All things Magic Mountain

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm being torchered at Magic Mountain right now. I just finished waiting 47 minutes for fish & chips. I only had six people in front of me. Employees stand there talking to each other rather than preparing food. Why is food service so incrediblely bad here?

The new revolution is slow. They slowed down the ride. It now takes an average of 7 minutes to dispatch a coaster since none of the vr headsets work. They wipe them off with a generic cleaning wipes.

It is impossible to know how long a line is. The app is wrong and the posted sign outside never changes. "It is xx minutes from this point."
 
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D

Deleted member 107043

Your experience is exactly why as a rule I don't do theme parks. Disney, and on a rare occasions Universal, are my only exceptions. We have a Cedar Fair, a Six Flags, and the historical Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk here in the Bay Area, and I haven't been compelled to visit any of them in at least a decade. Overpriced food, aggressive teens, hot blazing sun, long lines, 30 second rides.... no thank you.
 
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GiveMeTheMusic

Well-Known Member
I'm being torchered at Magic Mountain right now. I just finished waiting 47 minutes for fish & chips. I only had six people in front of me. Employees stand there talking to each other rather than preparing food. Why is food service so incrediblely bad here?

The new revolution is slow. They slowed down the ride. It now takes an average of 7 minutes to dispatch a coaster since none of the vr headsets work. They wipe them off with a generic cleaning wipes.

It is impossible to know how long a line is. The app is wrong and the posted sign outside never changes. "It is xx minutes from this point."

I won't go anymore. Visiting SFMM is like visiting an outer circle of hell. Hard pass.
 

The_Mesh_Hatter

Well-Known Member
I will never torture myself again with Magic Mountain. It is operated by demons.

Knott's, on the other hand, is a great experience in every way. Fast operations. Great food with efficient service (at least at the Chicken Dinner Restaurant I always eat at). Old classics are kept up really well.
 

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
I can do SFMM in small doses. After attending regularly in Junior high and HS, and working there for two years, I have very little patience for how uncomfortable it is to be there.

Disneyland is able to provide shade, ok food, and the general cleanliness just make it more comfortable to be in.

Six Flags is gross, hot with little relief from the heat, and just uncomfortable to spend time in.

Whenever I go now, I get there at open, ride X2, Tatsu, Terminator, Batman, Twisted Colossus, Full Throttle, and say hi to some old coworkers. I'm out by 1, and have done everything I care about with minimal waiting in line. I then go to eat at a place outside the park, and gladly don't return for another 6 months.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
They painted the front of the Gold Rusher. The rest of the building has very little paint left. The lift hill girder still has multiple layers of gum on it.
 

Practical Pig

Well-Known Member
I'm being torchered at Magic Mountain right now. I just finished waiting 47 minutes for fish & chips. I only had six people in front of me. Employees stand there talking to each other rather than preparing food. Why is food service so incrediblely bad here?

The new revolution is slow. They slowed down the ride. It now takes an average of 7 minutes to dispatch a coaster since none of the vr headsets work. They wipe them off with a generic cleaning wipes.

It is impossible to know how long a line is. The app is wrong and the posted sign outside never changes. "It is xx minutes from this point."

I haven't been there in quite a while, since the son who's diving now was a tween. I was really surprised that the longest line we faced was for some crappy pizza, with just a handful of people in front of us. I can't see us going back.
 

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
I worked at one of the pizza places in the park for a month while my home restaurant was being refurbished (they did a minimal job fixing up the front, and back of house was barely despite a lot of broken equipment).

The dough comes frozen in circles, and we had a machine that dispenses the pizza sauce into a perfect spiral. Then, we'd throw on the mozzarella and pepperoni, and send it through one of those conveyor belt ovens.

It was about $10 a slice if I remember correctly.
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Here is a picture of the old monorail station at Magic Mountain. It is still there even though the rail no longer exists. You can actually walk up to it and inside if you pass the chain. It's like a haunted tree house.

IMG_20170329_165601_zpsmvgf9mld.jpg
 

rle4lunch

Well-Known Member
So... I've had the (un?)fortunate opportunity to have lived in California twice while serving in the Navy. My first long stint of time was up in the Lemoore area, about 35 miles southwest of Fresno. The ONLY redeeming quality of living here was its relative close proximity to Yosemite, the Sequoia's, Monterey/Santa Cruz/San Luis Obispo/Pismo Beach, and lastly, Magic Mountain. Between 1994-2000, my friends and I would probably hit MM about 3 times a year, Universal maybe once, but never one visit to DL (why you ask? Because I grew up going to WDW and thought DL was on built on a city block and didn't have enough to do to warrant a visit (I know, I know, we all learn the truth later).

MM was our 'go-to' for thrills, and the 90's were an awesome time to visit the park. It brought the birth of Batman, Superman, The Psyclone, Riddler's revenge, Dive Devil (if you want to pay), and Goliath. Annual Tickets were about $45 with a can of pepsi, lol. You can't beat that. when you're in your late teens and early 20's, you could care less about the heat and were more focused with the thrill rides. I still love Viper to this day, probably one of the top 5 coasters in the world for me.

HOWEVER....

I moved away from Cali in late 2000 to Arizona, so naturally my visits out there got more sporadic. The 2000's started bringing a couple of good rides, but the ride systems seem to break more often, prices went way up, attendance seemed to go up as well making longer lines. Paying for a fast pass was not an option for me either, so my frustration with the park only grew over time. The parks numerous bankruptcies also left the place pretty much in disrepair all the time. The miniature chollo gangs wandering the parks with their skank hooker 16 year girlfriends wearing stiletto's and tube skirts and drawn on angry eyebrows only added to the parks lackluster appeal (although DL is gaining on them somewhat).

Couple all that with the fact that I was now going to DL about once a year and WDW about every 2 years (I still can't stand Universal Hollywood, it's pretty much awful all the time), and that my tastes were growing as a human (I was becoming a theme park snob, like all of you, lol), justifying a trip to MM got harder and harder.

My second stint of time in Cali was in San Diego, from 2009-2015. My wife and I made it to MM ONCE. The place was more of a sh!-t show than we had remembered. Up charges for everything, deteriorating rides and scenery, blah blah blah. We did, however, visit DL about 5 times a year during that timeframe.

Now we're stationed on the east coast, so WDW has been our go-to park again. We've only been once (Dec 2016), but we plan to visit there about every year and a half while we're stationed out here. And perhaps Busch Gardens (I always liked BG growing up, haven't been to one in 15 years or so though). And while I can saw that WDW needs A LOT of work, Disney has got their crap together when it comes to running a theme park.

All that said, we're in Cali next month and are hitting DL/DCA the week of the 24th, and we can't wait. MM/Universal/Knotts can suck it. lol
 

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