The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[robbalvey]

Is this even accurate? I can't think of a time when Viper has been more than a 30 - 45 minute wait on some of the most busiest days EVER! And that was with the line going down the ramp to the "Greatest Coasters" paintings. Unless it's running with one train or something? I don't see how this could be accurate.

[rollercoasterbuff]

I highly doubt it's accurate. Those wait times seem highly improbable even for a busy day. If the lines were like that there would be two trains running which definitely means the waits would be nowhere near that.

[Voxelmatic]

I highly doubt it's accurate. Those wait times seem highly improbable even for a busy day. If the lines were like that there would be two trains running which definitely means the waits would be nowhere near that.

But this is SFMM. Why on earth would they run more than one train on any major coaster?

[mark549]

I assume to be accurate, the app would have to have some verified information gathering. Has anyone ever been polled by an employee on the exact amount of time they waited in a line for a coaster (either at SFMM or anywhere?).

 

My understanding is the highway signs in some congested cities (ie. SF Bay Area) that say "Berkeley 20 minutes" use cell phone tracking to see how long it takes for a car to get from A to B. How would Six Flags keep track of this? Cell phone tracking? I've used a Flash Pass a couple times and wondered how they managed to know how long a line is. Length of line (physical length) is a crude estimate but not a precise measurement of how many minutes it takes.

[robbalvey]

^ I'm sure they don't do anything as high tech as Disney flik card system, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out "if the line is to the entrance, and we're running two trains, then on average it should be about 60 minutes", "if the line is half-way up the stairs, and we're running two trains, on average it's 10 minutes."

 

Usually parks figure out these kind of averages in the first couple of weeks of opening a new attraction once they get loading times down, etc, and for the most part it's a good "guestimation", which is why I question the times listed on the app.

 

Seriously, for Viper to be 120 minutes, it either had to be running one train, or with two trains had a line that stretched out to the entrance of the park!

 

I rode Viper opening weekend and it had a line that stretched out to the entrance of the park, and with three trains it was about 75 minutes!

 

--Robb

[Sir Clinksalot]

^ Yeah, I can't EVER remember waiting much more than 60 minutes for Viper, even opening season.

[CoasterKings908]

These Viper stories are unfathomable, especially since the longest I've ever waited was about 15 minutes, give or take.

[Twitch]

15 minutes? I've never been there when Viper wasn't a walk-on.

[Jew]

If that wait time information is sourced from guests, of course it is going to be inaccurate. People always feel like they are waiting longer than they really are.

[skydye]

^ I'm sure they don't do anything as high tech as Disney flik card system, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out "if the line is to the entrance, and we're running two trains, then on average it should be about 60 minutes", "if the line is half-way up the stairs, and we're running two trains, on average it's 10 minutes."

 

Usually parks figure out these kind of averages in the first couple of weeks of opening a new attraction once they get loading times down, etc, and for the most part it's a good "guestimation", which is why I question the times listed on the app.

 

Seriously, for Viper to be 120 minutes, it either had to be running one train, or with two trains had a line that stretched out to the entrance of the park!

 

I rode Viper opening weekend and it had a line that stretched out to the entrance of the park, and with three trains it was about 75 minutes!

 

--Robb

Those seem to be maximum time if the line was all the way full. They do not look accurate as they are all rounded to the max... 120 min,90 min. Someone just entered the top wait time numbers and never checked.

[SFMMGeek27]

I was at the park on Saturday from opening to closing and all I can say is it was the busiest day I have ever seen at the park. First we went to Goliath since we were near the back of the group to get in the park. Waited 15 minutes not bad. Then we went to Lex and waited 35 minutes. Not terrible. Went to Riddler (1train operation, out the station) and said no. Went to Tatsu next (2 hr 45 minute wait). The line was almost to the Apocalypse plaza. Roaring Rapids had a 15 minute wait which was fine. Next we went to Batman and waited 35 minutes from the entrance through all the switchbacks. Then checked on X2, 2 1/2 hours, line ended by Panda Express. Viper was down under the X2 bridge. Went to Colossus backwards. Waited 90 minutes. The line was through the switchbacks on both sides of the station and up by Ben and Jerry's. Then we walked through some scare zones and waited for Willoughby's. 90 min. Pretty good. Then went to Black Widow, which had no wait. Pretty good for not having a line I must say. Then went to X2 and waited 105 minutes from the entrance and rode at 12:30 AM. Lines I saw throughout the day were: Up to Colossus entrance for Scream, Over by Fort Le John for Goliath, Down by Ben and Jerry's for Lex, to the entrance for 1 train with Riddler.in the Slaughterhouse queue for Lantern. Those waits were accurate. Nothing good was under 2 hours basically. It was bad. Terribly bad.

[XYZ]

I was at the park on Saturday from opening to closing and all I can say is it was the busiest day I have ever seen at the park. First we went to Goliath since we were near the back of the group to get in the park. Waited 15 minutes not bad. Then we went to Lex and waited 35 minutes. Not terrible. Went to Riddler (1train operation, out the station) and said no. Went to Tatsu next (2 hr 45 minute wait). The line was almost to the Apocalypse plaza. Roaring Rapids had a 15 minute wait which was fine. Next we went to Batman and waited 35 minutes from the entrance through all the switchbacks. Then checked on X2, 2 1/2 hours, line ended by Panda Express. Viper was down under the X2 bridge. Went to Colossus backwards. Waited 90 minutes. The line was through the switchbacks on both sides of the station and up by Ben and Jerry's. Then we walked through some scare zones and waited for Willoughby's. 90 min. Pretty good. Then went to Black Widow, which had no wait. Pretty good for not having a line I must say. Then went to X2 and waited 105 minutes from the entrance and rode at 12:30 AM. Lines I saw throughout the day were: Up to Colossus entrance for Scream, Over by Fort Le John for Goliath, Down by Ben and Jerry's for Lex, to the entrance for 1 train with Riddler.in the Slaughterhouse queue for Lantern. Those waits were accurate. Nothing good was under 2 hours basically. It was bad. Terribly bad.

 

This is why I no longer go to any Six Flags park in October, it's not worth going with these long lines. I can't wait until my visit in November.

[skydye]

^ I plan on going this Friday. Because their main audience is in school..I'm guessing it shouldn't be too bad. I'll maze it at night. Does anyone know what shows are good?

[Jew]

I'm sure Friday will be packed during the evening hours.

[Wes]

Those waits were accurate. Nothing good was under 2 hours basically. It was bad. Terribly bad.

 

Yeesh. Good to know...Halloween seems to be peak season now!!!

[Sir Clinksalot]

Was hoping to get one more FF visit in before the end of the year but if it's this busy we probably won't bother.

 

Will be interesting to see if the park extends FF next year if it's becoming this popular.

[singemfrc]

Is this even accurate? I can't think of a time when Viper has been more than a 30 - 45 minute wait on some of the most busiest days EVER! And that was with the line going down the ramp to the "Greatest Coasters" paintings. Unless it's running with one train or something? I don't see how this could be accurate.

It's never guaranteed to be accurate because it's user driven, and there is of course no way the app knows whether you're submitting true information, but it does use GPS to ensure that only people in the park can submit times (and that is pretty accurate, I've tried submitting a time right outside the park and it does not allow it) but when I've been using the app at the park I've seen mostly accurate times..it's better to get an idea for how busy a ride is rather than an exact measurement of the line length. I talked to an X2 ride op on Sunday who said the park was so busy Saturday they kept all the rides going until 12:30.

 

I highly doubt it's accurate. Those wait times seem highly improbable even for a busy day. If the lines were like that there would be two trains running which definitely means the waits would be nowhere near that.

Logic would suggest that would be a good idea, but at this park, not necessarily. Especially not on Riddler's. I did notice Sunday that halfway through the day when the line was up to about 60 minutes they added the second side of SEFK that wasn't running in the morning.

 

If that wait time information is sourced from guests, of course it is going to be inaccurate. People always feel like they are waiting longer than they really are.

It's usually not too far off, when I've seen crazy inaccurate times up they've been replaced pretty quick with better ones. I've also noticed (both at SFDK and SFMM) that for whatever reason there seem to be more submissions (and this more accurate times) in the morning. The submissions pretty much completely fall off when it gets dark and it becomes pretty useless.

 

There is also a helpful feature where you can "check in" when you get in line and then when you're about to get on the train you can "check out" and it submits the time you've waited, so you don't have to guess. If the app required this method without allowing the instant submission, it would be a lot more accurate. Probably less people willing to wait 2 hours to enter a bogus time.

[Wes]

^ But then you have people forgetting to check out potentially and messing up times accidentally.

[singemfrc]

A short mini TR from my trip to the park Sunday:

 

Drove from Sacramento at 4:30am to get to the park by opening and arrived right on time and thanks to Discover, got in the park 5 minutes early getting me on the first X2 train of the day. As soon as I got off the train the line was halfway through the switchback, but I waited again about 35 mins or so figuring it was only going to get worse so best to do it now! Good decision, great way to start of the day!

 

In my happy place!

 

Gold flash pass was nice, saved a ton of time riding Tatsu three times only waiting a few trains each time as opposed to 45-60 min waits on standby most of the day and also a big chunk of time for Colossus which was quite busy. Only backwards trains running, wish the regular trains were running as well. Took these sunset photos from the Colossus lift hill:

 

Colossus backwards was worth the wait. Maybe its just because you can't see what to expect, maybe it's the Psyclone trains, maybe it's just me.. but there seemed to be quite a bit more airtime than usual. Speaking of airtime, LOVED Apocalypse which I haven't ridden before. Definitely my second favorite woodie on the west coast (next to Giant Dipper). This ride definitely doesn't get the love it deserves.

 

Unfortunately flash pass was not running on Green Lantern which won the award for most ridiculous line of the day at somewhere between 90-120 minutes, and from what I've heard wouldn't be worth the wait so it was skipped. More unfortunately was no FP on Riddler's (Is this normal? Based on what I've heard of the ops for this ride, I guessed yes - also wondered if perhaps less coasters were available on the FP due to the mazes being on them) which despite 60+ min waits all day was not running a second train and (most of) the ride ops did not seem to be to concerned about it. Riddler's was running pretty smooth though and was nice in the dark so all is forgiven.

 

The mess of a crowd in the Riddler's station.

 

Unexpected highlight of the day was Goldrusher in the dark - very very cool! Highly recommended.

Was at the park from open to close, took a ton more photos but most are nothing everyone here hasn't seen many times before.

 

One more great thing to add - the scare actors working the Riddler's area with the metal "pads" attacked to their hands knees and feet get an A+ for scaring the crap out of just about everyone sliding on the ground and sending up sparks. They were really doing a great job blending in looking like GP in the dark and then exploding into a giant mess of sparks! One girl was so terrified she refused to leave the Riddler's que and cross the plaza and had to be dragged out by her friends

[rustyinpeace]

What time did you go on Riddler's? I just may be in that line. But it was ridiculously crowded. I went on viper at around 4 or 5 and it was about a 20 minute wait so it must have grown alot after I left, but the funny thing is, after we got of of Riddler's we seen a raccoon dash down the exit path! Anyone knows what a raccoon's doing in Six Flags?

[mark549]

Anyone knows what a raccoon's doing in Six Flags?

 

They live there and they raid the garbage cans for junk food. I doubt they enjoy the coasters, although I've seen pictures of a dog (a few decades ago) that liked to ride coasters.

[laqueefa]

I agree, Goldrusher in the dark is awesome! You cant see whats coming around those turns, and it freaks me out.

[GayCoasterGuy]

They live there and they raid the garbage cans for junk food. I doubt they enjoy the coasters, although I've seen pictures of a dog (a few decades ago) that liked to ride coasters.

 

 

Zonker was his name

 

I've heard all these reports about Magic Mountain running one train on Tatsu and Riddler's... why? Why in the world would the park do that when the lines are long? I mean - those ride ops just stand there and chat while the single train completes the circuit while people are waiting in 2 hour lines?

[disneyfan1313]

^ Because the maintenance costs on the train are greater than the guest dissatisfaction from the added wait.

[jray21]

^So sad, but true. I remember going in the spring before school breaks and it was really empty, but because of one train operations some lines were 45-60 minutes long.