DoubleDown

It will be interesting to see how long it takes them to install the new chain, seeing as how Goliath at Magic Mountain has been down for 3 months now following a chain snap on a coaster almost a decade and a half newer. I also wonder if there will be any obligatory lift hill "not up to code" delays? The race is on!

Won't open until September. An inspection found that the lift was not up to code so they're doing a whole refurb. lol @ this park TBH the park is probably in no rush to get Goliath up and running, it's just less staff they have on the clock, less work for mechanics. The fact that Summer is in season and it's the busiest time of the year, is good enough reason to just keep it shut until September (Yeah! Screw all those Summer guests!). Park is a joke sometimes with all the stuff that just conveniently "comes up" after the rides already been closed for what, 2 months? For a chain? Ludicrous.

^From most of my memory in visiting over the years, November in general is typically not busy. But I would also say, coming from Brazil and visiting for your first (and maybe your only time for atleast couple years) take a lap around the park, see the wait times and decide for yourself, but I spending the extra dough and getting a gold flash pass might be worth it. It might make your visit more enjoyable and you'll be able to get on everything. Lines at Magic Mountain SUCK. Will be hitting up the park on Tuesday. I am interested to bring some virgin TC riders to see what they have to say. I think I'll be able to tell if the ride is "sluggish" but who knows.I think weather conditions may play a factor in how it runs, I've only ridden it during a nice sunny day. But it's hard for me to believe the ride could possibly slow down.

LOL why wouldn't they? Each and every ride in the park gets inspected and checked off every day by an electrician and ride mechanic before opening to the public. Its not like they skip a few days here and there or forget every once in a while, it's every. Single. Day the ride opens to the public. Sounds like standard procedures and the ride will be open again soon I'm sure.

Awesome to hear they are still going to try to use the single rider line!

Funny you say this. I have had the most rides on TC somewhere in row 7 during the video shoot (I know because I was in a seat where I could see the electronics on the backs of the seats, so I know I was in the front of the "car") and I had SIGNIFIGANTLY better rides in those rows than I have had in the back, and front, as far as airtime and overall out-of-control experience. I also sat on the left. So I think you're right. This may be one of those rides designed in a way where the best seat is in the middle. It wouldn't surprise me.

Magic Mountain really dropped the ball with organizing the Twisted Colossus station in a way that could help increase capacity and allow for a single rider line. Instead they half assed it, didn't think it through, are doing the same BS layouts that don't work, they put up a wall, and are only using HALF the room they had! Ridiculous. They had the ENTIRE station to make room for paid storage, proper single rider lines, station organization, in a way that could really maximize capacity with as little staff as possible. I would argue a majority of posters on here could draw a layout of the loading side of the station which would allow a grouper to deal with single riders, and group "standby" riders. Including an area where people could use paid storage BEFORE they even got to the loading gates. Instead they don't have a proper operating single rider line, the organization and layout is poor, and they have cubbies in the station on a ride that shouldn't have cubbies! If they had paid storage on the load side of the station, they could easily have had a path that allowed riders to go back to them after riding. Really wish they'd get their shit together sometimes.

I don't really get it, what's wrong with Viper to where it needs a makeover? Maybe except the theming which hasn't been taken care of very well, every time I ride it gives me the exact same experience it gave me the first time I rode it back in the mid 90's. ALWAYS ride in the back! Pretty intense first drop, good speed through the loops, definitely a little rough and slight headbanging because it was built by Arrow. Basically a 70 MPH 7 looper on updated Gold Rusher track. I still love riding Viper the way it is! Here's the view pulling up to the park that I got to know for about a decade before X, and boy what an intimidating one at that!

I will agree that the swaying tower thanks to Superman launching during the ride on the Drop of Doom is pretty out of the norm, and in short, pretty terrifying. Your ass actually moves left to right in the seat, while you're crawling to the top, or while you're waiting for it to drop. But as a veteran rider, I know it's safe, so it just adds to the thrill for me.

Saw a handful of simultaneous DOD/Superman drops when visiting the park for TC the last 2 visits. I don't think the ride ops of either ride are concerned, or have any way of communicating with each other, to avoid it from happening. I hope it never stops happening, as the sway really adds an element to the ride that is void on any other drop ride I can think of. Except for the tower sway, I think DoD is pretty much like any free-fall drop ride (not like S&S towers) except the drop lasts for sooooo long. I'd have to say every time I get to the top of the lift on X2 and start to feel the car spin on the pre-drop, I am actually scared every time, just because I know the ridiculous views, forces, and sensations the ride is going to be giving me for the next 30 seconds. I only ride in the very back seat, though, IMO the best seat on the ride. X2 still gets me every time.

Now I know the park MAY have said they're going to put a test seat out in front of the ride (I'm not going to say they said it "officially" because I don't remember it specifically being said by the park, I just remember it being mentioned in these threads) but realize this is Magic Mountain we're talking about, and sometimes things they say don't come to fruition. No other ride in the entire park has a test seat, so why would they start now? I remember even when Sky Tower was open, I believe there was a Scream test seat in the museum that was put together, and I was scratching my head thinking "Why isn't this at the front of the ride so people can, you know, ACTUALLY USE IT?!" Not 100% sure but that leads me to believe perhaps the park gets test seats for rides, but decides not to use them. It's a shame too, because it's a very simple thing, given by the manufacturer, that can save people A LOT of time, grief, and sometimes embarrassment. But as we know from their track record, the park really isn't too concerned about guests and that kind of stuff. They're only paying customers... Here's to hoping they call my bluff just in spite of me saying they typically go back on their word.

Before. It got its new color scheme when the trains were turned backwards and was renamed "Escape From Krypton." Subsequently, a year after it's backward transformation Lex Luther was announced, and the ride was again closed to install the Drop of Doom. So for about 2 seasons straight the ride was closed for a good majority of time. Here's a photo of the ride with the new paint scheme and without Drop of Doom. I have to admit when they first announced they'd be repainting the ride, I felt like I'd miss the old plain grey scheme, but as soon as I saw it finished I was convinced the new paint made the ride look much, much better. I do miss the Superman sculpture at the top though!

Well said Jew. I guess what you're saying is you get what you pay for. Sure, it's crappy service, but it's dirt cheap. For Season Pass Holders. However a fresh visitor with his wife, kids, and 1-2 teens might not find the value quite as amusing. Say especially, for a family which has never come to the park before. Or is the park done with targeting families? Either way from a economical standpoint, or an operating standpoint, Six Flags Magic Mountain is doing it wrong.

During summer, are Wednesdays much less crowded than the weekend? I would say so.

I think what bugs me the most is that purchasing a Flash Pass would not be so necessary if the parks operations were better. So the park gets a reward for terrible operations: they get to make more money by selling overpriced cut-the-line tickets to people who can't stand waiting. They get $30 for you to cut in line on 1 ride after you spend an additional $100 to get the pass. Think about it, 1 train operations on major attractions makes for terrible capacity, which makes longer lines, which makes buying one a necessity if you're only at the park for a day and want to get on everything. Even on dead days lines that shouldn't be more than 20 minutes can be an hour. It's pretty ridiculous. If Superman ran both sides, if Tatsu ran 3 trains with both stations, if Batman and Apocalypse had more than 1 train operations...the list goes on and on. If the park was run like Cedar Point and there was minimal stacking with more trains to get people through, I think the Flash Pass would be much less necessary. Now I understand if you go on a Saturday in the Summer, the place is going to be packed anyway so there's not much they can do, and if you want to get on everything you just have to bite the bullet and pay, but I just feel like if the coasters operated the way they were meant to when initially put in the park, it wouldn't come down to having to buy a Flash Pass.

Am I crazy or does it seem like this ride is gonna be riddled with problems?

Yeah, from now on I will not buy a flash pass in advance. I will buy one only if I think it is worth it after being in the park for an hour or so. Why was X2 down? Damn! I thought it's been discussed on here quite often that typically you want to get to the park, see how busy it is, maybe make a lap to see how the lines are, then decided whether or not to buy the pass. I have only used Flash Pass 1 time and that's when I was with my brother and it was a pretty busy day, lots of rides with 1 train operation. With the pass there's some kind of deal to buy 1 get 1 person on free or something, so we went for it. But like I said, a lot of the rides were open, and then we decided it would be worth it to drop the discounted price of $75 for the both of us. Sorry about the poor experience.

I wanna see one for Disaster Transport!

LOL @ MM for becoming the absolute norm of 1 train operation on any ride in the park at any random time during the busiest times of the year. Is this a joke? This parks operations sure seem to be! Do people in charge of running the park know what they're doing? Sure doesn't seem like it. Do they know what year this is and what the humungous multi-billion dollar resort an hour away on the 5 south is doing and how much money they're making? Do they ever wonder why??? It's like people in charge have never done this before nor have a clue how to do it. Problem is 1 train ops is the tip of the iceberg. It's almost a game of "Let's see how much park guests will put up with until they stop coming..." I'm embarrassed for the park, and they should be embarrassed for themselves. Completely unacceptable.

Oh no, not this again! I'm just gonna go ahead and nip this in the bud: Magic Mountain is NOT landlocked. At all. They have room all over the place to build anything they want. Amazing how often this seems to pop up every couple hundred pages, and how unlikely it is for it to happen. The park doesn't want to build a METRO TRAIN to circuit the perimeter of the park because they can't market it as an attraction, and you think they're gonna spend upwards of $30 Million (I believe Disney spent $90 Million on theirs, I'm guessing MM could deal with 1/3 of the capacity) on a parking structure? I think it's a great idea to be able to expand the park where the parking lot currently stands by building a huge structure for the cars, just like I think they could make the park a resort with a hotel and all that good stuff, but unfortunately the likelihood is slim and none.

lol try visiting the park sometime. Built in the woods? Maybe in 1980. Now? Barely.

Very terrible that this happened. And maybe it's just because it's on video, but the attraction really doesn't look that crazy. Basically a 35 foot jump into a big air bag. I think I've jumped off higher rocks into water at lakes and rivers and what not (which you have to be much, much more careful if you do jump into water from rocks). And as SharkTums mentioned and is very right: this, much like jumping off high rocks into lakes, is one of those things where either you make up your mind and go all out, or you don't go at all. There's no half-way jumps or changing your mind at the last second. Looks like that's what happened here.

Oh shit, you got me! WICKED BURRRRRNNNN!! Thank you for the very enthralling and informative post. Really, a quality contribution.

Okay so I'm starting to get a bit confused and frustrated here (not so much frustrated but dissapointed, which i cant say im surprised)...Twisted Colossus has been cycling with basically public riders for over week now, and 3 train operation sounds like it just isn't happening. Now, were all the reports before the ride opened that said TC would ALWAYS run 3 trains just blatently incorrect, or is Magic Mountain dropping the ball again even with RMC at their back? I mean, get it together Magic Mountain and run all 3 trains! Get this thing running like you said you would! What is going on?! Am I just being too strict, are there more excuses from the park that I've missed, or am I kinda being reasonable? IMO they have had enough time to work out the kinks and this thing should be running smooth by now. Personally I don't think it's that unreasonable to expect a product to run and operate like they said it would.

My god, this chain has absolutely NO INTEREST in planting trees or providing shade for guests in any of its new installations. It's almost like they do it on purpose.