The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[DefinitiveDetour]

Might as well add a loop in there as well.

[disneyfan1313]

Six Flags management is definitely doing the "quantity over quality" strategy. So, I doubt we'll see anything very major anytime soon.

 

Right - because at the end of the day, that is what their demographic cares about. Its easily marketable and it pulls in the "teen boy who drinks Full Throttle energy and will buy a YOLO shirt" demographic that they cater to. Its a tough pill to swallow sometimes but SFMM doesn't care about us, they care about making as much $$$ as possible.

[singemfrc]

Six Flags management is definitely doing the "quantity over quality" strategy. So, I doubt we'll see anything very major anytime soon.

 

Right - because at the end of the day, that is what their demographic cares about. Its easily marketable and it pulls in the "teen boy who drinks Full Throttle energy and will buy a YOLO shirt" demographic that they cater to. Its a tough pill to swallow sometimes but SFMM doesn't care about us, they care about making as much $$$ as possible.

I totally get that for most parks, I mean the bottom line is always the bottom line, it's a business after all. However, SFMM like Cedar Point and a few others is one of those flagship parks where I believe having something for the coaster enthusiast is a good idea since these parks more than the smaller ones will get enthusiasts travelling from long distance. Maybe they figure they already have those in X2 and Tatsu, maybe their point of view is in fact that just the sheer number and variety of coasters is enough to draw. I hate to admit it sometimes but they'd be right in my case on the second point. Even if you took away X2 which is clearly my favorite coaster ever, I would still travel to SFMM just because I know I can ride coasters all day long and not ride the same one twice, which is a treat in and of itself, especially if you live near CGA and SFDK which have 4 and 6 coasters respectively (though CGA has a lot of great flat rides and SFDK has the animals, Im talking pure coasters)

[Sir Clinksalot]

Went up to the park for a bit today. Didn't see any track on-site (either at the actual construction site or backstage). The Spider for Fright Fest is up, some other random FF decorations. Nothing visible from the Willoughby's or Bite II location. Could see them working backstage where Slaughterhouse is/was. Looks like Aftermath is coming back as well as Chupacabra and Cursed.

 

Working on a maze in Log Jammer Queue as well. The entire area where Jokesters is is completely blocked off. Didn't see much of anything. So far only seeing maybe 6 mazes, I'm sure there are more though.

 

There were some survey markers all along the FT area as well as going up and over the Superman entry area.

[daveydo5172]

So, is SF going to release any more info or any renderings on this new themed five acre section of the park, or do we have to wait till it opens to be surprised?

[Wes]

So, is SF going to release any more info or any renderings on this new themed five acre section of the park, or do we have to wait till it opens to be surprised?

 

What do you think?

[daveydo5172]

I basically already knew my answer....

[bostonlva]

so according to the coaster guy, they got rid of YOLO from the video

[Wes]

I'm interesting in what they do though. The retheme of Gotham into the DC area actually turned out very well for Six Flags. Would love to see a similar refresh in the FT area of the park.

[Mechanic]

I saw a ton of YOLO shirts at KBF last week, but only a few at SFMM. Go figure.

[ahecht]

I understand this, but that "christmas light" graphic seems to work exactly like a LSM. Explain?

 

Here's a better graphic illustration (Green are positive magnets, red are negative, or vice versa):

With LIMs, the timing isn't as important, the copper fins on the car will try to catch up to the traveling wave (which you can see in the animation is moving slightly faster than the car). With LSMs, the switching of the electromagnets from positive to negative must be precisely timed as the magnet on the car passes over them.

Edited September 9, 2012 by ahecht

[Mechanic]

^ That is an excellent, and accurate, simple graphic that explains it very well.

[MrSum1_55]

^^I think you just posted one picture that better sumed up the LIM vs LSM talk than several pages of this thread did.

 

Really parks in general don't care that much about enthusiests. This is not out of negligence, but out of business. Enthusiasts are a very small group in terms of park demographics. If the GP's desires are on the complete opposite of the spetrum of what enthusiasts want, then it is the opposite of what we want that we will get. SFMM isn't interested in us, and they have complete reason to be. It seems, though, that the east coast GP seem to have preferances more similar to enthusiasts than the west coast GP, but that may be a result of a more dense population, resulting in more park competetion. Back east, more parks tend to compete for tallest coaster, and, nearly every major park has a hyper, anyway. On the west coast, inversions are ganerally more popular. I am confident that we will see several multi-inversion coasters before a second hyper is built, because that is what the CA GP want.

[AvgCoaster]

I understand this, but that "christmas light" graphic seems to work exactly like a LSM. Explain?

 

Here's a better graphic illustration (Green are positive magnets, red are negative, or vice versa):

[attachment=0]LIM-LSM.2.gif[/attachment]

With LIMs, the timing isn't as important, the copper fins on the car will try to catch up to the traveling wave (which you can see in the animation is moving slightly faster than the car). With LSMs, the switching of the electromagnets from positive to negative must be precisely timed as the magnet on the car passes over them.

 

Excellent graphic and explanation, but I'm still curious as to if anyone can explain why one time for me on S:EFK the train upon return to the station slowed down almost all the way and then rolled through the station and almost to the end of the track into that back area? My thought is maybe since its an LSM it might have not completely synced up on the returning brake run? Scared me a little but I figure its meant to happen. I just thought it was funny that the ride ops have to push the train back to the station by hand from there.

[CharlieT.]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about visiting the park within the next few weekends, and was wondering if a flash pass would be needed for a Saturday in September? We will only be able to visit for one day, and would like to get on all of the coasters, as well as Lex. What do you suggest?

[JJ728]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about visiting the park within the next few weekends, and was wondering if a flash pass would be needed for a Saturday in September? We will only be able to visit for one day, and would like to get on all of the coasters, as well as Lex. What do you suggest?

I would spring for a Flash Pass, especially with an upcoming concert on the 15th, and after that the hours shortening with crowd levels remaining constant.

 

[Edit]: Get a gold Flash Pass.

[laqueefa]

Hey guys, I'm thinking about visiting the park within the next few weekends, and was wondering if a flash pass would be needed for a Saturday in September? We will only be able to visit for one day, and would like to get on all of the coasters, as well as Lex. What do you suggest?

I would spring for a Flash Pass, especially with an upcoming concert on the 15th, and after that the hours shortening with crowd levels remaining constant.

 

[Edit]: Get a gold Flash Pass.

 

I second this. The gold pass; you can get a steady rhythm of queuing your groups next ride after the flass pass checker validates your current reservation. By the time you get off your current ride and walk to the next reservation, you're ready to ride!

[LaMapa]

Just try to go on a Sunday. It's so much emptier.. I rode Goliath and superman 6 times in a row today. Longest wait was 15 for Tatsu. It was dead today.

 

And I should mention that Riddler is back to 1 train operation.... Scream too. There still weren't any lines for those 2 today.

[snoflake15]

Is it actually true to say YOLO?

 

DO we know this for a fact?

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^You can always try the Descartes method to find out definitively.....

[Sir Clinksalot]

If you go on the 15th, yes, you need a Flash Pass. Jubilee is pretty much the busiest day of the year.

 

If you aren't going on the 15th then no, you should be fine without one.

[dsjim11]

Looks very cool! And it won't be a parking lot coaster LOL

[Reuschini]

Very nice graphic created by Ahecht. So I guess next time I need to animate the graphic I find instead of using a still image? Haha, you gotta admit, the graphic I found really wasn't that far off, and was better than many of the wordy "cut and paste" descriptions that were being thrown around...

 

Excellent graphic and explanation, but I'm still curious as to if anyone can explain why one time for me on S:EFK the train upon return to the station slowed down almost all the way and then rolled through the station and almost to the end of the track into that back area?

 

When the computers that control the magnets lose the location of the car, the magnets that control the ride are designed to shut off and the train is practically free-rolling. At that point the only thing that'll slow the train down is the permanent emergency magnets with the same polarity of the magnets on the train behind the station, which is what happened when you rode. It's also possible for the computer to lose the trains during launch, and that's when you'll the train stopped at the bottom of the curve near the tower.

[cymonster-rex]

with the S:EFK if its thes same as TOT2 it can slip the brake due to rain than it hit the brakes at the end this once happend to me and told me i could ride again and i was all like no thank you

[Wes]

with the S:EFK if its thes same as TOT2 it can slip the brake due to rain than it hit the brakes at the end this once happend to me and told me i could ride again and i was all like no thank you

 

I'm not sure about rain, but there's certain instances where it will fly through the station and hit the brakes at the end, ie: going too high up on the tower.

 

Also, hey...some capital letters and punctuation go a long way to making your posts more readable.