Manic Monte Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Stop the madness. The ride isn't going to duel. We all knew it wasn't going to from the day it was announced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superbatboy Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Speaking of Apocalypse, if Roar does indeed get the RMC treatment I wonder if the Flyer trains will be sent to another Six Flags with a GCI. MM would benefit the most from this as they're open year round and have an understaffed maintenance dept. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBrylczyk Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Stop the madness. The ride isn't going to duel. We all knew it wasn't going to from the day it was announced. But...but they totally promised it would always duel... Magic Mountain, the poster child of incredible customer service and operations, wouldn't lie to us, would they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALT2870 Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Sfmm apparently lost power“@CBSLA: UPDATE: Rides appear to be back online at Magic Mtn after brief power outage http://t.co/hSOhzwMnI0 http://t.co/UimVNJ73CY” This seemed to affect YOLO and Revolution. Not sure what else was down, they're the only two I saw. TC's dueling is still hit and miss, I did 4 rides in a row using the empty single rider line and only dueled 2 out of 8 laps due to long loading times related to loose articles. Such an obvious fix to this problem, come on SFMM! Unfortunately the single rider line is super long right now while main queue is out of the station. I rode Apocalypse for the first time in a few months due to it being back to 2 trains - what happened to this coaster?! It's unbearably rough now, more so than just a few months ago. I hate to say it but it's now on my (getting to be too long) list of "won't rides" at SFMM. What a shame, I used to love it... And yep, superman left side is noticeably quieter (still loud tho). It was all rides. We were in the back of the park waiting for Apocalypse, got out of line and Jet Stream, Ninja, and even the Go Carts were down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterlvr Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 ^^ You clearly have never been to Magic Mountain before. 5+ minute dispatches are the norm. It's atrocious. I might have been there three times last week. yeah, i've never seen TC run. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miketeavee Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Has anyone ridden both trains on Apocalypse lately? It only recently went back to 2 train operation and I rode it when it was only running 1 train right after memorial day and it was horribly rough. I'm assuming there's a noticeable difference in how they both run because half of everyone says it's not that rough and the other half (myself included) would consider it pretty much un-rideable. Which is unfortunate because i used to consider Apocalypse to be one of my favorite coasters at SFMM. If that's the case I'm guessing I rode the non-maintained train, my train was practically bouncing around the course. People sitting behind me were even comparing it to Ghostrider roughness in the jackhammer department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterlvr Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Has anyone ridden both trains on Apocalypse lately? It only recently went back to 2 train operation and I rode it when it was only running 1 train right after memorial day and it was horribly rough. I'm assuming there's a noticeable difference in how they both run because half of everyone says it's not that rough and the other half (myself included) would consider it pretty much un-rideable. Which is unfortunate because i used to consider Apocalypse to be one of my favorite coasters at SFMM. If that's the case I'm guessing I rode the non-maintained train, my train was practically bouncing around the course. People sitting behind me were even comparing it to Ghostrider roughness in the jackhammer department. i rode the newly refurbished train. not sure if it was worse or better than the other, but i was internally debating if it was worse than ghostrider. ghostrider the last time i rode it, i felt it could really do something bad to my back. i didn't feel like that with apocalypse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miketeavee Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 i rode the newly refurbished train. not sure if it was worse or better than the other, but i was internally debating if it was worse than ghostrider. ghostrider the last time i rode it, i felt it could really do something bad to my back. i didn't feel like that with apocalypse. Yeah Ghostrider is still way worse for me too haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vedved82491 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Isn't Apocalypse's spot pretty notorious? I remember hearing a rumor once upon a time that one of the reasons Psyclone was also plagued with roughness was that the area of land where it stood was "sinking" so to speak? I know Northridge took a major toll on it, but I'm curious if there are other reasons related to Apocalypse's roughness. There are probably more logical reasons as to why the ride isn't what it used to be, but I too feel that it has drastically changed in a matter of only 5 or so years. I just rode Thunder Road at Carowinds yesterday which is 39 years old and it was incredibly smooth for a woodie. While I'm on the topic of Carowinds, I also have to say that there were virtually no lines at the park. There were several people there, but the staff on each coaster (with the exception of one) were hauling ass! Fury and Intimidator were anywhere from walk-ons to 3 minute waits max! While Intimidator does have bins for each trains (it was running all three), Fury does enforce a "no loose items" policy, and they had someone at the entrance enforcing it. Nobody was leaving anything on the side of the ride. My point is that SFMM definitely needs to improve on dispatches. I feel silly saying that because we're all well aware of this issue. I'm curious why they don't spend a bit of money to install løckers and to pay to have somebody enforce a løcker policy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSum1_55 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 ^Carowinds is surprisingly solid as far as dispatches go. When I was last there, the Nighthawk crew was loading trains faster than the Tatsu crew. When you spend more time stacking on a B&M than you do on a Vekoma flyer, something is very wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firechaser Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Isn't Apocalypse's spot pretty notorious? I remember hearing a rumor once upon a time that one of the reasons Psyclone was also plagued with roughness was that the area of land where it stood was "sinking" so to speak? I know Northridge took a major toll on it, but I'm curious if there are other reasons related to Apocalypse's roughness. I always thought that the reason Psyclone was so rough was due to damage from an Earthquake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MagicMountainMan Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Honestly, as far as dispatching trains goes, I never really quite realized and appreciated just how bad Magic Mountain is at ride operations until I went to Europa Park a few weeks ago. Seriously, forget the Discovery orientation class when you get hired, just make the new hires watch a video of the Europa Park crews dispatching trains. It was beautiful. On Blue Fire there were only two people outside of the control booth and both would check restraints once gates closed. There was one person manning the control panel. There was one person acting as grouper for the line. 4 people in total in the ENTIRE STATION and it was absolute clockwork. Even with loose articles (don't even get me started on their brilliant loose articles bins that automatically opened and closed) and people sucking at being a functional human being, they would STILL pump trains out every 30 seconds. It was phenomenal. Granted there were no mind melting, brain teasing, confusion devices to buckle (seat belts) on Blue Fire which helped speed things up a bit, but still, I was blown away. They made it look easy, which it should be but yet at Magic Mountain it isn't. Sorry for the rant, but Europa Park's operations were incredible. Magic Mountain is the antitheses of that. I need to go to Europe more... Isn't Apocalypse's spot pretty notorious? I remember hearing a rumor once upon a time that one of the reasons Psyclone was also plagued with roughness was that the area of land where it stood was "sinking" so to speak? I know Northridge took a major toll on it, but I'm curious if there are other reasons related to Apocalypse's roughness. I always thought that the reason Psyclone was so rough was due to damage from an Earthquake. You would be correct. It was the Northridge Earthquake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterlvr Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Honestly, as far as dispatching trains goes, I never really quite realized and appreciated just how bad Magic Mountain is at ride operations until I went to Europa Park a few weeks ago. Seriously, forget the Discovery orientation class when you get hired, just make the new hires watch a video of the Europa Park crews dispatching trains. It was beautiful. On Blue Fire there were only two people outside of the control booth and both would check restraints once gates closed. There was one person manning the control panel. There was one person acting as grouper for the line. 4 people in total in the ENTIRE STATION and it was absolute clockwork. Even with loose articles (don't even get me started on their brilliant loose articles bins that automatically opened and closed) and people sucking at being a functional human being, they would STILL pump trains out every 30 seconds. It was phenomenal. Granted there were no mind melting, brain teasing, confusion devices to buckle (seat belts) on Blue Fire which helped speed things up a bit, but still, I was blown away. They made it look easy, which it should be but yet at Magic Mountain it isn't. . it's like no one from magic mountain has ever been to another park that runs their rides at manufacturer capacity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 ...Or nobody has any incentive to care because their wages and salaries are low and their business model is all about keeping costs down and getting as many people into the park on discounted tickets/passes as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VTown661 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Honestly, as far as dispatching trains goes, I never really quite realized and appreciated just how bad Magic Mountain is at ride operations until I went to Europa Park a few weeks ago. Seriously, forget the Discovery orientation class when you get hired, just make the new hires watch a video of the Europa Park crews dispatching trains. It was beautiful. . Do you have a link so i can see this boarding beauty you speak of? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFMMGeek27 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 SFMM isn't even that bad. I was very very disappointed with operations at SFOG. Those were probably the worst I've ever seen. 7-8 min dispatches on Goliath with 2 trains, double stacking on DDD, and don't even get me started with Superman. The ride ops were just talking the whole time. Six Flags Magic Mountain really isn't that bad with operations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFMM fanboy Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Stop the madness. The ride isn't going to duel. We all knew it wasn't going to from the day it was announced. It's this kind of pessimistic attitude that got us here, and will keep us here if we don't change it. We can't just give up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Monte Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 (edited) Not pessimistic, realistic. The park's operations are among the worst in the industry. It's people making excuses for it, that got us here. Btw, I don't hate the park. If you look back at a lot of my posts I do defend the park with it's being needlessly bashed. But let's not kid ourselves, the operations are the lowest of the low. So much so that I'm always nervous when planning a trip with friends or family. The terrible way the park handles crowds, the lack of ways to keep cool on super hot days, the leaving of trains on break runs seemingly forever in the hot sun because the dispatches are so awful (Tatsu and Yolo being the worst offenders). I could go on, but I won't because I do like other aspects of SFMM. But something needs to be done. Edited July 12, 2015 by Manic Monte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFMM fanboy Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Pessimistic, realistic, doesn't matter. If we keep the mindset that the ride isn't going to duel, it won't. If the operators believe that they can't make the ride duel, then they won't even try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Monte Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 (edited) There is no "mindset". The ride either duels, or it doesn't, period. And it's not. I'm not paying good money to get into the psychology of the SFMM management. Either you provide results or you cheap out and leave your guests hanging. Edited July 12, 2015 by Manic Monte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylanreich Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 There is no "mindset". The ride either duels, or it doesn't, period. And it's not. So you're telling me it won't duel at WCB at all? It WILL duel if a train is dispatched in time, and it almost ALWAYS is a park guest who realizes after seats have locked that they need to put something in the bins (I've seen multiple people with purses have to get unlocked to go put it in the bin). When I went last Wednesday, I dueled once the 2nd time I rode it. Leaving the park later, I saw FOUR races in a row. And you know what? I'd bet the ride ops were maintaining the same pace, which IS good enough to allow the trains to race, but it won't race when guests hold up the dispatch. So I don't think the beef should be with the ride ops, rather management who decided not to post signage or a video or something to tell guests to put their stuff away (the time I raced the ride ops announced "If you want to race, please quickly put your belongings in the bins and buckle your seatbelt"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Monte Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 My issue isn't just with ride ops. It's the entire company being so cheap that they wouldn't even offer a solution when they see there is a potential problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALT2870 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 I'll go into it further in my trip report, but people just don't seem to have the urgency even if they have no bags. When I went the ops were trying to do everything possible but people just take their sweet time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFMMGeek27 Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Just rode 10 minutes ago and dueled both laps. Has been consistently dueling all day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylanreich Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Just rode 10 minutes ago and dueled both laps. Has been consistently dueling all day. How are the crowds? Thinking about driving over right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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