All things Magic Mountain

[SuddenStorm]

Just saw that Six Flags is reducing the cost of their memberships.

This is following a 33% drop in attendance in 2022 compared to 2021.

I find it mildly amusing that this happened after the CEO's insistence that Six Flags was going to reposition themselves as a premium brand- that they'd be the discount option no longer. Of course their passes come nowhere near Disneyland's- but my goodness if you're gonna become a premium brand you need to start investing in things lake maintenance, service, and food quality. You can't just raise prices.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Just saw that Six Flags is reducing the cost of their memberships.

This is following a 33% drop in attendance in 2022 compared to 2021.

I find it mildly amusing that this happened after the CEO's insistence that Six Flags was going to reposition themselves as a premium brand- that they'd be the discount option no longer. Of course their passes come nowhere near Disneyland's- but my goodness if you're gonna become a premium brand you need to start investing in things lake maintenance, service, and food quality. You can't just raise prices.

This CEO has 100% earned the (lack of) results the chain is seeing. You can't keep your parks at the same level they've been for over twenty years and then assume that suddenly because you dramatically raise your prices (while doing nothing to justify it) that people are going to assume that you're now at the level of Universal.

I've had a Six Flags pass every year since 2003. As of now, I have no Six Flags pass for 2023 because I was never going to go from paying $0 to go to all the parks in the chain to $150 more for the privilege. Maybe if I actually had a local Six Flags at the moment I would have bought a single park pass, but now I'm roughly equidistant between two, both hours away from me, so that doesn't really work.

It's so frustrating. Every time they finally seem like they have a team in place that seems to know what they're doing, something happens and suddenly they're run by idiots again, they completely backslide on all the good they did, and it may as well be 2002 all over again.

Although when they screwed up in the past they at least weren't revamping their season pass structure every other month or so. This is unprecedented idiocy on their part.

 

[Phroobar]

Well they have been improving Magic Mountain by retheming areas and adding coasters. However, the food is inedible, the tables are sticky, the restrooms are flooded, there are no characters, the employees ignore you, the merch is exactly the same everywhere and really low quality.

 

[BuzzedPotatoHead89]

Well they have been improving Magic Mountain by retheming areas and adding coasters. However, the food is inedible, the tables are sticky, the restrooms are flooded, there are no characters, the employees ignore you, the merch is exactly the same everywhere and really low quality.

The problem with SFMM (and much of the chain) is that while I do still enjoy coasters as someone in their mid-30s the coasters begin to physically feel so derivative of each other and after doing 6 back-to-back I need to take a break for motion sickness reasons.

And once the coasters are removed from the equation the park has eliminated some of the special things that made it attractive to families in the 1990s: no more Bugs Bunny parade, no more Batman stunt show, no more nightly fireworks in the summer, Log Jammer and all the water rides are either gone or SBNO. They have Justice League, when it’s running, but that’s it. Many of the rides don’t operate regularly and the food really isn’t good.

It’s great the park is still adding to their coaster count and slapping on some paint here and there. But the lack of decent restaurants or areas and attractions to just unwind do not make it an attractive park to just spend time at and really locks them into a 15-35 year old demographic that won’t spend a lot of $$ in the park. So I don’t quite see how the new CEO can change this without making new investments that he refuses to allow.

 

[SoCalDisneyLover]

I think at some point Magic Mountain is going to sell the land, and close down just like Great America is going to do up north.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I think at some point Magic Mountain is going to sell the land, and close down just like Great America is going to do up north.

It's certainly possible, and I imagine it would be quite lucrative.

However, as far as I know, Magic Mountain has generally remained profitable. By contrast, in addition to sitting on highly coveted land, Great America pretty much always struggled to attain profitability and growth across multiple different owners. The only reason CGA stuck around for as long as it did was because the city wanted it there, because otherwise Marriott would have sold it to a developer and it would have closed in the mid 80s. The city only sold the land CGA sits on a few years ago, a decision I imagine they now regret.

 

[Rich T]

It's certainly possible, and I imagine it would be quite lucrative.

However, as far as I know, Magic Mountain has generally remained profitable. By contrast, in addition to sitting on highly coveted land, Great America pretty much always struggled to attain profitability and growth across multiple different owners. The only reason CGA stuck around for as long as it did was because the city wanted it there, because otherwise Marriott would have sold it to a developer and it would have closed in the mid 80s. The city only sold the land CGA sits on a few years ago, a decision I imagine they now regret.

Isn’t MM the chain’s top performer? For now?

 

[Phroobar]

Isn’t MM the chain’s top performer? For now?

Yes it is. It has been for some time. That is the reason it wasn't swallowed up by that ugly housing track.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Isn’t MM the chain’s top performer? For now?

In terms of attendance, it was for awhile. However, I have also seen sources say that the Chicago park is their most profitable.

 

[Phroobar]

Isn't Wally World still Six Flag's top park?

 

[PiratesMansion]

Trying to look ahead to mid-October, and trying to decide whether or not Fright Fest is worth it to include on my theoretical SoCal Halloween trip. I know that Fright Fest in general can be kind of iffy in terms of quality, but I also used to get the impression through the Season Pass Podcast and others that Magic Mountain's event was better than average because of all the competition in the area. Any thoughts on the merits (or lack thereof) of MM's Fright Fest?

It's looking like Magic Mountain is only open Friday to Sunday at this point. I'm guessing that will be permanent, but with current Six Flags leadership, who really knows.

I know at my local Six Flags park, Fright Fest used to be pretty dead on Fridays (at least, for the actual mazes), but then I see that Magic Mountain is open for a full operating day on Fridays, which was not the case at my local Six Flags when I was growing up. Are Fright Fest Fridays also demonstrably less busy than Saturday/Sunday at Magic Mountain, or is the overall crowd level pretty similar among the three days?

 

[SuddenStorm]

Trying to look ahead to mid-October, and trying to decide whether or not Fright Fest is worth it to include on my theoretical SoCal Halloween trip. I know that Fright Fest in general can be kind of iffy in terms of quality, but I also used to get the impression through the Season Pass Podcast and others that Magic Mountain's event was better than average because of all the competition in the area. Any thoughts on the merits (or lack thereof) of MM's Fright Fest?

It's looking like Magic Mountain is only open Friday to Sunday at this point. I'm guessing that will be permanent, but with current Six Flags leadership, who really knows.

I know at my local Six Flags park, Fright Fest used to be pretty dead on Fridays (at least, for the actual mazes), but then I see that Magic Mountain is open for a full operating day on Fridays, which was not the case at my local Six Flags when I was growing up. Are Fright Fest Fridays also demonstrably less busy than Saturday/Sunday at Magic Mountain, or is the overall crowd level pretty similar among the three days?

I haven't been to Fright Fest since 2015 or so, but at the time MM was making a huge push to have it be a great event, and it was incredibly popular. The mazes are perfectly fine, and it's a fun way to experience some of the coasters. If you're gonna be in the area for Halloween it's well worth checking out, though Universal's event tends to be held in higher regard.

 

[Phroobar]

Fright Fest is open with the rest of the park. However, you need to pay to do the mazes. The rest of the park is decorated for Halloween. The mazes are fine but no where near Universal or Knotts in quality and story telling. You pretty much get a lot of high school kids screaming at you with minimum makeup. I'd suggest getting a Fright Pass to enjoy front of the line. It is worth it because the stand by line moves at a glacier pace. Usually the employee at the switch isn't paying attention and forgets about the standby line for a long time.

 

[PiratesMansion]

@SuddenStorm I have no illusions that Fright Fest will at all equal HHN or Scary Farm in quality, but the idea of seeing a FF with a bit more of a budget is vaguely intriguing, after being pretty familiar with how Six Flags Great America & St Louis have done FF.

If I was to do the trip, it's definitely the first event that will be cut if time/budget becomes an issue.

At this point, doing MM in the summer is pretty much a non-starter for me given how hot it gets. So I riding the coasters in mildly more appealing weather would be part of the appeal too.

@Phroobar I know what you meant but "Fight Pass" made me chuckle. Thank you for that!

I would definitively pay for the expedited maze access.

Anyone have experience with Friday crowds during FF?

 

[Nirya]

I've done Fright Fest a few times, and it always felt third-tier in the LA Halloween scene, where the first tier was Knotts/Uni and the second was Queen Mary (RIP) and Haunted Hayride. I think if you're fitting a bunch of the other ones in, doing FF is fine but yeah a front of the line pass feels pretty necessary here (similar to Universal, whereas Knotts I don't think it's necessary to do everything in a reasonable amount of time).

 

[Phroobar]

@SuddenStorm I have no illusions that Fright Fest will at all equal HHN or Scary Farm in quality, but the idea of seeing a FF with a bit more of a budget is vaguely intriguing, after being pretty familiar with how Six Flags Great America & St Louis have done FF.

If I was to do the trip, it's definitely the first event that will be cut if time/budget becomes an issue.

At this point, doing MM in the summer is pretty much a non-starter for me given how hot it gets. So I riding the coasters in mildly more appealing weather would be part of the appeal too.

@Phroobar I know what you meant but "Fight Pass" made me chuckle. Thank you for that!

I would definitively pay for the expedited maze access.

Anyone have experience with Friday crowds during FF?

It is Magic Mountain after all.

Friday crowds are pretty packed. By then all the LA gang members have woken up and have made it to the park. The rest of the park is pretty packed during FF because they don't kick everyone out like they do at Universal and Knotts.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I've done Fright Fest a few times, and it always felt third-tier in the LA Halloween scene, where the first tier was Knotts/Uni and the second was Queen Mary (RIP) and Haunted Hayride. I think if you're fitting a bunch of the other ones in, doing FF is fine but yeah a front of the line pass feels pretty necessary here (similar to Universal, whereas Knotts I don't think it's necessary to do everything in a reasonable amount of time).

Sounds about right, although I wasn't a Dark Harbor fan at all (a good chunk of my issues with Dark Harbor was that the logistics were terrible, something I'm less worried about with FF).

Perhaps I should look into the Hayride.

 

[Nirya]

Sounds about right, although I wasn't a Dark Harbor fan at all (a good chunk of my issues with Dark Harbor was that the logistics were terrible, something I'm less worried about with FF).

Perhaps I should look into the Hayride.

Oh yeah, Dark Harbor may have been the actual worst when it came to lines (you had the regular line, the preferred line, and the VIP line. Absolute madness), but I felt the quality of their mazes - not to mention the secret bars - were a step above FF.

Hayride took a bit of a step back last year, I think in part due to them finally taking a step back from the complete overhaul of the previous few years, but it's fairly cheap compared to everything else and provides solid mazes.

 

[Professortango1]

Oh yeah, Dark Harbor may have been the actual worst when it came to lines (you had the regular line, the preferred line, and the VIP line. Absolute madness), but I felt the quality of their mazes - not to mention the secret bars - were a step above FF.

Hayride took a bit of a step back last year, I think in part due to them finally taking a step back from the complete overhaul of the previous few years, but it's fairly cheap compared to everything else and provides solid mazes.

Hayride was fantastic the first year at Gilette Ranch. When they moved to Grifith Park, they spread themselves thin and had far more areas of just wide open space which isn't scary.