Jew
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Posts posted by Jew
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Swung by the park for a few hours to see how things would be in the covid world, and I have to say that magic mountain did a pretty good job.
For those wondering, it appears the only checks for residency occur during the online reservation process. At the turnstile I was only asked to show my reservation (note on that: I wish they would update their system on the backend to tie the reservation to your pass so you didn’t have to show the reservation and then take out your pass for scanning). The parking attendant asked me for my reservation time (which was 3pm and I arrived at 4), so it appears they are allowing arrivals after your slated time.
Since I didnt arrive until 4, so I wasn’t going to chance a long wait for any of the headliner coasters taking all my time to do a lap, but I was able to get on justice league and revolution with about 10-15 min waits at each.
mask enforcement was great, hand sanitizer was readily available, signage was everywhere, more security has been added, and they were following all the LA county guidelines down to even having the ride ops checking lapbars wear masks and googles for extra protection from being in close contact with guests.
They are running multiple trains on the coasters, but only loading every other row. So yes, I would recommend flash pass as the only way to ensure you can hit every ride.
Now onto the photos to tell the story...
With the vaccine site remaining open, you will probably be parked in the overflow lot. But good for six flags for working with the county to keep the vaccine site open!
There is no shortage of signage with all the safety rules starting from the walk to the park (shuttle is closed). Also of note, since it usually drives me crazy: all the trash cans on the walk in were clean in empty. Always hate seeing those gross, since it’s such a bad first impression.
like all other SF parks, to enter you first go through the thermal camera screening and then the touchless security check. These should make the typically horrible entry lines go away for good when things are back to normal. Love that six flags is leading the way for this much needed technology upgrade for the whole industry.
presumably with crowds limited both for park attendance and indoor dining in LA county, we won’t be seeing the sports bar opening any time soon.
However, most other dining locations did reopen with mobile ordering and designated outdoor dining areas. It didn’t appear Six Flags was ready for the high demand of the food (presumably since so many passholders have dining plans). Hope they will adjust now that they have some real world data.
Ride closures were better than I expected. Most flat rides were open, with crazanity being the notable one being closed (others were the bumper cars and the chair swings). Both water rides were closed, as was ninja. Hopefully with spring weather here, they can at least get jet stream back up since the boats will create natural social distancing and allow full capacity loading.
In order to open justice league, the preshow was disabled to move people directly into the loading room, where groups were socially distanced and loaded one per car. Great way to meet the LA county indoor ride time guideline of 15 min.
Some examples of how they are doing social distancing to get rides open.
nothing visible going on with the potential new coaster site yet.
Security with the bright yellow shirts were very visible in the park and doing a good job asking people to put their masks on.
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1 hour ago, SoCalJasonland said:
I wonder if this is correct for wait times as of 4 pm on opening Thursday? At this point, I will ride anything next Tuesday when I go. Even Scream multiple times if it has a short wait;
I will have a full TR up tonight, but it is not correct. I’m in line for revolution right now! Dive devil was open as well.
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Can’t wait for everyone to see Jurassic world 2.0 and secret life of pets.
Pets is the desperately needed family dark ride USH needed, though the capacity is very low.
The enhancements to Jurassic really addressed all the dead spots on the ride.
And even better: LA and OC will be entering the orange tiers!
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On 3/25/2021 at 7:37 PM, better_by_design said:
I mean, let’s be clear - the list of attractions here are absolutely place holders based purely on:
a) the latest lands Disney is building outside California
b) attractions that aren’t in California
The only thing they’re asking here is for the right to actually plan on the existing land, but in a different way than they agreed to almost 30 years ago. No way this list of “inspiring attractions” should be considered as anything serious.
I’m personally weirded out by the idea of DL and DCA “annexes” being built across giant bridges from the existing parks, instead of a 3rd gate on the giant parking lot down the street, but I’m sure Strategic Planning has some righteous spreadsheets showing that “this is the way”.
I prefer this much more. It is a right size expansion for the CA market. A 3rd park not fully connected to the resorts infrastructure and enclosed within the resort bubble would be a horrible investment.
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Now it’s official. Glad I was partially wrong, though I too am very curious how this pans out.
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12 hours ago, CenturyFlyer said:
Magic Mountain is planning to reopen April 1st!
Six Flags is the last to announce but the first one to open!
Where did you see this? Not on their socials.
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6 hours ago, tndank said:
To be fair, Cedar Fair is not in a hurry to do anything now days.
None of the parks are in a rush in so cal. The food events offer them a much higher margin than opening the whole park at 15%.
figuring out the logistics is also no easy task given that every employee will essentially need to be treated like a newhire.
I suspect there will closed rides at every park until counties move into orange tier or the state eases up guidelines against. Have to manage costs aggressively. Especially if Knotts allows passholders in right away...no one will be a day ticketed guest on the weekends!
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Another so cal park not in a rush to open. Who could have guessed?
Im glad parks are taking their time to get it right and not rushing. Going to be tough to make a profit with the low capacities.
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5 hours ago, COASTER FREAK 11 said:
I am actually crying right now, but his isn't about wanting to visit Disney (though I do want to). My husband and I live in Anaheim; he works for the Anaheim parks, but I also sell to the company as a material vendor. Having the parks closed has really impacted us both on multiple fronts, so I am overjoyed to have then start the reopening process!! UGH, I am so excited!!!!!!
People always forget just how far the economic impact of a theme park really goes. It’s not just the people they employ and the guests they bring...all the parks suppliers and vendors account for a massive economic impact too!
Im glad Chapek was honest in saying late April. The rides department at DOSH in Southern California isn’t that big...and now they’ll have to inspect literally every ride in so cal! Each inspection is typically 2-4 days since it involves watching technicians perform inspections, watching ride operations open and operate the ride, perform a mock evacuation of the ride, and auditing all the paperwork of both operations and technical services. And that’s just the rides. I’m sure local health departments will be all up in the parks too inspecting covid safety stuff and food venues. It is going to be a massive undertaking for all parks.
But at least there is an end in sight. Newsom finally relented.
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The first hurdle should be officially cleared either today or by next Tuesday when the red tier goes from 7 cases to 10 cases per 100k.
exciting times if people in so cal can keep their crap together!
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38 minutes ago, coasternut said:
^ I hear what you're saying, but I want to ride!!! I really miss this park, and I'm excluded since I don't live in California (thank God). I've had both of my vaccine shots already. That should count for something right???
Not yet. But likely soon. The CDC will supposedly be updating guidelines for vaccinated people in the upcoming weeks, which will likely ease some travel and quarantine restrictions.
It is also entirely possible theme parks will continue to lobby the governor and get the restrictions changed to say “proof of vaccination or negative test within 48 hours” to allow a higher capacity.
As I said before, lots of variables at the moment. Which is why I predict parks will be conservative in their opening plans. Food events and perhaps limited rides as a ticketed higher price special event might be the best course of action until the orange tier (oddly enough, the parks can have a higher capacity for “outdoor dining” than they can for if they open with rides in the red tier...)
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8 hours ago, ryder said:
I'm with you that I worry about 1) that we won't get to/stay in red tier, especially with new variants going around, 2) that LA/OC may put in their own guidance that will supersede the state and make things tougher, and that 3) the situation is very fluid. I'm not necessarily expecting parks to be open right away on April 1 either.
That said, I've always felt that SFMM will have an easier time in regards to Covid rules, because nearly all their rides and queues are outdoors to begin with (except JL, of course). Knott's is also in the same boat. It's really Disney and Universal that are left more in a lurch, as many more of their attractions are indoors.
I can also imagine that once parks do open, it doesn't necessarily mean all their attractions will be open. I can especially see SFMM doing a ride rotation operation to safe on staffing costs... and sadly, I wouldn't be able to blame them.
The question is that is it really worth it at 15% capacity? A weekly covid testing program alone is going to be insanely expensive. 24hr PCR tests run at least $100/test. Rapid test kits are cheaper (can get them as low as $10 if you buy a ton in bulk), but are also much less accurate (the FDA rushed to approve them, so the trial sample sizes on the test kits are all much smaller than what would normally be required) and will lead to false positives and false negatives. LA county recently changed film set guidelines to require a PCR test prior to your first day on set (previously a rapid was OK), so I imagine they won’t accept rapid tests for theme park employees.
People a lot smarter than you and I are going to have a lot of tough decisions to make.
My personal opinion is that parks should run “special events” until capacity can increase. Charge folks $100 (with a discount for passholders) to give them some food and ERT on selected rides.
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2 minutes ago, southpuddle said:
I think given the news that broke today with *possible* April 1 openings, many employees at Disney, Knotts, Six Flags and Universal are getting notices to report next week for whatever recertifications are necessary to receive guests a few weeks later. How many employees? Likely the exact number required to open the parks at 15/20/25% capacity that’ll be allowed on April 1.
You would be wrong about that. That I can say with 100% certainty. I happen to be very connected with so cal theme parks.
Again, I know everyone wants to be optimistic, but please do not assume anything.
Remember when Disney actually announced an opening date? How’d that work out for them?
I will say it again in caps this time...THE PROCESS IS EXTREMELY FLUID, COMPLICATED, AND EXPENSIVE. The odds are very much against it happening on April 1 for all parks. The state doesn’t even have the guidelines for indoor rides yet except to say “15% with time restrictions”, so Universal and Disney cant even move forward yet until that is clarified. LA and OC can also put in place their own county guidelines as well. And that assumes LA and OC progress into the red tier to begin with. Lots of things have to happen and lots of questions still have to be answered.
Be excited the state finally released reasonable guidelines. Do not expect all parks to open April 1. The April 1 change was meant primarily for baseball, since teams have their opening days. Theme parks were just lumped into that (IMO, the governor had no choice to do theme parks too if he was going to allow 11,000 fans per game to attend a baseball game...)
The only one I think would even have a chance of pulling it off is Sea World, since they are already open as a zoo and don’t have too many rides to begin with.
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27 minutes ago, southpuddle said:
I really don't think that any counties are going to slip back into more restrictive tiers at this point. Cases are and will only continue to drop from this point forward. Also, aside from Disney, no one will need "weeks" of training in order for the parks to reopen. If anything, the parks will reopen severely understaffed and train new employees as things get back up and running. They'll reopen as soon as they're given the go-ahead.
- My optimistic yet unscientific opinion
LA county had its first marginal uptick this week (.2 cases per 100k) if the numbers on covidactnow.org are correct. Anything is possible with a virus we still really don’t know too much about. Is it likely for a county to move back from red to purple once the state updates the numbers to be less restrictive? No. But if we reach April 1 and the threshold is still 7 cases per 100k, then it is much more likely.
I’m not sure if you are aware, but rides are regulated in CA. Since every ride operator has been away from their rides for more than a year, the training required WILL be similar to the training they received as a new hire (if not exactly the same). It will not be done in one week, as no park trains their ride operators in large groups in order to ensure the training they receive is extensive. Plus, typically it is line employees who are the trainers. I would guess that many rides managers aren’t even fully trained on their rides to begin with, and now they’ll have to be the ones doing the training (remember the Columbia accident at Disneyland?!?)
I know we all want to be optimistic and are excited theres finally at least some reasonable guidelines out there...but Elissa is 100% correct in saying that just because a park can open as early as April 1 doesn’t mean they will. It will cost a park millions just to prepare to open and they will have to try and make a profit on 15% capacity.
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1 hour ago, coastercoaster5 said:
While you make some fair points, these parks are bugging to open up and I think they will do so immediately. The massive losses in revenue become a little less massive the day they open up. As a socal resident im confident Disney, Knott's, Universal, Seaworld, and Six Flags will all be open April 1.
I wouldn’t bet your life savings on that.
Remember what happened to SCBB when Santa Cruz was in the orange tier? They got one weekend of operation before the county moved back a tier.
OC, LA, and San Diego are not even in the red tier yet. The earliest possible date they can enter the red tier is March 23 IF they can cross below 7 cases per 100k this upcoming Tuesday. There will be weeks of training needed since every employee has been away for so long. It’s not as simple as “you remember how to do this right? Cool, take your test again and you’re gravy.” I would guess OSHA will be very involved in inspecting all the parks ride reopening processes.
There’s not a chance in hell Disney or Universal with their unionized workforce will bring people back unless there is a HUGE margin for error to protect them from opening and then immediately being shut down if their counties go back into purple.
Millions of dollars in labor will be spent before the parks even open, so they are not going to think about opening unless it’s safe...
This is before even thinking about how to be profitable or even break even at 15% capacity. My guess would be that they will run “special events” that they can charge more for admission. If the food festivals as “outdoor dining” can have a higher capacity, there’s no reason to stop doing those...
Sea World is probably the best bet, since they are basically half open already as a zoo.
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It appears my first guess was correct: there isn’t much appeal for a car show where you can’t get up close to the cars.
They should just go for broke at this point and ask the Governor for an exception to open in a limited capacity since its all outdoors and he’s apparently on track to approve fans for MLB games regardless of the tier in time for opening day early April...
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On 2/26/2021 at 3:36 PM, KBrylczyk said:
I gotta say, I think the absolute lack of discussion about anything Nintendo-world related, rides or otherwise, in the weeks since it has opened says much more than any forum ever could. Overall it seems to be going over like a big, wet fart.
Then again, us westerners are much more vocal in our opinions than the local Japanese population, so it could be amazing and we're just not hearing it because of Covid preventing worthwhile travel. Judging by what I've seen, though, I'm leaning hard into the big, wet fart option.
Edit - So I've been away from everything for over a month due to family issues and it looks like it never actually opened to the public yet? It was just videos taken during the press preview that were posted on the original opening date, per their media restrictions, I guess?
Most of the world can’t visit, so it’s not surprising there isn’t much theme park nerd discussion on it yet. There’s only a few English speaking theme park blogs/YouTubers out there. It’s still in soft opening phase right now too.
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If the $25 can be applied to lamplighter lounge or Cathay circle, that would definitely make it worth it given you also get parking and some photo ops (presumably with some unique characters that people go insane for). I’m sure the portions of the food items and pricing will be similar to the other food events they’ve done, so you’ll still get a good sampling of 3-5 items.
Personally, I don’t miss the food from Disney THAT much, so I will pass on this event in favor of Knotts (their portions are very good for each item on the tasting card), but I know this event will sell out instantly.
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I think the main selling point is still the novelty of being able to drive your car through the park.
The people into car culture want to be able to see the cars up close, talk to the owners about the car, and geek out with fellow car enthusiasts. Driving by them likely isn’t exciting.
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It’s not like this event has a high cost to produce (might have even been part of the original deal with WCC, only they obviously intended for it to be a typical car show), so more power to them if they can get some people some work and make a little profit.
My guess is either WCC is providing all the cars, or likely calling up their clients and saying “hey, want some free tickets to magic mountain whenever it reopens? Just gotta come up for a few hours on these weekends.”
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4 hours ago, coasterbill said:
It’s not a joke but it’s meaningless.
They will open when the state lets them and they have no idea when that’s going to be.
I take their carefully worded post to mean a couple of possibilities:
1. spring technically runs all the way until June 20, so they could be incredibly optimistic that the legislation moving all parks into orange tier will pass and the covid numbers will continue to trend in the right direction.
2. They will open the park as “outdoor dining,” but block off a certain section to be an upcharge and treat it like a “small park,” which would allow them a 500 person max capacity in that section. Could offer timeslots to cycle a lot of people through per day.
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I cant bring myself to fly spirit on any long flights, but they are great for BUR-LAS for me. Its usually sub $100 for the big front seat RT.
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Nice mansion collection chuck!
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Another CCI down for the count.
The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
Yeah, the food service thing will be interesting. Theme park kitchens are designed for higher volumes to begin with, but they aren’t designed for a high volume of walk up AND mobile orders coming in at the same time. Six Flags (and cedar fair for that matter) will likely keep struggling since the meal plans make it so many more people who normally wouldn’t pay $15 for a burger are ordering food now.
In the case of SFMM, the majority of their food venues were built in the 70s and 80s to begin with, so their kitchens probably don’t have much room for upgrades/changes. It will be very interesting to see how they balance things going forward, but I hope they can!
Parking only asked me what time and the turnstile just looked at the email. No scans.