Spoiled by WDW

Ok will do! I’m not convinced about going because of you know… the whole being spoiled by WDW thing! But my two older boys are thrill seekers so maybe we will make it there!

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Another option for thrill seekers that is closer is Knott’s Berry Farm. It is a lot of fun as well. Not quite Magic Mountain, but certainly a contender.

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Thanks, I will look into that one!

As she mentioned that she was there for a weekend, I recommended the 6:00 AM departure. On a weekday at that time, between getting out of San Diego and hitting LA at morning rush hour, you’d be lucky to get to MM by lunch time :slight_smile:

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Ohhhhh, my apologies! I totally missed that part of the original post! Makes so much more sense!! :grin:

I was seriously considering messaging you and asking what magical route you know to take to leave at 6am on a weekday. (I know some back roads around LA that are still undiscovered by waze and google…I hope they stay that way!)

On another note, seriously, traffic here is out of control. We need like triple decker lanes on the 5, 405, 10, and 210. :joy:

That’s a good idea…until that next big earthquake hits! But don’t worry. Elon Musk has you covered. He’ll either dig you a tunnel, or build you a hyperloop.

I was last at Magic Mountain in 2012 in July. It was hotter than the surface of the sun! I would stay in San Diego, which I visited for the umpteenth time just 2 weeks ago. 3 hours is a long way to drive for a day trip, in my opinion. The rides are fun, for sure, and I would go if staying in LA. But not from San Diego, not worth it.

That’s the truth. Knowing that you had a 3 hour dive ahead of you always put a bit of a damper on the day, and if you stay until closing, the drive itself was torturous, if not outright dangerous. On several occasions I booked a room in a cheap motel in Valencia and stayed the night and drove home the next day.

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I’ve been to Magic Mountain 4 times and Knott’s twice (both most recently in 2006), but I am a huge coaster nerd. Strictly speaking coasters, Magic Mountain has the better collection, but if you care at all about customer service, themeing, etc. Knott’s is the better total package.

I agree with this assessment.

Ditto.

So we went to Magic Mountain! (I’m currently still in San Diego on vacation). It ended up being a nice trip for the factor of visiting family who live 10 min from the park in Stevenson Ranch. We left about 6:30am and the drive took about 3 hours. We first went to my cousins house to say hello and then stopped for early lunch before entering the park. We got there about 11am on a 10:30 opening day. It was super hot but we did well. We brought in water bottles and kept refilling them with water. My cousin’s family are pass holders and had refillable soda mugs ($1 refills) that we used multiple times.

The park itself was fun for the five teen/tween kids we had with us. My Dd7 who is not a thrill seeker had fun but I ended up doing mostly smaller rides with her.

Such a difference from Disney! Very dirty in comparison to start. We went to the water park the next day and it was kind of gross.
The food situation was so different. Early in the day when not as many people were at the park they just did not open multiple stands. At the waterpark we waited in line for about an hour to place our order at a quick service for hamburgers and actually get the food. It really was insane!

In the end everyone did have a fun time. We had stayed overnight at a local hotel. It was nice to be able to spend time with our family who lives there.

Can’t wait to go back to Disney though! Going to a park like this makes you appreciate it even more!

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