Theme Park Discussion / Mav Conquers Cali

So to cap off my week long trip to SoCal to compete in the Speedo Jr. National Swimming championships, I was fortunate enough to attend both Knotts Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain. I was only at Knotts for about an hour and a half as I just wanted to stop by since it was 30 minutes from my hotel, and only needed 4 hours at Six Flags thanks to the very awesome Pacificoaster aka 'Hanz Solo' />/>

Knotts

Sadly Xcelerator wasn't running today (catch car was even out of it's trough), and anything with less than a 54 inch height requirement had a long ass line thanks to all the family's with small children, but thankfully Silver Bullet was ready to go.

Silver Bullet: Not the best B&M invert out there, but still a damn good ride. I do wish B&M would explore the floater bank more, as it's the second best part of the ride behind the intense helix at the end. Got a front and back seat ride, and this is one of the few rides I've been on where the front is actually better (more intense as well) than the back.

Supreme Scream: Not a bad S&S drop tower, but having Power Tower made me know what to expect. Still, gotta love some drop tower.

Montezuma's Revenge: Such a fun little ride. Intense loop and some good hang time on the towers.

Like I said, I was only there for an hour and a half, and a decent amount of this time was spent just walking around the park.

SFMM

Got the meet the man behind the stream, Pacificoaster himself, and thanks to his special 'I work here' perks, got the whole park done in just over 4 hours. Big shout out to Justin for such an awesome day />/>

Full Throttle: My coaster count was sitting at 149 walking into the park, and Full Throttle was the lucky coaster that got to be number 150. I'd heard some good things about the ride coming in, but it blew those expectations away. The ride is fantastic. INSANE hang time in the loop and strong ejector at the end of the top hat are the highlights of the ride. The slalom up the hill and flying snake dive are smooth and fun and the backwards launch was a nice little gimmicky touch to the ride.

X2: I visited Magic Mountain the year Tatsu opened and was spited by this ride being changed from X to X2, so this was my most anticipated ride of the trip. It did not disappoint. If you ever have to chance to go to Magic Mountain, ride this in the front. Turning to face the ground straight down with no track below you is on a whole different level than any other ride with a vertical drop. The rest of the ride is bonkers element after bonkers element and it never lets up.

Tatsu: Had ridden it before on my last visit, but didn't really remember much as it was a while ago. Wow... the ride has great speed, beautiful flowing maneuvers, and the absolutely nuts pretzel loop. Was much better than I remembered it being, and just edged out Manta.

Ninja: Arguably the best arrow suspended still in operation. The ride is fast, fun and full of some great near misses.

Apocalypse: Another fantastic GCI woody. Amazing drop and headchoppers in the back, with airtime scattered all throughout the ride. Not quite on par with Thunderhead, but fantastic all around.

Green Lantern: I still can't figure out if the ride was terrible or amazing. We took the last drop/ pullout head first and consequently took 3+ G's all on our heads. Was pretty much the opposite feeling of I-305's first turn and wow was it something, but it hurt. It hurt real bad haha.

Batman: The layout is so overdone... for a reason. The ride is fantastic. Strong positives throughout and just a good solid ride.

Lex Luthor: BEST. DROP. TOWER. EVER. It's just so insanely high up, you just keep going and going and going and going. We were also lucky to have Superman rocket up as we ascended the tower, which caused the tower to sway... 3-4 feet back and fourth. There have been very few rides I was actually freaked out by, but this was one of them. It's very unsettling to be moving that much 400 feet in the air. But I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Goliath: The world needs more Giovanola hyper coasters. It's fast, intense and smooth. Only let down is the only spots with any airtime are the drop and second hill.

Superman: Rode it forwards, last time, and it's much better backwards. The launch is so long and you have no idea when it's gonna go up, but you know it's coming. And once you're vertical, it's floaty goodness until you're pulling back out.

We 'ended the day' with one more ride on Full Throttle and X2. Got everything done in just over a 4 hour timeframe. Once again, a big thanks to Justin for working his employee magic. If you're ever in Ohio, I'll treat you to Cedar Point />/>

Lastly, as this will be my last 'new' park for 2013, how 'bout a top 30? Bold being new rides to the list, underlined being rides that moved up.

1. I-305
2. Maverick
3. Storm Runner
4. Millennium Force
5. X2
6. Gatekeeper
7. Diamondback
8. Tatsu
9. Manta
10. Wild Eagle

11. Thunderhead
12. Apollo's Chariot
13. Phantom's Revenge
14. Apocalypse
15. Griffon
16. SheiKra
17. Fahrenheit
18. Afterburn
19. Montu
20. Volcano

21. Lightning Racer
22. Full Throttle
23. Top Thrill Dragster
24. Alpengeist
25. Dominator
26. Silver Bullet
27. Kraken
28. The Beast
29. Kumba
30. Intimidator

How did your swimming competition go?

We dummied Magic Mountain! We honestly had very little time to regather our composure's before each ride we took.

Jimmy is right when he says Full Throttle exceeds your expectations. That coaster just has some insane negative g's. We rode both the middle and the back car. The middle car has an INSANE amount of hangtime in the loop, as does the back but not as much I'd say. You just feel your entire body shift into the lap bar and it's nuts. The airtime coming down the tophat is just silly too. I believe it's a combination of the brakes and the vertical descent that makes you experience a great amount of negative g's.

I haven't ridden Ninja in a while. It was great to experience that coaster again. It is so great!

We had an INSANE ride on Green Lantern as well. Hands down the most intense ride I have ever had on it. The final drop before the last switch back into the brakes we experienced SOOO many g's upside down. I felt all the blood rush to my head and I had little time to recuperate for Batman 5 minutes later.

It must have been our lucky day because our ride on Lex Luthor was fuckin insane. We got to the very top of the tower and Superman comes up and then goes down and we were swaying six ways to Sunday. I was freaking out, Jimmy was freaking out, his dad was freaking out, the whole fucking car was freaking out. Fantastic ride.

Jimmy forgot to mention our ride on Goldrusher. Needless to say, it was nothing special except that ride has a crazy hand chopper. TIP: do NOT put your hands up on the first drop.

Overall, one fantastic day.

Ride Count (14):
Full Throttle (x2)
X2 (x2)
Tatsu
Ninja
Apocalypse
Goldrusher
Green Lantern
Batman
Lex Luthor
Goliath
Orient Express
Superman

Oh yeah, forgot about Goldrusher, but I was credit whoring then That and I could hit like every other tree branch haha

And csw, I did great. 4 events and 4 best times. Including finishing 8th in the 100 back and 25th in the 200 back.

Glad to hear you are well on your way to reaching the Olympics ;P

Sounds like a great trip! I love Premier rides, I knew Full Throttle would be great.