Sean: It’s only been a few days since Alex got a quick Six Flags Magic Mountain update looking at operations and a display of new camera lens shots. In today’s update we’ll be looking at a lot of changes that regard current operations and the future of the park, including closures of restaurants, as well as rapid progress being made on the Boardwalk attractions!
– Over the years, many of our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that not everyone mentioned where they got the images from. We are totally fine with our audience using our images, BUT ONLY IF credit is given to californiacoasterkings.com. Thank you!
Let’s start off at the front of the park, since that’s where one of few retired food locations is located. Cold Stone has been closed at both in-park locations, and it looks like Six Flags is working on replacing the restaurant at the front of the park with a modern coffee-ice cream fusion coffee shop, which would be great for the start of the day, as well as the end of the day. 
The Six Flags Emporium functions as outdoor point of sale for the Fright Fest maze passes, but now has been reincarnated as a All Season Dining Pass sales center. Which is clever! 
This is the time of year we see landscaping getting updated all over the park as Holiday in the Park light fixtures slowly are taken down and the park works towards the March and April Spring Break crowds. The little stage across from Six Flags Emporium looks wonderful. 
The park got these themed photo booths in several spots around the park last summer, and it looks like they may be struggling to put them to use, there’s signs for them everywhere. Quite frankly I don’t care for them, and I’m afraid the majority of the guests are not interested in photo booths when visiting a theme park with their smart phone. Not sure if acquiring these was a very good idea. 
The caricatures vending spots always needed a bit more flash in my opinion, and I guess the park agreed, as new signage and bright canopies have transformed the dull-looking caricature spots into something attractive looking.
The location in front of Jet Stream didn’t only get the canopies and new signage, but also a repaint! Here’s the start to the Cyclone Bay transformation rumored to be the next big project for the park. 
Behind the Go Karts, as well as the rest of the area, a lot of land clearing is taking place for the mini city of several thousand homes that will be located right behind the park. 
Los Cuates has closed after years of relatively low interest from guests. Can’t quite blame the restaurant as this corner of the park is just dead and boring, with a real lack of rides that aren’t up-charges. With Apocalypse closed more than it is open, I expect this restaurant to not reopen as a new entity ’til the whole area gets a major face lift and new star-attraction. 
It should be no surprise that the second Cold Stone has also closed, according to a sign at the entrance this is supposed to become the Six Flags chainwide Six Below ice cream shop. I hope they immediately give the interior a face lift, it needs one. 
And guess what… I was trying to catch Apocalypse after Alex caught it operating two days last week, but as 95% of my visits in the past year or so I was unsuccessful. At this point the area really offers nothing interesting, and is in dire need of a retheme and a big new reliable coaster in my opinion. 
Heading towards Viper for some solace rides on my favorite looper there ever was, I noticed that the walkway between Tatsu and Revolution has the majority of its lighting still up, I expect the park to take a while to take all of it down now the park is open every single day. But they can take their time because I rode X2 4 times without getting off, and then rode it some more, and some more… – Regarding X2, of all my rides I’ve had the fire has been working consistently. It’s been a while since that was the case. 
My understanding is that Goliath’s lift-motor blew out, which means it is one of the three SBNO coasters at the park right now. I hope that means it’s back up and running quicker than when its chain broke in 2015. 
Green Lantern also remains closed and is rumored to have been closed due to internal reasons. We have heard several serious reasons for its closure, but ’til such thing is confirmed by the park (which it is not), we are not publishing anything. 
Let’s hop on over to the future Boardwalk where repainting the game structures has begun! The park is going with a very retro look, and honestly I love it.
Here’s a little comparison between the old colors and new colors. The purple is soothing and fits a roaring seaside boardwalk feel. I really hope they will add strings of lights around the new Boardwalk, much like Knott’s (and a handful of other Cedar Fair parks) features. 
The Boardwalk upgrade was much needed, the Johnny Rockets building is in rough shape, and will soon look great again. 
Behind these walls not much else except for markers are located, I hope they soon start construction on CraZanity for a Spring or early Summer opening, Metropolis opening mid-July clearly was just too late into the season. 
The good news is that the makeover of Sand Blasters is going at a very rapid pace. Try to somewhat see through the scaffolding and you’ll notice a lot of wood and laying around, and that’s part of the original structure being taken apart. 
The building really was in rough shape, thus I am very excited they are giving it the full blown refurbishment. So far they’re moving quick, and as seen above… the original troll exit sign is still there. 
Scrambler is also receiving a refurbishment, it got one pretty recently with a repaint and looks classic, I don’t expecting them touching it too much, but as of right now the ride vehicles have been removed for refurbishment. 
Very excited to see the Boardwalk blend with Metropolis, everything from Gold Rusher up to Scream! will look brand new, which is quite an achievement in just 7 years of new rides and 4 major makeovers of the areas on this side of the park. 
Riddler is looking lovely in any type of weather. 
And at any time of day…
One thing that I did notice is that the TV from the original queue layout of the Riddler’s Revenge is still turned on, but now faces way away from any queue and faces a wall and AC system… waste of nice TV much?
BUT THEN GREAT HAPPINESS WAS UPON ME! The Riddler’s Revenge station has brand new “?” lasers and lights and blasts its original Ecuador Mix!
The station everyone fell in love with, and undoubtedly features the best station music of any coaster that is not in Europe… it’s back! Thank you Six Flags Magic Mountain for refurbishing this legendary Stand-Up Coaster in every way possible, the ride is in amazing shape, looks amazing, and the station and facades have all been refurbished. 
Nearby Jet Stream is currently closed for a refurbishment as well, the ride’s boats are getting completely refurbished and recoated, and from the pictures I have seen look spectacular. The rest of the ride will not be refurbished, and after years of wishing that it did, I am just hoping that it’s on the list of the major 2019 Cyclone Bay relaunch that is rumored. 
It’s kind of awesome to see all three Goliath trains stored on their storage tracks, all I can hope for is the park refurbishing all trains now the ride is down so Goliath too can run three trains this summer. Kudos to the park for getting Twisted Colossus, Tatsu and Viper to consistently run three trains all summer.
Speaking of 3 trains, Scream!s third train is awaiting its orange and blue makeover on the transfer track. 
Something else needs a refurbishment too… like this fence. It just amazes me that the park let’s stuff like this happen… This fence was in need of some love for quite some time and this just look terrible. Just two years after the relaunch of Scream!, this really shouldn’t look that way. 
At least the ride runs very well nowadays, and the color scheme is to die for.
Another thing to die for is the park being so empty that I had Gold Rusher to myself in the dark. And since no one was in the station they instantly dispatched the train a few times. All I had to do was raise my finger into the air and they would run me straight through for another lap. Thanks awesome Gold Rusher crew! 
And shout out to the park’s dedication to staffing everything. The park was clearly dead, but all games were open and staff members were all in a great mood welcoming me through the midway. 
Let’s finish with a final shoutout to the Stand-Up Coaster That Could. I am so impressed with the smoothness and amazing ride experience of the Riddler’s Revenge, if any of the readers on here have yet to ride this coaster, don’t let the previous Stand-Up Coaster experiences you have fool you, Riddler continues to blow me away, ride after ride after ride. 
Check out pictures of the completed track work on Electric Eel at SeaWorld San Diego, our previous Six Flags Magic Mountain report, as well as newest Disneyland Resort Update and our Knott’s Berry Farm and HangTime Update while we prepare for our trip to Asia next week!
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You’d think a lift motor would be fairly easy to replace as in *most* instances it’s an off-the-shelf DC electric motor. Then again, when the manufacturer only built three coasters before going belly up, it’s hard to say how it was engineered. Either way, hopefully it’s up and running before too long!
Great work. Nothing like solo trips in the park. If you’re looking for a local buddy to kick it with on random weekday trips, hit me up.
Goliath was up and running on my 1/25 visit!! Guess they got that done quick!!