Six Flags Magic Mountain - Holiday Questions

Members who frequent SFMM (Oscar, friends) I have a question. I have tentative plans to travel to SFMM with GerstlCrazy in January, the last week of operation of this season.

Can you tell me if they generally close any coasters for this week (or during the holiday season)?

Like when we went to SFOT and SFFT in December they had two coasters closed each. I do understand that Revolution will be closed for the update and won't open until Spring.

[Oscar]

Hai, usually everything is open if it isn't broken So yeah, other than Revolution, I don't see anything else being closed down. At least the times I've gone in January, everything was open that wasn't broken.

YAY #usritenow

[Mr. Freeze]

What are the odds of something going down at SFMM?

Would there be a decent likelihood of anything MAJOR being broken? We are potentially going for three full park days, for weather or maintenance and of course for extended fun.

[TTD03]

^ Last year for me in November, Viper was closed. And the year before than in November, X2 was closed. So I'd say expect 1 major coaster down.

[Mr. Freeze]

Knowing RMC's and their first year, I would probably expect TC to be closed

SFMM is a year-round park, so unless there is a mechanical or weather issue everything will likely be operating. Keep an eye on the website prior to your visit to see if anything is listed as closed, and if not all coasters (other than Revolution, of course) should be open. It is more likely that you'll run into a fair number of rides operating only one train, especially if you are visiting after Holiday in the Park has ended. However, with three days you'll have plenty of time for everything and the chances of a ride experiencing an unannounced closure on three consecutive days is very small.

Yeah TC isn't going to be down.

[TTD03]

Yea, TC will run probably for an entire year and a half before going down.

[Paradox]

Don't be surprised if only one side of Superman is running. Also try to get that in first as it likes to die often.

^Well I'm not surprised. Think about all of the poop that must crust the launch sections from Lex Luthor. That'll cause some issues. I'm gonna poop blood on Lex Luthor.

[Paradox]

Lex Luthor and Zumanjaro are ok drop towers IMO. They do have height intimidation but after the first time. you are no longer scared of its height. It provides a great sense of speed on the way down, but you experience little to no feeling of either weightlessness or freefall like you would on an S&S tower.

Definitely ride Riddler, it's an amazing standup. I would recommend skipping Green Lantern, it's trimmed so much you almost never flip and this causes the ride to be a bit painful.

^ I learned that the good trim was a "phew" moment while the bad one was just a needless headbang that turned me off!

[Paradox]

Overall, the park is not the best with operations, shade, or transportation. Also it attracts a lot of trashy teens so be prepared for that too. Some notable things for the rides:

Full Throttle has no choice of seating
Viper: Sit in the FIFTH CAR FRONT ROW and you shouldn't experience that much headbanging (I rode it in that row last month and it was amazing).
Revolution is closed, but you honestly were not missing much as it was trimmed to death.
Ninja shouldn't get that much of a line, but when I was there the park was packed and they were only running one train.
Tatsu is a flyer so therefore operations are gonna suck much worse on this. I doubt they will use the double station, but the ride is definitely worth it just for the pretzel loop alone.
Apocalypse is very rattly, but overall an okay ride. I would assume Renegade would be a much better ride.
Riddler's Revenge is probably my favorite ride there. It's got a great layout, great forces, and isn't painful at all for a standup.
Batman is another Batman clone. Short, forceful, and a lot of fun overall. If you have already ridden one of these clones then I would recommend skipping it unless you have the time to ride it.
Green Lantern is brutal. Don't ride it unless you like pain.
Goliath is a pretty good hyper. Drop is fun, helices have some good force, but it has no air so don't be disappointed by that "airtime" hill.
Twisted Colossus is a good RMC. It has a single rider line that opens and closes throughout the day. If you ask the ops they will let you know when it will reopen. No seating choice and rarely duels. Green lift takes forever in order to give the blue train time to catch up, but most of the time this fails and you go up a long lift without another train.
Scream is not that great also. It rattles a lot for a fairly new floorless, even in the front.
Superman might only be running one side like I said so try to hit that earlier in case it breaks completely. No seating choice.
X2 might or might not have a long line it's worth the wait IMO but keep your head back or else you'll get slammed around.
Goldrusher is a pretty fun ride too, but if you don't have time don't worry about skipping it.
There are barely any flats in the park and the ones they do have aren't anything extraordinary so don't worry about them.
The park is really big and has no mode of transportation from one end to the other! There is only a trolley that takes you up the hill to the oriental land.

Paradox wrote:

Twisted Colossus is a good RMC. It has a single rider line that opens and closes throughout the day. If you ask the ops they will let you know when it will reopen. No seating choice and rarely duels.

This is actually no longer correct. After the busy summer ended SFMM discontinued both assigned seating and the single rider line on Twisted Colossus. I wouldn't worry too much about this as in my experience Twisted Colossus has the best operations in the park and is the one ride where they will actually run three trains. Single rider is still available at Green Lantern, Lex Luthor, Riddler's Revenge, and Viper (though that one is pretty useless...the line is rarely over 5 minutes anyway). The part about rarely dueling is somewhat true, however...over 5 visits since the ride opened I'd estimate 20-30% of trains get one duel and maybe 5% get a double duel.

If you are going the week of New Year's Day, expect the park to be busy. If you're going the week after, however, the park will likely be pretty dead on the weekdays. If it is busy, I suggest starting with Full Throttle, then heading to Screampunk District for Scream and Twisted Colossus (with a stop at Lex Luthor en route). After that, go up to the top of Samurai Summit for Ninja, Superman and Tatsu, then pick a direction and circle the park, stopping at rides as you get to them. The back of the park is usually pretty empty until after lunch, and X2's line is typically shortest in the 2-5 P.M. window, so use these factors to decide which direction to go. I'd recommend doing all the major coasters, though Ninja can be skipped if the line is long (I'd skip it if the line exceeds 30 minutes) and Batman The Ride is a clone so if you've been on another Batman don't wait too long for this one either. However, if you do visit the park for three days you will have plenty of time to do everything and get all the re-rides you want.

If you want an amazing, smoother ride on X2, wait for the train with the newer, shinier restraints. Trust me on this!

Thanks for the tips guys. Anything is helpful. Also I can't believe SFMM has so many preferred seating objections, although good to hear it's no longer the case for Twisted Bitch. Maybe that won't be as enforced during less busy days. I will definitely have preferences

^The only ride that always has assigned seating is Full Throttle, but they will generally accommodate requests if the line is short. Batman, Superman, and X2 do assign seats when the line is long, but if the line is only 10-15 minutes they probably won't be bothering with this. I haven't seen assigned seating at anything else since the ride's opening year.

Sweet, guys; lots of good tips I wouldn't have thought of.

I forgot to ask about crowds. Thanks rcdude for that. For anyone else that has been there in the week after new years, on weekdays, can you speculate on crowds? I'm reminding myself of when we went to SFOT and SFFT in the winter and they were ghost towns. I don't know if that'll be the case here, but I'd like to get an idea.

[Mr. Freeze]

I know with OT and FT, it is a guessing game for the crowds. Not exactly sure how MM is, but I would imagine it would be the same.

[Paradox]

tiepilot35 wrote:

Sweet, guys; lots of good tips I wouldn't have thought of.

I forgot to ask about crowds. Thanks rcdude for that. For anyone else that has been there in the week after new years, on weekdays, can you speculate on crowds? I'm reminding myself of when we went to SFOT and SFFT in the winter and they were ghost towns. I don't know if that'll be the case here, but I'd like to get an idea.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was crowded considering it wouldn't be too cold for the rides not to run and the kids are probably off on Christmas break (though if you go when they are off crowds should be significantly smaller).

I think you'll be fine with one day, if you really need to then get a FP.

tiepilot35 wrote:

Sweet, guys; lots of good tips I wouldn't have thought of.

I forgot to ask about crowds. Thanks rcdude for that. For anyone else that has been there in the week after new years, on weekdays, can you speculate on crowds? I'm reminding myself of when we went to SFOT and SFFT in the winter and they were ghost towns. I don't know if that'll be the case here, but I'd like to get an idea.

You're welcome. SFMM can be a little unpredictable, but in my experience after Holiday in the Park ends (January 3rd this year) crowds are usually pretty light. Due to the possibility of one-train operations and the relatively slow operations at the park I wouldn't expect everything to be a walk-on, but lines longer than 20-30 minutes are unlikely.