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Let me start by explaining membership. For under $7/person/month you get unlimited visits including admission to special events like Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park. The membership is a monthly version of their season pass that offers a flexible payment option for those looking for an annual pass. For a couple bucks more per month on one of the passes, we get free parking and for a flat annual fee, we can and have added a meal plan to our passes. We also regularly get to bring friends free and at discounted prices plus get discounts on food and merchandise.
We use our membership in such a manner that it pays for itself quickly. This includes an annual trek to Fright Fest. This past Sunday was our trip and I am sad to report that it sucked. Let me continue with the daytime, before Fright Fest began at 7 pm. Now, we didn't purchase maze wristbands this year because we have done the mazes before and they took one away this year and added one but I couldn't justify the discounted $15/person just to do the one maze. We alternate years to do those.
We drove out and parked and made our way to the lockers, which we always do. For $11, (The discounted price), we have a place to keep sunscreen, jackets, medications, and car keys so we don't have to worry about losing them on a coaster. (Yes that has happened to me and yes it sucked.) We then headed over to Food Etc to enjoy our "Free" lunch. Alyssa got loaded nachos, I got a chicken quesadilla, and Aaron got popcorn shrimp. Sharon at the fish place showed what great customer service is by hunting down cocktail sauce for Aaron.
So far, so good, right?
We rode one of our favorite short line rides, Buccaneer before moving on to test my ability to ride anything more dangerous post-surgery. We started with Gold Rusher, a classic and it seemed fine so we moved on to Ninja, which also went well. We then checked wait times on the app and noticed one of our favorites, Tatsu, had only a 35 minute wait so we rushed down to get in line. Upon arriving, we saw the line was obviously more than 35 minutes. It was sometime around 4 pm and there were two employees engaged in personal conversations hidden behind a pillar for the ride's sign. I interrupted them to inquire as to the wait time and the female employee said about an hour and a half. A far cry from 35 minutes, I informed her she needed to get the app updated because it says 35. She looked at me and shrugged in the same way you shrug at your parent as they're walking away after yelling at you.
Strike 1.
We opted to head down the hill to find the wait time for The New Revolution was far shorter than any other time we've gone so we opted to try the new to us attraction. It was just OK. The headgear is buggy, doesn't properly fit a wide field of view, and the graphics are college grade at best. I probably wouldn't ride it again.
After that, we wanted our "Free" snack so we went back up the hill to the Soda Shack next to Tatsu. We waited in line for a pretzel for some time because only one employee was working in the stand but it gave me time to observe the same two Tatsu employees from two hours earlier. They were still engaged in personal conversation and still hiding behind the same pillar instead of greeting guests. He was now eating a bag of chips and they were playing a rousing game of "Rock, Paper, Scissors".
We'll still call those two employees Strike 1.
After finishing our snacks, we headed to X2 which was supposed to be a special attraction for Fright Fest called "X2: Satan's Domain". We waited in line as the time for Fright Fest neared. We were excited to ride Satan's Domain. We spoke with an employee in line who explained that it was just a name and nothing was special about the ride. WHAT?!?!?! False advertising at it's best. Six Flags marketed to me 7 rides, 7 mazes, and 7 scare zones. We'll get to that disappointment later. As we got to the top of the ride I have ridden many times, we encountered Edith. Edith informed me that we'd have to purchase a locker for our soda bottles. I explained in my most polite voice that I had never been required to do that before and she explained in her most bitchiest tone that today she was there and she was going to make me. First off, I have never had to do that before. Secondly, No other ride requires me to spend money to buy a locker to ride. All other rides allow you to leave your belongings on the side. Third, Edith, you were a cunt. I don't use that word lightly. You were a cunt Edith and if you were my employee, you would have spent Monday in the unemployment line. There is a right way and a wrong way to talk to people. There is a right way and a wrong way to handle misunderstandings. You were a cunt.
Strike 2.
After being forced to split our party up so we didn't have to buy a locker, all 3 of us finally got to ride the non-themed Fright Fest attraction known as "Satan's Domain". We then headed to another Fright Fest themed attraction called: "Full Throttle Fears". Now Full Throttle is an awesome ride so we were very excited to see it's scary theme. Shocker...there wasn't one. Both of these rides are cool but the fact that Six Flags lied in their marketing is disappointing. We continued on through the Zombie Crossing Scare Zone. We saw 1 monster. We made our way through the TERRORtory Twisted Scare Zone. There were two monsters there. We rode another Fright Fest themed ride, "Terror on Twisted Colossus". Twisted Colossus is my all-time favorite roller coaster. Seriously, I have been on many coasters at many parks and it tops them all. The Terror here is that they turn off a portion of the lighting on the outdoor ride. It's not completely dark as the marketing suggests.
We exited back out through the TERRORtory Twisted Scare Zone which still had only two monsters and made our way to the much anticipated Suicide Squad: The Six Flags Fright Fest Experience. A wrecked helicopter and a crashed police car plus some neat projections decorated the well themed DC back lot area of the park but we were so disappointed to find 3 Eyes of the Adversary monsters total walking the area plus a Harley Quinn posing for photos with people in a very long line. Much like the film, this did not mach the hype.
Strike 3.
We ended our night by riding Riddler's Revenge. It was also marketed as a Fright Fest attraction in the dark and of everything we did, this came closest to matching the marketing. We got to ride it twice because we were 3 of 10 people on it. We headed back around through the Nightmares: A Twisted Fantasy Scare Zone with 2 monsters and the Demon's Door Scare Zone with 2 monsters before heading home, disappointed.
Having gone to Fright Fest before, I feel like they dropped the ball this year. So few monsters compared to previous years and certainly compared to other theme parks with similar events (Knott's Scary Farm and Universal's Halloween Horror Nights) It is like Six Flags couldn't hire enough monsters to fill the scare zones and ran out of funding to do proper ride enhancements. Not to mention the newly sponsored televisions in line for all the rides were off more than they were on and those that were on showed poorly themed cartoons. It really takes me out of Satan's Domain when Bugs Bunny is singing onscreen. More over, the real reason Six Flags Magic Mountain consistently loses to Knott's, Universal, and Disney is because of employees like Edith and the two Tatsu shitheads.
Perhaps most important in my disappointment is the fact that this blog will fall on deaf ears. If this type of employee behavior and disappointing attitudes continues, I don't think our memberships will.
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