The Six Flags Magic Mountain (SFMM) Discussion Thread

As someone who worked at Disneyland for 5 years, then later in senior management at the Disney Studios, I know what Jahan is talking about.

At Disney, unless you are one of very few people who are making decisions at the top, you have very little "input" as to what is going on at your level.

There is not much "empowerment" to make changes to an attractions, game, tv show, film, etc, given to a lead, area supervisor, line producer, etc.

Your role in the company is mostly dictated by several layers of management that are out of your reach.

While yes, it may seem like the company is "listening" to you, it is very rare that you would see an idea from a ride op get implemented into full practice.

At the moment, I am currently working on a very high budget Disney project and this is entirely the case. Even my day-to-day counterparts at Disney, who are in senior management have to go to another level of management to get sign off on most creative decisions being made.

From what I have seen at Six Flags lately, the new management team is giving even their front line staff as sense of empowerment.

The job fair is a good example of this. What you will in the Sky Tower in a few weeks is another good example. The changes to West Coast Bash is yet another good example.

While yes a lot of this is "new" at Six Flags, the fact that it is happening is VERY encouraging and something that I have very rarely seen in my 20 year career in the entertainment industry (with 11 of those years being spent working with or for Disney on various different seniority levels.)

I think Jahan's wording might have come off a little harsh "Push buttons. Wave batons. Paperwork. And that's it. " but the meaning behind those words are absolutely correct.

And that's how it is in most jobs. At least most corporate jobs.

And while Six Flags is also very corporate, what I'm seeing from the new management (all the way up to Shapiro's level) seems to be run more like a small company rather than a huge corporation.

It's a good direction to be moving the company in, and I think you'll find that your front line employees would much rather work at a company like that where you feel like management knows your name and personality rather than your "position."

I hope that makes sense.

--Robb

Here's another example....

For one of the "surprises" we are giving away at West Coast Bash, the park management has empowered an employee there to give me a bunch of material, at his discretion, to produce something that we can give to all the attendees (I won't go into detail because it's still a secret!)

This person has been given the "ok" by management to use their judgement as to what materials we are given, and they have also entrusted us to produce something that the park will be happy with.

If the same thing were to happen at Disney, there would be several layers of management approvals and meetings that would need to happen before the initial conversation can even take place.

I wish I could post about more examples, but that would break some of the non-disclosures that I've signed with the company.

Keep in mind that I'm not really dissing Disney for this, because the end result is they produce some great product and they are #1 in the business for a reason. But unless you are very high up making some important corporate decisions, you are pretty much a "robot."

--Robb

Out of curiosity...is it possible to build a career out of working at SFMM, or for SF in general? I noticed their job postings online offer (in my opinion) incredibly low starting wages. Do these increase dramatically in a relatively short period of time?

"...give me a bunch of material, at his discretion, to produce something that we can give to all the attendees" (Robb)

So we are getting genuine Psyclone firewood!

Eric

Out of curiosity...is it possible to build a career out of working at SFMM, or for SF in general? I noticed their job postings online offer (in my opinion) incredibly low starting wages. Do these increase dramatically in a relatively short period of time?

It's possible to build a career anywhere. Gary Story started with Six Flags sweeping pathways, and ended up CEO of the company. So yeah if you stick it out and do good, you can make a good career out of it.

Out of curiosity...is it possible to build a career out of working at SFMM, or for SF in general? I noticed their job postings online offer (in my opinion) incredibly low starting wages. Do these increase dramatically in a relatively short period of time?

 

It's possible to build a career anywhere. Gary Story started with Six Flags sweeping pathways, and ended up CEO of the company. So yeah if you stick it out and do good, you can make a good career out of it.

This reminds me of the McDonalds commercial where the girl starts out at the frier and ends up manager of a region, ooooohhhh ahhhhhhh. lol

^^^^If you have the will and you stick around long enough, you can move up.

The pay at the park isn't that awesome, but some of the jobs offer full benefits. I know they pay $16/hr for mechanics, which is pretty low because it's not easy work. But like any job you want to live doing, its one of those places that you have to put a lot of time and work in for your money.

Ideas being put in not doubt vary from park to park, but also can vary from Team Leaders as well...

At Chessington it wasn't an unknown fact that I'm an ethusiast, and one of my TLs (who I have again this year, yay) asked me what he thought they could do with Vampire to improve it, since they wanted to...

He believes that having enthusiasts working at parks helps because we're the hardest people for them to please, GP can be sorted with a quickly dumped ride, but enthusiasts need a lot more, and having some work at parks means that they can pass ideas on should they be asked...

It's easy for us lot to become TLs as well over here, my mate became one after only one full year at the place... But I doubt I'd want to make it to such dizzying heights...

If you look at the calendar of SFMM website, you will noticed that the park closes at 12 on saturday during october.

And while Six Flags is also very corporate, what I'm seeing from the new management (all the way up to Shapiro's level) seems to be run more like a small company rather than a huge corporation.

I definitely fell the same way. Despite Six Flags being a very large company, each individual park is like a smaller "family" feel where practically everyone knows your name and is willing to listen to everyones input, from top management to cast members.

I was promoted to Team Lead after only one month, and may possible become a Supervisor this summer, while it only being my second season. Granted the fact that Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom is a lot smaller than either Disneyland or even SFMM, I really like the more personable feel were you are an influential member (if even just slightly) who has the capability to advance, rather than simply another unknown employee to pay.

I have contemplated working at Cedar Point over the summer, but fear I won't get the same experience than I can get at a more personable park where I'm not just one in the masses. I believe that it's better to have a say in and be a part of the company, than as Robb put it, just another robot.

If you look at the calendar of SFMM website, you will noticed that the park closes at 12 on saturday during october.

And I believe that as of now, the mazes will remain open on those Saturdays until park closes. 6 hours of maze operation... Wahoo!

My name is William,

And I am SIX FLAGS!

Rockin' Scream?!?!?

I got a call today that told me the park was testing out a 10,000 watt speaker system for potiential later use on X, but to come check it out because it's turned Scream! into ROCKIN' SCREAM!

We got there and we could hear the thumping from the FIRST section of the parking lot!

The setup was pretty basic (this was only a test) but we saw lots of speakers lined up on the other side of the fence facing the helix/corkscrew section of the ride.

Our thoughts? KEEP THIS ON SCREAM!!!

Seriously, though, it's funny how adding a few speakers to allow you to 'rock out' during the ride actually helps you forget the 'parking lot theming' just for a little bit.

I thought the effect worked VERY well from the mid-course to the brake run. That's where you could hear it the best, obviously because that's where the speakers were! You could also hear it quite well on the lift, but once you dropped the B&M roar was too loud to hear unless you were in the concentrated area where the speakers were.

So that's another thought, if this is a test for "X", would it work? I think it worked well on Scream because you are in that one area for a good 15 to 20 seconds. That's probably about 1/2 of the ride time.

X doesn't really have any area where it would be concentrated and you'd hear it for any prolonged period of time. You would only hear it as you were passing by it.

I'm sure it could be worked out with placement of more speakers and even more wattage, though.

Overall, I really thought it added something, and personally, this is the kind of thing I would like to see done to Scream! as well.

We also took a quick trip into the Sky Tower to check out some of the "upcoming displays" for the museum. There is some VERY cool stuff in there! (Way to go Brandon!)

Below are some photos and a little video of Rockin' Scream!

rockinscream.wmv

Video of Rockin' Scream!

(there is a downloadable zip file below if the streaming version doesn't work)

Wow! I didn't realize Halloween's Mike Meyers was working at the park!

It didn't look run down at all, so I'm not sure maybe we just missed what this other person was seeing or it has been cleaned up since their visit?

Someone had mentioned recently that the Carousel was rundown and full of graffiti. We went by it today to check it out.

Wow, that's cool!

Some of that stuff is from a long time ago.

I think the museum idea is going to be a BIG hit! Already people were checking out the stuff and it's not even on display yet!

Aww! See! KidTums loves you!

That goes for you too KidTums!!! GET AWAY FROM THERE!

"I Jahan will protect Brandon' stuff so NO ONE will be able to 'borrow' any of it!"

"Do you think Brandon would mind if we borrowed one of those signs?"

Up in the Sky Tower we wanted to check out the collection of "stuff" that will eventually make up the Sky Tower Museum.

An empty queue means plenty of Rockin' Scream! rides for us today.

We didn't have to wait this long for Rockin' Scream!

Will something like this work for X? Not sure...but it worked GREAT for Rockin' Scream!

You ROCKED your way through the helix and corkscrews all the way to the brake run.

Coming off the midcourse brake you could hear it REALLY well throughout the rest of the ride.

We were told this is an experiment for "X" putting 10,000 watts of speakers faced at the coaster to see if you can hear it while on the ride.

This weekend "Scream!" will be known as "Rockin' Scream!"

rockinscream.zip

Cool update! I miss Scream, one of my favorites at SFMM. Sounds like a cool concept that could be used on a lot of coasters around the country to enhance the ride experience. Surprised people can still hear it even over the B&M roar, without it being too loud and annoying for people waiting in line. Although, Scream is a newer B&M, so it's roar isn't as loud as some of the older ones elsewhere in the country/world.

Those appear to be JBL JRX115 speakers (can't tell the model of subwoofer, but also JBL) and if that is the case I can tell you those are some very powerful speakers. Knowing what the park uses in most of their venues my guess is those things are being fed by 4 Crown (XS series, not sure on the numbers anymore) amps rated at 2500 watts each. They might have a 5th (or 6th even) thrown in there to keep stresses a little lower on the other amps. I could drone on for a while about the nerdy tech stuff concerning the sound setup, however to sum it up, I can promise you that setup will be able to put out a HUGE amount of sound if they so choose.

I hope SFMM has plans to add grass under Scream! to make it look more presentable. The Rockin' idea does sound good, but I would think that it would be kinda loud.

1. They have good taste in music.

2. They have good taste in sound setup. Those speakers can pump!

BTW those subs are JBL SRX728S Dual 18 Subwoofers.

Thats a very original idea.

Seems like it would be fun, but I think I would be more focused on the ride then the music.

Awesome! Those speakers are pretty sweet, they can defenitly pump out those tunes. The stuff up in Sky Tower looks great, might have to bring myself back up to the top of the tower just to check it out.

---Brent

I visited the park yesterday (first time in almost a year) and had a blast! I had no idea that the speakers under Scream! were anything new, and me and my friend thought they were awesome! It's true that they can't really be heard during the first half of the ride due to the roar of the train, but the sweet techno could definitely be heard during the second half of the ride. It's audible from the queue, but since they're aimed away from where you're walking/standing, it's not too loud, plus there's a fence between you and the speakers. It made the ride more enjoyable, for sure!

On another note, I'm really liking what I'm seeing at the park. I've worked at Cedar Point for the last two seasons as a ride operator, so I'm able to see things that other ride ops do in a different light, maybe than someone that hasn't ever operated a ride. The crews were doing a fabulous job at dispatching rides quickly. The Riddler crew was hitting interval (not sure if this is a term used outside of CP, but basically means that they weren't stacking) which is something that even CP has some difficulty doing with Mantis in two-train operation (granted RR has a longer cycle than Mantis, but it's still impressive!). Goliath could have been operating with three trains without much (if any) stacking at the pace they were going, which again, is awesome. My only real complaint all day was one train op on BTR (not sure if they went up to two later that day or not) and a VERY slow crew - almost two minutes to dispatch.

The park was very clean and employees seemed to be having fun and were pleasant. Went up in Sky Tower twice and the employees there were very friendly and talked and joked with us. The museum up there is going to be pretty sweet - there's some very interesting stuff up there. Viper's paint looked fabulous and the ride was running extremely well. The only rides not operating, that I noticed, were Jet Stream (looked like it was being repainted/worked on) and Deja Vu (who cares?). Even Yosemite Sam Sierra Falls was open, a ride that I haven't been on since my first ever trip to MM back when I was eight... 14 years ago lol. Rode it. Butt got soaked. Also of note, while in line for Goliath, I saw what looked like a paint test for the rumored new paint job for Superman - there were patches of red, blue and yellow at the bottom of the tower. Not sure if I would like a red, blue and yellow superman, but I'll have to wait and see it in person. Overall, a great day, and I'm looking forward to my next visit with my new season pass!

I love it! I would ask my parents if we could head down to the mountain for a couple of hours today, but I'm sick. My head would nearly explode after one ride on Scream! Oh well.

Sky Tower's stuff looks great! I look forward to seeing everything in the future.

Thanks for the update! I can't wait for WCB!

----Antonio

P.S. I want to see the official SFMM Michael Meyers!

I hope SFMM has plans to add grass under Scream! to make it look more presentable. The Rockin' idea does sound good, but I would think that it would be kinda loud.

SFGAM did it when they removed ShockWave, so it should be possible.

They should have done it before, but maybe they are just lazy.

EDIT: Post 100!

I guess Scream 2 will be next after X2. All they have to do is paint it, add a tunnel, replace the pavement with grass, get the soundtrack, and they will be all set!

Rockin' Scream sounds like a great idea. Upbeat club techno like this always goes good for roller coasters. Scream already has good techno played in the queue and station. It would be awesome if they could get something like this going for X2 also, and release the soundtrack like Disney did with Rockin' SM & CS.

Interesting idea, but they really need to consult with me on the music...

dt

Although, Scream is a newer B&M, so it's roar isn't as loud as some of the older ones elsewhere in the country/world.

Gonna have to disagree with you there. Scream is definitely one of the B&M's in the park that coins the B&M signature roar.

Ghetto for sure, but hey, you gotta think of and test ideas somehow...How about instead of adding a sound system to Scream, you first tear up that parking lot and add some green!

Two steps back to make one forward, know what I mean?

Thanks for the photos Rob, sounds like you and the SF higher ups are becoming pretty good buds!

Although, Scream is a newer B&M, so it's roar isn't as loud as some of the older ones elsewhere in the country/world.

 

Gonna have to disagree with you there. Scream is definitely one of the B&M's in the park that coins the B&M signature roar.

The conditions on the day I went must have affected it, because I've been to Cedar Point where one of the granddaddy of B&M roars, Raptor, was fairly quiet. Floorless coasters, in general, aren't as loud as early to mid 90s inverts, and stand-ups, though. At least the ones I've been on. I was surprised at how loud it's roar it was for being built only in 2003. I guess SFMM didn't do anything with sand, like some other parks do, to quiet it down.