The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[Jew]

^Perhaps because they are all in the same market and competing with each other? Perhaps it is because I recall at WCB and/or the DVD release party Jay mentioned striving to be better than Disneyland?

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Try not to confuse "striving to be better than" with "is currently better than".

 

Yes they are in the same market, just like Kia and BMW are in the same car market. However, their respective products are what they are. I don't hear anyone complaining about how Kia sucks because BMW is sooooo much better. They're flat out different brands offering what they do. My point is why can't people accept different parks as different parks in a similar manner to different brands of car?

 

I think it's pretty well established that if you go to SFMM expecting Disneyland, you're just setting yourself up for disappointment. Who knows what'll happen in the future once SFMM finally corrects all the mistakes of the past once & for all. I'm excited about the prospect of SFMM living up to its true potential.

[ajinaz]

Expect Six Flags when going to Six Flags.

 

OK Matt, I can't resist.. what should I expect when I go to SFMM? Should I have low expectations? Should I expect thrill rides with service and cleanliness as an afterthought?

 

The last six times I've been to the park it has been incredibly clean and the staff has been greatly improved. It's amazing what "Have a magical day" can do for a customer's attitude.

 

Perhaps I'm reading the article I posted wrong. It does not indicate to me that the park has changed at all or that there has been a concerted effort made by management to turn SFMM in to a family destination. A family in Phoenix is going to read that story and think that it's business as usual. The parents today are the same customers who went to the park at its lowest point and are probably thinking, "it was ok for me when I was 18 but I'm not taking my 5-10 year old there."

 

On a related note, I just returned from DL this weekend and found the park to be the dirtiest I've seen. Trash under the loading area for BTMR and in the planters around Tomorrowland. We asked a cast member in one of the stores if they carried any bells and she rolled her eyes and said, "go look across the street." As she walked away we asked each other if we had just talked to a dead person. It's obvious that the cuts are beginning to show.

[CloneCaptain38]

n actuality, you could also take the offramp for Newhall Ranch Rd., although it would take a little back tracking.

 

Unfortunately, with the construction, Old Road loses a lane right after the narrow bridge and doesn't gain it back until Magic Mountain Parkway. There's enough cars coming that way already to cause a sizeable back up that sometimes bleeds back over the bridge back to Rye Canyon Road because the children can't play nice with each other and learn to share.

 

Until the construction is finished, there's really no good way around traffic heading into the park. I recommended to avoid Valencia purely to avoid the risk of hit, or being hit, because of idiot drivers unfamiliar with where to turn right onto The Old Road from Valencia Blvd. IMO, it is designed horrendously, and will have a very hard time being capable of handling the traffic heading to Magic Mountain off the North I-5. If you all thought Tourney Road wasn't fun, you ain't seen nothing yet. Do yourself a favor and take McBean.

 

One other alternative would be to exit Valencia but turn right (not left like everyone else might be going) and follow Valencia Blvd to McBean, and turn left onto McBean. Take McBean a short way and then make a left on Magic Mountain Parkway. Then, simply follow Magic Mountain Parkway straight into the park.

 

Once the construction is finally finished, I think you'll all be pleasantly surprised with how much greater the capacity of all those roads, and the access to SFMM, now is. Same goes with I-5 access once the night's over. The days of the long chain of cars sitting in the right lane all the way up the hill should be mostly a thing of the past.

 

I agree about that intersection. They have been working on it for two years now I believe, and still aren't done. They're widening the road, built a new Chevron gas station up on a hill, which now the hill is gone, since the raod has been built up in an angle, giving the illusion the hill is gone, and I have old photographs somewhere up that.

 

Anyways, here's some new pictures of the intersection. And as you may notice, Magic Mountain parkway will be widened I guess up til X2 is located, just by looking at the image, and reading that sign that is posted. That is what the sign means now, about Magic Mountain parkway will be widened in the future.

 

The city may have plans to extend Magic Mountain parkway beyond where X2 is located for future development, probably by 2011 or 2012, we'll see some progress over in that area, so I doubt Six Flags Magic Mountain will buy that land to extend the park, unless it will become a new entrance way, or back entrance to a new section of the park, to accommodate high volume of traffic in the future to the park, and they may use the current parking lot for future park expansion, new rides, new theme area, extend Hurricane Harbor.

 

There is something going on with the reasoning why they're extending this road. I wish I knew the answers, and I doubt it has anything to do with that business building they built up on the hill.

 

Here's the images.

You can see here at the corner of the new intersection where the dirt is, the old turn lanes, so you can se this is where cars used to turn, and now cars are way up on the new road, which the grade used to be high up, and now all leveled down. It's weird to see how all this ended up.

Looking up Magic Mountain Parkway directly standing behind the barriers at the new section. You can see on the left side, how the road weaves out of formation, well that will probably be extended out all the way up where X2 is located, so all those trees and most of the hill will be ripped out. They may not start this phase until late 2009, or early 2010.

Crossing what will one day be the new crosswalk heading over to the opposite side of Magic Mountain Parkway/The Old Road.

Close-up of the current section of the intersection.

The new section is blocked off for cars leaving the park, while right now all vehicles in both directions are squeezed over to the left in this image. The reasoning behind all of this is still unknown to me, but I am sure I can find out somewhere online.

All this dirt used to be the old intersection, where cars would turn both right and left in both directions, and you'll see what I mean in the last photo. This space may be used for a future restuarant and parking lot.

Great picture. I have this as my desktop image on my computer.

[ethans_dad06]

^ As I had said a page or two ago, Magic Mountain Prkwy will be extended in the future and im sure it will be widened all the way down past Magic Mountain. Newhall Land and Farm own all the land around Magic Mountain, and as most people know that Lennar Homes owns Newhall Land and Farm. There is a "master plan" to build comercial and residential all around and behind Magic Mountain, and the plan as of a few months ago was to build upwards of 21,000 homes and create enough comercial to produce upwards of about 19,000 jobs. The project was supposed to start early 2009 but due to the lackluster sales of homes at the other Lennar communitys in town (West Hills, River Village, and one other but cant think of the name right now) the project was put on hold. To my understanding, all the investors who provide funding to Lennars projects pulled out cause of fears of the economy. The last phase of the West Hills project was stopped about halfway through. The company I work for does all the heavy earthwork for Lennar and we showed up to work one day and they had pretty much just locked the gate on us!

 

So hopefully the big Newhall Ranch project around Magic Mountain will start in the next year so I can get back to work over there soon, but as of now there are still some projects that need to be finished before they plan to break ground over there. But once they do break ground the project is going to take upwards of 10 years just for the rough grade dirt work, or so thats what the estimators at my company expect. Hope this gives some insight to the future!!

[The Disneylander]

I know this belongs in the SFMM thread, but oh well.

 

What exactly is this 'Revo shortcut' that people talk about so much? Is it well hidden, or a secret something that only insiders know?

[atem122]

before you go up the ramp to the station, make a right and go through the exit, it gets you to Tatsu, Termy, and the back of the park faster

[MagicMountainMan]

^Wow, that's a massive project! But it shouldn't be open for another 15 years?

 

I went to Magic Mountain Saturday so just a few observations:

 

The park was PACKED. I don't think I've seen it that crowded in a long time. X2's line was out past the bridge, Goliath was to the I almost, Terminator was out to the sign, Tatsu was going down the hill a bit, and even Riddler's and Batman had decent lines! I guess it's good that the park is getting a lot of people but it's not so good for the people going there. However the operations on most of the rides were great, I only waited about 1 1/2 hours for X2 and when we got in line it was out onto the bridge. Terminator also had an excellent crew.

 

X2's T.V. screens were only showing the same batch of about 5 commercials over and over and over again. It got really repetitive. Terminator did have some other things mixed in with commercials but overall it seems like it was more commercials than not.

 

Terminator is a great ride! However the speakers do need to be turned up because I couldn't hear anything once we got off the lift and could only vaguely hear the 'take the tunnel' because I was listening for it. And both times I went in people actually took the pre-shows seriously which is a good thing.

 

Onto the best part of the day, the food! Since it was so crowded we didn't ride much. Therefore we sat around and then decided to eat around 2. We went to Katie's Kettle because we wanted burgers but then we saw a poster that said "Six Flags Chicken Meal Deal" or something to that extent. Only $40. The only reason it caught our attention was because we thought that $40 was outrageous for a meal! But then we looked at the sign closer and it said it included 12 pieces of chicken, a souvenir jug, fries, and a dessert. We decided we'd ask them about it because we were interested in getting a souvenir cup (jug??). As it turns out, the meal came with way over 12 pieces of chicken strips, 2 buckets of fries (these were big buckets), 2 souvenir cups, and 4 cookies for $30 because I had a coupon from my season pass booklet thing. Best deal at the park hands down, for even $40 it's still a great deal! 2 souvenir cups alone would be $24 I think. And the poster that was advertising this deal was VERY misleading. The picture had a little bucket of fries and chicken and nothing else and the description wasn't great either.

 

To think that the highlight of the day was getting food!

[ebl]

It's just before you get to the ACE plaque. Follow it up past the station (which will be on your left), then choose the right fork when you get to it. That'll take you up to the midway, at which point, you take a right and continue through Rapids Camp Crossing, then down into Cyclone Bay.

 

Eric

[The Disneylander]

So does it save a lot of time at opening when you're, say, running to Terminator?

[CP_RULES]

^

At ten thirty am the gates swung open, and we scanned our print at home play passes and booked it to Terminator. Thanks to the Revolution shortcut we were able to get about third in line for Terminator - score!

[SharkTums]

^^No, it's called a 'short cut' because it's actually much longer and takes about 45 minutes to get to Terminator if you choose to go that way.

[TPDave]

^ Aaah ok, I'll just go the normal way.

 

Thanks for the help!

[Crazy4Coasters!]

Thanks for the useful info guys... I'm headed to the "Mountain" tomorrow so you guys just saved me 45mins from that so-called shortcut. You guys are lifesavers!

[ethans_dad06]

Well they are going to do the project in stages, or phases as we call them. But yea it's going to be one of the largest projects in California history.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

We build roads in strange half first/half second methods in this state to try to ensure the construction bottleneck isn't as bad as it could be. It makes things very confusing to the casual observer. I always imagine watching a 3 year old mess around with a jigaw puzzle like he has no idea what he's doing. Then you come back a few hours later, and whoa, he's actually finished the puzzle!

 

When the construction is finished, you'll see why they've done what they've done how they've done it.

 

Now whether Newhall Ranch gets built or not (I've never been in favor of building 21,000 more homes in one place like that here, recession or not.), the road construction is still a good idea. Those roads are seeing increased traffic from people driving through Castaic, to/from SFMM, from Copper Hill through over to the Valencia Mall area, etc.

[terminatorschaffer]

^Well you better get used to it cause Valencia is going to be getting busier as years go on. It may be slightly boring but its just too nice all the time out there. Not a fan of the location of those 21000 homes, but Mountain parkway will be much different in 15 20 years.

 

If you check out how the road used to be and how it is now, you'll see they've done A LOT of good work, its just taken a long time. The Old Road is now much improved for future expxnsion, and although the northbound exit gets nasty at peak hours, they didn't have many other options.

[ebl]

I'd like to think they'd expand that little two-lane bridge at some point on The Old Road. That's quite a bottleneck.

 

Hopefully some of the residents of those 21,000 homes won't start complaining about "all that noise in their backyard." By the time homes start a-poppin' up, SFMM will be 40+ years old.

 

Eric

[shepp]

They had a 4D theater at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom the last time I was there (I'm not sure if it's still there?) and that was well themed and a big crowd pleaser!

 

Gone. It was dinosaur themed to match a dino simulator attraction, but when they changed the film a couple of years back (to a superhero thing, as I recall), the plastic dinosaurs remained. Now it's just a nothing on the top of a hill.

[ghost007jas]

And so another piece of my child hood dies :/.

[ethans_dad06]

Hopefully some of the residents of those 21,000 homes won't start complaining about "all that noise in their backyard." By the time homes start a-poppin' up, SFMM will be 40+ years old.

 

Eric

 

 

Well to my understanding most of the building anywhere close to the park itself is going to be commercial, all of the residential is going to be further away, I'm sure far enough away where you won't hear any park noise.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

I'd like to think they'd expand that little two-lane bridge at some point on The Old Road. That's quite a bottleneck.

 

Well, it's really a 4 lane bridge, but the construction took a lane away from the southbound side right after the bridge & hasn't given it back in some time now, but you're right. The I-5's bridge over that creek was replaced a couple of years ago, but that bridge still needs replacing/widening.

 

The sad part about it is that replacing that bridge would take until about 2012 if they started replacing it today.

[alexinla]

Just found this in the L.A.Times

 

Base-jumper leaps from top of thrill ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain

CRAZY!

[Mark Rosenzweig]

^^No, it's called a 'short cut' because it's actually much longer and takes about 45 minutes to get to Terminator if you choose to go that way.

 

This is a great site, but sometimes it hurts my head to read. Not as much as a ride on Manhattan Express, but enough.

 

Back to lurkage,

 

Mark

[robbalvey]

^ Sorry Mark, it's just Elissa being sarcastic towards someone asking a very, VERY stupid question!

 

--Robb