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. 

Let's start off with a few daytime pictures because the park looks incredibly festive by day and night. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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Yesterday we were invited out to Six Flags Great America for the media day for the newest VR coaster. 
JoAnna was on hand for the festivities and for another in our string of awesome VR coaster Reverse POV's. (seriously, if you haven't seen Randy's POV of Dare Devil Dive and Matt and Gregg's POV of The New Revolution you really need to check them out. 

Quick Review: 
It's fun. It makes Demon a completely different ride. However Demon is a short ride, so I wish it was a bit longer. Can't really do anything about that. I do wish the whole fighter pilot thing was not there. That maybe you're the Gargoyle wreaking havoc. Ted and I both agree that it may work with XFlight. Still it's a fun ride and I'll ride it again.

We've got our credentials and are ready to head in ... 

Love that they give riders the option of VR and Non-VR. 

​We'll be back at the park this weekend so we'll be able to see how they actually have this set up. 

We've got 2 video's from the event, one with me and Ted with some amazing commentary (it was our first ride on the VR so we had NO idea what to expect) 

And some awesome B-Roll that may or may not contain a bonus coaster in there. =) 

Just like some of the other VR coasters, you start in a hangar

But that's where the similarities end, not only are you attacked by Gargoyles, but you actually get to shoot throughout the entire ride. 

That's gonna hurt in the morning 

Shoot Her!!! Shoot Her!!! 

As you can see, the Gargoyle's have kind of destroyed the city 

Missile through the gut 

So what do you all think? Is this a good addition to the Six Flags VR lineup? Are you excited for this version of the VR coaster coming to other Six Flags parks for Fright Fest this year? Let us know in the comments below. 

We'll be back at the park this weekend and will have more pics and fun. 
​

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Below is our collection of Mountain Madness 2.0 pictures. We apologize in advance for the delay in these, so we hope you enjoy them. 

Before we get to the pictures we want to send a huge heartfelt thank you to everybody who attended. The day started out kind of rough (more on that below) but I think by the end of the day everybody had an amazing time and for that we are thankful. 

So quick story about the morning. We had set up reverse POV's on Revolution which actually turned out AWESOME (you can look at an example of that here) and then were starting our morning ERT. 

Everybody had the option of using the VR or going without it. Those of us on the first train went out and had an amazing ride. Once the 2nd train left we pulled into the station and promptly got stopped half way through the station. And anybody who knows Revolution knows what that means. 

Safe to say we weren't very happy as we pride ourselves on giving an amazing event and we were a bit disappointed that the ride went down. Luckily everybody in attendance took it in stride and ended up having a great time. Hopefully we were able to hide our disappoint. 

The park did great and offered us all one front of the line pass for The New Revolution and one other front of the line pass for any other ride in the park. Luckily it wasn't a very busy day so we're pretty sure everybody got to ride everything they wanted. 

Thanks again to everybody who showed up. ​

Below we're just going to share some pictures from the day, click on any of the pictures to see a larger version.  

First set is from "The Coaster Whisperer 

The rest are of course from our own awesome CoasterMatt 

Thanks again to all who attended. We've already been asked about future events and right now we don't have anything in the works, that could change but there likely won't be anything for the remainder of 2016. 

Next week we'll have an all new feature video "Coaster Reviews with Gregg" where we'll be talking about Twisted Colossus at Magic Mountain and The Joker at Discovery Kingdom and why it's not so easy to compare them. Stay tuned for that. =) 

We headed up to Six Flags Magic Mountain the other day to take a look at the all new white train on The New Revolution and to take a look around the park at what's maybe coming for 2017. 

We'll be back at the park on Thursday so we'll have more from The New Revolution then but for now let's take a look at the new train and some nice night shots from friend of the site Cody. 

But the bulk of today's update is going to be looking at the potential for 2017 and a nice video we put together discussing some things about that project. Not really "what" the project us (as we don't know) but the potential and what that might mean for the rest of the backside of the park. 

Written by Gregg Condon

Before we get started, don't forget to get your tickets for Mountain Madness 2.0. We've got a great day planned for you and you definitely don't want to miss it. Click the picture below for all of the details. 

The nice and shiny white train

If possible it was actually a bit smoother than the red train. So good to have this back. Took a nice front seat ride today without the VR. 

And despite rumors, we did confirm with the park there will not be a 3rd train. Just the Red and White. Too bad as a a Blue train would have filled out the connection quite nicely. 

How about a few night shots from our good friend Cody who was at the park last night. 

And lastly, a couple of gif files we created from video Cody sent us. Love the classic amusement park feel this gives off. 

Alright, enough of The New Revolution for now. We'll have more of that later in the week. 

​Our main update this week is looking at the 2017 project area and some speculation on not really the "what" is coming but what that means to the surrounding area. 

We'll start back at the Action Theater which has been completely removed. 

Lots of room here for "something" whether it's a Justice League dark ride or some other type of ride. 

Fences all around the area. Once they start building something it's going to be pretty obvious what's coming. 

Tidal Wave is closed, whatever is coming we have a feeling it's going to be DC themed. Let's hope this ride stays with a nice Aquaman re-theme. 

Elsewhere in the park, Grad Nights are coming. 

"It's peanut butter jelly time!" 

Season Pass previews for The New Revolution end on April 17. The ride will be closed April 18-20 and reopen on April 21 with the ribbon cutting at 11am. 

Total accidental almost awesome coaster shot. Didn't even notice the train coming down the first drop until I got home. =) 

Lastly, new slide pieces continue to show up on site. These are replacing the kid friendly slides at the front of the park on "Reptile Ridge". Not sure if it's also replacing the speed slides that are there as well, let's hope the middle slide is staying. That's the best body slide in the park. 

Alright, that's going to wrap it up for this update. 

Be sure to check out the video above and let us know what you think about our 2017 project speculation and if you think we're crazy or are making maybe a little bit of sense. 

​We'll be back up at the park on Thursday for the grand opening of The New Revolution and then on Friday we'll be at Discovery Kingdom for a tour of The Joker. 

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 This morning Randy from Metro Atlanta Coaster Club got the great opportunity to head out to Six Flags Over Georgia and check out their new VR coaster, and also ask a few questions to Thomas Wagner who represents the German company who developed the VR coaster.



​We'll start off with some awesome video that shows the VR and reverse POV of the ride and then Randy's review including some quotes from Thomas Wagner from VR Coasters.

​Lastly, some great pictures showing off the actual VR tech. 

SFOG goes VR … WTF or WTG?

​In early March 2016, Six Flags surprised park fans by announcing it was rolling out a virtual reality experience at several of its parks for the coming season. We’d been hearing about Cedar Fair testing VR on Thunder Run at Canada’s Wonderland, and Alton Towers is transforming its B&M Flyer, Air, into Galactica, complete with a wired VR experience. But what Six Flags is doing is rather unprecedented, and was kept remarkably quiet until about 10 days before the first parks receive it. Nine different parks on nine completely different coasters … will the big gamble have a big payoff?

Before we begin, we need to flash back to IAAPA. VR Coasters, the German company behind The New Revolution VR Coaster program, showcased its product aboard Freedom Flyer, the Vekoma Family Suspended Coaster at Orlando’s Fun Spot America. The reaction from the various Six Flags park presidents in attendance was pretty unanimous: let’s do this! Most importantly, they did it very silently, so it came across as a great bonus way to start off the season. By virtue of the calendar, Six Flags Over Georgia will be the first park of the nine to launch The New Revolution VR Coaster, and does so aboard its now five-year-old Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter, Dare Devil Dive.

The ride already has a huge sign announcing the arrival, and the ride platform has had some features added to get it ready for this new experience. A work area has been set up at the back off-load side of the platform, where the virtual-reality headsets can be kept charged and will be cleaned after each use. There’s plenty of tech available to keep things moving. Park officials also insured that there will be additional staff on the platform to help get riders ready and to keep the lines from getting extraordinarily long. It debuts exclusively to Season passholders for opening weekend, so it will be a good test run. (Incidentally, the ride will be open to all this weekend, but only passholders can experience the VR version; all riders can access it starting March 19.)

Thomas Wagner, the co-founder of VR Coasters, was on-hand to describe the technology. The headset itself, aside from the various securing straps, is very stock. It uses Samsung’s GearVR goggles with a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge smartphone for the visuals. The eyepiece and straps are covered in an anti-microbial leather material similar to that used on airplane seats, which will be wiped down between uses. Each of Dare Devil Dive’s four cars will have a small box mounted to it, between the rear seats. This box controls the on-screen action that’s sent to the goggles using two sensors; one looks for specific sections of track so it knows where it is (such as the station), while the other counts rotations of one of the rear wheels. This sets the speed of the experience, ensuring the film tracks precisely to the, well, track, regardless of its speed. Also, in the event of a mechanical failure on the ride (such as getting held in the mid-course brakes), the experience will hold at that point and resume after the car gets moving again.

Riders will take their seats on the ride and then mount the headgear. It’s not difficult, and the prototype straps in place for this media preview were comfortable. It’ll be powered up as soon as you put it on, and will show you inside a fighter-jet parked inside a hangar. Look around, and you’ll see other activity in the hangar. You’ll also notice a rather formidable dual-barrel gun tracking wherever you look. Touching the right side of the visor will fire those guns, even! After the restraints are secured, the car leaves the station – er, the fighter begins to taxi around the hangar. It approaches a door and holds for a moment, but when the door opens, there’s nothing in front of you. Oh well, the only way to go is up,  and up you go as Dare Devil Dive climbs its vertical lift hill and your fighter heads toward the (thankfully) open roof.

As soon as you reach the top, you emerge into a raging battle. In the distance, a looming alien mother-ship is menacing a port city. Alien ships to the left and right! Hopefully you can take one out, but another one will take out your guns, leaving you to hang on for dear life as your pilot dives straight down to street level and winds through the city streets chasing the invaders. So many buildings! Let’s hope you don’t hit one, but no such luck. You do, and it slows you down … at exactly the same time you hit Dare Devil Dive’s mid-course brakes, coincidentally. It’s that attention to detail that makes the experience that much more believable. We now swing around a loading crane by the port, pursuing more invaders, ducking between falling buildings and spiraling through that crane again, heading towards a waiting aircraft carrier. We touch down (DDD hits the final brake run) and see the mother-ship falling out of the skies, engulfed in flames and explosions. Victory is ours … until the next batch of riders boards!

Sam Rhodes, Six Flags’ Director of Design, explained that the basic theme is similar across six of the nine rides, but synced up to that particular ride’s profile. Since Shock Wave at Six Flags Over Texas is different from Dare Devil Dive, it has a completely different VR experience. The three Superman-themed rides that will have this overlay – Krypton Coaster at SF Fiesta Texas, The Ride at SF New England and Ride of Steel at SF America – will indeed feature the Man of Steel battling arch nemesis Lex Luthor. Again, real-world components of the ride are masked in a way that makes sense in the general story. For example, for the Superman coasters, riders will be taking a pleasure flight and will have just taken off from the airport when Lex Luthor appears, pursued naturally by Superman. Lex attacks your plane, sending it hurtling to the ground before Superman collects you and pulls you back into the sky … I’m sure you can tell me what REALLY just happened.

Both Rhodes and Wagner said this may just be the beginning of this experience at the park. The VR overlay is described as “limited-time”, but that’s being purposefully vague. SFOG does pay attention to its visitors; it kept namtaB (Batman Backwards) for several more weeks last season by popular demand. So you may be battling aliens all year, or just until daily ops begin this May. Or, it may relocate to another attraction … or it may be given a Halloween or Christmas theme during those two end-of-year events at the park. All it takes is the ride profile, a bit of math and a lot of creativity, and the sky is VIRTUALLY the limit!

Having ridden Dare Devil Dive since its debut five years ago, I knew the ride layout by memory, making the VR easier to adapt to. I spent much of the first ride matching everything up in my head … but that was unfair. I blocked that out on my second run, trying to experience it as if I was a first-time rider. The VR really does plus it up in a fun, but unobtrusive way. It all makes sense, with no dialogue or explanation … which is mainly because it has no sound component. Adding audio would make everything heavier and harder to wear, to say nothing about adding even more to the concerns about guests’ personal hygiene. Also, and this is really being nitpicky, the graphics are good, but hardly cutting edge compared to today’s movies and video games. But in the end, it’s the experience that overweighs all that. It’s still fun, and still worth some effort to experience.

The New Revolution VR Coaster is just one of the new experiences Six Flags Over Georgia has in store for 2016, its 50th operating season. The first of the two announced kids’ areas, Bugs Bunny Boomtown, will open with the park on Saturday, March 12 with all but one ride, the Yosemite Sam Wacky Wagons Ferris wheel (that will open soon). Work is slowly getting underway on the second area, DC Super Friends, which will be the first-ever use of this kid-friendly variant of the comic heroes. It’s still on target for a late spring opening. Another new feature, JB’s Sports Bar and Grill, replaces Big Mo’s in the French section and will open by the end of the month.

For you coaster fans, the rest of the park’s arsenal looks to be ready for the season, with some notable exceptions. Goliath will open with just one train; the second unit is being rebuilt from the bogies up and will be added later this spring (the operating train has already undergone this overhaul). Cyclone may debut with one train at first, as well, but everything else will have standard load-outs starting Saturday. Two coasters will not debut with the park. Canyon Blaster is busy being rethemed into The Joker’s Funhouse, and should re-open with DC Super Friends later in the spring. And then there’s the red-tracked stepchild in Cotton States, Ninja.

Sharp-eyed readers observed the park’s 2016 map on its website and noticed two things: that Ninja was now blue in color and was labeled “all-new” and opening later in the season. Park President Dale Kaetzel said that Vekoma was on site and working to improve the ride experience with some track work and some improvements to the trains. Kaetzel did mention it would sport the new vest-type harnesses found on Vekoma’s Boomerang coasters (such as Carolina Cobra at nearby Carowinds), but was coy about whether it would be on new trains or on the existing vehicles. I’m wagering it’ll be the former. Kaetzel also mentioned that the name “Ninja” may not be on it when it does re-open, but nothing was set yet.
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And lastly, while this is the 50th operating season, next year is the big 5-0 itself. Big anniversaries usually mean big presents, and needless to say, Mr. Kaetzel wasn’t forthcoming with what may be planned for 2017, but he did say that I would be pleased with the plans. He knows I’m a coaster fan, so I’m pretty sure he knew the message was received and understood.


Randy is a member of Metro Atlanta Coaster Club (MACC), which will celebrate its 7th anniversary this summer. MACC calls the Atlanta area home when it’s not traveling around the United States trying out other new attractions, but it has members and followers throughout the country. You can find their site at http://www.metroatlantacoasterclub.com or on Facebook under “Metro Atlanta Coaster Club” or on Twitter at @MACC_Coasters.]

The tech is impressive!

Another group of riders about to take off!

Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Thomas Wagner, from VR Coasters, the German company behind this great experience

Thanks again to Randy for covering the event for us, looks like a great time. Be sure to check out Metro Atlanta Coaster Clubs Events Page for all the latest on their upcoming trips including trips to Dollywood at the end of this month and their big Ohio/Indiana/Kentucky trip in May.