The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

When are the bring-a-friend-free days in October and November? For some reason, it won't let me log in to my season pass portal. Thanks.

I think for October its the 30th Monday for Batman season pass holders with ERT and BAFF that day.

I think for October 31st Halloween its for Superman season pass holders with ERT and BAFF that day.

Yes both days will also be Fright Fest and last season when SFMM ran a BAFF on a FF day the CHP shut the road in around 2pm (but that was a weekend). So be prepared for crowds and keep your elbows up.

I went last week and took some pictures.

I also wrote about the place on my blog but I don't have enough posts to attach the link so... message me?

Back in the early 2000's I thought it was policy at Six Flags to close the lines early at the estimated time so that the line completed by closing time (ie: if park closes at 10p and the line for Superman is 1 hour, they close the line for that ride at 9) -- or was this just a Darien Lake thing because of the laser show? I could have sworn we saw that at multiple Six Flags parks back in the day... I'm curious when that changed. I remember it was always something I hated because we would run from half-way across the park not knowing if the park closed the ride line yet.

 

I remember it always stating this on the park maps as well.

When I worked at SFMM in the early 2000's the queues closed at park closing - as long as you got in line before park closing we were supposed to allow you to ride. I remember this made for some very long nights at Goliath it's first season... especially when maintenance had run out of road wheels!

The ONLY time I have ever seen people NOT able to ride after they have waited in a line at close... was at Mt. Olympus. Huge surprise. It was on the last train out on Hades. Everyone up there had waited in line, and 2 guys - happened to be TPR guys - were going to be in the train after, but they weren't going to send another train. They looked disappointed but walked out like troopers. Appropriate behavior indeed, but you can bet I would have made a bee-line for guest services (is there one there?) or a manager to let them know how uncool (in a polite way, of course) that was.

Great pictures! I really need to get back to that park.

The ONLY time I have ever seen people NOT able to ride after they have waited in a line at close... was at Mt. Olympus. Huge surprise. It was on the last train out on Hades. Everyone up there had waited in line, and 2 guys - happened to be TPR guys - were going to be in the train after, but they weren't going to send another train. They looked disappointed but walked out like troopers. Appropriate behavior indeed, but you can bet I would have made a bee-line for guest services (is there one there?) or a manager to let them know how uncool (in a polite way, of course) that was.

To be fair there were a few nights I remember running out of road wheels at Goliath when we still had a 2+ hour wait after closing... causing a lot of very angry people to not be allowed to ride.

I went last week and took some pictures.

 

I also wrote about the place on my blog but I don't have enough posts to attach the link so... message me?

Great pics!

The ONLY time I have ever seen people NOT able to ride after they have waited in a line at close... was at Mt. Olympus. Huge surprise. It was on the last train out on Hades. Everyone up there had waited in line, and 2 guys - happened to be TPR guys - were going to be in the train after, but they weren't going to send another train. They looked disappointed but walked out like troopers. Appropriate behavior indeed, but you can bet I would have made a bee-line for guest services (is there one there?) or a manager to let them know how uncool (in a polite way, of course) that was.

The closest experience I've had to this was at SFMM, by myself. For some reason, X2 closed early in the day, which I didn't realize until I walked up to the gate. When I noticed the gate closed with an employee standing next to it, I turned around to leave. The employee yelled out to me to come in anyway. So I walked up through the line, but one of the ride attendants at the station stopped me at the entrance and said, "Hey man, we ain't lettin' nobody else on this ride today." He probably wouldn't have believed me if I told him the guy at the gate let me in. Oh, well.

I went last week and took some pictures.

Great pictures! I love the first one, it's always fun with pictures where you can see the various facial expressions of the riders!

Now, I have a geeky question. I noticed in your picture a lot of 'grab rails' (or whatever the correct technical term might be) on the track. I looked up an onride POV, and they seem to be all over the ride, both inside and outside the track. Now my questions is, is Riddler's Revenge the only B&M to have these? I cannot recall having seen anything like this on any other B&M's. Where they on the ride from the beginning, or was it something installed later by Six Flags?

 

Great pictures! I love the first one, it's always fun with pictures where you can see the various facial expressions of the riders!

 

Now, I have a geeky question. I noticed in your picture a lot of 'grab rails' (or whatever the correct technical term might be) on the track. I looked up an onride POV, and they seem to be all over the ride, both inside and outside the track. Now my questions is, is Riddler's Revenge the only B&M to have these? I cannot recall having seen anything like this on any other B&M's. Where they on the ride from the beginning, or was it something installed later by Six Flags?

I couldn't tell you for certain if any of those were on it when it opened, but I highly doubt it. During the 2001/2002 off seasons SFMM added a lot of them as a "side project" of their welders at the request of the ride mechanics. Every few weeks a few more would pop up and I remember at least one Friday private party the ride being unavailable due to that work.

In 2003 Vortex at PGA did not have them (to be fair Vortex did open ~5 years prior to Riddler...).

To be fair there were a few nights I remember running out of road wheels at Goliath when we still had a 2+ hour wait after closing... causing a lot of very angry people to not be allowed to ride.

Road wheels?

They have various names, but the road wheels / tractor wheels / running wheels are the ones on top of the track.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_coaster_wheel_assembly

Is it the same style for woodies? The last time I rode apocalypse( in early June) towards the end it felt like the wheels were getting serious airtime and felt like we were going to de-rail.

When I called the park today and asked about extending the Gold level upgrade to November, I was told the deadline now is Sun. 11/26.

Also, 'VTown661' said he thinks October 31st is a BAFF day for Superman season pass holders with ERT that day. If you have a 2018 Gold Pass, would you be able to use it to get a friend in for free that day? When would the ERT take place and on what rides? Thanks.

To be fair there were a few nights I remember running out of road wheels at Goliath when we still had a 2+ hour wait after closing... causing a lot of very angry people to not be allowed to ride.

Road wheels?

That was the standard name we used for the wheels that ran on top of the rails at SFMM coasters. Goliath's opening year had a lot of issues with "blown out" road wheels (what we called it when the polyurethane had worn to the point of exposing the metal of the road wheel). To avoid damage to the track and wheel we wouldn't run a train in that condition. While normal wear was expected, the level of wear was far beyond SFMM or Giovanola's estimates and our road wheel supplier, Uremet, couldn't keep up. So opening year there were several nights when, down to one train, we were *praying* the road wheels would hold up long enough to cycle out our 2+ hour queue.

Sorry... wayyyy more information than originally requested.

Now, I have a geeky question. I noticed in your picture a lot of 'grab rails' (or whatever the correct technical term might be) on the track. I looked up an onride POV, and they seem to be all over the ride, both inside and outside the track. Now my questions is, is Riddler's Revenge the only B&M to have these? I cannot recall having seen anything like this on any other B&M's. Where they on the ride from the beginning, or was it something installed later by Six Flags?

Those look to be maintenance steps/grips. Perhaps they were added to places on Riddler for access due to the tight proximity of Freefall?

Finally got around to visiting Fright Fest last night. Went with the maze “express” line option and was able to hit all mazes three times and ride a few of the lower-traffic rides (lines for rides like Twisted Colossus were hefty all night). It was good to ride Apocalypse again after so much downtime, and I’d say it’s running “well.” It’s still considerably rougher than it really should be, but it’s nowhere near as bad as the state it ended up in earlier this year. It’s the roughest ride in the park, up there with old Colossus and Psyclone, but that roughness is matched by its aggression. Also, for some reason, Superman’s right track was only making it part way up the tower, but the left track was launching the highest I’ve ever seen that ride go.

Fright Fest is easy to bag on for valid reasons. It’s extremely low budget, often understaffed, and many of the scare actors seem ironic—as if their “boo” has a question mark attached. Having said that, the park does well with what it has. Calibrating one’s expectations is essential, and I’d align it to a local / home-made haunt, but on a larger scale.

Scare zones seem to be on the decline in SoCal, so I wonder if there was a fog-related incident, or some kind of restriction that’s passed? Aside from the area by Twisted Colossus, the scare zones were relatively fog-free and unpopulated. The glowing one beneath Revolution looked good and had some interesting stilt walkers, but it’s more cutesy than anything. A couple of the other areas had been retooled more as creepy performance spaces than scare zones, such as the area over by Batman and the big open space by Riddler’s.

The cutesy, glowing scare zone.

Twisted Colossus scare zone.

The only prop (that we could see) in the new scare zone by Riddler's.

In terms of the mazes, it’s the same stuff at the same quality level of the last few years. The new one, Dead End, is alarmingly bad. I’d be surprised if, aside from the flashlights and the labor required to install it, the park spent any money on it at all. It’s quite long, and there’s one room with props at the start and one in the middle, but the rest is just an unfurnished black-walled maze. Having said that, it is quite effective, mixing the right amount of sensory deprivation with moments of visibility. I’m a fan of blackout mazes (although I think they work best when they also feel claustrophobic — like Blackout at Scandia, or even the old Blackout maze that Six Flags used to do) — and this one’s effective at what it does. The line for this was very long all night, presumably due to newness, whereas sad, old Willoughby’s had virtually no line at all.

Aftermath was the same as last year — pretty solid with a number of strong scare actors. Very long, and the use of old sets makes it the best-looking maze of the park. If you’re new to Six Flags, you might think they went all-out on this one, but I think most people are aware that they’re just reusing the stuff they moved out of the way from the new dark ride site. Vault 666, Red’s Revenge, and Toys of Terror all remain unchanged, but all three are solid low-budget affairs, so it makes sense why they’d remain. Toys of Terror is still the park’s standout to me as it’s much more compact, and the 3D effects are something else. It's worth noting that on our first two runs through Red's Revenge, the scare actor in the opening room (an older lady who kept screaming at the video screen and people in the room) was excellent. When we returned later, she was gone, replaced by an actor who chewed gum and clearly couldn't wait to go home. Such moments contribute to the event's inconsistency — understandable, to a degree, but also something that the park might address through staffing roles. Relatedly, Chupacabra relies entirely on the scare actors to elevate it above mediocrity (there’s really nothing in the maze aside from a stinky decapitated cow). Much of the fog was removed from the pathways, which, in my opinion, was the only good thing about it in previous years. This year, it was clear that it’s past its sell-by date and there was very little to see in it despite some of the scare actors really getting into their roles.

Entrance to Aftermath.

Much of Aftermath's queue is inside the maze itself.

Inside Aftermath.

I can’t imagine that anyone expects Fright Fest to be on the same level as other major haunts in the area; there’s simply no comparison. However, the park knows how to make do with what it has. Unless there’s a significant budget increase in the form of a different pricing model (it’s a very inexpensive event), I wouldn’t blame SFMM for not changing a thing. However, it would be great to see the park build on what they already do by renovating several mazes, perhaps hiring a more dedicated team of designers, and upgrading some of the scares to the kind of strobe/noise effects that Universal overdoes. It wasn’t clear just how packed the park was last night or how long it was taking to get into the mazes as the Express Passes allowed us to skip all lines, but the only maze that didn’t have a significant and slow-moving line all night was Willoughby’s. Dead End staggers entry, and so I’d imagine that the throughput is awful. The last time we walked past it, there was a hefty line for Express as well as the regular line that extended all the way up to Ninja.

So, all in all, it’s the same Fright Fest you’ve seen before. Low-ish budget, lacking a coherent identity of its own, and more amateur in general than the other major haunts. But it’s not without its own charm. If you’re looking for a high-quality haunt, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for good value and don’t expect an extravagant production, this one’s right on the money.

To be fair there were a few nights I remember running out of road wheels at Goliath when we still had a 2+ hour wait after closing... causing a lot of very angry people to not be allowed to ride.

Road wheels?

 

That was the standard name we used for the wheels that ran on top of the rails at SFMM coasters. Goliath's opening year had a lot of issues with "blown out" road wheels (what we called it when the polyurethane had worn to the point of exposing the metal of the road wheel). To avoid damage to the track and wheel we wouldn't run a train in that condition. While normal wear was expected, the level of wear was far beyond SFMM or Giovanola's estimates and our road wheel supplier, Uremet, couldn't keep up. So opening year there were several nights when, down to one train, we were *praying* the road wheels would hold up long enough to cycle out our 2+ hour queue.

 

Sorry... wayyyy more information than originally requested.

i remember one of the first nights, or maybe a passholder night, when, the wheels were coming back with chunks missing. and the back of the trains had wheel residue from the soft compound. trains were being taken off often to change wheels, then put back.

.... Also, for some reason, Superman’s right track was only making it part way up the tower, but the left track was launching the highest I’ve ever seen that ride go....

 

....The new one, Dead End, is alarmingly bad. I’d be surprised if, aside from the flashlights and the labor required to install it, the park spent any money on it at all. It’s quite long, and there’s one room with props at the start and one in the middle, but the rest is just an unfurnished black-walled maze....

 

So, all in all, it’s the same Fright Fest you’ve seen before. Low-ish budget, lacking a coherent identity of its own, and more amateur in general than the other major haunts. But it’s not without its own charm. If you’re looking for a high-quality haunt, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for good value and don’t expect an extravagant production, this one’s right on the money.

Superman is missing a lot of LSMs on the one side of the track and they have purposely under-volted the rest of them to not kill any more. That's a product of the LSMs literally being antiques that are extremely expensive to replace so naturally the park has a hard time justifying the cost.

Also, you're right on the money (or lack thereof) with Dead End. The scenic budget was literally $0. Everything that is in there is recycled from something else or just stuff the park has (like paint). It's sad.

And I think your critique of Fright Fest is right on the nose. Six Flags has a trend where they have large capital and small capital years for rides, but for entertainment, it's either some capital or no capital. This year was a zero capital year for entertainment which is baffling as I have no idea how the park expects to compete in such a saturated SoCal market by doing the same thing every year and not spending any money. This year though the park as a whole has been suffering and attendance has been down for Fright Fest...

(Oh and the park doesn't really have a design team)

 

i remember one of the first nights, or maybe a passholder night, when, the wheels were coming back with chunks missing. and the back of the trains had wheel residue from the soft compound. trains were being taken off often to change wheels, then put back.

Yeah we had mechanics waiting in the storage area that first season doing their best NASCAR pit crew impersonation, just trying to swap wheels as fast as possible to keep the thing running. It was a crazy first year for a ride that wasn't really technologically advanced or anything!

 

So, all in all, it’s the same Fright Fest you’ve seen before. Low-ish budget, lacking a coherent identity of its own, and more amateur in general than the other major haunts. But it’s not without its own charm. If you’re looking for a high-quality haunt, this isn’t it. But if you’re looking for good value and don’t expect an extravagant production, this one’s right on the money.

I haven't been to Fright Fest in 15 years and I'm not a huge haunt person anyway, but man has Fright Fest changed a lot. The last time I went there were 3 mazes and they were pretty much unchanged for years, a bad hanging rip-off, some motorcycles in a globe, and a hypnotist. The highlight for me was Colossus backwards. Oh yeah and there were some coasters in the dark. Had to make sure several coaster area lights didn't turn on.

Your review seems spot on with the right attitude to take with Fright Fest. It's never been a serious contender and SFMM knows that. So, kind of like how they manage their park as a whole, it's more about value than quality and that's not necessarily always a bad thing.

^^ "But if you’re looking for good value and don’t expect an extravagant production, this one’s right on the money."

I don't understand why it's a "budget" event, though. The wristbands are not cheap and are a charge above and beyond the ticket price (though of course most of the clientele are pass holders).

Several Cedar Fair haunts are free with admission and WAY better, and even the likes of Scary Farm (which includes rides in the price of admission; granted it's only at night) aren't that much more than a wristband at Six Flags. Forget buying a ticket to Six Flags.

The quality of many local haunts are far superior and cost less than a wristband at Fright Fest. Yet people continue to buy them in droves, so I guess there is no incentive to make it better, but to say it is a "value" is far from the truth in my opinion. It's a pretty expensive turd.

Edit: I stand corrected, I forgot the wristbands only cost $17 for passholders, I think I was confusing myself with Discovery Kingdom which was more expensive (and which I did not participate in).

^^ "But if you’re looking for good value and don’t expect an extravagant production, this one’s right on the money."

 

I don't understand why it's a "budget" event, though. The wristbands are not cheap and are a charge above and beyond the ticket price (though of course most of the clientele are pass holders).

 

Several Cedar Fair haunts are free with admission and WAY better, and even the likes of Scary Farm (which includes rides in the price of admission; granted it's only at night) aren't that much more than a wristband at Six Flags. Forget buying a ticket to Six Flags.

 

The quality of many local haunts are far superior and cost less than a wristband at Fright Fest. Yet people continue to buy them in droves, so I guess there is no incentive to make it better, but to say it is a "value" is far from the truth in my opinion. It's a pretty expensive turd.

 

Edit: I stand corrected, I forgot the wristbands only cost $17 for passholders, I think I was confusing myself with Discovery Kingdom which was more expensive (and which I did not participate in).

You said it yourself, as long as people come, which they have been, the park makes their projections and everything is a-okay. That's the way SFMM operates in a nutshell, don't spend money if it isn't necessary. There will always be a market that exists for cheap, big thrills and a cheap (for SoCal) haunted event. It's the only theme park haunt in the SoCal market that doesn't close to charge another admission price for its Halloween event the same night; that's their marketing pitch and that's the "value" in the event (as according to marketing).

Again, there will always be a market for what SFMM offers. Is it a great market or a market that generates the amount of per-capita income that is necessarily desirable? To us enthusiasts, no. But clearly it works for Six Flags and that's why they'll never change.

If it rains, are all the rides still usually open? Thanks.

My best ride on X was during a downpour.

Stinging rain from all sides was amazeballz!

^Oh man that reminds me of my ride on Goliath in the hail at WCB 2009. Painful but awesome haha.