vedved82491

For the bring-a-friend-free event, do I have to stop by any ticket booths for a voucher of some sort, or do I simply just bring the person with me and mention that they're my +1 when they scan my card?

I'll be at the park on Thursday the 20th. Since schools are back in, I'm hoping for a slightly smaller crowd, but then again, it IS bring-a-friend-free day for passholders.

While TC seems to be the likely answer as first coaster, from my experience (and from other people's posts) it seems that TC has not been opening immediately with the park, with delays anywhere from 20 minutes to 2+ hours before it opened. My recommendation (if you're there at opening) is to either go straight to X2 and then on to Tatsu, or Full Throttle and then to TC (and hope that it's open). With any luck, everything will at least operational...unlike this past weekend. #shade

I was there Yesterday too. Awful morning. My friend and I did get on the first FT train of the day, but that was about the only positive. I don't think Apocalypse opened at all. The train was stuck at the top of the lift all day. TC took several hours to open, Goliath didn't open till at least 1PM. I got one ride on TC on Saturday night and one Sunday afternoon. Only two trains running and we didn't get a single duel. The train on the green hill would be 75% of the way up the hill when the second train would leave the station. Pity. It was an amazing ride though. One fortunate event was that Lex opened up halfway through the day despite being advertised as closed on the website.

I noticed that too! Hoping it opens

Sorry to keep bitching, but Riddler, Jet Stream, and apocalypse are all down too. We're gonna try X2 and Viper next. The sad thing is we actually had to wait to ride Scream. The line was out to the entrance!

A little disappointed this morning. Lex is closed (though that was already known) however TC is experiencing an extended delay, by 11 Scream was still testing, Goliath was down as well. We luckily got the first train of the day on FT and we finally found another operational ride (Superman) albeit running only one side.

They were escorted out of the line after all. I was BEYOND thrilled. Excellent job SFMM! Now if only we could get that down on all coasters. We got into the park around 7:30. Lex Luther is down, superman only running its one regular side, X2 (though it was running when we drove up) had its gates closed when we tried walking by around 9:15. We got into like for Tatsu who also was apparently experiencing a "delay" but reopened within 5 minutes of us getting in line.

In in line right now. Coaster broke down for about 30 minutes. In that time, a family of four cut to the loading gates. Nothing happened at first and I was super pissed. Eventually before the ride reopened; a bunch of security came to escort them out. They're still in the station so I'm not sure what's going on. They're arguing, while the two rows that the family is in are not being loaded. Moral of the story; don't be a dick and wait in line like everyone else.

Unless something changed, I think it was established that this phenomenon could never be safely achieved. In the rare occasion that the first train did not clear the tophat and that the second train DID complete the loop, there would be nothing stopping the two trains from colliding in the tunnel. Sure, one could assume the coaster could install (or activate if they're already there) trims to stop the second train from reaching the tunnel, but this seems like it would complicate the process way more than if they just launched the trains one at a time.

I think a park only ever tries to utilize all of a coaster's trains the first few seasons it's open. On the other hand, I think it's a staffing issue. Tatsu is a pretty popular ride and it's trains are unique. It's easy for one train to require repair, and for that reason they have the third train "ready" to go if necessary. They wont run all three due to staffing though. It's a popular ride but not as popular as the first few seasons. Even if the lines get long, there are several other popular coasters in the park that need staffing.

Tatsu utilizes both stations all the time, but I haven't seen them utilize both stations and all three trains since 2009 or so. The only thing that makes three train, two station operation sucky is that if you leave in one station, you return in the other, meaning your items get left on the opposite side. That's why the have the open cubbies where you can grab it from either side.

I guess that's my definition of laying low then. Of course they'll add something, but there's a difference from re-doing the entire children's area vs a new record breaking coaster. I mean in terms of clientele and demographic hat magic mountain is geared towards.

I'd say a definite no and the S&S Free Spin, and a likely no for a Larson Loop. The GP may be not be the smartest, but even they would find it silly to have 3 X2s in a single park. I say no to Larson Loops for a couple reasons. Six Flags tends to advertise them as roller coasters, and I don't think they want their 20th to be a silly carnival ride. Second, the park is ACTUAL coaster heavy, meaning they're more likely to put in an actual coaster over a flat ride. Third, were they actually to install a flat ride, I would hope they would go for something higher capacity than a Larson Loop. If the park were to get a major flat, it would probably be a star flyer. I don't find Star Flyers/Windseekers all the exciting. I'm still going for the decade-old hope for a giant frisbee one day. I'd say the park will lay low for 2016 and then go big again for 2017. We'll find out in a month or two anyway.

Isn't Apocalypse's spot pretty notorious? I remember hearing a rumor once upon a time that one of the reasons Psyclone was also plagued with roughness was that the area of land where it stood was "sinking" so to speak? I know Northridge took a major toll on it, but I'm curious if there are other reasons related to Apocalypse's roughness. There are probably more logical reasons as to why the ride isn't what it used to be, but I too feel that it has drastically changed in a matter of only 5 or so years. I just rode Thunder Road at Carowinds yesterday which is 39 years old and it was incredibly smooth for a woodie. While I'm on the topic of Carowinds, I also have to say that there were virtually no lines at the park. There were several people there, but the staff on each coaster (with the exception of one) were hauling ass! Fury and Intimidator were anywhere from walk-ons to 3 minute waits max! While Intimidator does have bins for each trains (it was running all three), Fury does enforce a "no loose items" policy, and they had someone at the entrance enforcing it. Nobody was leaving anything on the side of the ride. My point is that SFMM definitely needs to improve on dispatches. I feel silly saying that because we're all well aware of this issue. I'm curious why they don't spend a bit of money to install løckers and to pay to have somebody enforce a løcker policy.

So they're getting monitors, but I don't think anybody should be too excited. Like most of the other screens around the parks, it'll play Looney Toons, fun Magic Mountain trivia, and the occasional "what kind of screaming face" commercial. I wouldn't expect any loading procedure videos on them. EDIT: Not to mention, even if they had a video advertising "no loose articles," I can't imagine people are going to leave the line and find the means to stash their items, especially if there aren't lockers around.

^It may vary when in August you go. The latter part of August may be less crowded as schools are back in session and the summer seasons begins to slowly die down. The lines will also depend on how many trains a coaster is running. Assuming each coaster is running two trains, I found that I never had to wait more than 30-45 minutes for a single coaster. The only exceptions would be Tatsu, X2, and Füll Throttle since they're the most popular, and probably Twisted Colossus as it's the newest. If anything is running one train, waits can be significantly longer. Summer '06, I waited 90 minutes for a ride on Batman that was running one train. I'm probably in the minority, but I never find need to purchase a flashpass, especially if you spend the entire day there. I actually miss when the flashpasses were cheap and were four little stubs that you could use on pretty much any ride.

This. I was going to say, the ride is basically like taking an S&S Sky Swat, a Zamperla Rotoshake, and any other high-stress mechanical nightmare ride and putting it all together.

1. I doubt this has anything to do with California. There is no "code" for rides like there is building code. There's the ASTM standards that everyone agrees to follow because they are the best current documented practices out there. The state just comes in, verifies procedures are being followed, watches a mock evacuation, and that's about it. I bet SFMM screwed something up, at which point the state just said "uhm...guys...this modification doesn't meet one of those requirements...so sorry...it's closed" 2. Windseeker was lucky to get approved the first time around. Once the incident showed how insufficient Mondial's evac procedures really were, the ride had no chance. I think i saw the same evac platform at Carowinds. Is this just another example of CALOSHA's stricter guidelines?

^Yup. Definitely an interesting concept, assuming they asked the same things.

I considered a Phantom's Revenge-esque makeover too at first. Initially, I thought no, but since Six Flags does like to cut corners with budget where they can, it's plausible, as it'd be less expensive than fabricating an entire new coaster. I still think it's highly unlikely though. I rode Viper in December and it was probably one of the smoothest rides I ever had on it. The trims after the first loop were not active and the coaster just sped through the course. It really made me appreciate it more.

When I was at the park in October and December, there were definitely times that the one operating side of Superman would sync with the fall of DOD. I to this day haven't had a synced up ride yet but I'm not sure I'm ready to feel swaying at 400 feet. I've legitimately had nightmares about being stranded on top of a swaying skyscraper.

I never considered the possibility of Magic Mountain getting a Giga coaster because, let's face it, which park would have both a Hyper AND a Giga coaster? In lieu of trying to research the answer, I went to Carowinds and got my answer. Intimidator and Fury ride very differently, so I could see that happening. I would hope they utilize B&M and build something similar to Fury. That beast flies like crazy! I'm curious whether SFMM/ SFI in general will make an exception for SFMM's 20th coaster regarding budget. If they're hoping for something record-breaking and memorable, I think they'll have to go outside of their "reduced' budget as of late.

Was the wall to Screampunk District gone? Additionally, were there people actually checking for Gold Passes in order to access the ride?

I too will be there Friday at opening and spend a couple hours at the park, probably spending the majority at TC.