So, it's thanksgiving over here in the USA next week and I'm having a couple of days off forced upon me! I was planning to head to Los Angeles to do some shopping, but more importantly it looks like I'll have time to visit this rollercoaster mecca. 

I've had a read through a few of the reviews on here and also on TripAdvisor and it seems to be a mixed bag really. I'm not expecting an awful lot from it in all honesty I've read that it's dirty, the staff are rude and it's packed full of nobheads. 

My plan is to purchase the fast pass things which appear to be valid all day for all of the rides!

I'll give you a report and try and get some pictures from my visit, but in the meantime if anybody has been and has any advice that'd be sweet

Cheers,
JD

Went last month and had a fantastic time.

Buy your fast pass in advance as it saves time queueing to get one on the day. Turning up early won't make much of a difference but if you do; head straight for X2 as the Flash pass won't cover it.

Have a great time, I know I did!

38 minutes ago, punks said:

Went last month and had a fantastic time.

Buy your fast pass in advance as it saves time queueing to get one on the day. Turning up early won't make much of a difference but if you do; head straight for X2 as the Flash pass won't cover it.

Have a great time, I know I did!

Nice one mate. The flash pass worth it? How did you get there?

Nice one mate. The flash pass worth it? How did you get there?

We were naive and thought we'd get a scope of how busy the park was first to see if it was worth the outlay, absolute waste of time and wish we had pre-booked the flash pass to save all the time queueing for it.

Once we got the flash passes, we felt VIP. Practically everything is walk on if you book it immediately after riding your last coaster. Get the platinum flash pass.

Put it this way, you're travelling all that way. The last thing you want is to leave having only done half of the park and having spent most of your day queueing.

We hired a car and I'd totally reccomend that you do if you're going to LA. If not, we did see some buses on the way in so there's hope if you do a bit of research. Maybe try and pool an Uber otherwise?

Let me know how you get on man or if you need any more help with your trip, I had a superb day, you'll be completely and utterly overwhelmed. Top coaster of the day for me was a toss-up between Twisted Colossus and Escape from Krypton with Goliath getting an honourable mention. But honestly, almost everything there by far and away blows the UK parks out of the water.

8 minutes ago, punks said:

 

We were naive and thought we'd get a scope of how busy the park was first to see if it was worth the outlay, absolute waste of time and wish we had pre-booked the flash pass to save all the time queueing for it.

Once we got the flash passes, we felt VIP. Practically everything is walk on if you book it immediately after riding your last coaster. Get the platinum flash pass.

Put it this way, you're travelling all that way. The last thing you want is to leave having only done half of the park and having spent most of your day queueing.

We hired a car and I'd totally reccomend that you do if you're going to LA. If not, we did see some buses on the way in so there's hope if you do a bit of research. Maybe try and pool an Uber otherwise?

Let me know how you get on man or if you need any more help with your trip, I had a superb day, you'll be completely and utterly overwhelmed. Top coaster of the day for me was a toss-up between Twisted Colossus and Escape from Krypton with Goliath getting an honourable mention. But honestly, almost everything there by far and away blows the UK parks out of the water.

 

Excellent advice, thanks! I'll certainly be getting that platinum flash pass then as I'll probably do the trip by myself and I'm certainly not one for queuing. I live about a 2 hour train ride from Los Angeles and it looks as though there is a connection from there to Six Flags, will have to look into that a bit more. The only park I've visited outside the UK was Parc Asterix so I'm really looking forward to this now! You've certainly got me buzzed for it.

Do you recommend any other parks out here by any chance? I travel around the entire country for work but think I'm out of season for Cedar Point, so that'll have to wait. 

Excellent advice, thanks! I'll certainly be getting that platinum flash pass then as I'll probably do the trip by myself and I'm certainly not one for queuing. I live about a 2 hour train ride from Los Angeles and it looks as though there is a connection from there to Six Flags, will have to look into that a bit more. The only park I've visited outside the UK was Parc Asterix so I'm really looking forward to this now! You've certainly got me buzzed for it.

Do you recommend any other parks out here by any chance? I travel around the entire country for work but think I'm out of season for Cedar Point, so that'll have to wait. 

Weigh up the costs / travel time with public transport vs car hire for the day just to make sure, it looks like a slight pain with transfers etc etc.

You've got a right to be buzzed, we just went on ride after ride after ride with that damned thing!

The other parks we did were Disneyland and Universal. Disney was overcrowded, overpriced and not at all magical whilst Universal was slick, modern, great atmosphere and to be fair had some really solid rides albeit nothing quite on par with SFMM. If I had to pick I'd say go for Universal, I would describe it as "a nice day out" as opposed to the cattle-battle at Disney.

There is also Knott's Berry Farm closeby which we unfortunately missed but looks exceedingly good for rides and I think is the cheaper of the lot to visit.

Sweet job, wish I had one out there in the States! Maybe I'll apply to be a bricklayer, heard Trump is looking to build a wall out there...

8 hours ago, JDann said:

So, it's thanksgiving over here in the USA next week and I'm having a couple of days off forced upon me! I was planning to head to Los Angeles to do some shopping, but more importantly it looks like I'll have time to visit this rollercoaster mecca. 

I've had a read through a few of the reviews on here and also on TripAdvisor and it seems to be a mixed bag really. I'm not expecting an awful lot from it in all honesty I've read that it's dirty, the staff are rude and it's packed full of nobheads. 

My plan is to purchase the fast pass things which appear to be valid all day for all of the rides!

I'll give you a report and try and get some pictures from my visit, but in the meantime if anybody has been and has any advice that'd be sweet

Cheers,
JD

 

If you're going next work, definitely do the fastpass. What with it being a holiday week and thanksgiving, I'd expect the park to be extremely busy although you'd have to ask on American forums to see if this is the case. I really liked magic Mountain on my visit, if you're looking for a load of thrill rides, this is your best bet. When I went, the only ride we queued for was Full Throttle and that was only because it can only run one train. Everything else was walk on. Tatsu, Scream (guilty pleasure), Apocalypse, Riddlers Revenge, Ninja and Goliath are awesome.

 

I'm not really a fan of Knotts frankly, it gets more visitors per year then Magic Mountain and has nowhere near as many decent rides. Silver Bullet is okay if you like your slick and forceless B&M's and Xcelerator is nowhere near as intense as Stealth. I like Disney California Adventure and would recommend it, however it will be absolutely joyless in Thanksgiving week.

10 hours ago, Mark9 said:

 

If you're going next work, definitely do the fastpass. What with it being a holiday week and thanksgiving, I'd expect the park to be extremely busy although you'd have to ask on American forums to see if this is the case. I really liked magic Mountain on my visit, if you're looking for a load of thrill rides, this is your best bet. When I went, the only ride we queued for was Full Throttle and that was only because it can only run one train. Everything else was walk on. Tatsu, Scream (guilty pleasure), Apocalypse, Riddlers Revenge, Ninja and Goliath are awesome.

 

I'm not really a fan of Knotts frankly, it gets more visitors per year then Magic Mountain and has nowhere near as many decent rides. Silver Bullet is okay if you like your slick and forceless B&M's and Xcelerator is nowhere near as intense as Stealth. I like Disney California Adventure and would recommend it, however it will be absolutely joyless in Thanksgiving week.

Hi Mark, 

Thanks for this, I had a read of your report from your visit, really helpful alongside this. Was surprised that it'll be busy on Thanksgiving as I thought people would stay at home, but it seems judging from numerous sources online that it gets very busy. Also, paired with the fact travel will be a nightmare then it leaves me with Friday / Saturday, both of which I imagine will be rammed also.

Looks like I'll give Disney a miss until I come back after Christmas!

Hey gorge 

Trip postponed until this Saturday due to Hilton being a bunch of arse heads. 

Enter park. Go to X2, go on X2. Repeat until barely conscious. 

Go to Goliath and ride until fully unconscious.

 

Everything else doesn't matter.

49 minutes ago, pluk said:

Enter park. Go to X2, go on X2. Repeat until barely conscious. 

Go to Goliath and ride until fully unconscious.

 

Everything else doesn't matter.

I like the sound of this. With this Flash Pass I am near on certain on unconsciousness. 

6 hours ago, pluk said:

Enter park. Go to X2, go on X2. Repeat until barely conscious. 

Go to Goliath and ride until fully unconscious.

 

Everything else doesn't matter.

 

You forgot to add, check if X2 is open.