The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[ejot]

Most of Yom Kippur was on Wednesday so some schools may have been out of session.

[SoCalJasonland]

Why was it so busy on a Wednesday? Aren't schools back in?

 

It was also a pass holder bring a friend for free day.

[sfmman2000]

Too bad you missed out on Twisted Colossus though...

We did get on TC, although only once in the morning. It was my first ever ride on it, although not my first RMC (rode Wicked Cyclone last month). I might give TC a slight edge over WC, due to the dueling aspect and top gun stall (my favorite part). However, they are really both incredible rides. Neither ride has an Intamin i305/Maverick level of wildness, but they more than make up for it with crazy elements, graceful transitions, and amazingly comfortable trains.

[Terry Inferno]

I went to Magic Mountain in 2007. It would have been better if I'd gone with people who weren't afraid of roller coasters. Since I find the experience less enjoyable if I'm riding by myself, these are all the roller coasters I could get people to go on with me:

 

Colossus

Gold Rusher

Ninja

 

The list is not long, as you can see. I won't be going back with those people.

[KBrylczyk]

^ mmk...?

[coastercoaster5]

What should I expect for crowds at Fright Fest tonight? Also, if i get there at 810ish, what should i do first?

[SFMMGeek27]

No idea for crowds. I'm going at 7 so I can keep you posted as well!

[ioio]

No idea for crowds. I'm going at 7 so I can keep you posted as well!

 

Please do, I'm debating

[ioio]

Apparently the dining pass is still only until 7:30pm, even though the park hours run later than usual. Boo!

[VTown661]

What should I expect for crowds at Fright Fest tonight? Also, if i get there at 810ish, what should i do first?

 

To easy to answer.

 

Park is off the hookkkkkkkkkkkkkkk packedddddddddddddddddd

 

If you got there at 8:10 your still looking for parking.

 

Just remember every car is inside SFMM as Hurricane has been closed since 6pm.

 

What to do first? .... Try to enjoy the scare zones and wait for a colder night to return and do the mazes at that time.

[Jew]

The park took some nights away (the random Wednesday it was open last year was awesome!), so I imagine it will be packed for the month.

[SFMMGeek27]

What should I expect for crowds at Fright Fest tonight? Also, if i get there at 810ish, what should i do first?

 

To easy to answer.

 

Park is off the hookkkkkkkkkkkkkkk packedddddddddddddddddd

 

If you got there at 8:10 your still looking for parking.

 

Just remember every car is inside SFMM as Hurricane has been closed since 6pm.

 

What to do first? .... Try to enjoy the scare zones and wait for a colder night to return and do the mazes at that time.

 

Not even true. I got there at 7 and way too easy. No wait at toll booths, and right into a spot in front of Scream. Could've parked closer but didn't notice the lot was so empty until I got out and was walking.

 

Fright Fest is pretty good this year. The mazes are the same level of quality as last year and the scare zones have vastly improved. The park was pretty busy until 11:30 or so, but crowds thinned very quickly after that. Here's what I checked out:

 

1) Demon's Door- cool, same as last year, FIRE!

2) Toyz of Terror 3D - good with 3D glasses, kinda lame without.

3) Red's Revenge - More air effects and more wolflike characters throughout the maze, better than last year.

4) Voodoo Nights - great, high quality performance

5) Zombie Xing - more actors this year, great because it is dark

6) Sinister Circuit - Wow, using the Holiday in the Park lights in DC Universe really works! More fun than scary, but that's okay!

7) Terrortory Twisted - The best one! Projection Mapping on buildings, tons of fog, tons of actors, and TONS of props for the actors to hide in! Plus the area is HUGE so that's another plus.

8) Unleashed - didn't get to watch this but heard that it was great! Very similar to Kwerk but with new acts! Four shows per night.

9) The Wastelands - lots of fog and great actors!

10) The Aftermath - Greatly improved from last year - probably double the number of actors! Went in this after midnight to find no line whatsoever, in fact my two friends and I were the only ones in the maze! We got cornered by like 8 actors and couldn't even move! It was awesome!

11) Willoghby's Garden of Darkness - well, I'd still say it's the worst maze in the park but it's much better than last year. It's darker and it has more actors who aren't just hiding in plant suits. The Willoughby's daughter is a much more prominent character this year.

12) Exile Hill- Great as usual!

13) Nightmares - Plussed up scare zone- way more cool props and actors this year! Black lights are cool!!

14) X2: Satan's Domain: only thing that has changed here is the audio. No props or theming at all. The new audio is basically a creepy remix of the old audio. This really hurt my calves at the end tonight.

 

That's all I got to check out tonight. Vault 666 had a 2-hour line all night so I'll hit that up next week. Same with Willoughby's and Chupacabra.

 

Overall great event this year!! Although there isn't much new stuff added this year, they have added a lot more actors to the mazes and especially the scare zones. So that's a plus! You should totally check it out if you can!

 

That's all I got to check out

[MagicMountainMan]

Thanks for the quick review, keep them coming! Believe it or not these are actually read so feedback is great!

[JeromyL]

Maggiekat and I will be flying in from Vegas To go Saturday October 10th

[joshfreund]

Yeah...went at 830, found parking in the first lot, crowded but not too bad...lines were not too long...I've seen and been there in far worse crowds.. didn't ride TC..but Tatsu was a 45 minute wait, Riddlers maybe 20...It certainty was not off the hook way over crowded as stated above

[coastercoaster5]

Went from 840-120. Did 4 Mazes, since lines for Vault 666 was super long and willoughbys line was not moving so we left it. Toyz was eh, reds was really good, garden of darkness was good, and aftermath was really fun. Also got to do TC in front row finally cause they did not have a person telling you where to sit. Also rode X2 after park closing. I dont know what it was but i swear x2 was running FAST last night holy crap.

[Vonni]

Sorry if this has been discussed, but any word on when New Revolution is expected to reopen to the public?

[disney4me2001]

Sorry if this has been discussed, but any word on when New Revolution is expected to reopen to the public?

 

The banners outside the park say "Summer 2015". I'd put my money on May or June based on when Twisted Colossus and YOLOcoaster opened (May and June, respectively). Though I feel like it could potentially open sooner given that New Revolution seems to be mostly new trains and painting the track as opposed to full track replacement like the Colossus/Twisted Colossus conversion, but only time will tell!

 

And yes, I realize this is SFMM...it could very well open later than expected too!

[Arthur_Seaton]

Went to Fright Fest tonight thinking it would be fairly quiet, and it was. The longest line was for Chupacabra at about 15 mins. Everything else was fairly wide open — except for the Apocalypse overhaul, which was about an hour due to single-train operation. Overall, the night felt like a warm-up — largely reinforcing the point that these kinds of events work best when there's a sizable crowd of guests to scare. While it was nice to breeze through the mazes without having to deal with people, the event felt deflated as the result.

 

Vault 666: Same as last year, only I recall there being a more elaborate opening scene last year. This maze feels the most home-made of them I all, I found. Very basic sets, no effects, unenthused monsters with little makeup. Cheesy fun, but very low-budget.

 

Toyz 3D: I thought this was one of the better mazes last year, and this year was the same. It really is all down to the effect of the 3D glasses though as without them, it's pretty basic. Actors were fairly unenthused, but the disorientation factor is what elevates it.

 

Reds Revenge: Too well-lit inside for it to be creepy. It's well done (like walking through a Rainforest Cafe with the lights off), but mediocre monsters and a botched opening sequence made the whole thing a bit sad. It does get darker later on, but the early scenes were way lighter than I remember from last year.

 

Chupacabra: Best use of lights and fog, but that's kind of it. Tight turns made for some better monster jumps, but it's still a pretty irrational narrative that seems to end prematurely.

 

Aftermath: Same as last year: great set, but not much else. The monsters seemed bored, but there were maybe 15 people in the maze at the time we went through it, so it's understandable.

 

Willoughby's Resurrected: Good set pieces, but because it was so empty, the monsters were just hanging out and chatting. Same as last year but without the 45 minute wait we had to deal with last time.

 

Garden of Darkness: Ironically, this was the maze with the most potential this year. Exact same set up as last time (camouflage nets with people behind them), but we were literally the only group in the maze, so it actually did feel like a maze. That was somewhat scary, but the monsters kept telling us which way to go.

 

Shadows of Evil: We didn't even get through this. It's the Apocalypse line with two fedora wearing guys outside. We noticed there were as many people walking out of the first switchback as there were walking in. Once you enter, there's some black netting with someone yelling "boo" from behind it, and then you hit the regular Apocalypse queue line. About 60 or so people were just standing there, not moving at all. A staff member said the ride was only running one train and so the wait time would be about an hour. From what we could tell, the black netting was the main overlay highlight, so we just bailed on going through rest — which is the point everyone else was leaving.

 

Scare Zones: The one by TC was decent (just lots of fog and lighting), populated by some cool stilt-walkers, but every other scare zone we walked through was very poor. Barely any fog, and maybe one or two monsters snorting at people and texting between snorts.

 

Rides: Rode a few of the "dark rides" but it didn't really make that much of a difference we found. Full Thröttle looked good bathed in lasers, but the ride was down all night.

 

Overall: Disappointing, but largely due to the lack of crowds which really gave the talent very little to work with. It was almost as if SFMM replaced all of their usual monsters with high school kids for the night as many were clearly preoccupied with other stuff. I assume the park anticipated a low turnout as there wasn't much in the way of fog or effects in general. Chances are that much of this will be quite different with a full park (indeed, my experience last year was very different yet they've changed nothing at all about the mazes). We'll probably go back on a weekend to see how things differs when there's a bit more life in the place.

[Gnome]

Didnt do fright night but visited the park yesterday in the morning. Got 3 rides in with duels both sides every time. Twas awesome!

[DallasAlvey]

Saturday night was opening night of Fright Fest at Magic Mountain and TPR was there to check it out! This was my first time at Fright Fest so everything was new to me. Once the event started I noticed right away that the actors, especially in the scarezones, had a ton of energy and were really in your face when it comes to getting scares, loved that! As far as mazes go, Vault 666 and Aftermath really stood out to me. The actors in Vault 666 really embraced their roles and made that maze work. Aftermath was cool mainly due to it's setting and how long it was. Shadows of Darkness was new this year, I noticed a lot of people calling it a maze. It's not really a maze, basically they put a bunch of scareactors in the Apocalypse que, which makes the que line a lot more interesting at a haunt event which I liked. I thought it was neat but nothing really too amazing. Big thanks to our media escorts for getting us through the mazes and allowing us to film!

 

Check out the photos and videos:

Opening night of Fright Fest! Let's Go!

First stop was the new show Unleashed in the Gearworks Theater.

Looks of cool acrobatic stuff going on.

Time to get to the scaring!

Fright Fest begins for the night!!

Territory Twisted in the Screampunk District was a new scarezone this year.

The projection mapping on the Gearworks Theater was really cool!

Zombies have taken over Apocalypse.

It's now Shadows of Evil: the Ride

Willoughby's Resurrected was up next.

Hello there.

Sup dude!

Vault 666 on of my favorites from Fright Fest!

About to take a "tour" of the animal-people hybrid lab. Seems legit!

Noted!

FIRE!!!

The front gate scarezone, Demon's Door was really cool. Scareactors were really on their game!

 

No shortage of fog at Fright Fest!

Definitely like that!

Zombies are on the loose!

Checking out Toyz of Terror.

Reds was decent, lots of screaming going on in here.

I am Groot.

Noted!

 

Aftermath was cool! Definitely the largest maze at Fright Fest.

Goodnight!

Big Thanks to Magic Mountain for hooking us up with some sweet gift bags!

Yum!

Fun night! Fright Fest runs select nights through November 1!

[cfc]

I've never been to a Six Flags Fright Fest, but Magic Mountain's looks pretty good.

[DJeXeL]

^Didn't start looking good until last year IMO. If they keep this momentum and keep investing into the event, they could easily make a it a separate ticketed event in 3 or 4 years.

[Hilltopper39]

The apocalypse que haunt layover is a pretty cool concept. I could see that type of thing becoming popular at other parks. If they did it right with a well designed layout it would only take a few actors to provide a lot of scares. When you waiting in a line there's really no where to go so actors could move around behind walls and set pieces and constatnly pop up at random points when you don't expect it.

 

Pretty cool that they tried somthing different with it at least.

[mich311e]

Really great pics DallasAlvey! I wasn't sure if I wanted to get a maze pass again but I for sure do now!

 

I'm looking forward to going on Friday! We only go once every year or 2. We got season passes last year because we knew we wanted to ride Twisted Colossus.

 

We plan on getting to the park at opening, hopefully we'll be in line early. Do most people go straight to Twisted Colossus? After we ride that should we do Full Throttle? After those two I'm open to riding whatever else as we get to it but I'm really hoping Superman is up. We have missed that ride due to breakdowns almost every visit. Last time we rode it was 2008!