Six Flags Magic Mountain - 06-14-24

Back in Vegas, after spending seven nights in New York New York and not riding Manhattan Express ... I just couldn't bring myself to spend $30 on a beating, so I made up for it by tacking a weekend onto the end of my trip and driving over to Magic Mountain (4h each way).

The last time I was in the park was 2018 and overall we had a great day, however, the wind was unhelpful and kept Scream and Riddler closed. Additionally, Viper, Apocalypse and X2 were down for rehab. West Coast Racers was under construction.

As best as I could tell from checking things out ahead of time, Superman was likely to be closed, Wonder Woman was closed frequently and when it was open, was running one train.

A few random thoughts …

Operations & Availability – generally these were worse than my previous visit, a lot of coasters were on a single train. It feels like they are struggling to keep their whole portfolio running all the time. Whether that’s a lack of will, or a lack of people and resources – I don’t know – but there is so much on offer, dare I say it doesn’t really inhibit your ability to have a good time, aside from the fact it’s perhaps worse to see things closed vs. not there at all. I am very curious to see what Cedar Flags does with the line up – there is obviously too much stuff and SFMM is perhaps the most jarring with the CF ethos, some of their other parks less so.

Presentation - bits of the park are really quite beautiful with some really mature trees and the like, the waterfall etc. It does feel like a park of two halves, the front half is great - the back half is really just a mass of coaster track - but I do very much like it. The area around West Coast Racers, does feel a bit like someone playing RCT for the first time with the random stuff everywhere, but whatever, it sort of works.

Construction - The theatre that they closed is completely gone now, bar the concrete seating built into the hill – construction walls are up, I really hope they don’t put another coaster here, a dark ride of some description would really fit this spot.

Flash Pass – I opted for the mid-range one, between the heat (topping out around 92) and being on my own, I didn’t want to hang around in lines. The system works pretty well – but on balance, probably wasn’t necessary, with hindsight.

The RMCs … Wonder Woman – it was in fact running and as expected, was running one train. I think I preferred this over Railblazer – people complain about it being less chaotic and crazy than the prototypes but I think that worked in its favour, for me. The presentation of it is hysterically lazy – but it’s a solid ride and really adds to that mass of steel track in that area of the park. Twisted Colossus is one of my favourite rides anywhere but in the front car it was just about testing what I find comfortable, that airtime is nuts and a bit sore on the thighs - perhaps I am getting old. It was running two trains, which meant the chance of a ‘race’ was low.

The B&Ms … these are all pretty well looked after – the colours are very striking. Riddler (one train) was new to me, I think that is probably the best of the stand-ups that I have ridden. Batman was up and down all day so I didn't get a ride, I am curious to understand how much life these old Batmans have in them, this one opened just a few weeks after Nemesis which has been replaced piece by piece. Scream (two trains - walk on) was running great – but really feels like a sideshow with pretty low ridership, I think in part because of its location, but perhaps more because it’s just ‘one of the 20’ instead of being a headline ride elsewhere. Tatsu … I skipped, I know that might make me a lousy enthusiast but I am not a big fan of the flyers and that pretzel loop just isn’t for me – I hated it last time.

The Premiers … West Coast Racers was interesting, it has an interesting layout and feels like an ideal starter launch coaster – but I assume the height restriction doesn’t help with that. The crew on it were incredible, working really hard and shifting three(!) trains with ease. Full Throttle is one of the best coasters in the park, everything about it is brilliant. Of all the crap that they have replicated across the chains, why this is a one off is beyond me.

The Intamins … As I hopped off Riddler the unmistakable roar of Superman echoed across the park, I know the records been beaten, but I still love this ride (and I operated its sister ride ‘Tower of Terror’ back in the day). The left side was open, with the backward facing car – it got almost all the way to the top – happy days. Luther is a great drop tower, I don’t think my ride last time occurred at the same time as a Superman launch, quite disconcerting, more so than on Zumanjaro with KK.

The others … Apocalypse was a good GCI, a lot of pace, but a lot of vibration too – a single train operating. Revolution was operating a single train, the second (not sure if there is a third) was sat on the brakes, in pieces, full of bits that have dropped off the trees above, which made me think it’s been there a long old time. Goliath is so bizarre, it feels like a piece of quality engineering in so many ways - mega smooth, but how they misjudged the forces so bad is really quite funny. Battle for Metropolis is a great dark ride, with a nice mix of screens and ‘physical’ effects, all the smoke and the like was working, I’m a big fan. It’s crazy this is the only dark ride – a welcome retreat from the heat. Crazanity is a solid flat, but I guess, not very unique. I also hopped on the Magic Mover, a pseudo funicular it's hard to believe that is not only still there, but that it is operating. Most of the other flats were running as best as I could tell.

The Arrow quartet … X2 is a fabulous ride, not comfortable by any stretch, but just ridiculous in almost every single way. That said, I don’t think it’s surprising that so few were built - the cost and complexity has got to sting. It was running a single train and there was a wasp's nest below the station, resulting in a swarm every time that there was a (painfully slow) dispatch. Gold Rusher is a great mine train. It appears much of the operation is still pretty manual and the op demonstrated this by making the train bounce on the skid brakes when he felt like it which was bizarre and disconcerting. Ninja is a solid suspended, great location on the hill and nice interaction with the flume (which I skipped, because I was on my own). Viper was closed … it ran the previous couple of days (and opened the day after, I checked) – however an op told me that they have now decided not to run it on weekdays because “it’s not very popular”. Stuff being closed because they are working on it is annoying, but stuff being serviceable and closed is pretty irritating.

Sorry folks, Viper’s closed on weekends, moose out front shoulda told ya.

I didn’t take many photos, but here are a couple :

RCT garden

$28 dollars (inc. unlimited soda)

Like a Gonchar RCT park

.... but what about my current enjoyment ?

Nice day had ... who knows when I'll be back and how many coasters they'll have.

Headed there tomorrow (from NorCal), mostly for a second shot at Wonder Woman. How were waits for the normal plebs?

I think Wonder Woman was around an hour (there is no Flash Pass - or, there wasn't). Everything else was 30 mins or less, bar the flume.

I have seen on Reddit that X2 is now operating with two trains again.

Poor poor magic mountain. So much potential... the greatest thrillers ever built, Revolution, Viper, X2, Wonder Woman, all running at painfully low capacity. What's the point? Fix the mountain, please.

The new company is going to have their hands full, addressing all of the ops issues at each one of these SF parks.

In my only visit to the park in 06 I missed out of 5 or 6 rides, and it looks like things have gotten much better. But for what it was worth Knotts wasn't much better as they had several that weren't open and what was opened only had 1 train.