PeoplemoverMatt
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Posts posted by PeoplemoverMatt
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I'm afraid I'm going to have join the 'I can't pay $50 for this' crowd.
First of all, call me spoiled from events in the past, but, I can't see how it's worth it to me to spend $50 for ERT on one ride when I already have a pass that includes parking, flash passes, and admission.
Second, like others have said, this pales in comparison to the Tatsu overnighter. The $50 looks even worse when this is put up against that event, which was for a totally new coaster, unlike X2.
Add the fact that I haven't had a job for a while and it adds up to NO for me. Hope everyone who does go has fun. I think I'll check out the photos n' stuff and ride X2 whenever I get a chance to.
-- PMM
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Very true & makes it really frustrating to hear people complain about improvements because 'no one will care about _____' (like Valencia Falls). As if they're reading the minds of every park guest that walks through the gates.
I also like how they aren't taking the focus group approach to improving the park. They aren't sitting idely by and waiting for guests to tell them what matters, they're rolling up their sleeves and doing it themselves as much as they can. They're using their own good judgement about what and how to improve, and the guests are walking in, seeing what they've done, and are liking what they see.
That's how it should always work IMO. Sure there's always a feedback component, but that shouldn't ever be the chief driver. People come to parks to be wowed, so it's up to those running the park to wow them. That's what I see going on & I want more wow! Keep it up guys!
-- PMM
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Now I've seen everything...
A RECYCLE BIN IN MAGIC MOUNTAIN?!?!?!?!!?! *faints*
Valencia Falls is awesome to see falling again! Another milestone passed on the road to restored glory!
-- PMM
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This is the goal. Let's give them a chance to make this happen. I'm confident that it will.
And remember, there was capacity and maintenance issues with "X", not "X2"
Give them a chance to get it right, please!
--Robb "Did you say dancing donkeys?" Alvey
Hey Robb, I'm with you, but I want to see those goals accomplished BEFORE any sort of frilly extra is added. X2 and X are the same ride sans paint & trains & loading arrangement, so as far as I'm concerned, X2 inheirited every capacity/maintenance problem X had. That's the whole point of X2 isn't it? To fix the problems? I hope they do, and I hope they don't compromise that goal in the pursuit of extras like queue music, effects, etc.
And yes, I did say dancing donkeys. People LOVE dancing donkeys!
One thing I've noticed about 3 train operation at SFDK on Medusa, the only people who seem to care about stacking is enthusiasts and theme park employees... the GP doesn't really care if they are stacked up cause they got on the ride...Well, think about that, the GP aren't able to care, because in learning why stacking is bad, they'd have to either be an enthusiast already, or have some friend that is an enthusiast. But the GP should care because stacking reduces hourly capacity making lines slower.
If you took a poll, I doubt any GP if asked "Would you care if the park is knowingly making your wait time longer, and could fix the problem, but simply isn't making the effort?" would answer "no". The GP just isn't aware. All they know is that they're waiting. If they did know some of the reasons, they'd want problems like stacking to be eliminated as much as possible.
I'm not saying this as a hit to anything Magic Mountain is or isn't currently trying to do or fix. I'm just emphasizing priorities.
-- PMM
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If 'queue entertainment' is anything like what happens in Medusa's queue up at SFDK, then I'm wholeheartedly against it.
You want to have queue entertainment? Think up a bloody theme for the ride, and have some entertainment associated with that theme. If I have to walk into a giant blaring iPod everytime I want to ride a coaster, I might rethink riding that coaster.
And the fact we're discussing this while there are still maintenance, reliability, and capacity issues with a coaster like X2 to me is ridiculous. As I said before, invest in the coaster running right consistently first. THEN you can think about frilling it up with extra expenses like DJ's, dancing donkeys, or whatever you want.
-- PMM
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^ Disney's attractions couldn't possibly blare the music that you'll hear in some of SFMM's stations these days. It'd drown out the stupid safety spiels that have to play in 2 languages now just to make the scary corporate lawyers happy.
At this point, I could careless about fire effects, techno queue music or any of that. Just make the darn coaster work consistently with 3 trains, and a reasonable load/unload time. That's ALL I'm looking for with X2.
-- PMM
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Joypolis' evil coaster is "Spin Bullet" and I think it's aptly named. After you take a 'spin' on it, you want to put a 'bullet' through your head.
I whacked my head on the bare backing of the car because my head went above the cushion so hard that I had a sore throat for 3 freaking weeks afterwards. I don't know if it's a my being tall thing or what, but that ride absolutely sucks.
-- PMM
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Knowing a little Japanese can help, but isn't 100% mandatory, especially if you're going to DisneySea. Just about all front line CMs there have the ability to at least understand some basic English, most speak basic English as well, and beyond that, they're good with pointing & have pictures on menus at restaurants. They'll speak a lot of Japanese to you, whether you're understanding it or not, but their body language (lots of smiles, pleasant mannerisms, grateful presentation of your souvenir neatly tucked into a bag for you) tells you everything of what they're saying.
Beyond that, just about all signs/maps are in both English and Japanese. All train ticket machines have an 'english' button that automatically switches the on-screen interface to english. It all really works out well.
Have fun! I'm sad I won't be able to go this year after going the past 2 years.
-- PMM
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Also i just found out that when i go to Sfmm on Gradnight
What school is going to Magic Mountain for Grad Night?
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So what you saying is that you have never read the signs at the front gate or the back of your ticket.
Let me check my Season Pass...nope, nothing about the evils of carrying a water bottle in my back pocket. Maybe you should check again.
Just because people don't get caught that doesn't make it right. Also remember that Robb and Elissa are considered ambassadors at many parks (partners in a symbiotic sort of way) and members on their site shouldn't advise people to break park rules.Dude are you serious? I was talking about a water bottle, not vandalism. Go vent at someone else. I was hardly 'advising people to break park rules'...
If that post was the norm for how members on R&E's site treated each other, R&E wouldn't have too many members here. Keep that in mind.
-- PMM
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I don't think that story is correct. They took apart the old monorails and re-engineered them. Why would a re-engineered version of the old train end up as WDW's? I also believe that WDW's track is a completely different size than DLR's, so it would have been a HUGE mistake to build them to fit WDW's track.
BTW, I merged the two Monorail topics into one big discussion thread.
Well that's what he claimed happened, his name was "Tony", didn't get a last name. He also agreed that was a HUGE mistake, but they didn't have too many options once the train actually arrived and failed its tests. He also said the new Blue is receiving the same fixes that Red had, while being put together.
It was an interesting theory he put forth that I hadn't heard before, thought I'd pass it along...
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^ Correct, but CMs have ridden and are riding it, so park guests should be able to ride it before too long.
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I carry bottles of water in my back pockets into the park everytime I go in. They don't set off the metal detectors. I don't know if they don't notice, don't care or what, but I've never been told I couldn't bring them past the admission gates. *shrug*
-- PMM
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Took some photos of Disneyland's new Mark VII Monorail Red while in the park yesterday. Best part was I totally didn't expect to see it out there! Once I picked my jaw up off the floor, I got the camera out!
What's THAT I see coming???
Very sleek! Welcome to Disneyland Monorail Mark VII!
Off behind the trees it goes!
Two aspects of Disneyland going in completely opposite directions!
This will look a lot better once it's unobstructed!
Mark VII Monorail Red soarin' past Soarin'...
I still see a lot of the Mark V in the contours, look, and movement of this new Mark VII, which is nice, since the Mark V is the only Disneyland monorail I've been alive to ride!
There ya go, hope you enjoyed 'em!
I was talking with a Disney technician yesterday, and according to him, the Mark VII's were designed for WDW's monorail beam and station geography (distance between platforms, platform to beam, etc). Since there were some subtle differences between WDW's beam & DLR's beam, as well as issues with the geography of the stations at DLR the new monorail didn't work properly (rubbing issues, etc). So imagineers were pulled off other projects and told simply to "fix it". They apparently have "fixed it", but not without some ugly costs. However, he said that ugly cost was preferable compared to the even uglier senario of altering the Disneyland Monorail stations to accomodate the new Monorail Mark VII.
I don't know if I want to take him at his word about the WDW aspect to the explanation, but it is an interesting theory as to why the new monorail failed initial tests. At this point I have no reason not to believe him.
Should be less than a week until park guests are allowed to ride if all goes well!
-- PMM
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^ Paint a line on the other side and tell riders to throw their shoes past that line?
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I really hope they put a great restaurant on Samarai Summit. Four Winds could be successful if they brought it back, but a new over-the-top restaurant (think Blue Bayou or Mythos) could be a home run.
One obstacle to success for a hilltop restaurant will be the lack of easy access. Hopefully park management has included transportation for the back side of the hill in the five-year plan.
I don't think Blue Bayou/Mythos is possible, given the fact that Six Flags has to give away the gate just to get people in the door. Then they've had to put up those Code of Conduct signs in multiple areas to try and detour those people from screwing up the park & the experience for other people.
Maybe once Magic Mountain attracts the same kind of families with high-limit credit cards that Disneyland does, they can think of investing in a restaurant like Bayou/Mythos, but that's a looooooooong way off if ever.
And location is a HUGE problem with a hill of that size. Orient Express or no Orient Express, anything on that hill is going to suffer from that location. I have a feeling that's one of the reasons Tatsu's entrance is where it is, instead of across from Ninja's entrance. They know more people will walk up through Rapids Camp than trudge all the way up that hill.
I'm not saying it would be impossible to spruce up the Laughing Dragon/Four Winds Restaurant building, and then point to Orient Express as easy access up to that hill and the restaurant. That just wouldn't be consistent with the Magic Mountain we've seen in the past 20 years. They're not doing much to advertise the new Magic of the Mountain Museum that I've seen, why would they do something for a new restaurant even if they thought it was a good investment?
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I hope they put this volcano effect in a visible spot from the entrance road into the park. That would be cool, once all this bloody construction is finally over.
Also what kind of music fits with a volcano-type theme? Are we talking about tribal jungle drums or what?
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Roasted Corn was open last week, should be open on any given day from here on out through the summer.
I thought an ideal location for a sit-down restauarant would be where the new Johnny Rockets Shakes n' Fries just opened at (where the Justice League and about 9 different other names have been). It's in a high traffic location, has a nice view of a small lagoon where Log Jammer's lift hill is, and has abdundant seating area that could easily become enclosed if they wanted to.
But with the Johnny Rockets there now, that's rather unlikely. Oh well.
It would take one heck of an entrepenuer to take the limited resources Magic Mountain has to work with and build the kind of sit-down restaurant experience we're looking for. I don't see how the park could do it without it being an already-established name like Chili's or Islands or something like that, and even they might not like having to work inside the box Magic Mountain would give them.
Still it's something that should be looked into at least. If a place like Mountasia can afford to have the sit-down Farrell's...what's REALLY stopping Magic Mountain?
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The City of Santa Clarita has made giant improvements in the areas of worst traffic here. However construction happening outside the city limits, immediately surrounding Magic Mountain's entrance, is moving forward at a snail's pace. Since quite a bit of commuter traffic passes through that area, it's certainly an area to avoid, no matter what the park's hours are...
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^ Jay...can I thank you for being you? I've never known anyone who's as determined to make Magic Mountain, our park, great as much as you are. As a Valencia local, that means a lot, so thank you.
It was wonderful meeting you and conversing with you at WCB. Hope to see you around more & hope to share with you many tales of greatness improved from our beloved SFMM.
-- PMM
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^^ The candy lady yes, but the bathroom guy I have to respect. He, at least, was thinking things out in terms of prioritizing of funds. He just was unaware of the expense accounting behind all these specific projects, and I can't really fault him for that. However, if after it was explained to him, and to all of us at the same time, if people still don't get it, then what more can you say about it? If that explanation's unacceptable...I dunno, whoever'd think that would just have to be in denial or something.
^ YES! The Sky Tower's an attraction again! Isn't that awesome? I'm loving that. I just wish there was some sort of indicator in the front of the park or someplace that would tell guests when the Sky Tower was open and when it was closed. People aren't going to make that hike if they even THINK that the Sky Tower isn't open. I guess people could watch for elevators or something, but I doubt the general public would in large part think of something like that. Magic of the Mountain Museum is awesome though. Gotta love it!
-- PMM
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^^Considering it goes about 2 miles an hour, I doubt it's that painful for kids...
Maybe but, everytime I watch it, I just cringe. Lots of jerky head travel...
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I wouldn't want to ride Percy, credit or no credit. That thing looks like it's rough enough on the kids' spines. Can't imagine what it'd do to me...
-- PMM
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The sign said "Magic Mountain Left"
So I went home.
Not So Hidden Mickeys
in Theme Parks, Roller Coasters, & Donkeys!
Posted
I'm surprised no one's mentioned the cloud-obsessed Year of a Million Dreams yet.