Six Flags Magic Mountain
Valencia, California
By Mark Wilson
September 19 & 20, 2001
Wow. Season passes are one dollar more than regular admission!
There was one X
train sitting on the transfer track so I took several (walk on) rides on
Viper to get a good look. I rode once and saw no cracks. Rode again, still
no cracks. By the seventh time I had seen a train in the station, too, and
came to the conclusion that they were without cracks. I'm still a firm
believe that it's the roughness that's keeping it from opening, mainly the
outside seats. As expected, D�j� vu was closed Friday because of Six Flags over Georgia, but
opened up today around noon. I spoke to a pretty nice lady from guest
relations who told me that X tested every Friday at two, which goes against the
trains being torn apart. To my dismay though, it didn't test yesterday and
they wouldn't say why.
Goliath +2.5
My first ride since July was kind of a let down. It�s still a good smooth ride, but has
very little airtime. The first drop on this ride, although a ramp, saves it.
I still love thinking that my arms are gonna� get cut short when I have then up
during that tunnel. The midcourse doesn't seem to cut as hard as I remember,
has it let off at all?
Batman +3.5
This ride has been reviewed time and time again, I couldn't tell you anything
you haven't heard before.
Riddler's Revenge +4.0
In most seats but the back, this one can get boring in some spots. There are some great
uncommon inversions, though, and I love the whipping effect in the corkscrew loop thing
(what's this called again?).
Psyclone +1.0
Rough, noisy, painful - it must be a woody. I still think this one has better
camelbacks than smooth rides because they're less predictable (let that
terminology slide, after all it's late).
Viper +0.5
This hurts even more than I remember. No air, bad transitions into elements,
a curved drop. The only good part was the corkscrews. I only rode this
for the view of X.
Superman: the Escape +3.0
Good launch, great sensation of speed, and I love the uneasy feeling of being
vertical very high in the air. Way too short, though.
Colossus backwards +2.0
Once those conveniently-placed lapbars got slammed down by the ride op, I
remember why I keep telling myself not to do this - I wanna� have kids
someday! If it didn't hurt so bad this would be a great ride. I was luckily
placed next to a very hot girl who was just a year younger than me. All I
did was initiate a conversation, we got to talking, and afterwards I got to
see her thong. Very nice.
D�j� Vu +5.0
This was the highlight of the trip. No choosing seats, so of course I got
stuck in the middle, which turned out to be okay considering I was on one of
the outer seats. The lift was probably my favorite part. Of course, I
expected a bigger invertigo, but this goes above and beyond. As we start up,
I got the usually sensation of going into my restraint and soon I'm vertical.
We had gone pretty far so I expected it to stop soon but it just kept
climbing and climbing. The shadow let me know I was about to drop so I braced
for impact, praying I wouldn't hit my legs on the support tube just below the
train and off we went. This is for an invertigo. There�s almost no lag on the
boomerang or the loop, and before I knew it I was on the second lift. It�s a great feeling, knowing you�re about to go backwards vertically. Unlike a
Premier spike, you know what's going on and you have time to fear it. The
backwards drop and the loop went by fast, but the lag on the boomerang was
tremendous, and very satisfying. We went through the station and up the
first tower to get dragged back down. This one is definitely worth the wait.
Thrill Shot +5.0
I really lucked out on this one. Right now they're giving you two shots for
the price of one. I obviously took three and four (three being facing down the
whole time, four down on the launch and upright on the way down). I donned the
vest type thing which provides for minimal restraint and put the little rebar
shafts in their appropriate holes (if you absolutely have to take that the
wrong way, don't make a post about it). The first shot was great; I had my
arms straight out the whole time (I haven't white-knuckled since my first
ride on Millennium Force). The second one - it died. A little shot remaining upright. It
did it again about five more times before they got us off and shut it down,
promising us a refund of $10 or a second shot. I took the second shot, of
course, and got two more shots. I was seated next to a very nice Mexican
fellow, the kind who makes fun of you in Spanish with his "posse" (no, I'm
not racist). Fortunately, fear loosened him up a little and we held a decent
conversation before being shot up. I saw why they consider this one (we
chose four, then three) more intense than facing down the whole time. Near the top,
it rotates you upright, which provides for some great air.
Afterwards, I got some food, eight new shot glasses (I'm up to 20!), X and Deja Vu
keychains, and an X t-shirt. Well, it's 1:20 am, I was in a car for six hours listening to mom's gospel (no sleep), and I'm about ready to go run some laps!
Mark Wilson
UPDATE: December 28, 2001 visit (X)
I see no one else has posted about it, but I'm sure George beat me to it.
Yesterday I flew out to Six Flags Magic Mountain for a day and road X three times. It was amazing;
the movies don't tell much about it. Since the supports and track gauge are
huge, the movies make it look smaller than it really is.
X +5.0
As you drive down the road to the parking lots, it peaks out from behind the
hill to your right, and it is huge. Everything about it looks impressive,
especially the drop. I got there just after ten and ran to the line. Of
course, they wouldn't open it until eleven or so (they stopped us at the bridge
by Panda Express) and I was in line for a while, but I was within the first
60 people or so. When they opened it up and I got past the people checking
for season passes, I sprinted to the queue. The line divides into two; they
load two people per row from each side. The ride op directed me to the west
side line, so I went straight to the east. Over there, I walked right into
the station, and that's where it all ends. The loading process is amazingly
slow, I probably spent 45 minutes in the station, and this was in the
morning! I did meet a pretty nice guy in line, though; he let me use his
locker and we talked about other parks (he wasn't really an enthusiast,
though).
We finally got on and I took the inside of the far back row.
Instead of the floor lowering to get in, the seats recline for it to move and
go to a normal position for people to get in. As it rolls out of the
station and onto the lift, it rolls backward to almost horizontal so your
leaning back as your go up the lift. As you go up, you can see every coaster
in the park except Gold Rusher. You hear the train pick up speed as you go
into the roll over, and rotate forward. I would never sit anywhere but the
back or second from the back, because as you go into the drop, you kind of slide
backward into place and it is a weird feeling - weird, but a great way to
start off a ride. The drop is very intense, and before you know it you�re
completely upside down and going into the raven turn, finishing off the first
front flip. As your going down the second half of it, the seats rotate to
65-70 degrees (relative to the ground, not the track) and its a weird feeling
drop. Going into the camelback, you do another flip. The turnaround gives
you a second to catch your breath before the inline twist, but it�s really
not an in line twist at all because as the track rotates, so do you, and you
end up facing backwards. I expected a lot of airtime in the second raven turn, but it just rotates you to near inverted, then back to normal so your facing
forward, and then just before the break run you repeat the inline twist.
Words don't say much about it at all. Think back to your first time riding a
looper, the kind of out of control feeling, not really knowing how its gonna�
feel. After this, your not gonna� feel it again for a while. Everyone who's
got the time and the money should get out here while its still cold, by the
summer we're looking at four and five hour waits.
Mark Wilson
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