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Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Vallejo, CA Weather: 60 degrees, cloudy with some light rain Crowds: Light to Moderate With a full-fledged Disney World vacation a week away, squeezing in an additional park visit before the end of the year wasn’t exactly on our minds. But when an email from the ACE Northern California region went out detailing a farewell event for Pandemonium, I was interested. When the note explained that it would likely be free, I signed us up. We were still enjoying a Christmas trip back east when we registered, but the event included free parking, free admission, and an hour of ERT on the ill-fated Pandemonium. Before you shed an unnecessary tear, this nice Gerstlauer spinning wild mouse will live on, down at the Six Flags park in Mexico. In its place will be a prototype model from Premier far too unusual to describe in words. Far short of being bittersweet, we were glad to get some bonus time with a coaster we’d only ridden once, coincidentally early in its first year at the park, 2008. That visit also happened to be our most recent visit to the park, in a small indication of my interest in what’s been going on the last few seasons. There was a lot on our plate for the week between trips to the east coast, but considering how tempting the offer was, we set the DVR to bowl game mode, and headed up from San Jose at 8am. We’d be at the park in just over an hour, where we found a chain across the entrance to the parking lot. We were a good 30 minutes shy of when we were supposed to check in at the front gate, so we weren’t too worried. As 9:30am came and went, we grew concerned about our 10am ERT slot, with the park opening to the general public at 11am. A few security folks had come and gone, and before the last one escaped, I explained that we needed access to the parking lot. After the usual, “I have no knowledge of your event” miscommunication, we were eventually let through to the toll booths after a few more minutes. I was right in thinking the booths would probably be unmanned as well, but at least there was no delay as everyone drove through an open lane. The free voucher would go unused. The early tram service was also AWOL, but it’s a pleasant enough walk past the lake and the front of the park. We were a little behind schedule, but it was still shy of 11am, and we were eager to get into the park once the majority of the group assembled before the metal detectors. Staying ahead of the small crowd of maybe 30 ACEers, we were in the gates and made our way back around the Pandemonium. Fortunately from here, there’d be no more delays as the ride had been testing and the attendants awaited us in the station. Megan and I climbed in, and were taking our first spin of the session. (Sorry, I had to.) As we climbed the lift, we could see that somehow still no one was nearby, even though we had taken a couple brief pauses to see the penguins and dolphins actively enjoying their morning. Pandemonium offers a very nice ride, about as good as you can get with its minuscule footprint and stats. The seats face inward, and offer their best spinning with an open seat, and can be downright intense if you’ve only got a pair. The layout starts with a good spiraling drop and hill, then whips riders around the typical wild mouse s-curves, and finishes off with a series of hills, a small over-banked turn, and a nice bunny hill. We got a couple rides in before the rest of the group got into the station, and we had to walk around for our third ride. It would be the last time we’d leave the station during the hour. Towards the end we did need to exit to give others our car, but we went right back through the station gates and caught the next car. Over the 50+ minutes of riding, we got some duds, most were pretty solid, and a few were better than a ride on the teacups. It definitely was tops when it was just the two of us, and surprisingly there wasn’t that much of a need to share. Megan got a dozen and took the last one off, and I got 13 for the session, and couldn’t have been more pleased. At the top of the hour, we took the official group photo, and soon went our own way. Actually, pretty much the entire group went immediately next door to Roar. We found the front row open, with a pair of teenage girls in row two obviously not paying attention. We climbed aboard the single operating train, and were glad to eventually be dispatched to escape the screeching ride operator, whose shrill enthusiasm was painful over the PA. It’s one thing to fill time with your obnoxious banter, but to delay sending the train because not enough people cheered? That’s an official pet peeve. I’m a bit wary of this, the initial west coaster GCI and the first to run Millennium Flyer trains. It’s not usually in the best shape, and today wasn’t much of an exception, though it wasn’t too bad up in the front seat, and there were even a few pleasant pops of airtime. Worth the token ride, though it makes me long for its California cousin, Apocalypse at Six Flags Magic Mountain, assuming that’s still in like-new condition. Hitting the last coaster in the area, I doubled up on V2, getting both the front and the back. The second launch really got me, and for a second I felt like I was back on Volcano at Kings Dominion. Alas, this is just a shuttle, but what it does, it does really well. We saw the parking lot fill up surprisingly fast, but weren’t expecting a huge crowd, and we were in the mood to take it easy and visit with some of the animals. The Holiday in the Park event was in full swing, and it can get busy the week between Christmas and New Years, but we weren’t expecting the worst. We knew it would be a far cry from the Orlando parks shutting their gates when hitting capacity at 1pm. I have no idea why people don’t go when we do, just use some vacation days and have the kids play hooky. Being in the Sea area, we swung back past the dolphins and penguins, peeked into the ray touch tank, and spent a few minutes checking out the sea lions and seals. Around the back of the park we saw the walruses, and skipped the shark area – they’re just not as adorable. An early lunch was at Panda Express, $18 for a huge single meal, an egg roll, and a soda. Sharing is the way to go for sure. We finished up the animal-centric loop, spend some time visiting the lions (and saw an impressive male with a full mane), giraffes, cougars, elephants, and tigers. It’s a good thing we were here first, with visits to Animal Kingdom and their remarkable enclosures coming up soon, but it’s always fun to see some wildlife, and not have make a separate visit to a zoo to do it. Starting to encounter the crowds and the misty weather, our enthusiasm for extending the visit much longer waned. We headed to the other main coaster area, scoped out the new SkyScreamer, but skipped what was probably a reasonable but several cycle wait. Instead our default was Medusa, the solid B&M floorless. It’s not their best creation, and definitely not one-of-a-kind, but we braved the light rain and got in our backseat ride after only about 10 minutes. Having paid zero dollars, we’d gotten pretty much all we wanted from the visit. I’m not one to turn down this kind of special treatment, and I couldn’t think of a better example of why it’s great to be a part of ACE. It was just shy of 2pm as we made our way back to the car, and looked forward to getting back to the warmer and drier south bay. What we really looked forward to was a week in sunny Orlando, running ourselves ragged at Disney World, but in the meantime we were more than happy to get in on this somewhat impromptu event. Back to Trip Reports
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