The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

Well, one thing is for sure: I wish I had invented the Q-Bot. The revenue stream from that product has got to be staggering.

Not to add fuel to the fire, but Disney does offer something along the lines of the "Gold" upgrade. The tours available as an upcharge include priority boarding of several attractions. To those doing the math on how any "line-cutting" system effects standby queue wait times, you'd have to factor that into your equations as well.

They've obviously done their homework on setting the price points for these types of services. If they hadn't, people wouldn't be using them in the numbers that they do. I'll still be inclined to do as much as I can with good planning, but given the option of mutilple hour waits for attractions, or forking over the dough for an enhanced virtual queue system, I'll be handing over the money and enjoying my time in the park.

I can confirm that there was never a re-ride policy. Being allowed to stay on a ride and not having to wait in line is a courtesy that ride ops don't have to do.

Somewhere along the years a lot of riders feel that they are entitled to staying on the ride. But for a great many different reasons ( usually unseen to guests ) this can not always be the case and you will be asked to exit the attraction.

I know Tatsu spiels "No Re rides " during the last few trains of the night. Even if there are empty seats. I can tell you by first hand experience we've had to send too many unneeded trains at closing due to the train consisting of more re-riders then first timers.

At that point you also have guests who think its unfair that others are already been able to pick their seat. Its a whole issue that if the crew CAN avoid if, they by all means will and should.

One ride op on Colossus (working it something between 1:00 and 1:30 ) was so good that I stood in line at guest relations for 20 minutes to make sure I got a compliment in for him.

Sorry about the wait, there was just a small about of chaos goin on in there. >.<

To my knowledge, there's no official "single rider" line except at Deja Vu, but I've been allowed to hop into an empty seat on Riddler's Revenge and Goliath on a regular basis. That, too, I'm guessing is a courtesy of the ride crew.

Eric

I love the fact you had to wait 20 minutes to leave a compliment.

^ Seriously. That really sucks.

A park the size of magic mountain should either have multiple locations to which to file compliments,concerns,complaints, etc. Or staff more than 1 or 2 people at one counter.

I was really thinking about it the other day. Fact of the matter is, is that the park simply needs more staff. Simple as that. A lot of the major issues would clear up so fast. I think its safe to say that your average family expects Magic Mountain to be about on par with a park like Universal or Disney in terms of Guest : Worker ratio. Too bad its not even close.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying "just hire more staff and that's it". I know more than most people that that's an impossible task to do at the park. Just sayin'.

^well it also doesnt help that you are always getting stuck back at strollers

Did we ever find out what used to be on that concrete pad in the middle of the lake? I sent a guess into Dan, but I thought about it later and I think my guess was wrong.

I have a second guess---should I e-mail that instead?

Eric

To my knowledge, there's no official "single rider" line except at Deja Vu, but I've been allowed to hop into an empty seat on Riddler's Revenge and Goliath on a regular basis. That, too, I'm guessing is a courtesy of the ride crew.

 

Eric

What...??? Riddler's Revenge has a single rider line, I use it every time I go to SFMM. I even remember there being a sign up by Riddler's for it at one point to tell people about it since no one knew about it and used it, but they may have taken it away recently since I have not seen it in a while. But the single rider line is just going through the whole exit, then instead of going in the staircase to where you get off, take a small left heading the where the lockers are, and you'll see a little hallway with another staircase leading right to the station. That single rider line is great. It takes away Riddler's usually-long wait and can sometimes give you the front row (I've gotten it twice ).

Does anyone know how the attractions' wait times, that Q-Bot is going to depend on, will be calculated at SFMM? Are they planning on utilizing some new ways to tell now that there will be virtual people in line too?

I'm wondering because SFMM seems to be ok with guessing how long wait times are, but never seemed to change the signs back when they had signs with little dials on them that could be moved to different spots & the times changed. I noticed a couple years ago some permanent signs were installed in different places around different queues (i.e. Goliath's 1 hour from this point sign on that stone wall), but I've never quite understood how that's accurate if it never changes, but the # of trains running on Goliath, or any other coaster, could change at any moment. Capacity at any given moment is #1 contributor to calculation of wait time, so I'm just curious what the new calculation strategies are, if there are any.

Also wondering if we'll be seeing little electronic wait time signs posted at attraction entrances now? Those would be nice to see.

Have they always asked for Season Pass? Cause I don't remember giving mine at SFGA. But I could just be having an epic memory fart. Oh and on price boards is it per person or its the total price for the entire party? Again its been a while since i've used a Q-bot so I kind of forgot.

It's either Your Season pass OR a valid state issued ID card, it doesn't have to be both. The prices are also total for the party.

^Having an Xtreme Play Pass, I guess I'm always going to give them my ID Card because I need my season pass for discounts at shops!

Don't you need to present your season pass when using your value book at shops?

Did we ever find out what used to be on that concrete pad in the middle of the lake? I sent a guess into Dan, but I thought about it later and I think my guess was wrong.

 

I have a second guess---should I e-mail that instead?

 

Eric

I sent in a guess too. It seemed plausible, but perhaps I was wrong.

^ This I know was allowed, if the station is empty, but it sounds like they were telling them no re-rides for single riders if there's an empty seat, meaning someone stays on the exit plaform, waits for everyone to load and then hops in if there is an empty.

 

I think that's what he's saying...

 

--Robb

Yup, exactly - I'm talking about once you have already waited in line and ridden once. I'd usually ask an op if its ok and they'd say sure. Only time I ever asked and they said no was on X2 which is understandable.

I know Tatsu spiels "No Re rides " during the last few trains of the night. Even if there are empty seats. I can tell you by first hand experience we've had to send too many unneeded trains at closing due to the train consisting of more re-riders then first timers.

 

At that point you also have guests who think its unfair that others are already been able to pick their seat. Its a whole issue that if the crew CAN avoid if, they by all means will and should.

It was about 9p with a park close of 10p, so that makes sense.

Its not a big deal to me to not be allowed (I always figured it was just a courtesy anyway). During my days working in parks, we never let people stay on. It was policy to make people walk all the way back around even if there was no one in line for their row.

It just struck me as interesting that Tatsu was the only ride that made annoucements over the PA. I didn't ride during my trip in January, but in December I don't recall them doing that, but then again I rode it during the morning hours then. Ah well.

EDIT: rephrased to make Mike happy.

The policy of deciding "hey, we're only going to send 2 more trains to avoid sending 'unnecessary' trains" is lame.

Did we ever find out what used to be on that concrete pad in the middle of the lake? I sent a guess into Dan, but I thought about it later and I think my guess was wrong.

 

I have a second guess---should I e-mail that instead?

 

Eric

I sent in my guess a few days ago and now am beginning to doubt myself. I'm curious if there have been 5 correct responses yet.

Keep sending your guesses in!!! Dan especially loves getting those e-mails at night!

The 5 winners of the "What used to be here" contest are:

Matt L

Joshua Wheeler

Chris Cronrath

Allen Ayers

Sam Johnson

The first person to send me a picture was Joshua Wheeler so he gets a big-ol BOX-o-Crap!

Congrats guys! Please email me your mailing address to robbalvey@themeparkreview.com

Here was the original picture:

So what used to be here?

That's right! It was the base of one of the Eagle's Flight Towers!

And what was Eagle's Flight? It was the park's V-Shaped Sky Way attraction. The section that went from the Samurai Summit station to where Ridder's Revenge is now closed a LONG time ago, but the other section from Samuari to where the base of Superman's tower is now lasted until 1995.

DOWNLOAD HIRES VERSION

Here's some more photos...

SFMM sure did have a lot of transportation to the top that mountain back in the day, but not much to really do when you got up there! Dragon, Funicular/Orient Express, Eagle's Flight, Metro. I do miss the gardens up there...nice place to relax!

The control panel from Eagles Flight is still around up on Samurai Summit. In fact next to the control panel is a log, and the last recorded date the ride ran was Jan 16th, 1994.

Also an interesting tidbit, Eagles Flight is one of the rides of SFMM that has had an accident that resulted in a fatality.

Hey kiddos check out these old pictures of Eagles Flight at SFMM. They got other old pictures of the park as well. All pictures are copyright of www.themeparkmemories.com Enjoy!

www.themeparkmemories.com

www.themeparkmemories.com

www.themeparkmemories.com

www.themeparkmemories.com

Awesome! I was right. Can't wait for my big-ol BOX-o-Crap!

Actually, I wonder is this....

now this...

Looks like the same tower just from a different angle.

--Robb

^ That would have come in handy to win that big bag-o-crap

But of course my brain circuits weren't working on "high" so I couldn't put 2&2 together.

I think your right Robb, although the pool is obviously MUCH smaller now than it was.

A shot from further back showing the entire area (and maybe the same angle with the sky tower) would probably answer the question. Although, can you get over to where the shot was taken from now???