Jew

I wasn’t impressed. Neat technology but really not a good show. T2 was much better.

I’m not sure where they would put it unless WaterWorld is finally done. My assumption is that the Mel’s/Parisian themed area is eventually swallowed up by something illuminations to complete the transformation of the back of park. On the lower lot, I assume any future expansion space would go towards Nintendo (the current soundstage 29 used for events butts up right next to it…) Mummy would be the wildcard, but going from a roller coaster to Bourne seems like a big downgrade. Simpsons if you believe the license will end would make another possibility. I suppose they could completely rework the front entrance to use the space that was formerly saddle ranch and the VIP/handicapped parking lot to stretch the park out too if they wanted to.

Truthfully, I do think it is a loss. The shows obviously didn’t appeal to us as theme park fans, but they filled up during peak times and added more “movie” things to the park. The park is definitely going to feel having the new rumored ride, studio tour, lower lot, and Springfield/Simpsons all on one narrow path and no longer having two shows to suck some people off the midways for a bit.

It is a little bit strange to me to announce things any “world class” park would just do as standard operating procedures as big new additions, but I do like the big focus on kids for the water park. The mini tornado is cute! I am very curious to see how the skyline ride turns out. I assume they got a really good deal after selling a piece of junk to SFDK. Will it work? Will the LEDs actually hold up in Texas heat?

A limited number of express might be available at the park. Online I believe express is only sold as its own ticket. The after 11s will go on sale in the park around 9 if whatever algorithm they use decides that enough people have used their express passes that there will be enough capacity available. They obviously won’t scan in until 11.

This isn’t an official SFMM event. Just a park buyout, though the park is obviously not oblivious to whom it is catering to.

I guess you can call that a step forward in the sense they added more to the menu, but that’s still just more overpriced food that most certainly isn’t made fresh to justify those prices. This looks more to me like “we’re not making any money off the place right now, let’s add a few things that look gourmet to get that per-cap spend back up and get more people back on the dining plan we said we didn’t want them on anymore.”

The key is, you can’t just make the investment once and call it a day. We’ve already seen that song and dance when Dan Synder did his takeover of the company. When they made their big push to make things more “family friendly,” they made investments like the ones you mentioned and then never maintained any improvements. You can only squeeze so much out of the consumer (especially with six flags clientele), but the shareholders will still want you to squeeze more out of somewhere…

I don’t actually believe they will make the investment that is required to become a more premium product. I can only speak for SFMM, but their pay/benefits package for staff is still nowhere near the top of the industry or even the local area for that matter. They just half assed the opening of Wonder Woman and the DC area. Can’t even remember the last time any of their rides ran at full capacity. If the CEO is serious about it, it will require a massive culture/budget change within the company to actually be a more premium experience instead of just raising prices and saying you are a premium product. Since I don’t think they are actually serious about it, I’m of the opinion they should just stick to being cheap and find better ways to squeeze money out of people once they are inside the park. Make people think they are getting a good value even though you are still marking things up like crazy (say, like the cheap souvenir bottle refills) and I bet that would make them more revenue than pretending they are a premium brand…

To be fair, the sale itself came out of nowhere to begin with. Though highly unlikely, There would be nothing stopping Prologis and Cedar Fair from another agreement to amend their lease to allow termination earlier than the 2 years currently required as the bare minimum…

Well a looping star is an entire product line, not just one individual ride. I didn’t think I needed to list out every looping star I have been on… But in general, as others have mentioned, no inversion has really yet to match the near perfection of a Swartzkoph loop.

These are the “cubbies.” It looks like they just stole employee lockers and threw them out there to try and help…except they just means more people grabbing stuff from the extremely cramped hallway. Trying to reuse the green lantern building was a terrible idea. Even something like the larger rubber trash cans they use now don’t even properly fit (the one they had in the queue blocks the switchback) and if certainly wasn’t a good idea to turn what was formerly the split point for loading into an entrance and exit. I’ll second the comments the whole thing is remarkably “six flags.” It’s not paint on the ground, it’s the former queue railing of green lantern filled in that they just chopped off and sanded down and didn’t re-surface over. You can still see some survey markings on the ground too. There’s exposed wiring for the fire alarm system that isn’t inside conduit. The exit route is a mess of construction and lack of signage. The presumably future gift shops is a structure and not much else. The round up doesn’t have a sign on its entrance yet. The new perimeter walls aren’t painted. There’s no shade at all. The ride itself is a lot of fun. I enjoyed the back row much more. Thankfully only waited like 10 min each time, since the crew wasn’t messing up the moving loading.

I would ride a looping star over most more modern coasters with inversions, since those with OTSR’s beat you up in some way. Olympia Looping is a legitimate top 25 coaster. Mindbender is the second most intense coaster I’ve ever been on (#1 is the original dodonpa). Lisebergbanan is a top tier mine train/non inverting style coaster.

The last two pictures really sum up the Magic Mountain experience quite well. Looks like the area could really use more shade, but I’ll reserve final judgement until I see it in person. I’m looking forward to riding this week

That video is her way of saying “we need our kickbacks to approve the zoning change.” There’s zero chance the park lasts the full 11 years. 50 years would be 2026, so I suspect it’s already being arranged to have that be the last season… Stadium mixed use developments are all the rage, I bet prologis already has a deal with the niners. Best case is they save the amphitheater and the carousel/fountain entrance as part of the inevitable development.