Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23) - Day 8: Six Flags Magic Mountain - aka Walley World

[HEMANCLOFTY]

Huxwolds California Dreaming (Aug 23)
Day 8: Six Flags Magic Mountain - aka Walley World (Fri 25/08)

Index
Day 7: Moving to Hollywood, Warner Bros Studios & City Walk

After a good first night’s sleep in the new hotel, I think I woke up at around 6:10, but may have dozed off again, before getting up around 7:30ish.

We weren’t in a mega rush this morning, as Six Flags wasn’t open until 10:30, so we planned to leave after rush hour (at around 9:15ish).

Today’s Sooty WatsApp update was him being spoiled with another Creamy Dreamy…

This morning’s view…

I made a coffee, then had a shower, which was really nice and powerful, and we were all ready by 9:15…

Tom and Rich went for a smoke / vape and I popped into the gift shop to check the price of Sunscreen as we were down to our last can - $26! . We would have to find a shop later.

I topped up my water bottle using the Flowater machine in the lobby. It had a normal button and a foot pedal..

9:25 - I ordered the Uber which was 2 mins away and $56.92. The driver had to quickly pop back to his previous customers at the Universal ride share drop off as they had left their bag, but we were soon on our way.

There were a few Writers Guild picketers near the Universal / NBC entrance this morning…

It was a really nice drive up to Valencia, with no traffic, and mountains pretty much all the way, so we got some good pics…

At 9:55 we our first glimpse of the Six Flags skyline…

We arrived by 10am - The Huxwolds had finally made it to actual Walley World!

Rich even posed for a few pics and a family selfie for the first time this holiday…

Of course, he was wearing his new t-shirt today 🫎

The Sheriff’s office - Just incase Clarke Griswold rocks up in a mood again 🤣

Rich and Tom found the smoking area and I popped to the restroom, then at 10:10 we joined the small crowd waiting for the park to open…

Thankfully, there was no sign of this fella…

NB - Incase you haven’t seen my pre-trippie, we actually did have a Griswolds moment, as we’d originally planned to stay in Valencia for the last couple of days of our trip, until Rich spotted that the park was going to be closed on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!

X2 wasn’t operating today, so our plan of action was to head to Twisted Colossus & Goliath first, and work our way anti-clockwise around the park after that.

10:30 - The park opened. There weren’t too many guests so we didn’t have to run, or even walk fast, so I could get some pics on the way…

NB - I’ve only just realised that these guys are bounding as Mario, Luigi, Bowser & Toad

Sadly, Goliath was closed for maintenance, so no bucket list ride for Rich this time…

NB - Superman, Apocalypse and Ninja were also down today and Riddlers Revenge opened but was shut off and on during the morning, but then stayed closed in the afternoon - so quite a few big coasters not operating !

Not to worry though, as Lex Luther Drop of Doom was a walk on, so we started with that…

Wow it’s high! Our operator gave us a cheeky false start, then a good forceful drop.

10:45 - Twisted Colossus was also a walk on…

I rode with Tom on the back row, with Rich just in front and we got a dual up the first lift hill. It was really good, but very rough and a bit painful as my lap restraint really pinned me in. Tom declared it his new No 1 (but has since changed his mind). Rich and I both agreed it’s the worst of the 4 RMCs we’ve done so far, which is understandable given it was the first one to be converted.

As an added bonus though, the original Colossus is the coaster from National Lampoon’s Vacation, so it was a good one ticked off the bucket list…

Current queue times - so a good call not to buy the Flash Passes…

11:00 - We arrived at the DC Universe area next…

Batman was a walk on and we got the back row - It’s a good B&M invert…

We had a mooch in the DC shop, then headed onto Wonder Woman Flight of Courage…

…It had about a 5 min wait as it’s a low capacity ride with only 12 riders per train. The loading process is unique as it works like a conveyor belt - I ended up one the back seat.

This was our first time on a single rail RMC Raptor and it was really good, but intense and not as smooth as I expected for a new RMC - I got whipped over the first drop. I really enjoyed it though.

11:35 - we all needed a drink now, so we got an all day refill cup from Carlinis Pizzeria window (around $25 Inc tax)...

I had to wear a wristband for the refills, but no one ever checked it for any of the refills I got throughout the day.

Once we’d sorted the drink, we went into Justice League for a bit of air con….

It was another walk on and a surprisingly great dark ride - with a combination of shooting 3D screens, animatronics and set pieces, and a really fast ride mechanism. It was one of my favourite rides of the day, and one of my favourite shooting dark rides that I’ve done so far.

11:50 - We went on Goldrusher next as it was another walk on…

This looked to be a little family mine train coaster, but it was quite long, and a very rough ride up and down the mountain terrain. I hurt my bum on the seat and my shin on the leg rest. A contender for the worst coaster ever, but not quite as bad as the SLC at Movie Park Germany!

Some Google pics…

Into the Underground area next…

It was getting really warm now, so we topped up our sunscreen, seeing a big green beasty on the pillar (is it a cricket?)…

12:10 - We joined the 20 min queue for West Coast Racers…

Thankfully it was an indoor queue and it went quite quick. It’s a good racing launch coaster, but again quite a painful ride with the horrible (lack of) comfort collars.

After West Coast Racers, Rich and Tom went to find the smoking area whilst I went to get a drink refill and to get myself a cookie from the nearby candy store. However they only sold candy apples and fudge, so after a quick look around in the nice air con, I sat on the bench outside to rest for a bit and wait for Rich and Tom.

No woody for us today (or on this trip)…

By 1pm The App was showing queue times starting to build up, with Full Throttle at 50 mins and Tatsu and Revolution both at 45.

We were are all a bit peckish, so headed in search of food, ending up at Katy’s Kettle, in the wooded area at the top of the hill, near Tatsu…

Rich only wanted some Fries, I went for Tenders and Fries (knowing he would probably have some chicken) and Tom had a Turkey Leg and Fries ($50.34)…

The lady who served us was really sweet, asking about our different UK accents (mine’s Lancashire and Tom’s is Black Country). She was also really surprised to hear how long our flight was and that there is an 8 hour time difference. It was a lovely chat.

The food was really nice and we were all done by 1:50. It was 32 degrees now and due to peak at 33 by 3pm…

Queue times were still, high (60 mins for Tatsu) so we decided to just mooch along and see what we came across. We came to X2 and found one of the filming location spots from Vacation…

We carried on mooching along until we came across Viper, which said 20 mins but was a walk on…

We couldn’t remember what this one was, but it looked like a Corkscrew. We were wrong though - it is an Arrow, but it’s like a Corkscrew++, with 7 inversions and it’s ridiculously high and very intense….

It felt like my neck was going to snap going around the first loop, and we all came off a little bit broken - Rich and I took some painkillers to ward off the incoming neck ache and Rich had to have a little lie down on the wall….

I came up with the phrase “It Lethal Weaponed me” (as in, I’m getting too old for this s#@t)

We realised later that Viper is the ride Brendan Fraser and Paulie Shore go in in California Man…

And it was in Glee too…

2:25 - We got a much needed drink refil and had a restroom stop. I was so hot I wet my hair a bit, and came out to find Rich filling his cap at the water fountain and pouring it over his head…

We all agreed that there was nothing left that we fancied queuing for in this heat, nor paying for one shot flash passes for, so we mooched our way back round via the West Coast Racers and DC areas looking in a few stores on the way (mainly for the air con)…

Tom wanted to pop back into the DC store, where he got himself a Batman necklace ($? ) - Rich and I sat in the shade outside waiting for him and watching Wonder Woman…

2:50 - It had reached 33 Degrees now and was absolutely baking…

The Weather App said it was going to be 38 in Valencia on Tuesday! Thankfully it was going to be cooler in Hollywood and even cooler in Venice Beach as we were heading there on Tuesday.

As we were walking back towards the park exit we come across a food court place next to Goliath with a counter selling Dole Whips, so I got a pineapple one ($9.99 + tax) whilst Tom got us a drink refill..

We sat on the floor outside and Rich took some arty pics before it started to melt…

It was lovely and refreshing 😀

We took some pics of the iconic Goliath entrance…

3:20 - We had a quick look around Bugs Bunny Land and took a few pics…

More pics on the way towards the exit…

We had a look in the gift shops near the exit in search of a magnet with the park logo (We couldn’t find one). Tom got 3 pressed pennies, and we also got a final drink refill…

At 3:45 we left the park. We had a pit stop at the restrooms and smoking area and were ordering our Uber by 4pm. We’d decided to get the Uber to Walmart in Burbank as Rich needed cigarettes, I wanted to get some sunscreen, and we could also get some waters and room snacks.

It took a while to be connected to a driver, so when a pop up came up asking if we wanted to keep waiting or pay $4.98 extra, I went for it. We were finally allocated a driver, and we were on our way by 4:15..

We arrived at Walmart at 4:45 ($54.55 + 15% tip).

There was an Ulta Beauty on the retail park, so I popped over for a quick mooch whilst Rich and Tom went straight into Walmart…

I picked up a small bottle of milk and found Tom in the toy section. I also got 2 cans of Factor 50 ($10.99 each) and some toothpaste as we were running a bit low.

We found Rich - he’d got a case of 24 waters, some crisps, cookies and 4x $1 bottles of Powerade. We also picked up a pack of 6 Apple Danish (for snacky breakfasts) and a selection of Pies which were a bargain at 75c each. Tom also got a little Barbie toy for Ava (Lola’s niece) and Rich got a TMNT figure ($10).

Rich popped outside for a smoke whilst Tom and I did checkout - I asked the server if they sold cigarettes and she explained they are only sold at Convenience stores and Gas stations in California. She was really nice and packed our bags for us. The total came to $77.12…

We withdrew $300 at the ATM, which worked out at £261, Inc a $3 ATM charge.

5:35 - We got an Uber back to the hotel ($18.93). The driver was a bit grumpy and didn’t let Tom sit in the front or help with opening the trunk for our shopping, so he only got a $1 tip.

The entrance to Universal Studios…

We arrived at the hotel at 6pm.

We sorted out the shopping haul…

Then I had a coffee and an apple pie, which was lovely…

Rich and Tom had some of the mini cookies.

We chilled for an hour, and I made a start on my trippie notes for Wednesday (DCA).

7:00 - We all had a quick freshen up and were ready to head to In-N-Out Burger by 7:15. It had been a tiny bit chilly at City Walk last night so I wore my denim jacket...

It took about 20 mins to walk to In-N-Out, down the Universal hill…

…past the NBC Comcast building…

…under the underpass….

We were definitely out of the Universal bubble now…

We popped into a Gas Station to get 4 packs of Marlboroughs for Rich ($43).

And made it to In-N-Out just after 7:30…

It was busy and a bit noisy inside….

We all ordered Double Double Combos (with grilled onions for me and Rich / no salad for Tom), plus we got 2 bonus single cheeseburgers ($40.24). I think our server may have been a wee bit stoned.

The food took about 10 mins, and we managed to grab a table whilst we were waiting. I tried a tiny bit of one of the pickles but it was very hot

The Burgers were really nice and lived up to the hype. The fries were a bit dry, and it didn’t help that I over salted mine (not realising they were already salted), but I had plenty to eat with my extra 1/2 cheeseburger

8:40 - We we’re all done and made our way back to the hotel. Tom said the busyness and noise in the restaurant was a bit discombobulating, and put him off his food a bit. It was the first time this trip that we all felt that we were in a slightly dodgy area and we were all on our guard.

We popped into another gas station on the way back to see if they had any throat sweets as mine was starting to feel a bit sore - they didn’t have any.

Rich saw someone being arrested near the Universal parking lot / tram at the bottom of the hill. I missed it but he said the police all had their guns out 😯

The walk back up the Universal hill was a proper muscle burner, and we had to stop a couple of times….

We made it to the top just after 9…

Tom stayed outside to call Lola, and I had another look in the hotel gift shop - they did have small packs of Halls lozenges, but they were $6 and my throat wasn’t bad enough to warrant that price. I also noticed that they were charging $7 for a tiny travel-sized Axe body spray!

Back in the room, I did my Insta reel for the day, set the alarms for 5:30 am (as we had early entry Universal tickets for 7am), then finished off Wednesday’s trip notes - finally tuckling down at 11:15.

I didn’t capture the step count today 👣

Thoughts on Six Flags: it’s fair to say that this was a proper bucket list park for the Huxwolds, and especially Rich. This is the park that has featured in so many films and TV shows over the years. It was also our first time at a Six Flags park (although technically Walibi Holland used to be a Six Flags). We’d originally planned 2 days, but 1 was enough for a mid-week day, and we definitely didn’t need the Flash Passes (especially in the first few hours). It was a shame that so many rides were closed, and especially Goliath, but it does give us something to go back for one day. Overall, it met our expectations and it’s a good solid park, that we’d recommend squeezing into a California itinerary if you enjoy a good theme park day and some “grown up” rides 🎢🎢🎢

Day 9: Universal Studios (with Mario Early Entry) & City Walk

[lindasarahlou]

Have been waiting to read your Six Flags day as we were there the same day (as well as the day before!). Was looking in your pics to see if we were in the background of any, but not that I can see!
Oh boy! wasn't it hot! we did feel that there was a lack of covered areas especially in the queue areas which would have been very welcome in the afternoons once that heat intensified, its a bit of a concrete jungle. Like you we were disappointed that some of the headline rides weren't operating (Superman, X2, Goliath), we also found that there was a lot of down time on some rides (Wonderwoman was one). Our favourite rides were Full Throttle, Twisted Colossus and West Coast Racer.
Also love the scenery around the park.
I am trying to get a trip report written but I need to sort out all the photos first!

[lizzie145]

this park is on my list to visit. The price for my trip at present is £3K without park tickets for flight, hotels and car.

[dismamx2]

Another great day Love in and out burger and those little Walmart pies, cherry is my favorite

[Cinderella]

Great day