SF Magic Mountain - 23 October 2004

[Andy]

Here's my incredibly long trip report, which I'm writing back in England after a week long trip to LA! Here goes...

‘Welcome to Six Flags Magic Mountain!’

I arrived at the car entrance at around 9.15am. I could see 2 rides testing; ‘X’ right next to me and ‘Superman The Escape’ at the centre of the park. This was the only time Superman ran all day. I parked next to Colossus, proceeded to the gates and bought a Fast Track ticket, a wise move indeed as it saved me about 8 hours queuing time!

‘X’

Thanks to advice from these boards, I knew I had to run straight to X as soon as the park gates opened…so I did! I must have been about 50th in line. They opened X at around 10.30…I felt sorry for the attendant who tried to open the barrier; he was too slow and the crowd simply trampled the barrier down and ran over it! I was one of the first to ride it. I sat right at the back on the outside. I didn’t realise that the trains ran backwards, so I was actually facing the track. I’m never usually nervous on rollercoasters, but I admit this one had me a little tense. What a ride! Flying down the first hill face towards the ground with no track in sight is an experience I’ll never forget…as was the rest of the ride. Simply insane! And rough! I thought my neck was going to snap at some point! Still, this is a great ride and my decision to ride it early was wise. The queue was 3 hours long as I exited and grew to 6 hours during the day!

‘Goliath’

After recovering from X, I headed to Goliath. I used my first Fast Track pass as the queue was already around 2 hours. This got me straight into the station and I was sitting in the last carriage before I knew it! They were running 3 trains, although I’m not sure that made much difference as the trains were always queuing to get into the station. Again, what a ride! I was actually nervous about the lap bar as it seemed quite loose and was the only thing holding me in. That first hill is simply amazing; the best I’ve ever experienced and the rest of the ride doesn’t let up either…a fantastic helix towards the end too!

‘Colossus’

Next up, Colossus, a ride I stupidly didn’t go on the last time I went to Magic Mountain 5 years ago. There was no queue and I walked straight on to the forwards running train, sitting at the back. I loved the fact that they raced the trains and how the riders face each other between the forwards and backwards trains; we were yelling at each other throughout the whole ride. What a ride (again)! This was pure fun and I immediately re-entered the line to go on the backwards train. Wow! This was even better as I didn’t know what was coming up. I sat next to a Six Flags employee who was a complete coaster nut; he screamed and yelled throughout the entire ride. This was the only time I actually felt sick; I guess riding backwards doesn’t agree with me!

‘Scream’

“Time for something smooth” I thought to myself as I entered the Fast Track lane of this fantastic Floorless B&M. They were only running one train so the line was huge, but my second Fast Track ticket got me straight into the station. I decided to go right at the front; another wise decision! I was just about to get on the train when the operator yelled “hold the gates!!” I soon saw why, as down below, two people had entered the track area and were running around like fools! Security vans rushed in and transported these idiots away…hopefully behind bars. After that excitement, I rode on what was one of my favourite rides of the day. This was my first Floorless; what a fantastic sensation! The sense of speed throughout this whole ride was awesome and it goes on for ages; loop after loop. It’s great being able to dangle your legs out in front of you.

‘Revolution’

After some chicken strips and a soda, I headed towards this historic coaster. The line was about an hour and worth every minute’s wait. I love the way this ride sweeps you between trees; you can’t see what’s coming up. Blasting down the hill towards the world’s first ever loop, I felt like Clark Griswald all over again! A great ride, although why it needs both lap bars and shoulder restraints when something like Goliath only had bars, I’ll never know. Still, this didn’t affect the ride in the slightest.

‘Viper’

I could have used another Fast Track ticked for this ride but decided not to, as I wanted to ride Goliath again. I queued for over an hour. They split the line into 3 lanes right at the beginning, but don’t tell you why. I didn’t realise that affected where you sat on the train so having chosen the middle lane, I was forced to sit in the middle of the train. Great ride…I counted each inversion as I went through it, but overall, probably my least favourite ride of the day.

‘Ninja’

What I loved about this ride, was that the lift hill is really short, so you don’t expect the rest of the ride to be so fast and long. This is a great hanging coaster and I loved swinging through the trees and down the valley. Cool ride, although rather tame compared to some of the beasts I was about to ride!

‘Riddler’s Revenge’

As I write this, I’ve got the music they play in the station in my head! An incredibly long looking line forced me to use my third Fast Track pass, which dumped me at the back of the loading station. I decided to wait the extra time for the front so had to wait about half an hour. They were running two trains and were loading quite fast. As with Scream, the sense of speed on this ride is awesome; it never lets up!

‘Déjà vu’

Upon approaching this ride, I thought it was closed as I didn’t see a single train running for ages. Little did I know that Déjà vu was working fine, it just takes incredibly long to load this monster. The line was huge so I jumped into the Single Rider line; there were about 20 people in front of me. The single rider line moved quite slowly; on average there must have been about one single rider per train, with some having none and others 2 or 3…it’s sheer luck how long you wait and where you sit as they only let single riders on if there is a party with an odd number. Fortunately, luck was with me and I only had to wait about an hour…and then a second stroke of luck. The operator pointed me towards the middle…but as I waited, one person in the back decided not to ride. Speed and agility won the day as I raced to the spare place at the back gate, beating another single rider who had spotted the same bonus. Great, I was going to sit at the very back of the Déjà vu train! As I got winched up the vertical drop, I was pretty nervous…we just kept on going up and up! It’s much higher than it looks from the ground and being at the back made it even worse (better)! This is such a cool ride; it just feels hardcore and I loved ever second.

‘Batman: The Ride’

It was dark now, so Batman seemed the appropriate choice. I love the theming in the line for this ride…back street city and waste pipes with police car sirens in the background. After a 45 minute wait I sat in the very front row. It was great exiting the station in the dark with the lights at either side of the lift hill. This ride is fast! It seemed much more intense than the only other suspended coasters I had ever been on, the 2 Nemesis rides in the UK.

‘Goliath in the Dark’

Time to use up my final Fast Track ticket on what was to be my highlight of the day. I entered the line in the station and decided to wait for the front. After about 40 minutes I got on to the front and sat next to coaster mad mother! The front of Goliath is much more intense than the back and I managed to keep my hands up the whole time. This was my best coaster experience ever; blasting through the dark at the front, the sense of speed was awesome. I wished the ride would never end.

‘Psyclone’

It was after 8pm, but I didn’t want the day to end, so I headed towards the ride that gave me a splitting headache with more head-banging than X! Still, it was worth every knock and bang as this wooden coaster is fantastic…and so long; it never ends! Whilst queuing, I noticed that Déjà vu had broken down, but they managed to get the thing up and running again after about 40 minutes.

‘FreeFall’

Is this classified as a coaster? It’s certainly a unique ride and I love the mechanics of it…how the carriages go up like an elevator and then transform into a train, with you sitting back to the ground at the bottom, followed by a switch to a lower track. There was no line and I walked straight on. I now know why they call the ride ‘Freefall.’ As you drop down the tower, you can’t feel any track…you really feel like you’re falling with no supports!

‘Brutal World’

It was 9.30pm and the park was about to close…but I decided to do one more thing, one of the ‘Fright Fest’ Halloween mazes which the crazy mother sitting next to me on Goliath had recommended. I was really impressed with the effort the park had gone to…the whole park was decorated for Halloween and many of the rides were completely transformed. There were spiders’ webs all over the place and funky Halloween music bellowed throughout the whole park.

The maze itself was actually pretty cool, with ‘monsters’ (Six Flag employees in make-up) jumping out of some pretty cool scenery. I felt pretty smug, walking through the maze, managing to spot every hole a ghoul jumped out of. This feeling was premature though as I neared the exit. I spotted this enormous, fat ugly beast, which was obviously fake, standing there in the corner. It hadn’t moved at all so I approached it to take a closer look to see how it was made. As I stood there staring at it, a Six Flags employee jumped out if its stomach and yelled into my face!! I screamed like a girl and leapt into the air, much to the delight of all those around me. Still a great end to a great day! I left the parking lot at 10.30pm, happy and tired after an action packed day of the best rollercoasters I’ve ever been on.

[bjballer]

Revolution line was an hour long???? Oh my, that has never happened before (except the 1980s). DejaVu has a single rider line? Hey that's pretty sweet. I used to work there until last August, those two things never occured. 12 out of the 16 coasters, two of them you rode twice...pretty darn good day. I used to be a ride operator for Freefall, its a great ride, except for the breakdowns. When I worked on it, it would break down 5,6,7,8 times a day.

as for the two freaks that entered Scream's track area, they obviously didn't know that an employee was struck dead by one of its trains in Scream's track area. Morons!!

[Chris L]

I'm glad you had a spectacular time.

[sfft_2108]

I spotted this enormous, fat ugly beast, which was obviously fake, standing there in the corner. It hadn’t moved at all so I approached it to take a closer look to see how it was made. As I stood there staring at it, a Six Flags employee jumped out if its stomach and yelled into my face!! I screamed like a girl and leapt into the air, much to the delight of all those around me.

Thats gotta be the funniest part. I am glad you had "an action packed day". I hope to make it out to SFMM, before I die some day.

[Carowinds 73-03]

^ LOL thats funny, i have done something like that before.
Finally a TR on SFMM. Awsomwe TR.