The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[WACThriller93]

Yeah I know go 4 times and it pretty much pays itself off. Now all they need it a season gas/food card and Ill be set haha

[letsriderides]

I just want to point out that the Tatsu crew has been doing really good lately.

[CoasterWeasel]

I just got back from my first time ever at the park, and I got to say I was very pleased. I got there at eleven(I overslept) and was able to ride every coaster once and finished my night with another ride on X2. I will have a full trip report when I get back home from vacation but a few quick thoughts.

 

GL is amazing but I also felt like I got anal raped by the ridge in the seat.

Apocalypse had two trains running but they were also making you watch all the preshows.

On Goliath had a girls top come undone so I got a a boob credit on a coaster credit.

Revolution's harnesses are ridiculous and over done, enough said.

X2 is the most insane thing I have ever ridden. I got off speechless and completely lost to what had just happened to me but loved every minute of it.

 

Hopefully I will be back when my daughter hits 54 inches, only have 6 inches to go.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^Sounds to me like you need to buy your daughter some of those Heelies.

[harper83087]

Hi All,

 

I got back from my weekend at the park last night. My girlfriend and I spent Saturday and Sunday in the park running around riding as much as we could. I had been to the park once before about ten years ago and remember a lot of the rides were closed and we only managed to get a few rides on Goliath and Viper and one on X but don’t remember much about each ride experience. Driving from Phoenix to LA is a drag, way too straight and way too boring, it took us about 7 hours to get to the hotel on Friday. And here we go, my first attempt at a trip report. I took a few pictures but not enough to try and post them, plus I’m sure they’d just be the standard SFMM first timer pictures.

 

Saturday 7/16 – We parked around 9 am and they opened the gates at 9:55. I raced to the Flash Pass center and picked up my Gold Lo-Q. I’m sold on these things now, every park needs them. My girlfriend hadn’t been on a coaster in years so she wanted to start smaller. I took her through the rounds with Revolution then she was ready. Since Tatsu was right there we checked in but the ride was down for the moment, hadn’t seen a train go in almost ten minutes. After a quick lap on Viper I needed to ride Tatsu so we went back and it was up and running. Having never been on a flying coaster before, B&M or Vekoma, I had no idea what to expect. We got into the station around 11:45 and waited for front row. I don’t know if this is common but I had quite a bit of room between my back and the seat which led to a few uncomfortable moments while riding. That being said this thing was INTENSE and nothing like I thought it would be. I loved it. The pretzel loop kicked my butt in a good way and I’ll be honest when we hit the brakes I was speechless. It’s been a long time since a ride has left me speechless and this one managed to do so. It’s just so unique compared to everything else I’ve ridden. Unfortunately this would be my only lap of the weekend as my girlfriend did NOT like the flying position and my stomach started to fight me just before we got into the park and wouldn’t let up all weekend. After Tatsu was Superman, another great ride but I wouldn’t wait more than say a half hour for it, thank you Flash Pass!!! Next was the round towards the back of the park, Ninja, Gold Rusher, Jet Stream then Apocalypse. Apocalypse was the surprise of the trip for me. I’ve been on my fair share of woodies but very few have been the newer technology, GCI, GG etc. I absolutely loved this ride, probably my favorite in the park with the way it keeps its speed throughout the entire course for how small and compact it is. With the FP, two train ops and pre-shows we got on a train in less than 10 minutes, and I actually didn’t mind the pre-shows. I thought it added a unique experience. Next we headed up to the lockers and to get some food before heading around to Goliath, Colossus, Scream, Batman and Riddler’s. This puts us around 8pm. We grabbed a quick snack and another lap on Viper before getting in line for x2. We waited close to two hours for a great night ride. Two train ops with train 2 having the audio up and running. We got train 2 second row and it was a worthy close to a 12 hour day at the mountain, especially with the op checking our seats having fun with the “is everybody in” spiel, I wish I would have gotten his name. We headed home and tried to sleep for another day at the park.

 

Sunday 7/18 – Sunday was planned to be a relaxing walk through the park hitting Green Lantern, whatever re-rides we wanted and the other water rides. After ranting and raving to my mom that morning about how awesome and how much the FP was worth the money she decided to wire me some birthday money early so we could have that convenience again!!! Showing up around 10 we got in a little late but the park wasn’t nearly as crowded as Saturday, but we still decided to take it slow as we were sore and tired from a long day Saturday. First ride was Log Jammer. The only other flumes I’d been on before this weekend were a cheap traveling fair flume at my hometowns birthday carnival and CP’s WWL. Jet Stream and Log Jammer take the cake, both were a lot faster and Log Jammer soaked us big time. Now with an unacceptable amount of wetness we headed to Goliath to dry off a bit. Next up was Green Lantern. 45 minutes after the park opened the line was an hour long. We waited a little over an hour due to some minor down time. While waiting we saw one train get 6 flips before the first block brake and wound up getting 8 or 9 for the entire ride. This excited me because they clearly weren’t balancing the trains. Once we were in the station we got switched around to balance the train, fail. We wound up on the opposite side from batman, backwards off of the lift. We only got one flip and hung upside down for a second or two while on the first block. Overall a very fun, very intense ride but I believe this will end up a once per visit ride for me. It was very hard on my shoulders and my unmentionable zone. I’ve labeled it as a man hater. Wanting a break after getting tossed around quite a bit and my stomach acting up again we walked back to get a burger by Riddler’s and hung out enjoying the a cappella group. Next we hit up Apocalypse, Jet Stream, Superman and Ninja again. At this point I really wasn’t feeling too great, between my stomach and the sun I needed a cool break so what does that mean?! Roaring Rapids. I tend to stay away from rapids rides because I always get the brunt of the rapids hits and waterfalls and there was no difference here. This was a very enjoyable and much needed ride to cool off. Now with an extremely unacceptable amount of wetness (thank you plastic bags for money, phone and Lo-Q safety) we went up to the gift shop by the FP center for some dry clothes. This is when I forked up the $30 for us to ride x2 again. I managed to snag the last available reservation and we had to hurry to catch it at 7:30. As soon as we reached the FP attendant they announced that the ride has “broken down”. Later we found out it was more of a clean up than a break down, somebody spewed all over some of the seats. Finally getting on around 8pm we got train 2 first row on the inside of the train (Right side when sitting down) and had another awesome ride, this time with the sunset in the distance. Again train 2 was the only train with working audio. After x2 we took a quick lap on Viper. We wanted to close the day with a night ride on Apocalypse but when we walked up they were having “technical difficulties” even though they were sending empty trains. After waiting around for about 10 minutes we decided to just wait for Déjà vu as it was the only big coaster we hadn’t ridden. The line was in no way long but we waited for almost an hour thanks to the very confusing loading procedure. I actually enjoyed this one, I didn’t have any of the Vekoma headbanging at all and it seemed pretty smooth.

 

All in all it was a very fun trip and we got 16 of the 18 coasters in. I'm still not comfortable enough with my coaster nerd to whore out for the kiddie credits . My favorites were x2, Apocalypse and Tatsu. Growing up a CP fan boy I was slightly hesitant about the park but it turned out to be the complete opposite of what I thought it would be. I won’t even try to compare the two parks as each park has a completely different feel than the other. Thanks to all who gave me some tips and tricks for one of the better weekends I’ve had in a long time!!

 

I just realized I probably could have created a new thread for this, my apologies.

[Mechanic]

On Goliath had a girls top come undone so I got a a boob credit on a coaster credit.

 

Don't you actually have to grope the boob for it to be called a credit? I mean, I can't count a coaster as a credit by just seeing it. Perhaps we can get some clarification on this particular situation, and a picture.

Edited July 20, 2011 by Mechanic

[letsriderides]

That's not a creepy thing to say...

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^^So...on that logic, that guy on Tower of Terror is the only guy with a boob credit?

[Mechanic]

It was just a joke. Sheesh...

[Tmcdllr]

Yay for boob credits!

[the ghost]

All this talk of food..., yet when I go to MM and I eat the food I honestly don't care of price or taste or service. I just want to fuel myself for more coaster riding, because that's all that is really important to me at an amusement park.

 

As for other park chains offering better food options, can I have an example? It's a little strange to hear statements bashing one area's fast food to another area's similar fast food. Not trying to insult you guys but its fast food.

 

Lets see... Disneyland has some awesome food including the best clam chowder, best fruit desert thing(dole whip), and one of the best mocha's I have ever had. Even Knott's has some DAMN GOOD Fried Chicken and delicious pie. I mean, I'm not expecting award winning food, but when you consider what you pay it is absolute crap. The only day I can ever justify eating at the park is WCB because the food is free and it is pretty tasty for theme park food... and even that(no offense to the parks) was BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER by the awesome chicken and fresh pie at the Knott's day of bash. Also the food @ SFMM is a bit below fast food quality... but it sure as hell aint fast!

[cooksta77]

That's not a creepy thing to say...

You should check out the disclaimer at the bottom of the page

-Cookie

[Sir Clinksalot]

To be fair Re: Disneyland ... until VERY recently, the food there had been TERRIBLE. And much of it still is (don't even try and get a decent burger inside the parks). They have improved a LOT with the recent food establishments, but they still need to correct some changes they made (especially in Taste Pilots Grill) over the past few years.

[DBJ]

I have had extremely bad meals at Disneyland. In particular, The Hungry Bear. Bland, overpriced, and just a terrible choice. Village Haus is average fast food. The burgers and pizza found within DL are not remarkable by any stretch of the imagination. Any mexican place hosted by La Victoria means "must avoid." Have yet to try Bengal BBQ, sounds decent. I really only go for the French Market when I visit at this point for a meal in the park, otherwise, it's Downtown Disney. For fast casual, I actually think DCA has just as good, if not better, options.

 

SFMM does have a way to go in the food dept., to be sure. But, they certainly did improve over the years by bringing in outside vendors like Johnny Rockets, Cold Stone, Panda, and Papa Johns at one point. The BBQ place by Riddler's is ok. There is room for improvement in tacos, poultry, cold sandwhiches, and quality of meat used in the burgers.

 

I would definately saw that it's now more possible than ever to find something ok to decent to eat at SFMM than ever before. Pricing has always been, and always will be an issue. But I guess when most of the park guest come in on some form of discounted admission, they have to make up the difference somewhere.

[805Andrew]

So how did Carmegeddon affect the park this past weekend...or LA for that matter? Haven't heard a peep about Carmeggeddon since last week. Sounds like it ended up being a lot of hype

[Top Thrill Dragster]

^Bunch of hype. I was at the Resort on the 17th and both parks were very busy.

[harper83087]

^^I was at the park this past Saturday and Sunday, Saturday was crowded and Sunday was to an extent but not nearly as bad as Saturday. Watching the news at the hotel seemed like the media was making the whole thing a lot bigger than it actually was.

[Tmcdllr]

^Of course they did!

[Sir Clinksalot]

Of course the news blew it up bigger than what it was.

 

But ... if they hadn't the idiot drivers in LA would have gone out and it WOULD have been bad.

 

They have to do this again in 10-11 months ... how much you want to bet the idiots don't actually stay home this time.

[CoasterWeasel]

Being my first trip to LA this weekend I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get anywhere, but traffic was amazing all weekend. I didn't get stopped in traffic all weekend. I was able to get to every park in their actual driving times on google. Sad part is people will remember all this eleven months and it will be traffic hell next year.

[cooksta77]

I'm about at the park hopefully gonna have a good day. I might post a TR but I don't know if I'm gonna take that many pictures. Other then that I'm afraid of the lines but gonna try and get another ride on Green Lantern.

-Cookie

[letsriderides]

How does this sound for an attack plan on a saturday or sunday next week?

 

GL:FF > B:TR > Goliath > X2 > Tatsu > S:EFK > Ninja > De Ja Vu > Apocalypse > Riddler's > Scream > Colossus

 

possibly toss in RRE Goldrusher and Viper since those are usually just walk ons

[SharkTums]

With that plan of attack on a Saturday you'll end up waiting 2 hours for X and Tatsu each!

[Sir Clinksalot]

^^ Honestly, if you go to X2 at that time you are going to wait just as long as if you want until later in the day. Possibly longer.

 

If GL:FF is a priority for you, and you aren't planning on getting a FP, I would do this:

 

GL:FF > B:TR > Goliath > Scream > Colossus > RR > GR > Apoc > Deja Vu > Ninja > S:EFK > Tatsu > X2

 

At least that way you'd be able to get in the back-side of the park done with moderate waits instead of waiting to do the backside later when you will have long waits for EVERYTHING.

 

But as Elissa said, you are most likely going to end up waiting 2 hours for Tatsu and X2 ... easy.

[letsriderides]

^^ Honestly, if you go to X2 at that time you are going to wait just as long as if you want until later in the day. Possibly longer.

 

If GL:FF is a priority for you, and you aren't planning on getting a FP, I would do this:

 

GL:FF > B:TR > Goliath > Scream > Colossus > RR > GR > Apoc > Deja Vu > Ninja > S:EFK > Tatsu > X2

 

But as Elissa said, you are most likely going to end up waiting 2 hours for Tatsu and X2 ... easy.

 

that's what I was thinking, but wouldn't more people be preoccupied riding GL:FF at that time, so shorter waits for X2 and Tatsu? Or should I put GL off towards the end?

 

my usual plan involves a shortcut to a walk on Tatsu, no-line superman, and then whatever floats my boat from there...haha