davidm
Strata Poster
Re: Lagoon/Some Rocks/Frightdome/Scandia/Disney/KBF/HHN@USH/
Day 14 : Friday 16th October
So the observant of you will have noticed that I've positioned myself for a day at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
I've been here a few times before, the last couple of times (here 2011 and here 2010) even staying at the same hotel - if its not broken...
On my last visit, the zacspin was new but not running that day ; so with that and Full Throttle and the new RMC there was actually
quite a bit new for me today - so I was pretty much looking forward to this day. I really like the park as well, was the first big
US chain park I visited and its probably my favourite - don't get me wrong, theres a lot wrong with the place, but heck they just
keep building big coasters, how can you not like that?
Didn't take too many pics today, too busy riding stuff (
) really so my TR-ramblings will probably be a bit disjointed, but...
Usual big scrum to get into the place didn't bode too well for the crowd-level that day...
After getting in (took a little while) I picked up a ticket for the FrightFest event that evening - got the express option
obviously, think it was $30 - compared to the previous evening's front-of-line pass, a bargain!
Traditionally one should run to X2 first thing, I strolled though - meaning my Q started on the slope up to the station,
wasn't moving too quickly so I snapped some shots of Ninja while I waited.
Got into the building after a little while and Q'd for the front, but the thing broke down with about 2 trains to go - the poor
peeps on the one train sitting in the blazing sunshine on the brake run (not even in the station) for about 20minutes - I would
not have been happy with that!
Reopened after a while and I had my front-row ride - the first drop moment being superb, the rest of the ride rather scary and
chaotic - I do like though!
Wandered back down the front of the park to see about some +1s - the Q for Full Throttle was a bit big at that point so left
if for later - was denied by a number of kiddy creds too, so walked-on to the big car-park beemer Scream instead.
Felt a bit rougher than I remembered it, and that car-park themeing is still as ugly as ever.
Nearby was the real reason I'd planned to come here though, the very interesting looking RMC conversion Twisted Colossus.
I thought that there was a SRQ for this, but couldn't find one (and staff nearby professed ignorance) so I sucked it up and joined
the somewhat burdenous Q (40 mins I think, compounded by them on running 2 of 3 trains)
Asked the ride-ops about the SRQ - they used to run one, but it was too popular so the y closed it. Great, thanks for that.
There was some faff going on as I was about to board, so chatted to the ride-lead who happened to be the other side of the gate
that I was at (back row obv.) - quizzed him about why 2 trains and whether they could dual with 2 - he wasn't forthcoming about
the 2 trains (he said they would have 3 on mid-afternoon), but reckoned they could still duel a bit with 2 trains, easier with 3
though. He reckoned that there was a 1 in 10 chance of a 2-train duel - hmmm rather defeats the purpose doesn't it.
Had my ride - was a bit underwhelmed to be honest ; it was really smooth and fast, first drop really good and the elements good
too, but it just does one lap and then you are on the lifthill again. Without another train to dual with this really just kills
the drama of the ride - then you are off on the second lap, which again is good but just missing something. Shame. (More later
on this though)
Also new-to-me was their stupidly HUGE free-fall ride stuck on the side of the Superman tower "Lex Luther: Drop of Doom", I was
surprised by the negligible Q for this and got on in a couple of cycles - and this was great. Drop towers can freak me out a
little bit (if I let them), this one is just HUGE though and topped my previous "HUGE drop ride" ridden by 10ft (The Giant Drop
in Australia). Great stuff then!
I foolishly then joined the normal Q (didn't spot the SRQ - d'oh amateur) for Green Lantern: First Flight, this was
moving really slowly so what was advertised as a 15 min Q was more like 30min.
I'd ridden Sweden's version of this a few times and quite liked it, so was not really prepared for the horrible experience that
this version was. Really painful ride - ugh. Ride-op asked me if that was my first ride as I got off, I said I'd ridden the
Swedish one a few times and he asked if I liked this one too, I said no in fairly strong terms.
Wandered back across the front of the park, only to find Full Throttle was now down so headed on past up to Viper for a
quick no-Q ride then Tatsu with about 20min Q - Tatsu is a really great ride, only spoiled by the stupid pretzel loop
(IMHO), without that element and with a few replacement "swooping" / "diving" elements that made the most of its mountain-side
setting this could have been a real world-beater ride, as it is its "just" very good.
Luckily walked past Full Throttle again just as they reopened the Q and was on very quick - really quite liked this more
than I expected to ; odd ride though, launch, loop, funny launches in a tunnel, top hat, stop. Rode it again before the Q started
to build up ; weird choice for the park though, not very high capacity - they really must have been desperate to use that tunnel
for something I guess.
Had a ride on their monster coaster Goliath around now too - really like this one (and the Texas version I rode earlier in
the year) - its a bit unappreciated I think, its a huge thing and great fun.
Figured I'd give Twisted Colossus another go since the third train was now running - the Q was as large as it was in the morning
but moved quicker this time - much more bearable.
The station is quite nice - bit of steampunk themeing, some good signs. I don't recall much of the original Colossus station
though, being walk-on every time I rode it I think.
Same opinion this time as earlier - a good fun ride, just spoiled by having that extra lifthill breaking the ride into two.
Finally got around to the back of the park and had a ride on their old-school beemers, firstly Batman The Ride, aahh was
my very first Batman back in the day, still a great ride but the 5th different one of these I've ridden this year, so I wasn't
going to get too excited for it.
Almost next door to Batman (only almost as you'd think they would be in the same themed area really but you have to walk out
of the one area around to the next to get to it) is Riddler's Revenge, probably the best example of a B&M standup and my
favourite of that much maligned variety. This was walk-on too, so that makes it better as well, I recall being in a huge unmanaged
scrum in the station for this thing on previous visits here.
A quick courtesy ride on their old mine train Gold Rusher was next - not the best example of a mine-train, but fun
enough I think, certainly for its age.
The first time I came to SFMM after the next ride was built it was called Terminator:Salvation, the next time it had been renamed
to Apocalypse The Ride, this time it was also called "Shadows of Evil", something that made no sense to me whatsoever.
There was some themeing stuff in the Q line, I assumed something FrightFest related, but since this was still daylight there was
nothing going on...
And the stupid ride broke down before I got on, so after hanging around 15 mins I gave in and wandered up the mountain instead.
Some good views of Full Throttle from up there too.
Superman Escape from Krypton was up next - I had ridden this in reverse last time I was here but made a point of riding
the other side this time (goon) - was about a 15min Q
Seems Six Flags assume 3 blokes ride this to every girl - not very good there I think Mr Flags?
Now comes some sadness. :-(
I had this baseball cap for years that I always took on park-trips with me. It had seen better days but was still in use seeing as
I could easily stuff it in a pocket when riding things. However on this trip, it had started falling apart even more than was
normally acceptable and I had come to the conclusion that it was going to get thrown out.
So as the daylight was fading for the day and I no longer needed use of the cap for the day, I decided I'd leave it to live out
its remaining years in a place of honour, so I carefully abandoned it on an Intamin shrine at the top of the Magic Mountain. I
expect it will be there for all time now.
(this was all a _lot_ sadder for me than it had any right to be! :-( )
I tried to cheer myself up with a ride on Ninja, this almost succeeded since its quite a fun ride and makes good use
of its mountainside location. Only let down by that "lift-hill at the end of the ride" business.
The Sky Tower was not open, much like @SFoT earlier this year, no real explanation why apart from they can't be bothered?
It wasn't quite dark by now, but I noticed that the maze I happened to be near to was just starting to open, so I headed into
the first of their mazes ; Willoughby's Resurrected which was house in some building between Ninja and the
base of the Sky Tower. Can't say I know what a 'Willoughby' is nor what the idea of the place was but it was seemingly some
old mansion full of scare-actors, lots dressed as monk-like people. Maze was OK though, decent enough sets and enough actors.
Slightly down the hill from there was another maze ; The Willoughby's Garden of Darkness - whoever those
Willoughby's are they do seem to get around. This maze was presumably set in a garden, so the interior was all just fake foliage /
camouflage nets and the monsters all covered in leaves and stuff - different I guess but not really much variety in the maze
itself - one camo-net looks much like the next one I think?
Wandered back down the hill and Apocalypse/Shadows of Evil was back running, so had my ride them - the Q line looking much better
in the dark, but still no actors by this point. I think it was Call of Duty III themed too, but all of that was really lost on me,
I just rode the very nice wooden coaster and moved on.
I didn't have a FrightFest map (and no where was giving them out ; "oh they're at the entrance" they told me, thats no use is
it!) so I was guessing a bit as to where stiff was. However I wandered past a big Q of people outside the big stunt-show stage
between Batman and Riddler, so figured that was a good bet. My express pass got me in pretty quickly (there really was a big
Q by now) so feeling smug I entered the next maze ; The Aftermath. This was great - all post apocalypse /
zombie themed this was a huge maze ; partly indoor and then across the stage area of the stadium, which worked really well as
you criss-crossed back and forth across the stage amongst the zombies and general dystopian carnage, punters who were in different
parts of the maze looked like more monsters/zombies in all the smoke and effects going on. Really good maze then, easily the
best one at the event.
Found a sign that help my map-less self out, this indicated I should head back to the front of the park for the rest of the
mazes, so I did that.
There was a scare-zone set up near Twisted Colossus, but there wasn't that much to this (nor the other scare zones to be honest)
was a few scare-actors wandering around, but the area was quite large and not many actors plus lots of punters ; didn't work
anything like ones at Universal (nor in Vegas for that matter).
But since I was there, a night ride on the RMC was in order. Q was a lot less than my earlier rides in the day, and I rode
towards the front of the train this time (previous rides were at the back).
And this ride was different.
First lap, we hit the lift and there was a train on the other track towards the top - "ahh nearly duelling" I thought. But
the coaster gods (or at least good ride-ops) were smiling on me that ride, since they slowed/held the other train so that we
both hit the top at the same time ; duelling lap 1 - excellent, really made a difference on the high 5 elements and al the
near misses...
Lap 2 we were half way up the lift and lots of people (not just goons like me) were looking around to see if the next train
would join us on the lift...
..and it did.
..and it was good.
Very very good.
The second lap was just sublime, awesome elements, being upside down in the hanging bit lookup up (or is it down) with the other
train racing through below (or is it above) you was just fantastic.
So a duelling night ride on this thing = one of the best coaster-rides I have ever had (not kidding!). Non duelling, its all a
little bit lacking.
--
Three of the remaining mazes were all in a little group of buildings (think this was the old Flashback area?) near Full Throttle
so I headed up there next.
Did their Vault 666 next, which I had heard some muttering about being the most extreme maze - but I can't say
it seemed that much. Was themed something like a factory that was doing high-tech experiments on humans and animals so there
were all these hybrid monsters jumping out and stuff. Some of the set-pieces were good, actors doing their little scenes well,
better than the first 2 mazes of the evening then.
The Toyz of Terror 3D maze was a bit forgettable (in that I've forgotten it) - 3D glasses job, evil toys
and stuff - similar to the 'evil clown' mazes that are elsewhere I guess
Red's Revenge at least had a thought out theme - in that Little Red Riding Hood has "gone native" and become
the monster - so that was different, but to be honest the mazes here were all a bit too same-y I thought (apart from the
Aftermath one that is).
The park was looking good in the dark, they had some shows and stuff going on - but the problem with such a big park was for
me was that the fright-stuff was all quite spread out - to be fair the rest of the park was still all running though so unlike
Universal in that regard.
One last maze to get, but on the way towards that you pass by X2's entrance bridge - so wander up to see if theres a Q, and
there isn't much that I can see on the front side of the station, but I walk through to the other/rear side and there is even
less of a Q.
Walk-on X2? In the dark? Yes please!
Last maze was a little different I guess, Chupacabra was quite atmospheric rather than jump-out scary (still
had jump scares though) - 'Chupacabra' being some Mexican vampire creatures according to this maze anyway.
Wandered around the scare-zone near Tatsu - this was the better of the ones I encountered I think, lots of day-glo monsters
and the area was all set up with black-light effects and stuff
So that was it at the mountain - I only did the mazes once each and left around 9. The scare-event was better than I thought
it was going to be to be honest, but not really on the scale of Universal and the mazes at Frightdome were on the whole better
I think. Aftermath was very worthy though - for $30 upcharge (for express, why you would not get that is beyond me, the
non-express Qs were huge for the mazes while express was mostly walk-in, and there was only something like $15 difference in
price) was good value compared to the other events so glad I stayed for it (and the night ride on Colossus was worth it alone!)
Almost done with the trip then, just some gooning around in LA to come...
Day 14 : Friday 16th October
So the observant of you will have noticed that I've positioned myself for a day at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
I've been here a few times before, the last couple of times (here 2011 and here 2010) even staying at the same hotel - if its not broken...
On my last visit, the zacspin was new but not running that day ; so with that and Full Throttle and the new RMC there was actually
quite a bit new for me today - so I was pretty much looking forward to this day. I really like the park as well, was the first big
US chain park I visited and its probably my favourite - don't get me wrong, theres a lot wrong with the place, but heck they just
keep building big coasters, how can you not like that?
Didn't take too many pics today, too busy riding stuff (
) really so my TR-ramblings will probably be a bit disjointed, but...Usual big scrum to get into the place didn't bode too well for the crowd-level that day...
After getting in (took a little while) I picked up a ticket for the FrightFest event that evening - got the express option
obviously, think it was $30 - compared to the previous evening's front-of-line pass, a bargain!
Traditionally one should run to X2 first thing, I strolled though - meaning my Q started on the slope up to the station,
wasn't moving too quickly so I snapped some shots of Ninja while I waited.
Got into the building after a little while and Q'd for the front, but the thing broke down with about 2 trains to go - the poor
peeps on the one train sitting in the blazing sunshine on the brake run (not even in the station) for about 20minutes - I would
not have been happy with that!
Reopened after a while and I had my front-row ride - the first drop moment being superb, the rest of the ride rather scary and
chaotic - I do like though!
Wandered back down the front of the park to see about some +1s - the Q for Full Throttle was a bit big at that point so left
if for later - was denied by a number of kiddy creds too, so walked-on to the big car-park beemer Scream instead.
Felt a bit rougher than I remembered it, and that car-park themeing is still as ugly as ever.
Nearby was the real reason I'd planned to come here though, the very interesting looking RMC conversion Twisted Colossus.
I thought that there was a SRQ for this, but couldn't find one (and staff nearby professed ignorance) so I sucked it up and joined
the somewhat burdenous Q (40 mins I think, compounded by them on running 2 of 3 trains)
Asked the ride-ops about the SRQ - they used to run one, but it was too popular so the y closed it. Great, thanks for that.
There was some faff going on as I was about to board, so chatted to the ride-lead who happened to be the other side of the gate
that I was at (back row obv.) - quizzed him about why 2 trains and whether they could dual with 2 - he wasn't forthcoming about
the 2 trains (he said they would have 3 on mid-afternoon), but reckoned they could still duel a bit with 2 trains, easier with 3
though. He reckoned that there was a 1 in 10 chance of a 2-train duel - hmmm rather defeats the purpose doesn't it.
Had my ride - was a bit underwhelmed to be honest ; it was really smooth and fast, first drop really good and the elements good
too, but it just does one lap and then you are on the lifthill again. Without another train to dual with this really just kills
the drama of the ride - then you are off on the second lap, which again is good but just missing something. Shame. (More later
on this though)
Also new-to-me was their stupidly HUGE free-fall ride stuck on the side of the Superman tower "Lex Luther: Drop of Doom", I was
surprised by the negligible Q for this and got on in a couple of cycles - and this was great. Drop towers can freak me out a
little bit (if I let them), this one is just HUGE though and topped my previous "HUGE drop ride" ridden by 10ft (The Giant Drop
in Australia). Great stuff then!
I foolishly then joined the normal Q (didn't spot the SRQ - d'oh amateur) for Green Lantern: First Flight, this was
moving really slowly so what was advertised as a 15 min Q was more like 30min.
I'd ridden Sweden's version of this a few times and quite liked it, so was not really prepared for the horrible experience that
this version was. Really painful ride - ugh. Ride-op asked me if that was my first ride as I got off, I said I'd ridden the
Swedish one a few times and he asked if I liked this one too, I said no in fairly strong terms.
Wandered back across the front of the park, only to find Full Throttle was now down so headed on past up to Viper for a
quick no-Q ride then Tatsu with about 20min Q - Tatsu is a really great ride, only spoiled by the stupid pretzel loop
(IMHO), without that element and with a few replacement "swooping" / "diving" elements that made the most of its mountain-side
setting this could have been a real world-beater ride, as it is its "just" very good.
Luckily walked past Full Throttle again just as they reopened the Q and was on very quick - really quite liked this more
than I expected to ; odd ride though, launch, loop, funny launches in a tunnel, top hat, stop. Rode it again before the Q started
to build up ; weird choice for the park though, not very high capacity - they really must have been desperate to use that tunnel
for something I guess.
Had a ride on their monster coaster Goliath around now too - really like this one (and the Texas version I rode earlier in
the year) - its a bit unappreciated I think, its a huge thing and great fun.
Figured I'd give Twisted Colossus another go since the third train was now running - the Q was as large as it was in the morning
but moved quicker this time - much more bearable.
The station is quite nice - bit of steampunk themeing, some good signs. I don't recall much of the original Colossus station
though, being walk-on every time I rode it I think.
Same opinion this time as earlier - a good fun ride, just spoiled by having that extra lifthill breaking the ride into two.
Finally got around to the back of the park and had a ride on their old-school beemers, firstly Batman The Ride, aahh was
my very first Batman back in the day, still a great ride but the 5th different one of these I've ridden this year, so I wasn't
going to get too excited for it.
Almost next door to Batman (only almost as you'd think they would be in the same themed area really but you have to walk out
of the one area around to the next to get to it) is Riddler's Revenge, probably the best example of a B&M standup and my
favourite of that much maligned variety. This was walk-on too, so that makes it better as well, I recall being in a huge unmanaged
scrum in the station for this thing on previous visits here.
A quick courtesy ride on their old mine train Gold Rusher was next - not the best example of a mine-train, but fun
enough I think, certainly for its age.
The first time I came to SFMM after the next ride was built it was called Terminator:Salvation, the next time it had been renamed
to Apocalypse The Ride, this time it was also called "Shadows of Evil", something that made no sense to me whatsoever.
There was some themeing stuff in the Q line, I assumed something FrightFest related, but since this was still daylight there was
nothing going on...
And the stupid ride broke down before I got on, so after hanging around 15 mins I gave in and wandered up the mountain instead.
Some good views of Full Throttle from up there too.
Superman Escape from Krypton was up next - I had ridden this in reverse last time I was here but made a point of riding
the other side this time (goon) - was about a 15min Q
Seems Six Flags assume 3 blokes ride this to every girl - not very good there I think Mr Flags?
Now comes some sadness. :-(
I had this baseball cap for years that I always took on park-trips with me. It had seen better days but was still in use seeing as
I could easily stuff it in a pocket when riding things. However on this trip, it had started falling apart even more than was
normally acceptable and I had come to the conclusion that it was going to get thrown out.
So as the daylight was fading for the day and I no longer needed use of the cap for the day, I decided I'd leave it to live out
its remaining years in a place of honour, so I carefully abandoned it on an Intamin shrine at the top of the Magic Mountain. I
expect it will be there for all time now.
(this was all a _lot_ sadder for me than it had any right to be! :-( )
I tried to cheer myself up with a ride on Ninja, this almost succeeded since its quite a fun ride and makes good use
of its mountainside location. Only let down by that "lift-hill at the end of the ride" business.
The Sky Tower was not open, much like @SFoT earlier this year, no real explanation why apart from they can't be bothered?
It wasn't quite dark by now, but I noticed that the maze I happened to be near to was just starting to open, so I headed into
the first of their mazes ; Willoughby's Resurrected which was house in some building between Ninja and the
base of the Sky Tower. Can't say I know what a 'Willoughby' is nor what the idea of the place was but it was seemingly some
old mansion full of scare-actors, lots dressed as monk-like people. Maze was OK though, decent enough sets and enough actors.
Slightly down the hill from there was another maze ; The Willoughby's Garden of Darkness - whoever those
Willoughby's are they do seem to get around. This maze was presumably set in a garden, so the interior was all just fake foliage /
camouflage nets and the monsters all covered in leaves and stuff - different I guess but not really much variety in the maze
itself - one camo-net looks much like the next one I think?
Wandered back down the hill and Apocalypse/Shadows of Evil was back running, so had my ride them - the Q line looking much better
in the dark, but still no actors by this point. I think it was Call of Duty III themed too, but all of that was really lost on me,
I just rode the very nice wooden coaster and moved on.
I didn't have a FrightFest map (and no where was giving them out ; "oh they're at the entrance" they told me, thats no use is
it!) so I was guessing a bit as to where stiff was. However I wandered past a big Q of people outside the big stunt-show stage
between Batman and Riddler, so figured that was a good bet. My express pass got me in pretty quickly (there really was a big
Q by now) so feeling smug I entered the next maze ; The Aftermath. This was great - all post apocalypse /
zombie themed this was a huge maze ; partly indoor and then across the stage area of the stadium, which worked really well as
you criss-crossed back and forth across the stage amongst the zombies and general dystopian carnage, punters who were in different
parts of the maze looked like more monsters/zombies in all the smoke and effects going on. Really good maze then, easily the
best one at the event.
Found a sign that help my map-less self out, this indicated I should head back to the front of the park for the rest of the
mazes, so I did that.
There was a scare-zone set up near Twisted Colossus, but there wasn't that much to this (nor the other scare zones to be honest)
was a few scare-actors wandering around, but the area was quite large and not many actors plus lots of punters ; didn't work
anything like ones at Universal (nor in Vegas for that matter).
But since I was there, a night ride on the RMC was in order. Q was a lot less than my earlier rides in the day, and I rode
towards the front of the train this time (previous rides were at the back).
And this ride was different.
First lap, we hit the lift and there was a train on the other track towards the top - "ahh nearly duelling" I thought. But
the coaster gods (or at least good ride-ops) were smiling on me that ride, since they slowed/held the other train so that we
both hit the top at the same time ; duelling lap 1 - excellent, really made a difference on the high 5 elements and al the
near misses...
Lap 2 we were half way up the lift and lots of people (not just goons like me) were looking around to see if the next train
would join us on the lift...
..and it did.
..and it was good.
Very very good.
The second lap was just sublime, awesome elements, being upside down in the hanging bit lookup up (or is it down) with the other
train racing through below (or is it above) you was just fantastic.
So a duelling night ride on this thing = one of the best coaster-rides I have ever had (not kidding!). Non duelling, its all a
little bit lacking.
--
Three of the remaining mazes were all in a little group of buildings (think this was the old Flashback area?) near Full Throttle
so I headed up there next.
Did their Vault 666 next, which I had heard some muttering about being the most extreme maze - but I can't say
it seemed that much. Was themed something like a factory that was doing high-tech experiments on humans and animals so there
were all these hybrid monsters jumping out and stuff. Some of the set-pieces were good, actors doing their little scenes well,
better than the first 2 mazes of the evening then.
The Toyz of Terror 3D maze was a bit forgettable (in that I've forgotten it) - 3D glasses job, evil toys
and stuff - similar to the 'evil clown' mazes that are elsewhere I guess
Red's Revenge at least had a thought out theme - in that Little Red Riding Hood has "gone native" and become
the monster - so that was different, but to be honest the mazes here were all a bit too same-y I thought (apart from the
Aftermath one that is).
The park was looking good in the dark, they had some shows and stuff going on - but the problem with such a big park was for
me was that the fright-stuff was all quite spread out - to be fair the rest of the park was still all running though so unlike
Universal in that regard.
One last maze to get, but on the way towards that you pass by X2's entrance bridge - so wander up to see if theres a Q, and
there isn't much that I can see on the front side of the station, but I walk through to the other/rear side and there is even
less of a Q.
Walk-on X2? In the dark? Yes please!
Last maze was a little different I guess, Chupacabra was quite atmospheric rather than jump-out scary (still
had jump scares though) - 'Chupacabra' being some Mexican vampire creatures according to this maze anyway.
Wandered around the scare-zone near Tatsu - this was the better of the ones I encountered I think, lots of day-glo monsters
and the area was all set up with black-light effects and stuff
So that was it at the mountain - I only did the mazes once each and left around 9. The scare-event was better than I thought
it was going to be to be honest, but not really on the scale of Universal and the mazes at Frightdome were on the whole better
I think. Aftermath was very worthy though - for $30 upcharge (for express, why you would not get that is beyond me, the
non-express Qs were huge for the mazes while express was mostly walk-in, and there was only something like $15 difference in
price) was good value compared to the other events so glad I stayed for it (and the night ride on Colossus was worth it alone!)
Almost done with the trip then, just some gooning around in LA to come...
