 Considering the last time we did a "Magic Mountain Update" other than Media events was last May we figured it was way past time to head up to the park and see what's going on. So here we go!! Written by Gregg Condon In celebration of being open 365 days in 2018, the park got a new sign.  Lots of ground clearing going on all around the park. In the front for what is probably more office buildings, in the back for Newhall Ranch. How long until people start complaining about noise from the park?  Please Neal, keep it this way!!  Hey Viper!!! (had a really great ride on it today)  It was a gorgeous day at the park  Let's take a look at CraZanity progress  Honestly not a lot to report, but there is one tiny piece of Metro track back there  Should start seeing some progress soon  Lots and lots of walls  A peek through the wall   Goliath seemed to be having some issues, train was stuck at the top of the hill all day  One last shot before heading out  We had a really great morning at the park, not busy at all. Be sure to take advantage of the operating days during this time of year, during the week you should pretty much have the park to yourself. Related Updates:
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 Well ... that was quick. It just seems a couple of weeks ago our last Justice League Update just had some concrete and no walls and no roof and Riddlers Revenge was still open. Wait, it was. Well this week we have walls, well, the supports for walls and a roof, well, the supports for a roof. But they are moving at lightning speed now. Let's take a look! Written by Gregg Condon You can start to see the building from all the way back by Sandblasters (that's the Bumper Cars for those unfamiliar with the park)  They've opened up more of the Metropolis area and something appears to be missing ...  No more rock wall!!  Here's a good look at the rides proximity to Riddlers Revenge  And the backside of the building, you can see that the Gazebo has been moved (we think) to where the beer garden will be (we think).  From the back you can see just how big the building is. Lots of room for what will probably be a part of the queue (we think).   An aerial view of the entire area, looks like some flowers have been removed from the Riddlers entry area, but some trees (and the gas station) are still there.  Just like with every other recent attraction at the park this also includes a complete re-do of the area around the ride. The last ride to not come with an area re-do was Terminator/Apocalypse, and that area of the park REALLY sticks out now. Let's hope that's next.   ♫ I got my hat ... on ♫  Of course this means that all of the food locations in the area are closed  Including JB's which will obviously be renamed  These aren't the tables that were here, they look like the ones from the eatery closer to Gold Rusher.  This one. ;)  Some much needed improvements to this area  A look inside the Metropolis area  Some trees have been removed near the Scrambler (insert tree falling on Scrambler joke here)  Also near Gold Rusher Not sure if this has ANYTHING to do with Metropolis, but because CA has been in such a drought the past few years (even with all of our recent rain) a lot of trees have died. We had to cut down a few at our house as well sadly.  No work done yet on the future entrance for Tidal Wave. Still say it would take less work to rename this to match the Metropolis theme than to move the entrance and keep the name.  There are some things going on elsewhere in the park. A fence is now up around the Sky Tower. Don't expect this to be for anything related to the Sky Tower.   It's most likely for work going on with Tatsu which is getting it's lift hill chain replaced. And it's no small job. Expect the ride to be down for at least a few weeks, if not a month.  For some reason even though the ride is down for weeks they have a "Temporarily Closed" sign and an Employee out front. Which probably means people are coming by all day asking if it's going to open. Would be easier to just put a wall up and free that Employee to work on an open ride.   The Revolution is running without VR (or in "Classic Style" whatever that is) for a limited time. How limited that time? Who knows. But the ride is still incredibly popular even without the VR.    With VR this line would have easily been over an hour. Without VR, I was on in about 25 minutes. The employees working the ride seemed to actually enjoy working the ride. Let's hope the VR moves to another ride and not back on Revolution.  A few other random park notes ... All of the decorations are still up in Gleampunk District as well as the music. Guessing all of the recent rain has delayed the removal of props. But it's fine, it still looks awesome.  Not sure if this is new, but I've certainly never noticed it before. Also could be that all of our visits for the previous 4 months were all Fright Fest/Holiday In The Park related. =)  Batman is currently running 1 train as the other is being refurbed.  My favorite spot to get Superman/Lex Luthor pics.  And we'll leave you with a pic of me and Sad Batman ... he said he was always lonely. Poor guy. ;)  One other random note, noticed Apocalypse was closed but forgot to investigate if it was just down or under refurb. We hope you enjoyed the update, it'll probably be a couple of weeks before our next SFMM update, lots of busy stuff coming up. At some point this week we will be having another Facebook Live Chat to discuss 2016 attractions and giving away some IAAPA stuff, so stay tuned to our social media for details about that. You won't want to miss it!! Related Updates:  Happy New Year everybody. We hope you had a fun and safe Holiday season. After a much needed week off we have recharged our LIM's and are ready to kick off another great year of Park Journey. We will have some great New Years Eve updates later in the week but we figured we'd start off with a look at Justice League at Magic Mountain, as there is actually some stuff to share. Written by Gregg Condon On our week off decided to head up to the park to ride some rides with The Coaster Guy because, you know, he's not at the park enough as it is. ;) It was a beautiful if not slightly busy day. The walkways of the park were oddly not too crowded but the ride lines were pretty long. The rides we rode (Viper, Gold Rusher, Scream, Twisted Colossus) were all moving well though as operations seemed great all around the park.  Most of the foundation is done here. While there is no building erected yet it appears they are doing things a bit different than the other Justice League rides.   As you can see the foundation for the ride itself is pretty high off the ground. We aren't sure if this is the same for the other rides, but if it is they did this after the building was built. Looking back on our construction pics at SFGAm and SFOG the building was up pretty quick.  A look at the back of the site to give a perspective on how big the area is.  A closer shot, you can see just how high the foundation goes from the ground. Yes, these were taken from a public area. =)  From the other side, you can see how much concrete they've been using here.   Since we were at the park for Holiday in the Park, we got a rare nighttime construction photo as well. ;)  In addition, some trees have started to be removed as they prepare to turn this area into Metropolis. We'd anticipate that the area will be closing pretty soon, probably when the park goes back to weekend only operation next week.  Some more ground clearing work going on near the food area. Possibly for the beer garden.  The Johnny Rocket's on the backside of the park now has mobile ordering using the Six Flags app. Cool idea, let's see if it takes off. We love using our mobile app at Starbucks.  One other small note, some Fright Fest props are back near Twisted Colossus still. They will probably make their way further backstage soon.  Also, quick note, starting tomorrow (January 2nd) The New Revolution will be in "traditional" mode (NO VR) the way God, err, Anton intended. It's going to be interesting to see how the ride functions with no VR. No timetable has been set for the return of the VR, but let's hope they move it to a lesser ride (Green Lantern maybe ... lol). Alright, that's going to wrap it up for this New Years update. We hope you enjoyed. Now that construction is picking up we'll be attempting to have more updates of Justice League than we've been having. Helps that there's no more holiday events to cover too. ;) Hopefully there will be another tour of Justice League soon. Related Updates:  Over the weekend we got to check out the first night of the amazing Holiday In The Park at Six Flags Magic Mountain. In just it's third year this event has easily turned into one of our favorite events of the year. Even if you don't care for the rides at Magic Mountain, experiencing the Holiday atmosphere in the park is worth the price of admission alone. Pictures by Matthew Nelson and Gregg Condon Written by Gregg Condon (click on any of the pictures below for a larger version) Let's start off with a few daytime pictures because the park looks incredibly festive by day and night.   An AMAZING A cappella group greets you as you enter the park.  The transformation from Fright Fest to Holiday In The Park happens so fast every year  New this year is the Gleampunk District, and it's amazing.  Some great original holiday characters
 Even Twisted Colossus gets decked out for the holidays this year
 As night sets the lights come out ... also new this year is Santa's Wild Sleigh Ride  On The New Revolution for the Holiday Season is "Santa's Wild Sleigh Ride". We got a chance to experience the ride and we all really did enjoy it. I hadn't personally ridden the VR Version of Revolution since Media Day earlier this year and while I'm still not a fan of VR on coasters and it's impact to capacity I have to say I did enjoy this more than the regular Revolution VR. And that pretty much was the consensus among everybody I talked to. So be sure you check it out.
 Heading into the Gleampunk District  All the lights in the area are blue and green to match Twisted Colossus  It's spectacular in person   Lots of fun things to see  Raise your hand if you they should keep these lights on Twisted Colossus up all year!!
 Also new this year is a new show in the Gearworks Theatre - Kwerkmas. It's a fun cirque type show with great acrobatics, dancers and a magician. We've put together a slideshow below to give you an idea of what the show is like.  Rockin Universe is always one of our favorite area's   The Winter Wonderland is back and is as always just fantastic. 
 So one of the things that really put Holiday In The Park on the Map when it started two years ago was the food. This was definitely a departure from the normal "Burger and Fries" that Magic Mountain had been known for. The first year they started kind of traditional, with a ham feast, tamales and other traditional type holiday foods. Which was awesome. And yes, for those of us who live in Southern California, tamales are most definitely traditional holiday food. But last year they started "experimenting" with a few different things. Some things were removed and in it's place came the Holiday Turkey Dog (Turkey dog with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mayo) which from it's description you wouldn't think would work. But it DOES. Other favorites from last year included the Mac n Cheese Burger, Chocolate Covered Caramel Pretzel, Funnel Cakes and more. And all of your favorites are back with a few new treats to enjoy. And as we did last year, we'll be sharing our top 5 lists so you can be sure to know what to try when you visit.    Aftermath of our first food stop of the night. Sorry, we ate too fast to get pictures. Plus we were having such a good time just enjoying the company.  Towards the end of the night they had a nice reception set up for us near Katie's Kettle. SFMM sure does spoil us.  Lots of amazing treats.  
We actually remembered to get a before pic ... kind of. ;)  Top 5 food picks
We had such an amazing time at Holiday In The Park. It truly is one of our favorite events each and every year, not just holiday events, but in general. The lights are fantastic, the atmosphere is phenomenal, everybody is just out to have a great time, it's stress free, no drama. Oh, and the food is amazing.  Thanks again to Magic Mountain for the amazing night, we can't wait to get back and experience more of Holiday In The Park. And we WILL be back. Related Updates:  Now that Halloween Season is done and we have a few weeks until Holiday Season events begin it's time to look at some 2017 attractions and see their progress. Can you believe we've never really had an update for Justice League since it was announced? Just our tour in September. So we'll check the progress of Magic Mountain's first dark ride as well as taking a look around the park. We'll also have some thoughts on the new VR Experience coming to the park for Holiday In The Park. Written by Gregg Condon It was a rare "rainy" morning in Southern California, but because it was the last weekend for Fright Fest the park was actually kind of busy even for a Friday morning. These are new'ish? Promoting The New Revolution and other things. Santa's going to be taking over The New Revolution for Holiday In The Park (more thoughts on that below).  Well, maybe not so busy first thing in the morning. ;)  It was also the last weekend for the Suicide Squad scare zone, all indications are that this was a 1-and-done deal and it won't be back for Fright Fest next year. However, with the new Metropolis area near Riddler's Revenge and Justice League they could conceivably keep Suicide Squad here and move the Sinister Circuit over to Metropolis. Will be interesting to see which way they go.  As we mentioned in our 2016 Haunt Wrap Up, while the scare zones at SFMM were again amazing, there was a lot of dead space at the back of the park. We think this is because the area around Riddler's was eventually supposed to be closed for FF but was kept open at the last minute.  Alright, let's move on to Metropolis where there have been some big ... ok, we can't lie. There's been nothing going on since our Tour in September.  As you can see through the fence (sorry about that, it's tough getting pics of this project) there has been some ground leveling, but that's really about it.  While the ride building in Georgia is completely built, here we got nothing.   Hopefully these bushes will get trimmed during construction, purely selfish reasons for that. ;)  In just a couple of weeks Santa will be back here.  And this area will be filled with Christmas lights.  A couple of thoughts on "Santa's Wild Sleigh Ride" coming to The New Revolution for Holiday In The Park: I don't think we've made any secret that we aren't a huge fan of the VR coasters. The experience is great but the negative impact on the rides they are on is difficult to handle for people who just want to ride the ride. So for Holiday In The Park 2014 when you'd ride Revolution at night one of the best experiences was flying through the trees of lights, even though at the time Revolution wasn't a fun coaster to ride. Obviously Revolution was closed in 2015.  So now for 2016 instead of being able to once again ride The New Revolution through the lights and trees they now have VR on it. Which is a shame although we do like the concept of different themes for different holidays. Our suggestion to the park, do the VR during the day and then have awesome non-VR night rides through the trees and all of the lights that will be near Rapids Camp and the front of the park. Most of the other parks that have VR do limited operating hours to allow people to just ride the coasters they are on. Given all the amazing work done to make The New Revolution great again it's a shame it hasn't been run with no VR to give people a chance to ride this amazing ride.  To make things worse, the Single Rider line has been removed from the ride, so if you do want to ride with No VR as a single rider you are no longer able to. (again, sorry about the picture quality here, not sure what happened)  Alright, that's going to wrap it up for this update. We'll be back at the park in, wow, just over 2 weeks for Holiday In The Park (which begins on November 19). Hopefully there will be another tour of Justice League soon once they start vertical construction. Related Updates: |
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