and then for about another 40 right before we got on (a girl was trapped in her seat after a ride and they had to take off all the restraints manually). We ended up spending two hours waiting for the ride, but it's the best in the park, so I didn't mind. Unfortunately, it was towards the end of the evening since we worked counter-clockwise. No Ninja (a hilarious proposition anyway given that the line was seriously about 40 minutes from the looks of that day...no thanks), No Viper, No Revolution, No Apocalypse (which we were going to backtrack to right after Tatsu). We then had to go get our season passes printed out since we had used the temporary cards...that leads me to... 2) The annoyance of the ticket takers not letting you back into the park. After we got our new passes, they wouldn't let us back in ten minutes before closing as the park was going to be open for another three hours for a special event. This meant no Green Lantern since we were saving that as are last ride of the evening since it had a pretty long wait time. What should have been a relatively chill day with a runthrough of all the coasters + Lex Luthor (hilariously a walk-on) turned into us getting on like half of them and running into a lot of surprising hour long wait times for rides like Riddler and Batman. The next day, we went to Hurricane Harbor which was pretty packed compared to the crowds I saw there the day before while on some of the rides...obviously, it was the last day the water park was open, so that's something to take into account. We arrived at HH not long after opening (about ten minutes) and ran into no real lines, but once you're there about 90 minutes, it becomes unbearable as you start hitting 20-30 minute waits for a lot of the slides. That park is just not built for capacity and neither are most water parks. Anything more than a 10-15 minute wait for a slide is an absolute joke. Hard to tell if there's any off-days where Hurricane Harbor isn't crowded as it's mostly open in the summer, but it seemed pretty chill the day prior. I really think there were a lot of families trying to get in one last burst before it closed for the season. It should be noted that the Six Flags website or whatever says you can't re-enter the park with your pass on the same day (hence the hand stamp). I guess the new thumb print system can eliminate the need for hand stamping, but they should specify that you can enter ANOTHER park as well on the same day provided your pass covers it. After we bailed on Hurricane Harbor mostly satisfied (could've used about another hour of slides with short lines that morning), we entered Magic Mountain (and thankfully had enough clothing on to do so) and found that Sunday had next to no wait times for anything. Full Throttle was about thirty minutes and Tatsu twenty. Everything else was a walk-on. This was the same day after we waited an hour for freakin' Batman. Unfortunately, I had to get us back to go to work that night so we didn't want to spend twenty minutes waiting for Green Lantern (next biggest wait time in the park), but I did manage to take her on her first rides of Viper, Revolution and Apocalypse in a half hour. Had they made it more clear, we would have always planned to be there for opening that Sunday at MM and then bumped over to Hurricane Harbor after a few roller coasters. What I learned... 1) Even if you arrive at opening, you'll want to try to get there earlier and be the first person in the gate. That would have meant getting in an out of Full Throttle a half hour sooner and then beating the hour-long crowds for Batman, Riddler, Goliath and perhaps Superman (all the less popular coasters were still walk-ons that day, and oddly, so was Drop of Doom). Thinking about that now, it could have been the difference between running into that twice broken-down Tatsu and also being able to ride everything but Green Lantern before 4 PM. I'm starting to come around to the counter-clockwise strategy. Full Throttle's limited capacity helps the argument and there's certainly more super popular rides on that side of the park. However, if you were to get to the park on a light day or an extreme day, I still feel that knocking out X2 and Tatsu in the morning right away makes the most sense. Those two and Full Throttle are the ones that can tend to get the extreme wait times while the rest rarely will top out past 90 minutes on the worst of days...I also don't think Full Throttle is as popular as either Tatsu or X2, and when it's operating more than one car, it's wait time is clearly not as long. Hell, this was last September and Full Throttle's wait throughout the day barely eclipsed much past an hour (again, freakin' odd given that rides like Riddler had about the same). Once the newness/gimmick dies down, Full Throttle will probably have a hard time consistently staying among the most popular attractions, thus making X2/Tatsu the better opening choices. On a light day, the X2/Tatsu beginning makes total sense. I went with my father there in May during the week a few years back. We hit X2, then Viper (so he could get his bearings before Tatsu), followed by Tatsu and about a twenty-five minute wait. X2 hit two hours later in the day and Tatsu wasn't far behind. Literally every other single coaster in the park was a walk-on except Superman (about an hour, both trains running) and Goliath (forty minutes, only one train running...). That goes to show just how much of the target audience at the park goes for merely the extreme thrills, as that group alone for those two coasters probably topped the rest in popularity for that day. 2) Sundays can see a decrease in attendance by half compared to the previous Saturday. Literally. I've heard of this happening to places such as Disneyland, but I guess it can work for Magic Mountain in a lot of non-holiday/summer weekends as well. Had we switched days, we would've hit Hurricane Harbor with a park half as crowded as the next day and then MM with a park half as crowded as the day before. In the case of Magic Mountain, it would've been possible to hit all 14 open full-sized coasters (X2 was infamously closed, of course) in just a few hours if we arrived at opening whereas it was a LONG all-day experience the previous day and we missed that goal considerably. So, go on Sundays and never Saturdays. Some families have to attend church and some like to rest on Sunday rather than take their kids hours away to roller coasters and then have to work the next day. 3) Always bail on a coaster that breaks down while you're in-line if you aren't anywhere close to getting on. We should've just taken the ten to fifteen minutes we wasted at the start of the Tatsu line the first time it broke down and did something else. It would have allowed us to go hit up a bunch of other coasters instead. From most of my experience with these sort of rides breaking down, even if it happens to be for a short period of time, the likelihood of it breaking down again in the near future is relatively high. So, if you're in line for X2 for twenty minutes of a foreseen two-hour wait and it breaks down once, it could lead to it turning into a four hour ordeal or even closing for the day. Unless you really have nothing better to do, cut & run is the correct strategy. Tatsu might be great, but I'd rather ride some other stuff than end up waiting two hours for it. Hell, I randomly had to work at Disney World (bad economy + location when I moved to Orlando with a soon-to-be ex years ago) and I wouldn't even wait twenty minutes for Test Track so you can get how impatient I am (I worked there a few months, off-season in the fall). Running into lines like that last fall was a nightmare even though they weren't even close to horrendous by Magic Mountain standards...but it just reaches a point where it absolutely becomes not worth it. On a side note, Magic Mountain has to be one of the most unique parks in the world because of the spreads in its wait-times. You can go there when the park is empty and Viper/Revolution/Apocalypse/Colossus, etc. will all be walk-ons or you can go when its relatively crowded and they'll STILL be walk-ons. This makes no logical sense, but attendees at MM really aren't that logical. In other words, the park caters so intently to the 14 year old boys that don't mind waiting three hours for X2 that the rest of the rides never really fluctuate in popularity. Whereas if you go to literally any other amusement park, you'll see all the lines lengthen on busier days. Unless you're in the most hellish day imaginable with insane crowds and a four hour wait time for X2, the popularity of most of the other rides barely moves. I guess that's a good thing for the people who want to actually have a fun day as you really can get in a lot of top-tier, world class rollercoasters and simply avoid a few of the more popular ones. Something like Viper or Apocalypse could draw massive crowds at most other amusement parks, but in the minds of the teenagers that go to MM, they're after thoughts. Anyway, we're going back in early May during the week and the pass itself has been a great value (we're twenty minutes from Discovery Kingdom and have been there four times...all days with no crowds!). Just wondering if people think the counter-clockwise strategy is the smarter one nowadays. I mean, if you worked it like a boss, you really could grab a ride on Full Throttle as one of the first riders of the day and then sneak onto Goliath, Superman, Lex Luthor and Green Lantern...that would knock out five of them pretty quickly whereas going clock-wise means hitting things like Viper, Apocalypse, Gold Rusher and Riddler along the way - rides that usually don't have much foot traffic. But like I said, X2/Tatsu are literally so popular that on certain days (such as during the week in May when it's not super crowded) can absolutely dwarf the lines of everything else... Another thing to keep in mind is that my dad and his wife are planning on going and they'll be our Take-A-Friend free entries. His wife loves all sorts of coasters (including X2/Tatsu), but I'm wondering how she'll feel after a full day of riding 15 of them (she went with her daughter during the summer a few years back and while they hit X2/Tatsu early to avoid crowds, her daughter's friend got sick and the lines also were through the roof before long - leaving them to leave relatively early). I obviously don't want to do the park backwards and then have her be tired out and not want to do those. On the other hand, X2/Tatsu are the two most extreme coasters in the park for my money and can disorient someone (i.e. my father) for the rest of the day. Keep in mind that they're both past 50 (about 35 years older than the park's target audience) and my dad has motion sickness issues (he took a pill before a recent birthday trip to Great America with his wife and rode everything fine, however). When we went a few years back, he never recovered after X2 and literally threw up after Tatsu, thus leading to a day where he was mostly feeling nauseous and avoiding rides like Riddler that seemed too extreme for how he was feeling...any thoughts on this would be helpful and it would probably lead us more to make a certain decision. I'd rather they go the more comfortable route because riding 15 coasters and the world's tallest drop ride in the same day is hardly easy on most people, especially when there can be long lines and an unforgiving sun. Rest assured, my father will not be entering the queue for either X2 or Tatsu and will need to use his discretion for the other ones. Still tempted to hit up X2/Tatsu first given what I've seen...that other half of the park can really be dead compared to those two coasters on certain days. It'd be a nightmare to waltz through everything and then run into un-godly wait times in the late afternoon for those two.