Green Lantern opens at Six Flags Magic Mountain

Yeah boo on Green Lantern, why couldnt SFMM have gotten a Star Flyer like everyone else? ;)

Or more importantly, low capacity is really bad expectation management. Just for example, the New Texas Giant, which runs 3 trains of 24 can have lines up to 2 hours on busy days. That means that someone who enters the park on a Saturday in the summer (I know, not the brightest move) with the expectation of riding the new ride either has to spend a good chunk of their day in line for it (which will probably affect their opinion of the ride) or leave the park without having ridden it. Either way, that customer's expectations haven't been met. You can say "caveat emptor" but that won't stop them from telling all their friends not to go to the park because lines are really long.

I guess to me the real question is, why would executives at Six Flags look at a high impact, low capacity ride for an often crowded park, even if the ride experience is awesome, when they could get a high capacity ride with an equally awesome ride experience for similar cost.

A bit tongue in cheek, but if long lines mean bad news then I guess they should not have built Millennium Force. Remember the line extending way out into Frontier Trail when it opened? Those guests gave up a good part of their day standing in line eventhough that coaster has great capacity.

I think the problem with that logic is that we are talking about one coaster in a park that has 17 other coasters to choose from. I don't think it is fair to say that the new coaster with its long line, whether it be caused by tremendous popularity or low capacity, is a bad mark on the park.

Yeah, I think you guys are WAY overthinking this.

You go to the park, you stand in line to ride. That's the expectation.

Unless you have fast pass. :)

^ Yeah sorry Andy, but all that "logic" goes out the window when I show up at SFMM and wait 3 hours to ride Green Lantern on a Saturday, and then show up another Saturday to wait 2 1/2 hours to ride Texas Giant.

As far as the GP is concerned, new rides have long waits...period.

You could also ride next year when the lines die down. I usually go to a park I haven't been to in awhile the year AFTER they open a ride I want to experience.

^The dowside to that way of thinking is that a line may not die down for a low capicity ride at a high attendance park. Case in point, just visited Six Flags over Georgia over the Fourth and waited two hours to ride DDD. Granted, this ride is brand new, but I dfon't see that line dying down next year or the year after.

But *why* would Magic Mountain choose to do that? Sure, guests might be okay with a 2 hour line for a new ride, but they'd be a whole heck of a lot more okay with a brand new ride with a 45 minute wait. Were there really no rides for sale in the same price range with similar impact but better capacity?

Back when CP was "king of the world" in the last 90's and early 2000's, to me the single most important factor that made the park great to me (aside from the ride experiences themselves) was that all the rides had great capacity and lines were never prohibitive. I could ride every coaster in the park in one day if I wanted to.

RE: MF - increasing the capacity on a ride of that caliber is basically cost prohibitive. They're running 36 passenger trains with a separate unload station. Given that the course is a single block, I don't think you could increase the capacity without just building another copy of the ride.

I'll say it again. SFMM has 18 roller coasters. At least 12 of them (if run correctly) have exactly the capacity you're speaking of. Is it really that bad of a thing to add "uniqueness" to their line up for the type of experience you can't find anywhere else? Does every new ride addition have to have max capacity when you have that many to choose from? Even Cedar Fair is adding an Invertigo to one of their parks in 2012. Is that going to subtract from their overall capacity? Of course not. It's going to add to it.

John Knotts said:
Even Cedar Fair is adding an Invertigo to one of their parks in 2012. Is that going to subtract from their overall capacity? Of course not. It's going to add to it.

Of course it is. Because people will always line up in droves for a "new" coaster...See Lantern, Green..New Jersey Chapter.

Quick bullet-points (busy at work, no time today for "exchanges"):

1. This looks like an AMAZING ride - can't wait to get a chance.

2. Capacity is going to suck, no doubt about that - wait for an ERT if at all possible.

3. SFGAm installed Deja Vu *and* V2 in the same season.

4. All rides add to capacity to be sure, but NEW rides are always going to have the highest interest...so a new, low-cap ride is going to have long lines - unless something along the lines of DDD's hand-stamp is implemented.

5. Did I mention how enticing this looks? Only NTG and ZP have whet my appetite more than this ride...

Will come back after work for more "chat"... ;)

rollergator said:
1. This looks like an AMAZING ride - can't wait to get a chance.

5. Did I mention how enticing this looks? Only NTG and ZP have whet my appetite more than this ride...

But, Gator...they should've installed some cookie-cutter B&M that would move 1500 people per hour. Why on earth would they add something different and still rare that draws interest and is a fun, unique experience?

Man, you suck at being an enthusiast. :)

Everyone went to lunch and my phone stopped ringing.... ;)

...and yes, I'm a terrible enthusiast... :)

6. There are two coasters in the US right now that do "flips". Both are SF-owned, in CA, and in the same park. Somehow this just seems like the wrong park for the right ride...IMO.

Now you can get back to whatever it is you were discussing...

Wouldn't it have been awesome to see this ride with a mirrored copy right next to it, like the mouse at DAK? That would have been one solution to the capacity problem.

Sure, it would have cost twice as much, but, I bet the ride could almost always use it, and if it was a very low attendance day, closing one side would be more than reasonable.

Just a thought. Not complaining that they should have done that or anything. If it were MY park, I would have spread out the new attractions (Superman fix, and new roller skater) over a few years, and added a second track to GL for added capacity. (Cedar Point did it for their S&S Swing Thing - DAK did it for their mouse).

Although I agree that most flats don't get the biggest hype, unless it's a big ride, you guys are forgetting that they added two new coasters this year, upping capacity. And it seems as though they're consistently running both sides of supes after having made it popular again, thereby improvIng capacity. They didn't just add one low capacity ride, they look to have spent a lot on upping capacity overall. I also bet the flats in DC UnIverse will now be running more often since that area is so much nicer looking.

If the biggest complaint *this* group can come up with is "they should have built a second one," then I'd say SFMM is on the right track.

Heh. I don't think they should have built a second one. I just think they should have spent the additional marginal cost to make the first one higher capacity. i.e. Go with the Mr. Freeze solution, not the Chiller solution.