kraxleRIDAH

Simple proof that Apple's iPod has, is, and always will be taking the biggest slice of cake out of the marketshare for consumer portable audio devices. Earlier this week on Monday - April 7, Apple announced that they have sold their 100 millionth iPod unit (100,000,000 --- count those zeros!), making the iPod the best and fastest selling portable music player in history. That's 100 million iPods sold since it was first introduced in 2001. Read Press Release via PRNewswire here. Question to you guys is...do any of you currently own an iPod or have EVER owned an iPod -- and in some cases, multiple iPods? An iPod family portrait. The sluttiest portable music players on the town. All other MP3 devices: flushed with envy.

^ That made absolutely no sense. Matterhorn runs at a full circuit too. The record is "first tubular steel roller coaster." That definitely belongs to Matterhorn Bobsleds, not Mine Train.

Looks like Magic Mountain's Ninja had its boo boo fixed and their Batman page personalized with an image of their OWN Batman. http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/Rides/Ninja.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/Rides/BatmanTheRide.aspx

^ Still standing. Why? I have no idea.

My "guest complaint" to the ASO. It's cute that you would go out of your way to write all of that. But I really did laugh when I read your "complaint." Nobody in their right mind would take that seriously, just by the way you worded everything and used "enthusiast" abbreviations and cited ride manufacturers like they mattered. Into the third sentence, I would have discarded your comment.

Uh. Stay away from the Excalibur. If you're not paying for the room (which I think that's your case) and or you have to go cheap on the rooms, then it's suitable. Just watch out for the hoardes of kids. My least satisfactory hotel experiences in Vegas tend to be at the hotels clustered towards that area (MGM Grand --- oh my God the horrors; Excalibur; New York New York; Luxor, and Tropicana). It's also on the mid-southern end of the strip where the Resorts sitting in that area are more outdated than a little farther up north where those hotels are more upscale and hip. My recommendation is to stay in the area by Wynn, The Venetian, Bellagio, Treasure Island, Paris, and The Mirage. But your pockets and wallet better be real fat.

It's not a bad ride, but it has no reride factor. It pulls too many G's in some spots and it can get uncomfortable. My guess is that the second stretch of LIM's failed and the train lost speed.

These "free park admission day" promotions could be executed and work well, if they were thought out more. Rather than make it a "first come first enter" kind of thing, they should have all interested parties register on a website and print their free ticket online. And when the number of free tickets runs out, then that's that -- instead of having to deal with hundreds of pissed of teens and young adults that you'd have to turn away in person at the gate. I mean, the promotion was announced over the air by Q-100 radio station. They could've easily told all interested parties to log onto their website (this would've also kicked up their internet visitor hits) to register for the free event. Idiots.

Shapiro attributes the 12% drop in the key June - August months due to the potential sale of the park (unsure future). I say it has to do with huge increases in park admission, parking fees, and continued unsatisfactory guest service, poor park operations and just an overall bad reputation. A huge chunk of annual attendance figures for a lot of these regional/local parks come from repeat customers in the area. So you have people coming to the park, having a terrible experience and pretty much have no desire to return (and in large numbers too).

^ Honestly. If the attendance decline keeps its momentum, I really don't see any reason why the park should stay open. 2.5 million visitors for Magic Mountain is probably a new low. I remember a time when the park was capable of raking in 3.6 million guests.

RE: Scappari I think that's the main issue with Magic Mountain. They don't discipline their employees adaquetely enough. I guess we can all see that. 'Cause if they did, there would not be employees getting away with cell phone usage while on the job in front of paying customers, listening to portable music players, or walking around the park with half-tucked uniforms. But hey, they probably figure that if they discipline employees and fire them, they're going to be replacing cell phone touting teens with other cell phone touting teens that don't give a rats ass about their job. It's almost like a vicious never ending cycle that can't be broken. I'd like to blame Magic Mountain's poor employee and customer service on the teen workforce pool they're stuck to hiring from, but all it takes is reinforcements and following through with discipline. I mean, what is it exactly that differentiates the hiring pool in Santa Clarita and Anaheim that results in such differences in employee morale? The contrast is so stark -- almost like black and white. I've never seen a Disney employee on a personal phone in view of guests, or with a uniform untucked. Could all these problems at Magic Mountain stem from an apathetic upper management? Poor treatment of employees? A poor and unpleasant work environment for employees? Incompetent supervisors? Lack of discipline? Little or no employee work ethics incentives? Who knows... All I am sure of is that my last visit to the park was in December of 2006 and will be the last for a VERY LONG time. There are so many things wrong with that park I could blow my lid just starting a list. Repainting ONE roller coaster, resurfacing a parking lot and removing two roller coasters are not improvements or additions. Those are things that should have been done YEARS ago. That's what makes me so frustrated. It's terrible customer service. Even when the game/ride is "dead." You're there to provide a service to the company and their guests, not chat on the phone at your free will on the company dime. That's for you to do when you're at home, not on the clock. If I ran a park (or any customer service company for that matter) and saw someone chatting or texting on their cell phone, they would be fired on the spot. --Robb "However I still think the ASO report is full of crap." Alvey With absolutely no disrespect intended - as i love your vids - I would never work for you. There are going to be times over the course of a day where you might need to communicate. In the case of game op at the Pavilion, they came around once a day and told us it was lunch time. If we had to pee, we needed to hold it and flag someone down. It was brutal in the sense that you never got a chance to take just two minutes to yourself which was something OK at every other job I've ever had. You have got to be kidding me. You are justifying employee usage of cell phones on the job because the customers do it? YOU ARE BEING PAYED TO PROVIDE A SERVICE, IN A PROFESSIONAL MANNER. You are not the customer. You are being paid to work. YOU ACKNOWLEDGED the fact you were going to work 12-hour shifts by accepting the job and that is nobody's fault but yours. To complain that you are working 12-hour shifts and get bored and thus require your cell phone for entertainment is STUPID in the most literal sense of the word. And did you ever stop to think that if management agreed to allow ANY kind of cell phone usage by employees while on the job -- even if it's to cure your bordom on a slow day -- that employees will assume it'll be okay to do it when the park is crowded? I mean why not? They would be able to get away with it by lying and expecting returned sympathy in the form of not being disciplined -- "Oh Mr. Supervisor, I'm sorry I was on my cell phone, my mom is being sent to the hospital." (then turns around and rolls eyes). That's the problem with making exceptions. Exceptions always lead to rule breaking and loop holes in the regulations and rules. It is absurd you would even try to debate against this. If you need to pee, you alert your supervisor. If he/she isn't in the immediate area, phone in to let them know. If you have a family emergency, tough sh*t, the office will have messages forwarded for and to you. You're on the job. You leave your personal crap in the locker until you clock out.

Uh. I've worked at a theme park before (Knott's in 2004) with a $6.75/hr pay the summer after my senior year in high school and I NEVER USED MY CELL PHONE ON THE JOB or even took it out of my pocket even to just check the time --- and no matter how badly I needed to text message or call someone, I never touched my phone in front of guests. It is common sense in work ethics. At least I think it used to be.

My guess is that the BRAKES on Hypersonic are different from the BRAKES on S&S' wooden coasters. I hear the ride BREAKS down a lot -- probably something to do with its poor BRAKES.

Makes me real happy when I see these photographs. The transformation looks incredible -- and so far I can tell, pretty satisfactory. This is what the former Six Flags Worlds of Adventure tried to be, but failed miserably.

Probably one of my favorite "Psyclone-captions" ever. That's because you were stupid and rode near the front! Ride in the back! I'm not even joking here--it's a better ride near the back! Funny you say that. I find Viper the most painful towards the rear of the train, whereas towards the front, the transitions are less painful and headbanging very minimal. I think it all depends on rider height.

You guys aren't looking closely enough. It's not a linear path of track...it has a bit of a sidewinding kick to it --- where the track banks rapidly to the left then immediately to the right before climbing the 200-foot tower. Go back and look at the images again...closely.

I suppose you would be right. Psyclone torn out; Flashback's pending demolition; Ninja repainted; The Riddler's Revenge queue house refurbished; resurfaced parking lot; Thrill Shot reopened... But honeslty, I expected a bit more. Considering a lot of other lower-key parks in the chain have received much more extensive and dramatic cosmetic improvements, Magic Mountain really hasn't "improved" by any great measure -- especially when Shapiro firmly noted that 2007 was the year of "park beautification" and everything goes into "full swing." If my gut instinct doesn't fail me, we'll see everything go to crap (operations, upkeep, etc.) once summertime rolls around -- a repeat of 2006 if you will. Then again, some might think my expectations may be set too high. One small step at a time I guess? I have my fingers crossed.

Thanks for the update. It's good to hear most of the coasters were in at least 2 train operation, but a bummer that Flashback is still there. But looking at everything in the photos, the place still looks run down -- especially after looking at photos of the new Discovery Kingdom. If there's one Six Flags park that has outdated park signage, it's Magic Mountain. Its freeway signage tower is so circus-y and clown-y.

That's kind of different. In the press release announcement for Perilous Plunge, the 90-foot oil derrick prop was supposed to be one of the highlighting points of the ride, as the boats shoot through it down the drop. With Sierra Sidewinder, there was absolutely no mention of a faux mountain/hill.

^ I don't think it was anything more than just to spruce up the logo.

Looks to me that "future expansion" may not have been the real reason Psyclone was removed. It might have been to eliminate any possibility of multiple lawsuits just waiting to happen. http://www.amusementsafety.org/six_flags/magic_mountain.htm

SFDK isn't the only park with Batman & Nitro on the rides main page: http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/index.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/greatescape/rides/index.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/rides/index.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/overtexas/rides/index.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/stlouis/rides/index.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/america/rides/index.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/kentuckykingdom/rides/index.aspx http://www.sixflags.com/overgeorgia/rides/index.aspx The only one that doesn't have it is Fiesta Texas.

The colors on this ride looks good, and is very fitting for the area -- thankfully the park chose the colors wisely so that it won't clash with its surroundings.

The new interface and design is very nice. Clean and easy to navigate; more content than the previous site design; a lot more user friendly and easier on the eyes. However, the countless mistakes and errors in the text and images are ridiculous. You'd think with the hope in starting with a clean slate they would put a little more effort to make sure everything is correct and matching. You can tell from reading into the details and spending a few minutes on the website that the team that put together all the media pretty much did a half-assed job. The new website is pretty much the same sh*t just, but in a new bathroom. I'm going to hope these small errors get fixed, but I know better than to do that because they probably won't be corrected.

What pisses me off is not the people that went underneath the fence to pose with the car. The thing that gets me angry is the park. If guests are able to slide through fencing into a restricted area where a roller coaster is moving close to the ground and it has been alerted to supervisors/management, then the park is at fault. It is obviously a safety issue that has not been addressed, but has already been brought to their attention before. I mean, how many SFMM photo trip reports have we all seen where RESTRICTED ACCESS gates have been casually left unlocked and more than often also with gates wide open?