Six Flags Magic Mountain (04/18/07)

So, I went to California for a week and hit a few parks there. The one I was most looking forward to was SFMM, as I had heard new management is turning the place around. Turns out they were right!

In addition to removing all the old rides, they repainted a good part of the park, rehabbed a log flume and are gradually rehabbing coaster trains. Viper and Ninja trains look brand new!

Everything except Tatsu was a walk on, yet, they still ran an efficient 2 trains operation on every coasters except Deja-Vu, Canyon Blaster and Superman.

The employees were great, food was very good (had lunch near Goliath at the indoor food place).

paid advertisement? :o)

Oh, sorry, I didn't see the memo saying I had to hate the park!

You want ride impressions?

Tatsu was running nice until the pretzel loop, where the train got a nasty vibration that gave me a headache.

Colossus didn't have too much trimming and wasn't rough. They had the right station open. The other track wasn't running.

Deja-Vu was horrible! The train shuffled and just banged its way through the ride. It also made the same sound as a dumpster...

It's great that you liked it, I also think that SFMM is getting too much beating sometimes, I somehow hope that things work out for the park though.

The last time I was there I found it pretty OK as well - the only thing that really struck me as negative at the time was not the park or the staff or the coasters or operations etc. but the people who go there... :)
Tatsu rough... wow... it was the smoothest ride I ever had a year ago -
I wonder what exactly it is that makes coasters this moody/vibrating, etc.
Deja Vu was also a pretty enjoyable ride back then (if you don't mind cobra rolls, which I somewhat hate)
What happened? Is it just different days or bad maintenance?

BTW they have single rider lines on many coasters that cut waiting times for single riders to almost zero on quite a few rides even on busy days.

I was at the park on the 17th. It was an absolutely amazing visit. The park was dead yet they had 2 trains on everything that can run 2 except Colossus. All rides were open except X2, which is still under construction. Also Ruth at the Cyber Cafe is the most firendly staff member I have ever come across, or maybe she just liked my accent ;-)

I went to Knotts the next day and several rides were closed, including Montezoomas and all costers had one train. And most annoyingly they only opened half of the park until 11am making the lines even longer.

Got my Play Pass processed in minutes at SFMM whilst at Knotts I had to wait 30 minutes and there were only 4 people in front of me!

I might post trips reports if I can be bothered, but SFMM was far superior to Knotts in every aspect except theming. Oh and Ghostrider knocks the socks off Colossus.

And wow - I never liked flying coasters much but Tatsu was awesome. Never found it rough but the Pretzel is extremely intense - I liked it that much I actually went and got a Pretzel from Snack n Shack.

*** Edited 4/25/2008 1:14:00 AM UTC by Grant***

superman,

I don't think Absimilliard elaborated about the "vibration" thing on Tatsu. One of the coaster's trains tends to have a vibration sensation at the bottom of the pretzel loop (oddly nowhere else on the ride) --- which can be a little uncomfortable since your head is plastered against the headrest during this maneuver and every vibration is felt on the back of your head. I've experienced this before, but it's not really painful and doesn't detract too much from the ride. The weird thing is, Tatsu's other two trains don't do this.

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Grant said:

Never found it rough but the Pretzel is extremely intense - I liked it that much I actually went and got a Pretzel from Snack n Shack.

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Hahaha.

With Jay Thomas running the show over there now, it doesn't surprise me that this park is headed in the right direction.

I just hope in the next few years they add a bunch of flat rides seeing as the park had very few even before they removed some this past year.

That's exactly what it was Kraxleridah. So weird it only happened there.

Scream was running really bad too. I actually got more whacks to the head on that ride than on Viper!

Deja Vu, Viper, Ninja, and Superman were all open at the same time??!! Is this post some kind of joke?!

:)

I'm glad to hear you had a good time. This might actually encourage me to go check out the park again. Seriously, I can't think of the last time I was at the park and all the coasters were operating on the same day. And with multiple trains!

X was down, though. ;)