Six Flags Magic Mountain now offers a pay-your-way-to-the-front of the line option on individual roller coasters in a bid to keep up with industry leader Disneyland's latest move to charge separate fees per ride for those willing to pay the price.
Magic Mountain has launched a single-use, pay-per-ride Flash Pass on four of the Valencia amusement park's most popular roller coasters.
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Disneyland and Disney California Adventure now offer two paid line-skipping options — the $20 Genie+ service good for front-of-the-line access to 19 rides and Individual Lightning Lane access for $7 to $20 per ride on three of the most popular attractions at the Anaheim theme parks.
The new Flash Pass Skip-the-Line single-ride option is available at Magic Mountain on select days for West Coast Racers, Twisted Colossus, Full Throttle and Goliath.
Magic Mountain's new pay-to-ride option is just that — optional — with visitors still able to opt to wait in standby lines for any ride.
Flash Pass single-ride prices range from $5 to $25 per person and vary per ride and by day. Twisted Colossus and West Coast Racers were priced at $12 per person per ride while Full Throttle and Goliath cost $14 on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day national holiday on Monday, Jan. 17. The new Flash Pass Skip-the-Line program will be available at Magic Mountain for the foreseeable future, according to Six Flags officials.
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How does it work?
Magic Mountain visitors use their smartphones to scan the Flash Pass Skip-the-Line VR code at ride entrances and select the coaster they would like to ride, their preferred return time and party size. The single-ride Flash Pass must be purchased on a per person basis for each ride.
When their return time arrives, riders enter through the Flash Pass line and let the ride attendant scan the Skip-the-Line barcode before boarding the coaster.
Flash Pass Skip-the-Line can be purchased at any time during the day and return time slots are distributed based on availability starting at 3 p.m. per ride each day. The Skip-the-line option can only be booked for time slots 3 p.m. or later and availability is limited.
The new Skip-the-Line option adds another layer to the already complex Flash Pass system.
Magic Mountain's traditional Flash Pass is purchased for the entire day and good for skipping the line on about 20 rides. The all-day Flash Pass prices range from $80 to $180 — with shorter wait times promised with the higher price tags. Magic Mountain passholders and members can add an all-season Flash Pass for $399 to $499.
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Other parks in the Six Flags chain like Six Flags Over Texas have been testing the single-use Flash Pass option with prices fluctuating throughout the day between $5 and $10, according to Screamscape.
"As Disney sort of sets the bar for these kinds of things in the industry, I would not be surprised if we start to see many of the other park chains trying to test out their own home-brewed versions of the same concept," according to Screamscape. "After dealing with two years of the COVID-19 pandemic so far, most parks have already invested in the ability to handle live mobile purchases for a variety of things ranging from park tickets and parking passes to mobile food orders, so adding the ability to purchase one-time queue-cutting passes should be easily within their grasp."
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