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Six Flags Magic Mountain: General Discussion

New permits were today filed indicating that SFMM wants to build a modified clone of Jersey Devil, the RMC Raptor being built at Six Flags Great Adventure for this year, for 2021. Here's a video with some more info:
Very exciting news! With the existing models' rave reviews, another Raptor in the world can only be a good thing!
 
SFMM is far too popular a park to be getting an RMC Rator. The queues for it are going to be huge. What happened to the T-Rex model? It would be better if they held off for when that's ready.

Edit: I've just checked Jersey Devil and seen it is a super long looking 12 car version with a midcourse. It could be ok, but will still get some big queues!
 
SFMM is far too popular a park to be getting an RMC Rator. The queues for it are going to be huge. What happened to the T-Rex model? It would be better if they held off for when that's ready.

Edit: I've just checked Jersey Devil and seen it is a super long looking 12 car version with a midcourse. It could be ok, but will still get some big queues!
According to Alan Schlike, the TRex Track is designed for coasters of utterly obscene size i.e. 300+ft tall. They are working on a track that will fit coasters of 200-300ft tall, and the Raptors are designed to go up to 200ft tall. The TRex also isn't ready yet.

That's likely why they opted for a Raptor.
 
Regardless of what the track can cope with, why don't they just make a 2-seat wide train for the Raptor?
You mean a T-Rex version. What i can see happening here is Tidal Wave and former site of Green Lantern being possibly used for the site of the park's next coaster. Probably a 2022 opening now due to the virus but you never know, anything's possible with Six Flags maybe. I might finally get out their and visit the place now that they don't have a ZacSpain and have a Hybrid RMC and a possible new raptor! Anyone ever been on here before?
 
I have been 3 times. It’s ok for what it is, a park full
of coasters mainly! Some good ones such as twisted Colossus, Tatsu, Riddlers, Batman and Apocalypse. I don’t like X2, both time’s been on it (it was shut on first visit) had really rough rides.

always enjoyed the visits but the park much like how Merlin parks are turning out, lack maintenance and feeling rundown even in lots of areas, toilets are awful for example. On my last trip last year preferred the days at Universal, Disney and knotts.

on future California trips unless something major comes, could happily skip Magic Mountain.
 
I have been 3 times. It’s ok for what it is, a park full
of coasters mainly! Some good ones such as twisted Colossus, Tatsu, Riddlers, Batman and Apocalypse. I don’t like X2, both time’s been on it (it was shut on first visit) had really rough rides.

always enjoyed the visits but the park much like how Merlin parks are turning out, lack maintenance and feeling rundown even in lots of areas, toilets are awful for example. On my last trip last year preferred the days at Universal, Disney and knotts.

on future California trips unless something major comes, could happily skip Magic Mountain.
Did you ever go on the inner seats on X2. Apparently they're meant to be more smooth?!
 
Did you ever go on the inner seats on X2. Apparently they're meant to be more smooth?!

yes first time in 2015 was an outside seat and then on last years trip was an inside seat. The inside seat was much better. The prob I had was on the first ride in 2015 towards the end of ride I smashed my head hard into the back head rest which game me a head ache which lasted a few hours.
 
Had 2 rides back to back on X2 as after the first ride the harnesses wouldn’t unlock so they sent it again. It’s a bonkers ride and I really liked it but I can see how you could really wack your head if you are unlucky. It’s certainly not a relaxed ride experience!
 
We did Magic Mountain back in 2012. It was a pretty good, but very hot day. One major ride we didn't get on was the flying coaster, which was a shame but we wasted too long queing for the rapids.
That was sort of the only complaint, not enough rides that aren't thrills. We wanted something to ride straight after lunch and the rapids was the only real option for a low-impact ride. We also queued for ages for Superman as only one side was open.
 
The first half of Viper is genuinely great, the 2nd half not so much. There are a few awkward transitions into and out of the inversions in the 2nd half (you're basically hanging over to the right as it enters the corkscrew as the banking is all wrong) and it seems to run out of steam towards the end, with a slow straight section of track before the final dip through a tunnel, which feels like they ran out of energy in the wrong place and were forced to just get back to the station whilst keeping as low as possible.
 


Not sure there was much doubt at this point, but an RMC single rail ride is almost certainly nailed on for 2022.

This has been rumoured for a long time hasn't it? It can't help thinking they would be better off waiting of higher compacity single rail coasters with the amount of visitors SFMM gets. Then again it didn't stop them a great escape so perhaps six flags doesn't care about capacity.
 
This has been rumoured for a long time hasn't it? It can't help thinking they would be better off waiting of higher compacity single rail coasters with the amount of visitors SFMM gets. Then again it didn't stop them a great escape so perhaps six flags doesn't care about capacity.
We've had this debate a billion times, but for my money, capacity is only one factor you have to consider when building a new ride. If you want to offer a certain experience, in this case a single rail ride, it's impossible to offer 1800 pph, in the same way it is with a Wild Mouse. The capacity limitations are inherent in the design, despite what RMC are offering with the moving station.

Plus, in this industry and other hospitality offerings, you have to build capacity with a long term view, you can't build vast capacity into every ride in a park, it's cost prohibitive. You have to build something that will serve you OK most of the time. You can't build something to satisfy your blockbuster days, you also have to accept that opening year when something is flavour of the season, crowds will be painful, but three or four years down the track, your capacity headache is no longer such because the crowds are now elsewhere.

If you operate a pub or a restaurant, you don't have 1000 tables for the two nights of the year you'll need them, you have to compromise.
 
There's a limit though, otherwise you just end up with a Flamingoland situation where your entire park is hamstrung by woeful lack of capacity across the board and the whole thing becomes a misery on all but the quietest days.

SFMM is far from that situation, mainly as they're open year round so have plenty of days when they have very low crowd levels - I've previously visited midweek in March, May and August and had quiet days on all three occasions. Plus if they've gone for the rolling station option there's every chance this thing will match or beat the actual throughput of some of their ostensibly high-capacity rides due to how badly they're typically operated. If it gets above 500/hr that'd be more than Tatsu was getting on my most recent visit.
 
@John agreed, but would counter than Flamingo Land have bought some high(fish) capacity rides over the years but for various reasons have opted not to operate them as such.
 
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