Zonga

On Saturday I went to Great America to check out what they had going on for Halloween this year. Many decorations were scattered all around the park. These giant pumpkins are straight from Gilroy Gardens holiday event. (As ornaments of course.) A Pirate Island has been made near the raft ride. These great props in Nickelodeon Central were made in house. Next we caught the parade. Hands down, the most energetic parade. Then it was off to Mixed Element, a new hip-hop show. Everyone loves fog machines! The sun is going down in Santa Clara, but what's that on the lamp post? That's right folks, it's CARNEVIL! CarnEvil is the park's sneak peek to next year's Halloween Haunt event. The CarnEvil maze takes place inside the Rue Le Dodge bumper cars. You enter through the clown as seen in the photo above and into the queue. If you have the 3D glasses, be prepared for instant scares in the first hall of the maze. Throughout the entire maze, there is an out of control yet entertaining feeling. The 3D glasses make the paint on the walls jump out which gives you a disorienting experience. Overall I really enjoyed CarnEvil. It wasn't terribly scary but it was a very entertaining maze. The scare-actors were into the whole event and put a lot of effort into their scares. So bravo Great America, I'm looking forward to next year's Halloween Haunt! In other news, the park is gearing up for the 2008 season already as season passes are now on sale. But wait, something is different about this sign. A name change in 2008 perhaps? Well it's looking more and more likely....California's Great America! Closing time now as we exit the park. Directly behind us is another gift shop where you can buy 10 Paramount items for just $20. I made out with 7 T-shirts! We close this update with a shot of the beautiful Columbia Carousel. Thanks for stopping by for this Great America Halloween update. A special thanks to Ryan for the tour of the park and CarnEvil! A few notes: The flyers flat ride recieved a Halloween theme with some new decals and props. Looks like the first delivery from Geauga Lake has arrived... It does look like we'll be seeing California's Great America next season! The domain name CaliforniasGreatAmerica.com has even been purchased by Paramount Parks. You can check out these photos and the full size images at Theme Park Village.

Captain Lee will be doing the Coffin of Fear at Discovery Kingdom on Opening Night. I'll have to check that out!

RollerC: "Do their eyes move? I hope so!" They sure do, which is seriously creepy. KGA29: "Well, not to hate on SFDK, but this is more disappointing than last year's addition with Tava's Jungleland. They added another "crazy bus" type of ride which doesn't make any sense to me. The Harold Helicopter ride look almost identical to Wave Jumper with the lighthouse in the middle. However, the train and the theming look amazing." But the thing is, kids don't know the difference. To them a different ride is a different ride. Now, if they put in another floorless coaster with a different theme, people would be upset. Oh, and I just finished putting up the larger versions of the photos here.

Welcome back to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom for another park update. Nice new red flowers, except they'd be much nicer for Holiday in the Park instead of summer kickoff. Today was the Thomas Town Opening. A look at the sign. And here he comes, Thomas the Tank Engine. Of course, if Thomas Town opened up 13 years ago, I might of been a little more excited. But hey, you have to admit, it's pretty cool. Thomas making his way past Lake Chabot. This replica of Thomas looks exactly like the real Thomas. If you stare at him long enough, it really starts to get creepy. A look inside the station. Outside the station, some neat signs. It looks like some video screens will be added throughout Thomas Town. The roundhouse where all of Thomas' friends are chillin'. James is glad that kids aren't climbing into him. Cranky, lol. Six Flags really went all out on the themeing. In addition to Thomas the Tank Engine, Harold the Helicopter is another ride in the new kiddie land. Over at Bertie the Bus, they have this creepy little person. And there is Bertie the Bus. And of course Thomas Town wouldn't be complete without Sir Topham Hat. Ride the rails again soon! Now over to Odin's Tiger Island which has recently been receiving worldwide attention. And here is Odin. He wasn't swimming today, which is what normally gets the international media going. After Odin, we took in the new show at Discovery Kingdom, the Maboomboom African Acrobats. The crazy jump rope routine. This would be so much cooler if it was night and they had awesome lighting. Not a bad show at all, a little slow in pace, but still entertaining. So, how many people can you carry on your back in this formation? And that does it for the Thomas Town Opening Day, thanks for checking out this update.

I was at Discovery Kingdom on May 12th with a bunch of friends. The event was dubbed "LeoPalooza" in honor of our good friend Leo's birthday. So here are the photos! Welcome back to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. At first, it seemed like a normal day, but today was different. V2 was running. And I finally got my first ride of the year on it, and so did the rest of the gang that came for LEOPALOOZA! V2 is Jon and Julian approved. But the main attraction was Leo himself as seen here with the Green Lantern. After hitting up Roar and V2 the lines continued to grow so we decided to take a walk through the back of the park. Lake Chabot seems so quite this year without the Ski Xtreme Show. We payed a visit the the butterfly garden. Took a ride on Thrilla Gorilla. And Leo approved of this banner. Please note the 64 oz soda. A quick look at Thomas Town reveals some vertical construction. You can see the new platform being built along the tracks. Also, a new black fence has been placed all the way along the tracks as seen in the foreground. The little shack in the Oasis Plaza is selling Cobra on-ride photos, something new for this year. The group met up again to go and pet the stingrays. Nick was really into it. For lunch, half the group went to Papa Johns while the rest had some burgers. Nick just loves his fries. Michelle looks on in aw of the giant 64 oz soda. And Leo continues to be Leo. Over at Shouka Stadium, they now have a camera set up the follows Shouka around during the show. Both water rides where open, including Monsoon Falls. After a tiring day, we went to go get funnel cakes. Julian shows his displeasure with the line which was about 30 minutes long. The new graphics for the directory signs are quite spiffy. While the group was waiting for funnel cakes, I shot some photos of Vertical Velocity as the sun went down. V2 looks beautiful from the entry plaza at dusk. After much thought, I'm finally taking a stand on V2's new colors: I OFFICIALLY LOVE THEM! One final look from the park. And with that, LeoPalooza 2007 is officially over. Note to self: Never park near Leo. To view the larger photos, please click here.

KidTums will take over and continue the Alvey Regime.

Yes, I know he has permission. I was just wondering what type of lipstick cam he uses. Also, does he ever use a mount or just duct tape?

I would of loved to visit Playland at the Beach in San Francisco. I'm a sucker for a good ole' sea side park.

It would probably be even quicker to fly into Oakland. It tends to be much quicker to get in and out compared to SFO. Plus the drive up to Discovery Kingdom would be much easier than going through San Francisco.

I was wondering what setup you use while filming POVs. Like, do you have a mounted lipstick cam? I’m just trying to figure out if that is the way to go for POVs. I’d hate to invest in a lipstick cam lens only to find out the quality is terrible. Thanks in advance.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom April 29th, 2007 Well here we go with my first PTR on TPR. I'd just like to make it clear this time, that I did indeed have clearance from PR to get the on-ride photos. Welcome back to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Right off the bat I noticed that the trams received some new props. The first ride I was going to hit was V2. It opened up, cycled once, then broke. Along with new colors, the ride has also received new decals. Vertical Velocity's sign has seen better days. Over to Thomas Town now. The track work for the new railroad has been completed. The new train will only circle around the Shark Experience. Looking back towards the old Shoreline Express station. The shark has returned and the landscaping has been completed at the Shark Experience. Now on the other side of the park, the Wii Experience has opened. As you can see from this photo, it was quite empty at eleven in the morning. After getting some clearance, it was time to ride Medusa. Headed up the lift. Alright folks, here we go! Whoa, it that the ground up there? After lunch, it was time for some infield shots. ooooo, B&M break run goodness. The park has recently added these new signs. Eventually they will have the new logo and a park map. Just like Magic Mountain, the park has received the new misting billboards. Yet another sign has been added to Shouka Stadium. And the park directory signs have been updated with new graphics. The final shot of this update may look like just a bunch of old containers. But in fact, Holiday in the Park awaits inside... A few notes: Wilderness Adventure, the new 3D film is now open. Although it isn't great, it is still a huge improvement over Stargate SG-3000. The season pass processing line was much shorter than opening weekend and moved very quickly. Medusa was running all three trains in the morning, but due to light crowds, they took one train off. To view the larger photos, please visit here.

Psyclone at Magic and Zonga at Discovery Kingdom. Sad to see coasters go, but both of them were nothing special at all. Plus Zonga was such an eyesore.

Medusa at Discovery Kingdom back in March. Oh how I missed riding that coaster.

I was sad to see Stealth go, but fact is that the park could draw in more visitors. Let's just hope we see some new rides in the future.

Whoa, whoa, time out. There was a media package? I swear man, the little man always gets short changed. Anyways, it was a blast hanging out with you for a bit on Friday and Saturday. I felt like I was with a celebrity at the park, lol.

Awesome update Sean, beautiful pictures too. Just out of curiosity, how many photos did you end up taking on opening day?

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely keep that all in mind while I'm there.

Hi there guys, I have a question in regards to Media Days. I will be attending the one at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom this Friday and I'm wondering what to expect? Anything I should know before I go? FYI, I will be bringing my still and video camera to the event. Thanks a bunch, Eric

That's happened to me a few times. I normally just tell them they should let the other people pass, not cut. Another thing that happens which I really like is when people do let you ahead. On B&M's a group of 3 or 4 always let myself and someone else pass to fill the train. Man, I love it when people think about traffic flow!

I'm on the fences with this whole thing. I have always loved TSI, it used to be fun running about. Now it's just a nice place to hang out and relax. The major thing that concerns me is how Disney will do the theming. I just wonder how they'll be able to include neat Pirate themed stuff without having to just rope everything off with some employee standing there. The nice thing about TSI is that you can just roam about without being yelled at constantly. It's the only part of the park where you can pretty much do whatever you want. I just hope they can add some nice, new scenery to the island without over doing it. It seems like they will add a lot because they're adding $28 million to the island. I'm all for the retheming if they can pull it off. Let's just hope we don't end up with a 1998 Tomorrowland.

Hey, hey. My cool user name is Zonga, as in the old, rough, slow, loud, and broken down coaster that used to be at Marine World. Which leads me to this: my home park is Six Flags Marine World and my favorite coaster is Tatsu at SFMM. In the real world my name would be Eric. I enjoy long walks on the beach, gazing towards the ocean with a nice, old wooden coaster in the background. ahhh..... But overall I'm pretty normal, less the beach thing. Alright, see you around the forums!

Grizzly is at the bottom of my list, I find it shocking Mitch's wooden coaster poll feels the same. I went on this coaster a few years back and I was quite underwhelmed. As said before, most of the coaster is just slow. The first turn around is so slow it's painful. The past few times I've been to PGA since, I have not gone on Grizzly once.