SFMM & Knotts Trip Report

[Gazza]

So, I did a brief visit to both Six Flags Magic Mountain and Knotts Berry Farm.

 

Six Flags Magic Mountain

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-55-Six_Flags_Magic_Mountain

 

I was a bit crazy and drove here straight after arriving at LAX. Customs was understaffed and the auto kiosks weren’t working for anybody, so that meant manual processing and a 2 hour wait.

Normally I’ve never had a problem with SFMM, but it shall be forever tainted in my mind after my wallet was pinched there and whoever did spent hundreds of dollars on merchandise within a couple of hours. Get it together America and stop allowing signatures for Credit Cards please.

But the day started well enough, and it was much  quieter than I expected.

 

X2

 I was determined, above all to get on this thing again, since my last ride was shortly after the conversion.

A bit shaky but overall still a great ride. I’m not too familiar with the flipping sequence so that introduces a feeling of uncertainty when you ride since you are never quite sure when the seats will rotate.

The highlight of course is flipping  headfirst down the first drop before rotating onto your back. There’s also an airtime hill where you do a full flip at the top.

 

Full Throttle

The 2^nd big priority since I always manage to miss it.  Walking through the queue you really get a sense of how stuff get slapped together at Six Flags. What are they thinking?

After a short technical delay I was onboard. As far as launch coasters go it’s pretty middle of the road, the giant loop is cool, but the airtime hill on top is average, and it feels like it could have done more than just drop into a set of brakes.

The shuttle launch in the tunnel was a nice gimmick at the time, but is perhaps common place these days, and interrupts the pacing a bit.

 

Twisted Colossus

 Still one of my favourite rides…the dueiling, the crazy layout, airtime, inversions, it has it all , though I managed to have a sunscreen in my pocket that dug into my leg every time there was airtime. Ouch!

Justice League Battle for Metropolis

Another Justice League clone, but in acknowledgement that it is up against the likes of Universal, and perhaps due to a bigger budget at SFMM, this is the best of the lot.

The preshow rooms are much larger and more detailed, and likewise all the rooms throughout the ride have just been scaled up a bit.The preshow is quite similar to the one on our justice league, with Cyborg demonstrating the laser guns, but on this one he shoots at a lexbot rather than a starro spore.

They seem to have modified the ending a bit too, with a couple of huge curved screens back to back, like you’d see on Spiderman and Transformers playing out the final chase scene.

There’s a new grand finale too, where you fall off a bridge, but green lantern makes a hotwheels style loop of track that catches you (you drop onto it then loop around to slow down)

Heading up over the mountain, you could see that West Coast Racers was no-where near opening, and here we are 6 months later and it still isn’t. It looks like a good ride, but basically a launched version of Twisted Collossus right? It seems odd that they built it over the go kart track, and built a massive structure to accommodate this (Reportedly the most steelwork of any ride at SFMM!) . Would have been cheaper to relocate or re-design the go karts IMO.

 

Superman Escape from Krypton

 

I tend to make a point of riding this at SFMM whenever I go. It was running fast, making a decent height up the tower.

It still remains popular, the 30 min wait in the aircon was a relief actually…Can we take bets on how many years this one has to go?

 

It was shortly after this I joined the line for Tatsu, realised my wallet was gone, frantically retraced my steps, went to guest relations etc before calling it a day to sort stuff out at my hotel.

 

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Knotts Berry Farm

https://www.parkz.com.au/search/photos/location/park-58-Knotts_Berry_Farm

I was a bit blue the next day but decided to head to Knotts for a bit to go on some new stuff.

 

HangTime

 

This one is a Gerstlauer infinity coaster with a beyond vertical drop, and is pretty good. Unlike Abyss, you don’t just tip over the top, you actually are held at the top for a few seconds (Much longer than a dive machine) before dropping down.

A good layout follows, with a mixture of classic and modern elements, such as a non inverting dive loop, an odd shaped corkscrew and a cobra roll. There is also a cool moment where you come out of a cutback at high level but immediately speed down a drop (a bit like a double down) so you get some great air.

Voyage to the Iron Reef

 A pleasant surprise. I wasn’t impressed by Cedar Fairs first dark ride attempt at Canadas Wonderland, but this wasn’t bad. The story was hard to follow, but you’re  shooting various steampunk style sea creatures in some grey and dark deep sea environments. It lasted for ages too, one of the longest shooting dark rides ive done I reckon. Most of the sets are quite dark, so you do get a good sense of escapism on this one.

GhostRider

 This used to be quite rough, but regardless was probably many Australians first encounter with a contemporary woodie, so was well regarded for its wild nature. The ride now has new trains, and had some TLC from GCI, so now runs a bit better, whilst still maintaining its great pacing and untamed nature. 

Overall, Knotts is a great park, and a step above the other Cedar Fair parks in terms of polish, with actual themed lands and rides that seem to adhere to their zones. In particular, Fiesta Village and Ghost Town are real gems, though it would be good if the Boardwalk area did more to break up the expanses of hot concrete.