The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[coasterbill]

They'd probably rather do this so less people will use the dining plan for a second meal.

[bert425]

1 hour ago, coasterbill said:

They'd probably rather do this so less people will use the dining plan for a second meal.

I bring a freezer bag in my pocket or tupperwear in the car when I go to SFFT.. almost ALWAYS take my "snack" or a portion of it home.

the food there is generally pretty good, and I paid for the Dining Plan. . I'm gonna use it.
(and since, as far as SF is concerned, my Platinum Season Pass is a Platinum Membership?  I believe my dining plan transfers to other parks too. . so gonna do that when I visit other SF parks in 2022 as well)

[Zand]

So I decided that my somewhat sane "fly to Burbank, go to SFMM for the day, then fly back" trip might not be enough and I've come up with a second idea. I'm hoping someone will tell me "Your plan isn't even possible, stop being so f*cking greedy and just stay at SFMM" but here goes...

- Land in Burbank from Vegas at 8:50, grab rental car and drive up to SFMM for 10:30 opening

- Leave SFMM around 1:30-2:00 before traffic gets too insane and drive to Knotts

-Hopefully get to Knotts around 3-3:30, stay till closing at 6. Eat a chicken dinner.

-Drop car, fly out of John Wayne Airport at 8:50 back to Vegas.

Flights $70 RT, car $90 (would be $40 less to rent and drop at the same place, but not having to drive back across LA is worth the extra $40). Passes to both parks, so no admission. WOULD be willing to buy fastpasses at either park in order to make this work, though not sure if it would even be much of a help on a Tuesday or Wednesday in mid January.

Must-dos at SFMM (if open): X2, Viper, WCR, Full Throttle, Goliath, Twisted Colossus, Superman, (Tatsu if the painters are still absent)

Must-dos at Knotts: GhostRider, Silver Bullet, Xcelerator, HangTime, Montezooma

Is it even possible to ride the above 12 coasters (with the help of fastpasses if necessary) and drive from SFMM to Knotts in a 7.5 hour timeframe? Does anyone know if any of the above must-dos are going to be closed in January (aside from the aforementioned Tatsu)? Am I out of my mind for even thinking about trying this?

[Jew]

If you are going on a weekday, trying that with traffic will be quite the mission. It’s possible with flash pass and fast lane as your insurance policy since both parks will have bare minimum staff and operations, but the variable is the traffic from SFMM to Knotts.  It’s more than likely that drive will be closer to 2hrs.

[CedarFlags]

@Zand  That trip **might** be hypothetically possible, if everything went exactly according to plan.  But I think it would also be stressful af and you'd spend more energy watching the clock and than enjoying yourself.  Also... it has absolutely zero margin for error / delays.

[VegasBaby]

42 minutes ago, CedarFlags said:

@Zand  That trip **might** be hypothetically possible, if everything went exactly according to plan.  But I think it would also be stressful af and you'd spend more energy watching the clock and than enjoying yourself.  Also... it has absolutely zero margin for error / delays.

Agreed, just use the fast pass money on a hotel near Knotts and make it a two day trip.  Parks should be pretty dead in mid-January, so two full days should guarantee you getting on everything.

[grsupercity]

I would do the trip but just one park. Gives you a little extra time to enjoy one park the other 

[AmyUD06]

Yeah...having just done this trip, dedicating one full day for each park but only using 3/4 of each day, I think you'll be running yourself way too ragged, and has others have said, you leave yourself zero time for any delays or issues that pop up.  One major crash or other backup on the highway, or a power outage or rain delay (at Knott's anyway) at a park, and you're screwed.

SFMM is a huge park and you'll spend 5-15 minutes walking between rides alone.

I'd definitely replace FT and/or WCR with Revolution,  Riddler, Scream, and/or Ninja on your SFMM list.  The latter four are vastly superior rides to the first two, IMHO, and Ninja suffers the same "might be gone in 5 years" fate as Viper and X2.

As others have said, if you only have this one day, I'll pick one park and do it fully rather than trying to blitz through a limited selection of both parks.  That said, for the coasters you listed, you might in theory have enough time, with skip-the-line passes.  It's your money, but dropping over a hundred dollars for them to only spend 2-3 hours in each park seems insanely wasteful.

[coasterbill]

The best rides at Knott's are the log flume and the mine ride. I wouldn't bother going there if you're just whoring coaster credits and I'd come back when I had more time.

[Zand]

Thanks for the input everyone. Likely only have the one day, and the more I think about it the more I lean towards Knotts if I have to stick to one park. After watching QueueTimes the last couple days, SFMM has had multiple coasters down each day (on top of the expected Batman closure) and I'm guessing a lot of those might kinda extend through the "offseason". On the other hand, Knotts looked to be 100% open and as long as GhostRider, Xcelerator, Silver Bullet, Montezooma, and Hangtime are open I'll be happy. I figure if SFMM announces a pending closure of something before I have time to do a proper LA trip, I could just hop on a plane and go for a weekend.

[CedarFlags]

On 12/29/2021 at 8:12 AM, Zand said:

Thanks for the input everyone. Likely only have the one day, and the more I think about it the more I lean towards Knotts if I have to stick to one park. After watching QueueTimes the last couple days, SFMM has had multiple coasters down each day (on top of the expected Batman closure) and I'm guessing a lot of those might kinda extend through the "offseason". On the other hand, Knotts looked to be 100% open and as long as GhostRider, Xcelerator, Silver Bullet, Montezooma, and Hangtime are open I'll be happy. I figure if SFMM announces a pending closure of something before I have time to do a proper LA trip, I could just hop on a plane and go for a weekend.

I was about to head to Magic Mountain this weekend and then I noticed that half of my favorite rides are closed... surprising.

Fair warning for Knott's, it's very common for Ghost Rider to close for maintenance in the weeks right after a major season (summer, halloween, xmas).  Sometimes they'll work on it mid-week and have it open for weekends, but just prepare yourself for the possibility of it being down.

[TopThrill182]

As others have said, I don’t recommend trying to visit SFMM and Knott’s in the same day—especially not with flights as bookends. (Time aside, I personally find the 5 freeway between LA and Knott’s to be very stressful!)

Ride closures aside, I personally think SFMM is a much better choice for a same-day “layover” visit. You can hop on and off some coasters without missing too much. Knott’s, on the other hand, is such a rich park, I think it deserves to be savored in a more relaxed state of mind. In particular, I wouldn’t want to sit down to eat at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Restaurant at 6pm knowing I have to be at the airport less than two hours later…

[hoppedup]

I was at SFMM Saturday, New Year's Day. Anticipating the crowds, I bought Platinum Flash Pass. Everything went great except X2 never opened and Viper was up and down a few times (never did catch it).  Full Throttle and West Coast racers also closed at least once. Both of them were back up pretty quickly.

To the poster above weighing Knott's vs. SFMM, Ghost Rider was spotty yesterday. Xcelerator also had brief periods of downtime. My daughter missed Ghost Rider as it was down when we needed to be leaving.

 

Also, my Flash Pass was on my phone. I saw several people wearing the wristwatch-like device. Is that for the the other levels of Flash Pass? Or maybe because I bought my pass online?

[coasterbill]

On 12/29/2021 at 11:12 AM, Zand said:

Thanks for the input everyone. Likely only have the one day, and the more I think about it the more I lean towards Knotts if I have to stick to one park. After watching QueueTimes the last couple days, SFMM has had multiple coasters down each day (on top of the expected Batman closure) and I'm guessing a lot of those might kinda extend through the "offseason". On the other hand, Knotts looked to be 100% open and as long as GhostRider, Xcelerator, Silver Bullet, Montezooma, and Hangtime are open I'll be happy. I figure if SFMM announces a pending closure of something before I have time to do a proper LA trip, I could just hop on a plane and go for a weekend.

Looking at what's been closed, if I remember correctly, X2 closes in almost any pathetic amount of wind whatsoever and Superman closes for rain when it's raining and for like 3 days after it rains so that might explain those two, but I have no idea.

[coasternut]

5 minutes ago, hoppedup said:

I was at SFMM Saturday, New Year's Day. Anticipating the crowds, I bought Platinum Flash Pass. Everything went great except X2 never opened and Viper was up and down a few times (never did catch it).  Full Throttle and West Coast racers also closed at least once. Both of them were back up pretty quickly.

To the poster above weighing Knott's vs. SFMM, Ghost Rider was spotty yesterday. Xcelerator also had brief periods of downtime. My daughter missed Ghost Rider as it was down when we needed to be leaving.

 

Also, my Flash Pass was on my phone. I saw several people wearing the wristwatch-like device. Is that for the the other levels of Flash Pass? Or maybe because I bought my pass online?

You have a choice with Flash Pass. The old way is using their watch which you must return. I love and always use my phone. It works better for me and also the Flash Pass greeters too. It reliably scans with no effort at the ride entrance. The watches are more of a challenge for them.

[Zand]

On 12/29/2021 at 11:03 AM, coasterbill said:

The best rides at Knott's are the log flume and the mine ride.

Cliff notes: "Knott's doesn't have a Skyride."

 

I guess I'll wait and see what is open and closed the week leading up to my trip. Probably will decide on SFMM, but if Ghost rider isn't closed and lots of stuff at SFMM is then that might make my mind up for me.

[hoppedup]

Superman never opened Saturday. And it wasn't running on Tuesday night when we just dropped in our way north to get the lay of the land. X2 was running Tuesday night. The Flash Pass app was often wrong about what was running or closed, even after an extended time of being open or closed. When we skipped the line on Scream we couldn't make a reservation because the app said it was closed.

Having done both parks in the last three days, I'd pick SFMM if I could only do one. The variety of what will be open will be far superior to that of Knott's in terms of thrills no matter what. Our favorites were Twisted Colossus (x8) and Goliath (x3). I loved the ghost Town area at Knott's. Pretty cool theming, music, and characters.

1 hour ago, coasternut said:

You have a choice with Flash Pass. The old way is using their watch which you must return. I love and always use my phone. It works better for me and also the Flash Pass greeters too. It reliably scans with no effort at the ride entrance. The watches are more of a challenge for them.

Thanks for the info. Yeah, the phone was so easy to use and never had an issue scanning. And I bought online and never had to visit the FP booth. We got well over 20 rides in and never had to wait, as we'd click a new reservation as soon as the current one was scanned.

[ryder]

I think Superman hasn't been open for weeks.  Not sure what's going on with it, but I've gone at least 3 different times in the last few weeks, and it's never opened once, and heard lots of other people reporting it closed recently.  I just figured it was refurbishment (possibly unplanned?).

[coasternut]

^ Most likely the weather. If it rains at all, it's closed for days.

[ryder]

^I'm pretty sure it's been closed even before we got our rains.  And we may be headed to nearly a month closed, so it seems like it'd be more than the rain. 

[coastercoaster5]

5 hours ago, ryder said:

^I'm pretty sure it's been closed even before we got our rains.  And we may be headed to nearly a month closed, so it seems like it'd be more than the rain. 

Yeah, it was closed a lot before the rain. On my last visit a little over a month ago it was running both sides and was operating how I wished it would for years. Hope it gets back to that soon. 

[ryder]

SFMM seems to be ending its Membership program.  It appears current members will still keep all their benefits, it will just be a name change to "Legacy Members".  But no further memberships will be sold, it will only be season passes.

[Manic Monte]

I'm not sure I hate this change. Perhaps the days of SF under selling their product are over?

[Rusty Nail]

Superman is back open, does anybody know what's going on with Lex Luthor as that's been closed for an extended time also.

[coasternut]

^ I saw on YouTube that both cars have been removed. Just the catch car remains on both sides of the tower. Maybe because of the accident happening at another park with an Intamin drop like this. I'll be there later this week, so I hope to learn more in person.

Glad Supe is back!