The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[JJ728]

Noticed Riddler's got some love when I was at the park on the Sunday of President's Weekend. The facade in the front was redone (the previous one had chunks missing and parts were peeling off). All seven of the station question mark lights were on and functioning, and the station DIDN'T actually have piles of trash everywhere.

[Koasterking48]

Wow, still out with the 2013 maps? I know this is SFMM we are talking about, but c'mon, its almost March.

[crazydude]

I'm not sure why people keep repeating the sentiment about the park maps, I feel like at this point it's pretty obvious the new maps won't debut earlier than March 22 with namtab and (allegedly) the new kids coaster.

 

I'm pretty sure magic mountain considers this the 2013 operating season still. I personally don't care. I've been to the park plenty of times in 2014 and have yet to be inconvenienced by any pieces of paper with last years date on them.

[Koasterking48]

^ It's not that it would be of inconvenience as it just looks lazy and/or unprofessional. You make a good point about having backwards batman and the kiddie coaster not there. Maybe it's just because I'm used to year-round parks like Universal and Disney putting out new maps every other month.

[Magic Alumni]

^^ I agree. I believe it's the same every year. They release the maps mid-March right before they launch the new season. The problem is SFMM is always compared to the parks that are open 7 days a week year around and those parks normally change their maps every couple months. SFMM is only open daily from March-September and always releases the maps right before then. This probably wouldn't bother people if they didn't put the year on the cover of the map but they've been doing this same practice for decades even back in the hayday of SFMM so it's nothing new.

 

I believe Knott's is the only other SoCal park that follows the same practice of one map for the whole year but I don't think they print the year on the cover.

[Jew]

The bottom line is simple: they don't want to pay to print a limited run of 2014 maps to fill the gap until Spring Break. It's why SFMM is SFMM. Better than nothing.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

You'd think they'd just make a generic map without dates...like lots of other parks for this exact reason.

[Jew]

^Exactly. They're shooting themselves in the foot!

[DJeXeL]

^^That makes too much sense.

[Mrlittle]

I rarely use a park map now days. The park is probably just trying to use up some of the 2013 park maps before bringing out the new ones. Besides like its been stated, the new rides and stuff are not even open. I sometimes think people just find reasons to hate on SFMM.

[netdvn]

Parks typically don't start changing their maps until around March-ish anyway. Sea World didn't have their 2013 maps ready until after Antarctica opened last year.

 

- I requested maps from full year parks before and they sent me maps/brochures from the previous year. Nothing new here.

-- Totally nerdy for requesting maps from parks

[EastCoastKid]

I sometimes think people just find reasons to hate on SFMM.

 

I have to agree. I know this is only my personal opinion based on my own experience, but I traveled to LA to visit SFMM last July all the way from Philadelphia and I have to say I have very few poor things to say about MM. We had a GREAT time with decent ride operators overall, minimal wait times, and actually decent food. People go to SFMM for the roller coasters. If you want brand new park maps every other month, go to Disney. They are completely different markets.

 

Just my two cents. I had a great time at SFMM and would rate it better overall (including ride operations) than SFGAdv in NJ.

[RandallDuell]

So the slide they took out: it was the black one that was closest to the walkway, right? If so, that explains why they finally painted that walkway from the parking lot....I assume the lack of splashing AND the lack of constant leaking/dripping, now that it's gone, helped motivate them to get that thing cleaned up. I've always marveled at how, especially when you got there midday (when there was two way pedestrian traffic), you would be forced to slop through the sludgy, wet mess that would accumulate on a part of the sidewalk.

 

Unrelated: is there any update on that guy down the road who has all the Magic Mountain memorabilia/artifacts? I know the dog kennels closed, but is he still around/maintaining all that old stuff/still being given new stuff?

[Jew]

He's a friend of Tim Burkhart, so I imagine that if he has the financial ability to purchase more stuff he is still doing so. I'll have to take The Old Road next time I visit the park and see if anything looks new.

[SFMMGeek27]

Just for clarification:

 

Namtab and Sussoloc are opening Mar. 22nd with Sky Tower and the water rides and the sports bar.

 

The kiddie coaster is set to open sometime in June. So a long time away.

 

They ALWAYS use the old maps to get rid of them before they put out the new ones. Around March the start phasing out the old ones and putting out the new ones so you'll usually have to look for the new ones for the first couple of weeks they are out before the old ones run out.

 

Oh yeah, and the old Steam Train is for sale! Just look it up!

Edited February 26, 2014 by SFMMGeek27

[XYZ]

^Sussoloc.

 

I've always been amused by Magic Mountain distributing the previous years' maps for such a long time.

[Jew]

Here is the listing:

 

http://discoverlivesteam.com/discoverforsale/forsale/1_riley2/index.htm

[jray21]

That's awesome. If I only had a little bit of spare change lying around.

[AusCoasterFan]

I sometimes think people just find reasons to hate on SFMM.

 

I have to agree. I know this is only my personal opinion based on my own experience, but I traveled to LA to visit SFMM last July all the way from Philadelphia and I have to say I have very few poor things to say about MM. We had a GREAT time with decent ride operators overall, minimal wait times, and actually decent food. People go to SFMM for the roller coasters.

 

I second this. I had a great time when I was there in 2012. The only two complaints I would have had was the lack of atmosphere in the DC Comics area and the fact that only 1 of 3 water rides was operating.Then again, my visit was in late November...

 

Overall operations were good except for Riddler's Revenge and Green Lantern, and all coasters and flat rides were operating. Goliath, Scream!, Apocalypse, Colossus, Batman, X2, Tatsu and Viper were all running two trains. The park was clean and well maintained, and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

[coasterbill]

I sometimes think people just find reasons to hate on SFMM.

 

I'm noticing that you and the people who agree with you are all from places other than California. I'm from New York and the 2 times I've been to SFMM I've loved it too, but my guess is that's because I don't live near the park and haven't had time to notice all of the problems. If you are visiting from far away you're too busy running around (probably with a flash pass) riding all of the coasters to notice much else. You also wouldn't know the park well enough to compare it to what it was like in previous years (hey remember when there used to be a tilt a whirl here, and a monorail, and a skyride... and now there's just smoking areas and abandoned stations?).

 

EastCoastKid kind of proved my point by complaining about Great Adventure (which is one of my home parks too). Great Adventure is the best Six Flags park I've ever been to, but because it's my home park there are things about it that bother me because I know the history of the park. The fact that they closed down Old Town and have left a rotting Music Express there for years bothers me, the fact that all of the signs in Nitro's queue and on the lift are gone bothers me, the fact that they have 4 loading stations for Kingda Ka and never use more than one station bothers me and the fact that Golden Kingdom is 2 separate areas that aren't connected to eachother at all bothers me... but if I were from California visiting for the first time I probably wouldn't notice these things. In the case of KK's loading station I wouldn't know that it was permanent so I wouldn't care. I'd be too busy using my platinum flash pass and running around to get all of the credits to notice small details like that. I think that's what's going on when we visit Magic Mountain.

 

You may be right in the fact that people are being too hard on SFMM (though that's not really up to people from all the way across the country to judge), but when you live near it it's hard to avoid it sometimes. I always try to look at Great Adventure objectively and because of that I really like the park. Then again, we have El Toro... and when you have El Toro it's easy to overlook the rest of the park.

[XYZ]

I sometimes think people just find reasons to hate on SFMM.

 

I'm noticing that you and the people who agree with you are all from places other than California. I'm from New York and the 2 times I've been to SFMM I've loved it too, but my guess is that's because I don't live near the park and haven't had time to notice all of the problems. If you are visiting from far away you're too busy running around (probably with a flash pass) riding all of the coasters to notice much else. You also wouldn't know the park well enough to compare it to what it was like in previous years (hey remember when there used to be a tilt a whirl here, and a monorail, and a skyride... and now there's just smoking areas and abandoned stations?).

 

EastCoastKid kind of proved my point by complaining about Great Adventure (which is one of my home parks too). Great Adventure is the best Six Flags park I've ever been to, but because it's my home park there are things about it that bother me because I know the history of the park. The fact that they closed down Old Town and have left a rotting Music Express there for years bothers me, the fact that all of the signs in Nitro's queue and on the lift are gone bothers me, the fact that they have 4 loading stations for Kingda Ka and never use more than one station bothers me and the fact that Golden Kingdom is 2 separate areas that aren't connected to eachother at all bothers me... but if I were from California visiting for the first time I probably wouldn't notice these things. In the case of KK's loading station I wouldn't know that it was permanent so I wouldn't care. I'd be too busy using my platinum flash pass and running around to get all of the credits to notice small details like that. I think that's what's going on when we visit Magic Mountain.

 

You may be right in the fact that people are being too hard on SFMM (though that's not really up to people from all the way across the country to judge), but when you live near it it's hard to avoid it sometimes. I always try to look at Great Adventure objectively and because of that I really like the park. Then again, we have El Toro... and when you have El Toro it's easy to overlook the rest of the park.

 

I agree with this, when I went to Great Adventure last year for the first time, I really didn't see many problems and enjoyed the park. When I first starting going to Magic Mountain, I was more focused on just getting all of the credits, though when I had the park as a home park, the issues of the park were becoming much more blatant. (Sorry, if I'm just reiterating coasterbill's post, it's just that I have experienced all of this.)

[gerstlaueringvar]

Actually I didn't notice the bad part about SFMM except for Revolution's OTSR. Before then I had zero experience to compare SFMM with any park I've been to. SFMM was the best park I've ever visited until SFFT, then SDC, then SFGAm, then CP... And after reading about Apocalypse was treated badly, loading is as slow as hell, Colossus hasn't race for years, park gets very dirty. I started to remember about the details during my visit so SFMM's good impression faded away.

[805Andrew]

In years past I went to SFMM in February and the park maps were the previous year, so nothing new. It's only annoying when they've added a new ride since then and it's not on the park map (not really the case here).

 

On another note, looking at the recent park updates posted, wow that was a crowded February day! That looked more crowded then during WCB last September. I don't think I've seen I full queue for Ninja or Revolution since I went with Friday Night Live in HS in 1999. Being Presidents Day weekend with sunny, warm weather probably didn't help alleviate the crowds. This weekend should have much lighter crowds though with rain expected throughout CA (finally!).

[JeromyL]

Noooo. Bad rain. Had to reschedule my magic mountain trip for next weekend (Saturday the 8th)

[Jew]

The problem with SFMM's business model is the majority of its guests are local. There is a large portion of guests who excuse all the things we notice because all they care about is the coasters, but we already saw what the problem can be from that: investing $10-20 mil/year on coasters and pushing cheap annual passes eventually catches up to the business.

 

Speedy Gonzalez and the YOLO Sportsbar are smart ways to TRY and combat this, but ultimately all the little things still add up and drive business elsewhere.