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The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread


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When Kings Island crashed a Top Gun train into a parked maintenance truck in July of 2002, they had to replace 3 or 4 cars as well as check the rest of the train for damage. The ride was down to one train for the season. (the train reappeared opening day of 2003).

 

So, they "probably" will get a couple of new cars by next season, depending who can make them.

 

But that was when Arrow was still in business.

 

Doesn't Vekoma make floorless versions or at least they did for Chessington, maybe they'll cut down the trees give it new floorless cars and market it for the YOLO crowd

 

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Uhm...guys...this is SFMM we are talking about. They'll run with one train until they absolutely have no choice but to spend money for new parts or a new train.

 

SFMM is bad but not that bad. They are taking train 1 off the transfer and returning it and making train 3 the new donor train.

 

Also, I'm hearing Batman backwards may be back for Fright Fest in lieu of Colossus.

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SFMM is bad but not that bad.

 

This is the park that runs 1-train operations on every single coaster there just because they're lazy. Yes, they ARE that bad.

 

I've rarely seen 1 train except for maintenance on my trips. Although, last year, besides Scream (maintenance), we briefly saw Colossus running 1 train (and slow loading to go with it) and suspected Riddler was when it had a huge line. Most rides run 2 trains. Of course, Scream can run 3, and I doubt that maintenance would HAVE to be done for 2 trains at once. SFGAdv runs 3 trains on Bizarro... they stack, but at least they run 3!

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SFMM is bad but not that bad.

 

This is the park that runs 1-train operations on every single coaster there just because they're lazy. Yes, they ARE that bad.

Their operations are often subpar but to say they run one train operations "on every single coaster" is just completely false and to say its "because theyre lazy"? If you had said something like "SFMM will sometimes run one train operations on a coaster because they're cheap" or even complaining that there are one train ops due to annual rehab in the summer (Although to a point some of that is excusable being that it's a year round park), that would at least be a little funnier as its probably a lot closer to the truth. If you're going to jab, at least do it right. I agree with SFMMGeek, their operations are bad relative to other parks, but nowhere near the level you're suggesting.

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^ Truly, its a crapshoot. I've been on some days later in the season and rode every coaster in 5 hours. And Ive been and rode 5 all day.

 

The rides are fun, people will argue their views about each individual ride but they are all fun. You will have a good time if you go in with that mindset. If you go expecting to have a crappy day, then you will. Its all up to you.

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^ Truly, its a crapshoot. I've been on some days later in the season and rode every coaster in 5 hours. And Ive been and rode 5 all day.

 

The rides are fun, people will argue their views about each individual ride but they are all fun. You will have a good time if you go in with that mindset. If you go expecting to have a crappy day, then you will. Its all up to you.

Oh I'm certainly going to go there with the proper mindset. I've never been out West so it will all be new to me, and I always have fun on roller coasters, even crappy ones. I'm sure many of these complaints are part conjecture anyway. No park can be that bad, right?

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^ Truly, its a crapshoot. I've been on some days later in the season and rode every coaster in 5 hours. And Ive been and rode 5 all day.

 

The rides are fun, people will argue their views about each individual ride but they are all fun. You will have a good time if you go in with that mindset. If you go expecting to have a crappy day, then you will. Its all up to you.

Oh I'm certainly going to go there with the proper mindset. I've never been out West so it will all be new to me, and I always have fun on roller coasters, even crappy ones. I'm sure many of these complaints are part conjecture anyway. No park can be that bad, right?

 

Operations has its ups and downs, and the park does make weird decisions in ride maintenance and using more then one train *sometimes*. I've experienced amazing operations and really bad ones. If the park is busy, regardless of operations, Flashpass is worth the cost. If nothing else, you just get to have a more relaxing day.

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^ Truly, its a crapshoot. I've been on some days later in the season and rode every coaster in 5 hours. And Ive been and rode 5 all day.

 

The rides are fun, people will argue their views about each individual ride but they are all fun. You will have a good time if you go in with that mindset. If you go expecting to have a crappy day, then you will. Its all up to you.

Oh I'm certainly going to go there with the proper mindset. I've never been out West so it will all be new to me, and I always have fun on roller coasters, even crappy ones. I'm sure many of these complaints are part conjecture anyway. No park can be that bad, right?

 

Operations has its ups and downs, and the park does make weird decisions in ride maintenance and using more then one train *sometimes*. I've experienced amazing operations and really bad ones. If the park is busy, regardless of operations, Flashpass is worth the cost. If nothing else, you just get to have a more relaxing day.

I plan on using the money I save on admission (I have a season pass for GAdv), to buy the gold flash pass just to play it safe.

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^ Truly, its a crapshoot. I've been on some days later in the season and rode every coaster in 5 hours. And Ive been and rode 5 all day.

 

The rides are fun, people will argue their views about each individual ride but they are all fun. You will have a good time if you go in with that mindset. If you go expecting to have a crappy day, then you will. Its all up to you.

Oh I'm certainly going to go there with the proper mindset. I've never been out West so it will all be new to me, and I always have fun on roller coasters, even crappy ones. I'm sure many of these complaints are part conjecture anyway. No park can be that bad, right?

It's really nowhere bad as it would seem from reading this thread. We like to poke fun by taking it too far sometimes. It is likely that you will encounter things that will make you shake your head, but if you're there to ride coasters you'll get what you came for. If you get the gold flash pass lines should not be much of an issue. Ninja is currently on one train due to the accident, so it probably wont be on the flash pass, and X2 and YOLOCoaster (FT) normally arent on it, so I would do Ninja and one of the other two first thing.

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Of course, Scream can run 3, and I doubt that maintenance would HAVE to be done for 2 trains at once. SFGAdv runs 3 trains on Bizarro... they stack, but at least they run 3!

 

This was my biggest gripe with the park when we visited last February. I get the fact that coasters may not be running all of their trains in the winter but a coaster that has 3 trains should never rehab 2 of them at the same time.

 

We waited an hour for a middle row with a platinum flash pass.

 

To be fair though we did get to ride every coaster except Superman (which was closed but I had ridden that before) with the Flash pass plus the Flume, Sky Tower and Lex Luthor. We even had time to re-ride Ninja and Apocalypse later in the day.

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^ I touched on that a little on the previous page. At a seasonal park like SFGAdv it would be inexcusable to rehab coasters in the summer, but if you're a year-round park with as many coasters as SFMM, it's inevitable that some will need to rehab in spring or summer. With that said I think they should have picked a better time to rehab YOLOCoaster than spring break. Also although Scream may "posess" 3 trains, it's likely that the third one was not in usable condition. It is common at many six flags parks that coasters with 3 trains will at any given time only have 2 available for use. Sometimes like Ninja the third one is parting out, sometimes like Medusa (SFDK) or Scream the third train just seems to be in perpetual rehab and when it is finally made available one of the other two goes into perpetual rehab.

 

^^^for sure I go all the time, and I ALWAYS have a lot of fun. I never sweat the small things!!! I'm there for the rides

This is what I always tell people..If youre there for atmosphere or quality food options or a selection of family rides then there are at least 3 other major parks in southern california which would be better for your time and money. If you're just looking for as many roller coasters in one place as possible and thats all you care about, then SFMM is the place to go.

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sometimes like Medusa (SFDK) or Scream the third train just seems to be in perpetual rehab and when it is finally made available one of the other two goes into perpetual rehab.

 

Right which would have made sense... running one train when you have 3 never makes sense no matter what time of year it is. Does the ride ever run 3 trains or do they never run more than 2 even in October and the middle of the summer?

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What's weird about Scream is that during the busiest parts of summer it will have 2 trains mostly. On a slow weekend in February, it'll be running all 3. I have no idea why this is. I visit SFDK twice a year, every year: Once in the middle of June and again at the end of August and it seems Medusa always has a train in pieces for refurb.

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sometimes like Medusa (SFDK) or Scream the third train just seems to be in perpetual rehab and when it is finally made available one of the other two goes into perpetual rehab.

 

Right which would have made sense... running one train when you have 3 never makes sense no matter what time of year it is. Does the ride ever run 3 trains or do they never run more than 2 even in October and the middle of the summer?

I've never seen anything other than Green Lantern run more than 2 trains at one time, which really makes sense because most of the ride ops at SFMM aren't efficient enough to handle a 3+ train operation. The ones that are usually are working on X2 which itself cant handle more than 2 trains.

 

I have actually seen SFMM stacking a one train operation on two different coasters before - Gold Rusher and Riddlers. If you're wondering how you can stack one train, its when theres only one train in operation but it sits in the brake run unnecessarily because the ride op just isnt paying attention and fails to even notice that the train is waiting to be dispatched into the station.

 

SFMM does seem to for the most part put its fastest operators on the most popular attractions. X2 almost always seems to have the best ops (which is part of the reason the line dies in the afternoon), followed by Goliath, YOLO (I was impressed at how fast they were working when it was on one train ops earlier this season), and sometimes Tatsu. Tatsu is weird, sometimes their ops are really good and sometimes really horrible. They don't seem to use the second station when they should, but thats not the ops' decision, Im sure that decision comes from management. Riddler typically has the worst ops, along with Gold Rusher and Scream. Green Lantern is pretty slow, but I believe a lot of that is just due to the ride configuration.

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sometimes like Medusa (SFDK) or Scream the third train just seems to be in perpetual rehab and when it is finally made available one of the other two goes into perpetual rehab.

 

Right which would have made sense... running one train when you have 3 never makes sense no matter what time of year it is. Does the ride ever run 3 trains or do they never run more than 2 even in October and the middle of the summer?

I've never seen anything other than Green Lantern run more than 2 trains at one time, which really makes sense because most of the ride ops at SFMM aren't efficient enough to handle a 3+ train operation. The ones that are usually are working on X2 which itself cant handle more than 2 trains.

 

I have actually seen SFMM stacking a one train operation on two different coasters before - Gold Rusher and Riddlers. If you're wondering how you can stack one train, its when theres only one train in operation but it sits in the brake run unnecessarily because the ride op just isnt paying attention and fails to even notice that the train is waiting to be dispatched into the station.

 

SFMM does seem to for the most part put its fastest operators on the most popular attractions. X2 almost always seems to have the best ops (which is part of the reason the line dies in the afternoon), followed by Goliath, YOLO (I was impressed at how fast they were working when it was on one train ops earlier this season), and sometimes Tatsu. Tatsu is weird, sometimes their ops are really good and sometimes really horrible. They don't seem to use the second station when they should, but thats not the ops' decision, Im sure that decision comes from management. Riddler typically has the worst ops, along with Gold Rusher and Scream. Green Lantern is pretty slow, but I believe a lot of that is just due to the ride configuration.

 

I don't see why X2 can't handle 3 trains. It has a brake run, an "unloading platform" that goes unused but presumably is another block, considering the train frequently does stop there (and if I recall, sometimes for no reason when the station is clear - must be the "not paying attention and no letting trains in"), and a station. The block setup would be similar to Millenium Force.

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^ ^^ Yeah I mean theoretically you could have 3 trains on the track...if SFMM really wanted to and they used the old unloading platform, you can have one train in circuit, one unloading, and one unloading...but it would require a lot more staffing and more efficient ops for a negligible difference in capacity..its not worth it.

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A few of you are hitting it right on the head. Your experience at SFMM is largely about expectations. If you go in expecting an experience in a clean park with great ride ops, guest relations, etc. then you're going to be disappointed. If you go there to ride some fun rides and don't sweat the rest of it, you'll have a good time.

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Here's the facts regarding SFMM and annual maintenance: they simply don't spend enough money to get them all done on time. They don't have the manpower or resources to get them all done. 100% on them.

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Sign the petition to keep Colossus running terribly!

 

With the looming Aug. 16 deadline to ride Colossus before it’s shut down, some fans of the 36-year-old roller coaster are trying to save it — or at least have some say in what happens to it.

 

“We prefer it stay in the state it was when it was first made,” said Donald Patti, co-founder of the “Save Colossus!” campaign. “We’re hopeful that we can have enough signatures on the petition that Six Flags will keep it in its state.”

 

Fellow fans of the iconic 125-foot-tall wooden coaster can sign the petition on the group’s website, http://www.savecolossus.com. The group hopes to obtain 1,000 signatures before the ride’s Aug. 16 close date.

 

The drive’s member base consists of less than 200 people hailing from California, Montana, Washington D.C., and even places as far away as Russia. Patti is among the Washington, D.C., enthusiasts.

 

“There is an enormous amount of power in a group of people coming together for a cause,” said Patti.

 

“Save Colossus!” fellow co-founder and Montana resident Matt Glumac said Colossus is among the most filmed roller coasters in the world.

 

“It has premiered all over film and television for years, so it is easily one of the most famous,” said Glumac.

 

Glumac also said that wooden roller coasters like Colossus are marvels of science and engineering, and they should be preserved because of that.

 

Many of the group’s members have a personal connection to the ride.

 

“I met my girlfriend of three years so far working at Six Flags, and Colossus is a very special place to both of us,” said Valencia resident and “Save Colossus!” member Ryan Osborne. “It is an iconic roller coaster that should never be torn down. It should only be restored.”

 

Six Flags Magic Mountain is mindful of this effort.

 

“We’re thrilled that so many people are as passionate about Colossus as we are at Six Flags Magic Mountain,” said spokeswoman Sue Carpenter. “We think they’ll love what we have planned for the future.”

 

The firm has offered no details about what will take the place of Colossus.

 

One tactic that “Save Colossus!” used was “Phone-‘Em-Up Friday,” a designated day dedicated to calling influential individuals about their concerns.

 

According to the cause’s website, they recently called the office of L.A. County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. The website’s administrator said he spoke “at length” with field deputy Dave Perry.

 

While the website suggests that Perry lent a sympathetic ear to the cause, Perry deferred comment in a phone call Monday.

 

The group has also called the offices of Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste, Patti said, adding that he received no response. Six Flags Magic Mountain is not in the city.

 

“Six Flags is a private business, and that’s a matter for them to consider,” city spokesman Evan Thomason said when asked about the calls.

 

The protesters are also planning to target Assemblyman Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, and state Sen. Steve Knight, R-Lancaster.

 

“I’m on the side of business, and if closing Colossus means making more money, then I think they should go ahead and close it,” Knight said.

 

“If we’re not able to save it, we’ll have to accept whatever outcome will come of it,” Patti said.

 

Others, however, were not so calm.

 

“You can never be forgiven for closing Colossus,” said Glumac.

 

The Signal

 

So these people want to "keep Colossus running in the state it was first made" apparently not knowing that it has been heavily modified since it first opened because it was literally tearing itself apart. They also claim to want to keep Colossus running in its current state. I can't help but wonder if they mean its current state of disrepair, current state of looking badly, rotted, under-maintained, etc. Is that they state they mean? Then, I have to conclude none of these people have ever heard of Rocky Mountain Construction, or what RMC has done for other large classic woodies like Texas Giant or Rattler because I really can't believe they'd actively choose the rotten, rundown, old & busted Colossus over those.

 

But, the SFMM spokeswoman did say “We’re thrilled that so many people are as passionate about Colossus as we are at Six Flags Magic Mountain. We think they’ll love what we have planned for the future.” which indicates there IS a future for either the ride, the ride's plot, or both. What does it mean? Who knows.

 

For now, let's all get on board with the Keep Colossus Running Terribly! campaign.

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