Six Flags Magic Mountain

Visited: February 11, 2023

Attending: Brian, Buzzed Bars Coaster Club

Attending a Stumble is always a special experience, and this one was the biggest Stumble yet, with over 100 members attending. Which is great, because Magic Mountain is a massive park with a lot for enthusiasts to do. Most of the club got up early, had some breakfast at the Hampton Inn, and headed over to the park for our early admission…and then waited in line at the parking gate, because there was some sort of communications mix-up, and they didn’t know how early we were coming. It was a gorgeous day with a crystal-blue sky, so many of us took advantage of the opportunity to get photos of X2, because the best place to photograph that ride is from outside the park. Eventually they let us in, we did the long hike up from the parking lot, and then stood around some more at the entrance while we got our lanyards organized, but it was worth it, because we were promised some sweet ERT.

West Coast Racers

We were hoping for ERT on X2, so of course it wasn’t running right away. But West Coast Racers was, which makes a reasonable backup. Some folks hadn’t been to Magic Mountain in a few years, so Racers was a +1 for them. We zipped through the queue, which was kind of a shame because it’s nicely themed…but I don’t think anybody really cared all that much. Racers is a tricky ride to evaluate, because it’s fairly unique. It’s not very tall, and the two individual sides aren’t all that long. There’s not much airtime, just a little pop right at the start. The launches aren’t particularly forceful; they’re just normal Premiere launches, although I like the second one. The thing about Racers is, well, the racing. If you’ve got friends on the other train, you’ll have fun waving at them, especially on the helixes. And since Buzzed Bars were basically the only people there, there was a lot of taunting. And a lot of mocking of the comfort collars, because they’re totally unneeded. I’m pretty sure I went around once with Eric, and maybe a second time? Not exactly sure. This is one of those where you just do it for fun, not for the coaster itself.

Apocalypse

Apocalypse was the only other thing that was open at that particular moment, and it’s right nearby, so some of us popped over there. Not really enough to fill a train, but some of us. Mostly we talked about whether we’d ridden it before, and what we thought of it at the time. Because I don’t think much of anybody rides this anymore. I liked it when it was new, because GCI twister models were a new thing, but this one really isn’t the best. It doesn’t have much in the way of drops, so it doesn’t carry enough speed to make the twisters worthwhile, at least not in the morning when it’s running cold. So we rode it, and that was about all, because we quickly got the call to head to…

X2

We had a fair number of folks who’d never been to Magic Mountain before, and X2 was probably the top of their list of rides to experience (with a couple of close seconds we’ll get to). Grabbing some remaining ERT with X2 open was a real thrill for them. For all of us, really, because I don’t get to ride X2 very often. As I’d promised long ago, I rode with Bryant, back car, left side. I let him have the inside, because that’s usually preferable. I particularly enjoyed the view from the lift, because it was a gorgeous, clear day. I believe it was running fairly well, possibly a little slower than I’d experienced in the past; I’d never ridden it at the start of the day before. I was particularly pleased that I remembered to brace myself on the final raven turn, and therefore didn’t suffer the whack to the back of the head that I’d experienced before. Bryant was thrilled with the whole experience, and wanted to immediately go again from the front. Personally, I haven’t found the front row to be all that much different; the sensation of dropping face-first that I always expect just hasn’t been there. I opted for another back-row ride, this time on the inside. Oddly, during the flip just before the drop, I did get a straight-down view this time that sticks in my memory. I’m not sure how I’d never noticed before. After successfully navigating the raven turn again, I figured I’d probably pushed my luck sufficiently, and I decided to relinquish the back row to other folks who hadn’t had the chance before. The club members reacted as I’d hoped they would, mostly with expressions of shock and awe. I learned this time around that if you tuck your head down just before the last raven turn, you can avoid the head-whacking that I’d experienced before. X2 provides some reasons to be cautious, so it’s not at the very top of my list, but it did jump up a few notches with this reride.

Backstage tour

At this point we headed over toward the Gotham City section of the park for our next big treat: a backstage tour with the head of the coaster maintenance department. Maybe not so much “backstage tour,” but a good look around the “cycle shop,” which is apparently where they refurbish trains. There was a brand-new train for Full Throttle, fresh off the boat and still undergoing its initial inspection. There was also a B&M train from Scream with all the cars completely separated. Although they told us that B&M trains are easy to maintain, it looked like this one had accumulated a lot of crud. There was also one of the cars from Superman, which was getting a tune-up before going back onto the track facing backwards, which was a neat little preview. They let us take as many photos as we wanted, and the maintenance lead was happy to tell stories and answer some questions that got progressively more detailed. It doesn’t get much more enthusiast than that, so most of us enjoyed it immensely. We even took advantage of the opportunity to hang around outside the shed and get photos from angles that are normally unavailable to the public. One unfortunate thing we learned was that Twisted Colossus was down, and expected to be so for several days. Since we heard that from the most reliable source, we had no reason to doubt it, but it was kind of a bummer.

Wonder Woman

Once we exited the backstage area, we were very close to Wonder Woman. For those of us who’d been to Magic Mountain before, this was a +1 that we needed to get. There was a good bit of anticipation around this one, as some of us had ridden Jersey Devil, others had ridden the various small raptors, and some of us none at all, so there was a wide range of experience. Personally, I didn’t expect much. Jersey Devil is decent, especially when it’s running fast, but it’s in the lower tier of RMCs. I also didn’t think much of the claim that Wonder Woman is taller and longer than Jersey Devil, because it’s only the orientation of the station that makes it longer. Except oops, I was wrong about that. The extra curve to get back to the station is a long, sweeping banked curve over the entrance plaza, which is really a lot cooler than the Jersey Devil version. Other than that, the two rides are fundamentally the same, down to the slightly uncomfortable trains. The club took advantage of the theme to have an “all women” ride, which I thought was great, and a “big guys” ride to maximize the weight of the train. I didn’t qualify for either, but it looked like everybody had fun.

After that, we headed over to the picnic area near the entrance for lunch provided by the park. It was nice, but probably the least popular of the perks we were treated to.

Superman Escape from Krypton

After lunch, I headed over to Superman with Larson, Blake, and a few other folks. I didn’t have a huge love for Superman last time I rode it, but it is a milestone coaster, and specifically, only the left side was open. (We’d just seen the right-side car up on blocks, after all.) Even better, the left side was running facing forward, which I hadn’t experienced before. By at least a couple of standards, I could count that as a new credit, but I choose not to. The queue took nearly forever, because Superman isn’t an easy ride for ops, but also there seemed to be an unusual number of oversized guests who needed to do the walk of shame. I ended up in the back row, not that it really mattered. The launch isn’t terribly forceful, because of the LIMs, but it is long, and eventually you’re going pretty fast. The forwards experience was…fine. Facing forward, you can see just how far up the tower you don’t go, which was considerable. I doubt we crossed the 300-foot mark. I very much prefer the backward view. That was interesting to have done, but I have no need to go around again.

Ninja

Blake hadn’t been on Ninja before, and he wanted the credit, so I offered to go over there with him and Carl. It was far enough into the afternoon that crowds had started to arrive. Ninja is another ops-intensive ride, and it caters to families, so the line was fairly long. It was a bit more fun than I remembered, but not a ton. It’s better by far than Iron Dragon, but a shade below the Bat. Really, I can take or leave these Arrow suspended guys, so I probably won’t do it again for a while.

Tatsu

After that, I kinda did nothing for a while. There was chatter in the Discord about meeting up for Tatsu, so I went there, but it took a very long time for anybody to get their act together, so I ended up just kind of chilling for quite some time. Eventually we got a quorum and rode. There’s a secret single-rider line that cuts off a lot of the wait time, so we took advantage of that. Somehow I ended up in the back row even as a single-rider; not sure how that happened. I tried to make sure I spent my time looking down rather than forward, so I could enjoy the views, which mostly worked. It was JohnMike’s 300th coaster, so that was a cool thing as well.

The park closed fairly early for a Saturday; it was February, after all. But no big deal, because we knew we’d be back the next day. I got some fast food, headed back to the hotel, and passed out. Most of the crew stayed up drinking, but I was unaccountably tired for some reason.