Magic Mountain

How do I begin? Let me mention first that we went to Magic Mountain about 8 years ago. We were there for a total of 6 hours and were only able to get on 2 rides. After those 2 rides, we tried to get something to eat. We were in line for food for a 1/2 hour and only moved a foot or two. At that point we decided it wasn't worth it and left. So we were a little skeptical about going again.

When we were researching and deciding whether or not to go, we found something called the "Flash Pass" on their website. The idea is much like Disneyland's Fast Pass. There are two versions of the Flash Pass. The first one allows you to place yourself in line (without actually being there) and receive a message letting you know when it's your turn to go on the ride. At that point, you proceed to the ride and go through a special entrance for Flash Pass holders. The second option was the Gold Flash Pass. This one is much the same, only it reduces the wait time by up to 75%. Because of our previous visit, we decided not to take any chances and go with the Gold Pass. Let me just say... GREAT DECISION!!! To give you an idea, our longest wait time for any of the rides was 15 minutes. If we ever get to go again, we'll be buying that pass again.

On to the rides. Last time we went, our favorite (of the two rides we got to go on) was Goliath. It's a pretty simple coaster, but goes fairly high and has some good speed on it. This time that coaster felt like a walk in the park. This time we ended up with a few favorites. X2 was pretty amazing! You are seated and harnessed in and then your chair is tilted back, as though you are laying down. As you are going up the first hill, you move up backwards so that you cannot see where the top of the hill is or what will happen. The other crazy part of this ride is that the seats are able to flip 360 degrees. It's mechanically controlled but the feeling is indescribable.

I think our favorite ride overall had to be Tatsu. This one is really hard to describe and do it justice. This one is kinda opposite seating from X2. You're harnessed into your seat, with cuffs around your ankles as well. But instead of lying back, the lower part of your seat is brought up so that your whole body is facing down, as though you are in a "flying" position. One of the scariest things about this ride is that your whole body weight is pressing against your harness and you know that if it fails you will fall straight down. We were able to get the front row seat on this one and it was trippy to say the least. The other thing that made it scary was the height. Not only are you facing the ground, but you know that if you fall, you have a long way to go. You stay up high almost the whole ride. Throughout the ride, there are at least 3 barrel rolls (or something like that) and one incredibly wicked loop. You have to imagine yourself in flying position, diving down and then on to your back at the bottom of the loop. It was an insane feeling, one that really cannot be described. I felt as though my feet, gut, throat, etc. were all at the top of my head. When you get to the bottom of that loop, you can't talk or scream because of the pressure. Simply, incredible. I can't imagine another coaster coming close to that one.

We had an amazing time... much better than our previous experience and hope to be able to get back there again before too long. One upsetting thing about our trip is that I had taken my SD card out of our camera to blog about our first day at Disneyland. I forgot to put it back in for Magic Mountain, so I do not have any pictures of our day there. So you will all have to put up with internet pictures and video.



X2



Tatsu