Post by MsCali on Sept 18, 2006 11:29:38 GMT -5
So, earlier this summer, the Six Flags corporation (or whatever the corporation is that owns the Six Flags theme parks) sold Six Flags Magic Mountian to a real estate developer, who is going to tear it down and build condos (okay, I'm not sure exactly what they are going to build, but condos are going up around here like crazy, so I'm going with that).
Sometime soon, Magic Mountain will close forever; so Mr. C and I wanted to get one more visit in, as it's been a couple years since we've been, and they've added some awesome roller coasters since then. Well, yesterday, we found out why it will not be missed.
We arrive promptly at 10 am (when the park opens), online tickets in hand. Yay! No waiting in line to buy our tickets - just walk right in. Perfect, we can beat a few people onto the rides. (Plus, we saved money by buying them online)
So we just pick a direction and start walking. The first roller coaster we come to is Viper - an older one, but still fun. Unfortunately, the teen boys walking in front of us choose to get on this one, and I don't really want to start my day with a migraine caused by the pot we see them smoking, so we move on.
Next on our walk was Revolution. This is an older coaster, but Mr. C still likes it, so we walk up to the entrance, where we are met by a park employee who is standing there to let people know the ride is closed for technical difficulties. So we move on.
The next coaster we come to is Tatsu - which I believe is the newest coaster in the park (and the best conception for a roller coaster I've ever seen). We join the line, and by the point we realize every single person entering the park had headed straight to this coaster (except the pot boys), we'd already stood in line long enough to make it worth staying.
So about an hour and a half later, we get to the top of the final flight of stairs, where the lines for the specific seats start, and we hear, "Attention riders. Tatsu is currently experiencing some technical difficulties. We do not know how long it will take to resolve these. You are free to continue to stand in line if you would like, but if you want to leave the line, please leave the way you came in."
So, at this point, I should tell you a little about Tatsu. It's initial set up is like one of those dangly feet roller coasters - except once you are sitting on the seat, and pull the head rest down, your feet get locked in as well (looks like you are cuffed at the feet, but they are just these tabs that go around the front of your feet to hold them in place - they aren't tight or anything).
Each car holds 4 people. Once everyone is seated, each car rotates up, so instead of sitting facing forward, you are now seated facing the ground. When the ride is over, you arrive back in the station facing the same way, and the cars rotate back down so you can get out.
So apparently, the technical difficulties were that they couldn't get the cars to rotate back down. So the poor riders are stuck hanging there, as were the riders in the train behind them (they ran two trains at a time).
As we had already been in line for an hour and a half, and were so close to the front, we decided to stay put. Finally, about fifteen minutes later, they were able to get the problem fixed, and get all the people off the ride. They sent both trains on a run without passengers to make sure they were running properly now, and then the line started to move again.
I have to say, that one was worth the wait. This really is the best concept for a roller coaster I've ever seen - it's like you are flying the entire time, but you still do all the hills, curves, loops, etc.
From there, we had technical difficulties on Revolution (again...they had opened it back up, and it broke down again), Goliath, Superman (after having the train that takes you up to it - it's at the top of this really steep hill - be closed and having to hike up the hill, then standing in line for about 45 minutes), Riddler's Revenge, and Deja Vu. I have that stupid technical difficulties speech memorized now.
We ended up staying in line for most of the rides, and eventually got to ride everything except Deja Vu (thank goodness the park wasn't crowded at all). We finally got to ride Revolution on our third try. Oh, and there weren't any technical difficulties while we stood in line for Ninja, but when our car came back into the station, they had emptied it and closed the ride. So we barely made it onto that one.
I have never actually had a ride close while I was in line - and it happened several times yesterday! In fact, the only rides we didn't have any kind of "technical difficulties" waiting in line was Psyclone (horrible coaster though - it's the most ricketey, herky jerky coaster I've ever been on) and Batman The Ride (we just walked right onto that one - it was in the station and loaded as we walked up!)
Thankfully, since the park was not at all crowded, we still got to ride everything we wanted to, see the Batman Begins show (not great, but decent compared to many other theme park shows I've seen. MUCH better than Spiderman Rocks at Universal Studios), and do some shopping. We left about 20 minutes before the park closed and hit Claim Jumper on the way home.
And they don't call it Magic MOUNTAIN for nothing! I am really sore from all the walking up hill I did yesterday.
So, I haven't been to any of the other Six Flags parks in years and years (I think I visited Six Flags over Georgia about 17 years ago). Are they all getting this bad?
Sometime soon, Magic Mountain will close forever; so Mr. C and I wanted to get one more visit in, as it's been a couple years since we've been, and they've added some awesome roller coasters since then. Well, yesterday, we found out why it will not be missed.
We arrive promptly at 10 am (when the park opens), online tickets in hand. Yay! No waiting in line to buy our tickets - just walk right in. Perfect, we can beat a few people onto the rides. (Plus, we saved money by buying them online)
So we just pick a direction and start walking. The first roller coaster we come to is Viper - an older one, but still fun. Unfortunately, the teen boys walking in front of us choose to get on this one, and I don't really want to start my day with a migraine caused by the pot we see them smoking, so we move on.
Next on our walk was Revolution. This is an older coaster, but Mr. C still likes it, so we walk up to the entrance, where we are met by a park employee who is standing there to let people know the ride is closed for technical difficulties. So we move on.
The next coaster we come to is Tatsu - which I believe is the newest coaster in the park (and the best conception for a roller coaster I've ever seen). We join the line, and by the point we realize every single person entering the park had headed straight to this coaster (except the pot boys), we'd already stood in line long enough to make it worth staying.
So about an hour and a half later, we get to the top of the final flight of stairs, where the lines for the specific seats start, and we hear, "Attention riders. Tatsu is currently experiencing some technical difficulties. We do not know how long it will take to resolve these. You are free to continue to stand in line if you would like, but if you want to leave the line, please leave the way you came in."
So, at this point, I should tell you a little about Tatsu. It's initial set up is like one of those dangly feet roller coasters - except once you are sitting on the seat, and pull the head rest down, your feet get locked in as well (looks like you are cuffed at the feet, but they are just these tabs that go around the front of your feet to hold them in place - they aren't tight or anything).
Each car holds 4 people. Once everyone is seated, each car rotates up, so instead of sitting facing forward, you are now seated facing the ground. When the ride is over, you arrive back in the station facing the same way, and the cars rotate back down so you can get out.
So apparently, the technical difficulties were that they couldn't get the cars to rotate back down. So the poor riders are stuck hanging there, as were the riders in the train behind them (they ran two trains at a time).
As we had already been in line for an hour and a half, and were so close to the front, we decided to stay put. Finally, about fifteen minutes later, they were able to get the problem fixed, and get all the people off the ride. They sent both trains on a run without passengers to make sure they were running properly now, and then the line started to move again.
I have to say, that one was worth the wait. This really is the best concept for a roller coaster I've ever seen - it's like you are flying the entire time, but you still do all the hills, curves, loops, etc.
From there, we had technical difficulties on Revolution (again...they had opened it back up, and it broke down again), Goliath, Superman (after having the train that takes you up to it - it's at the top of this really steep hill - be closed and having to hike up the hill, then standing in line for about 45 minutes), Riddler's Revenge, and Deja Vu. I have that stupid technical difficulties speech memorized now.
We ended up staying in line for most of the rides, and eventually got to ride everything except Deja Vu (thank goodness the park wasn't crowded at all). We finally got to ride Revolution on our third try. Oh, and there weren't any technical difficulties while we stood in line for Ninja, but when our car came back into the station, they had emptied it and closed the ride. So we barely made it onto that one.
I have never actually had a ride close while I was in line - and it happened several times yesterday! In fact, the only rides we didn't have any kind of "technical difficulties" waiting in line was Psyclone (horrible coaster though - it's the most ricketey, herky jerky coaster I've ever been on) and Batman The Ride (we just walked right onto that one - it was in the station and loaded as we walked up!)
Thankfully, since the park was not at all crowded, we still got to ride everything we wanted to, see the Batman Begins show (not great, but decent compared to many other theme park shows I've seen. MUCH better than Spiderman Rocks at Universal Studios), and do some shopping. We left about 20 minutes before the park closed and hit Claim Jumper on the way home.
And they don't call it Magic MOUNTAIN for nothing! I am really sore from all the walking up hill I did yesterday.
So, I haven't been to any of the other Six Flags parks in years and years (I think I visited Six Flags over Georgia about 17 years ago). Are they all getting this bad?
