The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

I hope Nemo's okay...

mike lies alot though so it might be closed forever and ever sorry guys!!

Well, I was there today... we asked the guy by X about it, and he says that the lift hill is busted. They haven't been working about it, and they said that they're gonna fix it once they get out of debt from Tatsu (they said it won't take much longer). He had no idea when it would reopen.

Also, Superman's left side was running today. It only goes about halfway up or less, though...

Screamscape's latest rumor is Flashback's toast and should be removed soon.

Oh, well. Maybe they can get a good price for the steel?

I hope Nemo's okay...

that made me rofl

I know it's only been around a week, and I hate to sound like a GP or a newbie, but anyone know if X is back up and running yet? We're heading up there again tomorrow, by the way.

-amanda

^ Amanda, I'm sure when it's open again it'll be talked about on this site.

I thought you didn't even like X...?

^I do like X, it's just kinda banged me around the last few times I've ridden.

The last couple times we've been, due to one reason or another, we haven't gotten a chance to ride. That's the only reason I asked. If it's not, no biggie, that's what Flash Passes are for, especially on Tatsu.

Alright folks. There isn't enough going on to do a full update, but I snapped a few for a "Mini Update" .

The biggest news at SFMM right now has to be these SEVERE budget cuts. They are litterally scraping every loose penny they could.

See...if you dont have to staff Scrambler for 2 hours out of the day, you save a mere 14-16 bucks, minus the electrical cost of running the ride. These are the kind of desparate cuts being made.

Crews are scheduled to come in later (which often means that rides dont get opened on time), rides are opened purposefully later. A ride like Psyclone, for example, has been reduced to merely one crew! (Rides have a day and night crew...Psyclone is closed throughout some of the day due to having only one crew). From an operational perspective. SFMM's 6 ride areas have been returned to a mere 3 ride areas, often meaning, in my expirence, that there is less supervision (oftentimes one sup has the responsiblity of staffing 1/3 of the park! Which means at a small ride like mine, it is hard to get the attention of a Supervisor!)

And that is only rides.

I guess you cant blame everything on the budget changes...SFMM has ALWAYS had this problem!

Entertainment, like all other Six Flags Parks, has been severely butt-raped. I have noticed a DRAMATIC decrease in characters, parade size, etc. As a matter of fact, only now that the park has reduced to 10-8 operation have I noticed the slight return of some entertainment. We still have our Chinese Acrobats and Batman show, but I cant see them lasting much longer than Labor Day Weekend.

I would even be so bold as to charge SFMM of raising the prices a tad in the employee cafeteria (Oasis) and possibly the vending machines too, as I dont remember the pasty, under-cooked pizza costing $3.50 in the past!

But I have no real proof to back up that claim.

In other news...

The games area in Colossus County Fair (which, when the park was operating 10am-10pm, was opening an hour late due to budget cuts), has recieved new speakers which blast a universal soundtrack throughout the games area, rather than the specific music between some games.

I see a speaker hiding up there!

And for some reason, half of Goliaths lift hill is illuminated by pinkish-purple lights! I dont know why! Perhaps they didn't want to order new green ones and opted to merely use Scream's purple lights, which were in stock!

Sorry for the blurryness.

Last but certainly not least, Canyon Blaster's riders-per-hour has dramatically decreased! What a shame....no-one to blame but the ride operators...

Well, thats my mini-update! Hope you enjoyed it!

-Jahan[/i]

lol hopefully it didn't roll-bakc tonight

And I noticed the Scrambler signs the other day, but tis the only one I noticed... any others like that?

- joe

i am suprised at the small amount of winks ......... lol

And I noticed the Scrambler signs the other day, but tis the only one I noticed... any others like that?

Um... I noticed one on Sierra Twist like 11 days ago... Tidal Wave... oh, and Ninja. That's all I recall offhand.

With these new changes in the budget, I'm sure the operations management is working on a way to make it so that only one person will operate each ride per shift...Which, with a maintenance key, anyone could do!

Good times...

I'll be there on Sunday, so I will be sure to post an update. I hope it isn't to bad this weekend, with all of the rides opening late and stuff, I just hope I can get on Tatsu again!

---Brent

The "asian" characters Jahan speaks of in the night parade are the performers from the Chinese Acrobats of Hebei show in the Magic Moments theater.

Jahan's report and pics of the parade couldn't have been more timely, because August 14th will be the last day of the Night parade and fireworks, the opening celebration from 9:30 am to 10:00, the two celebrations at Valencia falls, at 10:30, and 11:00, and the 2:30 celebration in Gotham City Backlot/High Sierra Territory.

 

Apparently company wide, there were even more cuts, and all over the country the characters will all be 10-7. Once a week Bugs Bunny and 7 other characters will be seen in the park for 4 hours...and that's all.

This was mentioned on page 6 of this topic.

Hmm. This just screams SFMM.

Instead of making things more efficient or better through a park restructuring, SFMM just cuts back hours.

Does this really save much money? Not at all. In order to be effective, SFMM will have to restructure otherwise. SFMM's management, maybe? Who really knows. But this park is so messed up (in terms of management and operations) it'll be close to impossible to fix it. And it will be costly.

And unfortunately, Shapiro and his crew are unwilling to spend much money. I believe that Shapiro needs to think in the long term. Once the parks are fixed (which will be costly, I'm sure), then Shapiro can spend less. But if the parks aren't improving and actually recieving less money, well, that won't help them at all. In fact, it causes them to be desprate and do things like SFMM is doing now.

With these new changes in the budget, I'm sure the operations management is working on a way to make it so that only one person will operate each ride per shift...Which, with a maintenance key, anyone could do!

 

Good times...

Don't worry, Fred is gone. And one of the rides he wanted to make a one operator ride will never open again (Flashback). The other one? Revolution. They also wanted to give RRv and B:TR auxillary panels (like Goliath), but the insurance companies/state would not let them because B&M would not approve the SOP change.

(Oh, and I knew Shapiro was all talk...)

What is the current status of X?

Still down as of yesterday.

Thank You.

Hey elissa

I got a question are you guys doing anything for halloween if so let me know cause it might be another boring one here at my house thanx.

X is still down today as well.

_six

when i was at HH, i saw a guy inspecting flashback's trains and control panel. idk if its a regular thing or not.

So the update from Sunday:

-X was closed (which sucked)

-Tatsu sucked up all of the guests (as usual)

- Scrambler, Circus Wheel, and Flashback was pretty much all that was closed

- I got denied my Goliath Jr. credit, AGAIN

- We got on 14 out of the 17 coasters (the ones we didn't go on were either not open or we couldn't go on them)

- The left side of Superman is SO much better than the right

- Pennies hurt when you throw them off the top of Superman

- Riddler's Revenge broke while we were on it and they let us ride twice (which absolutly MURDERED my legs)

- There were some people in the station of Flashback, but I couldn't tell what they were doing

That pretty much sums up the day. Oh yeah, Mike, I wondered if you noticed me walking by in Bugs Bunny World.

---Brent

I was operating planes when I saw you walk past. I thought it looked like you, but I wasn't sure. Then your back was facing me and I saw the TPR donkey.

_six