Six Flags Magic Mountain to reclaim coaster crown in 2010

^Exactly. The (former) Busch parks seem to "get" that as well....you need a couple kids' areas spread apart so the families/groups can move around the park even with if they have little ones in two.

I definitely see that logic, too. But it's interesting, because Hershey has children's attractions sprinkled in places throughout the park and my brother and his family was frustrated by that when they attended with their 5 and 2-year olds.

They didn't really want to have to drag the stroller all over the park meandering the crowds and such. They were more interested in having a single place to go to where they could "park" essentially and then move around the area to the different rides.

^See, I think the critical difference is in the word "sprinkled". I'm thinking more about having the kids' attractions grouped together...but needing more than one area. "Sprinkled" to me implies that if my kid (heaven forbid!) wants to ride multiple attractions, and what kid doesn't, then I'm going to be dragging the stroller through crowds all day. But if I can go from the Sesame Street area to the Nick area to the Thomas the Train area and spend an hour or two in each, I'm only dragging the stroller thru crowds a couple of times.

Or so goes my theory...(obviously I've crossed chains, but you get the idea). I apparently don't know enough kids-oriented stuff to keep the argument within a specific chain....what's cool today, is Blues Clues still "hot"? ;)

I gotcha. There is a difference there and what you describe makes sense.

As far as Blue's Clues... well, if it's not cool today, it likely will be again someday. Isn't that how these things work? Cabbage Patch Kids, Strawberry Shortcake, Star Wars... :)

With little kids you are going to find yourself walking across the park multiple times in any given visit (I always did anyway). At some point your kid is going to get his/her heart set on riding a ride that is on the other side of the park. And in my experience, the younger kids really do not have a very good understanding of riding the rides in a given area and then moving to a different area of the park. In part because they typically do not really understand the concept at a young age. And it part its because they get to sit in a stroller/wagon for the rides back and forth to the other areas of the park. I always viewed trips to parks with young kids more in terms of the kids having fun than maximizing the number of rides (to me, the more rides I go on during the day the more fun I have had). And I knew going in that the day would involve a lot of walking. All of which was fine. And now that my kids are older, I find them mapping out the plan which maximizes the number of rides we get in a day.

I see similar logic in placement of water rides. I always thought Cedar Point had the right idea in keeping their three water rides adjacent to each other. Keep the wet people in one area, save on water hook-up installation, place haystack dryers to target riders of all three attractions, etc.

^^^^^ Carrie, very good point. As SFMM is not a destination for families with very young children, this is part of the reason I thought the new coaster should be near the other kiddie attractions. I see more young kids in line for the "big stuff" then the kiddie rides when I go there. My parents started me off at DL and KBF and when it became obvious that I only cared about big coasters they started taking me to SFMM on a regular basis. I went there for the first time when I was 7 years old and even then we hardly spent any time in BBW. We spent most of our time on Revolution ,Colossus and Freefall. It was almost like a rite of passage. The other parks were not thrilling enough so the next logical step was to go to SFMM.

^^ My coaster enthusiast dad must have been a very good influence on me. I learned the concept of going thru a park in order right from the beginning, although it is the exception to the rule at that age.

I "blame" my dad for my enthusiasm too. He's 70 and still rides!

That's pretty cool. My dad is 65 and still rides too.

If there's a coaster around, my dad will ride it. He chickened out of TTD through. On the other hand, he'd give is left nut to see the innerworking of TTD. He works with hydralics for a living.

Not much happening with the new coaster, but Batman The Ride is looking a little blue...

Got to love to see how much effort is being put into the maintenance and appearance of rides and attractions now. Goliath's repaint has been completed and the ride is now open again...

New paint color scheme: http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu281/Turbocoaster/Trip%20Report...010269.jpg

Previous (original) color scheme: http://www.americacoasters.com/Photos/?level=picture&id=1085

I think the blue track looks great!

Does that mean you'll finally be getting us that trip report?

Thanks for ruining the surprise I would have had when I drive into the parking lot tomorrow.;) The blue track does look cool though.

^^ Moosh seems to have failed to keep his promise to visit the park and report on it. It's been more than 3 1/2 months since summer ended. :)

I understand Moosh's reluctance to visit a SF park.

^ I am truly shocked! ;)

The blue paint looks really nice on Batman. It is definitely nice to see how Six Flags is putting effort into making the rides and attractions look nice.

kRaXLeRidAh said:
^^ Moosh seems to have failed to keep his promise to visit the park and report on it. It's been more than 3 1/2 months since summer ended. :)

I had every intention of going (still do).

I think even Mamoosh can agree that Magic Mountain Management is doing something right. Not only are getting coasters repainted, there is a lot of upkeep, new paint, bathrooms are being redone e.t.c. going on all over the park during the offseason...

Even the employee only areas are being redone...