Photo TR: The Kiwis Take on Mid-America

[Louise]

Just caught up on all this, I LOVE that you're both posting updates now! Great pictures, great captions too, really enjoying this. Bonus points for quoting Rob Reiner's mother in When Harry Met Sally!

 

Was a pleasure to meet you both, shame we didn't hang out much and despite sitting so close to you on the bus on many of the long drives, as you might've noticed I pretty much use the bus as a bed, which sucks actually as I didn't get to know as many people on the drives as usual! Glad to see you both enjoyed the trip, I know a lot of us who've done a few trips now get a real kick out of seeing new people have so much fun, I'm sure we'll see you again!

 

I'm honoured that I got to witness some of the lesser-spotted Kiwi photography methods at the St. Louis Arch, what with lying on the ground and all...

[mattnz]

Hey Lou! Thanks for your nice words. It was great meeting you too - a genuine TPR celebrity! Hope jolly old Britian has been treating you well since your return. Everyone in NZ is paranoid about all these giant earthquakes we've been having! But we're used to it.

 

Andrew and I would love to do another trip and will definitely hang out with all the TPR people more next time round - especially now that we've lost our 'theme park virginity', which saw us do a lot of riding and a little less relaxing with the group (I also wish we took many more and better photos - more lying on the ground to get that perfect shot next time round!)

[Louise]

^ Oh my goodness, less of the "celebrity" crap, but yes, we will hang out more on future trips! Glad to hear you guys are okay, you were the first thing I thought of when the earthquakes hit the news! And being home sucks, but c'est la vie.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the report!

[mattnz]

After a long delay, we thought we'd better finish off our Mid-America TR... Unfortunately for our next stop - Six Flags Great America - Andrew and I left our cameras in a fluffy, fluffy bunny for most of the day. Due to some tricky Six Flags policies, it just seemed like the easiest option for us. And also because there was SO MUCH to do at Great America!

 

This was one of our favourite days of the trip. As you may have read in other Mid-America TRs, we had spectacular night ERT sessions on Viper and Raging Bull after a massive thunderstorm. I love Cyclone clones and had heard great things about Viper, but was amazed at how smoothly it ran. Raging Bull, despite heavy trims, providing awesome night riding too.

 

Throughout the rest of the day, we clocked up all the other credits, including the newly opened Little Dipper. I particularly enjoyed Whizzer, found Demon oddly smooth for an Arrow, and loved the first half of American Eagle. We had our first taste of an Intamin Twisted Impulse Coaster ( ), got beaten up by Iron Wolf and waited in long, annoying queues for Batman The Ride and Dark Knight. We also got on some of the random flat rides at the park like Ricochet, the Loggers Run flume and the Intamin Drop Tower.

 

In all, compared to some of the other parks we'd visited in Mid-America, we felt Six Flags Great America lacked a little atmosphere. When you look at the huge ride selection, it's interesting to note just how many clones there are that you can find at other parks (Batman The Ride, Dark Knight, Demon, Superman Ultimate Flight, Vertical Velocity, among others). But saying that, Great America is certainly a must-visit park for any theme park enthusiast. A couple of photos follow!

Great America was consumed by a giant thunderstorm.

But it cleared and night ERT went ahead. I wish I had more photos - this was a truly legendary ERT session!

Great America is a beautiful park by night - and gave us a really fun day. Check out some of the other photo TRs from this stop on the Mid-America trip.

I'll be back Six Flags Great America! And next time I'll have my camera!

[mattnz]

Next up on our itinerary was Wisconsin Dells and a park I'd heard a lot about - Mt. Olympus. Some good, some not so good...

 

The good: Cyclops! The roller coaster with the insane air time in the back row; beer sold throughout the park (I needed it that day); the giant wave pool; the 'local colour'.

 

The bad: EVERYTHING ELSE!! Terrible, terrible ride operations (bordering on amusing at times!); Hades - a ride that looks so good, that I wanted to like so much, but that beat me to within an inch of my life; Zeus - another very rough ride; large crowds and slow-moving lines that meant we skipped all the race tracks.

 

Oh, well! I guess you have to remember that Mt. Olympus is not really a theme park - more of a large family entertainment centre with four wooden coasters. In true TPR style, it was a fun day regardless, and ALL ABOUT BRYAN! The day was also rounded off with some fun at Timber Falls (especially on their compact woodie Alavanche/HellCat) and a little credit whoring at Knucklehead's.

From the car park, Hades looks like a GREAT ride.

Once you've emerged from the underground tunnel into this massive turnaround, you may think otherwise!

Fortunately, Cyclops still seems to be running well.

If I'm not mistaken, that's Jake/Texas being ejected from the back seat!

This hill contains most of the coasters at the park, including Hades, Zeus and Cyclops (in order of roughness).

Across from there you'll find Pegasus, which was a fairly fun junior woodie.

The park has lots of fun-looking race tracks.

Kind of odd-looking, actually.

As you can see, people flock to this place. It ain't closing down any time soon!

This is the outdoor water park.

The scary/awesome wave pool.

Zoltar read our fortune.

The park also had a fairly derelict indoor theme park with another credit to be had.

And random farm animals.

Who or what are power packers?!

After all the fun at Mt. Olympus I needed a drink.

Next we hit up Timber Falls.

A few TPR people did the insane-looking up-charge ride of death!

Scott and Jason are braver than me.

Hell to the no!

Avalanche/HellCat was a really fun S&S woodie. Andrew and I did find it a little rough - but that could have been due to all the bruises we sustained on Hades.

Wheee!

As a log flume enthusiast, I probably should have given this a spin. Looks pretty good.

We finished off the day at Knucklehead's. Let the credit whoring commence!

[mattnz]

Last stop of the official TPR Mid-America trip was Valleyfair. Andrew and I really enjoyed this park, and they certainly treated us well, with ERT and on-ride photos of everyone on Wild Thing, a great lunch, Q&A, walk-back tours and night ERT on Renegade. Dare I say, after Wisconsin Dells, it was quite nice to be back at a corporate park!

 

It was so sad leaving everyone at the end of the trip. What a great bunch of people. WE WILL BE BACK! Saying that, we caught up with quite a few TPR people at Cedar Point before Andrew and I drove precariously across the great state of Ohio in search of more adventures... But for now, here's Valleyfair:

This is a wonderful sight to see first thing in the morning.

We're at Valleyfair!

We began the day with ERT on Wild Thing. I'm starting to think these Morgan hyper coasters are a little underrated.

Valleyfair's Twisted Impulse Coaster still uses the holding brake - which is a lot of fun.

Like almost every Cedar Fair park it seems, Valleyfair has a Screamin' Swing and S&S towers.

I'm not complaining, I love these rides!

I'd like to take this ride back to my home park downunder.

Didn't ride a single shoot-the-chutes on this trip, but they sure are fun to watch.

The park had a fairly run-of-the-mill Arrow corkscrew.

The trains were really compact. Clench and squish!

This is High Roller, the park's original woodie.

It's tame and trimmed.

Ka-ching!

Valleyfair's mascot. I'd love him to stay around, but I'm not too sure if he will!

The park had a large kid's area with lots of old-school rides, all currently getting Snoop-ified.

I'm as mad as a mouse, and I'm not going to take it anymore!

Fun ride from Arrow Dynamics.

Random flat ride #1: Trabant. One of my all-time favourite flats. Short ride programme. Oh, well.

Random flat ride #2: Enterprise. Another favourite of mine. I love the colour scheme of this one.

Random flat ride #3: Looping Starship. Andrew and I were intrigued by this. It was quite intimidating, not too comfortable, but with a whole group of TPR people riding it, random fun!

A group of us also braved Excalibur, another ride that has intrigued me for a while. It surprised me - ran pretty smooth, and was great fun!

These bits make it go up.

By the wet looks of their rapids ride, we passed.

Renegade is the newest coaster at Valleyfair.

It proved to be one of my favourite GCIs.

GCIs have these fluffy things in the station. To buff/clean the train? I found them kinda funny.

Does he mean the Cyclone roller coaster?

The walk-back gave us ample opportunities to nerdishly photograph Renegade.

We also saw the maintenance area. With wheels and stuff.

A giant pumpkin.

Snoopy has already arrived.

While others took photos of Renegade, we took photos of ourselves!

But Renegade is a lot sexier. Look at those curves!

Ooohh!

Aaahh!

We all had amazing buffalo wings before heading back into the park for night ERT, which is where our photos end for now. Cheers everyone!

[XII]

Nice Middle America Photos. They really make me miss the Middle America and also get me excited for the Northeast Trip next year.

[cal1br3tto]

In all, compared to some of the other parks we'd visited in Mid-America, we felt Six Flags Great America lacked a little atmosphere.

I'm not sure why, but I felt the same way. I had no idea I wasn't alone, since the park is so highly praised! I did like the landscaping, and I thought the ride collection was pretty solid though not amazing. I think perhaps I was a bit put-off by the "commercial" atmosphere (although I understand that it helps the park).

 

I enjoyed your TR! It's a great reminder of the trip.

[mattnz]

In all, compared to some of the other parks we'd visited in Mid-America, we felt Six Flags Great America lacked a little atmosphere.

I'm not sure why, but I felt the same way. I had no idea I wasn't alone, since the park is so highly praised! I did like the landscaping, and I thought the ride collection was pretty solid though not amazing. I think perhaps I was a bit put-off by the "commercial" atmosphere (although I understand that it helps the park).

 

I enjoyed your TR! It's a great reminder of the trip.

 

Thanks Laura! Yeah, there was just 'something' lacking in the park's overall atmosphere and vibe. Love to go back though.

[krazekiddd]

I was wondering when you were doing another you were doing another update.

 

Ugh, Mt Olympus. What a horrible place! I enjoyed it in 2007 but it was SO bad on our visit. Thank you for the updates. I miss everyone.

[mattnz]

After the awesomeness of the Mid-America trip came to an end, Andrew and I couldn't resist hitting the biggest park of the Midwest - Cedar Point. It was great to see lots of other TPR people there too. We spent three days on site at Hotel Breakers in a somewhat ramshackle room, but that one hour early morning entry came in handy as the park was VERY BUSY the whole time we were there! After the ERT sessions and cool perks of the TPR trip it came as something of a shock! When not racing to the rides after early morning entry we had to wait in hour and a half queues for rides such as Maverick, Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster the rest of the day. Saying that, those three rides really impressed us - and being new to us they were worth the wait.

 

Other stand-outs for us were Magnum XL-200 (2nd row - WOW!), Gemini (though I came off with an airtime-related bruise!), Wicked Twister, Raptor and Mantis (which ran untrimmed - we found it quite comfortable). As usual with us, we also gave lots of other rides a spin but for one reason or another didn't make it on Shoot the Rapids. Other TPR people seemed to really like it though.

 

I loved our visit to Cedar Point and found lots of positives such as consistently good ride operations, but had my frustrations as well. No fast pass option (I don't care what Cedar Fair's excuse is for that, for people like us who've travelled from the other side of the world it's unacceptable), awful trance music blasted at you in the blaring sun in the largely uncovered queue for Millennium Force, a generally very corporate atmosphere, insanely high food prices... Saying all that, I'd go back tomorrow if I could!

 

(Andrew will do the next TR for Kings Island - which was the exact opposite to Cedar Point in terms of crowds...stay tuned!) Oh, and please excuse our lower quality of photos in this TR. Damn camera settings!

Cedar Point's fancy sign! Must be going in the right direction...

Oh yes, definitely.

By this point, I nearly ran our rental car off the road looking up at all the GIANT ROLLER COASTERS!

After checking in to Hotel Breakers, we made our first ride Millennium Force. It's certainly a beautiful ride.

A photo never seen before!

Getting closer...

I liked the sexy station.

Millennium Force blew us away. Who said this thing has no airtime? It's got that and a lot more.

Night riding in the midst of the hot Sandusky summer, bugs and all, is a must!

We had nothing but praise for this ride as well.

For one, they played Rick Astley in the queue. Fudge yeah!

This hill, and the whole ride, was great. Our TPR friend Stefan recommended row 2 - and that was the money seat for us!

Thanks Stefan! (He's a Magnum fanboy!)

Some say this phallus-shaped ride is a one-trick pony.

It (literally) took our breath away.

Only Intamin-approved cable can take you to these heights.

I'll take the odd break-down for these kind of thrills.

Speaking of which... Breakdowns occurred at least three times we were at the park, one for each day... But one of them cut off a good hour's wait as we decided not to leave the queue! (I think they have pretty good maintenance people at Cedar Point.)

Being a Schwarzkopf fan I was looking forward to Wildcat. (Look at the crowds!)

Cute train - decent ride.

We popped off-site to eat - with good reason - and found some decent photo ops.

Yep, it's a photo of Mean Streak, a rough, meandering pile of shite! I was kind of surprised how bad it was!

This guy just took Mean Streak for a spin.

Fortunately nearby is our saviour - Maverick! See, the heavens have opened! Hallelujah!

We were excited to ride Maverick.

But were greeted by a very full queue.

A queue so long, even Cedar Fair couldn't deal with it!

It just went on...

And on...

And on! (Now I know how Jennifer Connelly felt in Labyrinth.)

The park provided overpriced soft drinks in the queue, including my favourite - Sierra Mist!

By the time we got on, it was nightfall! Ah, well, whatever, it was totally worth it! Part 2 coming up soon.

[aceospades1250]

Nice trip report! Now I'm even more stoked that I got onto Maverick queue free

[mattnz]

The fun at Cedar Point continued...

Another early morning at Cedar Point, another early morning rush to...

Maverick! Having NO queue certainly made up for our 1 1/2 hour wait the evening before.

That's right, work those curves baby!

Having got that out of the way, we took the rest of the day a bit easier.

The boat ride - Paddlewheel Excursions - provided a good break. I hope they keep it - bad jokes and all.

Disney inspired?

The dude's flying machine wasn't working today.

Now I know I'm at a Disney park!

This is the 'wet' area of Cedar Point.

By all accounts, this is a great ride!

I liked the look of their rapids too.

Moving along, we got this thing out of the way. Not one of the better Mine Trains we experienced, especially after Thunderation!

We also got a kiddie credit in.

Across the way is this very cool old school Arrow ride.

Love the station - and how it EATS through the queues.

*Underskirt shot!* Gemini is a great ride. Fantastic airtime - one of my favourites at the park.

Meh, whatever...

Heading to the front of the park we passed this ridiculous stall. Guess MY WEIGHT?! Are you KIDDING?!

We rode the retro Arrow corkscrew. Love the airtime hill on this thing.

For some reason the S&S Turbo Drop had longer queues than the Space Shot. Personally, it's Intamin or nothing for me when I'm dropping, but I do find the Space Shots a lot of fun.

Especially when they're this tall!

Everything we'd heard about Iron Dragon was true.

It wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere! (Still love this coaster concept though.)

Mantis, right next door, was bigger, badder, meaner, louder and untrimmed!

Say what you will about stand-up coasters, that's pretty damn impressive.

Andrew and I really enjoyed this ride.

Toward the front of the park, we found more awesome rides, like Wicked Twister and maXair... Very impressive.

Raptor was great too.

We only got one ride in. I think you need to time the queues *just so* with this one.

Nearby, and Blue Streak had such short lines. It's an enjoyable ride. We liked the bouncy turns!

Looks like the last year for the old Pirate Ship. Fortunately we have one of these in New Zealand!

I enjoyed this side of the park. It did seem a little less crowded too.

In our mission to get all the credits we ventured in here...

The black light showed up all the specks in our filthy clothes. (Mainly splatters of sun block I swear!)

At least we weren't dressed like this guy. Seriously, we saw this all over the Midwest. Interestingly, NOT in LA.

Disaster Transport was a surprisingly fun ride.

After all our thrill-seeking, we kind of felt like a drink, and kind of didn't...

We went up the Space Spiral.

"Remember we're parked in the Itchy lot!"

Beautiful setting by Lake Eerie.

Beautiful uniforms too! (I love that they brought the retro uniforms back this year.)

Hey Andrew!

All in all, we loved Cedar Point.

With its super-sized rides...

Awesome roller coasters...

Fantastic thrills...

And high food prices! We'll be back!

[MonkeyPants]

That was a fun P-TR! I liked your perspective... Many people bash CP, and I, myself, am fairly jaded by some of the rides there... So it was really cool to read your fresh perspective! Looks like you had a blast!

[cal1br3tto]

I'm always glad to hear a good review of Cedar Point! That bodes well for my visit. Sounds like one can have fun even on the crowded days, especially with a bit of planning.

[Andrew.NZ88]

^ We had a great time at Cedar Point. Have fun Laura! It is a 'must-do' park.

 

After our three-day stay at Cedar Point we drove down to Kings Island, staying across the road at the Kings Island Resort Center. We used our Club TPR membership to get the early entry - wondering what the crowds would be like...but the park was dead all day long! What a contrast to Cedar Point! And what a relief! It enabled us to take it a bit easier while also managing to get loads of rides in. Making for a really fun day.

 

Kings Island wasn't quite what we expected. It's a very manageable park, easy to get around, but with a huge selection of rides. It has a similar vibe to Six Flags Great America, built in the 70s, with a lot of its original charm, but also a certain corporate feel to it.

 

The ride line-up is awesome. Our first coaster was Diamondback, which felt very tame until we tried a seat toward the front - and were blown away! The air time was fantastic. Back row was great too, but there is a strange rattle going on, as Jake pointed out in his TR. Oh, well. Beast was very disappointing, even though we'd heard about the changes made to the ride over the years. We just didn't realise there'd be so many trim brakes! There were on every hill! Cedar Fair: How about fixing your woodies instead of trimming them? Next up were another two favourite coasters of the day: Firehawk and Flight of Fear. Both excellent rides, especially with no queues. Firehawk, despite its odd seating arrangement, was surprisingly smooth, intense and exciting.

 

Other favourite rides for us were Flight Deck, tucked away well off the beaten track, the awesome Intamin gyro drop tower (I had been fearing this ride more than any other on our trip - but I loved it!), Vortex, which was our favourite Arrow looper and provided a few grey out moments, and the old classic woodie Racer.

 

We have really fond memories of Kings Island. I realise the park gets a bit of flack but for us - as a destination park - we felt it was well worth a visit, and we'd love to go back!

We took the scenic route to the park...

Definitely going in the right direction.

Yay! We made it!

Err, is the park open today?

Kings Island's famous 1/3 scale Eiffel Tower.

Must go up there for photos later...

Our first coaster was Diamondback. The first drop is amazing.

But you MUST sit near the front or the very back or you may be disappointed...

Preferred seating not guaranteed? We were glad to be there on a quiet day...

Gotta love those queues!

Reason for the loose article policy.

We loved this ride! I could've gone on it all day long. The splashdown was fun too!

The park did not get busy all day long.

We wandered over to 'Fort Kinzel' for two of our favourite rides - Firehawk and Flight of Fear.

Both were really good! (This is Firehawk from the Eiffel Tower.)

Original 70s section.

Home of Racer.

The ride that started the 70s re-birth of coaster building has aged a wee bit...

But was great fun!

Entering a more corporate area of the park.

Home of Delerium. We enjoyed this at Cedar Point and gave it a spin. It's not as intimidating as it looks!

Gulp!

That's freakin' high. I have a fear of falling...

But thanks to the Intamin gods I think I may have conquered it!

Invertigo was down at first but soon opened up.

Definitely an improvement on the Boomerang - and so tall!

Flight Deck was another favourite Arrow of ours.

It was a long way off the midway...

Cool ride, nice and fast, love the ride design.

This was a good mine train too - good themeing (pictures of the ride not included I'm afraid!).

We took loads of pic at the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Nothing to see here, move along...

The beautiful Diamondback stretching out into the trees.

The absolutely awesome Arrow coaster Vortex! Wow. Great first drop, intense inversions, lots of fun.

Be prepared to grey out in the loops if you sit in the back row!

Ground level shot of Vortex doing it's thing. I love that it doesn't just drop straight into a loop but does other 'stuff'.

This coaster wasn't so hot. But it was a credit!

Now this was a fun junior coaster. Rather hard to photograph.

Backlot Stunt Coaster was worth a spin or two but definitely felt a bit lacklustre.

Anyone know what used to be here?

Back on the ground and we lined up for the newly named Woodstock Express. Cute trains.

We rode Surf Dog. Tame fun, quite different to your average Disko ride.

Matt felt a bit dodgy taking photos of the kiddie rides...

But now we have photos like these!

Matt 'log flume enthusiast' Mawkes dragged me on the log flume.

I got soaked.

Yeah.

Time for a drink!

Matt turned very brown in America. I got freckles I didn't even know I had.

This was a quiet area of the park.

We haven't forgotten about Beast, and made sure we went on it several times.

We were a little obsessed by the ride with it's long history and once great reputation.

It still has awesome potential. Perhaps one day it will ride great again.

Quick shot of Vortex from Beast's queue.

Off she goes into the sunset.

We sure got our timing right with Kings Island. Great park - great day! Thanks for reading!

[Bonemachine]

That was the old Paramont Story that we saw from the Eifel Tower and wondering what used to be there. It had fake memorabilia from Paramont films. For example the Mirthmobile from Wayne's World would sit in front of that waterfall (which it doesn't look like they even turn on anymore) at the top of the pic. Now it's just a quiet "garden" area where they have one of the weakest haunts: Cemetary Drive. It's sad how poorly Concrete Fair maintained that park. I went on the Beast for the first time in years not long ago and I couldn't believe how bad it had become. Hopefully Texas Giant renovation is a success and they get those guys to do Beast, Rattler, maybe Mean Streak and others who need it.

[mattnz]

We're finally up to our last installment - Six Flags Magic Mountain!

 

By this point in our trip we were getting pretty tired, and I'd heard that Magic Mountain was in many ways a tiring park - from the terrain to the staff and clientele. But that certainly wasn't going to stop us - and the park was an irresistible draw since we were passing through L.A.

 

We spent two days at the park. The 'tiresome' part was most apparent on day one, which I'd put down to hot weather, bad operations and bad luck. We started out on Revolution - since I'm a bit of a Schwarzkopf fan - and found the Flash Pass vaguely pointless since you were fed into the back of the station, a problem we encountered on other rides like Tatsu and Riddler's Revenge. We then did a circle around the park - and almost every experience frustrated us! Of particular irritation were LINE JUMPERS at Ninja - the only time I saw this during our whole trip through the U.S. The ride op at Ninja was also annoying beyond belief - just really moronic and slightly racist in his 'humour'. Break-downs also plagued us, from Tatsu to Gold Rusher. It actually got to a point where it was kind of amusing! Add the incredible heat and ridiculously over-priced bottled water into the mix and Andrew and I started to wonder how much we could tolerate, despite enjoying the amazing coaster line-up...

 

Day two I'm happy to say the park really redeemed itself for us! We got the Platinum Flash Passes, soon realised we rarely felt like riding twice in a row...but nevertheless the system enabled us to save lots of time on certain rides. We started out on Deja Vu and were the first riders for the day. The ride was awesome and we immediately felt better about the day ahead. That trend continued and we got lots of re-riding in, and also experienced X2 twice, which was an amazing ride. Inside seat = WOW! Other favourites for us were Tatsu, Goliath, Riddler's Revenge and Terminator Salvation.

 

L.A. had a very different vibe to the Mid-West - less friendly and hospitable, but with the multiculturalism and excitement a giant city offers. What a fascinating place to visit. Hats off to those who can tolerate it's less appealing attributes! It rounded off an absolutely awesome trip for us kiwis. Thanks again to Robb and Elissa and our fellow trip participants for the main leg of our trip. It was truly unforgettable.

I think we were the only people in history to brave walking to Magic Mountain! L.A. is pedestrian unfriendly!

Hmm, doesn't give off the appearance of world's best to me...

That is an awesome sight. We got round to riding X2 on day two...it seems to always have very long lines.

Valencia Falls! Looks like we've made it.

I love Anton Schwarzkopf!

It's a great ride at heart, but with those nasty restraints and trim brakes it ain't quite what it used to be.

Day one at the mountain was a hot one. Here's Andrew about to head up Baja Ridge.

Bottled water was an expensive commodity at the park so we got the free stuff wherever we could.

Viper station. I liked this area of the park, with it's Spanish music and succulents.

The intensity of this ride surprised me.

Arrow loops really are pretty damn great.

All-in-all a fun ride despite the unimaginative lay-out.

We were really looking forward to Tatsu.

It broke down a few times but was worth waiting for. It felt smooth and exciting, gliding through the sky...

The pretzel loop was the 'oh crap' moment, eliciting screams from riders every time.

Ninja required a bit of a climb from the back of the park.

Guess we didn't time this one right - bugger!

Themeing confusion!

We queued up for Ninja.

It had an awesome station.

But also had LINE JUMPERS! Not to mention very irritating, loud-mouthed ride ops.

The ride itself was really fun. A good use of the terrain at Magic Mountain, which was also true of several other rides at the park.

Gold Rusher was a pretty decent mine train.

But it would have to wait for day two - another break-down!

Riddler's Revenge had a long, annoying queue. (You're doing it wrong!)

Andrew and I enjoy the stand-up coaster concept and this was our absolute favourite.

In this area we found Batman The Ride - our third of the trip. Always a reliable, fast-paced, intense ride.

Nice paint job too.

For those who say Magic Mountain has no flat rides - behold!

Mr. Six providing some entertainment.

Scream, the infamous 'car park coaster', was a great ride with lots of fun elements.

Whee!

How about some grass or even some Californian dirt under this ride Six Flags?!

Goliath was another ride we were really looking forward to.

The first drop would have been better with an Intamin-style cable lift to fling you over the top but was still pretty intimidating.

Yikes.

The twisted back half of the ride was incredibly intense and we both greyed out during the helix every time!

The Colossus station reminded me of Racer.

This coaster was very iconic for me growing up and I actually quite enjoyed it - old age and all.

Day two began on Deja Vu - which we loved! That backwards lift is so cool.

Next door's Terminator Salvation was a decent GCI - 'The ride that's better than the movie!'

The queue was a bit strange but I thought Six Flags did a good job with it. If I was employed here, I'd appreciate the air conditioning.

I guess these guys are leaving with the re-theme to Apocalypse.

We finally rode X2 with the skip the queue pass thing.

O-M-G!

I can see why people rate this as their #1 coaster. For me it's a little lower than that due to the outside seats...

But an inside seat ride is spectacular! (I didn't notice the bumpiness at all.)

We went up the Sky Tower.

Lots of great pics to be had from way up here.

This would be 'Arrow corner'.

Hey Deja Vu!

Ninja and Jet Stream intermingling.

The aesthetics of Colossus is somewhat hindered by Goliath penetrating the ride.

Somewhere out there in Valencia is Theme Park Review headquarters. Now I've visited Valencia I have an all-new appreciation for Robb and Elissa!

The Sky Tower also had some really cool exhibits.

I'm glad the park has kept the 'Orient Express'. Great way to save yourself a long walk.

We got lots of re-riding in on day two.

This was a nice area of the park.

I rode Log Jammer all my myself despite the queue, which thanks to our Q-Bot I completely skipped.

I was surrounded by Latino families who wanted to ride together so got my own log - and I felt a bit guilty floating past the massive queue!

The park's carousel. More flat ride evidence!

Also in the area... Belch! (Excuse me.)

All in all, day two was excellent. The staff seemed to do better on a Saturday, the vibe was good and the rides were awesome.

That is a good skyline.

All that remained on our trip itinerary was a little sight seeing. (No one's better than Bette when she's bad!)

And of course we had to hit up this place too.

I found Santa Monica very entertaining.

Some kind of Iraq war protest was happening.

I always take photos like these, and always feel guilty afterwards.

We've finally come to the end of this TR. Whew! Thanks for reading our observations and checking out our often mediocre photos. But we hope you enjoyed them! Matt & Andrew

[the ghost]

Awesome TR and I'm happy to see more Riddler fans as its my number one steel. Magic Mountain...in all honesty... is a bitch to maneuver around. It is HUGE, hilly, and there is really no hub or someplace that has easy access to other parts of the park, which is what works so well at most places. However, glad to see you for the most part enjoyed the park as it is my third favorite so cal park after the DLR parks.

[mattnz]

^ Thanks! We loved Riddler - it's just got awesome forces. I love Disney but have never visited the Anaheim parks. We'll definitely have to do the original Disneyland next time.