The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[Someotherguyuser]

Of my 6 visits to SFMM in the last 12 months, Sky Tower has always been open. I really hope they do not remove it as it one of the very few things to get out of the heat and to relax. Plus, it's a park icon.

On most of my visits it's been closed, depends on the day really and no I don't see the Sky Tower going anywhere anytime soon.

 

(Also, I think it's hilarious that they took out the YOLOcoaster Nights show as SFMM just can't stand keeping at least one show throughout the whole year. With that being said, that area looks really empty, and I still think that the YOLOcoaster area looks like a complete joke.)

The stage should return in the summer of 2014 and yes the area is a giant slab of concrete with some already faded paint and a ride that shall I say feels incomplete.

I'll take a giant slab of concrete any day over having to listen to Pitbull.

[ZeroG001]

The park is having a canned food drive on Wednesday that allows free admission to guests that bring in the canned goods. How crowded does the park usually get during this type of thing?

[Jew]

Free admission+SFMM's clientele=avoid at all costs. Seems like a bad idea...

[Tmcdllr]

Of my 6 visits to SFMM in the last 12 months, Sky Tower has always been open. I really hope they do not remove it as it one of the very few things to get out of the heat and to relax. Plus, it's a park icon.

On most of my visits it's been closed, depends on the day really and no I don't see the Sky Tower going anywhere anytime soon.

 

(Also, I think it's hilarious that they took out the YOLOcoaster Nights show as SFMM just can't stand keeping at least one show throughout the whole year. With that being said, that area looks really empty, and I still think that the YOLOcoaster area looks like a complete joke.)

The stage should return in the summer of 2014 and yes the area is a giant slab of concrete with some already faded paint and a ride that shall I say feels incomplete.

I'll take a giant slab of concrete any day over having to listen to Pitbull.

 

 

Me too!

[**McFly**]

My problem with seat belts is dispatch times which have nearly doubled if not trippled in length on YOLOcoaster.

 

Time start making new coasters with dual stations to cut back the dispatch times

 

Tatsu has dual stations and they rarely use both at the same time...

[XYZ]

Of my 6 visits to SFMM in the last 12 months, Sky Tower has always been open. I really hope they do not remove it as it one of the very few things to get out of the heat and to relax. Plus, it's a park icon.

On most of my visits it's been closed, depends on the day really and no I don't see the Sky Tower going anywhere anytime soon.

 

(Also, I think it's hilarious that they took out the YOLOcoaster Nights show as SFMM just can't stand keeping at least one show throughout the whole year. With that being said, that area looks really empty, and I still think that the YOLOcoaster area looks like a complete joke.)

The stage should return in the summer of 2014 and yes the area is a giant slab of concrete with some already faded paint and a ride that shall I say feels incomplete.

I'll take a giant slab of concrete any day over having to listen to Pitbull.

 

I agree.

[JeromyL]

My problem with seat belts is dispatch times which have nearly doubled if not trippled in length on YOLOcoaster.

 

Time start making new coasters with dual stations to cut back the dispatch times

 

Tatsu has dual stations and they rarely use both at the same time...[/quote

 

I mean they will have to resort to something to speed things up

[6flagsbrad]

I'm still confused as to why you can't pull down the lap bars on Goliath and Full Throttle, is it more difficult for the ride ops to check the seat belts then? What keeps coming to my mind is Xcelerator, which has seat belts and lap bars. Every time I ride that I always manage to put my seat belt on and lower the lap bar before a ride op comes to check it, and they have no problem checking and seeing that I completed both tasks properly. Is it because Xcelerator's trains are easier to check both?

[Sir Clinksalot]

^ My thinking is it's because it's new. I'm guessing that once the crew and the GP get used to the seatbelts they may ease off on that. Especially on Goliath. I mean, it's been open for 14 years and everybody just lowers the lap bars instinctively at this point.

[rcdude]

I'm still confused as to why you can't pull down the lap bars on Goliath and YOLOcoaster, is it more difficult for the ride ops to check the seat belts then? What keeps coming to my mind is Xcelerator, which has seat belts and lap bars. Every time I ride that I always manage to put my seat belt on and lower the lap bar before a ride op comes to check it, and they have no problem checking and seeing that I completed both tasks properly. Is it because Xcelerator's trains are easier to check both?

 

On Xcelerator, the sides of the seat are just a couple bars, so even with the lapbar lowered operators can still verify the seatbelt is securely buckled. That being said, Xcelerator did originally have a rule that the "operator must drop lap bar" and they would unlock the train if someone pulled it down early.

 

From what I remember, Full Throttle and Goliath's seats are somewhat like a well and the lapbars are rather large, so it would be very difficult to check a seatbelt once the lapbar is lowered. I do wonder why the operators don't just leave restraints unlocked, check the seatbelts from back to front, then lock lapbars and check them front to back, as that seems the more efficient way to do it and would prevent the problem of guests lowering the lapbar early. It's more the extreme slowness of dispatches (2:30 is unacceptable for an 18 person train even with multiple restraints) than the addition of seatbelts that annoys me.

[Nyteowl]

I'm still confused as to why you can't pull down the lap bars on Goliath and YOLOcoaster, is it more difficult for the ride ops to check the seat belts then? What keeps coming to my mind is Xcelerator, which has seat belts and lap bars. Every time I ride that I always manage to put my seat belt on and lower the lap bar before a ride op comes to check it, and they have no problem checking and seeing that I completed both tasks properly. Is it because Xcelerator's trains are easier to check both?

Not sure, but I'd guess because it's new like others have mentioned. On ghostrider, we just visually check to make sure it's buckled, and if someone's isn't buckled you just manually unlock their individual restraint so they can buckle it.

[Aceattack52]

My problem with seat belts is dispatch times which have nearly doubled if not trippled in length on YOLOcoaster.

 

Time start making new coasters with dual stations to cut back the dispatch times

 

Tatsu has dual stations and they rarely use both at the same time...[/quote

 

I mean they will have to resort to something to speed things up

I agree 100% with RollerCoasterAwesome's comment. But having a dual station DOES NOT mean faster loading times. At SFOG, the second station on Superman has literally never been used and there have been days with upwards of a 3 hour wait. A dual station is a good idea, but it only works if the park decides to use it, and there have been plenty of times where Six Flags didn't make that decision.

[rcjp]

^Same with kingda ka, right? At least I've never seen the other side of the station being used (nor when I went there nor in any video).

[Vonni]

Do any CF parks have Coasters with dual stations?

[azza29]

^Firehawk at KI has a dual station, can't think of any others off the top of my head.

[Sir Clinksalot]

It also doesn't help that Full Throttle has the smallest station ever. Maybe they'll take some time in the offseason to finally finish the station and expand the unload side a bit? They could also speed up dispatch times if they implemented a STRICT locker policy. I'd imagine that even with the seat belts dispatches would go down :45 - 1:00 without all the bags and crap.

 

^Same with kingda ka, right? At least I've never seen the other side of the station being used (nor when I went there nor in any video).

 

I saw KK use them in 2005 (opening year). Didn't see it last year when we were back there.

 

People also seem to forger that X2 also has separate load/unload stations that are never used.

[Nyteowl]

It also doesn't help that YOLOcoaster has the smallest station ever. Maybe they'll take some time in the offseason to finally finish the station and expand the unload side a bit? They could also speed up dispatch times if they implemented a STRICT fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo policy. I'd imagine that even with the seat belts dispatches would go down :45 - 1:00 without all the bags and crap.

 

^Same with kingda ka, right? At least I've never seen the other side of the station being used (nor when I went there nor in any video).

 

I saw KK use them in 2005 (opening year). Didn't see it last year when we were back there.

 

People also seem to forger that X2 also has separate load/unload stations that are never used.

Yeah I noticed that too. I remember when I came back after riding it around opening, I thought "Wait, didn't you used to get off here?"

[GigaG]

It also doesn't help that YOLOcoaster has the smallest station ever. Maybe they'll take some time in the offseason to finally finish the station and expand the unload side a bit? They could also speed up dispatch times if they implemented a STRICT fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo policy. I'd imagine that even with the seat belts dispatches would go down :45 - 1:00 without all the bags and crap.

 

^Same with kingda ka, right? At least I've never seen the other side of the station being used (nor when I went there nor in any video).

 

I saw KK use them in 2005 (opening year). Didn't see it last year when we were back there.

 

People also seem to forger that X2 also has separate load/unload stations that are never used.

Yeah I noticed that too. I remember when I came back after riding it around opening, I thought "Wait, didn't you used to get off here?"

 

When I went, I thought that that back platform should have been used to unload. Then again, this is SFMM. Oh well, the current system is BETTER THAN NOTHING!

[Magic Alumni]

People also seem to forger that X2 also has separate load/unload stations that are never used.

 

Yes, but wasn't that a benefit that they stopped using the unload station on X2? Because it took longer for them to bring the seats to an upright position so people can get out only to have to lower them again to a tilted position to move the train to the load section only to have to bring them back to an upright so people can load. I believe they eliminated that station to save on ride cycle time.

[RideofSteel]

^Same with kingda ka, right? At least I've never seen the other side of the station being used (nor when I went there nor in any video).

 

Using all 4 load/unload gates on Kingda Ka wasn't very effective either. The ride gets about the same, if not better capacity today than it did three years ago, which was when they made the switch to only one section being used at a time.

[RollerCoasterAwesome]

People also seem to forger that X2 also has separate load/unload stations that are never used.

 

Yes, but wasn't that a benefit that they stopped using the unload station on X2? Because it took longer for them to bring the seats to an upright position so people can get out only to have to lower them again to a tilted position to move the train to the load section only to have to bring them back to an upright so people can load. I believe they eliminated that station to save on ride cycle time.

Yes, X2 with one station is much better than the two station configuration from the original X days. And the new trains helped a lot with cycle times and reliability.

[coasterbill]

^Same with kingda ka, right? At least I've never seen the other side of the station being used (nor when I went there nor in any video).

 

Using all 4 load/unload gates on Kingda Ka wasn't very effective either. The ride gets about the same, if not better capacity today than it did three years ago, which was when they made the switch to only one section being used at a time.

 

Yeah, no matter how crowded the park is they only ever use the front right entry area and I don't think they bother running more than 3 trains ever. I'm sure they decided that the cost of paying employees to run 4 loading areas wasn't worth the extra capacity it added... and honestly they may be right. They can only launch trains so often anyway and using 4 loading platforms made the wait times once you got to the station unbearably long... especially for the front row which is the only place I ride that coaster.

[rcjp]

^Maybe they could try to forget the unloading platforms and use it as a normal double loading station (like on storm runner). Wouldn't that improve capacity?

[coasterbill]

Probably, but they'd also have to pay more ride-ops which I'm sure is a big factor in the current loading procedure. Also (and I'm just speculating because I know nothing at all about this stuff) I wonder if only using one station gives the ride less of an opportunity to break down. It stands to reason that the less moving parts, station blocks and sensors that are involved, the less likely the ride is to break down. Is this a legitimate possibility?

[rcjp]

^Well, maybe. But I think that the launch system itself is usually what causes the most problems. I suppose you could also say that if there are more trains being dispatched they will be launched more often and that could demand a bit more from the mechanism but probably it's just a matter of having to have more operators for each ride.