The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[robbalvey]

^ Yes! The Soda Shack being open was Win #1 and them having Vault ICEE was Win #2!!! There needs to be more Vault ICEE in the park. (Marcia are you reading this?)

 

I did feel bad for the guy (Kurt was his name) because he was *REALLY* nice and helpful but he kept apologizing that he was out of stuff since it was his first day and didn't know who to call or when he'd get replacements of stuff.

 

Everything else was great, though. Parking lot staff was very efficient processing our parking pass, security got us through with the stroller quickly, we saw PSA (sweepers) everywhere and the midways looked very clean, 3 Point Challenge was *PACKED*, and overall though it was nice to see the park looking in top form after some very busy weeks.

 

--Robb

[upfrontjwash]

Soda Shack: the aforementioned friendly employee was in over his head. He said it was first day and they didn't train him at the location. He was out of water and pretzels. He said that he hadn't seen anyone in a few hours and that he was just hoping someone would come by to help him because he didn't know what to do.

 

Poor guy

[sns2015]

Just thought I'd let y'all know, X2 got a new logo..... again. It still has the volcanos, but it's different.

http://www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/X2.aspx

Anybody else notice that it seems that they changed it so that X2 no longer does Flashpass? I thought part of the station renovation was that they were going to implement Flashpass for X2, and now it seems that plan's gone to where the tunnels are.

[sfmmrules!]

I read on Screamscape that it sounds like SFMM is going to get something like the Steel Hawg Indiana Beach is getting this year. Theres a decription over at rcdb.com It sounds pretty awsome. I sure can't wait for both this year-X2 & next year!!!

[Jew]

^That is just speculation...

 

^^Perhaps it is because they won't have all three trains ready for the opening?

[PURE]

^Not having 3 trains on opening day like they said they would is strike one.

 

Nothing has been going on with the ride and improvements, from what I've seen. They were talking a month ago how they hadn't even decided what they were doing on the ride, tunnels or not. I don't know, as much as they sounded like they had a grasp on X2, no new trains arriving and a halt on the tunnels idea is not a good sign that things are going smoothly, in my opinion.

 

Soda Shack: the aforementioned friendly employee was in over his head. He said it was first day and they didn't train him at the location. He was out of water and pretzels. He said that he hadn't seen anyone in a few hours and that he was just hoping someone would come by to help him because he didn't know what to do.

 

Poor guy

 

Believe it or not this is very often how many of the employees at SF are trained and treated. Now think about it, they have foreign exchange students working at the park, and believe it or not, they're trained like this too. They sometimes can't even speak English, and this is not only at food places, this is on rides. The training and certification program at the park is embarrassing sometimes, and for some of the employees they just go with it and do the best they can do. Not good for a company trying to face lift its image.

 

Now this is a video I took of X2 testing on 3-12-08 (day of WCB) but it sucks. But maybe some of you will be happy to see it anyway. Sorry I got a new camera for christmas (Casio) and I thought it'd work great but the quality is nowhere what I wanted. That day I thought I'd get back around to shooting the testing later in the day, so my recording was very nonchalant.

 

[robbalvey]

Nothing has been going on with the ride and improvements, from what I've seen. They were talking a month ago how they hadn't even decided what they were doing on the ride, tunnels or not. I don't know, as much as they sounded like they had a grasp on X2, no new trains arriving and a halt on the tunnels idea is not a good sign that things are going smoothly, in my opinion.

Well, to be fair, WCB was March 9th. We know they were doing work and testing on it the following week (Tim rode it, rememebr) and then the next two weeks were a VERY busy Spring Break season for them.

 

Now that things will be slowing down again, it's time to see if things get back into gear.

 

It's only the first week of April. The ride isn't supposed to open until Memorial Day. That does leave quite a bit of time if things fall into place.

 

Let's see how things progress between now and the end of the month before passing a judgement that things aren't going well.

 

--Robb

[Jew]

^Not having 3 trains on opening day like they said they would is strike one.

 

Keep in mind that I was just guessing when I said that. I don't actually know if all three trains will be ready. There could be 50 other reasons for not having flashpass. Or it could be a mistake in the listing. Or just a temporary thing until they see what the actual numbers are with three trains. And so on.

 

I think it's a little early to be blaming the park for anything with a month still left to go before it is scheduled to open...

[PURE]

^Not having 3 trains on opening day like they said they would is strike one.

 

Keep in mind that I was just guessing when I said that. I don't actually know if all three trains will be ready.

 

I know. I didn't say they would or would not be ready either. I said if they don't have 3 trains like they said they would, it would not be a good representative to their word, meaning, if they can't keep this promise, whats to say they'll keep all the others?

 

That does leave quite a bit of time if things fall into place.

 

Let's see how things progress between now and the end of the month before passing a judgement that things aren't going well.

 

I'm not passing judgement, I'm just saying what I see.

 

Now, I know many of us have been around long enough to see all the mistakes the park has made the past 15 years and all the promises broken, and that's why I'm beginning to get skeptical about these 2008 improvements. You say that leaves time IF things fall into place. What if they don't fall into place and something goes wrong? They're gonna be screwed because they waited to long.

 

I'm not saying the park has failed the improvements because nothing is going on, I'm just saying they're cutting it close by waiting till the last 2 months of the refurbishment to make decisions and get things into place to open. Doing it correctly to make it last for the long term means having it ready a month before it opens to work out the kinks, not opening it just as the ride is ready and having to deal with kinks while customers are in line.

 

I'm just playing devils advocate because to be honest, I don't have complete faith in everything the park says they're going to do. They've done it before, who's to say they won't do it again? We'll all know on Memorial Day weekend.

[nagro5]

^^^^It looks like it's going really slow. Is there something that they can do about that? I remember when Tatsu was testing they had to change the type of wheel to make it go slower. Can they change the type of wheel on X2 to make it go faster?

[SharkTums]

Posting from Cyber Cafe, while they make us some fresh mini-donuts! Yay! Although the music is MUCH too loud in here. Can't even talk or hear the person next to you.

 

Too hot and sunny to do a full lap today, but I did just use one of my MONDAY MADNESS Coupons from the Value Book for some cute shirts for KT!

 

Most rides look like they're running pretty well, only X and Riddlers on the closed list.

 

KT, Robb, and Mike rode the kiddie teacups. Before they rode some hooligan teenagers were riding and just jumped out of their cups before the cycle finished. Employee didn't do or say anything, kind of shocked. Then on the camp bus some woman went into the ride area to get her screaming kid while the bus was still going.

 

Bunny World is hard to run with all the kids and crazy parents, but these employees need to be more on their game!

[Jew]

^I wonder if you could find their supervisor hanging out in Sky Tower?

 

 

^^^I don't recall them ever promising to have three trains running by the time it re-opens. They just said it would have three trains and run all three, but I don't remember them giving a timeframe for that.

 

I personally won't fault them for only having two trains or still fine tuning any effects they add. Very few ride openings go according to plan. Very few rides are really 100% done when they open as well. There also hasn't been a ride I've worked on yet that hasn't ran into unexpected problems (or problems they found but haven't been able to troubleshoot---you posted about Tatsu yourself...), despite years of operation/test cycling. So I can live with that.

 

 

But at the end of the day, the reality is none of us really know what's up. There's 5,000,000 different things that could go wrong (or 5,000,000 different things on schedule that just don't show on the surface for that matter), 5,000,000 different vendors to blame it on, etc. And still a little over a month left to go. So there's really no reason to complain about any "broken promises" yet...

[vedved82491]

Mabe it's just me, but that video made it look like the train was craaaaaawling the circuit. I can't remember exactly how fast X originally went, but I think it went (or seemed to go) faster.

[Mechanic]

X2 does seem slow on the video. Does anyone know for sure how the cycle times of the new trains compare to the old ones? I believe Tim did address that issue during the tour at WCB, but I can't recall his answer.

[coasterjunkie91350]

Hey R&E so you guys were there today and did not stop by deja vu midway and say hello? And to think i was feeling a bit bored over there the area was dead so i left at 3pm and went and bought a shirt so i could go ride some coasters. Anyway next time you guys visit call me my cell number is in my profile

[costa425]

It may be me but I still think that they will add the tunnel for one reason...

ITS in the description on their website

Height Restrictions min. 48"

Ride Category Thrill

Flash Pass No

Trains NEW Completely redesigned, sleek trains

Features NEW Innovative, state-of-the-art visual, audio and sensory effects.

Top Speed 76 mph

Elevation 20 stories

Length 3,610 feet

Capacity 28

www.sixflags.com/magicMountain/rides/X2.aspx

[SharkTums]

^I don't see the word 'Tunnel' anywhere!

[costa425]

^I don't see the word 'Tunnel' anywhere!

 

But if there is no tunnel then what would satisfy "state-of-the-art visual, audio and sensory effects" on X2

[FeelTheFORCE]

^ The speakers they used on Scream plus some lights added here and there?

[ebl]

The "lighting effects" on Colossus are just a bunch of different colored lights that shine on it. The same could be true for X2.

 

Eric

[PURE]

^^^I don't recall them ever promising to have three trains running by the time it re-opens. They just said it would have three trains and run all three, but I don't remember them giving a timeframe for that.

 

Maybe someone else will side with me on this, because at WCB that's what they told us, and they held great pride in saying it over and over too--mostly because its never been done before.

 

^^^They can say they're going to do whatever they want, nothing says they have to follow through with any of it.

 

I'm telling ya people, they've done it over and over ever since I've visited or known the park. They build up rides and expectations whenever something new is happening and they make things sound better than they possibly can be, very rarely owning up to the promises.

 

They've already taken the tunnels away, I wouldn't be surprised if opening day gives us 2 trains with X2 looking exactly like it does now.

[trcg721]

There Still 1 and a half months left, lets not pass judgement yet until its closer to opening.

[robbalvey]

Maybe someone else will side with me on this, because at WCB that's what they told us, and they held great pride in saying it over and over too--mostly because its never been done before.

I too remember hearing that it was going to run three trains this summer, but I do not recall him saying they would be there for the opening.

 

I'm telling ya people, they've done it over and over ever since I've visited or known the park. They build up rides and expectations whenever something new is happening and they make things sound better than they possibly can be, very rarely owning up to the promises.

 

They've already taken the tunnels away, I wouldn't be surprised if opening day gives us 2 trains with X2 looking exactly like it does now.

 

Begin Rant -

 

You're just WANTING the park to fail aren't you? You're hoping for it...anxious for it. Pouncing on every little chance you get to take a stab and go in for the kill. There is a crew of really good people, some of who moved their lives to California, some of who have been there for years and are exciting about the changes, and they are all working day and night to change that park around to improve the quality of your visit and you're just dying for them to screw something up so you jump in and beat them up aren't you?

 

Honestly, that just really sucks.

 

For the first time in many years you have a team of people at that park who actually seem to CARE. And you know what, maybe they won't get 3 trains on X2 for opening. Maybe it won't have tunnels. Maybe you'll see an overflowing trashcan here or there...

 

None of that really matters. Because you know what the park has now?

 

ENTHUSIASM! New for 2008! And from the top! And that is FAR more important to me than a tunnel on any coaster.

 

I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm just really sick of your "anti-SFMM" attitude.

 

It's one thing to have an opinion and voice it. Fine. It's one thing to skeptical of the new management and their promises. Fine.

 

But it just seems like you have some vendetta against the park because you didn't have a good experience working there and the park hasn't met your expectations over the past few years.

 

And no matter how much they are showing improvements, you'll find the smallest negative point and try to explode it into something in an effort to make this management seem no better than the past.

 

It's a different day for SFMM now and like it or not, they are improving and the management does care. However based on your comments I don't think they will ever do anything to please you completely.

 

And that's fine. Just please don't come here and try to convince everyone that your opinions are fact based on your past employment from years ago because I think it's pretty clear that the new management is going to do everything they can to turn the park around.

 

And if that's not your intention, it's absolutely how you're coming across. At least to me. If I'm out of line, someone please tell me, but it would seem to me that the thing that would excite you the most about Magic Mountain right now is if they failed. And that's just not what we promote on this site.

 

/end rant.

 

--Robb

[arrowfanman]

PURE, according to the maintenance crew which handles Arrows, the park already has two trains. It is my understanding that the second train was assembled much more quickly than the first and the third train is expected to follow suit.

 

From everybody I've talked to working on the X project, they're very excited about the progress of the ride. I guarantee you that it'll be interesting to see what gets done in the next month and a half.

 

 

 

 

And for the record, about half of Thomas Town track appears to have already been laid with station foundations poured and scenic peices at the park awaiting installation.

 

 

-Jahan

[PURE]

^^Not at all Robb, you're making too much of it. Not only that you're taking it a little too personally as well...

 

I think if anyone wants the park to succeed, it's me. Seriously. I've stood up for the park since it was a sh*thole in the mid 90's, even when it was embarrassing and everyone else was talking about Cedar Fair. If anyones a SF fanboy, its me.

 

I'm just skeptical and I don't believe them anymore. I understand you have confidence in the park because of the improvements that are going on in the past 7 months, and I do too, but I'm not going to get excited for something that's not going to be there at the end of May.

 

I'll be the first to give them a round of applause on opening day if everything goes as planned, but until I'm there standing on the station platform actually seeing it with my eyes, I think I have every right to be a skeptic, without "wanting the park to fail."

 

Because that's just stupid.