Six Flags Magic Mountain May 2013

[maxairmike]

I am officially back from my wonderful West Coast vacation, which was much needed and a ton of fun. Every park I visited I had a pretty decent experience for the most part (USH was a bit of a let down, SW San Diego had some operational quirks, but I still had a lot of fun at both), with the glaring exception of Six Flags Magic Mountain, the subject of this specific trip report. Going into my day at SFMM I already had a pretty good idea of what to expect based on pervious experience with Six Flags parks, friends who have worked for the chain, that park, and many other factors. Still, I was not wholly prepared for the - quite frankly - disgrace of a park I was about to experience. As a bit of a disclaimer, this was a visit on a weekday with school still in session at a slightly larger than regional park, and attendance that day likely didn't top a few thousand. However, the complete lack of service I experienced was staggering and unexpected, along with the almost nonexistent attendance.

My first indication that this was not going to be a typical park visit or a well kept park was the condition of everything in sight from the parking lot to the front gate, and the no more than 40 people waiting to get in (including my 4 person group). The main entrance sign/structure was rusty, paint was peeling...it looked very neglected and slummy. I'm honestly surprised there were no weeds and plants cracking the concrete, the only sign of any real maintenance in the area. Gold Pass holders get early entry perks at most of the parks, and we supposedly did here as well...a grand total of 10 minutes early entry to start walking to our first ride. I'm willing to give this laughable service point a slight pass because of the lack of any kind of real attendance that day, but if this is how it goes when the park is crazy busy...wow. The entrance layout is odd with that short stretch of food and shops before you are forced to make a right into their main entry plaza...that looked absolutely unimpressive this day with the fountains and waterfall off, no crowds, no employees in sight, and the massive construction wall that would make you think you had to walk the entire park to your left to reach anything on the right side of the park unless you knew better. To be fair, the construction wall is a large mitigating factor, but the three other passes I made through this area left me even more sour as I realized how good the area could look if only the water features were turned on, never mind the (again) obvious lack of regular and good maintenance (about to become an overarching theme of the thread).

Anyway, my new fiancé and I (proposed the night before) were off to the right side of the park after we found the opening to that side of park along the construction wall thanks to the recommendation of a nice local to avoid the rush to X2, where our first ride of the day would be Goliath. This woodsy/frontier section of the park was actually halfway decent because the lack of maintenance didn't really detract from the intended look. We arrived at Goliath at about 10am exactly to find ourselves the first and only guests so far, so of course we took the front row. Let me just say that Goliath is without a doubt that park's saving grace of a ride. It is intense, fast, and surprisingly smooth (with SF maintenance, I don't know how, but it is), easily my favorite ride in the park. We immediately hopped out and made our way back through the horribly maintained and seemingly abandoned jungle line and up the very, very long stairs where we took a spin in the back seat (there were finally 4 others riding in the first two rows at that point). I wasn't surprised to find a more forceful ride in the back seat, and had I not been more than a little hungry I probably would have enjoyed it more. Definitely a great coaster, making my top 10 steel list for sure, and surprisingly enough running two trains! But at this point we're both very hungry and thinking about food (we forgot to stop somewhere on the way of the hour and a half drive from the DLR area), but continue wandering for our next ride figuring we'll stumble upon something as we go. This was a big mistake on our part, as we passed empty food stand and cart after empty one on our way to Colossus. This was an ok ride, but were it not for the somewhat historic status it would be a very "meh" ride. After Colossus I hopped on Scream, which I was looking forward to as I have yet to ride a bad B&M. I got off having ridden what has to be the worst maintained B&M, ever. Kumba (despite my love for this ride, it is undeniably a bit rough) is 100x better than what SFMM's maintenance team has let happen to Scream. It is beyond bad wheels, it is just in flat out horrible condition. The layout is fine, and would likely be fun if I could have enjoyed a halfway smooth ride. Oh, and of course, one train operation. We continued from there up towards the DC Comics area and the Intamin Zacspin coaster Green Lantern. I was especially interested in this coaster as I had been following this ride concept since it first started making the rumor circuit for Cedar Point like 5 or 6 years ago. Both of us rode this, and both came off more than a little sore. It was interesting and even slightly fun, but the "transitions" are far from graceful and smooth.


I'll continue this when I return home later this evening. Food (and FunSpot if it stops raining) are calling my name.

 

[Hockeyman55]

my new fiancé and I (proposed the night before)

Big congrats buddy :happy:

- - - Updated - - -

my new fiancé and I (proposed the night before)

Big congrats buddy :happy:

We went to MM back in the summer of 2002 and spent a little over a half a day wasn't all that impressed either. I knew going into it what to expect so wasn't that disappointed. I loved Goliath but at that point X2 was shut down for some reason and didnt get to ride. Looking forward to hearing how the rest of the trip went along with pictures haha :thumbs:

 

[maxairmike]

Ok, now that I've had food and ride on White Lightning...

After our lap on Green Lantern we went to find food and meet up with her parents. On our way through the park we passed stand after stand that was still closed (it was around 11:30) and showed no signs of possibly opening up, even Johnny Rockets. We thought they were up by Superman, so we climbed Samurai Summit...BIG mistake! I'm in pretty decent shape, but that path took a lot of energy. We arrived at the top of the park's mountain to find an area of the park that looked completely abandoned...and no parents. So we tried to make the most of the climb by riding Ninja, which was surprisingly fun. I've been on several of Arrow's suspended coasters, and this one is easily the best I've been on. The turns are fast and the cars swing out to about 90* on most every big one, with a pretty fun and interesting layout. So far we have walked onto every single coaster except for Green Lantern, where we waited simply due to crappy operations, but the worst operations in the park are still ahead.

We got an updated location from her parents and headed back down the mountain towards Viper where we finally meet them. This part of the park, while old, at least didn't look too bad, but it could still use a whole lot of TLC. We decided on having lunch at Mooseburger Lodge, based on it having a regular menu and a buffet. The park is actually not as wide as it looks on the map or on Google Maps, which was a pleasant surprise, because our legs still weren't happy with the decision to walk up Samurai Summit. Walking into Mooseburger Lodge I was immediately reminded of the National Lampoons, but was greeted with the news that they weren't doing the buffet due to the low attendance (upon reflection, this was probably for the better of my digestive system, and also a very sensible operational decision). We opted for the burgers on the menu, and the Mooseburger at least filled me up without tasting bad or giving me issues later. As a "specialty burger" it is extremely underwhelming when compared against burgers like Confisco's or even many Red Robin burgers, but it was passable and a good portion so not much to complain about. The real kicker about the place was the singing moose heads! Yes, that's right, think Country Bears just with Moose heads mounted to the wall singing every about 10 minutes. Like I said, very National Lampoons but a little charming in an odd way.

After lunch we decided to work our way back around the park counter clock-wise. Her parents had been told by one of the Sky Tower ops that 12-3 would be the peak hours for the day and to expect lines during that time...I think that's when attendance hit maybe 3k, maybe. First up was Revolution, which I did solo. Many of my friends have talked this ride up, and it is a classic, so I may have had my expectations set a little too high. Still, I was very underwhelmed by the overall ride experience. It does have an interesting layout (not sure I would use "fun" to describe it, though), but few forces that I experienced. On to Viper, which was another solo experience (she doesn't handle inversions well). First of all...what in the heck were they thinking with that line!? Four entrances lead to four separate "sections" of the station with like two cars of the ride train for each section. I suppose this could work in some weird way on busy days, but on off days where they have no lines, no greeters (I'll talk more about this at the end of the report, I have a major issue with that), and no obvious signage about this it creates confusion and guests needing to duck under or climb over rails to get to their intended rows when they find themselves in the station in a row they didn't want. Viper itself was about what I expected, but actually a little smoother as well. Not quite Tennessee Tornado smooth, but smoother than most any other Arrow. The layout was pretty unsurprising because I've ridden Vortex at Kings Island several times and it isn't too different. It is different enough to be interesting and fun, though, especially if you've not ridden any of the other similar large Arrow loopers. Continuing around the park led us up the side of the mountain a bit to Tatsu (much easier than the Samurai Summit path), where I encountered the parks only "greeter" at a ride, but her function was more to keep people in the shade under the misters and out of the sunny stairs (it had been extremely hot the past two days for SoCal in early May, of course for a Floridian it was more on the comfortable side with the lack of humidity) than to greet and check heights. This ride had without a doubt the worst operations in the park that day. They actually had a line (waited about a half hour) but were only running one train with another sitting on the other side of the station. Why they couldn't bring it onto the course and just continue using one side like they do on Manta with the same amount of people I have no idea. Amazingly enough they managed to be noticeably slower at loading, checking, and sending trains than Manta's crew (sorry, but I get fed up with SW operations constantly, no hustle or sense of urgency). The funny thing is that they run around jumping on restraints but manage to be slower at the entire process. Anyway, onto the ride experience. If I weren't soured by the operations while waiting and loading I may have appreciated the experience more. It certainly has some great views, a fun layout, and saving the pretzel loop for the end was a nice touch. I still think Manta's is more forceful, but overall Tatsu is more intense, however Manta still tops it overall with the total ride experience.

So, I've encountered my first line and a taste of crappy Six Flags operations with a line...yep, my enthusiast life is basically complete.

Continuing around we ran into Apocalypse next, which even if you didn't know it was formerly themed to Terminator, it was painfully obvious. On a tangent, I don't get why Six Flags seems to pick up licenses for rides/areas and drops them just a few years later. Anyway, the line is still cool even without the Terminator license, which was a pleasant surprise after my experience with Cedar Fair and what happens when you drop a license (the disaster which was Tomb Raider still ticks me off when I think about what Kinzel and Co. did to that formerly great ride). They were running one train here as well, but there was again no line, and they at least stated this was running one train because the other was undergoing maintenance instead of out of laziness/lack of staffing (another note for the end of the post). The ride itself was much more intense and fun than I was expecting. Another great ride from the guys at GCI. The pacing was fast and relentless, just like Thunderhead, with some pops of air for good measure. The train pulled into the station with me wanting more, but I still had several coasters to hit and it was approaching 2pm, the park closed at 6, and I still had pictures to take (Hockeyman, you know where they'll pop up )! After Apocalypse we decided we would check out how wet people were getting on the lone remaining log flume at the park since we wanted a small splash but didn't want to get soaked. Jet Stream didn't appear to be getting folks soaked, so we hopped in the short line. The layout is definitely fun and interesting with a fast flow, but the flume did not have enough water in it and made for a rough ride since the logs are not necessarily designed to ride on their wheels through a majority of the flume. We got off with a decent splash but not soaked, exactly like we had hoped. Happy campers moving on to our next rides.

On our way across the back of the park we were about to pass Goldrusher as it had been closed earlier, but it was open so we hopped on and found...a rougher ride than we expected. The layout is interesting but not quite fun, and rather rough, even for an Arrow mine train. That's about all I have to say about that ride. Off to Riddler's Revenge! This was another one I was looking forward to, as I'm one of the few people who have had good experiences with Mantis (it helps when you know people running the ride, they don't mess with your seat position) and heard this was a much better coaster. I was worried that I'd get a restraint nazi that would put the seat in the nut-crushing position, and this wasn't helped when I found the seat and restraints refused to move from their highest position (I may be tall, but not that tall!). Turns out that either by design or poor maintenance that you really have to push down on these seats to get them to move, as the ride op checking restraints had to use all he had to move that sucker down enough for me. Again, one train op but there was no line, so whatever. Luckily the lax operations at Six Flags meant they didn't touch my seat position after I had it where I wanted, so no nut-crushing ride for me! The result was a very fun ride, definitely better than Mantis. If the maintenance team at Riddler is different than Scream's, they need to talk, because Riddler's ride was more what I would expect from a B&M! Next up was Batman, which I was also very much looking forward to. I've heard so many good things about this particular ride layout (though evidently the best version is a close call between SFOT and SFOG) and was hoping my expectations hadn't gotten too inflated. Nope, it was every bit as good as people say. It was unfortunately short, but tight, intense, and tons of fun. If I had more time I would have been riding this and Apocalypse a few more times each. However...the ride and line area's condition...I get that its supposed to be old, rundown Gotham, but things have devolved beyond that style of theme naturally and they need to clean this up ASAP. Time to go meet back up with the parents who were back at the front of the park, which also means...X2!

I was skeptically excited about X2 because of the extremely mixed bag of reviews I've heard and read about it. I knew I would be getting the rougher ride giving her the inside seat and me taking the outer seat, I was just hoping it wouldn't be bad. The best thing about the ride...the ride up the lift hill. This ride desperately needs some sort of leg restraint like on B&M flyers. Your legs flop all over the place, making for some bruised and sore legs/thighs after, which is bad enough without the absolute torture that is the rest of the ride. Sorry for those X2 fans out there, but there's no gentle way to put this, the ride absolutely sucks as it is with its roughness. I would rather ride Mean Streak for a few hours (or maybe even Scream) than hop on X2 again. The seat rotation alone is jarring enough, the additional roughness from being an Arrow and the side suspended seats swaying and bouncing just take it to torture levels for me. With that out of the way, there was one "adult" coaster left to ride, Superman. The loudest coaster in the park, also back up at the top of the mountain. I had completely forgotten that they turned both cars around to launch backwards, so that was an unexpected addition. It was fun, but just like Top Thrill Dragster you won't find me waiting in a line very long for this. The theme idea is cool, and actually somewhat well done, but it is back up Samurai Summit, and we all know how I feel about that area at the top of the mountain. After Superman all four of us went over to the Sky Tower, which I never realized was actually at the top of the mountain on top of being so tall before I got to the park. I was excited to get some pictures and great views away from the heavier smog and haze of the LA metro area.

The rest of my time (about an hour and some change) was spent taking some pictures, so all that's left are closing thoughts on the park, which I'll post a little later (probably tomorrow).

 

[hildyp0824]

any pictures you could share?

 

[KRAKENvsMANTA]

I went to SFMM for the first time a few months ago. I agree the park was poorly maintained. The whole place seemed dirty and old. And the themeing was pretty much nonexistent. However, I didn't visit the park for those things, I visited for the coasters, and they didn't disappoint. Sorry to hear your experience was unpleasant on X-2. Mine was quite the opposite. Smooth and simply awesome. One of the best coasters I've ever been on. Also loved Superman, Goliath, Viper, Green Latern, Apocalypse, and Lex Luthor(a 400 ft drop tower attached to the side of Superman).

With my screen name, it's no secret my two favorite coasters in Florida are Kraken and Manta. Needless to say I couldn't resist comparing SFMM 's floorless(Scream!) and flying(Tatsu) coasters to our's. Short and sweet: Kraken blasts Scream! out of the water. Better in every way. However I found Tatsu better than Manta. It lacks the theme, but Tatsu makes it up in height, speed, and intensity.

Looking for a theme park? This is NOT it. Looking for a thrill park with some awesome coasters? This IS it.

 

[maxairmike]

Looking for a theme park? This is NOT it. Looking for a thrill park with some awesome coasters? This IS it.

Here's the problem; even as a thrill park, it still has all the visual appeal of Old Town at night. Cedar Point and KI look look like Disney next to SFMM in the areas of upkeep and cleanliness. I grew up going to those parks for 20 years, and working there for a few. While I have developed an Orlando theme park bias, I still have a fondness and appreciation for a basic amusement park, but I also expect them to be well maintained. SFMM makes no pretense of even attempting to do so from what I saw. I actually enjoyed the rides for what they are, however my operations training and maintenance awareness have spoiled ignorant bliss for park visits.