My Day in Bizarroland: 5/7 Magic Mountain Trip Report

[aerinpegadrak]

I was going to give a detailed, blow-by-blow account of my trip to Six Flags with my roommate Harley on Monday. But then I realized that, since I have very few pictures (and the ones I do have are crappy cell phone pics), that would be pretty boring. So, I'll sum things up.

Now, I'm not really a Six Flags basher. I remember going to Magic Mountain when I was a kid and loving it. I went to Elitch Gardens with my sister a couple of years ago and had a great time. Sure, it doesn't have the theming or attention to detail of a Disney park, but I loves me some roller coasters, and Six Flags delivers the goods.

Right? ... Right?

So I couldn't really tell why I didn't really enjoy myself this time. I used to really love rides like Colossus and Ninja when I was a kid, but Monday, I found them... well, pretty boring. Are my standards really that different now that I'm older? Or is it just that I work for Disney now, and have different expectations about the way a theme park should work? Certainly some of the more horrifying moments of the day would have gone by unnoticed if I didn't work at Disneyland.

First, I have to establish that the park was deserted. And I don't mean DCA deserted, where the lines are all really short and you're not getting crushed in the walkways. Harley called it "zombie movie deserted." There were no fewer than three rides where we were the only ones on. For the vast majority of the rides, we would simply walk directly into the station. In fact, the only rides that had any line to speak of were Deja Vu and X. It wasn't so much cool as a little creepy. But, we did get to do pretty much everything.

So, the good stuff first. I was pleased to discover that I still like Goliath and Riddler's Revenge as much as I ever did, even if some of my other old favorites had lost their charm. We also thoroughly enjoyed Tatsu. It was terrifying at first (though how much of that was residual anger and nervousness from X, which we had done immediately before, was hard to tell), but both Harley and I had a moment where our brains switched over from being afraid to really enjoying it. It's definitely a ride I'd love to do again. One of our favorite bits of the day was riding Log Jammer, where we amused ourselves (not that there was anything else there to amuse us) by singing "it's a small world." We got some very strange looks from the attendants at the top of the drops. We repeated our antics on Jet Stream, where we got strange looks not only from the attendant, but from the people riding Ninja as well.

The other highlight of our day was Guest Relations. We stopped by early in the afternoon to find out if Scream was open, and to get directions to X, which we'd spent about 10 minutes wandering around trying to find. The guy out front, Alfred, answered our questions and gave us some pretty incomprehensible directions. Apparently seeing our blank looks, he said, "I'm sorry, I give really bad directions. Here, let me show you." And he walked us up the hill and around the corner, pointing out the bridge we needed to cross and how we'd get there. After some of the encounters we'd had with employees, we were both thoroughly impressed by such great service. As we headed out of the park, we stopped into Guest Relations to give him a formal compliment (and to tell him that he should be working for Disney). We ended up chatting for about 10 minutes with him and the other two people there, Monique and a guy whose name I unfortunately didn't catch. They were nice and friendly, and appropriately horrified at some of the transgressions we mentioned, even taking notes. I do plan to write a letter to Six Flags about my visit, and I'm definitely going to mention those three.

I'm also going to mention in my letter all the really appalling incidents, and they were legion.
-On Colossus, we were right behind a boy who was clearly about an inch too short to ride. The attendant pulled him off to height-check him. Harley and I watched in horror as the kid stood up on his tiptoes, and the attendant let him get back on. Thankfully, the other attendant protested, standing up on her tiptoes so she didn't have to say anything to embarrass the kid, and made him check again. The kid wasn't allowed to ride.
-On Gold Rusher, some kids about halfway up the train kept grabbing at tree branches and whipping them behind them. One particularly big branch just barely missed us in the last row, and had there been anyone in the two rows in front of us, they would have been injured. The big branch in question was in easy reach of the train. When we pulled back into the station, there was no one in line, so they were going to send us again. Harley and I surprised everyone by demanding to be let off the ride, and I commented bitterly as we left about having to ride behind the ******* stepchild of Poison Ivy.
-On Superman, we saw a guest actually get hit with a door. I chalk this up more to a design flaw; the doors open the wrong direction, so the attendant at the controls can't see if someone is in the way. But knowing that the only way to get a safety violation at the Opera House is to hit someone with a door, it was still pretty appalling to watch.
-On Deja Vu, Harley still had her purse on while they were doing safety checks. It's a mid-sized purse with a long strap, so it was on her lap and stuck pretty securely under the harness. The attendant, who was apparently a trainee, told her she had to take it off. She tried to get it out, but it was stuck. The trainee insisted, but Harley maintained that she couldn't get it out without the harnesses being released, which the trainee said they couldn't do. (Harley works Indy and Thunder. She called BS on that one.) Finally, the trainee moved on, with a snide "We're not responsible." We'd seen some pretty apathetic employees, but that was the first open rudeness we encountered.
-Speaking of open rudeness, when we got down to the bottom of Samurai Summit, we discovered that Tatsu was down. Or at least, it seemed like it. There was a security guy and another employee hanging out out front, but the line wasn't closed off. We went up and asked if the ride was down, and were told that it was. We inquired if they knew when it would be back up. (Now, I know that this usually doesn't get an answer at Disneyland unless I know the CM, but we figured it was worth a shot.) The guy's only response was to look at me like I was an idiot.
-Having lunch at the Panda Express by Viper, we watched an employee get in line, order her food, and take it to one of the front tables to eat it. It was like a car crash; we couldn't stop staring. Buying food onstage (I'm sure they don't call it that at Six Flags, but I use the language I know) is bad enough, but if that's what you're going to do, at least be a little discreet. Seeing someone actually eating onstage was just appalling. After a brief time, she got up and left. We like to think we shamed her into finding a break room.
-On X... well, where to begin? First off, the ride itself was terrifying. And not terrifying in the "whee, this is exciting" sense, terrifying in the "I think I'm going to die, tell my family I love them" sense. But, I think it's a ride I could grow to enjoy, if I didn't have to go through the nightmare of having to wait to board X. Spending a full half-hour in the station, we had plenty of time to realize exactly what a failure of a ride X is.

See, one of the main things Disney concerns itself with is efficiency. If you're cramming as many people through your line, whatever line it is, as you can possibly manage, you'll be able to accommodate more people with shorter wait times. In Attractions, that means keeping your dispatch interval (the time the vehicle is in the station) as short as possible.

X is an efficiency nightmare. Each train can hold 28 people. At first we thought that there could only be one train on the track, though when we talked to Guest Relations about it, they asked how many trains were running, so I'm guessing they're capable of multiple trains. Nevertheless, there was only one train going. The duration of the ride is listed at 3 minutes (the ride didn't feel nearly that long to me, but it's entirely possible that I blacked out). We timed the ride cycle, from the moment the gates open to let one group of guests on to the moment the gates open to let the next group of guests on, to be 5:51. That's right, that means that the train is in the station for almost three minutes. If that's a standard ride cycle, we calculated the hourly capacity of X to be 280.

280. Remember how Al's been talking about the low capacity of the subs and the sort of problems it's going to cause? The subs can carry about 1,300 guests an hour. The hourly capacity of the Tiki Room is well over 600. I'm not sure the entire Disneyland Resort even has an attraction with a capacity that low, certainly not on one of our marquee attractions. Harley and I just kept repeating the number in numb disbelief. No wonder the line's always so long.

Part of it is bad design. At first we were pleased to see separate load and unload areas, which we thought would help increase efficiency. As we watched the ride cycle through, we realized that this isn't the case. See, the seats on X have to recline in order for the vehicle to move, but the seats have to be upright in order to load guests. Once guest are clear in the unload area, the seats must recline, the safety gates must lower, the vehicle must move into the load area, the safety gates must be raised, and the seats must return to an upright position. This takes over a minute. If guests were loaded and unloaded in the same area, the vehicle wouldn't have to move at all, and that interval could be cut down to 15-30 seconds, depending on how quickly the attendants can get people on and off. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it would mean an extra 30-50 people wouild get to ride every hour.

Of course, the attendants didn't seem to be in any hurry as they wandered aimlessly through our safety checks. We were grateful that the restraints were checked twice, but the meandering pace of the operators easily added another full minute to the ride cycle.

It was also at X that we witnessed two particularly egregious employee behaviors. The lesser of the two evils was the attendant who was sucking down her soda WHILE doing her safety check. This wasn't a quick, discreet drink of water. We couldn't believe it. But the other one was a guy who we called "the anti-Disney Look." He had floppy, overgelled hair that kept getting into his face, mirrored sunglasses (there's no direct sunlight in the station, which is enclosed), an ostentatious and ugly watch, an untucked shirt, and blue Converse shoes that appeared to have no backs and revealed the grey heels of his white socks. We couldn't really report him, because he didn't have a nametag. (When we described this guy to Guest Relations, we were gratified to see that they were utterly horrified, and said that it was "a major violation.")

In retrospect, we were pretty glad that X was so hard to get to. Seriously, it's completly out of the way, and the signage to get you there is pretty much absent. The one sign that clearly points to X (as opposed to both X and Viper, which don't board anywhere near each other) is located in such a place that you'd pretty much have to know it was there to be able to see it.

So that was our day. Had we not ridden X, we would have felt that the park was clearly inferior to Disneyland, but still enjoyable. X kind of put a damper on the whole thing. Harley wants to check out Hurricane Harbor, at which point we very well may stop into Magic Mountain to get a couple of rides on Tatsu. But other than that, I think we could pretty happily give Magic Mountain a pass for a really, really long time.

[Melonballer]

Nice report. I've always fouinf with SIx Flags, that they often do not take care of the details and the whole park suffers as a result.

[wrs28220]

It is nice to see an honest trip report. But what makes your reporting stand out as not just a six flags bashing "I HATE MAGIC MOUNTAIN" thread, is that you throughly explained the issue, explain what your expectation was, and possibly how it could be fixed; and I thank you for that. Normally in a thread like this if you check my posting history, I would start defending the park becuase of the poor review of the poster. However in this case, I can HONESTLY say that every one of your concerns/comments are valid. Some is "just procedure", and others are indeed complete violations and just like guests relations, I am appaled.

The employee eating situation:
Yes, employees are allowed to purchase food onstage. Yes they are able to purchase it during their lunch or break. No they are not allowed to eat in front of guests, (even if they are on break). Reason: People working on Viper and X may only want to take a 30 or 45 minute lunches. The only employee cafeteria is by Goliath. So they are able to purchase food "onstage" (yes, we too use the terms: onstage, backstage, offstage, area leads, park sweep...etc.) Another rule is that they are always supposed to be properly groomed and dressed while on park property, even on breaks and lunchs. Therefore an employee can buy food onstage, and must be properly groomed.

The Employees on X situation:
That employee could potentially be terminated for such blatant disregard to safety and procedure violations. The breakdown in the system is with the ride leads. They are the ones directly over the front-line employees when supervisors aren't around. Unacceptable, I understand.

The "good" guest service situation:
Terribly, this shouldn't have been your final opinion about the park. We failed as a team to deliver an outstanding experience to you, our guest.

Again, I thank you for an honest trip report. The empty days are indeed a bit weird.

Hope we can deliever a better experience next time.

[aerinpegadrak]

It's good to know that there are people out there who care about the park, and it's good to know that the really bad things I witnessed are the exception rather than the norm. As far as the eating onstage thing goes, I completely understand about not having time to get all the way to an employee cafeteria, but I think there are better ways to go about it, such as adding more cafeterias, or adding a back window to guest food locations where employees can buy food without being seen. (Many restaurants at Disneyland do this.)

And all in all, I still like Six Flags. It was mainly the experience on X that soured our day and made all the other bad stuff stand out. There's plenty to like about the park (we only saw one stroller the ENTIRE DAY!) and lots of potential and room for expansion. I just hope that the people who give a damn outnumber Mr. Anti-Disney Look.

Oh, and thank you for the advice to head away from Tatsu and X first. It seemed like we were the only people on that side of the park, and we were able to get through pretty much everything in a couple of hours.

[Disneyfan4lyfe]

I was going to give a detailed, blow-by-blow account of my trip to Six Flags with my roommate Harley on Monday. But then I realized that, since I have very few pictures (and the ones I do have are crappy cell phone pics), that would be pretty boring. So, I'll sum things up.

Now, I'm not really a Six Flags basher. I remember going to Magic Mountain when I was a kid and loving it. I went to Elitch Gardens with my sister a couple of years ago and had a great time. Sure, it doesn't have the theming or attention to detail of a Disney park, but I loves me some roller coasters, and Six Flags delivers the goods.

Right? ... Right?

So I couldn't really tell why I didn't really enjoy myself this time. I used to really love rides like Colossus and Ninja when I was a kid, but Monday, I found them... well, pretty boring. Are my standards really that different now that I'm older? Or is it just that I work for Disney now, and have different expectations about the way a theme park should work? Certainly some of the more horrifying moments of the day would have gone by unnoticed if I didn't work at Disneyland.

First, I have to establish that the park was deserted. And I don't mean DCA deserted, where the lines are all really short and you're not getting crushed in the walkways. Harley called it "zombie movie deserted." There were no fewer than three rides where we were the only ones on. For the vast majority of the rides, we would simply walk directly into the station. In fact, the only rides that had any line to speak of were Deja Vu and X. It wasn't so much cool as a little creepy. But, we did get to do pretty much everything.

So, the good stuff first. I was pleased to discover that I still like Goliath and Riddler's Revenge as much as I ever did, even if some of my other old favorites had lost their charm. We also thoroughly enjoyed Tatsu. It was terrifying at first (though how much of that was residual anger and nervousness from X, which we had done immediately before, was hard to tell), but both Harley and I had a moment where our brains switched over from being afraid to really enjoying it. It's definitely a ride I'd love to do again. One of our favorite bits of the day was riding Log Jammer, where we amused ourselves (not that there was anything else there to amuse us) by singing "it's a small world." We got some very strange looks from the attendants at the top of the drops. We repeated our antics on Jet Stream, where we got strange looks not only from the attendant, but from the people riding Ninja as well.

The other highlight of our day was Guest Relations. We stopped by early in the afternoon to find out if Scream was open, and to get directions to X, which we'd spent about 10 minutes wandering around trying to find. The guy out front, Alfred, answered our questions and gave us some pretty incomprehensible directions. Apparently seeing our blank looks, he said, "I'm sorry, I give really bad directions. Here, let me show you." And he walked us up the hill and around the corner, pointing out the bridge we needed to cross and how we'd get there. After some of the encounters we'd had with employees, we were both thoroughly impressed by such great service. As we headed out of the park, we stopped into Guest Relations to give him a formal compliment (and to tell him that he should be working for Disney). We ended up chatting for about 10 minutes with him and the other two people there, Monique and a guy whose name I unfortunately didn't catch. They were nice and friendly, and appropriately horrified at some of the transgressions we mentioned, even taking notes. I do plan to write a letter to Six Flags about my visit, and I'm definitely going to mention those three.

I'm also going to mention in my letter all the really appalling incidents, and they were legion.
-On Colossus, we were right behind a boy who was clearly about an inch too short to ride. The attendant pulled him off to height-check him. Harley and I watched in horror as the kid stood up on his tiptoes, and the attendant let him get back on. Thankfully, the other attendant protested, standing up on her tiptoes so she didn't have to say anything to embarrass the kid, and made him check again. The kid wasn't allowed to ride.
-On Gold Rusher, some kids about halfway up the train kept grabbing at tree branches and whipping them behind them. One particularly big branch just barely missed us in the last row, and had there been anyone in the two rows in front of us, they would have been injured. The big branch in question was in easy reach of the train. When we pulled back into the station, there was no one in line, so they were going to send us again. Harley and I surprised everyone by demanding to be let off the ride, and I commented bitterly as we left about having to ride behind the ******* stepchild of Poison Ivy.
-On Superman, we saw a guest actually get hit with a door. I chalk this up more to a design flaw; the doors open the wrong direction, so the attendant at the controls can't see if someone is in the way. But knowing that the only way to get a safety violation at the Opera House is to hit someone with a door, it was still pretty appalling to watch.
-On Deja Vu, Harley still had her purse on while they were doing safety checks. It's a mid-sized purse with a long strap, so it was on her lap and stuck pretty securely under the harness. The attendant, who was apparently a trainee, told her she had to take it off. She tried to get it out, but it was stuck. The trainee insisted, but Harley maintained that she couldn't get it out without the harnesses being released, which the trainee said they couldn't do. (Harley works Indy and Thunder. She called BS on that one.) Finally, the trainee moved on, with a snide "We're not responsible." We'd seen some pretty apathetic employees, but that was the first open rudeness we encountered.
-Speaking of open rudeness, when we got down to the bottom of Samurai Summit, we discovered that Tatsu was down. Or at least, it seemed like it. There was a security guy and another employee hanging out out front, but the line wasn't closed off. We went up and asked if the ride was down, and were told that it was. We inquired if they knew when it would be back up. (Now, I know that this usually doesn't get an answer at Disneyland unless I know the CM, but we figured it was worth a shot.) The guy's only response was to look at me like I was an idiot.
-Having lunch at the Panda Express by Viper, we watched an employee get in line, order her food, and take it to one of the front tables to eat it. It was like a car crash; we couldn't stop staring. Buying food onstage (I'm sure they don't call it that at Six Flags, but I use the language I know) is bad enough, but if that's what you're going to do, at least be a little discreet. Seeing someone actually eating onstage was just appalling. After a brief time, she got up and left. We like to think we shamed her into finding a break room.
-On X... well, where to begin? First off, the ride itself was terrifying. And not terrifying in the "whee, this is exciting" sense, terrifying in the "I think I'm going to die, tell my family I love them" sense. But, I think it's a ride I could grow to enjoy, if I didn't have to go through the nightmare of having to wait to board X. Spending a full half-hour in the station, we had plenty of time to realize exactly what a failure of a ride X is.

See, one of the main things Disney concerns itself with is efficiency. If you're cramming as many people through your line, whatever line it is, as you can possibly manage, you'll be able to accommodate more people with shorter wait times. In Attractions, that means keeping your dispatch interval (the time the vehicle is in the station) as short as possible.

X is an efficiency nightmare. Each train can hold 28 people. At first we thought that there could only be one train on the track, though when we talked to Guest Relations about it, they asked how many trains were running, so I'm guessing they're capable of multiple trains. Nevertheless, there was only one train going. The duration of the ride is listed at 3 minutes (the ride didn't feel nearly that long to me, but it's entirely possible that I blacked out). We timed the ride cycle, from the moment the gates open to let one group of guests on to the moment the gates open to let the next group of guests on, to be 5:51. That's right, that means that the train is in the station for almost three minutes. If that's a standard ride cycle, we calculated the hourly capacity of X to be 280.

280. Remember how Al's been talking about the low capacity of the subs and the sort of problems it's going to cause? The subs can carry about 1,300 guests an hour. The hourly capacity of the Tiki Room is well over 600. I'm not sure the entire Disneyland Resort even has an attraction with a capacity that low, certainly not on one of our marquee attractions. Harley and I just kept repeating the number in numb disbelief. No wonder the line's always so long.

Part of it is bad design. At first we were pleased to see separate load and unload areas, which we thought would help increase efficiency. As we watched the ride cycle through, we realized that this isn't the case. See, the seats on X have to recline in order for the vehicle to move, but the seats have to be upright in order to load guests. Once guest are clear in the unload area, the seats must recline, the safety gates must lower, the vehicle must move into the load area, the safety gates must be raised, and the seats must return to an upright position. This takes over a minute. If guests were loaded and unloaded in the same area, the vehicle wouldn't have to move at all, and that interval could be cut down to 15-30 seconds, depending on how quickly the attendants can get people on and off. That doesn't seem like a lot, but it would mean an extra 30-50 people wouild get to ride every hour.

Of course, the attendants didn't seem to be in any hurry as they wandered aimlessly through our safety checks. We were grateful that the restraints were checked twice, but the meandering pace of the operators easily added another full minute to the ride cycle.

It was also at X that we witnessed two particularly egregious employee behaviors. The lesser of the two evils was the attendant who was sucking down her soda WHILE doing her safety check. This wasn't a quick, discreet drink of water. We couldn't believe it. But the other one was a guy who we called "the anti-Disney Look." He had floppy, overgelled hair that kept getting into his face, mirrored sunglasses (there's no direct sunlight in the station, which is enclosed), an ostentatious and ugly watch, an untucked shirt, and blue Converse shoes that appeared to have no backs and revealed the grey heels of his white socks. We couldn't really report him, because he didn't have a nametag. (When we described this guy to Guest Relations, we were gratified to see that they were utterly horrified, and said that it was "a major violation.")

In retrospect, we were pretty glad that X was so hard to get to. Seriously, it's completly out of the way, and the signage to get you there is pretty much absent. The one sign that clearly points to X (as opposed to both X and Viper, which don't board anywhere near each other) is located in such a place that you'd pretty much have to know it was there to be able to see it.

So that was our day. Had we not ridden X, we would have felt that the park was clearly inferior to Disneyland, but still enjoyable. X kind of put a damper on the whole thing. Harley wants to check out Hurricane Harbor, at which point we very well may stop into Magic Mountain to get a couple of rides on Tatsu. But other than that, I think we could pretty happily give Magic Mountain a pass for a really, really long time.

Disneyland is much better than SFMM you can tell SFMM doesn't really try very hard disneyland on the other hand tries very hard to make sure everybody has a good day

[wrs28220]

^ I'm not going to even bother responding....

but I think there are better ways to go about it, such as adding more cafeterias, or adding a back window to guest food locations where employees can buy food without being seen.


Oh, and thank you for the advice to head away from Tatsu and X first. It seemed like we were the only people on that side of the park, and we were able to get through pretty much everything in a couple of hours.

Cafeteria: Ha! It's Magic Mountain were talking about! Though I absolutly agree that a backstage window would be the best option.

Advice: No problem! When I go to the park as a guest, I always go to the right, and it almost feel like we have the park to ourselves.

[Disneyfan4lyfe]

^ I'm not going to even bother responding....

Is that too my responce??? If so why?

[SpokkerJones]

X is an experimental prototype rollercoaster and as such there are going to be problems. I love the ride itself. It's a unique experience and incredibly intense. As far as the loading goes, yeah it's really bad. I only ride X at opening or on very slow days. Otherwise, I don't bother.

And I must defend Ninja. I still love it. It's a smooth little coaster and I love the setting.

[gibbage]

I also went to Six Flags about 3 weeks ago on a Monday. It was also dead. A little background on me. I have not been to Six Flags since Superman was rather new!!! So this is a small review from someone who is viewing it with new eyes.

The park was rather empty. But thats why I went on a Monday! X was my 1st hit. It was a bit difficult to find, but the new bridge by Viper sort of clued me in! A few tourist's were lost, and I helped them also find X. Something should be done. The route is poorly designed!

X. I also noticed how LONG it took to cycle. It was REALLY bad. I just told myself that they were just slow since there was NO line. No big rush. No reason to speed though things. There was 2 cars on track that day. The one I will ride pulles up shortly after the one in front launches. This is how bad the load time was. That car got into the station, AND UNLOADED before they were able to launch my car! That car was still in-station by the time I got back in. Wow. Luckly there was no line!!! The ride itself was very rough. Great concept, poor implamentation.

#2 was Tatsu. I walked over, and it was nearly walk-on. This ride FREAKED ME OUT! Im 6'5", and the seating was very poor for me. Got even worse once the cars tilted into the prone position. Im also 250LB+, so the entire time, all I can think of "If this support came loose, I hope my death is quick!" It was difficult to enjoy the ride being that scared for your life. This is the 1st time I have ever had fear for my life on a coaster since I know the engineering behind them. I really hope there are some VERY thick bolts on that brace, and a lot of backup systems in place!!!!! There is a LOT of weight on that chest support with someone like me. Im sure if I looked at the engineering I would have a little bit more faith in it and be able to enjoy it a lot more.

#3 was Ninja. It was OK. Looks like it went though a recent rehab. I remember this being a lot more fun. I think its at the end of its life cycle. The track goes though some very scenic parts of the park, and I would LOVE to see a more exciting ride in its place going though the same area's.

#4, Superman. I LOVE THIS RIDE!!!!! It was just as fun as I remember it, but the show building has gotten abused since I last rode it shortly after opening. The building was very dirty. It no longer looked like ice. Inside was so dark, a few guest's got lost!!!! I also remember some strong AC last time I rode, but this time it was dark. The doors also bled a lot of light, so you can see though and watch the cars launch. The one thing I loved about the ride when I first rode it was the suprise of the unknown!!! You stood in front of this door, and here a big WHOOOOSH fron the other side. You can also hear the car return, and when the doors open, your only greeted with an open car! Great show! The show was ruined by the big crack in the doors, and the general condition of the building. One thing that puzzled me is that the right side of the track was not being used, and looks like it has not been used in years! Had ridership dropped that much that they can get away with just 1 side?
One other odd thing. I could not fit on the ride! Not width wise, but my legs!!! I also have a bad problem at Space Mountian. There was apperantly only 1 seat I can fit in, and it was taken by another large man. So the ride supervisor had me wait to the side. They launched them, and reset and let me board. I expected to see the doors open, but no! She said to launch me alone! WOW! A solo ride on Superman! Sweeet! That made my day.

#5, Batman. They changed the Q quite a bit since I last rode! The walls were covered with Grifiti like vandals ruined the park last time I rode. This time, the 1st part of the Q was a very nice park setting, with a quick walk though the bad portion. Very nice. They also ripped out the monitors playing the looping animation of the Batwing. I also remember some cubby's to put your stuff in that were ripped out. The ride itself was a LOT faster then I remember. So much so, my legs were HURTING from the G's and the blood draining too them! WOW! I loved it, but it HURT! The smoke pit was not working, and the smoke return was also off.

#6, Riddlers. Just as I remember it. Good. Seat was VERY difficult for me to get into. I was way too tall for it. I had to bend my knees. Not much else.

#7, Scream. OK. WTF? Its an OK coaster, built on top of some of the parking lot, and they did not even bother to remove the friggen stripes? OK. I know that Six Flags rides are not Disney, and I dont expect it, but this was just BAD!!!! The Q also had chain link fence!!! No theme, built on a parking lot, and not even a single plant in the area. A lot of the Six Flag haters said that there is a total lack of theme in this park, and this single ride proves there point. I left the ride sick, and not because of the motion!!!!

I also rode Orient Express to get too Superman and Ninja. That thing has always needed refurb and a lot of TLC, but its hard to justify it when nobody rides it. Its sort of hidden and is even hard to find on the map. A lost treasure in the park.

One thing I did notice about the park is there was a lot more trees and vegitation then I remember! That was a nice suprise. It also seems that they are investing more in the theme's with the prime exception of Scream. DeJaVu was a mystery. I wanted to ride it, but the Q was sourounded by construction walls. It said it was open, but nobody was in the station that I could see. Me, and 2 other groups sort of scratched our head in front of it, and just walked away. They really need more signage to help inform park guest's of things like that. Honestly, I doubt I could ride it anyways. I heard there is a max, and im well over it.

In all, I have a very plesant day at the park. The park was much better then I remember, and the workers much more plesant. The only thing that really irked me was Scream, and also they charged 15$ for parking!!! Not only 15$ to park a car, but 15$ to park MY MOTORCYCLE! I dont even take up a car spot! They have me park in some area they put the school busses! Parking is a total ripoff.

I planned on going a lot more since I got a season pass, but not at 15$ to park.

[wrs28220]

If you had splurged for the xtreme play pass for just a bit more, parking is free every time you go, and you get a strip of 4 flashpasses each time as well. Glad you had a nice time.

I agree that X is not well marked to get to, but redesigning the route I feel would be a bit much, a few signs would do the trick.

All your observations about the coasters are nothing new, most of them have been that way for a long time.

[Coheteboy]

Thanks for the review of the park! A bunch of coworkers were wanting to go so I think it'd be fun to see how they operate on that day.

[LLCMC]

First of all I have to say I agree with you about Six Flags. Any time I have ever been there, I have enjoyed the rides, but have been thoroughly disappointed with guest service, cleanliness, attention to detail, etc.

Disneyland has them beat on all counts there. And I do appreciate Disney's attention to efficiency, as I think that is an extremely important part of the job. BUT I have experienced some pretty poor service at Disneyland too, as recently as yesterday. Sometimes I get the impression that efficiency is the ONLY thing that matters there. Little to no actual interaction other than the occassional "how many?" or a yell of some sort (especially at Space Mountain). Don't get me wrong at all, I absolutely love Disneyland. And it's certainly not everyone, all the time, or anything like that. I've been to Disneyland countless times in past few years, and plan to get a pass soon. But Disney has flaws of their own from time to time. Like I said, they certainly are better in every conceivable way (other than pure thrill, perhaps) than Six Flags. I am a Disneyland fanatic through and through.

P.S. I work at Legoland in attractions, and know the importance of efficiency. But it's my personal belief that you have to balance it with guest service, and of course safety. And that can be hard when they try to preach all three things, but service seems to be the one left behind most often.

Good report!

[PeoplemoverMatt]

X is an experimental prototype rollercoaster and as such there are going to be problems. I love the ride itself. It's a unique experience and incredibly intense. As far as the loading goes, yeah it's really bad. I only ride X at opening or on very slow days. Otherwise, I don't bother.

And I must defend Ninja. I still love it. It's a smooth little coaster and I love the setting.

X WAS an experimental prototype 7 years ago. It should NOT be operating as if it still was today. No excuse for anything poor on that ride.

-- PMM

[Jspider]

X WAS an experimental prototype 7 years ago. It should NOT be operating as if it still was today. No excuse for anything poor on that ride.

-- PMM

sort of in reality it seems to me there is very little you can change about the actual design of the coaster and it's track once it's actually youknow built?

that said they could probably tighten up loading and unloading a bit but the biggest difference is going to be actualy running all the trains possible (though how much that would increase capacity is still up in the air)

course this IS six flags we're talking about

[aerinpegadrak]

You could recover a full minute from the ride cycle if the attendants would move quickly through their safety checks. You could recover another full minute if the ride loaded and unloaded in the same area. That might require rebuilding the station and reprogramming the ride, but it wouldn't require it to be completely re-engineered. Doing both of those things would decrease the ride cycle by nearly a third, and would proportionately increase capacity.

And a couple of big signs are all you really need to find X. Just put a big sign at the foot of the stairs that lead up to the Panda Express patio and you're good. The one sign they do have is pretty tiny and out of the way.