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Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Vallejo, CA Weather: Sunny, warm, low 80s Crowds: Light to Moderate Six Flag Discovery Kingdom is one of the more unique parks in the chain, thanks mostly to its collection of animal attractions. What was built originally as Marine World featuring sea animals was merged with Africa, USA, a more traditional animal park. The whole thing was moved from Redwood City across the Bay to Vallejo in 1986, and when the park couldn’t keep the doors open in 1996, the city itself bought it out, and looked to Premier Parks to operate it. This ushered in all the good and bad that Six Flags is today. Today, the park is an interesting conglomeration of animals and rides, almost a cross between Sea World, Busch Gardens, and Six Flags. Unfortunately, the latter greatly influences how the park is run, and ultimately the guest experience. On the plus side, the animals are a nice feature, and the park offers a decent ride lineup. We arrived just after the unusual 10:30am opening, hoping the line for the brand-new and low capacity attraction wouldn’t be too terrible just yet. Using season passes and a great $20 discounted admission email, we were on our way. The fact that there was no wait to buy the ticket was a good sign – either the park had upped their staff to handle capacity, or the crowds were light. Guess which it was. Working our way back to Tony Hawk’s Big Spin, we found a manageable wait, spending most of the 15 minutes annoyed at the sad operations of an already low capacity ride. This is a spinning wild mouse, a coaster that seems quite the rage recently. Cars of 4 don’t exactly lend themselves to filled seats each and every time out – but cars with single riders, and even 2 cars of 2 riders each back to back is just lazy. A small gripe I know, but it speaks volumes of the (lack of) guest experience as a priority. I’ve been on a couple of these, Sierra Sidewinder at Knott’s, and Crush’s Coaster at Disney Studios in Paris. This one is definitely minus the themeing of the latter, save for a picture of Tony Hawk on a big spinning pole in the middle of the footprint. It’s sad really. Why do they even bother? The ride itself was fun, pretty intense for such a small coaster, and we weren’t even spinning that much. Worth the 15 minute wait being new and all, and definitely worth getting the credit. New coasters this year have been impossible to come by, a pathetic 3 so far. Right next door was Roar, the only GCI on the west coast (for now!), and the first one to feature the slick Millenium Flyer trains. You can tell this coaster was built in GCI’s early days, great maneuvers, awesome pacing, but really rickety. I would say it borders on rough, but it’s not the spine-jarring type that really kills your back. Mostly, it’s just lots of vibration. The nicely padded seats help a ton, and sitting in the front is a good call. With two trains early in the day, this was walk-on. The next coaster was right next door again. SFDK has a very unusual layout. All the coasters are in the front of the park, half in a dead end to the left of the entrance, the other half on the right. I’m not sure if this is a zoning thing, or an animal comfort thing, but this segregation really separates the thrill seekers from the animal seekers. It also forces you to ride the rides in big chunks, then spend a long time with the animals before getting to the coasters again. Luckily there are non-coaster rides that are better interspersed with the animals, so it’s not entirely a one-or-the-other choice. V2 was the next coaster, an Intamin Impulse coaster featuring the worlds only 45 degree angled spiral spike. This means instead of pulling straight up and twisting, the maneuver is actually a full-on corkscrew, some 100 feet above the park’s entry plaza. No other impulse coaster compares – this one actually feels like a coaster and not just a big pirate ship ride. The cycle wait and smooth ride meant a second ride. I could stay on this thing all day. With the first coaster area out of the way and shockingly light crowds, we weren’t in a huge rush to get on the other coasters. Instead we visited some of the marine animals in the area, particularly Seal Cove, which also has Sea Lions. Not a whole lot of learning or interaction (though you can buy 3 fish to toss for $5), mostly just watching them pass the time laying around being cute. There was a show about to start across the way – they have shows for the seals, dolphins, birds, tigers, and Shouka the Killer Whale. We skipped them all on this visit, but most are worth seeing. Looking for an early lunch, we grabbed some beer at one of the park’s two Gordon Biersch kiosks. Not overly expensive for park beer, and it went with the Panda Express quite nicely, which was also a good value. Nothing is more fun immediately after lunch than a crazy flat ride, so Hammerhead was up next, the original Zamperla Hawk48. To follow-up all the hanging upside-down was lots of spinning on Monkey Business, Zamperla’s version of the teacups, and then Thrilla Gorilla, a Himalaya-type ride. Looping around the back of the park brought us to the “Land” section, and most of the animals. There was a quick walk-through of the Butterfly Habitat, and we checked out the camels, lions, giraffes, tigers, and elephants – though not all in the same enclosure. Finally time for another ride, it would be Voo Doo, a HUSS Top Spin. The program started out great and then got really boring. Also, the huge pit out in front of the ride with all the garbage in it may have added to the ride experience if it had actually been used for the water effects as intended, instead of a dumpster. Nice job, Six Flags. Nearby we found the second beer kiosk, and added onion rings to the mix. After mulling it over during the snack, we decided to go for White Water Safari. Not everyone likes being soaked on raft rides, especially those wearing jeans, but peer pressure won out yet again. On the way over, we saw Boomerang was down, and later noticed work being done on the second lift tower. Not a bad wait considering it was the peak heat of the day, only 15 minutes and we were on. Glad to see a high-capacity turntable loading station, but of course the ride ops did little to help, letting people enter in bunches and sorting it out for themselves. This frequently left the 9-passenger boats with only 2 or 3 people in them, and even the occasional stoppage when loading passengers took too long and approached the end of the circle. After the confusion, the ride itself was pretty good. Of course the person who LEAST wanted to ride got the wettest, but thankfully that wasn’t me. I would have made out pretty good if it wasn’t for the bystander guns at the end of the ride. All’s fair on water rides, though I would have preferred if the water jet wasn’t aimed directly at my face. To spin dry, we walked on Tasmanian Devil, a HUSS Frisbee. Looping back around to the front of the park we lamented over the closed path that would have taken us directly into the next section. Instead the park has made it a complete dead-end, and there’s no telling why. In no mood to bother with the Vekoma SLC, Kong, we went straight to Medusa and the quiet station found us waiting in the front row. Boy, it’s painful to watch these kids operate what could be a huge people eating high capcity ride. Even running the two trains on this huge coaster was pathetic, consistently stacking, even running dispatch times over 4-5 minutes. But who cares, right? They’ve already got my money. A short breakdown had us on in about 15 mins, easily worth the wait. I haven’t been in a front seat on a floorless in ages, and I forgot how exposed you feel. I almost always go for the back on these mega-loopers but the switch was very cool. The down time had filled up the station but even with the mediocre operations we figured a re-ride in the back was the way to go. We were on before too long, and then it was time for yet another Six Flags debacle. I don’t know if SF is so desperate for cash, or if they are seriously concerned about safety, but they are aggressively enforcing the no-bag policy on the rides. This is obviously a good thing, except they have banned putting these bags on the platforms. Remember those “handy” cubbies everyone used to scramble to cram with their stuff before riding? Gone. Now, there are lockers at the entrances of each of the rides. (In some cases, IN FRONT of the entrance so as to obscure it to the extent that a staff member is needed to point people to the now-hidden gate). So whether it’s to make a buck, or to tidy the station platform, or whatever, bags taken into the queue must be taken out by an exiting non-rider. This does not go smoothly. Each time this happens, the rider with the bag is kicked off the ride. Often, the bag is discovered AFTER the restraints have been locked and checked, requiring a second pass. The exit gates have to be reopened, and these dejected guests don’t exactly hustle off the platform. All this is an example of what happens where there ISN’T an incident. As we sit down for the second ride, get locked in and wait to leave the station, we see a station attending conversing with a rider in the row ahead of us. The clock ticks and they’re still chatting. The employee calls another attendant over, another conversation. At this point I realize the guest is trying to bargain to let her ride with her bag, which she had hidden under her shirt. As she pleads, she wraps the straps repeatedly over her arms and around her neck in an attempt to prove the bag's security. This goes on for some time before the guests in line start getting annoyed, and the attendant calls over the ride operator. As though in a stroke of genius, he plainly tells the lady to exit. Finally! Why were these employees placating this woman? Were they actually concerned about guest experience? Did they just want to avoid confrontation? Or had they simply had no training whatsoever on how to deal with a dissatisfied guest? Of course since this direct order had come after many minutes of indecision, the rider felt she still may have some leeway. Enough hisses from the waiting crowd and the eventual control of the situation the ride operator finally took was enough, and the entire party took their time departing to a smattering of applause. Is this what Six Flags has become? Stupid guests interacting with stupid employees in a park managed and run stupidly? Oh, by the way – the coaster was great. I guess that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? Our frustration mitigated by the ride, we headed towards the gates in an attempt to find a coaster shot glass. Coming up empty handed, we took a spin on the nearby Wave Swinger, and then called it a day. We caught the tram back to the lot and made our way home right around 6pm. Overall it was a pretty typical trip to a park that in some ways is unlike all other Six Flags, but in others is exactly the same: fun, but frustrating. The light crowds were a pleasant surprise and only added to our enjoyment, but the park as a whole did a good job showing us that even with light crowds, they can still find new ways to disappoint you. Back to Trip Reports
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