USA Trip 2014 Park #2
26 & 27 Nov 2014
Ok folks this will be a long one, there are fourteen coasters to get through…
We flew back to LAX and then got a shuttle bus out to Valencia, home of Six Flags Magic Mountain, the self-proclaimed thrill capital of the world. This park has more rollercoasters than any other, and we had heard nothing but good reports about the standard of rides. Due to bushfires, we had to take a few detours and it felt like one helluva long bus ride (especially after we dropped all the other patrons off to their destinations first.) We finally arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn, and promptly got to know the pub across the road. The skyline of coaster tracks looked absolutely magical, and we couldn’t wait to get started the next day. We walked up to the park, once again arriving nice and early. As we walked in, Terror and I were both very impressed by the Christmas theming. There were human snow globes, massive tree and light displays, and plenty of fake snow. Being like Queensland, a Californian winter was like a warm autumn, so not much chance of real snow. To say we were overstimulated by the choice of rides was an understatement – it took some time to work out where to start. In the end we decided on a clockwise loop, and went for X2.
I had read that this was a 4th dimension coaster, but really had no idea what that meant. I can honestly say this is the first roller coaster in a really long time that actually scared the crap out of me. As we hung over the sides of the track on our separately rotation seats, my palms were sweaty. We started the ascent up the first hill, tilted backwards looking directly in to the sun, and it was freaking me out that the happy tune of ‘It had to be you’ was playing in the speaker behind us. Right before an epic drop, the song changed to Metallica screaming at us and off we went. Holy crap! We were flung every which way and the mixture of gut churning and head exploding feelings were intense. You can tell that Terror and I were both a bit scared, because our first ride photo of the day was completely natural, and we were both hanging on. It all happened so fast and I think my body and head were still trying to catch up to each other, so we decided we had to go again straight away. The line had built so damn quickly, and we waited over an hour for our second turn. Each coaster seemed to have a special sound or catch phrase to go with it, and all we heard for 60 minutes was XXXX, 222222 in a creepy whispering voice. I relaxed a lot more on the sequel, and really was amazed by the craziness of the set up. This coaster was simply breathtaking, but I wasn’t willing to put it ahead of Millennium Force on my coaster list, so it sat at number 2 for a couple of years until I rode Formula Rossa.
Coaster number two for the day was the Viper, which involved 7 loops. Normally that would be awesome, but having just come off X2, it felt quite tame! Number three was Tatsu, and this quickly became a favourite. This was my third or fourth experience on a forwards flying coaster, but this one took the cake. It was an intense coaster, and since I was lying down face forward, I had to work hard to keep the drool from coming out since I was laughing so hard.
Coaster number four was Ninja, which was just like Iron Dragon at Cedar Point (a suspended coaster except you were in an enclosed train instead of legs dangling.) I read that there had been an accident on Ninja a few months earlier, when a tree fell across the track and caused one of the carriages to derail. A few years back, someone had apparently been killed when they were hit by one of the carriages trying to retrieve a hat. Hey mum, I promise if I ever die because of a roller coaster, it will not be because I entered a restricted area. None of this perturbed Terror and I, so on we went for an uneventful spin. We had to back track a bit for the next coaster, as some areas of the park did not seem to have great access. Even though we did so much walking, I don’t think it helped balance out our calorie intake which was spiralling out of control with all the fun park goodies on offer (the nachos dude seemed to think we wanted our corn trips absolutely drowning in the plastic cheese??)
Coaster number five was worth the walk. Apocalypse was a mammoth wooden coaster that was super fun. We loved the whole set up from the queueing area theming to a beautiful track. Not quite El Toro standard, but certainly right up there! Can you believe we are ONLY up to coaster number five??
Number six was the Gold Rusher – a standard mine style little coaster. Tick, time to move on. The Riddler’s revenge (number seven) was much more worthy, as I hadn’t been on a stand up coaster for ages. I enjoyed the experience of flying through the loops while standing up. Number eight was the Green Lantern. This looked a bit like the Green Lantern at Movie World in Australia, so we weren’t expecting much. Terror and I bloody loved it though! We went on three times, and loved that such a teeny track could pack such a punch. It was pretty rough but great fun getting thrown around as you rapidly change direction. Pretty sure the majority of my ride bruises for the day were from this ride! Oi Movie World Australia, why couldn’t you have bought this model instead??
Number nine was Batman the Ride. This is apparently the world’s first inverted coaster, so I gave it credit for its historical value. Various clones are at the other Six Flags parks and I had been on a couple of these, so it felt pretty standard (and fun) for a suspended coaster. Number ten was Superman Escape from Krypton, which is basically the same as the Tower of Terror in Australia. The fast launch start never gets old though, so we were super happy to play along! While we were in this area, Terror made me go on Lex Luther: Drop of Doom – the tallest drop tower I had experienced so far. While Terror was pointing out various attractions around the park, I firmly fixed my glare straight ahead and just hoped it would be over soon – yep, I still hate drop towers.
Coaster number eleven was Scream, which was a little hidden treasure. It was just like Bizarro (which I did not recognise at the time), so I guess it doesn’t surprise me that it was pretty excellent with its combo of loops, twists, rolls and hills. We knew that the next coaster on our list was closed, but it didn’t make it any easier to see. I was feeling pretty gutted to miss out on Colossus, a behemoth wooden coaster which had been etched in my memory thanks to its appearance in National Lampoon’s Vacation. I had only missed it by a few months. It opened again the following year, as a wood-steel hybrid named Twisted Colossus. While I will never be able to ride the original, I will go back to try the new version in the future.
Coaster number twelve was Goliath. By now you may have realised I love steel coasters with massive drops (hello Millennium Force) so it was no surprise I quickly fell in love with this one too. Terror and I waited for ages to get on, and we were pretty annoyed at a delay just as we were about to board. A rider had vomited and so the mess needed to be cleaned up. I was curious to see if staff would get a hose out to clean the carriage, but they brought out a massive barrel of water and just dumped that over the seat, and then sent the empty train off to dry out naturally. We were relieved we didn’t have to ride the vomit carriage, and experienced no queasiness ourselves once we got off.
For lucky thirteen, we had intended to go on Full Throttle. The line was of epic proportions though, and had we got in the line at that point, that would have been our last ride for the day. So instead we went to Revolution which was the world’s first modern looping coaster. I can’t imagine how scary that must have seemed for patrons back in the 1970s, but for us it felt pretty rough and clunky. Never mind, we had plenty of time to get over the headache as we went back to the Full Throttle Queue for coaster fourteen. We hit the queue about half an hour before the park closed, and the chain to block off riders was closed shortly after. I felt sorry for the staff who had to stay a couple of hours past closing to get the riders through. Terror and I are pretty patient and creative when it comes to rides especially when we know it’s going to be a cracker. However we were really tested on this occasion. We spent about half an hour playing with a plastic water bottle, banging out tunes for the other person to guess. When that got old we played Disney Charades, and copied other guests who had turned to their mobile phones for time killing apps. One of the favourites was Celebrity Head. By the end we were actually getting a little cranky with each other, but soon realised we were just hangry. Yes, the coaster was most excellent. Two fast launches including a backwards section, a tunnel, and one gigantic loop that you rode under and over. It was actually a brilliant piece of engineering. Less than one minute later it was all over. There were four other kiddy coasters that we didn’t go on, bringing the total to eighteen for one park – a massive effort! We went back for a second day to re-ride some of our favourites. We splurged on a fast pass though because the queues were negatively impacting our sanity.
Magic Mountain captured my heart, and was one of the most enjoyable places I have ever visited. When we met up with some teammates later in the trip, I just kept raving about it to the point where they wanted to go to. So off they went, getting the shuttle just as we had. When they arrived however, it was closed – yes folks, Wally World does happen. I was devastated for them, and this was a good reminder for me to ALWAYS double check the park opening dates and hours. Since this incident, the park actually now opens 365 days of the year.
After day two, we revisited the pub for my first ever Thanksgiving Dinner. I’m not a big meat eater, but gave some chicken and turkey a try. The pumpkin pie desert could have been good, except that there seemed to be some kind of cinnamon sugar on it that made it taste like Dr Pepper. Friends have told me this is pretty typical. The staff were really lovely and both Terror and I felt for them, having to work instead of being with their families. It didn’t help that the patrons sitting next to us were actually really rude to staff. We tried to make the staff feel better and gave them a packet of Tim Tams. They were pretty chuffed, and gave us a free cherry pie to take home. After a few drinks, I had re-written my own lyrics to the Warrant version of Cherry Pie, basking in the glory of free pie. Needless to say I was feeling pretty seedy the next morning.
Another first the following day, was our experience of Black Friday sales. I am not a big shopper, but really enjoyed the experience at a local outlet centre. This was probably due in part to a game that Terror and I played, where each person had to try on and take a photo of whatever outfit the other person chose for them. We continually tried to one up each other with lycra, sparkles and every hideous dress we could find. We finished the day with a comedy show back at our favourite pub. Terror was thrilled as one of the acts was Rawle D who played Junior in Cool Runnings. He was actually really lovely to chat with, and his set actually got a few laughs, in comparison to the other comedians who were making jokes about how badly their sets were bombing.
After a magical few days, we bussed it back to the airport, and picked up another hire car to get us to Anaheim. Farewell Magic Mountain, place where dreams come spew true.
Roller Coaster Ramble 