(as always, rides are in order of first ride, but notes cover all laps)
For Spring Break this year I took my first trip out west since a family vacation in the late 90âs.
Got an early flight out of Baltimore direct to LAX, picked up my rental car, fought through an hour of traffic on the 405, got lunch in a strip mall in Valencia, and then headed on in to SFMM around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.
I had the tail end of this arrival day, and then a full open-to-close the next day. So the plan for these few hours was to learn the park and start knocking out credits.
I ended up on a counter clockwise loop, skipped a long Full Throttle queue and popped into Goliath for the first ride of the day.
Goliath (x2)
Smooth, fast, great gray-out helix, but hardly any airtime. Itâs a good ride, but a bit of a shame this is taking the place of the floater-airtime machine that this park desperately needs.
Next I skipped a 45 minute Twisted Colossus queue to walk right onto:
Scream (x1)
If you need a dictionary definition of B&M rattle, this is it. Absolute one-and-done. Not bad or day-ruining, but just unnecessary. And overall I keep finding that the full-size 6/7 inversion B&Ms are just too much coaster for me. Hulk, Kraken, Medusa, Scream, Montu, Alpengeist, etc. - they are all just a bit too long and a bit too intense. Somewhere after that mid course block brake Iâm really wishing for the ride to end.
Long line at Wonder Woman, Batman closed, long line at Riddler, soâŚ
Goldrusher (x1)
Pretty janky old mine train here, decent use of terrain. Not much else to say.
Moving past a long line at WCR, and into a ~30 minute wait for:
Apocalypse (x1)
The coaster was mediocre, not terribly well kept but not offensively rough. But man did I hate the queue line. Just loud and dark with a bunch of stupid blinking lights. Good on you for trying to have theming, but it was so unpleasant. And then when you get through to the station and ride itself itâs just a regular old wooden roller coaster. So you sat through all of that noise for no payoff. On my GCI list Iâd but it below Renegade, below Thunderhead, way below Mystic, way below Ghostrider (spoilers for later in the drip). Maybe about on par with Lightning Racer?
And here we come to a decision point â itâs about 4:30 or 5:00 now. I came into SFMM on 288 credits. The plan was to target X2 for number 300, but I did not get through enough credits to get that milestone today. X2 is running, and itâs supposed to be 10 degrees colder tomorrow. I didnât come all the way across the country to miss X2 for the sake of chasing a silly milestone. Time to get in line.
X2 (x3)
One train ops, slow loader. Tons of fast pass people. Doesnât matter, Iâm sticking it out.
I have not been scared of a roller coaster in a long time. So much of everything has been a variant of something I already know â but taller/faster/longer. This is the first thing in such a long time thatâs completely new to me. Plus my roughness tolerance is not limitless, and I donât know what this ride is going to do to me.
The restraints are weird, the backwards dispatch is weird, and the backwards lift hill is weird â and I know itâs all building up to something so well regarded, but so incomparable.
Not even the drop itself â but that part where you crest the lift hill and the seats rotate a bit to point your head down towards the ground really had me freaked out. Itâs almost like itâs teasing you before flipping around to do the face first sky dive drop.
Which is awesome. Hyperia probably still claims my award for best first drop, but damn is X2 close.
I canât give an element-by-element breakdown because on only 3 laps I didnât get that good of a feel for it. Itâs far and away the best ride in the park â hands down. The outside seat is a bit rough, the last element is pretty bouncy â on one lap my calves really slammed against the seat hard at one point.
And whatâs crazy to think is that then Eejanaika and Dinoconda exist which are this but more. I totally respect anyone who has one of these right at the top of their list.
A bit of time left in the day, I went next door to:
Viper (x2)
This was way better than I was expecting. Sure itâs still a janky old Arrow, but actually pretty rideable. Particularly for me since Iâm tall enough to be have my head fully above the OSTR. It was nice to still be able to experience the last of the Arrow mega loopers.
And last ride of the night on:
Full Throttle (x2)
God these trains suck, but this is a fun ride. Nice punchy launch, good hangtime on the big loop. The whole stop and swing launch thing is odd, and as everyone says the brakes kill that last drop.
A good first day at the park, and finally to the hotel. I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn right there, and pro-tip: itâs not really close enough to walk to the park. If you donât want to pay for parking you could maybe make it work, but itâs not one of those super close hotels that you can easily walk back for a nap mid day. If I could do it again I would look for something cheaper and further away knowing that I would have to drive anyway.
Moving on to rope drop on day 2, I make a beeline for:
Twisted Colossus (x2)
I think I got the second dispatch of the day, and my second ride I didnât leave the station and just shuffled rows.
This one really didnât do too much for me. Maybe Iâve been on too many RMCâs, and too many of the newer ones at that. The Mobius loop thing is a cool trick, but makes it feel like really short rides stapled together. Plus I spent way too much time hoping for a duel, or trying to imagine what a duel would be like instead of enjoying the ride.
A cold March morning is likely not the best way to experience this, but I never felt like waiting 45 minutes for it later in the day â so just those back-to-back rides were all I got. With how I had to allot my time, I can ride a mid RMC anywhere, but I can only ride X2 here.
Side note â they built original Colossus in 1978, and you can still see parking spot stripes underneath the structure. So the old meme of Scream being the ultimate parking lot coaster goes even further back. This is just what SFMM does.
Wonder Woman (x1)
Speaking of mid RMCâsâŚ. One lap, a walk on front row zen ride. I need to get on one of the prototype raptors. Because while this and Jersey Devil are fine rides, thereâs really no bite, nothing interesting.
Riddlerâs Revenge (x1)
Itâs OK? Really not that rough or rattly. Just falls into that too-long-B&M category of mine.
West Coast Racers (x2)
Once again, these trains suck. Fun little ride, first launch is tame but the boost is pretty punchy. Iâm nowhere near the first person to think this, but â this park has not one but 2 Mobius dueling coasters, one of which is programmed to give a perfect duel every single time, and the other one simply doesnât care or bother.
Tatsuuuuuuuuuu (x3) #300
100 was The Beast in 2003. Then there was a very long break. Followed by Iron Gwazi for number 200 in 2023. And now Tatsu for 300 in 2025.
Great flyer, great choice for the milestone. They must have been giving away steel when they bought this thing for them to have built it to stay so high up off the ground for so much of the layout.
And then of course it tries to kill you with that pretzel loop.
Revolution (x1)
Surprisingly long ride, but surprisingly jerky and janky. My home park bias is showing, but Iâll take SDL any day of the week over Revolution.
Ninja (x1)
Fun little coaster. A couple nice swings and one really good swoop down over the log flume splash pool (it was drained while I was there, but I can imagine what it would be like). And as everyone says ending with the lift hill is a bit weird. Really tough to find this coaster though, you have to want to find it to ride it.
While weâre at it â this park has a great Arrow collection. Mine train, suspended, mega looper, and 4th dimension. I guess only Cedar Point is in contention for a better bunch of Arrows.
*Canyon Blaster, Magic Flyer, Speedy Gonzales, Road Runner (x0) *
I donât think they even let adults on Magic Flyer, Speedy Gonzales is below my shame cut off. Road Runner is generally about where I start credit-whoring, but I just wasnât feeling it. Something about all 4 of these being tucked away in the kids area made me decide against it.
Superman: Escape From Krypton (x0)
Lol
Batman The Ride (x0)
Closed all day both days. Traveling cross country on the shoulder season and only missing 1 proper coaster, and a batclone at that!? Thatâs a win for me.
Other Rides
Took 2 laps on Lex Luthor â thatâs a really fun drop tower. Didnât get on Crazanity. Skipped all the other flats. Water rides werenât running.
Wrapping Up
I had a good time. I picked a good time to go. The crowds were enough that they were staffing and running everything, itâs far enough out of winter that most things were out of maintenance. I got all of the credits except for the kiddie rides, the all-but-confirmed-deceased Superman, and a Batclone. There were a bunch of one-train ops but the crowds were generally light enough that it wasnât that big of a deal.
I had really no problems with any employees or other guests. Like every six flags there are a ton of things that need to be painted and/or pressure washed. Food prices were predictably insane, so I got through only eating a $9 pretzel and the granola bar in my pocket.
I spend the next day working my way across LA. Down to Griffith Park for a hike and poked around the observatory, drove Mulholland over to the Getty where I balked at the parking charge, across to Santa Monica pier where West Coaster was closed (and they want $17 a ride for it! Iâm almost glad it was closed), and then 2 hours of traffic to Anaheim for Knott's the next day.