CedarFlags

Controversial opinion... Magic Mountain is the new Geauga Lake and has outgrown its ability to support itself. It has the world record for most coasters in a park and all those coasters need crews, but it's too far away and pays too little to be an attractive job opportunity like Disney or Universal. Couple that with the fact that attendance fluctuates so wildly, and the park cuts staffing to the barest of minimums in order to make any money. Now add on top of all that... next year, more than half of the park's coasters will be 20+ years old. In 2024, it's going to have five coasters that are 30+ years old. It's going to be interesting to see what the next 10 years looks like for this park. I don't think they're going to downsize, but I would certainly understand it if they did.

Jesus Christ... that's definitely the worst I've ever seen from MM. The sign at Superman says that it only runs during Fright Fest, but it was closed the whole time I was there. Same with Lex and Scream.

Like most things, it really depends on the day. I went on a Friday night and the longest I waited for anything was like 5 minutes. It will get busier as it gets closer to Halloween though, and I've seen maze lines get into the 30-40 min range in previous years. If you can swing a Friday off of work, that's really the best option. Get there in the afternoon to hit a few coasters while the lines are still dead, then spend the evening doing mazes and a couple of night rides if you have the time.

Can't say that I'm surprised. 7 day ops was a huge business mistake, even though it was awesome for the coaster nerds.

part 2, photos. Wonder Woman has murals on what used to be blank walls. I also felt at least a hint of air conditioning in the room. And Woman Woman has more lockers. Now it at least has enough to stop sending half empty trains. And it almost has landscaping? This was a giant hole in the dirt on opening day, so... Progress! Oktoberfest menu (served at Ace Of Clubs). There were also a few different beers and a cider. I think the $30 options is a pretty good deal depending on which food you get. This might have something to do with why Apocalypse was running only 1 train. Clocked three 3+ min dispatches in a row too. Love that for us. Best maze of the night for me. We love a cute little dark magic ritual altar moment. Skipped this maze because it's mid-tier and I've been through it so many times. But this is a fun shot. That's one hell of a jump scare.

Trip Report from 2022 Fright Fest TL;DR - worth the $25 upcharge for the wrist band, especially if you haven't been in a while. BIG dings for bad app and new maze not being ready. The Good: Condemned (best of the night), Willougby's, Sewer of Souls. All solid mazes with energetic talent. Condemned has the most immersive design/build, and the theme is very creepy and unlike most other concepts at other local big haunts. Willougby's is charming in its own way, though it could use some more oomph in some of its larger rooms. Sewer Of Souls is another great concept, and even though build quality isn't at the top tier of what MM has produced before, it works. Talent overall. Lots of energy, interaction, commitment to characters was good overall. Oktoberfest Food Fest. I only tried a couple things, but they were really good and there were lots of other things on the menu that looked great too. The Okay: Aftermath maze. I love that they worked the post apocalyptic theme into the maze that's right next to Apocalypse. It's smart and it shows that there is somebody in the park who understands how to work with theming. Love that the queue has a video to explain the story. But it needs more scenery. The footprint of the maze is enormous and it's outside so you can't narrow people's focus. Parts are good, parts feel barren. But the fireball over your head is a scare that's hard to beat. Show Moment 1. This is something I actually LOVE that they're trying but it needs work. They wrote a little show moment for releasing the monsters into the park, over by Batman. A track played, and then the gate opened for groups of monsters to walk through a cloud of fog. It was a great concept, but... the speakers were way too quiet to give the moment the drama it needs. And the groups of monsters were really small because of the way they broke them up into their character/zone types. This big build up of narration, fog goes off, gate opens, aaand.... it's 8 people. Show Moment 2. The front of the park scare zone has a new ocean/pirate theme, and they wrote another show moment to give the origin story of the zone. Fabulous idea, but the execution needs work. Once again. really underpowered audio, especially since the show was scheduled during a band set at the Full Throttle stage. The script was also just hard to follow. And there was a fog machine that kept cycling during the show and obscuring the action on stage. The Bad: Ride Ops. Lots of coasters running 1 train and having slow ops. I got off Ninja, got back into line, made it to the gates, and got back on the same train I had just exited. And I was not running. Also there were multiple break downs in just a couple hours. No map and broken app. When I bought the wrist band, I scanned a QR code that took me to a pdf map of Fright Fest. But it was not really optimized for phone usage, and it mentioned several times to check the app for maze info and show times. Except... none of that was actually on the app. IMO, if you're going all in on an app and ditching physical maps/guides, then your app needs to be FLAWLESS. Glitchy apps can be given grace only if there's something else as a back up. New Maze not finished. This is the biggest ding. There is only one new maze this year and it's not done. I was told it will open next week, which is the THIRD week of the event. And I didn't find this out until after purchasing the wrist band. I feel like that is a big deal that should have been disclosed upfront. Overall: I still think that Fright Fest offers the best value for your money of any of the theme park Halloween events in So Cal. Especially if you have a pass already. Build quality has been improving in recent years, and I see attempts to grow creatively.

Ghostrider always gets worked on between Summer & Halloween, and again between Halloween & Christmas. Lots of long days sending a lot of cycles and tearing up the track. Really glad to see the park hasn't slacked off with maintenance on this in the years since the renovation.

The terrible Coast Rider lap bars happened because of the injury lawsuit a few years back. Kid stuck his foot out of the car thinking the ride was over but the car moved forward again and his foot got mangled. So now you can't move your feet at all until the bar releases.

Niche record question that's been stuck in my head... Which park has the most launched coasters? I can think of several parks that have 3 coasters, but none with 4. Anybody else know?

Disappointed to see comfort collars, but also... this ride has no lateral forces, so there's no worry about necks hitting them. The zero car is beautiful and I love the idea of turning Zoom into a full experience.

FYI to the Alphabet Mafia... this year's Out On the Mountain is Friday Sept 9th. A little earlier than in past years. The flyer is definitely giving some *Graphic design is my passion* vibes...

In the "where do I go" stages of planning a trip and I noticed that the Ops Calendar for Holiday World has the park closing at 6pm for the majority of September. Is the park really that dead, even on a Saturday, that it's not worth it to stay open until dark?

That should qualify as a war crime, tbh

okay but like... why haven't the LSM stators been replaced by Indrivetec yet? Seems like these launch system problems could have been fixed years ago. Also, if heat is a problem... DCA fixed that by adding sprinklers to the launch track on California Screamin 20 freakin years ago. Idk why that would be so impossible for Lightning Rod.

Zoom fills an important supporting role at the park and it takes up such a small footprint that it's really not even feasible to replace it. Nothing else would fit. It's a really good stepping stone ride between the family coasters and the big 4. It was my first ever inverting coaster, and I'm sure the same continued to be true for lots of others as well.

Oooooh, interesting! That definitely makes sense. I noticed there was a smaller cubby across from the lockers that my buddy put his backpack in, I wonder if they found that somewhere after a couple hours to help out. This actually makes me even madder at the park, tbh. It wasn't just that they opened without having time to test their procedures. They opened with missing infrastructure. That's completely inexcusable.

Headed out yesterday for the passholder preview and... woof. I don't want to sound bitchy but I was really disappointed. SFMM decided that functional is the same as finished and we got a pretty terrible overall experience. Coaster - A solid 7/10. Less insane than the 1st-gen single rails, but I think that's a good thing. Easing up on the aggression makes it really re-rideable and I think it will be a huge hit with enthusiasts and GP. My one ride was in row 10, but I heard folks saying that the front was crazier. The new trains do make you sit with your feet unnaturally far apart, and it's kind of uncomfortable. Could be a more significant problem for folks who have shorter legs or narrow hips. Ops - I wasn't able to figure out what caused this but trains were regularly being sent out with only 4-6 passengers. Quite a few trains had only 2 or 3. This happened over and over again during my 3 hour long wait and it was maddening. The handful of times that they did send multiple full trains in a row, I noticed that the line actually does move, so that's a plus. I happened to be in one of the full trains, so I didn't get to see what the problem was they were experiencing. And I'm sure the employees were doing their best, no shade to them, but management forced them to open when they were very clearly not ready. Presentation - Lots of construction stuff still up around the area, a big dirt hole to the right of the switchbacks, confetti still all over the place from media day. The inside part of the queue had no working A/C, so it was hot and very humid from all the sweaty bodies standing inside. The floor inside the building is also a mess. It's like they told the construction crew: "don't worry about spilling paint on the floor because we're gonna do a finish coat on it"... and then they just didn't. Also, the paint on the coaster supports looks SUPER patchy and weird, especially near the ride entrance. Like they got scuffed up and someone fixed them with red spray paint. Extra weird thing - The entrance and exit of Batman have switched so that Batman and WW can share one exit path. Except there was no sign, so we walked off WW directly into the Batman queue and kept going onto the ride. Wasn't a big issue in the moment since there was virtually no line, but that better get fixed quickly before fights start about people cutting the line. -- The whole experience gave me the mental scenario of the construction project manager sending an email update saying "Hey everyone, we're almost to the end. We'll be ready to open in 3-4 weeks." And then someone from marketing replying "We just announced the opening day, so actually you have 2 weeks. Figure it out."

We're seeing a lot of capital investment into the park, and that money almost always comes from corporate. Not denying that the GM is great at his job, but there is absolutely more money going into this park. Seems like corporate has decided this park is joining the top tier. And Siebert seems like the right guy to implement that.

I wonder if they're going to sound dampen the loop? That section of track is the loudest with that hollow box spine, and it can be heard even outside the park. This renovation downtime would be an opportunity to take the loop apart and fill the spine.

FYI if you're planning to hit up the park for WW's opening weekend, it's gonna be HOT. Accuweather says the Real Feel™ will be 106.

I can confidently say I've never had my phone in hand on a coaster while on the course (maybe lift or brakes).

Checking the last couple pages of this thread and I have to say this park seems like the new gold standard for Six Flags. They're really just killing it over there with every decision.

Nothing from CGA will end up at CP. CP already has one of everything except for RailBlazer and that capacity is way too low.

In the context of the RMC era, Maverick doesn't hit quite as hard as it used to, but I remember my first ride being a total shock to the system. Maverick was a big risk to take at the apex of the Coaster Wars and it disrupted the whole industry because nobody else was doing that.

Let's go baybeee!!!