Part 4/4 – “Alvey Encounter”/ERT on Tatsu and X
Six Flags Magic Mountain
May 20, 21, 2006 (Weekend)
Weather: Hot(20th)/Cool & Rainy(21st)
Crowds: Heavy
I don't know how the hell you Californians deal with the I-5... After 2.5 hours and 50 miles we were at our hotel in Castaic. LA traffic for the first time... Anyways, SFMM really has a beautiful skyline from Route 5. First the Sky Tower comes into view, then Superman, and then BAM, a huge mess of coaster track chillin' in the Santa Clarita Valley. We knew it was crazy to hit SFMM on a Saturday but we had an ERT event on Sunday including 4 hours of Tatsu and 2 hrs of X so it was all good. The ERT event was the sole purpose of me joining ACE this year, as SFMM had to be squeezed in on the weekend. The $50 dues and $25 event fee was worth practically owning Tatsu before and after the park's normal operating hours.
We didn't go too crazy on Saturday as the crowds were pretty bad. Tatsu had a 3 hour line and I believe X was around 2 hours. We were meeting the Alveys for the first time that morning and Elissa suggested we hit Déjà Vu first as it gets crowded later in the day. After a loooooong walk to the back of the park, Ali and I got our first ride on a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang. I loved it but found it a bit rough. The vertical drops just feel weird in the inverted position. We lucked out as Déjà Vu has just recently been reopened. Psyclone was also running so we gout our credit in on that. It's a pretty painful coaster and I haven't been on the original Coney Island Cyclone to compare it to. I ended up giving it another try (alone!) on Sunday closer to the front but it was just as rough... and not having anyone next to you to break your impact makes it a bit worse. Should've listened to ya Ali...
As soon as Psyclone hit the brakes and began rolling into the station we saw that Robb and Elissa were waiting below at the exit ramp. They were nice enough to give us Magic Mountain virgins a tour around the north end of the park. We left Cyclone Bay and headed up the huge hill to Samurai Summit. Damn-this hill is huge! But it's worth the walk for the credits at the top-Superman The Escape and Ninja. We got lucky as the summit was completely dead... Ali, Robb and I jumped right into the front seat of Superman The Escape while Elissa opted for the back seat. The ride was just OK... Pretty nice launch and a nice float at the top, can't imagine when it first opened waiting hours and hours for this thing though. Still empty, we took another launch on this unusual Intamin reverse freefall coaster before heading over to Ninja.
Ali's favorite type of coaster is the arrow suspended, and this ended up being her favorite ride at the park, and her second favorite of the entire trip! We took the very front seats and The Alveys grabbed the very back seats. Arrow suspendeds are best up on mountain tops and Ninja doesn't let up dodging trees and barely missing the water at the bottom of the summit. Ali and I took a total of 6 rides on Ninja over the 2 days at the park, she really liked it that much! Nearby was the Sky Tower so Robb, Elissa, and Ali went up for the view while I zipped back down the mountain for my Goldrusher credit and a ride on Jet Stream to cool off. Goldrusher was a pretty fun terrain mine train. We also rode this multiple times for our stay at SFMM. Jet Stream was cool, the guys on Sky Tower actually saw me riding it from the top!
Once everyone was down from Samurai Summit we headed over to Riddler's Revenge where Robb & Elissa kindly gave us flashpasses to beat the line. They suggested we ride the rear of the train. We originally were originally seated (standed?) in row 6, but for some reason they moved us right to row 8-more great luck I suppose! The ride was fast and intense, lots of inversions. The standup is my least favorite in the B&M catalog but Riddler was definitely better than the other one I've been on-Mantis. This coaster would be even better if it didn't have the gimmicky standup configuration. The inclined loops are really cool and would be interesting on a floorless or standard coaster. Robb and Elissa brought us over to Batman The Ride, leaving us with plenty of flashpasses to survive the Saturday. It was very cool meeting the Alveys in person and the passes made impossible queues possible later in the day. Thanks for the help guys! We had a great time hanging out with you and hope to do it again sometime.
Batman had a 10 minute wait so we kept the flashpasses handy for later. We'd been on the one at SFGADV so we knew what to expect. Just as intense as NJ's version, and you can't beat that loop, zero-g, loop, 1-2-3 combo that just knocks you on your A$$. I'm so glad they kept it grey and navy blue and hope they keep it that way. Looks more batmanish than NJ's yellow and purple mutant. Moving clockwise, we skipped Scream! and Colossus until Sunday and used our flashpass for Goliath which had a nasty queue time. On our way up the exit ramp, we were nearly puked on by a Goliath victim and noticed some acidy stains all over the ramp. Is the ride really that intense? We shall see...
Now Robb wanted to know what I thought of Goliath having Superman: Ride Of Steel in my backyard so here's my .02 ... First off, the slowing down at the very top is just wrong. I'm terrified of heights but suck it up for coasters and nearly coming to a stop before that massive drop just adds to the anticipation, luckily the fear is just part of the fun. The drop into the tunnel is great but the turnaround that follows is odd... Should be a camelback there or something. Second drop is cool, and the bunny hop that immediately follows is pretty heavy with airtime. I was disappointed nearly coming to a stop in the brakes but the helix still almost made me black out. I'm telling you the “widescreen bars” were starting to blur up my vision! So yeah... no Superman: Ride Of Steel but still a nice mega coaster with awesome looking trains. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, really nice colors but they look better on SFOG's B&M Speedcoaster by the same name.
We hiked all the way over to Viper and again flashpass saved our butts. I couldn't believe how long the line was for an Arrow multilooper. Viper was cool all the way until the very end, where it's like getting punched in the jaw by Sugar Ray Leonard. Worth the credit but once was enough. GASM at SFNJ is definitely in better shape. We used our last flashpasses and waited 15 minutes for the amazing Tatsu, but there'll be more on that later... don't worry. So we left the park around 4 and got some food, there would be plenty of time to hit the remaining coasters on Sunday... Guess now is a good time to review Scream! and Colossus before moving on to the good stuff. Sunday afternoon and the southwest corner of the park was completely dead aside from a family of geese. (see photos below for gosling photo) An empty Scream! train rolled up and we took our ride on the TRUE Medusa West. Shapiro, please dig up that concrete and plant a little grass, you're doing a great job so far but this should get taken care of in the near future! I kind of liked the colors on this B&M floorless, and it was just as good as it's east coast sister. We rode in the front seat and had the entire train to ourselves. Colossus was also a walkon but they were only running the track that dispatches from the right side, making racing impossible. This is another coaster that crawls at the very top of the lift before disengaging. Remarkably smooth for such an old woodie. Are you still reading, haven't lost your interest yet? Goood... OK now onto the interesting stuff...
X – The coaster Arrow Dynamics wish they'd never dreamed up. Morning ERT for Tatsu, X, Viper, and Revolution began at 8:05 am, 5 minutes late, enough to stir up a couple of scary ACErs into complaining at guest relations that they were “cutting into his ERT time”. This one guy just wouldn't stop complaining about the dumbest crap before and after the park was open to the public. Dude... ERT on some of the best coasters in the world, why aren't we appreciating this? OK... sorry... yeah... X. X was awesome, can't believe some people don't like it.
Since the locals all flew to the shiny new Tatsu we literally had X to ourselves for a part of the morning. We sat in the front (the back?) row. I let Ali take the smoother inside seat in hopes of rerides. Dispatching backwards hanging over the tracks is just weird and takes some getting used to. The lift hill is sloooow and offers a unique view of the surrounding areas. First drop is pure madness with the full flip and the rest of the ride is intense until the brake run. My favorite part was the half-half where the trains flip horizontally and the seats go the rest of the way. Raven turns had a bit of a rattle but not as bad as people make them out to be. Definitely a cool ride, and being from the EC I appreciated this unique machine even more. Can't wait for the TPR Japan trip to ride Eejanaika, count me in fellas! Full-full? Just the thought of it sends bubbles to my brain.
Now it was time for the biggest reason to jump on a plane and cross all the US time zones... Tatsu, the brand spanking new fire-breathing B&M flying dragon. First off, the lift is way up high above Rapids Camp Crossing, and to see it for the first time is impressive. Our first ride put us in the middle of the train on Saturday, but with the entire coaster up for grabs with only about 50 people... front seat baby! The lift, like most new B&Ms is fast and quiet. It takes about 15 seconds to get to the 170' summit before roaring to life down the 115' first drop. The Giant Corkscrew and Zero-G roll feel odd in the flying position but aren't too forceful. The “egg turn” is unique as well and is a pretty cool feeling. After the egg, A fast little banked turn dumps you into the single most insane element on any of the 206 coasters I have ever been on... The pretzel loop. Yo... This thing is sinister. Arching up with still a lot of momentum, Tatsu nosedives upside down producing ridiculous forces before arching back up and immediately flipping through an inline twist. The pretzel being at the end of the ride was a good move and makes the ride even more unique than the Superman triplets. A high banked turn and a little pop into the brakes finishes off one of B&M's finest creations. A+, bravo SFMM! And thank you for the ERT! We took a ton of rides in both the AM and PM ERT. It was raining at night so we only took a few rides then, but being in the pitch black dark in the front seat was a religious experience.
That about does it for the TR. Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed the photos!
