SFMM and KBF trip report

I couldnt wait to make the trip from NY to CA. I was very anxious to go to the Xtreme park. I am not gonna descibe the whole trip, but I will rate the rides, and give an overall review of the park.

SFMM

pluses: great rides

negatives: too hot( over 100 degrees every day), rides way to spread out, some long lines

Rides: rated from 1-10

Deja Vu: 9/10 What a ride! Being pulled up that hill backwards was the scariest feeling I have ever had on a coaster. The ride was very disorientating and was much better than a regular boomerang or invertigo. It was by far the best ride at MM.

Goliath: 7/10 A good ride, but it just doesnt compare to Superman, Nitro or MF. Very little airtime(even riding in the back), and the drop was not steep at all. The greatest part of the ride was the very intence helix.

Riddler revenge: 7.5/10 A very good ride. Justy one problem: When loading into the train, I did not stand up straight, so I would not experiance any pain from the bar between my legs during the ride.Well that worked until arriving into the station. The ride op unlocked the restraints and the damm bar shot up at me between my legs. OWWW!!!. That about ruined the ride for me.

Batman the ride 7/10 This was a very intence ride, and it seemed a little more intence than the one at great adventure.

Superman the escape:5/10 Wait a second. Did I go on the right ride? This coaster has been in the top ten discovery channel show for so long. It was just simply a lame ride. The launch was horrible. It took forever to get up to speed and by the time it did, we were nine tenths the way down the straightaway. The only part of this ride i enjoyed was the airtime.

Viper: 7/10 Wow! I was just expecting a regular arow looper. This thing was fast and SMOOTH. Very little headbanging. It was way better than the GASM.

Revolution: 5/10 Get rid of the OTSR and you have a great ride. It has an awesome layout, but the otsr ruins it with the headbanging. And, do they take care of this ride at all anymore? In the movie Rollercoaster, it looks so bueatiful, but now, it seems a mess with all the trees.

Psyclone: 7/10 I dont care if this ride is rough. It is a great ride. Those twisting drops were awesome, especially in the back.

Collosus: 5:10 Nothing much to say about te ride , but the exeriance was a different story. First, getting on line, a girl ame off the ride with her head bleeding. She had cut her forehead, I dont know how, because she was aready standing by the exit when I got there. After this they sent up an empty train. Then we went up. About halfway through the ride, I aw a empty train sitting on the track stuck there. I was like oh S**t. Luckily, the train was on the other track and not on the side we were on.

X, Ninja, and Flashback were closed.

KBF:

pluses: no lines, not as hot, nicer people, and better overall atmosphere.

minuses:stapling lapbars on coasters.

Xcellerator9/10 By far the best ride of the trip. Got on in the front back and middle. Front was the best for the launch, but back ws better for airtime. The rides, one flaw, is it goes just a little too slow over the top hat. The train almost comes to a top, and there is just not enough airtime. That is the one advantage Hypersonic has over this coaster.

Ghostrider 8/10 My new number 1 woodie. Awesome out of control ride. Just the tiniest bit rough. The one flaw to this ride was loading times. I thought this coaster had 3 trains. Well anyway, they were only running 2. The park was virtually empty, but this led to 45 minute waits, because this is such a long ride.

Bomerang: 5/10 Just your average boomerang. Nothing much to say here.

Montezooma's revenge: 7/10 Just a very fun ride, with a very steep incline on that hill you go up.

Perelous Plunge: 5/10 Okay, I can tell how this was a great ride, but htey killed it. I feltlike I was ducktaped to the chair. I couldnt even turn my head all the way to the sid on it. No airtime, and I could barely even enjoy the drop because I couldnt lean forward to get a view at all. I wish I rode it before the 4 point harness.

Supreme Scream:6/10 Very scary going up the tower, but after the drop that was it. They barely launched you back up at all. If you were launched back up higher it would be a much better ride.

Well, that is it. Overall it was a great trip, but it was too hot out. It was over 100 almost every day. Cant wait till next years trip to Florida.

Supreme Scream USED TO bounce you up much higer than it does now. It was better with higher bouncing. I still like it better than Intamin's Giant Drops.

Also, Ghostrider DOES have 3 trains, but it never runs more than 2. After the PP accident the load times on GR have ground nearly to a halt. There is one particular ride op (name withheld) when he is in the booth, will easily make what should be a 20-25 minute wait into a 45+ minute wait. I'm all for safety, but this guy takes it TOO FAR. (never opens air gates until EVERY exiting rider is on the stairs, makes other ops recheck ENTIRE train when one bar is released, stuff like that)

And about Revolution, I LIKE the overgrowth of trees, it makes the ride feel faster. I also notice that EVERY SFMM TR lately mantions just how crappy the OTSR's are on this ride. It's a crime.

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Nothing... NOTHING... can prepare you for... the Fourth Dimension!

That might have been the ride op, because he took forever.

What days were you at Magic Mountain? I was there on saturday and sunday. And I agree Superman does suck. I gave it a 4/10 for the veiw.

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Top 5: 1)MF, 2)Goliath, 3)Magnum XL 200, 4)Medusa(West), 5)Raptor

I was at MM sunday and tuesday, and at KBF Monday.

Nice TR!

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Sean

Yeah nice TR. It really pisses me off that SFMM really do know how to eff up their rides. Why the OTSR! Why all the braking on Revolution! Why all the braking on Goliath! Why double down replaced with brakes!!! As for Superman that just sucks. BUT WHY ALL THE OTHERS!!!! IT'S JUST NOT RIGHT....:cries: :(

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"Excitement, Adventure. A Jedi Craves Not These Things."

Oh yeah it's also very nice to know that someone else thinks Viper is a good Arrow Looper!

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"Excitement, Adventure. A Jedi Craves Not These Things."

Yep, Supreme Scream mysteriously began bouncing up half as far one day on ALL the towers.

The ride operators on Ghostrider are very slow, but I'd say this is 20% operating fault (mostly for not opening gates sooner), 30% fault to those who don't WEAR their jacket before boarding (promted by an accident on jaguar), 30% the parks fault for sometimes putting only 2 attndents on the ride, 10% the fault of those who enter the station and the ride op has to escort them to the stairs, and 10% the riders fault for not doubling up with other single riders (the ride ops will love you if you do).

i didn't mind PP's new restraints much. They weren't too bothersome and I got a good view towards the drop.

Operations on xcelerator are much better than GR now IMO, the only thing bad about Xcelerator is the no backpacks for somepeople, but this doesn't apply to 90% of people. I dont like the ride op blocking PP's amd Xcel's entrance until he/she screens riders.

Hey, someone finally agrees with me that Viper is smooth and very fast, the brake after the first loop was barely on when I rode it. I hope SFMM gets rid of those OTSR's on Revolution not to mention the dozen or so brakes on the ride that bring it to a near complete stop, but what's wrong with the trees? in my opinion that adds to the experience of the coaster, without the unique layout and the terrain and forest areas this coaster travels through, the ride would be much worse than it already is.

Although I love Superman more than other people do, I wish they would make a new design for it to make it more exciting, like make it go backwards, or have it where you are lying down on your back with your head towards the front, similar to Stealth seating, then it would be like a real freefall coming back down on the tower, (sigh), if only I made the choices for SFMM.....

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"I'm feeling skinny Tony" Lars- Heavyweights

I forgot to mention that there was only one person on Ghostrider checking the restraints.

As far as revolution, the trees may make it a better ride, but as far as looks go, it makes it look lke a piece of s**t

one person, time to write a complaint to Knotts. How the hell do they cross over on a PTC. Is the back row closed off or something? Are you sure you're not talking about Bommerang. I think there may be a staffing shortage because they are hiring and it is summer. i have seen 4 times as many ride ops in February on a weekday. Maybe they all went to PP and Xcelerator.

Was there stacking?

I am not sure how the guy was crossing over. I never really thought about that until now. My best guess is that he walked between cars stepping on the piece that connects theem. And yes there was stacking....and thy were only running two trains.

They've never been able to run three trains, they stack 70%(estimate) of the time on Ghostrider. Maybe they should switch to Gerstlauers, might speed up the loading time, unless they add seatbelts to those as well. The G trains might make for a fun/brutal ride and possibly shorter lines. They should also finish covering up the first drop entirely, no light, just a couple of bare bulbs that would turn off just as the train starts gaining a little speed(passes a certain point), make it like falling down a mine-shaft.

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Stopped counting Ghostrider laps at 100.

The shaft is there for the hotel which is right in front of the ride. I dont know why they didn't noiseproof the hotel when the bought and transformed it from the bena park hotel to raddison resort knotts berry farm. It is a good effect and doesn't detract from the ride. A covered drop would be intresting. Maybe for haunt.

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boblogone said:

They've never been able to run three trains, they stack 70%(estimate) of the time on Ghostrider. Maybe they should switch to Gerstlauers, might speed up the loading time, unless they add seatbelts to those as well. The G trains might make for a fun/brutal ride and possibly shorter lines. They should also finish covering up the first drop entirely, no light, just a couple of bare bulbs that would turn off just as the train starts gaining a little speed(passes a certain point), make it like falling down a mine-shaft.

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Stopped counting Ghostrider laps at 100.

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Yea, I know they only run two. Whta I am saying is that the loading times were so horrible, that there was stacking with two trin operation. It is an extremely long ride which is why I cant understand the stacking.

Don't you DARE put Gerstautler trains on my Ghostrider! I would rather wait the extra few minutes that the G-trains may (or may not) improve the wait time.

What is the real problem with Ghostie's capacity? Number of ride ops checking restraints, period. I have NEVER seen more than 3 ops doing this, but 2 is normal operation, TWO!!! That makes 14 checks per person, and each one also has another job. Load side has secondary dispatch, and exit side has to put the chain up and down at the exit stairs. Speedy mentioned peeps not wearing jackets properly, but that's another lame rule that I do not see at other parks, only KBF. It's almost like the management is TRYING to hinder GR's capacity.

[gets off soapbox]

BTW boblogone I have lost count of my GR laps as well. I think I am somewhere around 160-170. We must have seen each other at least a few times, right?

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Nothing... NOTHING... can prepare you for... the Fourth Dimension!

*** This post was edited by Soggy on 7/17/2002. ***

Actually It's almost always 4. I have never seen 2 attendents on a weekend until several weeks ago. 3 ride attendents is usually what I see on monte and Jaguar, but Ghostrider is their most popular ride. Capacity was HURT big time and I already sent them an e-mail. They also cut the ride op who used to stand at the entrance. All the ride operators went to Perilous Plunge and Xcelerator where there are a dozen ride ops (no kidding). They REALLY need more ride operators on Ghostrider. What ever happened to when there were 8 or so ride ops on the station platform. I doubt Knotts would scedule just one ride attendent on ghostrider. the rest of them must have decided to take their breaks. Maybe they can't hire enough people?