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View from the parking
lot. Colossus, Goliath and Superman the Escape.
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On our holiday to the southwest of the US, we had a couple of days
to spare and decided to visit some themeparks near LA. The first
we visited was Six Flags Magic Mountain (2 days later we visited
Universal
Studios Hollywood). As it later turned out, saturday isn't the
best day to visit Magic Mountain, unless you enjoy waiting in long
queues filled with all the kids from LA. We had perfect weather
though as you can see in the picture on the left. It's the first
view of the park when you arrive and it's quite impressive.
After we got into the park, we headed for Colossus and Goliath.
The queue for Goliath was quite long (we thought) and we went on
to Colossus. As it turned out later, the queue for Goliath only
got longer until it was a 2 hr queue, so we never got to ride Goliath.
The queue for Colossus on the other hand, was quite short, even
though they only used one of the two tracks (it's a double wooden
racer). It's a classic out-and-back style woodie which is mostly
about airtime. Fun to ride (though not as good as Tonnere de Zeus
in Parc Asterix).
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Tidal Wave
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Since it was a hot day, the next ride we went on, was a waterride,
Tidal Wave. It's a very simpel and short ride, with only one purpose:
get you and the spectators very wet. The entire ride consists of
a lift hill, a left turn, a drop, another left turn and you're back
in the station. The only way to get out of the station is over a
bridge leading right over the area at the end of the drop. If you
wait for a boat to come along, you'll get splashed. After this ride
we entered a queue for some fast food, which didn't turn out to
be that fast. Apparently the person behind the counter still had
to learn to operate the cash register (how hard can it be?), so
we had some time to talk with other people in the queue. The person
behind is was amazed by the fact that two people from the Netherlands
would visit a themepark in the US (there are people far worse than
us, who just go to the US to visit themeparks and not just happen
to be in the area and visit a park, though I have to admit me and
three friends are planning a two week holiday to visit about 10
European themeparks next year).
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Gold Rusher (and Log
Jammer)
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After finally having gotten (and eaten) our lunch, we went on Gold
Rusher, the parks oldest coaster. It's a mine train rollercoaster.
Really an all family coaster, which gets most of the fun from going
through a tunnel (under the queue for Superman the Escape) and under
Log Jammer and has a nice helix at the end. Having stared a little
at the sky coaster (I'm not going on one of those), we entered a queue
for another waterride: the Arrowhead Splashdown (one of two logflumes
in the park).
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Arrowhead Splashdown
(and Ninja)
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From the queue, you get a good view of the logflume and Ninja (suspended
coaster). Quite a view of the rides at Magic Mountain twist their
way over and under each other, adding to the experience (and quite
often thrill) of the ride. Arrowhead Splashdown is not Magic Mountain's
best logflume (that's easily Log Jammer), but it's ok.
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Ninja (and Arrowhead
Splashdown)
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Having had a look at Ninja from the Arrowhead Splashdown, we decided
Ninja would be the next coaster to ride. Being one of the big coasters,
we had to endure waiting over an hour in the queue, but it's well
worth it. Ninja was the first suspended coaster I've ever been on
(I've been on suspended looping coasters quite often, since there
are a lot of those in Europe, but suspended coasters are rare in Europe)
and I gotta say I love it. It's extremely smooth and you hardly notice
the second turn pulls almost 4 g's.
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Log Jammer, here you
can water bomb your friends.
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After another long queue, we had a ride on Log Jammer. This is
one very good logflume. It goes past some of the coasters and has
some very good drops. You'll definitely get wet and if they want
to, your friends can help with the water bombs at the end of the
flume (see picture on the right). Time for another one of the coasters.
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Flashback
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We went on Flashback, the worlds only hairpin-drop rollercoaster.
It's a weird, but fun little coaster that will have you going straight
up and down and tilted 90 degrees sideways, while doing some very
tight turns. After some more wondering around, we had ride on the
monorail and rode Gold Rusher again. It became time to find a motel
and some food, so we ended with some shopping (got a nice Six Flags
'puke' shirt which they don't sell in the European parks) and called
it a day. If you love coasters and waterrides, this is a must do.
Be sure to avoid weekends and holidays though. If I'll ever be in
the area again, I'll make sure to go and ride some of the coasters
I missed (haven't done nearly half of them).
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