Atarashiihito

I went to the mountain this last Thursday, my first time since about 2002-ish. A lot has changed since then. A lot of it, in my opinion, was bad. Magic Mountain should not be building a new roller coaster for about a good solid 5-10 years. All the coasters they have now are solid, and one can barely ride all of them in one day as it is. While the rest of the park is in drastic need of attention. One of the biggest problems I saw was the ride operating staff for almost every ride. There was a major lack of concern or care for almost all of the ride attendants at the park. I saw so many ride attendants almost falling asleep, and barely checking restraints. Pretty much sleep-walking through theirs jobs. I think a good amount of money needs to go into better customer service and safety training for the ride ops. Also there was a huge lack of organization of the lines at every coaster in the park. SFMM needs to immediately adopt a Disneyland boarding assignment style before I ever go back to that park. One where an attendant stops the line before the lane assignments, and asks how many are in your party and then disperses you accordingly. Because without this, I saw rampant line cutting and general panic with parties trying to ride together. It was a total mess. Along with this ride organization there needs to be a revamp of the Flash Pass system because it is completely broke. My family and I dropped about $80 for the Flash Pass, and only on Tatsu were the passes actually used. All of the other rides we used the Flash Pass line on, no one took our Flash Passes, and then we were just left to our devices to try to squeeze in to the lane assignments with park-goers that were angry at us that we basically got to cut in line for free. Other than issues with the lines, there needs to be a revamp of a lot of the shops at SFMM. Many of the shops feel completely worn out and past its prime, which gives the park an atmosphere of slightly better than a ghetto. A ghetto with roller coasters pretty much. It was a bit depressing. My family and I had a great time when we were on the roller coasters, but a quite abysmal time when not riding them, which was a good majority of the day. Sorry for the rant, just thought I'd share my experience at the park.

Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain.

Yeah, I hear 'ya all. But unfortunately for me I'm the only coaster fanatic (I even offered to pay for the hotel for the night) in the family, and the reason we're staying in San Diego is to try to maximize our time with my grandmother (pft, family, LAME I know). I keep telling her to move closer to Valencia if she wants me to visit more often. Anywhoozle, since the hotel is out of the question, I'll just keep my little fingers crossed that leaving San Diego at 5am will suffice and I'll get in as much coaster riding as I can on a Thursday in August... I guess it's better than nothin'! Again, thank you all for your astounding advice. I hope to utilize it as much as I can!

First of all thanks for the brilliant advice, I know you guys are the experts on the SFMM front. Second, that's what we're planning on... BUT we will be coming from San Diego that morning, which I've been told will be about a 2.5 hour-ish drive (right?). Which I guess isn't that bad, what I'm not looking forward to is driving back at the end of the night...

Well, I don't think the single-rider line will be much of an option because we're planning on riding everything as a family.

First off, thanks so much for your input. So I guess I'll get four Flash Passes then (4x4, right?). Is X2 the ride that should be dashed for at opening or Tatsu. Since they're both new to me I'll be excited to ride them both (well I've ridden X). And then after those two it's to Deja Vu and then clockwise from there?

Which rides do you think warrant the Flash Passes? I see that X2 doesn't take them which is a bummer...

I was just hoping for a practical low-down on The Flash Pass at SFMM. How does it work, is it worth it, how many of them would I need for a family of four? We're planning on going on a Thursday in August (I'm guessing it'll be crazy busy), and it's been about 5 or 6 years since I've been to the park. They didn't have The Flash Pass, and Tatsu wasn't even a twinkle in B&Ms eye yet. So I guess I'm also asking for a feasible attack plan on how to tackle SFMM in one day as well. My younger sister just discovered her love for coasters, so I'd love to get in as much as we possibly can. Thanks for any constructive input in advance!

When Superman The Escape came out, I was fairly young, and it scared the crap out of me. Mainly because of that intimidating Jet Roar it does. And because at the time it was the fastest and tallest, and I had a more irrational fear of heights. As far as "real" coasters go, I don't often get scared. The idea of X didn't scare me, though while I was on it for the first time, it was pitch black dark and I couldn't tell what on earth was happening to me. It kind of kicked my ass the first time. And gave me a couple of OMFG moments. I think my fear of X comes from the fact that they had so many issues with it.

I'm gay, and I hate: Pink, Purple, Rainbows, and the majority of gay people. So I think a gay day of any kind would be the most unappealing thing. To me at least. But it's nice that these parks provide the opportunity at least, for people who are interested in such a thing.

V2 is a lot of fun, in my opinion. Sure, it's not the most thrilling thing in the world, but it's still fun. I wouldn't wait in line for it for more than about 15min. though, so I guess that's saying something... Yes, it would be wonderful if Vallejo removed the height restriction, but I think you can still do a lot with 150ft. It's not size that matters, it's what you do with it.

So, we went today. And it was a lot of fun. Extremely hard to gage everything, since everything looks miserable soaked in rain. We got to the park at around noon, right when it started to pour. It did so the entire time, until the early unscheduled closing at 4pm. The same rides were closed all day: Vertical Velocity, Kong, Zonga. They closed Medusa down pretty early at around 3:30, and then when heading to Boomerang announced that the park would be closing early at 4. I can't wait to go when it doesn't rain constantly, and I can at least get a ride on Kong and V2. It was still tons of fun though. We also saw the Dolphin show, which was entertaining. And would have seen Shouka had the park not closed early. That was my day at SFMW.

That's exactly what I needed to know! Thank you!

Damn, that's just one horrible thing after another... I'm going tomorrow, I hope things'll be better... Vertical Velocity is one of my favorite rides, and that's sad Kong isn't running.

It looks like it might be a very similar layout to X? I'm new to this thread, so I don't know all of the details. But maybe a few support and general track adjustments, but generally pretty similar?