SFMM, Worst Ever!

Six Flags Magic Mountain: The worst Exeriance ever at SFMM, Valencia.

Greetings Friends,

I'm passing this one on to friends and family, just as an FYI! As, many of my friends have kids growing up now, and can use this info.

As many of you guys have lived in the Los Angeles area, I'm sure have visited Magic Mountain in Valencia at one time or another. I went to Magic Mountain so many times growing up, I even held season passes for more then 4 years straight in the mid 80s.

Well.. My daughter being 10 years old now, is quite the thrill seeker and at the "roller coaster" age now. She wanted to go to Magic Mountain, just me and her for a roller coaster day.

I literately stopped going to Magic Mountain around the early 90s, because lets face it.. Magic Mountain has a very long history of "over booking, and under staffing" the park. As you know, this makes your experience going to the park mostly a bad one.

Well.. I thought to myself, gee, it's been near 13 years since I've been to this park, it's surely changed since then..

Guess what.. IT HASN'T CHANGED!

I arrived to pay a $15 dollar parking fee, and then a $59 entrance fee! Yes, Fifty Nine dollars one day pass anyone over 48", this is NOT a typo. Walked into the park though their full body metal detector systems (just like the airport), and was told that I could not bring in my lunch bag with 2 sandwiches and 2 waters in it. Even disneyland allows you to bring in a lunch bag!

None the less, me and my daughter set out to ride our fist coaster for the day.. Head over Viper (closed) hum. Head over to Goliath (closed) humm. over to Batman (closed).. humm.. Ninja, Freefall, Superman, Revolution, Colossus, Psyclone, Flashback, Goliath.. closed, closed, closed.. Turns out, 11 out of the 17 Major coasters are closed! Of course, non of this is posted at the ticket booths.

Well then.. starts raining hard, so we go on old things like the marigoround, log jammer, jetstream.. of course we are just soaked because the rain simply never lets up. We give up on that new ride "X-Extream", as the sign says, 3-1/2 wait for this point.

Interesting points too note while I haven't been there in years.

1) They seam to add in coaster after coaster over the years, and never remove old rides. You can clearly see the remnants of lots of old rides The Magic Pagoda, and the Monarail are still there, they just seam to build on top of these, and demo if necessary.

2) During the rain, a lot of the sidewalks completely flooded with water. Their doesn't seam to be any drains built in anywhere.

3) The park is filthy. Old cups and trash are everywhere. No one is around to clean anything.

4) Allot of the old building are looking really old and dilapidated. Many things have a lot of wood rot.

5) There's no where to sit. A lot of the tables and chairs have been simply removed.

Anyway.. looks like I haven't missed anything buy not going to MM for near 12 years now. Perhaps I'll come back in another 12 years, if they are still around.

Let others know.. big disappointment.

I'm hearing all this blabbing from Mr. Shapiro the Six Flags big cheese about massive improvement. Where's the improvement. I still have yet to hear a truly good trip report from any Six Flags the last few years.

Derek's got a point. I haven't seen one decent Six Flags report in years either. I've only seen one good report but it isn't anything to 'jump for joy' about.

Gee thats a truly horrible day. I really can't understand the $59 entrence fee and the $15 parking fee. So what if it's in place to keep out the low lifes, they're stopping decent families who don't have $250 to spend on a one day trip.

In fairness to Shapiro, he just got there, and solving Six Flags' problems will take some time.

Shapiro did just get there, but that doesn't give him any free passes in my book. If they are going to charge the same kind of parking and gate that Disney does, than they better be operating under standards that justify it. This trip report is the same song and dance we've heard for years now. The only difference is that now you go broke doing nothing instead of having money for the ride home. The place is still operating like a third class carnival, and a few costumed characters aren't going to fix it.

I am a season pass holder and I enjoy the few hours I decide to spend at SFMM each month. However I have some major problems with this season:

1) I received an email stating that Tatsu would open on April 29th. I arrived at the park yesterday to find that this was not true.

2) Parking fee being increased to $15. I have 5 friends that also have season passes. Between the 6 of us we decided that we alternate driving and pay for parking. We tried to upgrade one pass to the Extreme Pass to get free parking all season long but guest services stated that upgrades are not available.

3) Delayed opening on "X". Everytime I have been to the park this year "X" is not operating at the park opening time. Generally you have to wait at least an hour for the ride to open.

SFMM needs to increase their resting areas, making them more frequent throughout the park. I have noticed more water/drink kiosks this past weekend throughout the park.

However if you plan your visit wisely and have a good attack plan then you can make it on all the major rides in about seven hours. Try this plan, which was done on a Saturday in March in under 7 hours.

Goliath, Collosus, Scream (x2), Batman, Riddler, Deja Vu, Psyclone, Ninja, Viper, X

With X, it bugs me. They DO know that it takes a lot of work to start it up. So why not start it earlier? They keep us waiting for random times stating either, "It'll open in ___ minutes," or "We don't know when it will open."

Now with the price, I believe it is back to 47.99. The thing is that the price was there to have the season pass cheap, but to save money, they raised the ticket price. :/

With the Tatsu thing as well, NOW they're saying May 13th. There was a special camp-out thing to be one of the first to ride Tatsu that people signed up for. I wonder what happened to that.

I have been thinking up a plan for Six Flags MM to improve

2007-Clean the park and demolish pieces of closed attractions and add some landscaping. Also give everything at the park a fresh coat of paint. Attraction Screaming Swing or Huss Frissbee

2008-Tear down the restaurants and add a new breed of sit down, waiter service restaurants that have good food. And add some restaurants themed to the area like at Samurai Summit put in a good Japanese Food restaurant. Tear down Physclone and put in the attraction that was not built in 2007.

2009-Theme the area of the physclone to which should be removed to Justice League. I say a Huss Frisbee after The guy that wears green and a robo coaster themed after Wonder Woman. Join this area to gether with Riddlers area, Batman's area and Superman's area. to make a big Justice league area. Clear some unused land for a 2011 project that I am about to mention.

2010-Repaint and Refurbish.

2011-A intamin rocket coaster like storm runner but called it the flash coaster and theme it after flash. Add some kiddie rides around it to make it better.

that is my plan but here is what Six Flags is probably thinking

2007-Tallest Fastest Roller Coaster.

2008-Build over Phsclone and put in Hyper Coaster

2009-A impulse coaster

That is probably what they are thinking. Six Flags is a bunch of idiots.

So judging by this Im guessing Magic Mountain is the least decent park of them all and Great Adventure is the most decent....

Six Flags America is much worse than Magic Mountain. At least SFMM has some great rides, although you can never count on all of them running.

Lately they have been. Of course, this is discluding Flashback, the Monorail, and Thrill Shot. For the past 3 weeks that I've gone, ALL ride that are not SBNO were running. Deja Vu was running, Psyclone, X, Tatsu, Goliath, eveything that is in the status of operation. I believe since the opening of Tatsu, they're working on keeping attactions open. Although, I'm not sure how long this will last. :|

I don't think this is the worst experience for someone there ever. Haven't there been gang stabbings/shootings in the parking lot?

And I'll bet they paid for the parking and tickets as well.

I on the other hand, think SFMM is doing pretty well. Yes, there are rides that are always closed (Flashback & Orient Express), but over all it's a good park. I have a season pass, and (except for the $15 parking fee) I think it's great. I've been to the park about 5 or 6 times this season, and though I've arrived to the park relatively late (from 12:00 p.m. to 2:30 the last time), I've always been able to cover and ride everything I wanted to. And I've been surprised at the short lines. The last time I was there was on Father's Day (6/18)the lines were almost none-existant. I got to ride X three times in a row without waiting. Viper's wait was the longest (about 45 min.) because they were running only 1 train. 20 min. wait for Tatsu only because they had to clean it up after someone barfed (went 2x), 30 min. wait on Superman, 15 min. for DéjàVu, no wait on ninja, Riddler's, and Batman. I passed on Colossus, Psyclone, and Gold Rusher 'cause I like the bigger ones better, but there was no wait on those either. Goliath was working fine, but by the time I got to it, it broke down and they closed it early, so I didn't get to ride that. No wait on the smaller rides either.

There is, however, a trash problem throughout the park, as guests are very inconsiderate and throw anything anywhere. It's easy to blame the park for poor maintainance, but if we all did our part, there wouldn't be a problem to begin with.
So I suggest we stop complaining, and do our share to keep SFMM clean. There are plenty of wastebaskets all around, but I've seen people throw stuff on the floor just feet or inches away from a wastebasket. What a shame! The poor young employees have all they have to do to try and operate the park, while at the same time picking up after the slobs who then complain that the park is dirty. Last year I went to Europe, and was at awe at how clean everything is. Not one piece of paper could be seen anywhere around. People over there pride themselves at keeping everything clean. Why can't Americans be that way?
People here don't care about cleanliness, but they're awfully good at complaining and suing. Ever wonder why most people from other nations do not like Americans? (I'm not American either, so my opinion is based on good comparisons, having travelled a lot).

Back to the rides, I don't know what the deal is with Freefall, since it's been closed for a while. Looks like they may be either fixing it, or removing it to put something else in there.
I really believe Flashback ought to go, since it's just there collecting rust. Or they could fix it well to make it run better, or put something else in its place. I was happy to see that the Skytower has reopened. As for the Monorail, either I didn't notice, or they've removed the tracks (where were they again?). They should, however, put an in-park transportation system, as the walks are very tiring.

Anybody can have a great time at SFMM if they put their mind to it, do their share, and stop worrying and complaining.

If you want to go and avoid big lines, avoid Summer weekends (except Sundays) since those are the busiest days. Sundays are good because either most folks go to church, or they don't want to get tired since they work on Monday morning. Weekdays are always good. If you go on a busy day, plan for the most popular rides either when you first come in (but you have to beat the crowds), during lunch times when most people are eating, or at the very end of the day when most of the guests have left. Water rides can be packed during peak heat hours, so either go to those first or last (going to those early, can keep you wet and cool for most of the day)or wet yourself by your own means.

So anyhow, as far as SFMM, it's great, mostly everything works, and if everyone pitches in an does their fair share, it can be kept spotlessly clean, and the experience can be full of happy thrills, chills, and spills!

Thumbs up for Tastu and X!!!

The person immediately above me has a good point (I had thought of posting it myself until I saw it there) You see, I work as an RO at magic mountain. Most of the employees do their share to keep their areas clean, the problem is that the guests seem to be getting more and more creative with means of disposing their trash. For example, I work at gold rusher. Guests seem to love to throw their cups and bottles in the hillside surrounding the track. The problem with this is that we are not allowed to access the track areas unless the main control panel is off, and we have to use that time to run safety checks so the rides can open on time. So yes, I don't particularly mind people who litter, as long as they litter in areas that are easy to clean up. Throwing trash deep within planters and on hillsides isn't very nice to the employees.

Last time I was there, my daughter and I split a burger at Colossus Grill. There was a table of unsupervised 10-ish year-olds next to us that were throwing each and every bit of their trash into the bushes.

An employee came out, saw it, shrugged, then waited for them to leave so he could clean it up.

Now, the 2 inches of putrid swamp water in the bottom of each Jet Stream boat. That is the park's fault. The hundred nasty old plastic bottles floating in Tidal Wave are management's fault. The fact they were running only 1 train on Batman and Superman is management's fault.

There is plenty of blame to go around on the park's current condition.

umm hasn't this been posted before? i think we get the point already

FOR THE POST THAT RYAN TAYLOR PUT UP A HWILE BACK I AGREE.. I AM A SEASON PASS HOLDER AND TRUST ME PPL WHEN U SEE THAT U CAN GO BUY IT AT RALPHS...PLZ DO!!!! U HAVE NO CLUE HOW M UCH MONEY U SAVE!!!!!! I MEAN IVE ACTUALLY GONE TO THE PARK WIT 30 DOLLARS AND BEEN FINE...OF COURSE I AM A TEEN AND ALL I BOUGHT WAS FOOD FOR ME M Y GIRLFRIEND AND ONE PICTURE.(WHICH ARE NOW CHEPAER)!!! BUT STILL I MEAN IF U HAVE A PASS U CAN BE HAPPY WIT 50 PER PERSON ...SO TRY IT AND YES THE SCHEDULE IS PRBABLY THE BEST TOO....SCREAM(2X) COLOSSUS, GOLIATH, BATMAN, RIDDLERS, SUPERMAN, NINJA, DEJA VU(IF OPEN) VIPER AND X, U MIGHT EVEN AHVE TIME TO GO BACK TO VIPER, I KNOW I HAVE,....ALSO AT ABOUT 9:30 IF U DONE HEAD TO RIDDLERS U CAN GET ON ABOUT 4 TIMES IN A ROW, I HAVE!!!

WHY ARE YOU YELLING?

To the starter of this posting thread, did you know that you can buy tix online a LOT cheaper? If you, just goto their website, click on tickets & follow the instructions. I'm so sorry you had a bad time. I'm about to take my first trip there in Sept. I hope my trip don't turn out like yours.

Yes to the originator of this blog. It sucks that your experence was so bad, but come on it doesn't sound like you did much to help your situation, you didn't call to find out what admission was (I no matter what I buy know what it is before I go to get it) They do have a number called "information" that you call and they tell you the ride closeures. And worst of all living in so.cal you have to know that the day you decide to do something is always the day it rains, You really should check the weather. It sounds by what was closed that they had because usually when there is a rainy situation they shut down alot if not all coasters, So yeah lets blame them for making the public safe and not running the rides in bad weather. It just sounds like you had a bad experence and have decided to not take any blame for it, when infact you chose to go with a chip on your shoulder on a bad day for a park that is a giant lightning rod. And as far as the flooding, and the trash, yes that is a maitainence problem, but still just another coal in the fire. As far as the seating and the dry rot and structures, Guess what if they were in any violation they would be shut down in a second. So obviously they are not as bad as you think. Heck if a bathroom at a gas station doesn't have a hanicap bar they get shut down, so I think if there was a problem with the structural integrity then they would have not been open for you to complain about. And to all of you that complian, you had a bad experence live with it, we all go through it. If any of you really remember the early days of SFMM it at one time was over run by the 70's biker gangs, you couldn't go in without finding a grizzly leather wearing, beer drinking, biker looking for a fight. They finally nipped that in the bud by stopping the sale of alcohol in the park, and more strict gate and re-entry guidelines. The problems now, security is not good, I see it but I'm not taking on a entire park, I just enjoy it the best I can and hope that it will be a priority in the restructure. Heck I have been in line for rides where these kids are lighting up joints and smoking in line. Its time to clean house, and if it means stepping on some toes then to bad, but they are a buisness and still have the right to refuse service to anyone. I say saturate the park with undercover security, apply for it to have their own police substation, and maybe have a disclaimer put on the addmitance ticket so they agree to be sniffed by a narcotics dogs. Just have them roam the gate area, it can help and maybe send the message this will not be tolerated. So please know it has happened to all of us but its not the worst thing in the world. Plan your trips...........

Yes, a little forethought can make a trip easier although I AM guilty of forgetting that myself sometimes but mostly it was because I just didn't know to ask but in this case, it's always good to double check on something to see if it's "still the same as before". If you don't have internet access, most people do but if you or your friends/family members really don't, public libraries usually do & now there are interet cafe or internet coffee house type business, go in, buy coffee or something, use the internet even if it's just for 15 min. That's enuf time to find out what you need to know. If you don't want to go that route, call information to get the phone number then call the park for the ride closures, parking, food/beverage allowance etc. We just came bk from SF over Texas yesterday & it came a thunderstorm mid-day. We had to wait FOREVER after the storm passed to ride rides again but they DID open up again except for the oil derrick/observation tower. They close them for a reason--precaution but we didn't get bummed over it, we just waited it out. A lot of people kept on walking around in the rain but we just found a wet seat under a pavillion to sit on, split a burger basket & drink, & just waited. What else could we do? Afterwards, we went on like before to enjoy the rest of our visit. Common sense should tell you, it's a theme park, it's gonna cost you some money now days.

SFMM is the best theme park in CA. If you go to knotts berry farm the lines are freaking long for a ride when in six flags there like 3 min wait. You cant complain about that.The price maybe a ripoff but six flags is in a finicial problem. PS you can get the tickets for $31 and a free ticket for child in Food 4less

Ok, SFMM is probibly he most fun i have ever had in my life! if anyone thinks it is a bad park they are just being stupid and want something to talk about. For the trash situation, who goes to an amusment park to no trash, millions of people have been to that park they litter. you shouldnt just go "oh i hate SFMM because they have trash" Every park has trash. If anyone is thinking about going to SFMM GO! It was without a doubt the most fun i have ever had in my life NO LIE! as for you your trip was a bad one because you made it a bad one. "Oh it looks like its going to rain, better go to Magic Mountain today" If anyone has a problem with six flags they are just being stupid, because the olny possibile reason for having a bad visit is if you didnt plan it.

i agree, i had not gone to SFMM for five years. i started to get affraid, because according to a few people, it was terrible over there. so i went with my wife, and we had the time of our lives. trash, so what, gang members, not really, just young kids. long lines, maybe just one or 2. besides that, i like SFMM, it is a good thrill park, if you want theme, go to disneyland. also, DCA is a fun park :)

I dont really beleive you are an adult, because while i was reading i found more than several really stupid spelling errors, and they werent typos. So I think your just a kid who hates MM, and you disquised your self as an adult to fool people in to not going.

Hey, its not fair to judge someone you dont know, especially to judge them on their typing. Who do you think you are? My husband is 5 years older than me and cant spell worth a crap. He's even worse when typing. So, dont go there Brieson. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. You are the one that is acting like a child with that kind of talk. In which by the way YOU mispelled "believe".

As for the gentlemen who wrote this topic, thank you for the information. I think the same thing of the SF over Georgia.

well, it's almost that time. the park opening full time. folks, i can't say this enough, BUY YOUR TICKETS ONLINE!!! do you pay full price when buying a car? it's cheaper to buy them online then at the main gate. now, the weekends will be crowded, so expect longer lines. and during the summer, it's going to be hot. last year it was over 110 degrees at times. i can't stress this enough, drink LOTS of water. here is another tip. if it's going to be busy, buy some flash passes.

I know that a LOT of ppl don't observe the politeness of using the trash can, I've seen it myself, but when I went in Sept. last yr the park was VERY clean. Now, it may've been due to hardly anyone visiting the park or the fact that those visiting the park knew what a trash can is for but I honestly didn't feel uncomfortable being there as far as feeling unsafe. Also, I didn't realize it got over 110 degrees there last yr. Whew, no WONDER I was miserable! It was UNBELIEVEable hott! But yes w/a little research & fore-planning, a person can enjoy themselves on a budget & cut spending if they just do their homework. I HOPE to go bk to SFMM again this yr to ride rides I missed out on last fall. Have fun this season everyone!

It was cleaner probably because of the off-season, or maybe a more thorough cleanup was done not long before you visited. When I was there at the end of August it wasn't outright bad or anything but you could find trash and stuff if you kept an eye out for it. It's unfortunate that people litter of course, even though they're in the minority. Simple fact of life I suppose, not all people will do their part or simply care. Maybe management should prioritize custodial labor more, like what you see at Disney resorts, where if you watch for it you'll see the custodial staff picking up constantly. (I'm wondering if people are less inclined to litter in clean areas compared to when there's already trash here and there.) This recent "family-oriented" redirection might lead to more contientious behaviour on average too.

As for heat, it does get hot in the summer but don't be put off by it. It's usually not humid and just takes some planning is all, like limiting time in the sun from around noon to late afternoon. There's lots of drinking fountains around the park--they're the cold kind with the refrigeraion units too. And wear a proper hat for pete's sake :) (The ones I wear get all manner of compliments and adds to the thrill factor. Must be the color schemes and the jingly bells all over them. ;-) Impossible to go wrong there.)

Six Flags Great Adventure Jackson, NJ. I have been to this park at the most 5 times since the 90's. Only one time have I ever had a good day with them. The ride operators can't move a line to save their own lives. For example, The Great American Scream Machine: On a semi-crowded day I stood in line for a good 2 or more hours. One reason is that the operators were screwing around. They had all 3 trains on the track, but when all came to the station the next one will leave the station about 10 minutes later. The last time I was there they had a few rides closed like the Scream Machine. I went to kingda Ka and stood in line for 3 to 4 hours. When I got to the station I found out that they only had one side of the station open. One other thing, which is kinda unavoidable, is the overpriced food. I do have some good things about the park. It has better rides and environment compared to the other Six Flags Park nearby (Six Flags America). I just wish they have a better standard or something about operating rides.

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