It looks like the Six Flags lockers have finally gotten an upgrade, at least at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Last October, Screamscape reported that there may have been a contract dispute between Six Flags and Smarte Carte, the then current provider of the lockers in all of the Six Flags parks. During contract renegotiations, Smart Carte may have been asking for a higher percentage of the revenue share in their partnership, and Six Flags refused. Fast forward to Saturday, January 12th, and all of the Smarte Carte lockers have been removed from Six Flags Magic Mountain. I’m sure this change has likely taken place at all Six Flags parks, or soon will.
The new lockers are GoPod models, from Best Lockers. There are two options from Best Lockers; buy the lockers outright and keep 100% of the revenue generated, or partner with Best Lockers for no installation costs and get a small percentage of the revenue. Based on the Screamscape report, I’m guessing that Six Flags may have opted to buy them outright.
Here is what the main locker building at Six Flags Magic Mountain now looks like. There is a payment kiosk located at the end of each bank of lockers that it controls:
Every locker is controlled by a code that you generate yourself:
The kiosks are where you select your options and make your payment:
Everything is controlled via a touchscreen:
Choose your locker size (if applicable) and how long you need it for. The small lockers located at the rides are only $1 each per hour. In the main locker building, there are three sizes of lockers that can be rented for the entire day; standard, large, and jumbo. The prices for the all day rentals are $12, $15, and $20 respectively:
Payments can be made via cash or credit cards:
During the payment process, you select the unique 4-digit code that will access your locker. Don’t forget it! Once done, you will get a receipt with your locker number, but not the access code. The green light on your locker will be flashing to help you find it. All you do is is type in the access code on the locker keypad and the door pops open. You can open and close your locker as often as you like during the amount of time you paid for. If you go past that time, you’ll need to make another payment at the kiosk to gain access to the locker:
Here are the new lockers installed at the entrance to The Riddler’s Revenge:
Here are the lockers outside of Batman: The Ride:
Here are Scream!‘s new lockers:
The number of lockers located at Tatsu have been dramatically reduced:
All of the lockers have been removed from Viper:
All of the lockers at Apocalypse have been removed as well. I’m not sure if this is permanent or if they just haven’t completed installing all of them yet:
I’ve never actually had a need to use the lockers while at the park, however the new lockers do look much nicer than what they have replaced.
In the case of the lockers at Tatsu and Viper, I wonder if they just haven’t finished installing them yet. As for Apocalypse, being that it’s not an inverting coaster, I wonder if they just decided not to use lockers there, as they don’t have them at Colossus, either. Just speculation on my part, of course.
Also, the picture here just showed a one-, two-, and three-hour option on these lockers. The ones in the front of the park, however, should (if they don’t) have an all-day option so you won’t have to run all the way back to the front of the park to “feed the meter,” so to speak.
One thing I worry about regarding Magic Mountain is that how long will it be before the touch screens start acting up or people start scratching their initials (or other things) into them? As some of us have experienced, touch screens can be “touchy.”
Thanks, Eric. I meant to mention the all day rentals and completely forgot. All fixed now.
Ugh, what a scam. So now the ride lockers are $1 PER HOUR? It was $1 TOTAL before.
Remember when Six Flags provided item storage areas, for free? Wasnt that nice customer service?
And the fact that all day rentals are consolidated in one facility (which I didnt even know existed) instead of an all day “pass” is an enormous failure. They should let you pay $5, and be able to tag into lockers at each and every ride without having to deal with the payment system again.
I say touch because it should be RFID, not a code.
I’m actually a little confused on this myself, JJ. If you look at the top of the screen that shows the $1 rental, it clearly says “per HOUR” in caps. Knowing how long people will wait in some of the SFMM lines, I selected 2 hours and pressed next. If you look at the next screen, it says I want to rent a “small” locker for 2 hours, even though the only option on the previous screen was for a “regular” locker. I assume they are the same, but more importantly, look at the price. It wants to charge me $6 for the 2 hours. I have a degree in Accounting, so I’m pretty sure that averages out to $3/hr, not $1/hour. Perhaps I did something wrong or wasn’t paying attention as I was taking pictures. Either way, I’m sure we’ll here more about it as people start using the system.
Oh, and I completely agree with you. A system like this should allow people to pay a one-time flat fee and let them use any locker in the park for the day, as they go from ride to ride. It shouldn’t be that hard to program the system to do that. Expanding on your RFID idea a bit, why not RFID chips in the season passes? Upgrade to a Locker Season Pass, scan your card in front of a locker, and it’s yours!
I was thinking of the system the local waterpark has, which is they give you a bracelet (waterproof of course) that has the rfid and you just wave it. That way you dont have to carry anything, not even your pass.
What I find amusing (as in, bad business) about the lockers is that they prevent me and my family from buying the souvenir refillable soda cups. Buying one would mean having to spend money all day renting lockers….not going to happen, as it would add $10 to the price of the cup during the day…not to mention the hassle.
And I did notice the weird math going on in the picture, but Im tired so I figured I was doing something wrong.
Also, do notice the “redeem a coupon” option. Sounds like something to go with the loyalty program they did a survey on (which mentioned free locker use).
DAMN them shits is fancy. Finally MM upgraded something.
May I assume that X2′s lockers have been replaced as well?
I’m sure they are. I didn’t have time to run all the way out there to look, but I’ll take a peek this weekend.
They are. It’s causing a line since there’s only one kiosk that takes forever.