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Six Flags Magic Mountain cheat sheet

worked out from 48 days of our own wait data37 rides

Arrive for 11:00 and ride Twisted Colossus, West Coast Racers and Tatsu first. Leave Roaring Rapids until after 5pm, when its queue drops to about 5 minutes. The park's queues peak around 15:00 at 16 minutes and are lowest around 11:00.

Before you go

When to go

The days and months this park's rides run quietest

Quietest weekday
Friday
Busiest weekday
Saturday
Quietest month
June
Busiest month
September

Each ride's own quietest and busiest day, tallied and weighted by how long its queue runs. For a dated answer use the crowd calendar, which scores every day of the year.

The shape of the day

Average queue across the park, hour by hour

  1. 11:008mquietest
  2. 12:0011m
  3. 13:0014m
  4. 14:0015m
  5. 15:0016mpeak
  6. 16:0016m
  7. 17:0015m
  8. 18:0015m
  9. 19:0014m
  10. 20:0013m
  11. 21:0011m

Arrive for 11:00. Queues climb to their peak around 15:00 and fall back through the afternoon; the last hour or two is the quietest the headliners get all day.

Ride these first

The headliners: longest queues, worst by late morning

  1. 1Twisted Colossus ~33 min typical · up to 53 at peak · worst around 9pm33m
  2. 2West Coast Racers ~33 min typical · up to 41 at peak · worst around 8pm33m
  3. 3Tatsu ~32 min typical · up to 42 at peak · worst around 7pm32m

Straight to these from the gate, in this order. Every minute before the park fills is worth three later.

Leave these until later

Rides whose queues collapse late in the day

  1. 1Roaring Rapids~29 min typical · about 5 min after 5pm5m
  2. 2WONDER WOMAN™ Flight of Courage~26 min typical · about 5 min after 6pm5m
  3. 3CraZanity~26 min typical · about 6 min after 6pm6m
  4. 4JUSTICE LEAGUE™: Battle for Metropolis~25 min typical · about 5 min after 5pm5m
  5. 5Goliath~22 min typical · about 8 min after 6pm8m

Save them for the last two hours, when the coach parties have gone and the queue is a fraction of the afternoon's.

Watch-outs

Rides that spend the most of the day not running

  1. 1Twisted Colossusrunning 44% of the park's open hours44%
  2. 2West Coast Racersrunning 69% of the park's open hours69%
  3. 3Apocalypserunning 78% of the park's open hours78%
  4. 4Full Throttlerunning 81% of the park's open hours81%
  5. 5Tatsurunning 82% of the park's open hours82%

If one of these is the reason you came, ride it the first time you see it running rather than saving it. The full picture is on the reliability page.

On the day

Your day-of sheet

The same park, for one date: the forecast, the hours, and your ride order

Plus members get this sheet for a date: the crowd forecast for the day, its published hours, a ride order worked out against that day's wait curve, and a printable version to take in.

PlusThe day-of sheet is part of Plus

Here, that is a ride order for your date, the forecast and the hours, printable.

  • Your rides, in order

    Sequenced against the wait curve, so the headliners land in their quiet windows.

  • quiet till 111pm · 66m

    Your date, hour by hour

    How the wait climbs on the day you picked, and the window it stays low.

£3.99/monthor £29.99 a year, about £2.50 a month

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Everything above is each ride's own recorded queue over recent weeks, sampled every few minutes through the park's opening hours - not an opinion. A ride with too little history is left out.