The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

[daveydo5172]

It also appears from the video the Superman's station is totally rebuilt...I hope so...that dirty, stinky, mildewy cave has got to go!

[Sir Clinksalot]

Eric, they aren't purposely racing the trains on Colossus, but it was close a couple of times last night.

[ebl]

Because of the weather, I decided not to go. Yahoo! Weather said that Valencia had the same weather as home---cold and rainy. I also checked the official [http://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain/]SFMM website[/url] and it said nothing about being closed due to rain, but still, I'll just go next weekend. I'm not feeling that great anyway.

 

Eric

[SharkTums]

It's not raining at all here...hasn't all day.

[ebl]

^ I had a feeling, even though the weather report said otherwise. Oftentimes it's cool and rainy out here a dozen miles from the ocean, but you get 40 or 50 miles inland and the weather is completely different. Anyway, I'll get over there next weekend.

 

Eric

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Early mornings have been cool, cloudy, and occasionally drizzly, but that all gives way to a really nice, comfortable day. Then at night, a little fog starts settling in making for some pretty cool Fright Fest weather.

[Sir Clinksalot]

Some thoughts on Fright Fest:

 

This was my first time doing Fright Fest mazes and I will say I was impressed with a few mazes, some were just "ok" and there were two that were pretty bad.

 

The upgrade for the Mazes is only $5 so if you are going in looking to find Knott's or Universal quality mazes you are going to be disappointed.

 

There is one thing that Six Flags does BETTER than either Knott's or Universal and that is crowd control. At any one time they only allow maybe 10 people in the maze every 60 seconds or so. And through a few of the mazes, we were the ONLY ones around. I for one would rather wait an extra 10-15 minutes in a maze line to insure I'm getting a great maze experience, not just standing around inside a maze. And I certainly didn't hear anybody complaining about waiting in the slower moving lines.

 

Mazes in order of my ranking:

Willoughby's Haunted Mansion: This was without a doubt the best maze of both nights in both scenes and talent. You can tell that the talent in here has been doing this for awhile.

Bite II: Very close 2nd to Willoughby's. Some really awesome talent and some awesome scenes. The soundtrack could be a bit louder though.

Jokesters: I really like the way this maze is set up with the "Scare Rooms". Great talent in here as well.

Slaughterhouse: WAY too bright in this maze, but some good talent and somebody recognized my TPR sweatshirt on Friday.

Warehouse 13: This could have been REALLY good if it had more room. The talent in here was good on Friday, GREAT last night. Gave Josh his best scare of the night.

Escape of the Zombies ... really? It's basically the Tidal Wave Queue, no scenes and very minimal talent that jumps out from the other side of the mesh. How about some monsters jumping out of the water? Take up some of the room on the other side of Tidal wave near Riddlers? Great concept, poor execution.

Asylum ... The best thing I can say is that it's an actual maze.

 

Scare Zones: The Scare Zones in Gotham and Samurai Summit were GREAT. Talent was as good as any you will find at Universal and Knott's. We spent about 45 minutes in Gotham last night just enjoying the talent in this area doing their thing. It was a beautiful thing. The scare zone near Roaring Rapids/Tatsu needed some more talent, plus it's just too bright over there.

 

Overall the event is WELL worth the upcharge, and the fact that the park is open all day for you to ride, and doesn't close prior to Fright Fest starting means it's a different dynamic than Knott's/Universal. And that's a GOOD thing. Hopefully next year they will have more of a budget and I would even be willing to pay an upcharge of $10-$15 if the quality was there.

 

I'd also love to see them do something with the Thomas Train for Fright Fest. Imagine the Conductor coming alive and coming after you with a chainsaw or something. Talk about AWESOME!!!!

 

Some Fright Fest Pics. Some are from Friday some are from Saturday.

Front Entrance

Gossamer at night

Heckle's and Twitch stage

Lecter's Slaughterhouse

Random Jack O Lantern lamp

Thought this was a cool shot. The monster stood still just long enough.

Another shot of the stage in front of Gotham

Josh with William

Another shot

Log Jammer queue looked pretty cool I thought.

Josh with random clown

[hauntguy]

From the video, it looks like SFMM will now have OTS restraints. The old lap bar would be TERRIFYING backwards.

[mikeamak]

Hello everyone, long time lurker here. I am planning on going to California during the holiday season between Christmas and New Years. I have done searching through the forum and haven't found much about visiting the park around this time. I was thinking about going on the 26th, which is a Sunday, or some day during the week. I was wondering how busy should I expect it to be? Would a Sunday after Christmas be better than a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday?

 

Thanks, Mike

[hauntguy]

Hello everyone, long time lurker here. I am planning on going to California during the holiday season between Christmas and New Years. I have done searching through the forum and haven't found much about visiting the park around this time. I was thinking about going on the 26th, which is a Sunday, or some day during the week. I was wondering how busy should I expect it to be? Would a Sunday after Christmas be better than a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday?

 

Thanks, Mike

Mike,

I'm not sure they are open daily at Christmas - you might want to check the calendar. SFMM is open only weekends for a good part of the year. That said, I'd think the park would be a ghost town between Christmas and New Years. SFMM doesn't get crowd patterns the same way as Disney. If it was a busy day, Six Flags has the Q-bot system to ensure you get on everything - as long as you have the money.

[hauntguy]

Hello everyone, long time lurker here. I am planning on going to California during the holiday season between Christmas and New Years. I have done searching through the forum and haven't found much about visiting the park around this time. I was thinking about going on the 26th, which is a Sunday, or some day during the week. I was wondering how busy should I expect it to be? Would a Sunday after Christmas be better than a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday?

 

Thanks, Mike

Mike,

I'm not sure they are open daily at Christmas - you might want to check the calendar. SFMM is open only weekends for a good part of the year. That said, I'd think the park would be a ghost town between Christmas and New Years. SFMM doesn't get crowd patterns the same way as Disney. If it was a busy day, Six Flags has the Q-bot system to ensure you get on everything - as long as you have the money.

 

So, I just checked the calendar, and the last 2 weeks of December they are pretty much open daily. I don't know if anyone around here has been there during this time and can comment on crowds. Personally, I just don't see people goiong to SFMM during their Christmas break, but they wouldn't be open otherwise... Even so, the hours are 10-6 which doesn't sound like they expect big crowds.

 

William is probably best suited to answer this question.

[mikeamak]

Hello everyone, long time lurker here. I am planning on going to California during the holiday season between Christmas and New Years. I have done searching through the forum and haven't found much about visiting the park around this time. I was thinking about going on the 26th, which is a Sunday, or some day during the week. I was wondering how busy should I expect it to be? Would a Sunday after Christmas be better than a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday?

 

Thanks, Mike

Mike,

I'm not sure they are open daily at Christmas - you might want to check the calendar. SFMM is open only weekends for a good part of the year. That said, I'd think the park would be a ghost town between Christmas and New Years. SFMM doesn't get crowd patterns the same way as Disney. If it was a busy day, Six Flags has the Q-bot system to ensure you get on everything - as long as you have the money.

 

So, I just checked the calendar, and the last 2 weeks of December they are pretty much open daily. I don't know if anyone around here has been there during this time and can comment on crowds. Personally, I just don't see people goiong to SFMM during their Christmas break, but they wouldn't be open otherwise... Even so, the hours are 10-6 which doesn't sound like they expect big crowds.

 

William is probably best suited to answer this question.

 

Thanks for the response... One would think that the park wouldn't be too crowded but Disney has scared me from visiting parks during the holidays

[coasterking2981]

Given that Christmas time usually means a two week break for most Ventura and L.A. county schools, it might be better if you visit on a weekday, especially if you are looking to ride everything but Deja Vu since it will be closed until spring.

[mikeamak]

Given that Christmas time usually means a two week break for most Ventura and L.A. county schools, it might be better if you visit on a weekday, especially if you are looking to ride everything but Deja Vu since it will be closed until spring.

 

Well yes, that would be the assumption at places like Disney and Universal but, from what I have read, it doesn't sound like Magic Mountain does much for the holidays so I would assume that most families would go to one of those parks. Also, I got the chance to ride Deja Vu at Great America back in the day so i'm all set in that department.

[cal1br3tto]

^Although I enjoy Deja Vu, it's the coaster I'd be most likely to skip next time I visit (other than Canyon Blaster, of course). I've ridden Aftershock more recently, and for whatever reason I like it more than Vu.

[gforce532]

it doesn't sound like Magic Mountain does much for the holidays

 

Yeap your right. Basically all they do is have the Six Flags Plaza area decorated a little with reefs and lights, but nothing major like Disney, Universal, or even Knotts. I had always thought they should do a holiday in the park like SFDK, SFOT, and SFFT. But they seem to not want to compete with the other socal parks. From my experiences of visiting at that time I don't remeber it being very crowded (cold though). If the park is closing at 6, its not because the park jamed full of people. So you should be perfectly fine.

[coasterking2981]

Given that Christmas time usually means a two week break for most Ventura and L.A. county schools, it might be better if you visit on a weekday, especially if you are looking to ride everything but Deja Vu since it will be closed until spring.

 

Well yes, that would be the assumption at places like Disney and Universal but, from what I have read, it doesn't sound like Magic Mountain does much for the holidays so I would assume that most families would go to one of those parks. Also, I got the chance to ride Deja Vu at Great America back in the day so i'm all set in that department.

 

 

If I'm not mistaken, SFMM does the Toys for Tots thing (or something like that) for Christmas.

[mikeamak]

Thanks for all the input everyone. It sounds like our Mountain plans have changed a little bit and will not be in LA until Tuesday (Spending some time in San Diego first) so I will be making the trip to Magic on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully I'll have as much fun as I did at Cedar Point

[disney4me2001]

If they're going all out with the two superhero themes, I think it would be interesting if they re-themed it to a more kid-friendly DC character, such as Krypto the Super-Dog.

 

I think this is a great idea! As it is, whenever I've seen Krypto the Super-Dog on Cartoon Network, for some reason I always think of Six Flags. So this might not be a bad way for them to go. At least it'd be somewhat unique compared to the other Six Flags parks. The only thing that might be of concern is whether or not kids would recognize Krypto, since this coaster's target audience is kids. But hopefully someone from the park will see this and suggest it! That is, if they aren't already finalizing things as we speak/type.

[PAL]

Brady MacDonald of the LA Times has confirmed Superman's details. The illustration looks drawn right from the film clip.

 

ZacSpin announcement, you can't be far off.

 

Interestingly, he notes that Superman will run both trains backwards for a few months. Later, one will be turned around.

 

That 100 mph number is there too. I guess we'll see soon enough.

 

The Superman coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain will get a makeover in spring 2011 that will send riders rocketing 100 mph straight up into the air -- backwards.

 

Superman: Return to Krypton will add new coaster trains that run backward instead of forward, as they have since the $20-million magnetic launch shuttle coaster opened in 1997 at the Valencia amusement park.

 

After the ride operates for a few months, one of the cars on the twin tracks will be turned around to run forward, allowing riders to choose between both options, amusement park officials said.

 

A new paint job in classic Superman colors will feature red on the top third of the 415-foot-tall track and blue on the lower portion with yellow rails.

 

New streamlined cars with the Superman logo will have lower-profile sides for a more exposed feeling. Superman: Return to Krypton will feature over-the-shoulder restraints similar to the Tower of Terror II makeover at Dreamworld in Australia. (Watch a concept video of Superman: Return to Krypton at Screamscape.)

 

For the first time, riders will see the load station as they race down the vertical incline toward what looks like a pair of pinholes beneath a gleaming Superman logo. The iconic Fortress of Solitude ice cave entrance will remain.

 

The old ride, known as Superman: The Escape, which closed earlier this year, featured a gravitational force of 4.5 Gs and 6.5 seconds of weightlessness, according to Roller Coaster Database.

 

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/themeparks/la-trb-superman-six-flags-magic-mountain-20101019,0,4743557.story?track=rss

Edited October 20, 2010 by PAL

[coasterfreak101]

I wonder if they'll switch out the restraints when (/if) they flip one side back around to run forwards?

[AllenA07]

I wonder if they'll switch out the restraints when (/if) they flip one side back around to run forwards?

 

My guess is that they won't. OTSR will work just fine and it would cost too much to be switching between them.

[Sir Clinksalot]

Yeah, I can't imagine them changing out the restraints ... I would also imagine if the front launch doesn't prove to be very popular once the switch is made they can switch both to backwards. And I'm sure there are probably Fright Fest implications.

[daveydo5172]

It also says they are keeping the "fortress of solitude - ice cave entrance"...damn, I was hoping for a new station!

[cooksta77]

Actually the Green Lantern announcement was in a link to the left...

Six Flags Magic Mountain aims to reclaim coaster crown with Green Lantern in 2011

Six Flags Magic Mountain will reclaim the Roller Coaster Capital of the World title with the addition of two coasters in spring 2011, including a first-of-its-kind ride in the U.S., amusement park officials said.

 

The Green Lantern will bring Magic Mountain's coaster count to 18, allowing the Valencia amusement park to recapture the coaster crown, taken by Ohio’s Cedar Point in 2008. Magic Mountain snatched the crown from Cedar Point around the turn of the millennium after adding a coaster a year during a building binge that stretched from 1997 to 2003. Cedar Point, with 17 coasters, plans to add a tower swing thrill ride in 2011.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/destinations/southerncalifornia/la-trb-green-lantern-magic-mountain-20111019,1,7781678.story