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The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread


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SFMM has a hard time hiring employees. Fright Fest is extremely understaffed even on Saturdays. They also have signs all over the park saying to apply because they don’t get enough applicants during the Fall, Winter, and Spring operating months.

 

That's the consequence of intentionally primarily hiring high schoolers on summer break because they accept being paid next to nothing for labor-heavy positions nobody else would accept that wage for. The Santa Clarita area has incredibly low unemployment right now. The high schoolers are in school, and there isn't hardly anybody else around who would accept what little SFMM offers.

 

Come on, minimum wage in LA county for companies with more than 25 employees is currently $13 an hour. They have to be paying that at least!

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Currently employees at Six Flags Magic Mountain get paid at least $13.25 (LA County minimum wage), which ironically is more than what base employees at Knott's make, and was more than what base Disney employees made (pre union CBA ratification).

 

I won't get into a debate on what necessitates higher than minimum wage/what a skilled vs unskilled job is, but I will say this: Magic Mountain has a huge employee culture problem. Clearly that problem does not affect the business model Six Flags is pursuing however, so until it does it will be business as usual.

 

It is what it is.

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Come on, minimum wage in LA county for companies with more than 25 employees is currently $13 an hour. They have to be paying that at least!

 

Very few SFMM front line employees work full time, and the above mentioned employee culture problem is rather well known. All these things contribute to a result of SFMM having a hard time hiring employees.

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Come on, minimum wage in LA county for companies with more than 25 employees is currently $13 an hour. They have to be paying that at least!

 

Very few SFMM front line employees work full time, and the above mentioned employee culture problem is rather well known. All these things contribute to a result of SFMM having a hard time hiring employees.

 

Magic mountain just doesn’t offer anything competitive for entry level jobs when it comes to benefits. Many other entry level service jobs offer stuff like tuition reimbursement, health insurance if you stick around, paid time off, annual raises, and so on...magic? Free park tickets is all they offer.

 

That being said, their business model works for them. So long as they can stay away from running up massive debts again, they’ll stay a successful company.

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Even worse, employees don't get any holiday pay at all.

 

This December 25th will be the first time the park has been open on Christmas day (that I know of) and quite a few supervisors and managers are already expecting there to be massive callouts. Should make for an interesting day...

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Even worse, employees don't get any holiday pay at all.

 

This December 25th will be the first time the park has been open on Christmas day (that I know of) and quite a few supervisors and managers are already expecting there to be massive callouts. Should make for an interesting day...

 

If I'm on schedule I shall be there as I been there done that Christmas day stuff. It will be drop dead slow early but should pickup around 2 as people look for crapola to do. And the park is open until 9pm. Maybe I could do a give away of a comp ticket on that day if I have any left.

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Even worse, employees don't get any holiday pay at all.

 

This December 25th will be the first time the park has been open on Christmas day (that I know of) and quite a few supervisors and managers are already expecting there to be massive callouts. Should make for an interesting day...

 

Holiday pay isn't a thing? Maybe I'm wrong but I could swear I got time and a half when I worked on Thanksgiving. Then again it has been like 15 years since I worked at the park, so it's completely possible I'm wrong.

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Even worse, employees don't get any holiday pay at all.

 

This December 25th will be the first time the park has been open on Christmas day (that I know of) and quite a few supervisors and managers are already expecting there to be massive callouts. Should make for an interesting day...

 

Holiday pay isn't a thing? Maybe I'm wrong but I could swear I got time and a half when I worked on Thanksgiving. Then again it has been like 15 years since I worked at the park, so it's completely possible I'm wrong.

Nope! Maybe it was a while ago, but not anymore. It's the only theme park in the LA area that doesn't pay holiday pay.*

 

*The only hourly employees at Magic Mountain that holiday pay are the full time union maintenance workers. Even the non full time union workers don't get it.

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I just recently got back from my Columbus Day Weekend trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain. All the coasters were running like I remembered, and Riddler's Revenge was a new credit to me, as it was still being re-painted during my last visit. I still haven't ridden Apocalypse yet, however, because of the construction... maybe the third visit I'll finally get the credit? Anyways, Riddler's Revenge was awesome. I was pleasantly surprised especially after the last couple Stand-Ups I've ridden. I didn't ride Goliath though because of how horrible and slow the operations were. The longest I waited was 75 minutes to get one of the last rides of the night on Tatsu.

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I was there the night of the SpaceX launch and took a few pics of it as well. Very trippy to see, and, at first, it was hard to wrap your head around what you were looking at.

 

IMG_0098.thumb.jpeg.c29468641dea45dc6fe0c2978476313d.jpeg

SpaceX over SFMM

 

SFMM really upped their game this year over last year's haunt. I took a ton of pics and will try to post them soon, but Condemned was a notable step up in quality.

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Anyone else having problems getting the reserved parking vouchers. I'm trying to reserve parking for tomorrow (10/12) and everything goes through and I'm confirmed. I go to print the voucher and it shows "Reservation Error #1: Unable to find confirmation voucher", even though I have a confirmed reservation. I just ended up canceling the reservation since I have nothing to show at the park.

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Anyone else having problems getting the reserved parking vouchers. I'm trying to reserve parking for tomorrow (10/12) and everything goes through and I'm confirmed. I go to print the voucher and it shows "Reservation Error #1: Unable to find confirmation voucher", even though I have a confirmed reservation. I just ended up canceling the reservation since I have nothing to show at the park.

I haven't bothered using it yet because you have to do it by 5am, and usually when I go it's kind of a spur of the moment thing

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Would anyone be down to go to the park on Saturday? I flew into LAX this evening and was supposed to go with someone who lives in the area, but he cancelled on me last minute. I am staying at the Double Tree by Hilton in Culver City - 6161 W. Centinela Ave. If anyone could go and would be willing to pick me up in the morning outside the hotel that'd be great and would mean a lot to me. I was hoping to leave a little before 9. My intention of flying down was to process my 2019 season pass at the park, so I can get the gold upgrade. By the way, I also won two free tickets earlier this year and brought those with me, so admission would be free. Lastly, I can be reached by phone as well. My # is (650) 787-4572. Thanks. *I would be wearing a Polo t-shirt.*

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What color polo shirt?

 

At the park to process the pass and have some fun... We are counting Superman, ninja, revolution, apocalypse, lantern, lex Luther, viper all down. Justice league opened half way thru the day. Yeesh! Half the coaster line up!

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Would anyone be down to go to the park on Saturday? I flew into LAX this evening and was supposed to go with someone who lives in the area, but he cancelled on me last minute. I am staying at the Double Tree by Hilton in Culver City - 6161 W. Centinela Ave. If anyone could go and would be willing to pick me up in the morning outside the hotel that'd be great and would mean a lot to me. I was hoping to leave a little before 9. My intention of flying down was to process my 2019 season pass at the park, so I can get the gold upgrade. By the way, I also won two free tickets earlier this year and brought those with me, so admission would be free. Lastly, I can be reached by phone as well. My # is (650) 787-4572. Thanks. *I would be wearing a Polo t-shirt.*

 

Dang, what an awesome meet up that would've been! I'da helped if I saw your message and was in the area. I'm 5 hours away. Sorry your +1 flaked.

 

I hate when that happens. Hope you went anyway. An X2 ride would have been a MUST RIDE.

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Here's a trip report for this past Saturday. I did Crazanity for the first time and thought it had incredible speed and weightlessness. I thought it was a bit better than the comparable ride Wonder Woman at Discovery Kingdom. Lex Luthor was down until 4 something in the afternoon because of an issue with the tower. The New Revolution didn't open until later in the day, while Superman was down all day. While waiting in line for Tatsu at night, the ride experienced a delay in operations.

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^I agree. I went to Fright Fest for the first time on Sunday and was really impressed. The mazes were way higher quality than I was expecting and the crowds were much smaller than Knott's.

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^I agree. I went to Fright Fest for the first time on Sunday and was really impressed. The mazes were way higher quality than I was expecting and the crowds were much smaller than Knott's.

Six Flags Magic Mountain's Fright Fest operates on a tick tock capex cycle, pretty much mirroring their ride capital expansion plans. One year is a big investment year and the next year isn't.

 

You happened upon Fright Fest on a good year. This is the first year the park has had real capital money for Fright Fest since 2014. Granted 2016 was supposed to be a big year with Aftermath 2, but the maze went wildly overbudget, wasn't completed, and flopped. Thankfully the Suicide Squad promotion via Warner Brothers was greenlit at the last minute.

 

This year saw a significant improvement in mazes which really elevates the event. Two new high budget mazes replaced Toyz of Terror (Condamned) and Dead End (Sewer of Souls). Vault 666 got a reskin for a movie tie in (Hell Fest) and they also added new scare zone in Metropolis for the second year in a row. It also saw the removal of Chupacabra (finally).

 

The issue remains however that next year will (most likely) have a limited budget so there will be nothing notably improved for the event until 2020. When you're operating on a biannual investment cycle and that big investment misfires (Aftermath) it leads to stagnation for a few years. Unfortunately in a market that has two of the biggest and most well known Halloween events in the U.S. and plenty of other well done scares, it's hard to stay relevant. I really hope the park finally considers making Fright Fest a separate ticketed event in the future to drive more revenue and actually justify a bigger budget, there's just so much potential...

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