Six Flags Discovery Kingdom?

Has anyone on here been to this park and have any pointers at all? I'm going to be up in the Sacramento area next weekend helping a friend move back here to Las Vegas, and I'm going to take a day to head over to SFDK. It looks like the typical trick of heading to the back of the park for those coasters won't work here as it appears the coasters are all up in the front, with all the animal exhibits in the back.

I'm excited about this park as I love to go to zoos whenever I'm in a different city. Can't wait to go to San Diego in a couple months. But anyways, the idea of all these animal exhibits and a few coasters, sounds like a great time to me. But I just don't know how crowded this park will be on a Saturday or what a good plan of attack might be to get the most in. So any advice anyone may be able to give would be most appreciated.

Sweet park, really quite beautiful. The fact that you say you like the idea of a zoo/amusement park combo tells me you'll REALLY like the place.

Saturday? Might want to consider one of these:
http://www.sixflags.com/discoveryKingdom/tickets/flashpass.aspx

Roar only had one train on-site when we were there, hopefully running two now, but honestly, it is *the worst* GCII going. No air, no intensity, no maintenance...yikes! V2 was LOADS of fun, wish we'd have had some ERT on that sucker, long lines and downtime kept us to one ride. Medusa was also a BIG hit....that crazy sea-serpent is a *very* cool element. :)

Oh, and don't miss the hidden coaster inside the kids area, no need for a kid, easy credit and quite fun.

If you have some free time, here's some pics of my SpringCon trip.

http://www.pbase.com/rollergator/springcon_07&page=all

Its an awsome park for coasters, they are all new, but the animal part of it is OK and it isnt an Animal Kingdom or Bucsh Gardens. My favorite roller coaster is there, which is Medusa (B&M Floorless) They have an Impulse there V2 which is my favorite over Wicked Twister at Cedar Point. Roar is my favorite woodie, because it is my only GCI besides Gwazi and my only experience with MF. The Vekoma Boomerang and the Vekoma SLC are ok, but the flats are a little lacking. I think this is the most modern park in the chain and its very nice. If you are going on the weekends expect some crowds but nothing bad. The best days are the week days. Hope you have a good time.

Ps. If you havent guessed this is my favorite park in the SF chain.

Wow--all this positive feedback! Personally, the place didn't impress me much. The poor ride placement Six Flags strategy as of late is very evident here--just check out the parking lot under Medusa. Kong is basically built over gravel, and Roar isn't built over anything interesting, either.

The older portions of the park have more character, and they have made a good bit of park improvements for this season. But as for the animal portion, it isn't up to Busch/Sea World par, and the rides portion is typical Six Flags, at least the portion at the front of the park. It's like they needed someplace to put these huge coasters, and the front was the easiest.

Yea, Roar was a disappointment. I find Roar east to be better, and it has PTCs. On the plus side, Medusa is a gem--it's probably the smoothest floorless coaster I've been on, and it's a sweet ride. V2 is the most unique of all the Impulse coasters,. I liked it, but my friend didn't. Kong and Boomerang are the standard fare, but I think that they have some decent flats there. The rapids ride wasn't running when I was there, but it could be decent.

I hope they improved their tram service, as it's quite a good walk from the parking lot to the main gate.

I agree with Audioslaved, SFDK is also one of my favorite SF parks. It's clean, well-run and the back end of the park is the most quiet and peaceful of any park in the chain.

The "so called" poor placement of the coasters was done intentionally to disturb the animals as little as possible. This is a cooperate park that cares about it's animals.

I LOVE Roar! I love the way the first drop goes right by the entrance, and it's got nice pops of air. It's just fun, nothing too extreme.

It's a small gem of a park IMO, right up there with Great Escape and Fiesta Texas.

They probably put the coasters in the front so you can really see them. Why put the animals in the front, and the coasters in the back? That's make no sense whatsoever.

I'm not sure what you mean. Most of the animal shows were there first, and the coasters were built around them as not to disturb them.

I am pretty sure that ride placement was in compliance with Vallejo's height restriction, supposedly there's a certain height clearance in the front that's not in theback, but I could be wrong.

As for flats, I'd say between VooDoo, Tazmanian Devil, Hammerhead Shark, and the Ark I was always satisfied, but maybe I'm not too big on the flats. I guess you could say they're lacking.

Also, if you love zoos, don't miss out on the San Francisco Zoo, that and San Diego are among the best in the country. Oakland does have a zoo that's much closer to SFDK but yeah...not the best but decent. Oakland Zoo was always secopnd to San Fran and Marine World Africa USA when I was growning up.

"The "so called" poor placement of the coasters was done intentionally to disturb the animals as little as possible. This is a cooperate park that cares about it's animals."

I understand about not wanting to disturb the animals too much, but come on. At least make the areas under and around the coasters look presentable. Barbed wire fence, maintenance/employee vehicles, asphalt, and gravel do NOT make for an attractive area, as well as entrance plaza. It just doesn't look like they put enough quality planning into some of their ride installations.

When I was there, some of the animal exhibits didn't look very great, either, in terms of upkeep. Y'all seem to be giving the park more credit than they deserve, at least to a certain extent.

Want to see how to run an animal and ride park? Sea World and Busch Gardens Africa should be the benchmarks that they shoot for.

Visited the park for the first time a few days ago... one of these days I'll get around to a trip report. Let me just say that the park is wonderful. The "animal" sections are pretty much Sea World/BGA "Lite", but the combination of everything makes for a great place. To top it all off, I couldn't find one way to fault the way the park was being run. I'm not going to jump to conclusions, but maybe- just maybe- Six Flags is finally headed in the right direction. But like I said, I'll save everything else for a trip report, when and if I ever find the time/motivation.

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rablat5 said:

When I was there, some of the animal exhibits didn't look very great, either, in terms of upkeep. Y'all seem to be giving the park more credit than they deserve, at least to a certain extent.

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So when was the last time you actually visited the park? For the most part your opinion just sounds like the typical SF bashing I see here at CBuzz. To each their own I guess, but you sound very biased with your views. *** Edited 6/1/2007 9:17:09 PM UTC by Sean Menefee***