TriboElectric Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Hello friends! I am just wondering if anyone has had a chance to use the new SFMM electronic flash Pass (regular and Gold version)? If so, how was the experience? Did you add the X2 add on? How many times were you able to ride X2, how long did you have to wait for each re-re ride? Given your experience would you purchase this again? I used to frequent the park with a extreme pass every weekend although now I am probably going to visit the park once a year and probably use the Gold flash pass if it turns out to be a good product. Any hands on experience views with the Six Flags Magic Mountain new electronic flash pass would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bolliger&Mabillard Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 From what I understand, X is a $10 upcharge per ride, so it's a one time fee for the additional 10 bucks, which I find wierd that more line control consideration was taken for X than Deja Vu, which is lower capacity. The crowds have not been heavy enough to NEED a flashpass, but we'll see how spring break fares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriboElectric Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 From what I understand, X is a $10 upcharge per ride, so it's a one time fee for the additional 10 bucks, which I find wierd that more line control consideration was taken for X than Deja Vu, which is lower capacity. The crowds have not been heavy enough to NEED a flashpass, but we'll see how spring break fares. Wait a minute, 10 dollars extra per each RIDE on X2? So if I want to ride X2 3 times it would be 30 dollars ontop of the rental fee and Gold fee? Please say that ain't so! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost007jas Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 ^ Seriously! That would be a total joke! *Waits for an early "April Fools!"* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Monte Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 ^ So the "running of the bulls" to X2 continues, with or without Flashpass. I hope Jay does what he says, adding a rival attraction over on the other side of the park. With X2, Tatsu and now Terminator, that left side is always so over-crowded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriboElectric Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 I just bumped into some international guests at my work, they had gone to Magic Mountain this past Saturday and had purchased the GoldPass with the X2 upgrade, they did confirm that it was $10 extra dollars per person per each ride on X2! I sure am sad to hear about this news, the Value of electronic flash pass to me has decreased. X2 and DejaVu, Tatsu and Goliath (Back seat row 12) are the main reasons that I go to the park. Real world first hand experience in using the new MM flash pass and wait times experienced are still appreciated thought. Please post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I don't think you'll find many reviews yet from coaster people since a bunch of us were just at WCB and obviously didn't need them, and now it won't be too super crowded. I fully plan on 'taking one for the team' and getting a Gold Qbot some day during the summer and doing a full Photo TR to show everyone how awesome the device is and how it will save your ass at SFMM!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriboElectric Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 I don't think you'll find many reviews yet from coaster people since a bunch of us were just at WCB and obviously didn't need them, and now it won't be too super crowded. I fully plan on 'taking one for the team' and getting a Gold Qbot some day during the summer and doing a full Photo TR to show everyone how awesome the device is and how it will save your a$$ at SFMM!!!! Very good point! (in regards to why we don't see many coaster fan reviews yet ) I look forward to reading your review on the device this summer! There is no question this device will be needed on a Summer day if you want to ride without spending 2 hours per que, but for the X fans out there it's value is more limited Oh well. The PlayPass Extreme was fun while it lasted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 An additional $10 doesn't seem out of line considering how cheap the season passes/Flash Passes are at SFMM relative to the only comparable SF park in SFGAdv. SFMM patrons have it easy on the cost front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coasterkid20 Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Well that sucs, oh well what I'll just do is plan on spending $130 for the fast pass when my friend and I go in July, with 1 ride on X each and the gold pass. Only one other time have I bought into the Qbot and it was completely worth it! $10 is worth it to me not to stand in a 3-4 hour line, because I draw the line at 2 hours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larrygator Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 It sure sounds like the line would be even longer if Flash Passers were allowed unlimited rides on X2 for a low fee. Maybe a better solution would be unlimited rides for $10 but with a long time gap (4-6 hours) between rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 On a busy day, I'd MUCH rather pay $10 than stand in a 2 hour line. Perhaps your opinion differs, but I can do a lot more with my 2 hours than wait in a line. Break it down to paying $5 per hour, that's a bargin! But having said that...if you are SMART! (key word here...SMART!) you should be able to get at least one ride...maybe two...on X2 on basically any given day without having to wait in a long line. And let's just say you got in two rides with no line, and had to wait 2 hours for a third ride later in the day. That's only an average of about 40 minutes per ride. Not too bad. Personally, I'd rather get the two rides in without waiting, then pay the $10 for my third ride, and then you've gotten 3 rides with no wait! Or you can look at it as averaging out that $10 cost over three rides and you're only paying $3.33 per ride! I know I've been able to pull this off on many, many visits. And I'm not that smart! --Robb "And I'm not talking about line jumping or doing anything against park rules...you just need to be smart." Alvey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TriboElectric Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 An additional $10 doesn't seem out of line considering how cheap the season passes/Flash Passes are at SFMM relative to the only comparable SF park in SFGAdv. SFMM patrons have it easy on the cost front. It is $10 each time you want to ride X2. Thats what makes it a bummer since after spending the loot for the "Gold" pass you still have to buy individual 10 dollar "tickets" for each ride on X2 you wish to take advantage of the flashpass/quebot with. That makes this a much harder sell for myself, my family and friends. Frankly if the "Gold" pass included unlimited uses with X2 I would shell out the cash, but then again so would everyone else and then I guess were back to 3 hours lines for everyone But Rob your right, with the correct planning you can get on all the attractions without needing any passes. For now on I will just pretend it is the old days (pre-flash passes) and just plan accordingly. (No summer visits, off season only etc.) Or just shell out the cash money and skip the ques. There is a choice and that is a nice thing I am curious as to how these passes will affect the "StandBy" que waittimes as they do at DisneyLand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 Having a $10 charge per ride on X2 with the Flash Pass serves as a deterrent to some who would reserve multiple rides on it, thus slowing down the regular line considerably. I'm concerned about how long a "regular" wait will become for that ride. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 ^^Like Robb said, you don't have to buy the $10 upcharge. Just run to X2 first, get your ride in. Then go get your gold qbot and ride everything else in the park. Then when you're all done get in line for X2 at the end of the night and get a second ride in. This should be an average of about 1 hour of waiting for 2 X2 rides, not bad. (Not that I would do that though!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WFChris Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 I dont think $10 per person, per ride, is bad either. X2 is a unique attraction with a pretty painful queue. Remember that you are going to be dealing with the guests who do NOT have the flashpass, and I for one would find comfort in knowing that the ones that do are paying $10 each to skip me in line, on top of their up-charge. Anyway, I am also looking forward to a real review on the device at SFMM! Chris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YoshiFan Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 What seems strange is that Kingda Ka is included with regular and gold at Great Adventure and X2 has a higher possible capacity (RCDB says 1600 vs 1400 for KK, even though I realize that they are unlikely to get those numbers) and both rides at their respective parks are the rides that constantly have long waits. There are days when Kingda Ka can have an hour wait when everything else except maybe El Toro is either a walk on or short wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 ^ X2 has been dispatching trains every 2-1/2 to three minutes. Assuming a full load of 28 people per train, and a three-minute dispatch interval, I figure under 600 people per hour ride X2. The 1600 figure from rcdb.com assumes three-train operation that goes as smoothly as if they only had a lap bar to check. Will not happen on X2. Be glad that they're getting trains out better than on X when it was five minutes per train. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brand4d2 Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 I tried out the regular Flash pass along with the X2 $10 per ride a few weeks back. If you're an Xtreme pass holder, $19 isn't really that bad per person. If you really, really, really wanted to ride X2 and you weren't able to be there at opening, then you may want to think about paying the $10. The appointments are once per hour and you set it ahead of time in the Flash Pass office. Note that the Flash pass doesn't grant you immediate boarding. It does allow you to walk up all to the way to the split off point between the left and right stations but in all likelihood, you'll have to wait as much as 25-30 minutes from that point. As it was a crowded Saturday when I did my little experiment, I took in more rides than I would have without the FP, obviously, and for some rides, I was granted immediate boarding - Superman, Log Jammer, Gold Rusher to name a few. Overall I would definitely recommend it if you're there on a very crowded day. I'm curious to know how much better the Gold Flash Passes are because with my regular, I would set my reservations for the next ride as soon as the ride ops would scan my Q-bot for the ride I was currently waiting from. In many instances, I was not able to walk to the next ride by the reservation time. For instance, if I was on Riddler's Revenge and I set a reservation for Goliath, the window to ride came up before I could physically get to Goliath. So unless you can actually run like the Flash, I have a feeling that getting a Gold might be superfluous. One great feature of the Flash pass Q-bot is that if your reservation time does come up, it vibrates to remind you and for every interval of 5-10 minutes, it keeps doing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost007jas Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 I'm almost positive this was answered somewhere else, but I'm having the hardest time finding it... Will I be able to use a Flash Pass with Terminator Salvation: The Ride? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted April 15, 2009 Share Posted April 15, 2009 ^ I would guess "yes" to that. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfmmrules! Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 $69.99 + $30 extra for 3 rides on X2=$100. I'd certinally do it. That 2 1/2 hour line I waited in for X2 last summer was rediciulous. I will never ever do that again! I paid $100 for the Universal Express pass during spring break in 2006 & that was so worth it. So spending $100 for the Fast Lanes at SFMM will be so worth it too. I would still run to X2 first thing to get in a 4th ride as long as the wait is not more than a half hour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rawrtotheargh Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 I went with my family during Spring Break and my dad got us the Gold Q-bot. I have to say that it is well worth the cost. Its much cheaper than other parks with the same awesome service. The wait times were always like 10-15 minutes away. We got 16 rides in and we were only there for like 8 hours. We did the X2 upcharge. Which was an additional $40 for all four of us. Only thing that kind of sucks is that you have to choose a time before you leave the Flash Pass office. But its not that bad. For extreme pass owners they take off the rental fee which is 15 dollars. Which isn't as good as the original 50% off discount offer advertised when season passes first went up for sale. But on a busy summer day its OBVIOUSLY a good deal to buy the flash pass as you could EASILY ride every coaster in one day. And besides. It's extra revenue that the park could use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timfar Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Has anyone had any trouble with the other patrons whilst using the Flash Pass? You know, aggressiveness due to jealousy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost007jas Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 I used the device on Memorial Day and it was all different kinds of fantastic. We rode everything we wanted to - including Tatsu multiple times in the back row, and it really ensured a positive experience at the park. We didn't encounter any hostility from other guests because the Flash Pass line does not parallel the regular queue like at Disneyland. If anything, we got more "That looks cool! How much is it?" and other statements of curiosity as opposed to anger. And the staff members doing the instructional video and distributing the pass were really friendly and helpful, so all in all.. It was money well spent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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