sfmman2000

I would be interested in checking out some more of your swag, if you're willing to sell (especially t-shirts).

Thanks for the news! Would love to ride it someday if it's coming anywhere in Northern California...

Thanks for sharing your great photos! Looking forward to more...

Rumor: I know of a Northern California park that was at one point interested in Knott's 8-seater Screamin' Swing.

Are you planning for ERT at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk?

I'm a ride operator at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I operate just less than half of the rides, including Giant Dipper, Hurricane, a Huss Pirate, Zamperla Mini-Himalaya, Bertazzon Swinging-Himalaya, S&S Double Shot, the Merry-Go-Round, Haunted Castle, Chance Revolution (Fireball), and a Bertazzon Swing Carousel. My favorite to operate? Probably Fireball. It runs an excellent cycle, guests really enjoy it, and it has strobe lights to use at night.

For anyone interested in the Alpine Sleighs: http://www.dafe.org/attractions/darkrides/alpinesleighs/alpinesleighs-p1.php

Thanks for the info about sky tower, Elissa. It was quite windy when I visited the park, so that fits right in. Hopefully they keep the tower open when possible; the museum up there is a great idea.

I will say first that off-season Fridays are a GREAT time to go to Magic Mountain to beat the crowds. The first time I visited SFMM was in 2002, and I witnessed some bad operations throughout multiple departments. Visiting the park this Friday I can easily say things have almost completely turned around, and this is a park worth visiting! BUT, its operations are not without flaws, which I will get to. This pro and con list may be helpful for someone who is going to SFMM in the near future. Keep in mind I visited on a FRIDAY. The park opened at 10:30pm and closed at 10:30pm. Pros: -ALL coasters open -yes, even Colossus is running both sides -ALL coasters (capable) are running two trains -3 water rides open (all but Tidal Wave) -most coaster lights turned off at night -waiting in line for X2 watching break.com videos -Colossus running left side backwards -security and 'Event Staff' stationed at all major rides watching for line jumpers, keeping lines more peaceful -most high capacity coasters have a 5 minute wait or less throughout the day -all vending machines take credit cards -employee cell phone usage is down but not out Cons: -Colossus not dueling (except by coincidence) -individual coaster operations are somewhat same old, including stacking and poor employee training -Sky Tower closed (disappointing) -Yosemite Sam Falls closed (no big deal, just thought I would mention it) -Jet Stream boats are very leaky -$15 parking -$3/4 vending machine soda -up to $6 vending machine candy -some employees have such a non-caring attitude that I have only witnessed at SFMM Coaster Crew report (read: In My Opinion) Great: Goliath(fast bar checkers) Good: Goldrusher Ninja (if they said "hi-YA" one more time this would have gone a category lower ) Revolution Superman: The Escape Viper X² OK: Batman: The Ride Colossus The Riddler's Revenge Scream! Poor: Déjà Vu (couldn't be any slower - rude, also) Tatsu (5 minute stacking multiple times in a row) Disclaimer: These rating may not be a representation of the crews throughout the entire day, and are just what I observed when I entered the station. I'm interested to hear anyone's comments or questions about this trip and SFMM in general. CONCLUSION: Give SFMM your business on off-season Thursday/Fridays. You will not regret it! I walked out of the park saying "WOW" to myself about how much fun we had and more importantly the general improvements the park has made. If you are an SFMM employee, I want to thank you, and you should be proud of your park! Scott -- "Is everybody in?" (I'm original, right?)

Does anyone know the operator of this fair?

I believe the 125 foot tree is the biggest Christmas tree in the world -- at THIS time... there have been bigger xmas trees in the world other years, but right now, this 125 foot tree is the tallest.

Any program in the WORLD would make Firefall better than Voodoo (at Discovery Kingdom)

Catapult ----->> to SFMM. Please?

I think you should experience being a ride operator. Honestly, no one is trying to ruin your fun, you're just making their job difficult. Also, I think a picture of Superman: TE running both sides should be posted (with a timestamp!)

I believe the Giant Dipper does have side supports, just on the other side.

Somehow you managed to not get any pictures of me in there! You write great captions...makes it fun to read. Is Egbert really the name of the man dummy on Glider? Or did you make that up?

Huh? Goliath and Titan have the exact same height drop...

Those are some good points. Although, looking for singles riders for more than 5 seconds or so, lowers capacity greatly. At a park I used to work at, they did a whole comparison in the ride guide, that if you were to look for single riders, or get the train out as quick as possible- which is faster? Sending the train out as quick as possible had the highest hourly capacity. If you look for single riders every ride, for an excessive time (more than 5 seconds) your wasting time when you could have already sent the train. Times that excessive time looking for single riders by 20, and thats about a full train of extra people that could have already been on. The moral is, IMO, to send the train out as quickly as possible. Having an extra one or two riders won't greatly increase your capacity, it will lower it. On the other hand, if it's a safety issue...

Someone said that if they had just put a roller coaster in place of where Boomerang Bay is, this boy would not have drowned. Well I'd like to take that a step further: If Great America never existed, this death would never have happened. Just sayin... Yeah?

Nice pics! I like the Wipeout pic with part of the painted landscape in the background. I was the operator working Double Shot and said hi, when you came on. Something about Wipeout, around the beginning of this year, they installed long blacklights on the ceiling. To me, these lights *almost* ruin the ride. I don't know if you went on the ride when it first opened.. but when the ride started and they turned the lights off, it was pitch black. Now, there's always some light in the room It's still a good ride, but it was just so much better when it opened.

It is a requirement in all articles relating to an amusement park accident, that they reference all previous accidents that have happened at the same park, no matter how unrelated.

Hey, around what time did you ride Double Shot? Before 3:30pm, or after? It is *very* rare for Giant Dipper to go down, but what happened yesterday shouldn't happen again for a very long time

IMO, 'shotgun' type slides are my least favorite. They are short in length, and just not as fun as a long winding slide, or a 'cliffhanger' type slide.

Slower than 100mph, but still makes it to the top with a light load. The 4 of us got on Superman towards opening, we were the only ones on. It went almost as high as possible, right up almost to the top 'dark' area! I watched it throughout the day with 14-15 people per ride, and it did only reach about half way up.

Maybe this is stating the obvious...but it seems like the tighter you pull down the restraint on X (try really tight), the better the ride, because you dont get thrown around so much.