The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[Jew]

What's the big deal with a phone being charged? Sure it might not be the best show having it visible, but it's certainly not the end of the world. I used the outlet at RRv to charge my phone too (but it was hidden).

 

I'd much rather have operators simply charging their phones over using them while working!

[Mr.Six]

Something like that would be nearly impossible to enforce. Not that I don't think its what the park need -- but realistically cell phones and other electronic gadgets shouldn't be an issue. They should be taken care of by the initiative of management, as low as leads. However I can tell you first hand no such initiative exists there, maybe a small handful. The proper course of action is strict discipline to violations of already in place rules.

 

An idea that I had once was some sort of a branch off of the safety department / security department that would patrol the midways and their sole purpose would be to keep up high show and safety quality. They would have say " jurisdiction " over all the departments and would work closely with HR. Hopefully the two could override any sort of lesser punishment that the individual's department would attempt to suggest. Again, this was just an idea that I had, but knowing the park's current budget struggle it somewhat makes this idea impossible. What's best for the park is that they keep on the direction that they've been going on hopefully somewhere down the line they'll be able to crack down on issues such as these.

 

-Mike

[CoasterGuy06]

If you make every employee go through a metal detector I bet they will all learn the same thing as the employees I worked for did: your belt buckle will set it off every time, so they would just hide it behind their buckle. And when you have tons of employees showing up at the same time, how do you get them checked in a timely fashion?

[ebl]

"...as visible on that station as the interlocking corkscrews...whoops. I said I wouldn't say which ride." (Bolliger&Mabillard)

 

I don't see any problem with the crew at Colossus with using their phones.

 

Eric

[Top Thrill Dragster]

If you make every employee go through a metal detector I bet they will all learn the same thing as the employees I worked for did: your belt buckle will set it off every time, so they would just hide it behind their buckle.

 

How would they be able to hide a cell phone behind a belt buckle?

 

 

And if they were to make a policy that the employees would have to go through a metal detector, I would hope they enforce a policy that if you are caught with a cell phone, your fired.

[Jew]

Six Flags official policy has always been "no personal electronics."

 

And with that, going back to Jahan's post about the intent of the thread, I think it is time to end the discussion on "wild ideas" on how to fix this problem. We're beating a dead horse here. Yes it is a problem. Yes it should still be posted if/when you visit the park and notice. But we are quickly heading down the "locker discussion" road with this one with all the wild ideas being tossed around...

[SFMM162op]

The cell phone was as visible on that station as the interlocking corkscrews...whoops. I said I wouldn't say which ride. Oh well.

 

Ummm yeah I'm gonna have a few words with the people up there about it, especially when Ill be working and all off a sudden I see them hidden in a corner texting away. If I have to use my cell I go backstage where I can't be seen by guests. >_<

 

ADMIN EDIT: I already warned you once dude, PLEASE use proper capitalization and grammar! - Colin

[cooksta77]

Six Flags official policy has always been "no personal electronics."

 

And with that, going back to Jahan's post about the intent of the thread, I think it is time to end the discussion on "wild ideas" on how to fix this problem. We're beating a dead horse here. Yes it is a problem. Yes it should still be posted if/when you visit the park and notice. But we are quickly heading down the "locker discussion" road with this one with all the wild ideas being tossed around...

 

Yep You are right we don't want another 14 page disscussion that can be disscussed in 2 or 3 pages! Lets get off the subject! Cell Phones are a problem at the park! What can we do?

[Guest]

SFGAm used to not allow employees to bring in phones to work up until 2007. They have metal detectors and people with phones were sent back to store it in their car, if they didnt have a car they were not allowed to work. You would NEVER see a phone being used by an employee. They changed the rule in 07 and now ive seen it almost every time ive gone(not that their employees are blantly obvious like SFMM's, but they're out there nonetheless).

[glennborthwick]

lo-q who run qbot system are advertising for managers for flashpass so you are getting the electronic qbots for next year

[trcg721]

My phone broke from leaving in the car because of the heat.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

I went to the park yesterday. Walking through Thomas Town, I had a thought, "will we see any future additions to this themed area?" I hope to see the park expand this area. 2-3 million bucks could buy a lot of stuff out of Zamperlas catalogue of flats.

[Atarashiihito]

I went to the mountain this last Thursday, my first time since about 2002-ish.

 

A lot has changed since then. A lot of it, in my opinion, was bad. Magic Mountain should not be building a new roller coaster for about a good solid 5-10 years. All the coasters they have now are solid, and one can barely ride all of them in one day as it is. While the rest of the park is in drastic need of attention.

 

One of the biggest problems I saw was the ride operating staff for almost every ride. There was a major lack of concern or care for almost all of the ride attendants at the park. I saw so many ride attendants almost falling asleep, and barely checking restraints. Pretty much sleep-walking through theirs jobs. I think a good amount of money needs to go into better customer service and safety training for the ride ops. Also there was a huge lack of organization of the lines at every coaster in the park. SFMM needs to immediately adopt a Disneyland boarding assignment style before I ever go back to that park. One where an attendant stops the line before the lane assignments, and asks how many are in your party and then disperses you accordingly. Because without this, I saw rampant line cutting and general panic with parties trying to ride together. It was a total mess.

 

Along with this ride organization there needs to be a revamp of the Flash Pass system because it is completely broke. My family and I dropped about $80 for the Flash Pass, and only on Tatsu were the passes actually used. All of the other rides we used the Flash Pass line on, no one took our Flash Passes, and then we were just left to our devices to try to squeeze in to the lane assignments with park-goers that were angry at us that we basically got to cut in line for free.

 

Other than issues with the lines, there needs to be a revamp of a lot of the shops at SFMM. Many of the shops feel completely worn out and past its prime, which gives the park an atmosphere of slightly better than a ghetto. A ghetto with roller coasters pretty much.

 

It was a bit depressing. My family and I had a great time when we were on the roller coasters, but a quite abysmal time when not riding them, which was a good majority of the day.

 

Sorry for the rant, just thought I'd share my experience at the park.

[glennborthwick]

they are getting qbots next year

[wrs28330]

Is the Batman Movie Soundtrack music a thing of the past in Gotham City Backlot?

 

While walking through the park today, I noticed that things sounded quite a bit different in GCB. The more contemporary songs which can be heard around the park can now be heard in Gotham as well.

 

I find this to be very disappointing. I always felt that GCB was one of the best overall themed areas of the park. With the lack of Batman related music in the area, why bother with music at all?

 

Please put the Gotham back in Gotham City Backlot.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^So is that a step forward in the family friendly sense or a step backward in atmosphere?

[Jew]

^Why would bland, generic background music be an improvement?

 

Losing any atmosphere music, especially the awesome Batman soundtrack is a bigtime bummer. I hope it's just a temporary thing.

[haiderodes]

Since we are talking about Gotham City Backlot...

 

Perhaps my memory is fading but didn't they use to dim the lights in the station when they'd dispatch the Batman trains? I ask because during my visit at the end of July, they left all the lights on during the day and then at night only had the atmospheric lighting so it was dim and looked nice, but no change in light level when dispatching. It would be awesome if they brought back the fog as well (at least in the station area).

 

Riddler for that matter is another ride that has been irritating me this year. I've enjoyed all my rides on it and sure it would be nice to have the moving lights working again, but I'd say there are a couple other more important issues.

 

First, there has to be something done about the lack of air circulation in the station. The only respite is if you stand in the row 8 queue by the blower, but even then its weak at best. I'm not saying full out AC, but just some air movement would be great. Second, if they are no longer selling Riddler on-ride photos, why must the flash still be on? It tricks people into thinking they are gonna see a photo when they make it out the exit. Last, this is more of a safety concern...the ride op audio is barely audible in the station. I remember before, theyd have the music playing, but then when the ops made announcements or dispatched trains, the music volume would lower. Now it seems like the only speakers that are used are located directly over the train. On my last visit to the park, the ops kept yelling for people to stop sitting on handrails, but people didn't listen because I honestly don't think anyone past the 5th person in line could hear.

[Mr.Six]

Well, I was the lead at Batman from Feb - June of 08' and I can tell you about the lighting situation. Usually the 'stage lights' would turn on about 20 minutes or so after turning on the ride itself... I never knew why the delay but that's just the way it was. On the main panel we had a few switches for "Show mode" -- all of them did nothing. If the show lights didn't turn I would always call it in for an electrician to come out and turn them on before the park opened. As soon as 10 AM or 10:30 hit ( depending on park opening ) I demanded the ride go into "show mode" something much to the dislike of every ride op and co-lead I ever worked with.

 

Basically all we had left of show mode was for the stage lights to be on and the work lights to be off in the station and back transfer area. However it wasn't uncommon for me to call multiple times and nobody would ever come out and turn on the stage lights for us. In that case the station work lights would remain on for safety reasons, as it really gets pitch black in there.

 

The only time I'd allow work lights to be turned on during normal hours when we had fully operational stage lights as in the event of.

 

-Down time ( When I felt communication was stronger when ride ops and guests could actually see each other when explaining the situation )

 

-Vomit Clean up.

 

-Lost Article searching.

 

And that's it!

 

But trust me, as soon as I would leave to go on a break , lunch , or sign out for the day those lights would turn right back on. Frankly because non of my co-workers ( both ops and leads ) really cared at all. However, I will give props to the supervisors as they always wanted the ride to operator in show mode.

 

So, sorry! I know that was a long story for such a simple problem. But a lot of people always came up and asked me about the lighting situation in the batcave...and well from front line experience ... there ya go!

 

-Mike

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^^I was a trainer at Riddler's from March of 07 to Sept of 07. The exact same issues you stated were brought up by me, along with other amenities the ride could use. I suggested the return of the UV lights. I think the only one still there is atop the unload side of the station. Second, I suggest they get wireless mics a la Cedar Fair parks. Not only do they amplify with more clarity, but it also encourages more guest interaction.

[haiderodes]

^^That's really interesting stuff. I can see why some would want the extra light, but it just totally destroys the atmosphere. I'm sure it would save them money as well to not use the "high beams" during the day except during cases of necessity.

 

^As for wireless mics, I'm not sure about the clarity thing. That has to do with how well the receivers are positioned and the battery power in the mic itself. We tried em out on the parking lot trams at Disney and we had issues with the receivers and battery power which meant they cut out a lot. I guess it just depends how well they are installed.

 

For me its not about the guest interaction at Riddler as much as it is a saftey concern. People anywhere outside of the train cannot hear instructions...especially the pre-recorded boarding instructions. In fact, I only could hear those after getting off the ride!

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^one of the reasons, if not the only reason the operator yell in the mic is because of what you just stated. From the main panel you can hear the spiel fine, but the one spot it's needed it sounds distorted or even non existant.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

The conclusion: A lot of crap at Magic Mountain's rides doesn't work due to neglect, and a lot of the ride op's don't give a crap. The ones who do are usually the only ones at their ride who do, and thus stick out but not in the good way that should be how they stick out.

 

Didn't we know all this years ago??

[coasterjunkie91350]

What and i was working deja vu midway and you could not have said hello robb im hurt lol oh well till your next visit .

[sixflagsjunkie88]

Just got back from the Mountain, such a long day, good things and bad things, but the bad DEFINITELY outweighs the good. It was hot, almost 100 and humid for Cali, like I don't think it has ever been that humid.

 

We got to the park at 9:50 no realizing it opened at 10:30, worked out perfectly, but I was still a little upset the park opens so late. So we go straight to X2, they let us in line, but 15 minutes pass and no one is entering station yet. HAVE THE RIDES OPEN WHEN THE PARK OPENS! There is NO excuse why ANY ride can't be open when the park does especially when the park opens at 10:30! That is just a piss poor job in my books. X2 last row, I love this ride so much. The crew was a bit slow, the girl doing the rows was bad, but she looked new.

 

Next we went to Tatsu. Line was not very long, but of course the "excellent" Tatsu crew made the line fly. 2 switchbacks, 45 mins. There were 2 trains, but they were running them as slow as one train. I was pretty upset by this point. It was my first Tatsu ride in about 8 months and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Still another strike.

 

Next was Deja Vu. BEST DEJA CREW I HAD EVER SEEN! They were dispatching rather quickly, no empty seats, we got front row, it was great. Following that was Colossus, ran pretty well, better than last time, and Goliath, which was running well with 2 train operation. Goliath has by far the best crew in the park, period.

 

Left went to lunch came back and went on Revolution with new trains. Worse than others. I am a big guy, my friend who I was with is small, and I had never been beaten up on that ride so bad, then was Viper, jerky but fun. Sky Tower museum was next, first time ever up there, and I LOVED the museum, thought it was perfect. Then we hit Scream, CSI Live show, decent, and Batman Stunt show, decent. Then I got a phone call friend rode Batman while I was on phone. We went to Goliath for night ride and the crew was amazing still. No stacking at all, train hit break run when other train reached the lift hill, I loved it.

 

Finally we went to X2, last ride of night, they had a few problems, it took us an hour 50 mins, but I don't ever mind waiting. We got off at 10:15 and left immediately. The effects were in full swing both times, at night its so much better, with the flames.

 

Overall I was disappointed with Tatsu crew and X2 opening late, both HUGE problems in my book. They need to get Tatsu 3 train up again, or not stack, its bad.

 

Thanks for reading!