The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[snoflake15]

Can you please tell me where and how to ride X2 without getting thrown around like a helpless rag doll?

 

Isn't that the whole fun of it?

[VegasBaby]

Looking at the web page everything except FT and TC is included with the Gold and Platinum. FT and TC are add ons - when I was there in 2014 I believe it was a $15 add on per pass per ride (add ons were X2 and TC at the time).

 

It also says: "Additional fee upgrade available with Gold or Platinum. Single reservation only." for X2.

 

I went through the process of adding a few Flash Passes to my cart, however I don't see any place to add the extra rides. So, I assume you ask for the add ons when you pick up your Flash Passes? Does anyone know how much the add ons cost these days?

 

FT and TC are not add-ons, a single reservation on each is included with the Gold & Platinum. The Platinum also includes single reservations on Superman and New Revolution. X2 is an add-on for the Gold & Platinum, and I believe each reservation is an additional $15 per person. You can add on the X2 reservations when you pick up your flash passes, you don't do it online. I would recommend buying the flash pass online though as then you are guaranteed that it won't sell out. There is also a separate line to pick up your flash pass if you bought it online.

[lk2500]

Can you please tell me where and how to ride X2 without getting thrown around like a helpless rag doll?

 

Isn't that the whole fun of it?

 

4 years ago, pre-torn disc, yes. Now, not so much. I still love riding but need to be at least a tad cautious.

[singemfrc]

Flash passes very very rarely sell out. Not likely unless it's Key Club Day, Saturday before Memorial Day or Labor Day, or some other really unusually busy day. Unless you're positive it will be one of those days, always better to wait and buy at the park because nothing sucks like dropping hundreds of dollars on flash passes and then finding out the park is unexpectedly light and you didn't even need a flash pass.

 

There's really nowhere to sit on X2 to avoid being whipped around like that, the trains just jerk like hell nowadays. If you're a light/small person, sitting on the inside near the front seems to help, but overall there's not much you can do.

 

What kind of ride you get on Green Lantern doesnt really have anything to do with how you sit..I dont know why someone would think that. It's mostly determined by the weight distribution between the four rides on each vehicle combined with what position you happen to be in when you get to certain parts of the track. That randomness is why I love it, you never know what kind of ride you'll get until you're going up the lift.

[brneff99]

Can you please tell me where and how to ride X2 without getting thrown around like a helpless rag doll?

 

 

 

Inside seat, Row 4 or 5...but really depends on the train and how long since its been over-hauled...

[johnnyknottsville]

No one went to the Mountain today and see anything interesting going on at the presumably project 2017 site???

[Lameformer]

I went to SFMM yesterday and the following is a quick trip report.

 

First off, the park was unexpectedly not crowded. We were able to ride everything that we wanted to ride in about 8 hours, which is pretty good. Most of the rides had a 20 minute wait, and The New Revolution was the only line that came close to being an hour long. In addition, the weather was great. It was in the low 70s all day and it was pretty cloudy.

 

I finally got to ride The New Revolution and boy is it great. It felt like a really good simulator ride. The VR technology definitely raises this coaster's ranking in my book. However, the VR did slow down the line a ton.

 

Riddler's Revenge was running kinda rough and that scared me a bit, considering its one of my favorite coasters.

 

I rode X2 without the music for the first time and I realized that the music plays a big part in why I like X2 so much.

 

Batman is better than I remembered.

 

I didn't see anything new regarding Project 2017. It looked like everything in the Riddler Plaza was just sitting there, surrounded by fences, untouched. However, I wasn't going out of my way to look for stuff related to Project 2017, so I may have missed something.

 

SFMM actually has decent chicken fingers and fries.

 

And yeah that's about it.

[coaster_cliff]

^your avatar is my power animal.

[vedved82491]

I hit the park on Friday and this is some of the things I observed:

I got the the park around 1PM. Tidal Wave was the only ride advertised as down, although X2 was visibly not running when we got there. The park was not too crowded which was an added plus.

 

-Tatsu did not run the majority of the day. I saw empty trains sent out very rarely, but I'm not sure if ever actually opened. The park was only open until 8.

 

-Apocalypse was running two trains. Yes the ride was a bit jarring, but I survived.

 

-TNR also was not open the first half of the day. We happened to walk by around 4PM and noticed a small line form near the carousel. They were testing the ride. They opened it about ten minutes later. I tried it with the VR. It was cool, but overall, I just enjoyed the ride without the OTSR, which is the most important part to me.

 

-Goliath had a very large line around 1PM, but was a near walk-on come 5PM.

 

-Twisted Colossus ran three trains all day and the line never left the main queue area. I noticed the ride ops would give warnings such as "30 seconds to race."

 

-Scream was running two trains. I tried the new refurbished train, but it still rattles way too much. I don't care for this ride any more.

 

-X2 eventually opened in the day and I got two rides on it.

 

-Ninja was running two trains and had a decent line for the majority of the day. While on Ninja, I noticed a boat stuck on the hill of Jet Stream with mechanics looking at it. I don't think it reopened.

 

-FT ran fine with two trains all day. No visible issues.

 

-I walked by the construction area, but didn't notice anything new.

 

I skipped GL, Batman, Riddler, Viper, Goldrusher, Lex, and Superman.

[joshfreund]

Went sunday at 7 basically for a walk around the park...walked on ninja and was surprised with e r.t on tatsu, yolo, and viper...left hanging on Tatsu stacked for 5 mintues and this was consistent i watched the 3 trains ahead of us, yes, that's how long the line was all experience the same 5 minute plus disbatch times..pathetic! We were over it after that...in the giga construction zone didnt see much more than piles of dirt and conduit or irrigation or drains that were sitting in trenches

[Arthur_Seaton]

Went for a couple of hours tonight hoping that it'd be somewhat quiet. It wasn't. While the park itself didn't seem that packed at the time I arrived (6:30pm), all of the major rides had hefty lines. Tatsu, Twisted Colossus, and Füll Thröttle queues were all maxed out with TC spilling out down toward Scream. Goliath was well into the switchbacks (which makes it a no-go for me), and even Scream had a line down the steps and past the löckers — which is the first time I've ever seen a line for that. Revolution's line was down by the carousel but the single rider line was empty so I jumped on there (by the end of the night, the single rider line was pretty long as well). Apocalypse had a line when I first approached it, but I went back later and walked right on. They were definitely running the trains with the square wheels on tonight — mega rough. Rode Ninja (no line around 8pm), Viper (despite my dislike of it), Apocalypse (brutal tonight), and Revolution (used to love it — but now I find it lame and I can't figure out why). Although I usually skip the park's B&Ms and Arrows, I rarely visit without at least one ride on TC, FT, and Goliath. Perhaps tonight was an anomaly, but maybe it's time to go into hibernation and return to the park once schools are back in session.

[SFMMGeek27]

It's just because it's the last few days of BAFF. Next week things should be lighter.

[Arthur_Seaton]

It's just because it's the last few days of BAFF. Next week things should be lighter.

Oh, that would make sense. I'm usually pretty good at picking the quiet days but not this time.

[coneyislandchris]

Füll Thröttle

How metal. \m/

[singemfrc]

There's a fantastic article in the NY times today about RMC that features Twisted Colossus. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/travel/roller-coasters-retrofitting.html?_r=0

 

Wooden coasters: towering, majestic, beautifully designed, classic. But the same woodies that look so wondrous from afar can be rickety, shaky and head-jangling to ride. As trains wear down their wood tracks, a coaster that was once smooth becomes more and more difficult to handle over time. How do you solve the problem? The answer used to be to call in experts to repair the tracks. But now park owners are turning to a new option: replacing the wood tracks with bendable, pliable steel, and turning the coaster into a thrilling hybrid.

 

One company in northern Idaho, Rocky Mountain Construction, has forged a business out of this practice and, in the process, has become responsible for turning a handful of existing wooden coasters into some of the most thrilling, contemporary and innovative rides in the coaster world. The rides often keep much of their look intact, maintaining a lot of the wood that makes up their basic structure, but now running through them is a sleek, shiny, colorful steel track that stands out from the wood and makes the overall attraction feel more 21st century.

 

A signature project by the company, founded by Fred Grubb and Suanne Dedmon 15 years ago, is its rehabilitation of Colossus, a giant white wooden coaster near the parking lot at the edge of Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif. The dual-track racing coaster had been a staple at the park since 1978, thrilling generations of riders, and undergoing generations of wear and tear.

 

The ride closed in 2014 for an ambitious “reprofile,” a term that means taking an existing ride and changing the track to create a new experience. Much of the wood stayed, along with the dual racing track concept. But the company turned the dual track coaster into a Möbius loop track, where the racing happens all on one continuous track instead of on two separate ones. Riders leave the station riding on a blue track, but instead of going back to the station, their ride continues on the green track right next to the blue one. They complete the second section of the ride while a new train is sent out to race theirs. This extends the ride time by a full minute from the original.

 

The track has elements that would have been unheard-of on the old version of Colossus, like a “top gun stall,” an inversion where the train slows down while upside down. It also has a “high five,” a part of the ride where the two tracks hit overbanked turns at the same time facing each other, giving the illusion that you can reach out and high-five the other riders. The interactive elements make for a roller coaster experience that is as social as it is exhilarating.

 

The work of reprofiling coasters rather than building a ride from scratch can engender creativity in interesting ways, as designers must work within the limitations of an existing coaster to come up with fresh ways to improve it.

 

One of many of the surprising elements on Twisted Colossus, which opened in 2015, occurs before the ride gets to its first lift. On the way out to the lift hill, the track has a series of small bumps and curves.

 

“We thought, why don’t we mix it up a little bit,” said Jake Kilcup, chief operating officer of Rocky Mountain Construction. “It’s almost like it’s a little kiddie coaster on the way out to the lift.”

 

The creativity was born of a very technical need. Mr. Grubb and Ms. Dedmon formed Rocky Mountain Construction in 2001, after Mr. Grubb realized that he was spending much of his time fixing the same wooden coasters over and over again.

 

He collaborated with the coaster engineer Alan Schilke to come up with a new track technology, one that wouldn’t require consistent repairs. One of those tracks, called the IBox (also known as Iron Horse), is made up of an all-steel track system that replaces the wood stacks that many wooden coaster tracks sit on. The steel is more stable and more malleable, allowing for wild and innovative coaster elements (like inversions or overbanked turns, where the train goes up on its side) that traditional wood tracks had not been able to handle.

 

The first use of the IBox track was in 2011 on the Texas Giant at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. This mammoth wooden coaster, which originally opened in 1990, was transformed into an even more intense ride that included steeper drops and more aggressive turns.

 

“Six Flags took a risk on this partnership that was, at the time, Fred working out of his garage and Alan working out of his house,” Mr. Kilcup said in a phone interview.

 

That risk paid off. The new Texas Giant was a hit, garnering strong reviews and generating a renewed popularity at the park. Six Flags went on to work on a number of collaborations with Rocky Mountain that involved reprofiling a coaster. The Six Flags reprofiles have included the Iron Rattler at Fiesta Texas, Wicked Cyclone at Six Flags New England, and the behemoth of the bunch, Twisted Colossus.

 

In addition to doing reprofiles, Rocky Mountain is continuing to innovate with original designs as well, like Lightning Rod, their newest ride at Dollywood, billed as the world’s fastest wooden coaster (with a top speed of 73 m.p.h.), and the first wooden coaster with a launch.

 

For a while, it seemed that the golden age of wooden coasters was over, that they’d be outshone by their hardier steel competitors. But this company may be ushering in a wooden coaster renaissance.

[bostonlva]

“‪@screamscape‬: Hearing RMC has ordered all of their coasters running RMC trains closed due to possible defect.”

 

Anyone know more?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bostonlva]

Yup. Confirmed?

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Canobie Coaster]

I just rode Twisted Colossus 30 minutes ago. Before my ride maintenence cycled 2 empty trains and looked near the wheels.

[Canobie Coaster]

Just saw it closed from atop Goliath. I must have gotten the last ride before it went down.

[Canobie Coaster]

Sorry for the third straight post, but Twisted Colossus is back and running as os 8:15 PST.

[DoubleDown]

Wow. Dollywood just cannot win with that coaster. Sounds like Twisted Colossus is not affected.

 

Really reminds me of the X disaster at Magic Mountain. I think X was a lot worse (opened a YEAR later than originally slated), but information communication was a tad bit less back then, and the park didn't have to deal with so many internet complainers. Kinda like Superman, it was in that period of time where Magic Mountain really didn't have to say anything, the steel structures could sit there silent, and could take as long as they wanted to get the thing up and running without the public breathing down their neck on social media.

 

I think what really boggles me which I'm sure is causing the most issues, is a launched lift on a wooden coaster? I mean, why? I get it on Maverick because it's steel, but wood is a tad more flexible and that to me just screams "problems" when you have 2 magnets that have to pass through each other with very peculiar sensors. Maybe if they made the lift track all steel Gemini like, and the rest how they did it that would be fine, but good gawd what a headache.

[coasterlvr]

 

Really reminds me of the X disaster at Magic Mountain. I think X was a lot worse (opened a YEAR later than originally slated), but information communication was a tad bit less back then, and the park didn't have to deal with so many internet complainers. Kinda like Superman, it was in that period of time where Magic Mountain really didn't have to say anything, the steel structures could sit there silent, and could take as long as they wanted to get the thing up and running without the public breathing down their neck on social media.

 

 

i remember going to a pass holder event for Superman. to me it was to satisfy the pass holders because it was of course advertised to open that year. i just remember it not going very high up the tower. i believe they also opened batman for an ert, and i got 50 rides on it without having to get off cause everyone else was at superman. lol

[Canobie Coaster]

 

i remember going to a pass holder event for Superman. to me it was to satisfy the pass holders because it was of course advertised to open that year. i just remember it not going very high up the tower. i believe they also opened batman for an ert, and i got 50 rides on it without having to get off cause everyone else was at superman. lol

 

How is that any different from how the ride ran in its final years as Superman the Escape lol?

[coasterlvr]

 

i remember going to a pass holder event for Superman. to me it was to satisfy the pass holders because it was of course advertised to open that year. i just remember it not going very high up the tower. i believe they also opened batman for an ert, and i got 50 rides on it without having to get off cause everyone else was at superman. lol

 

How is that any different from how the ride ran in its final years as Superman the Escape lol?

 

probably about 18.5 feet? lol but as i remember, it was seriously a joke how high, or not, it went. maybe someone else who was there during those preview days remembers better than i.

[Password121]

 

Really reminds me of the X disaster at Magic Mountain. I think X was a lot worse (opened a YEAR later than originally slated), but information communication was a tad bit less back then, and the park didn't have to deal with so many internet complainers. Kinda like Superman, it was in that period of time where Magic Mountain really didn't have to say anything, the steel structures could sit there silent, and could take as long as they wanted to get the thing up and running without the public breathing down their neck on social media.

 

 

i remember going to a pass holder event for Superman. to me it was to satisfy the pass holders because it was of course advertised to open that year. i just remember it not going very high up the tower. i believe they also opened batman for an ert, and i got 50 rides on it without having to get off cause everyone else was at superman. lol

Wait did nobody else catch this? You rode Batman 50 times without getting off? lol wtf how did you not spew vomit with your internal organs mashed to pieces?