PeoplemoverMatt

They said first coaster to break the 400' mark. Not that it's 400ft. And that would be false information. TTD is not the first to break 400ft.

It's probably wrong, but it's the closest thing I found after Googling a certain 3 words... LINK

People don't complain much about 14 pages of locker discussion but get their knickers in a twist about less than 2 pages of "I'm gay" ? That should explain all that there needs to be explained about this. Off-topic: God was pissed that Mike came out of the closet. The quake is all your fault Mike!!!!

But it's true isn't it? The wait's in a different place & not during park operating hours, but it's the same wait in terms of time. It's actually longer if folks get there more than 2 hours before opening, which does happen. AND if they go to some other ride that isn't X2 first, then they've waited multiple hours for a ride that may never see a multiple hour wait during the day! Wait 2+ hours to wait about 30-40mins less, yikes!

Yes it's true, by being at the gates when the park opens and sprinting to X2, you'll spend less time waiting in the queue to ride than at pretty much any point during the day. However, that does require arriving at the gates early to be in proper sprinting position. I'm curious just how early people are arriving to be at the gates when they open? The way I see it, if people show up at the gates at 8:30am for a 10am opening, then wait 20mins or so in the queue before riding, they've still waited almost 2 hours to ride X2, despite only 20mins of that wait being in the queue. Doesn't sound like a whole lot's been saved. The only thing that's really been accomplished is the wait's been shifted to non-operating hours. While this does increase the total amount of time during which a guest can ride something, the guest who arrived at 8:30am still waited a comparable amount to those who waited 2 hours in X2's queue in the middle of the day. Does anyone who arrives to the gates 60mins+ before opening think about this? I wonder because the last time I tried to be at SFMM for opening, there was a ginormous crowd of people completely filling the courtyard beyond the metal detectors, and I was stuck back by the entrance to Hurricane Harbor having arrived about 40mins before opening. Have to believe those at the gates had been there for 60mins plus.

^ But you don't understand. They couldn't have known that this amusement park was going to build another roller coaster! They were totally mislead and are completely not at fault!

Is this slide one of those big family-style raft rides that can have a whole bunch of people riding? A 700lb weight limit translates to about 3 average-sized adults. I can't say I'm familiar with a type of water slide whose rafts would hold, on average, 3 people.

Didn't you guys hear? It's totally going to be a stand-up inverted floorless wooden rapids ride! ...with a launch!!!

First Tatsu stacks with one train, then... How does Jet Scream stack? Did someone stop the rotating platform?

Hey Jahan & folks, Since there are Discussion Threads for various parks on here now, why don't we create a Six Flags Magic Mountain Discussion Thread? Then we could have the updates/update discussion seperated from general discussion about SFMM. Some posts from this thread could probably be moved into the new SFMM General Discussion Thread. What do you all think?

^ Yeah, that sounds like Magic Mountain to me. Crew's doing great at actually having the capacity a ride should have, so let's break up the team and take some trains off! Yeah that'll make it even better! Reminds me of one night I was working there at an ODV Churro cart. Having 2 racks in the oven was the norm. When it came time for my 'lunch' my replacement came with my lead who had 2 more racks in her hand, so my replacement would have 4 racks total to work with. When I came back, my lead took the 2 racks out of the oven, dumped all the churros onto the remaining racks creating an insane mess of cooked/semi-cooked/and un-cooked churros, and then berated me for not selling enough churros like my replacement was!! I guess it just didn't occur to her that I would sell more if I had double the rack space like he did... Why didn't I say anything? Because I was 15 and didn't want to talk back to my lead, who no doubt wouldn't have listened to anything I had to say. I didn't have much enthusiasm for my job for the rest of that night. Tried my hardest not to let it show to the guests, but I'm sure it came out at one point or another in a tone of voice or demeanor or something. I had hoped the leads/sup's had changed their tune a little bit since that episode, which was just one among many I encountered. Unfortunately it doesn't look like it's changed all that much...

Yeah, I generally tend to skip mornings entirely & arrive at the parks sometime after opening. The last time I was at a park's gates at opening was the last time I went to Tokyo DisneySea, and that was because of their morning show out on the lake...can't remember it's name...went on before Primavera...crap. Well anyway, people snatched the prime viewing spots first thing in the morning, so we didn't have much choice if we wanted to see it. I've just never been much of a fan of being in that 'running of the bulls'. X2 is only one ride, so where do you go after X2 first thing in the morning? NOT VIPER! That's how Viper can have a 60min line before anyone's in the back of the park, people just walk in like lemmings/RCT guests right into the next closest ride not knowing that they just chose to be stuck in line when 60% of the park's attractions still has 0-10min waits. Don't be like that. Head up the hill & go right past Tatsu, unless it doesn't have a line, and go scout out the likely very empty back of the park. Traveling from San Diego up here to Valencia isn't so much a function of distance as it is traffic. If the sun is out when you leave SD, you WILL hit traffic at some point, probably at multiple points, depending on your route. My advice there is to ride I-15 up north to the 210, then take West 210 all the way until it ends at the I-5 in Sylmar. From there, head North on I-5, and Magic Mountain is about 10 minutes away. I think that route adds about 40mins, but you'll avoid just about all possible traffic headaches, including trying to get through Downtown LA. It's always taken me at least 3 hours to get down to San Diego from here, and that was under ideal traffic conditions.

There is an important difference between Magic Mountain's Flash Pass & Disney's FastPass. Disney's FastPass is free, and requires a return at a later scheduled time, or sometime later than that. Usually, a good amount of wait time is required, though you're free to roam around the parks at your leisure during that wait time. Magic Mountain's Flash Passes can be take to any ride they're good for as soon as you buy them. Recommended strategy for a family is to try & hold off from waiting for high-demand attractions (i.e. X2, Tatsu, Goliath) during the day as much as possible & explore the lesser-traveled back corners of the park during that time. Check out the shows if they're on, the places for kids to play like Looney Tunes Lodge, the Magic of the Mountain Museum at the Sky Tower, and other stuff that won't have a giant line to wait in for. This will minimize the amount of time being stuck sweltering & baking to death in line in the hot summer Valencia heat. Then as evening comes, it's a little cooler & the sun's going down. Now's the time to back to those high-demand attractions & you'll likely find the wait has gone down from where it was during peak time. Immediately before closing, lines are generally quite short. Many rides can be had in the last 2 hours or so of the operating day. If you arrive at opening, go straight to the back of the park and get as many rides on Superman, Ninja, Scream, Colossus, Riddler's, Deja Vu, & Batman as possible as most of the crowd stops at the first attractions they see which are X2, Viper & Goliath. At 11am, I've seen Viper have a 60min wait while rides like Batman & Scream have little to no wait.

A sense of urgency is against the employee culture in some places at Magic Mountain. It's kinda like how in high school, if you get good grades & work your butt off, you'll get laughed at for actually working & giving a darn by those who don't care. Many employees who work at Magic Mountain are still in high school, and bring that culture into their jobs right off the campus. There's also a culture in some places of employees who DO care, who DO work hard, and then get a bunch of flack from their leads/supervisors who didn't see how much they were trying & were only focused on trivial nuances that they'll heavily criticize the one trying hard for. If an employee is working hard and gets criticized for it, he's not going to feel like it's worth the effort at all, and will end up being one of those guys looking like they're on death row. This happens at Magic Mountain.

At WCB, Jay said that there was a waiting list for people who wanted to become ride-op's. Sure sounds like it's time to tap that waiting list a tad...

I just can't imagine the Busch parks being closed down entirely and not being sold to someone who intends on maintaining them. People would absolutely flip out if all the Sea World's were shut down, dismantled and scrapped. Same goes for the Busch Gardens parks. I can't imagine there wouldn't be an interested buyer. There's the BEC equivalent of Mark Shapiro out there somewhere...

I can sum up Magic Mountain's employee problems pretty quick: There's a job opening that Magic Mountain has put on a job board as available for $8.75/hr. (I'm leaving out what it is because I don't want that to be a distraction.) Several other companies in the Santa Clarita area on the same job board have offered this same job - title, description, requirements, etc - for $12/hr, $13/hr, $15/hr, one went as high as $17/hr! For the SAME JOB! Now me being a job seeker, who do you think I'll want to work for? If Magic Mountain was paying a competitive rate, I'd most certainly give them a second thought. Heck I've even thought of e-mailing Jay Thomas with these facts and asking him what he thinks about it, and what he can suggest to me as a job seeker on what to do about it. Bottom line is, on average, they don't pay a competitive wage across the board. Magic Mountain's going to get the people that accept what Magic Mountain's willing to pay, and it's not going to get the people who don't. The results speak for themselves in terms of quality, morale, service, etc.

You mean the lines that allow you to massively increase your ride count on crowded days so you don't have to wait 90mins next to giant smelly BnL shoppers that haven't showered in a week for every ride? Yeah they'd be totally stupid to have those.

Um, I'm going to stand by the side (in line) for about 2 hours or so, then ride... Kind of a dumb question to ask me after I walked up a bridge that leads only to the X2 entrance...

Rode Red last night at closing. Gives a pretty smooth ride. New bench-style seating does wonders for moving around inside the cabins. Airflow felt as expected. I checked out the new scoops, and, well, it's an improvement but they're basically aerodynamic holes in the ceiling. What's going to happen when it rains? Take Red off the loop, replace the roof hatches with ones that don't have scoops, and send it back out? That's pretty awkward for something that is a marginal fix at best, seeing as they aren't running Red at all once the temp. reaches a certain point. Maybe they'll pull a Knott's and just shut it down completely at the first hint of drizzle? We'll see I guess. Here's some crappy pictures, but it's the best my Canon could do in the dark... (Hit refresh if some of the photos don't load) Sexy lit-up logo in the cabins: New hotness open for business! I press button. Button make door close. I love button. Windows that don't open more than a crack thanks to scary corporate lawyers... Vents that were part of the original design hidden under one of the benches: The new air scoops from the inside... Believe it or not, you can stick your hand through one of those things and out into the open air. Don't let the lawyers catch you!!! Scoops from the outside... The super-grainy look is due to the general lack of light. Rain made flash pictures come out looking as dotty as your vision after being in a flash picture... The interior lightning looks just awesome at night. Compliments your view out the windows of the lit-up park instead of competing with it. Also note how much more space there is to move around inside there. One of these lit-up signs needs to be in my dwelling place! Goodnight Red! Thanks for a smooth and enjoyable nighttime trip around Disneyland! Go check it out, but don't expect to be able to ride it in the daytime before Labor Day if these heat rules become the standard. They aren't allowing Red to run in hot temperatures, so if it's not out during the day for you, be sure to check back in the evening. Last Sunday, Red wasn't out until after the fireworks. So don't despair, have patience and maybe you'll get a chance to ride Red on your next visit!

Upping the charge for the Xtreme Pass I doubt is that high up on Jay Thomas' priority list. As has been accurately said before, admission isn't where the big bucks for the park are made. It's the in-park purchases that really matter. Whether you spent $70, $125, or $200 once a year doesn't make a large bit of difference in the Annual Report. What does make a difference is how many people are coming through the gates, whether they pay money to get through the gate one time or every time, and how much they're spending once inside the park. Those are the two main priorities any park has to have. The happier the guest is, the more they'll spend. If they're totally blown away by what they see, the level of service they receive, and how immersed they are, they'll spend oodles & oodles of cash there. (see: Tokyo Disney Resort) So I doubt Rasulo's focusing on if you paid $125 or $200 once a year. He's working on ways to make you happier once you're inside, and that's what we're seeing as far as improvements go. Service level is improving (gradually), X2 was meant to blow you away more than it originally did (and it's working), but I think they're getting the immersion wrong a little bit. The only immersion I feel is being immersed in neon yellow shirts and advertisements. Not that I'm really complaining, but that stuff is quite noticeable. Also noticeable is that the trash cans' family comes to Magic Mountain too. Love that one! Please consider the trash can's family! Don't let them see a dirty park!!!

WALL-E's been packing every theatre ,and then some this weekend here at Valencia's movie theatres about 5 minutes from Magic Mountain. The families are certainly plentiful in this area, but what will make them drive down Magic Mountain Parkway & around the corner, under I-5 and into Magic Mountain? I'd start with awareness. I know Magic Mountain doesn't like to call itself part of Santa Clarita because it's not within the City Limits, but if it wants to tap the local family market here, that'd be a good start. A city of almost 200,000 that's almost completely families in your backyard is NOT something to be overlooked, yet they're doing a pretty good job of that. Appealing to local families here will start a domino effect that will change the park's image in the way that Rasulo wants it to change. I want to see more local family-oriented advertising!

We're not talking about any of that though. We're talking about public advertising outside of the stuff Six Flags controls (i.e. gift shops, website, etc) that plays by a whole different set of rules & fees beyond the distribution contract for the gift shop stuff & general license agreement for Six Flags stuff & on Six Flags media. Useage of trademarks beyond that usually require a different set of agreements and likely useage fees. Remember how Disney always needed the fine print at the bottom of Tower of Terror commercials reminding us that Twilight Zone is a registered trademark of CBS? Something similar would be afoot here with ThomasTown, I would think. This could simply be a case of Six Flags choosing not to incur that particular cost. I'd be curious to know if ANY of the Six Flags parks that have recently added a ThomasTown (SFDK and another), have locally advertised the presence of ThomasTown somewhere/somehow in media not under Six Flags' control. TV commercials, ads in the paper, bus stop benches, or something to that affect where Six Flags would have to pay someone to get their ad with the Thomas trademarks placed. Has that happened? If those parks have but Magic Mountain hasn't, then I'm forced to conclude that Magic Mountain has just shot their effort to attract more families and change their image to be more for families squarely in the foot. They're doing a much better job of advertising X2 in the "now the Xtreme park!" sense now than when the Xtreme park thing was really going on. The SoCal family market isn't going to buy some schizophrenic image of Magic Mountain being the Xtreme park that's really for families. Not in this day & age. Maybe someday we'll see a grass roots traditional Magic Mountain ad for today's offerings like we're seeing in the Museum, but I doubt it.

Possible trademark license fee issue. To market Thomas Town, Six Flags would have to get the ok from the owner of the Thomas trademarks to have their trademarks in a Six Flags ad across whatever media Six Flags wants it to be on. It's a good bet Six Flags chose NOT to spend this money and instead went with X2 stuff since Six Flags owns X2 trademarks. Of course it totally goes against the whole reason for building Thomas Town, but, Six Flags has shown itself to be terribly anti-cost multiple times before. Why don't they publicly advertise Johnny Rockets in the park now? Or Papa John's? Or Coldstone? Same reason, I'd guess. Just a supposition...

3. If you can make it into Santa Clarita by train or bus (I'm assuming you aren't driving if you're asking about bus access), then you can use one of the City of Santa Clarita Transit buses to get to Magic Mountain quite easily. There's a bus stop very close to the park's entrance.