Six Flags Magic Mountain — Attraction in Santa Clarita

A love letter to Six Flags Magic Mountain...

Dear Magic Mountain, I've been coming here for decades with about a decade hiatus. Thank you for the joy and excitement MM gave me as a small child and all the fun times as a teenager and young adult!

MM, you have some fantastic rollercoasters and exciting thrill rides.  I've read the average rollercoaster costs more then $25 million to build and I can only imagine how much they cost to maintain.  I read Six Flags lost approximately $70 million across your various parks last year and saw a 9% decrease in guest visits with net income and net revenue down over 50%.  This compared to your local competitors seeing significant gains in both attendance and profits.

Instead of just complaining about the long waits for rides and food, high prices, and deteriorating conditions at MM, here are observations and suggestions on improvements which should result in increased revenue, decreased costs, and a better guest experience.

Lines for food are excessive and seem to be some of the most inefficient systems I've seen in place.  It's time to look at your local competitors: Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm, and Disneyland for their best practices.  Many of their dining options work like assembly lines.  People line up with trays, pick their food, and line up at the end for the cashiers.  This allows cooks to cook, runners to run the food to the pick up areas and cashiers to cashier.  It's focused and efficient.  Over and over again throughout the park we saw one or two MM employees left to fend for themselves to take an order, prep the food, and process the payment.  Imagine the running back and forth, no one at the window while the food is being processed (terrible optics and bad guest experience), switching gloves for cash vs food prep.  Over three different trips to the park on both busy days and quiet days this same scene repeated itself all over the park.  Understaffed, disorganized, poor processes, bottlenecks, and inefficient lines.  I experienced a line after using the mobile app that took longer then waiting in the regular order line.  Took me 70 minutes to get my food waiting in the mobile line after ordering which was 50% longer than the regular line!

The above inefficiencies resulted in a  minimum food revenue loss of 10% as we often saw people give up and leave. We'd have ordered more food more often if it was easier and faster.  One additional worker at a cost of $27 an hour with employment taxes included should be able to increase sales and profits by $100 - $150 an hour plus the added enjoyment of the guests.

Maintain and repair the rides consistently during the week when the park is closed.  More open rides means more rides to distribute the visitors, shorter lines, and a better guest experience.

Use more sun shades/sails across the park in lines, eating areas, and in general to create shade.  Lighter colored shades reflect heat and though look dirtier faster, have a longer lifespan. Solar panels above wait lines powering cooling fans!

Consider shrinking and moving the carnival section to across from Roaring Rapids. Replace it with a large, indoor international dining hall. Build a 25+ foot tall, double storied, DC themed place that has specialty food items (think Proton Protein Smoothies, Nectar of the God’s , Amazonian Vegetarian Salads, Batman Burgers, etc.) ceiling graphics with epic DC clashes, starry lights, DC artifacts, DC lore. Think similar to the dining hall at Disney next to Space Mountain.

Sell rain ponchos across from Roaring Rapids.  Branded MM both single and thicker, multi use ponchos. The cheep ones can be sold for $5 each and the nicer, reusable for $15.  They can be sold at the front of the park during rainy days. Towels? T-shirts that say I got wrecked on Roaring Rapids.

The photos of lines are all for food, including a longer line for mobile order pick-up than the regular line and showing only 1 employee working an area setup for 4 employees. 2 cashiers/2 food runners. At least 12 people left the line...

This park is amazing. I do wish they had separate lines or a place where you could just where you could go just to get your drink cut refilled rather than having to wait in the food lines because those lines take forever.

Full Throttle Review Full Throttle is an absutely amazing tide and fits Magic Mountains coaster lime up well. If your ready to try thrilling launch coasters, give full throttle a try. The only thing is in the front cars, the brakes are so hard that you get slammed into the lap bar restraint. Guest Relations Review The staff are incredibly helpful, and kind, but there can be a lengthy queue at times. Plaza Icr Cream and Shakes Review I've only got vanilla ice cream from here, and the ice cream is absolutely amazing. It does not melt immediately which is amazing considering the California heat. The onky thing is I wish they had regular sugar cones instead of just waffle cones. Grand American Carousel Review I did not get a chance to go on it, but the appearance is absolutely amazing. The New Revolution Review This attraction is a classic. It is extremely smooth given the ride's age. The ride is located toward the left side of the park. This ride usually doesn't get a long line, so the staff allows you to reride the ride if there's nobody in line at your row. It's glass smooth. X2 Review X2 is one of the most intense, thrilling, and disorienting rides I've ever been on. X2 is not the smoothest ride, especially in the outside rows of the vehicles. While I could tolerate an outside seat, if it's your first time or you are prone to motion sickness DO NOT RIDE IN AN OUTSIDE ROW. The line is also incredibly long because they only run one train on this ride. If this is a must you for you and you arrive right when the park opens go straight towards X2 if you are arriving later in the day leave X2 for the last thing you do at the park because the park closes early now since it's almost the end of the season and they will let you ride the ride as long as you get in the queue before the park closes. This ride also does have a far walk from the entrance. Viper Review Viper is located on the same side of the park that X2 is on. This ride is made by the same manufacturer. While people say this ride is incredibly rough, it was not as rough as people made it out to be. Just be aware that the ride will use your head as a bobblehead. Roaring Rapids Review I unfortunately did not get a chance to ride this attraction as it was closed and drained when I visited this summer. Tatsu Review Tatsu is absolutely phenomenal flying coaster. This ride is the longest, and tallest flying coaster in the world. It is incredibly smooth, forceful and really thrilling. You get beautiful views of the park. Soda Springs Review I only went to this place to refill my drink cup. The line was incredibly long and took forever. It is no fault of the employees there, it's because filling the drink cups now takes forever. Ninja Review This is an incredibly unique coaster type made by Arrow. It is a little rough but it is worth it in the end. The uniqueness of this ride makes up for the roughness.

This ride is located on the mountain in the center of the park. They do offer a train up to it called Magic Mover. Magic Mover Review It is very HOT inside of the train. Given the California heat, being closed inside of a metal train just traps the heat. Is it worth it to skip a few steps? HELL YEAH I love being lazy. Apocalypse Review Apocolypsw is a very good ride. I had the chance to ride it once. I was going into this expecting it to be rough, as many people online claim this ride is incredibly rough. It was not as rough as people made it out to be, though I do have a higher tolerance for rougher coasters then others. The only thing that took a star off of the review making it 4/5 are the restraints. The restraint lowered another click at the end of the ride and made it way too tight. It was incredibly hard to breath with that restraint pinned...

We are diamond 💎 pass holders and have been for many years. My 9&10 year olds have become roller coaster enthusiasts like myself. The diamond pass allows you to go to any park in the country and due to our travels is pretty awesome as we always visit multiple parks in a year.

This diamond 💎 annual pass is an amazing value considering what you get in addition to unlimited entry at any park. We get free parking (worth the cost alone after only a couple trips), 20% off most retail and food and beverage (very needed due to the outrageous food prices) a seasons drink bottle (don't forget the bottles) and some other cool stuff.

As for Magic mountain, they have some of the best roller coasters in one park compared to a lot of other places. We actually build our vacations around six flags. There are not a lot of non-coaster rides so I get that it isn't for everyone. We go before they open as a diamond 💎 pass holder they let us in a few minutes early, usually enough to get a couple rides before the throngs get there.

Over the years,we have learned to go during weekdays, arrive early and stay late. On hotter days we will take a break for a couple hours and return. At the end of the day we can usually find a ride like Batman that doesn't have a big crowd and get 6-9 rides back to back....LOVE IT! We do this in Liu of the fast pass as it just isn't cost effective for us anymore.

To Six Flags, in an effort to make our experience even better and continue your value-proposition leadership, please note the following. 1 ride times - they are rarely accurate or even close to accurate. In an IoT world there are multiple ways you can automate this in near real time...please do so. (If you need advice, contact me) 2 food costs - obviously a profit center for you however it isn't even close to a good value. We try our best to not eat more than one meal at the park as it's too expensive. It's so bad we would be willing to walk to the car, leave to eat somewhere else and return. We are a family of 3 and with a 9&10 year old, our lunches average $65 before discount. The food isn't anywhere near good enough quantity nor quality to charge that. Please lower your prices to the $10-$15 range and if you have to reduce quantity to achieve that price. Or provide a deeper discount for diamond 💎 pass holders... On one day, we spent more than the cost of the seasons pass just to eat, and two of us got sick due to the food. 3 fast pass - in a way I wish you could do away with it or offer some alternatives to the types of passes. I would be willing to pay the same cost of the seasons pass for a flash pass usable in all parks for a year like our diamond 💎 pass. Maybe offer a bundle for a discount on Black Friday or Christmas. 4 online pass sales - for two years in a row now i tried purchasing our passes at an amazing discount over Black Friday and again over Christmas. It wouldn't let me know matter how I tried, even tried 3 different cards. There were never numbers to call and the errors always told me that I had to go to the park to purchase. Well, we don't live in a state with a park so that's terribly inconvenient. Both times we ended up paying full retail price for our passes at time of visit. That's not fair, I tried multiple times and your platform didn't work. Why should I be penalized for that. Please either send the failed transaction purchaser a phone number to conclude transaction via phone or email us a rain check or discount code we can use at the park that matches the discount at time of purchase. May not sound like a big deal but both times it costs me over $200 more to pay full retail when I wanted them for Christmas gifts. This actually should be item #1.

Anyway, to anyone considering Disney or Paramount or other parks, consider the great value and amazing rides of all six flags but specifically Magic Kingdom. They even have two parks at the...