The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

 

One ride I've noticed that is getting worse in terms of operations is Goliath. Now, even with 2 trains, it will stack! It usually takes about 2 min. 30 seconds for dispatches and it is just really slow. It's fine if it stacks with 3 trains, but It shouldn't be stacking with 2 trains. Especially when the ride ops are just chatting away and laughing with each other.

Not acceptable but unfortunately typical and what's really sad is it just has a lap bar... that's it. No complicated OTSR or seatbelt or anything, just one simple lap bar yet dispatches are terrible and the ONLY reason for this is what you said, the ride ops. There is no other reason for this to be happening on a consistent basis/nearly every train. Of all the rides there this situation on this ride is the only one that really bothers me. EVERY TIME I've ridden it it's always the same story, slow/lazy ride ops not paying attention, chatting away with their friends or the other 5 or 6 employees hanging around the panel doing nothing but causing a distraction, texting, all causing the PAYING CUSTOMER to wait... why? Why, MM, can't you fix this? Not only does this look bad to your guests and waste their time, but isn't it NOT SAFE to have a bunch of employees running a ride that are not really paying attention and tell me why your employees like to hang out at this ride and you have done nothing about this issue? It takes what, 3-4 ops to run this ride but why is it that it's common to see 6, 7, 8 employees there, just hanging around?

It just irritates me that this is like that.

There is one bright spot though, at least ultimately the computer is controlling the ride- so that makes me feel at least safe.

^I've actually had fine experiences with Goliath ops this year. I've only seen it stack significantly when it was running three trains randomly one day. It has a 60 second dispatch clock, and for the most part I've seen they've made it or are late by no more than 30 seconds.

I have to disagree with you about Tatsu. With Tatsu having opened recently, I've followed its ups and downs its entire lifespan. So far, I'm not really wowed on how it's been run this summer. It's still at the point right now that they are so slow the GP even comment about it. Just this Monday I was in line right at the beginning of the day and people were already commenting things like "wow, it's taking them awhile to for them to make the thing go" and such.

I think only one word can describe SFMM operations: random. In spring 2011, on some random day, I saw Tatsu running both stations. The park wasn't even crowded. If they can get it to run two stations on a random day, why not any day? Or, get more ops on Tatsu. Most Cedar Fair parks now have at least four ops checking restraints on popular rides. At SFMM, only one ride with a single station actually has four ops checking restraints, and that is X2. Tatsu should have at least 3-4 ops.

Sadly, though, the Tatsu crew has actually been doing better than the S:UF crew at SFGAdv. They were taking 6-7 minutes on average, at least when I was there.

I think only one word can describe SFMM operations: random. In spring 2011, on some random day, I saw Tatsu running both stations. The park wasn't even crowded. If they can get it to run two stations on a random day, why not any day? Or, get more ops on Tatsu. Most Cedar Fair parks now have at least four ops checking restraints on popular rides. At SFMM, only one ride with a single station actually has four ops checking restraints, and that is X2. Tatsu should have at least 3-4 ops.

 

Sadly, though, the Tatsu crew has actually been doing better than the S:UF crew at SFGAdv. They were taking 6-7 minutes on average, at least when I was there.

Tatsu does have 4 ops checking seats during peak season. Any time other than that, both Tatsu and X2 only have 2 ops checking seats. Usually Goliath has 3 ops checking seats, 2 on one side and 1 on the other. I never understood that. And why on Colossus and Goliath do they have to check the seats at the same time?

It has always baffled me that this park is willing to dump $20,000,000 on a coaster, but is not willing to allocate the daily funds in order to staff it properly.

^It's Magic Mountain, Duh.

Of all the rides there this situation on this ride is the only one that really bothers me. EVERY TIME I've ridden it it's always the same story, slow/lazy ride ops not paying attention, chatting away with their friends or the other 5 or 6 employees hanging around the panel doing nothing but causing a distraction, texting, all causing the PAYING CUSTOMER to wait... why?.

I'm heading into the parks tomorrow and will try to take notice of employees using cells or texting as its a big no-no and automatic termination for doing so.

I have never noticed this as a issue while in the parks before but then i don't ride Goliath as you have singled out. Seem's like it wont be a issue inside Hurricane Harbor at least on water rides as even I wont pull my phone out around water, but I will trek into SFMM and look around for cell phone abuse as might just be a good day to people watch and drink water.

We only go on a few rides Carousel, Orient Express, and Sky Tower but i shall keep my eyes open.

Goliath seems to be the employee hangout.

Oh, you aren't talking a out this coming Monday.

 

Well I could probably estimate some waits for you.

 

X2- if you run fast enough and it opens on time, none. On Tuesday it opened 20 minutes late.

Tatsu- if X2 opened on time, 5 minutes. If X2 opened any more than 5 minutes late, expect a 15-30 minute wait.

Superman - if X2 opened on time, expect a 5 minute wait. If X2 opened late, expect a 15-30 minute wait.

Apocalypse - 10 minutes or less

Riddlers - 5 minutes or less with Single Rider

Green Lantern - 5 minutes or less with Single Rider

Batman - 10 minutes or so

Lex- 5-10 min with Single Rider Line (which doesn't open til noon)

Scream and Colossus - 5-10 minutes each

Goliath - 15-60 min. It's different every day so you may get lucky or you may not. I usually have to wait around 30 minutes.

 

Nothing else should have anything more than a 10 minute wait.

I'm coming Labor Day Monday... if the waiting time is like you said even on this day I'm ok without FP. About running to the coaster at opening, it's ok when I visit a park with my brother (like in Europa Park last time, we run like crazy to Wodan Timbur Coaster and it was closed ). But at MM I'll be on holiday with my girlfriend and she isn't really a coaster fan, actually she's ridden a coaster for the first time last year when I bring here to Disneyland Paris. She already told me she will not ride X2, Tatsu, LL and Superman with me .

I think I'll try to go as fast as possible to X2 at the beginning then we will see if the FP is needed or not for the rest of the coaster.

Goliath seems to be the employee hangout.

From my experience, Riddler's Revenge is the biggest culprit of employees standing around doing nothing.

I'd also say Goliath takes the Gold in the "excessive labor usage" category.

SFMM yesterday had a full parking lot, but I think most of it was for Hurricane Harbor. SFMM only had over hour waits (consistently) for Lex and Superman....yesterday just sucked because I heard the temps got to almost 120!!!! If you have any questions ask me!!!

BTW for the airtime talk, I got at least 5 seconds of airtime on Goliath!!!

And Lex was sexy!!!

Oh and did I mention Scream was down? And when I asked a worker later he said that Scream has been having a lot of trouble lately..... interesting....

Scream! having trouble? That's funny since Scream! is from B&M and they are known to have reliable coasters. This is scarying me Scream!'s one of my favorite rides.

I've never heard of Scream! being down..... ever! What could it be?

I honestly don't know..... and I thoroughly enjoy Scream as well. I was absolutely shocked when it was closed and for an employee to tell me it has been broken down a lot lately?

It was working just fine today. Not to mention a really dead day at the park. I walked right onto Goliath, no line whatsoever. Also walked onto Batman, Scream, and Colossus. Green Lantern had a 15 minute wait. Then went to Riddlers and found a wait almost to the entrance so walked on with Single Rider. Then walked on Apocalypse (which is no longer sponsored by Falling Skies) and went over to X2. There was a less than 10 minute wait, with the line ending about half way up the stairs or the ramp, depending on which side you went to. I rode twice and the music was still blasting. Then rode Viper twice in a row. Went up to Superman and waited 30 minutes with both sides running. Lex was experiencing technical difficulties all day but reopened right when we got back from Superman. So we waited 10 minutes and got on. We walked on Gold Rusher and Ninja then headed to Tatsu for the last ride. The line was only full through the first row on the bottom and wasn't even switchback. Still took 20 minutes with horrible operations. Overall pretty good day with almost no lines!

It was working just fine today. Not to mention a really dead day at the park. I walked right onto Goliath, no line whatsoever. Also walked onto Batman, Scream, and Colossus. Green Lantern had a 15 minute wait. Then went to Riddlers and found a wait almost to the entrance so walked on with Single Rider. Then walked on Apocalypse (which is no longer sponsored by Falling Skies) and went over to X2. There was a less than 10 minute wait, with the line ending about half way up the stairs or the ramp, depending on which side you went to. I rode twice and the music was still blasting. Then rode Viper twice in a row. Went up to Superman and waited 30 minutes with both sides running. Lex was experiencing technical difficulties all day but reopened right when we got back from Superman. So we waited 10 minutes and got on. We walked on Gold Rusher and Ninja then headed to Tatsu for the last ride. The line was only full through the first row on the bottom and wasn't even switchback. Still took 20 minutes with horrible operations. Overall pretty good day with almost no lines!

Man that is exactly the kind of day I'm hoping for in Oct.

wow superman having both tracks operational on a slow day? thats a first

They definitely did that because they had one Thursday and the capacity was absolutely horrible. My day seemed about the same except for a line on Lex. Glad to hear Scream was running...

Are Magic Mountain crowds at all predictable during the week? I think I'll be there on Thursday, August 23. From what I've gathered, there could be a million people there or there could be none, and I won't know until I get there!

^It will probably be as dead as yesterday. Kids are already back in school and the hours are really short. You can usually somewhat tell the crowds by the park hours.

I would say going Tuesday through Friday is your best bet right now.

I would say going Tuesday through Friday is your best bet right now.

Make sure you watch the Fridays as the 24th and 31st both have private events starting at 6pm.

Avoid Fridays!!! That's all I can say. Any Friday that has a private party is packed like a Saturday! Tuesday - Thursday is your best bet.