SIX FLAGS FRIGHT FEST
Six Flags Magic Mountain
26101 Magic Mountain Parkway
Valencia, CA 91355
661-255-4100 or 818-367-5965
Website: Six Flags Magic Moutain Fright Fest
Is Six Flags Magic Mountain Fright Fest your favorite Halloween Haunt? Vote for it in our online poll.
2007 DATES: October 6-7, 12-14, 19-21, 26-31
HOURS: 10:00am to 10:00pm on weekends, 10:30am to 10:00pm on weekdays, 10:30am to 6:00pm on Friday, October 5.
TICKETS: $59.99 general admission; $29.99 for children and seniors; children under 48 inches tall are free. These are regular admission tickets that allow you into the park all day, even before the Halloween fun starts at night.
DISCOUNTS: Advance online tickets are available ($34.99 for adults). Coupons available in the advertising sections of major newspapers for a $29.95 adult admission price, and you can usually find discount coupons at Jack in the Box restaurants. Group rates are available for ten or more ($25 for adults, $15 for children). Thre are also Season Passes and VIP Tours (a wopping $299 that includes parking, admission, food, games, and front-of-the-line privileges).
PARKING: $15 general parking, $20 oversized vehicle parking (RV, trailer bus, etc), #30 valet parking
FEATURES: All the usual rides and attractions are open for business, but Magic Mountain promises to transform them into eerie, haunted versions of your usual favoites. The park also suggests that you take your young children trick-or-treating at Six Flags.
ADVANTAGES: Like Knott's "Scary" Farm, the scares are not limited to the walk-through mazes; there are ghouls roaming free in a couple areas of the park. Often, the usual rides will be altered for Halloween. Unlike the Knott's Halloween Haunt, your ticket allows you into Magic Mountain all day: the park does not close in the evening and then re-open at night in its haunted version. This gives you time to stand in line for all the roller-coasters by the day and enjoy the haunted mazes by night.
DRAWBACKS: You have to drive to Valencia. The park closes relatively early -- at 10:00pm. Most of the haunted mazes do no open until 5:30 or 6:30pm; consequently, even if you finish with the roller-coasters by dark, long lines can still make it difficult, even impossible, to get into all the mazes during the evening. Typically, the mazes are filled with brightly uniformed park staff helpfull pointing you in the right direction; their presence often undermines the atmosphere.
MAZES: Typically, the Fright Fest features half a dozen walk-through mazes:
- Willoughby's Haunted Mansion (at the top of the hill)- haunted house with a variety of rooms, including bungee-jumping ghouls
- Dead Man's Bog - swampy ghosts on the way to the Tidal Wave ride
- Carnage E. Hall - a nice backstage setting in the park's theatre, with a couple of good mechanical gags
- Brutal Planet - the highlight of the haunt, with extensive industrial-strength scares, a great variety of rooms, and a sense of mass pandemonium
- The Jokester's 3D lair - what haunt would be complete without one of those colorful killer clown-type mazes?
- The Asylum - you know who are running it.
OTHER ENTERTAINMENT: The park's Golden Bear Theatre will usually present a magic show and/or hypnotist (though not necessarily on all nights of the Fright Fest, so check the official website to be sure).
BOTTOM LINE: Magic Mountain has not been celebrating its Fright Fest as long as Knott's Scary Farm and the Queen Mary Shipwreck, so it has not developed its Halloween attractions as extensively; it also lacks the built-in atmosphere that benefits those theme parks on Halloween. It may or may not be worth the drive out to Valencia if you're only interested in the Halloween attractions, but it is definitely worth your time if you're also interested in the extensive variety of roller-coasters.
REVIEW: Read our review of the 2005 Fright Fest here.
