NYTrojan

Because sometimes those items aren't worth the $1 you spend in securing them. If you want to charge for lockers, ok... but don't require them. Let me choose. If I'm willing to risk my little plastic sports cup, or that basketball I just won at the midway game, what's the harm?

Don't ride any of the rides if you buy a refill cup? Kind of defeats the purpose of buying a refill cup doesn't it? How about women with purses... even a small purse with, well let's just call them female necessities (and no not makeup) will cost you a dollar every ride. When I think of my average day at a park, I typically hit between 12 and 15 rides. That's a considerable additional expense. Like I said before, I have no problem leaving my items in a locker. I think it is a great idea.. if it is free like at Universal. I have no problems leaving my items on a shelf with a sliding door... if the ride ops attend the sliding door / bin lid making sure it only allows you access to the items from your train like at Cedar Point. It is customer unfriendly and encourages people to avoid your stores and games.

I would like to give a big thanks to TPR, Rob, and Magic Mountain for putting this event together. For those of you who stayed late, and went hunting for food only to end up at Johnny Rockets... you should have seen all you needed to see when all 'suits' rolled up their sleeves, got behind the fryers, and started slaving away at the grill to help take care of us. These people went WAY above and beyond the call of duty and deserve to be commended for it. Magic Mountain is definitely making solid progress. I have voiced my concerns (and only concerns) about the mandatory lockers (Only on Riddlers, but still a worrisome trend) in another thread and won't rehash them here. I think this is the correct place to, in SFMM words, Celebrate their success. These people are taking great pride in their turn around effort. They know there is work ahead and that they're not done. In the words of Walt Disney "If we lose a customer because we were cheap, it will cost us 10 times that much to get them back" This is what they are fighting at the moment. The best (and only IMO) way to thank them is to let people know about their efforts. Tell friends and family that SFMM isn't being sold. Tell the folks at work it isn't overrun with gang members anymore (I've never seen so many strollers at SFMM). We should reward these people's hard work by letting other folks know that SFMM is worth giving a second chance.

I only saw it being enacted on Riddler's Revenge. By nighttime ERT they didn't have the extra person by the lockers so perhaps they didn't think it was worth dealing with for the skeleton crew. I understand not wanting anything on the ride, I really do... but a precedent has been set at Six Flag's competitors (Disney, Cedar Fair, and Universal) to either not charge for these items, or provide shelves at the station for them. Personally, the Cedar Point system of shelves with sliding doors is plenty good enough. Magic Mountain seemed to install the shelves, but the ride ops don't seem to bother with the organization part. A real shame... I'd bet it would cut down on the theft considerably.

West Coast bash was a ton of fun, but here is a troubling development with the park: Required use of lockers that cost $1.00 a use. That's right, even after getting things right and installing 'cubbies' the way Cedar Point has, with sliding doors only displaying items for riders on that particular train (even though the ride ops just left these half open/open to incorrect sides, etc) they seem to be forcing riders to put everything into lockers or carry items with them on the ride. No more ride side storage. On Riddlers Revenge they had a ride op in the line, holding the line up as they stopped everybody with a purse or backpack and directed them to lockers. They didn't stop me with a sports cup I had, but when I tried to leave by the station exit I was actually stopped on my way back to the train and told to take it with me. On the ride. There are a million reasons to be happy with the fixes the new staff is making to Magic Mountain, but this nickel and dime-ing policy is really nasty. Especially when just about every other park (like Universal Orlando) single ride use lockers are free.

I remember seeing that model at Arrow's booth at the IAAPA convention. It was on display right along side the Ninja model which opened in 1988. Shock Wave at Six Flags Great America also opened in 1988 so I would assume that it is a model of Shock Wave and it was repainted and used as a promotional piece for Viper. Funny you mention that, I just walked passed the Ninja model you spoke of today. It looks pretty sweet. Just got repainted, like its real-life counterpart. Anyway, yeah, you guys are all right. Shockwave, GASM, and Viper are all sister-coasters. Viper, the tallest and fastest of the three, takes its layout-inspiration from the other two. This will be explained in the museum. -Jahan Don't forget the little 'baby Viper' they have at Darien Lake in New York. I believe that was the first (and smallest) one.

I don't know, at least American Bandstand is better than nothing. You'd be amazed at how far a little entertainment in the lines can go. I loved the old cartoons they used to have at SFMM, but even a little music goes a long way. I went to Cedar Point over the summer, and they do a good job of playing music in the queues for their coasters. We spent about 90 minutes waiting for Raptor which gets their 'classic rock' sound track. During Billy Joel's 'Piano Man' I'd say about 70% of the line was singing along and goofing off with each other. I don't need to tell you what happened in other ride's lines when YMCA (another groaner) hit. That's the thing I like about MS. He seems to get that these small details make all the difference. You can build a 10 million dollar roller coaster and people will complain about your park afterwards if a few hundred thousand dollars worth of theming / line entertainment is missing. Is Bandstand way too corny? Definitely... but that makes it perfect for this sort of atmosphere.

Here's a question I'd love to ask (and hope to ask at WCB if I get the chance): Are there any plans to put SOME theme work in around Scream? Anything to get rid of the parking lot look and feel of the ride. My wife said it best: "When you're on the ride you can't 'un-see' the parking lines. It takes away from what is a decent ride" What I'd LOVE to see is some sort of beach theme, fake sand, maybe a palm tree... the kind of stuff they have over at hurricane harbor. What I'd be very happy to settle for is simply painting over that pavement, or replace it with the 'rock garden' that most coasters are over. As for the rest, I am not a fan of flat rides by any means. I rarely, if ever, go on them... but every time I've gone to a theme park half of the group is just dieing to get in on one. While I personally love the coasters and little else, Magic Mountain really needs to work on their flat rides. A new set of state of the art rides in the Gotham city backlot would go a long way.

And yes I know it is in the flyer, but as folks have stated over and over again (yes I am guilty too) not every word of the flyer makes it through. Looking forward to meeting all you folk!

Thought everybody might like to know, March 9th is the first day of Daylight Savings time.... so be careful not to show up an hour late! It's going to be an early morning trucking in from San Diego

Question... I'm new to TPR. Aside from registering, is there anything I'd have to do to join this trip? Is this a "Members only" kind of thing and if so, what do I need to do to be a member?

Hi there everyone. Introducing myself, I'm Dave. I'm new to TPR, but not new to roller coasters. I grew up in Southern California and made Magic Mountain my home for quite some time. I went to upstate New York for school, and visited a number of places in that area, Darien Lake and Cedar Point mostly. My wife and I had our honeymoon at Disneyworld because we're both very much into theme parks. I'm back on the west coast now, and hope to get back into the swing of things out here at Magic Mountain. I hear they JUST MIGHT have gotten their act together.