The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[jaidensm]

Hi everyone, I'm going to SFMM later this year and I'm wondering if there's a suggested order/itinerary for me to ride all major rides. I've heard from a couple people that I should start at Full Throttle and then move around the park counter clockwise. Any other tips? Thanks.

[aeyrolet]

 

By adding VR to Viper, it could make it more popular than what it currently is.

That is one mod that I wouldn't support. Personally, I think VR on roller coasters is dumb, and the VR on Revolution gives me motion sickness. I prefer to ride it without VR goggles.

I was kidding about the Viper VR, but good luck with the Galactic Attack on TNR! I like the new augmented reality.

[VCXfreak]

I wish the VR system would just go away! Too much of a problem for the Op's crew and Dispatch times!

[SimiGeek]

But no apparently they are creating a new VR experience.

When riders board the coasters and don their Samsung Gear VR headsets, they will be introduced to the device’s passthrough camera functionality, instantly making riders aware of their surroundings, by allowing them to see the “real world,” including the person seated next to them— along with virtual content

 

I agree this would be better on viper. Although this ride isn't that special its a single loop smaller then most others in the park. A great first ride for kids but nothing more. Maybe this VR is needed to keep a line at Revolution at all.

[VegasBaby]

I wish the VR system would just go away! Too much of a problem for the Op's crew and Dispatch times!

 

I couldn't agree more, it kills the wait time and makes the line a complete clusterf*@k. I was really hoping SF would abandon VR on coasters after all the issues they had last year, but I was giving them too much credit.

[aeyrolet]

I wish the VR system would just go away! Too much of a problem for the Op's crew and Dispatch times!

 

I couldn't agree more, it kills the wait time and makes the line a complete clusterf*@k. I was really hoping SF would abandon VR on coasters after all the issues they had last year, but I was giving them too much credit.

They have a two year contract with Samsung.

[Nrthwnd]

I assumed they had to go through with the VR, for a few years at least.

 

Then hopefully, figure out what worked and what didn't, and then make a decision

about whether to continue using VR, this way.

 

Hopefully.

[ytterbiumanalyst]

You know what also allows people to see the real world, including the person next to them? Eyes.

[JT325]

I haven't been to the park since Revolution has been fixed. It's some of the most exciting news I have ever heard as a coaster geek. After all those years of every know-it-all promising Revo would never ever EVAR run with out the shoulder bars... what a nice surprise that was.

 

If they need to do the VR, I understand. I'm not planning my trip from Chicago until they have some non-VR run time on Revolution. Yes, I understand I cannot dictate what the park does and they do not have to bow to my needs.... blah blah blah.

 

But I see what VR can do to a coaster operation. At my home park (SFGAmerica), I have never seen so many pissed off people getting of a roller coaster (Demon). This was mainly due to waiting on the brake run for an extra 5 to 15 minutes while the train ahead gets it's VR passengers ready. They finally decided to try something different, and started taking reservations (thank you Cedar Point) for later in the day. Demon ran as regular Demon during the day and then VR Demon after 6. Or something like that. I wish Magic Mountain would do this.

 

Personally, I think it would make sense to have VR during the day, say opening to sometime in the afternoon... then regular Revolution for the night.

 

Or like others have said, move it over to Viper. Or better yet, Scream.

[edgeboy]

Or at least have a non-VR rider line, so all those empty seats can go to use.

[JT325]

Or at least have a non-VR rider line, so all those empty seats can go to use.

 

Big time! I can't imagine going all the way out there, and stand in an hour line and watch train after train go out with empty seats. Especially those front seats. Ouch. I heard they sometimes use a single rider line, but it's kinda sketchy? After working at Cedar Point years ago, I could fill every train in seconds.

[coasternut]

I wish the VR system would just go away! Too much of a problem for the Op's crew and Dispatch times!

 

I couldn't agree more, it kills the wait time and makes the line a complete clusterf*@k. I was really hoping SF would abandon VR on coasters after all the issues they had last year, but I was giving them too much credit.

 

I'm in full agreement with both of you guys. I get guest surveys frequently, and I always bash the VR for dispatch times and empty rows. Sad to see it's coming back soon. I rode it Saturday 7 times with less than 2 minute dispatch times and no empty rows. Also as a 6 Flags stock holder this is costing a fortune for ride ops!

[susie zueck]

I wish the VR system would just go away! Too much of a problem for the Op's crew and Dispatch times!

 

I couldn't agree more, it kills the wait time and makes the line a complete clusterf*@k. I was really hoping SF would abandon VR on coasters after all the issues they had last year, but I was giving them too much credit.

 

I'm in full agreement with both of you guys. I get guest surveys frequently, and I always bash the VR for dispatch times and empty rows. Sad to see it's coming back soon. I rode it Saturday 7 times with less than 2 minute dispatch times and no empty rows. Also as a 6 Flags stock holder this is costing a fortune for ride ops!

Sometimes I feel as if Six Flags purposely intends to make their dispatch times as long as possible in order to sell more Flash Passes. Too often when the park is busy, I'll see them run one train ops on some of the most popular rides. While I do realize that due to SFMM being open year-round, they do have to preform annual maintenance on the trains. But honestly, couldn't they just purchase three to four trains per ride, so that way they can rotate which trains are recieving maintenance, thus ensuring that they are always running two trains?

[Arthur_Seaton]

They have a two year contract with Samsung.

GoFundMe to help buy them out of the contract!

 

Sometimes I feel as if Six Flags purposely intends to make their dispatch times as long as possible in order to sell more Flash Passes.

My theory is that Flash Pass is the new park entry. By making season passes (with free parking) so insanely cheap — in addition to a few other tricks to maximize attendance (BAFF days; limited days in off-season) — they've dramatically ramped up regular attendance. In the past, you could somewhat gauge how busy the park would be at certain times of the year, but that doesn't seem to be true anymore. The park has been much busier than normal on days where it has been historically quiet, and so it's almost as if you need a Flash Pass to enjoy a regular day at the park. Can't blame them, and it's still great for locals who can just go for a few hours with no need to hit every ride.

 

Sometimes I feel as if Six Flags purposely intends to make their dispatch times as long as possible in order to sell more Flash Passes. Too often when the park is busy, I'll see them run one train ops on some of the most popular rides.

I could be wrong, but I suspect limited ops is connected to staffing, which is then connected to budgets and projections. If my above hypothesis is right, there's a good chance the park is consistently underestimating attendance (they've had several capacity days as of late I believe). But this could also be that they simply don't have the amount of staff and have a hard time securing them. When we were at the Halloween event last year, it was really apparent that they were short staffed in terms of rides and the haunt. There were scare zones with no scare actors and mazes with barely anyone in them. I'm guessing that SFMM pays very poorly and there are probably far better jobs out there for young people, so I'd imagine that a number of factors such as staffing issues contribute to single-train ops.

[CrazedZooChimp]

I haven't been to the park since Revolution has been fixed. It's some of the most exciting news I have ever heard as a coaster geek. After all those years of every know-it-all promising Revo would never ever EVAR run with out the shoulder bars... what a nice surprise that was.

 

If they need to do the VR, I understand. I'm not planning my trip from Chicago until they have some non-VR run time on Revolution. Yes, I understand I cannot dictate what the park does and they do not have to bow to my needs.... blah blah blah.

 

But I see what VR can do to a coaster operation. At my home park (SFGAmerica), I have never seen so many pissed off people getting of a roller coaster (Demon). This was mainly due to waiting on the brake run for an extra 5 to 15 minutes while the train ahead gets it's VR passengers ready. They finally decided to try something different, and started taking reservations (thank you Cedar Point) for later in the day. Demon ran as regular Demon during the day and then VR Demon after 6. Or something like that. I wish Magic Mountain would do this.

 

Personally, I think it would make sense to have VR during the day, say opening to sometime in the afternoon... then regular Revolution for the night.

 

Or like others have said, move it over to Viper. Or better yet, Scream.

 

Didn't they just have a period where they were running non-VR TNR (classic revolution)?

 

I actually liked the VR when I rode it, but agree they need to do something to fix the ops. Reservations would work, or a VR and non-VR line (maybe load only 4 or 6 VR riders each cycle), or different times of day for it, or like a VR train and a non-VR train, or something like that. I feel like there's gotta be some way to make it work, but I'm not sure I have confidence for Six Flags to figure it out. Still, I've enjoyed the VR rides I've been on, and I don't think it's going away (or if it does, it will be back). I wonder if it would have fewer op issues on something like a dark ride where you didn't have to worry about restraints as much. An Augmented Reality dark ride seems like an obvious thing.

[JT325]

^SFGAmerica tried the 1 or 2 VR trains, then 1 non-VR (and vice-versa; then they made a smart decision and stopped trying to run all 3 trains on a coaster that regularly stacks 2 trains... but at least they had high hopes!?), and it was a mess.

 

The non-VR riders were yelling to "get us off this ride" while they sat for extended periods on the brake run while they waited for the VR train to get everything right. I now know the unpleasant sound of 20+ mad people kicking the inside of an Arrow train. It was hard to watch so many people get off the ride pissed off. It was even more perplexing to me how all those managers could be up there, watching said pissed guest after pissed guest get off the ride, yell and complain. They continued that operation for the majority of the season, before they switched over to what they eventually went with (non-VR only until late afternoon, and then VR only - by registration only.)

[Arthur_Seaton]

I don't have a problem with VR as a concept as long as parks keep it away from major rides — especially coasters. They could stick it on that new ride SFMM is building for all I care as you're basically staring at a video game for much of it anyway (at least that's what the SFOT one seemed like to me).

 

The other option, if parks are so adamant to take sponsorship money from cell-phone companies, is to have a little space carved out in the park where people strap phones to their heads and walk around, bumping into each other or something. Or maybe consider implementing it as part of non-ride experiences like in cafeterias, restrooms, or the parking lot?

[JGuy]

The other option, if parks are so adamant to take sponsorship money from cell-phone companies, is to have a little space carved out in the park where people strap phones to their heads and walk around, bumping into each other or something. Or maybe consider implementing it as part of non-ride experiences like in cafeterias, restrooms, or the parking lot?

 

Imagine shooting at a gargoyle while simultaneously relieving yourself of $15 worth of amusement park food. This is the next step in theme park innovation.

[MrSum1_55]

Heres how I think parks should do VR:

 

At opening, start with no VR. Then until closing hits, continue to not use VR.

 

I am all for parks trying out a new experience, but too many US parks have demonstrated that they cannot properly use it. My only experience with it was at SF America, and the 12 minute dispatches combined with the bad graphics of the VR did not sway me toward wanting to use this. If parks are going to use VR, then I agree with what others have said, that they should only use it on lower rate attractions. It does not help that SFNE, SFA, and SFM Mexico placed the VR on arguably their best coasters. To me, this should be left to the coasters with low popularity or declining in popularity. (Revolution or Demon are not terrible choices for this). But having on a star attraction that is already popular only worstens load times on a ride most people like anyway.

[joelwee]

SFMM needs to bring back the non-VR line for Revolution. I prefer it without the VR, but it's not worth a 90-minute wait.

[Superbatboy]

They have a two year contract with Samsung.

GoFundMe to help buy them out of the contract!

[joshfreund]

...or just leave VR to universal since thats what they do and leave it out of "THRILL parks" ..what do you need VR for on a real rollercoaster, thats just dumb...not to mention Revolution is one of the most scenic rides at the park, going thru the woods is half the fun..how about disbatch times on non VR rides like sayyyy, Tatsu....5-6 minute disbatches because the ops stand around talking before doing their job leaving the other train stacked on the brakes. For this reason i rarely ride Tatsu which is arguably the best ride in the park...

[JDann]

I'm just going to post below what I posted on a UK forum (As that is where i'm from). This is a report from my visit to SFMM on Saturday Open to questions.

 

So, better late than never. I had originally planned this trip for November, but with work and travelling the time never really came up for me to actually visit the park. I flew a friend of mine over here courtesy of my company last week, and this therefore granted me the perfect opportunity to drag someone along with me to Six Flags over the weekend. 

 

Our day started off pretty well, we were up and ready on time, hangover free as we played it sensible on the Friday night and didn't go out. The sun was blazing down in Santa Barbara as we got an Uber to the AMTrak station at 9am. Unfortunately, this is where things started to go tits up. We payed our $15 each for our one way ticket to Ventura, only to be informed of a 45 minute delay. This gave us a nice chance to walk down to the beach and stroll along the pier in the sun, but unfortunately, when we arrived back at the station at 10:15, the train was further delayed. Anyway, long story short, the train was 2 hours late, eating into valuable park time, not happy, 

 

The journey on the AMTrak down to Ventura was pleasant, we then got an Uber for the 50 mile remainder of the journey to six flags, which was about $60. The reason we headed to Ventura was just to cut down on the uber cost really. We ended up arriving at the park at 12:30. My original plan was for us to leave at 4pm, this was now out the window, we'd have to get an Uber the whole way home when we were finished at the park, or leave extremely early. 

 

Arriving into the park was pretty special, this is a place that as a kid playing Rollercoaster Tycoon I had always wanted to go to and never thought I'd have the chance.I had purchased 2 Season Passes $80 each and 2 Platinum flash passes at $115 each. The process for getting in the park was pretty easy, but it was extremely quiet. You are initially put through a metal scanned, and you can then proceed to the main gates. I presented my online receipt for our season passes at the gate, they scan these, take a fingerprint, give you your season pass and you're off. A very slick and smooth process compared to how I remember Tussauds & Merlin dealing with annual passes! 

 

Once in the park we headed to collect our Flash Pass. The system here is not like anything I've seen before, you are basically given a large tamagotchi looking thing, it has a list of every ride on it, each ride will have a time next to it, you select a ride and it will vibrate when it's time for you to go on, it works, I liked it

 

Our first ride of the day was "New" Revolution. New revolution is old, and you can tell (It was 40 in May last year), but this doesn't mean it's a bad thing! The park have tried to update it with VR, but unfortunately the software was being updated on them so we were without them for the ride. We had a long walk around the Flash Pass entrance only to discover that there was actually no queue at all, we decided to  queue for the front as I had a feeling that this old ride could be a little rough. I actually really enjoyed the ride itself, first ride of the day it always going to seem good, but this broke us in nicely and was quite enjoyable, I didn't find it all that rough either. 

 

Viper was next, used the Flash Pass and once again appeared to be no queue. There was a common theme now where we were just going up ride exits onto rides without a clue what they are. From what I could tell, It looked like it could be quite rough so once again we opted to ride in the front row, or risk a headache for the rest of the day. By now, the heavens had opened and the weather was terrible  Viper really surprised us, I could only see a couple of inversions when we were going up to ride, so was pretty surprised by the 7 in total. Again, it wasn't really that rough considering it's age. 

 

So, by this point we are 30 minutes into our time at the park and already managed 2 rides, the weather was now terrible and it seems the park is pretty dead. We are also now, pretty lost as for some reason I decided against getting a Map like an idiot. We eventually found the tram thing that goes up the mountain to what we hoped was some other rides. We got up there and found Tatsu, which I was really looking forward to.... Closed. Gutted. So instead we head to Ninja, which actually had a bit of  queue that we could skip which was nice. Having worked on Vampire after the old cars had been removed, I'd always wondered what it may have been like and it was really cool to be able to go on this classic. Ninja uses it's station location at the top of the mountain to it's advantage, you speed down and sweep past numerous water fountains and other rides and attractions before strangely, going up a lift hill to go into the station! 

 

Next up, Riddlers Revenge, which looked absolutely amazing from the outside. I was also looking forward to this as I'd never been on a Stand-Up coaster before....Closed. I thought as we were around the area we may aswell go on Apocolypse... Closed. Maybe we could go on Superman Esca....Closed. Now, you start to get a little pissed off when you've paid $115 for a Flash Pass with this unavailability, but I'll go into that later. We did eventually, find something that was open, Batman! I assumed we'd have to use the Lockers outside batman, so paid $8 for a re-usable locker, it didn't work, the guy came over and gave me a $1 for one-time use, which I didn't realize until after. Batman really packed a punch and was one of the better B&M rides I've been on for sure, very intense, not quite at the level of Nemesis, but certainly up there in terms of quality. 

 

Green Lantern was next...But it was closed. So we went on toward Twisted Colossus. I'd heard really good things about this, and I can honestly say that this was up there with one of the best rides that I have been on, it just delivers surprise after surprise and is ridiculously good fun without being overly intense, the first drop is something else. Unfortunately, the trains were not racing today and the staff were all pretty slow. I'm not sure why we only road this once, because it was pretty much our favorite ride. I think by now it was nearing 3pm and we wanted to make sure we got on everything else. When we got off the ride, my friend took his iPhone 6 out and it was majorly bent which was hilarious, for me anyway 

 

Scream is up near Twister Colossus and is a pretty Sad ride to be honest. I know Six Flags aren't well known for themeing, but this thing just has nothing going for it. After riding Twister Colossus, going down to this was pretty naff. It's the first time I've been on a steel floorless coaster aswell, but I just don't really see the point in them if I'm honest, they rarely offer anything that the likes of many other models don't. We headed to Goliath next, this was to be the tallest ride I have been on to-date. My one regret about Goliath is that we didn't ride the front, but I guess this was maybe a wise choice based on the fact it was pissing down with rain! It was an amazing ride, but I really struggled to enjoy it due to the fact I could barely keep my eyes open through the rain

 

After Goliath, we headed towards Full Throttle, the ride with the largest loop in the world....and it's Closed. So. By this point, we've actually pretty much done everything, it's nearly 4pm. but there is one ride that I was looking forward to the most which was still left on the list. X2. I had no idea what to expect with this, it's an iconic ride and I was hoping it delivered. When we were stood in the station watching and the seats tilt back, it was instantly impressive. We ended up riding this twice, once at the front and once at the back. I've been on 100's of rides, mainly in the U.K but also across Europe aswell, X2 is my favorite, unfortunately I can't really describe why, but it is just mental. Get yourself over here and go on it,

 

So, that was it. We'd missed our last train. Were completely soaked and starving hungry. But had an absolutely brilliant 5 hours at Six Flags. We got our Uber 80 miles home, which was actually not too pricey. 

 

Now, unfortunately. We're going to have to bring up a couple of things here that were simply, poor. Alot of the park is being renovated, I understand it's the low season and that, but walkways were blocked off, signs were few and far between, restaurants were closed and most importantly, the ride availability was bordering on disgusting. I purchased the tickets 2 days before we left, I wasn't informed that any rides would be down, didn't see anything on the site. I used to deal with complaints about ride downtime for Merlin, I know it can happen, but let me just list what downtime we had. Batman, Goliath and many others all experienced hour long periods of downtime as some point also, which can happen. 

 

Apocolypse (All Day)

Tatsu (All Day)

Riddlers Revenge (All Day)

Superman (All Day)

Full Throttle (All Day)

Green Lantern (All Day)

 

Now, if this many rides are unavailable, they should advertise it properly and also, selling a £100 Flash Pass for 15 rides when 1/3 of them are closed is pretty out of order. It's also worth mentioning that, the park was actually empty, so I've pretty much been fleeced out of £200 on the Flash Passes we didn't need. I can maybe put that down to my own stupidity of thinking it would be busy, but it still didn't sit right with me. The staff were okay, the cleanliness was okay, but I think it's right what people say about this place. You come here for big rollercoasters and thrills. If you are into the likes of themed rides and music then this isn't the place for you. But I'd suggest anyone that can to give this place a go and get your arse on X2.

[The49er]

Looks like Magic Mountain goofed on making the map for the Six Flags app...unless of course they're building a second SEFK

[JeromyL]

Looks like Magic Mountain goofed on making the map for the Six Flags app...unless of course they're building a second SEFK

 

Lol. That's funny.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk