Magic Mountain

Saturday night was one of the times when CalTech offers tickets to Six Flags Magic Mountain for an evening, cheap. They run this once every 6 months or so. This was my second trip and Lauren's third. Other groups I saw there included the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and LifeTeen (that Catholic youth organization that Matt from Real World New Orleans kept blabbing about on one of the RW-RR Challenges). I love these things because they are far less crowded than on normal days, and since it's at night it's usually nice and cool and you don't have to worry about sunscreen or glare or anything.

As always I got very nervous in the hours leading up to it, but ended up having a hell of a lot of fun. Here's what we rode:

• X - This was the one we really wanted to hit, we'd missed out last time. This one has the longest lines so we rushed straight for it and got on in only about 20 minutes which was fantastic. This ride is insane, check out some of the pics in this review. Flipping around in this thing really does keep you very disoriented. Great ride, I'm glad we hit it. Easily the scariest ride of the night, and the one I swore the most on.
   
  
• Viper - Viper remains my favorite coaster in the park.
   
  
• Buccaneer - swinging ship ride. It is odd that rides like this and the ferris wheel scare me more than most roller coasters, I just don't like some of the sensations on these.
   
  
• Swashbuckler - swings, nice and pleasant. Got to see a few fat people get kicked off.
   
  
• Colossus - Another new one for me, this is a big wooden coaster with lots of up and down action. Just bumpy enough to make you feel the ride but not so much that you wake up feeling like you've been hit by a car the next day (unlike Psyclone).
   
  
• Scream - This is probably my second favorite ride at the park, partially because for some reason the line is always ridiculously short. This is a smooth ride with a lot of excitement.
   
  
• The Riddler's Revenge - Our only bad choice of the night, the wait for this took upwards of an hour. This is a standing coaster. The track was pretty cool, lots of twists and looping, but the standing position had two problems. First off the banana seat you straddle could keep you from fathering children if you aren't careful. Secondly, I was never sure if I should lock my knees or go into a defensive stance or what - I think the latter would have been better, as standing with locked knees put an awful lot of stress on my knees and they hurt for awhile afterwards.
   
  
• Goldrusher - This is the oldest coaster at the park, it is small but fun.
   
  
• Ninja - Ninja doesn't have any loops or anything but it is a lot of fun nonetheless. Both this and Goldrusher are kind of buried amongst the trees and it is really cool to ride them in the dark.
   
  
• Sierra Twist - This was just a circle with single-rider cars. Imagine a Nascar ride only with nothing but right turns, that was this ride. Between guests who insisted on trying to pack two people into a car (I could barely get the seatbelt around just me) and yet another lardo thrown off the ride, it took longer than it should have to load, but it was still fun.
   
  
• Goliath - After funnel cake we checked Goliath just in case. Last time we came it took about 90 minutes to ride Goliath, and earlier this evening the line had looked even longer. Imagine our surprise when we literally walked up to the train and loaded in immediately, there was no waiting at all. Goliath's first drop is sick, it is so steep and puts you right into a dark tunnel. Midway through you air brake to a near stop right before careening down and into a tight spiral. We rode Goliath twice actually (there was still no wait so we ran right back) and the second time, this spiral made me start to black out...my vision got tunnelly and blurry as the helix continued. I'm not the only one to have this experience. That left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth but Goliath is still a great ride and I will definitely try it again next time. I will probably only ride it once though!

I did not get to ride Batman or Revolution, the first was too busy and the second was closed altogether. Too bad, I really liked both of them last time I went. Here's an interesting factoid, Wally World from Vacation was actually Magic Mountain, and Revolution was the "Whipper Snapper" coaster that the Griswolds ride at the end of the movie.