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The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread


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^^ Think if they held off on building Yolocoaster for another two or three years and focused on smaller investments and necessary improvements. I think that Yolocoaster would have a larger, more expansive layout and not be short and (dare I say) gimmicky. Unfortunately, they've pretty much scared off many families and are going to have to really try hard if they want to win them back in the future. While I do not know much about the Jay Thomas era, from what I heard he was a great GM and knew what the park needed. Who is the new guy anyway?

 

The" new guy" is a woman - The Ice Queen aka Bonnie Rabjon. I may have spelled her name incorrectly, but the got the "Ice Queen" correct.

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What has been killing it in the local market have been the dark rides like RSR and Transformers. If they could tap into part of that trend, I think it would help overall.

 

Possibly, but SFMM don't have the sort of capital Universal and Disney are able to put into their dark rides. I mean, RSR cost $200m and Transformers was $100m against Yolocoaster's $6m. So the park will have to find other ways to bring in the crowds.

 

If I was running the park the first thing I'd do is improve the operations. I'd add a staff member to the more popular coasters to assign rows and maximise capacity (as is the current practice on GL and X2). On my last visit it wasn't uncommon to see 6-8 empty seats on some trains simply because some rows only had 1 or 2 riders. Extrapolate that across an hour (assuming one train dispatches every 2 minutes) and you could potentially get another 200-250 people on the ride, which would have a huge impact on wait times. Cost would be minimal, and it would actually make Flash passes more valuable since you wouldn't end up with 30 minute station waits after skipping the queue.

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^ Along the same lines (no pun intended) add some single rider lines, or worst case if there is no room for a SR line, have an operator call for single riders when possible. I really think you can get an SR line on just about anything if you want to.

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I just can't imagine SFMM getting a dark ride that wasn't done on the cheap. Even the Terminator theming was so-so but crapped out a few months in.

SFMM doesn't need to compete with Universal or Disney. Their strength is big and gimmicky coasters...as long as they get their season pass sales every year they're fine.

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^^ Think if they held off on building Yolocoaster for another two or three years and focused on smaller investments and necessary improvements. I think that Yolocoaster would have a larger, more expansive layout and not be short and (dare I say) gimmicky. Unfortunately, they've pretty much scared off many families and are going to have to really try hard if they want to win them back in the future. While I do not know much about the Jay Thomas era, from what I heard he was a great GM and knew what the park needed. Who is the new guy anyway?

 

The" new guy" is a woman - The Ice Queen aka Bonnie Rabjon. I may have spelled her name incorrectly, but the got the "Ice Queen" correct.

 

When I finally used my VIP tour my party and our guide were walking to ride Scream first. I asked the guide if the park manager was there (out of curiosity) and shes like "Oh we just passed her." I just found it weird she wouldn't at least say hi to the two VIP groups that were there. (saw a second VIP group going on Batman.)

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I just can't imagine SFMM getting a dark ride that wasn't done on the cheap. Even the Terminator theming was so-so but crapped out a few months in.

SFMM doesn't need to compete with Universal or Disney. Their strength is big and gimmicky coasters...as long as they get their season pass sales every year they're fine.

 

 

Since this thread has turned into Magic Mountain needs a dark ride... How about something like Justice League Alien Invasion? Cost a reported 9 Million Australian according to Sally.

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Just an FYI: having worked in this industry my entire adult life, I can tell you that most high ups are similar to the "ice queen." They walk the park, are friendly to guests who approach them, but are all business otherwise. It's just the way it is. They have so much to do behind the scenes, their walks in the parks are usually kept on a tight schedule.

 

Jay Thomas put on a fantastic show, but didn't do enough behind the scenes to keep his job.

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^Wasn't Jay Thomas promoted?

 

Technically, yes. He got moved to the corporate office first as "director of project management office" and currently serves as "corporate VP of information systems."

 

However, it is probably not a coincidence those jobs are "behind the scenes" jobs as opposed to something higher up in the operations side of things.

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^^ Think if they held off on building Yolocoaster for another two or three years and focused on smaller investments and necessary improvements. I think that Yolocoaster would have a larger, more expansive layout and not be short and (dare I say) gimmicky. Unfortunately, they've pretty much scared off many families and are going to have to really try hard if they want to win them back in the future. While I do not know much about the Jay Thomas era, from what I heard he was a great GM and knew what the park needed. Who is the new guy anyway?

 

The" new guy" is a woman - The Ice Queen aka Bonnie Rabjon. I may have spelled her name incorrectly, but the got the "Ice Queen" correct.

 

When I finally used my VIP tour my party and our guide were walking to ride Scream first. I asked the guide if the park manager was there (out of curiosity) and shes like "Oh we just passed her." I just found it weird she wouldn't at least say hi to the two VIP groups that were there. (saw a second VIP group going on Batman.)

 

This is exactly why I call her the "ICE QUEEN." She doesn't speak with guests, and for that manner any male employees. Not a good attitude for being in the "people business."

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^Wasn't Jay Thomas promoted?

 

Technically, yes. He got moved to the corporate office first as "director of project management office" and currently serves as "corporate VP of information systems."

 

However, it is probably not a coincidence those jobs are "behind the scenes" jobs as opposed to something higher up in the operations side of things.

 

Thanks for the update on Jay. I've always been a big fan! That's a shame they're not using his "people skills" at corporate. That's a big mistake! I'm glad at least he's still at 6 Flags. Just a great guy, based on all my experiences / observations.

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My last comment on Jay. The employee attitudes are mirrors of management. During Jay's reign, I found the staff to be the best since I've been coming to the Mountain. Now, they're like Bonnie's - aka Ice Queen.

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Just an FYI: having worked in this industry my entire adult life, I can tell you that most high ups are similar to the "ice queen." They walk the park, are friendly to guests who approach them, but are all business otherwise. It's just the way it is. They have so much to do behind the scenes, their walks in the parks are usually kept on a tight schedule.

 

Jay Thomas put on a fantastic show, but didn't do enough behind the scenes to keep his job.

 

I would have expected that he was all business, despite his friendly attitude. You don't run a multi million dollar business without being all business. As much as we may wish that it was, running a park is not like a real life version of RCT.

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This is exactly why I call her the "ICE QUEEN." She doesn't speak with guests, and for that manner any male employees. Not a good attitude for being in the "people business."

 

Unless you're watching her everyday, you can't really make statements like this..I think we all understand she's not that personable but not talking to "any male employees"? Really?

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I've seen a couple of pics floating around. It actually is looking better than I thought it would. But I haven't been to the park.

 

I'm SO looking forward to not having to go to SFMM after tomorrow for a few months. We'll be doing our SFHH days and that's it until Fright Fest stuff starts showing up.

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My last comment on Jay. The employee attitudes are mirrors of management. During Jay's reign, I found the staff to be the best since I've been coming to the Mountain. Now, they're like Bonnie's - aka Ice Queen.

 

I disagree. At first, things improved. Then it went back to the same as it always was.

 

That's because line employees attitudes are much more a reflection of their direct management team---something the GM has no part in hiring (save for the head of the department).

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^ Exactly. My company had a crappy CEO for YEARS but it didn't impact my job one bit. It impacted my stock, but it didn't impact me and what I do on a daily basis. Even decisions that my bosses boss makes don't really impact me on a day-to-day basis.

 

Not sure why people think SFMM is different than any other company.

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