The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[Jew]

^^Sorry about that. I was referring to coasters that had the seatbelts added on after installation, like YOLO or Goliath.

 

I'm going to guess that those seat belts were merely added as a corporate wide policy in wake of the NTaG accident.

[Rotura Violenta]

I might head over there on Saturday as I haven't checked out Fright Fest yet.

 

Saturday is busy, as at least one other has said...have a look here. The park will be less busy on Sunday evening (which is the last day for Fright Fest).

 

 

Actually, Saturday is the last day. I might head down there Saturday. It hopefully won't be too busy, considering it's after Halloween. Let's hope that most people don't know that it is still Fright Fest.

This is what I was thinking (hoping) too. We're gonna get our 2015 passes and possibly do Fright Fest as well.

 

There's rain scheduled for both Friday and Saturday so that might thin crowds out a bit as well. I might head over there mid afternoon and scope it out. Maybe buy a wristband and haul ass through a couple of mazes before it gets packed and then bail.

[Ridewatchers]

GOLIATH MADNESS!!!

 

For Halloween, Ridewatchers went TOTALLY MAD and took long queues to the woodshed! Oh, and we did a few rides too.

 

After getting to the gate at 9:45 A.M., I parked in the first row of cars, hopped on the bus, and was 12th in line at the Gold Pass early entry point. A lady was going around scanning new passes and taking an interesting survey: she asked people if they were going to go on any of the "big rides" (like X2, Yolo, Tatsu, Superman, and Goliath). The people behind (and farther behind) said Yes, but Surprise! read on...

 

Entered the park at 10:22 A.M. pacific time and immediately went to Full Throttle with an 8-minute headstart over the general public. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and crew were getting photographed ahead of us, and once they left, I took row 8 and was encountering excellent air time in no time!

 

But it was only 10:28 by the time we got back, so once more! Two precious headstart minutes left and another ride on YOLO without moving.

 

Now the tale darkens! While following the Platinum Rule, I discovered that X2 was closed : ( So despite those surveys earlier in the morning, X2 is out and about and stays closed the rest of the day. So it's off to Tatsu then! The others are busy forming a 45 minute queue at YOLO...already! Keep moving....

 

So just after boarding Tatsu, Ridewatchers discovers that it does not have a Pen to record wait-time data! And the ride ops don't have any writing instruments to give Ridewatchers! So Ridewatchers flies without luggage! A most interesting circumstance indeed!

 

Ninja was up today, so after a quick ride down the opposite side of the lift hill on Ninja, it's time for superman. But aarrgghhh! "magick issues." The ride is down for 8 minutes because the car is not lining up properly and restraints cannot be released. Good news, though! Ridewatchers now has a carry-on! This thanks to a very nice ride op who bequeathed Ridewatchers a pen during downtime.

Up, up, and away! Up, up, and away! Up, up, and away! Three rides on Superman.

 

Now it is time to take a break. Others were chuckling at the idea...there were hecklers everywhere. Who WOULD attempt this amazing feat yet to be discussed? And without a Flash Pass even? Absolutely crazy.

 

GOLIATH MADNESS.

 

Oh. My. What is this MADNESS that which concerns GOLIATH? Maybe it should be called BINGO MADNESS....

 

...because I had a goal. To ride Goliath not once, not twice, not ten times, but

 

35 times in a row!!!

 

The Madness started shortly before 12 noon under a cloudy sky on Halloween day. I boarded the train. And the 255' drop was most excellent from the back seat. But why not try this 34 more times!? In a row! All in under 4 hours? And switching seats each time...so that I sat in EVERY SEAT once. 15 rows x 2 seats = 30. Could it be done? Was this really ERT in disguise? Was my watch a special "black-level" flash pass that made things go 85 mph a lot more often?

 

YES. The first 15 times were from the back half of the train: the back seat gave that "snap of the whip" on the first drop and turned Goliath into the T-REX of roller coasters. YES. The next 20 cycles were in the front half. What about the front? Overrated in my opinion. Why? (1) 15-minute wait for the front when the park is DEAD empty. (2) No air time. (3) All drops very tame. (4) Dangerous side overhang when the train slows on the MCBR. What about rows 4-8 or so? Much more excellent. Why? Good first drop and 5-second air time on the ascent just before the brake run. YES. The final ride was in row 4 on the east side. YES. The line never left the station during the whole 4 hours of "almost ERT." YES. The ride ops started asking me questions and showed me open seats on the train.

 

YES for GOLIATH!

 

Alright back to normal.

 

Lex Luthor was seeing 5-minute waits for 400 feet of vertical distance. At 80 feet per minute, the drop seemed pretty reasonable! SPRQ was not needed. Additionally, Ridewatchers got the courage to raise both arms and stick both legs out and encouraged others to do same.

 

There was decent bumping at Sandblasters, especially when I crashed into the center ring and had noticeable pain for a minute.

 

Batman and Riddler were skipped.

 

Jet Stream was a near walk-on. It seemed much more engaging this time...maybe they added more water?

 

Gold Rusher, the first roller coaster at SFMM, was the unsung hero and featured that jerky mine-cart experience.

 

Apocalypse Now? No. Not with one train operating. Despite the park being a ghost town, there was still a 30-minute wait. Skipped. We'll wait for TC.

 

Green Lantern: two consecutive rides using SPRQ cut off an hour of waiting. Rode with seasoned pros who knew to "HOLD ON." Q: Why does GL hurt? A: the shoulder harnesses are one main cause. There just isn't a lot of padding and it can leave red sores. Ridewatchers wore a jacket and was still not immune.

 

Buccaneer: why not? After GOLIATH MADNESS, this brought the non-Flash-Pass, record-setting Halloween Day ride count to 52 rides total.

 

Left the park at about 6 PM with plenty of data and over 8,000 feet of descent throughout the day.

 

Have a look at our data for this trip here.

 

Ride more, wait less.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Ridewatchers

[iloveblueberries]

35 times!??!?!

[steveinphoenix]

A little vid showing the current progress on TC.

TC oct.31.mp4

Twisted Colossus Construction update 10-31-2014

[iloveblueberries]

^

Awesome construction video! Can't wait to see how this ride shapes up within the next couple of weeks!

[gerstlaueringvar]

How could you stand that? A lot of people already said Goliath's positive G gets a bit too high... Have you taken any astronaut training courses before?

[Rotura Violenta]

I ended up going to the park last night and, as I suspected, it wasn't that busy (it was drizzling and then became torrential around 11pm). For the mazes, the longest wait was about 20 mins and, for the rides, Apocalypse was about 40 mins due to one train (I didn't bother). And for those looking for TC developments, there are none. It looks the same as it has for a week or so now. No "men talking by the track" or what have you

 

I rolled up around 6:30, grabbed a wristband and went for a spin on Full Throttle before the mazes opened up. FT is quickly becoming my favorite ride in the park, threatening to knock Ninja from top place. It’s just a fun ride from start to finish with some real thought going into the transitions and moves. Through the night, I also rode Goliath, Ninja, Superman, and Revolution, but it was the mazes that I was really there for.

 

First was Vault 666: I wasn't overly thrilled by this. It had some nice sets, but no standout moments or good scares. The scare actors were half-baked, and there's not much I could say about it. I'm not entirely sure what the narrative was all about, but it reminded me a little of the old Knotts' Asylum maze. Chain link fences with splattered paint seemed to be the theme? The whole thing looked very recycled from other mazes.

 

Next was Toyz of Terror 3d: I really quite liked this one. I did it twice—once with and once without the glasses. The 3D effects are effective in that it's not about the scenery looking like it's going to poke you in the eye, rather the glasses provide an additional layer of disorienting movement. I found the detail in this maze to be good as well (the plush toy hallway was cool), although not a patch on Knotts’ Doll Factory maze from a few years ago.

 

Red's Revenge: Clearly one of the more elaborate, but you can tell that Six Flags got a good deal on the wolf masks because they're everywhere in the park, seemingly all spilling out from this maze. There was a good gag upfront (a well-timed air blast), and the interior was more elaborate than some of the others. Also, there was a very dark section that was quite disorienting and fun as well as several large-scale and fairly impressive animatronic props. While I liked it overall, I couldn't help but think that much of the scenery looked like Rainforest Cafe, and the scares were minimal.

 

Total Darkness: This was just lousy. I recently tried the "blackout" maze at Scandia and it was so much better than this. Here, there really are no gags—you're simply walking through a what is obviously a large, dark room with some walls thrown up. There was an interesting forced crawl effect at the end (a low-hanging inflatable ceiling), but overall, this was hopeless.

 

The Aftermath: This is the other one that reminded me of Knotts' Aslyum. It's essentially an ornate, curated scare-zone in that it's all in an arena type space. It was elaborate with some big scenery pieces, but it didn't do anything overtly special. The scare-actors, like in the other mazes, detracted from the experiences with a bunch of half-hearted “boos” and bleats. Somewhat mediocre given the scale.

 

Willoughby's Garden of Darkness: A one-trick pony of a maze, but one that's quite well-done all the same. This was basically lots of fake leaves and ivy everywhere with scare actors well-camouflaged and jumping out. Nothing special, but not horrendous either. Both this and Chupacabra show that effective scares come more from tight paths and lots of hiding spots and that huge props don’t always add to the scare factor.

 

Willoughby's Resurrected: I think this is the best one there right now as it makes great use of the space it's in and it has some fantastic animatronics to boot. The scare-actors were all very good in this maze, engaging lots of unique gags and making me jump a few times. The props were great, as were the scenes, and there was a good opening scare (another air cannon) timed to a photo opportunity. Very well done throughout.

 

Chupacabra: This one's sloppy. Just a few makeshift walls with a ton of wolf masks throughout as well as a few mannequins. Good smoke / lighting effects, but otherwise uninspiring. Where it did succeed was in the design itself as it allowed for some good, smokey walkways and a number of good hiding places for the talent. Low budget though.

 

The scare zones were hit or miss. Some were more populated than others with some interesting effects throughout (the DC universe one looked cool, but the talent was lousy; zombie crossing was a joke etc.) Overall, Fright Fest was worth the $15 I paid for the wrist-band (I have a season pass), but I would hate to see anyone pay the asking price for this place as it stands. It reeks of Six Flags in that much of it feels misdirected and naive. I’m just glad I went on a night that was relatively crowd-free as I’d imagine it would be miserable to have to stand in line for some of these things for more than 15-20 minutes. Out of the three haunts I attended this year (Knotts, Scandia, Fright Fest), Scandia stood out the most for scares (and airtime, really)—especially given their low budget. It just goes to show that the super elaborate / bigger-is-better approach isn't always the right choice.

 

Some pics (shot with an iPhone—sorry!):

Cool lighting effects over by Riddler.

This was also by Riddler. It was a scare zone but there weren't any scare actors in it.

This maze is more of a curated scare-zone than anything.

I guess this is there every year?

The talent over by Willoughby's was by far the best.

DC universe lighting effects.

The scare-actors here were hopeless, though.

Again, more cool smoke and light effects.

Red's revenge was a bit like a Rainforest Cafe with the lights off.

This was consistently un-scary all night.

Total Garbage, more like.

I think this was over by Riddler's as well.

Floodlit smoke sure is pretty.

By Riddler's again.

See above

And again

I'm still not sure what this was supposed to be about. There was an escaped animal or something?

[Ridewatchers]

Sadly Six Flags just doesn't compare to Knotts in certain respects.

[_IntaMAN_]

Sadly Six Flags just doesn't compare to Knotts in certain respects.

 

I don't see how people like Knott's Scary Farm, it's so boring to me and I get little to no scares whenever I go.

[Rotura Violenta]

I must say that I wasn't impressed by Knotts that much this year either. Although much smaller in scale and budget, Scandia was scarier than both. I've still yet to visit Universal's halloween thing but the crowds are a bit of a turn-off. Maybe next year I'll brave it.

[MagicMountainMan]

Here's a question for all you old people who visited Magic Mountain back in the 80s. What was the building that Toyz of Terror currently resides in originally used for? I'm talking about the building that was in front of Flashback and next to the old season pass processing area (circa 2006). I'm quite curious as I have yet to find an answer from anyone.

[coastercoaster5]

I think monorail station, but don't take my word for it.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Here's a question for all you old people who visited Magic Mountain back in the 80s. What was the building that Toyz of Terror currently resides in originally used for? I'm talking about the building that was in front of Flashback and next to the old season pass processing area (circa 2006). I'm quite curious as I have yet to find an answer from anyone.

 

Back around when Flashback first opened, there was a flight simulator in a building right about where that building is. It didn't last long though. There was also a Flashback on-ride photo for a time. Those are my earliest memories of those buildings before any Season Pass processing was done or when Flashback's entrance was moved up.

 

I don't believe it has been used for anything besides Fright Fest since Harbor was expanded to include Bamboo Racers way back when.

[rollercoasterbuff]

My honest guess is the flashback on-ride photo building. I believe that's exactly what it was.

[Jew]

It was originally the Texas Instrument computer center

[MagicMountainMan]

I had heard that it housed a flight simulator, which would explain the pits in the ground that are covered up by wood. But the building was originally a computer center for the park way back in the day? Interesting... I'd love to see pictures if anyone has any.

[Jew]

It wasn't for the park. It was an attraction. There was a preshow video with Bill Cosby and then you got to play with computers (the TI-99/4A to be exact)

Edited November 2, 2014 by Jew

[ioio]

The park seems to be open on 11/11 for Veterans Day (Tuesday)... does anyone have a guess on if the park will be crowded that day? Debating if I should go

[singemfrc]

How could you stand that? A lot of people already said Goliath's positive G gets a bit too high... Have you taken any astronaut training courses before?

All you need to do to negate the gray out is tilt your head to the left.

[EastCoastKid]

How could you stand that? A lot of people already said Goliath's positive G gets a bit too high... Have you taken any astronaut training courses before?

All you need to do to negate the gray out is tilt your head to the left.

 

You can also squeeze your butt cheeks to keep the blood from leaving the top portions of your body (ie your head).

[JeromyL]

^^^ just ride it out and enjoy it

[coasterlvr]

The park seems to be open on 11/11 for Veterans Day (Tuesday)... does anyone have a guess on if the park will be crowded that day? Debating if I should go

 

often the off season holidays are the most dead days of the year. i try to hit them all.

[coasternut]

How could you stand that? A lot of people already said Goliath's positive G gets a bit too high... Have you taken any astronaut training courses before?

All you need to do to negate the gray out is tilt your head to the left.

 

You can also squeeze your butt cheeks to keep the blood from leaving the top portions of your body (ie your head).

 

Butt cheek clenching???

 

[coasternut]

No TC picture updates this weekend??? Where is everyone?