robbalvey

I actually reccomend trying Google. I just Googled "six flags magic mountain flash pass price" and the Flash Pass page was the first thing that came up. I clicked "Buy Flash Passes" and it had the prices. Hope that helps! --Robb

^ I'm not sure what part of California you've been driving in, but that's not the norm and not what I would tell someone who is looking for advice for driving in California. I've driven literally over 1 million miles in my driving career all over the world and California is where I call my driving "home" and I can tell you that people almost never use the turn signals, they almost never let you over when you do signal, and they are some of the rudest most inconsiderate drivers I've experienced. Most California drivers have a "me first" mentality and you need to learn how to drive offensively. I'm sure most other fellow California's would (as much as they hate to say it) agree. --Robb EDIT - here is what Hertz gives to people who rent cars in California...I love #4!

New Terminator update that includes a few general SFMM photos here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=726745#726745 As always, please try to keep any "general SFMM" discussion in this thread. Thank you! --Robb

I'm not sure what you mean. I took these all mostly from the Deja Vu exit area. Then a few others were taking from the area near the candy store. --Robb "Nothing exclusive in this update, sorry!" Alvey

April 5th, 2009 Update! We haven't done much of an update since West Coast Bash on March 22nd since not too much was new last weekend, but WOW, this week the lift hill seemed to go up really fast! Check it out.... OMG! Stop the presses! We have LIFT HILL!!! Oooh! Looky! The bridge! The bridge! Those popsicle sticks sure turned out purdy! More concrete slab photos. Soon...trains will be roaring down the track....soon! They have got a lot of new bents up since West Coast Bash. Hello Terminator! You are looking very dense today. Another soon-to-be lift hill shot. And now it's a CLOSE UP of the soon-to-be lift hill! Yup, it's construction. Yup, it's the lift hill. Lots of track has been laid....and the track seems to be VERY happy! Hey look! The lift is also a TUNNEL!!! Mr. Crane is jealous of DCA's crane. Unfinished lift hill...THROUGH THE TREES!!! Still waiting for more popsicle sticks. Yeah, the structure is very dense. Uh, oh...is this really a STEEL coaster??? The worlds first woodie with a "jump" Artsy shot! Dead Man's Party turn. Yup, it's a bridge alright. More bridge update. I like how this turn looks a little "warped!" Oooh...some new concrete...wonder if that will be for the entrance? One of the restrooms getting a re-model that Jay talked about during West Coast Bash. Looking more and more complete each week! We see you Mr. Lift Hill! X2 reservations is just for Gold Q-Bot users now. If you get a reservation for X2, then all adult-sized coasters are available today! And here are the Flash Pass prices. More Flags! More fun! More updates coming soon! --Robb

I only rode this coaster once back in 2004 and unfortunatley didn't get that much footage of it. I didn't even manage to get a complete POV (camera shut off during the ride), but here is what I have at least.... Personally I didn't find it quite as intense as the other flywheel shuttles. They did brake it coming back through the station, which I thought was odd. (but then again so did Walibi Belgium) Still, it's a Schwarzkopf shuttle that means it was fun! Enjoy! [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=shuttleloop_he59[/coastertube]

Here's our Flow Rider video when we had ERT on the Royal Caribbean ship: [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=flowrider_1[/coastertube]

^ It does! Don't forget the Christmas ornaments! We've done them three of the last four years! We only made about 100 of each of them. So if you have one, that is another TPR collectible! --Robb

^ You'll find out when Coaster Expedition Volume 12 comes out! --Robb

^ Um...why would it not count. It's a roller coaster..duh! ^^ Yeah the effects are GREAT! Very, very well done. Basically, this coaster has kind of been left in the shadows of Atlantis Adventure (AquaTrax), but there are some other VERY cool rides at Lotte World! This park probably has some of the best dark rides (both in theming and technology) outside of a Disney or Universal park. --Robb

Wait, wait, wait....let me stop laughing for a moment here and try to get this straight... So today is April 3rd...we'll know the name of the park in a week...let's say April 10th...and they plan to open Memorial Day weekend just 6 weeks later...with a new name that has only been around for 6 weeks...and they are expecting to attract 800,000 people to this currently "un-named" park that when they figure the name out will "fit their strategy?" Anyone else have a very hard time buying into this? How are they going to get all the local hotels, local markets, etc, on board for a park that they don't know the name of that everyone thinks is closed? I mean, Six Flags Magic Mountain went through a tough enough time based on word of mouth that the park was closed...AND THE PARK WAS NEVER CLOSED!! Six Flags had to spend money on a commercial that told people "GOOD THING THE PARK ISN'T CLOSING...YES YOU! HELLO! THE PARK IS NOT CLOSED..THAT'S RIGHT **NOT** CLOSED! YOU CAN GO THERE TODAY AND RIDE COASTERS BECAUSE THE PARK IS NOT..NOT..**NOT** CLOSED. And guess what? People still to this day think the park is closing. I have people I work with that live DOWN THE STREET from Magic Mountain that don't know the park is still open. I can only imagine how f**ked "Whatever Park" is going to be this season. Seriously, at this point, name it anything... "Not Rock Park" "Large Guitar Park" "I Lke Fondue Park" "Pencil Shavings World" "Ever Paid Visitor Gets a Free Hand Job From a Cheap Whore Park" "Musical Circus Land" "Street Fighter - The musical" "We have rides and stuff...PLEASE VISIT US...park" "Knights in White Satin - The Park" ANYTHING!!! Just find your identity and do it QUICKLY! I don't think the new owners actually have any idea how bad the word of mouth is on their park right now. If they did, they wouldn't have taken this long to get things moving. --Robb

You can see a pretty good layout of it here: I've heard some people say they *think* it may be powered, but having been on it several times now it feels like it may be powered by a tire-drive system to the top of that first helix (on the left hand side of the picture) but it absolutely feels gravity driven the rest of the way. You can certainly feel it hit the brakes at the end. Either way though, this ride is totally INSANE! --Robb

So I'm working on the "footage disc" for Coaster Expedition Vol 12 and I finished this coaster video that I just have to share with all of you.... [coastertube]http://www.themeparkreview.com/coastertube/play.php?vid=cometexpress_6e69[/coastertube] "Comet Express" at Lotte World is the most bizarre, wacked-out "spinning Coaster" I've ever been on. Basically you get swallowed by a monster and then crapped out into "space" with UFO's and other space creatures all while spinning like crazy...yeah! Most people hear about the Aqua Trax or the Indiana Jones rip-off because they are awesome, but this is an equally awesome ride that never gets mentioned....until now! Enjoy! --Robb

Got this in my email box from Jeff Tucker today, one of the guys responsible for Knott's Haunt and Hanging shows. If you live in So Cal, and a fan of Knott's Haunt (and Harry Potter) you may want to check this out... Come have a good time at the All American Melodrama Theater in Long Beach at Shoreline Village. See my new show that I wrote and directed "Welcome Back, Potter". It's a great show for the whole family done in the traditional melodrama style! Boo the villain! Cheer the hero! Sigh for the lovely heroine! Enjoy good food and desserts! Check out their website http://www.allamericanmelodrama.com for all the details. The show runs now through the first week of May. Don't be discouraged if you're not a big Harry Potter fan - the show is accessible and funny even if you've never read one of the books or seen of the movies.

^ Hmm...not sure why it loaded slow. Anyone else having slow loading issues with CoasterTube? As for bandwidth, we go through about 3tb per month. --Robb

Looks like the old rides are finally coming down to make way for a new "resort." News story here: http://www.fox8.com/video/?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=3604846 --Robb

We should be down there on Sunday to get some new pics. --Robb

I would try to hit Mr. Freeze pretty early as that ride can get VERY long lines if the park is busy.

^ His screen name here is....wait for it.... "Dan" but he rarely every posts to here or to Westcoaster. He's much more of a 'behind the scenes' type of guy who takes a lot of pictures and just hangs out with the group. --Robb

That's pretty awesome! I would that "ride wait times" is the #1 most important thing that needs to be part of an app like this. For me it's really the only thing I would use it for so when I'm on the otherside of the park by Maverick I can see what the wait times for Raptor is like, etc.... --Robb

^ The ipod versions are lower res (but look GREAT on that format!). Yeah, a higher res download just isn't going to be possible anytime in the near future, sorry! --Robb

^ We did them as an extra goodie for TPR trips one year and then gave away the extras. We always do a "TPR Personalized" item for just about every trip. We've done mangets, candies, TPR alarm clocks (yes clocks!), TPR bags, TPR panchos, etc, etc.... Basically if you do a TPR trip you'll get loaded up with TPR goodies! --Robb "We do save a lot of stuff exclusively for the trips." Alvey

Magnets are all gone, sorry! (As are the letter openers!) If you have any of these two items, it's a collectible! --Robb

I think the problem is simply "How many different formats do we need?" I would love to do the DVDs in every format possible, but I think it could be quite confusing for some people who aren't familiar with all the different file types and on top of it all, it's very time consuming for us to monitor. When we did our download test back in November (the free download we made available) we learned a LOT from that. And the biggest thing we took away from it was that most people are just not ready for direct downloads. Sure, many of us who are into it, get it, but we had a LOT of people who had trouble just simply copy/pasting the URL from the email to their browser. We went back and re-tooled the download system now and I think it's more intuative, but I still get people who can't figure out how to drag the .mp4 file into iTunes. And every time there is a problem, it's one more thing I have to resolve. I can only imagine if we had DVD Format, iPod/iPhone format, WMV format, H264 format, etc, etc.... We went with MP4 because it seemed to be common enough and popular enough with iPods and other mobile devices. I don't see us doing any other downloadable type of content in the next 2-3 years, sorry! --Robb

^ Well, we will eventually make .mp4 versions of all the DVDs which are playable on ipod, iphone, PSP, and your PC/Mac using QuickTime Player, but I think doing a download of a 4.7gig file for a DVD quality version is not going to happen anytime soon. Think about it, with all our DVDs being two disc sets, and we now have 13 volumes including the RAW discs, if someone wanted to download them ALL that would be about 125 gig download which would just kill our bandwidth! So if you can live with the .mp4 quality for a download then I suggest grabbing those. (The Raw series are downloadable from the store now!) --Robb