The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[dylanreich]

Personally I would enjoy a Kingda Ka type ride at SFMM, even if it wasn't a record breaker. SFGAdv has the main one and CP has Top Thrill, it would be nice to have one on the west coast...but that's just me...and I think something like that is probably too close to SEFK to be added anytime soon.

Are you forgetting Xcelerator at Knott's???

[singemfrc]

Personally I would enjoy a Kingda Ka type ride at SFMM, even if it wasn't a record breaker. SFGAdv has the main one and CP has Top Thrill, it would be nice to have one on the west coast...but that's just me...and I think something like that is probably too close to SEFK to be added anytime soon.

Are you forgetting Xcelerator at Knott's???

I am! I haven't been to Knott's since like 1985, it was a bit different back then, I tend to forget it when thinking about thrill rides, though they do have a couple good ones now. And now that you mention it, with Xcelerator at Knotts it makes even less sense to do a vertical shuttle at SFMM unless it really was a record breaker, but even then I don't see that happening for quite some time if at all.

[am1500]

No. He didn't say that there will be a 400' ride with the vertical corkscrew coming for sure without a doubt. We just gave our email to petition for something like that to happen. He said the petition would go to the main owners of Six Flags Co. so that such a ride could happen. Personally I don't see that happening since they're already investing in the 2013 coaster.

 

And what he said about the 2013. I know it seems too far off, getting back home I was also thinking about the running into Tatsu problem and getting back also. But at the time I was in a pretty excited state, I mean who wouldn't be if they were told this by an employee who deliberately took us to the side to tell us this. I did not even confront him with the 2013 ride question, he asked if we knew about it. He was naming off all these records to us like MM has the most coasters than any where else, MM will now reclaim the record for the tallest rollercoaster, it will again reclaim the record for the fastest (probably only in the US because of Formula Rossa), and it will now claim the length record. At the time he seemed pretty legit knowing all these little details of the coaster.

 

I would be pretty let down if he was just feeding me lies the whole time but hey at least it got me pretty dam excited of what's coming up. I'm sure if at least half of what he said is true, I'm sure it will be nothing short of spectacular.

 

Oh yeah and I did see his name-tag but I forgot his name after spending a whole day at my favorite park. The incident happened pretty early on in the day. Sorry.

[Wes]

So a park employee is on the clock having guests sign a petition to get a new ride? Exactly how much bullshit do you want us to believe?

[am1500]

No bull, me and my friends wrote our email on a clip board full of emails probably from others in the queuing station.

 

And i know for sure that his name was NOT Gregory.

[CoasterKings908]

I consider myself to be a man with insane ideas, but there's no way you expect me to believe this.

[Sir Clinksalot]

I'm going with ghost of former disgruntled employee.

 

Scary.

[mrngh2]

I was wondering how crowded six flags was on sunday because I'm going on the 5th of august

[singemfrc]

I was wondering how crowded six flags was on sunday because I'm going on the 5th of august

 

I hadn't visited SFMM in a long time, so I decided at the last minute to go today (Sunday) with my sister, expecting a busy but "typical-weekend-in-summer" kind of a day.

 

Wow.

 

It was insane. In. Sane.

 

Hours were extended from the listed 10pm closing to an 11pm closing at around 5:30-ish.

 

Luckily, my sister and I decided to shell out for a gold Flash Pass, which made things doable. But even with our Flash Pass, we were only able to get on all of the coasters once with the exception of Tatsu which we were able to reride as our last coaster for the night. The only non-coasters we were able to hit were JetStream and Sky Tower to beat the heat and kill some time before our Flash Pass return times. Oh, yeah, it was like 98 degrees and humid all day.

 

 

I can't complain - I didn't really have to deal with any insane lines with the exception of Lex Luthor (about a 2 hour wait...granted, the ride stalled and had to be reset and tested at least twice while we waited...ugh) and Green Lantern (even with Flash Pass it took about 45 minutes-ish. I think the crew was having some trouble. Tell me something new, SFMM).

 

One great moment was when the Flash Pass attendant at the merge point for Riddler was MIA. 20+ confused Flash Pass guests were clumsily trying to merge in line on their own while the guests already in the line started screaming at them all for cutting. Whee!

 

Other than a lot of line cutting, a lot of groups of 10-year-olds-dressed-up-as-18-year-olds, and some other Flash Pass weirdness, I didn't come across any other horrible "Six Flags at its finest" operations ineptitude. Everything - even Colossus and Revolution - was running at least two trains and running fairly smoothly. The X2 crew was on a roll, managing not to stack very often. Goliath was running three trains (always nice to see). I wish Tatsu could - for once - not be ridiculously terrible operations-wise. Always stacking like crazy, never running more than two trains, never using both sides of the station...

 

But again, I really can't complain too much. I'm sure the experience was miserable for everyone without Flash Passes. This was the first time I made use of it, and it really is worth it on days like today. I'm not sure how I feel about the reride perk of the Platinum Passes. I was told from a friend that despite the different descriptions from Six Flags, it really is identical to the Gold Passes in terms of wait time - it just adds the reride perk. Is that true? But anyways, it seems like it'd be a pain if you have a large group and those reriders keep messing up your counts in trying to get on the same train. For my sister and me, it was just annoying getting all stoked to ride, then having to wait for the next train. Which on Tatsu, means another 30 minutes.

 

Everything was running nicely. Viper was much smoother and more enjoyable than I remember it. X2 was way bumpier than I remember it (ouch). Lex Luther was out-of-this-world terrifying - that drop goes on forever! This was also the first time I rode Green Lantern - packs quite the punch. Apocalypse is still a vastly underrated woodie. It's nice to visit a park that feels a lot like a best-of-B&M showcase (Riddler, Batman, and Tatsu...and...uhhh...Scream I guess...) - wish they could still build coasters as intense as those first three these days!

So yesterday I was at the park thinking that since it was a Sunday, there would be less of a crowd than on a Saturday. Boy was I wrong. It was as a bad as a summer Saturday. But that didn't stop me as I really wanted to ride Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom, and a few other rides. So I will tell you guys how my day went.

 

When we first pulled up to the parking boothes at about 11:30, we knew that it was going to be packed, because the line started right after the new stop light for the new office building. We finally got through the parking boothes after about 10 minutes. We then proceeded to park right in front of Scream. After entering the park we walked over to Lex Luthor for my first ride. We waited in the main line for about an hour after finally getting on the ride. Lex Luthor is a great ride and the ride ops were really trying to get everyone on as fast as they could. After that, I then got in line for the single rider line. I highly suggest this line over the main line, since this one goes by fairly quickly. I then walked over to Tidal Wave, since it was getting very hot, and what a mistake that was. I walked up to the spot were they start splitting the line in to what row you would get. It took a whole HOUR from that point, and they were running two boats! The ride ops were absolutely terrible, it took them about three minutes to load ONE boat! I finally got on the ride and realized that is defiantly not worth it. I then went and got something to eat. After eating I walked to Riddler's and got two rides via the single rider line. The rest of my family walked over to Collosus, where they reported that it was a 45 minute wait at about 2:00. So I said screw that and went back over to Lex Luthor where I got four more rides, while my family was riding Collosus.

 

We meet back up and decided to go and ride Goliath, which had about an hour wait. And this is also where a lot of the line jumpers were at. We were at the part right after the entrance when I saw at least 15 people cutting other people. I then walked up about another 20 feet, where I saw two of the people who were line cutting talking to two security guards. It sounded like the two 16 year boys were trying to catch back up with their group after getting out of line to go get a drink. The security guards were saying that was against park rules and that they would have to go to the back of the line. The boys didn't like that as they started to argue with them, and they ended up getting kicked out of the line all together and weren't allowed back in line. There was also a women who was not even letting the people that were line cutting go by her. And she called the security guards over, and the other line cutters also ended up getting kicked out of line. This was really entertaining, and the line went by so much faster than I thought it was, maybe because they were running three trains. We got up to the station and got on the ride, we entered the final brake run, where we saw a train stuck on the lift hill. A ride op in an orange vest came up and said that they were experiencing some technical difficulties. After about ten minutes, they got he ride up and running again.

 

We broke off again, and I went to go ride Revolution and Viper using the single rider line. Revolution's one was ok, but when I got to Viper, I was told to run after the crew member opened the exit gate, and find an open seat. I thought this was just plan stupid, as you would be running to find an open seat. It took me at least ten cycles to finally get a seat. And the worst part was that ever single cycle I missed all had at least three or four seats open. Just your average every day Six Flags employees for you.

 

I then headed over to go and ride Apocalypse but decided against it since there was an hour and a half wait. I walked up to the Sky Tower, where I met one of the coolest ride ops ever. I don't know how true his words are, but he said he has a TPR account (never got to ask his account name though). He also told me some info on the ride pieces behind Apocalypse, where there was the colorful supports, black supports, and a gondola looking thing for a slingshot. I asked him if they were for a slingshot style ride, and he said that they weren't. I then asked him if they were for a new roller coaster, and he said that he shouldn't say anymore. But he said to expect the unexpected. So, if you are reading this (I believe your name was Andrew?), I won't tell anymore if you don't want me to. But again, I don't know how true this info is, but I will go and still think that those ride pieces are for a slingshot while also putting in the possibility for something unexpected. Who knows, beside SFMM, that this could end up being an Intamin wooden coaster like El Toro. Thats unexpected right?

 

After that we went and rode Ninja, and went back down the hill to ride Lex Luthor two more times. I felt that I got to ride a lot of rides with the amount of people there. I didn't ride X2 or Tatsu since X2 is one of my least favorite rides there and its hard for me to ride Tatsu. All in all, it was a great day with eight rides on Lex Luthor, two rides on Riddler's, and one ride on Goliath, Ninja, Revolution, and Viper. Oh, it seemed that one of Viper's trains had new wheels and new restraints!

 

If you have any questions, just ask!

 

 

Sunday was a bad example..that was probably the busiest day of the entire year...it was absolutely insane. Apprently there was a friends get in free deal for season pass holders going on that day. 10/5 is the first day of Fright Fest, so I'm expecting it to not be dead, but shouldn't be too bad. I'm going the weekend after, so I'm hoping for light crowds too.

 

If you have an iPhone check out an app called RideHopper, you can see reports of line lengths at any time for numerous parks. (Just keep in mind they are reported by users in the park, not the park itself, so you can get false reports)

[mrngh2]

Sunday was a bad example..that was probably the busiest day of the entire year...it was absolutely insane. Apprently there was a friends get in free deal for season pass holders going on that day. 10/5 is the first day of Fright Fest, so I'm expecting it to not be dead, but shouldn't be too bad. I'm going the weekend after, so I'm hoping for light crowds too.

 

If you have an iPhone check out an app called RideHopper, you can see reports of line lengths at any time for numerous parks. (Just keep in mind they are reported by users in the park, not the park itself, so you can get false reports)

 

So I shouldn't go off of those examples to much? Last year I went on a Friday around the same time of year (beginning of August) and the longest I waited in a line was 45 minutes for Green Lantern. I heard Sunday isn't as crowded as Friday, so I guess that's what i'll go off of.

[X2coasterfreak]

I really hope Magic Mountain isn't getting something like Kingda Ka. After riding KK last month, it was fun but not great. Besides, it is incredibly unreliable, I don't think park management is that dumb to build a strata accelerator. Personally I would hope to see a blitz in Log Jammer's spot, but who knows, I just hope the announcements start soon.

[singemfrc]

So I shouldn't go off of those examples to much? Last year I went on a Friday around the same time of year (beginning of August) and the longest I waited in a line was 45 minutes for Green Lantern. I heard Sunday isn't as crowded as Friday, so I guess that's what i'll go off of.

No, last Sunday was not representative of a normal Sunday. There was a special season pass holders bring friends free deal that is only good for like 6 or 7 sundays of the year and last Sunday was the only summer date listed, so the attendance was practically doubled from what it would be normally, which is already a busy weekend in july.

[Tmcdllr]

The thing about this is that, for all we know, some or all of this may be true (or may not!) but it's the idea of a park employee going around telling guests this stuff, now, that really just makes it all seem false.

[Xceleratorfan96]

What the..... why is SFMM so exciting? I wanna hear $h!t about a sick giga coaster at Knott's! lol

But yeah it sounds like this guy (or a group of staff members) want something that is unrealistic. If you have been to the mountain a lot, a coaster that goes from the LG spot, winds around the Sky Tower, and touches the Deja Vu spot in any way is ridiculous.

[simaticable]

I thought the selling point was the corkscrew on the drop tower.

[Tmcdllr]

Isn't it supposed to have the GICT element?

[bostonlva]

SFMM should just announce the damn ride like they said they would so all this speculation can end

[Manic Monte]

I'm expecting something like a taller, longer version of Sky Rocket at Kennywood.

[Wes]

SFMM should just announce the damn ride like they said they would so all this speculation can end

 

Did they ever come out and say they were announcing the ride? I think people just read way too much into something that wasn't actually there.

[am1500]

I mean, when the employee told me about all the details, I couldn't help but remember about a post I had read on coaster net..

 

Reading it again it is sort of weird how all the details match up. The employee I talked to working on the petitions also mentioned how the metro tunnel would serve as the launching station. The story on the link, where he is talking with an employee giving out surveys gives the same detail of the tunnel serving as a launch. I mean the whole idea of the coaster is too good to be true yet the coaster he and I heard months apart is practically identical.

 

It makes me wonder if they all just decided make up this super coaster in their mind collectively and spread it out so that these details match to make the rumor seem legit when it probably only serves to get the park extra attention. The actual ride might be entirely different. Whatever, I can only guarantee that I know what I heard but i can't guarantee that the employee was completely truthful. I mean the guy wasn't walking around the whole LLDOD queuing building telling every Joe about this super coaster. He was standing in one spot right before you go to the outside queuing bay and I was lucky enough to get stopped right at that spot.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Jew

[bostonlva]

SFMM should just announce the damn ride like they said they would so all this speculation can end

 

Did they ever come out and say they were announcing the ride? I think people just read way too much into something that wasn't actually there.

 

didn't they say they would be announcing it way earlier then they usually do for new coasters, due to the amount of work that will be needed to get done?

[AllenA07]

SFMM should just announce the damn ride like they said they would so all this speculation can end

 

Did they ever come out and say they were announcing the ride? I think people just read way too much into something that wasn't actually there.

 

didn't they say they would be announcing it way earlier then they usually do for new coasters, due to the amount of work that will be needed to get done?

 

Don't see why that matters. The park could announce the ride 6 weeks before opening if they wanted. If I remember correctly, and I may not, I think the park and announced Goliath sometime around November and then open the ride in February.

[Zingoman]

Sorry if this has been discussed but I'm on a phone with bad reception. I'll be at sfmm this weekend and wanted to know if lex luthor is an issue for larger riders. If you can fit in batman can you fit in lex? On the same note how about x2?

[ScottBrown]

Well looking at what SFDK opened this year I would expect something along the same lines just much larger

[coasterking2981]

Sorry if this has been discussed but I'm on a phone with bad reception. I'll be at sfmm this weekend and wanted to know if lex luthor is an issue for larger riders. If you can fit in batman can you fit in lex? On the same note how about x2?

 

No, yes, and same goes for X2.