SFMM in Xmas Week

Hi TPRs!

Looking for advices here:

- I am planning to visit SFMM on Dec 27 (Sunday) on my way from Los Angeles to San Francisco for NYE.

Any guesses how bad the crowds are going to be?

Flash pass seems an option, but since it is bloodly expensive (and dollar exchage rate has skyrocket facing Brazilian Real) I would like to avoid. Main targets at SFMM: Full Throttle (*), Twisted Colossus (*), Green Lantern, X2 (**), Goliath.

Checking the options, I would have to spend $250 bucks on top of park tickets to get Platinum pass. However, even the Platinum pass allows only 1 ride on (*) and extra fee for (**). Is that so? Is that worth it?

Any inputs are welcome. Cheers to you all from Rio. Anyone coming for the olimpic games? Would love to meet anyone from TPR here.

Gus.

I'll put this in the main forum so maybe our SoCal locals can respond.

Thanks, mate!

You might also want to ask in the SFMM thread.

That week is the busiest week for all theme parks. Buy the flashpass.

Hi TPRs!

 

Looking for advices here:

- I am planning to visit SFMM on Dec 27 (Sunday) on my way from Los Angeles to San Francisco for NYE.

 

Any guesses how bad the crowds are going to be?

 

Flash pass seems an option, but since it is bloodly expensive (and dollar exchage rate has skyrocket facing Brazilian Real) I would like to avoid. Main targets at SFMM: YOLOcoaster (*), Twisted Colossus (*), Green Lantern, X2 (**), Goliath.

 

Checking the options, I would have to spend $250 bucks on top of park tickets to get Platinum pass. However, even the Platinum pass allows only 1 ride on (*) and extra fee for (**). Is that so? Is that worth it?

 

Any inputs are welcome. Cheers to you all from Rio. Anyone coming for the olimpic games? Would love to meet anyone from TPR here.

Gus.

I'm not as certain that it will be overwhelming. Since you're coming from so far away and won't get to visit often though, you may want to get a Flash Pass just to make sure you have the best experience possible. Magic Mountain has more coasters than any other park in the world, so riding them all in one day can be challenging depending on how busy it is.

I always recommend people just budget for the flash pass and wait till they get there and see the crowd for themselves to decide whether to spend the extra money to buy one. It really sucks when you spend all that money and get there and find out the park is unexpectedly dead and you don't need it but you've already spent all that money. Since you can buy them at the park and they never sell out, I never take that risk.

As for which level Flash Pass to use, the Gold will give you shorter waits than the regular FP and the ability to reserve rides on X2 for $10 or $15 USD per person per ride.

The Platinum pass is a better value now than it used to be - you can skip the line once per day on YOLOCoaster, Twisted Colossus, and Superman for free. It also lets you (on some rides but not all) ride twice without getting up. If Superman is a priority then I recommend getting the Flash Pass, because it's rare that they run both sides at once and the dispatches are very slow, so a line out the building is not uncommon and it moves very slow relative to most rides. (Another Superman tip - if you opt for the front row line, it moves twice as slow since it is 2 people instead of 4)

Pro Tip for X2 & YOLOCoaster - these tend to be the first coaster that most people head to in the morning since they are both popular and close to the entrance (TwistedColossus is further into the back of the park) so their lines tend to die towards the early evening, especially X2. If you don't get the platinum or the upcharge reservations, between like 4 and 5:30pm is the best time to head to these two.

Single Rider Lines - if you don't get a Flash Pass, or have a small group and want to reride quickly take advantage of the Single Rider lines on Green Lantern and Riddler's Revenge. For Riddlers you can virtually always just walk right onto the first train regardless of how long the line is. For Green Lantern you may have to wait a few minutes since the loading is kind of unique, but it still beats standing in line. People either love or hate Green Lantern, and if you love it, youll want to ride it at least 2 or 3 times because due to the free spinning cars, you get a different ride experience every time. Sometimes its boring and tame and you dont flip at all, sometimes you flip 5 or 6 times and end up upside down, and sometimes it just tries to rip your face off...it's a crap shoot.

Viper and Lex Luthor also have Single Rider Lines, but I doubt you'll need them, especially if you get a Flash Pass.

Viper and Lex Luthor also have Single Rider Lines, but I doubt you'll need them, especially if you get a Flash Pass.

Does TC have a single rider line? How about Apocalypse? Is it still a good woodie? You never hear much about it any more

I'm planning on going at the end of April as a single rider and I'm hoping I won't need a flash pass because it makes the park almost on par with Disney prices!

Does TC have a single rider line? How about Apocalypse? Is it still a good woodie? You never hear much about it any more

I'm planning on going at the end of April as a single rider and I'm hoping I won't need a flash pass because it makes the park almost on par with Disney prices!

TC did when it opened, but they stopped using it not too long ago. The line moves fast on that, though. Even if the crowd is spilling out of the station, it's probably still only around 45 mins at most. Apocalypse is absolutely worth a ride as it's a great, intense layout. It's very, very rough now though, and if there's only one train running, the line could be very bad. Ask the employee at the entrance to get a sense of how gnarly the line is and how many trains they're running as it's hard to gauge from the entrance.

As Joey mentioned, the week after xmas tends to be insane (far more so at Disneyland though -- which can actually sell out during that week). I was at Disneyland on 27th a few years ago and you could barely even move through the crowd on Main St. However, the place thinned out by mid-afternoon. I'm not convinced that a flash pass is necessary at SFMM — even on crazy days, unless you're with a group or you take regular breaks. If you're intent on hitting everything and are okay going straight from one ride to the next, you could probably survive without the pass. It's always better to be safe than sorry though — especially if this is an isolated visit.

As also mentioned, the line for X2 does drop off midway through the day. Yolo, however, tends to stay pretty busy all day long because of where the entrance is located. Tatsu also tends to have a pretty congested line.

Guys, Want to thank you all so so much for the advices and inputs.

I've been a couple of times to SFMM. Not as often as I would like. So I am looking forward to riding the new additions such as YoLo, Twisted Colossus, Green Lantern and Lex Luthor Drop.

All the best to you all!