The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[Jew]

The Funtime Starflyer has a similar ladder design that also doesn't meet Cal OSHA standards. This is why we won't be seeing a Funtime ride in California anytime soon.

 

I guess you missed the Funtime Starflyer that SFDK has been operating since 2011.

 

They must have applied for the waiver. Knott's could have done so too but they can take years to get approved and Cedar Fair didn't want to wait. I guess MM could do apply for the wavier as well, but they have become so focused on coasters that other thrills have overlooked.

 

There is no waiver. The applicable General Industry Safety Order from CalOSHA banning single rail ladders did not apply until March 2012. So all rides built prior are grandfathered in so long as they met the code at the time of their inspection.

 

However, once KBF voluntarily brought ride inspectors in (they didn't have to have them inspect since there were no injuries)...chances of KBF passing their annual inspection were probably very slim once they noticed the ladder, especially if the ladder played a role in the delay in getting riders down because technicians couldn't work quickly enough.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there is a manufacturer out there that could incorporate a two rail ladder into their design to get the business of SFMM if SFMM wanted to purchase a starflyer style ride.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Jew

[coasterlvr]

I'm at the park today. in line for revolution now. it's painfully slow.

[coasterlvr]

I'm at the park today. in line for revolution now. it's painfully slow.

[Guy T. Koepp]

^Is it busy in the rest of the park?

[Arthur_Seaton]

in line for revolution now. it's painfully slow.

Both the line and the ride now seem painfully slow to me

[coasterlvr]

I'm at the park today. in line for revolution now. it's painfully slow.

[coasterlvr]

^Is it busy in the rest of the park?

 

we just did rev but the parking was just the first section. so I'd say it's dead. going to other areas now and I'll see

[CedarFlags]

I had kind of an oddball idea that sounded impractical at first, but actually keeps getting better the more I think of it. Regarding YOLO's terrible capacity.

 

While riding yesterday, I was like "ugh, my legs are feeling really smushed and I have to wait another minute for them to send the train in the station so I can get out." Then when I did get out, I thought "Geez, Premiere, could you make your trains any harder to get into/out of? No wonder your capacity sucks." Then the two thoughts came together and....

 

What if they retrofitted the holding block into an unload platform? The train has to park there for 30-45 seconds anyways. When you think about how much time it takes for people to just stand up and walk out, the unloading train would be empty by the time that the one in the station was ready to launch probably 90% of the time. The second launch already acts as a block brake in case the unloading train isn't clear, and the two platforms would have direct line of sight for communicating any reasons to hold operations (guests in wheelchairs who need extra time, stuck restraints, etc). It could even work as a means to pre-load guests in wheelchairs, so they never have the navigate the tight quarters of the current station. Not having the load vs unload cross traffic at the station could probably shave 20 or 30 seconds off the dispatch time and get the ride up to a respectable capacity. They could perhaps bypass it on slow or one train days when they don't have the demand or the staffing.

 

It would probably be prohibitively expensive to construct it as a retrofit, but it seems like something that should have been a no-brainer for the folks who do this stuff for a living.

[thrillseeker4552]

I had kind of an oddball idea that sounded impractical at first, but actually keeps getting better the more I think of it. Regarding YOLO's terrible capacity.

 

While riding yesterday, I was like "ugh, my legs are feeling really smushed and I have to wait another minute for them to send the train in the station so I can get out." Then when I did get out, I thought "Geez, Premiere, could you make your trains any harder to get into/out of? No wonder your capacity sucks." Then the two thoughts came together and....

 

What if they retrofitted the holding block into an unload platform? The train has to park there for 30-45 seconds anyways. When you think about how much time it takes for people to just stand up and walk out, the unloading train would be empty by the time that the one in the station was ready to launch probably 90% of the time. The second launch already acts as a block brake in case the unloading train isn't clear, and the two platforms would have direct line of sight for communicating any reasons to hold operations (guests in wheelchairs who need extra time, stuck restraints, etc). It could even work as a means to pre-load guests in wheelchairs, so they never have the navigate the tight quarters of the current station. Not having the load vs unload cross traffic at the station could probably shave 20 or 30 seconds off the dispatch time and get the ride up to a respectable capacity. They could perhaps bypass it on slow or one train days when they don't have the demand or the staffing.

 

It would probably be prohibitively expensive to construct it as a retrofit, but it seems like something that should have been a no-brainer for the folks who do this stuff for a living.

 

Very interesting idea. I could see this working if the stations are connected, that way loose articles can still be fetched (unless they say no loose articles on the ride at all, like MF or TTD).

 

Unfortunately, SFMM doesn't seem to care much about the capacity of their rides, so they would rather use that money toward another coaster I'd presume.

[RandallDuell]

I'm at the park today. in line for revolution now. it's painfully slow.

 

Where are you today? And how is the line?

[Freestyle23]

Cool idea, but yeah SFMM doesn't care for capacity. X2 has an unused unloading platform that hasn't been used in forever, them not using both stations of Tatsu, Superman only running one side, rides only 1 train, etc. Having those extra employees and paying them is too much to ask. Only benefit I give them is like right now on slow days having all those extra employees when the park is empty doesn't make much business sense. And the park is open year round so at least we are lucky in that way.

[edgeboy]

I agree with all the above, except for the X2 unloading platform. I personally think they stopped using it because in that particular case, it actually is faster to load and unload at the same location. If you recall, when it was being used, the seats would tilt down to unload, then have to be titled back up to move forward to the load area, and then tilt back down yet again. It took forever. This way, it only has to tilt one time, which does speed things up a bit.

 

But yeah... I've though that both FT and TC would both benefit from an unload station. But like others have mentioned, I can't imagine it actually happening.

[coasterlvr]

so park was dead today. weather was perfect. a tiny bit windy up on drop of doom, but nothing closed because of it as far as i know. parking was a full first section and most all of the part in front of the picnic area.

superman line was just about to the end of the tunnel. revolution was roughly to the beginning of the incline. took a good 45 minutes to get on. first headset was too hot. second was good. my friends just didn't work. rode without, but they told us we can ride again. so after the first ride, got right back in line. 3rd headset for me went dead waiting. then the replacement was okay, but i couldn't get it to focus very well at all. so that was annoying. while waiting in line while on the bridge, at least a few people every train were being sent back to re-ride. they were also barely getting headsets back and cleaned in time. if they have what 250 headsets, they need 600. charge, cool down, clean, etc.

 

anyway, i thought the VR was cool. the video doesn't always replicate the physical movement exactly the same. like the turns or dives feel like the angle is off during some scenes. no sound is a bit of a bummer. i was at simulator city universal a couple weeks ago, so maybe i'm just spoiled. although i didn't ride without, my friend did, and revolution is so slow, i can see it being way better with the VR. probably ride it another time with a buddy i go with a lot, but after that, if the line is as long as it was today, to me, it's not worth waiting for. the area looks great as many have said.

 

i have to say, today i noticed some great employees. like someone said earlier, the TC crew was hustlin'. got a near dual duel, but the lifts just seem like they need some adjustments. encouragement given to the GP while boarding, and countdown to duel or not. i think some has to do with it being off season, they have the more seasoned, serious, crew in place these days? i dunno, non of the employees looked familiar but were great.

 

superman, revolution, goliath...all had crews that weren't messing around.

 

anyway, had a great time today.

 

 

 

oh yeah, these guys got the boot for something. there were like 3 other staff there also. toward the bottom of the hill by the carousel they were talking crap as they were being escorted out. i get a kick out of guys getting booted for doing something wrong.

[MagicMountainMan]

I had kind of an oddball idea that sounded impractical at first, but actually keeps getting better the more I think of it. Regarding YOLO's terrible capacity.

 

While riding yesterday, I was like "ugh, my legs are feeling really smushed and I have to wait another minute for them to send the train in the station so I can get out." Then when I did get out, I thought "Geez, Premiere, could you make your trains any harder to get into/out of? No wonder your capacity sucks." Then the two thoughts came together and....

 

What if they retrofitted the holding block into an unload platform? The train has to park there for 30-45 seconds anyways. When you think about how much time it takes for people to just stand up and walk out, the unloading train would be empty by the time that the one in the station was ready to launch probably 90% of the time. The second launch already acts as a block brake in case the unloading train isn't clear, and the two platforms would have direct line of sight for communicating any reasons to hold operations (guests in wheelchairs who need extra time, stuck restraints, etc). It could even work as a means to pre-load guests in wheelchairs, so they never have the navigate the tight quarters of the current station. Not having the load vs unload cross traffic at the station could probably shave 20 or 30 seconds off the dispatch time and get the ride up to a respectable capacity. They could perhaps bypass it on slow or one train days when they don't have the demand or the staffing.

 

It would probably be prohibitively expensive to construct it as a retrofit, but it seems like something that should have been a no-brainer for the folks who do this stuff for a living.

 

While a great idea, that block is also the turntable (or whatever it's called) for the storage track.

 

And for those of you that are lucky enough to have the time right now, the park is DEAD on weekdays. Especially Tuesday through Thursday. I'm talking like maybe 3,000 people in the park which is nothing. I might have to get out there myself and ride a few rides.

[MrSum1_55]

Separate unload platforms work very well if and only if there is a surplus of trains on the track, and at least one more train than can fit on the circuit/ single station at a time. For this reason, an unload platform on TC would actually slow down dispatch times. This is because, in order for it to race, the following train cannot stack on the final block for very long. That time would only be lengthened if it had an unload platform there. Now, if they were to put in an unload platform, AND also decided to run four trains instead of three, that would be perfect.

 

Millennium Force is the perfect example of when an unload platform works. It was designed to run three trains, but there are no mid-course blocks, so the next train cannot be dispatched until the previous train is near the end of the course. You would expect a coaster like this to run two trains. But, it has a third train so one can unload while another is loading. This works well then they are running three trains. However, when they are only running two trains, the unload platform can slow down the loading, because it takes the coaster longer to unload and load than a single station would.

 

Basically, unload stations work great, but only if there are so many trains on the track that a train is guaranteed to stack for an extended period of time even if the ride is running at full capacity. So, an unload station would not help on TC unless they added an extra train. Now an unload station might help on Full Throttle. In theory, this seems like a very bad coaster to put an unload station on, as these are almost never helpful if the coaster runs only two trains. However, dispatches on Full Throttle are usually so slow that an unload platform might help. An unload platform would also help on Xcelerator, if it actually ran two trains. (But the last time I saw Xcelerator run two trains was October 2013, so that would not help at all).

[Arthur_Seaton]

and revolution is so slow, i can see it being way better with the VR.

Bizarre, isn't it? I thought I was just misremembering it at first, but I know that ride pretty well as I always used to ride it when at the park, and I still can't figure out why it feels that slow and sluggish now. Train weight? Over-active trims? Even though I've no interest in VR myself, it does seem that the slower ride will allow for a less nauseating experience. And yes, the broken and malfunctioning headsets was also happening when I rode Shockwave. That's largely what was causing the 5+ minute dispatches: people couldn't get their headsets to stay on their heads or focus, and then it seemed like at least one would break for every train causing the ops to have to replace it before the ride started. I saw several people arrive back in the station complaining that their screen shut down midway through the ride as well.

 

TC ops at SF have been pretty great since the ride opened, I find. I also find that most of the staff at the park are consistently on-the-ball, but the TC crew are always especially great.

[Superbatboy]

Looks like they tore up some more stuff lol.

 

I find it odd they're starting this early for a 2017 attraction...

[fpsphil]

Reading these reports of fast TC operation makes me think someone finally read my surveys that I always put in caps to improve TC operations.

[coasterlvr]

Reading these reports of fast TC operation makes me think someone finally read my surveys that I always put in caps to improve TC operations.

 

as far as my report, let me also say that pretty much every train also had empty seats. another thing i noticed today was, not a lot of sports bottles. less GP holding stuff up. but the ride operators were definitely hustling back to their stations for the all clear regardless.

 

also noticed the higher than normal enthusiasm when returning to the station on all the coasters i rode today.

[xXxVekoma420xXx]

These Twisted ballossus ops lately have been HELLA gucci.

[coasterlvr]

These Twisted ballossus ops lately have been HELLA gucci.

 

i'm guessing the 420 is in full effect.

[SimiGeek]

From the newsletteR: THE FLASH Pass Gold just got better with the addition of Twisted Colossus and Full Throttle!

 

Looks like a much better deal given that Full Throttle has the longest and slowest moving lines and TC is just awesome! surprised there is still no x2 (w/o surcharge) I would think TC would be longer lines .

[thrilladdict]

This is just a wild guess but maybe the park uses that extra X2 revenue directly for it's maintenance. We all know that ride has a massive budget all its own... if the park can get people to pay specifically to ride X2 a certain amount of times per day it could help a lot w/ its upkeep. I'll admit that I paid up when I went just to increase my chances that I'd get on it during my visit.

[coneyislandchris]

From the newsletteR: THE FLASH Pass Gold just got better with the addition of Twisted Colossus and YOLOcoaster!

That's excellent news! Those were two of my favorites when I visited last month, and sadly didn't get to ride them more than twice apiece. Glad to hear that you westcoasteners will get to take advantage of this.

[CoastersOnly]

It's definitely the best time of year to go to the park. We only go to Magic Mountain once whenever we have the season passes (we live in Norhtern California) and we make a two day trip out of it in the first week in May on weekdays.

 

That time period smushed between Spring Break and Summer is an absolute dead zone. When we went two years ago, our second day (a Thursday) there was an interview given to us about whether we planned on riding Gold Rusher and Ninja (we had ridden every coaster the previous day with the exception of Revolution which was down and the two kiddie ones where you need a child to ride - Canyon Blaster and Magic Flyer). Anyway, the woman giving the survey noted that there were only 1500 people in the park the previous day. And guess what? Thursday was even more dead for us. How dead? Goliath was running only one train and there were so few people that they were letting anyone stay in their seats and ride it for as long as they wanted. We rode it three times towards the back. I blacked out a little you-know-where near the end of the ride on the second trip and then quite a bit on the third. Definitely had to sit down for like ten minutes after just to rest, but it was fun.

 

Anyway, Speedy Gonzalez coaster was being built last time and now there's Twisted Colossus and regular Batman instead of backwards versions of both (Batman backwards was terrible, Colossus backwards was ridiculously fun). My dream is to be able to go on one of these dead days and ride every coaster in a park where the total continues to inch higher about every couple of years. But I've never been successful since they usually shut a ride down for maintenance during that off-peak period or something goes haywire.

 

So, has anybody managed to get on all 18 of this checklist in one day before? It wouldn't shock me if nobody has done it now that the new version of the Revolution has only just opened up and during peak time to boot (Spring Break). It really takes a miracle day for there to be no crowds and every coaster running.

 

Every Coaster In One Day (18 Total Experiences):

 

The New Revolution (VR) - 2016, 1976

The New Revolution - 2016, 1976

Twisted Colossus - 2015

Speedy Gonzales Hot Rod Racers - 2014

Full Throttle - 2013

Green Lantern: First Flight - 2011

Road Runner Express - 2011

Apocalypse: The Ride - 2009

Tatsu - 2006

Scream! - 2003

X2 - 2002

Goliath - 2000

Riddler's Revenge - 1998

Superman: Escape from Krypton - 1997

Batman: The Ride - 1994

Viper - 1990

Ninja - 1998

Gold Rusher - 1971

 

Would like to know if there have been any ways you can ride either Canyon Blaster or Magic Flyer without kids. If I remember correctly, one is kids only and one only allows parents riding with children.

 

To me, I'd love to chuck in the drop ride (which always is part of the attempt) and the three water rides to be complete (just because they're more fun than most flats). My girlfriend will never ride Drop of Doom and she hates Riddler's Revenge saying it hurt her legs the last time she rode it, so I guess I might be embarking on this quest alone...of course, the mission is usually an automatic fail when you walk in the gate and see a sign stating that something is closed already.

Edited April 28, 2016 by CoastersOnly