Magic Mountain (Valencia CA) August 2012

Holy cow does Magic Mountain have some great roller coasters!

I love amusement parks, but I guess I have been a little sheltered of late-mainly returning to Disneyland in the last couple years.  But I went to Magic Mountain in southern California with the Fun Bunch Plus recently and it opened my eyes to the newest roller coasters out there.  It is AMAZING!  I screamed so much it took me a week to recover my voice.

The first ride of the day was the X2-their newest and scariest.  The wait was a solid 3 hours.  I almost fainted from the heat.  The ride operators were indifferent.  The line was completely anti-Disney, i.e. boring beyond belief.  And it was all totally worth it.  It was The. Scariest. Ride. Ever.  I remember the first downhill where you are flipped forward rushing towards the ground and nothing else.  There are a number of on line videos, where you can see that it is tall and twisty  but it in  no way prepared me for the reality.  Our season pass friend came and only rode this coaster-yes it is soooo worth it!

Shot from the front car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-y-0IFiZqY

Shot from the line, to see the flames, which only one of us remember seeing.  Seriously the flames are the least scary part of the ride-no point to them at all!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=yAq6uO4gFOE&NR=1

We rode the Green Lantern. They are completely wrong in their line time estimation, 30 minutes was actually oven an hour. We had E- to entertain us with 45 minutes worth of Green Lantern lore-did you know that a planet can be a Green Lantern?  Now you do!  This is a very fast ride-whips you forward and backward, not one I need to ride again, but will if the line is shorter!

We took a bit of a break in the afternoon.  Had lunch and rode the classic Ninja-fun and relaxing as you soar over the log ride.  Since we had climbed to the top of the hill we also went to the sky tower-the only ride part of this is the elevator, but it gives you a really nice view.

At the end of the day a small group of us rode some more big coasters, but the older ones so that the lines were not that long.  Colossus, front car, old school wooden coaster, but new enough to be smooth.  Next time I want to ride it when they are running both trains because they are side by side. Scream, front car, where your feet dangle as you do lots of long loops.  Goliath, front car, a 2 minute ride with a 225 ft drop, 85 mph and only a lap bar-this could be my favorite of all time.  I came off with my head in my hands and drool coming off my face-yes!

The Batman ride is lots of loops and a bit old school at this point, but they do have some nice atmosphere as you take off from the Batcave.  Finally, Riddler's Revenge is a stand up coaster, which I found super relaxing because I was able to lean my head on the side head support and avoid getting my ears bashed.  It was literally the last run of the night for that coaster and the exit line was very dark as it is on the far back side of the park.  As we came around the final corner one of the stilt performers growled down at us-there was some freaking out-it was an awesome end!

Next time, Viper, Tatsu, Superman, and Lex Luther...

For the super big rides they have lockers to store your phone etc.  It gives you a print out barcode to retrieve your items.  If you try to use your entry ticket, it won't work!