Park Review- Six Flags Magic Mountain

Hello peoples! So, yes this review is months behind BUT there are reasons for that. Most of which have to do with that no one wanted to write it, but since it was decided that I'm "good with the bad" here I am. 

Let me start with the obvious: we were not invited by Six Flags nor given passes so my opinions are my own. We did ask for media passes, but according to the park you need a certain type of credential that is given to TV and Newspaper reporters and the City of Pittsburgh does not require nor issue.

DATE: March 9, 2014

STAFF: +Carrie H.C., +Kitsune Hazard, and myself.

RATING: Broken heart

RECOMMENDATION: Until the MANY issues are taken of; it's a pass.

We started off our morning super excited for the park, we all wanted to do was ride X2 and Colossus.  As you pull into the parking lot you can see the coasters just laid out for the picking and see the fire effects on X2 going off.  We park, grab the cameras (no filming of ANY type is allowed on rides, so no need for the Go-Pro, or so we thought), and head for the tram.
We get into the park, set our plan for the day, and start out.

The first order of business is riding Revolution, the first looping coaster in the world.  As we walked up to the entrance you can clearly see that this ride needs a good cleaning, it is very very rusted.  The ride itself also needs some help because one of the ride cars didn't even line up with the station queues.  In summing up the ride: "Ow Ow Ow pain Ow."

After dropping some pain killers, and cracking joints back into place, we headed to Tatsu.  

This coaster is a B&M flying coaster with a dual load station and a queue that included TVs playing classic Looney Tunes. At the entrance everyone is given a numbered ticket so you can't line jump and if you leave and reenter then new ticket for you. So the wait was a hour and a half, but since we wouldn't be back out to California for a while, it would not be skipped. We played phone charades to pass the time when it finally kicked into our consciousness that we hadn't moved in a while nor had we heard a train move either. It had now been two hours when the ride ops finally decided to mention that Tatsu went down about 45 minutes ago and there was no ETA on reopen. We made the decision to continue on with our day.

Next came the "Big Hill of Death" so we could ride Ninja*. I think Kitsune got the biggest laugh watching Carrie and I walk up this hill, you really have to work for the ride. The theming that was left was wonderful; it was supposed to be a temple. But unfortunately this was also left to deteriorate, you could see where tapestries had once hung from the ceiling and the ones hanging on the walls weren't in great condition. The ride was fun and probably would've been cooler if the water effect was working.

We worked our way down the "Big Hill of Death" and over to their mine ride called Goldrusher.  While this surprising little ride was fun and very fast, the ride ops were distracted and not doing their jobs, one ride op was on their cell phone and didn't notice the couple in front of me that pulled out their cell phone, IN THE STATION RIGHT IN FRONT OF OPS! (trust me a few looked right at his big ass phone and waved), and commenced taping the ride. I spent much of the ride praying that the guy didn't let go and that I wouldn't get a face full of phone. When we got back to the station there were many, many unhappy words.

Finally it was lunch time and it was recommended to us to try JB's BBQ; which we did and it was really really good. Almost surprisingly so, which was a bit funny since most people seem to complain about the food, at least that's what some regulars to the park told us afterwards. While eating we adjusted our plans for the rest of the day.

Apocalypse: Down.

So we headed into DC land because Batman was running backwards...for season pass holders only.  You had to walk up the to ride line to find this out from the park employee; it wasn't posted at the park entrance and since the coaster is in the back of the park it's unfair to guests to not have that out there.  Apparently their stores here also only cater to the main four: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash.  With only the Joker as the only villain making a major appearance.  FYI Six Flags: DC Comics has a huge variety of heroes and villains...take your pick. 

I will give them some credit here because the theming was straight out of a comic book and with a little knowledge you could find Dick Tracy's office and other little tidbits mixed throughout the area. Definitely a nice touch to see.

After walking past Scream and vetoing it (we've ridden these types before so why wait and ride it again?) we came to Colossus. This where Carrie and I said "To hell with this" in regards to our day at the park. 

Now understand that it is a great woodie and was a fun ride, but there was epic line jumping going on and as people were leaving the ride station and even going up the ride hill there were cameras, cell phones, and we think a DS out filming. 

Kitsune pulled out his camera and got photo proof of the passengers going up the ride hill holding camera.  There was no way in hell that the main ride operator could miss it because there are cameras filming you as you go up the hill.  They just didn't care about it and trust me there was epic bitching in line about us being told no filming of any kind and yet this is going on.

This led us to go to share our grievances with Guest Services.  It was here we learned that X2, Tatsu, and Apocalypse had been down pretty much all day; Superman was off and on all day; and here was where we found the sign saying that Batman was closed to the general public.  The woman working was very nice and understanding, but she did try to brush us off regarding her employees actions until it was mentioned that we had photographic evidence from Colossus, which we gladly showed to her.  You could see the poor woman go pale looking at the photos, once of which you can see to the right.


She gave us exit passes, three for rides of our choosing (except Batman), one for Tatsu, and one for X2 (should they come back up).  We chose Goliath, Superman, and Green Lantern.

We headed toward the park's people mover: Orient Express instead of walking up the big damn hill again. Since Superman is on it's own platform the overlook is a hell of a view, but that's all we got to enjoy since right when we got to the ride, mind you again we had to walk all up to the queue line, before the employee standing there decided to tell us that Superman went down again. 

As we were walking away we at least told others so that they knew what was going on.

Since we were already in DC land we headed for Green Lantern, which is a weird little 4D coaster.  Seriously, look this ride up sometime and watch it because riding it is even weirder. The cars only seat four and we are three, I choose to ride with the group of three already in a car because it made life a little on the ride ops.  Lucky me I sat on the side the went down first and I screamed bloody murder, suddenly I'm facefirst looking at the ground.  Kitsune and Carrie have said they were in the station waiting to go (it runs only one car at a time) and I was so loud that they knew when I went over. This was a surprisingly fun little coaster and we are glad we picked it for a freebie.

We used our last exit pass and went straight to Goliath. I loved the ride entrance signage and theming and this was a wondrous coaster and we thoroughly enjoyed our night ride. 

I think the funnest bit with this ride was the kid that bullshited his way on with us, no Flashpass or exit pass just straight bullshit. It was very impressive to be honest but not something we endorse, get on a ride honestly.

 
At this point the park was closing down for the night and as we were heading out we had to walk past Full Throttle; Magic Mountain's new coaster.  Since most park close lines at the end of the day and cycle the riders left we didn't think we'd get on especially because there were fences up and security standing there but nope..we walked right past them and into the line. This was probably the most entertaining line of the day and none of us will ever look at Power Rangers the same again.

But, here again were ride ops and security issues because when riders would get off the ride they would just get right back into the now closed line. And it's not like they couldn't see it happening because the area in front of Full Throttle is wide open and people were running to get back in line with security standing right there. This was a great closer to a really crappy day because the coaster has a loop that it goes through, a part where you get launched backwards, and for the finish it travels on top of the world's largest loop too.

By the end of day we were disappointment all around and except for the bare minimum which we used for food we spent no money. None. We just wanted to put the day behind us and move on.

FINAL COUNT: Over the whole day a total of 7 coasters went down and stayed down or went down and came back up repeatedly. This is nearly half of Magic Mountain's coasters breaking IN ONE DAY!

PROS: The good was stated above where it needed to be.

CONS: Horrible ride ops, dirty bathrooms, dirty walkways, signs for stores that no longer exist, general employees who don't know their own park when asked for directions, foliage WAY too close to rides, general unsafety all around.

To close, we do not recommend this park until they get their shit together and clean up the rides, staff, and the environment for the safety of all involved.

As usual we try to find the bright side of things but Magic Mountain made this rather difficult.

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*Yes, we at  ISI have heard about the accident at SFMM and that's one of the reasons to get this out there so that people can see how much this park needs work. Please read about the Ninja accident here: Article 1 and Article 2.