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Six Flags Magic Mountain https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/six-flags-magic-mountain Flight schedules from LA to Australia usually have you leaving in the evening, so it's somewhat of a tradition for me to do one of the parks there for a last hurrah before jumping on a plane back to Aus. I hadn't been here since 2019, and my last visit was kind of shit because my wallet was stolen. This visit was much better, with cool autumn weather making for a quiet park where most rides had short waits. The rides are good, but man they know how to be irritating. Parking at the park now costs a whopping $40 USD, which is just taking the piss. As has been publicised, the park has several ride closures at the moment. Superman, Ninja, X2 all closed and Scream didn't open in the time I was there. I wasn't too miffed since I was here to ride the new stuff and wasn't going to be at the park long enough to do everything anyhow, but still, wouldn't have minded doing Superman before it goes the way of TOT2. The new stuff I was interested in was West Coast Racers, which missed its 2019 opening date last time I was there, and then proceeded to be further delayed by Covid. There's also Wonder Woman Flight of Courage, which to be honest was the main reason I was visiting because I was really keen to get on one of these Raptor coasters and all the others are less convenient to visit..... Got there at opening and headed to Wonder Woman. Closed for technical difficulties with a guy out the front, so it was off to West Coast Racers instead. The queue line is supposed to look like the Workshop of West Coast Customs but I think maybe the theming was too light on, so you lost that vibe of a bustling workshop, but the ride certainly makes up for it. Once you contort yourself into the Premier trains, a launch sends you into a high 5 element, which was surprisingly snappy and maybe borderline uncomfortable. You then bank around into a zero g stall, with the other track doing a little hump underneath. For the best views of these dueling moments, definitley sit in the back. There's another launch following the stall, where you do an enormous corkscrew in parallel with the the other track. The next section of the ride is probably the most true to theme, with two helices in a figure 8 configuration allowing you to look across at the other train. The tracks cross over from outside to inside, so you get to see the other train seemingly pull ahead then fall behind. A couple more turns and the track goes back into the ride building, where you stop for a moment while they dick around and load the other train. There's a screen next to you where a guy says "we are just doing some adjustments to your car right now" , with associated sound effects of rattle guns and tools coming from below. The train then launches, and its the same layout again, though right at the end you do one extra corkscrew over the other track. Overall, it's a great ride. Well paced, interesting elements, very good dueling, and at leas you are guarunteed to get it unlike on Twisted Collossus, where it really comes down to the speed of the crews. At that point Wonder Woman still wasn't open, so I went around and rode a few other favourites, some of which I haven't done in years since it seems every visit I do to SFMM is only a part day. Apocalypse was running very well, having clearly been retracked in many sections. A real beast of a wooden coaster, and decently long too. The layout ducks and weaves constantly, giving it a real elment of surprise. Tatsu is as good and intense as ever, but the less said about the new colour scheme the better. Haven't done Riddlers Revenge in a while, and yeah the old stand up seats are nothing on the new surf coaster seats, but that all said, I forgot how bloody long this coaster was. After the mid course brakes its just endless turns, and quite a bit of track between the two corkscrews. Still a solid ride, and the station music is "unforgettable" Batman surprisingly felt less intense than usual. Cold weather? Kept checking back on Wonder Woman. You could see maintenance staff working on the transfer track, so at least it was looking like it would open at some point. Justice League has 2d on the screens now instead of 3d, so 3d glasses are no longer given out. A double edged sword since it means everything is a bit brighter and easier to see, but a shame they couldn't keep the 3d going. During my run it kind of crapped out halfway through the cycle and stopped, so a couple of scenes were just frozen with the car wiggling away, but it did get itself back in sync for the final scene. Also did Lex Luthor Drop of Doom. The lap bar type harnesses make this one feel a little more exposed than GD. Finally, trains started cycling on Wonder Woman, so I parked myself near the ride. In a true Six Flags moment, they wouldn't let people form a line outside the ride, they would tell people "oh you cant wait here", so instead it became a bit of a rabble of people just waiting everywhere, which of course became a bit of a stampede when it finally did open. Why on earth was this preferable for them? The queue is themed like a museum about the Amazonians. Had to laugh at the random kangaroos on the map of Thermyscira Fortunately I got on quite quickly first time around and ended up in the very back seat. First impressions, solid coaster, but perhaps lacks the "WTF holy crap this is wild" sensation you get on the flagship RMCs. It was a bit more intense than Big Dipper but not that much moreso. I would put it on par with something like a good Gerst Infinity coaster. Less shaky than Big Dipper too, but it still shakes a bit, so it must be an unavoidable aspect of these little single person car coasters. The first drop genuinley kicks ass, as does that cool dive loop element with a twist at the top. (Reminded me a bit of the way you are flicked around on the non inverting loop on Rivals) The rest of the ride is stuff like zero g rolls and airtime hills all in a long line, which sounds good on paper, but perhaps lacks a little personality since its a bit formulatic and you can see it all coming up in a row. The elevated turnaround was something I had been wondering about since it looks crazy fast on videos and I was thinking you'd be thrown around like a ragdoll, but it was perfectly comfortable. I went around for a 2nd lap, and by that point the queue had expanded to an hour, so waited it out and got a seat in row 4. Up front the first drop isn't as good but the other elements seem to work bettter, so swings and roundabouts. Final impressions, decent ride, but imo the visual appearance of the ride is it's gimmick and the ride experience was really no better/worse than an equivalent coaster of similar size. Perhaps the linear layout doesn't really give the ride a chance to shine....If my experience on Big Dipper taught me anything, it is that weaving and quick transitions is what makes these single rail things most interesting I would be interested to try RailBlazer or the Wonder Woman at SF Fiesta Texas since apparently the prototype raptors are more intense.

So, another year, another pilgrimage to the US to visit family, visit theme parks, and visit cities I haven’t been to. The past couple of years were about visiting a few big parks that are in locations difficult to access without a hire car (Which is expensive up until you turn 25, hence I had been to other places like the parks in SoCal and Orlando in visits prior. This year was all about picking off the last few major parks in the US that I still had ambitions to visit....At this point now I’d say I’ve done all the ones I’m really interested in. I think its only really Lagoon and Kennywood that im somewhat interested in visiting, but I’m not falling over myself, and I think I want to start chipping away at parks in Europe and Japan next The first park however of the trip was Six Flags Magic Mountain. It was a bit of a crazy mission...My flight landed at 7am, and the park opened 10:30. I didn’t have any intention to do a full day since I figured I’d tire out (Which turned out to be true since I didn’t sleep on the plane) and I really just wanted to go in to ride Twisted Colossus and New Revolution. SFMM I’ve done a few times and I’m a bit lazy when I go (I think the last time I rode X2 was about 3 visits ago lol)...I should really pencil in a proper full day at some point. Ended up staying till about 4pm.I had to get a sim card and shops only open at 10 in the US, which meant I couldn’t get to the park early and do a dash for the first couple of rides to avoid the queues. I headed straight to Twisted Colossus. http://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/ride-2444-Twisted_Colossus Only a short wait. The queue is full of fanciful steam punk contraptions, faux steam pipework (In other words Home Depot PVC pipe painted bronze) etc. The duelling of the ride depends on how well guests load in, and operators will say “If you want to race the other train, you have 30 seconds to board”. From the station to the lift you go over a trick track with several small humps and twists. The long train carries a bit of momentum and doesn’t lose speed, so you get bucked around a bit, and it sets the tone for the ride. Pulling onto the lift the other train completing its lap on the other track pulls in parallel, and the lifts adjust speed so you go over the top of the hill together. The first drop is crazy in true RMC style, very steep, and keeps getting steeper so feels very out of control and you are flung out of your seat. From there is a low to the ground “speed hill” with a quick moment of airtime, and then you go uphill to the turnaround (more air again...a recurring theme basicaly at the top of any hill or drop or incline...they squeeze in moments of air wherever they can it seems) The high 5 that follows (the two track bank 90 degrees in towards each other) is pretty cool, but not that close together. The track drops again, into a great visual moment where you go over an airtime hill, with the other track travelling upside down overhead...Sure beats the dueling moments they had on Dragon Challenge at IOA! You then head into a zero g roll, with the other track underneath...again, another great dueling moment, with only a bit of low clearance netting separating the upside down and right way up tracks. You then cruise up a double-up, and are flung around a wild outward banked turn that flings you out of your set. Awesome because its actually done at full speed, so completley different feeling to an El Loco. The track drops around and changes colour from blue to green as you line up for the 2nd lift and round too. Drop and hill are just as good the 2nd time around. The high 5 is even crazier because the track has to reverse bank back and forth to get itself lined up to be banking towards the other one, so heaps of twisting the train negotiates effortlessly. After this is the top gun stall, which is probably my new favourite inversion, similar to a zero g roll, basically you twist over, and the track follows a long inverted arc that is just enough to hold you in your seat, before twisting back upright from the way you came. One last airtime hill under the other track, the double up,and then you turn down into a 2 part brake run a bit like the one on jet rescue. Wow, its easily one of the worlds best coaster, perfect mix of airtime, speed, inversions, and I really think racing coasters are great fun and there should be more of them. I immediately went for another lap. After that I did a quick single rider queue lap on Green Lantern . Just as limit pushingly intense as I remembered, with unusual forces because of the way it goes backwards, then immediately forwards down the drops. On the final hill I got a double flip too! I then stuck out the 90 minute queue for New Revolution, to see what the fuss was all about with VR. The wait sucked balls, a major humanitarian disaster with limited shelter and no water. SFMM were missing out on free money by not having a roving vendor selling cold drinks to people waiting, so they have no right to complain if their per cap figures are deficient. If you want to ride it without VR the quickest way would be via the single rider queue. The trains are basically very patriotic. SF seem to be really playing to their local market with this sort of theming on a few recent additions. But dispatches are still very slow, and they give too much capacity over to Platinum flashpass users. Once you are onboard, you loop a lanyard around your neck, rotate a click ring on the back of the plastic head strap to tighten, then tighten a cord under you chin. Each seat has a QR code in front of it, and you look down at your feet then bring your head up gradually till the camera on the samsung spots the QR code, and cues the correct footage for your seat (Since obviously the back seat will go over the top of drops faster than the front seat, so the footage compensates for that. The graphics itself were pretty PS2, but the concept itself wasn't bad. It was basically an independence day knock off, flying around a city fighting alien spacecraft, dodging falling skyscrapers, diving under freeways. In a nod/knock off of the original movie, when you do the vertical loop, you do it under the primary weapon of the mother ship, so have a chance to deliver a shot straight up when the track goes vertical. VR is a cool concept, but i think they really need to work on a better way of doing operations, say with multiple preshow rooms where they can get guests sorted, rather than handing out headsets as you walk into the station and explaining individually in an ad-hoc manner. Even TVs in the queue with instructional videos to hammer in the process over the 90 minute wait would help right? I think VR could work on a purpose built coaster better too...You could basically build a kiddy coaster but make it feel like you are going 100km/h. I was getting a bit tired and hot, so did one last lap on Twisted Collosus for the day, and got a perfect duel with both trains neck and neck. The only dampener was that the ride broke down whilst i was in the queue, and when it was up and running again they kept letting flashpass people through, rather than halting that temporarily (or at least holding them for a few minutes), they should have focused on clearing the people towards the front of the standby queue who had waited patiently through the breakdown. Overall, both solid experiences (Though Twisted Collosus way ahead!). In future I'll have to make sure im well and truly early at SFMM to have a better day.

From what I can see it looks like a tree fell on the track and the front car derailed. Typical Media making out that every coaster is a death machine now. http://abc7.com/news/magic-mountain-ride-accident-at-least-4-hurt/166567/

I'm heading over to the USA in a couple weeks time, and visiting the parks in California and Florida. I've got 1 day at Magic Mountain, and the plan is to hit the park on a Saturday (off season). On top of being a Saturday, apparently there is going to be a junior cheer leading meet at the park on that day :/ So I'm seriously considering a Flash Pass. Has anyone had experience with the Flash Passes at SFMM? Is the Gold Pass good enough, or should I seriously consider buying a Platinum pass to make the most of my day? Other than that, are there any general tips/tricks/thoughts on how to tackle the park when I get there? Unmissable rides, other than X2?