The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[billyb67]

I'll be there - keep me posted

[princecoaster]

Has There been any news confirming the clone ride, as SFMM new attraction for 2010 other than wikipedia?

[ebl]

^ The "clone ride"?

 

And I don't trust wikipedia at all. Anyone can write anything they want on it.

 

Eric

[PAL]

We visited the park on Saturday primarily to ride Colossus backwards and get in a bunch of rides in the dark - no mazes for us. The park was fairly crowded as expected; we'd pre-purchased the regular Flashpass unit. I've used the regular and gold models at three Six Flags parks: MM, DK and GA. While expensive, they've always been a good value.

 

Yesterday was not a good one for the Flashpass folks. Although operating from opening, Batman and Goliath did not appear on the system until after 1 and 3 pm respectively. Batman soon vanished again, never to return.

 

More problematic, we encountered several stand-by lines in the 15 to 20 minute range. At the time the Flashpass return was an hour out. Remember, the regular Flashpass is supposed to match actual line wait time.

 

By 5 pm I felt the Flashpass hadn't added a dollar's worth of benefit to the day, but subtracted nearly $100 from my wallet. On the way to Tatsu I stopped in at Guest Relations and spoke with supervisor Mark, who came across as friendly and concerned.

 

You may know Flashpass is offered and managed by a vendor. Mark said the park couldn't do anything to offset our disappointment, and didn't have much insight on the problem. Mark then headed off to the Flashpass sales center to confer with their management. Eventually I ended up over there too, and learned a bit more about the system from Lance.

 

As I figured, the Flashpass program is linked to crowd levels. There are also ride-specific adjustments. For instance, the return time for Colossus (forwards only) had been deliberately pushed back to an hour. Otherwise waiting times are indeed provided by ride crews.

 

Lance said he'd look into why the system had performed poorly for us. He noted that it was their first Fright Fest, and admitted they'd experienced issues that they hope to correct. He was at first unwilling to offer any compensation, but eventually relented and offered either a refund or a card for a free future Gold Flashpass.

 

If you are considering a Flashpass for next week's Halloween crescendo, consider going with the Gold and keep in mind the regular model may not perform up to expectations. Let management know if it isn't working. And never allow anything to wreck a park day. We had a great time anyway. If you've used a regular Flashpass recently, what was your experience?

[PeoplemoverMatt]

^ Thanks for taking the time to report the problems!

[iplf]

I've used the regular Flash Pass in July and was very happy with it and it seemed to work fine and accurate. The only negative thing we experienced was the fact that you still have to wait in the station for most rides. Mainly Riddler's was a problem cause the station wait took us over 20 minutes obviously.

 

Like we experienced it, it's useless for most rides at SFMM, but you need it in order to do everything on one day in my opinion. For example Deja Vu is a very good score with the flashpass. If we would have to wait in line for DV, we would have missed other rides.

[disney4me2001]

I'll be back in LA and will make my way back up to SFMM NOV 25-28 so if anyone wants to meet up let me know

90% sure we will be there on the 27th.

 

I'm probably going there on Nov. 21st with a group from my residence hall...we only have one day though...any idea how the crowds might be? It's a Saturday, so I'm expecting crowds...can anyone give me average wait times? Is it worth forking over the cash for the Flashpass?

[robbalvey]

I would call or visit the website and see if you can find out about any special events. In the past those November weekends have been filled with Cheerleading and Dance competitions that have made the park much more crowded than you may be hoping for, but certainly not up to the Summer levels.

 

Just get there well before opening and be prepared to by Flash Pass if you need it.

[disney4me2001]

I would call or visit the website and see if you can find out about any special events. In the past those November weekends have been filled with Cheerleading and Dance competitions that have made the park much more crowded than you may be hoping for, but certainly not up to the Summer levels.

 

Just get there well before opening and be prepared to by Flash Pass if you need it.

 

Sweet! Thanks for the tips, Robb! Oh, and glad to see TPR is back up and running!

[billyb67]

Though I am not looking forward to long queues, I do have at least 3 full days in the park so I should get on everything ...

 

I was there early June and most rides had pretty short queues, only x2 and terminator had more than an hour waits unless you got there first thing...

 

and if the park is filled with cheerleaders that cn only be a good thing right ?

[SharkTums]

^Not really cause they're usually like 10 years old and very illegal.

 

Oh, and super annoying.

[ebl]

^ In about seven years, you'll be the mother of a cheerleader. Diana did that for a few years.

 

Eric

[X2coasterfreak]

Going up to the Mountain on the seventh with my school. I can't wait to hear things like "I am going to do a triple back flip on X2" or "I died on Goliath and came back to life" Is there anyone who is going on the seventh? It would be nice to meet up with a fellow enthusiast.

[atem122]

Does anyone know if Fright Fest will be extended to Sunday? I'm planning on going since most *smart/cool* people will be hung over from the night before and not wanna go

[ebl]

^ According to the park's website, Fright Fest will continue through Sunday. I've actually given some thought to going out myself on Sunday.

 

Eric

[atem122]

^AHHHH my memory from checking a couple weeks ago told me Oct 31, but yeah, it seems like it'll be a pretty good day to go, all in all it'll be a fun weekend

[CreditCrazy]

I called the park a couple days ago and was told by somebody in group sales that they had decided not to stay open for the day after Halloween (Sunday) because it was very slow last year.

 

I also just called the park information line and it is very specific (as is the website) in saying that Fright Fest is only for weekends in October.

[SharkTums]

The website is actually VERY misleading and I'm not quite sure what to tell you. There's a little generic blurb on the front page that says to come Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for Fright Fest, but EVERYWHERE ELSE on the site it says the last day for Fright Fest is Saturday, and on Sunday there's a dance competition!

[wrs28330]

Website will be updated tomorrow. FF will end on Saturday, and will NOT be occuring on Sunday.

[ebl]

I got my info from the website, so consider me misled.

 

Eric

[SharkTums]

^Not your fault at all Eric! Clearly they had a problem with advertising the event on the website correctly. Glad they got it fixed today.

[ebl]

^ Yeah, because I was thinking about heading out there on Sunday to get one last ride on Colossus backwards before they put it away for another year.

 

Terminator backwards would be interesting.

 

Eric

[coasterking2981]

Terminator backwards would be interesting.

 

Eric

 

SFMM should really consider that. It'd be a lot of fun going down Termy's first drop backwards.

 

But they'll probably retire Collosus before that, since it is tradition to have both sides running, one forward one backward.

[AllenA07]

^ Yeah, because I was thinking about heading out there on Sunday to get one last ride on Colossus backwards before they put it away for another year.

 

Terminator backwards would be interesting.

 

Eric

 

In years past I've seen them continue to run Colossus backwards a week or so into November. Now I have not been to the park in a couple of years (has it really been a couple years now???) however it might be worth checking out if you go. I don't think the park advertises it, rather it is going to be something they just do.

 

Backwards is an interesting idea, but generally not really my thing, I like seeing where I'm going on a coaster. However since we're on this backwards binge I have always wondered about Ninja backwards. XLR8 ran backwards for a short time so we know it's possible. The question would ultimately come down to the forces. I never got a ride on XLR8 but as I understand it the forces were a lot less then on Ninja, which is a critical factor.

[wiyoh1984]

^ I never rode XLR-8 backwards.....but going forwards it was pretty tame compared to Ninja.

 

 

My brother and I love Colossus backwards. The best seat to us was the very back eh um.. front... you know what I mean. It has the best airtime and just gives that out of control feeling. We rode the front backwards and it just didn't feel the same. To me it felt pretty close to riding in the Morgan trains, just backwards.