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The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread


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IMO The 2009 coaster is a GCI. Companies always buy rides in bulk. They may not open at the same time and are hardly ever in the same park, but I would not be surprised to see something along the lines of an EK clone. I'm sure we're going to see some 2x4's show up in the overflow lot in December.

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^ I would be fine with a GCI, but I would really like to see a Intamin El Toro clone right where Psyclone used to be stretched all the way to about the end of Riddler's....that's my dream.

 

I like the idea of a refurbished Colossus but a total rebuild is out the question as well as a Speed Racer theme especially if it involves a name change. I think all Colossus needs is a paint job some lights and maybe some new trains and it will be fine.

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I think Colossus should remain the same, just fix it up a bit and have the two trains race. I don't think they should go the Speed Racer route. That would be a complete re-theme and after all, even though the movie is taking in a lot of money, it is still on its way to being a bust for the studio.

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Went yesterday. Something was going on with X2 so it took about an hour and half to ride. Then... our locker wouldn't open. The lady said they called the two people who would open them and that one of them was at Tatsu. We waited almost two hours... they never came. We finally opened the locker by pounding on it.

 

X2 was great and was very smooth to me.

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Funny tidbit about my visit to the park today...

 

We waited about 20 minutes or so to get on Riddler's Revenge. When we finally got on, the thing stalled like 10 feet up the lift. So we sat there 10 feet up on the lift, and easy stair climb down to the station. I thought we would be there for hours, but fortunately the ride started up after only a couple minutes. As we began climbing the lift hill again, the ride operator said "The train is off the tracks!" which was not a pleasant thing to hear at the time. Fortunately the ride went flawlessly after that little hiccup though.

 

Also, X2 had like a 2.5 hour line close to when the park opened. I saved it for later when I only had to wait about 45 minutes. That ride is AMAZING. I seriously love X2 a lotttttt.

 

I didn't ride Tatsu at all today because the line was also about 2 hours the entire day.

 

I also saw Jahan walking around the park, put 2 and 2 together with his TPR shirt and the glasses.

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Did a lap with Elissa, Mike, and KidTums today...

 

X2 was...X. The audio in the station made me want to punch whoever recorded it in the face. VERY annoying IMO. The music was just "ehh...whatever." I liked the talking on the lift. The only part that made any sense was the "goooinnng down." In the back row, you don't get to see the fire...you just feel it. So again, for me, it was "ehh...cool I guess." Fog was either off or completely disappated by the time the back row flies through. I had an outside seat...still pretty rough. I didn't find the new loading process to be that much more efficient...especially since the girl at the "troll" position opened the load gates, which apparently meant the exit gates can't open...so everyone was blocking the back row trying to exit. The crew was doing pretty good....I think we were only in the old unload area for like 30 seconds, if that.

 

Nothing horrible to report about the park, just some minor things. Tatsu was doing OK...2 1/2 to 3 minute dispatches. Still a lot of room for improvement, but not 12 minutes like my last visit! Half of Bunny World was closed when we wanted to take KT on rides (more specifically, the train and weather balloons...two rides KT pointed at) around 5:45-6ish. All the trash cans on the sidewalk in the parking lot were changed when we got there around 4:30, and the bags were all still there next to the cans when we left at 6:30.

 

The biggest downer was the change in policy on the teacups in bunny world: no one over 59 inches can ride. So not even I could take KT on them!

 

I was suprised the girl at the turnstile told me to have a magic day. That's a nice touch.

 

That's about it...back to the Laker game now!

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I'll add a quick TR too...

 

Park was clean, I was VERY happy to see them emptying trash cans on the walkway to the park from the parking lot. These are often overflowing and gross so it was a pleasant change!

 

X2 was dispatching GREAT! The line was just under 2 hours when we got there around 4:30pm. I seriously don't think they could do a better job dispatching with the way the ride is currently setup.

 

Tatsu was doing pretty well as usual, but pretty well for Tatsu is still light years behind where it should be.

 

There was some REALLY great merchandise at the Candy store, I will be buying a bunch of shirts next time I'm in the park. Just a heads up for anyone interested, there are a ton of great shirts in there (candy, soda, cereal related) that are a good quality and the same price you'll see in other stores. With your season pass discount it comes out even cheaper!

 

The boys rode Jetstream and KT and I watched and laughed!

 

KT LOVED seeing Coyote and Porky. I had to pull her away from them crying she loved them so much.

 

Walls are down at Thomas Town and I took a few photos on my phone that I'll post soon. Looks VERY nice, but small.

 

Like Joey mentioned the only bummer was going to Bugs Bunny World an hour before close and having KT point to the balloons and train, but both were closed. Then head over to the teacups to find out we can no longer accompany her on them. =(

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^As much as I want them to follow through and run three trains, I don't think it would help them operationally at all! They were doing everything they could, dispatching super fast, and because of the load/unload X stuff they just couldn't go any faster, and adding another train wouldn't do anything.

 

What I'd like is for them to at least have three operational trains and switch one out if there's a problem instead of going down to one train like they had in the past. From what I understand this is what they've been doing for the week the ride has been running with people. Someone said they watched them swap trains the other day when the music stopped on one.

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The road construction on The Old Road in front of Magic Mountain's entrance seems to be going well. That all is finally looking like something & should be pretty easy to move around once it's all finally done with.

 

I really feel sorry for the people trying to get to Magic Mountain by exiting I-5 south at Magic Mtn Pkwy and having to go through Tourney Rd w/ 2 left turns. Exiting Valencia Blvd isn't much better since you'd have to make a left off The Old Road in the middle of the construction when it funnels down to one lane. Bad bottleneck experience.

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Hey guys!

 

Not really an "Update" update, but an update none the less. I joined some friends for a lap around Magic today when I noticed that the Thomas Town walls were down! We're literally in the final countdown on the ride and it's finally starting to look like something.

 

By the way, we also queued for X2. While I had already been on the ride, I was actually interested and excited enough to queue again for it! The wait ended up being an hour, exactly as posted. And the line seemed to actually move! Like, it was tolerable. The TV sets in the queue were actually entertaining (every now and then you would a hear a large, "Oooooooooohh" from the crowd when the TVs showed someone falling off of a scooter or something...LOL.)

 

I rode in the back row, outside seat, and it was still a good ride. I will say the ride is "cooler" at night, but still enjoyed my day ride.

 

 

 

Anyway, I'm sure there's been enough pointless opinions about X2, so onto some photos...

 

 

-Jahan

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Finally, I'll leave you with a photo of X2's queue, to prove that I waited an hour for something at SFMM! I do enjoy the ride!

 

...not as cool as Tatsu or Goliath, though. =D

 

 

Thanks for readin! Now that school is out, there should be more legitimate "Updates" in the future!

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The SkyTower FINALLY has a sign at the entrance of the ride!!!

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The "smoking areas" have now been further restricted from "general vicinities" to "stay between the blue lines or else we'll make you watch the 'More Flags More Fun' commercials on a loop!!!".

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The grave site of Spinout has been fenced off, to hide the utlities and "off limits" area behind it. Also note the new hi-tech advertising platforms on the left. Complete with color scrolling adds and a "ticker" scroll, on the top.

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The Batman show is back!!! Limited showings during the weekdays, obviously, but packed mulitple-showings on the weekends.

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Onto a couple of other things, the "Ride the Mountain" skateboard shows are coming back.

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A terrible shot of Percy on the Goliath Jr. track.

 

I will say, however, that despite the size, Thomas Town is looking like one of the more "clean", "aesthetically pleasing", and "nice, quiet, family-oriented" areas of the park. A welcomed addition, no doubt.

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The entrance to the "town". The town is admittedly small--probably too small to be considered a "themed land", in my opinion. It's smaller than "a bugs land" in DCA.

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The station, complete with shameless giftshop...VERY Disney, might I add. =D

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A look over towards Cranky the Crane and the attraction (complete with the Tidmouth Shed) in the background.

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Ooooooooh! The walls are down! Check out Thomas Town!

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Wow, lots of folks at SFMM yesterday... I'm surprised I didn't run into any of you (Though I may have and not known it!)

 

I was there the whole day and had a few observations, surprisingly some that have not yet been covered.

 

Before I get to those, I'd like to throw my opinion of X2 into the mix, I -LOVED- it. It has instantly turned into the marquee ride that it should have been. This is the first time I have ever been to a six flags where I had a 'ride experience'. From the start of the line to the end of the ride, you experiencing the ride. The music is a huge addition in my opinion. I won't ruin the surprise for you, but it is synchronized to the ride. I thought that it would just play random songs because... well that's just the six flags way. Instead it is timed up to the elements of the ride as you go along, and wraps things up for you at the end. VERY cool. Almost Disney-esque (as in Rockin Roller Coaster). I will say I didn't see the fog except for when I was looking for it in the raven turn, but I did see the fire and I was in the back row. You definitely feel it first though.

 

I am the wrong person to talk to about how rough X is, because I never thought it was that bad. Viper gives me trouble, and Psyclone was pretty bad, but you have to get as bad as the Predator at Darien Lake (anybody else here been on that?) before I'll start avoiding a ride. Still, I didn't think X was bad at all. I was on the outside row in the back.

 

The video in the queue is a great addition, and was very entertaining. The only problem is it loops after around 25-30 minutes and you can pretty much bank on the line being longer than that. We also had some technical issues with the TVs in the main switchback area. One was out completely and the other 3 flickered quite a bit. All in all I am shocked to see production values this high from a Six Flags. I do worry that all these new doo-dads will be a maintenance nightmare and really hope that they make the investment to keep this ride running at its current level. It is absolutely superb.

 

Something worth noting: On a weekday SFMM still had security standing throughout the line watching for cutters and the like. The number of people required to staff X2 is extremely high... I can only imagine what the comparative running cost of this ride is with all the others once you figure in all the extra staff, fire, etc. I agree with folks that we will never see 3 trains on X. It is just a slow loading ride and that's that. I was timing the crew and they were getting dispatch times in the 2:45-3 minute range and the crew was hustling. The only 'wasted' time I could see was waiting for all the riders to get off and get OUT before opening the gates for the new folks. The ride also appeared to break down for a short period of time while I was waiting for it at around 6:30 or so. I saw a maintenance crew worker and a ride op in an orange vest walking around the stacked train with riders on it. A solid 10 minutes passed before the next train left, but it was up and running shortly after that.

 

That said, I did something I have NEVER done at SFMM yesterday... I rode X twice. In the morning when the park opened (30 minute wait) and in the evening at around 6 (45 minute wait). I know that the ride had a 2 hour wait at one point, but I can say with certainty it is loading faster. It's still a slow load, but they had decent sections of the queue full... sections I have seen empty for years... and had lines actually move. Were I to guess, I'd say that ride has about 1.35 times the capacity of the old X. The folks behind me actually said they decided to go on X because the line for Tatsu was too long.

 

Now, on to the observations from around the park.

 

The Laughing Dragon pizza place was getting a full sign renovation. There was a cherry picker up there yesterday with freshly painted letters (I only saw the ones for DRAGON ) on the ground and a crew starting to put them up on the building. So there you go, no new places up there but they ARE making an investment in the laughing dragon itself.

 

There is a construction wall up where Spinout used to be.

 

This could just be something I never noticed before, but when I was up on the lift on Goliath, I noticed one section of the colossus lift appeared to have new (newer?) red paint. As in, all of it was a very faded pink except for one strip 3/4ths of the way up that appeared darker red. Could be that I was just noticing something that has been there a long time, I was far away and didn't see it for long, but maybe someone who goes to MM can take a closer look next time.

 

My battles with the lockers continue. This time my complaint is with inconsistent rules. I won't get into it too much but I'll leave it by saying the only ride where lockers are REALLY required is Riddlers revenge. My guess is the other three deal with shoes so much that it doesn't really matter anyway.

 

Was disappointed to see only one train running on Colossus. That is just too long of a ride to only have one train going. 2 trains on batman, but 1 on Colossus? I don't get it.

 

Looks like Revolution's queue can use some love. The fake rocks have chicken wire showing through. Ditto the big fake tree. at first glance I thought they were simulating that tree fungus that grows on some, but it turned out it was just the foam rubber insides showing through the cracked body.

 

All in all a very successful trip.

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Oh! And one more small thing: I heard some GP behind me in line at one point say "Sucks that the tower is closed, I wanted to see that museum"

 

I can only assume that it was due to wind. While it is a shame the weather can't cooperate with you all the time, It is REALLY cool that Six Flags has made something that people really want to go check out up in that tower. Well done.

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I won't get into too much detail, but yesterday at the after hours employee event, 3 TRAINS WERE RUNNING ON X2!

 

IMHO, 3 trains is no better than 2 trains, but none the less there were 3!

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I won't get into too much detail, but yesterday at the after hours employee event, 3 TRAINS WERE RUNNING ON X2!

 

IMHO, 3 trains is no better than 2 trains, but none the less there were 3!

 

So were there 2 trains consistently stacked when you were up there? At the campout I really think it was apparent that 3 trains would only be run for the sake of running three trains. Unless they start hitting the guests with a water cannon I don't see how they can get the unloading riders out fast enough to make it work.

The downside to three trains is that the back train will be sitting out in the sun for at least 2 minutes. The middle train is under cover at least. We sat under the cover for almost 5 minutes one time and the seats are actually pretty comfortable in that position. Adding the sun beating down in July would probably make things much less comfortable.

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^ The solution to getting riders off faster so 3 train operation could be efficient is simple.

 

 

 

I'm sure there are various ways to getting the job done, but this seems so simple its a wonder MM didn't do something similar. I mean, they dropped $10,000,000 on new trains, wouldn't capacity to get those trains running be the next important thing? I don't think they would have even had to relocate the old loading gates.

 

I am impressed with how many of the trees were saved, and how they're organizing Thomas Town. With the walls now down, I can't wait to check it out next week when I go to the park!

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^ While I'm sure you could absolutely do a better job than SFMM at anything they do, I sat outside my office where I have a view of the entire park and watched them cycle X2 trains every 2 to 3 minutes.

 

It would seem that, even though they didn't go with your suggestions, they are doing a MUCH better job of dispatching trains than they did before.

 

So I'm going to make the assumption that these guys at least have some idea of what they are doing.

 

--Robb "I'm pretty sure there were a couple of 90 second dispatches in there too..." Alvey

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I got taken to the x2 employee day and it was freaking awesome! I can't thank my friend enough. The music kick a$$ and it really was something to remember, this isn't advertised correctly and the word of mouth will be amazing, I just hope they keep up the production quality because it was leads and supervisors operating the ride so we'll see if the rank and file can keep up with that, but still, I take back every doubting thing I said this year. Can't wait for the next coaster if they keep up this level of show quality.

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^^^^ Iam sure you have a plan to solve world hunger, California traffic, and how to get rid of wrinkles but nobody will listen. Its a shame because its seems you have all the answers to questions us humans have been searching for since the beginning of time....wait, are you the second coming of Christ?? I knew this website was going to change my life.

 

I seen this grade school drawing two pages ago and it was totally laughable then and even more now and if fact is a insult to SFMM and all of us here as well. They don't need help running there business, especially from some kid from the OC. They proved to me and most of us here that they are doing a fantastic job turning this park around, but some people (Pure) cant be pleased or they (Pure) just don't want to be pleased.

 

Sorry for the personal attack, but I HATE YOUR READING YOUR POST. There all the same "Iam smarter then you, negative, negative, negative, condescending" with a twist of positive at the end.

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^ I really don't think that was called for. Lay off the guy, nothing in his post bothered me. What's wrong with posting our thoughts, ideas and suggestions?

 

I'm looking forward to riding X again, especially now with the sexy new paint job! Three more weeks!

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Can't they put up signs telling people that to speed up the line they have to exit faster? People will listen, who likes long lines? Maybe the general public doesn't understand how these types of things really work. Once you pull into the station for X2, the audio can be like someone screaming at you to get out faster. That may seem a little rude but it could be humerous, like what the ride operators say on The Jung Cruise at Disney Land.

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What's wrong with posting our thoughts, ideas and suggestions?

 

 

That's what Iam doing....I never said "don't post here" Iam just "posting my thoughts, ideas and suggestions."

 

Just because it didn't bother you doesn't mean it didn't bother me or anybody else for that matter.

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