Sean: As summer flew by and we visited dozens of parks to bring you unique reports, but it’s the time of year to get “update season!” going. With Haunt events starting as early as next week, and all of the major 2018 attractions having been announced, we’re ready to publish construction and park updates weekly! First of many, a good ol’ Six Flags Magic Mountain Update!
– 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 in the parking lot, where the current price for one-day one-vehicle parking is now $25. The pavement however is in terribly rough shape, in most parts of the first lot. I hope they address this soon, as this lot will be used 365 days a year starting January 1st. 
On my way to the entrance I was greeted by colorful new flags and banners announcing CraZanity and the Boardwalk, which are to open in Spring of next year. For more details, take a quick detour to our informative announcement here!
The park’s ticket booths have also all received these banners, and traditionally the far right booth has the Spanish version on it. 
The rest are all English. I really do like the orange being used this season rather than the darker colors we saw the past few years. The entrance is dates, but the orange brings some color! 
Friendly reminder that Fright Fest starts on September 16th, which is coming up incredibly quickly! 
And of course one of the most iconic sets of Fright Fest scenery:
Inside the park the Maze Pass Sales Center is being constructed attached to the Six Flags Emporium. Once Fright Fest opens this is the place to purchase your wristbands. The wristband prices have yet to be announced. 
The New Revolution is currently running in ‘Classic’ edition, as the park prepares to bring a 4th VR installment to the ride, “Rage of the Gargoyles”, which we saw on Kong at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom last Fright Fest. It’s fitting for the Fright Fest Scare Zone it’s in: “Demon’s Door”.
X2 was one of the few rides running multiple trains on this very quiet day. And for yet another Fright Fest, we see the return of Chupacabra, which utilizes the old Revolution mission. 
The theme is Dia de Los Muertos, and besides the flower skull and lights, most of the props have yet to be added. 
Moving on to one of the park’s classic scare zones: Nightmares: A Twisted Fantasy, which utilizes lots of unique props made just for black light effects. 
Over at Slinsghot and Apocalypse we had a new area in 2016, which seems to have been taken off the roster. The chain’s largest maze: Aftermath 2: Chaos Rising, is of course opening its gates again next week. I hope they worked out some of the rougher sections of the maze last year. 
Oddly they’re still adding theming as if they had a Scare Zone here, sticking to the Apocalypse theme. 
Apocalypse’s gift store “Epic Rides” has an “Epic Sale” going on, but neither the ride, nor the store are open. Besides this theme being pretty deadly, this actual corner of the park is currently dead. 
I am not even sure what’s the matter with Apocalypse this time around, but it’s been closed for quite some time again, even after having been completely retracked earlier this season… 
Let’s move towards Metropolis, where new vegetation has been added on the top level, to entirely enclose the pub. The pub is home to the all-you-can-eat “Ghoulish Grub at the Pub”, as well as “Club 6-Feet Under” later in the evening, with a bar and club open ’til park closing at 1:00am (11:00pm on Sundays).
The vegetation looks quite nice and makes me wish the park would give Jet Stream some serious TLC.
Because about every single thing about this ride could use refurbishing. I don’t expect it to be part of the 2018 refurbishing schedule for the new Boardwalk section, as it’s slightly removed from where CraZanity will be located, but we all know this would be a great ride for the Boardwalk theme. 
After riding Hersheypark‘s Coal Cracker, I still love hump-less Jet Stream, but I wish it was as well maintained. 
The majority of the boats have very faded paintjobs, the station and queue covers have not been replaced in a very long time, and as the Cyclone Bay’s major attraction (that’s open) it deserves to look better.
Something that does look better, but way too open for my liking, is the Metropolis plaza (which I just now really realized when it wasn’t stuffed with guests), which could’ve used a bit more planter or shade in my opinion. Nonetheless, this is a great amount of space for this year’s new Scare Zone: Damned ‘N Disguise! 
A quick few notes regarding my ride experience just shy of two weeks after opening… The ride vehicle’s audio was not working, some of the screens were already very faded, and the ride’s fire effects were not working. Neither was the on-ride camera registering guest faces for the score board. I’d expect to see this after a while, not after two months. Having said that, I may have just caught a rough ride on it. I’ll be back soon, because I do like that ride! Read our opening event report and ride review here! 
Ahead we’re staring at Scrambler, which will be part of the new Boardwalk area. Hopefully they utilize this open concrete space for a nice transition between the two themes that mingle here. 
I had yet to check out Ace O’ Clubs, and the refurbished patio looks very nice. 
The entrance of Tidal Wave may be gone, but the exit still spills out in Metropolis, which is great for crowd movement. 
Tidal Wave was rumored to be removed, and we sure were under the impression of that happening as well. But with the announcement of the Boardwalk, it seems like Tidal Wave isn’t going anywhere for a while. 
Let’s hope this older Intamin Shoot the Chute gets a major overhaul before it opens in the middle of the Boardwalk next year! 
Sand Blasters is one of the roughest looking rides at the park, but luckily is getting completely refurbished with orange and aqua colors, and special effects, for it’s relaunch as part of the Boardwalk! 
This is a great ride, along with Scrambler, for the Boardwalk theme, as both truly are old-school boardwalk-esque attractions. 
And besides, Sand Blasters already has a wooden platform to go along with it.
The new Tidal Wave entrance is perfect and will make complete sense once part of the Boardwalk. 
So Crazanity will be located up the hill next to the Superman: Escape From Krypton launch tracks. But I am not entirely sure whether this old service road will be used or if the ride will be located towards Johnny Rockets more. 
Here’s the park’s rendering for your reference: 
Nonetheless, for the first time since the Metro station closed, the park has chained it off with a “Do Not Enter” sign! 
And another one! I can’t wait for them to utilize this space and old staircase as part of CraZanity or the overall charm of the Boardwalk. 
The current Colossus County Fair (of which all signs have been removed) is primarily a gaming area, which will be repainted and rethemed with retro colors and boardwalk themed attributes. The Johnny Rockets is also getting a major (modern) overhaul! 
I wonder if they’ll end up doing something with the old Crazy Barrels plot…
The park also debuted a new interactive balancing VR experience named “Vertigo”, I hope to see more modern gaming attractions with the relaunch of the area. 
Current Johnny Rockets: 
Johnny Rockets and new Boardwalk in Spring of 2018: 
Let’s continue with some more Fright Fest! The returning Suicide Squad Scare Zone is returning. 
Most, if not all, of the theming has already been put in place for the photo ops, including the crashed helicopter.
The synchronized light package is currently being installed for the night-long light show. 
Which is accompanied by video mapping, see the giant projector: 
The multitude of cabs and cop cars are also placed throughout the area. 
As well as this giant photo-op vehicle.
OH HEY BATMAN! Appropriate shout out after Universal’s Islands of Adventure closed their Dragon Challenge B&M Invert yesterday 🙁
Last but not least, the Harley Quinn prison cell photo-op. 
Let’s move on to nearby TERRORtory Twisted and it’s awesome entrance. 
Most of the theming for this Scare Zone have already been put in place as well. Including the video mapping projectors. 
It was so incredibly empty that with one train operations on most rides I still managed to get on a lot of rides in a short period of time. My apologies for the weird shot, but notice Scream!’s newly refurbished, second orange train! 
Spider webs and generic Fright Fest theming are going up around Goliath. I hope they one year use that queue for a maze or haunted attraction as it’s pretty much a miniature forest! 
On the top of the mountain at Samurai Summit we find that the entrance to Willoughby’s resurrected has been placed back. This is still one of the event’s very best mazes! 
The accompanying Scare Zone is called “Exile Hill” and is usually very dark and loaded with theatrical fog. I’m excited to venture through here again soon. 
New for this Fright Fest is the new maze “Dead End”, which replaces one of my secret favorites: “Willoughby’s Garden of Darkness”. I need a samurai themed maze up here in the future, Shadowlands at Knott’s Scary Farm is just phenomenal! 
Let’s wrap up the update with our beloved Viper that is still standing and is featured in 2018 promotional material. We’re still hoping for that MK1212 upgrade, but ’til then we’re just excited that it’s still around <3
Thank you for checking out this Six Flags Magic Mountain Update! We’ll be back with more updates from around the state soon, as well as all the Haunt goodness!
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I’m surprised that you didn’t cover the brand new on-board video that Batman has now. Instead of taking your picture on the coaster, you get a full ride-length video you can purchase at the end of the exit line.
We actually covered that in past updates/coverage 😉
Do you think within the next 5 -10 years they might build a parking structure? I personally thing they would benefit from it other than not being able to see Twisted from the freeway
This place is a crap hole.