Six Flags Magic Mountain announces Tatsu

What does Magic Mountain sucking have to do with Cedar Point? Great second post!

Alex, I happen to agree with you that the park is well laid-out and offers a variety of coasters. Since I do not live in LA, I haven't had many chances to experience some of the park's more chronic problems, but my first visit there was very favorable. They have the best stand-up and suspended coasters that I've been on (and my track record is small but respectable). I want to go back again and ride Tatsu.

If you plan on giving someone a hard time on this site because they don't agree with you, you had better get your helmet on!!!! You are in for a hail storm.*** This post was edited by ophthodoc 11/20/2005 11:08:46 AM ***

There's a significant difference between disagreement and calling someone childish.

It's great that we have a park like SFMM here in the area that rises to the occasion to deliver coasters because it simply isn't happening at Knott's, Universal, or Disney.

Of course it isn't happening at those parks. You're not comparing apples to apples.

Disney is family-focused. There are few rides that an entire family cannot ride together. And even if Grandma, Grandpa, or the little ones are scared of or too short to ride California Screaming or Matterhorn there is something for them to do near-by in both parks.

Knotts attempts to cater to both thrillseeking teens and families. For every Xcelerator or Silver Bullet added you'll find a new ride in Camp Snoopy. At least unlike SFMM Knotts is adding non-coaster thrills like La Revolucion or Riptide. Did you know SFMM had more flat rides the year it opened than it does now? Guess what year SFMM added it's last new flat? And do you know what happened to it?

Universal's focus is on movie-making magic and neither of their two parks have high coaster counts. USF has Mummy and a kiddie/family coaster. USH just has Mummy. You'll never see a double-digit coaster count at those two parks because that's not what they're about. Plus, USH has a unique situation of being completely surrounded by neighborhoods and has to be careful with noise limits. Sure, there is IOA in Florida but the Hollywood park will NEVER be like IOA, nor will an IOA-like park be build in Los Angeles.

Expecting Disneyland, Knotts, or USH to continually add coasters and cater to the teen market while completely ignoring families and those who do not ride coasters is like going to McDonalds and expecting to find filet mignon on their menu.

Again, if you enjoy SFMM and its coasters, fine...more power to you. I think Tatsu looks fun and I'll visit the park to ride it but I'm happier at parks that offer a more well-rounded experience.

Alex, just because their annual attendance is 3 million does NOT mean that 3 million people enjoyed it.

Me? I'm one who visited this year, so I will count in that attendance figure. However, I wouldn't say I enjoyed the park. The coasters were ok (Collosus running 1 train was just unacceptable! No way the wait should have been an hour with all other coasters under 30mins). I only recall seeing a few flats, and a good portion of them were closed. I lost my cell phone, and the personnel seemed like they were indifferent and didn't care if I got it back. The only reason I enjoyed myself is because I was with friends, and we could have done that in any park (like Knott's or Scandia). Will I go back for Tatsu? Yes. That and a couple other credits I couldn't get because they were closed when I was there.

Oh, and if you think this board is biased to CP, go back and read a lot of the news postings and messages relating to CP for the past year - a good number of them have been negative.

My experience with the 2 parks? CP, I was able to get all the coaster credits (except for kiddie credits) in one day. MM, I couldn't even get all-but-flashback because they had other coasters closed (DeJa Vu & Ninja). That and the guest service is noticeably sub-par @ SFMM. (And before you go accusing me of being a CP fanboy, the last time I was there was in 2003. The last time I was @ SFMM was in March)

Oh...and let's talk attendance at the four major Los Angeles theme parks in 2004:

1. Disneyland [13.4m, up 5% from 2003; national rank #2]
2. USH [5.0m, up 8% from 2003, national rank #10]
3. Knotts [3.6m, up 3% from 2003, national rank #14]
4. SFMM [2.7m, down 2% from 2003, national rank #21]

Referenced from http://www.coastergrotto.com/theme-park-attendance.jsp

So Knotts, with far fewer coasters, see more visitors than SFMM and their soon-to-be 17 coasters. In a metro area as large as Los Angeles shouldn't a park like SFMM be able to pull in more than just 2.7 million? Cedar Point does it in a area that is less populated. Hell, Knoebels pulled in 1.3m sitting in the middle of nowhere!

And look at some the parks that pull more people per year than SFMM [# = national rank]:

8. Disney's California Adventure.
11. Adventuredome, Circus Circus.
19. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

Of course DCA, SCBB, and Advanturedome all have more coasters than SFMM so of course they'd see more visitors than...oops, wait, nevermind.

So go...enjoy your SFMM. Means one less person in front of me in line at Knotts ;)

Has anybody taken the time to say SFMM sucks? I did not have time to read the entire thread! :-)

P.S. I'm not even going back to ride the new ride. It is not worth it to me...

I'm certainly going to go back and ride Tatsu, it looks wonderful. I visited perhaps the worst run park in the country just to ride Superman: Ride Of Steel.

Whether or not I visit SFMM beyond that will depends on who owns it... ;)

I agree with you, DW! Thankfully I'll have a SF season pass [bought at a better-run SF park] so I won't have to spend a penny to experience the new coaster.

Exactly! :)

PKD is better than all of ya'lls parks, so there!!! ;)

joking aside, Tatsu looks incredible. im racking up the Southwest Rapid Rewards, so im pretty sure ill be finally making it to So Cal sometime this year...hope to see some of you there:)

Why look at any of our LA theme parks in a negative light? It's not like the problems of each of them are not well documented across the web. I'm not sure why anyone would take the time out of their life to log into a thread about a new coaster under construction just to trash the park.

Life's too short to dwell on the bad sides of MM. If you look it's there, it's but who wants to go through life like that? If it wasn't for MM, the LA area might have never have received coasters the size of Goliath, X, Deja Vu, Scream, X, and now Tatsu - and that's just very recent history.

Knott's doesn't have the space and it took them a very long time just to add an inverted coaster. Universal and Disney have different priorities. So yeah, we are very lucky to have MM for the coaster enthusiasts. For flat ride enthusiasts or dark ride enthusiasts, obviously not. But one single park can't have everything.

No one is dwelling... sounds to me like they're spending their time (and money) elsewhere!

You're right, DBJ. I should just go spend my money up at SFMM and be thankful they're building coasters for us enthusiasts regardless of how bad the park is operated.

And since I'm supporting things that suck I might as well buy "The Pacifier" DVD, the new Ashley Simpson CD, a used Yugo, and a lifetime supply of vegemite.

I've seen the light! Now I'll never worry about getting value for the things I spend money on!

Thank you, DBJ! ;)

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And since I'm supporting things that suck I might as well buy "The Pacifier" DVD, the new Ashley Simpson CD, a used Yugo, and a lifetime supply of vegemite.

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Heh. Moosh made a funny! :)

(it was the vegemite that put it over the top)

But Australians love vegimite! It's even written about in song.

Six Flags' press releases feature the gaff:"Marking the renown Thrill Park's 35th anniversary, Six Flags Magic Mountain announces another monster..." It should be "renowned thrill park", right?

Renown is a noun, renowned is an adjective. The definition appears below:renownedadj : widely known and esteemed; "a famous actor"; "a celebrated musician"; "a famed scientist"; "an illustrious judge"; "a notable historian"; "a renowned painter" [syn: celebrated, famed, far-famed, famous, illustrious, notable, noted]Bill

http://www.coasterinsider.com*** This post was edited by Bill 11/21/2005 5:44:03 PM ****** This post was edited by Bill 11/21/2005 5:45:01 PM ***
*** This post was edited by Bill 11/21/2005 5:45:38 PM ***

Thanks, Gonch...you sexy thang you ;)

Hey Coaster Enthusiasts!

I haven't visited this site in....say...over 2 years, and the scene really hasn't changed much.

Here we are with what will undoubtedly and undeniably be one of the best flying coasters in the world. Unique terrain, great design(ers) and awesome theme all combine for something really exciting.

I log onto the site and what do I read (skim)? B******g and moaning and arguing about a park. Is this ParkBuzz or CoasterBuzz? Very few things in life, besides math, are perfect. Too bad most here choose to focus on the failures of the park. I was shocked to see even the moderator of this site fueling the fire. In fact, I fully expect a rebuttal from him.

Some politicians are in the process of attempting to restrict our access to such thrill rides and we should be coming together to support the amusement industry and more specifically, extreme coasters.

Hopefully, more members of this site (which has the potential to be the best coaster site out there) will come to see the light and realize that we're all on the same team.

Peace to all my Coaster pals.

So what you're saying is that SFMM sucks but we should ignore it? :)